I'm Bobby Flay.
Each week, one brave chef will try to take me down in my house.
-I'm not worried about Bobby. -What?
-[audience exclaiming] -Ooh.
This culinary battle is going to shake down in two rounds.
Round one, to get to me, two contenders have to go through each other
using an ingredient of my choice.
-[audience cheering] -Let's do it!
Two people that know me well will decide
who's got the skills to meet me.
Round two, I go head to head with the winning contender.
It's their turn to surprise me
with their signature dish.
-Go! -[singing] ♪ Friendly competition ♪
-It got distracting. -This is gonna be the first one I don't finish.
-Flay's in trouble! -Whoo!
-[Flay] Bottom line... -No!
...everyone's out to beat me.
[bell dings]
-[audience applauding] -[exhales sharply]
[upbeat music playing]
Good evening, everyone.
Can I count on you to bring the noise?
[audience cheering]
Here to talk a whole lotta smack,
it's Food Network's Jet Tila and Tiffany Derry.
[audience cheering and applauding]
-[Derry] Yeah! -See you!
-Yeah! -See you.
[Derry] You saw that?
-[laughing] -Oh, that felt good, Bobby, that felt good.
-Oh, man. -Quite an entrance.
-Tiffany, welcome. -[Derry] Thank you.
It's your first time here.
-It is. -[Flay] We love having you here.
I'm glad to have you on Triple Threat.
You're one of the three of the triple.
Yeah, no big deal.
Jet, let me tell you what happened.
It was... It was... It was between the two of you.
-Let me just say this. -[laughs] Whatever.
It was down to the two of you, and then I flew to Dallas
to go eat her food
-and you were out, kid. -[Tila groans]
-[all laughing] -I mean, imagine, you're cooking
and working in the restaurant,
and then freaking Bobby Flay walks in
-your door, like... -[all laughing]
"Am I about to be challenged? Like, what's going on here?" I was halfway nervous.
-But yeah. -[Tila] You got to take a win on this one.
-I'm ready. -First time.
[Flay] Let's bring out some chefs.
Well, Bobby, our first contender,
she's worked at some of the top restaurants in the country.
-From Chicago, let's give it up for Chef Chrissy Camba. -Yeah!
-[all cheering] -[man rapping] ♪ Yeah, it's my time ♪
♪ And it's me in here ♪
♪ You can see it when the crowd start to cheer now ♪
[Derry] Okay! Dusting.
-[laughing] -Wow!
Our next contender owns a Michelin star Korean-American restaurant.
-Wow. -Give it up for Chef Johnny Clark.
[all cheering]
Okay.
Good evening. Chrissy, what kind of food do you cook?
Uh, everything.
-Great. -[all laugh]
Now's the right time. You ready, Johnny?
Yeah, I just want my kids to see me on TV beating you, Bobby.
-All right, I like that. -[Flay chuckles]
Well, before that happens,
you must go through each other.
I'm gonna put 20 minutes on the clock,
and you must make a single ingredient of my choice
the superstar of your dish.
And tonight's ingredient is...
-...soft-shell clams. -[Tila] Ohh! [laughs]
-Look at those faces! -[Flay] I know what I would do.
What would you do?
-I can't tell you. -[all laugh]
All right, guys, 20 minutes on the clock.
-Try not to get in a jam with these soft-shell clams. -[bell dings]
-[Tila] Whoo! -[Derry] Let's go.
[Tila] Go, Chrissy, Johnny.
-Wow, bringing out the guns, Bobby. -Clams?
Well, steamers. They're, like, soft-shell clams. I grew up eating these.
-This is about just steaming them and some flavor. - [Tila] Yeah.
-They're super sweet, super delicious. -[Derry] Yeah.
-But that texture, I mean, if you overcook... -[Tila] Mmm.
-Whoo, that is not something you want. -[Tila] Done.
[Camba] I've never worked with these clams before.
But my strategy is to go off the beaten path.
I'm making a clamcake with sriracha aioli
inspired by a traditional crabcake.
I grab some white wine to get the clams steamed.
All right, I need some energy!
-[crowd cheers] -Yeah!
I love to have fun in the kitchen.
But I also incorporate what my lola,
which is my Filipino grandma, taught me,
which is don't take shortcuts.
I've worked at some of the best restaurants around the country.
Blackbird and Alinea in Chicago,
and Bouchon in Napa.
In 2015, I joined the culinary team at Cirque du Soleil
where I got to travel the country cooking for the circus.
The kitchen was legit. It was so good.
It was, like, one of the best kitchens I've ever worked in.
Bobby, I may have worked in the circus for three years,
but I don't clown around in the kitchen.
Sometimes a little bit, though. [chuckles]
I would spend 12, 13 minutes of this
making a very flavorful broth.
-[Tila] Right. -And then, for the last few minutes,
pop those things open and then plate 'em.
I'm based in the Midwest, so I don't work with a ton of seafood.
So right now, my game plan is a simple preparation.
Steamed soft-shell clams
with a gochujang broth, fennel and radishes.
I see a lot of Korean ingredients
-from Johnny over there. -[Tila] Yeah.
-[Derry] We definitely see the gochujang. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Clark] I decided I wanted to be a chef
once I started washing dishes in a restaurant.
For someone like myself who has ADHD
and can't really focus, using my hands to make things
keeps me really grounded.
After culinary school, I moved to New York
and worked in a few restaurants.
In 2008, I moved to Korea.
I fell in love with Korean cooking.
After I moved to Chicago, I met my wife.
We bonded over our shared love of Korean food.
Thirteen years later, we have three kids
and two restaurants together.
Parachute is a Korean-American restaurant
and we were awarded a Michelin star for six years in a row.
Today, I wanna show my kids what their dad does all day.
And I wanna show them by beating the best of the best.
Sixteen minutes.
Chef Johnny, yo, I saw your face
when he dropped steamers on you.
It did look super excited, what's going on?
[Clark] I think I'm gonna come up with something.
I'm using pancetta because pork and clams are a classic combination.
I'm adding clam juice to my broth.
Gochujang is a fermented soybean and chili condiment.
-So, Korean. -Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable with that.
Smart. Are you worried about your chef opponent this evening?
I'm worried, yeah. She's very good.
I'm worried about you. You're very good, too.
I want something a little spicy.
I mix some mayo, some sriracha, lime zest and clam juice.
My clams are starting to open, so I pull them off the heat.
Chef, your overall plan?
Uh, I'm gonna chop up the clams, make a crabcake.
-Hopefully. -Ohh.
-You know? -So you're gonna chop it up to do a cake.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Can you give him some kind of smack talk?
Uh, Johnny, I hope I beat you, but if I don't, good luck.
[all laugh]
-Oh, God. -That was awful. Give it up for the chefs, y'all.
[crowd cheering]
[Tila] So, Chrissy's already steamed the clams.
So she's gonna form a clamcake.
Like a crabcake.
[Flay] It's gonna be very juicy.
-[Tila] Hmm. -Or maybe not hold together well.
Okay.
[Camba] I make my clamcakes by adding the chopped up clam meat,
some eggs and some panko.
I wanna add some brightness to my dish.
I shave some fennel and radishes.
-Whoo! -[crowd cheering]
[Derry] Hey, Chrissy. So you're gonna use the juice.
I'm gonna use the juice, put it inside my little clamcake.
What else is in here?
[Camba] Clams, salt, pepper, a little lime.
-All right. -[Camba] I gotta get these clamcakes cookin'.
[Derry] We're counting on you.
I need you to come through, okay?
-I'm trying. I'm trying! -[Derry] All right. Okay.
Johnny, I need you to come through, 'cause we gotta beat Bobby.
You just told me that you needed me to come through.
Well, you know I'm on this side now.
-[all laughing] -I didn't realize you could hear me over there.
[all laugh]
-You just waiting now? -Yes, right.
Right now, I'm waiting to cook the clams so they don't get overcooked.
Six minutes to go.
-What's going on, Chef? -Okay.
The clamcake itself, I think texturally
it can go right, or it can go wrong.
[Camba] I flip over my clamcakes and they look great.
-Has Johnny dropped clams? -Not yet.
It's now or never. I have to get these clams cooking.
-Johnny, how you doing? -Oh, I'm sweating.
-Oh, buddy. -Ah.
-He waited a long time to cook those clams. -[Derry] I know, he did.
We counting on you. Let's go.
Chrissy, I'm counting on you, too.
[all laughing]
[bell dings]
[Flay] You guys got just under two minutes to go.
There's not a lot of time left.
I place the clamcake on top of the aioli
and then I top it with lime-dressed slaw.
I need to leave my clams on the heat until the very last second.
Are the clams open?
Let's go, Johnny!
-They're looking pretty good. -[Flay] Tell him, "Plate 'em."
[all] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five...
-[Clark] And I finish with fennel and radishes. -...four, three, two,
-one. -[bell dings]
[crowd cheering]
Tiffany and I have been friends for many, many years.
And we've been planning this moment for a very long time.
-[Camba laughs] -And it's all gonna come down to
what you did with the soft-shell clam.
[Tila] Chef Chrissy, tell us what you made.
I made a soft-shell clamcake
over a sriracha-clam aioli
topped with a little bit of lime-dressed slaw.
It really is a well-cooked and constructed clamcake.
Right? I mean, there is spice, there is acid, there is crunch.
Girl, you got it going on.
-[all laugh] -[Derry] And the clams were nicely cooked,
but they did have a little bit of a chew.
Clams should be supple and soft.
This is eating dry.
Chef Johnny, tell us what you made.
I made, uh, steamed soft-shell clams
with a gochujang broth and some shaved fennel.
[Tila] By waiting to drop these clams,
they are supple, they're perfectly cooked.
It was salty, and clammy, and all the things you really want,
really to the edge with spice, there's so much flavor.
[Tila] But, dude, I would have dressed this fennel salad.
Little bit of olive oil and salt and lemon,
and, like, it would have, like, brought it to that next level.
Tiffany and I are gonna need a moment to kinda discuss.
I think Johnny went in a more traditional direction.
But I'm hoping the judges appreciate my creativity.
The chef that is moving on to beat Bobby Flay is...
Chef Johnny!
-[crowd cheering] -Thanks for being here.
[Camba] Good to be here. Congratulations.
-Way to go, chef. Good job. -Thanks.
Johnny, your flavors are full and focused.
You the right man for the job.
-'Cause we aiming for you today, Bobby. -[Tila laughing]
[Flay] All right, Johnny, congratulations.
You got through round one. How you feeling?
I'm feeling good.
You have a very important Korean-inspired restaurant in Chicago.
What are we cooking tonight? What is your signature dish?
My signature dish is...
...bibimbap.
-Oh, bibimbap. All right, love that. -[Tila] Oh, yes!
Okay, okay.
-I love that. -[Tila] Yes! Yes!
No big deal, uh, a bunch of, like, vegetables,
-meat, you got to cook rice perfectly. -Uh-huh.
-Dolsot bibimbap or just bibimbap? -Dolsot.
Yeah, Bobby! Let... Let me translate.
"Hot pot", you gotta get that crispy rice on the bottom.
-All right? -Oh, crispy rice? I've never done that.
[all laugh]
Three judges are standing by to do a blind taste test.
Forty-five minutes on the clock, chefs. And your time starts...
Now!
-Let's go, let's go, let's go! -[crowd cheering]
-All right, let's talk about bibimbap. -Let's do it.
At its base, it's a rice bowl, right?
You have short-grained rice on the base,
commonly has a protein that is grilled,
-good collection of marinaded or pickled vegetables. -Mmm-hmm.
-[Tila] And hopefully, a really runny egg. -[Derry] Mmm!
I mean, if you can create all the flavor profiles
with the sweet and the salty and the sour and little bit of spice,
-I mean, it's just mmm! -[Tila] Yeah.
[chuckles]
Bibimbap, I actually love the dish.
Tons of flavor.
So I'm making bibimbap with beef tenderloin, crispy rice,
pickled cucumbers, soy, shiitake mushrooms
garlic, spinach, kimchi with bean sprouts
and an egg with a gochujang sauce.
-This is a harder challenge. -[Tila] Oh, big time.
-Dude, this is a lot of work. -[all laugh]
There's a lot to do.
Bibimbap is a dish I became really familiar with
during my time working in Korea.
I'm making dolsot bibimbap
with short ribs, spinach, bean sprouts, carrots, zucchini,
with a fried egg and gochujang sauce.
Hey, Johnny, why did you choose this as your signature dish?
Because my kids love to eat it.
It's all they'll eat, actually.
They usually don't eat anything I make.
-[all laugh] -My kids won't eat my food either.
[all laugh]
[Clark] I get my rice over the heat and get it cooking.
[Flay] Ribeye is traditional,
but for this, I wanna use something's that's gonna be tender.
Beef tenderloin on its own doesn't have a lot of flavor,
but I'm bringing the flavor to the party.
So I'm marinating it in soy, sesame and sugar and some mirin.
All right.
And then, I'm gonna start cooking the rice.
-All right, Tiffany, I'm gonna go in and see what's going on. -All right.
To make the marinade, I juice Asian pears,
garlic, ginger.
Pear juice adds just a nice, bright freshness.
And I get my short ribs into a bowl with soy sauce and rice wine.
-Chef Johnny, short rib is your protein. -[Clark] Yeah.
Short ribs have a lot of fatty, beefy flavor.
Ooh, dark brown,
Korean dark brown sugar. Using all the right ingredients.
I don't see any of that on Bobby's station over there.
-[mimicking indistinctly] -[laughs] It's working, it's working!
So, Bobby, you're going for fillet.
-[Flay] Yeah. -[Tila] Bold choice.
You're gonna cook it whole and then slice it, I'm guessing.
Is that a good idea?
Yeah, man, it's a phenomenal idea.
-[all chuckle] -[Tila] Give it up for Johnny, guys, we can do this.
[crowd cheering]
I feel pretty good.
I love that Bobby is using fillet.
It's lean, it doesn't have a lot of flavor.
-Mmm. -He's either gonna be called out for that
or he's gonna be called a genius.
-Johnny's using short ribs. -Short rib plate here.
-Oh. -[Tila] Johnny doesn't have a lot of spice, though,
so that's my worry. Johnny, are you gonna do a gochujang sauce?
I am gonna do a gochujang sauce.
-[Derry] Okay. All right. -[Tila] Okay, good, good. That's important.
You know what's interesting, the first, uh, bibimbap sauce
was not made with gochujang
'cause chilies didn't come to Korea until the 1600s.
I like that he's a food scholar and a chef.
I'm nervous about Johnny. Stealth.
-I think we got a good chance here. -[laughs]
[laughs]
[bell dings]
[Tila] Johnny's going with short ribs.
I think it's gonna be delicious.
[Johnny] I'm just trying to get nice grill marks and not overcook them.
These short ribs are thin, so they don't take very long to cook.
-[Derry] What's Bobby doing over there? -He's dropped his fillets.
[Flay] The marinade has a little sugar on it, so it's gonna help caramelize it.
I sear it and put it in the oven.
So then my shiitake mushrooms, I add some fresh ginger in there,
soy and sesame oil.
I don't know if it's exactly traditional,
but the nice thing about bibimbap is you can
flavor the different proteins and vegetables in different ways.
[crowd cheering]
-Ooh, fire. Ooh. -Wow.
With my vegetables, I'm going a traditional route.
I blanch the carrots and the spinach to soften them up a bit.
Johnny, tell us about your carrots. What do you have on it?
A little bit of sugar, some salt, sesame oil,
and just a touch of soy sauce.
It looks so good from here.
So next, I'm making my pickled cucumbers,
so it's rice wine vinegar and some sugar.
You need some of that pickling flavor in Korean food.
It's very, very important to it.
I think the sauce is gonna make the difference here.
It totally is.
[Flay] So my sauce is the gochujang soy sauce.
Little of that.
A little bit of sesame oil.
Some of that right there.
And some rice wine vinegar.
I wonder if he's gonna do sugar or honey, 'cause it's Bobby Flay.
He's gonna go honey, watch.
-[Tila laughs] -[Flay] And I put a little honey in it.
-[Tila] There you go, see? -[Derry laughs]
[Flay] It's spicy, a little sweet.
It's good stuff.
-Let's go get a weigh in. -All right, let's do it.
Sixteen minutes.
-Johnny. -Yes.
How we looking? How's that time going?
Uh...
Some of the veg prep's done.
All right, how's your sauce looking?
I haven't made the sauce yet.
Okay, I'mma leave you alone, 'cause I really need you to concentrate,
bring the flavors out.
-Looks fantastic. -[Clark] Thank you.
I chop up the zucchini and I sauté it gently in sesame oil.
I blanch the soybean sprouts and then I add chili powder
just to differentiate from the other vegetables.
What's yours got, Bobby?
-[Flay] We got mushrooms. -[Derry] Mmm.
[Flay] Bean sprouts and some kimchi.
-I got some caramelized fillet here. -Oh, my God!
He got filet mignon in the oven!
-[Tila laughing] -[Flay] Mmm.
[Derry] Okay.
-Where's the rice? -Right here.
I'mma crisp the hell out of it.
[both laugh]
-Give it up for Johnny! -[crowd cheering]
[Flay] So I'm working on my spinach next. I use some fresh garlic,
soy, sesame, and black and white sesame seeds.
[Clark] To make my sauce, I mix gochujang, mirin,
lemon juice and vinegar.
-I check my rice. -How's that rice, dawg?
-Perfect. -Yeah!
[all cheering]
And then, to add another layer of complexity,
a lot of people put that runny fried egg.
[Flay] Oh. I forgot about the eggs.
This is frantic Bobby right here.
-[Derry] Okay, I've been waiting. -[Tila] Yeah.
This is panicky Bobby.
I'm running out of time. I run and grab the dolsots,
which are the traditional stone bowl.
-Here come the hot pots. -Ohh, all right, Johnny!
They get crazy, ripping hot.
The judges get that brown, beautiful, crispy rice.
I take the rice out, put it in a cast iron pan and get it nice and crispy.
-Let's go, Johnny! -Come on, Johnny!
-[crowd cheering] -[Derry chanting] Johnny! Johnny!
[all chanting] Johnny! Johnny!
[laughs]
[Clark] I top it with my bean sprouts, carrots,
zucchini and spinach.
I slice into the short ribs. They're looking perfect.
I take the rice out. It's fluffy and crispy.
And I think the beef looks perfectly cooked.
So the plate is the crispy rice in the bowl,
bean sprouts with the kimchi, the mushrooms,
and I put some of the beef with the pickled cucumbers,
some of the spinach.
Who has the best vegetables? Whose rice is better?
Whose egg is better? How the flavors tie together without being overpowering.
That's what it's gonna come down to.
[Clark] And I finish with the gochujang sauce.
-[Derry] Oh, my gosh, look how perfect the bowl looks. -[Tila] It's gorgeous.
-[all] Ten, nine, eight... -[Flay] Then the egg and the gochujang sauce,
-some scallions and cilantro. -...seven, six,
-five... -That's it.
...four, three, two, one.
-[crowd cheering] -That's it! Yeah.
[Clark] There's no way to check,
but I'm just hoping that the rice is crispy enough from the bottom.
The only thing I was wondering is if I should have put more sauce on top.
It's a very strong sauce. I didn't wanna overpower it.
I don't know.
[bell dings]
Chef Bobby, Chef Johnny, you guys crushed it.
So now it's time to introduce you to your judges.
First up, the owner of Nom Wah, Wilson Tang.
Chef and partner of Piggyback, Leah Cohen.
My girl!
And the chef owner of Nowon, Jae Lee.
-[crowd cheering] -[Tila chuckling]
All right, judges, we're gonna ask you to start
with the first bibimbap that's right in front of you.
I think the presentation was beautiful.
The rice, very interesting.
Never had bibimbap in a regular bowl with crispy rice.
Definitely a lot of technique and thought that went into the dish.
The bibimbap sauce, I think sesame oil is missing.
A touch of sugar just to balance out the heat
would have been very nice.
I love the presentation of this dish.
The rice is just enough crunchiness.
The protein is cooked perfectly.
And I love the little drizzle of sauce on the top.
I don't like the vessel.
Uh, traditionally, I feel like eating bibimbap is in a... in a stone pot.
The beef is cooked perfectly. It's a nice medium rare.
The spinach was a little overcooked.
It got, like, a little mushy.
But overall, I thought it was a really interesting way
to kind of showcase bibimbap not in its traditional form.
Judges, please try your second bibimbap.
What do you think, Jae?
So I think just by looking at it, it captured my soul.
Using the stone bowl, um, getting the crispy rice at the bottom.
The meat, I think the way that it was cooked and cut, so delicious to me.
I do, however, think that the sauce was a little spicy and overpowering.
You have the aroma of the rice and the gochujang sauce
and because it's hot, it just knocks you in the face.
I love spicy food, but I think it's just a little bit overwhelming.
The rice is perfect. It's got the, uh, crispiness
that you expect from a bibimbap.
The meat was a little underseasoned for my taste.
[Derry] Thank you.
All right, judges, please cast the vote.
I'm definitely feeling worried because Bobby was a little bit more adventurous.
I'm just hoping I did enough to get me through.
I feel like this could go either way.
And the winner is...
-...Chef Johnny! -[all cheering]
-Great job. Congratulations. -Thank you.
[Derry laughing]
We did it, we did it, we did it!
We won. We won.
[chuckling]
Tradition won. You gotta go with the hot stone bowl.
That's, like, the only way in my mind to eat the bibimbap.
-It was a great job. -Thank you.
What does it mean to you?
I can't wait to, um, show my kids.
Let's give it up for Johnny, everybody!
[all applauding and cheering]
I'm Johnny Clark and I just beat Bobby Flay!
[crowd cheering]