Tonight, it's ABC Games like you've never seen them before.
You must play our newest, most ridiculous, outrageous...
-I don't have enough money. -[Guy] ...horrible game.
Oh. What did you just do?
-A crazy can auction. -[laughing] What?
[Hunter] All-star chefs in a bidding war to buy the letter
all their ingredients must start with.
[all] Oh!
-Sold! -No!
[laughing]
[Guy] It's our first ever alphabet auction.
That's what real cooking sounds like.
Joe Sasto, if you come for me, you best not miss.
All-stars will be going once,
going twice...
[listing letters of the alphabet]
I can't think this fast.
-[bell dings] -70!
-Let's go! -Oh!
[Guy] It's a spell-binding all-star Alphabet Auction,
right now on Guy's Grocery Games.
Oh. Mamma mia!
That was a mouthful.
[bell dinging]
So let's meet our all-star chefs.
Now first up, Award-winning restaurateur
and winner of Tournament of Champions III,
Chef Tiffani Faison.
[Tiffani] The last time I competed in Flavortown, the challenge was so hard.
That's the thing about All-stars in Flavortown,
Guy's just got all kinds of tricks up his sleeve,
and he's gonna pull them all out.
You rockstar. Where's your belt, champ?
Um, well...
It's probably at the museum where they honor her.
[Tiffani scoffing]
Next, master of manicotti,
Chopped champion, and Triple-G winner,
the one and only Mustache Joe.
Chef Joe Sasto!
Look at this mustache. That just screams all-star on its own.
I've been around the culinary circuit.
Joe Sasto!
I competed here at Flavortown more times than I can count.
I know what I'm doing. I am no rookie coming into the grocery store today.
Nice pants.
-Keeping it fly. Fly and flowery. -Really gone fly.
Finally, chef-owner of two critically-acclaimed
New York restaurants and winner of StarChefs Rising Stars Award,
Chef Leah Cohen!
This is my first time in Flavortown and I'm so excited to be here.
I am the owner and chef of two restaurants in New York City.
I am known for Southeast Asian cuisine.
Oh, my God.
On TOC, I think I kind of won 'em over
with my flavors and my lovely personality.
-New blood-- -Hello.
Oh, look at her, just so nice and unassuming.
-Hi. -Hi. [laughs]
Remember, we're friends. She's gonna hate this.
Are we friends?
-We're all friends! -Always. Till the end, baby.
-Yes we are. -Till the end.
Chefs, welcome.
You are superstars, super chefs.
It's an honor to have you in Flavortown Market.
And I just want you to remember that after what happens next.
-No, no! -No!
In your honor, we have devised a new, two-round culinary challenge
that is so crazy, so diabolical,
it will make the hot sauce dump cake sound appealing.
-[Guy] Get back in your space. -Where did you go?
-Back in your space. -You can't hide from this.
I don't want it.
And at the end of round one, of course,
anybody with the lowest score will be checking out.
But the chef with the highest combined score
at the end of both rounds, will get a chance to shop Flavortown Market
for up to 20,000 bucks.
First challenge. This is gonna be an easy one.
I don't believe you.
-None of us believe you. -No.
-You don't believe me? -I don't believe you.
Is that really how friends talk, Joe?
Rip the Band-Aid off.
I want a comfort classic.
I want that comforting dish that nobody can resist.
Now, before you can cook, you must play our newest, most ridiculous, outrageous,
horrible game, I mean, best game ever.
No!
We're gonna play a little Alphabet Auction.
I love games.
Hunter, come on out.
[Guy] Hunter.
-[all] Hey. -Hi, Hunter.
-Do you have money? -Yeah.
-Go ahead and just give them some money. -Okay.
-[Guy] What are you giving them, Hunter? -100 bucks.
-100 bucks each. Okay. -[Hunter] Yup.
[Guy] Here's what you're gonna do.
You're going to use that money
to bid for the exclusive rights to a specific letter of the alphabet.
Why? 'Cause you'll only be able to shop for ingredients
whose name begins with the letter that you win.
[laughing] What?
Okay? So for instance. If you bought the letter H,
you would be able
to buy things like Hunter.
-Please don't buy me. -Hot dogs.
Hummus. Hot sauce.
-If it's C-- -Get away from my C right now.
-I would have taken C, too. -If it's C, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese...
No. The first letter of the first word is what you're going for.
So cotija would work.
-Chorizo. -Camembert.
Chorizo's not cheese, though. But good talk.
-[laughing] -[Guy] All right, here we go.
Chefs, we're auctioning off three letters in this round, and they're good ones.
So, bid away, but make sure you have enough money left over
'cause you also have to use your leftover money to purchase your ingredients
when you come to the checkout line to see Wendy.
[Hunter] Oof, that's a rough one.
I can't think this fast.
Here to lead us in the gavel to gavel auction coverage,
the one and only Franco Finn!
-Here we go. -[all cheering]
-[Guy] Fantastic, and looking fit. -What's up, what's up?
-What, did you just get back from the islands? -Oh, yeah, you know.
-[Guy] I like the outfit. -Relaxed and ready to go.
We're gonna start off by auctioning off
one of the top three letters in the alphabet.
All right, this is the first one we're going for. Hunter?
[Hunter] Ready? Here we go. Letter C.
-Letter C. -[all-stars laughing]
I want C. Chicken, cheese, chili, chips.
Everything that I can think of under comfort food starts with a C.
All right, let's start it off.
Minimum bid, we're gonna open up with 40 bucks.
Start the minimum bid at $40. Who's in? $40?
All right, we got $40. Now $45. Winning bid now $45.
Now $45, then $50. Now $50, then $55?
-Yep! -$55, he said, what about $60?
-Nope. -$60, winning bid now $60.
Oh! We got $60 right here.
Winning bid now $65.
-How about $62? Come on, $62. -$62.
We got $62 right here, winning bid now $64.
$64!
[Franco] $64! Joe's in the lead at $64.
Winning bid now $66.
Oh! We got $66. $68 now.
We're at $68, winning bid now $68. Remember, every dollar counts.
What you got left? $68.
Leah? Joe? $68.
-No! -[Franco] Oh!
-Ladies, look at that. You're at $68 right now. -[Guy laughing]
Winning bid now $69.
$69!
She's at $69. $70, don't let her take it.
-$70! -Let's go!
I don't know what to do!
$71, Joe, you're thinking about it.
I don't know what the other letters are!
[Franco] Winning bid now $71.
-[Tiffani screaming] -[Franco] Oh, yeah, cash is coming.
Oh, my gosh.
Remember, you gotta shop with the rest of this money.
Exactly. $71, winning bid at $71 now once.
$71 now, $71 now, twice.
$71. Last chance. All in, all done!
-$71! -[Guy] Oh!
[Franco] Oh! Just in the nick of time. She is good.
Get it back from her. You have to get it back from her.
$72?
$72! She's in.
I've never seen the auction this brutal.
$73 now once. $73 now twice. $73 now, all in all done!
-Sold! For $72! -[exclaims]
Did I get it? I don't even know.
-You got no money left! -Well, I don't even know.
-[Joe yelling in relief] -You got no money left!
Leah, you have $28.
-Okay. -But you also have the letter C.
I'm thrifty. I got it.
All right! Next letter, Hunter.
-[Hunter] P. -[Guy] Letter P.
Pasta Joe, this is you.
-Question. -Please.
The last letter, it's free?
No, this is going to be the minimum $60 bid.
-No, whoa. -No! Come on!
[Guy] There's twists here.
Now that C's looking real good, right?
-$70 C is not that crazy. -This is-- No.
Here we go! Letter P.
Let's go, start the winning bid at $40.
And all right! She started it off.
$40 right here, winning bid now $45.
We got $45.
Come on! You don't even want it!
-Get out of my hood! -[laughing]
$50. Let's go. Come on.
$50, now-- Oh! She's in at $50, now $55.
Joe, are you in?
$55. Yup.
[Franco] $55! He's in at $55.
He's at $55. We're looking for $60 right now.
$60 now once.
$60 now twice. In at $60, don't let him take it.
Okay, I'll take P for $60.
$60! There you go.
$62 last call.
Last chance, all in, all done! $62?
-Sold! -Yes!
[Franco] $60 right here to the young lady!
$60 for the P!
I wanna know what the last one is.
[Guy] Joe, it's F.
-Wow! -[Tiffani laughing]
[Guy] There you go, Joe. All right!
Letter C and 28 bucks
to purchase your ingredients.
Letter P and 40 bucks, and letter F and 40 bucks.
Okay?
Thirty minutes to shop, purchase, and prepare your comfort classic.
And just so you know, Chef, for you, for anybody,
it's always three, two, one,
go, when we start.
-[Tiffani screaming] -Wow.
[exclaiming]
[Tiffani] I have $40. All of my ingredients have to start with P.
So fun.
This is really hard.
Hate you so much.
-Hi. -[Tiffani] Hi.
Where's panko?
It's a lot of things to fit in your brain
while you're also running around a grocery store and attempting to cook.
I'm thinking crispy pork loin sandwich on potato roll,
and I'm gonna fry this pork loin.
I get Parmesan, potato flakes, but I start thinking about
what I'm gonna do to keep the breading on this pork loin.
Like, I can't... I don't have eggs. There's no eggs on my station,
I can't buy eggs.
Where's pudding?
Pudding.
-Pudding with a P? -Yeah.
I know. I know. I know how it sounds.
But if I can like dose it and get some of the sweetness down and really season it,
I think it'll work.
Okay, you're at $39.90
with everything including this
on here right now without taking anything off.
I had $0.10 left, so I'm good to go.
-Thank you, thank you, thank you. -Thank you.
ABCs is a fundamental of the English language,
and so now, it's the fundamental of whatever I'm cooking today.
Oh! Chicken!
I spent $72 on the letter C,
and now I only have $28 to shop.
So for my comfort classic, I wanted to make something warm and rich and comforting.
There's two things that pop into my head. A curry and fried chicken.
I just want to combine those two really comfort classics into one dish.
Which is Cipollini onion?
Curries are a really good way to kind of stretch your money
because the ingredients are rather inexpensive.
Normally with a curry, I would finish it with some fresh lime juice,
some Thai basil,
but those ingredients don't start with the letter C.
I grab cornichons.
They have that acidic pop that I know that the curry desperately needed
to brighten it all up.
-I have $28. Please tell me I have enough money. -All right.
Well, you're at $26.89.
-Boom! -[Tiffani] No!
I like C.
I like it a lot. [chuckles]
There you go. Good luck, Chef.
Here we go, here we go.
When you're down and you're out,
and you just want a hug from whatever you're eating,
that's a comfort classic.
We're going with a grilled cheese and tomato soup.
F, F, F.
Now I just have to fit that into my little F box.
Fontina? Fontina?
Cheese, super important. And it's expensive.
I only have $40 to spend, and I need to get some good melting cheese.
Where's feta? Where's feta?
-Feta. Thank you. -[Guy] There you go.
Does this count?
Fresh goat cheese?
No.
[Joe] I'm making soup.
Again, I wanna work in as much flavor as possible
in the shortest amount of time and on a budget.
So, French onion soup mix
at $1.69, that is a steal for a flavor bomb.
We're gonna turn this grilled cheese on its head.
Not only is it gonna be on focaccia bread,
we're gonna pull out the waffle iron.
We're gonna make a focaffle.
That is a focaccia waffle.
Boom.
No F tomatoes.
Can you think of any tomato product that starts with the letter F? I can't.
I am battling this budget here in the produce department.
Trying to find things that are by the pound
so I can only buy one or two of them
and get the best bang for my buck.
-Oh, Fire-roasted! -[Guy] There you go.
-Fire roasted. You're welcome. -Fire roasted, baby!
Okay. So $37.40.
You know, and you got nineteen and a half minutes. Wow.
Grilled cheese, tomato soup, 40 bucks, no problem.
So here to decide the outcome of our Alphabet Auction
are three judges who are experts in competing, cooking, and I hope spelling.
Acclaimed cookbook author and founder of One Potato and Weelicious,
the one and only Catherine McCord.
James Beard award winner
and All-Star Chopped champion, give it up for Nate Appleman!
And renowned restaurateur,
cookbook author, and Iron Chef winner,
Chef Justin Sutherland!
Justin, what letter would you have gone for?
I really liked P. I mean, you've got pasta, you've got potatoes,
you've got any kind of pork products.
I would have been P, too.
I'm surprised that the great Joe Sasto, the prince of pasta--
Pasta starts with the letter P,
the ingredients for pasta don't.
[both] Oh!
So we're going classic comfort grilled cheese
with some tomato fennel soup with fingerling potato chips.
First thing I'm gonna get started on
is my fennel fire-roasted tomato soup.
I wanna get butter down into that pan,
let it get browned and develop some of that nutty, yummy flavor
down in the bottom.
A little bit of fennel seed, allow that to toast
before deglazing with my fire roasted tomatoes.
Generally with soup, you want to develop flavor over a long period of time,
you wanna build and season and allow things to cook down and stew together.
And the way I'm gonna get all of that flavor
is with my French onion soup mix.
And I was not able to get any sort of milk, cream, half-and-half.
Doesn't start with the letter F.
But feta does.
This challenge is so hard. ABC budget.
[Justin] Only having that one letter,
so you couldn't finish your sauce with something else or complete a dish.
So you really gotta be hyperfocused on those singular ingredients,
'cause the entire plate is built off that letter.
I can't imagine anything more stressful.
[bell dinging]
The hardest thing about this is it is an ABC budget battle.
Not only do they have a little bit of money,
but they have to figure out how to make a full comfort meal with just one letter.
[Guy] 16 minutes! 16 left!
All right, sweet T, what's on the menu?
We're gonna do crispy fried pork cutlets on a little slider.
Pineapple, pickled garlic, pudding mayo, and maybe some potato chips.
For my sauce, the first thing I wanna do,
I'm gonna take my frozen pineapple, a good amount of vinegar,
I want that to start reducing down.
Pickled garlic, what?
I can't just use regular garlic,
so I do want that sort of umami oomph that garlic brings.
Really hoping that this pickled garlic fills in that little space.
Next, I'm going to work on my pudding dredge.
I have my vanilla pudding,
put a good amount of potato flakes
hoping that that'll help it be starchy and stick to the pork.
There is pepperoncini juice, I use pickled garlic juice,
so I'm really trying to throw a bunch of savory stuff into that pudding
so that I can take the sweetness out.
[Guy] How's that pudding treating you?
-Well, pudding, it's gonna coat my pork chops. -Yes.
I would have loved to have had a whole lot of mayo on my station.
Mayo starts with an M, friends. M.
Let's talk about innovation because when you're trapped in one letter,
I don't think that many people would have thought about
pudding as the binder, as the glue.
So it's pretty cool.
[Leah] These Cipollinis are fun, huh?
For my comfort classic,
I am making a red curry with vegetables and fried chicken.
So the first thing I'm gonna do is make the curry base.
I sweat the Cipollini onions in a little bit of oil.
Then I'm gonna add in the red curry paste
and fry the paste a little bit with a little coconut milk.
That's a technique that I learned in Thailand.
And you wanna really cook out the paste because you wanna develop the flavor.
So while the curry is cooking,
it's time to make the fried chicken.
I'm marinating the chicken with a little bit of the pickling brine,
and some red curry paste, and some salt.
Super simple, I don't really have that many ingredients,
so I'm trying to reinforce all of the flavors
and the ingredients that I had throughout the dish.
Let's look at Chef Leah.
-She's making the fried chicken curry. -Mmm-hmm.
It looks like she has eight hands.
-[Catherine] Leah has like a secret sous-chef. -Yeah.
-[Justin laughs] -Yeah.
This is her sous-chef, and this is her,
and they're both just working.
[Justin] Independently, too. It's like both hands are doing two separate things.
-Absolutely. -Very impressive.
Chefs, we've got 10 minutes!
You gotta be plated in 10!
Oh. Mamma mia!
I'm thinking gameplay here,
I'm gonna try to use these ingredients as many ways as possible.
We have our fennel in our soup,
it could also be used raw and shaved into a nice pickled fennel slaw.
How we looking, Joe?
Soup is working, potato chips are about to go down.
I gotta get, I gotta get these on the grill.
Okay.
So we got our beautiful fromage and our feta.
Oh, and it's seasoned. How convenient.
You don't wanna do the expected.
This is Flavortown. We're all-stars.
We're looking for the unexpectable.
That's a word now.
[Tiffani] I'm trying to layer in flavors with ingredients I don't have.
A char on bread is a flavor, right?
Like, I don't have to use an ingredient to do that.
Put some butter on top of that.
Parmesan on top of that and throw it in the oven,
and let that get really nice and melty and delicious.
So, my pineapple's cooked down,
I throw some pudding in there and I throw it in the blender.
I'm essentially hacking mayo with pudding and pineapple,
as I do.
[Leah] Instead of just throwing vegetables into a curry,
I really want to concentrate those flavors.
So I'm gonna char these cherry tomatoes,
and the at the end, I'm gonna throw in the purple cauliflower.
[Guy] Talk to me, Chef. Where are we at?
-Charring some vegetables to go in there. -Right.
[Leah] The curry is going. I feel pretty good.
-It's not like my homemade, you know... -Well.
...curry at home, but you know.
I was expecting a little spice out of you.
It's a little spicy. No?
I don't wanna blow up the judges' palate, right?
But I definitely want to add a little bit of chili,
just for a little bit of kick.
Four minutes! Four to go!
[Leah] Laying down the curry at the bottom of the dish.
I put the vegetables down after,
just to act as a barrier to keep the fried chicken crispy.
So it doesn't sit in the sauce and become soggy.
[Tiffani] My pork cutlet is coming out of the fryer, and she is beautiful.
It looks really good. The crust has stayed on, I'm very happy about this.
Hacking eggs with pudding.
Who knew?
So for me, plating is building the sandwich,
and I need to get everything layered in perfectly.
I need to make sure the ratios are good.
Bread, my pudding mayo, my pork loin on top of that,
and then I have pea shoots,
and then some pickles on top of that.
Ninety seconds!
[Joe] And now for the moment of truth.
Looks perfect.
So because I'm making potato chips,
I don't wanna just serve the judges potato chips,
I wanna serve the judges a comfort potato chip that they've never had before.
And I know furikake is gonna make that happen.
I feel really good about this dish.
I hit the comfort classic out of the park,
I created a new genre of grilled cheese
with the focaffle and this tomato soup.
No one's gonna believe this came together in less than 18 minutes.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Chefs, that's it, stop working.
-[Catherine exclaiming] -Wow.
[exhaling] Whoo!
Chefs, I gotta tell you, with dishes this impressive,
I'll say all alphabets are off.
Let's take it to the judges. Right this way.
[bell dinging]
This is our all-star Alphabet Auction.
Up first, Chef Leah, C for 72 bucks.
Tell us what you made.
I'm known for making staff meal at my restaurants,
and we want it to be something that's filling and warm and comforting,
so I usually make a curry.
And then what's more comforting than fried chicken?
And my kids love little chicken bites,
so I combined those two things,
work and home, in a bowl. [chuckles]
-Leah. First time in here. -Yeah.
Incredible.
Curry sauce is just smooth. The chicken, look at this, like morsels of perfection.
I don't know what to say other than
[listing letters of the alphabet]
I don't care what letter, this was amazing.
First, I was so impressed with your gameplay.
You literally gave us two comfort foods.
The plating is beautiful, but when I hear curry, like, I want curry to punch.
I want some heat, I was ready to start sweating a little bit.
Um, but other than that, you crushed it.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Chef.
Up next, Chef Tiffani.
You got the letter P and you had 40 bucks to shop with.
Comfort food classic, there was nothing, to me,
more comforting or more classic
than a sandwich.
Crispy pork chop, breaded it in panko and potato flakes on it,
so super crispy, super delicious.
It is also breaded with pudding.
Made a pineapple-pudding mayo
with a little bit of pickled garlic and some cayenne in there.
Back to the mayo. It was what?
Pineapple-pickled garlic-pudding mayo.
Oh, that old staple.
Like we do, you know?
This is absolutely delicious. The innovation is incredible.
I would have never thought to use pudding as the binder to get that panko to stick.
And then that pudding mayo you made is delicious.
The only thing, I don't think it needed the pickled pea shoot.
Flavor wise, on point.
You have given us acid and briny and crispy and creamy and sweet.
You did a phenomenal job.
Let's talk about P. Pork, potato, pickles.
If anything, I would say I want more.
I wanna be wrapped in this pork sandwich.
We can do that, Nate.
Not to be outdone, Chef Joe, up next.
You paid $60 for the letter F.
You had $40 to shop. What did you make us?
We have a focaffle.
Which is a focaccia waffle comfort classic.
So grilled cheese, there's fromage in there, some feta,
and then griddled in the waffle iron,
and then what goes better with grilled cheese
than fire roasted fennel-fingerling potato soup?
And then, of course, some furikake fingerling potato chips.
So Fresno chili and pickled fennel slaw on the side.
You killed it.
Gameplay, next level, right?
Fire-roasted tomato,
furikake on the fingerling potatoes.
And your funky focaffle,
I cannot wait to come to Joe's funky focaffle shop.
[all laughing]
You brought the fun. How you pulled off this much in that little of time,
you were the last one to get back.
I had about 18 minutes.
Yeah. Oh, I know, I was watching.
The soup has like a rich depth of flavor, really smooth, creamy.
You killed the letter F with this. This was fantastic.
This is like an elevated meal for a 7-year-old.
And we've got potato chips, tomato soup,
a grilled cheese sandwich.
I think just a little more salt in that soup would have woke the whole thing up.
-Nice work. -Thank you.
All right, thank you very much, chefs.
I think you were all masterful in what you did and how you did it,
and the opportunity the judges had to taste it.
Now we're gonna put the pressure on them.
We're gonna send you back to the kitchens,
we'll call you when we have a decision.
Thank you, great job.
Did any of our chefs make a misstep that might spell doom?
[bell dinging]
Judges, thank you very much.
Chefs, you knocked it out. I think these are great-looking dishes.
Unfortunately, one chef checks out.
Chef Tiff, you're up first.
-18 out of 20 in gameplay. Nice! -[Joe] Nice!
[Guy] 17 out of 20 in taste.
8 for plating, for a 43. Wow!
All right. Thank you.
Good score.
Mustache Joe.
-19 out of 20 in gameplay! -[Tiffani] Wow.
[Guy] 18 out of taste.
-8 for plating for a 45! -[Tiffani] Buddy.
-Good job. -[Guy] Nicely done.
-[Tiffani] Wow. -[Leah] Well.
Well, Chef Leah,
you're gonna have to get better than a 43.
Yeah, that's rough.
Let's take a look.
-18 out of 20 in gameplay. -[Joe exclaims]
That's dope.
-[Guy] 18 out of 20 in taste! -[Joe exclaiming]
[Guy] 9 for plating for a 45!
-Congratulations. -Nice work!
P for peace out.
Chef Tiff, a 43 is a win any day of the week in Guy's Grocery Games.
It's been a pleasure, we always love having you.
But I also wanna remind you that you are the Tournament of Champions III champ.
-Whoo! -[Guy] Okay?
-Oh, yeah. -And there's one thing you get
when you're the Tournament of Champions III champ.
You don't get sent home from me.
You're staying in the game.
-[judges cheering] -Oh!
Yes, yes, yes!
I mean, yay!
The second and final round is coming up.
Chefs, back to your carts. Good luck.
Chef Joe and Leah, congratulations.
-45 points, that's awesome. -Right?
[whooping triumphantly]
And 43 for my redheaded sister.
For the final challenge,
I want you to make the judges an international dinner.
An exciting meal
featuring your favorite world flavors. Okay?
And what goes great with dinner?
[clicks tongue]
-Another auction. That's right! -[all laughing]
So this round, we're gonna have a different kind of auction.
We're gonna have a Crazy Can Auction. Hunter!
What?
Ugh!
-All right. -[Tiffani] What are we doing?
Show me the money, baby.
-Hunter, give them some more money. -All right.
[Guy] Here's what we've got for you.
We're gonna be playing a little Triple-G fusion game
that we like to call Crazy Can Alphabet Auction.
[Hunter] Here we go.
Oh.
So, you'll be bidding
for what not only delicious mystery food is inside of that can,
but you'll also be able to shop for ingredients that start with that letter.
There you go. Ta-dah!
-We're gonna start it off at 40 bucks, Franco. Go ahead -All right.
Flavortown Auction begins.
Let's go. Start the bid at $40. Now $40.
-We got $40, now $45. -Yup.
-$45, okay, $45, now $50. -[Guy and Hunter] Yup!
[Franco] Tiff. Tiff is at $50 right here.
$52. That's it. No more bargains.
-Yup! -[Franco] $53.
$53. Come on, now. Tiff.
-$53. -You're at $53.
Fine.
$54 now once. $54 now twice. $54 last chance.
-I'll wait. -And we are sold!
-All right. -$53 right there.
$53, Faison. Hunter, go get the money.
[Hunter] Thank you.
And the secret ingredient is...
-sauerkraut. -Okay.
All right. Next ingredient up.
And the letter is...
[Franco] B.
Letter B in a can? Hopefully there's some beans in there.
And B's starting off with $40.
-$40. -Let's go.
Who's in at $40? $40 now, $40. Come on.
-We got $40. Now $45. -Yup!
Come on! Let's go, now. $45 now, $45.
-Nah. -[Franco] $45 nobody.
[Leah] Let's just let Joe have the B.
I don't want to cook with beans and that is what I think is in the can.
All in? All done?
And we will sell it. Sold!
I just screwed myself, right?
-I don't know. Or did I? -[Hunter] That was a steal.
-Beans. -I can't think of other foods that start with B, though.
My brain does not work anymore.
Guys, B goes for blueberries.
Damn--
I got a deal. A steal on these blueberries.
All right, Chef. You're a $60 purchase on this.
-Okay. -[Guy] And here you are.
-Oh, boy. -[Leah] Arrr.
-[Guy] Are you ready for something delicious? -You're a pirate?
[Guy] And you get a delicious...
rice pudding.
Rice pudding.
Well, there's things that can be done with pudding.
R. Regret.
$60? That's expensive rice pudding.
[Hunter] There you go.
-Thank you very much, man. You are the auction machine. -All right. Hey.
All right. Letter S for sauerkraut is going to Chef Tiffani.
And 47 bucks.
The letter B for blueberries is going to Joe Sasto with 60 bucks.
And the letter R you looking for a good time
is going to Chef Leah with rice pudding and 40 bucks.
Only grab the ingredients that start with your letter.
Thirty minutes to shop, purchase, prepare,
and plate your international dinner.
International dinner, don't forget it.
-[Hunter laughs] -You know, the clock's started.
-[all yelling] -[Guy] I'm kidding.
I didn't say three, two, one, go. Get back there.
[Joe] That was it! That was it!
-[Tiffani] Leah! -[Leah laughs]
[Tiffani] So, I have to make an international dinner,
I have to use only ingredients that start with S.
And I only spent $53 for a can of sauerkraut.
Which doesn't sound like a bargain, but it is.
I have $47 left to shop.
So I get to the protein first, I see these beautiful shrimp.
I have to use this canned sauerkraut
which I start thinking about, it's fermented,
and so I can use that funk in my shrimp sauce.
For my international dinner, I'm trying to kind of stay in South Asia,
but I can't get rice.
Rice starts with an R, kids.
I can get sticky rice, so that's my hack.
What I'm trying to do is stay in an area of the world.
I'm trying to stay in South Asia,
but I'm trying not to get too focused on one specific dish
'cause I'm just not gonna have the ingredients
to put something together that's specific.
She's just grabbing anything she can with S' on.
B, b, b. Oh, you're dirty.
Oops, where is that going?
Hmm. Good luck with finding your cart.
Oh! What did you just do?
You're a jerk.
[Wendy] All right.
-Wendy, my girl. -Hey.
Just 'cause you're redheads, don't think you have some solidarity here.
We do. That's how it works.
$38.88.
-[Tiffani] Thank you, Wendy. -You're welcome.
[Joe] So fun!
I have $60 to spend on this international dinner.
I am thinking a black bean braised black cod.
Excuse you, excuse you.
So I'm grabbing black bean paste, we got black garlic.
All Asian ingredients
that are gonna play really well with the black cod.
I wanna work this canned blueberry
into as many different components of the dish as possible.
Including the juice that the blueberries have in the can.
The trick in Flavortown, let me give you a good one.
If you're ever given a canned ingredient,
the trick is to grab the fresh version of that canned ingredient,
and fusing them together in the best way possible.
-[Wendy] $6.51. You want the oranges again? -Yeah.
And $55.54.
[Joe] Thank you.
I literally have no idea what I'm looking for.
What's really terrible [laughs] is not the letter R, but what's inside the can.
And that is rice pudding.
It's usually very sweet, and I am cooking a savory international dish.
[Guy] Rice pudding. Phew.
[Leah] So for my international dinner,
I'm gonna make a risotto with rice pudding.
Rib eye starts with R, extremely expensive.
But everyone knows that rib eye and rice pudding risotto
go perfectly together. [laughs]
So as long as they've got money, they can come shopping again.
Hello.
Oh, my God. I don't have enough money.
What do you got? You have 40 bucks, right?
-Yeah. -All right.
-So you're at $36.14. -That's fine.
Five, six, seven.
-[Leah exhales] -What are you thinking, Chef?
I just grabbed everything that has R.
-[Leah and Wendy laugh] -[Guy] Okay.
I mean, I think that's a good start, right?
And remember, you also get to use the rice pudding.
-[Leah] Yes, exactly. -This is so fun.
[bell dinging]
The Crazy Can Alphabet Auction is easily the hardest part of this challenge.
The rice pudding, sauerkraut, blueberries.
And will this make, like, an international dinner to really wow?
Twenty-one minutes, chefs. 21.
[Leah] For my international dinner,
I'm going to make rice pudding risotto and steak Florentine.
I'm doing the super-classic Italian rice-pudding risotto base.
It's surprisingly not that sweet.
Where I take par-cooked rice,
and then I add rice pudding, water, and season it with some salt.
Joe, how's it going?
Figuring it out, still.
Oh, yeah. Me, too.
[Joe] For my international dinner,
I am thinking a black bean braised black cod
with baby bok choy, black garlic, blood oranges, and baby spinach.
I need to get my cod marinated.
I am inspired by Nobu out of Japan
making a miso-glazed braised black cod.
So I'm thinking Asian.
What a treat.
It's lovely.
A little blueberry juice.
They're a little acidic, they're not overly sweet.
I thought it was blueberry-pie filling.
Now I'm gonna work on the bok choy.
Bringing in the Bs.
I wanna work this canned blueberry
into as many different components of the dish as possible.
Including the juice that the blueberries have in the can.
-What's happening over there, dude? -Just cooking, Chef.
That's what real cooking sounds like.
Joe Sasto, if you come for me, you best not miss.
I mean, I'm two points behind, guys.
They're not even thinking of me as competition anymore.
I have got to nail this.
For my international dish,
I'm making sweet and sour spicy shrimp
with fried shallot sticky rice.
First thing I do is start peeling my shrimp.
I need my shells, and I want to start working those
into a brown butter sauce.
So much flavors in shrimp shells.
And then I'm gonna build that flavor with this shrimp paste.
I have to use this canned sauerkraut
which, by the way, tastes like straight metal.
There's a sauce in Malaysian cooking
that's very often served with fish
that I think if I can make that like a shrimpy, beautiful sauce,
I might be onto something.
[Guy] 12 minutes! 12 minutes left!
How we looking, Chef?
I have no idea what I'm doing. [laughing]
That's awesome. That always sounds confident.
-That's always good, right? -What are you thinking you're doing?
[Leah] Seared rib eye with risotto.
Some charred radicchio.
-So I assume you're going Italian. -Yes.
Honestly, I just wanted to make something delicious.
I also just don't want to embarrass myself.
That's all I'm thinking.
[laughs] Literally.
Guy.
Yeah, I know. But I don't have enough money.
-$3, ding-dong. -Is it?
Oh, my God. I love you. [chuckling]
-[Wendy chuckles] -Thank you, love you.
[Wendy] She's so lucky.
What happens when Guy shops for you.
-If you're gonna have risotto, you gotta have cheese. -I know.
Thank you, Guy.
[Joe] Steamed black cod, we're braising it slowly over that water.
It's one of my favorite ways to eat and cook such a delicate fish.
And a basket steamer starts with the letter B.
We're looking for gameplay here, my friends.
How we looking, Sasto?
-The plan is coming together. -Okay.
We're going braised. Braised miso black cod.
No. No miso, I lied. It's inspired by the miso.
Inspired by miso.
I wanna chop this bok choy up super fine.
I take some of the black garlic, blueberries from the can,
turn that into a paste and that becomes the relish for my black cod.
[Tiffani] If I screw up this shrimp,
I don't have money to go get more shrimp.
I really need to baby these shrimps,
so I get everything in a place where I feel good,
and I'm standing there grilling my shrimp.
I am not giving this shrimp two seconds too long to overcook.
-[Guy] Hi, Chef. -[Tiffani] Hi.
-Tell me. -We have a sweet and sour shrimp sauce.
Spicy grilled shrimp with sauerkraut in the sauce,
-sauerkraut pickled spring onions on sticky rice. -[Guy] Got it.
I grab the rice and I taste it, it's really neutral.
And put my crispy shallots in with the sticky rice.
-And a little brown butter? -[Tiffani] Yep.
-There we go, and was that with serranos? -Yes.
There we are.
The rice was good.
Then I'm just gonna saute the pea shoots in there.
Two minutes! Two to go!
[Leah] I really wanna highlight the rice pudding risotto
and then add the charred radicchio,
and then those thinly-sliced rib eye,
and a little of the pickles on top
and then just spoon that brown butter sauce all over it.
[Joe] I'm not feeling super confident about this dish.
I don't really know if I like the way that it looks,
I'm not sure how it's going to eat.
And I'm hoping that there's enough blueberryness in the dish
to really blow the judges away.
Forty seconds!
[Tiffani] Put the rice down,
but I want the rice on the side of the bowl
'cause I want this sauce to be able to live on its own.
Finish that with the grilled shrimp and get the sauce down.
Five, four, three, two, one.
-Chefs, that's it. Stop working. -[judges cheering]
All right! Amazing!
-[Nate] That was a good one. -[Catherine] What a great round.
[Guy] Chefs, I gotta be honest.
Something smells good. I mean, it smells good.
Let's take it to the judges right this way!
[bell dinging]
All right, judges, this is it. It's the All-star Alphabet Auction game two.
Up first, Chef Tiffani.
Letter S, 53 bucks, canned sauerkraut. So tell us about this dish.
So this is inspired by
a Malaysian fish dish that I've had.
So like a sweet and sour sauerkraut-y
Malaysian barbecue shrimp sauce.
Oh, it's just the way it rolls off your tongue.
Yeah, it's just like my mom used to make.
That's sitting on sweet sticky rice, just kicking it with the S.
Spectacular, stupendous.
You nailed it.
It's everything that I ever want in a shrimp dish.
-Man, I'd eat this any day. -Thank you.
This is mind-blowing.
It's a budget battle.
So you had the $47,
and I do feel like you've utilized it in a really strong way.
This sticky rice, just flavor on flavor on flavor.
What's worrying me here is the sauerkraut.
Do I need to see it?
Do you want to?
This is absolutely fantastic.
Shrimp are cooked to perfection,
to me this tastes like a well-composed restaurant dish.
-Thank you. -[Guy] All right. Up next,
Chef Leah. You had R and you got it for $60.
What did you make for us?
Okay, so I did risotto
and a steak Florentine with some pickled onions.
This actually feels very high-end to me.
For $40, you got this rib eye, you got this risotto.
The radicchio, to me, is the star of the show here.
-It's just treated beautifully. -Thank you.
This was balanced so perfectly.
The rice pudding in a can, that's the ingredient that I did not want.
And you put it front and center. Nailed it.
Thank you.
Being the newbie in here, you looked absolutely amazing.
The pickled onion on top,
I like the acidity that brought,
I don't know if it was necessary.
Yeah.
All right, judges, last but not least,
Mustache Joe, what do you have for us?
Ah, beautiful judges, with the letter B,
and canned blueberries,
we have a braised black cod that was marinated in a blueberry juice
and broad bean chili paste.
Then the blueberries from the can into a baby bok choy relish.
We have our baby spinach
quickly wilted with blueberries.
And a blood orange and butter sauce.
Oh, baby, baby.
The alliteration is big here.
You just made the most beautiful
black cod blueberry budget dish that I've ever had.
-Next level gameplay. -Thank you, Chef.
I loved it. The way you treated that black cod was perfect.
It was buttery, it was not overcooked,
it absorbed so much of that marinade.
Chef Joe, how much money did you have?
I had $60.
$60! Wow.
-60 bucks. -That's a lot of money, Joe.
Look, you know, you go to a high-end restaurant,
and you're like, "I just spent $60. Is this $60?"
It's a small amount of food,
but it's a long list of flavors.
And I think that that's where you nailed the international part.
But I'm still wondering about the budget battle here.
Well, there you have it, judges.
Chefs, I think it was a job well done.
Leah, for your first time, you stuck right in the saddle. Those are big scores.
Tiffani, you got two points to come back from.
But I think this is anybody's game.
I'm gonna send you back to the kitchens,
we'll make a decision on who's going to be shopping for up to 20k.
Thank you very much. Job well done.
Judges, whose international dinner cast a spell over you?
-What does that mean? -[judges laugh]
Let's take a look at some scores.
We have a tie in the first round between Leah and Joe.
Leah, let's take a look.
17 out of 20, gameplay. Nice.
16 out of 20 in taste.
8 in plating for a 41.
86 points. Nicely done.
Sasto!
17 out of 20.
16 out of 20.
Are we gonna tie again?
-10 for plating... -Whoa.
-[Tiffani] Wow. -[Guy] ...for a 43.
Congratulations, an 88.
Wow. Wow.
[Guy] TOC champ.
18 out of 20, gameplay.
19 in taste.
9 in plating for a 46.
-Congratulations. -Shut up!
-Yeah!
Come from behind win with an 89.
86, 88, 89. Those are big numbers.
-Congratulations. -Wow, thank you.
Chef Leah, Chef Joe. It was great to have you, but good night.
I had so much fun and I feel like even though I'm a loser,
I still am a winner for just having been here.
Man, what a bummer to lose on a B.
A big bummer.
But I'm not gonna go home and cry like a baby 'cause I'm a big boy.
And we're out.
Chef Tiffani Faison just wins the Alphabet Auction.
Congratulations.
[all cheering]
We have a couple different ways you can win up to 20,000 bucks.
[grunts]
First way is we go on a shopping spree.
I give you two minutes to grab 10 items that are on this list.
Every item that you would find on the shelf that you put in the basket,
you're gonna get $2,000.
If you get all 10, you win the $20,000.
Now we could skip those shenanigans,
and we can go for the mystery check.
Okay, I'll take the check.
-Take what? -The check.
-I can't hear you. -Check!
-What? -[yelling] Check!
Okay! Drumroll, please. Go for the check.
-[drum roll] -[Guy] What do we got?
I'll take it. 16,900.
$16,950!
Doesn't get any better than that.
[Tiffani] I came from behind and beat Joe by one point.
She's back, y'all. Thank you, Flavortown. Good night.
-We'll see you next week on Guy's Grocery Games. Adios! -Whoo! Yes!
Well done. The check is taller than you, by the way.
[all laughing]