Fire station cooks are commandeering the store,
and taking on our three-alarm Grocery Games.
[siren wailing]
Flashing red lights, flashing red lights.
[Guy] Sure, they're great at fighting a blaze,
but can they stand the heat in our kitchens?
Oh, no. My squash is burning.
It hurts my eyes already.
Whoo!
Who will get the axe and who will save the day?
We're about to find out.
Check it out, it's Flavortown's new firehouse dog, Smokey.
Listen, listen, don't look now,
but Smokey's got some competition.
-Cash! You don't even have a driver's license. -[toy fire alarm blaring]
I mean, this place is going to the dogs.
It's Firefighters in Flavortown right now on Guy's Grocery Games.
All right, Cash, show me how to get to the nearest fire hydrant.
I think he's going to the deli.
[siren wailing]
So, let's meet our fearless firefighters.
Now first up, we have Boh Blackwell,
a firefighter from Baltimore, Maryland,
who loves to cook southern comfort food
for his wife and kids.
I got seven kids at home. Biggest critics.
I always test out on the kids first. [chuckles]
And then I'll take it to the firehouse.
Once everyone figured out that I can cook,
I've been cooking ever since.
Yeah, I was one of those kids
that dreamed of driving a fire truck.
I've been a firefighter for eight, going on nine years now.
So it's like a dream come true.
-[Guy] Big man. -What's going on?
[Guy] Looking good, buddy.
Next we have Viviana Besteiro,
a first generation Cuban-American
from Florida, who loves cooking in the firehouse.
Cooking in the firehouse, I do traditional Cuban.
They love my food. We set up the kitchen table,
and it's like, "Hey, V, what are you cooking for us today?"
It was great to hear the stories of my parents.
They came here from Cuba.
We were taught to,
"You could do whatever you want in United States.
Just work. You can do it."
Here I am, I'm a firefighter. Pretty amazing.
Go get 'em.
Then there's Jonathan Bauer, the Sonoma County home cook,
who's broadening his fellow firefighters palates
with his global cuisine.
I'm a firefighter paramedic for Sonoma County Fire.
Um, my style can range all over the place.
Curries, Israeli food, Chinese food.
I want it to be something that we can all look forward to.
I know I'm gonna get teased at the firehouse
regardless of what happens today,
so just gotta make the most of it.
I don't think I've ever seen a fireman...
[camera clicks]
That's a Sonoma County guy.
And finally Nicole Selmer, the Minnesota firefighter
who loves to cook and garden
when she's not battling forest fires.
[Nicole] Being a wildland firefighter,
we live in a very remote area
so we tend to cook a lot of food
that we either hunt or gather.
When I cook for our firefighters,
if you're just cooking something fresh,
they're just happy to have it.
[Guy] Hello there. Ow!
-How are we feeling? -Good.
-Yeah. -Really good.
Good. I really do love having firehouse chefs compete in Flavortown market
because not only do I wanna salute you
and recognize you and thank you for all that you do,
but I also know the firehouse chefs
are some of the best cooks in the country,
and fire chef
is just one dotted i away from being fire chief.
-[laughing] -[Guy] Huh?
-Maybe. -Tonight you're gonna compete
in two exciting culinary games
-that'll put your feet to the fire. -[laughing]
Ba-dam-pum. I'll be here all week.
The firehouse chef with the lowest score
at the end of the round unfortunately will be
required to go wash all the hoses out
and put them back on the truck
and not participate in the next game.
Wah, wah, wah.
Is dragging the hose out the worst part?
-That's the worse job. -That's the one I'd be stuck with.
But I will tell you the fire chef
with the highest combined score
at the end of both rounds
will be declared the winner
and get to shop Flavortown Market for up to
20,000 bucks.
-Whoo! -[Guy] Okay?
So for your first challenge,
I want you to make your spicy firehouse favorite.
All right.
Is spicy something firefighters like?
-Oh, yeah, absolutely. -Yeah.
I love spicy. I want you to make a delicious dish
that's got enough kick to satisfy the entire crew,
-but... -Oh, no.
...because you're firefighters, you're heroes,
I don't wanna make this challenge ridiculously hard.
I just want you to shop with your hearts
and make the best dish you can.
-Oh. -[Guy] Sound good?
-Sounds good. -Yeah.
You only have 30 minutes to shop,
and prepare and plate,
your spicy firehouse favorite.
Any questions?
-No, sir. -No.
Which is worse, a three alarm,
two alarm, or one alarm?
Which one do you go to first?
-[Viviana] Is this a catch? -[Jonathan] Yep.
Whoa!
Ooh...
[Guy] They didn't stick around for me to tell 'em,
because they said three alarm, two alarm, one alarm
'cause I do have a three-alarm
red light special sale that they're gonna need to check out.
[Jonathan] Guy tells us we have to make
this spicy firehouse favorite
and immediately I'm thinkin',
"I got this round."
For my spicy firehouse favorite,
I'm gonna make my Five-Alarm Orange Chicken.
I cooked it just a couple of days ago
for the crew and they loved it.
To make the spicy orange sauce I know I need brown sugar...
Sriracha. Here we go. Okay.
...orange juice, ginger, garlic,
soy sauce and white vinegar.
-Perfect. All right. -[alarm blaring]
[Guy over PA] Attention, shoppers, we have a three-alarm
fire sale going on here at Flavortown Market.
What is going on?
[Guy] These are three ingredients
that you must incorporate in your dish.
Jalapeño potato chips, chili con queso, and serrano peppers.
I was waiting for Guy to do somethin'.
Look for the flashing red lights and you'll see what you need to grab.
Flashing red lights, flashing red lights. Okay.
[Guy mimics siren]
This is crazy.
Where are they?
So for me being a firefighter is being able to...
control chaos, to have the best outcome.
Serrano!
My station loves serrano peppers.
I'm thinking I'm gonna throw it in my sauce
just to make sure it gets a little bit extra heat.
-You got to grab that. -Chili con queso?
-There you go! -Beautiful.
[Guy] Just helping them out
making some really good decisions of things they're gonna wanna use.
Okay, um, I've never cooked with chili con queso.
I got to decide what I could use it for later.
All right. What else? Here we go.
Then I finally find the third special and it's jalapeño chips.
and I know immediately this is gonna be my chicken breading.
I am excited to go against my other firefighters
but we all tend to be type A and competitive,
so I'm not gonna feel too bad if they lose.
We got a little bit of everybody.
Florida,
Baltimore.
Well, at least we got some North Cal.
We got some Sonoma County up here.
Minneapolis.
Whoo!
This is so cool.
I can't believe that I'm here in Flavortown.
But it is hard.
Spicy firehouse favorite.
I immediately thought Sonoran dogs.
Typically, it's a hot dog. You wrap it in bacon.
Hot dogs are here.
You never know when
you're gonna get a call for a fire
and it's usually right when the food's ready.
So you need something to put in your hand
that you can stuff in your face
and you can eat on your way to the fire.
[fire siren blaring]
Jalapeño chips.
I can dredge them in jalapeño chip dust
and then deep-fry the dogs.
Oh, there's a light.
-[fire siren blaring] -I do not cook with serrano peppers a lot,
and I have to use it.
Chili con queso.
I don't like cheese sauce very much.
But I thought that it would probably go well as a sauce
with Sriracha mayo anyway.
Mayo.
Being a firefighter, we're used to being in a stressful situation.
Oh, shoot.
There's a lot of adrenaline which I love,
'cause I'm an adrenaline junkie.
That's part of the job description.
[Viviana] Pasta, pasta, pasta.
We make a lot of pasta in the firehouse.
Everybody loves that.
So I knew that that was the dish to go with.
-[fire siren blaring] -Luckily, I use
spicy peppers at the firehouse,
so I know what to do.
Serranos are great charred.
I'm also grabbing fresnos to up my spice.
Cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese.
Spicy and creamy in a pasta just go together.
I knew I was gonna make a cream sauce.
Incorporating the chili con queso was a given.
The jalapeño chips,
really not sure what I'm going to do with it.
But I'll figure it out.
Boom! Boom!
This is so unreal to me right now
that I am here.
Gonna be on TV, I met Guy.
How cool is that?
[fire siren blaring]
[Boh] For me at the firehouse, never know when you're gonna get a call,
so we gotta cook our meals quick
and still try and make it delicious at the same time.
And I feel like everyone eats chicken.
So I'm thinking, "Why not?" Let's go with chicken sandwich.
Bacon.
I just love bacon on my sandwiches.
Bacon makes everything taste better.
[laughs]
-[fire siren blaring] -The chips will be good for the breading.
Coating the chicken.
Jalapeño chips.
So the sandwich needs some type of spicy sauce.
Serranos will bring a lot of the heat.
Honey, honey, honey.
Hot honey is to kind of balance out the heat a little bit.
Chili con queso.
First thing that popped in my mind was to make a cheese sauce.
Eggs, eggs, eggs.
Yeah, used to working under pressure.
Just not used to cooking under pressure.
It's the only thing that's a little different.
Lucky we have a smoking panel of judges here
to critique our firefighters' dishes.
Now we have Food Network star and authority on all things spicy,
the one and only Aarti Sequeira.
Food critic, world traveler who knows how to say, "That's hot!"
-in 55 different languages. -[laughter]
The one and only Sir Simon Majumdar.
And James Beard Award winning chef,
who is an acclaimed master
of both Italian and Asian spices,
give it up for Chef Karen Akunowicz.
All right, I hope you are liking it spicy.
I love spicy.
This is tough. Listen, these firefighters
are used to dealing with stressful situations,
I can imagine.
But this supermarket is a thing of its own.
[laughs]
[Aarti] It's massive, there's cameras,
there's a clock, there's Guy.
Also, don't look Aarti in the eye.
[laughing]
Twenty-five minutes, chefs! What's the gameplan, chef?
Super spicy Sonoran dog.
-[Guy] Sonoran dog. -[Nicole] Oh yeah.
What's gonna go on with the chips?
I'm thinking I might use that to coat...
-To coat the dog? -Yep.
Are you gonna wrap the hotdog in the bacon?
Yeah. First I'm getting
the peppers and the onions starting to grill.
Okay, good. Get 'em.
[Nicole] My first whammy ingredient,
serrano peppers, is out of the way.
I'm really excited about the Sonoran dog
on a skewer and the deep fryer.
'Cause the Minnesota fair, everything's on a stick.
My experience with spicy jalapeño chips is
just opening the bag and stuffing my face with them.
I'll be curious to see how Nicole gets
the jalapeño chips into that dish.
[Nicole] My first instinct of course would be to put them on the side.
But I know that's not part of the gameplay.
So I decided to roll all of my Sonoran dogs
in the jalapeño chip dust.
I'm making things up as I go along here.
I was hoping and praying.
I was thinking like, "Ooh, it's fatty enough it might work."
[Aarti] Okay, so I'm looking at the hotdogs going down.
Did they hold?
[Nicole] I don't use deep fryers much at all.
I don't know how to do this.
Some of the chips have held on, but not many.
[Nicole] Maybe I'm just gonna start a fire right here in the store.
Good thing we have lots of firefighters here to put it out.
[siren wailing]
[Guy] Twenty-three minutes. Twenty-three left.
[Aarti] Okay, so I'm looking at the hotdogs with jalapeño chips.
Did they hold?
[Nicole] I'd taken the dogs out of the fryer,
I saw they were sticking,
and I knew it was golden.
Ooh! That is what I like to see.
Nothing's on fire yet. So I think I'm doing okay.
We've seen chefs have to incorporate one whammy ingredient
into their dish and struggle.
And these firefighter chefs now have to incorporate three.
[Karen] Chili con queso, jalapeño potato chips, serrano peppers.
But here's the thing. Firefighters, they're all ready to go.
Down the pole and out the door.
Chef, what's on the menu?
I call it my five-alarm orange chicken.
[Guy] And you're gonna be able to incorporate these other ingredients?
[Jonathan] They work with my dish perfectly.
Perfect.
This is definitely the firehouse favorite.
I make this all the time, The guys love it.
First thing I wanna do is my sauce.
Orange juice and corn starch.
Ginger, garlic,
soy sauce,
Sriracha and white vinegar.
At home I make a lot of orange chicken,
but the firehouse is where I definitely get
a little bit more of my experimenting in.
Want some heat? This will be hot.
Next thing, I'm gonna add my whammy ingredient, the serranos.
While my sauce is simmering down and reducing,
I wanna get started on this rice.
I like to put sugar in the rice.
Makes it a little bit sweeter, a little bit sticker, and adds some good flavor.
What are you gonna make, chef?
I'm gonna make a spicy pasta
with a cream sauce and some sausage.
Got it. Got it.
[Viviana] First thing I'm going to get started is,
my sausage and pepper mix for my pasta.
I wanna try my serrano peppers,
because it's going to bring all the flavors out.
It's gonna give you that pop.
We make pasta a lot all the time.
Next, chili con queso sauce.
I actually think the cheese is maybe the hottest one.
I take a chip and I dip it in it
And that's what I do with chili con queso.
I don't ever cook with it.
[Viviana] With the limited time that we had,
I was going to go with cream-based pasta.
The chili con queso was pretty spicy.
Being Hispanic, being Cuban,
we cook with a lot of spice.
That is definitely spicy.
It hurts my eyes already.
At the firehouse, they do like spicy food.
I don't live with my family, I'm nine hours away from them.
Firefighters are my family.
It's coming.
All right, bud.
What's the idea here?
I'm gonna do a buffalo chicken sandwich.
-I'm gonna fry it up. -Okay.
[Boh] Gonna put it in the dredge, you know, a little egg.
What'd you season the flour with?
[Boh] Smoked paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper.
-You gonna dredge 'em into those chips? -[Boh] Yeah.
Jalapeño chips, like, in my opinion, not really too spicy.
Little salty, so,
it might work in my favor.
Engine 52, Baltimore.
They love eating, so,
kind of just cook to make everybody happy.
There we go.
Next, I'm gonna start working on this buffalo sauce.
[Guy] So you're getting into a hot honey now?
[Boh] Yeah. Mix it with the barbecue sauce.
All right.
I take the red light special serrano pepper,
split it in half with the seeds and everything
be in the sauce, just to give it a little extra kick.
That's a good move.
Chefs, we are at the halfway point.
Fifteen minutes to go.
Where's the mayo going?
[Nicole] It's gonna be in the sauce
that I'm gonna make with the queso.
Got it.
[Nicole] Grab the mayo, Sriracha,
and dumped in as much as I could.
But I can feel some heat in there
and I don't want to overpower the judges
with all of the peppers.
I'm gonna throw them into the deep fryer,
take some of that heat out.
Oh, that's perfect.
So while my sauce is reducing down,
I know I need to get working on my chicken.
So for the dredge, I know I wanna get those jalapeño chips
right over into the food processor.
[Aarti] He's doing a five-alarm orange chicken.
How is the cheese gonna work
into that dish?
[Jonathan] Let's throw some chili queso in here.
Why the heck not?
And then it hits me.
I can throw this into the dredge
because it's got dairy in it, it's gonna pair nicely, and...
Heck, if I can mask a little bit of this flavor,
then made it in the dish.
So I am married to my wife Cheryl.
We have three kids, with one more coming very soon.
If I win the money today, I'm gonna put it away
and wait until after the baby's born,
and then we will go on a trip,
just me and my wife.
[Viviana] I want my sauce to be...
perfect.
Not too thick, not too runny.
I was scared that it was gonna be too thick.
So I added more heavy whipping cream.
Then it was getting too runny.
Then I decided to throw the pasta into my cream sauce.
Winning today will get me a step closer
into opening up my Cuban popup.
A bar and restaurant
having my own Cuban layer in it.
There's a plan.
[Guy] Got good heat in there, I'll give you that.
Good, like to hear that.
[Guy] Eight minutes, eight to go.
Whoa. It looks like Boh's already pulled his chicken out of the fryer.
You see the color on that?
-That's really good. -Beautiful. That's golden brown delicious.
[Boh] Bacon is cooking.
So the last thing I want to do is figure out this queso
that's gonna go over top of the sandwich.
Chop up some of the serrano peppers,
and throw them in as well,
just to give it extra kick.
I went to grab some cheddar cheese.
Little cheesy element that most people like.
Except for me. I'm lactose intolerant.
I don't eat cheese at all.
I don't eat dairy.
Chef, you got some pretty thick pieces of chicken.
And I'm not sure that you're cooked all the way through.
Right.
It's starting to get a little wary.
I didn't come to Flavortown today
to serve the judges undercooked chicken.
I'm just gonna leave this chicken in the oven till the last possible second
to make sure that it's cooked all the way through.
Five minutes. Five to go.
[Nicole] Serrano peppers,
I take them out of the fryer.
I put the bun on the plate.
I put in the Sonoran dog
and then I top it with the grilled onions
and the peppers.
I drizzle a little queso Sriracha sauce on the top.
And I put the rest into ramekins.
If the judges want a little bit more spice,
they can always dip the Sonoran dog into the Sriracha sauce.
[Jonathan] So I check on the chicken,
and it is looking perfect.
After I had some sauce on it, I knew
this is gonna be a home run.
I wanna get my rice on the plate,
then I add my five-alarm orange chicken right next to it.
I'm gonna make sure that there's some heat in it,
finishing the chicken with that Sriracha.
Oh my gosh. Okay, Jonathan is squeezing
an entire bottle of Sriracha right over the orange chicken
and over the rice.
That's too much, right?
[Guy] Three minutes.
[Viviana] I throw my pasta into bowls.
And then I grab the sausage and peppers
and toss them on top of my pasta.
Then I garnish with green onions and some more cheese.
I have to use jalapeño potato chips.
So I crush them on top
kind of to give it a little crunch.
Ninety seconds, chefs, ninety seconds.
[Boh] Time's moving a lot faster than I want it to.
Take the chicken out the oven,
checking on temperature. This is a big moment.
166.
-And it is perfect. -[Simon] Nice.
Yay!
[Guy] Forty-five seconds.
[Boh] Put the bottom bun down,
toss the chicken in the sauce,
and the bacon on top,
lay the cheese across the top of the sandwich.
Five, four, three, two, one.
That's it.
Good job, everyone.
I gotta tell, you all are fire!
Let's take those spicy firehouse favorites
to the judges right this way.
All right, judges, this is it.
Our chef firefighters had to shop
for their spicy firehouse favorite.
Then I hit them with a three-alarm fire sale,
which they were so excited,
featuring three red light specials
that they had to incorporate in their dish.
- [fire siren blaring] -Jalapeño potato chips,
chili con queso, and serrano peppers.
Chef Viviana, what have you got for us?
Pasta is a big thing in the fire station.
I did pasta, and I made my own cream sauce
with chili con queso and heavy whipping cream.
I sauteed the sausage with the onions and my peppers
and I topped off the potato chips,
as a little crunch.
Enjoy, chefs.
So everybody's got to carry a fire hose.
Do all that heavy lifting and you're putting cream sauce on them.
The boys don't like to be hungry.
There is definitely some heat in here.
I get some sweetness from the peppers,
because you got a nice little roasty toasty char
on the outside of them and I really love that.
I would love so much more herb.
Something nice and fresh because it needs some high notes.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you, chef.
[Karen] Viviana, I love that you made a pasta.
I like that you used the shorter egg noodles,
and I like that they were the same size as the sausage.
I thought that was a nice touch.
But I wish that you could plate prettier.
I think you could have been a little bit more careful.
Yes, ma'am.
The potatoes on it, the potato chips,
I don't think worked. You've just kind of crumbled them on top.
But the cheesy pasta itself
is lovely.
Thank you, chef.
Okay, thank you very much.
Up next, Chef Nicole.
Today, I've made for you Selmer's spicy Sonoran dogs.
The serrano peppers were deep-fried,
and the queso I made into a sauce.
You can take the whole bun and dunk it into the ramekin
if you need a little more heat.
And I breaded the whole shebang
with the jalapeño potato chips.
I really like the way that you've used each of those
ingredients that have been given to you.
Those jalapeño chips work really well.
They taste really nice on there as well.
Thank you, chef.
Yeah, I was like, "Those chips are not gonna stick.
They're not gonna stick." And they stick.
And they're great!
And the fried serranos are like a game changer.
It gets them a little crispy,
it does temper their heat a little bit.
So that was really cool use of that ingredient.
I do wish that it was a little spicier.
I wish that you had taken this cheese sauce,
and just put it all over the hot dog like a...
a chili cheese dog.
-Oh, cool. That would have been good. -[Karen laughs]
If you have pickled the serranos maybe,
it would have brought a little more acid
and brightness and balanced it out.
Thank you very much.
All right. Up next, Chef Boh, what have you got for us?
I made for you guys buffalo chicken sandwich.
I took the queso sauce,
chopped up some of the serranos,
put it in the cheese sauce,
the chicken was breaded with the jalapeño chips,
and then the hot sauce is just...
Little hot sauce,
some hot honey and the serrano pepper.
Could you have made it bigger?
[laughter]
I'd take a nap, get up, eat the other quarter of it.
[chuckles]
I loved the crisp exterior on the outside of that chicken.
Using the chips as your dredge was such a great gameplay.
Your chicken is cooked all the way through.
-Hurray, 'cause we were concerned. -Thank you.
When I saw you take the fried chicken and toss it with that hot honey,
I was so excited for it.
Sweet and spicy, that was so smart.
I just wish that it had more heat.
Adding more serrano to the sauce,
that would've really given it a little more heat.
[no audio]
The cheese sauce has gone very clumpy.
But I love the bacon, I love the crumb of that chicken sandwich.
-I think that's all fantastic. -Thank you, chef.
All right. Chef Jonathan, what do you have for us, bud?
Chefs, today for you I made my five-alarm orange chicken.
In order to fry the chicken I used that chili queso.
And then, for my breading, I used ground up jalapeño chips.
And then for the sauce, it has serranos in it.
And then I gave it a little sriracha drizzle.
I love the flavor of your orange sauce.
It's so smart to use the cheese sauce as part of your breading.
-That's great gameplay. -Right. Thank you.
The orange chicken itself has a good texture.
It has a great heat. You have those serranos.
Out of everyone here you've raised the heat more than anybody.
But the rice doesn't need anything.
That's a cooling element.
So putting sriracha on that, to me, is a mistake.
The plating, it's actually a very pretty dish, which counts, right?
We eat with our eyes first.
And I really like how much different crispy-crunches are here, using the chips.
So well done.
-Okay, thank you. -[Guy] That's some tasty sauce.
And this is something you make regularly at the firehouse?
This is a refined over many chef's recipe.
If you see me knocking on the door...
there's a '68 Camaro in the driveway,
I won't block when the engines come out. I know that deal.
[all laughing]
Thank you, judges. I think y'all made really nice dishes.
Let's let the judges deliberate. We're gonna send you back to the kitchens.
We'll call you when we have a decision. Thank you very much.
Judges, 20 points available in gameplay,
20 points available on taste, 10 points on plating.
So which spicy firehouse flavor brought the heat?
All right. It is time to add up the numbers your spicy dish
proved that you have a burning culinary passion.
Chef Boh, 13 out of 20 in gameplay,
16 out of 20 in taste,
seven out of 10 for plating, for a total of 36.
Viviana,
13 out of 20 in gameplay, 14 out of 20 in taste,
six out of 10 for plating, for a score of 33.
Jonathan, 16 out of 20 in gameplay,
16 out of 20 in taste, eight out of 10 for plating,
40. Nice score.
All right, Viviana, this is going to be the end of the fire-engine ride
unless Nicole comes in at a 33 or lower.
15 out of 20 in gameplay,
17 out of 20 in taste,
seven out of 10 for plating for a 39. Congratulation, second place.
Unfortunately, Viviana, you're going home.
And it takes a lot of courage, and a lot of guts for anybody to come in here
and compete in Flavortown Market.
I'm sorry 33 doesn't keep you, but it sure was great to meet you.
[Viviana] I probably could've made my plate more presentable.
Nice meeting you.
And make the flavors come together a little bit better.
Come here. Very nice to meet you.
I'm very proud of myself that I was able to execute
when you have 30 minutes to do it. Pretty amazing.
-The three of you really smoked that round one. -[all chuckling dryly]
That's the only joke I have for you.
So for the final challenge...
I want you to make a beautifully plated dish to impress the boss.
I want you to cook for your captain.
Not just a bucket of fried chicken...
Bucket... Bucket... That's...
That reminds me.
The next game is gonna be inspired by buckets.
Back how firefighters used to fight in the old days.
Town folk fought fires by doing the bucket brigade.
Filling one and passing it along.
The volunteers passed the buckets...
from the nearest watering hole area to wherever the fire was.
So why don't you go ahead and step in front of your carts...
You're really gonna appreciate this.
Bucket brigade. So what's gonna happen is,
Hunter is going to bucket brigade in a bucket to you.
Once you see the bucket...
you look inside of it, if you wanna keep that item,
it's a must use ingredient in your dish.
If you don't want it, you can pass it on.
Jonathan, because you were first,
I'm going to allow you to get the first bucket in the bucket brigade.
I'm gonna have you guys swap.
So now when the bucket brigade come in, it'll go Jonathan...
and then Nicole, and last, it'll go to you.
Boh, if you don't like it, you set it down.
But at the end of it, when the last bucket comes through, you may be stuck with it.
Let's go. Bucket brigade, bring it out.
When these start getting handed to you, you either take it or you move it.
Here we go, bucket brigade. Go!
[Jonathan] I don't wanna pass off something I might've wanted,
and I don't even know what's coming up next.
I am feeling pretty overwhelmed with this.
Liquid smoke is way too powerful.
[Boh] First bucket I get is the liquid smoke.
There's a couple of different ways that I can use this. So I just go with it.
You want it? Put it in your basket.
[Nicole] I started to panic, so I grabbed the first one that looked familiar,
pancake mix.
There you go, last two coming your way!
[Jonathan] Boxed mashed potatoes, well, I know there are potatoes in my next dish.
So let's see what I can do with this.
[Guy] Great!
Boh, what did you grab for your bucket?
-Some liquid smoke. -Okay.
[Nicole] Pancake mix.
-All right. -Mashed potatoes.
Do you use boxed mashed potatoes at the firehouse?
Never.
'Cause here's what's gonna happen.
You have 30 minutes to shop, prepare and plate your captain's dinner
using your mandatory ingredient.
But I know, as firefighters, you like to be nimble and quick.
I don't want you pushing those carts around.
How about you just use those buckets?
Right?
You remember. You just take those buckets
and when I go three, two, one, go, you carry that bucket...
Ha! Gotcha on that one!
[cackles]
[Nicole] I'm regretting the fact that I panicked and took the pancake mix.
But it was the first one that looked familiar. I'm gonna roll with it.
My husband's favorite way to fry fish is equal parts fish seasoning,
and pancake mix.
I'm gonna go for seasoned.
Pick up in aisle whatever this is.
I decide to do a Minnesota fish fry with sole.
Tartar sauce is one of the most important components of a fish fry.
I need relish and horse radish.
It gives it a little bit of a kick, but it's not too overpowering.
Normally, I'm gonna pair it with coleslaw...
Lemon!
...but it's not fancy enough for a captain's dinner.
I need some summer squash.
At home, we do this. I take it right out of the garden and we grill it.
-Does your captain like a lot of squash? -Loves it.
I can't see the bottom of my bucket anymore...
because I've got everything heaped up over the top.
Hope I got everything.
I'm regretting the fact that it's entirely filled with this giant box of pancake mix.
That's the most zucchini I've ever seen anybody shop for
in Grocery Games.
[Boh] So I only have one shot,
and I have to fit all my ingredients inside of this bucket.
One of my favorite things to cook that everyone loves at the fire station...
is my salmon. Top thing on my list to cook.
And the liquid smoke just give it that smoky flavor.
All right.
So to go with the salmon I wanna do a corn succotash.
Kind of a special occasion type of thing.
This is fit for a captain.
The salsa verde gives it a little kick to it,
but also add the flavor to the corn.
Something that both looks good and tastes good
so that they can enjoy it and be like, "Dang, that's a nice dish."
-Boh, once you're done shopping, you're done. -[Boh] Yes, sir.
Okay.
Pork, pork, pork, pork, pork.
For my cook for my captain meal, I'm making one of his favorites.
My pork chops with a creamy Dijon-spinach sauce...
and mashed potatoes as a base.
Boxed mashed potatoes are bland, and they are gummy.
Some garlic and onion.
I need something fresher than just boxed mashed potatoes.
So these extra potatoes, they're tiny,
I know they're gonna cook fast, and I can squeeze 'em into my bucket.
I gotta make sure that he is happy.
Heavy cream. Oh, okay. Yeah.
[Guy] This'll be interesting.
I don't know about you, but I hear that firehouse parties are lit!
[buzzer whomping]
No?
Twenty-five minutes, chefs!
-Okay. -What's up with the zucchini?
[Nicole] Uh, I'm gonna grill some summer squash.
It's one of my favorite things that I cook in my garden.
I don't know if it's gonna go with the rest of my dish.
-But I'm gonna wing it. I know! -That's kind of a problem.
But I, I panicked. I took the pancake mix,
when I didn't really want it.
But I can think on my feet. I'm gonna be okay.
Okay. That's what firefighters do, adapt and overcome.
One of the biggest challenges I think is that...
they only have the bucket to shop with, and they can't go back to the market.
This competition is one of the hardest I've ever seen.
[Aarti] It's a lot.
[Guy] Twenty-three minutes! Twenty-three left!
[Aarti] Looks like Boh chose liquid smoke,
Jonathan chose boxed mashed potatoes,
and Nicole chose pancake mix!
I really love what Nicole's doing.
She scooped out the core of her squash,
stuffed it with goat cheese. And that feels kind of fancy to me.
[Nicole] Add a little balsamic.
Now that my squash is on the grill, I can get started on the fish.
I'm gonna use equal parts pancake mix and fish sauce.
This would be like cooking for my captain when we're, had a really nice day...
on the water.
When Guy said, "Cook for your captain",
I immediately thought about cooking for my husband.
'Cause he steers our family ship.
We have two sons, Jake and Max.
We've been saving since they were babies.
If I win some money today, I would love to put it toward their college education.
It's always so delicate.
I wonder if it wouldn't have benefitted from a little, a little pan fry.
Yes, that's what I would've thought.
Hopefully they don't stick.
The three firefighters competing this round.
Boh had the lowest score, and so he has the most ground to cover.
So he's really gotta bring it.
What's your gameplan over here, Boh?
I'm gonna do a little roasted corn succotash with some salmon.
And the liquid smoke is gonna go with the salmon. Put a little bit in the...
-succotash as well. Everybody really likes a salmon. -Okay.
And the corn is one of my favorite things to eat.
Corn succotash says captain to me.
It gives you some vegetables and freshness,
jalapeño, red peppers, some green onions.
The second round, I'm feeling a lot better than the first round.
The nerves has calmed down.
So I'm adding a little liquid smoke to the succotash.
I seen the show a couple of times.
So I wanna make sure that they can actually taste it in the dish.
I don't use liquid smoke at all.
It is strong. It is an assertive ingredient.
[Boh] I also put salsa verde to help marry all the flavors together.
So good.
All right, Jonathan, what's on the menu, bud?
I'm making some pork chops with some creamy Dijon-spinach sauce.
Then I'll have the mashed potatoes as kind of a blanket platter for it.
-Got it. -Potatoes, third cup milk.
First thing I wanna do is start with my whammy ingredient,
boxed mashed potatoes.
Let's just get these out of the way.
I wanna make sure these potatoes have some flavor,
otherwise you're just eating baby food.
I add in some onion powder, add some more milk.
I'm not serving baby food to my captain.
Definitely quarter my potatoes.
I'm hoping my baby potatoes, that I can add to the Dijon sauce
will help mask a little bit of these boxed mashed potatoes.
I was cutting it close. I had no room for error.
I needed it to be perfect for that whole 30 minutes.
Chefs, we are at the halfway point.
Fifteen minutes to go! 15!
Usually when they start floating, they're done.
Pancake mix in the breading is the way to go.
My squash is on the grill. Check on 'em.
This isn't quite done.
I'll let it go a little bit longer.
Now I'm gonna make sea tartar sauce.
I've got mayo, a relish, a lot of lemon.
And my secret special element, horseradish,
that gives it a little bit of a kick, but it's not too overpowering.
Better than I expected.
Oh, no. I bet you my squash is burning.
Oh, no.
[Nicole] Maybe some char will really help.
Those beautiful squash are now five-alarm fire burnt.
[Boh] While my succotash is cooking, I'm gonna work on my salmon.
So in the salmon, it's just salt, pepper and the Cajun seasoning.
Liquid smoke.
Like a liquid smoke butter, I guess.
-[Aarti] It smells like a fire. I can smell it. -I can smell it from here.
[Boh] Salmon dish is something that not only firefighters love,
but my family loves.
I'm here competing today for my family.
My wife's name is Ashley. We got seven kids at home.
She's with the children the majority of the time with me being at work.
So, whatever money I win today,
I'll put towards taking my wife somewhere nice.
With seven kids, it's kind of hard to get away.
[Guy] How heavy did you go on that liquid smoke?
-Basting it in the butter. -Whoo!
[Jonathan] These pork cutlets will cook fast.
So I gotta make sure I'm keeping an eye on them.
The boxed mashed potatoes, the texture is not quite there.
Heck, if the flavor saves it, then I'll be happy with that.
My baby potatoes, they're soft now.
Just wanna make sure that the potatoes get nice and roasted and cooked.
This will be reduced in some heavy whipping cream and Dijon sauce
along with some spinach.
Add some cheese...
And then the, uh, pork chops will nestle in there.
It gives a nice, good, rich, creamy flavor.
It's actually tasting really good.
Five minutes, five minutes left, chefs. You've gotta be plated.
[Nicole] So I'm putting tartar sauce into my ramekins.
I plate the fish and it's looking beautiful.
Then I add the zucchini to the plate.
Maybe if I would've paid better attention to the clock,
I wouldn't have burned my summer squash.
It's not the best captain's meal I've ever made.
But it's the best one I've ever made at Flavortown.
[Boh] The salmon is done, it looks perfect.
The succotash down first, I'm gonna just lay the salmon right off to the side of it.
I'm just worried about this liquid smoke. We'll see.
[Guy] Ninety seconds!
[Jonathan] I'm feeling the pressure of that clock.
I grab the boxed mashed potatoes,
put that down on the bottom.
[Guy] How are we looking, chef?
-Just getting ready to pull the chops out. -[Guy] Oh, they are smothered.
[Jonathan] This is mine to lose. I'm only ahead by one point.
So I'm hoping that this carries me across the finish line.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Fire's out!
-[Aarti] Whoa! -[Guy] Well done, everybody. Great job.
I gotta tell you, I don't know if your captain's gonna be impressed.
But I think the judges will be. Let's take it to 'em right this way.
Judges, this is it. Game two of our Firefighters in Flavortown.
They had a whammy ingredient that they found in their bucket brigade.
Up first, Chef Boh, and his choice was liquid smoke.
So today we have salmon
with roasted corn succotash, basted it with some liquid smoke and butter.
Succotash, poured some salsa verde in there,
and also a little bit of liquid smoke in the corn as well.
There is so much great technique in this dish.
The succotash is delicious. The salmon is cooked so well.
-You could see how much love went into it. -Yeah.
Your succotash is amazing.
That salsa verde, I've never heard before working that in.
-And it works a treat in there. -Thank you.
The liquid smoke, even for a firefighter,
-I think this is a little smoky. -Okay.
If you had chosen one place to put it,
either the salmon or the succotash,
-then maybe it would be a bit more balanced. -Thank you.
All right. Up next, Chef Nicole. Pancake mix.
So today I made you a Minnesota fish fry.
I incorporated the pancake mix right into the drench.
I also grilled you some fresh summer squash with goat cheese
with a balsamic drizzle. I made you some tartar sauce on the side.
I thought you were bonkers to throw such a delicate piece of fish
into the fryer. It's perfect.
It still has a little lusciousness to it.
I also adore your tartar sauce.
You were very assertive with that horseradish.
-I love how it plays with the lemon, it's beautiful. -Thank you.
What do I need to do to get an invitation to your lake house...
-so I can go to your fish fry. [laughing] -Just give me a call. Yeah.
The fish was so light and flaky.
And I know you kind of had an oopsie-doodle moment where you were like,
-pancake mix-- -Ho-ho-ho!
Oopsie-doodle?
-Oopsie-doodle. -Whoopsie-daisy, maybe.
Oopsie-doodle? You say that?
Throws you off.
-Juxtaposition. -Throws me off and worries me.
All right. Back to oopsie-doodle.
So you have a little oopsie-doodle with the pancake mix.
You thought you'd pick something else.
But I think it was so smart and such great gameplay to dredge your fish in it.
-It is golden, it's delicious. -Thank you.
Unfortunately, the little squashes here have been burnt underneath.
And that's really giving a bitter taste to everything in there.
Thank you.
And last but not least, Chef Jonathan.
His choice, mashed potatoes.
I made pork chops smothered in creamy Dijon-spinach sauce.
In that sauce there's a nice summer medley of potatoes and onion and garlic.
And then on the base layer, there is the mashed potatoes I put in there.
I love the flavor combination of the pork, the spinach and the mustard.
I think those flavors are beautiful together.
The potato on potato love that we've got going on here,
it's a lot of starch, I don't know that I would necessarily
present this as a chief's dinner.
Thank you.
The pork is very tender and nicely seasoned.
The plating could use a little extra attention.
I would've used a nice, big plate
so I could really cut into that pork.
Yeah.
The sauce of the cream is wonderful, spinach-cream sauce.
It's got that beautiful creamy cheesiness to it.
The rainbow potatoes, I don't think in the end work here.
It's great as it is, but those two potatoes,
-I think take it, kind of over the top a bit. -Thank you.
All right. Thank you very much, judges.
Lot going on here. Lot for them to discuss.
Thank you very much. Great job. Back to the kitchens.
[judges applauding]
Judges, 20 points available on gameplay,
20 points available on taste, 10 points on plating.
Time to find out who will be rocking Flavortown Market for up to 20,000 bucks.
Boh, let's take a look at yours, my friend.
17 out of 20 in gameplay, 13 out of 20 in taste,
nine out of 10 in plating,
for a 39 and a total of 75. Wow!
Jonathan, 14 in gameplay,
16 in taste,
six out of 10 in plating for a 36,
and a total of 76, a one-point lead.
Which brings us to Nicole.
Oh, my gosh.
A tie, or to win.
14 out of 20 in gameplay,
14 out of 20 in taste, seven, for a 35,
for a total of 74. Congratulation, Jonathan, you're our winner.
Well done.
I don't know what happens when you fight a fire.
But I imagine there's gotta be a little time of reflection of how we did.
And that's kind of what happens in this situation.
But we really appreciate you being here tonight, so thank you.
Ah, the liquid smoke, it got me.
I think I did a good job representing Engine 52
at the Baltimore City Fire Department.
-Thank you. -What a pleasure.
In a million years, I never thought I would be cooking on Food Network TV.
I'm so glad I've had a chance to be on the game.
Meet the winner of Firefighters of Flavortown,
-Chef Jonathan. -[whooping]
[Guy] It's firefighters like you that take care of all of us.
So thank you very much and congratulations.
Come on over and say hi to the judges. Let's go shopping.
Happy for you, man. Thank you.
Here's the deal. We have a variety of ways to win.
So we can go on a shopping spree,
in which I give you two minutes to grab ten items.
For every item you grab, I give you 2,000 bucks.
You grab all ten items in two minutes, you win $20,000.
Or, we can go to the check.
It is behind the sliding doors right there...
with a set value
between 12 and $20,000.
So what would you do with the money by the way?
I know I talked about my kids, I love 'em a lot.
But I'd love a vacation without 'em. So just me and my wife.
[Guy] Okay. I like that.
I know the guys would give me a hard time if I don't play the game.
-True. -But...
they'll give me harder time if I come away with less than 12.
I think I'll take the check.
You're sure you wanna go for the check?
Oh, my gosh Don't do this to me.
[laughing] Guy!
All right, check. Check! Give me the check!
And you get a check for...
[drumroll]
-[all cheering] -[Guy] No.
Give me a pen.
Oh. Okay.
-[gasping] -[Guy] $18,500.
Oh, my gosh.
There you go, my friend. Congratulations.
[Jonathan] I made my district proud, made my family proud.
And I just cannot wait to tell my wife where we're going next summer.
18,500 bucks should be quite the vacation.
And a big thank you to all the first responders that take care of us.
Because I'll tell you what, folks,
if it wasn't for them, we would be in a lot of trouble.
Guys like this did a great job. Thank you, brother.
Thank you.
Hey, guess what? We'll see you next time on Guy's Grocery Games,
-adiós. -Oh, my gosh.
-Yay! -[Jonathan] Thank you so much.