-Hunter, what are you doing? -What do you mean?
I thought you said it was summer time in Flavortown.
No, no, Hunter, I said it's the summer tournament in Flavortown.
-Oh, that's today? -Yes, they're waiting for us right now.
You see the crew?
Oh, shoot. Sorry, guys.
It's time for an epic summer tournament, Hunter.
-Hit. -That's beautiful.
Something very different.
I have invited eight Triple G winners to face off
in an intense five week culinary competition.
-Crazy aunt's vadouvan curry pineapple sauce. -That's crazy.
[Guy] Tonight, our six remaining chefs
discover that partnering up for a picnic is not a walk in the park.
Do you want anything else?
I don't know what I'm looking for.
All right, girl, let's go.
The team situation wasn't necessarily happening over there.
It's part three of Guy's Summer Games.
-Friendship. -Right now on Triple G.
-Put that away and get to work. -Pickleball time.
Let's welcome back our six summer super chefs.
Oh, walking with a little swagger.
-You always lead the way out. -Yeah, yeah.
Welcome back, Chef. That was a close one.
Nice shirt, and here she is.
Well, you guys all look like you have a little pep in your step.
The six of you have made it to the midsummer point of the Summer Games,
-so congratulations. -[woman] Woo.
[Guy] As you know,
these games are clearly not a walk in the park.
-But... -Ah.
It would be fun to have a day in the park
and have a classic summer picnic.
I love summer picnics.
And since no one likes to picnic alone,
you'll be competing...
As teams.
-Ooh. -Okay.
Chef Dan, now, because you won last week's best dish
I am going to let you pick your teammate.
[exhales]
-Bro code. Me and Christian, man. -Oh, oh.
[Guy] You and Christian.
[Dan] I'm gonna pick Christi as my teammate for two reasons.
Reason one, he's already won a challenge
and reason two, I think that our food styles really mesh well together.
We like bold seasoning, we love a lot of spice.
Hey, guess what else I'm gonna let you do?
I'm gonna let you pick the other two teams.
-Shoot. -Ronicca and Nina.
Okay. Ladies, you step over there with your team.
Gentlemen, stand in the center.
-Hello. -[Guy] There we go.
I love it. Thank you.
Thank you.
[Guy] All right, new partners, congratulations.
Oh, are you guys holding hands?
-Aww. -[Nina] Come on, girl.
-[Guy] Oh, pinkies. -Come on, girl.
Aww, and then we'll hug. Okay, this looks great.
Everybody loves picnic food, especially our judges.
So I want you to make the judges your perfect picnic plate.
Now, I would ask you what that is,
but I mean, see,
I don't think of a perfect picnic plate
as being one of those things that has to necessarily everything works together.
So, we're looking for a protein,
we're looking for a couple of sides,
but most importantly is I want something
fun and unexpected on that plate.
Like, everybody brought something
and then your one crazy friend, Tina, she showed up with a...
And it makes it on the plate.
Okay?
To get you into the summer spirit
I'm gonna give you something special.
-Hunter? There he is. -[groans softly]
-There we go. Very nice. -Ha.
[Guy] Go ahead and hand these out, Hunter.
-One gets a red, one gets a blue. -Okay.
Now, Hunter gave these to you
for a little Divide and Conquer.
-Oh. -Because it's a big market.
You know that Flavortown Market is big.
And this is how it's gonna work.
Each team member can only shop half of the store.
[Guy] One of you will shop aisle one through five,
and the other partner will get to shop aisle five to aisle nine.
You both will get to shop aisle five,
except the line will be divided
where the yellow stripe ends.
One through five will be the red baskets.
You cannot cross that yellow line.
Once either team member crosses the yellow line you are done shopping
and you will go to your station.
30 minutes to shop, prepare, and plate your perfect picnic plate.
Any questions?
Well, who's been in the bottom three first?
In the bottom three? Who's been in the top two?
-Both. -The top two are together.
Who's gonna win this one?
Oh.
Oh, they're all gonna go. They're gonna win.
Go.
They weren't going for it at all.
Everyone's too good now. We gotta find
-some new content. -That's terrible. Yeah, we do.
Right behind you, right behind you.
[Christian] So we have to make one protein, two sides,
and something whimsical and fun
because Guy wants us to struggle.
[indistinct chatter]
-[Christian] We already kne before we even said anything -[Dan] Yeah, yeah.
-[both] Chicken. -Ah.
I think fried chicken is something easy.
-Let's buttermilk fry it. -Buttermilk fried chicken.
-One of the sides should be a really summery slaw. -Yep.
And then the other one, I was thinking, like, beans.
[Dan] Let's do it.
[Christian] I think the hardest thing about Divide and Conquer
is if you're not on the same page
-you're not gonna pick up the right things. -[Dan] Yeah.
And it's a one shop.
[Christian] I got the top of aisle five to aisle ten
so I have to grab the chicke spices, dark red kidney bean and the buttermilk.
-We got so much space, kid. -Oh, so much.
You don't need that much buttermilk.
Corn, corn, corn. Where's the corn?
[Dan] My side of the grocery store I got all the produce,
so I'm getting all the elements for our sla
Slaw is perfect for a picnic It goes great with the beans
and it's gonna go really, really well with the fried chicken.
Hot sauce.
It's gonna be great.
-Dan. -Yo, talk to me.
What do you want to do for our specialty thing?
-Think of something, man. -All right.
I know exactly what our whimsical item's gonna be.
Aunt Trudy's crazy pineapple salad.
I grab a can of pineapple and I'm grabbing vadouvan curry.
It has, like, this hint of fenugreek almost. Whimsical.
[chuckles]
-Ronicca, what do you want to do with the shrimp? -Okay.
Shrimp and what else?
It's Divide and Conquer, and we have to make the perfect picnic plate.
No, no. Cheese, cheese.
[Ronicca] We looked at one another
and we definitely knew each other's strengths.
Ronicca knew that I was gonna do protein and she was gonna do sides.
Noodles, noodles.
[Ronicca] So, I'm going to d a Cajun pasta salad with shrimp.
[Nina] And I am gonna make a fried sesame chicken wing
[Ronicca] I grab some Cajun seasoning garlic powder.
Sesame seeds. They're on your side. Right here, girl. Right here.
[Ronicca] And some black sesame seeds.
For the whimsical dish I'm going to do a charred cabbage skewer.
I got the tamarind sauce, the sweet chili,
I got mayonnaise, I got the pasta, all the vegetables.
I got celery, red onion, parsley, and the cabbage.
This is the cabbage, right? Or is this lettuce?
-What do you want to do? -So, for me, pasta salad,
mozzarella, a little bit of tomatoes, onions.
Okay. I'll do a fried chicken thigh.
-Okay. Yeah, yeah. -Kind of Asian sauce maybe
so it's a little bit different.
-Yeah. Okay. -We can do...
-Kind of, like, with an Italian salad, -Macaroni.
-like a chopped slaw salad. -Okay.
For a surprise side want to do something sweet
-like a pudding cup? -Sure.
Yeah.
Picnic park in the summertime with a pudding cup.
You know we're two minutes into this, ladies?
-I know. You good? -Coffee, maybe?
-Coffee? -Coffee.
-Coffee's over here on eight. -Oh, then I don't know
-what I'm talking about. -Coffee's over there. You got the coffee?
-Yeah, I got it. -I got the pasta. It's over here.
For my Tuscan slaw I definitely know I need radicchio,
endives, anise, I need basil
And then I see this great asparagus and I grab it
because I want to put the tips in there.
Thank God I had kids because you learn to juggle a lot of things.
Chicken thigh.
[Noelle] Dividing and Conquering is hard.
It's one of those things when you're in a team
you have to have trust and confidence
in the other person that you're working with.
Even if we're not able to get our original vision on the plate,
we'll get something that's still gonna be a great product.
-For sure. -For sure.
-[chuckles]
-[Noelle] Gina. -Yes, what do you need?
-I need orange. -Done.
-And sweet chili sauce. -Where's that?
Right here. Ethnic.
Where is sweet chili sauce?
-[Gina shouting] Guy, where's sweet chili sauce? -You're staring right at it.
-I got it, I got it. Yep. I got it. -[Guy] Oh.
-We need to go. -We can do this.
-We've got plenty of time. -All right.
So, we're joined b some picky picnic eaters, our discerning judges.
Now, first we have celebrated executive chef
whose acclaimed restaurants are always a ray of sunshine.
Oh, the one and only Chef Antonia Lofaso.
Renowned chef who's worked at Michelin star restaurants
and wowed the food world with his West African flavors,
the one and only Chef Eric Adjepong.
And a favorite of the Food Network audiences in US and Canada,
this is our favorite carni barker,
-the one and only Noah Cappe. -Hello.
Let's talk about picnic.
When I think of picnic food
I want to have something that's, like, hands-on, kind of easy to eat.
You know, this isn't pouring beautiful sauces on top.
-It's kind of, like, good, ready to go food. -Right.
I agree.
[Guy] You guys got to get moving. You only got 23 minutes left.
I got you two different kinds of oranges, lemons.
All right, ladies, what's on the menu?
[Noelle] We're gonna do a fresh pasta salad.
[Gina] With an Italian slaw.
[Noelle] A spicy Asian chicken thigh, and a pudding cup.
Well then, with 22 minutes.
-[Noelle] Yeah. -[Guy] That's a lot.
[Gina] The first thing I get started on
is throwing my pasta in the water for pasta salad
I'm really worried that my pasta's not gonna cook in time
as it needs more time than I have, for sure.
And I just want to make sure that, like, it's right, and the pasta's al dente,
and it's what it's supposed to be.
I'm gonna take the bone out of this chicken thigh because it's too big.
[Noelle] I'm in charge of doing the fried chicken thigh,
and I know I need to season from the inside out
so I start marinading it in buttermilk and orange zes
And then I put my pork rind in the food processor
so I can use them as a crunch factor on the outside.
What are you gonna put in your pasta salad?
I'm doing tomato, sorry, oh, I forgot the tomato. I am not doing tomato.
Oh, my God. I forgot the tomatoes.
We're gonna mix it up.
I am not gonna be the reason why she goes home.
I forgot the tomatoes.
What are you gonna put in your pasta salad?
I'm doing tomato, sorry, oh, I forgot the tomato. I am not doing tomato.
I forgot the tomatoes
so I'm gonna use strawberries instead.
Really, they have the same acid level, you know?
They both hit the same way.
I got little balls of mozzarella, onions, mint,
a touch of lemon, a bit of vinegar.
Well, a lot of vinegar, actually.
30 minutes is not a lot of time
with your fellow chef partne
to shop for everything
and then cook almost four dishes.
But these are the best of the best, right?
Like, these chefs
have gone through the gauntlet
-the past couple of weeks. -[Antonia] Yeah.
So they're tested, they're battle-ready.
[Guy] 20 minutes. 20 to cook.
Gentlemen, what's on the menu?
We're doing fried chicken, some beautiful beans,
a lovely slaw,
and a crazy little wacky pineapple salad.
Got it, got it.
Everybody got the crazy aunt
that brings the pineapple salad.
[Dan] So, first thing I'm gonna d is get started on the chicke
while Christian gets working on the beans.
I'm gonna pound it out a little bit.
Then I'm gonna put it into our buttermilk
with sriracha, salt and pepper, Creole seasoning in.
Creole seasoning was a great idea.
[Dan] And then it goes right into the seasoned flou that we have,
also a little bit more Creole seasoning,
and then right into a super-hot fryer.
The summer's all about fried food.
Like, you can't have one without the other.
-Yo, you want a pan on the stove for the beans? -Heard, yeah.
[Christian] While Dan's over there working on the fried chicken
I got to get started on these Creole spicy bits.
Dice up little bit of jalapeno, garlic, and red bell pepper.
Once I get that into a pan and saute it all up togethe
with a little bit of chicken base and French onion soup.
I'm also adding a little bi of Creole seasoning
because those frijoles need to be Creole.
-Beans are on and simmering. -Fantastic.
-Ronicca, you got tamarind sauce? -Tamarind? Yes, I got it.
For our picnic, I'm gonna be making the chicken
and Ronicca is making the sides.
-Ronicca, I got your shrimp. -Thank you.
[Ronicca] I'm going to do a Cajun pasta salad with shrimp,
and for my whimsical I'm gonna make
a charred cabbage skewer.
So, I start to boil my pasta and then I start working on the shrimp.
I really want to bring out the Creole element for the pasta salad,
so I'm using a Cajun blend on the shrimp.
-Ronicca, you okay, girl? -Yes, Chef, I'm more than good.
[Ronicca] I start to sear my shrimp,
and then I start working on my vegetables.
I was super excited to be paired with you, of course.
-Our styles very much so complement each other. -[Nina] So much.
Plus we like each other.
[both] A lot.
[Nina] Picnic always require chicke
First thing I did was get it seasoned with garlic powder.
I love garlic powder. My restaurant's full of garlic powder.
I'm obsessed with garlic powder.
I put the chicken in the fryer,
and then I let it fry while I get my sauce going.
Put some oil in there, some garlic.
-Hi. -What are you making, Chef?
-I am making tamarind glazed chicken wings. -Okay.
[Nina] Tamarind, and a little bit of fish sau and garlic powder.
-I love garlic powder. I put it in everything. -Girl. [chuckles softly]
[Guy] 15 minutes. 15 to go.
-What do you wanna do with the asparagus? -I'm gonna do an Italian slaw.
[Gina] For this picnic,
I'm in charge of making two sides.
I have my pasta going.
Now I need to work on my Tuscan slaw.
I take radicchio, endives, fennel.
I throw that all in the bowl
Dressing the salad with champagne vinegar,
olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.
And then I take out the asparagus, cut the tips off,
and add that as well.
It's, like, really summertim in a bowl, you know? It just makes it fresh.
Layers of flavor. Layers of bitter, like me.
-Are you okay? -So, I'm now going to do a chicken crostini
-because I don't have time for the full chicken. -Okay, I trust you.
[Noelle] A crostini is perfect.
It's a handheld food for a picnic.
So I slather some butter on there
and just throw those babies in.
All right, I got bread in the oven.
[Noelle] So, while my chicken is working I'm starting my pudding.
So I start with the instant chocolate puddin
Throwing in heavy cream,
the buttermilk for a little bit of zing, fresh cinnamon,
and then whisking the hell out of it.
I pudding the work.
-Let's have a look at the teamwork factor here. -Yes.
[Antonia] I don't think the chefs are working as teams.
I think that they have their own dishes,
-that they're working on next to each other, -[Eric] Yes.
that all work together on a picnic plate.
[Noah] But in a sense, isn't that great teamwork? Trusting your teammate?
Our teamwork is amazing, by the way.
That's what I was referring to
-[laughs] -and I agree.
We're killing it.
-Pineapple's going in now. -[Dan] Amazing, dude.
[Christian] Now it's time to work on our whimsical ite
Aunt Trudy's crazy pineapple salad.
Rough chop some cilantro and garlic.
I need to get that into this pot
with a little bit of olive oil,
some red wine vinegar.
I add in my canned pineapple sesame seeds.
It needs to be whimsical and different,
so vadouvan curry is something that could compliment
because the savory profile that pineapple can take when you add the right spices.
-Thank you, sir. -Pineapple salad.
-Crazy aunt's vadouvan curry pineapple salad.
That's crazy.
That's whimsical.
Chef's kiss.
I think we're okay with our corn like that, honestly,
because it's got the husk on.
So might as well just let it keep steaming away inside of itself.
Next thing we gotta do is get working on our slaw.
-Can I use a little bit of this onion, Chef? -Go ahead.
[Dan] I'm not surprised at a
by how well we're doing together, honestly, like...
Little slaw. That's delicious, dude.
[Christian] We're tasting each other's food.
How about kimchi in the slaw?
I believe in you. Let's just do it.
[Dan] It's like we're each other's sous chef
-Yeah, finishing each other's... -Sentences.
Uh-huh.
Look at that.
[Dan] We want to add corn to the slaw
because we really want to, like, kind of brighten it up
and add a summer flavor to it.
Dude, I think this slaw's good, dude.
-What's on the menu? -Chef, I'm doing a grilled cabbage shish kebab.
-Okie dokie. -Like corn on the cob.
As far as, like, whimsical and give me something I probably never seen before,
grilled cabbage skewers is up there.
When you think about picnic, it's so much starch, it's so much protein,
and sometimes you just often forget about the veg.
Something very different.
[Ronicca] I covered it in garlic butte
-You got it, girl? -I got it, girl.
Because who doesn't love garlic butter?
And then I take it off,
and I want it to cook longe so I toss it in the oven to finish.
[Nina] It was a mess.
-My chicken was beautiful, though. -Oh, thank you.
-[Eric] What is best strategy? -Time management, right?
I mean, at the end of this cook
you know there's gonna be a moment
where someone's gonna be racing
-to get something on the plate. -[Antonia] Yeah.
Chefs, teams, five minutes.
-Five to go. -Good times.
[Christian] School lunch plates and multiple colors
-to go along with the whimsical factor -[Dan] Yeah.
that Guy gave us.
[Dan] Originally, we were just gonna
drizzle the chicken with spicy honey,
-but who doesn't like to dip their chicken? -[Christian] Dunk it.
-[Dan] Dunk-a-roo. -[Christian] Dunk-a-rooney.
-Is your pasta out? -It is not,
and it is not good.
Not done. I'm abandoning it.
-Can you make your side without the pasta? -Yeah.
It's just not working so now I need to pivot.
And I have these gooseberrie
so I was like, "Oh, this'll work."
-And, honestly, it just, like, hit really well. -It was meant to be.
I just a little small side for my crostini.
[Gina] First thing I get on my plate is the Tuscan slaw.
Next, I get my mozzarella, and strawberry, and gooseberry salad.
[Noelle] And then I plate my pudding
-I just need a little naked corner for my crostini. -Got it. Got it.
[Noelle] Next, I'm putting my spicy,
sticky chicken thigh crostin on the plate,
right next to Gina's delicious salads,
and I'm thinking that this goes really well together.
It's fine dining in a park.
Three-and-a-half minutes. Team, how are we doing?
We're doing great, man.
[Guy] All right, wings are done, salad's done.
-How's those kebabs? -Cooking off in the oven right now.
-Okay, so that's three things. Where's the fourth thing? -What's the fourth thing?
-Two sides, a protein, -Yeah, uh-huh.
and something unique and whimsical.
Oh, I thought something unique and whimsical
-was part of one of the two things. -Mmm-mmm.
What I thought Guy said was there was one main, two sides,
and one of them being whimsical.
Girl, we got to come up with one more thing.
But actually, what it was was one main, two sides,
-and a whimsical. -A whimsical.
We're gonna lose if we don't get one more thing.
-I need my macaroni salad plated. -[Nina] You got it, Ronicca.
We had one minute left and I'm scrambling trying to plate.
I put the chicken down, I put the macaroni salad dow
-Where's your cabbage? -It's in the oven. Pull it out.
[Nina] I grab the cabbage out of the oven, start plating it.
Cabbage was falling off everywhere.
Are they missing a dish?
-Where's the corn starch? -Right there, right there.
We have nothing left but a brick of cheddar cheese and some artichokes.
Girl, I don't have time to do cheese.
[Ronicca] So our only optio
is to flash fry these artichoke hearts.
[Nina] It was a mess.
I've spent a little bit of time around a deep fryer.
I mean, this is gonna have to be executed perfectly
to pull this off in the time that they have.
The fried artichokes look like I did it in a hurry.
-Five, four, three, two, one. -[Eric] That's it.
-[judges applauding] -That's it, stop working.
-Okay. We did it. -[Guy] Nice job, everybody.
-Good job. -Chef Antonia, would you care to join me for a picnic?
-No. -Oh.
I'll tell you what, Chefs,
it smells like team picnic spirit in here.
Let's take it to the judges. Right this way.
All right, judges, this is it, game one of Triple G's summer park games.
Had a little Divide and Conquer.
The perfect picnic plate is what we were looking for,
and they grabbed everything they needed in one shop.
Here's what's at stake.
The winning team members
will split $5,000 between the two of them
and move on to next week's competition.
Bad news is one of the teams,
well, they'll be the rest of tonight's competition
because they'll be competing against each other.
[exhales]
Up first, Chef Christian, Chef Dan, tell us what you made.
We have our family reunion picnic party platter.
[Dan] To start it off, we made a little nice hunk of buttermilk fried chicken
[Christian] Right behind that, we have our spicy savory Cajun beans.
[Dan] And then we have a tasty little summer slaw.
And then, of course, our crazy Aunt Trudy showed up to the party
-with her pineapple surprise. -[chuckles]
We also have hot honey on the side. Feel free to dunk.
Let me start with the chicken. This is, like, the best fried chicken breast
that I've had in a very, very long time.
Crispy on the outside, the ratio of breading to the chicken is great.
I think that, with the cabbage salad,
and I saw you had all that beautiful corn on the grill.
I wish there was more corn in it.
This is more just like a red cabbage salad.
But, all in all, well done.
[Noah] All the sides work beautifully together
and there is a kick, like, to the mouth, neck, and throat
with that jalapeno bean combo in there.
Like ba, bap, bap, bap.
Which is really nice because then those other sides kind of level it back out.
-You got kicked in the mouth. You know. -[chuckles]
This is, like, it, man.
And this whimsical piece, it almost, when it came to me I thought it was potato salad.
-So did I, so did I. -Straight up. I thought it was, like, a potato salad.
That burst of, like, acidity, and the curry,
and the crunch that you're getting from the seeds,
and the bacon is just, like out-of-this-world good.
The use of the cabbage.
I wish there was more corn a little bit more sweetness in that,
but other than that that's probably my only gripe.
-Thank you. -[Guy] Good job, gentlemen.
Up next, Chef Gina, Chef Noelle.
Today, we made for you a perfect picnic plate.
So we have a Asian chicken thigh crostini with a sweet chili glaze.
-We have a... -[Gina] Tuscan slaw.
And then you have a take on mozzarella and tomatoes.
Instead, it's strawberries and tomatoes.
[Noelle] And then a whimsical buttermilk pudding cup.
There's so many really beautiful flavors.
Starting with that crostini, I love the idea of this kind of sticky chicken thigh.
The bread is beautifully toasted,
soft and crunchy at the same time.
I love the radicchio salad.
Very, like, summer, raw vegetable salad that's going on.
Do think it's a little under-seasoned.
I love the idea of strawberries and mozzarella.
Really, really fun play on that tomato mozzarella that we love.
But again, I think just a little bit more olive oil, a little bit more seasoning
to really amp it up.
I mean, first and foremost, you've got this delicious,
sticky, soft, crunchy, beautiful piece of chicken.
But there could have been more of that,
in the sense that 90% of the plate
is this kind of fruit, veggie, plays on salad.
It's overpowering.
Definitely want to see the headliner, I think, be the headliner.
But the pudding, a dessert, it needs to be there,
and I have no problems with it.
-And I'll prove it by having another big scoop. -[Eric laughs] That's so good.
-[Noelle chuckles] -[Eric] Buttermilk gives you that tang.
The chocolate, the cocoa powder that you guys used,
it's just really balanced, especially after eating something so acidic.
Let's talk about the plate.
It's not necessarily a bad thing
that you've given so much, let's say, cold applications, those sides.
But when I think about a picnic
I want a little bit more hearty, right?
The plate would have been a little bit better
if the portion of that crostini was bigger,
but I like it so good job.
All right, not to be outdone, Chef Ronicca, Chef Nina.
Today, Ronicca and I made...
[Ronicca] Garlic charred cabbage skewers...
[Nina] Sesame sweet and sour chicken wings...
[Ronicca] Cajun shrimp pasta salad,
and fried artichokes which we are dipping in...
[Nina] Savory honey umami sauce.
Chefs, we all know what happened over there.
It was kind of like a mad rush at the very, very end.
The chicken wings are really nice
because that's all that you worked on, Chef Nin
but we have sort of this rush of a mess
that happened with everything that Ronicca did.
So I feel like the team situation
wasn't necessarily happening over there.
The idea of this cabbage skewer was incredible.
The garlic butter on it is beautiful,
but there are parts on it that are still raw
and then other parts that are, like, cooked well.
The artichokes are nice.
There's some great elements here.
It's unfortunate that some of them are buried alive.
The pasta with the shrimp, that was a really nice kind of element
but all the other elements were laying on top of it.
The wings are nice, they're perfectly done.
It's a sticky, nice sauce on there. I love the little sesame seed.
It just felt a little too authentic picnic mish-mash
and not enough of that culinary wowee-pazowee that we were looking for.
Flavor, I think you guys really brought it.
I think the cabbage, as far as whimsical
I think this is probably the most coolest thing I've seen.
The fried artichokes kind of just ran up against the time
and it feels like that,
but there's a lot of flavor in here.
I think the 2.0 version of this picnic basket
would have been really awesome.
[Guy] All right, Judges. Thank you very much, Chefs.
You're in competition for a couple of weeks.
All of a sudden, we put you together.
Now you got to work cohesively as one
and we want four things out of you.
-Ah, no big deal. -[laughs]
We're gonna send you back to the kitchens,
and we will call you back when we have a decision.
Thank you.
All right, Chefs, which team's plate
would you pick for the pick-a-nick?
[imitates] For the pick-a-nick.
Let's go ahead and bring our chefs back in, please.
Chefs, we asked you for picnic plates.
A protein, two sides, and something whimsical.
I think everybody tried hard. I don't think everybody got the same results.
The team that will get $5,000 to split as a team,
and will also send those two chefs
into the next round of this summer slam, will be...
Congratulations, Chef Christian and Dan.
-Well done, gentlemen. -Nice, guys.
[Guy] Well done. 5,000 bucks
to split between the two of you.
-We won. -Woohoo.
No, the two of you, you've got targets on your back.
We'll say goodbye and see you next week.
-Thank you. Bye, guys. -Thank you all.
-[Dan] Five grand. -[Christian] And we made it to the next round.
-Five racks. -Two-and-a-half.
Oh, yeah, 2.5 racks.
[Guy] Ladies, lot going on.
One team, great communication.
One team, not great communication.
One team, good seasoning.
The other team, not good seasoning.
I mean this went back and forth,
but unfortunately one team is gonna go
into sudden death tonight and go head-to-head,
and the other team is gonna sweep by
and go on to next week's challenge.
The team that will be going forward,
in second place, will go to...
Chef Noelle and Gina. Okay?
Ladies, season, season, season.
Nothing worse than just losing that simply to seasoning.
Without question, had you seasoned those salads appropriately
you would have won this.
Okay? Something to think about until next week.
-Thank you, ladies. -Thank you.
Thank you.
Nina, Ronicca, I'll tell you this.
It wasn't for lack of effort, and it was for lack of hard work.
Unfortunately, you two didn't communicate.
Well, you don't have to worry about it this round
because you're going head-to-head.
We are gonna send you back to the carts,
and this sudden death round is gonna start right now.
Good luck.
-I hope you judges are hungry. -Always.
-Hi, Chefs. -[both] Hi.
This is your last chance to stay in the tournament
and secure the final spot in round four.
For this showdown, I want you to make a true summer classic.
I want to make something, it should be an easy one,
I want a bodacious burger.
Okay, who doesn't love a good burger?
The bun, the patty, the fresh lettuce, even the pickle.
I want to make... Oh, wait, a second. Pickle. Pickle.
You know what? There's something about pickle, pickle juice?
No... Oh, I know what it is.
New grocery store game that we have here.
It's based on the outdoor summer sport that is sweeping the nation.
Pickleball. Have you played pickleball?
-I haven't. -No.
[Guy] It's kind of like miniature tennis
meets ping-pong.
So, you're going to take a paddle and a pickleball,
and you are gonna hit it with the pickle paddle here in the Triple G Park,
and wherever that pickleball lands
you will use that must-use ingredient in your dish.
So, let's say for instance you land right here,
well, that's a frozen pickle pop.
That's gonna suck.
Over there would be pickled watermelon rind,
and over there would be picked young grapes.
Let's step in front of your carts, ladies.
-Hunter. -Hi.
-Great, okay, there's the paddles. -I could not find any balls,
but I figured these would work.
-Hunter, what are those? -It's a pickleball.
That's not the way the game is played.
Hunter, these are the plastic pickles from the display.
-They work the same. -You took the display apart and brought these.
-Thank you, Hunter. So helpful. -Yes.
There you go.
-Who would like to go first? -I'll go first.
-Okay, go, girl. You got this. -All right.
Oh, shoot.
-Girl, come on, girl. -[Guy] And she gets pickled young grapes.
[Hunter] Very nice.
-That sounds like a rapper. -PYG.
Pickled young grapes also. Feel good about that, ladies?
Yeah.
Have you ever had a pickled young grape?
No, and I'm sure it's terrible.
Way much worse than I'm imagining.
I've never had 'em either. All right, Chefs, go to your carts.
-Chefs, here's the dill. -Oh.
No? Too soon?
Okay, you're in a real pickle now.
30 minutes to create your bodacious burger,
featuring your pickled whammy ingredient,
which will be the pickled young grapes.
-Bodacious burger. You know what bodacious means? -Big.
Big and elaborate. All kinds of stuff.
So, remember this. More than three layers, okay?
You do two layers
and one of you is going to go home, okay?
I want you to really think about the layers.
What counts as a layer?
-Pickles, mayo, lettuce... -Yeah.
-Oh, okay, got you. -You know.
I mean, you could do two layers,
and then one thing in the middle,
and then you could go and put another two layers, and then one thing,
-and then you, I mean... -[Eric] Look up there.
-Look at the clock. -[Antonia] Oh, my God.
They're a little nervous, that wasn't fair, but it was fun.
[Ronicca] So, Guy tells us to make a bodacious burger
and my brain literally flatlines.
Like, I have nothing.
So I'm just trying to think as fast as I can
what might go together, what might not go together.
So I grab bison meat and picnic ham.
I need to do as many levels as I can,
but all of those levels need to tie together somehow
to make the most amazing bodacious burger.
Okay, bread.
I grab potato buns,
and since bison has a lot less fat than beef doe
I grab blue cheese, heavy cream, and parmesan to make this cheese sauce.
Last, I rush over to the vegetable side
and I grab beautiful heirloom tomatoes
red onion, oyster mushrooms and lettuce.
And of course, the special ingredient, the young pickled grapes.
I don't even know what pickled young grapes are,
and I literally have to make that one of the dominant flavors
so I am really nervous going up against Nina.
I mean, who knows what's gonna happen? I mean, this game is crazy.
[Nina] To me, bodacious burgers mean over the top.
Big flavors, big everything. But I'm not thinking about that right now.
What's going through my mind is, literally,
I have never made a burger before.
I cook Thai food,
but I know great beef is a part of it
so I'm gonna grab ground bee
I grab a little bit of cheddar cheese because it's classic,
and I'm grabbing a bunch of fixings.
Lettuce, onion, and tomatoes, and of course I didn't forget the garlic powder.
It gives me more confidence to knock out Ronicca.
And sriracha mayo.
This is gonna be on top of my burger and make it bodacious.
Fries, fries.
I also grab fries too
because you always have to have burger with fries.
Can't go wrong.
-[sighs] -Bodacious burgers.
-What does bodacious burger mean to you, Eric Adjepong? -Bodacious.
I need multiple layers. Something that's not boring.
So, like, what are we doing to kind of elevate it
and set it apart from everything else?
[Noah] Exactly to your point, you remember eating a million burgers,
-but you remember remember a couple of special ones. -100%, yes.
-The good ones do stand out. -Mmm-hmm.
All right.
[Ronicca] The first thing I start on is my cheese sauce.
I chop up the garlic.
And then I want to get that cheese melted down,
I want to make sure it's perfect,
so I add my heavy cream, I add the parmesan,
I add the blue cheese.
Blue cheese sauce here?
-Blue cheese parmesan. -Okay.
[Ronicca] While my cheese is melting and marrying,
I start working on my bison burger.
[sighs wearily]
[Ronicca] Bison has a lot less fat than beef does,
and so I know that the fattiness of the sauce is going to make up for that
but I just don't want it to be too sweet.
[Guy] 24 minutes.
[Ronicca] I start pattying u I'm doing eight ounce pattie Big patty for the chefs.
Slap it on the grill.
It is so easy to overcook th
because it is such a lean, earthy meat.
-Watch those grills. -Too hot.
-Chef, how we looking? -We're looking good, Guy.
For my bodacious burger I am making a classic cheeseburger.
Salt and pepper,
and a little bit of red pepper flakes.
[Guy] You and sriracha? I never saw that coming.
Granulated garlic?
-I love garlic, Guy. -I know that.
[Nina] I get those patties made right away,
put my patties on the iron skillet, and get 'em searing.
The patty itself doesn't need that much time to cook, right?
Maybe within the last 15, 12 minutes or so.
I'm gonna say something hyper controversial right now.
-Talk to me. -I like a medium well to well done burger.
-And I'm not saying dry. But I don't-- -[Noah] What?
-Don't judge me. -I'm not judging you.
-I don't like burger shaming. -I'm judging what you said.
-[Eric laughs] -[Antonia] You know what?
-I don't... -I'm a judge, Antonia.
-It's literally what I do. -I don't like burger shaming.
-Okay? -[Eric chuckles]
[Nina] Next, I'm gonna get some onions and mushroo down in that beef fat.
It's gonna flavor beautifull and bring in those summer flavors.
The only concern I have is how am I gonna melt this cheese?
I have never melted cheese before so it's gonna be tough.
I really don't want to put cheese, it's not really in Thai food
but I'm gonna get cheese on that burger one way or another.
I have to beat Ronicca.
-Chefs, 15 minutes. 15 to go. -Yes?
So, this is friable, right?
-Or do you think I should bake it? -Absolutely.
That's what I thought.
[Ronicca] One of my favorite summer memories that I have
is my mom making me picnic ham.
-[Guy] Have you ever worked with it before? -Never.
[Ronicca] I've never had fried picnic ham,
and I'm like, "Let's fry it like it's bacon."
-Why'd you pick it? -Because it's summery. Picnic ham.
Okay, that's a good selling point.
-[Guy] Gonna get those mushrooms going? -Yes.
-If all... -What are you gonna do with 'em?
-I'm gonna fry 'em. -I like that.
See how that tastes.
Picnic ham is fried, crispy, and I'm ready to start working on the mushrooms.
I use the heavy cream that I used for my sauce, and I douse it in there,
and then I dredge it in flou and I drop it in the fryer.
[Nina] While the burger is going,
I'm gonna drop some fries in the fryer.
Next, I'm gonna go back and work on my pickled grape sauce.
Pickled grapes are common in Asian cuisine
and it's just like sweet and sour.
So I blend it up and mix it with siracha mayo
And that will bring some of my Asian flavor.
A little bit sour and a little bit spicy.
[Guy] Seven minutes. Seven to go, Chefs.
Not enough cheese.
[Antonia] That's something I've never seen before.
-[Noah] The upside down cheese? -The upside down cheese.
Never in my life.
I never really grew up working with cheese or eating cheese.
First, I put the cheese right on top of the burger.
It's not working, so I put the cheese on the skillet
hoping it would be creamy, luscious, and gooey.
I mean, I have never seen...
I'm gonna get cheese on that burger, one way or another.
It's as if the cheese has turned into a soup.
[Ronicca] I have all these ingredients already working.
I try these young little grapes
and they're really not that bad.
Little bit of sour, little bit of sweet, little bit of crunchy.
I think I'm gonna make a relish out of this.
I know I don't have much tim to make another sauce
so I think, "Let me grab sweet and sour, let me grab garlic.
Let's blend this together."
Just need more.
[Ronicca] I try it and, not surprisingly, this relish tastes great.
This is absolutely perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better ingredient.
Three minutes.
And she's running again.
No, I mean, it's like the Forest Gump of kitchen.
[Ronicca] I'm checking out my bison patties
and I realize I don't want to get dinged for not having enough cheese.
I don't know if my sauce is actually cheesy enough.
So, looking at all the cheeses,
I decide on Swiss so it gives that little bit of tangy pungentness
so that all my flavors are gonna come out.
You just kept on running.
[Nina] So, the fries are looking good
and I'm throwing in more spices to add.
Of course, I didn't forget the garlic powder.
There you go. You and that granulated garlic.
I love it.
-It's your favorite thing. -It is [laughing] my favorite thing.
90 seconds, Chefs. You have 90 seconds left.
The time is running out, and I had to plate my burger.
This is, literally, the first burger I ever made.
Put down the butter bun, get this pickle siracha hot sauce on it,
get this burger with all thi gooey cheese on it.
My burgers is looking phenomenal.
I add sliced green tomatoes and I topped it with my onion and mushrooms.
It's looking very bodacious because it's thick and it's juicy.
First time in my life I've made a good burger here
[Guy] 30 seconds.
[Ronicca] I have all of my components ready.
Earthiness from the bison, crispy fried oyster mushroom bacon.
I've got the creamy, cheesy, garlicy sauce,
and, of course, the special ingredient,
the young pickled grape relish.
Let's get that produce on there. Let's go.
[Ronicca] I've got crunch, I've got creamy,
I've got salty, I've got sweet.
I have everything And I'm looking at my bodacious burger,
and I'm actually feeling really, really confident.
Three, two, one.
And that's it. Great job, Chefs.
-Nice job, ladies. -[laughs cunningly]
[Antonia] Bodacious burgers.
Judges, this is it, the elimination round for the chefs,
and they played our weird Triple G version of pickleball.
Pickled young grapes is what they ended up with.
And now, Chef Nina, you're up first.
Tell us about this bodacious burger.
Today, I've made you
this delicious bodacious burger
with a classic beef, cheddar, saute mushrooms, onions, pickled grapes,
with siracha mayonnaise sauce.
-Chef, do you make a lot of burgers? -Not really.
-No? -Not really.
Let's start at the most important part, the burger itself.
It's actually really nice.
I mean, for me, it's cooked perfectly, the coloring's nice.
The technique with your cheese,
the reverse anti-gravity cheese technique
where you laid the cheese down on the grill
and put the burger on top, I've never seen that move before.
And as a cheese lover, I think I would have preferred,
maybe, a traditional approach
just because we lost so much of it.
I like the siracha mayo,
and I thought, at first,
that it was smart to use the baby pickled grapes inside of there,
until I bit into it and I feel, like, a lot of the seeds.
-Are you getting them too? Like, the small, like, -Yeah, it's in my teeth. Yep.
-seed things that are in there. -Yeah.
But I think the flavor of the beef is delicious.
Sauteing the onions and the mushroom in that bacon fat
not only gives you that beautiful sweetness
that the onion actually gives you,
but you get a little bit of that, like, tallow kind of flavoring
that I really enjoy.
Is it a bodacious burger? 1,000%.
I mean, there's layers, there's texture.
I wish that the bun held up a little bit more,
-but other than that, really solid job. -Thank you.
All right. Not to be outdone, Chef Ronicca, what you got?
Chefs, I made you the ultimate bodacious bison burger.
It's topped with Swiss chees fried oyster mushrooms, fried picnic ham,
topped with a garlic blue cheese parmesan cream sauce,
a young sour grape relish, heirloom tomatoes, red onion, and lettuce.
So you were able to leave a few of the other ingredients in the store?
Well, shout out to me first
because I was able to get my whole mouth
around that thing on the first bite.
-Shout out to me. -I mean, listen,
there was a moment when I looked at it, where I was like,
"Is this the burger that's gonna take me down?"
I mean, that thing was a skyscraper.
But I did it and I'll tell you I was pleasantly surprised.
I actually really loved the garlicy kind of infusion in there.
Chef, there is a lot going on with this burger.
Obviously, the marching instructions were bodacious,
and actually eating this burger
there's, like, a new discovery every time I go in,
and all of it works really well.
Pickled young grapes, that relish. A1, I love it.
And then the beautiful sear that you have on, you know, the bottom of that burger
also kind of creates a little bit of, like, a seal, right?
So you're not getting too much of a sloppy burger.
I just wish it was seasoned better.
There's not a lot of salt, and that's what I'm getting,
the meat itself is just not where it needs to be as far as flavor.
Thank you very much, Judges. Chefs, nice job.
No one likes to be in this bottom round,
but we asked for burgers
and I think you brought burgers.
We're gonna send you back to the kitchens,
and we'll call you back when we have an answer.
Thank you.
Well, we asked for bodacious burgers
and I think you both delivered.
The question is, who goes home?
One chef will be checking out,
and one chef will be moving on to the next part of our summer games.
The chef that is checking out is...
Chef Nina.
-Thank you very much. -[Guy] Chef, I'll tell you what,
I love your perseverance in the kitchen.
You're just diligent in what you do,
and if it doesn't work you try again another way.
We saw some irreverent methods of cooking cheese to go on burgers.
Really was great having you.
-Thank you so much. -[Guy] Thank you, Chef.
-Thank you. -Bye, girl.
[judges applauding]
[Nina] I feel sad about being eliminated, but I had fun here.
Every time I'm at Triple G I learn something new about myself, cooking,
and this time, cheese.
Well, Chef Ronicca, you have pulled a rabbit out of a hat,
or at least a pickle,
and you will be joining the other four chefs
in next week's summer games.
-All right. -Thank you so much.
We'll see you next week.
Thank you very much.
We'll see her next week, we'll see you next week
when we bring five chefs to come and battle for that final spot
in a shot at winning up to 25,000 bucks
here on Guy's Summer Games.
[Guy] We've lost three great chefs.
We're now down to you five.
Let's take your tastebuds
on a summer trip around the world.
Oh, those are beautiful.
I've got lollipops.
Oh, what a pain in the butt.
[man] It's absolutely delicious.
See you next week. Adios.