I'm Bobby Flay.
Each week, one great chef
will try to take me down in my house.
-This is my show. -Today, it is.
-Tomorrow, who knows? -Ooh.
Trash-talking.
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.
Let's do it now, Bobby.
[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.
-Let's go! -[Bobby] It's their turn
to surprise me with their signature dish.
-What? -[woman] Ah!
Don't try this at home.
[woman] I know you did it, Bobby!
[Bobby] Bottom line...
You're gonna run out of time!
everyone's out to beat me.
[bell dings]
-Woo! -[cheers and applause]
Buonasera, everybody.
Please welcome two people that hope I say
ciao ciao to my winning streak,
Food Network's Alex Guarnaschelli
and Gabriele Bertaccini.
This is so romantic. This is sweet.
[cheers and applause]
-[Gabriele] Buongiorno, Bobby. -Buongiorno.
-Buonasera.
-Ooh-la-la. -Oh, my God.
I'm very excited to have you both here today.
I'm always excited to have Alex
but, you know, this is the first time you've been here.
-Yeah. -Very jealous
of your relationship because you guys
got to go to Italy
and shoot the show called Ciao House.
-[Gabriele] Yeah. -It's a competition show,
-and they've lived together. -In Tuscany?
Yeah. It was very romantic, it was my eat,
pray, and love moment with Alex.
I mean, that was just, you know,
-everything I've ever wanted. -Wow.
-Yeah. You know... -What is happening here?
In front of all these people?
[Gabriele laughs]
Today, I'm really looking forward to welcome you into...
-Oh, thank you. -the Italian realm.
We do have two amazing competitors.
I'm gathering they're Italians?
-Um... -Let's bring us some chefs.
Our first contender perfected her craft
while working in kitchens in Italy.
Recently named one of the hottest
young chefs in Cleveland.
Come on out, Rachelle Murphy.
[cheers and applause]
[Gabriele] Hey!
-Look at that. -You're going down.
-Pizza. -Well, our next contender
runs not one but three
successful Italian restaurants.
Meet the prince of pasta,
Chef Jackson Kalb.
[cheers applause]
-Wow. -[Gabriele laughs]
Rachelle, Jackson, how you guys doin'?
-[Jackson] Good. -Very good.
-What's your goal this evening? -Represent the 20-year-olds.
-Okay. -I'm representing the old geezers,
the 30-plus crowd.
Well, the 20s and the 30s, and you get me.
[laughter]
The way it's gonna work is,
I'm gonna give you an ingredient of my choice
and you must make that the star of your dish.
And that ingredient is...
mortadella.
[Gabriele] Ooh.
[applause]
[Bobby] It's baloney.
Yeah, it's your baloney, right?
All right, guys. Twenty minutes on the clock.
I wanna hear everybody say,
"Ciao bella with this mortadella."
[bell dings]
[rock music playing]
Mortadella. So delicious.
I think this is a pretty easy ingredient
because it's already cooked,
you can bread it, you can mix it
with things like cheese, et cetera.
I would make like a grilled cheese
with anchovies and mustard.
[Bobby] I can't believe you said that.
I was thinking in my head
that I wanted to make an Italian version
-of a Cuban sandwich. -[Gabriele] That would be so delicious.
Especially because the mortadella,
all those little white freckles you see...
-[Bobby] Yeah. -that's all fat,
and it's gonna melt the moment you just heat it up.
I'm a competitive person
and I like winning, so I'm gonna try to impress
our guests by wowing them
with flavors that are out of the box.
They're gonna expect Italian ingredients,
so I'm gonna go Korean.
Is that gochujang on his station?
[Bobby] Yes, it is. We're going Korean.
Whatever is Italian about me,
like my grandmother just literally
rolled over in her grave.
I am making a crispy mortadella steak
with kimchi cream and fresh herbs.
First I'm gonna get started on my kimchi cream.
I add shallots, garlic,
a touch of butter, heavy cream, kimchi,
and some gochujang to start melding the flavors.
[Gabriele] Jackson, I go to his restaurant weekly.
-He has a-- -You do?
[Gabriele] I live in Venice Beach,
his restaurant, one of them is there,
and he's very well-versed
-with Italian food. -Sure.
I've always wanted to open a restaurant
beginning at age 11.
While I was young, I wanted to learn
from the best of the best, so I worked
at Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas,
Alinea in Chicago,
and Danny Meyer's Union Square Cafe.
A couple years after college,
I was in a restaurant group
that wasn't a good fit for me,
so I quit my job and booked
a one-way ticket to Italy.
Being immersed in Italian culture
was amazing for my culinary career.
I returned to Los Angeles to open my first restaurant
along with my business partner who is my wife.
Bobby, I'm coming for ya, I can beat your Italian food.
I probably worked with mortadella
maybe once or twice, and that was in Italy.
So my strategy is to do a spin on fried baloney.
I'm making a panko-crusted
mortadella with a whipped ricotta and mozzarella sauce,
and crispy mortadella salad.
She's treating it like spam and breading
like a hockey puck.
I like to do a little double breading
to get a nice, crispy texture,
so into the flour, into the egg,
back into the flour, back into the egg,
and then into the panko.
I think that's a really good way to go.
I always love to compete.
I grew up with three brothers,
that was always a battle.
In culinary school, I won 10 gold medals
from competitions.
I studied abroad in Italy.
I was able to learn authentic Italian cooking
from the best instructors possible.
That helped shaped me as a chef
and really taught me the foundation of cooking.
In 2021, I moved to Cleveland, Ohio
and joined the team at Rood.
Since I've joined the team, we've been named
Cleveland's Best Restaurant
by Cleveland Magazine.
You don't become an executive chef by 24
by being scared of pressure. Bring it on, Bobby.
All right. 15:28.
[cheers and applause]
Chef Jackson. So you go and get
-Korean chili paste for mortadella? -[Jackson] I do, yeah.
And now kimchi?
Oh, my therapist is gonna get so many calls today.
What's the plan?
I think I'm gonna do a kimchi cream
underneath kind of a mortadella steak.
[Alex] Okay. Cool. Sounds good.
I'm adding basil to the sauce
to create a nice, herbaceous feel,
just to lighten it up a bit.
-What are you makin'? -I'm gonna do
kind of like a play on fried baloney
because who doesn't love fried baloney?
-I agree. -[Rachelle] I'm just gonna do
kind of like a whipped ricotta,
mozzarella for the base... For the sauce.
Can't wait to see what you make.
12:53 left.
Alex, what's the report here?
So Jackson, he's made a gochujang
and Fresno chili cream sauce,
and he's gonna do a mortadella steak.
Jackson has adopted a very global approach,
and it'll either work or it won't.
At this point, I grab the mortadella,
I start cutting it into rounds,
put it in the pan to roast.
[Gabriele] So they're both frying...
-They're making... -mortadella.
They're doing it in very similar ways.
I'm frying the mortadella to get a nice,
crispy exterior.
And then I'm grating Parmesan and fontina
to add cheesiness to the dish.
[Gabriele] 08:30.
[cheers and applause]
I'm tasting the sauce,
it's not turning out the way I want it to,
so I add sesame oil to add some nuttiness.
-How's it going? -What's going on?
Look at you guys. You're doing the same exact thing here
-with the mortadella, no? -So we'll see who does it better, right?
-So you're deep-frying that? -Yeah.
Chef Jackson, what do you think about
deep-frying mortadella?
[Jackson] Well, it's never a bad idea.
[Gabriele] Yeah? Are you doing it the same way?
-I am cooking it in the pan. -Okay.
-It's kinda like a steak. -All right. Keep going, yeah?
Six minutes, chefs.
I don't think the mortadella's
as crispy as I thought it was gonna be,
so I grab some bread and cooked that
to add some texture.
I wanna add another component
of mortadella into the dish.
So I grab sliced mortadella
and pop it into the fryer.
Fried food is always better, right?
[Bobby] All right. Two minutes to go, you guys.
I'm very excited to taste the food
Jackson is cooking, because I have zero idea,
I cannot envision the taste of it.
Rachelle, I get it.
I take the mortadella out of the fryer
and add it to mustard greens,
high dough crust, and oregano.
Thirty seconds to go.
I start with the dalbit sauce
on the side, layer some bread,
the mortadella, and some herbs.
I am putting down the cheese sauce,
laying that mortadella on top of it.
[all] Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one.
-[bell dings] -[cheers and applause]
The size differences are tremendous,
so hoping the judges
don't think mine's too crazy big.
-[Bobby] Good job, chef. -Thank you.
My biggest concern is that the kimchi cream
doesn't taste good.
Just hoping she messed up more than I did...
[sighs]
We hope that one of you is gonna
be able to say ciao ciao to Bobby.
It's all gonna come down
to what you did with the mortadella.
Chef Rachelle, tell us what you made.
Yeah. So today, I prepared a panko-fried mortadella
with a whipped ricotta with mozzarella sauce
and crispy mortadella micro salad on top.
I love the ricotta and the fried mortadella.
It reminds you how mortadella can be
almost bacon-y without the smokiness,
but you actually gave us almost too much.
-Okay. -Mortadella, it's...
You know, it's so strong.
And I think ricotta is the perfect vessel.
You were right doing a salad on top.
I personally think you need to have more acidity to it,
just to bring that brightness to the dish.
-Thank you. -Chef Jackson,
-what'd you make? -I made a crispy mortadella steak
with kimchi cream and fresh herbs.
The chili paste and the mortadella
to me really works.
But this, I think,
needed to kind of go in here
so that when I eat it, I'm understanding
how you put everything together.
-Yeah. -The size of it,
it's thin enough that
it kinda melts in your mouth.
But you got a good point, Chef Alex.
When you do small bites,
you need to give me the whole bite.
Give us a moment to discuss.
[Rachelle] I'm a little worried
about the size of the mortadella.
It was too big of a portion.
The chef moving forward
to beat Bobby tonight is...
Chef Rachelle.
Thanks for being here.
[Jackson] It always hurts to not win.
There are a lot of things I wish
I would've done differently.
Good job.
Rachelle, you won
because it was a lot of balance.
The cheese, the herbs, it all fed the mortadella.
-Thank you. -You were probably nervous before but...
The hard part's behind me, so.
-[Gabriele] Oh. -[Alex] This is gonna be the easy part.
Is it? Whoa.
Okay.
[upbeat music playing]
[Bobby] All right Rachelle, congratulations.
You made through round one.
So, what is your signature dish?
My signature dish is...
cappelletti.
Whoa.
Cappelletti, stuffed pasta.
-Good dish. -[Alex] You have 45 minutes.
-Your time starts now. -Now!
[cheers and applause]
Cappelletti is like a little hat,
-you know. It's like... And there's the shape. -That's the shape.
[Gabriele] And it has usually a meat filling.
Chef Rachelle, tell me, why this dish?
Where I studied in Italy, this is a very traditional
stuffed pasta dish. And I thought,
"What else better to do?"
My version is pork sausage cappelletti
with a crispy butter bean and kale veloute
and sourdough crumb.
So I'm cooking the Italian sausage
for the filling and then I start the pasta dough.
Tonight, I'm trying to prove I have what it takes
to be a young chef in this industry
and show people that I'm not just this young girl.
[Bobby] I like this dish.
I like making stuffed pasta
when I'm like at home on a Sunday
and I have hours to do it
because it's incredibly tedious.
So the dough
is also called pasta all'uovo, egg dough.
And that's why you see the eggs.
And then you have the flour, which is a 00 flour.
It's really fine,
so the gluten actually works very well
as you are working the dough.
My pasta dough is some eggs, some flour.
I put it in the food processor.
It's a quick way to make it
and let it rest.
[Alex] Mortadella.
Oh, he brought the mortadella back.
[Bobby] I was inspired by round one.
I love mortadella, so we got it,
we're gonna use it. So I'm making cappelletti
filled with mortadella
and Parmigiano cheese with a sauce
with anchovy butter and pistachios,
with some Calabrian chili breadcrumbs.
[Gabriele] Rachelle, her dough looks really elastic.
It looks really good to be honest.
The pasta dough at this point is a nice texture,
so I'm gonna leave it off to the side and let it rest.
And then for the filling for my cappelletti,
I will incorporate the Italian sausage
with ricotta, Parmesan,
and some fresh shaved nutmeg
for a note of spice.
The secret here is the filling.
I kinda like where Bobby is going with that.
In Italy we have tortellini, which has mortadella in it,
so he's kinda mixing the both.
So my filling, I have mortadella,
some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and some eggs.
And I'm going to puree it in the food processor, so.
It's almost like a paste.
[Rachelle] Now I'm going to get started on breadcrumbs.
I am getting the sourdough all cubed up,
throwing it into the oven.
I also have a nice blond roux going,
butter, flour.
Is she making a bechamel sauce?
Well, she's heading in a veloute direction
because she just added a quart of chicken stock.
33:34.
[applause]
-How are we? -Doing good.
Is this your sauce or the beginning
-of your sauce? -Yes.
[Alex] Classic French veloute.
And then your filling is a sausage?
-Yes. Yup. -This looks fantastic.
Good luck, Chef.
How are we? Your dough looks really beautiful.
-Oh, good. -[Alex] Do you have like a little cutter
that you're gonna use or you're gonna do it with a knife?
No, I'm gonna use, uh... this.
[Alex] Fancy pants.
29:47.
So I'm stamping out the pasta dough
and the stamp isn't cutting all the way through.
Rachelle is like shaking.
[Rachelle] I'm really trying to, like, push it,
wiggle it, you know, do whatever I can
and it's still not cutting
all the way through that dough.
I wonder if Rachelle's rushing stuff,
'cause she's nervous.
[Rachelle] If I'm not able to get
these cut out properly,
this is kind of the foundation
for the entire dish.
So I'm gonna be a little bit screwed.
[Alex] Just under 22 minutes.
I am struggling, but I got my squares all ready to go.
Now I'm going to get these cappelletti stuffed
and shaped and put to the side.
[Gabriele] Look, Rachelle is actually
-filling it up right now. -[Alex] And Bobby
is doing this all in a row and folding them.
That's not how you're supposed to do it.
[Bobby] So my pasta sheets are very silky.
I pipe out some of the mortadella filling,
fold it over, cut it,
and then fold it into like
a little newsboy cap...
[Gabriele] What is he making?
And this is a made-up pasta shape.
-It's a Bobbelletti. -It's a Bobbelletti.
-[Gabriele] Bobby. -Yeah.
What pasta are you making here?
Are these cappelletti?
This is a made-up pasta, isn't it?
-You just made it up? -Yes, it's a New York
-stock cappelletti. -New York stock.
-Okay, got it. -New York hats.
We got 1,700 type of pastas
in Italy and you decided to make one more.
All right, this is it.
I got it. But who cares about the shapes?
We're making our own today, right Bobby?
I mean, I don't know.
Let's talk about the right cappelletti.
Guys, look at this. Can you see?
Look how beautiful these are.
Can we have... Look at that.
That's what we want.
Bobby, do we have to say ciao ciao to you here?
Ciao ciao, Bobby.
[Bobby] I'm making a different cap.
It's my kind of cap.
Good job, guys.
Thirteen minutes on the clock.
Hard part's over, right?
At this point, I toss in a little bit of parm
to add more richness to the sauce.
And then I take my sourdough out of the oven
so I can get my breadcrumbs going.
I am adding tarragon and thyme
and a little bit of grated Parmesan cheese.
And then I pop 'em into the salamander.
I wanna get them nice and really crispy.
So once I get my pasta folded,
I'm gonna make Calabrian chili breadcrumbs
with panko breadcrumbs, olive oil,
and crushed Calabrian chilies.
Bobby's breadcrumbs look gorgeous.
He's very quiet.
Bobby, you are so quiet.
Which is rule number one of not be an Italian.
I'm trying to concentrate.
Okay. All right.
Eight minutes to go.
So I'm crisping up
the butter beans and the kale,
really just trying to get a crispy exterior
for the sauce.
Uh-uh. Chef Rachelle,
I can smell it from here.
It's a little toasty.
-What happened? -Oh, they're fine.
[Gabriele laughs] They're fine.
They're a little burned. Yeah, aren't they?
They're a little bit more toastier
than what I would've liked, but still very workable.
[Gabriele] Bobby, you look very Italian.
A sexy Italian using the mortar.
Look at that. What are you making?
[Bobby] I'm making some anchovy butter.
Nice. And that's gonna go with what?
That's gonna go in the sauce. See what happens.
So I'm ladling in some of that veloute
into the kale and the butter beans
just to bring all those flavors together.
[Alex] Four minutes.
Well, I'm waiting for the last minute
to drop my pasta 'cause it's fresh pasta,
so it's gonna cook in 60 seconds.
And then I'm gonna make a very quick pan sauce
with pasta water that has the starch in it
from the pasta, some anchovy butter,
some pistachios in there, some chives,
a little bit of lemon juice.
Fascinating that we have watched Rachelle's sauce
cook for the entire round.
And Bobby just took pasta water, and butter,
-and a pan with two seconds. -And that's it.
[Rachelle] I dunk in
the pasta to let it cook.
The cappelletti really wants...
It's floating to the surface.
It's ready to go.
[Gabriele] A minute and a half only.
-Woo! -Ay-yai-yai!
[Gabriele] Diamo, diamo!
I add my pasta to the sauce and it looks good.
Now I'm gonna let the pasta and the sauce
kinda become friends.
Oh, my God. Someone start plating.
[Rachelle] My pasta is cooked.
I start with the butter bean and kale veloute.
And then I go in with the cappelletti
and finish with the herb crumbs.
[Bobby] I have the pasta and the sauce in the pan.
So I'm gonna put it on the plate
and then I'm going to finish it
with the Calabrian breadcrumbs
and some Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
[all] Nine, eight,
seven, six,
five, four, three,
two, one.
[cheers and applause]
Good job. Beautiful.
I think Bobby came up with his own little shape,
but he has amazing flavors.
So I'm very nervous that Bobby's dish
is still going to beat mine.
[Bobby] My dish, it tastes good.
The anchovies are like a little salty,
but you know, I always kinda push the envelope, so.
-We'll see. -A nail-biter.
Bobby, Rachelle, both cappelletti look absolutely beautiful.
[Alex] Now I'd like to introduce you to your judges.
Host of Good Day, New York
and Co-owner of Fresco by Scotto Restaurant,
Rosanna Scotto.
The chef owner of L'Amico,
Laurent Tourondel.
Chef owner of Bar Volpe
and Fox & the Knife,
Karen Akunowicz.
[cheers and applause]
Judges, please begin with your first cappelletti dish.
[upbeat music playing]
[Karen] I love this dish.
The white beans and the kale,
they're a classic combination.
The cappelletti are beautifully-formed.
I like the sausage in the cappelletti.
I got the fennel flavor, but I wanted
more sausage flavor.
Everything works together.
The veloute works with the beans,
the pasta definitely
the right shape of the cappelletti.
I would've seen a little bit more sausage inside.
I think the filling is not bold enough,
but I think the flavor combination overall worked.
I love a good hearty dish of pasta.
The flavors were delicious.
I love the breadcrumbs.
They're nice and crunchy.
Overall, I'm very happy with this dish.
Thank you. Judges, we're gonna have you
switch your plates.
[Karen] Wow.
The flavors and the textures
on this dish are really a standout for me.
The pistachio and the anchovy,
it's an umami bomb, but it's not a cappelletti shape.
I mean, for me, I think it's a wild dish.
The profile flavor of the mortadella
with a little bit of the pistachio
and the sauce and the butter I think is great.
But I would've like to see a little bit more
mortadella filling inside.
I thought the pasta was cooked perfectly al dente.
The pistachio and butter, what's not to like?
I also like the fact
that I didn't have to cut the pasta.
You put your fork in, you put it in your mouth,
and you're in heaven.
Both plates, I would definitely order again.
Perfect.
Well, they may both be perfect,
but you gotta pick a winner.
Right now I'm feeling 50/50 here.
Like, Bobby has amazing flavors going on,
so I am very nervous this could go either way.
The decision tonight is not unanimous.
And the winner is...
[tense music playing]
Chef Rachelle.
-Great job. -[Rachelle] Thank you.
[Bobby] Congratulations.
[cheering and applause]
[Rachelle] Super, super-excited,
but also a little shocked.
Coming into this, I definitely did not think
a 27-year-old is gonna come and beat Bobby Flay,
but here we are so, really just proud of myself.
Both of the pastas were outstanding.
We thought Rachelle, your dish was more representative
of a cappelletti.
Congratulations.
Ciao ciao, Bobby Flay.
[laughter]
-[Alex] Yes! -[Gabriele] Yeah!
We love when you lose. Look what happens.
Cheers. Cheers to you, Bobby.
I'm Rachelle Murphy
and I just beat Bobby Flay.
[cheers and applause]