This is it.
After weeks of intense culinary training,
it's finals week at Flavortown Academy.
Out of the seven home cooks who first entered
our culinary program, only the three best students
showed the talent, tenacity, and drive
to make it to the senior finals.
Tonight, they'll have to combine
every lesson that professors Jet
and Antonia have taught them
in order to pass the toughest,
most twisted culinary test of all time.
You have three different challenges
in the same exact round.
Even though we have limited ingredients,
everything needs to be precise.
-[screams] -You did it.
Who will graduate Flavortown Academy
with top honors and which professor will see
one of their students win the $35,000 grand prize?
The student whose graduation dinner
was the most worthy of earning them
the top honors is...
It's finals week in Flavortown Academy
tonight on Guy's Grocery Games.
So let's welcome Flavortown Academy seniors.
Now, first up, from Professor Jet's class,
we have Maria Koutsogiannis,
the Greek chef and food influencer
from Calgary, Alberta.
Woo! That's right.
-Let's go. -Team duo.
So much has happened
in the past couple of weeks.
Working with my student, Maria, for five weeks
and watch the growth...
More fat.
But the fat will go in with the lamb.
Someone's not listening to Professor.
[Maria] No, no, no.
Professor Jet taught me calmness.
Don't go crazy. Don't go crazy.
And then salt. A lot of salt.
Very confident she can go all the way.
-Bam. -Go get 'em.
Hang on, Chef. You got one left.
Just need one.
And from Professor Antonia's class...
-Woo! -Woo!
[Guy] Jeff Kim AKA Crunch Dad,
whose Korean-Japanese fusion recipes
are a big hit on TikTok
and Diana Silva, the food blogger
who shares her family's Mexican
and Portuguese recipes with the world.
Over the last five weeks,
I have seen these two students
grow so much.
From the way they presented, to the way they plated,
to the way they shopped, to the way they cooked
has completely changed.
I almost want like a yearbook of all of our memories.
When I started at Flavortown Academy,
I'm like, "Just gotta make it to week five." And I did.
[Jeff] It's the finale.
My nerves, it's just... I'm just so nervous.
Well, students, our senior class,
you have made it to finals week.
-Congratulations. -Yeah, we have.
Congratulations. Good job.
Tonight will be the ultimate exam.
You'll have to combine everything you've learned,
and at the end of the night,
one of you will graduate with top honors
and earn that scholarship grand prize,
$35,000.
-Woo! -[Jet] Wow. Wow. Wow.
35,000 bucks.
It's a lot of money.
Are you ready for your final exams?
-We're ready. -Yes. Yes.
-You ready? -Yup.
[Guy] But, first...
Oh, no.
we have a final exam for your professors.
Oh.
So without further ado,
the best TA in the business,
give it up for Hunter Fieri.
-[Jet] Woo! -[Antonia] Hunter.
What do you got? What do you got?
Grab a whiteboard.
Go ahead and hand that off to 'em.
Hand the markers and prepare to use that
in this culinary juggernaut of questions.
The winner will earn an advantage for their class.
Our last and final advantage round.
Yeah, I haven't won since enrollment week.
It's gonna be the best out of three.
The first question is,
"Often used to make mac and cheese,
mornay sauce is a variation of which
of the French mother sauces?"
All right. Antonia?
-And Jet? -Bechamel.
-You both get it. -Woo.
[Guy] Second question.
"Used to make pudding
and the pearls in boba tea,
tapioca is made from the ground extract
of what root?"
Cassava and cassava.
Well done.
"What familiar flavor is made
from the pickled flower buds
of a Mediterranean bush?"
And it is not saffron.
It is caper.
-[Hunter] Wow. -[Guy] Congratulations, Chef Jet.
You get two out of the three. You win.
Four in a row I've won.
Any advantage in Flavortown can mean a win.
-[Maria] You did so good. -[Guy] Fantastic.
Here we go. Seniors, time to kick off finals week.
I want you to make an upscale entree.
Prove to the judges that you are on a roll.
Wait. Roll. Roll. Oh, I know what that meant.
-You wanna do that? -Yeah.
-Go. -Okay. All right. We can do it.
-You're gonna love this. -[Hunter] We can do it.
Oh. [chuckles]
Whoa.
[Guy] All right. Here we go.
Time to play one of our favorite games.
It's an oldie but a goodie, and it's a little Let It Roll.
-Oh. -Oh, my God.
Yup.
We're gonna determine the details
of your dish with these dice.
-Oh, no. -We have one
that has various budget amounts,
so you can show us what you've learned
on your freshman course which was budget battle.
Then we have one with gourmet ingredients,
so you can show us what you learned
when you were elevating food
in your sophomore course.
Then we have one that goes to international ingredients,
so you can demonstrate the mastery of global flavors
that you learned in your junior course.
And each one of you gets to roll one.
Our most recent winner, what would you like to roll?
I think the budget.
The budget? Fantastic.
There you go.
What are our options here, Guy?
The options are $18 to $23.
-[Jet] $23. $23. -[Antonia] Hey, batter, batter, batter, swing.
That's amazing. $23.
[cheers and applause]
Well done, Maria.
Diana, what's it gonna be?
I'll take the middle one.
Your gourmet items,
we have vanilla bean,
guanciale, caviar, champagne,
saffron, and Iberico ham.
[Jeff] Yeah.
[Guy] There we go.
-Iberico ham. -Iberico ham.
[Jet] Iberico ham. Okay.
-[Antonia] Winner. -[Jet] Okay.
And for the international ingredients,
canned huitlacoche, chapulines,
grasshoppers, canned escargot,
wasabi paste, bonito flakes, and jarred cactus.
[Jet] Don't let us down, Captain Crunch.
-[Antonia] Canned-- -Here we go.
-[Antonia] Bonito flakes. -[Jet] We don't... We don't want...
-[Antonia] Wasabi paste. -[Guy] International ingredients.
And you get canned huitlacoche.
What is that?
That's like the mold on corn.
-What? -A little corn fungus.
Who doesn't like to party? We do.
So we have got huitlacoche,
Iberico ham, 23 bucks.
Upscale entree.
-Wow. -Professor Jet,
since you won the challenge,
I'm gonna give your student an extra $3.
Okay.
Thirty minutes to shop, prepare,
and plate your upscale entree.
You'll not need to use your $23
on Iberico ham and the huitlacoche.
And because of the severity of this,
we will not do a three, two, one, go.
[laughs]
Not really. I wasn't doing the three, two, one, go.
-It's senior week. -This is it.
There are three of us left.
The students have to make an upscale entree.
[sighs] I don't like budget battle.
This is gonna be a tough one.
[sighs] This is a whole other level of wow.
Woo!
But, luckily, I have Professor Jet.
[Jet] Find that upscale.
But, remember, it's a budget battle.
My advice is to get a star of the show protein.
Pork chop looks good.
It's only $6.99...
-This one? -for all four.
I like that play.
If there's pre-made mashed potatoes in a box,
-that would save me time. -I totally agree.
Instant mashed potatoes, really smart move.
Sure gets a lot of things in one ingredient.
So I have to use Iberico ham and huitlacoche.
What is that?
The huitlacoche is gonna throw them all off.
So the international ingredient is huitlacoche
which is corn fungus.
Maybe a little fresh corn right there.
[Maria] Why wouldn't I just incorporate corn
with the huitlacoche?
[Jet] Garlic.
-Or no. -[Jet] Peeled.
-What are you doing? -This one?
[Jet] I don't like that one.
Picking jar garlic.
It's not the right place to shortcut.
Use good garlic.
Do you need a sweet moment?
'Cause you have the extra money.
-Getting a-- -I was thinking
-mango might shine here. -No.
The peaches are incredible.
Pork and stone fruit.
Shows creativity and chefyness.
-[Maria] I'm gonna-- -[Jet] Go. Get to the till.
I am a proud professor.
-[Maria] How are you? -[Wendy] I'm good, honey.
Those three extra dollars
that Professor Jet won us is crucial.
-[Wendy] $24 45. -Good shop. Good shop.
And I'm very confident she can go all the way.
[Jeff] Holy smokes. What am I gonna make?
Iberico ham and canned huitlacoche.
At least, the whammies aren't part of the budget.
Shrimp. $12 there.
That's more than half of my budget.
Top it off with the caviar.
Oh, shoot. You know what?
-That's way too expensive. -Yup. Yup.
Now, I gotta think real cheap.
What else are you doing with your shrimp?
I have the Iberico ham.
Instant mashed potatoes.
Okay. Instant mashed potatoes are not delicious.
-I'm gonna tell you that now. -Okay.
-Go get fresh potatoes. -Okay. I got it.
-You got it. -Yukon potatoes.
Yukon potatoes. Got it.
[Antonia] Three. That's it. That's all you need.
[Jeff] Three? Just three. Got it.
I need some greens on this plate.
Chef, I don't know what to make with my veggies.
What about bok choy leaves?
These are $1.99 and like the leaves are very high end.
I just need like... I just...
You know what? That's perfect.
I'm gonna go with bok choy.
I need like a coating on the outside or something.
You don't actually. You got...
You remember, at your station, you have flour, corn starch.
-You can make a batter. Okay. -I'll do that. Yes.
That's why she's the professor.
Go and pay.
There is a teacher-student bond that's been developed.
They trust me. I know what they can do.
I know when to push them. It's great.
$22.96.
That was the skin of your teeth, dude.
-I was literally gonna... -Keep the change. Thank you.
I'll take it. Give me the 4 cents.
-Thank you, Wendy. -You're welcome.
$23 is such a small amount of money
to do an upscale dish with.
-Tell me what you want. -[Diana] I got the shrimp already.
I was thinking of doing a little bit of fish too.
I'm immediately thinking siete mares,
a seven seas stew.
I don't know if you have the money for it.
Remember, you only have $23.
Okay. Never mind.
So I'm going for the shrimp.
I know that's going to work
with the salty Iberico ham.
[Antonia] So 10 more dollars.
[Diana] Canned huitlacoche
is like a Mexican truffle.
Your crema.
[Diana] I can use the crema and make a cream
that's going to compliment the huitlacoche.
You need like a starch.
Diana wants to make a stew.
It's supposed to be a dinner.
So, for Diana, it's really all in the plating.
-And that's gonna go inside? -[Diana] Yeah.
[Antonia] You need a vegetable.
You need an herb. It's gonna be like a stew.
-[Diana] Yeah. -Okay. Great.
And what's the base of the broth or whatever it is?
-I need to... -Okay.
figure that out.
I normally make it from scratch.
I let it simmer for hours.
I've got to do this fast.
Oh, seafood stock.
[Antonia] Good. If you're ready, let's go.
$24.45.
Let's get rid of the avocado.
That kind of breaks my heart.
Siete mares always has chopped avocado on top of it.
You're $23 even.
-$23 even? -Yup.
Wow.
Going into this finale,
I am just stressed out of my mind
because this is it.
[Antonia] This first. Potatoes.
-Potatoes, we're gonna go. -Peel.
So here to judge tonight's final exams
are three professors emeritus.
Well, we have renowned restaurateur
and a master of our market,
the one and only Super-chef Darnell Ferguson,
culinary powerhouse and winner of Tournament of Champions,
for the champ herself, Chef Mei Lin,
and a visiting professor of food criticism
who was kicked out of the school he was at
and owner of San Diego Magazine,
Troy "Boy" Johnson.
-That's true. -[Guy] All right. This is big.
These chefs, four weeks ago,
came in here as rookies.
They're all seniors now.
$35,000 and a pretty big title.
Twenty-three minutes. Twenty-three left.
So, Chef Jet, what's the game plan?
Because we have Iberico, which is pig,
she's gonna do some nice fatty bone-in chops.
[Guy] And what about this huitlacoche?
She's gonna do a cream corn with huitlacoche in it.
Corn twice. Pork twice.
Do a mashed potato and somehow incorporate the fruit,
'cause pigs and fruit makes sense.
And how's the Iberico gonna be employed?
[Maria] It goes into the corn.
[Guy] Okay. I like it. I like it.
[Jet] Maria is very laser-focused.
All of her skills, ability, confidence.
It's been super cool
just to see her get better and better.
A little bit of a Iberico into that cream corn
might not hurt the seasoning.
[Maria] Oh, that's where it's going.
Oh, good. Roll it.
Cut it into strips. Strips into dices.
Cream of corn doesn't speak upscale to me,
but I know that it can be with the huitlacoche.
[Jet] Taste the huitlacoche quickly.
Tastes a little bit like...
It's got mushroom umami.
That's it. You nailed it.
Use it like mushroom umami.
So huitlacoche is going into my cream of corn.
[Troy] It's down to this.
Obviously, our contestants have a lot invested in this,
but the coaches, the professors
also have so much on the line.
They've gotten to know these people.
They've taught 'em everything
that they possibly could about competing.
There's pride in those professors right now.
[tense music playing]
In this one, you have three different challenges
in the same exact round.
So the upscale. We have the budget.
And the last one could be international,
like we're gonna be able to see who has grown the most.
Whole different kind of panic attack. Yeah.
[Guy] Twenty minutes. Twenty to cook.
Let's get the base going.
Can you get garlic aromatics going?
Yeah.
All right. Let's go. We gotta start cooking big time.
-How we doing, Diana? -Doing okay, Chef.
I'm making a creamy siete mares.
-Seven seas. -Seven seas.
Got it. What seas do you have in there?
Well, I just only have one sea
'cause I was cooking on a budget,
so I'm making a shrimp stew.
What do you have in here so far?
I have some garlic.
I have some peppers, stock.
Is the huitlacoche in there yet?
Not yet. That's gonna go on the crema
it's gonna go on top.
And where is your Iberico ham going?
It's gonna be used as kind of a crumbly topping.
-Got it. -You have very little product.
I would make sure you use every single potato, okay?
[Diana] Okay.
Antonia definitely taught me about layering,
like putting something fried into a stew,
and that will help me have more textures and upscale.
-It does. -If you wanna thicken that up,
does it ever get thickened up with a roux?
[Diana] I could. I could do that.
Put more butter in it.
Winning the $35,000
would give me the opportunity
to launch the salsa
that I've been working on for 30 years.
The foundation is my mom.
I wanna honor my family.
I feel great.
My potatoes.
And I gotta dice them up as small as possible
so that I can get them cooking as fast as possible.
What's your game plan?
I'm gonna do a shrimp, deep-fried.
It's gonna have some crispy Iberico ham on there.
And then it's gonna be sitting on top of mashed potatoes.
And what's going on with the huitlacoche?
-Where's that going? -That is going straight
into my mashed potatoes here.
[Antonia] Jeff has really kind of blossomed
into a more confident cook.
He needs a little less like guidance from me.
I'm right now seasoning my shrimp
just so the base of it actually has some
of that flavoring in it.
Think about your batter right after that.
If I win, I'm one step closer to taking my kids
on this once-in-a-lifetime journey to Korea.
I really want them to get a chance to meet family
that's out there, enjoy the food,
and cherish those moments for the rest of their lives.
Even though we have limited ingredients,
everything needs to be precise...
-Thank you, Chef. -so trim them nice.
And think about this with Jet, by nature,
you would wanna have two people
in your senior class,
but just having one,
you can like ultra-focus on,
while Antonia's dividing her time between two.
-[Troy] Yeah. -Like you can...
He can put all his time into her dish.
[Maria] I'm gonna flip these. What do you think?
Uh, nope.
-No, not yet? -Nope.
I mean, having that little birdie on your shoulder
where that little birdie is Jet Tila, that's nice.
Nice. Nice.
I'm gonna get the instant mash prepped.
Fourteen minutes.
[Maria] This is an upscale dish
and I'm using instant mashed potatoes.
It's a big risk but that's not the star of the show.
Let's just hone in
on that beautiful bone-in pork chop.
Okay. I'm gonna let those just sit.
[Jet] Okay.
-Guess I shouldn't be doing that. -They're creamy.
They are creamy.
This might be the best
I've seen Maria cook so far.
Jet, what she doing with those peaches?
Peaches and pork's in her mind.
Can't go wrong with that.
[Jet] Pork and fruit are such a lovely pair.
Reads super upscale.
Remember, you still have four plates
that looks beautiful.
I'm thinking to myself, "How else can we bring Iberico
into this dish?"
-We fry it. -I love it.
You're a genius.
[Maria] Utilizing the ingredients in different ways.
This is really great gameplay.
[Maria] The fact that I'm here,
it means everything to me.
Back in the day, I suffered from an eating disorder.
I was bulimic for seven years.
I've come a long way.
So I wanna start putting some money
towards my passion project.
Something called The Foundation,
where we are gonna help support people
with eating disorders and support their families.
[Guy] Students, final exam, nine minutes left.
Nine to go.
[Diana] Stew is simmering.
Potatoes are nice and golden brown,
and so is the zucchini.
And I haven't burnt anything,
so that's awesome.
The next thing I need to do is get started
on this Iberico ham.
I was thinking, Chef, about frying these up...
-[Antonia] Great. -and crisping on top.
Love that.
[Diana] And that's gonna be a great garnish.
-[Antonia] Did you taste the huitlacoche? -[Diana] Yeah.
It's very earthy, like a mushroom.
It's lovely but very strong.
-Yeah. -What'd you think?
I think it's okay if we put it in the crema.
I think it's brilliant.
[Antonia] Mix, mix, mix, mix, mix.
It's good. Yeah.
-Oh, it is good. -It's delicious.
We don't set this up so one loses
and then it'll definitely be a head-to-head
between Antonia's team and Jet's team.
This could very well turn into Antonia versus Antonia.
Come check your shrimp.
-We're good? -Yeah, those are ready.
[Jeff] Next, I have to work on this Iberico ham.
So I'm gonna just toss my Iberico ham in there
to get it nice and crispy.
My potatoes are done.
Strain it. Perfect.
You're gonna smash those potatoes
right back into the hot pot.
-Sounds great. Thank you, Chef. -Does that make sense?
I need to make these potatoes
smooth and upscale.
So I cut them in the rice mill.
It's fast. It makes it smooth.
Who likes lumps? No one likes lumps.
[Antonia] So, again, the huitlacoche is gonna go where?
[Jeff] I'm gonna actually mix that into the mashed potatoes
and kind of give it that tangy sweetness.
And then you put butter or mayonnaise
into that hot pot and it's like 100 times better.
And then you're gonna whisk that
like you've never whisked before in your entire life.
But let's saute the bok choy.
Professor Antonia, she's an amazing leader.
Learned so much from her, from plating to execution.
That's it. That's... You need to pull off to the side.
[Guy] Five minutes. Five to go.
[Diana] My stew is ready to go.
So, to plate, I first put my stew with the shrimp.
[Antonia] And then you're gonna do a nice beautiful dollop
of that huitlacoche crema right there in the center.
Yup.
Iberico... That crispy Iberico
right on top of that huitlacoche.
[Diana] Looks really pretty.
Chef, I'm gonna start platting.
That's it. Yup.
And then you're just gonna do like two perfect leaves.
Don't fall.
Next, I got the Iberico.
Just drape them over.
We'll go with some cilantro.
Uh-huh. Gorgeous.
[Guy] Ninety seconds.
Oh, man. You're like... You're doing it like a chef.
I'm so, so proud.
Okay. Kind of center that. Center that.
[Maria] Put the bone-in pork at the top.
I'm developing some height.
Height is really good.
Huitlacoche cream corn is genius.
[Maria] And then I finish it off
with a beautiful peach salad.
[Jet] It's beautiful.
Yes. Don't be shy.
It's an Iberico battle.
This is gonna be it, folks.
Five, four, three, two, one.
-Class dismissed. -[bell rings]
-[yells] -You did it!
-Woo! -[applause]
[sighs] Oh, jefe.
[Guy] All right, students.
Let's see whose upscale dinner
is enough to qualify them for the final exam.
Follow me. Take you to the judges.
[Guy] Judges, it's round one of finals week
here at Flavortown Academy.
Our three seniors had to use all of their training
to make an upscale entree,
featuring canned huitlacoche, Iberico ham,
and a very gracious Academy budget of $23.
Up first, Maria, what do you have for us?
So I present to you an upscale
summer steakhouse dish.
I started by pan-searing the pork.
And I paired it with a gorgeous
creamy mashed potato and then a cream of corn
with the huitlacoche.
And I added the Iberico ham.
And then I finished it with a beautiful peach salad
with some pan drippings.
[Guy] Chef Darnell, what do you think?
I thought you did a great job
on the cook of the pork.
So juicy. So desirable.
I love the fat on it.
I thought getting the peaches was so smart
and they added so much juiciness to the dish,
so much sweetness.
But mashed potatoes,
I would like to see it go up another level
-to go upscale. -For sure.
The cream corn, probably my favorite part of this dish.
I really tasted that earthiness
from the huitlacoche.
Bone-in, it's that "Game of Thrones,
I just came out of a cave and tackled dinner"
sort of presentation.
I love that. The Iberico ham,
I mean, it's a salt bomb on the plate, right?
It's a seasoning agent. I do wish you would have
cut it a little bit differently.
You know, I have like massive cuts of it.
You know, had you cut that into like a little bit
of a confetti on top, I think that would've gotten
into every single bite.
Picking the pork chop in a budget battle
gave you enough money
to be able to fill the plate, and I think
-that was a smart choice. -Thank you.
Up next, Jeff, what do you have for us?
Today, I made you an Asian-inspired
crispy shrimp on a bed
of huitlacoche puree potatoes.
On top, I also sprinkled some crispy Iberico ham.
This dish is extremely, extremely rich.
The huitlacoche is upfront and I really appreciated that.
With the mash, when I'm thinking upscale,
I want it to be so silky, so smooth,
because it's those small refinements
of an upscale dinner that I think
separate it from something that I would cook at home.
[Darnell] Honestly, I didn't get the texture from the shrimp.
There wasn't much crisp on the shrimp. Is it upscale?
Yes. I think you tried to transform them.
Plating was a big part of this.
And I thought the Iberico ham played a smart role
as a salt element like it should.
Thank you so much.
Last but definitely not least,
best hair in the building, Diana.
I made siete mares,
which is a version of seven seas.
I used every penny of that $23.
I knew that ham and shrimp go really well together.
The flavor is phenomenal.
It tastes like you've been stewing that thing all day.
I thought you did a great job
of incorporating the huitlacoche.
With the vegetables and the potatoes,
it's a very flavorful dish.
My favorite bite of the entire stew
is when you have the Iberico ham.
This was an honest flavor bomb,
but I wish that the shrimp was charred
just to add that extra element of flavor.
Thank you very much, Chef.
Well, students,
we need to let the judges decide
who will be going on to the final challenge.
Send you back to the kitchens.
We'll call you back when we have a decision. Thank you.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
-Thank you so much.
It's tough for me, as the headmaster here
of Flavortown Academy,
to see anybody go home,
especially with how far they've come.
Who's gonna take the final exam?
[suspenseful music playing]
Unfortunately, only two of you will take
the final exam.
One senior who has definitely earned
a spot in the final exam is...
-Maria. -[applause]
[Guy] You can head over to the carts.
One student will be leaving the finals early this week.
Unfortunately...
Jeff.
Crunch Dad, I'll tell you this,
your enthusiasm already about food,
sky's the limit for you,
'cause you got the goods, man.
Your name will be echoed in the halls
of Flavortown Academy.
Thank you very much, Chef.
-[Jeff] Thank you, Chef. -Really, thank you.
This has been a true
once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I'm going to step up my level of cooking
and I'm always gonna remember this.
Good luck.
-Diana, congratulations. -Thank you.
[Guy] You are going to the final exam.
And chef back to your cart.
-[Antonia] Let's do it. -[Diana] Okay.
-Thank you. -[cheering]
-I'm proud of you. -Proud of you, honey.
[whistles]
Students and professors,
you have made it to the final exam.
And now this will be the first time a graduate will be named
supermarket cum laude
and be awarded a $35,000 grand prize.
Yes.
Woo!
For your final course,
I want you to make
a graduation dinner.
Lucky for you, you have the entire market
worth of ingredients to choose from.
-Thank you, Guy. -Thank you, Guy.
Don't thank him.
He is not telling the truth.
-[Jet] Wow. -[laughter]
I was gonna give you the whole market.
No, you weren't.
Now, you get half a market.
-Oh. -Because this is one
of the toughest games ever.
This is Odd or Even.
-[Maria] Odd or even. -Oh, wow.
This coin will determine
if you get to shop the odd aisles
or the even aisles.
So the odd aisles would be you get produce,
you get frozen, you get bread,
but you don't get meat.
If you get the even, well, you get the meat,
the dairy, and the seafood,
but no fresh veggies.
And to think, just a moment ago,
you had the whole store.
Thanks, Antonia.
That is so not true.
Ladies and gentlemen,
for the final exam,
you will shop Flavortown Market for...
-[Jet] Oh. -[Guy] the odd.
-You got it. You guys got it. -That's good. Yeah.
[Guy] So pick all the fresh produce
you want from aisle one
and all the bread from aisle nine.
Forget about the stuff in the even number aisles.
No meat, no dairy, no condiments.
It's all off limits.
Thirty minutes to make your graduation dinner,
shopping only in the odd aisles.
This is how recess would work.
Remember, when the teacher would sit there and go,
"Hmm, who's being quiet?
Who has their head on the desk? Who's being quiet?"
Who has their head on the desk?
"Who's gonna go to recess first?"
I think three, two, one, go, you will.
What...
All right. This is big. $35,000 on the line.
Wow.
-This is it. -This is the final round.
There's only gonna be one of us left.
Graduation dinner. This means big.
It means important. It means my last meal I'm gonna be cooking.
Come here and game plan with me.
How am I gonna do this if I'm missing
all the even aisles?
And I'm thinking something frozen.
[Jet] Remember, it's graduation.
We do have seafood.
[Maria] Really beautiful shrimp.
-[Jet] Fried shrimp? -[Maria] I would fry the shrimp.
[Jet] Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I like it.
I think it's like a bean base.
And then I think we could definitely do
like a Greek salad.
[Jet] Cook to your strengths.
Cook things that you wanna cook.
I need some calamari maybe.
-Okay. There's calamari. -Is there something like that in here?
[Jet] Seafood is most commonly frozen
and it's great quality.
[Maria] I know I'm not gonna have a lot of time,
so I grab a very easy to use garlic bread.
All right. Now, we gotta shop.
[Maria] So let's just go down seven.
[Jet] You have some dairy here.
-Goat milk, Greek. -[Jet] Okay.
I wish I could use real fresh
goat's milk to make my brine for my shrimp,
'cause I know Flavortown has it in aisle 10.
[Jet] What are you looking for?
I'm looking for baked fava bean.
That are gonna be the base
for the dippy saucy deliciousness.
[Jet] Do you have seasonings?
Uh, garlic powder,
onion powder.
Aisle one.
Genuinely just grateful
I can be in this aisle.
Really take advantage of all this beautiful produce.
Greens, herbs.
What else? You have all the alcohols here.
-What about white wine? -[Jet] Yeah.
But I really have to go into this
knowing that this final win
is what's gonna count most.
Go, go, go, go, go.
They have fought hard.
They have cooked their butts off.
I mean, Maria has been... In the pass/fail twice,
so she has two more cooks under her belt than Diana.
[Antonia] All right. So talk to me.
A graduation dinner, to me,
is a fiesta.
So I'm thinking about making
a tequila prawns dish...
-Okay. -in a molcajete.
[Antonia] Yup. Those are perfect. Great.
And I think we should do like a spicy rice.
[Antonia] Okay. Great. Let's go.
That sounds amazing,
but this is for sure
the hardest game on Triple G.
And you wanna do the frozen rice?
-[Diana] Yes. -It'd be like... Okay.
Let's go back down there. Tequila.
So I'm gonna marinate shrimp
in tequila and garlic.
Let's grab a stock.
-Chicken stock? Okay. -Yeah.
Making this molcajete dish,
it just brings, to me,
so many great memories
tied into it, tied into my family.
[Antonia] The molcajete is essentially a stone
that's used like a lot of different ways.
You can actually cook in it.
Okay.
[Diana] Aisle one is why I wanted odd numbers.
[Antonia] Okay. So tomatoes?
[Diana] Ooh, I could do a fire-roasted poblano.
-Great. Chilies. -I'm just gonna grab them all.
-Figure it out as I go. -[Antonia] She's made it
all the way to the end.
I know that she's been in this like
pressure cooker of education.
I'm like just so proud that she's here.
I like tequila prawns. It sounds delicious.
Sounds really good.
Twenty-three minutes. Twenty-three left.
Final round. Whoever wins gets the flavor crown.
There's a lot at stake, not just for the students
but also for the professors.
Jet and Antonia's rivalry go so deep.
They're not only go... Like hoping that one
of their students wins that 35,000 grand,
they're hoping they'd beat the other one.
Yup.
Oh, Maria, we've made it this far.
We're so close.
Yeah, Chef, we did.
For my graduation dinner,
I'm going to make a fava salata
with a little bit of collard greens,
topped with calamari and fried shrimp.
So first things first, I have to get my shrimp
and calamari defrosting.
[Jet] Prawns are frozen. The chill will come off.
-What's the next step? -[Maria] So I think here,
I'm just gonna start on getting the onions
and the garlic cooking for the beans,
so that that can start reducing.
Chicken stock, white wine.
[Jet] Very nice.
Maria, she has a very clear vision
of what she wants to do.
As her professor,
I have to let her
spread her wings and fly.
It's been super cool just to see her
get better and better.
I'm gonna add some tomato to this.
-How do you feel? -Okay.
As long as you have time. That's all I worry about.
You gotta reduce. Yup. Just let it go.
That's gonna be super aromatic.
-[Maria] It's gonna be lovely. -[Jet] You cook better
when you're focused into less things.
This is frantic Maria. We need focused Maria.
Learning from Professor Jet,
as a calm, collected soul,
is the best direction that I could ever take.
Some garlic bread in the oven.
[Jet] Get it in there, kiddo.
You're looking good. You're looking good.
Can you do me a favor before you start this?
Grab your rice and go put it in the microwave
so you have it ready. Two of them.
I really feel like Antonia
has prepared me enough for this final.
-I'm gonna do the tomatoes. -Whatever you wanna do.
Yeah. I'm just reminding you.
I only have you now, but I don't wanna like
overwhelm you.
She's been like a sister.
She's been helping me so much.
-What do we got? -So she's doing
a tequila shrimp spicy rice.
[Guy] Okay. Where's the shrimp?
[Antonia] Put them in the water
just to let them start to defrost.
[Guy] What's in the rice, Antonia?
[Antonia] She's got tomato.
Two different kinds of chilies.
You've got the onions.
And then the rice will go in there.
Looking good.
Diana, the rice has stopped. Come.
Diana has moved week after week consistently
to the next round without any question.
She's never been in the bottom.
Just keep cooking the food that got you here.
Cilantro also for the rice, yeah?
And if it's done, we can put it to the back
and care about it later.
Did you taste it?
Stir it. Salt it. That's spicy.
Definitely some heat in there.
-[Diana] I think we're good. -[Antonia] Okay.
If I win this $35,000,
it would really help me
take my salsa to the next level.
And by doing so,
maybe I can share a little piece
of my mom and the heritage
of my abuelita with everyone else.
-All right. We gotta move. -Okay.
[Guy] You got 15 minutes.
We're at the halfway point, guys.
Where are we at?
[Jet] Bean's going.
Garlic bread's going.
-Seafood is swimming. -[Guy] Got it.
You're getting under control. Every second is gonna count.
Just think through your motions.
I've got to puree my beans.
-[Maria] Yeah. -[Jet] Let's taste that.
Make sure you're happy with it.
Mmm. That's good.
That puree is banging.
-Wow. -[Maria] Thank you so much, Guy.
Okay. There you go. Next thing.
Tubes are looking good, by the way.
I just want you to know your squid tubes are thawed.
[Maria] I love it.
I think I'm gonna put...
the shrimp and stuff
into goat's milk. Yeah.
-[Jet] Goat's milk? -[Maria] Yeah.
Brine your seafood.
[Maria] The calamari should go in here too.
What do we need, Maria?
Just gonna get my panko
ready for my calamari and the shrimp.
I'm gonna do a little ratio of semolina.
[Jet] I love it.
Yeah, get all your spices in there.
Tell your story.
[Maria] Oregano,
onion powder, garlic.
I think the calamari should definitely be fried with the shrimp.
As long as you don't overcook it, you can do it.
There you go.
I like that you're cooking... Doing a quick cook seafood.
I think both of the chefs are going back to their roots.
You know, Diana's going straight to Mexico.
Maria's going to Greece.
[Diana speaking]
Great. However you make it, you make it. I trust you.
[Diana] The rice is done. My shrimp is defrosting.
I start working on my sauce for the shrimp.
Using my molcajete to actually cook with
is super important to me.
That's what I've been doing my whole life.
What's great about a molcajete,
when you pulverize the cells,
it releases every single bit of flavor they have.
It's so much better than cutting or dicing.
Shrimps ready to go.
They're gonna get sauteed in the tequila sauce.
[Diana] I'm happy that we had odd aisles,
but I wish I could have gotten some fresh shrimp.
Have you ever worked with frozen shrimp?
If you overcook them, even a little bit,
it turns into like biting into a sponge.
If those shrimps are ready,
put them in a bowl, okay,
and then make more soft.
Great.
[Guy] Eight minutes. Eight to go.
Just think about this, in the next eight minutes,
one of these students would have cooked
a $35,000-worthy dish.
-It's insane. -Yeah, no pressure, Diana.
-No pressure. -Yeah. I can hear you.
[Guy] We are getting into danger time.
Six and a half minutes.
[Maria] Check on my seafood.
I would pull it. I would pull it.
Let it drain to not get soggy.
[Maria] We are at the last leg
of this race.
Food By Maria Foundation, if we could
just get that off the ground,
that would just be amazing.
[Jet] Five minutes. Five minutes.
You gotta get that plate down.
[Maria] So I get a base of the fava salata going.
The greens are ridiculously delicious.
And then I top it with the amazing
crunchy calamari and prawn.
[Jet] You gotta get that bread on.
It's all right. It's all right.
Work with what you got. Good.
[Guy] Three minutes!
[Antonia] Tortillas on the grill right now.
Go, go, go.
All right. Let's start to plate.
Shrimp first.
We gotta go. Gotta move fast.
You're gonna go rice next.
Use all that sauce. It's delicious.
-Ten seconds. -Oh, my God.
-[Antonia] Two tortillas on top. -[Guy] Ten, nine...
[Antonia] Let's Go. In the... In the molcajete.
There you go. Come on. Let's go. Come on. Come on.
-Grab them with your hands. -Come on.
-[Antonia] You got it. Yeah. -[Guy] Four, three...
-You're good. You're good. -[Guy] two...
one.
That's it. Class is dismissed.
That's the end of the senior project.
[groans] You did great.
-[Maria] Does it look good? -[Jet] Yeah, it does.
Oh, my God.
[Antonia] I know.
All right, judges. This is it, the final exam
of Flavortown Academy.
Our final two seniors had to make a graduation dinner
and they only had to go shop in odd aisles.
Up first, Maria.
For my celebration dish,
I paid tribute
to growing up Greek.
So what I have for you is a fava bean base
with tomatoes, and then I did
a fried calamari and prawn.
And then what I want you to do is take the fava,
smear it on the garlic bread,
enjoy it with a piece of prawn.
I am jealous on these bites that they're taking.
I love the fact that this dish
is so beautifully elegant and composed.
You do get the crunchy textures
from the fried calamari and fried shrimp.
-Super delicious. -Thank you.
Graduation-worthy dish.
You did such a great job
representing Greek food here.
But the biggest loss
was the choice not to make garlic bread.
-[Maria] Yup, yup, yup. -You could have took garlic.
You could have really toasted some bread off.
-Yes. -And then just built
the garlic flavor into it.
Like that was the biggest loss
was the choice not to make garlic bread.
-Thank you. -Grandma's super fava hummus
that you have here is delicious.
It gives that heft to the meal
so you don't miss aisle 10.
-Thank you. -[Guy] Great.
Thank you very much. Not to be outdone, Diana.
Talking about graduation,
it is a fiesta in a molcajete.
I have been dying to make my abuelita's
camarones con tequila y ajo molcajete.
Beautiful job bringing a dish,
a celebration for your culture.
The tequila lime glaze
with this salted, acidic,
smoky green onion with it,
the avocado with the creaminess,
it makes so much sense.
That sauce is fantastic.
That is perfect.
The tortillas, I saw you do the alley-oop at the...
At the end, you know? It didn't really get cooked.
So that's okay. I mean, I wish they were.
And the shrimp is...
It didn't get there. It just...
It's a little bit undercooked.
The rice is probably my favorite part of this dish.
I love all the chilies
that you integrated into the rice.
-Delicious. -Thank you, Chef.
-[Guy] Thank you very much. -[Maria] Good job, Chef.
Good job, Chef.
All right, judges. I'm glad I'm not in your seat.
Students, professors, I'm gonna send you back
to the kitchen for one last time.
But you should be very proud of yourselves.
You did a fantastic job.
Thank you.
We asked for a graduation dinner.
Part of it is the story
and the feeling and the emotion
and the other is the dish
and the flavor and the presentation.
Maria's first.
That was a very good dish
and it was a very traditional dish to her story.
[Darnell] Well, that nice artisan bread
would have been nice toasted on a grill.
[Guy] Let's talk about Diana.
That sauce was phenomenal. It was so good.
And that rice, I mean, it was...
-So much flavor because of those peppers. -So much flavor.
The shrimp just didn't get there.
[Guy] Who passes? Who fails?
[tense music playing]
I don't know if this is what you think you signed up for
and I don't know that we were exactly expecting
how attached we would get to the students.
The student whose graduation dinner
was the most worthy
of earning them the top honors
and the $35,000 grand prize is...
[suspenseful music playing]
graduate of Flavortown Academy,
Chef...
Maria.
[applause]
[Darnell] Woo!
-I'm sorry. -[Guy] Congratulations.
Congratulations, Maria. I'm so happy for you.
Diana, I have to say, and, Antonia,
watching the two of you cook together was outstanding.
And I'm sorry to see you go,
but I gotta tell you what, it was a hard-fought
battle and you deserve to be here in the finals.
So thank you so much.
-Thank you. -[Guy] Okay.
Thank you so much.
-[applause] -Thank you.
-What a pleasure.
Maria killed it. She crushed it.
From the bottom of my heart,
I am so grateful to Guy and Antonia
for this experience.
For any home cooks out there,
you can do this too.
So you've accomplished so much
in a long period of time
and then here at the Flavortown Academy
in a short period of time.
Congratulations to the graduate
of Flavortown Academy.
We will call her now Chef Maria.
-[Jet] Woo! -[Guy] Well done.
[cheers and applause]
I just won $35,000!
-Chef. -[Maria] Professor Jet,
you were the best coach/mentor.
I put on my tunnel vision a lot,
and he told me to just take my frickin' glasses off
and to see the horizon.
One amazing student rocks the market
and walks away with $35,000...
-Woo! -and a big graduation trophy.
We'll see you next time on Guy's Grocery Games.
-Adios. -[cheering]
[laughs]