All right, folks, let's do this.
You know, people are always asking me,
"Guy, what's it like to compete
on Guy's Grocery Games?"
Well, tonight, all of America is gonna find out.
[woman] All right, chefs, come on in.
Quiet on the set, quiet on the set.
[Guy] Were about to immerse you in a chefs-eye view
of the total Flavortown market experience on Triple-G.
It's getting kind of crazy in here.
[Hunter] We'll take you behind the scenes
to show you our chef's awesome journey.
[Guy] From arriving on set with the rising sun...
-Oh! There he is. -[woman 2] There he is.
[Guy] ...to leaving at the end of an unforgettable day.
Hopefully with a cheque
too big to fit in their suitcase.
-Chef, that's dynamite. -[chef] Thank you.
It's gonna be a fast-paced, chaotic,
and almost as a nail-biting as the competition itself.
[chef 2] Work, work, work, work, work.
[man2] Somebody's burning popcorn.
[all] Oh, no!
-So buckle up. -It's the Triple-G experience...
Right now on Guy's Grocery Games.
-Now, Cash. -Where is Cash now?
You got to get off the set. Come on, buddy.
So, we're here in the control room,
we're just minutes away from showtime.
And you got everything going on here.
From producers to directors.
This is the beehive of what is taking place.
For our chefs...
[Chef 1] Pulling up to Flavortown.
[Chef 2] Hell yeah, let's go!
-Whoo! -Let's go!
[Guy] They're always surprised when they step out of the van,
and realize there's no big sign that's
proclaiming that it's Flavortown market.
Doesn't even look like a grocery store or anything.
-It doesn't. -No.
It's actually a warehouse. It's not... [chuckles]
Not a grocery store.
[woman] All right, chefs, come on in.
All right.
[Guy] And the culinary team gives them a tour
of the grocery store.
I am going to give you your station numbers...
[Hunter] And they did hero shots,
at least at the top of the show.
-Keep just looking at the camera for me. -All right.
[woman 2] Do a little head nod.
Now give me serious.
I can't. [chuckles]
[Guy] Once they're through all of that,
I go and meet them outside.
Just give them a little,
"Hey, what's up, and this is how it's gonna go."
Don't get sucked into the idea that this is a television show
with a hundred cameras on you,
and some guy, you know, with spiky hair and tattoos
yelling at you all the time.
You're great chefs.
We'll go get into wardrobe, jump on set,
and let the games begin.
Quiet on the set, quiet on the set.
We are getting ready to go.
Okay, ready? See you in a bit.
Okay, all right.
All right, let's do this, ready?
Five, four, three, two.
All right, let's meet tonight's chefs.
Three, two, one...
[Guy] First up, we have Arielle Brown, the executive chef
in an upscale New Jersey restaurant.
Who only cooks about,
I don't know, 20 different cuisines.
There we go.
All right.
All right. My name is Arielle Brown,
I am from Eatontown, New Jersey,
and I am an executive chef.
I am on my way to the airport.
It is a pretty long flight to California from New Jersey.
I'm just excited to get there.
I've never been on camera before,
I've never been on, like, a set before.
I feel like a star or something. [chuckles]
The cooking part, I wasn't so nervous about.
I've done so many different cuisines.
Spanish, Japanese, French.
But I've never done a competition before.
So this is, like, the competition to do.
-Hey, Guy. -Rollin'.
-What's up? -Nice seeing you.
Go get 'em, chef.
Next, we got Michael Sibert, a South Carolina chef
who worked with Michelin Star chefs
before opening his own Cajun-Italian trattoria.
Hey, hey!
Fresh pasta and Cajun food,
you can't really miss with that.
[woman] What you got on that TV?
Guy's Grocery Games.
[Michael] My wife and I, we just opened our restaurant.
I had to prep my team,
like, "Hey, guys, I'm probably not gonna be here for a week."
-[staff] You're finally here! -Yes.
[Michael] Just knowing that I'm competing on
Guy's Grocery Games.
Man, this is such an incredible moment.
-What's up? -Look at that.
We got a rule about better hair than me.
-I don't know about that. -[laughs]
What's up, chef?
Then we've got Jamilah Nixon,
a chef cooking up Cali-infused,
Southeast Asian cuisine.
As a Sonoma County resident,
everybody knows where Flavortown is,
but not everybody gets to go to Flavortown.
At Jam's Joy Bungalow,
we do California-influenced Southeast Asian cuisine.
I can't believe, you guys,
I'm finally here in Flavortown, Santa Rosa.
I don't want to let down Sonoma County,
I don't want to let down my daughter, Mars.
I don't want to let down all the single moms.
So I'm here for all of you.
-What's up, Guy? -Welcome.
-Nice to meet you. -Great to have ya.
And finally, Tim Reading,
the executive chef from Houston,
who believes, his time working with
multiple James Beard Award winning chefs
has prepared him for the Triple-G experience.
Just finishing up packing!
One morning, I am in Houston,
literally the next morning, I'm in Flavortown.
It's getting kind of crazy here.
And you're like, "Whoa, hello."
Throw your arms up, you're in Flavortown.
Throughout my entire career, I worked for
James Beard Award winning chefs.
I have a lot of background in many different cuisines.
These competitors, you're not here to compete against them.
You know, you're here to compete with yourself.
-Chef, how's it going? -You ready, my brother?
-Oh, always ready. -Go get 'em.
Thank you. You guys ready?
-Yeah. -They're in for it.
Welcome, Triple-G chefs.
I can't think of a better way to celebrate
your first time on Triple-G
than to do the craziest show that we could ever think of.
And we are showing our viewers at home... Hi, everybody.
We're showing them an uncut, unfiltered
Triple-G competition,
and what it really looks like. Okay?
-Let's do it. -Yes.
And if we're gonna show all the chaos that goes on,
we'll only have time for
one-single-winner-takes-all mega challenge.
-[exhales] -Okay?
The chef who makes the highest-scoring dish
in one round and one round only,
will go on to a real-time, two-minute shopping spree
worth up to...
$20,000.
$20,000. You've seen the show before.
-Yes. -All right.
You ready to do this?
-Let's go! -Yeah!
All right, I want you to make a big splash
with a Winner, Winner, GGG Dinner.
I want you to think of this dinner
as your own personal culinary calling card.
You can be as elaborate, or it can be a simple.
As long as it has samples.
Has samples? Why would it have...
Samples. Because, that's right,
the name of the game is, "Keep It Sample"
-Here we go. -So tonight,
you have four sample tables set up around the market.
You must pick at least three of them
to incorporate in your dish.
Okay?
So, let's get ready to make this happen.
-We're gonna go in three... -Wait.
-...two-- -Wait, wait, wait, hold on.
Uh-oh.
-My son, Hunter. -Chefs, how are you--
Wait, Dad, hold on a second. Wait.
-One dish, one round, right? -Right. Right.
And one game, that's it?
-Wait. -Wait.
If they're gonna play one round,
then why not play two games?
Ah.
Let's play "Keep It Sample,"
and you are right Hunter. "Weight."
-Let's play, "Watch Your Weight." -Nice pick up.
-[chuckles] -[Guy] So that's what we've got.
You're gonna get to shop
anywhere in the store for anything you want,
and you can get only 8 pounds of ingredients.
When you get those ingredients you go over to the produce section,
and Hunter and I will be there by the scales
to see you weigh them.
So, how do we do this now?
So we do a thing--
Have you guys all seen the--
We do this thing where we go three, two, one, go.
-Okay. -Chefs, yeah.
They watch it too much, it's...
-We gotta find new tactics. -That was a good one.
[Michael] This can't be real. The pressure, the clock.
Nothing can prepare you for that.
[chuckles]
[Jamilah] I felt like I was at a real grocery store.
Until I looked around
and realized that I was being watched.
Ooh, where's the duck fat?
Winner take all, and that's gonna be me.
When you're ready to weigh, let me know, I'll help you out.
[Arielle] I can only use 8 pounds of ingredients.
Plus, I have to use three of these four samples.
We've got strawberry yoghurt tubes.
Just grab 'em and take 'em.
Strawberry yoghurt tubes.
Usually what I would recommend
is you just grab all of your samples.
And figure it out when you get there.
Don't worry, they're not good.
[Michael] Oh, no.
What am I gonna use strawberry yoghurt for?
Keep up the good work.
Damaris is such a sales machine.
Squeezy cheddar cheese.
There you go, guys.
[Michael] I don't know.
It's disgusting.
-Oh, man. -[Tiffani] Cheese it up!
We're old... [muted]
I'm sorry about your camera lens.
The only time I've ever eaten it or used it
is when I'm making, like,
Jersey Shore style cheese fries.
[Michael] Where's the other samples at?
Come get your microwave popcorn.
It's delicious. Delicious.
Microwave popcorn, love to eat it.
Yeah, yeah, popcorn, it's a good ingredient.
Have you ever had a fig bar in your life
that did not will you $20,000?
Oh, thank you.
-That is square inches of success right there. -Thank you.
You do not win if you don't take this.
-Look at you, you're so smart. -All right!
I hate fig bars. [chuckles]
-[Michael] What are you doing? -[Arielle] Not sure.
-[Michael] All right. -Figure it out.
Oh, my God, what do I even cook?
I grew up in Jersey,
so I'm known for cooking coastal cuisines.
Okay, scallops are pretty light
compared to, like, hardier red meat.
-Scallops? -Scallops, chef.
Nothing like scallops and canned cheese.
[Arielle] So, for my Winner, Winner, GGG dinner.
I'm going to make seared scallops
with some roasted potatoes
and a blueberry gastrique.
Blueberry, all right.
Because I know figs and blueberries work well together.
Squeezed cheese, I don't want to do that.
Strawberry yoghurt tubes,
I can add this into a puree.
So I grab some carrots because I know that sweetness
is really gonna play really well with yoghurt.
Microwave popcorn. I have no idea how I'm gonna use it.
You ready to weigh?
-Yes, sir. -Let's do it.
[Hunter] Cream in there.
-All right. -There's your half pound.
Oh, ugh.
[Hunter] Woah. A little more than five and a half.
-You get one weigh. -Two pounds to go.
-Can grab some more stuff? -[Hunter] Yeah.
-Keep going, keep shopping. -[chuckles]
[Arielle] I only have one shop,
so I need to make sure I'm shopping really smart.
In my head, I have 20 million things going on.
Dinner, maybe something more substantial than potatoes.
See, fennel's heavy...
It's surreal. You just see cameras in front of you,
and producers and other people talking to you.
There's just so much going on, and I'm just not focused.
Crap. All right, what am I doing?
27 minutes left on the clock.
It's just a one-round competition,
so they're gonna need to hit on all the levels.
Using the sample ingredients and "Watch Your Weight."
And making it a dish that represents who they are.
Any one little thing, it's just gonna be what takes them out.
All right, what am I doing?
Scallops, carrot puree, potatoes.
I don't know what it is about Flavortown.
You got so many things going on,
it makes that really hard to come up with
an actual dish.
-All right. -Here you go.
Do you have a yoghurt song and dance?
-I did. -Okay, what was it?
Here you go.
[in rap-like voice] Tuba yoghurt, tuba yoghurt.
uh... huh?
Tuba yoghurt, tuba yoghurt,
'cause spoons are hard.
Tuba yoghurt, tuba yoghurt...
She kills me. This is what goes on all the time.
I'm looking for duck fat.
I think the most unexpected thing in Flavortown is,
like, you walk through all the aisles,
you know where all the stuff is,
and then, as soon as they say go,
boop!
Everything you just remembered is gone.
So I just grabbed all the samples,
and then kind of based all of my food
off of those samples.
What have we got here?
Skirt steak is quick and easy to cook,
but most importantly, it doesn't weigh a lot.
So for my Winner, Winner, GGG Dinner,
I'm making marinated skirt steak
with a corn succotash.
Microwave popcorn.
I'm just gonna throw 'em right into the succotash.
So I'm gonna grab a bunch of different fresh vegetables.
Yeah, I was kind of worried about the vegetables that I was grabbing,
and that those were gonna be too heavy,
but they are something that I need to take.
Excuse me, sir.
Keep going, thank you.
I need to make some kind of marinade with this yoghurt,
so I'm grabbing garlic, anchovies.
Why is this so hard? They should be right here.
[sighs wearily]
Right in front of me.
Fig bars, the sweet component.
I'm gonna make a crumble out of it.
My potatoes.
All right, go scale it now.
Yeah.
[Hunter] And almost at eight.
-One more potato? -More potato, see what you got.
Awesome.
I have potato worth over 8 pounds.
-One less potato. -One potato...
-There we go. -Ready to go. Awesome.
We're gonna go now.
[Guy] So sometimes, when we're in these tight situations like this--
This is Donnie, by the way.
Donnie works with us on Triple-D.
But sometimes in these tight situations, I will be here.
Donnie will spin super-fast,
and I've taken that battery to the head enough times.
You gotta watch yourself.
[Jamilah] Peppers.
The hardest part about today
is being in front of the camera.
Chefs are usually behind the scenes,
and we like it that way. [chuckles]
Oh, let's see.
When I hear Winner, Winner, GGG Dinner,
I think about my daughter.
Because I'm here for her,
so I decided that I wanted to make
something that I knew that she would love.
Korean short ribs and a crab salad.
I chose to do the Korean short ribs
because I know that you can get a lot of them
at a smaller weight because they're sliced really thin.
Yoghurt is a great way to marinate meat.
Oh, I'm gonna get some crab.
A pound of picked crab is a lot of crab.
Totally worth it.
So I decided to use the fig cookies
to add a textural element to my crab salad.
Glass noodles are super, super, super light,
and when you cook them, they expand.
And they also look like you have a lot on your plate.
And that's a smart gameplay.
I wanna get rice, but it's too heavy,
so the sample of popcorn will add that toasty element.
Normally, if I was gonna shop freely,
I would get bottles of Gochujang,
and bottles of tamari.
I couldn't get any of those because they were too heavy.
So what I decided to do was really, like,
focus on the few things that I knew I really needed.
Okay.
Seven. Almost seven and a quarter.
That's exactly eight. You good?
-Yep. -All right.
My mouth's watering over the popcorn so bad.
I gotta get away from that popcorn.
I love popcorn.
It keeps staring at me.
[laughs]
Just knowing that I'm competing
on Guy's Grocery Games,
starstruck, and I'm just telling myself, like,
"Don't fan girl, don't freak out."
Any lamb?
Winner, Winner, GGG Dinner,
I have to do lamb.
A little light, that should not weigh 8 pounds, right?
[in rap-like voice] Tuba yoga, go insane.
-You know what you're making? -Nope.
You're gonna do great.
I know lamb goes great with preserves.
When I see apricots, I was like, "Yes!"
I know figs and apricots go well with lamb.
And then I'm thinking, "outh Carolina...
It makes sense, South Carolina.
We eat grits for breakfast, lunch and dinner
in South Carolina.
Uh-oh.
That was delicious.
I'm gonna add the canned squeezed cheese in the grits.
I see shishito peppers,
I'm gonna take that popcorn
and make, like, a buttercream sauce
and toss my shishito peppers with it.
All right. Butter. Okay.
[Hunter] So you're at 7 pounds.
-That's what I want. -All right.
I know I could probably use another pound,
work with something somewhere,
but the time is ticking, I gotta get going.
-All right, chef. Good luck. -Thank you.
[Arielle] Definitely gotta go get more stuff.
I grab plain yoghurt
to dilute that strawberry yoghurt,
but keep some of that tanginess.
I grab one chilli pepper
because I know I only need a little bit of heat.
All right, Guy, I think I'm ready.
Step up, step in, come in and win.
Six and a half.
Almost seven.
-Anything else you want? -That's it.
No, I think that's it.
-Okay, you're gone. -Yup.
Local crab.
Gone.
[in sing-song voice] Tuba...
Tuba yoghurt.
Five, four, three, two...
Here to judge these dishes are three chefs
who make everyone's Triple-G experience better.
Renowned restaurateur and Tournament of Champions reigning champ,
the one and only Sweet T,
-chef Tiffani Faison. -Ah!
Food Network star, cookbook author
and Kentucky's finest,
the one and only Chef Damaris Phillis.
And award-winning food critic,
and the owner of San Diego Magazine,
who looks magnificent in mauve,
the one and only Triple GOG,
-Troy Johnson. -Who's your golden girl?
They're--
[laughs]
What's it like to compete here?
Every single time I come in to compete,
I think, "I'm gonna keep my cool,
it's not gonna be a big deal."
-Yep. -And then literally every single time,
you throw games at us,
I freak out.
[laughs]
There is no way to understand how hard it is.
You cannot prepare yourself.
I tell people this all the time.
You can never prepare yourself.
Troy, what was your favorite part of competing?
When it was over.
-[laughs] -When it was over. Yeah.
Anyhow, 25 minutes.
All right.
Once in a while our producer will say, like,
"Why are you doing that?"
Or "What is that you just added?"
We try to not intrude on the chefs experience,
especially during competition.
Or impede what's going on.
Um, right now I'm gonna get these grits going.
Gonna do a grilled lamb chop.
Do, like, a little apricot and fig crust on it.
Some butter to the grits.
Carolina boy, so you know we got to make grits.
Get this going.
Beautiful chops.
This grill is gonna add some char, flavor and color.
Make those look delicious for sure.
The Flavortown call was definitely worth a celebration.
But we just opened a restaurant,
how will I find time to do this?
Our catering team had two weddings coming up.
I actually talked with the client
and had her change her wedding date
so we could be out here.
So it would mean everything to win today.
-Chef. -Yes, sir?
In my history of competition...
-Yes, chef. -...I have never seen anybody
ever cook a whole rack.
Every single time, I watch 'em do what you're doing,
then I watch 'em break it down
and the judges nail 'em for it.
Never thought I would get cooking advice from Guy. [chuckles]
But I'm gonna listen.
The joke is, is I'm the kitchen angel.
They're moving at such a high speed,
sometimes they'll make silly mistakes
they wouldn't commonly make.
I just make sure that they don't do it.
Like forgetting to season the steak,
or forgetting to incorporate their sample items.
Little things like that.
[Michael] Thank you, kitchen angel.
Still spicy yoghurt sauce.
Being on Guy's Grocery Games,
it's a really fun atmosphere to be in.
But for contestants, it's also super nerve-wracking.
Because you're in your head--
Okay.
The first thing I get started on is my popcorn.
I'm not sure what I'm gonna do here.
But I'm like, "You know what? I'll figure it out."
-How are we feeling, chef? -I'm good, Guy.
What's on the menu?
All right, so I got some seared scallops,
roasted potatoes, carrot puree.
All right, get those carrots working.
[Arielle] Next is my potatoes.
This is a winner-take-all challenge,
competing against other really awesome chefs.
I've never done it before,
so I got one shot to prove
that I am a chef who deserves to be here.
It would be awesome to win.
Potatoes are going in.
What's happening? Is something burning?
Somebody's burning popcorn.
Oh, that's me.
Ooh!
[all] Oh, no!
I am mortified that I burnt this popcorn.
-That's good. -Crap!
What's happening? Is something burning?
Somebody's burning popcorn.
That's me.
Ooh.
[all] Oh, no!
You know what smells great for, like, the whole day?
Burnt popcorn.
In my head, I have 20 million things going on.
All right, let's try this again.
Popcorn setting.
That might help.
At this point, I still don't know how I'm gonna use it.
All right.
[Guy] 22 minutes!
[Tiffani] These are all chefs that have not been to
the Triple-G kitchen before,
and they don't get a few rounds
to get the legs underneath them,
they get one shot.
In addition to that, they also have to use
three of our samples.
[Damaris] Three of the four.
It's just a lot of samples to have to use.
Never used, uh, strawberry yoghurt
in cooking before.
I get started on my strawberry yoghurt carrot puree.
I start mixing it with the regular yoghurt,
I zest some orange,
I chop up the chilli pepper.
Carrots are naturally sweet,
so I knew it was going to mask the flavor of the strawberry.
And I taste it, and I am like,
"This is actually pretty good."
I'm gonna make something that my daughter loves,
which is glass noodle salad with some fresh local crab
and some marinated Korean short ribs.
Which cook really fast.
Thankfully.
As a chef, our goal is always to, like, just go in and cook, right?
And so, the cameras and the lights
and all the producers. [chuckles]
It is really difficult sometimes.
I'm making a marinade with sugar,
some garlic, shallots, some fresh Thai chilies.
We love fish sauce at my house,
great for seasoning literally everything.
I'm gonna add some of this
whammy yoghurt as a sweetener,
and also because yoghurt is a nice tenderizer.
My daughter, Mars, she used to love this yoghurt in the tube.
She's my girl and she's my whole world,
and so I'm doing this for her.
Hey, this looks like some really delicious
strawberry yoghurt short rib.
You've got 20 minutes, 20 minutes to be plated.
Um, so I'm gonna start off...
We've got some flank steak here.
And then I'm doing some grilled corn succotash
with some roasted potatoes.
Flank steak, it's thin.
It's something that you can marinate
in a little bit of time.
I want to win really badly to prove to myself
that I can handle that pressure.
The cooking challenges,
that's really what I'm going to go and try to win for.
Not for anybody else, just for myself.
I blend up my yoghurt sample with the marinade.
So the strawberry yoghurt
is adding a little bit of sweetness in there.
It's also gonna be able to make a little bit of a crust.
It doesn't suck.
I pour my marinade over my steak,
set it out to the side.
Next, I need to work on my fig bars.
I'm gonna make a crumble out of it.
I'm just gonna throw them right in the food processor.
I only have 8 pounds,
I'm really leaning on my pantry staples.
Cayenne pepper, cumin and a little bit of crushed red pepper.
Put this where I know I'm gonna use it.
[Guy] 14 minutes!
Now I got to figure out the fig cookies,
the biggest head scratcher.
Usually figs taste good with game meat.
The sweet and the game meat goes really well together.
I'm just thinking, drop the apricots in there,
throw it in the mixer...
I'm gonna add some spice to it.
There we go.
I got my first executive position at 22 years old.
Got to work under a Michelin Star chef.
I've basically been practicing for this moment
my entire career.
Tasted it, and I was like, "It tastes good.
It's ready to go."
Spread on that apricot and fig paste
and throw it right into the oven.
While the potatoes are in the oven,
I'm working on my next whammy ingredient
which is these fig cookie things.
I kinda want to take the filling,
turn it into a gastrique with my blueberries.
I'm a little nervous it's gonna be a little too sweet,
so I'm just throwing some red wine vinegar in there,
so I can really balance out those flavors.
If I win the money today,
I really, really want to finally
put a down payment on a house.
Grown up in New Jersey, I'm gonna stay in New Jersey,
this is where I want to be,
and I just really want to put my roots down here.
[Jamilah] Want to get some good color on these.
My short ribs are marinated,
and they're gonna cook really fast,
so I get them on the grill.
I'm gonna work on my dressing for my crab salad.
I only have 8 pounds,
so I'm gonna cross utilize a lot of these ingredients.
I'm gonna put in sugar,
red wine vinegar, lime,
strawberry yoghurt, fish sauce, garlic.
Thai bird chillis.
Those Thai bird chillis, they look small,
but they pack a punch.
I found my love for Southeast Asian cooking
because when I was a teenager, I lived in Thailand
on shrimp farms.
We were always cooking very spicy, very flavorful food.
This is the sauce for my crab salad and noodles.
Kind of a Nuoc Cham-ish sauce.
That's good.
I love corn.
Next, I need to work on my succotash.
This is where I'm going to use my popcorn sample.
First thing I get started on is
getting that nice char on that corn and my leeks.
The more char the better.
It's basically a free flavor.
I have garlic, shallots, corn, beautiful.
Charred leeks, a little bit of Roma tomatoes.
I then grab my popcorn.
Hopefully it's not burned.
I add my ground-up popcorn to the succotash,
and it's adding a different texture to the dish,
as well as it's soaking up
some of the juice and that flavor.
Good.
Chef, what's on the menu?
Chef, I got a marinated flank steak.
Chef, you got 11 minutes,
you might want to get that grilling
-and get that resting. -Heard that.
I'm really worried about this steak finishing fully.
I only have one chance, literally everything counts.
You can't screw up, there's no redos.
I'm in trouble, I think.
[Guy] Chefs, 10 minutes!
And this is when we start to see
the wheels on the wagon start to shake a little bit.
-Yeah. -Whether or not they're really
utilizing their ingredients,
if they really have a clear game plan.
One of the things I hate to see
is when chefs change courses in the middle of a stream.
[Michael] It's pretty nerve wracking
seeing the judges just stare at you,
your heart's just racing.
I've never seen 30 minutes go by so fast in my life.
I gotta get my shishito peppers on the grill.
Chef, what's the menu gonna be?
Grits.
It's an absolute must.
Okay, I'm a grit junkie.
Gonna do a little popcorn cream...
-Keep an eye on these. -...to go with it.
Heard you, chef. Thank you.
That grill is hot!
[Michael] Timer goes off, let's go grab the popcorn.
Some popcorn, bro?
[chuckles]
There you go.
I'm gonna turn it into a cream.
-[Damaris] I love a popcorn cream softening... -[Tiffani] Love it.
[Damaris]...it's super smart out of Michael.
-It's really smart. -Yeah.
[Michael] Buttery.
Here it is.
And toss my shishitos with it.
One of the things that's great about microwave popcorn.
When you fold it into something else,
it packs a really popcorn punch in the flavor.
-Yeah, it's like Broadway popcorn. -Exactly.
It's just... [vocalizing]
[in sing-song voice] I'm popcorn!
-[in sing-song voice] I'm popcorn! -[laughs]
Mmm-hmm.
That's good. That's, like, really good.
Chef, give me the rundown.
Where are we using these ingredients?
I'm using the yoghurt to marinate my short ribs.
We're gonna do some
popcorn and fig crumble to add some texture
-to the crab salad. -Okay.
[Jamilah] Awesome.
I'm thinking about my daughter, Mars, so I'm making this.
She loves Korean short ribs.
If I win the $20,000 today,
I wanna go on a vacation with her,
and relax on the beach with our feet in the sand.
I'm a single mom, I'm here for her,
so I decided that I want to make something
that I knew that she would love and be proud of.
Mmm.
Strawberry yoghurt marinade on that?
Chef, that's dynamite.
[Jamilah] Thank you.
[Guy] Really good.
Okay, maybe I need to make sure
that it's cooked better, but...
I checked on my steaks,
and I realize it's not fully done.
I want to win really badly,
just to prove to myself that I deserve to be here.
I've worked my tail off enough,
you know, to consider myself a good chef.
So I cook it slow in the oven
to get it cooked all the way through
nice and beautiful.
The last thing I have to do is my potatoes.
That's perfect.
[Guy] Seven minutes!
And time is rollin'.
Michael grabbed the stone-ground grits.
In this amount of time,
I would have gone with quick-cooking grits.
Yeah, you need a quicker grit.
[Michael] Work, work, work, work, work, work, work.
I knew it would be challenging to grab the real grits,
but they represented Charleston, South Carolina,
so I had to do it.
It's almost cheese time.
It would mean everything to win today.
Me and my wife, we didn't have a wedding,
we just decided to start a business.
We didn't get to, like, do all the cool things you do when you get married.
If I win this $20,000 today,
my wife and I are gonna have the wedding and honeymoon
that we've always wanted.
I think that was enough.
A little bit more.
Oh, these are cheesy.
Come on, grits. Come on, grits.
I need Arielle to get her scallops
-in the pan quickly. -Yeah.
[Tiffani] Here's something with scallops.
You have to get a really, really beautiful sear on them,
and they need to be really dry on top.
[Arielle] These were not dry enough
when they went into the pan.
In your head, you're thinking, like,
"What I would have done differently..."
Of course, there's money on the line,
and you want to win, bragging rights, all that stuff.
It's a nerve-wracking experience.
I go back to the microwave,
this time, did not burn my popcorn.
It came out perfect.
I wanna make, like, a popcorn crumble
with my scallops.
So I get it in the food processor,
I throw some lime zest in there, some orange zest.
I want to get it really nice and citrusy.
[Guy] Four and a half!
Potatoes are almost done.
I realize they're a little bit undercooked,
so I throw 'em right in the fryer.
Time goes by so quickly here, it's crazy.
All right.
I'm gonna brown them up,
and mix 'em with some lime zest and peppers,
and use 'em with my crab salad.
That's the plan right now, and we'll see how that goes.
Glass noodles are basically like air when they're uncooked
and huge volume when they are,
and they also cut up really quickly.
Noodles are done.
Okay, these were a little sticky,
but I'm gonna loosen them up with my sauce.
It's good.
I pulled my fig bars out of the oven
and get 'em into the food processor with popcorn.
Then I am also adding in cumin, some red peppers
to add flavor to my crab salad.
I like things spicy, so I hope the judges do.
[Guy] Three minutes!
Lamb is done, I'm about to start plating.
I do a nice smear of my cheesy grits.
The longer they've sat on the plate,
they will still hold their heat,
but they would tighten up as well.
And then my fig paste down
to be the base for my lamb chops.
I get my shishito popcorn butter
right on top and it's done.
Two minutes! Two to go!
Okay. Sear... uh...
So they were not as dry as I wanted them to be
when they hit the pan,
but unfortunately, did not get
the greatest sear on my scallops.
I take my potatoes out of the fryer,
toss them in my popcorn bowl
to hopefully add a little bit of salty,
buttery, citrusy flavor.
The first thing I do is
put down my strawberry yoghurt carrot puree,
I lay down my asparagus.
I take my potatoes that are coated in this popcorn,
start throwing my scallops down,
making sure each dish has three scallops.
And then this fig and blueberry gastrique.
That was the fastest 30 minutes of my entire life.
[Guy] 60 seconds!
You guys, you have to plate.
[Tim] My potatoes come off the flat-top
and they look pretty good.
I cut in my steak, I'm happy with it.
First, I put down my potatoes.
Next I have my succotash, which has the popcorn center.
Then my steak, which was marinated in my yoghurt sample.
[Guy] 30 seconds!
Get your plates, you need to start plating.
Heard him.
First, I put down my glass noodles and bok choy.
Then I add my crab salad.
Short rib on each plate.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Chefs, that's it, stop working.
-Ooh! -[sighs]
[judges cheering]
[Arielle] Time does not exist in Flavortown.
Right?
Now we're repositioning everything.
The culinary team comes in and cleans up the stations.
While that happens, all the cameras get repositioned.
Judges are at the table.
We're getting the food.
Oh, damn!
I did not get my fig on the plate.
There was no time, it's gone.
We are done.
If that crumble would have made that dish...
[culinary staff] Rolling!
[all staff] Rolling.
Cash. [whistles]
Here we go. Five, four, three, two.
All right, judges, this is it.
The first ever Triple-G experience.
They had to play a little "Keep It Sample,"
and "Watch Your Weight."
Up first. Jeff Michael, what do you have for us?
All right, chefs, for today,
I have a fig and apricot coated lamb chop
with cheddar cheese grits
and popcorn butter shishitos.
You guys, this is not easy.
Two games, three samples, one shop,
and you have to nail it.
Michael, this is really good.
Where is Molly Ringwald, 'cause that is pretty in pink.
-I mean, that is... -[Tiffani laughs]
...perfectly through.
[kisses] You don't cook it better than that.
It's got the sear on top,
the flavor of the lamb is delicious.
-Thank you. -To use the popcorn and the butter
with the shishitos, it's delicious.
It's really, really good.
To use the fig to give that lamb kind of like
a counterbalance to the gaminess,
against the butteryness of the grits, so smart.
The plating is really lovely.
[Damaris] The grits with the cheese,
you have somehow managed to transform canned cheese
into cheese grits.
The grits are undercooked.
-Hear. -Look, I need to lose a few pounds,
-but you don't. -Okay.
You left a pound in that grocery store,
and that was the key to this gameplay.
I think that you could have had
another element to this dish.
You could have taken it a little bit further.
Thank you.
-[culinary staff] Resetting? -All right.
[chuckles] Good job.
I have to step in here once in a while
and just make sure that the deli slicer's working.
It's a key part of the competition.
I did not get my fig crumble on the plate.
Now I have to present this dish
that I'm worried about.
-[woman] On your mark. -Thank you.
Not to be outdone, Chef Tim.
Hi, chefs, how are you?
So, today, I prepared for you a grilled flank steak
that's been marinated in the stick yoghurt.
I made a summer succotash.
The popcorn is incorporated inside of the corn itself.
And then after that I have pan-seared potatoes.
My fig newton unfortunately didn't make it on the plate.
Yeah, Tim, you're succotash does not suck.
There is so much flavor there.
You got the char, you got the sweetness of the corn,
and then you get a little bit of that saltiness and texture
from the sample ingredient that you used.
Unfortunately, your figs
are a figment of my imagination.
Oh, ho!
Good night!
[chuckles]
You didn't have enough time to get the crumble on,
I can't judge on that
because you didn't have enough time,
to let your steak cook just a little bit longer,
it's a little chewy.
The whammy that you had is not "Watch Your Weight,"
the whammy you had was time.
Potatoes are nice,
I think the popcorn with the corn
is a very smart play.
I like that a lot.
It's two versions of corn that are coming together
to be greater than the sum of their corn parts.
Thank you.
[culinary staff] Resetting.
[Tim] I know that that fig crumble
would have bought that whole entire dish up.
I'm feeling super nervous.
I wish we could, like, do it again.
-[Jamilah] Yeah. -'Cause I know. I would have made,
like, totally different choices.
-[Jamilah] Me too. A few different. -[Arielle] Yeah.
All right. Up next.
Chef Arielle, what do you got for us?
All right, judges, today I have for you
seared scallops with popcorn potatoes,
spicy carrot puree.
And a fig-blueberry gastrique on top.
Arielle, you have a very delicate looking plate.
But you managed to pack it with a ton of flavors.
I love your use of the carrot puree.
You have strawberry, and so you paired it
with a naturally sweet vegetable.
I think it's done really well.
The fig and the blueberry, beautiful combination.
Arielle, the one thing you got to do is scallops.
Get that sear.
It didn't quite get there.
For the gameplay, the popcorn.
I don't know if you really did
the most inventive play with that.
You basically broke 'em up and threw them at the plate.
With the potatoes.
[Tiffani] And the potatoes are a little under.
So the thing that doesn't need to be here anyway,
that also weighs a lot...
It's kind of messing me up a little bit.
Okay.
[culinary staff] Resetting.
That scallop, she didn't hit it, huh?
No.
-Damn! -I know.
[culinary staff] Rolling!
Great. Thank you, judges.
Up next, chef Jamilah.
Hi, judges. So I made you Korean short ribs.
So, I marinated those in the yoghurt
and crab salad.
And I made a little crumble with the figs and the popcorn.
Jamilah, it does not look
like you were playing the game "Watch Your Weight."
-Thank you. -This is an enormous amount of food.
It looks like so much food
because everything that you got
is lots of volume, but not lots of weight.
It's very, very smart.
Where the fig and the popcorn
went together to be the crumble,
I'm getting chew,
I'm getting this nice, developed sweet flavor.
That crab salad...
-Oh, my God! I mean... -[chuckles]
That is fantastic.
-Thank you. -A little bit of editing,
and I think time got the best of you
-in terms of plating. -Yeah.
Less glass noodles, more crab salad.
But the flavors are really spectacular.
Okay.
All right, thank you very much.
Listen, chefs.
I think you all did a fantastic job.
Unfortunately, three will be checking out,
one will go shopping for up to 20,000 bucks.
And we will call you back
and let you know who that's gonna be.
Thank you very much, back to the kitchens.
So, judges, my question is,
which dinner is the Winner, Winner, GGG dinner?
[softly] Okay. [indistinct]
Judges make notes when they're tasting the food,
and now they're just going through
and compiling their score.
Putting the score in the computer.
1 to 20 points on gameplay,
1 to 20 points on tasting.
1 to 10 points on plating,
for a total of 50 points available.
So whoever gets the highest score will be the one
that's gonna get to shop Flavortown
for up to 20,000 bucks.
And I hope we go on the shopping spree
so you can see how it happens.
Now we gotta [indistinct]. Let's go!
All right, here we go.
Judges, thank you very much.
Let's just go ahead and bring our chefs back in please.
All right, thank you very much, judges.
Chefs, for your first experience,
I think you did great.
So, Arielle, let's start off with you.
And here we are.
14 out of 20 in gameplay.
14 out of 20 in taste.
7 out of 10 in plating.
For 35.
Good score.
Michael, Michael, Michael.
16 out of 20 in gameplay.
17 out of 20 in taste.
8 out of 10 for plating, for a 41!
Way to bring it.
Jamilah!
42 to beat, 41 to tie.
17 out of 20 in gameplay.
18 out of 20 in taste.
7 in plating, for a 42.
A one-point lead over Michael.
And our buddy, Tim.
[Tim] Here it comes, here comes the verdict.
[Guy] 12 out of 20.
15 out of 20.
7 out of 10.
For a 34.
Congratulations, Jamilah!
Our North Cal winner.
I'll tell you this,
you've represented yourself incredibly well tonight,
it's been a real pleasure to have you.
So, Chef Arielle, Chef Michael, Chef Tim,
good night.
I came in second place in Flavortown,
but I'm still first place in my heart.
-Thank you. -Great job.
-Good job. -Thank you.
I had such a great time here in Flavortown.
Guy, if you ever want to me back on the show,
you know how to reach me.
Thank you so much.
After the competition, we head into
the interview room for a couple of hours.
We cry, we laugh, we joke.
And that's where I am right now.
Bye, guys, thank you so much.
Really appreciate it. Yay!
First and foremost,
-camera right there. -Yes.
What do you want to say to your daughter?
I love you, Mars.
And also, she made fun of me
that everybody was gonna call me chef
because I'm not-- I don't consider myself
that kind of chef, so there you go, babe.
Well, let's just get it straight, Mars.
Absolutely, she's a chef.
I think "big money" is what you should be calling her.
-Oh! -Ooh!
We can go to shopping spree,
which, I'm gonna give you two minutes to grab five items
that satisfy the clues on this card.
You grab all five, you win...
[both] $20,000.
Or we can skip the shenanigans
and we can go for the mystery check
that's behind those double doors right there.
That could be anywhere from $12,000
to $20,000.
The question is, which one do you want to do?
Uh...
-[whispers] Shop. -Shop.
I mean, I don't want to run,
but I also want $20,000. [chuckles]
Just for a giggle, what is the check?
[all] Oh!
[Guy] 16,950 bucks!
[Jamilah] Wow!
So all you have to do
-is get all five answers to beat it. -All five to beat it.
Let's get after this.
Now, I'm gonna read you a clue.
When you figure out this first clue,
and as soon as you move,
-they're gonna start the clock. -Okay.
This fresh ingredient traditionally provides
the green element on margarita pizzas.
Go, go, go, go, go, go.
-She's off! -[all cheering]
I know this one, it's basil.
I used today in my dish.
Okay, got it.
14 seconds. Next one.
The main ingredient in tofu gives this sauce its name.
Looking for soy sauce.
As a hippy, we also ate a lot of tofu.
I know this is soy sauce.
-Soy sauce. -[Guy] There you go.
Pureed snack version of this fruit
that helped Sir Isaac Newton discover gravity.
Apple... sauce.
Oops. [chuckles]
A crispy waffle-like treat
that debuted at the St. Louis World's Fair,
used to hold a frozen treat.
Oh, come on, come on, you know that one.
Ice cream cones.
You got it! Come on, go!
Middle Eastern dip made from ground chickpeas.
[laughs] There goes Cash.
Oh, Cash. Cash is here.
Middle Eastern dip made from the chickpeas.
I got this one.
Ah! Fresh hummus.
-There you go! -Got it.
I won. [chuckles]
Cash, quit eating the wheels.
My daughter would be proud of me
no matter what happened,
but it's so much nicer to be able tell her,
you know, that Mom won.
She just shows up, takes everybody down
in one round!
She made the Winner, Winner, GGG dinner,
and she's got 20,000 bucks.
Mars, I hope you appreciate it.
We'll see you next week on Triple-G!