You know, Hunter, it's that time of year again
when folks make these ridiculous resolutions
to give up all the foods they love.
You know what we say here at Flavortown Market,
forget about counting those calories.
And we're making Flavortown Market a resolution-free zone.
It's the kind of food that real people want to eat.
We're talking crispy, crunchy, ooey, gooey,
- oh so guilty. - What?
I love that.
[Guy] So we've invited three everyday food fanatics.
[together] I'm a food fanatic.
[Guy] Cooking isn't their profession,
but it's definitely their passion.
I cannot believe this. This is surreal.
[Hunter] It's the kickoff of a month long celebration
of food fanatics in Flavortown.
I'm going to go for it.
Starting with their anti-resolution game...
What resolution?
Tonight on Triple G.
Hunter, let's meet our food fanatics now.
First up, we have Nick Farrer, a former minor league pitcher
and Flavortown fan, who designed his backyard to look like my ranch kitchen.
That's it. Game over, Nick wins.
That's pretty awesome.
Do I watch Triple G?
That's a loaded question.
Have I watched every single episode of Triple G is a better question.
And the answer is yes.
And I also designed my backyard around Guy's ranch kitchen.
There you go, big Nick.
Welcome aboard, buddy.
[Nick] So my day job is sales, but I am a food fanatic.
I do not eat to live.
I live to eat.
[Hunter] Next, we have Crystal Vaughn,
she is the hairstylist with roots in southern and Latin country food.
She could break down a chicken at age six.
[Crystal] I'm here because I'm ready to retire from hairstyling
and make food and my food blog, my full-time gig.
I'm obsessed with food.
I've been an avid fan of Guy's Grocery Games for years.
I watch it on Food Network all day long.
Okay?
- Boo! - [Crystal screams]
Hi, guys.
I never get to do that.
That was awesome. You didn't even fall over.
And finally, Elizabeth Jordan-Flight, southern based food blogger
and founder of a nonprofit that trains farmers in Uganda.
- That's awesome. - That's really nice.
[Elizabeth] I show my love through food.
So, of course, the nonprofit that I run is about food.
When I was living in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
there was one TV station and all it had was Food Network.
And today, I am in the like the real Flavortown.
Go get 'em.
Petrified.
It is so nice to have three full-blown
food fanatics in the house right now.
Normally we have professional chefs in here that are from restaurants
and run restaurants, own restaurants.
But, you know what, we realized also, there's a lot of fans
of Triple G, so we wanted to give a chance to come down
and see what you can do in Flavortown, right?
- Whoo! - So, exciting.
But as I will tell you, we're not going to be easy on you. Hunter?
[Crystal] Oh, no. Oh, no.
We've got two intense challenges.
The person with the least successful dish in the first round,
unfortunately, will be checking out.
But the person with the highest score after both rounds
will receive a guaranteed 10,000 dollars, and most importantly, Hunter,
They get a chance to come back and compete against
two other crazy food people in three weeks.
Oh, my God.
[Guy] Now, since we're breaking the rules tonight
we are declaring Flavortown Market
- the anti-resolutions zone. - Yes.
No more resolutions to give up the food you enjoy, all right?
- [Crystal] All right. All right. - Okay. I'm in for that.
[Guy] Tonight, I want you to make those
crazy carbelicious comfort dishes that everyone craves.
And I want you to start by making the judges
a big oversatisfying serving of no-restriction noodles.
- Ooh. - Okay.
Make it as crazy good as you can.
Oh, did you say, did you say crazy can?
Crazy can, crazy... crazy good as you can.
I got an idea? You know what I'm saying?
It's dangerous when he has an idea.
[Crystal] Oh, no, no, no. Hunter, come on.
This wasn't preplanned. It just appeared right there.
- [Crystal] No. - [Hunter] Idea machine.
[Guy] Let's take a look at that.
Oh...
Hunter, Hunter, it's time to play crazy can roulette.
- Oh, no. - [Hunter] Yeah.
So these are cans without labels.
Okay.
And you get to pick one.
[Crystal] Oh.
And you must feature the ingredients in that can
in your no-restriction noodle.
Who wants to pick first?
- Me. - Come on up, chef.
- Okay. All right. - What are you thinking?
[Crystal] I'm going to go for the big one.
Take it back over there.
Go ahead and turn it upside down. Let's take a look at it.
Clam chowder.
Well, we should stick with ladies. Second.
I'm going to go lucky number two.
- Really? - Lucky number two.
I'm always a fan of the pop top, myself, but go with two.
That's good.
What does it say?
Cream of celery?
[Crystal] Oh, that's a good one.
[Guy] Chef.
Let's do it. I'm going to pick number one
and hope that it's tomato sauce because it looks like that size.
You think it's that?
- Oh, and it's not shaking. - Ooh.
Hollandaise sauce.
[Crystal] All right.
AKA, not tomato sauce.
You say tomato, we say hollandaise.
Thirty minutes to create your non-restriction noodles
- featuring your crazy can surprise. - Yeah.
[Guy] Now, Elizabeth has can three.
No, no she has can two.
Well, who has can one?
We're not going to go over this again.
I thought we had them.
I thought we had them on that one.
That was one of our best moves.
Okay. They're playing for keeps now.
Playing for keeps.
[Nick] When I think of no-restriction noodles,
I'm thinking of like something fatty and like unctuous
and kind of make you sit back after you eat it and go like, "Oh, man, I need a nap."
So I'm going to make it rigatoni pasta with blackened shrimp.
Yep. This is a no restrictions thing.
You got to put something in here that's going to get them going.
I grab two things of pancetta.
All right. Hollandaise sauce.
I've never worked with canned hollandaise, ever.
And I've never seen a noodle with hollandaise sauce.
I'm thinking I got to make some type of sauce out of the sauce.
I'm used to cooking for like my family and my friend.
And now I'm in Flavortown and I have 30 minutes to do this.
This is a completely different world to me.
So, Hunter, everybody is at home right now
doing sit-ups, doing the resolutions.
- [Hunter] Right, right. - [Guy] Not here at Flavortown.
No.
We say no to resolutions.
That's right. Do what you want.
Yeah. Where's the cottage cheese?
Today is anti-resolution and I'm going for it.
There's no holding me back.
Okay, I need butter milk. No, no, no.
Honey, heavy cream.
For my no restrictions noodle dish,
I'm making Cajun seafood pasta.
Just go. I'll go with some linguine.
I knew I wanted to use the clam chowder
in a way that would be more like an Alfredo sauce.
So sausage.
In Houston, it is big to have crawfish boils,
and we use like the Cajun crab boil to season our crawfish,
so I'm going to flavor my pasta water with it.
Cheeses, I need cheese.
For my cheeses
I'm grabbing mozzarella, and Monterey Jack.
There's no restrictions. Let's go for it.
Okay.
I think I got it all.
Okay, okay.
For my no-restriction noodles
I'm thinking Cajun chicken pasta.
I always... Okay.
I love Louisiana style of cooking.
See what happens.
It's one of my favorite things to eat and one of my favorite things to cook.
Okay.
You're making Cajun food, you sort of need this holy trinity, right,
which is celery, bel pepper and onions.
So I already have the celery in the cream of celery soup,
so I immediately go for the red and green bell peppers and the red onion.
Every anti-resolution dish needs cheese.
And so I grab a tub of Parmesan and Pecorino Romano.
Okay. I watch the show.
I know that 30 minutes goes by fast,
so I'm thinking this rotisserie chicken
is going to be a real lifesaver for this pasta.
- Okay. - How are we looking?
I think I know what I'm doing, maybe.
[Guy] I like that.
Twenty-five minutes to cook. Get cooking.
Joining us to judge our anti-resolution dishes
are three guilt-free Food Network stars...
Hunter. I'll be right over there to work on the...
the judge intros...
Hey, I got it.
You get them next time.
- That's fine. - [Hunter] All right?
Cookbook author whose southern comfort dishes always sing,
Damaris Phillips. How are you doing?
The spice guru who has hopefully resolved to make us
more fried Indian food, Aarti Sequeira.
- How are you doing? - I'll get it right to that.
[Hunter] Please do and acclaimed executive chef who made some amazing
no-restriction noodles last night, Chris Petroni.
- I like that. - Those were dynamite, dude. Delicious.
And this is a real opportunity
for these contestants that have seen this show so much,
and now not only do they have a chance to cook here,
- but they get to have full reign of the supermarket. - Right?
And they're being encouraged to like gild the lily here.
Give me all you've got. Let me see it.
[Chris] Yeah, yeah.
[Elizabeth] Oh, dear God. Being in Flavortown is insane.
I'm sort of like shocked and still kind of
understanding how the whole thing works.
It's time to use my noodle.
I'm sorry.
First, I need to start working on my peppers and onions for my sauce.
Salt these and I'm just going to try to really just blacken them.
[Guy] What's your game plan?
So I think I'm going to do a Cajun chicken pasta
with rotisserie chicken...
I like it.
[Elizabeth] so, like a cream sauce.
And I feel like it'll go well with the celery. I feel like--
No, it's a great... It's a great way to go with that.
[Elizabeth] So I take the bell peppers out of the cast iron skillet
and I use the same pan to build my sauce.
The sauce is supposed to be decadent, creamy, rich.
I taste it. It's way salty.
How are we looking, chef?
It's way too salty.
[Guy] Good, so start over.
- Start over? - Pour it out.
There's no reason to build on a bad foundation.
Okay. Okay.
Elizabeth's sauce is too salty,
and it looks like Guy's just told her she needs to start again.
Psychologically, that is such a huge blow.
- Probably, I can just start over. - [Guy] Right.
[Elizabeth] I'm scared. I'm a home chef.
It's hard to sort of understand the scope of it.
I'm just going to go again.
The challenge is to make anti-resolution noodles,
so I don't want to see too many vegetables.
Get these vegetables out of my face.
Twenty-two minutes.
These food fanatics are incredibly brave to come out here.
Coming in here against these odds, it's... it's tough.
Okay. Thank you for that.
I think starting the sauce over was crucial.
It would have just been way too salty.
[Guy] Okay, so now let's take you back to basics.
The cream of celery is a whammy,
but by incorporating it into a creamy pasta sauce,
I know we're going to sort of overcome that obstacle.
I really want my sauce to sort of be the star of the anti-resolution show.
It has heavy cream, it has cheese, it is decadent,
and I just know that the judges are going to love it.
The time goes way faster than you think it will.
It's like... Oh, my God, it goes fast.
Chef, what's on the menu?
So we're going to do a little rigatoni
and then I'm going to take this chicken stock and hollandaise
and make a sauce out of it.
That's blackened shrimp.
I like it. Have you worked with canned Hollandaise sauce?
I've... No. I've made hollandaise a few times for the family,
but I've never really worked with a can of hollandaise.
Chef, you didn't drop the pasta yet, did you?
I did.
[Guy] You have 19 minutes left.
I'll give you some advice on that, after you get done cooking it,
- cook it to about three quarters away. - [Nick] Okay.
- Cool it, so it stops the cooking process. - Okay.
[Guy] And then you can finish cooking it inside of the sauce.
Flavor profile goes through the roof.
Okay, sounds good.
Never in a million years that I ever think that I would be in the same room as Guy,
let alone him standing behind me,
helping me make a pasta dish on Guy's Grocery Games.
Oh, chef, what do we think it's going to be?
It's going to be Cajun fettuccine Alfredo.
I like it.
[Crystal] So I'm gonna add shrimp.
I'm going to spice it up with some crab boil.
I think that's a perfect whammy and slammy.
Okay. Whoo! The first thing I'm going to
work on for my Cajun seafood pasta is my sauce.
I start by slicing up my sausage and getting it into a pan
with butter so that can render some of the fat and get that flavor going.
I usually have the music going and I'm like...
♪ La la-la-la la la-la la ♪
So, while my sausage is rendering
I went ahead and flavored my pasta water.
The crab boil bag is going to get into that pasta
and each bite is gonna bring that little punch of spicy Cajun flavor.
It really becomes more like a seafood boil kind of vibe.
Okay.
My main focus on the blog is that I wanted to show people that you can make delicious,
simple foods at your house and save money and put it towards other things.
It looks like Crystal has grabbed some bread.
[Chris] I want the whole plate of pasta
served over a giant loaf of garlic bread.
Ten minutes, chef. 10 to go.
[Hunter] How's your pasta doing?
Are you going to take that pasta out and fold it into the sauce?
Mm-hmm. Guy and Hunter are super helpful in the kitchen,
and they've got all these great tips
and they are really there to sort of like lend a hand.
Hey, Hunter.
- Yeah. - [Elizabeth] Can you do me a favor?
Do you think you can grab some fresh parsley?
[Hunter] Fresh parsley coming up.
Thank you again for the parsley.
- Thank you so much, Hunter. - You're very welcome.
- I really appreciate it. - [Hunter] Fresh parsley.
[Elizabeth] When you make things at home, you do sort of take your time.
You don't realize just how quick 30 minutes goes. Okay.
[Guy] Gorgeous.
[Nick] The next thing I do is go right to the hollandaise
and start to figure out what to do
with this thing that I normally put on eggs Benedict.
So I'm going to go with this hollandaise.
I start bleeding my stock into the pan and whisking it in
to see what type of consistency I want to work with.
The sauce is not going to be thick enough.
I'm gonna pad it out with some butter.
All of this Food Network watching is absolutely paying off.
I never used to put a pad of butter in
before I started watching all of these chefs compete
and they always put a pad of butter.
That's not bad.
That's not bad at all.
So I'm adding pancetta to my sauce
because I feel like I need like little nugget flavor bombs.
Fold this in. Flavor layering to the max.
This is going to give it a little spice.
Last thing I need to work on is my shrimp.
Beautiful shrimp.
The second that I started seasoning those shrimp, they were a winner.
All right, these look good.
Where we at, chef Did you get any Parmesan cheese?
- Mm-mm. - Parmesan cheese is on 10.
[Nick] When Guy says, "Chef, did you grab any Parmesan cheese?"
I was out of there. The cameraman couldn't even keep up with me.
True story.
All right, Guy. I got it.
No restrictions, over the top, gluttonous type stuff
is carbs layered with carbs layered with cheese.
So, Guy is right.
I have to use Parmesan just to finish it off.
[Crystal] Now that my sausage has rendered down,
I can go in and build my sauce.
Get my wonderful clam chowder open.
I've seen Guy's Grocery Games a million times.
Let's get this in here.
I know you can't hide the whammy.
So being that it was clam chowder,
I knew I was going to add it to my sauce
and just really play up that seafood element.
I'm adding in my heavy cream and all the cheeses.
We're going crazy because there's no limits here.
[Guy] How are we looking?
[Crystal] We're looking good.
[Guy] Now, so what is that missing, chef?
Let me go grab something like parsley or something.
Okay, I think parsley and I think something red would be great.
[Crystal] Red.
It's so cool that I'm here in Flavortown,
and Guy Fieri is giving me tips and tricks
on how to make my food even better.
Like, really? Guy teaching me? Okay, I'm with it.
[Guy] That's going to give you a little spice.
All right. I like spice.
I like it. I like it. I like it a lot.
[Crystal] I know I need to season up my shrimp.
Some salt in there.
I get those shrimp sauteed in butter, oil, garlic and Fresno chilis.
[Hunter] How's Crystal doing?
Oh, she's doing great. We're ready to go.
Did you boil that with a crab boil bag?
I did.
[Hunter] What?
That I'm impressed with.
Oh, that's awesome.
[Guy] That move, you don't see...
In my mind I'm thinking "Baby, that's why I'm here."
Two and a half minutes.
[Nick] So the clock is counting down as I'm spooning
this in my bowls.
It's coming out silky and creamy.
I cannot believe. This is so surreal, man.
I'm glad y'all are witnessing this because I'm appreciating every second of it.
I got four pieces of blackened shrimp for everyone,
and I top it off the little chopped parsley and a little Parmesan
just to finish it off.
I can't believe that I actually did this.
[Guy] Ninety seconds.
What resolution?
So I get my pasta into the bowl.
I top it with my shrimp and then I served a nice piece of bread to the judges.
Forty-five seconds, chefs, let's clean those bowls.
Oh, my gosh. Oh, my God.
I put all of my pasta into the bowl.
This is so much harder than it looks, it really is.
And then as a garnish, I just sprinkle a little cheese and some of that parsley.
Five, four, three, two, one.
That's it. Stop cooking.
- [Crystal] Yes. - [Hunter] Oh, man.
- [Damaris] Well done, you all. - Dear God.
Great job.
[Hunter] All right.
You three have started an anti-resolution revolution.
Let's take those news to the judges.
All right, judges, this is it.
Game one of our anti-resolution games,
we had a little crazy canned roulette.
Our food fanatics, Hunter, had to make no-restriction noodles
that featured unlabeled canned ingredients
that they picked themselves. Up first, chef Crystal, clam chowder take it away.
So, because I picked clam chowder, I decided to make for you all
a seafood Cajun-boiled Alfredo.
And then I seared off some Cajun sausage, brought in that clam chowder,
and I gave you a little piece of some garlic bread
and I piled on the cheese, because this is anti-resolution, baby.
[Damaris] Crystal. I think that getting a can of clam chowder
and then leaning into the seafood was a very, very creative way to use
and to... to kind of elevate the whammy that you got.
But I wish that you had chosen a different noodle.
I'm not able to slop up as much as
if I had a noodle that was a better carrier for all of that sauce.
Okay.
Crystal good thing, I'm running a marathon tomorrow.
I'm going to crush this whole plate of pasta.
- An absolute perfect cook on the shrimp. - Thank you.
They are spicy. They are just lovely pasta.
Yes, baby! Yes!
Crystal, this is a bowl full of bad decisions
in the best way possible.
The fact that not only did you put the crab boil in the pasta water,
but then you finished your pasta in your sauce.
[Crystal] Yes.
That's just extra flavor, extra flavor.
All right. Up next, chef Nick with Hollandaise sauce.
Chef, what I prepared for you today is a creamy
hollandaise pasta with grilled shrimp roast off some red peppers,
some jalapenos, rendered down some pancetta.
Try to make the hollandaise as naughty as I could.
Then I just grilled off some shrimp.
Finish that sauce off with a little bit of Parmesan to thicken it up.
Nick, I love that you are giving us
so many different layers of flavor.
We're having grilled.
We also have a ton of smokey flavor.
And then there's also a lot of heat from those jalapenos.
What I love is that I don't taste
canned hollandaise in your dish at all,
and I think that's because there's so much freshness in here.
- That's wonderful. - [Nick] Thank you.
Well, Nick, we are doing the opposite of resolutions.
So when you said a key word, which was a little bit of parm.
You needed to take like literally two handfuls of parm
and throw it in here, would have thickened up your sauce
and really played the game.
Thank you.
All right, great job.
Not to be outdone, chef Elizabeth, cream of celery.
For my no-restrictions pasta, I did a Cajun chicken pasta.
And what makes it no restrictions
is I threw in white wine, heavy cream, a lot of cheese and then that cream of celery,
which I feel like actually really added to the flavor and texture.
I hope you enjoy it.
Elizabeth, it's a shame that you're not even excited to be here.
Maybe smile sometime.
If I didn't know anything and someone gave me just one strand of this spaghetti
that is so flavorful, I would say that tastes like Cajun pasta.
So really good job.
[Damaris] Elizabeth,
I think that when you're talking about Cajun food
and you're talking about the Holy Trinity,
you're talking about onions and peppers and celery.
So taking the cream of celery soup and using that and playing into it is creative,
it's fun, and you absolutely get that Cajun flavor.
For me, the only thing is that the sauce is a little too thick.
[Aarti] Elizabeth, you have
that thing happen that has happened to all of us,
where mid-round you got to throw away your sauce and start again.
I think that lost time showed up when it came to plating.
I wish your dish was a little neater.
Okay.
I'll tell you, I think that what you don't have
in experience, you make up for with creativity and positive energy,
and that's how Hunter and I feel.
And Hunter and I are good people.
We're not judges and we don't send people home.
Wait a minute.
- Oh, my God. - Wait a minute.
[Guy] We're going to send you back to the kitchen.
The judges will score up, break one of your hearts
and the other two will continue on the next game.
Oh, my God.
Thank you very much. Back to your kitchens.
Thank you, guys.
[Guy] All right, judges, you get 20 points available in game play,
20 points available in tasting and 10 points available on plating.
Let's show them scores. Get them on the board.
Okay.
[Guy] Well, you have all put your passion for food on a plate.
Nicely done.
Let's take a look here, right?
We'll start with Nick 15 in Game play, 17 in Taste,
eight in plating, total 40.
Good score.
Crystal, 17 in Game play, 17 in Taste,
seven in Plating, total of 41.
Wow!
Right now, we'll see what Elizabeth's score is.
Sixteen in Game play, sixteen in Taste,
seven in Plating for a score of 39.
[Damaris] Ooh, that was close.
[Guy] I would say this, though.
Before you take off, I would want to tell you one thing...
I'm not sending you home.
[all cheering]
- So now it's anybody's battle, right, Hunter? - That's correct,
Because the second and final round of our anti-resolution games starts right now.
[guy] For your final challenge, pull out all the stops,
we want you to make the judges a...
-Something fried. I'm thinking-- -[Guy] Fried.
Fried fantasy. I want a fried fantasy.
Fried fantasy?
To inspire you, to go big or go home,
we are going to play our biggest game ever.
This is actually the food pyramid.
This is a school project that we did for Hunter,
and he is going to drop the ball of opportunity.
First, we're going to pick your adjective
a word to help you add another dimension to your fried fantasy.
Hunter, what do we have for 'em?
[Hunter] Glazed, creamy, spicy,
tart, pickled and cheesy.
Okay, here we go.
[Elizabeth] Oh, God.
Seriously? Pickled. Okay, Okay.
[Guy] Okay, okay.
- [Crystal] Pickle's good. - Pickle's fine.
So at least one component of your dish must be pickled.
[Guy] Is that it or you want to do more?
I think we have to do more.
We need you to do one mandatory section for you to shop in.
So let's just hit the button.
- [Guy] There we go. - [Hunter] Look at that.
[Guy] So you must shop in either the hot bar,
the cold bar, the butcher case, or the grab & go.
[Hunter] So here we go.
Just not grab and go, but I think we're okay there.
- Okay. - Okay. Okay.
All right. Hunter, what is the final category to top things off?
Let's pick an aisle you won't be able to shop from.
- [Hunter] Oh. - [Guy] Huh?
[Hunter] Ready? Here you go.
[Guy] Oh! Aisle two is condiments.
Aisle nine is the baked goods and frozen goods.
Aisle five is beans, rice, fruit soups
and aisle four... Oh, you don't want to get that one.
- That's international. - Okay.
[Hunter] All right. Here we go.
There you go, five.
[Guy] Nothing from aisle five.
Oh, God.
Rice, grains, canned meats, canned fruit soup.
Thirty minutes to make a fried fantasy featuring a pickled component,
an item from the cold bar, and nothing from aisle five.
You know, I'm trying to figure out who's going to do the "three, two, one go,"
me or Hunter?
- Oh, gosh. - [Hunter] Really?
- Nobody gets it that quick. - That's way too fast.
For my fried fantasy, I'm going to fry some fat in fat.
When I think of a fried fantasy, I think of a big fat sandwich.
And truthfully, a nice cold beer.
I want to fry this pork belly in panko
because I'm going to make a fried pork belly banh mi sandwich.
Guy panko, panko, panko?
Right there in front of you.
[Nick] For the perfect banh mi, I need a spicy sauce.
But the problem is aisle five has the mayo.
I can't do it. I got to come up with plan B.
Let's see.
I'm going to make my own sauce.
Are there cucumbers here somewhere?
For the pickled portion of my dish,
Oh, there they are.
I know I got red wine vinegar and sugar at my station.
It's an easy, quick pickle.
- [Hunter] Cold bar here. - [Nick] Is this the cold bar?
[Hunter] Oh, yeah.
What can I get you?
[Nick] Okay. Beets and some artichokes.
What I'm going to do with this stuff? I have no idea.
All right, let's do it.
Okay.
For my fried fantasy, I'm making fr-achos, y'all.
So fr-achos is a play on nachos.
Instead of using a tortilla chip, I choose to use a waffle fry.
I don't have time to, like, dissect a potato and get it fried up perfectly.
[Guy] What are you thinking?
I'm thinking some nachos,
but made with fries and fried chicken and pickled jalapenos.
So excited.
[Crystal] I want to make bite sized pieces for my fried chicken
instead of dealing with like a whole boneless chicken breast.
Excuse me.
Aisle five is the spices. Can't go to five.
I have to think of another way to pull off my fried chicken.
Hot sauce. I need hot sauce.
Since I couldn't go down aisle five,
I knew I needed to really punch up the flavor on my chicken.
I see the red hot chili peppers and I knew I could play that into my dish.
- All right. - Thank you.
[Hunter] Best of luck. Here we go.
[sighs]
I'm not as much of a fryer, but I'm going to go for it.
Okay.
My mind immediately goes to the one fried dish
that I do know how to cook, which is my husband's favorite, a chicken parmo.
Cheese.
Chicken parmos are pretty intense,
I mean, it's fried chicken with bechamel and cheese.
This.
Okay, bread crumbs, spices.
We can't do spices that is going to make pickling harder.
Okay.
I know how to make pickles, but making
pickles without any spices is a little trickier.
And then I see the garlic in that cold bar and I think,
oh, I'm just going to throw that in as well,
and that'll really give it a lot of flavor.
What do you guys think? Fried fantasy.
Frying is an art.
- Oh, yeah. - Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
There is so much to fry properly.
There are two points between
the top and the bottom right now. That is so, so close.
Yeah, like literally, it can go any way.
[Damaris] The stakes are so high.
I am hoping that they really just like, leave it all in the fryer.
Well, they should definitely take out at some point.
I mean, I, actually, like, don't leave it in the fryer.
Golden brown and crispy.
Twenty-two minutes.
[Aarti] Well, our chefs have to make us a fried fantasy
with a pickled element.
Nothing from aisle five and a mandatory--
- Cold bar. - Cold bar.
[Nick] I'm making a bahn mi,
because there's a place in Chicago where Guy has been on Diners,
Drive-Ins and Dives, and they do a fried pork belly banh mi sandwich.
[moans]
Like them.
[Nick] And I went to Chicago and had it.
I've been to 38 Triple D restaurants.
Some may call me a stalker. I just call it food fanatic.
I'm pickling these vegetables right now.
First thing that I get started on
because I want to give them enough time is my pickled veggies.
[Guy] What's the game plan?
[Nick] I'm going to do a fried pork belly banh mi.
[Guy] What else are you going to fry?
The game is fried.
[Nick] I hear the little bird in my ear again,
fried, fried, fried, fried, fried.
So now I'm frying my jalapenos and beets and some artichokes from the cold bar.
So these are going to get fried.
I'm in second place going into the second round,
and I know I really have to push the gamut on this thing.
I really want to win this so bad because I want to donate this money
to No Kid Hungry Foundation.
There are hungry kids
any little bit that I could give to help, I'm more than glad to do it.
So what's the fry going to be?
I'm going to do a chicken parmo.
It's an Northern English dish.
Okay.
And it's my husband's, like, favorite.
- So I'm going to pound the chicken breast out. - [Guy] Okay.
I'm going to batter it, fry it, and top it with bechamel and
then cheddar cheese.
- You said... - Sounds fried to me.
You said a fried fantasy.
I need to work on my pickled element.
Just a really simple ratio of one-to-one water-vinegar.
I think the garlic from the cold bar
is going to be great to pickle with those onions just to add extra flavor.
I need the bechamel sauce to be thick and creamy and indulgent.
Ten thousand dollars would be immensely helpful
to Preserve International to that kind of money
can make a massive difference to our programs
and to the women that we serve.
[producer speaking]
I think so.
What we're thinking here?
I'm thinking fried chicken,
I need to mix in the buttermilk and the hot sauce.
And then I'm going to dredge them in flour with some fries
that I'm doing a waffle style, basically making like nachos,
but we're going to make them with french fries.
So it's like fried chicken fried nachos,
the red peppers from the bar.
- I'm going to get it done. - I dig it.
[Crystal] Okay. While my chicken is frying,
I'm going to work on my cheese sauce.
Pan cheese sauce really is boring, but it is an excellent base,
especially when you have like two minutes to get this food cooked.
I got my pickled jalapenos in my queso sauce.
[Hunter] Twelve minutes to go! 12 in the competition.
12 minutes from now somebody is about to win 10,000 dollars.
Just a little change.
[Nick] Next I got to work on my pork belly,
so I slice it, I dice it, I roll it right in that panko
and goes right into the fryer. Can't crowd these up.
Got to give them a little room to breathe.
Nothing is more anti-resolution than frying fat in fat.
When that pork belly comes out of the fryer,
I wanted to stop the competition and eat it myself.
Go to season these right when they come out so they can soak it up.
So, I'm making a spicy sauce here, but I can't use aisle five.
I don't have mayonnaise.
So I got sour cream, I got Sriracha.
Then I have this silky spicy sauce.
[Aarti] What?
I love that. I love that.
Stop it right now.
[Nick] Yes.
Pretty good.
It's hard to find the space to do it.
While the bechamel sauce is cooking, the onions are pickling.
I know it's time to start on my dredge for the chicken.
Okay, we can do this.
The most important thing, but that it has a really nice
crispy coating and a juicy inside.
Okay.
This is a fried challenge. I can't mess up this fry.
And I'm gonna do a quick salad, which I got to do right now
with the pickles.
And that pickled element is really going to balance out
the decadence of that chicken parmo.
Garlic, my husband is literally going to die when
I'm making this. He is going to lose it.
He loves it when I put loads of cheese on the top of this chicken.
Right there, sets it there.
[Crystal] Based on the taste of my chicken,
I couldn't even tell that I couldn't use the spice aisle.
It was delicious.
So I get the waffle fries into the fryer.
[Guy] Tell me what you've got that's fried?
[Crystal] I got fried chicken and I'm frying up the french fries.
[Guy] And then you got the cheese sauce.
Cheese sauce and then from the cold bar,
I also got the pickled hot red chili peppers.
[Guy] Okay.
[Crystal] If I win, the money will definitely go towards Chris Kitchen
and building the food blog.
I want to take it to the next level.
Reach more people so that I can show people even better delicious,
simple dishes and how to cook and make it just boom.
[Guy] Five minutes, chefs, five minutes to be plated.
[Nick] I start spreading my spicy sauce
all over these crusted baguettes.
I want the pork belly to be the main attraction,
putting on my fried jalapenos and my fried artichokes.
I got the cool, crispy pickled vegetables ready to go,
and I start layering that on top.
[Guy] Three minutes, chefs, three.
[Elizabeth] This is the challenge, I think as a home cook,
here, I'm thinking, how am I going to make this dish look good?
Slice the chicken in half, I throw it onto the plate
and put some of that salad on there.
It's not really a feast, is it?
Ninety seconds.
[Crystal] I'm starting to plate,
so I start with my waffle fries
and then I add the fried chicken and then I add my toppings.
And then I put in my pickled red hot chili peppers from the Cold Bar,
and then I take the cheese sauce and put it to the side
and place it in a ramekin.
Don't put the cheese sauce on because the fried chicken will get soggy.
I want that fried fantasy coming through.
Five, four, three, two, one.
- That's it, chefs. - [judges cheering]
Great job, you all. Great job.
[Nick] Is it anti-resolution? Yes.
Can you even fit it in your mouth?
I'm not sure.
[Hunter] Chefs, judges, this is game two
of our anti-resolution games, our food fanatics have to make a fried fantasy.
[Guy] Up first? Chef Nick.
[Nick] All right. So what you got in front of you
is a fried pork belly banh mi sandwich.
You got fried artichoke hearts in there.
Then I made a quick pickle on some jalapenos, carrots and cucumber.
I couldn't go on aisle five.
I couldn't use mayonnaise, and then I got to make a sauce.
So I got some sour cream, Sriracha,
cilantro and just made a nice, thick and hearty sauce.
[Chris] This is gosh darn delicious.
I love the beets, I love the freshness and brightness
and the fact that you said that you didn't have mayo.
You fudged it pretty good because it tastes like there's some
really beautiful, decadent smear of aioli in here.
I think that those little fried pork belly nuggets
are out-of-this-world delicious.
[Nick] Thank you.
The only thing for me is,
is this a little difficult to eat all together.
Yeah.
[Aarti] I think you nailed fried fantasy.
I also think that you were really assertive
with the amount of pickled elements in your sandwich,
and that was very smart because otherwise it would taste way too rich.
Thank you.
Fantastic. Up next, chef Crystal.
Hi, chefs. So I'd like for you to pour the cheese sauce
on top of my fr-achos.
When I think of fried food, I think of deep fried chicken.
I decided to take some chicken tenders,
slice them up and give you chicken bites.
Because we didn't have aisle five for spices,
I used buttermilk and hot sauce to marinate my chicken.
And then I also played a really big to the pickled element.
I got the diced pickled chilies to my keso.
[Damaris] I love what you've done here.
I think your chicken is absolutely delicious.
I wish, though, that you had fried one other element
so that we could have really seen your fry skills.
[Chris] This is just so tasty that chicken is so moist and crispy.
- It's like a chicken cotton ball like, mwah, wonderful. - Thank you.
[Aarti] When I was in high school, there was this boy
who was bad news and I wanted him to be my boyfriend
- so bad. - [Crystal] Okay.
That is what this makes me think of.
This is that bad boyfriend
you cannot resist.
Your keso is beautiful. It's not too salty.
- So well done on the balance. - [Crystal] Thank you.
Last but not least, chef Elizabeth, what did you make for us?
For me, a fantasy is something that sort of takes you somewhere else,
and that's what this is.
It's a Chicken Parmo.
My husband is from a town in northern England.
This is one of those dishes
for him that when I make it, it just makes him feel like home.
It takes him back.
It is pretty specific to that region of northern England.
So it's a deep fried chicken cutlet
that's been topped with béchamel sauce and then cheddar cheese.
And then I also did a quick pickled onion,
and then I mix that into a quick salad.
[Chris] You executed this really well,
and I really would have loved like another gallon of béchamel over this chicken.
- But overall... [kisses]. - Thank you.
[Chris] Your husband's a lucky dude.
I like the way that you tossed your salad in the pickles.
I think that you played the game really well,
choosing what you chose from the Cold Bar.
For me, the only problem is that the salad brings it out of fried fantasy
and into well-balanced meal.
Okay.
It is so hard to fry a piece of chicken this thick,
and you did such a beautiful job of getting it nice and juicy,
cooked all the way through, but not burned on the outside.
- So well done. - Thank you.
[Guy] All right, thank you very much.
We're going to send you back to the kitchens.
Let the judges deliberate.
Get these scores together and we'll call you back.
Great job.
Whose fried fantasy was good enough
to make a 10,000 dollar winner reality?
I think Crystal nailed the fantasy.
I think she created an entire new dish fr-achos.
Crystal's dish only fried think Crystal actually made
is the fried chicken, and I wish that she made the fries.
[Chris] I loved Nick's sandwich, that pork belly.
It tastes delicious, and Nick played the game really well.
But for me, that was, it was impossible
to get a bite with everything in there.
I think Elizabeth was the most successful
in her use of the pickles, almost like a pickled salad.
But I think that then it took the whole dish out of fried fantasy.
And the fact that she was speaking to that
like something she does for a husband was really beautiful.
All right, let's score it up.
All righty, then. Would you do it again?
- Absolutely. - Right now.
Hands down.
Right now, throw it down, let's go right again.
Round three.
One of you will get 10,000 dollars
and a chance to come back and compete again
for the return engagement here in Flavortown Market.
And let's take a look at the numbers.
Elizabeth,
you gave us a 15 in Game play, a 17 in Taste
and an eight in Plating for a total of 40, a point up for 79.
Crystal, 41, you're our leader.
15 in Game play.
18 in Taste, and cheese sauce, eight in Platin for a total of 41
for a total of 82.
Nick, you're going to have to increase by two points to tie.
See what you get.
Game play 18, must have been pickle,
17 in Taste, plating for Eight, 43, Nick, by one point.
And Nick...
That's a highest score.
Crystal and Elizabeth Keep doing what you're doing
and you keep inspiring people and keep learning.
I think this was great steps for you
and it was really a pleasure, so thank you very much.
Coming here today definitely validated
that I'm not just the home cook.
I mean, I got some real talent behind this here stove.
Cooking in Flavortown has sort of validated me as a chef,
and I'm really excited to take some of those lessons home with me.
Ladies and gentlemen, the anti-resolution winner
kicking off the new year.
Give it up for chef Nick.
- Congratulations. - [Nick Farrer] Thank you so much.
Never in the history of my life
did I ever think that this would happen, ever.
Now what do you do?
[Nick] I'm a vice president of sales of a Fortune 500
company out of Boston.
Get out.
Yeah, I was a professional baseball player, too.
Oh, yeah, that's what everybody is on here.
They're professional baseball player.
They work at Fortune 500 companies and then they come
and just, you know, kick some butt on Guy's Grocery Games.
You hear it every day.
Now what are you gonna do with the 10,000 bucks?
I'd like to talk to you about No Kid Hungry.
Your 10,000 bucks in your name, chef Nick,
going to No Kid Hungry. You got to love that.
- Awesome. - That is awesome.
Now you're going to come back to make a return trip
to Flavortown Market, battle two other chefs.
I'll see you guys next week on Guy's Grocery Games.
Adios.
[all cheering]