I'm Bobby Flay.
-[audience cheering] -[Bobby] Each week one great chef
will try to take me down in my house.
-[woman] I'm not worried about Bobby. -What?
-[audience gasping] -Whoo.
This culinary battle is gonna 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!
[Bobby] Two people that know me well
will decide who's got the skill to beat me.
Yeah!
[Bobby] Round two, I got head to head with the winning contender.
It's their turn to surprise me
with their signature dish.
♪ Branzino ♪
-Is that distracting? -You're done.
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 applauding]
All right, guys. We're fired up tonight.
Who's on my team?
[audience cheering]
Put your hands together for the queen of country music
and the queen of Food Network kitchens...
singer and songwriter Martina McBride
and Chef Alex Guarnaschelli.
[audience cheering]
-[Bobby] Welcome. -Thank you.
So nice to have some country music royalty in this place.
-Thank you. Thank you. -[laughs]
You're welcome. You wanna sing us a tune?
-Oh, no. -[audience laughs]
[Bobby] Martina, 20 million,
-that's how many records you've sold. -That's crazy.
-It is crazy. And now I'm here. -[Bobby] That's so good.
-You... Now you've made it. -[laughs]
Made that so many onions I've peeled in basements.
-[laughing] Exactly. -Yeah, that might be a good equivalence.
-So, like, we're the same basically. -Yeah.
[audience laughing]
So we know that you love to cook. You have a couple cookbooks.
-You know, I'm not a chef. I'm a home cook, right? -[Bobby] Uh-huh.
-So I just like to make comfort food. -I love that stuff.
All right, so you haven't been here before.
-Alex is a professional. -Yes.
[Bobby] She's part of the fabric of this place.
I think I'm bringing the mojo.
Bringing that natural hurricane.
-[clicks tongue] -[Bobby] All right. Let's bring out some chefs.
Our first contender worked under Thomas Keller at the French Laundry
before returning to South Carolina
to open his own restaurant.
Drew Erickson.
[audience applauding]
Bobby, this contender is a private chef for top athletes.
From New Orleans...
-it's Chef Aristide Williams. -[audience cheering]
Okay, all right.
Drew, Aristide, welcome. Confident?
-Oh, come on now. I'm from New Orleans. -Yes.
-I gotta be confident. -All right.
I'm gonna give you an ingredient of my choice
and you must make that ingredient
the star of your dish.
That ingredient is robiola cheese.
[crow gasping and applauding]
Can you tell us about it?
It's creamy. It's got a rind on it.
I used this in, uh...
Well, I'll tell you later.
-Okay. -[audience laughing]
All right, guys. 20 minutes on the clock.
Try not to freeze.
-Just give us the cheese. -[bell dings]
[Bobby] Robiola, it's an Italian soft cheese.
-[Alex] Kinda tangy. -[Bobby] Yes.
It's so creamy and so good.
[Alex] It's kind of like a brie
-and, like, a mild goat cheese had a love baby. -Yeah.
[Alex] I would make little potato cakes
-and then put a giant wedge of robiola -[Bobby] Oh my God,
-that sounds so good. -[Alex] ...in the middle.
Could you use it to, like,
-make soups really creamy. -[Bobby] Absolutely.
-100 per cent. -That's a great idea actually.
[Aristide] In Cajun, Creole cuisine there's not a lot of cheese
so this is definitely out of my comfort zone.
My plan is to execute something as quickly as possible.
So I'm thinking about making a melt
because it'll be a great vehicle for this cheese.
First thing I do is get some butter, garlic
and I ready it on a pan and add in brioche slices
so I can play more with the toast.
Are we doing the same thing?
The tartine on the brunch menu at my restaurant
is a very big seller.
I immediately start thinking about, like, a caprese style tartine.
Basically an open faced sandwich
using robiola instead of mozzarella.
[Alex] 14 minutes and 54 seconds.
[audience applauding]
-How you doin'? -I'm makin' a, um, a melt
with heirloom tomatoes, fresh herbs.
Get a few pans so you can do them all at once.
Come on. We got tons of pans here.
This is Bobby Flay's kitchen.
-[man] Oh, yeah. -Come on, man.
Take some pans.
[Aristide] Growing up in New Orleans,
my grandma taught me everything about food.
So cooking is in my blood for sure.
After college, I moved to New York
and started cooking professionally.
I was at Red Rooster for three and a half years
working under Chef Marcus Samuelsson.
In 2018 I started my own private chef business.
My style of cooking is Creole, soul food,
everything that comes from the heart.
I am here to represent not only the Wards,
but Louisiana as a whole.
Hey, Chef Bobby, I hope you're ready.
-Why do you guys have the same exact ingredients? -I just saw it over there.
-This is creepy. -I know.
-[audience laughing] -Great minds think alike, I guess.
I'm doing some sort of caprese salad
featuring the cheese as the... What would be the buffalo.
[Alex] This look like a little toast
-and then tomato and the basil -[Drew] Like a little tartine.
[Alex] ...and uh, I like your heavy handedness with the cheese.
-I'm serious. Get... get some respect. -Yeah, I tasted it.
[audience cheering]
I top my bread with cheese
and get it straight in the oven and begin melting.
All right, crowd, let's hear it for Drew!
[audience applauding]
[Drew] I've been interested in cooking as long as I can remember.
I started working in restaurants when I was 16
and I have been cooking professionally ever since.
After graduating from culinary school,
I had the opportunity to work at the French Laundry
under Chef Thomas Keller,
one of the best restaurants in the world.
The menu at the French Laundry changes everyday
so I learned to push my creativity as a chef.
In 2020, I returned home to Green Hill, South Carolina,
to open Camp.
We have a wide variety of modern American takes
on classic dishes.
I wanna beat Bobby to prove that you can make world class food
wherever you are. Bobby, let's see what you got.
-[audience applauding] -[Alex] Ten minutes, chefs.
Drew's doing a toast while Aristide is doing melt
and they have a lot of the same ingredients.
The tomatoes. The balsamic.
-Basil. -Yeah.
[Drew] With using similar ingredients to Aristide,
I need to elevate this dish as much as possible.
So I'm gonna turn my caprese tartine into BLT.
I dice up the guanciale
and quickly get it into deep fryer
to get it crisped up.
[Alex] I worry that on Aristide
it's a lot more bread and tomato to cheese
and the cheese could be like, "Help."
[Aristide] The cheese is very mild
so I'm thinking that pasta would make it brighter.
I grab a handful of peanuts,
basil and olive oil.
[Martina] Just under six minutes.
Oh, he's bringing out the flamethrower.
[audience cheering]
[Martina] There, now we're cooking.
-Oh. -I'm sorry.
-[laughs] -[audience exclaims]
Do not torch the co-host.
[audience laughing]
[Martina] Mmm, fresh pesto.
Yes, ma'am. So it can bring out
the flavor of the cheese.
Smart.
Aristide, if you make it to the next round,
-can I trust you to beat Bobby? -Oh, of course.
I didn't come here just to be in a playhouse.
I've come to get to championship.
-[audience cheering] -He's killing it, isn't he?
Hi, Drew. What... What's here?
So that's gonna be guanciale.
-So it's actually the crispy pork chop. -[Martina] Mmm.
These are very big hunks of guanciale.
I like guanciale, but a little bit goes a long way.
I guess you could call it a BLT.
-Oh, nice. -One of my favorite things.
I'm making an arugula salad with oregano and basil.
This will be the lettuce part of the BLT.
Then season the salad
with lemon juice, olive oil and balsamic.
[Alex] Only two minutes left.
[Aristide] I finish my dish with some micro cilantro
'cause it pairs well with pesto.
Uh, Aristide is done.
[Aristide] I'm worried that maybe I didn't do enough.
[Bobby] Is Drew done already?
-[Drew] No. Ooh! -[Bobby] We have 30 seconds to go.
I plate down the cheese tartines
and then fresh heirloom tomato slices.
-[all] Ten, nine, eight, seven... -[Drew] Finish it with basil
-and some crispy guanciale. - [all] ...six, five, four,
-three, two, one. -Ring it.
[dings]
[Drew] I look over Aristide's dish
and I think that it definitely does not look
as elevated as mine.
I'm feeling pretty good about my chances in this round.
We have our first time co-host Martina tonight.
-You know, this being your rookie outing. -Yes.
We really need to beat Bobby.
I agree.
Chef Drew, what did you make for us?
Today I made for you BLT
with melted robiola, crispy guanciale
and a nice, fresh, heirloom tomato.
[Alex] I think the guanciale, maybe a piece, like, this big
is intense.
I might have liked it cut up a little bit more.
But the cheese, I love that you cut it so thick.
I love that it's gushing.
And the freshness of the tomato, the herbs, really good.
Thank you, chef.
The arugula's really nice and peppery.
Nice, thick portion of cheese.
It's really fresh. I like it.
Thank you.
Chef Aristide, what did you make?
[Aristide] A robiola melt with heirloom tomatoes
and a fresh pesto.
I got a bite of the cheese
with the pestos right on it.
It has that transformative effect, which is great.
There are just a lot of places
where it's a lot of bread and not enough cheese.
[Martina] So I love the idea of a melt.
I do love the pesto as well and the heirloom tomatoes.
I would have gone a little bit more generous
with the cheese,
but right down my alley of comfort food.
Thank you.
Feelin' a little nervous.
Judges like my flavors, but Drew had more cheese.
And the chef moving forward to beat Bobby tonight is...
Chef Drew.
[audience applauding]
[Aristide] I'm super proud of myself.
All my family and friends back home are so proud of me.
Bobby, the Warders gonna get you next time.
Drew, we liked the finesse of your dish.
Also, you cut your cheese really thick
and it, like, gooped all over the plate
-You know, you gotta do that. -Well, thank you, chef.
[Bobby] Drew, great job.
-How you feelin' about, uh, round two? -I'm feeling good
-about round two, chef. -[Bobby] Let's get to it, Drew.
What're we cooking tonight? What's your signature dish?
My signature dish is...
Eggs Benedict.
[audience chattering]
-Whoa. -[audience applauding]
I've to say, it's my daughter's favorite dish.
-Uh-oh. -[Alex] That's really bold.
You know he had a brunch show for, like, ten years, right?
-True. -Your 45 minutes starts now.
[audience cheering]
What do you like about Eggs Benedict?
There's just something about the crunchy
-of the English muffin lightly buttered -Yeah.
That Canadian bacon,
like, sort of sweet and unassuming.
[Martina] And then the hollandaise sauce
and that's just right.
That ties it all together.
But it's a lot of steps to this.
You've got the meat to think about, the bread to toast.
You need to poach the eggs
closer to the end of the round
'cause you can't have then sitting around.
It's so simple. If you mess it up...
Yeah, there's nowhere to hide.
[Drew] At my restaurant I'm known for inventive takes
on classic American dishes.
So I'm excited to make Eggs Benedict
with bacon tomato jam, crispy pork belly,
and all of the flavors of a Bloody Mary
right in the hollandaise.
So Drew, are you serving anything on the side?
I will be. I'll be serving some, uh, breakfast potatoes
with peppers and onions.
The first thing I need to do is get my potatoes boiling.
And then get the pork belly into the pan
with pork stalk, garlic, thyme, carrots and celery.
So looks like Drew is braising some pork belly.
[Alex] I mean, that's a big risk, right?
-With 45 minutes. Pork belly takes hours and hours to cook. -Yeah.
[Bobby] Taking the Fresno chilis in the oven.
I wanna make my Fresno chili hot sauce.
So, Bobby, how many different variations
of Eggs Benedict have you done over the years?
Many. I wanna keep this one really simple, though.
[Alex] I know Bobby. Before you know it,
-it'll be chipotle this, -[laughs]
-and banana peel this. -[audience laughing]
[Bobby] I'm making Eggs Benedict
with a Fresno chili hollandaise
and crispy prosciutto.
It's a play on the classic.
I'm gonna take brioche, cut it out,
toast it in olive oil.
I mean, I could have gone English muffin
but I actually like the crispiness
of, like, an olive oil toast.
[Drew] I'm making my bacon tomato jam
by rendering bacon, onion and some garlic.
And then I'm gonna add in brown sugar,
red white vinegar and a can of tomatoes.
36 minutes.
[audience applauding]
Okay, what's going on here?
It's almost barbecuing.
[Drew] Yeah, like a... a nice little, uh, bacon tomato jam.
Mmm. Ooh, that's so good.
And what kind of bread do you use?
I feel like we should whisper.
[whispering] Ciabatta, over there on the shelf.
To make my Bloody Mary mix,
I mix together tomato juice,
horseradish, Worcestershire and hot sauce.
-[Alex] Are you clarifying butter? -[Bobby] Yeah.
-I love you, you know? -[audience laughs]
-So what's the plan? -[Bobby] I'm gonna make some eggs on this toast.
Then I make a hollandaise sauce.
-Gonna put some ham on it. -[Alex] Ham.
-Crispy prosciutto. -[Alex] Oh, yum. And just a classic sauce?
[Bobby] I'm gonna do, like, a Fresno chili hot sauce.
Kinda barbecue it.
Once he gets the chilis out, it's over.
-All right, I'm leaving. -[audience laughing]
33 minutes and 33 seconds left.
I don't know what Drew isn't making.
He's power braising pork belly.
He's using ciabatta bread and a Bloody Mary hollandaise.
That's a lot of flavors.
[Alex] I can tell you the sauce he's making
with the brown sugar and the tomatoes is delicious.
So neither one is going with the traditional English muffin.
-[Alex] Nobody is. -[Martina] But we have the ciabatta
which does have the nooks and crannies
and then Bobby's using brioche.
-[Alex] The brioche is really buttery. -[Martina] Yeah.
And then all this butter in the sauce,
is it overkill?
[Martina] I don't know which sounds more appetizing,
-the pork belly or the crispy prosciutto? -So different.
Both really delicious.
Both very unconventional.
[Bobby] I mean, Canadian bacon is just too dense and too thick.
I want something little bit lighter and crisper
but also with a great flavor.
[Alex] Coming up on 30 minutes.
[Drew] Now that the potatoes are fully cooked,
I toss them with bell peppers and onions
and drop them into the deep fryer.
I've got a lot of component going on right now
and not a lot of time.
[Alex] I like the idea of, like, a home fry vibe.
I don't think Drew needs it, though.
It's also just one more thing for the judges to judge on the plate.
[Alex] That's a really good point. Yeah.
I just... I'm worried
that Drew has taken on too much.
[woman] Coming up on 25 minutes.
[audience cheering]
[Drew] I like to use a ciabatta
because it's a denser, crustier, bread
that can hold up to the hollandaise.
All right. Let's see what Drew's doing here.
[audience cheering]
-[Martina] Is this your bacon marmalade? -[Drew] Yeah.
It's like a bacon tomato jam.
Sweet and savory.
Oh my God. Bobby.
How is it?
That's delicious.
Now, I get the Bloody Mary mix into a pot to reduce.
Put some lemon juice to brighten it up.
-[Martina] Oh, honey. -You're talking to me?
-Yeah. Yes, I am. -Okay.
-[chuckles] -[audience laughing]
[Bobby] I'm making a Fresno chili hot sauce
to fold into my hollandaise sauce.
[Martina] What kind of vinegar is that?
[Bobby] Uh, white wine vinegar.
Little bit of Dijon mustard.
Oh! Yes.
[Bobby] I don't know what it taste like.
You're the first one to taste it.
-Spicy? -Mmm-hmm. Good though.
Ooh. Hello, everybody.
[audience laughing]
[Martina] Coming up on 15 minutes, guys.
I check my jam and I am feeling really good about this.
I take a spoon and run it right over to Bobby.
There you go, Chef. There's a taste to that one.
-[audience cheering] -[Martina] I love this tomato jam
-that he's making. -[Bobby] Very nice.
The Fresno chili sauce should kill.
Bobby is a master of building flavor, but so am I.
I'm excited to win
for my team back home in Green Hill.
How's the pork belly looking?
-[Bobby] It's in the pan getting crisp now. -[Martina] All right.
Now, I have to get going on my poached eggs.
[Martina] I don't make poached eggs at home.
You bring water to a simmer.
Tiny bit of vinegar
helps the egg to coagulate and firm up
and one by one you gently drop them
into the poaching liquid.
You just cook 'em for a couple minutes
and drain them.
[Bobby] I'm cracking the eggs into individual little ramekins
making sure it's not broken
and then I can gently pour it into the water.
And I wanna stop it from cooking
so I take it out and I put it in some ice water right away.
-Let's throw them off by going together. -Okay.
[Alex] Eight minutes and 51 seconds left.
[Drew] I check on my eggs. They are perfect.
I need to get them into the ice bath right away to stop the cooking.
And then I fill in the tomato jam
on top of the toasted ciabatta.
[Alex] Oh, wow.
That looks like something Bobby would make.
What're your final touches on the hollandaise?
[Drew] I'm gonna get these yolks
and that lemon juice emulsified
and then I'm gonna add in some of our melted butter
that has been reduced with some, uh,
Bloody Mary mix in there.
[Alex] Give it up for Drew, everybody.
Hollandaise sauce has to be silky and smooth.
So you gotta be careful.
You don't wanna overcook the eggs
'cause then you'll scramble, then your sauce would be done.
Once I get the eggs cooked,
then I can start slowly adding
the clarified butter to emulsify it.
-[Alex] I'm just wanna taste the hot sauce. -[Martina] Give it a taste.
-It's so good. -Infuriating, isn't it?
Well, looks terrible. We see you're doing poorly,
-we're happy to see it. Goodbye. -[laughs]
Bobby went classic old school
-with the hollandaise and with the eggs. -[Martina] Yeah,
[Alex] Drew made hollandaise
essentially in a food processor.
He's just adding warm butter to the eggs
so that the hot butter,
-as it's whipping in the machine, cooks it. -Cooks it.
[Alex] Yeah. Three minutes left.
[Drew] I take my breakfast potatoes
and put them on the plate.
I put the bread down
along with the crispy pork belly
and topped it with the poached egg.
[Bobby] I take the eggs,
put them on top of the toast.
Take my Fresno chili hot sauce
and fold that into the hollandaise sauce.
Then some chives and crispy prosciutto.
[Drew] I check on my hollandaise and it's too thin.
[Alex] One minute and 30 seconds.
I think I added too much Bloody Mary mix.
If I serve the judges runny hollandaise,
I know I'm going home.
I have got to figure this out.
[Alex] Drew is getting very chef.
He's using a whip cream canister to aerate
-so he's gonna, like, put a big, fluffy cloud -[Martina] Mmm. Wow.
[Alex] ...of hollandaise.
[Drew] This is an absolute last minute Hail Mary for me.
I got to put the hollandaise on the plate...
and it is not coming out.
-Oh, no. -[Martina] Uh-oh.
[Drew] I am panicking and running out of time.
[screams]
If you don't have a hollandaise sauce
you don't have Eggs Benedict.
[woman] 40 seconds.
[Drew] I only have seconds left
and I cannot get the hollandaise
out of the siphon.
-[Alex] Come on, Drew. You can do it. -[Martina] You can do it.
-[audience cheering] -You can do it.
[Drew] I have no other choice but to pour the hollandaise
from the container.
-[audience] Ten nine, eight... -[Alex] ...eight...
[all] Seven, six, five, four three, two, one.
[audience cheering]
[Bobby] To be honest, Drew's dish looks great.
I think that Drew's gonna get points for taking a risk.
I took some risk but not as much.
[Martina] Congratulations, Bobby and Drew.
And now we'd like to introduce you to the judges.
The creator and host of Mama Tanya's Kitchen,
Mama Tanya.
[Martina] The chef owner of Blue Ribbon,
Bruce Bromberg.
Chef, cookbook author and podcast host,
Martie Duncan.
[audience applauding]
Judges, please start with the first Eggs Benedict
in front of you.
I love this jam. This is awesome.
What's not to like about pork belly, right?
And the combination of all these flavors together
is really satisfying
but the hollandaise let me down a little bit.
It's a bit runny.
This tomato jam is really pretty spectacular.
The egg is perfectly cooked.
I do find that the hollandaise
is kinda lacking in the dish and not the right texture.
I really loved the poached egg
and this bacon and tomato jam
rings a nice sweetness to the dish.
But me and this bread
were going head to head and this bread was winning.
[Alex] Thank you, judges.
We'd like to ask you to switch your plates.
[Martie] This is delicious.
I like it has a lot of textures.
It just hit the right notes for me
in terms of creaminess
with a little bit of a kick.
But the bread might have
just a little bit too much olive oil on it.
The hollandaise is creamy, unctuous.
The egg is perfectly cooked.
The crispy prosciutto on the top is delicious.
It might have been nice to have
a little bit of fresh prosciutto underneath the egg.
[Tanya] Everything comes together
and I really love the Fresno chili
in this hollandaise sauce.
But I agree with Bruce
that some fresh prosciutto under the egg,
it would've been able to keep the bread
-from getting super saturated. -Time to vote.
[Drew] I know the judges loved my flavors
but a runny hollandaise is a big mistake.
And the winner is...
Chef Bobby Flay.
[audience cheering]
[Drew] I'm feeling a little bit disappointed
but coming here to compete against Bobby Flay
was a great experience.
[Alex] You can't give Bobby a dish like this.
He just teaches the masterclass.
-Let's blame the dish. -It was the dish.
We're gonna blame the Benedict.
-[audience cheering] -If you wanna beat me at brunch,
you gotta throw a harder punch.