Hunter, I think we have done it.
You know, Hunter, not every great sandwich is found in a deli or restaurant.
You know, there are incredible sandwiches being made in home kitchens
around the country every single day.
So, we have invited food lovers from all walks of life
to make their signature sandwiches.
[Samuel] It's got a little bit of everything.
That thing has its own gravitational orbit.
[Guy] They are the best thing between sliced bread.
[Hunter] Now, these food fanatics aren't professionals,
but making sandwiches is, well... it's how they roll.
Ah, man. Come on, stay up there for me.
Perfect now, Hunter.
- What are you going to eat? - Wait, where are you going?
It's Sinful Sandwiches right now on Guy's Grocery Games.
Dad, give me the sandwich.
All right, Hunter, let's meet our chefs.
Now, first up we have Eric Jones,
an ex-college football player turned Texas food blogger
and like everything else in Texas, his sandwiches are big.
[Eric] I'm a 6'2", 240-pound ex-football player.
So, anything I eat is going to have to fill me up.
I am an IT professional. I actually run a food blog with my wife.
My kids actually eat sandwiches daily.
Being from Louisiana and now in Texas,
my style of cooking is more Cajun and southern comfort style.
My sandwiches are huge, flavorful and will fill you up for sure.
- Big man walking. - Yeah.
- Big man walking. - What up?
Next up, we have Cayla Atha, fitness instructor
whose favorite piece of equipment is her panini press.
I love the panini, anything grilled and pressed
with that melty cheese, I am in for.
I love fitness. I am a Pilates instructor
who is obsessed with sandwiches.
There is no better way than sandwiches
to show just how simple healthy ingredients can taste.
What's up?
- What's up? - Comes...
I watched Guy on The Food Network Star and it really inspired me
to continue my culinary journey.
And finally, Samuel Caballero,
known online as the Deli Lover.
Because when it comes to both deli and Mexican food, his motto is this,
"If you can put it on a plate, you can make a sandwich out of it."
[Samuel] People follow me on social media to see the pictures I post
at all these delis I go to.
I travel a lot for work.
I am always on the look for small delis.
During my travels, I've tried over 100 different types of sandwiches.
I might not be a chef, but I am cooking for everyone in the family.
We watch Guy's Grocery Games every week.
- Sandwich man. - Oh, yeah.
- Go get him. What's up, yo? - What's up, dude?
[Samuel] My kids can't believe that I am in Flavortown right now.
Welcome, you sandwich food fanatics.
It is very nice to have you here.
Now, we have had sandwich competitions here on Triple G before.
But even though you are not professional chefs that work in restaurants,
you all have an obsession with making great sandwiches.
So, we thought we'd see how your sandwiches stack up against the pros.
So, tonight, we are giving you a Double Decker. All right?
Two intense challenges
that will determine who has a pure bread sandwich making skills.
- So, who has pure bread sandwich making skills? - You get it? Right?
- Point Hunter. - Thank you.
Here's the deal.
The chef with the lowest score unfortunately at the end of the first round will be...
toast.
- Wow. Huh? - The puns are on tonight, aren't they?
But the chef with the highest combined score after both rounds
will receive an automatic $10,000 and...
And get to come back and cook against two other food fanatic winners
for chance of winning up to $20,000.
And that is going from po' boy to hero.
So, we want you to start out strong.
We want you to make the judges
a Herculean Hoagie.
You must sure take on that classic submarine sandwich.
Now typically, Hunter, a hoagie
was filled with various meats and cheeses and pickled ingredients
- and the dressing and easily can fit two dozen ingredients. - Two dozen?
But feel free to make a version that will express your sandwich-making style.
- [Hunter] Wait. Wait. - Okay?
Two dozen?
- Yeah. Two dozen... - Two dozen...
- and you said express? - Oh...
- Oh. - Express.
[Guy] Oh.
I know what you are thinking. Great idea.
Let's play some express lane, son. How about that?
So, that means you either check you cart out through the express lane
where our cashier Wendy
reinforces a strict 12-ingredient limit.
- Wendy is not here today. - What do you mean?
- Wendy is not here. It's Wendy's day off. - She always--
You just made up the game. It's Wendy's day off. Did you see a Wendy?
There is no Wendy.
So, we're not gonna be able to play. It's her day off.
Let's rock, paper, civers. Let's rock, paper...
Let's rock, paper, scissors to who works the checkout line.
- Ready? - Don't hit me.
- Don't cheat. - Okay. I am not--
He used to cheat when he was little kid.
- How could I cheat? - You ready?
Rock, paper, scissors. No dynamite, no alligators. None of that jazz.
- Okay. - Okay.
- Rock, paper, scissors. We will do best out of three. - Okay, let's do it.
- No. - There is no such thing as best out of two.
- Just do out of one. - One. We will go to see who is here to do it.
- Okay. - Okay.
I thought for sure we would have them on that.
All right, I am not wearing the apron,
but I'll do the Express Lane.
Guy wants us to make a Herculean Hoagie with only 12 ingredients.
It is supposed to be big, bold, tall, wide, long.
I mean, I am overwhelmed.
- One. - I wanted to put my little healthy spin on it.
So, I went for turkey thigh.
Bread, bread, bread.
Perfect, two.
I am going to make a turkey meatball banh mi.
Okay, okay, okay.
The banh mi has strong, bold flavors.
Tamari.
I am thinking spice.
Yes.
Sriracha.
Red onions...
When you are going down those aisles in Flavortown, you feel blind.
You can't find anything, but we made it happen somehow, someway.
Let's do that.
Time definitely moves differently in Flavortown.
I want authentic, but great crunch.
9, 10, 11,12. We are good to go.
I got to go do my dumb job, Hunter.
- [Hunter] Oh, that's right. Hey, good luck with that. - [whimpering]
[Samuel] When I am thinking Herculean, I am thinking meats.
Stacks of meat. A Mexican torta cubana.
A Cuban sandwich is usually ham
beef, pickles, mussels.
What I am making is going to have way more flavors than that.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
I am thinking chorizo,
hot dogs. There's a lot of meat. You just can't have enough.
There is a few good choices right there for Herculean.
[Samuel] I am grabbing sour French bread.
Something big with a crunch.
Jalapenos, spicy stuff, we need that.
I am getting Jalapenos and refried beans with chili.
Little bit of more spice in there.
I'm grabbing Oaxaca cheese and crema to counterbalance the spiciness from the sandwich.
Lettuce, lettuce, lettuce.
And I am grabbing lettuce, onions, tomatoes for freshness.
If there is one place to get creative with sandwiches, it's Flavortown.
Let's go, let's go, let's check out.
Attention, Flavortown customers, attention.
There is a little lost boy by the name Troy Johnson here at the front desk
and he has had a potty accident.
Can his mother or father please come help him? Thank you.
Momma!
[Eric] When I think of a Herculean Hoagie,
I am thinking of something that's going to fall off the plate.
I am grabbing the longest piece of bread that I could find.
My strategy is reaching back into my roots.
So, I decided to make a Muffuletta sandwich.
A Muffuletta is basically olive salad,
a bunch of cold cuts and cheese.
But I am thinking to bump it up a notch.
Smoked turkey, turkey sausage.
Duck bacon is going to bring the salty...
- That's two. - And the fattiness.
I am grabbing pepper jack cheese because
I wanted to have a cheese that had a little bit of a kick to it.
Pitted olives, pitted olives, pitted olives.
The most important part of a muffuletta sandwich is the olive salad.
These will have to do.
I watch Triple G all the time.
I am always amazed at how fast everyone thinks on their feet.
When you get here, way more challenging than you would ever think.
[Hunter] Come on.
[Eric] I think the fresh basil is going to help balance all of that saltiness out.
- Hello, one shop, chef. Remember, it's one shop. - I know.
- I am stressed! We'll see. - You have everything you need?
[Cayla] It's so wild. You realize that you're deep into Flavortown
when Guy is at the checkout.
Three, four...
- [Guy] Ten... - [Hunter] I tell you what. You look good in a black apron.
11, 12. There you go.
- Eleven. Eleven items. - Eleven?
- That's it. - That's it? Don't need a 12?
- Uh, I'm good. - [Guy] Okay.
Would you like to make a one-dollar donation
to the Troy Johnson Needs a Friend fund?
- [Eric] Sure. Put it on my tab. - Fantastic.
- There you go. Eleven items. - [Eric] All right.
All right. Whew.
All right. This is terrible. I am never doing this job again.
I think you did a fantastic job.
I quit.
[Guy] Twenty three and a half minutes, chefs.
So, here to critique our Sinful Sandwiches is our toast of our town,
the panel of judges.
We have the fierce tournament of champions competitor
and acclaimed Southern California chef,
the one and only
Nyesha Arrington.
The sandwich king himself.
I mean, who better to be here judging a sandwich competition, the king himself
between cookbook signing and co-hosting The Kitchen,
the one and only, Jeff Mauro.
And the soggy bottom bun winner
two-time champion
Troy "The Boy" Johnson.
Any type of sandwich that is your favorite of all sandwiches?
The knuckle sandwich.
Well, I didn't know a judge could win tonight, but a judge did just win.
Thank you guys for coming.
[Cayla] Okay. Let's go.
Our Turkey Meatball Banh Mi.
Yes. Okay.
I've watched this show long enough to know that you have to start with your proteins.
So, the first thing I start working on are my turkey meatballs.
Little tamari, great for flavor.
Little red onion.
Chopping up some
pickled ginger.
I like the extra vinegar taste.
Lastly, a little bit of heat within the meatball.
Okay.
All meatballs need a great binder.
I didn't grab panko.
So, I chopped up the chow mein and used it in lieu of panko.
Help hold the meatball together.
I have made a lot of Asian dishes and I like banh mis a lot.
This particular one is a little bit different
with our ingredients, but I think it is going to be delicious.
It wasn't until I went to college and I was forced to cook for myself
that I really got into it.
I started my blog and I used it as a creative outlet.
I just love incorporating healthy living tips and tricks into everyday posts.
The next thing I need to work on is my slaw.
Herculean means strong, bold.
That's exactly how I am treating my cabbage.
Lots of bite from the vinegar.
Add a little crunch.
I watch the show and cross-utilization is a good strategy
especially if you can only use 12 ingredients.
As long as we can get our meatballs done,
we're gonna have a good sandwich.
All right, chef, give me a rundown here.
All right, I am trying to make a Muffuletta sandwich.
Muffuletta sandwich.
- [Eric] I'm gonna try to make a Hercules version. - Okay. Ooh.
Well, what you don't have a lot of is time.
- You have 19 minutes. - Yeah. So, we are going to make it work.
Get this is cooking and burning and I think we'll be all right.
Catch up with time.
The first thing I get started on is my turkey sausage.
Growing up in Louisiana has been heavy, heavy Cajun food
and it's full of spices, full of flavors.
It's a combination of cultures just smashing all together in one spot.
Even in Louisiana, the Muffuletta was the go-to.
So, I am rendering my duck bacon down.
Even though it is duck bacon,
it still is going to give you that nice texture that you normally would get
from any other type of bacon.
Muffuletta... Muffuletta.
The turducken of sandwiches.
Smart route. Interesting.
I'm curious to see how that duck bacon is.
Do ducks have bellies?
[Troy] They have a really cute one.
[both quacking]
In Mexico, we have something called a torta cubana,
which takes a little bit from Cubans
when they were in Mexico in the 1950s
and they decided that Cuban people had a little bit of everything in them,
so they threw a torta together that had a little bit of everything in it
and that's what we are doing today.
Meat, meat, meat, pork.
The most important part of my sandwich is all the meats I am going to put in.
Some pork chorizo with some onions.
Just want some perfect char on that.
I'm gonna get my ham in there real quick.
It's gonna release a lot of water.
I love grill marks on my ham. I grill everything just like my dad taught me.
We do this a lot.
In Southern California, it's a big staple.
You will find this in every traditional Mexican restaurant.
My parents came from Mexico. I was born here.
In my house, Mexican food was always a staple.
I love cooking Mexican food.
The Cuban sandwich is my favorite so this is an awesome rendition of it.
Every time you come in to Flavortown, you are expecting executive chefs.
People have been in the restaurant life forever.
These people are home cooks.
- [Nyesha] Yes. - [Troy] They are food fanatics.
But they are great cooks.
They've got blogs and they've got recipes,
but they haven't had the pressure
and the timing that you usually have to have in restaurant.
- Absolutely, that mental mise en place. - Yeah.
Turkey...
looking good.
- Thirteen minutes to cook those off like that. - Whoo!
- I might recommend you take those to the fryer. - Okay.
When Guy says, "You better put those in the deep fryer," you do it.
I'm not gonna have time to cook them in the pan.
So, into the deep fryer they went.
Which I, by the way, have never used.
Pray to the fry gods these stay together.
I've been watching Triple G forever and I'm really just
here to soak up every single moment.
[Guy] Eleven minutes.
All right, big man, you better get this in the oven and get that sausage cooking.
- I'm trying to get it on, man. - Where's that bacon? Is that cooking too?
It's cooking on the top.
So I'm about to throw this in the oven now, see if I can get this cheese melted.
Let's see how that works.
If you don't render that sausage enough, remember you got your fryer.
Yeah. Got you.
Which the fryer might give you that crisp that you want.
Being here in Flavortown, in the kitchen with that clock running,
and being able to look to my side and see Guy helping me out...
- I appreciate your kitchen aid. - You got it, buddy.
That was an unreal moment.
[Eric] I wanna make sure I cook my turkey sausage so it has a nice little texture,
so I'm throwing it in the fryer to get a nice little crisp on it.
I'll take that.
So, while my turkey sausage is frying,
I'm gonna work on my olive salad. I'm throwing the red onions.
I'm throwing the green olives, I'm throwing the black olives, more green olives.
And also the basil, 'cause it's a lot of olives.
So, let me get something herby into my taste profile.
[Samuel] Getting all that smell from this now.
Now, we're talking.
I'm gonna get some cheese on there.
I'm cutting my Oaxaca cheese into slices and putting it on my cast iron grill.
I want that cheese to be melty, gooey and be able
to slide it on top of the chorizo.
Melt the cheese now.
All right. Well, we got a lot going on over here.
[Samuel] We do. My ham's about ready to come out.
[Guy] Okay.
But there's a lot other things that need to be done here
and definitely gonna look for bread treatment.
Absolutely. I want a colossal size of bread, so I'm going for that big cut.
Put some olive oil.
All right, let's get that toasted.
[Samuel] Seven minutes, chefs.
Seven minutes is right, buddy.
Watch this thing. This will burn your bread so fast, like it is doing right now.
Argh!
[Samuel] The bread makes the sandwich.
And I screwed this up. I feel like, that's it. I'm done.
It's the end of the road for me.
We all heard that noise. That is scraping the burnt off your toast.
[Samuel] I'm not a professional chef.
Now I'm in Flavortown, that's intimidating.
But I gotta get something on the plate, so I gotta figure something out quick.
Six minutes.
[Samuel] This is gonna finish me.
Five minutes, chefs. Five to go.
There's only few minutes left and Samuel is literally scraping the burnt
of his toast.
[Samuel] My bread is burnt.
I definitely feel flustered, but I'm not a quitter, so I gotta figure this out.
I'm gonna hollow this out. Take some of that out. Try to save this.
My only solution is to hollow the bread out
to be able to get all the flavors I need into that big sandwich.
It's gonna give you more meat, less bread and still look huge.
[Guy] Three minutes. Three minutes left, chefs.
[Cayla] Ooh!
I make a quick sriracha mayo.
And that goes right inside of my bread.
Then, I add my fresh jalapenos and pickled carrots.
Then I add my cabbage slaw. I pull the meatballs. We're good to go.
I start to layer in my finished meatballs.
[Guy] Ninety seconds.
[Eric] I need to start building this Muffuletta.
First, I have my bread with the melted cheese on it.
Eric's 40-foot sandwich.
- [Nyesha] Herculean. - [Eric] I'm layering
my olive salad over my bread and I see pits in my olives.
Oh, my goodness.
I didn't know about it until it was too late.
So, I'm layering all these meats. I have smoked turkey,
I have fried turkey sausage and I have duck bacon.
Finally, I'm topping it off, with some pickled jalapenos.
Because when you're from Louisiana, you gotta bring the heat.
Come on, don't do it.
Dude, that thing has its own gravitational orbit.
[Guy] Thirty seconds.
[Samuel] Gotta start plating. I gotta get plating.
Place a bottom piece of bread on the plate. Little sour cream at the bottom.
I add my crema and lettuce.
A chorizo and melted cheese.
We got some Oaxaca, ham, tomato and hot dog.
Not the best looking sandwich I'm gonna make, but...
I have no choice now.
I'm hoping my bread doesn't get me eliminated.
[Guy] Five, four, three, two, one. That's it, chefs, stop working.
[all cheering]
- Intense. - Buzzer beater, buddy.
I'm gonna stand in the freezer section for a second. [chuckles]
[Eric] So, I definitely made a Herculean Hoagie.
But my only concern...
is the pits I left in the olives.
Woo-hoo!
Wow, you guys really flexed your muscles on these Herculean Hoagies.
Let's take it to the judges.
Okay, judges. This is it.
Game one of our Sinful Sandwich showdown.
Our chefs had to make a Herculean Hoagie while following our express lane
12-ingredient limit. First up was Chef Eric with 11 ingredients.
Today, for what I provided for you was my spin of a Muffuletta.
Typically, it's loaded with a lot of deli meats, but I tried to bring the muscle
since it was a Herculean. So, what I have topped off with is duck bacon,
smoked turkey, turkey sausage and I have a olive salad and pepper jack cheese.
- Troy, did you release the jaw? - Mmm-hmm.
[intense music playing]
Oh, no!
[Jeff] Be careful, guys.
Careful of pits in the olives.
I mean, the challenge was to make a Herculean sandwich and you nailed that.
I mean, I need a step ladder and some ambition to eat this thing.
It is... massive.
Great choice on the Dutch crunch bread. I love it.
What I have to ding you on automatically is there's pits in the olives.
Yes.
I have... These are mostly my original teeth. So, I wanna keep them all in there.
I was super-stoked about the fattiness and the brininess of the sandwich,
the flavor is fantastic.
[Jeff] Right? The saltiness of the olives.
Saltiness of the kielbasa, the cheese.
Those pickled jalapenos. You need it because you get a lot of fat from those.
The kielbasa and the meat and the bread itself cuts right through it.
- It's just those pits, buddy. - Thank you.
All right. Thank you, judges.
Thank you, Eric. Up next, Chef Cayla. What did you make for us?
Hi, chefs. Today, I made a Turkey Meatball Banh Mi for you.
I layered a lot of pickled vegetables.
I had some avocado mayo that I mixed with sriracha
and then made a little cabbage slaw with some chow mein noodles as well.
This, I took one bite of it and my brain said banh mi.
Great job on that. Right?
The crispiness, the pickliness, the creaminess from the mayo.
Flavor... delicious. Really appreciate the spiciness and the texture
that you implemented into the sandwich with the use of the chow mein
and the jalapeño.
You crunched up those meatballs.
And I love that exterior. I mean, it's got a nice cragginess to it.
It's got some texture. It is a tiny bit dry on the inside.
But I think you nailed the spirit of the, you know, French-Vietnamese classic.
Thank you.
Very nice, chef. Thank you. Last but not the least, Chef Samuel.
I got a Torta Cubana with a little bit of a twist.
So, I went with a little bit of a bigger bread than traditional.
I used pork sausage, hot dog and a thicker cut of ham.
Topped it off with a little bit of tomato, iceberg lettuce
and some Mexican cream.
There's hot dogs, and ham and chorizo?
That's a Torta Cubana for you.
Herculean for sure. Definitely reads pretty massive.
Chorizo is one of my favorite things used. The smokiness,
you know, it adds a ton of flavor. And the charred from
all the other components of the sandwich.
I was surprised at how kind of tame it was.
Right with all those big bold burnt flavors in there.
But it was pretty delicate when I took a bite and it mingled with the lettuce
and the tomato and the crema which were all super super necessary in this.
It's a good torta bite that reminds me of a traditional torta,
but is anything but traditional.
And this little piggy... Well, all the little piggies went into the sandwich.
It is you know so many different ways of pork and I like that.
I can't believe I'm saying this, it's a little dry.
- Dry? Okay. - The bread was charred, right?
It looks like... did you try and hollow it out little bit or no?
- I did try to hollow it out. - Okay.
Yeah. I mean to me it just eats a tiny bit dry, but I mean
other than that, I like the three different variations on pork.
Thank you, chefs.
Well, I'll tell you what, chefs, you brought it.
- [Hunter] Great job. - I'm gonna send you back to the kitchens.
They'll deliberate. We'll score this up, we'll post it to the board.
When we get back, two of you will move on.
Unfortunately, one of you will be checking out. Great job. Thank you.
- [Hunter] Good job, chefs. - [Guy] Right that way.
Was anyone's hoagie half-baked?
Wow, half-baked.
Well, chefs, as I said it once and I'll say it again, super impressed.
Unfortunately, for one of you, this mayo be the end.
- Wow. - [all laughing]
You came, you competed, you did great.
Let's take a look at things here. Start off with Eric.
Thirteen in gameplay.
I'm definitely thinking about my one deadly mistake
of leaving the pits in the olives.
[Guy] But good on taste for 15.
Good on plating for seven for a total of 35.
Cayla!
Fifteen in gameplay, 17 in taste, eight in plating for a total of 40.
[Hunter] Wow!
- [Guy] Well done. - Thank you.
Samuel, you gotta do better than a 35, buddy.
Fifteen in gameplay.
Fourteen in taste, you guys are equaled out there.
Seven for a total of 36.
One point over Eric.
That's a close run.
But you shouldn't be that disappointed because that's a heck of a score
and it was great to have you here. Thank you.
- [all clapping] - Thanks, Eric.
[Guy] Say goodbye to them and you can cruise out.
Being a home cook, I'm honestly feeling privileged to be here.
I never thought that I would be cooking on Triple G.
This is a opportunity of a lifetime.
- Tasted great, man. - Thanks.
All right. Here we go, we have the California Deli Lover.
That's right, versus the Texas food blogger.
That's right. This round is going to determine
who will be leaving flavor town with $10,000 plus a shot
at winning up to $20,000 more.
- Talk about a breadwinner. - No kidding.
[Hunter] So, Chef Cayla has 40 points and Chef Samuel has 36 points.
Right. And for a sandwich competition, that's not much of a spread.
- Oh! - [Hunter] Do you get it?
[all laughing]
The only question is what kind of sandwich should we make?
Because we're gonna play ourselves, ladies and gentlemen,
a little...
- Oh! - Menu Magnet Madness.
- With the snap. With the snap. - Huh?
- Ta-da! - Don't hit me with it.
- [Cayla chuckling] - [Guy] There we go.
As you can see, we have a protein...
magnet and we have a style magnet. Okay?
So, protein magnets, we have turkey, shrimp
chicken, pork, "seafud"...
- "Seafud." - Seafood, whatever. Lam-ba...
- [Hunter] Lamb beef. - Beef and turkey.
- And, Hunter, what do you have? - We have cheesy.
We have grilled, charred, fried, and spicy.
[Guy] Let's go ahead and let them pick their sandwich ingredients.
Cayla, because you're leading, would you like to pick from the protein list
or do you want to pick from the style list?
- Style. - Okay.
- You take yours. - Okay.
That means you get the protein.
So, here's the deal. I want you to turn your back.
[Guy] Excuse me, turn your back. You look that way.
Pick which one you wanna go with.
- Okay, got it? - [both] Got it.
[Guy] It's gotta be the one on the top.
- [Hunter] And yours. - All right.
- The protein... - [drum roll]
Pork.
- The style is going to be... - [drum roll]
- [Hunter] Spicy. - Spicy.
Well, let's go spicy--
- [Hunter] Spicy pork. - [Guy] Pork.
- [Hunter] Yes. - Okay. You're going to make a spicy pork sandwich.
[Cayla] Mmm!
- Any questions? - What's the catch?
[whispers] I think there was more magnets.
- I think... I thought I saw... - There are more magnets.
- [Guy] Hunter, I'm-- - [Cayla] Oh!
How did you let me forget this?
[Hunter] I...
So let's go with style. So it could be a spicy pork burger, that's not a sandwich.
- Cheesesteak? - [Hunter] I like cheesesteaks.
- Put that up there in the maybe list. - I love cheesesteaks.
Grilled cheese?
- Grilled-da-da cheese? - Grilled-da-da cheese, yeah.
I think what I wanna see is a triple decker...
grilled cheese.
Spicy pork, triple decker grilled cheese.
Thirty minutes to make your spicy pork, triple decker grilled cheese.
Three, two, one, gofer!
- [Hunter] Gofer? I'm just curious. - [Cayla laughs]
[Cayla chuckles]
- Gorgonzola. - [Hunter] If you're a triple decker, is it...
- Is it like... three... - All three layers go together.
[Cayla chuckles] No!
We need to make a spicy pork, triple decker grilled cheese.
Okay! [chuckles softly]
Gotta go Texas toast. Going for that pancetta.
Right away, I think "cured meats."
Here we go.
Pancetta, which is perfect, 'cause it's a pork challenge.
The sopressata is just another great layer of pork.
All right, all right.
This is a grilled cheese, so I obviously need American cheese.
And there are so many ways to add spice to my sandwich.
Oh, yeah! Pepper jack.
Pepper jack cheese.
Spicy pickles, maybe? Maybe? Go with this small chap.
Spicy mustard. Honey, that could be good.
Fresh jalapenos and then a sriracha ketchup
that I'll use as a base to my dipping sauce.
Because every great grilled cheese has a sauce to dip in.
All right, good start. Good start.
I'm in this triple decker, spicy pork sandwich.
- It sounds delicious. I mean... - [Guy exclaiming]
[in sing-song voice] I would crush this!
And some bacon. This is gonna be all about my daughter. She loves this.
This sandwich is for my daughter, Brynn.
She loves a grilled cheese sandwich with canned ham.
That's right. That's her favorite sandwich.
So, I'm making canned ham, bacon and grilled cheese sandwich...
Sriracha.
With a spicy aioli.
I'm getting cheddar cheese and pepper jack,
because it's gonna add little bit more spice.
Some Swiss.
Oh! Little side shopping.
I'd destroy this. Pork cutlet.
Bacon.
- Sliced sourdough. - Guy is shopping.
Eggs.
Spicy, is what I need next and cheese.
It looks like we got another horse entering the race.
- [horse whinnies] - Oh, he's got some interesting hair, some jewelry.
[Hunter] Help you carry something?
[Guy] Here, Hunter. Carry some... grab this stuff.
[Guy speaking indistinctly]
Oh, there you go.
- You got quite a bit. - Oh, man.
- There you go. - Thank you very much for playing.
You're very welcome, Father.
Go check on everybody else.
- You let me know if you need anything, okay? - Okay, thank you.
We're in for a treat.
[Guy] Twenty-three minutes!
We're talking about Sinful Sandwiches.
We're on a whole new level of sinful with a triple decker,
spicy pork grilled cheese.
There's no coming back from this.
- [Troy] Yeah, this is the eighth deadliest sin. - Once you go in for a bite,
your life may change.
Gonna get a few different types of cheese in here.
Some cheddar, pepper jack.
[Nyesha] What's Guy making?
You know it's gonna be a little gnarly and out of control.
That'll go in the oven.
Oh, talk to me, Dad. What's the plan for your awesome dish here?
[Guy] We got seasoned, pounded pork
with Mexican hot sauce.
Going into the egg wash with jalapeño.
Now, we'll go panko.
Pork cutlets down. These are gonna go off really fast.
- Chipotle mayo, bacon fat. - Tons of sauce.
[Guy] Hot sauce.
Little jalapeño juice. That sounds delicious.
Chefs, you got 18 minutes.
Okay, what are we working on? What do we got?
So, we've got a double pork sandwich, bringing some spice from the sopressata.
Jalapeno, pepper jack.
For my spicy pork, triple decker grilled cheese,
I'm making Texas toast pancetta and sopressata, pepper jack grilled cheese
with a spicy tomato base dipping sauce.
I love spicy. You gotta love spicy in Texas.
Spice runs through our blood veins.
[laughing] Through our blood veins?
Texas toast triple decker!
- Dang. - Wow.
Oh, man. That's already four inches of bread without any other ingredients.
And I don't want the center of the bread to be soggy.
All right, Samuel. What do we got?
Can ham, bacon, little bit of tomato-spice aioli.
Nice.
[Samuel] I gotta go with my daughter's favorite on this one.
- Okay. - After all, she is the one
that got me into posting my stuff online.
Brynn is my biggest fan.
She's the one that pushed me to post pictures of my food on social media.
Now, I have a bunch of followers and they love to see what I'm making every day.
I love sharing my recipes and my passion with other followers.
While my bacon is crisping up, I'm starting with my canned ham.
She's gonna love it. It's gonna be her sandwich on TV.
I want this canned ham to get real crispy.
- Have a bite to it. - [pan sizzling]
[Jeff] I like how Cayla is building in the pan
- using her time wisely, multi-tasking. - [Nyesha] Right.
For that triple decker grilled cheese.
[Cayla] We've got one layer now, another layer's coming.
I flip the bread over, then I smear some spicy mustard.
This sandwich needs to be perfect to get $10,000.
I'm playing for the North Texas Food Bank
and I know a donation can go a really long way.
When I was transitioning from the corporate world,
I put my faith in food.
So, food totally changed my life
and I know it can do the same for so many other people.
I add the pancetta to the top of my second layer,
and then, I dice some jalapeño for spice.
No, Cayla. She burned her bread, I can tell.
[Cayla] No!
I burned all four pieces of my Texas toast.
So, I immediately get it out of the pan, I start to scrape it off.
It's crazy. You're in Flavortown, I'm right next to the judges.
They're watching my every move, so I better not mess up anymore.
- You're gonna save it? - [Cayla] It's okay. We're gonna fix it.
I'm in a panic.
I make a last-minute egg batter.
We're just gonna crisp it up in the pan.
I put the bread into the egg batter,
and I know I've gotta get some sort of crunch onto the sandwich
before I plate it. Otherwise, it'll be a soggy mess.
Oh...
I'm very stressed.
- [Cayla] I'm very stressed. - [Nyesha] I'm very stressed for you.
[Cayla] Thank you.
[Samuel] Let's get some spicy aioli going.
I have to get spicy into my sandwich with my spicy aioli.
Mayonnaise, sriracha, chopped jalapenos.
You guys wants some heat, we're gonna get some heat.
- For me, the spice has to come in the form of texture. - [Nyesha] Mmm.
I think rather than putting
- a sauce on the grilled cheese... - Sure.
I think once you start grilling it, it just kind of gets lost in there.
Make these buttery.
The perfect grilled cheese for me is something that's gonna be cheesy and gooey.
First layer of cheddar cheese.
On my second layer, pepper jack cheese.
I make tons of grilled cheese sandwiches at home for my kids.
But these are definitely gonna be the most important sandwiches I've ever made.
I'm so close to winning and that money will be so helpful for my family.
My younger brother suffers from mental illness.
My brother means so much to me. He's my baby brother.
He's always been my best friend.
So, this money can go towards getting my brother the right help.
[Guy] Toast it on the bottom.
Hot sauce, bread.
And then the tomato...
jalapenos.
Top.
Bacon.
Spicy pork sandwich.
Two layers of pork, peppered bacon, jalapenos, three hot sauces,
- three different cheeses. - [Hunter] Dad, that looks pretty frickin' tasty.
- [Jeff] Oh, man! - [Nyesha] Oh, my God.
[Troy] That's a sandwich.
[Guy] Sourdough grilled cheese.
Two pork cutlets that were marinated in hot sauce,
a jalapeño, sriracha, hot sauce mayonnaise on each layer.
- Peppered bacon, jalapenos... - [Nyesha] Mmm!
Pickled peppers.
And if you're gonna have that much bread, you gotta have moisture
- and enough spice. I didn't want it to be too much spice. - It's perfect.
- Hot spice. I went Mexican spice. - Tangy spice.
It's a football Sunday, buffalo wings sammy right there.
- That's what I would imagine. A buffalo wing... - Wow.
Sandwich. But also, the pork is so tender.
- There you go. I just wanted to see if it could be done. - Wow.
[Guy] One minute, Chefs!
[Cayla] I'm trying to create that golden crust.
At the very last second, I pull it.
In chaos, I always try to find the positive and stay calm.
And I really think that helped me in this burnt toast moment.
[Guy] Thirty seconds to plate!
[Samuel] I'm finishing my sandwich with my spicy aioli.
And tomato. And I definitely think I nailed it on the head.
It's spicy, it's got pork, it's a triple decker, and it's a grilled cheese.
Five, four three, two, one!
- Chefs, that's it. Stop working. - [judges cheering]
Nice lookin' sandwiches!
These are monsters!
All right. It is time to find out whose sandwich is worth all the cheese.
Let's take it to the judges!
[Guy] Right, judges. This is the final game of the Sinful Sandwiches.
Our food fanatics used magnets to pick the sandwich that they really wanted to make.
Anyhow, up first, Chef Samuel, tell us about this spicy pork,
triple decker, grilled sandwich masterpiece.
[Samuel] Whenever I think of a grilled sandwich,
the first thing that comes to mind is my daughter. She likes a nice, loaded
grilled cheese sandwich. So, she likes canned ham,
bacon, cheddar cheese, pepper jack cheese with a spicy sriracha,
jalapeño aioli.
And the spicy pork is what kind of pork?
- A canned ham. - Canned ham.
- Canned ham? - [judges chuckle]
Canned ham. Yeah, my daughter's favorite.
He said it's his daughter's favorite.
[mouthing]
You say "canned ham", I'm like, 60,000 ingredients in this Flavortown market
and you chose canned meat?
- It's a risk. - I gotta be honest, it's not bad.
It reminds me of like, a dense, hot dog, and you got some good fried,
crisp texture to that.
And I am overwhelmed with cheese.
Which is exactly what you want in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Pepper jack's kind of got that close-to-American meltitude level and I love it.
[Nyesha] You have an amazing balance of cheese to bread ratio.
I feel like, sometimes with that triple decker vibe,
- it can get bready. - [Troy] But the challenge was spicy,
so it just wasn't quite spicy enough for me.
Thank you.
Not to be outdone, Chef Cayla.
Today, I made my version of a spicy pork, triple decker grilled cheese
using Texas toast. Some pepper jack,
and classic American cheese for that melt.
I used pancetta and sopressata for my pork.
And then, on the side, you'll have a spicy sriracha, ketchup dipping sauce.
Cayla, how exciting it was to watch you cook and just, really intelligent,
sort of build-your-sandwich in the pan, right?
- [softly] Thank you. - So, developing those flavors and also
cooking at the same time, really, really smart.
The crispy pancetta is nice, right. Salty little bite.
I got jalapeño...
On the sandwich what brought some spice to it.
The ketchup was a little spicy, so collectively,
the spice is nice in there.
And you add that acidity of the mustard seeds,
and you get the pickle in there, so you get a little bit of crunch.
And then, you get the fattiness of the cheese, it's a really nice balance.
Thank you.
- You did have a little bit of burn issue with the bread. - Yes.
You're scraping the bottom of the bread while it was composed.
- Oh, yeah. - For me, I just,
would have liked a little bit more crunch and texture on my bread.
I like a grilled cheese that has, sort of, meltiness inside
that's balanced with some structure on the outside.
Okay. Thank you so much.
All right. Judges, thank you. Contestants, judges need time to deliberate,
figure these scores out. It's anybody's game right now.
Send you back to the kitchens. We'll call you when we have a decision. Thank you.
- Thank you. - [Hunter] See you guys.
Let's get into this. Samuel was up first.
Yeah, for me, I was stoked.
That was a grilled cheese sandwich through and through.
You know, the canned ham really worked.
- For me, it did not hit the spice. - [Guy] Okay. Cayla?
[Jeff] The triple decker was definitely there. She had the pork in there,
she did have a good amount of spice.
It's just too soft.
Okay. We'll score 'em up, get 'em posted on the board.
What a fun competition you've made this.
I love to see what's going on out there in the real world of food enthusiasts.
So, let's find out who won.
Samuel...
Let's take a look. 20 points in gameplay, you get 16. Nice!
Twenty points in taste, you get 16. Nice. And plating...
a seven for a total of 39.
And a score of 75.
[Guy] Pretty darn good, buddy.
You're gonna need a 35 or better, Cayla. You got 40 in your first round.
Definitely had some concerns with your bread.
Let's see, gameplay. 13. Taste, a 16.
Plating, a seven, for a total of 36.
And by one point,
Cayla takes it!
- [Jeff] Oh... Wow. - [Guy] Congratulations.
- Congratulations. - Oh, my gosh. [chuckles]
Samuel, your daughter... What's your daughter's name again?
- Brynn. - Well, Brynn,
your dad did one of the craziest things I've ever seen in Triple G history.
Grabbing that canned ham when he didn't have to.
But he said that's the way you liked the sandwich.
He almost had it, it's probably not the last time
we're gonna see our buddy, Samuel. Samuel, you rock n' roll, man.
Thank you very much. Thank you, chefs. Thank you.
- [Hunter] So long, Samuel. - Thank you.
I didn't win, but I know I made my family proud.
I got to make a sandwich in Flavortown!
Meet the Sinful Sandwich winner! Give it up for Chef Cayla!
- [judges cheering] - [chuckles softly]
Now, not only did you win 10,000 bucks, but you have a one-way ticket
- back to Flavortown to compete... - Nice!
In this market against two other food fanatics
- with a chance of winning up to $20,000 more! - Whoo-hoo!
- We'll see you guys next time on Guy's Grocery Games! - That's amazing.
- Adios! Congratulations. - [judges whistling and cheering]
[Cayla] Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much.
- [Guy] Well done! - Wow.