-Get ready for a bidding war. -Sell it.
[Guy] We've invited back four Triple G winners
for our wildest flavor town market auction effort.
-I'm sorry, the what? -40.
-Forty, we got 40 and a 50. -45.
Chefs have to spend their precious grocery money.
-$50? -$50.
$65.
-On food they really don't want. -Ooh.
'Cause we're auctioning off the whammy items
they have to include in their dishes,
and no one wants to get stuck with the worst ones.
-What do you do with that? -So brutal.
-This will make you crazy. -I'm making biscuits.
Ooh, la, la.
That is how you think like a vet.
Wow.
It's winner's whammy auction dinner right now
on Guy's Grocery Games.
So let's meet our returning Triple G winners.
Now, first up, we have Brandon Sumblin,
the four-time Triple G champion and executive chef
who wants to win so he and his wife can put down
a payment on their own restaurant.
Let's go.
The first couple of times you guys may have seen me
was with my family.
Whoo! That's $41,000 total.
I won four times.
Chef Brandon, $16,000.
I'm really itching to get another W.
Get ready for a battle.
-What's up? What's up? -Looking good.
It doesn't look right when your wife and your mother-in-law
-are with you. -I know, man. I miss them.
But we got to do what we got to do today.
Next, we have Erin Circelli-Russell,
whose experience as a chef professor
has helped her school my grocery games and scored two wins.
-$16,500. -[all cheering]
I'll take it.
That sauce is really delicious. I could swim around like that.
It's really fantastic.
I am a culinary professor. I teach level one first-year students,
and they are really proud that I've been on the show,
so I'm adding a third win today.
-Welcome back. -Hey. Thank you.
Next, we have Jeff Strauss, the executive chef
from Los Angeles, who opened up
a new modern food bar after winning
his last Triple G competition.
Oh, my God.
[Jeff] Right after I was on Triple G last time,
I've gotten stopped on the street, like,
you're the guy who won that sandwich episode.
Go get him.
And finally, Abbie Serbins,
the NorCal executive chef, who's back for a third time
to showcase her flavorful Filipino cuisine.
[Abbie] I was runner-up the first time.
Not winning that challenge was kind of heartbreaking,
but I came back for redemption, and I won $20,000.
Happy and smiley. Go get them.
Welcome back, winners.
Each of you have proved that you have what it takes
to ace our normal Triple G games.
-Oh, yeah. -So tonight, you'll be competing in
a Flavortown Market Super Battle.
A single mega challenge in which you will have
to prepare an impressive two-course feast
in 60 minutes.
The chef with the highest combined score
for both courses will get a chance to,
once again, shoplift Flavortown for up to $20,000.
-This is getting ridiculous. -Yeah.
All right.
I want you to make our high-class judges
a steakhouse feast.
We're talking about an upscale appetizer and entree.
Appetizer will have to be ready in 20 minutes.
Entree will be at the end of 60 minutes.
You're going to have to pay for all your groceries
before you cook because this is a super battle.
This is a...
budget battle.
-Oh, my God. -Oh, yeah.
Hunter, come on.
Hunter's got money for you. Hunter, how much we giving 'em?
I was thinking about 100 bucks each.
-[Guy] 100 bucks each. -[Hunter] Not too bad, right?
[Guy] Pass it out.
You didn't have any faith, now did you?
You have to shop, get your groceries.
You have to check out new Wendy over here.
Okay?
-We're going in three, two... -Wait, wait, wait, hey. You forgot the last thing.
-I'm not forgetting anything. We gave the money-- -You forgot about the auction.
-I'm sorry, the what? -Oh, yeah, the auction.
Sorry. Sorry.
Because you are some of the best chefs,
you get to participate in the very first
Triple G Whammy Auction.
-Aren't you excited? -Bring these out.
No way. [laughs]
Hear it? Choo-choo train of terror. Whoo! Whoo!
I'm rather impressed.
You have to incorporate this whammy ingredient
in your appetizer and your entree.
Now, you won't want to cook with any of them,
but because it's mandatory, I would recommend trying to
outbid your fellow chefs on one of these
first few whammies,
because trust me, as they go along,
I think they get worse.
-Oh, my goodness. -Oh, my God.
-This is so bad. -So bid away.
Leave some money to pay for your other ingredients.
Oh, come on.
Here to host our whammy auction, the man that's going
to take your money, Franco.
-There we go. -Let's go.
-What up?
It's auction time, folks.
-Oh, my God. -Here we go.
First item on the auction block is grape jelly.
Okay. I could mix sauce with that.
I immediately think of things that it could go into.
Let's talk a little bit about $40.
-Who's in now? -$40, not $40, not $40.
We got $40, not $50. Who's in now? $50 right now.
-$45. -$45.
I was too scared to see what else they had to offer.
-We got $47. I got $49. $50. You got it. -50, 50.
How about $55 now?
-Okay, $55. -There we go. $55. $60. $60.
-Oh! -Oh, man, no.
$61 all in, all done.
Anyone? And we will sell it.
-$60 right there. -Oh, my gosh.
-[Brandon] $60. What did I just do? -This is crazy.
All right, up next, this is when it gets good.
-Fruit cereal. -Ooh.
Do I want it? No.
But do I want to be stuck with what's left?
Not really.
-Can we start the opening at $40? -I'll take it.
You know the drill. Now $40, now $40 less.
-She said $40. -It's going to get worse. I'm just going to do it.
$45.
She's putting more money. I like that.
-50, 50. -$45.
-Yeah, we go. -$52.
$52. Fine. You got it at $52.
-Now $54. $54. -$55.
$55, now $57. Don't let her take this one.
-$57. -$57.
$57. Yes. All right. Back to you.
-$58. -We got 58 right there. We've got 60.
-Oh, my God. -$60. Are you sure?
$60 now once. $60 now twice.
-And we will sell it. -[horn playing on speaker]
-Sold for $58 right there. -Yay!
That's some expensive cereal.
-This is bad, but I'll take it. -Thank you.
If you don't win this, this one is automatically
-sixty bucks. -[all exclaiming]
The next one is...
Rocky Road Ice Cream.
I don't know what that last one is going to be, so I want this one a lot.
Let's start. It would have been at $40, not $40.
-Let's go. -$40, not $40, not $45.
Would have been at $45, not $50, not $50.
Oh, we got $50, not $55. Come on now, $55.
-$55, not $60. Let's go. -$60.
-$60, that's how you bet. $64, would have been at $64. -65, 65.
-$65! We got some high spenders now. -Yeah.
-$65, not $66. $66, yes. -$66.
-Yes, yes. $67. -So brutal.
Would have been at $67. Put him in at $67.
Last chance, all in, all done for Rocky Road.
$67, and we will sell it.
$66. My man's got Rocky Road.
-$60. -All right.
Black licorice for $60.
-There you go. Black licorice it is. -Awesome.
Will it melt? Will it fry? Will it crisp up?
How am I going to incorporate this
to an appetizer and an entree?
-Thanks so much, Hunter. -Oh, boy.
Let's cheer it up for the auctioneer superstar, Arena MC.
-See you, brother. Franco, love you, brother. -Nice job.
Wow.
All right. 60 minutes to shop, purchase,
and prepare your steakhouse feast.
Both courses have to feature your whammy ingredient.
You have to deliver that appetizer in the first 20 minutes.
Any questions?
Um, we need to move these three.
Or just move these two. I'll move this one over here. You go.
-The other one? -Okay.
-Oh, my God. -[all exclaiming]
-That was good. -I got 'em for five seconds.
That was good.
So now I've got 40 bucks to make a steakhouse feast,
an appetizer and an entree with black licorice.
Mussels are cheap and you can incorporate
a lot of flavor, including black licorice.
Fennel, fennel, fennel, fennel, fennel.
Where was that cheap wine?
So for my appetizer, my idea with the mussels
is making a broth using the black licorice
and fennel just to tie that black licorice flavor together.
-Next for my steakhouse entree, -13, these are 12.
I see the flank steak sitting there and I saw the price, it was perfect.
I'm gonna make a quick chimichurri and a little
arugula black licorice salad.
Hi.
So my very first episode that I won was Grocery Rush.
And we only had 20 minutes to do appetizer
and 20 minutes to do entree.
Love that.
So I've got this, no problem.
I think the fennel and the licorice, very smart.
-So you are at $35.32. -Okay, $35.32.
I feel like I've got a little bit of change in my pocket
in case I need any little extras to add here and there.
The jelly in the cereal, I'm okay with.
You can coat something in the cereal,
make any dipping sauces out of the jelly.
The ice cream, I don't know about that one.
I've got $34 left to do an extravagant
steakhouse appetizer entree with Rocky Road ice cream.
Where's my mushrooms?
For me, appetizers are critical.
So I was thinking fried mushroom.
And I had a little light go off in my head.
My rocky road ice cream, that could maybe be mole.
And I know that I've got a lot of spices on my station.
I've got to think economical.
So for my entree, I'm grabbing skirt steak.
Great price.
Takes a marinade really well.
-Hey, guys, where's the shio koji? -Aisle four, right-hand side.
Thank you.
And for the marinade for the skirt steak,
got my rocky road ice cream, so I grabbed shio koji.
Here we go.
With the appetizer at 20, that really is messing with my head a little bit.
-This will make you crazy. -36.63.
-Ooh. -How much you got?
-34 total. -I don't think you need all that skirt steak.
Let's drop one of those out.
That will put you at $33.54.
Done.
I'm also concerned because the budget limits leave me
with maybe not enough to put on that plate.
Thank you.
Seventeen minutes, guys, 17.
[Abbie] Um, I don't even know what I'm doing.
Um, growing up in the Philippines,
we don't really eat cereal for breakfast.
So this is a hard challenge for me.
Where are they?
Calamari is way cheaper than any other seafood.
So for my steakhouse appetizer,
I am making a grilled calamari salad.
And I also wanted to create a curry coconut sauce
and tying in the whammy ingredient,
utilizing it as a sweetener.
[gasps]
Thanks.
[Abbie] For my steakhouse entree, I grab flank steak
to conserve my dollar.
When I make flank steak, I always have
this chimichurri sauce, and I think I can incorporate
my fruit cereal in my chimichurri sauce.
I was being really price-conscious,
paying attention to every price,
so when I get to the cash register,
I know that I will be fine.
-How are we feeling, friend? -I'm really nervous.
So that puts you at $40.79.
You have a dollar and 21 cents left.
I'm hoping to get some extra credit
for doing a really good job budgeting.
Fifteen minutes.
What?
Why are you giving me this challenge?
That grape jelly cost me $60, and it better be worth it.
What's an appetizer that's easy?
For breakfast, I eat a bacon and egg sandwich,
and I always usually put jelly up there.
God.
And given the time, I decided to do deviled eggs.
The saltiness of the bacon will really balance out
the sweetness from the jelly.
What can I...
Having $40 left for a steakhouse dinner is hard,
because you got to factor in the steak alone.
I sacrificed and went for the New York strip.
I'm thinking I'm going to do a great jelly demi-glace
over the top with a Zimbabwe cream kale.
I need the kale.
Okay.
By this time, I really actually only have
thirteen minutes to make my appetizer.
Oh, it's not going to make it.
All right, so you're at $35.88.
-You want none of this. -No.
I ain't going to lie. I got kind of nervous.
There you go. Keep the change.
[Guy] Shopping on a budget like that.
Shenanigans.
All right, we got Brandon now coming in hot.
Let's just see what we can do.
Are we gonna see deviled eggs here?
Yeah, you don't see eggs going straight into
the hot water too often.
[Brandon] Next, I have to start my filling for my eggs.
Does he have mayonnaise?
I didn't get no mayonnaise.
So I decided to make mayonnaise from scratch
with the extra eggs that I had left over.
But gameplay here is very important.
I separate my eggs by adding the egg yolks
into the blender, slowly emulsifying it
with olive oil and a little red wine vinegar.
So at the 40-minute mark, they have to give us an appetizer.
Yeah, I've done one of these.
-It is. -Have you?
Yeah, it is not easy.
[Guy] Eleven and a half minutes.
So here to judge our steakhouse feast
are three extra rare judges.
Now, we have chef owner of an amazing ramen joint
in South Dakota, the one and only wild card,
Chef Justin Warner.
Renowned restaurateur with an incredible restaurant
down in Scottsdale,
he's quaffed to the next level,
the one and only Chef Scott Conant.
And a chef who knows a lot about winning Triple G,
celebrated NorCal restaurateur, Chef Crista Luedtke.
-This is a tough challenge. -Oh, God, it is.
I don't know what's more difficult on them,
the whammy ingredient or the limited budget.
With an app and an entree, it's straight up hard.
[Jeff] So for my app, I'm thinking fried mushroom
and then some Rocky Road spicy mole kind of sauce underneath that.
Now I'm trying to get the chocolatey part
and the nut part separate.
It's going to take me a minute.
-Can I show you something? -Yeah.
Ice cream?
-Do it. -Love it.
-Okay. -Yep.
[Guy] Let it expedite the process for you.
I just need enough to develop that sauce a little bit,
get some spices into it, thicken it up,
get it under those mushrooms.
I'm up against other chefs who have been here more,
who have longer professional experience than I have,
but I'm going to keep on winning.
Give me a shot, I'm going to get there.
My appetizer. We're gonna do a little mussel action here
with a little fennel salad.
Mussels and licorice? I can get down with that.
[Erin] So my game plan here is melt that licorice down,
make that beautiful broth with the white wine,
mirepoix, some garlic, a little chili, and fennel,
just to tie that black licorice flavor together.
I'm in this to win, for sure.
My kids told me three time's the charm,
so don't come home without the winnings, Mom.
It's getting there.
[Guy] Ten minutes. You got ten to go, chefs.
[Crista] So, Abbie's got calamari, and it sounds like
she's doing some sort of calamari with the fruit cereal.
I can see that working.
I am making a grilled calamari with coconut fruit cereal
curry sauce.
I'm gonna use the fruit cereal to sweeten
the whole entire sauce,
and I add vinegar for some acidity.
Never got to have cereal like this when I was a kid.
-Never had it, too. -We had hippie granola.
-Oh, okay. -Like pine cones and stuff in it.
-Tree bark. -Yeah.
[sighs]
Seven and a half minutes, chefs. Seven and a half.
My eggs are in the boiling water.
And my mayo is done.
Next, I need to get my bacon cooking.
So I cut up my bacon to prepare for the fries to crisp it up.
So today I am playing for my family.
We have desires to open up our own restaurant,
and hopefully today's victory will allow me to be one step closer
to owning our own restaurant.
All right.
To fry the mushrooms, I'm on a deep budget here,
and I'm using everything from my station.
So to make the dredge, I've got a little bit of flour,
a little bit of cornstarch, and all those beautiful spices.
Massage it in a little.
Get it ready to go right in the fryer.
So I'm gonna do a little bit of a mole-style sauce here,
a little chocolate, paprika, cayenne.
I don't know if we'll pick up some cumin.
Moles can be super, super complex.
I want them to get that sweet but spicy sauce of the mole.
-Is the licorice in here? -It is.
That right there not only is there, but it's delicious.
-It's there, right? -Well done.
Thank you.
So as I'm cooking my mussels in my broth,
I'm thinking it needs something crunchy.
I didn't have the budget to go buy some bread
to make a beautiful crostini, but I know I've got
cheap potatoes right behind me.
92 cents.
So grab a couple of them.
Give you a little fritz for the top of this.
And add a little fritz element to my mussels.
Thank you.
-All right. -[Guy] We got six minutes, guys.
Six left.
-Give me a run down here. -I am making
a calamari appetizer with fruit cereal
coconut curry dressing of some sort.
-Delicious. -Oh, thank you.
Next, I need to make the tomato relish parts,
so that's another layer of flavor that I believe
will balance with the calamari.
Chefs, I need those appetizers ready in five minutes.
Five minutes tops.
At this point, I still haven't taken my eggs out the water.
So I get an ice bath started to cool them down
as fast as possible.
Brandon is peeling those eggs so fast,
-I want to hire him at my ramen shop. -Right?
[Brandon] I have no sense of what the time is.
I am nowhere near ready to plate this appetizer.
I make sure that all of the mussels have opened
and that they're fully cooked.
And I add a little bit of broth to each plate,
top them off with that fennel, a little chili for heat,
and then the little crispy frits.
[Guy] Four minutes, four to go.
[Jeff] So I taste my mole sauce.
Well, it's sweeter than I would like, but it's got good heat.
Pull my mushrooms out of the fryer.
They're crisp, nutty, they're quite good.
The mole, pretty darn good, coming from ice cream.
Add a little bit of parsley.
Two minutes, gotta be plated.
[Abbie] I placed my coconut curry infused with fruit cereal.
I layered it with a tomato scallion relish.
I love the calamari coming off the grill on Abbie's station.
That looks spectacular.
Wow.
[Abbie] The calamari, I lay it on the top,
and then I finally dusted it with fruit cereal.
One minute!
It's not gonna work. It's not gonna freaking work.
I add the egg yolks to my aioli
along with the bacon, and I have to incorporate
this grape jelly, so I mix all that together.
This is not gonna be done.
Because I have no time, I just decide to spoon in
the filling into the egg and just hope for the best.
-15 seconds to make four deviled eggs. -Oh, boy.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one.
That's it. App's got to be done.
-Move on to your entree. -Heard.
While we're doing that, the judges are going to try your appetizers.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah. Should I start cooking? Awesome.
Keep cooking.
All right, chefs, we're going to judge your appetizers.
Continue to work on your entrees.
-You have 40 minutes left. -[grunts]
Chef Jeff, front and center, please.
Tell us what we got.
We have some crispy fried mushrooms,
a little bit of chocolate sort of mole sauce made out of that
Rocky Road ice cream underneath.
-All right, chef, thank you. Back to cooking. -Thank you.
I hope they like it.
All I'm thinking about is cooking the entree.
I have steak marinating in the garlic and shio koji,
but I want to get the rocky road component in there now.
So I take that little sauce that I did from the appetizer round
and put on that steak to finish that marinade.
This appetizer, I got to say,
I'm pleasantly surprised with this rocky road sauce.
[Crista] I'm right there with you, man.
And I think the acidity is what did it.
This strikes me as a good steakhouse appetizer.
And what I love most are those fried mushrooms
that were deep fried with so much salt on them.
My only knock, when we have that mole note,
parsley is not the herb for me.
-Yeah. -I want cilantro.
The parsley eats a little tough.
Chef Abbie, front and center.
Hi, Chef.
Hello, Chef. What do we have for him?
I made a calamari salad with some coconut curry
that I also infused with the fruit cereal.
[Guy] All right, back to cooking, chef.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
[Abbie] My goodness.
Now that I got my appetizer out of the way,
I season my steak with some extra virgin olive oil,
salt and pepper, some cumin, paprika,
and throw it on the grill.
I love that we're getting like a seafood appetizer at
a steakhouse 'cause that's that kind of like surf and turf vibe.
First of all, I love the presentation.
And I think the usage of that fruit cereal
in the curry sauce itself is really wonderful.
There's a really nice sweet acidity overall to this.
But the grill of the squid is also really nicely done.
It's missing just a little salt for me.
When I think squid, I want it to be a punch of the sea.
Yeah.
-Erin. Front and center. -Yes.
-All right. -Got to present.
What do you have for us?
[Erin] What better appetizer at a steakhouse than mussels and frits?
-Thank you. -Thank you. Enjoy.
Phew.
Working on a budget and a time constraint,
I'm trying to use as much as I can.
So that broth that I made for the mussels,
I have a little bit of it left over,
and that is my steak marinade.
Okay.
Oh, my God, that's delicious.
To me, this is such a smart game play.
Not only is it the melted licorice in that broth,
but you've got fresh raw fennel on top.
Chef Erin took the black licorice and utilized that
to inspire the entire dish.
I love the texture of these fries on top.
-To do that in 20 minutes, that's knocking it... -Yeah, yeah.
...out of the park.
Chef Brandon, you're up, buddy.
Heard. Up.
All right, Chef Brandon, tell them what you got.
So today, I have bacon deviled eggs with jelly.
I hope you guys enjoy.
-Oh, boy. -And I'm a little bit scared.
[Brandon] I know that one of the things that people really love about
a steakhouse is the free bread.
So me being from the South, I was like, why not make biscuits?
Send them in.
[Guy] You get sweet, you get crunchy bacon.
Yeah, I mean, it's not a traditional deviled egg at all,
but the flavors work surprisingly well.
I could use a little more salt, a little more acid.
[Crista] I like that little sweetness to counterbalance
the salty bacon, and the aioli that
he made is kind of nice.
You could tell the struggles that Chef Brandon had,
but what you can also tell is that Brandon's a really good cook.
He knows how to make things taste good. This tastes good.
Okay, we have 20 points available in gameplay,
twenty points available in taste, ten points available in plating
for a total of 50.
-Oh, I'd say good luck, but... -I know.
It's a competition. We'd be friends at the end regardless.
[Guy] All right, stop working, chefs.
Stopping the clock.
Here's your scores coming in from appetizers.
Brandon with a 38.
-Abbie with a 42. Jeff with a 43. -Ooh.
And Erin in the lead with a 45.
-Congratulations. -Wow.
-[whoops] -Erin, I'm going to give you the choice.
I'm going to give you $1,000 or I'll give you two points
added to your score. Which one do you want?
-[whispers] Take the money. -You only have a two-point lead over Jeff.
Ooh, wow.
-Yeah, I'll take the money. [whoops] -$1,000 coming your way.
I've got 45 points. I've got a family.
We've got hockey coming up. We have soccer.
We've got life.
So this money is just going to help with that.
Thirty-seven minutes, 37 to go.
This could be Brandon's saving grace,
is that of all the cuts of steak that are out there,
-he's got the best steakhouse cut. -Yes.
A New York strip.
Because I am disappointed in how things came out
with my appetizer, I am definitely going
to make sure that I at least win with this entree.
I'm going to make the New York strip with biscuits.
Can I get more butter?
I take butter and put it in the bowl
and pour liquid nitrogen over top of it.
Brandon is just bananas over here.
-What's the objective there, Chef? -I'm making biscuits.
-Oh, so you need that super cold butter. -Oh, boy.
Ooh, la, la.
The liquid nitrogen is going to freeze the butter
to a point that it is super cold.
There we go.
When you put the biscuits in the oven,
the butter actually pops up the dough,
which has to have those little pockets
and makes for a light, airy biscuit.
Don't tell nobody I told y'all that. That's my secret.
That is how you think like a vet.
Wow.
This is like a mega budget battle,
-Yes. -and the stakes are high.
Forty minutes seems like a lot of time,
but it goes by real fast.
Oh, yeah, baby.
[Jeff] After the appetizer round,
I'm only two points behind Erin.
I'm in this.
So for my steakhouse feast entree,
I'm going to make rocky road shio koji marinated skirt steak
and a rocky road demi-glace.
I reduce it, get it nice and thick.
Oh, yeah.
More acid.
Then I get started on the aji verde sauce.
Aji verde is this delicious acidic sauce that goes great
with all kinds of meats, potatoes, whatever.
It's got a kick, but it's good.
The next thing, I get to work on the fried onions.
I've been really fortunate in my life,
so I'm going to be playing for two people
who just joined the team at OyBar
who are refugees from Ukraine.
They were displaced by the war.
And I'm going to take half the money and donate it
to charities servicing that community
both here and in Ukraine.
For my steakhouse entree, I gotta go big,
I gotta give them starch, some sort of veg side,
and the main dish.
Next thing, I'm gonna work on my fruit cereal
chimichurri sauce.
Parsley, extra virgin olive oil,
red wine vinegar, some fresh garlic.
I think that's a good play. You know, you've got that
strong acid in the chimichurri.
I think that can mellow that fruit cereal out a little bit.
[Abbie] I am three points behind Erin.
Whoo! Got 'em all.
Winning for me is very important.
I am developing a cookbook, talking about our heritage
as Filipino chefs in the industry.
We want to promote our continuously progressing cuisine in the country.
All right, chefs, 30 minutes.
[Erin] After our appetizers are presented,
I've won best app, but I can definitely
not take anything for granted.
I still have to focus on the steak dinner
and make it a winner as well.
-Okay. -Feel good?
I feel great.
-Yeah. -That appetizer?
It's good. I need a little crusty bread.
-Next level. -But thank you, chef.
Whoo!
So the side dishes on my entree,
I'm going to do a quick pickle vegetable
and then hit up a nice little arugula salad.
So to make my vinaigrette, I melt down a little bit more
black licorice, because it's got to be in there,
with the white wine, just a little chili,
lots of oil, a little acid.
When I win today, I'm definitely going to take
the money and start an education fund
for my three kiddos, so they don't have to worry about it
when it's time to choose what to do for school.
I'm gonna use that as far as the green.
It's gonna be like my take on what
a cream spinach would be for steakhouse.
So while my biscuits are in the oven,
I'm also making a Zimbabwe cream kale.
So I get the pan hot, add pimento peppers
and habanero peppers for heat.
But what makes these greens really special
in the Zimbabwe dish is by adding peanut butter to the dish.
This is a dish from Zimbabwe, but the peanut butter
also played with the grape jelly that I had to use.
Open that milk.
Everything is getting there.
How are they?
-All right. -Let's go. Where are we at?
I've got this skirt steak that's marinated in shio koji...
-Okay. -...and chocolate.
-And then we have some onions. -Okay.
And how much money you got left?
Oh, I got no money left.
-You're done? -I'm beat.
-That was it. Got it. -That was it.
Nice char on both sides.
My plate is seeming a little bit not steakhousey enough.
I've got to do everything I can to make this a steakhouse feast.
You've got flour and baking powder on your station.
I also have parsley.
Be able to get a flatbread on there in just about enough time.
[Scott] Jeff seems to be playing with his fry bread.
I don't know what he's going to do with it.
I don't either, because he doesn't have a whole lot of time
to do whatever he's doing with it.
It's only going to take a minute or two each side.
[Guy] 15 minutes, 15 to go.
-Ooh, Abbie, that's getting some char, huh? -Yep.
Want to finish in the oven?
Um, maybe I should.
You're going into uncharted territories if you keep that up.
-Thank you. -Thank you, Chef.
And this is the couscous?
Yes.
I wanted to use the fruit cereal for another application,
so I thought about making a tempura asparagus.
So, in a bowl, I put my flour, some cornstarch, water.
I added in the fruit cereal.
You know, asparagus is known for not particularly
pairing well with a lot of things,
so I don't know that augmenting asparagus with fruit cereal
is in my playbook, but we'll see how it goes.
[Erin] So my goal here is to get the sugar from
the black licorice marinade to caramelize on the outside
of the beef, just to give it that little bit of crunch texture
and that really sweet flavor.
-Do you like black licorice? -I'm not going to lie, I do.
My kids love it. My mother loves it.
-I love black licorice. -We grew up with it.
My family, my dad is the black licorice king.
-Oh, is that right? -Oh, yeah.
There you go.
[Guy] Ten minutes, chefs. Ten minutes to go.
So while my cream kale is finishing simmering,
I move on to my grape demi-glace.
I take some grape jelly, red wine vinegar,
chili flake, chicken bouillon, and tomato paste,
and I slowly reduce it down.
Chef Fred, what are we into?
I'm doing a grape brown butter for my biscuits,
and then I'm doing a grape demi for the steak.
Got it.
I want to make sure that the judges know that
I am using the grape jelly in multiple ways.
That is delicious.
[grunts]
[Guy] Three and a half minutes, three and a half.
[Jeff] So it's time to plate my steakhouse feast.
Get some of that aji verde down on the plate.
Crispy onions, the flatbread, nice cook on both sides.
Plate my steak, and boy, I was really happy with that cook.
And then some of that chocolatey,
rocky road demi on top of that.
Three minutes, chefs. You got three left to be plated.
[Abbie] First, I laid my fruit cereal
chimichurri sauce, my scallion couscous,
garlic-charred cauliflower, and fruit cereal
tempura asparagus.
It was fabulous, actually.
[Guy] Two minutes, two to go.
It's got to be a winning dish.
I start with my quick pickles.
Then I plate the salad, top it off with that beautiful black licorice vinaigrette.
Slice up that beef. It's perfect.
Fan it out and top it off with just a little bit
more chimichurri.
One minute!
One thing we can do is make some biscuits when we're in front of South.
Perfect.
I neatly place my biscuit in a small cast-iron skillet,
take my grape butter and put it in a souffle cup,
followed by the Zimbabwe cream kale.
[Guy] Thirty seconds.
[Brandon] I put the jelly demi-glace on the plate first.
Oh, yeah, baby.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one.
Chefs, that's it. Stop working.
[all] Whoo!
-Wow. -Wow.
Good job, chefs.
Jeff, how'd you do?
It was a job.
Sixty minutes of hard-fought battle. That was nuts.
Judges, this is it, the final course of
our winner's super battle.
Our chefs had to make an entree featuring
their unique whammy ingredient to complete their steakhouse feast.
Chef Abbie spent $58 on fruit cereal,
had $42 to spend, and what do you have for us?
What I have for you today, chefs,
is a grilled flank steak over some chimichurri
and some scallion couscous with a trio of vegetables.
I have a tempura asparagus using the fruit cereal.
I also use as a sweetener for my chimichurri.
What I love most about a steakhouse dinner is the sides.
And you gave us three sides on this.
So for a budget battle, this was really smart gameplay.
But the winner for me on this plate is that chimichurri.
I mean, bottle that stuff up. It's delicious.
The steak is cooked really nicely,
but I find the couscous to be a little bit superfluous.
I don't think it's adding a lot to the rest of the dish.
I think the use of the fruit cereal is liberal.
It's all over the place.
I've never seen multicolored rainbow asparagus before,
but I like that a lot.
Welcome to Flavortown.
-Thank you, Chef. -There you have it.
Up next, Chef Jeff, Rocky Road ice cream for a mere $66.
What do you got for us?
I have a Rocky Road and Shio Koji marinated skirt steak
with some Peruvian-style aji verde,
some crispy, spicy onions, and a quick flatbread,
tiny bit of Rocky Road demi-glace on top of that steak.
You continually surprise me.
I didn't expect your appetizer to be as amazing as it was.
I feel the same way here with your steak
in the rocky road sauce as well.
That flatbread, I love that you did that.
Unfortunately, it just needs flaked salt over the top of it.
Salsa verde is working a little bit less than me.
There's a lot of garlic in there. It burns.
It's a little too hot.
You know, there was nothing rocky about your road to this dish.
The cook on the steak is tremendous.
It's so tender, so flavorful.
I think that shio koji marinade was a good idea.
I think the use of the fried onions,
you know, you basically turn something
that was cheap into something you can sell.
And I think that's a great thing when
you're dealing with a budget battle.
I would have loved to see the onion rings on top of the meat,
kind of really bring me to the steakhouse, like, right here.
Thank you, judges.
Up next, Chef Brandon, grape jelly, $60.
You had $40 to spend. What do you have for us?
Chefs, I have a rubbed New York strip,
and then I have my take on cream greens,
which is like a Zimbabwe green.
I made a grape demi, and then a biscuit
with a grape butter.
Hope you guys enjoy.
This is delicious.
You had me worried after that first round, man.
But this is no joke.
This grape demi is really good.
The idea of taking that inspiration from Africa
and creating this, you know, peanut butter kale.
Oh, my God, it's genius.
-So good. -[laughs]
For a budget battle, New York strip,
it's honestly my favorite cut.
And the cook on it was absolutely perfection.
You could sell this and only this
and open an entire steakhouse just based on this
and this alone.
The biscuits have an absolute cloud-like texture.
The effort that you put in to grate the frozen butter
paid off because it's just tons of teeny tiny little micro pockets.
I could use a little bit more rendering on the steak.
All right, thank you very much.
Chef Erin, black licorice, 60 bucks.
-What do you got for us? -Uh, okay.
I did a nice little black licorice marinade
on the flank steak, quick pickled veg,
and then black licorice vinaigrette on the arugula
with a little candied licorice in there.
Chef, I was really excited because at a steakhouse,
like, I love a fresh salad component,
and you brought that in two ways.
The thing that I'm struggling with is a lack of salt
sort of, kind of everywhere, to be honest.
The playfulness of that licorice candy in the arugula salad
kind of pretending it's fennel is really, really fun.
So that's honestly one of my favorite parts.
Thank you, Chef.
You turned this licorice into a complete,
whatever the opposite of a whammy is, a boon, if you will.
I think that the licorice marinade
on the steak is super successful.
It's got a really great crust on it,
and that whisper of licorice just kind of, like,
it bulks out the beefy flavor.
This feels a little less steakhouse to me
and a little more summer luncheon.
You brought so much in that appetizer round
that you raised the bar for yourself, honestly.
There's nothing wrong with it,
but I don't feel a lot of pizzazz.
Thank you.
Chefs, you fought hard.
There's no question about it.
The whammies weren't easy.
We're going to send you back to the kitchens.
We'll call you when we have a decision. Thank you.
So judges, whose steakhouse dinner
was the most well done, or should I say medium rare?
All right, 20 points available on taste,
twenty points for gameplay, ten points for the plating.
A total available from 50 points.
Chefs, let's take a look.
Brandon with a 38 at the beginning.
Eighteen out of 20 in gameplay. Wow!
Eighteen out of 20 in taste.
Eight in plating for a 44.
Eighty-two, well done.
Erin, 45 at the beginning.
Fifteen out of 20 in gameplay. 16 in taste.
Seven for a 38.
And an 83, a one-point edge.
Jeff, 43 in the first round. 16 out of 20.
Sixteen out of 20.
Seven for a 39.
Tied at an 82 with Brandon.
Abbie, you gotta get 41 or better.
Gameplay, 17.
Sixteen out of 20 in taste.
Eight for a 41 and a tie at 83.
Eighty-three, 83.
What?
-Erin and Abbie, congratulations. -Wow.
-[all clapping] -[Brandon] Good job, guys.
Brandon, Jeff, we will see you again, hopefully.
Thank you. Have a good night.
I was in that game.
And next time, I'll be ready.
Thanks, man. Great to see you again.
You too.
[Brandon] Being here is already a prize.
So thank you, guys, for having me.
And I hope to have you back again.
I got to tell you, ladies, it was a pleasure to watch you cook.
A tie is fantastic.
Now, I do want to remind you of one thing.
-I know. Ah. -Had you taken the two points?
Yeah, I'll take the money.
-Where would you be? -Yeah, I'd be running there.
Well, ladies, I got good news and I got bad news.
One, we're not going to go into a tiebreaker.
That's the bad news.
Good news is, take a look behind the door.
Both of you win.
$10,000 each. Congratulations.
-We're going to let you tie. -No way.
Whoa.
I am super proud of myself for what
I have achieved today at Flavortown.
[Erin] My children are going to be so stoked.
There you go.
Guy, call me anytime. I'm ready for number four.
We'll see you next week. Guy's Grocery Games.
Adios.
-Congratulations. -Thank you so much.
-I'm so glad. -Best trip ever.