This is it.
Oh, my God!
Our all-star tournament is coming to an end.
Three chefs have survived the madness.
They're literally two cooks away from $35,000.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
[Guy] But first, they have to tackle Flavortown Market's most extreme aisle game.
This is Aisle Auction.
-[grunts] -Ridiculous.
[Guy] Who will be the champion...
Phenomenal.
[Guy] ...and shop Flavortown Market for up to 35,000 bucks.
The pressure's definitely on.
Winner winner Misty dinner.
[Guy] It's the finale of All-Star Grocery Games.
That's how winners win.
Let's welcome our three all-star chefs.
First up, nationally-acclaimed restaurateur and Iron Chef
whose consistently delicious dishes
have kept her in the competition week after week,
the GOAT, Chef Stephanie Izard.
This has not been the easiest road to get to the finals.
Having to fight your way out of the bottom over and over again
is the hard way to get there.
But, at the same time, it's given me a whole lot of practice.
-In a colorful outfit tonight. -Always.
Good luck.
Next, the Tournament of Champions Four winner
whose cooking has already earned her $15,000
and two best dish honors in this competition, Chef Mei Lin.
I'm feeling really amped up and I'm feeling a little bit more confident
being able to trek through Flavortown.
May the best chef win.
I've gotta put "Champ" Chef Mei Lin in there.
-"Champ" has to be added to that from now on. -[Mei Lin laughs]
And, finally, James Beard Award winner,
who beat an Iron Chef in week two and earned $10,000
for a champagne brunch in week three,
the one and only, Chef Jonathon Sawyer.
Well, I've already won $10,000. I wanna win $35,000 more.
I wanna win so bad.
[Guy] Looking good, braids and all.
-[laughs] -[scoffs] There's a fashionista right here.
This is amazing. We went from the great eight to the thrilling three.
You have successfully navigated four weeks of our gauntlet games.
The chef that conquers the final leg of the gauntlet
and dazzles the judges with their dish
will get a chance to shop Flavortown Market for up to 35 grand.
So, tonight, we're playing two of the most extreme aisle games in GGG history.
At the end of game one, the chef with the least successful dish,
unfortunately, will check out.
But the last chef standing will compete head-to-head
in the mother of all aisle games, for the championship.
First challenge,
I want you to make the judges...
spicy guilty pleasure.
I want you to make something bold, bodacious, bursting with flavor.
And to make sure it's bursting with flavor,
I'm gonna give you each 100 bucks.
-[Stephanie] Thank you. -[Guy] Plenty of money to buy everything you need.
Well, that's unless you guys get into, like, a little bidding war.
-Oh, no. -[Guy] Oh, wait. Wait, wait, wait.
Did I not tell you... Oh, you know what?
I forgot to tell you, we're having an auction.
That's right. Hunter, come on out.
[grunts]
[Mei Lin] Oh, here we go.
Hello. Hi.
-[bangs gavel] -Ding!
Let's talk about the first item that we have up for bid.
You guys are gonna love it. It's great.
[Guy] Ten.
What is ten?
Father, this is the aisle.
[Guy] Aisle ten?
I forgot, we're playing the craziest of all aisle games,
and this is aisle auction.
We are gonna auction off three of the most in-demand aisles.
If you are the highest bidder, you'll be the only chef that can shop that aisle.
You will still have to pay for all your ingredients.
So, for instance, if you bid $40 for this,
which is the minimum starting bid,
then you would have $60 to shop the rest of the store,
except for other aisles that the other two chefs may buy.
Starting off with aisle ten,
meat, seafood, dairy, artisan cheeses, and deli delights.
-No one else uses it? -No one else can use it?
Correct, Chef. No one else will be able to use this.
What are the other aisles that you're gonna auction off?
-That's the mystery of it. -[laughing]
[laughing] I tried. I tried.
So there will be two other biddings.
Now, I will let you know that the final aisle will be $60.
-[all] Whoa! -So if you don't bid on aisle one
and you don't bid on aisle two,
the third aisle will be on sale for $60.
Aisle ten, starting bid, 40 bucks.
Do I have 40 bucks. I got 40 bucks once.
I really want aisle ten.
Taking the protein but not letting anybody else get it
is the greatest defense by offensive strategy that I can have.
So I come out bidding.
-Do I have $45? -Oh, $45.
We got $45 for the GOAT.
Oh, my gosh. I have to win this auction.
Kind of all the ingredients I think of when I think of, like, "guilty pleasure."
[Guy] Do I have $50? $50 from Jonathon.
Do I have $55? $55 for the GOAT.
-$60. -I've for $60 on the table for Jonathon.
-I'll go $65. -$65 for the GOAT.
Dude, this is brutal.
Do I have $70 from Jonathon? Going once...
-Can I go with $66? -[all laughing]
-[Guy] I have $66 from Jonathon. -$67!
-$67 from the GOAT. -[Jonathon] Oh, boy.
[groans] No, you can take it, Steph.
-[bangs gavel] -Sold! 67 bucks to the GOAT. All right.
Boom! Aisle one.
Garden of produce, fruits, vegetables, peppers, and aromatics.
$30.
-Uh, starting bid's $40, but thank you, Chef. -[all laughing]
I just wanna make sure that Chef Stephanie and Jonathon
don't get the best aisle in the store.
-[Guy] $40 going once, for Chef Mei Lin. -$45.
-[Guy] $45 for Jonathon. -$46.
-[Guy] $46. -Here we go to this.
-$50. -[Guy] $50 for Jonathon. Wow!
$51.
-$51! -Oh...
-$55. -$56.
-$61. -$62.
$62 for Mei Lin.
-$65. -$65 for Jonathon.
-$66. -Brutal.
Take it.
-[bangs gavel] -Sold! Chef Mei Lin.
-[Hunter] Wow. -[Guy] $66.
Chef Jonathon, what did you win for $60?
-You get aisle four. -Knew it.
-[laughs] -Of course, it's aisle four. We all love aisle four.
[Guy] Chef Jonathon, you win the international aisle.
Talk about spicy.
$40 to spend on any other aisle than one and ten.
Chef Mei Lin, you have $34 to shop one.
Chef Izard, you have $33. Aisle ten, all yours.
You are trying to make your spicy guilty pleasure.
The lowest-scoring chef in this round will go home.
The other two will go head-to-head for the championship.
Even though you are aisle four, one, and ten,
as soon as we say "Go," it's still...
Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Chef.
Chef, chef, chef, chef, chef.
I have to... We have to do this correctly.
It's "Three, two, one, go." Okay.
Oh! Oh, my God!
-Come on! -I shouldn't be messing with them, honestly.
[Jonathon] You know, in the beginning of competition,
when there's eight of you, it's a little reassuring
knowing that you don't need to be the best. You just can't be the worst.
But, now, when there's only three of us
it's about beating your competition.
-Chilis. -I go to the frozen aisle,
'cause I know that anything I would've wanted from produce and proteins
is gonna be in there.
We are tasked with a spicy guilty pleasure.
My heart goes immediately to spicy chicken curry.
I feel good about the dollar amount I have.
40 bucks is a lot to spend in this grocery store.
It's sad. That's what it's come to be.
I wanna build a layered and rich spicy curry.
So I'm gonna grab carrots, onions, ginger.
I feel like I have all the frozen ingredients I need,
so I run over to my aisle, aisle four.
Chili crisp. Gonna need some curry.
I can get the panang curry here. and really round out my dish.
-Okay. -[beeps]
-Uh-oh. -[beeps]
Oh, no.
[woman] Got anything that you wanna take off?
Turmeric out.
-[dings] -[groans]
-[woman] $41.03. -Let's get the garlic out.
[dings]
-[woman] $39.04. -$40.
[Jonathon] I have less than a dollar left. I feel like I shopped pretty good.
Final three. Let's do it.
Jonathon getting to aisle four.
Chef Mei Lin and Chef Stephanie, they both love aisle four.
I mean, everybody loves aisle four.
[Mei Lin] I purchased aisle one, produce, which I bid $66 for.
You know, it's the final three and you gotta bring it.
I'm known for having one of the best chicken sandwiches
in Los Angeles.
I didn't come this far not to win this whole thing.
I grabbed these chicken patties for my spicy chicken sandwich.
It's spicy!
And, then, I head over to grab some hot honey,
something that also is spicy.
Chef Mei Lin in her own private little area.
[Mei Lin] Manzano chilis, habanero chilis, Fresno chilis...
It was really smart gameplay, which is good for a spicy dish.
I don't know if it was, like, the smartest idea, but it works for me.
Mei Lin in the house.
[Mei Lin] I wish I had that international aisle
so I can grab a bottle of chili crisp and use that spicy oil
so I don't have to spend all this money.
-You got everything up in the order you wanted? -[Mei Lin] Mmm-hmm.
-[woman] All right. -[beeps]
-Both cilantro, hon? -Mmm-hmm.
-[woman] That's it? -[Mei Lin] That's it.
-$31.17. -Great.
-Feeling good about yourself, are ya? -[Stephanie] I am.
I'm happy I got aisle ten, which is where all of the indulgent proteins are.
There's all the peas, there's all this seafood.
And, then, you're like, "Oh, I only have $33."
That's not so much money.
Now, remember, you still only have 33 bucks,
-so as much as you wanna spend everything... -I know. I know, sir.
But, when I think of guilty pleasure,
I'd want, like, a bunch of seafood.
I'm making a bowl of French fries with shrimp and crab,
and I'm just gonna sit on the couch and eat this. Don't look at me.
-[Guy] Like a spicy seafood poutine type of... -[Stephanie] Yeah.
I mean, I love French fries. I'm definitely putting mayonnaise on it.
Mayonnaise makes me happy.
I normally get spice from aisle four.
I have to pivot this time and use the frozen chilis instead.
Then, I go and get some mayo from the condiments section.
Mayo.
I can only afford, like, four ingredients. This is no good.
-Not gonna be able to afford any of this. -[beeps]
-$33.95. -Ooh.
I only have $33.
Let's go...
cheese instead of mayonnaise.
All right, so you're at $27.96 with only what you have right there.
I think I win, like, worst shopper on this particular challenge.
I mean, Iron Chef in culinary, but Bronze Chef in shopping.
I shouldn't be allowed to shop anymore.
25 minutes to cook.
I got 94 cents left. I ran out of money.
We'll make do. Lots of chilis.
[Guy] What's on the menu, GOAT?
Well, I don't know 'cause I ended up
not being able to afford much of anything.
But that means it'll be simpler to cook.
Shrimp base, shrimp fries, and chilis.
Really? That was the best price we have on shrimp?
$12?
I need to figure out how to make something out of nothing real quick.
You could return it, by the way, if you didn't use it.
Thankfully, my friend, Guy. He's, like,
"Stephanie, you know there's, like, less expensive shrimp."
[Guy] Look at your shrimp right here.
-How much is this? -[Guy] Peeled and deveined shrimp.
-$8.96. -[Stephanie] How much is the other one?
$11.96.
[Stephanie] I'm gonna get my mayonnaise.
And, now, I can afford mayonnaise,
'cause that's one of my favorite things in life.
I have enough for this.
I see some smoked oysters, and now I'm going to make a little smoked oyster mayo.
It's gonna help bring that umami level to my bowl of yumminess.
Returning, returning.
With those items purchased and your return, you owe me 96 cents.
I appreciate that, Guy. Thank you.
Let's meet the esteemed panel that will be following tonight's fast-paced auction
before selecting the champion.
We have the celebrated chef and dear friend, Chef Antonia Lofaso.
Fountain of culinary knowledge, food critic, world traveler,
the one and only Simon Majumdar.
And acclaimed restaurateur, the dumpling mafia queen herself,
Chef Shirley Chung!
Right now, they're literally two cooks away from $35,000.
They can taste it. They are fellow competitors.
-Over the last five weeks, they've been duking it out. - [Shirley] Yeah.
The pressure's definitely on. Look at this.
[Guy] Let's see what Sawyer's got going.
-[Jonathon] Dang, can I have more money, please? -Right?
-I'm gonna make a spicy curry. -[Guy] All right.
Oh, then you break the blade out. Okay, I gotta go.
I do. Sometimes, I ain't got time--
-[Guy] The man just pulled a blade out of his pocket. -No, no. Stay, stay.
Talk to me.
It has been a long road to get here and, man, am I excited!
In order to start the curry, I need to sweat out my vegetables,
and bloom my spices.
Carrots.
I got onions, carrots, and salt, and I start to saute.
Hey! This lemongrass is frozen.
Choosing to do a curry is high-risk, high-reward.
So you're gonna see tons of different spices
and spicy levels inside of this dish.
Chilis.
Paprika.
Cayenne.
And once this is toasted, I'm gonna start...
simmering really hard.
You can notice the difference between a long, slow simmered curry
and one that you just pull out of the packet.
So that's why personalizing the broth and the spice mix
that I put inside of that blooming agent is super important.
Now that my curry is simmering, I'm gonna start the chicken.
Chicken's already cooked, so all I need to do is simmer it
in my curry and chili crispy oil.
You gotta layer in spice.
So what are you gonna serve this over?
I'm gonna simmer some chicken in there.
Then I'm gonna work on some garnishes.
-I wanna be entombed with that. -Yeah!
That's got nice heat. That's got nice heat.
-Tell me what we're doing. -I'm actually gonna channel my hot chicken sandwich.
Whoa! You are known for the hot chicken sandwich.
You're gonna get to try one, too.
-You're making me one? -[Mei Lin] That's right.
That's how winners win. That's why she's the tournament champion four.
Champ!
[Mei Lin] So the first thing I wanna get started on is the spice blend.
The spice mix is super important
because that is the foundation of my chicken sandwich.
It's all about the spice.
Dried mushroom powder, five spice powder, cayenne, cumin, and chili flake.
I do love that Mei Lin's making her classic spicy chicken sandwich.
Guy has been asking for it, like, literally, since week one.
[Shirley laughs]
Okay, GOAT, tell me what you got going?
Just trying to cook with all the things I love, like mayonnaise, French fries.
Mayonnaise and French fries are two of the things you love?
Mayonnaise and French fries are two of the things that I love.
Lots of seafood flavors there. Smoked oysters.
I bet you I've seen smoked oysters used five times in Grocery Games.
They're delicious. I made like a dip at home the other day
with smoked oysters and I was, like,
"Hell, yeah. Why don't I use these all the time?"
There's a question that people ask me when I do interviews,
and it's, "What would be the last thing you'd eat on a desert island?"
And I'm, like, "French fries and seafood."
That's where my mind goes.
I'm just gonna melt a whole bunch of butter
with the crab and put some red chili flakes in there.
Trying to spice it up. I know it's a spicy challenge,
but you want spice, but not, like, "Whoa" spice.
So I spent so much money on the shrimp
that I'm gonna use it different ways.
I'm gonna have some whole-grilled ones.
I am going to toss in a little bit of flour and cornstarch.
I'm just gonna fry it and dry it like that
so we have a little bit of extra texture.
Let's get these seasoned up.
I wanna make sure there's an interesting textural component
to this dish beyond the soft curry.
So I take some of the frozen carrots,
I coat 'em in some spices and flour,
and crispy fry 'em in my deep fryer.
Oh, no!
Given no constraints,
I would much have preferred to cook my own rice from scratch.
But 30 minutes to build this flavorful curry isn't quite enough.
Some I'm gonna lean on the freezer.
Curry, where you at?
To make sure that this is a champion-level dish,
I'm tasting everything multiple times.
Oh. Ohh!
It's pretty intimidating to be next to Stephanie and Mei.
At the end of the day, being able to say,
"I beat you and I got the trophy to prove it,"
that's the greatest victory.
Spic-y. Spice-ed.
[Guy] Ten minutes to go!
[Mei Lin] The fact that this dish is fried makes it a guilty pleasure.
But, like, the sandwich needs a little bit of freshness.
I don't have that much time left to make my own slaw.
Luckily, there's a slaw at the deli that I can grab.
This is definitely coming in handy.
-[Guy] Remember, Chef, it's by weight. -[Mei Lin] By weight!
-[Guy] How nice to have the salad bar. -[Mei Lin] I know, I love it.
Nice win on the salad bar move.
Three.
Now I can start my spicy chili oil.
I get my chilis blended with a little bit of oil.
Winning this round takes me into the final round to win that $35,000.
I wanna use that money for a down payment on a house.
[Guy] Tell me about the sauce.
-The chicken is actually gonna be dipped in that. -Right.
[Mei Lin] And then, it's gonna be seasoned
and then it's gonna be drizzled with a little bit of hot honey.
I don't think that's hot at all.
Matter of fact, all I taste is oil.
[Mei Lin] Okay, I'll give you hot.
[Stephanie] I'm gonna work on the crinkle fries.
They always stay crunchy. These are perfect.
So, next thing to work on is sort of a spicy, smoked oyster mayo.
So, pepper situation, I have a bag of aji limo.
Aji limos are, like, no joke.
In my mind, I'm, like, "Oh, my gosh. This is gonna be so spicy.
I can't believe how many of these I'm using."
The smoked oysters are gonna bring this...
deep flavor, almost like bacon, into the mayonnaise
and add a little bit of smokiness and just, kind of,
bring it to that next umami level.
I feel pretty confident going into the finals.
But, at the same time, I'm with Jonathon and Mei, who are both crushing it.
But I also am an Iron Chef, and I won Top Chef, so...
I think it's anyone's game.
I had even more spice.
I have some brown butter, which is one of my other favorite things in the world.
Add a little bit of chilis in it and I just pour that right over the top, too.
Where's the heat, Chef?
[Stephanie] It's in the mayonnaise, it's in the butter.
[Guy] Is this the butter over here with the heat?
[Stephanie] It's got some heat, yeah.
Spicy? Not spicy yet?
I don't have the beginning of spicy.
It'll be there.
Chefs, five minutes! You gotta be plated in five!
Just a little bit of rice in the center. Okay.
Curry.
I take some of the chicken...
Mostly, the chicken is a little bit soft,
and I put it around that rice.
I put a vessel on the side that I fill up with the curry sauce.
Curry, a little bit like pasta stew, is a very subjective
sauce to condiment ratio.
So I want the judges to have the opportunity
to sauce it up as much as they possibly want.
Couple of these crispy fried carrots.
Done!
[Mei Lin] So the chicken gets dipped into my spicy chili oil,
and it gets seasoned in the spice mix.
I don't want a lot of spice mix.
I want that perfect balance of the heat and the flavor.
The reason why I did the two chicken patties
is to mimic the sandwich that I serve at my restaurant in Los Angeles.
I drizzle a little bit of hot honey on the sandwich,
and I add my creamy slaw on top of that chicken.
This is exactly where I want it to be,
but I'm just afraid that the judges
aren't gonna think that it's spicy enough.
[Stephanie] I wanna plate this the way that I would eat it if I was at my house.
This is my guilty pleasure and stainless steel bowls is what I would eat in.
So I'm gonna dump in the fries...
put on fried shrimp, put on grilled shrimp,
put a little bit of brown butter with little chilis in it.
Then put on the crab in butter.
Put on my smoked oyster mayo.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one...
-[claps] -That's it!
[clapping]
All right, chefs. Let's find out whose spicy guilty pleasure
is judged the guiltiest.
Let's take it to the judges right this way.
All right, judges. This is it. Game one of our all-atar gauntlet finale.
And we played a little aisle auction.
Our chefs had to make a spicy guilty pleasure
that will hopefully keep them in the competition,
give 'em a shot at that big, fat trophy. Huh?
Up first, Chef Jonathon, you bought aisle four.
What is this Spicy Guilty Pleasure?
[Jonathon] I made panang-style curry with crispy carrots,
and I added lemongrass, has a ton of fish sauce in it,
thickened it with a little bit of coconut milk
and, then, some chicken.
The taste of the curry is as I would expect in India.
I spend a lot of time there.
The spice side is perfect.
I honestly think this is one of the best dishes I've had in a while.
[Shirley] What a great gameplay.
Shopping-wise, you shopped pretty much in the frozen aisles.
So cilantro, ginger, garlic, all those aromatics,
such a great gameplay.
I understand it's guilty pleasure,
but my plate is really messy.
You are competing against amazing chefs.
Chef Jonathon, it's been a pleasure, like,
watching you cook over the last five weeks, truly.
This dish is phenomenal.
I think you really honored the international aisle
with the money that was spent there.
But really smart gameplay to spend so much money in the frozen foods section.
The carrots, such a smart vegetable to buy there
because, obviously, your produce was taken from you.
I love the carrots and I actually wish
there were more carrots and actually less chicken.
-But, phenomenal. -[Jonathon] Thank you.
All right, up next.
The queen of aisle one,
Chef Mei Lin, what do you have for us?
[Mei Lin] In front of you, you have my signature spicy chicken sandwich.
So, this is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine.
I got the produce aisle.
Due to my budget constraints,
I went to the frozen aisle and got the chicken patties.
I hope you enjoy.
I love the construction of the sandwich.
So, even though this bun is a little bit smaller
and a little less bready, if you will,
the two chicken patties actually work throughout.
I like the coleslaw mix. The onion, the cilantro,
it's so freaking good.
This really played to my guilty pleasure from childhood.
When I first arrived in America,
in my high school,
I had the fried chicken sandwich for the very first time.
This, in a really good way, reminded me of my childhood.
So, I loved it.
What I'm not getting out of this is the spice
which is really weird because
there's so many different chilies that you've put into it
but I'm just not getting that spice.
All right, Judges. Last definitely not the least,
The GOAT, Chef Stephanie.
All right chef, what do you have for us?
So, you guys, I really went for the guilty pleasure thing.
If you look at me at home
when I'm just eating something that I want to eat,
I get a big, silver bowl from my kitchen,
I put a bunch of stuff in and I sit on the couch
happily watching some crappy movie that, like,
maybe I'll cry at the end.
[Stephanie] French fries, mayonnaise, butter, seafood...
So the shrimp is in there,
there's some grilled, there's some fried.
There's a smoked oyster and chili mayonnaise on top.
For the chilies, there's aji limo, cayenne and red pepper flakes.
It's just a messy bowl of yumminess.
I knew you spent all that money
going into the meat and seafood aisle
then you got there and you were like,
"I can't afford anything here."
But what I love that you did is,
you chose a really beautiful, expensive product like the crab.
Because the crab, the smoked oysters
and the shrimp just bring so many different dimensions of flavor and texture,
which are so, so, so good.
[Shirley] This is a 100% a guilty pleasure dish.
Really, I need a bigger spoon
so I can take a bigger spoonful.
I'm not-- Again, I'm not getting a massive amount of spice.
It's just a little bit in the beginning.
But a great dish. A really great dish.
This is it. Five weeks, we've been working towards this.
Right now, we're gonna send you back to the kitchens,
judges will deliberate, someone's going home
and then we will be into the championship
and who is gonna shop
Flavortown market for up to 35,000 bucks.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
-Thank you, judges. -Thanks, guys.
[Guy] So I'm gonna assume Chef Jonathon is safe.
-Yes. -A 100%.
Jonathon's spice actually carried through all three dishes.
Like, I'm actually still spicy.
[Guy] Let's talk about Chef Mei Lin's.
[Shirley] I love it.
But when it comes to gameplay,
when she shopped, she chose produce
but did not really let the produce aisle shine.
[Guy] Chef Stephanie.
[Antonia] Really smart. I mean, and especially because she had, like,
the least amount of money.
-Was it spicy though? -That dish was not spicy.
The question now is who is going home between Mei Lin and Stephanie Izard?
All right, judges. Thank you very much.
You all rocked it. You guys did an awesome job.
Thank you.
[Guy] All the dishes were delicious,
all the dishes were mindful
except, all the dishes were not spicy.
Two chefs will be moving on to the championship
and one chef will be talking about next year's competition.
The chef who'll be checking out
in this spicy-guilty pleasure round will be...
Unfortunately,
Chef Mei Lin.
Chef, your dish was lacking heat
but you are the tournament champion.
It's been awesome to have you but we'll say good night.
-Bye. -Bye.
[Mei Lin] Competing in Flavortown has been such an amazing experience.
I will definitely come back to redeem myself.
I can't remember the last time we had chefs of your caliber
competing in the finale.
One of you is just one cook away
from winning the championship trophy
and shopping Flavortown Market for up to $35,000.
For the final challenge...
[laughs nervously]
I want you to make...
the winner's dinner.
I want you to make sure it's the most impressive dish yet.
You only get one shot at this
and there can only be one winner.
So it makes sense that we should play
our most daunting aisle game ever.
One ingredient per aisle.
-Have you heard of this horrible game? -Yes.
You're gonna have to shop all 10 aisles
choosing only one single ingredient per aisle.
We will begin shopping in aisle 10, in the meat and dairy aisle,
all the way down to one.
You must use all 10 ingredients
in the preparation of this perfectly cohesive dinner.
Oh, my God.
[Guy] Make sure that every item and every minute count.
-Bearded baller, you ready to go? -Ready.
-GOAT, ready to go? -Yeah.
Do it.
He's like, "We're not messing around anymore. Y'all can just go."
[Guy] 10, meat and dairy aisle.
[Stephanie] The tricky bit is trying to plan out a dish.
There's a lot to choose from.
You only get one thing, I'm going for a big fat steak.
Winner, winner, steak dinner, sounds delicious to me.
Winner's dinner to me is indulgence and luxurious both.
Done.
I'm thinking fried chicken and caviar.
I just love the juxtaposition of high and low.
-Caviar. -Caviar.
-The one little jar? -That's it.
Fantastic. Aisle nine, frozen and bread.
[Stephanie] I, like, beelined for the ice cream.
I've got steak and I've got vanilla ice cream.
I'm gonna make a sundae.
This seems like a perfect meal.
What else could go with my fried chicken?
Why not add a little bit of sauce? Chili limo.
A Fresno derivative, that'll be great in my sauce.
[siren blaring]
Aisle eight, and as you'll notice
it's a red light special that you must use ingredient.
[Stephanie] We have to use cornflakes in our dish.
It's one of my favorite tricks at home.
Sauteing in butter and using on savory dishes, do it. It's the best.
[Jonathon] Fried chicken with cornflakes on the outside?
[laughs heartily]
This is going good.
[Guy] Aisle seven, candies, cookies, popcorn, syrups, cake mixes, chocolates...
I know I need something for my dredge.
Oh, we have unsweetened condensed milk.
That's gonna be perfect.
[Stephanie] I'm gonna get some chocolate.
I'm building a sundae
and one of my favorite things to put on a sundae is chocolate shell.
[Guy] Six.
[Stephanie] After being here for weeks,
I found aisle six is all of these amazing Asian ingredients.
So, there's a bag that looks like it's a meat marinade of some sort.
[Jonathon] There's a small international section there
that has some Korean barbeque sauce that I love.
[Guy] Aisle five, canned goods galore.
[Stephanie] I'm gonna grab canned mango and turn it into
a mango granita to make my sundae have
a whole another layer of flavor.
[Jonathon] I grab an anchovy paste to make
both my sauce and season my dredge.
[Guy] All right, aisle four. International food, pastas and tomatoes.
[Stephanie] Now, entering my favorite aisle in the store,
international food aisle.
The one I'm gonna get my favorite ingredient, fish sauce.
[Jonathon] Yuzu kosho, which relies on sancho chili peppers,
I think it's gonna really be the difference maker.
[Guy] Aisle three, fruit juices.
[Stephanie] I know I'm gonna need some acidity.
I'm gonna grab some lime juice.
[Jonathon] I'm gonna use the lime juice as well.
[Guy] Aisle two, condiment is king.
Aisle two, great aisle.
All these amazing condiments to choose from. What does Stephanie grab?
Coconut oil.
Cause coconut oil plus
chocolate chips makes chocolate shell
These two are shopping like gangsters.
No sweat. Just kind of into it.
[Jonathon] It's hot sauce time.
Perfect foil for my dredge.
Our final shop here, chefs. Produce.
[Stephanie] Any produce that you can possibly pick in the whole world,
and you know what I grab?
Fresnos that I can add into different places of my dish.
Let's go get some vegetables, Sawyer.
Mmm-mmm-mmm.
Let's grab a bunch of rotisserie chickens
for our fried chicken.
-[Simon] Nice thought. -What?
-[Shirley] So no produce. -[Antonia laughs]
[Shirley] He got chicken, no produce. Okay.
Judges be like, "Oh, what's he doing?"
After this cook, one of these chefs will shop
in Flavortown for up to $35,000
and it's gonna be really nice to see
what chef takes on that giant trophy.
Okay, Iron Chef, talk to me,
So if I'm gonna win something,
I want a big steak to celebrate.
-Right. -I want a giant ice cream sundae.
That's what you want. Okay.
The first thing I'm gonna get started on for my winner's dinner
is marinating my steaks.
So I use this mystery marinade.
It's all written in another language.
It's, like, you took soy sauce to the next level.
So flavorful. It's gonna marinate really fast.
Final round after being in the bottom three times
to get myself back in the competition.
Now it's like, let the adrenaline go
and push you all the way to the end.
It's caramel sauce day.
Funny, watching this cook, you'd think,
is this caramel sauce going on the sundae?
Nope, nope, nope. The caramel sauce is going on the steak.
Gonna add a little fish sauce.
It's like funkiness and saltiness.
Some people out there like, "Oh, that is intense."
But it just adds such great flavor to things.
Sweet and savory things.
Cooking the cereal in savory dishes is great.
You just saute it in butter and put it on top of just anything.
Chef, what's on the game plan?
We're doing fried chicken and caviar.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
I'm seasoning up my dredge for these thighs
with a bunch of anchovy, Tabasco--
So you're gonna fry the cooked chicken?
-Yes. -And what else is going in this dish?
I'm, gonna make a chili butter.
Just a chili yuzu kosho butter to go over top of it.
Okie-dokie. 21 minutes.
Nothing says a winner's dinner
quite like a $100 plate of fried chicken.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
I'm gonna win on this one.
A little nice spicy marinade
for that chicken.
After I get all of the thigh and dark meat removed,
I cover 'em with that Korean barbeque sauce and AP flour.
And then into that milk dredge.
Cereal dusted chicken is delicious.
I'm gonna go no basket.
Okay. Looks good.
He just fried cooked chicken.
I don't know what's gonna happen
but I think it could be really interesting.
For me, if I won something,
I want, like, a giant ice cream sundae.
Chocolate shell is a really easy thing to make at home.
You just take chocolate, melt it, add in some coconut oil.
It's magical.
So you melt it with the coconut
and as soon as it gets cold, it ceases back up.
-Exactly. It's science. -Gotcha.
So next I'm gonna work on the mango granita.
So I put some of the mangos
into the blender with a little bit of lime juice.
Ernie and I are really big on desert.
Ernie is my six and a half, almost seven year old.
He's amazing. He's the best thing that's ever happened to me.
I'm so excited for Ernie to see this
and I'm also just excited to try to win.
[Jonathon] How you doing, Steph?
[Stephanie] Uh, not great. How you doing?
I almost lost a chicken thigh.
It's just me and Stephanie now.
Here we are.
The chicken is bone shatteringly crispy.
My daughter and son would be so proud of me if I won.
It would be the biggest happiness I could get this year.
Warm.
I started on my sauce.
Yuzu kosho. So in a sauce pan,
I put butter, chilies, yuzu kosho and lime juice.
Nice.
[Guy] Three minutes. Three minutes to plate.
[Stephanie] Honestly, I'm in such hurry,
I'm just gonna grab the steaks, throw 'em on the plate,
put the caramel sauce over it.
Make sure there's Fresnos everywhere
and crunchy cereal on top of them.
There we go.
Now I've gotta build this sundae really quickly.
So it's ice cream, some chocolate shell.
This is it.
I feel good about what I'm putting up as my last dish or dishes.
[Guy] 90 seconds.
[Jonathon] First thing I do is down with the anchovy-chili-lime sauce.
Then I place my chicken thigh on top, beautiful.
I got enough...
Why not add a little bit more fried chicken?
Equal parts of caviar. One.
This is a seemingly simple but magical bite of food.
The best that I've prepared this entire competition.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one. That's it.
[all cheering]
-[Guy] Great job, chefs. Great job. -Wow.
-Wow.
Ridiculous. Light on the herbs.
Whoa!
It's time to find out whose winner dinner lives up to its name.
Let's take it to the judges. Right this way.
[Guy] All right, judges. This is it. The final game of our all-star gauntlet.
Chefs had to pick 10 ingredients from 10 aisles.
Up first, Chef Jonathon.
Tell us about this winner's dinner.
So I go right to winner, winner, chicken dinner.
And for me when I'm thinking about a victory,
I want something that is both indulgent and luxurious.
And fried chicken and caviar achieves both of those things
I fried the rotisserie chicken,
I used chilies with a bunch of anchovy paste
and yuzu kosho with butter
and key lime as the sauce underneath.
And then over top, I refried some more of those corn flakes.
So you get a crispy bit everywhere.
Fried chicken and caviar.
Such a smart plate.
Although, since we're celebrating,
I would love to have more caviar on my chicken.
This has that saltiness that you want from the caviar,
it has that crunchiness that you want from the flakes.
-It's a fantastic dish. -Thank you.
One ingredient per aisle is one of the hardest games
because you're trying to figure out how to take that one ingredient
and turn it into a dish aisle by aisle.
This is winner, winner, chicken dinner all day.
I think that maybe you thought you didn't do enough
and you put another piece of chicken on the side
with some sauce, that's missing caviar.
You didn't need to do that.
The chicken, the sauce and the caviar were totally enough.
Thank you, Chef.
Not to be out done, the Iron Chef, Stephanie Izard.
What do you have for us?
So when I heard a winner's dinner,
I made it for, like, if I was the winner, this would be my dinner.
We have a steak that's got a fish sauce-toffee sauce,
almost like, a little thicker than a caramel
and to, like, really coat it, get it sticky.
Then we have our flakes
that are for the nice texture on top.
We got Fresnos which I put on just about everything.
Then you go onto the sundae,
we got vanilla ice cream with chocolate shell
that has a little fish sauce in it to make it salty.
You've got mango granita on top,
so it's, like, the way that I cook
but also what I would want to eat as a winner. All in one.
It's all about the fish sauce caramel.
That's what makes this dish work.
'Cause it has that cloutiness almost to the mouth.
It's beautiful.
It's absolutely spectacular.
When you first told me
you were going to serve me steak and ice cream,
and eat it side-by-side,
I was a little scared.
So, after I ate this ice cream,
the steak tastes so much more savory,
and fish sauce and everything, all makes sense.
This steak is perfectly cooked.
It's perfectly seasoned.
But I wanted more Fresnos.
I needed more vinegar and acid.
-Yeah. -[Guy] All right, thank you very much, judges.
Chefs, this was a crazy battle.
So, I'll send you back to the kitchens,
we'll call you back when we have a decision.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
Appreciate it.
All right, chefs.
This is to take home the big trophy
and someone's gonna get to shop Flavortown for up to 35,000 bucks.
Chef Stephanie has been in the bottom three different times.
She's had to fight her way to get here.
-She's cooked more than anybody in the competition. -Oh, wow.
But Chef Jonathon has been
-consistently cracking the ball. -[Simon] Yeah.
Let's go to Chef Jonathon, good and bad.
The gameplay of the rotisserie chicken fry was so smart.
Amazing.
When it comes to plating,
Jonathon is always a little bit off.
Chef Stephanie.
I think that the key of that dish was the fish caramel.
-It was incredible. -Delicious.
What I think that Stephanie's dish needed a lot more of is acid.
I hate to say, but there's only one chef
that's gonna go shopping for $35,000.
The eight chefs that came in here were amazing.
And I gotta tell you, they beat silly out of GGG.
And here we are. There can only be one winner.
The winner of the all star grocery game gauntlet,
the trophy and up to $35,000 is...
Iron Chef Stephanie Izard.
-Congratulations. -Thank you.
-[all applauding] -Congrats.
[Guy] Ladies and gentlemen, that close but I promise you, you'll see him again.
Give it up for Chef Jonathon Sawyer, the bearded baller.
It's crazy to think that there was eight of us competing here.
And now at the very end,
it's really just mind blowing to--
and honoring to be a part of this competition.
Give it up for our winner of the gauntlet,
Chef Stephanie Izard.
[all applauding]
All right, Chef. Here's a couple of things you're gonna have.
Let's do little inventory.
On this card here, I have five clues.
Okay.
Each clue is worth $7,000.
Uh, you have two minutes on the clock.
Now, Hunter is gonna meet you around the store
when you find those items.
-Okay. -Get all five and you will win...
-$35,000. -$35,000.
It's like a scavenger hunt.
-It is like a scavenger hunt. -Yes!
But there is one other thing you need to know.
Our friends at Kellogg's,
they have teamed up with the Food Network to give a gift in your name
that can help provide
200,000 meals to "No kid hungry."
-Oh, my gosh. That's amazing. -In your name.
Is that fantastic?
-[all applauding] -Huge.
Okay, Chef, here we go.
I'm gonna leave a list of this for you here.
-Okay. -I'll read you the first clue
and once you think you know what it is,
you can go and get it.
A green vegetable named for the European capital city where they were cultivated.
Should I go?
As soon as you're ready, the clock starts.
And she's off, ladies and gentlemen.
[all applauding]
Oh, my God. I feel dumb right now.
You got this. Come on. Oh, you're so close.
-I'm looking at green vegetables. -You're so close.
-Brussels sprouts. -There you. That's one. Brussels sprouts.
$7,000. I love this.
Popular breakfast item containing flakes of cereal bran and raisins.
[Stephanie] My most favorite cereal growing up, Raisin Bran.
[Guy] Popular breakfast item containing flakes of cereal bran and raisins.
-[Hunter] She got it. -[Guy] There we go.
Yes, yes, yes.
Cheese typically found in the dressing for a wedge salad.
-Blue cheese. -Blue cheese, blue cheese.
[sighs in relief]
-Blue cheese. -Cheese aisle, cheese aisle, there we go.
-Wow. -[Stephanie] Now we're up to $21,000.
You've got two more. Let's see if we can get to 35.
Flatbread traditionally baked in a tandoori oven.
45 seconds.
[Antonia] Come on, Chef!
[speaking indistinctly]
Tandoori naan.
-$28,000. -[Shirley] Wow.
Pasta with a shape-inspire name
that means "little ears" in Italian.
One of my favorites.
I forgot all the aisles. I already forgot all the aisles.
She gets this, she wins $35,000.
I never remember the name of any pasta.
Let's go look for this one.
Little ears?
What the-- Oh, Orecchiette.
[Hunter] There it is. Number five's good.
[all cheering]
[Stephanie] $35,000 in just a number of minutes and grand champion.
I am so thrilled after weeks of being here,
cooking with some of my greatest chef friends.
Well done.
This is an amazing day.
$35,000. The Iron Chef, Stephanie Izard.
-[all cheering] -We'll see you next week on GGG.
Adios.
You crushed it. Crushed it.