[Guy] We're about to go back to basics.
Because, at the beginning of cooking, there was only fire.
Tonight, we have chefs fighting fire with fire in a raw test
of talent to see who is the real master of the flame.
-Grilled food is amazing. -Grilling is for everybody.
Possibilities are endless when it comes to grilling.
Everything you cook in this competition
must be on the grill. -Ohh.
[Guy] That means no range, no oven, no broiler, no fryer,
no microwave, no nada, just the grill.
This is brutal.
It's like the most primal way to cook.
[Maneet] The grill has to be your best friend.
[Daniel] You wanna hear that sizzle
when you drop your proteins on the grill.
I'm getting char from the chicken.
I think the star of this plate is the grilled steak.
[Maneet] Great cooking.
[Guy] We're playing grill masters tonight on Triple G.
So let's meet our grill masters.
Now, first we have Randall Matthews,
a Baltimore restaurant owner who has helped open multiple
wood-fired restaurants and is passionate about grilling.
I am the Tom Brady of grilling. Yeah, I'm a gentle giant.
I'm 6'1". I'm a big guy.
Played college football.
I opened up 25 plus restaurants from Dubai to Miami to LA.
And I think grilling is the best way to cook food
because it's so versatile.
It can be harsh, it can be gentle.
I am one with the coals. I am a coal whisperer.
-Feeling good, looking good. -Thank you, thank you.
And next, Chelsea Fadda, a vegan turned butcher,
who is now the executive chef
of a wood-fired restaurant in Austin, Texas.
People think that grilling is really intimidating,
but I think that grilling is for everybody.
Grilling is the most authentic way to cook, especially
coming from a whole-animal butchery background.
Formerly being a vegan, I want to really celebrate
and appreciate the life of that animal,
and I like to show that on the plate.
Being on "Grocery Games," I do hope to show that women have
just as much of a place at the grill as men do.
You guys want that sassy ponytail whip, I know.
-Great to be here. -Austin, Texas.
[Chelsea] Whoo!
And finally, Daniel Cutler, chef-owner
of a Michelin-recommended LA Restaurant offering dishes
such as his famous wood-fired cheesecake.
Wood-fired cheesecake.
Really, with grilling, anything goes.
At Ronan, we're grilling vegetables, chickens,
fish, cake from time to time.
My kids love watching these, like, shows
and seeing the competitors.
To win for them, would be a great experience.
-[Guy] Welcome aboard, Chef. -How you doing, Chef?
-How you doing? -How's it going?
I see you.
[Guy] Ah, chefs, welcome to Flavortown Market.
You're invited here because of your reputation
as great chefs,
but more importantly, grill masters.
So we're gonna treat you like the pros that you are.
-Oh, boy. -And turning this round one challenge
into a sudden-death grill battle worth $15,000.
The winner is gonna get a shot, take the $15,000 bucks
and build that up to $20,000. -Wow.
-[Chelsea yells] -Wow.
But that's only, only if you can beat one
of our Triple G judges in a final grill-off.
Wait, wait, wait.
Now, the good news is, the winner, they get to pick
the judge that they're gonna battle.
So you have the East Coast Grill Master himself,
the one and only Christian Petroni.
You've got the Iron Chef, Stephanie Izard.
-Ohh. -[Guy] And then you have
the two-time "Tournament of Champions"
winner, the one and only Maneet Chauhan.
Ohh.
So it's grill or be grilled.
And I want you to wow the judges by making them
a hometown grill down. All right?
The plate of grilled goodness that reflects the town,
the state, or the region you call home.
To prove that you are grill masters,
everything you cook in this competition...
must be on the grill.
-That means no range... -Ohh.
[Guy]...no oven, no broiler, no fryer,
no microwave, no nada.
I'm giving you free reign of the store.
I'm giving you no budgets.
Matter of fact, I told Hunter
to keep his mitts off the clock.
-So you have got nothing to worry about. -[Hunter] OK...
that's really funny.
You say, "Go get all these mitts," and now it's mitts off?
What happened?
-OK. -They're cooking everything over the grill,
so I wanted you to have the mitts. -Oh, protection.
-Protection. -Oh, gotcha.
OK, I'm sorry. You're right.
-You're right -- Chef? -Oh, little costume.
-Chef? -There you go.
Try those on, 'cause one's a lefty and one's a righty.
-I think they're both lefty. -They look double sided.
You know what? Hold on.
I don't think they're on the same page.
Ah.
The genius of the younger generation.
-Shop with the mitts on. -Seriously?
No.
So you get to shop one time, grab whatever you want,
but once you get to your station and start cooking,
there's no going back to the store.
Like a penguin.
30 minutes to shop with your oven mitts,
and then prepare your hometown grill down.
Everything you cook must be on the grill.
-Any questions? -Nope.
[Guy] Three, two, one, go.
[Chelsea] Guy says make my best hometown grill down dish.
We can only use the grill as our heat source.
For my hometown dish, since I'm from Northern California
and I live in Austin, Texas,
that can mean a lot of different things.
Quail is a really popular protein in Austin.
Awesome to grill.
So if you just get a nice, fast, hot sear on both sides.
It'll be tender and juicy.
It also happens to be the state bird of California.
Look at 'em trying to grab stuff with the mittens.
[Chelsea] Whew, this is chaos.
And bring it all together with this really classic
Steak Diane sauce.
Uhh, mustard!
Whew!
When I was a teenager, I decided I wanted
to be a vegan -- when I see these mushrooms,
I'm instantly reminded of my time doing mushroom foraging
in northern California when I was younger,
and I know that those are really gonna shine on the grill.
And liquor.
What's interesting about this is one of these three chefs
who's shopping right now is gonna pick one of us
to possibly cook against in the next round.
-So I feel like we need to also size them up a little bit. -[Maneet] Strategy.
I feel really nervous going up against a Triple G judge.
Um, they are all incredibly accomplished.
But I do wanna win that money.
Uh, you know, my husband and I, we work really hard.
Um, you know, any amount is gonna
make a huge difference in our lives.
I gotta get through two other grill masters first, though.
I only have one shop, so I really hope that
I have everything that I need.
Kristof?
All right.
For my hometown grill down,
I understand that Maryland is known for seafood,
so I decided to make a surf and turf.
A perfectly grilled ribeye steak.
Those bring a decadent, strong, bold flavor.
I decided to use a precooked lobster tail.
On the grill, you're able to slow poach things.
The grill is my only heat source.
So I wanted to kind of showcase my other techniques as well
to the judges.
Next, I wanted to make a garlic truffle cream sauce.
Shopping with grill mitts? Insane.
[playful music plays]
-[jar shattering] -[Randall] Oh, [bleep].
Whoopsie.
There's a cleanup in aisle five,
cleanup in aisle five, stat.
[Daniel] And what's here?
It's not an aisle, I need to be in it.
Oh, hometown grill down.
Tacos and Los Angeles are like this.
Chicken thighs boning out.
You can grill any of the things that go into a taco.
These gloves are killing me.
But then having to have your hands basically
completely disabled...
Oh, my God. These gloves are crazy.
...this is way harder than it looks.
[Guy] 25 minutes.
This is my hometown dish,
melting pot of Washington, DC, and Maryland.
Uh, we're really big on surf and turf.
Some ribeye...
lobster. -I would think with a grilling challenge,
we definitely wanna see grill.
There should be grill marks and something,
grilled flavor on things.
But I think it's also about being smart
and utilizing that grill in different ways.
Get sauce pots, get sauce pans,
just use it as a heat source.
[Randall] It's important for me to really get some flavor
and deliciousness to the ribeyes.
So I'm gonna season those with salt, smoked paprika,
and garlic powder.
There we go.
It would mean the world for me to win today.
My daughter, my lovely daughter,
she's five going on 12.
If I were to win $20,000 today, I would take my little gentle,
lovely diva on a vacation, as well as utilize some
of those funds to expand the restaurant
that's already thriving.
I decided to use a vacuum sealer because we can really
import a lot of flavor into something really quickly.
While my ribeyes are being Cryovac'd,
I decided to fortify my cream sauce.
Little lobster base for deliciousness.
-What's the time? -[Guy] 23 minutes, buddy.
[Randall] I decide to run to go grab my sticks.
[tense music plays]
-[loud thud] -[Randall] Oh, [bleep]!
[bleep]
[Randall] Ooh!
Somehow, I knock over the entire fryer.
-Whoa! -What a disaster.
I've never seen anybody do that.
[tense music playing]
2 -Whoa! -[Stephanie] Randall's knocking over fryers.
See, we're lucky that they're off,
'cause had that been on and hot oil went everywhere.
That chef would be in some bad pain.
[Randall] Sorry.
[Guy] There you go.
You're good, Chef. You got this.
-Keep -- keep moving. -OK, just cook -- just cook.
Absolutely.
Now, it's time to cook.
I got my steaks.
It's important to get those started
so they can get time to rest.
The coals kind of speak to me.
It's something that can be very delicate, but also very harsh
at the same time.
So you got to kind of just watch it.
[sizzling]
[Guy] 20 minutes left.
All right. Well, we have an oil spill.
We hadn't noticed.
[Guy] What a gauntlet.
Know that you've got to win in this round or go home.
And then know that if you win, you have to go up against
a Triple G judge. -It's a tough one.
This is brutal.
Thinking about marinating these chicken thighs
in some chili, lime.
I don't really know which judge I would go against.
Any one of them would be an immense challenge.
I know that Chef Christian is known for some
of his grilled specialties, huge contender that I would
probably collapse under.
Chef Maneet is a powerhouse.
"Tournament of Champions" winner two times, so that's
maybe even more daunting.
[Chelsea] Chef Stephanie has a career that I have always wanted.
She is a James Beard Award winner.
Like, she is just an inspiration to me.
Uh, this would be, like, an insanely difficult
thing to choose between any of these judges.
[Guy] Talk to me, Chef. What's on the menu?
[Daniel] So we're doing chicken tacos.
Gonna marinate them with some of this jalapeno brine,
some of these chipotle peppers with some garlic,
fresh chilies, lime juice,
and a little tequila, why not?
[tense music plays]
[Daniel] Smoky, seasoned, acidic, spicy.
Let this sit for a couple minutes.
I'm gonna pickle some fresh chilies.
Just don't cut yourself, don't cut yourself,
don't cut yourself. Thin to win.
Going through on a one-shop challenge is more layers
of difficulty because
I forgot to get stuff to make my own salsa.
I forgot to get an onion.
I'm just trying to really get as much flavor out of this
stuff that I grabbed with my -- with my -- oven mitts.
And then, I'm gonna get this chicken on the grill.
You know, you wanna hear that sizzle when you drop
your protein, really elevates everything.
It's getting that char.
[Guy] All right, Chef, so it's quail and what?
How are we preparing the quail?
We're having a grilled quail with grilled wild mushrooms
and Steak Diane-style sauce
with a little bit of veal demi. -Got it.
[Chelsea] We're gonna get these mushrooms grilling.
Growing up in California, we would go mushroom foraging
a lot as teenagers.
So I just wanted to represent both places that I have lived
and where I learned to cook. -Got it.
15 minutes, 15 to go.
Sorry, guys -- I had to put my head down
and keep working, the time is ticking.
We got a little marinated ribeye.
It's important to consistently turn the ribeye
and brush it with butter just so it has that even cook.
Randall put his butter, which is the nice freebie
on the station -- put it on the grill and let it melt,
so you can just put butter on everything.
It's so smart.
Typically, we're able to utilize an oven to finish
the carryover cooking, but we don't have that today.
But I'm used to that in my experience,
understanding hot spots, low spots.
So while my ribeye's on the grill,
I need to start my lobster.
Precooked lobster can get really, really overcooked,
really quickly on the grill.
So I decide to get a small pan, a little butter,
and get the lobster tails slow poaching.
Once my lobster base is fully diluted into the cream,
I put it in the blender and I add my black truffles.
♪♪
Tastes perfect. That's great.
That's awesome.
Chefs, this is the last ten minutes of the competition.
Last ten minutes.
[Chelsea] I check on my mushrooms, they're coming along great.
We're gonna get our quails grilling.
[Guy] All right, Chef.
So the breastbone is out, but the leg and the wing bone
are still in. -They are, yeah.
So we wanna make sure that we're gonna keep the breasts
nice and medium rare and the legs get fully cooked.
[Guy] Nice little technique.
Looks like you've cooked some quail before.
Oh, yes.
Quail is really delicate.
Um, you know, if your grill is too hot, the skin's gonna rip.
[tense music plays]
[laughing]
[Chelsea] Like a tiny chicken.
You can obviously do a whole bunch of different things
on the grill. It's super versatile.
It's like the most primal way to cook.
And I love the smoky flavor that it imparts.
And I'm gonna start bringing together the components
for my Steak Diane sauce.
I love my fiance, Woodrow. Uh, he is also a chef.
We have been engaged since 2019.
I live with his sons and nephew.
If I win, uh...
that money is gonna go back into our household for sure.
Um, and hopefully some of it will get used for
my husband and I to be able to plan out that wedding
that we've been putting off for the last five years.
[Daniel] There we go.
-[Guy] How are we looking? -I think we're looking good.
Got some char. We got some color.
-We got some flavor. -What's this little concoction?
[Daniel] Oh, I'm just chilling the pickles down
so that they stay a little bit crunchy.
Uh, my wife, Caitlin, is my business partner.
She's really the lifeblood of the restaurant,
to be honest with you.
The kids are amazing, and I think
running a restaurant's hard, and free time is
few and far between, so we got our hands full.
I do all the things that I do for them.
[tense music plays]
It's making me nervous how calm they look,
especially since one of us is gonna have to cook against
one of them in the next round.
Five minutes, five to go!
[Randall] It's beautiful.
-Ooh! -Ooh!
[Randall] It's time to plate. Cream-based sauce.
It was important for me to utilize.
I got cream on the bottom, just so you can scoop it
with every bite.
Then I plate my perfectly cooked steak on top
of the sauce.
[Christian] Ooh.
[Randall] Place my perfectly poached lobster tail
on the opposite side.
There's gonna be a little brightness on top.
And then finish with my marinated kale salad.
Looking at the plate, I think this is a winner.
I'll be moving on to take on the judges.
[Guy] Three minutes.
[Chelsea] The quail's great.
It's ready to come off the grill and rest.
My mushrooms are nice and grilled.
Yep, they're good, nice and mushroom-y.
I'm gonna start by making a beautiful little nest
for the quail to be nestled in.
I have my perfect, luscious sauce.
I'm gonna start drizzling it all over the top.
I'm feeling really good about the way that this dish
came together.
It would be incredible to go home with a big win
for the family.
[tense music plays]
90 seconds, chefs, 90 seconds to go.
[Daniel] Let's rest.
When I pull the chicken off the grill, it looks great.
Daniel has got to finish these tacos.
There you go -- you've got to chop it
and make it kind of, like...
rough, you know what I mean?
Like, pretend you're on the street, at the taco shop,
on the taco cart.
Just put it on the plate.
[tense music playing]
45 seconds.
Daniel, Daniel, let's go.
[Daniel] I'm gonna go for a pretty simple plating here.
I'm gonna put my tortilla down in the tortilla holder.
Chicken on the bottom.
Pickled jalapenos.
[Guy] 30 seconds.
-Get it on the plate, babe. -Get it on the plate.
-Everything on the plate -- ugh. -Come one.
-[Daniel] Cotija cheese. -Daniel.
Five, four, three, two, one. We're done.
-[Stephanie] Good job, chefs. -[Maneet] Good job, chefs.
-[tense music fades] -[all clapping]
2 Judges, here it is game one of our grill masters beat the judges competition.
Our chefs had to prepare a hometown grill down,
and they were only allowed to use the grill
as their heat source.
They were so upset about it, they started pushing fryers
off the counter.
Everything went to, I mean, really out of control.
Up first, Chef Chelsea, what do you have for us?
Um, today, I've got a grilled whole quail with some grilled
wild mushrooms and mustard au poivre sauce.
This dish is kind of a combination of my two
places that I've called home.
[contemplative music plays]
Chelsea, I gotta tell you, for a grill challenge,
I mean, you nailed it, right?
It's so tasty and grill forward.
-I just love it. -Thank you.
Chelsea, I think that this plate tells your story even
further than just where you grew up.
When you talk about being a vegan, that's turned into
a butcher, you see both of those things on this plate.
So mushrooms, they're grilled perfectly
and really well-seasoned.
And then on the other side of things,
quail, you've got that in the middle of the plate,
and it's also cooked really well. -Thank you.
Chelsea, I do think that the one thing that this dish
needs is some form of contrast it's heavy, right? -Mm-hmm.
Maybe even a salad, some herbs, something to brighten the dish.
Thank you very much. Up next, Chef Randall.
Tell us what we got.
Hi, judges -- so what you have in front of you,
the nice slice of charred ribeye.
Right beside that, you have a butter-poached lobster tail.
On the base of the plate,
you have a little bit of black truffle cream.
And then, just to clean up the palate,
and a little brightness as well,
you have a nice marinated kale salad.
[contemplative music plays]
Randall, so the steak has been beautifully grilled, right?
You're getting the smoke. The sauce is delicious.
You're showing your range as a chef.
-Great cooking. -Thank you.
[Christian] Randall, I love watching you cook, man.
With that being said, the marinated kale salad
is lovely.
Screaming to be grilled.
It would have played really well.
Absolutely.
Randall, when I saw you grab a parcooked lobster,
I thought, that's so smart. You can take it out.
You can kiss it on the grill.
It's not gonna overcook, you'll impart all that flavor.
But by poaching it, I think you let it get a little bit
away from you, and we didn't get the grill flavor.
[Guy] All right, judges, thank you very much.
And finally, not to be outdone, Chef Daniel.
LA is very taco cart-centric.
Chicken, I thought, would be quick,
it'd be easy to marinate, it'd be easy to cook,
and put the whole thing together.
♪♪
Daniel, when you go to eat the chicken by itself,
which is the grilled item that's really highlighting
the grill challenge...
I just want there to be a little more marinade on there
that's gonna caramelize on the grill.
I saw you hit it with orange juice afterwards.
Maybe even doing that before it hits the grill.
Those little missed opportunities could have taken
something that is delicious, that is a great taco,
to an amazing taco.
You were stressing us out a little bit.
I got to be honest with you.
And I got to tell you, it's delicious.
It's punchy, there's some spice.
And thank God it got onto the plate, so that's great.
Daniel, I do think that there was a missed opportunity
over here of just throwing some tomatoes on the grill
and making a salsa, right?
And even just herbs, right on top of it.
I think that could have added more brightness
and a punch to it. -Thank you.
All right, thank you very much, judges.
Chefs...
it ain't easy, is it?
-Definitely not. -No.
We're gonna send you back to the kitchen,
so let the judges deliberate.
We'll call you back when we have a decision.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
Chefs, which chef deserves the highest grill marks?
[laughing]
I think for me, the highlights, when you look at
Randall's plate, it was the grilled steak.
But to me, I think it was the overcooked lobster,
which was... -[Stephanie] The downfall.
Well, Chelsea's dish is the most grill forward dish
out of the three of them, right?
She really embraced the challenge.
But then it was -- it was like, almost too...
dark and murky, right?
We needed brightness from wherever it would've came from.
I mean, and then, of course, there is Daniel.
Sweet Daniel. I mean, a chicken taco.
[Maneet] It's perfectly cooked, right?
But, again, I think there was the missed opportunity
of him getting some tomatoes and making a salsa, right?
Grill that, go ahead, grill, like, you know,
the green onions. It was a half-realized dish.
All right.
Who's it gonna be?
[suspenseful music plays]
[blows raspberry]
[tense music plays]
One chef is gonna win $15,000 bucks
and a chance to go head-to-head with one of the judges.
The winner of the $15,000 and the grill off is...
♪♪
-Chef Chelsea. -Oh, my God.
-[Guy] Well done. -[all clapping]
[Guy] Well done.
-Very happy for you. -What!
Um...gentlemen, I'll say this to you.
Pretty damn difficult. I think you did really good.
Unfortunately, tonight it's over.
-Bye. -Good job.
-[Randall] Thank you. -[Daniel] Really good job.
-Congratulations. -Good job, thank you.
In the end, I came up short.
If I had to do it all over again,
I'll make sure I utilize the grill just a little bit more,
maybe charring the raw lobster tail.
And I promise next time, Guy, I won't knock over anything.
-[Christian] Love watching you. -Oh, thank you.
[Maneet] It was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you so much.
If I could go back and do it again, I would for sure
get an onion -- that's the first thing, um,
and then I would have just -- I should,
I would have grilled everything, you know,
I just, you get out of your head.
[gentle music fades]
Congratulations.
You just took down two very talented chefs
and you just won $15,000.
-Whoo! -[judge] Whoo-hoo!
[all clapping]
[Guy] Question is...
which judge should you pick to compete against?
Now, let me give you a little rundown.
I know them pretty well. Let's see.
The Iron Chef, Stephanie Izard, won a James Beard Award
for Best Chef Great Lakes after opening
her wood-fired restaurant, The Girl and the Goat.
Awesome.
She's the only person to win both Top Chef
and the title of Iron Chef.
Petroni, on the other hand, has won acclaim
for his wood-fired pizza.
I mean, this guy is a heavy hitter.
Maneet Chauhan, grills up wood-fired chicken and naan
in the wood fired-tandoori oven at Chauhan Ale and Masala House.
And she's the only two-time winner
of "Tournament of Champions."
Or I have a mystery chef standing behind the door
that you could also call out.
And I can tell you that the mystery chef's new
restaurant concept focuses on wood-fired ranch-style cooking
and a true grill master menu.
I don't know who it is.
I don't know what's going on, but I want a video of this.
[judges laughing]
Who do you wanna compete against?
Um...
[tense music plays]
2 Who do you want to compete against?
Um...
[tense music plays]
Chef Stephanie, I have admired your work.
For a really long time in my career,
and they say you should never meet your idols,
and I would like to now beat my idol.
[Christian] Oh, wow. Beautiful.
Yes.
[judges cheering]
It's always nice to beat someone's idol.
[all cheering]
-This is awesome. -[Stephanie] I appreciate that.
That was really sweet.
Uh, let's go ahead and bring out our mystery chef,
who's now gonna become the next judge.
Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Shenanigans,
Chef Brian Malarkey! -[yelling]
I wanted it so bad! Whoo!
First, let's say this, you get to gamble your money
between $2,000 and $5,000 of the $15 grand you've won.
The question is, how much do you wanna bet?
Uh...
-We'll do $3,000 -- $3,000. -[Guy] $3,000.
If you win, you walk with $18,000.
-Yeah, that's good. -[Guy] If you lose,
you walk with $12,000. -Yeah.
Chefs, this is gonna be awesome.
The final grill battle starts now.
Chefs, to your carts. Good luck.
-Whoo! -[yelling]
Standing next to Chef Stephanie is
incredibly intimidating.
It's nice to officially meet you.
-You too, thank you so much. -Thank you.
This is surreal. [laughing]
I don't know whether to hug her or run away.
So for your final challenge, I want you to prove that
grilled food can be upscaled by making the judges
a high-end grilled dinner.
A lot of times people think when it's grilled,
that it's a little more low-end, a little low-brow,
it's backyard -- not the case.
I can see those wheels turning.
Before we can cook, we have to turn the wheel of color.
-[Hunter] Oh boy. -[Guy] Here we are.
-Thanks, Hunter. -Come on!
Whatever color it lands on is the color you must feature
predominantly on your dish.
[sighs]
So, would it be purple...
Not purple.
-...orange. -[moans]
-Or black? -Black.
Chelsea, would you like to spin?
I'll take the blame. I'll take the blame.
[Guy] Come on over.
[Stephanie] I can't even look. I can't even look.
-Whoo! -Here we go.
-Uh-oh. -I feel like my heart's palpitating right now.
[Hunter] Uh-oh.
-Purple. -Purple, fantastic.
I really don't want purple.
I just don't really cook in purple.
30 minutes to create your high-end grilled dinner,
featuring predominantly purple. -[whispering] Purple.
Chefs, good luck. Three, two, one, go!
-Oh! -Oh, I'm sorry.
[laughing]
It is wild to compete against an Iron Chef.
My mind is going a mile a minute because I know that
she has so many more edges over me.
All I can do is focus and do what I do best.
I know that I have to make a high-end grilled dinner,
and that it has to be predominantly purple.
Ooh.
I immediately run to the pork secreto.
It's a prize cut, in Spanish butchery.
It is awesome and super elevated.
They are great on the grill.
My idea is to grill this pork secreto, slice it out,
and tuck little bits of a grilled radicchio salad
in between each layer.
I get purple carrots, the blood oranges,
and a variety of chicories that are all purple.
Saba.
My next grab is saba.
Saba has the flavor profile of, like...
prunes in a lovely, lovely way.
It's super syrupy and purple.
I know that Chef Stephanie knows her way around the grill.
She is an absolute pro, and I am nervous.
What is purple in the store, but also is high end?
There's definitely not a purple protein.
That would be weird, I guess.
I'm gonna grab salmon 'cause I love salmon that's nice
and fatty on a grill, and I think of fish
as very elevated.
I'm gonna grab oysters because oysters to me are very elevated.
I'm not thinking straight right this second.
'Cause I'm having so much trouble having the dish
come together -- and I'm just gonna run around the store
and grab everything purple I can find.
All right, so first I find some ube, which is purple,
it's sweet, that's fun.
Purple.
[whispering] Oh, my God!
[normally] Oh, kale with purple stems.
Yes, I'm gonna grab that too.
All of these things can come together somehow.
So Chelsea calls me one of her culinary idols.
It does make me feel old, but also makes me feel
so proud, and that's really incredible.
Her first cook was really great.
But at the same time, I've won a James Beard Award.
I was the first female to win Top Chef,
and I also was crowned an Iron Chef.
Oh, maybe I can win.
Sometimes, you got to watch out what you wish for.
25 minutes.
-Secreto, chef? -[Chelsea] This is pretty high-end.
In Spanish whole animal butchery, the pork secreto is
one of the most prized cuts. -Love it.
-Personal favorite. -Oh, I'm a secreto fan.
And then serve it with a grilled mixed purple chicories
and a blood orange salad.
We got sweet, salty, savory.
Purple, purple, lots of purple there.
I'm gonna heavily season these with smoked paprika.
-All right. -[sizzling]
While my pork is grilling, I'm gonna start getting
my vegetables prepped to go on the grill.
I wanna go home with $18K.
That extra $3,000 is gonna make a big difference.
You know, I have a very busy household,
so I'd love for my husband and I to get a break
and maybe actually get married.
22 minutes, chefs. 22 to go.
[Stephanie] Just -- I'm just gonna put these on the grill like this.
What's your game plan, Chef? She doesn't like to talk to me.
Not just -- I'm just like, you know, like when you're not
really thinking that you're gonna -- -I know you're in your --
I know you're try -- you're trying to figure this out right now.
I'm not really sure. I'm doing something with salmon.
I wanna put something yummy and purple on top
of a grilled oyster.
Oysters are high-end, salmon's high-end.
When I think of seafood, I'm describing everything
purple I can think of in grilling it.
And then, we're gonna see what happens.
And then you'll just take it from there?
Yeah, take it from there.
Cook things, put it together as it comes together.
Oh, I've got purple cabbage, a little bit of olive oil,
and salt, onto the grill.
Purple cauliflower on the grill.
Everything grilled, everything grilled,
everything purple.
It's like purple, purple, purple, purple, purple.
Ube is purple, it's also quite sweet.
So I put it into a pot with some red wine vinegar.
It still needs a little bit of saltiness,
so I add a little bit of fish sauce.
The ube vinaigrette is gonna be almost like a glaze
in a sauce for the salmon.
Chelsea, I mean, honestly, the fact that I just
judged your food and saw how well you can grill and season
and everything, it's making me nervous, I'm not gonna lie.
This is pretty surreal for me, so.
Chef Chelsea, Iron Chef, 15 minutes, halfway point,
15 to go.
I give the pork a flip. I like the sear that I see.
The fat is starting to render out pretty fast,
and I can feel that they are perfect medium, ready to go.
I learned last round that I needed to keep it light,
so now, as I'm building the salad, I'm lightening up
this dish with lots of acidity, brightness, and crunch.
It's saba, that's a great idea.
Going for the saba is really smart.
It's already reduced and really sweet, and it's gonna glaze
and dress and give great, great depth of flavor.
You obviously know what you're doing, Chef.
It's beautiful.
[Stephanie] Grilling and getting that smoky flavor,
it's kind of great.
-[loud crack] -Whoa.
The oysters have been on the grill for a while.
They're starting to pop open.
I guess they're ready.
I start to think to myself, what do I want to do
with these oysters?
We're gonna figure that out. We're gonna figure that out.
It suddenly started to click.
I decided to go grab the smoked almonds and put them
with the chopped-up oysters
for that texture and that smokiness.
'Cause, when I'm cooking in Flavortown Market,
I just kind of keep cooking until it clicks.
Just trying to figure it out.
We are just gonna all wait and see what happens.
This looks delicious.
Grilled oyster, smoked almonds.
[Guy] What's going on with this salmon?
I'm gonna grill it right now.
[Guy] She's just making food, and then she'll just do
the magic that she does and... [whoop]
...it all comes together.
Anytime you're cooking a skinned fish on the grill,
you better be a very talented chef to make that crispy skin
work and not stick on that grill.
[Stephanie] I'm also playing to win some money, $3,000.
Everything that I win or have coming in right now,
it's for my son and I to travel the world.
Ernie is eight years old.
He just started getting excited about coming into the kitchen
with me, and I think finally really understands
what Mommy does -- we can take those winnings,
and I can take him to travel the world
so he can continue trying new foods.
[Guy] Five minutes, five to go.
How you feeling, Chef?
I'm feeling good, feeling really good.
Secreto come out nice?
[Chelsea] It did, yeah, just above medium.
Burnt edges are nice. Kisses of char, you know?
Everything is very harmonious and tastes great.
My plan is to shingle bits of the salad in between slices
of the pork secreto, trying to keep it as tidy as possible.
To me, these ingredients are high-end, these flavors are
high-end, and we're bringing them together in a way that is
rustic but still elevated.
[Guy] Three minutes.
How'd the salmon turn out?
I think it's OK.
Ooh.
[Stephanie] So I love the texture of grilled cauliflower.
I'm just gonna put that with some grilled cabbage.
It's gonna be this beautiful sort of little bed
for the salmon to sit on.
45 seconds.
[Stephanie] We've got this ube almost glazed
by the time it cooked down.
When you think of grilled salmon, you want a glaze.
So we're gonna put the glaze around and over the salmon.
And I think the skin is gonna hold up.
And then end up with a grilled oyster, smoked almond,
purple carrot salad topper.
I feel pretty good about my dish, actually.
Five, four, three, two, one.
That's it.
Great job, chefs. Great job.
2 Judges, this is it -- the final round of the grill masters beat the judges.
Chef Chelsea and Judge Stephanie Izard had to create
a high-end grilled dinner featuring the color purple.
Up first, Stephanie Izard. What do you have for us, Chef?
Hello, chef's friends.
So we have a grilled purple cauliflower and radicchio
on the bottom.
We have salmon with an ube red wine vinegar glaze.
And then over the top, a grilled oyster,
smoked almond, almost chimichurri,
I would say.
[tense music plays]
Chelsea, even though Stephanie is a fellow judge and a friend,
we are going to be judging both the dishes very fairly, right?
Uh, Stephanie, this is purple.
What I love about how you've treated the vegetables,
the cauliflower, the cabbage, is that the crunch
is still there while the char is on the outside,
which makes it really, really fresh.
I do think that if it was a smaller portion,
it would have been a little bit more high-end.
And then I wish you hadn't put the sauce on top of the skin
because the crispiness of the skin got lost.
This food delivers.
You went so far as to do the oyster, which I was like,
"Why waste your time?"
I'm glad you did because it has so much flavor.
Thank you, Chef.
You showed up, my gosh.
The vinaigrette playing against the smoked almonds,
like really smart, smart gameplay.
I know that the skin is not as crispy
as like we would all be used to.
But I'm OK with it because the vegetables just bite
right up against it. Really great.
Thank you.
I'm trying to have a conversation with myself
saying, "If you don't win, it's fine."
But honestly, I am competitive just walking
down the street. I feel like I have to win.
[producer] Resetting!
Standing next to Chef Stephanie Izard,
my food is being compared to her food -- this is unreal.
Thank you very much.
She's not to be outdone, though.
She's already won $15,000 bucks.
Chelsea, Chef, what do you have for us?
Uh, today we've got a grilled pork secreto with a charred
radicchio and red cabbage salad in a blood orange marinade.
It's got a little bit of pieces of blood orange,
kalamata olives, and saba.
And it's all purple. [chuckles]
[tense music plays]
Chelsea, you just went toe-to-toe, with one of
the greatest chefs on the planet...
and you held your own.
What you did with the secreto, I was concerned the fire was
too hot, but you tamed it, you controlled it, and it is
so good. -Thank you.
I'm happy to see that gameplay was in the forefront
of your dish here, right? I get blood orange.
I love the bitterness from your radicchio,
but then also the sweetness from the saba.
Boom, purple, check.
-Good job. -Thank you.
Um, Chelsea, it's a high-end dinner.
A smaller portion, a little bit more elegantly plated would
have gone a much longer way.
And even in terms of knife cuts,
like I see the purple carrots over here,
it's too big to eat it as an entire bite.
So those small things go a long way
when it comes to high-end. -Thank you.
We're splitting hairs. This is gonna be close.
Listen, it was really a pleasure to watch you two cook.
We're gonna let the judges deliberate.
We'll call you back when we have a decision.
-Thank you. -[Guy] Thank you.
[tense music plays]
-[whispering] Good job. -[Chelsea] Good job to you.
Judges, whose chance of victory is going up in smoke?
Talk about Stephanie's.
The skin could have been crispier,
but it was butter in your mouth.
I mean, it was absolutely delicious.
I agree with that.
Chelsea's Iberico pork was spectacular.
I would love to have had Stephanie's accoutrements...
-Oh, yeah, yeah. -...on top of that Iberico pork.
Gameplay was a given for both of them, right?
Because the challenge is purple, but then I don't know
if either one of them really hit the high-end.
Both very rustic.
-Yeah, very rustic is the word, yes. -Yeah, very rustic.
[Guy] Who's it gonna be?
♪♪
[tense music plays]
[Guy] Chefs...
the winner of grill masters beat the judges is...
♪♪
Congratulations, Iron Chef Stephanie Izard.
-Oh, congratulations. -You freaking crushed it. Thank you.
[Guy] Chelsea, congratulations. Great chef, great cook.
Thank you.
You've given up $3,000 of your money,
but you're still walking out of here with $12,000.
-Whoo! -[Guy] Congratulations.
All right, thank you.
Ultimately, Stephanie wins. [groans]
I picked someone challenging to go up against,
and I gave it my all, but I didn't beat the judge.
Chef Stephanie, you have earned yourself
$3,000, so congratulations. -Oh, thank you.
I have to say, it feels really good to win always.
Crushed it.
There's no better way to spend time
in Flavortown Market than
to cook against a fellow female chef that's just crushed it.
-Hey, well done, well done. -Thank you so much.
-This was awesome. -[Guy] Great to have you.