Tonight, four chefs are competing
in Flavortown Market for the very first time.
-Hunter, what's going on? -I'm restocking the shelves.
Hunter, this was supposed to have been done hours ago. What happened?
-I overslept. I'm sorry. -Okay, listen.
We're gonna start the show here any minute.
-[Hunter] Okay. -[Guy] There's a big competition coming in,
and I need carts.
I need, I need help then. Can you help me out with this?
-I don't know. -Aisle two, please.
Listen, I'm not doing this.
It's called Guy's Grocery Games. It's called Hunter Restock.
-We'll figure this out. -I can't do this all alone.
Let's meet tonight's chefs.
Now, first up we have Julie Casey,
the Florida chef who runs an innovative Southern restaurant
with her husband and two kids.
Whoo-hoo!
I am not a traditionally trained chef
by any stretch of the imagination.
At Outpost Kitchen, I like doing things out of the box.
We do Southern-inspired, American-inspired twisted food.
-Thank you. Thank you. -There you go. Go get 'em, Casey.
Next, Leslie Daniel, the executive chef
cooking up Japanese contemporary fusion food in Atlantic City.
Although I've been doing Japanese food for 10 years,
I've worked at steakhouses,
I've worked at fast casual pickup restaurants,
I've done Mediterranean cuisine fusion.
I've been around the block.
-Yo, what's up, man? Let's do this. -Go get it!
And then there's Traci Bryant.
Another Florida chef who's blending up
Southeast Asian and Latin flavors at her restaurant.
I think my edge in Flavortown is that I've cooked food
from all over the world.
So anything Guy or Hunter wanna throw at me,
I got it.
-Welcome, chef. Nice to have you. -What's up, chef?
Hunter, I'm on my fourth chef.
Hurry up. Bye.
Uh-oh.
And finally, Melvin Ocasio,
the Long Island executive chef
who's been the personal chef for the Mets.
My first kitchen jobs were working in the concession stands at Citi Field.
And then I started doing fine dining.
And then I got called back for the opportunity
to be a personal chef for the Mets.
Batter, batter, batter, swing, batter.
Chefs, I apologize, we have carts.
Carts are coming. Hold tight.
Anyhow, I've got two out of bounds culinary challenges
that will test your cooking abilities to the max.
-Oh, God. [laughs] -[Guy] But the chef with the lowest score
after the first round, unfortunately, will check out.
But the chef with the highest combined score at the end of both rounds
will get a chance to shop at Flavortown Market for $20,000 bucks.
-Oh, yes. -[Guy] First challenge.
Why don't you make the judges a hometown favorite?
-Yes. -[Guy] Whatever "hometown" says to you,
I want you to make us that.
Got it.
Again, I'm sorry. Hunter!
-[laughing] -[Traci] Oh, my God.
-Yes. I'm almost done. -Carts. Carts. Carts.
-I'm almost... Five minutes, please. -I don't have "almost done."
Team, do you have five minutes?
-Everybody at home, do you have five minutes? -I don't think so.
-[Hunter] I'm sorry. -[Guy] Let's go.
-Come on, Hunter. -[Julie laughing]
Okay, you're not gonna like it, but okay.
-Uh-oh. -[indistinct]
[Hunter] Hold on. I got more.
-[Guy repeatedly] No, no, no. -[Hunter] Just hold on.
You were supposed to put all this away.
I've been trying. There was so much.
-I've been doing this for an hour. -[laughs] What?
-All right, I don't have time for this. -[Hunter] I told you,
-I didn't have time for this. -Chefs, I apologize. Go ahead and take these.
-You're just gonna have to roll with it. -Oh, my God.
So, Hunter doesn't have time to put it all away.
New game called, um,
Hunter's Whammy Cart. That's right.
[laughing]
[Guy] Let's see, we have smoked meat stick,
banana, wasabi peas,
canned nacho cheese, sweet potato baby food,
and canned fruit cocktail.
-[Julie laughing] -Um...
[Guy] Use what you can in round one,
but whatever you have left over must be used in round two,
if you make it to round two.
-All right? -Noted.
You can get any other ingredients you want.
But you have 30 minutes to make this happen. Any questions?
-No questions, no. -Now, the one thing I do wanna talk to you about
is of the six items that are in there,
-there's three of them that are really questionable. -[Hunter] Well...
Two in particular,
-one... [indistinct] -There's one that I really don't like.
You go and determine which one of those...
-[laughs] I love it. -Go. Go.
-[laughing] Oh. -Go.
-That was three times. -[all clamoring]
-[Hunter] That was three times. -Here you go.
-That was a good one. -[indistinct laughter]
[Julie] So, I'm originally from Alexandria, Virginia.
Virginia's, you know, kind of considered the South.
All right.
When I hear, "hometown favorite,"
I immediately think of chicken fried chicken, collard greens,
mashed potatoes, and country green bean.
I need my coating to go with that.
So, I'm looking at the stuff in the whammy cart
and looking at these ingredients my first thought is,
"How many of these ingredients can I get out of my way?"
Because I didn't wanna be stuck with them in the second round.
Six items. Random items. And they are whammies.
[Julie] Collard greens.
So right away I think, "Oh, the beef sticks are gonna be
a great replacement for bacon in the collard greens.
How can I use the sweet potato baby food?
Let me put it in the gravy and see how that comes out."
Buttermilk, buttermilk, buttermilk.
These wasabi peas, they got a nice little kick.
Looking for that heat from the wasabi peas
in my panko breading for my chicken fried chicken.
Going with such an aggressive dish of three different components
and three different whammy items,
I am not gonna walk away from the challenge.
I wanna win that money.
Where is it?
So this round, I wanna knock out as many whammies as I can.
[indistinct]
Hometown favorites for me, I can say would be tomatoes on the East Coast,
especially during peak season of summer.
Here we go.
For my hometown favorite, I'm thinking of making
heirloom tomato salad with some ricotta cheese
on a toasted sourdough bread.
What else, what else, what else, what else.
So, I'm using my sweet whammies in the first round,
and I'm gonna save the savory ones for the next round.
I think with the sweet potato purée,
banana, and the fruit cups, being able to, kind of,
marry those ingredients together since everything is fruit, everything is sweet,
I can use that to make a vinaigrette
right over the top.
[Guy] This is tough stuff,
and they're already three and a half minutes into it.
[Traci] Whoo!
So, we're making a hometown dish.
Well, I'm from Florida, so I'm thinking tourism,
people driving down the highway with their kids,
stopping at the side of the road to get a little snack.
Okay, so what about a play on, like,
a deconstructed hot dog?
I can definitely take this meat stick
and incorporate it with chorizo.
So, here's the kicker.
We have to be strategic, because we have to use
all the ingredients by the end of the game,
if we even make it to the second round of the game.
So, my goal is to make it to the second round
and kind of leave the scary ingredients off to the side.
We're just gonna deal with that in the next round.
So with my roadside hot dog,
I'm thinking Florida tropical.
Okay, canned fruit.
And there's a little bit of pineapple in there,
but I really wanna freshen it up.
So I think, "I'm gonna go get some fresh pineapple,
some bell pepper, cilantro."
And that's gonna really give it that nice freshness it's gonna need.
I think I'm done.
Honestly, I wanted to get that fruit out of there as early as possible
just because they're just too sweet.
Let's take it tropical.
I lived in South Florida, Miami.
That was my first kitchen job when I was 19 years old.
So I'm thinking for my hometown favorite,
I'll be making a grilled shrimp tostada.
Just what we need. Just what we need.
I see avocados, and boom, it clicks for me.
Avocados and banana, the texture's the same.
I knew that if I blended those together,
I'd get a nice, beautiful purée.
I'm thinking of using the fruit cocktail.
Fold that in with cilantro and parsley
to make a delicious chimichurri.
That should be enough for the judges.
So here to judge these hometown favorites
are three of Flavortown's favorite judges.
We have the James Beard Award-winning chef
with restaurants all over the world,
the Iron Chef herself,
Stephanie Izard.
Celebrated chef and winner of Tournament of Champions four,
the amazing, one-and-only Chef Mei Lin.
Acclaimed East Coast chef and Food Network star,
The Great Hambino, Chef Chris Petroni.
We know.
Out of all the whammies, which one scares you?
There's different things that my mom would make with of each of these items,
but you never put 'em all together.
Forget about the contestants, I think it's unfair for us.
-[Stephanie laughs] -We have, like, bananas,
-beans... -[Stephanie] Banana cheese sauce?
It's been weeks since I had a good banana cheese sauce,
-though, I'm not gonna lie to you. -[both laugh]
[Guy] Twenty-five minutes.
Chef, what's on the menu?
Well, Florida is known for tourism,
so I'm making something
I'm gonna call road-stop and hot dog.
-Okay. -Okay?
I'm gonna make a little pineapple relish.
Gonna use little bit of that fruit, add some chili crunch.
Good luck.
So, I wanna get started on the base of my roadside dog.
So, I take my meat sticks, I throw 'em in the beer,
and I get that on the flame.
The chorizo's gonna add a little bit more life,
a little bit of spice, a little bit more smokiness.
Back home in Florida in my restaurant, we love chorizo,
especially on a nice brekky taco.
So, this is maybe a little lunch version of that.
[Guy] A lot of flavor in those sticks.
[Traci] So, I know typically a hot dog is, like,
meat in a tube or casing, but we're gonna do
a little bit of a variation on that with a...
[in sing-song voice] ♪ All righty♪
Tasty.
-Hunter's whammies really threw them for a loop here. -Yeah.
Especially because when you're given ingredients
that you have to use over two challenges,
you have no idea what the second challenge is gonna be.
It's that damn whammy cart.
[Guy] Twenty-four minutes.
-What's up, Hunter? -[Hunter] Hi.
-How's it going out there? -Judges.
It's going good. They're not a big fan of me.
[Stephanie] Did you just walk around the store blindfolded
and just point to things?
I was putting things away,
and all of a sudden my dad comes rushing and he was like,
-"Hey, bring the carts now." And I'm like... -[laughing]
Yeah, honestly, I blame it on Guy.
What's on the gameplan?
So, I'm gonna do a shrimp tostada.
Featuring this from my times when I lived in Miami.
Going for a coastal, tropical vibe.
Love it. Where's the baby food going in?
I'm gonna save that for next round. I got a plan for that.
Ooh, you're lucky. You're saving it for next round.
-Yum, yum. It's sweet potato. -[Leslie] Yes.
I get my shrimp and I start taking the tails off,
and I season that. I have lemon juice,
salt, pepper, cayenne.
Let that marinate for a quick second.
And now I go to my crema.
I peel the banana, I take a avocado,
and I'm smashing those up in a bowl.
Throw a little sour cream.
[Stephanie] Leslie's putting bananas and avocados together.
I would eat that.
But that banana's gonna add such beautiful silkiness and texture
-to the avocado. -[both] Yeah.
What's gameplan?
I'm gonna use the wasabi peas in my breading
-for my fried chicken. -[Guy] Okay, I like that.
-[Julie] And I'm using these beef sticks... -[Guy] Right.
-...as a flavor for my collard greens. -Gravy?
The first thing I wanna get cracking on is a fried chicken.
Put my buttermilk and the hot sauce,
so it can sit and marinate before I bread it.
Looks like Julie's grinding up the wasabi peas
and then going to add in, I think there's a little bag of panko,
to use that on the outside of chicken.
Smart. Smart play.
[Julie] If I won the money, I want to take my husband on a vacation.
He gave up his business. Jumped into the restaurant with me.
And he deserves this more than anybody.
All right, chicken's down.
Chef Melvin, what's on the menu, bud?
[Melvin] Gonna go ahead and do a nice,
like, an heirloom tomato toast.
And I'm gonna use the sweet potato
and the fruit cup as my dressing.
Okay.
The first thing I wanna get started on is these tomatoes.
For the tomatoes, I'm gonna season them with salt, pepper, olive oil.
Kinda let that rest.
I set 'em aside, then I get started on my vinaigrette.
For the first round, I'm gonna do
a dressing with the fruits.
I'm using three of my whammies in this vinaigrette.
The banana, canned mix fruits, and the sweet potato baby food.
The key to the vinaigrette was just balancing
the acidity level with the sweetness
since everything is so overpowering.
So I'm gonna add my vinegar and basil
to just kinda adjust on seasoning and flavor.
Oh, yeah.
[Guy] Fifteen minutes, fifteen left.
[Traci] So, with my roadside dog,
I wanna make a very fresh salsa.
I chop down a little bit of pineapple, I dice an onion.
I dice some cilantro, and then I open my can of tropical fruit.
So delicious.
And then I start dicing up my tropical fruit mix.
I mix it in with the pineapple salsa, it's a perfect pair.
If I win, I want to use the funds
to celebrate one of my sous chefs, Marta.
We've been working on a cookbook for about a year now,
and I would like to use the funding to publish a book.
It's all about her home cooking
from Hidalgo, Mexico. She's an amazing chef.
Delicious. [chuckles]
Chef, what are you into so far?
What have you used? You've used the banana?
So I've used the banana, and I'm using the tropical mixed fruit can right now.
All right.
So with the fruit cocktail, I'm doing a chimichurri.
So I have this fruit cocktail. It's just overly sweet.
And I just start chopping as fast as I can.
Next, I go to the chimichurri.
I grab parsley, cilantro, Fresno chiles, serranos.
Ooh, that's got a nice kick in there.
I get my shrimp and I start putting 'em on the grill.
Honestly, if I were to win the money,
I haven't had the chance to travel to Japan yet.
And I would really like to go dive myself into the culture
and really understand what I'm cooking.
Although I've been doing Japanese food for 10 years,
I haven't yet had the chance to go to the motherland,
so I would like to go check it out.
I really like to make my own ricotta cheese,
but I don't have time for that.
So, I went with the salt, pepper, olive oil
to help enhance that ricotta and put it on the bread.
Spiking the bread with a little bit of garlic.
Right now, in this first round, the pressure's intense.
I wanna win this 'cause I'm looking to start the process
of opening my own restaurant.
It's just something that I've always dreamed of doing.
And it's something that's gonna be
a life-goal achievement for me.
[Julie] So my chicken breast go in the fryer.
I need to get the collard greens going.
I don't have a whole lot of time.
So, I've gotta take the part of the collard greens off the stem
and get 'em tossed in the pan.
Crushed red pepper in there.
The outside of the beef sticks is kinda tough,
so I realize I've gotta cut them pretty small
because I need them to cook up pretty quick.
All right, I don't think I have time for gravy,
but we're gonna go for it.
I'm running out of time, but I gotta do the gravy
with the sweet potato baby food.
So I throw the butter in the pan, grab the flour,
and get my nice roux.
I get the heavy cream in the pan,
and I add a container of the baby sweet potatoes.
All right, struggling.
Chefs, you've got four minutes. Four minutes left!
[Traci] Now it's time to build the plate.
I take the bun, spoon in my delicious chorizo meat stick mixture.
On top, I put the pineapple,
canned cocktail mix relish salsa.
If my staff could see this whammy dog right now,
they'd be like, "Chef, you're so weird."
[Leslie] I grab my tostada and I start building the dish.
We get our beautiful shrimp on top.
I take a couple dots of the banana, avocado purée.
Next, I go to the chimichurri. I put that right in the center
so you can see the fruit cocktail, you see the chimichurri.
[Guy] Two minutes!
[Melvin] So right now, we're gonna start with ricotta.
Just enough on the bread.
And then we shingled each color of tomato.
My vinaigrette tastes great, actually was better than I anticipated it to be.
Let's go, chef. You got gots to move.
Yes, chef.
So I pull the chicken out of the fryer.
It's just a little darker than I like.
Maybe this is because of the wasabi peas,
that they added to the darkness of the color.
But the chicken is cooked and we're going with it.
[Guy] Thirty seconds!
[Julie] So I taste the collard greens again,
and I'm really happy about how they came out,
so I get 'em on the plate.
I get the chicken on the side of the collard greens.
And then I go to grab the gravy, and I see how clumpy it is.
And I'm starting to freak out a little bit.
Come on, chef, you got this.
[Julie] And I just took the risk and went.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one.
Chefs, that's it. Stop working.
[applause]
-[woman 1] Whew. -[Stephanie] Good job, guys.
-[sighs] -You did it, Julie. Good work.
That time went fast.
[Guy loudly] All right, folks, let's find out
what whammy-filled hometown favorite the judges favor.
Let's take it to 'em. Right this way, follow me.
All right, judges, this is game one of some fiasco
that we're calling Hunter's Whammy Cart.
Chef Melvin, what'd you make for us?
So what I put together today was a heirloom tomato toast.
Grilled sourdough bread, some ricotta cheese.
Heirloom tomatoes that's dressed with a,
essentially, a fruit vinaigrette.
Chef Melvin, my first bite into it brings me back to my childhood.
I grew up just outside of New York City.
And the biggest challenge that we always had
was getting them seasoned enough
and really highlighting their flavor,
and you've done that beautifully.
But the bread has gotten a little soggy
because of that really big vinaigrette
that you've put in over the top.
Awesome. Oui, chef. Thank you.
Chef, even though you're a Mets guy I'm a Yankees guy,
I won't hold it against you when I'm judging your dish.
That toast, you rubbed it with some of that garlic,
I love that you gave the character to toast that it deserved.
[Mei] I do have to admit
that when I saw you puréeing the fruit cocktail,
the banana and the sweet potato,
I was very, very afraid.
But honestly, as this vinaigrette,
it's pretty harmonious, like,
everything is very cohesive.
Thank you.
All right, thank you very much.
Up next, Chef Traci.
I have a little thing I like to call
a road-stop hot dog.
I took some meat sticks, and then I mixed that with some chorizo.
I topped it with the pineapple and fruit cocktail salsa.
[Mei] I love hot dogs,
and this right here definitely did not scream hot dog.
This is more of like a Sloppy Joe.
And the fruit cocktail, I don't really get.
You need that fruit and that acidity on top
cutting through the richness of it.
But you get this salty meat that is a perfect marriage
of the chorizo and the meat stick.
A great way to highlight the meat stick
and not necessarily hide it.
Right.
We're gonna call it a hot dog? I need meat in a tube.
-[Traci] Yeah. -But I'd eat, you know,
two or three of these, late night.
-Two or three of these in the morning. -[Christian] Couple to train.
-Right after a snack? -After the gym, probably.
-[Guy] Yeah. After gym. -Yeah, right after the gym. That's the idea, actually.
All right, thank you.
Up next, Chef Leslie.
Good afternoon, judges. How you doing?
I made you guys a shrimp tostada
with a avocado, banana crema
and a fruit cocktail chimichurri.
Yo, chef, you can obviously cook, man.
Aesthetically, as soon as this dish came in front of me,
you're like, "Yeah, I wanna dive into this. I wanna eat this."
Scallions are so beautiful, but then they're, like, really long
and there's doubles and so it becomes
a little clunky and difficult to eat.
[Mei] The banana and avocado purée,
I'm definitely gonna steal.
-[chuckles] -Like, that is probably the star on this plate.
Thank you, chef. I really appreciate it.
The only negative that I really have
is the shrimp being a tad undercooked.
The chimichurri, though, is for me the star of the plate.
You've got fruit cocktail, turning it into this acidic,
herbaceous note that really makes the tostada.
Thank you, chef.
All right, working feverishly over there in kitchen one,
Chef Julie, what do you have for us?
I made for you, um, chicken fried chicken,
collard greens, and a sweet potato gravy.
I used the baby food in the gravy.
I used the wasabi peas in my breading
on my fried chicken.
And I used the meat sticks in the collard greens.
Julie, using the meat stick
as your porkiness in your braised greens
-was just great. It's got great spice. -Thank you, chef.
The wasabi peas into that breading,
it doesn't really come through.
Like, I'm expecting to get some sort of, like,
hits the nasal cavity. And maybe just
reserving some of that and using it as a seasoning.
The chicken itself, on the other hand,
I think is a little under-seasoned.
-Mmm-hmm. -[Stephanie] It needed more time in your buttermilk
and in that hot sauce.
I've been in your shoes, and I've run around this market
with Guy chasing me around, yelling at me about something
-that I'm not doing right. -We weren't even filming.
[all laughing]
And I know how time can get away from you.
The one whammy ingredient that I think went to a loss
-was the sweet potato. -[Julie] Yeah.
[Stephanie] It's just not really seasoned.
It's not necessarily in the gravy realm.
Thank you, chef.
[Guy] Nice first round. We're gonna send you back to the kitchens.
Have the judges deliberate,
and we'll call you back when we have a decision.
-Thank you. -Thank you, chefs.
Judges, whose hometown favorite is in danger of sending them home?
I think you guys all prevailed pretty well.
Twenty points available in gameplay,
twenty points available in taste, 10 in plating.
Melvin, you went first. Let's take a look.
Seventeen out of 20.
Seventeen out of 20 in taste.
Eight out of 10 for plating for 42. Nice score.
-[applause] -Thank you. Thank you.
[Guy] Nice score.
Traci.
Sixteen out of 20.
Sixteen out of 20 in taste.
Seven in plating for a 39. Three points behind.
Chef Leslie.
Seventeen out of twenty in gameplay.
Sixteen out of twenty in taste.
Nine in plating for a forty-two tied with Melvin.
Shout-out, Chef Melvin.
[Guy] Julie, you gotta get above 39.
Sixteen out of twenty in gameplay.
Fifteen out of twenty in taste.
Seven in plating for a 38. One point behind Traci.
I think what tripped you up here, Julie,
-was the gravy. -Yup.
-I see why people want your collard greens. -Appreciate the opportunity.
So, if I learned anything on this trip,
if you don't have the time, don't put it on the plate.
And even Guy to say he understands why people love my collard greens,
like, that was worth everything to me.
This is the second and the final round of
-Hunter-Really-Did-It-To-You Whammy Cart. -[chuckles]
So, final challenge, I want you to make a grilled feast.
A grilled feast?
And you still have to incorporate those odd whammy ingredients,
but that gives you even more of an opportunity to wow the judges.
Wait a second. "Odd whammy ingredients.
Even more of an opportunity."
Oh, "even more."
-Oh. Hunter! -Hunter, we're closed.
-[Guy] We are gonna make the shopping easy. -Yes.
-[Guy] Do you have any more whammies? -[Hunter] I do.
-You got the odd/even coin? Here we go. -[Hunter] I do.
We're gonna flip this coin. If it lands in the odd.
you can only shop in the odd aisles.
You have no access to fresh meat and dairy.
But if it lands in the even, you can only shop in the even aisles.
You get no use of the produce.
Here we go. Going for odd or even.
-Even, it is. -[Hunter] Oh, nice.
-Even... no produce. -Ooh.
You can only shop in the even aisles.
Which means you can shop from fresh meat, seafood, dairy in aisle ten.
You have 30 minutes to create your grilled feast.
And you also have your mandatory whammy ingredients.
You cannot shop in aisle three,
but you can shop in aisle two for condiments
and you cannot shop in aisle one. You cannot go there and get anything.
They can go to the clearance, though.
-I guess we should be going right now. -[Leslie] Yeah, you're right.
This is really hard because, like, the produce department
in Flavortown market is the best.
Especially, when you have whammy ingredients that are all processed foods
you want to be able to balance that with some real food.
No veggies.
[robotic voice] Whammy.
Would you have preferred to have odds or even?
Would you... do you want and need that produce department
or can you not live without fresh meat and fish, right?
[Guy] "Feast," Chef. Remember, "feast".
-It means a lot of stuff. -[Leslie] Yes, Chef.
Now that I'm restricted to these even number aisles,
it makes it a little bit harder to figure out
what you're gonna do with these ingredients.
A grilled feast to me means you're getting
a little bit of all your favorite meats.
And me having a Asian background, so,
Korean style short ribs. They're delicious.
Next, I see sausages and I'm like,
you can't go wrong with grilled sausages.
You have this, like, nice earthy tone from the wasabi.
Next, what can you do with baby food puree?
I can make a barbecue sauce.
My barbecue sauce.
Now, I'm left with the smoked meat stick and the nacho cheese.
And I'm just looking for a vegetable.
Unfortunately, we didn't have access to produce,
so, I see this can of baby corn and I'm like,
"Ooh. Elotes."
I love fresh baby corn but then when you get canned baby corn
-it gets just a really different texture. -It's just drowned out.
-Drowns out the flavor. -Drowned out. Yeah.
All of this to do in grilled is awesome.
I have sweet potato baby food.
Bananas, nacho cheese,
wasabi peas. [chuckles]
I feel like I can really overcome this challenge even without fresh produce.
I have bananas and I have sweet potato baby food,
so, now I am thinking... mole.
For my grilled feast I'm gonna do grilled chicken thigh and grilled shrimp mole.
Now, I head over to the masa because I know I wanna make tlacoyos.
Tlacoyos are kind of like stuffed tortillas.
I know I can grill them after I fill them
with the delicious canned queso and wasabi peas.
I have got 39 points.
Now, that I'm the underdog in the pack that's moving forward
I think I really need to play a heavy game.
I'm just, like, on a mission here.
[Melvin] Last three whammies I have is the cheese sauce,
wasabi peas and the smoked meat stick.
For my grilled feast, I'm thinking of making a parillada.
Parillada is a traditional Argentinian dish.
Usually, consists of three to six meats.
Skirt steak, flanken cut short rib, bratwurst.
All right, all right, all right.
Normally, it would have chimichurri but,
again, I couldn't access the fresh produce aisle.
So, I grabbed some salsa verde but I thought it has somewhat of the same components.
To go along with these grilled meats I decided to do a hominy salad.
So, the whammies, they go right into the warm salad.
It would add that last layer of seasoning
since the hominy can take a hefty amount of it.
Right now, 42 points. Me and Leslie are tied. It's a fight for the finish.
[Guy] 25 minutes.
-What are you thinking? -I think I'm gonna grill these bananas
to make kinda like a dark mole situation.
I'm going to grill some shrimp and chicken
to go with some kind of
-tlacoyo or masa situation. -I like that move.
I'm gonna start working on the mole.
I get that premade mole on the flame.
[Stephanie] So, Traci grabbed a jar of mole.
I'm curious to see where her mind's going with that.
Grabbing another jarred ingredient
to go with your already processed food.
[Traci] The next thing I taste is the sweet potato puree.
Oh, it tastes like... childhood memories.
The sweet potato puree isn't overly sweet and it's really not to tangy
so, I think it's really gonna mix well and balance out with the mole.
I know the banana's gonna add a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of viscosity,
and that char's gonna give it a nice little flavor.
So, with my proteins, I feel like I'm keeping it little simple
but I don't wanna overpower the rest of the flavors in the dish
and hide my whammies by having too strong of flavors on my proteins.
Chef, how we doing? What are we working on? What are you making?
Uh, so, I'm gonna do a Korean style short rib with a baby food barbecue sauce.
I have some Italian sausage over here.
I'm gonna season that with the wasabi peas or a little flavor.
-[Hunter] Nice. -And I got baby corn, I'm gonna try and do, like,
a grilled street elote with that.
-You want more whammies? -Hell, no.
-Please, no more. Please. -[Hunter] All right.
So, first I'm gonna get my barbecue sauce going.
I drop the baby food in a hot pan
and try to get that heated up in a little barbecue sauce.
Next, I start cutting up my sausages.
And I'm just like, "Man, I need to get some seasoning on these."
So, I grab the wasabi peas, turn it into a dust
and I mix that with a little bit of salt and pepper
to season the sausage that goes right on the grill.
If it's a grilled item, you wanna know that it's grilled.
It should have char marks, a little bit of smokiness.
Control this heat.
I had 42 the first round and I'm tied with Melvin.
He's a great chef and I need to make sure that I just do,
uh, next level up to make sure I surpass him.
[Guy] What'd you get, Chef?
I'm gonna go with a parillada.
It's usually considered a grilled feast out in Argentina...
-Good. -...so, I'm gonna go that route.
First thing I gotta get started on is getting the steak on the grill.
The ribs and the sausage.
The sausage, I'm getting those grill marks and popping it in the oven.
This round's gonna be all about time management
'cause I have to pay attention to all the items grilling.
So, winning today, I wanna open my own restaurant.
That's gonna allow me to kind of be free and express myself.
I think it's just an achievement that I need to make myself proud.
If the meats are done then I don't have to worry about that.
[Guy] 15 minutes! 15 to go.
-How's it going? Okay. -You know, I'm making a little mole situation.
I'm gonna do some grilled chicken, some grilled shrimp.
-All right. Good luck, Chef. -Thank you.
Tlacoyos are kind of like a Mexican hot pocket.
I think adding the wasabi peas to the tlacoyos
is definitely gonna bring a little bit of brightness to the dish.
The element of the tlacoyos is really important to me.
I'm really passionate about my team,
and the person that I'm working on the cookbook with, Martha Sanchez,
she taught me how to make tlacoyos.
Obviously, I'm here today, I'm playing for them, I'm representing them
and I wanna show my team that I can make them proud.
Chefs, we've got ten minutes. Ten minutes to be plated.
Ooh, these whammy ingredients are kicking my A-S-S right now.
Now, I'm left with the smoked meat stick and the nacho cheese.
So, I wanna start making my elote sauce.
Uh, so, I'm just gonna chop this meat stick up really small
and I'm gonna incorporate this into the cheese sauce.
And I throw into the pan the nacho cheese.
I throw in a couple slices of pepperjack, some heavy cream
and a little bit of butter and I'm just whisking away.
Just get that corn on there.
Uh, honestly, if I were to win it would mean a lot.
I've always wanted to be on a cooking show since I was young.
To be actually a part of this and to succeed at it would just be...
It would be great. It's a story to tell.
A lot going on over here.
Melvin is going all in on grilled meats.
But it's not just grilled meat on a board, right?
What's gonna happen? How are you gonna incorporate those whammy ingredients?
[Melvin] To go along with all these grilled meats
I decided to do a warm hominy salad.
I haven't had these in a long time.
I take the wasabi peas...
I got my smoked meat stick and I got my canned cheese sauce.
Those are gonna be great for adding, uh, that extra salty component
to my hominy salad.
I take my mix of whammy ingredients
and I toss it with the grilled hominy
Actually worked out better than I expected.
[Guy] Five minutes, chefs.
[Traci] I put my mole down on the plate. That banana is shining.
You get a little bit of that char but, oh, my God, it's pretty good.
I'm super pleased with the cook on my grilled proteins.
The shrimp seems perfect and the chicken is juicy.
Oh, my God. Have mercy.
I slice and fan out my chicken.
I put my tlacoyo on the side.
You get a little bit of that char and I finish with the shrimp.
Pretty delicious. Not super colorful over here.
Two minutes! Two minutes and you need to have that grilled feast ready to go.
[Leslie] I start pulling my meats off the grill,
I'm cutting my Korean style short ribs
and I'm layering those beautifully on the plate.
Scallops go right in the center.
I take a little bit of that baby food barbecue sauce
and I drizzle it on top of my ribs.
Next, I'm grabbing the sausages.
I line those up nicely on the plate.
I want them to taste the wasabi in there.
Then I grab my elote cheese corn sauce. It tastes great. Loved it.
And I'm putting that right next to the scallops.
45 seconds.
[Melvin] Didn't pay attention to the clock.
I wasted too much time on that grill.
Melvin's not looking really happy.
That's so many proteins he's trying to put together.
[Melvin] First I get that salad with all my whammies down
'cause that has to be on the plate.
And it tastes great.
Second, I go right into the short rib.
After that, steak's looking good. I cut into it.
And, then last, I had to put the sausage in. They're looking great.
Here we go. Ten...
I'm a little annoyed I couldn't get that salsa verde on there.
It was just that last key component to, I think, tie the dish together.
Five, four, three, two, one...
-Chefs, that's it. Stop working. -[Mei groans]
Time's up and one of my plates are missing steak.
All right, chefs, it's time to take the judges on a grill thrill ride.
Let's do this. Follow me right this way.
All right, judges, this is it. Game two of Hunter's Whammy Carts.
-Up first, Chef Traci. -Hi, guys.
This is my grilled shrimp and chicken thigh whammy mole.
In the mole, you're gonna find the bananas and the sweet potato puree.
And then, in my tlacoyo, I made the masa with some dried wasabi peas
and the queso is inside as the filling.
Traci, looking at this plate with all of the chicken thighs
and the shrimp and the masa stuffed with nacho cheese,
this is definitely a grilled feast.
It's a very banana-forward mole.
Adding the baby food sweet potato and the banana inside.
But I wish there was a little bit more balance to the mole.
It just eats really, really sweet.
My favorite part of this dish, however, was the nacho cheese
oozing out from the masa.
It's still warm, it's still gooey.
What's not to love?
My favorite thing that you did was taking the wasabi peas,
grinding them up and putting them into the masa.
When you look at the plate, because you were not allowed to use herbs,
you could see the wasabi inside of the masa
and that's a really smart way to kinda tuck it in there
but let the flavors still come through.
My shrimp, however, were a tad overcooked.
Chef's were overcooked, mine were under.
Thank you, Chef.
All right, up next. Chef Melvin, what do you have for us?
Today I did a take on a parillada.
I used the hominy and in the hominy I did wasabi peas,
the beef jerky and the cheese.
I did, uh some skirt steak, flanken cut short ribs
and I used, uh, bratwurst.
Chef, there is a lot happening on this plate.
Definitely have a feast.
But what happens when you have so many components,
some are really successful and some of them aren't as successful as others.
I thought the hominy, and then when you look at it,
it's not the most attractive thing I've ever seen on a plate.
I actually loved what happened to the texture.
Uh, flavor of the wasabi really comes through.
The meat sticks, it works.
The sausage, just threw it on the grill.
Didn't have to do much with that.
The skirt steak is cooked really well.
But it's just not cut against the grain.
My favorite part about this dish is the hominy salad.
I love how it has all the cheesiness inside of it, the nacho cheese,
but I was missing the skirt steak for some reason.
Uh, I don't know if you ran out or
you just didn't have enough time to plate.
When I'm thinking of these thin, grilled Korean style short rib
I need so much more char, my brother.
When I... I just can't get the idea out of my head
when I'm thinking parillada I need something green over the top. I need a chimi.
Absolutely. Thank you, Chef.
Okay, thank you, judges. Not to be outdone, though. Chef Leslie.
For my feast, I made you guys a Korean style short rib
with a baby food barbecue sauce.
Italian sausage with the crushed wasabi peas, grilled scallops
and I have my take on a street corn elote.
Chef, this is... this is a grilled feast for sure.
You got petite little portions but they're all just the right amount.
The corn is what I wanted to dive into first.
Never thinking to take baby corn, put it on the grill
and then put it into a cheese sauce with meat sticks.
But, it works.
But the sausage is just a little dried out from being on the grill.
-Understood. -[Stephanie] When you have a beautifully made sausage
and all that fat's been put into the sausage,
too high of a heat can let it all melt right into the grill.
Understood, Chef. Thank you.
The wasabi peas, I wish that was made into more of like a salsa verde
to... to really have the meat soak it all up.
The short rib was beautifully caramelized.
[Stephanie] Getting that char on the outside
and getting that sweetness from the barbecue sauce,
-everything that you want in a beef short rib. -I really appreciate it.
Thank you, judges. Thank you, chefs.
Not easy, especially, with that whammy cart shenanigans that went on
but you... you made good use of it.
Three point lead. Tie at the top.
Anybody's game.
Send you back to the kitchens. Let the judges deliberate.
We'll bring you back when we're ready.
-Okay? Thank you so much. -[Leslie] Thank you.
Judges, this is one decision you can't make a coin flip.
Whose grilled feast should come in first?
A tie in the end of the first round between Leslie and Melvin.
Traci to 39.
But, we gotta take a look at where things are.
Let's start off with Melvin.
Thirteen in gameplay.
Has to do something with missing ingredients.
Fifteen in taste, seven in plating for a 35.
The score's 77.
-All right. -[Guy] Traci.
Sixteen out of twenty.
Sixteen out of twenty in taste.
Eight in plating for a 40.
-And congratulations, a nice 79. -Thank you.
Two points over Melvin. Right now, it's yours to lose.
And Leslie, tied at the top, need a 37 to take it all.
Sixteen out of twenty in gameplay.
Sixteen out of twenty in taste.
Eight in plating for a 40, and congratulations, Leslie...
Eighty-two points. You are the winner!
-[Leslie] Let's go. -Hell, yeah. Congrats.
[Guy] You're all accomplished chefs and you know what you're doing.
You scored high scores.
But unfortunately, we send the two of you home.
Being able to come to Guy's Grocery Games
and run through this beautiful grocery store
and play with these wacky whammies that Hunter was throwing at us,
I had the best time.
I think I could've done better if I executed my time properly
but I think it's a learning experience
now to know that Hunter is not on my side.
That's a nice win. Not an easy competition.
Congratulations. There's our big winner.
-Let's get it. -[Guy] Well done, buddy.
-Perfect. -Let's go shopping, Chef. Come on over.
All right. Two ways you can make money. 20,000 bucks.
First we can go on a shopping spree
in which I give you two minutes and five items
that satisfy clues on this card right here.
Or we can skip the cart whammy shenanigans
and you could just take the mystery check
which is located right behind that door.
You can see the silhouette.
And that mystery check, tonight, has anywhere between
let's see, $10,000 and $20,000.
Oh, that is nice.
You know, I came for a challenge,
so, I'm gonna do the grocery game shopping list, Chef.
Okay, that's a good way to play.
All right, well, let's just take a look and see what that check was
-back there, Chef. Take a look. -Please don't be $20,000.
-[Guy] And the check says $17,250. -Okay. [exhales]
-[Christian] You can beat that, Chef. -So, to beat that...
-I need all five. -...you're gonna have to get all five.
Here we go.
"The rounded variety of pepper shares its name with a popular fruit."
-Hit it. -Get it, Chef.
Come on, bubba.
Round peppers.
I grab the apple pepper. Boom, 4,000 in the cart.
-[Christian] You got 4,000. -Nice!
Now, "This Hawaiian version of yellowfin often used in poke.
Get to the fish! Get to the fish!
[groans softly]
I love poke and I already knew what that was, so, I grab it.
Ahi tuna.
Ahi. Boom.
Eight thousand in the cart.
Yes. Eight thousand. Eight thousand.
One minute to go.
"Coarse form of sodium chloride
made from evaporating ocean water."
Ocean water, it just clicked in my head. Sea salt.
-Sea salt. Sea salt. -Such a complicated way to explain it.
"Caramel-colored acidic condiment
made with fermented barley
that's popular with fish and chips."
-25 seconds. -Grab it, grab it, grab it, grab it.
Time's running out and I'm looking for the fourth ingredient.
-Five, four, three... - [Leslie] Where is it?
-...two, one... - [Leslie] Malt vinegar.
I won $16,000.
It's just unbelievable.
Chef out of AC comes in
and deals with a whammy cart hot mess and does dynamite.
-That was-- -Chef, we're proud of you. Congratulations.
-Thanks so much. -16,000 bucks.
See you next week. Guy's Grocery Games. Adios.
-[Stephanie] Congratulations. -[Leslie] That was so hard.