- The entrepreneur that we have agreed
to promote to the final is...
[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
Jess.
- Thank you so much.
- Congratulations, Jess.
- I was, like, dead on the ground.
I was out.
But I'm gonna be the underdog
that comes out on top.
- I'm proud of you, man. - Thank you.
This is one of the happiest moments of my entire life.
I know what I need to do.
So Ali and Jess should definitely be scared.
- Jess and Roman, I love you both, but you're going down.
Gordon, I'm gonna prove to you that I'm the next Food Star.
- Three incredible finalists, talented, young, tenacious.
It's gonna come down to the wire.
- To the finale. all: To the finale.
♪ ♪
- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our amazing Food Stars.
[cheers and applause]
The moment of truth.
- This is a lot. This is intimidating.
- It all comes down to this.
- Oh, my gosh.
♪ ♪
- The time has come for the finalists
to face one last challenge.
- Can we talk about the fact that we're
in a limo, not a sprinter van?
[laughter]
What's next, a private jet?
- Yeah when I win, I'm taking Lisa's jet back home.
- Oh, yeah, okay.
- I don't know if it's confidence or cockiness,
but the finals have changed you.
- Feeling emotional.
Like, it's just been such a wild ride.
Now it's just go time.
Like, I just feel like there's a fire lit.
- Yeah.
I know we're all deserving, but I'm gonna fight for it.
Game on.
- Are we here?
- Seems yes.
- It's where the money is at.
- Thank you.
- Whoa. - Holy crap.
- Look at these massive buildings.
- Yeah. - Wow.
- What can we possibly be doing?
- This the finals!
- Oh, my gosh.
♪ ♪
- Oh, my gosh.
What are we doing?
- Come on over, guys.
Good morning.
- Good morning. - Hi.
- Oh, my goodness me. Feeling good?
- Yeah, feeling great. - Oh, yeah. Ready to go.
- Welcome to the beating heart of London's business district.
Now, nine weeks ago, you pitched
your way onto our teams.
- You sold us your passion, your determination,
and your entrepreneurial spirit.
- We are going right back to basics,
because you'll be presenting yourselves and your businesses
live right here on that stage tomorrow evening
to a room packed with industry experts.
- Gordon and I have pinpointed aspects of your business
that we feel that you now have the tools to improve.
Jess, you want your brand of wine
to diversify into other lines of products, right?
- I definitely wanna break into some new areas
like ice cream.
I think that that's an untapped market.
- Love it.
- Ali, when I first met you, I told you your sauces
were you in a bottle.
You need to put yourself front and center of your brand
to really elevate your products online in terms of
punching through on the marketing.
Have you thought about how you could accomplish that?
- I mean, on social media--
cookbook would be incredible, because it's about expansion
at this point, and I have the confidence to do it.
- Good.
- Roman, your food truck business,
it's brilliant, but very local.
So we need you to be catapulted out
of Jacksonville, Florida, right?
- 100%.
I have plans to have Hot Box Pretzels be the number one
convenient snack by shipping the pretzels
to all the states in the U.S.
Just everywhere where you eat a pretzel,
it came from Hot Box Pretzels.
- Love your ambition.
- Thank you.
- We are going to connect each of you
with a consultant to help you along the way.
- We want you to apply everything you learned
from this competition.
Show us not only where your business has been,
but where it's going as part of your presentation.
It is gonna be the absolute pitch of your lives.
Leave Lisa and I with no doubt that you're the person
who deserves a quarter of a million dollars.
Got it? Yes? - Yes.
- Off you go. Good luck, guys.
- Thank you. - Thank you.
- That's crazy.
Look at how big this room is.
- They've come so far.
- But they have no idea the amount of pressure
in this room tomorrow night with a room
full of industry experts.
Right now, it is anyone's game.
- Based on their experiences thus far,
each finalist has 24 hours to demonstrate how they
can elevate their businesses.
To help them, Gordon and Lisa have invited back
three previous contestants.
- [screams]
Are you kidding me?
I am so happy.
- What are we doing?
- They said, come up with how you're
going to expand and grow your brand
and then pitch it on the stage tomorrow.
[gentle music]
There's nothing like Whiny Baby on the shelf
because it's created by someone
who is new on their wine journey
for people who are new on their wine journey.
- Whoa.
- My mom is the reason that I'm sitting here today.
She has sacrificed her entire life so that me and my siblings
could chase all of our dreams.
- Jess has such an amazing magnetic personality.
When she puts her mind to something, she goes for it.
- I will not stop until Whiny Baby is a household name.
And with this $250,000 cash prize
and Gordon and Lisa's mentorship,
we could completely change the game for Whiny Baby.
They said they were a little disappointed
that I didn't branch out more, so I was thinking ice cream.
- Okay.
- I don't know if you've ever had wine-infused ice cream.
- Two luxuries together.
- Exactly.
- Or sorbet.
- Okay. I like that.
- Yeah, I think it's a great idea.
- Okay. - I think it's perfect.
- It could win me the competition.
- I hope so.
- No pressure.
- [laughs]
- What's up?
Are you ready?
- As ready as I could be.
Yeah. - What's the plan?
- So the plan is to have Hot Box everywhere in the U.S.
with a new twist.
- That was a sick pun. - Yeah.
- New twist.
- It would be pretty cool if we did, like,
bags of pretzel bites, like a Ziploc resealable bag.
And then outside of that, you had a flavor packet that you
put into it, shake it up, and then you
have seasoned pretzel bites.
- I think that's a great call.
- Yeah.
- Hey. - Hi, baby.
I'm so proud of you.
I'm here to help you.
- Oh, my God.
I'm the queen of sauce making.
I got that name because sauce rules everything
around me, you know?
Cooking has always been important for me,
but ever since my mom passed away, it's crazy.
It's like a full circle moment for me.
My whole life, my mom was like,
you should go on a Gordon Ramsay show.
You'd be so good at it.
And then, you know, this year, we were
supposed to go to London together.
I gotta do this for my mom.
She's a huge fan.
I'm gonna go Gordon Ramsay. - Yes!
- And now I'm on a Gordon Ramsay TV show,
and it's in London.
It's all her.
She's behind the entire thing.
She's scheming up there.
My family means everything to me.
I mean, my brother, he is my biggest cheerleader,
best friend, and support system.
I am trying to create a sauce empire with Chin Dribblin'.
I want to expand so much it's in every single
grocery store, not only nationally,
but internationally.
I'm trying to win that 250k, so whatever I need to do,
I'm gonna do it in order to win this competition.
- You're the last one standing from Team Gordon, right?
- I was the first one picked on his team, and now I'm the last.
I gotta do him proud.
I didn't come this far to get this far.
Like, I'm going to the end, and we're gonna win this thing.
- It's all come down to this.
The winner of $250,000
and America's next Food Star is...
[dramatic music]
- In 24 hours, the finalists will pitch their brand
development ideas to leading industry experts
and try to prove to Gordon and Lisa
why they deserve to be America's next Food Star.
- This is Zinfandel and Riesling,
so sweet and very fruit-forward.
- Each finalist has a consultant
to support them with their task.
And helping Jess is innovative ice cream creator
Julie Fisher, an expert in crafting sorbets
and boozy ice desserts.
- I feel like we have to do the rosé,
because we can call it rosé sorbet.
- Yeah. - [laughs]
- It's important to me to keep a very high
alcohol percentage if possible.
- Right. Okay.
The thing is that alcohol, sugar, and salt are antifreeze.
So you have to be really careful
how you formulate the recipe.
- The direction I'm going today is a Whiny Baby Sorbet.
I think that sorbet is a little bit edgier
and cooler than ice cream.
- Really just need to choose what kind of fruit
you want to go with it.
- Let's try the lychee.
I really wanna push the boundaries
and do an unexpected flavor.
- Doesn't this smell like a porn star martini?
- Yes, it does. [laughter]
I thought you would say doesn't it smell like a porn star.
But I don't know what that smells like.
- And I don't want to know.
- [laughs] Me either.
- Helping Roman take his pretzels to the next level
is George Rice, who's transformed basic pub snacks
in the UK into gourmet savory delights.
- You've got a brand already. Okay.
So your best seller currently is which?
- One of our best sellers on the food truck
is our plain salted pretzel with a little bit
of a spicy queso.
- Interesting.
- George knows the market.
He has products with different flavors.
So I think having his flavor palate
and seeing what kind of things he can put
into the flavors I wanna do will be a huge help.
When I started, people probably thought
I was a little bit crazy.
I was like, I wanna do a pretzel food truck.
And then I went for it full force.
I got together the $10,000, bought my first trailer.
Now it's just time to blow up the whole thing.
I just have so much fun building
a brand and a company.
Just seeing it from nothing to where I'm at today,
I can't even wrap my head around it.
- I can't tell you how proud I am of you, Roman.
I know I say it all the time, and it makes me so choked up.
- My drive really comes from my parents.
They both have had their own businesses for 30-plus years.
Watched it my entire life.
Now it's time for me to put in that work.
- Love that you're working so hard.
- The 250,000 is so close.
I'm gonna put it all into the business.
I'm here to win it, and it's gonna mean
so much to me when I do.
- We're gonna try this now.
So it is gonna change the flavor a little bit.
- That's good. - Really good. Yeah.
- Helping Ali to become the face of her brand
by boosting her online presence
with Chin Dribblin' recipes
is private chef and Instagram sensation Olivia Tiedemann.
- My social media following is not that big.
It's pretty small.
And I'm trying to just make it explode.
- Okay.
I mean, I think we can help you with that.
- We'll start with the directive shots
and, you know, the fun, punchy things that we can say.
- Yes, Chef. - Yes, Chef. Let's go.
- A team of social media specialists
are also on hand to film.
- I want some really sexy, dripping shots over food
with those sauces.
That would be awesome.
And I think the ending is always something
dripping down my face.
Hi, Gordon.
- Good afternoon.
Let's have a couple of minutes together.
Catch up somewhere. - Cool.
This, quite honestly, the most important
ten minutes of your entire life tomorrow.
And you deserve to be here.
At the beginning when we met, you said that London
had a very special place. Why was that?
- My mom. - Right.
- I mean, she went to school here,
and my whole life, she was always telling me,
you're a London girl.
And we were supposed to go there together this year.
- Sure. - It just didn't happen.
And so I think this is her way of being like,
hey, this is your moment.
- Do it with her in mind. - Yeah.
- It's an equal platform and sometimes
you undervalue yourself.
- Yeah. - How do we get over that?
- It's just all about confidence.
I just need to have that fire and relight it as big as
possible and just burn bright.
- We gotta get into that digital sort of platform world,
create a viral sensation with one dish,
do it again and again, and we'll suddenly got this cluster
of incredible recipes and millions of followers,
which then starts the premise of a really exciting book.
And it all starts now with this.
So put as much of you in that.
- I just wanna make you proud.
- Yeah, I want you to make yourself proud.
Let's go. Come on.
This could be the beginning of something
so monumental for Ali.
But I need her to take a leap of faith,
and I need her to go into this showing no fear.
And then the personality absolutely drives that brand.
If she falls flat on that, then it's gonna be
a silent room and a very painful ten minutes.
- For Chin Dribblin' to thrive, my social media game
needs to be stepped up.
Let's go.
- Love that movement.
Let's keep that.
- I truly believe in my product
and myself at this point.
And so if I have that, then we're gonna do it.
Ready? - Mm-hmm.
- Sup, chin dribblers?
Let's get saucy.
Mmm. - Oh, that's it.
Yeah, man, that's the one.
- [laughs] Oh!
[laughter]
- Gordon and Lisa have told me time and time again
that that confidence needs to be at the forefront,
and that's what I'm gonna do.
I look like I murdered somebody.
- Don't open that or else it will go into meltdown.
- [gasps] Meltdown is a brilliant name.
Meltdown.
Mmm.
- It's delicious.
- Really get the rosé as well, don't you?
- Oh, yeah. - Yes, you do.
- 100%.
- Hello. - Hello.
- What have you come up with so far?
- It was really important to me to really wow you guys,
especially in the kitchen and the food department.
So we did this lychee.
- Is the spoon big enough?
- Yeah, do I swallow it whole?
[laughs]
- Well, I like that.
I like that.
I'm gonna let you get on with things.
I'm gonna grab Jess for a chat.
- You ladies hold down the fort.
- How are you feeling? - Okay.
- Because sometimes I'm not sure
that I'm getting the real you.
- Yeah.
- And that's really important to me.
If you want people to root for you,
they want to see all of you.
And I would say that you have a story
to tell about your business.
Be grounded.
Don't think you've gotta come in like it's at Disneyland.
- Yeah.
All I want is to make my mom proud.
She is the reason I'm here.
She's given up--I can't tell you how much she sacrificed.
But she's my roommate. I live with my mom.
She let me move back in with her.
- But that, I already feel closer to you
just dropping the guard.
- Yeah.
- Tell the real story.
- I'm just so afraid that if I do that--
- No. - I'll lose it.
- No, you be real.
You be you.
You don't have to have a shiny bow on everything.
Life is full of [bleep].
It's full of struggles and it's full of hard work
trying to get there.
You understand that?
- I want it really bad.
- Go do it. Kick some ass.
- Okay. All right.
- I'm so emotionally invested in these young people.
And to award somebody tomorrow
a quarter of a million dollars
is just such a responsibility.
And any one of them deserve it.
They really do.
- In less than 24 hours, the three Food Star finalists
will present their plans on elevating their businesses
to industry experts.
Lisa has arrived to check on the youngest finalist, Roman.
- So this is a play on our bestseller
on the food truck, which is our salted with queso flavor.
- Mmm. I like that.
How are you feeling? - It's a lot.
I mean, there's a lot of pressure.
I mean, I started the whole business with $10,000.
So to see $250,000 would be just, like--
- Life-changing. - Yeah.
For my pitch, what do you think is the one thing
I need to focus on?
- You go into that room.
You own that room.
You're an expert on what you have created, right?
- Okay, that's really helpful. - You got this, Roman.
When I look at Roman, I see this young man
that is so hungry for success.
He's 21, he's taking chances.
And I mean, that's pretty inspiring.
I like that.
[dramatic music]
- It's the day of reckoning.
Tonight, one entrepreneur will be crowned
America's next Food Star.
- This is the biggest speech I've ever done.
And it's the thing in between me and 250k,
so I have to nail it.
- I really do feel calmer and better than ever,
but it's not because I'm not nervous.
It's not because I don't want to win this.
It's because I'm so grateful for this experience.
- I'm more excited than nervous, for sure.
Like, I just wanna do it and get it over with.
Good morning.
- You're looking happy and confident.
- How are you feeling? - I'm excited.
- Yeah. - Ready to do this.
- Before they take to the stage
in front of invited industry experts,
Gordon and Lisa want a chance to check
that the pitches are on track.
- Putting that light bulb idea onto paper
and taking that into action will take you places
that you could never even imagine.
Thank you. - Okay.
You need to own this stage.
- Okay.
- For the entire presentation, you're like this hamster that
wouldn't come off the wheel. You stayed there.
When you're talking about your product from every [bleep]
inch over here back over to here, this is me.
- Okay.
The main points from Gordon and Lisa
were to really work the entire stage,
get engaged with the audience, hold my product,
and be showing it the entire time when I'm walking around.
If I can do that, I can connect with the audience
a lot more and win the whole competition.
- Someone once told me that if your dreams didn't scare you,
you weren't dreaming big enough.
- Two secs.
You've just literally jumped up here.
No one has any idea who you are.
- Well, right, yeah.
- And we haven't even heard good evening.
- Hi, everybody.
- And thank you so much for being here on, for me,
one of the most important nights of my [bleep] career.
And more importantly, you have no idea how happy--
- Get down, Gordon. We got the message.
- You are correct.
- Gordon, we got the message.
- Big, deep breath, okay?
- I was feeling really good about the speech,
and now I'm kind of having second thoughts about it.
It's nerve-racking, especially with now
there's going to be a ton of people.
It's not just Gordon and Lisa I'm pitching in front of.
- I'm Jess Druey, founder of Whiny Baby.
- Sorry, stop there, darling.
You know you're Jess Druey.
You know you're the founder of Whiny Baby.
You don't need to look at the card for that.
- Take a deep breath.
We wanna see the natural, real Jess,
not the scripted Jess. - Okay.
- Are you turning into a nice person?
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm trying to be as natural and real and as authentic
as possible, because I'm not perfect,
so I don't need to present this perfect version of myself.
- When you first started this, you moved in
with your mom again. - I did. My roommate.
- What would she think to see this?
How would she feel about you?
There's emotion there, isn't there?
- It was all worth it. - This was a story.
This is the story you tell, how much
you had to give to get here.
Don't be afraid to show your emotion.
- Yes. - Okay?
- Oh.
- Are you kidding me?
- Having practiced her pitch, finalist Jess is about to get
a very big surprise.
- [laughs]
- Are you kidding me?
[heartfelt music]
Are you kidding me?
How? How?
I thought Grandma had a surgery.
What are you doing? - Oh, okay, okay, okay.
- Oh, my God. Laura, welcome. - How did you do this?
What is happening? - Welcome.
- Can you believe this has been my life
for the past few months?
I have never been more stunned.
My face must have been like...
- Oh, my gosh, I feel so proud.
- Thanks so much for being here, by the way.
Absolutely. - I've never seen you cry.
I've never seen you cry.
- It's happy-- it's happy tears.
- Ohh.
- I want you to know that you have been my support.
- Mom.
Oh, I love you so much.
- I love you too. And you know that.
- You are amazing.
And just go up there and be yourself.
That's all you need to do.
- I have a lot of work I have to do so I can win it.
- Okay. Go and win.
- Don't distract me.
- I hope she just slays it tonight.
I really do.
- ABC, Always Be Closing.
It's time to close this deal.
- We're in London!
I mean, look at this.
- It's been the greatest experience of my life.
I don't want it to end, but the perfect ending
would be winning.
- Yeah, I think with mine, I didn't want to be
very, like, super pitchy.
- Good.
- It's more story-focused.
- Remember, we're on your side.
I wanted you on my team, and unfortunately, you chose his.
- She has both.
- I know. I know.
- She has both of us.
And imagine you've got all your friends in the audience.
- You know, somebody who's really important in your life.
How would you feel if they were here?
- Exactly. Oh.
♪ ♪
- Without this one, I probably wouldn't have
made it through this year.
She's checked in on me every single day
since my mom has passed, and I kind of
owe her the world for that.
- I believe you got a message from big bro.
- I may have a little surprise.
- If this is not another source of inspiration.
He's been holding the fort down, as you know.
- Hey, sweetie.
Love you. Love you so much.
So proud of you.
Hope everything goes well in the next couple days.
But no matter what happens, you're always a winner to me.
Can't wait to see you and give you that big hug.
Go crush it, girl.
- Now there is no excuse.
You're gonna have to nail this thing now.
- Yeah.
This is like the biggest night of my life.
Hopefully Mom's up there with me to help me.
Hard the amount of times I've wanted to call her.
- Yeah, but she's here with you, dude.
You know that. - I know.
I know.
- You got this.
Like, just don't be afraid to be you.
- The pressure.
- You got this.
- What would your mom think of you?
- Oh, she can't believe it.
- Should we FaceTime her?
- Yeah, yeah, that would be awesome.
- Let's do it on my phone. - Yeah, let's do it.
- In fact, let's not phone her,
because I think she's just arriving now.
- Oh.
- I hope you don't mind the interruption.
Hi.
[laughs]
- Let me use your sleeve. - Oh, my goodness me.
Welcome, my darling. - Nice to meet you.
- Thank you so much for being here.
Likewise. Good to see you too.
- The look on Roman's face when I walked through the door
was unbelievable.
You surprised?
- Yes.
- [laughs]
I'm so happy to be here.
I can't believe that you've come this far.
I don't know anybody that's 22 years old
that has accomplished what you've accomplished.
The whole family, everybody's so proud of you.
- I gotta get ready. - Okay.
- Yeah. - You've got this.
- Let's do it. - You got it.
I love you so much.
I'm so proud of you.
[dramatic music]
- London's business district.
The three finalists are minutes away
from pitching their newly enhanced brands
to a specially invited audience.
- I just need to nail this,
and then it's mine for the taking.
♪ ♪
- This speech right here is the one thing
standing between me and 250k.
- Definitely there's a ton of nerves.
I mean, it would be kind of weird if I wasn't nervous.
- Please welcome onto stage
founder of Hot Box Pretzels, Roman Desmond.
[cheers and applause]
- Come on, Roman.
Come on.
Come on. Come on.
- This is a lot.
This is intimidating for this young boy, I'm telling you.
- My name is Roman Desmond, my business, Hot Box Pretzels.
We are a food truck in Jacksonville, Florida,
that specializes in serving giant pretzels
with a wide variety of unique toppings and dips.
From the start of this business,
I always knew that I needed something to be able to get
my pretzel out to the masses.
So I am so excited to announce my newest product,
Hot Box Pretzels Bites.
These are the best way to have the taste of our food truck
anywhere you are.
You just take out the seasoning packet,
pour it right into the top of this pouch.
- Zip lock it up, and give it a little shake.
And just like that, you have seasoned,
ready to eat pretzels.
Who wants to give it a try?
Right here?
I'm not just the average 21-year-old.
I just want my message to be to all the young kids,
entrepreneurs, that to take that idea,
that light bulb moment, and take it into action,
it takes hard work and determination.
But it's exactly what I did a year and a half ago.
And look at where it has brought me today.
Thank you so much.
[cheers and applause]
- Good job.
Good job. Good job. - Well done.
That was amazing.
Young man, well done.
What an extraordinary presentation, honestly.
- Thank you.
- Both of us couldn't be any prouder--
composed, articulate, and just everything
you want in a presentation. - Thank you.
- What would $250,000 do to your business?
- I mean, so right now, we are cooking
in a shared commercial kitchen.
We're so busy in the food trucks,
I'm turning down events left and right,
because we just can't physically
make enough pretzels.
This money would be able to get me into my own space
and really just absolutely explode this business.
- Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Roman.
Well done. - Thank you.
- Well done, Roman. - Thank you.
That was so much better.
Wow.
[cheers and applause]
- That was awesome.
- That went better than I could have even ever expected.
It just felt so natural to be up there.
I wanna do it ten more times.
- In terms of his composure, what a difference
from the rehearsal.
- The growth that he's made has been
really something to behold.
- 21 years of age. - Yeah.
- Next to pitch is Ali.
- Yeah. That's right.
- I wonder now if she will rise to that challenge.
- I hope so.
- Okay, Ali, we're ready for you.
♪ ♪
[dramatic music]
- Next to pitch to win $250,000 is Ali.
- Please give it up for the founder
of Chin Dribblin' Sauces, Ali Schlichter.
[cheers and applause]
- Come on, Ali.
Come on, Ali.
[cheers and applause]
- Hello.
Hi, everyone.
How are you guys doing tonight?
[all cheering]
Thank you. Thank you.
I'm Ali, and I'm the owner
of Chin Dribblin' Asian fusion sauces.
That's right, I said Chin Dribblin',
because these sauces are so good,
they're gonna make your chin dribble.
With combinations of sweet, heat, and tang,
these sauces will help anyone elevate any dish.
These sauces have given me the confidence to start
a whole-ass business, and I want people who buy
these sauces to have that same confidence in their kitchens.
Now, someone once told me that if your dreams
didn't scare you, you weren't dreaming big enough.
Well, for a while, I went on a path of comfortability
until life happened, and I experienced a lot of loss
in a very short amount of time.
And I was left to navigate a whole new life.
[exhales]
I learned something in this process.
It's how you navigate it, it's who you navigate it with,
and it's how hard you're willing to fight back
and come back from that life.
Thank you. - Whoo!
[cheers and applause]
The same could be said about being a small business owner.
Things tend to fall through the cracks.
For me, that was my social media.
I thought that I could hide behind just photos of my sauce.
I was wrong.
I realized I needed to be the forefront of my brand.
So it is my pleasure to introduce to you
the new and improved version
of Chin Dribblin' Asian fusion specialty sauces,
a digitalized cookbook highlighting my recipes
and sauce combinations, an inspiration to show that anyone
can be sassy, classy, and incredibly badassy
in any skill level of cooking.
Let's roll that video.
[upbeat music]
'Sup, chin dribblers. Let's get saucy.
Look at that rainbow slaw.
It's almost as gay as I am.
My spicy fondue.
[bleep] love this [bleep].
If you're trying to get saucy, check out the recipe below.
- Thank you.
Thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Now, with this new glow up of my social media platform,
I'll be able to gain more sales and build anticipation
for all the new sauces I'm about to drop.
Thank you.
[cheers and applause]
- Are you crying?
Ali, well done.
- Thank you, Lisa. - Unbelievable.
What would you say to the Ali
who got on the plane nine weeks ago?
- Be brave.
You can do hard things.
You can come back when your character is tested,
and it's gonna be okay.
And you're gonna stand on a stage
in front of so many people and make a lot of people proud.
- Give it up for Ali, everybody.
Well done. Well done.
- Amazing. - Wow.
[cheers and applause]
I did it.
- She blew it out of the water.
- How polished was that?
I mean, I was nervous before she started.
- Wow. I'm proud. Proud of her.
- I feel incredible. I did it.
I didn't [bleep] it up. I didn't trip.
I'm just really proud of myself.
- Okay, Jess. We're ready for you.
- Last to the stage is Jess.
- Please welcome the founder of Whiny Baby, Jess Druey.
[cheers and applause]
- Come on, Jess. - Come on.
- She looks amazing. - Yeah. Wow.
- Come on.
[cheers and applause]
- Oh, my gosh.
Thank you so much for spending your evening with me
on what is definitely one of the most
important nights of my life.
I'm Jess Druey, founder of Whiny Baby.
And tonight I am so excited to share with you
the why behind Whiny Baby.
It was 2020.
I was 22 years old, and I knew nothing about wine,
and I had to pick up a bottle.
And it was then that I realized this old and outdated industry
has a major need to appeal to the incoming consumers of wine.
2020 for me and my family, and I'm sure many of you
sitting here today, was one of the toughest
and most painful years of my life.
[somber music]
Sorry. - Come on.
- Come on. You got this. - Come on.
[cheers and applause]
- This story is about my mom.
During that year of 2020, my stepdad fell ill
and was in the ICU for three months, tragically passing.
Every night, my mom would get back from the ICU defeated
and exhausted, and we'd all sit around this table eating
and drinking, sharing stories and crying, but somehow always
finding glimmers of hope and joy amidst it all.
Whiny Baby's mission is to provide play every day
through quality time and quality wine.
And today, I am so excited to introduce you to Whiny Baby's
newest and most playful product yet,
Meltdown, our rosé sorbet.
And like all Whiny Baby products,
we cultivate connection with one-of-a-kind packaging.
This is just the beginning.
I hope that I have shown you I will continue
to revolutionize the food and beverage industry
as your next Food Star.
Thank you.
[cheers and applause]
- Whoo! Good job, Jess.
Good job. Yes.
Good job.
Jess, well done.
Where else do you see your brand expanding?
- My big dreams for Whiny Baby are to take on the hospitality
and experiential market.
I want to own the bachelorette market.
And those are my hopes and dreams.
- Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Jess.
Congrats.
[cheers and applause]
♪ ♪
- The audience connects with you
when you really show who you are
and how you're invested in it emotionally as well.
And I think she did an excellent job of that.
- Whatever happens, that was exactly how I want
to leave this competition.
I left it all out there.
- No one slipped up. - Nothing.
- Wow.
[dramatic music]
How are we gonna separate them?
- I don't know. It's very difficult.
[dramatic music]
- After an intense business boot camp,
Gordon and Lisa must consider performance
over the last ten weeks and choose a winner.
- So Roman just oozed confidence, right?
So he owned the stage.
- For his age, it was an extraordinary performance.
And I've got so much hope for him and his future.
I would be so proud of him.
♪ ♪
- The shock of the night for me is Ali.
- Blew me away.
- I never expected that performance.
Not just the vulnerability, but I believed her.
And so did the audience. - I totally agree.
Jess.
She took direction. She listened.
It wasn't all rainbows and lollipops.
She really kind of showed her vulnerability,
showed her struggle. She was so impressive.
- Tonight was the first time in this entire competition
I've seen the real Jess.
- So they've all done a brilliant job.
- How do we nominate a Food Star on the back
of those three performances?
- It's so close. It's so close.
- Shall we?
♪ ♪
[cheers and applause]
- Amazing.
[cheers and applause]
Wow.
- Wow, what a night.
Lisa and I have had to make some very, very big decisions.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back to the stage
our amazing Food Stars, Roman, Ali, and Jess.
[cheers and applause]
- Well done, guys.
- Right.
You three talented entrepreneurs,
thank you for those incredible presentations.
Tonight, all three of you gave a performance of a lifetime.
Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for them, please.
[cheers and applause]
Okay. This is it.
The moment of truth.
Ten weeks of intense challenges,
and it's all come down to this.
We're very happy to reveal that the winner
of a life-changing prize of $250,000
and America's next Food Star is...
♪ ♪
Jess.
[cheers and applause]
- Oh, my God.
♪ ♪
- Well done. - Thank you.
- Seriously, well done.
Honestly, amazing.
- [screams]
I'm America's Food Star.
Am I? I am.
That's, like, crazy.
- And I won with my mom there.
It doesn't get better than that.
[screams]
- Jess, a few words, please?
- This has been, I think we all would agree,
the most life-changing journey.
And I wanna thank both of you for your mentorship, truly.
And I want you guys to know that,
yes, $250,000 is life-changing for me and Whiny Baby.
But I also view this as a great responsibility
to go and do big things.
And I hope I make you proud.
- Amazing. - Oh, you do.
- Please, one more time, ladies and gentlemen, give it up
for America's Food Star, Jess.
[cheers and applause] - Thank you.
- Amazing.
- Just being able to do this was a huge win for me.
I mean, I've been able to learn so many things about myself,
and I'm super excited for what the future holds for me.
- I might not be walking away with the money,
but you know, I'm walking away with mentorship
from Gordon and Lisa with opportunities I didn't think
were possible and with lifelong friends.
And that's all I can ask for.
- I proved Gordon wrong.
He should have grabbed me on his team.
But I truly feel by the end of this competition,
I'm both Team Lisa forever, but I also think
I could say I'm Team Gordon as well.
The real work begins now.
- That was so overwhelming.
It was so tight. It was so close.
Jess just pipped it.
- Just. - But don't forget though.
- Forget what?
- That you know where she came from.
Team Vanderpump.
- Really? - Hey, you know what?
I called it, Ramsay.
- That kind of low blow? - I called it.
- [bleep]. What a kick in the [bleep].
- I called it.
♪ ♪