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?
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.
-Let's do it! -[audience cheers]
[Bobby] Two people that know me well will decide
-who's got the skills to beat me. -Yeah!
[Bobby] 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 ♪
-Is that distracting? -This is gonna be the first one I don't finish.
-Flay's in trouble! -Whoo!
-[Bobby] Bottom line... -No!
Everyone's out to beat me.
[audience cheers]
All right, I'm playing my cards right tonight.
Who's betting on me?
[audience cheers]
Please welcome two people
who are making it their job to get me beat.
My pal, Chef Michael Symon,
and supermodel and fashion designer,
Devin Windsor.
[audience cheers]
Pretty good.
-[laughs] -[audience cheers]
Michael, we finally found a job that you could do.
-Yeah. -What's up, Devin?
-How's it going? -I'm so excited.
I'm a big fan. I'm ready to take you down.
Thank you. So, I told my girlfriend
that you were gonna be on tonight.
-Yes. -So, she immediately went right to the
swimsuit wear. She's like,
"Honey, these are so cute. I need every one of these,
and also, can we get a place in Miami?"
[laughing]
-Perfect. I like that. -She needs somewhere to wear them.
-Do you make men's swimwear? -We do. We do.
-You know, Bobby is an unbelievable swimmer. -Can hook you guys up.
-I mean, like a shark, he goes through the water. -Yeah?
-I'm the worst. -[all laughing]
Not that strong of a swimmer.
It's okay, you have other talents, so you're good.
So, are you a good cook?
I like to cook for fun.
If Michael and I came over,
what would we eat at your house?
I'd probably do, like, a homemade truffle pasta.
-Okay. -Fancy.
-Truffle oil, it's fine. It doesn't have to be real. -Oh, okay. All right.
-[Bobby] Yeah, okay. -[audience laughing]
Are you ready to meet our chefs?
I'm ready. Let's do it, Devin.
Our first contender brought his fine dining skills
from New York City to North Carolina.
Here to tell you to take a hike,
is Santiago Guzzetti.
[audience cheers]
[laughing]
Okay. All right.
Surfing in from California,
let's hear it for Executive Chef Dom Crisp.
[Bobby] Yeah!
[audience cheers]
Let's go!
Whoo!
[Bobby] Santiago, Dom, welcome.
I'm gonna put 20 minutes on the clock.
I'm gonna give you a single ingredient of my choice,
and you must make that ingredient
the superstar of your dish.
-What are you guys hoping for? -I'll take some oysters.
-Oysters? -I want some langoustine.
-You have very expensive taste. -[laughing]
[Bobby] Both of you.
Tonight's ingredient is...
Hazelnuts.
[all applaud]
-How do you feel about this? -I feel confident.
I love it. It's versatile.
So, Devin and Michael,
they'll decide which one of you
goes up against me in the second round.
-Don't be hazy on this one. -Oh. [chuckles]
It's all about the hazelnuts.
-[bell dings] -Go.
[audience cheers]
Devin, you a hazelnut fan?
I love hazelnuts,
and who doesn't love chocolate hazelnut spread?
-Pretty much good on anything. -[Bobby] Yeah.
-It's the best. -[Michael] These are tricky in the sense
that they're more versatile than if you get a protein,
but it's also harder to make it the full star.
[Bobby] Yeah. I would make, like, a pesto with hazelnuts.
-Or, like, thick, kind of, romesco sauce with it. -[Devin] Yeah.
Right. I like sweet potatoes and squash and hazelnuts.
-Yes. Some sage in there. -Mmm-hmm.
[Devin] Dom, what are you making?
Romesco with shrimpies
-You called it. -Yum.
Santiago, what are you making?
A pesto trapanese, uh, hazelnut cream,
and a glazed carrot with sorghum.
-So, he's making a Sicilian pesto. -[Michael] Yes.
I'll be back.
-[Bobby] Under 16 minutes. -[audience cheering]
-How you doing, Chef? -Good, chef.
All right, so, no protein?
-No protein is there. -Beautiful.
My strategy is to highlight the creaminess of the hazelnut
and also the crunchiness.
The trapanese is gonna go really well with carrots,
and they will not overpower the hazelnuts.
Are you gonna take Dom down? You feeling good about it?
I think we're gonna have a good fight.
[Michael] You guys both have pretty spectacular hair.
This could be, like, a battle of the hair.
Yeah!
I grew up in Argentina in an Italian family,
so just like every good Italian,
I would learn to cook from my grandma.
And I moved to New York City to work
in some of the best fine dining kitchens
such as Jean-Georges and Piora.
Today, I'm the chef and owner of Ilda Restaurant,
I want to win this to prove to my son
that his dad can beat anybody.
So, Bobby, you have no chance.
Dom, what are you making?
Working on that hazelnut romesco,
so I'm toasting up the hazelnuts.
-Okay. -I'm gonna see if I can get even
some, you know, candied on the side,
and then fried basil on top with the shrimp.
You realize you only have 15 minutes.
-I know. -[laughing]
Romesco is a perfect way to highlight the hazelnuts
because you can still taste the fattiness of it,
and I want to use head-on prawns
because they'll add sweetness.
So, romesco is a traditional Spanish sauce
with olive oil, garlic, piquillo peppers,
and paprika,
so you have that smoky, spicy, and sweet.
[Michael] Do you have a favor who you think is gonna win?
-[man] Dom. -Dom... All right, okay.
I grew up on the coast of Oregon. Fishing, hunting,
and then my culinary adventure started in Southern France,
learning everything I could about the old ways of cooking.
Today, I'm the executive chef and owner at Saso Bistro,
where I celebrate the Pacific Ocean
in all of my dishes,
and we just got named one of the 25 best restaurants in LA
by Time Out magazine.
I'm here to win for this clout,
like, beating Bobby Flay.
That's a great resume builder right there.
-We got 13 minutes left. -[audience cheers]
This is gonna be a tasty battle.
So Santiago's got the pesto going.
He's got a little hazelnut cream
-and carrots and hazelnuts, delicious together. -[Devin] Yep.
Pesto tapanese is typically made with tomatoes,
and I'm adding Asiago cheese and dry apricots
because they need something sweet.
[Michael] Dom is making a romesco, he's doing shrimp.
[Devin] I mean, of course he's doing shrimp.
He's a seafood guy.
[Dom] I want to make a smoky, candied hazelnut.
Just an extra layer of texture,
so I added a little bit of brown sugar.
I'm gonna go check on Dom.
All right, check it out, Devin.
-[Devin] Nine minutes. -[audience cheering]
-So... -So...
-What's in the blender here? -Well,
I'm gonna see if I can get you this,
-uh, textures from Mexico... Yo, yo. -[Bobby] Dom.
You want a ladder or a blender?
[all laughing]
Uh, both.
Does Bobby make you nervous?
Bobby is, uh, you know, he's all right.
-[Devin] Ooh. -This is probably a little warm, okay.
Probably needs some salt.
Oh, my God, no.
-So good. -[Dom] Yeah?
-Let's hear it for Dom. -[audience cheers]
What are you up to over here?
[Santiago] I'm making a hazelnut cream
and the carrots are gonna be glazed
-with sorghum. -Wow.
[Santiago] It's gonna add the sweet, bitter flavors.
-Good luck! -[Dom] Thank you.
So I'm gonna cook these prawns nice and easy,
but I'm definitely cutting it down to the wire.
[Michael] Dom's using shrimp,
which feels a little bit more luxurious.
-Yeah. -But Santiago is using
-the hazelnut cream sauce, he has the pesto. -[Devin] Yeah.
But Dom's romesco is just, like, so flavorful.
I guess we'll see.
[Michael] Guys, we're under two minutes.
I get the basil in the fryer. Time to plate.
-It's stressful. -Where's the fan?
-Where's my fan when I need it? -[laughing]
[Santiago] I get my carrots down first,
the cream in the center, cherry tomatoes, basil.
[Bobby] 20 seconds.
[Dom] I get my romesco down first.
I add my smoky, candied hazelnuts.
Lay my prawns down.
-[all] Ten, nine, eight, -[Santiago] I add the tapanese.
-seven, six, five, -[Dom] I finish with fried basil.
four, three, two,
-one. [cheering] -[bell dings]
Santiago should be worried about this.
We got a lot of hazelnut action on this plate.
[Santiago] Dom's shrimp looks good.
Romesco looks good.
But that's gonna overpower the hazelnuts.
Nice, nice. Two nice dishes.
It's my first time here,
and as I'm looking at these dishes,
I really think that we have a good chance at beating you.
Santiago, what did you make?
Sorghum glazed carrots,
hazelnut cream, and pesto trapanese.
There are so many layers of flavors.
I love that you did the hazelnuts
in a few different ways.
I like the apricot in there
'cause you have the sweet and the salty.
I would have liked the carrots caramelized
just a touch more.
[Devin] And maybe you don't need
those big tomatoes as a garnish.
All right, Chef Dom, tell us what you made.
Head-on prawns with hazelnut romesco
and smoky, candied hazelnuts.
The sauce really has deep flavor to it,
and the candied hazelnuts were really nice, too.
I love texture, so I really appreciated
that you added that,
but this shrimp wasn't cleaned fully.
The dish was a little bit one-note,
but really beautiful flavors, two great dishes today.
If you guys will just give us a little moment to discuss.
[Santiago] I'm feeling confident.
I'm just hoping the undercooked carrot
is not gonna send me home.
The chef moving forward is...
Chef Santiago.
[audience cheers]
Good job, man.
I'm going back to California to eat avocado toast and cry.
All right?
-Thank you. -Thank you.
So, Santiago, you just had a lot of
different, beautiful levels of flavor.
Who thinks Santiago can beat Bobby?
[audience cheering]
[Bobby] All right, Santiago, congratulations.
What's your signature dish?
My signature dish is...
Seafood cannelloni.
-Cannelloni. -[audience] Ooh.
[Bobby] Nice.
[audience applaud]
We have three industry professionals standing by
to do a blind taste test.
45 minutes on the clock, and your time starts now.
[audience cheers]
Game time.
I love cannelloni.
[Santiago] Traditional seafood cannelloni is,
uh, pasta or crespelle
filled with seafood in a seafood sauce or broth.
-This is a very labor-intensive dish. -Yeah.
Really gonna be, like, down to the wire.
[Michael] I mean, I'm assuming they're both gonna make fresh pasta,
but sometimes they do a crepe, "crespelle," in Italian,
so the crepe tends to be a little bit more delicate,
and the pasta has a touch more structure.
And then the filling, it's typically like a seafood mousse,
so it should be, like, light and airy and smooth.
And often it's like a part of your tomato sauce,
but you could do it with a fumet or a broth.
Santiago, why did you choose this?
I grow up eating cannelloni,
and I love the complicated factor behind it.
I think Bobby's not gonna be able to handle that.
-[all] Ooh. -[Michael] Ooh.
[Santiago] My grandmother's cannelloni,
I would just sneak in the fridge and eat it cold.
I didn't care.
I'm gonna take this dish to the next level
with smoked trout, mussels, clams, prawns,
and a tomato fumet.
What is your filling gonna be?
[Santiago] Smoked trout, mascarpone, and lemon zest.
-Okay. -[all] Ooh.
I like that he's smoking it.
It's gonna add a layer of flavor.
Next, I grab a white wine, saffron, tomatoes,
and I'm ready to get that tomato fumet going.
Bobby, what's your filling gonna be?
Shrimp and crab.
This dish is a good home-style dish.
It's really nice for a Sunday night,
but it just takes at least an hour.
This is gonna be a rough one, for sure.
I'm gonna go fairly traditional.
I'm making a crab and shrimp cannelloni
with a tomato and saffron sauce.
I started making my pasta dough,
so it's flour and eggs in a food processor.
Get the dough done, let it rest in the refrigerator.
So now I'm gonna make my sauce,
so I'm sweating onions, some garlic,
I'm gonna add some canned tomatoes,
anchovy, shrimp and lobster stock,
and some anise liqueur.
Bobby's pasta game has gotten really strong.
[Devin] We don't want him comfortable.
-I'm gonna go harass Mr. Flay a little bit. -Suss... suss it out.
-Yeah. -Okay, all right. I'm gonna soften him up for you.
[both laugh]
-[Michael] We have 37 minutes. -[audience cheers]
How you feeling, Chef?
-I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. Yeah. -You feeling good?
You got a little fumet going over here?
[Santiago] Yeah, a little tomato fumet.
It's gonna be strained, and that's gonna be the base
for clam, mussels, and shrimp.
[Michael] I feel really good, Chef.
-How do you guys feel? You guys feeling good? -[audience cheering]
What do you guys think about Bobby?
Not today. Not today.
They're saying, "Not today, Flay."
-[all laugh] -I like it.
Was this your little seafood mousse?
-Yeah. -What do you got in there?
[Bobby] Scallops, shrimp, cream, and tarragon.
-What's this? -That's lobster and shrimp stock.
[Michael] How did you make that already?
[Bobby] I got it out of the refrigerator.
So you opened up a can of tomato sauce,
and then you had stock in the fridge.
-[Bobby] Yes. -Did the mousse come made already, too?
[Bobby] No, but can you make my cannelloni for me?
[Michael] How are you feeling? You feeling comfy?
-You have enough time left? -Get out of here.
[Michael] Don't worry. I'll just keep him here.
[Santiago] Keep him there. Keep him there.
-You can't. He'll never get... -[audience cheering]
[chuckling]
[audience] Oh!
[chuckles] Oh.
-Oh, he just asked for it. -[audience] Oh!
-You should've waited till I was further away from you -[laughing]
before you would do something like that.
I'll remember that.
33 minutes left. Bobby, you have 25.
The saffron cream is basically a bechamel,
so I'm gonna make a roux. I add some scalded milk.
And I'm gonna add some saffron to that.
Okay, so Santiago has
a really nice little fumet going.
And I like that he's going with a light broth
because the richness in his dish
is gonna come from the filling
with the mascarpone and the smoked seafood.
Bobby made a thicker tomato sauce.
-Okay. -Um,
I think Santiago is doing the crepes
-as opposed to the pasta. -Oh, really?
Crespelles are really soft dough.
There is eggs, flour, and milk.
This technique is faster than making pasta
because trying to make fresh pasta in 45 minutes
is not a smart decision, Bobby.
Bobby, is that bread crumbs?
Anchovy breadcrumbs.
[Michael] Like, we haven't seen that move before.
-[Bobby] Oh, shut up. -[audience laughs]
I trademarked them.
Whenever I need bread crumbs and it's a fish dish,
I usually put anchovy because
it just brings out the seafood flavor even more.
Bobby, so, as somebody who has designed men's swim trunks,
I'm a little concerned at what we found
in your dressing room.
Of who's dressing me?
I think we need some explanation
on, um, these.
[audience laughs] Ooh.
[Devin] I mean, who bought you these?
Did you buy these?
Uh, yes, I got them on sale.
[audience laughs]
-[Devin] Well, I'll just leave you that to help you. -[Bobby] Thank you very much.
[laughs]
[Bobby] Time feels very, very stressed.
I've never not finished,
but I'm not saying that's not gonna happen here.
-Good luck, yeah. Good luck. -Always good to see you.
All right, Santiago.
-[Santiago] Yeah. -What's going on over here?
[Santiago] That's tomato fumet.
We're gonna sear this guy pretty hard on one side.
-And you're finished here with your little-- -Crespelle.
-Those look beautiful. -[Santiago] Thank you.
I still need to cook the mussels and clams.
The brine is gonna create a great sauce
combined with the tomato fumet.
And I start taking all the meat out of the trout
and mix it with the mascarpone.
-You're gonna kill it. I know you have it. -Thank you.
-[Devin] Just under 18 minutes. -[audience cheers]
All right, well...
So, Santiago's crespelle looks beautiful,
but I love a pasta,
so Bobby, his looks really good, too.
How are you doing on time, Bobby?
I hate this show.
[all laughing]
I blanch the pasta, pat it dry.
Dude, why are you still rolling pasta?
What are you doing?
Dude, I got a lot to do here.
This is very highly stressed for him. [laughs]
I slather the mousse on top of the cannelloni,
and I add the shrimp and the crab inside of it.
And then I start to roll it.
[Michael] All right, Santiago, you got him against the ropes.
Doing my best.
[audience cheering]
I get that tomato fumet strained into the seafood,
and I get the mascarpone filling,
and I'm adding those cannellonis back into the oven
so I can melt that mascarpone cheese.
-[Bobby] Santiago. -[Santiago] Yeah?
-I'm very mad at you right now. -I'm sure.
[Bobby] I take my dishes and I put some of the sauce down,
then I put the cannelloni on top,
and then I cover it with some sauce
and a little bit of the saffron sauce as well,
a little parmesan cheese, and put them in the oven.
We just want everything to, kind of, bake together.
Ooh, we got two minutes left.
-Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! -[audience cheering]
[Santiago] So I got my cannelloni down.
I placed those prawns, mussels,
clams, tomato fumet.
I can't tell. Is Bobby on plates, too?
[Devin] He's definitely sweating today.
[Bobby] There's less than a minute left,
and I want to put it in the salamander
so I can get a little crustiness on top as well.
-I'm gonna risk it. -[Santiago] Eighty seconds.
I add Calabrian chili, fennel tops.
Coming up on 20 seconds.
[Michael] Oh, boy. Make it perfect.
[man] Santiago!
[audience applauds]
[all] Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one!
-Oh! -[audience cheers]
[Santiago] I have oily hands.
Just almost not make it.
It's rough. I think it tastes good.
I would like 30 more seconds
so I could actually plate it the way I wanted to,
but it is what it is.
[Devin] That was so close.
My seafood cannelloni is on point.
If Bobby's tastes the way that it looks,
I got this.
[Devin] Wow.
Why did you just run at the wall--
I don't know.
Are you okay?
Now we would like to introduce you to our judges.
First up, the chief executive officer
of restaurant associates,
Ed Brown.
James Beard Award winner,
Karen Akunowicz.
Chef owner of Coppola's,
Sal Coppola.
[audience cheers]
Please start with the first seafood cannelloni
that's in front of you.
This dish is something that reminds me
of my, uh, grandmother would cook.
I love the flavors. I think they're very tasty.
Um, the shrimp is overdone, but the saffron,
all the spices in it are delicious.
I love saffron in tomato sauce,
and I love the heat from the chili.
It's perfect for me, not too overwhelming,
and I think the crab is a great addition to the dish.
I like the anchovy breadcrumbs on top.
I wish that I could taste the flavor
of the anchovy a little bit more.
I love the stuffing. I love the sauce.
The cannelloni was really well done.
The wrapper, a delicious dish.
All right, judges, please try the second seafood cannelloni.
Visually, this is just a stunning dish.
It's really beautiful, and the crepe is really delicious.
The seafood is cooked very expertly.
The shellfish, the shrimp.
The broth had a good punch in there.
Where it fell short for me was the stuffing.
It was just a little bit too loose.
Maybe just add a little ricotta
so it would be a little more dense,
but I love the clams and mussels
that they put in this dish. Very good.
I was really excited for the smoked trout in the filling,
and I'm not getting that smokiness.
But the presentation shows a lot of finesse.
All right, you guys, there can only be one winner.
[Santiago] While I'm waiting to hear who is the winner,
lots of my careers, moments,
all my feelings are passing through my head.
I feel that I have a great shot at winning this.
The judges have spoken, and the winner is...
Bobby Flay.
[audience cheers]
If you kicked up a little bit
a notch on the flavor, it would've been amazing,
because the way this dish looked,
looked like it was right out of a dish in Italy.
-It was beautiful. -But his was just a little more tasty. I'm sorry.
It's okay.
[indistinct]
I don't disagree. I'm still really proud.
I got to put together an amazing cannelloni,
and I'm really happy with it.
-Good job, Chef. -Yeah, this is my happy face.
-Great job, Chef. -Good job.
My happy face is similar to my many other faces.
I don't understand what happened.
You were all flustered,
running right... You ran into a wall.
-[Devin laughs] -So, I'm not happy.
You threw a loaf of bread at me, bro.
-It's just wrong. -Disrespectful.
-Rude. -[both laugh]
What can I say? It's canne-lonely at the top.
[audience cheers]