The holidays are all about friends, family, and food.
And here on Triple G, my chef friends are my family.
-Oh-ho-ho. -This is the worst challenge ever.
Why do I keep getting this kinda stuff?
[Guy] So I've invited six of them to Flavortown Market
to celebrate the holidays the only way we know how.
With the first ever tag team competition in Triple G history.
-Oh, God! -Come on!
[Guy] Chefs will have to work as a team without knowing
exactly what their teammates are cooking up.
Working one at a time.
What is this?
What is going on over here?
It's the telephone game at another level.
I can't even imagine what they're going through.
And you know how chaotic holiday cooking can get, right?
Go, go, go, go, go!
This is brutal.
You are an awful un-Santa person.
If they pull it off it will be a Christmas miracle.
-Isn't that right, Hunter? -I feel ridiculous.
Listen, Hunter, don't be elf-conscious
every market needs an elf on the grocery shelf.
This is not fair. It's Holiday Hustle right now on Guy's Grocery Games.
This is not nice. Go over there. Walk away.
So, let's meet our all-star chefs competing tonight.
Now, first up, we have one of Southern California's most acclaimed restaurateurs,
the neon princess warrior, Chef Antonia Lofaso.
Stop calling me neon.
Neon princess warrior.
Oh, stop it.
[Guy] Next, pasta maestro and game changing executive chef,
with the best mustache in town,
Chef Joe Sasto.
Happy Holidays.
-Holidays, not Easter. It's holidays, not Easter. -Happy Holidays.
Look at those pants.
Then, there's Food Network star and cookbook author the spice queen herself,
Chef Aarti Sequeira.
Ho, ho, ho.
[Guy] Up next, acclaimed North Cal chef who runs a wine country resort empire,
Chef Crista Luedtke.
-Oh, yeah. Like your plaid. -No hat?
[Guy] Next, James Beard Award winning cookbook author
and New York restaurant legend. The one and only,
Chef Rocco DiSpirito.
[chuckles] What's going on here?
Chef, how are ya? Looking good. Nice in that jacket.
And the dynamite executive chef known as the dumpling mafia queen,
the one and only, Chef Shirley Chung.
-Oh, there ya go. -Hi.
Welcome, welcome. They're all gonna pay.
-What's going on? Two carts only? -Six chefs, two carts.
[Guy] I apologize.
Listen, like you haven't been through the holidays and had a little mishap.
Like, "Oh, I was supposed to get three gifts?"
And you only show up to the party with two.
Oh! Anyhow, listen, Happy Holidays, chefs.
It's wonderful to have you.
-[all] Happy Holidays. -[Joe] Thank you, thank you.
At Grocery Games you know it's all about friends, food, family and torture.
And, uh, games. I meant games.
Let's just go with this, we only have two carts tonight.
But we're gonna figure out a way to divide the teams.
Let me think. I'll get Hunter. Hunter's so excited.
Hunter will sort this out.
-Hunter! -Come on.
[all laughing]
-You look great. -[Antonia] Yeah.
-I feel the love. -[all laughing]
All right, well, Santa here's the game you ordered.
-'Kay. -This is for you big papa.
What's gonna happen is, chefs, you're gonna draw the candy canes.
And the short candy canes will work together
and the long candy canes will work together.
So, Chef Luedtke, I'll let you go first.
Oh, lucky you, Luedtke.
[Guy] There... Oh! There we go.
-Whoa. -[all] Oh!
There ya go. That's what you got, take it.
[Hunter] Very nice. Aarti with the long one.
-[all exclaiming] -So, go ahead and stand together.
-Say hello to your teammates. -Unbeatable, unbeatable.
-Come on, guys. -Come on, I feel good about this.
Now, we know that the holidays are the craziest time of year.
So tonight we are going to recreate the hustle and bustle of the season
with the first ever tag team competition in Triple G history.
That is new.
We like to call this Holiday Hustle.
You are playing one round.
So each team is gonna have 30 minutes
to create a holiday meal.
Working one at a time.
One of you will be the shopper prepper.
One of you will be the prepper chef
and the other will be the chef presenter.
-Wow. -Ooh.
[Guy] Okay, you will not be able to communicate with each other
for the entirety of the cook.
Team with the highest score will have a chance to win up to 20,000 bucks.
Now, the shopper will get told what the theme is.
Everybody else has just gotta look at what's going on.
-And not mess up. -And not screw it up.
Wow.
[Guy] So, you have ten seconds to decide who's doing what.
-Ten seconds? -Here you go.
I want second or last.
-I don't wanna shop. -I'll go first. I'll shop.
-I'm a good shopper. -Wanna go in the middle?
-Yeah. Yah. -And I'll finish it?
-I can't shop. -I think you're the best shopper.
-You're gonna be the best shopper. -You present.
-You present, I prep. -I'll present? Okay.
-Okay, sounds good. -Okay. Good?
Okay, can the shoppers please raise their hand?
Chef Antonia and Chef Crista.
Can the prep chef raise their hand?
Aarti and Chef Shirley.
So that will mean the chef presenter
will be Chef Rocco and Chef Sasto.
Prep chef and chef, you will now be sequestered. Goodbye!
-[all saying goodbye] -[Rocco] You can do it.
-Happy holidays, Rocco. -Yeah, thanks so much.
-What's going on? -Jesus.
-What is this craziness? -It's like, how is this already crazy?
Okay, here's the deal. This is where it gets good.
I'm giving you five minutes to shop.
And then you're gonna have five minutes to come back and organize
how you wanna get your food together for them
and if you wanted to get anything started, you can.
You have ten minutes total, but only five minutes of shopping.
It's pretty tough to shop in five minutes.
You don't wanna push those carts all the way around the store.
You know what I'm saying?
-[Crista] Hunter. Hunter. -Oh, God. Now you're gonna make this harder?
-That's right. -I got an idea.
[Guy] We're gonna make it easy on you. Here we go.
A couple awesome holiday baskets for you.
All right, there we go.
So, really quickly, we still don't know what we're making.
I want you to shop for a traditional holiday dinner.
-That's it? -That's it.
Liar.
-[Guy] That's it. -Wait, no. I don't think that is it.
-Yeah, they got one more thing to do. -No, they don't.
-All right. -Where's the mean? Throw in the mean.
All right, let me just help you out, okay? I'll be right back.
Ugh, see? Told you.
I have no idea what's up.
Um, Father.
-Oh, God. Come on. -Come on.
-This is the, uh, the list that you told me to, uh... -Santa's list!
Ho, ho, hold.
Hold, hold, hold.
That's right, we did have this.
-Yeah, I was holding onto it for you. -To help you out...
Oh, to "help" us.
...is a nice grocery list.
Some things that must be incorporated in the dish.
-Mincemeat. -[Hunter] Yum.
[Guy] Potato latke mix
-and eggnog syrup. -[Hunter] Ooh.
Here's the tough thing about that.
This has to be included in your dish.
But we can't tell them.
-Exactly. -Now you're catching on.
-[Crista] For real? -You are an awful un-Santa person.
Un-Santa.
So, let me give you... You probably need these.
Okay.
Five minutes to shop.
-This is not nice, by the way. Just so we're clear. -[Hunter] This is very nice.
You are going to be the only two that go through the 3,2,1.
-Go behind your carts, actually. -[Hunter giggles]
[Guy] Happy holidays to everybody at home.
And, yes, this is probably the most outrageous,
most ridiculous, worst thing
-that Hunter's ever worn. -Can I get out of this now?
[Guy laughing]
[Antonia] I am going to be the shopper,
because I am very fast at it.
I need to set my team up
and make a traditional holiday dinner.
Not only is this game hard
but only five minutes to shop?
Really hard. There's definitely gonna be something missed.
[Antonia] There is a lot of pressure
because I am sort of the designer of the dish.
My strategy is to
not really give Rocco and Shirley too many options.
Throwing too many proteins there,
too many starches, it's gonna confuse them.
Eggnog syrup.
I really wanna make everyone's favorite dish.
So I feel like holiday steak dinner with cranberry condiment,
some roasted Brussels sprouts with mushrooms.
Potatoes.
Super traditional.
[Guy] Three and a half minutes, three and a half!
Where is the... Where's the mincemeat?
There it is. Got it.
So, I need to grab the mandatory whammy ingredients.
Oh, there it is.
Trying to figure out
how to get the next chef to know
that these ingredients need to be used in the dishes,
is one of the things I'm thinking about the most.
I'm done, chef.
I can't believe you guys are filling these baskets.
-This is great. -My basket is overflowing.
I am out of breath.
You could pick multiple proteins.
I don't wanna confuse, no. I don't wanna confuse anyone.
I need to set my team up in a very clear direction.
[Crista] Now, I don't know.
I mean, what's traditional holiday dinner at my house
is not at Joe's house, is not at Aarti's house.
So, the thing I really wanna do in my shop
is focus on giving Joe and Aarti options,
which allows them a little bit of an opportunity to pick and choose
to create the traditional holiday meal.
Is there duck? Where's the duck?
Duck breast, duck breast, duck breast.
In my head I'm thinking,
duck feels traditional holiday.
I mean, I'm looking at these whammies and I'm thinking,
there's like so many things going through my head
but yet, I can't tell Aarti what's in my head.
I'm gonna let them just run with it.
It's this eggnog syrup.
[yelling] Hey, where's the eggnog syrup?
Chefs, I have your eggnog syrup.
I'll bring it to your station.
Where's this mincemeat situation?
Eggnog syrup can sweeten in some capacities.
Same with the mincemeat.
But I'm just hoping and praying that Aarti reads my mind.
-Delicious. -There you go.
-Thank you. -Here's your eggnog syrup.
Winner, winner, duck dinner.
[Guy] Thirty seconds.
[Crista] So I really wanna make sure I've got fresh components to this dish.
And then make sure that there's some umami, some stocks.
Things that they can braise in.
Things that they can finish in.
5...
4...3...
2...
1...
Chefs, you've got five minutes to prep.
Antonia's got steaks,
pulling those out.
She's gonna get those seasoned.
That'll explain to them what's supposed to happen with that.
[Antonia] I know that the steak is gonna take the longest.
It needs to be seasoned and on the grill so it can rest.
My strategy is to have all of the ingredients
set up in a very clear direction on how this dish should look at the end.
I want this to be a beautiful center cut roasted ribeye.
A very crunchy potato cake.
Some roasted Brussels sprouts and mushrooms
with a ginger serrano cranberry condiment.
I need to let Shirley and Rocco know about the whammy ingredient.
How're you feeling?
This is pretty good.
I think she's making this a "I'm very special.
-Pay attention to me." -[Antonia chuckles]
[Crista] First thing I wanna do, get my whammy ingredients in a bowl
with, like, a giant flag, otherwise known as a red spatula.
That says "use these things."
And the biggest thing I wanna do is start rendering the fat on that duck breast.
Uh, just trying to set them up for a little bit of holiday success.
Then I wanna start organizing ingredients in a way
that in my head seem to make sense.
And I am just hoping and praying that I did enough
and that I didn't let my team down.
[Guy] Sixty seconds.
[Crista] Christmas is stressful!
There's so much pressure that you're gonna let down
the next chef who goes in the kitchen, like,
"What the heck did you just do with your ten minutes?"
Here we go, chefs.
We're counting down in ten seconds.
We're going 10...
9...
8...
7...
Those steaks are gonna burn.
-5... -[Antonia yelps]
...4...
3...
2...
1...
Chefs, you're out!
[Crista wails]
Get them in there! My steaks are on the grill!
All right, bring in the new chefs!
-Go, go, go, go, go! -[Shirley screams]
[all laughing]
[Shirley screams]
[Aarti] Something's burning.
Oh, my gosh. Okay.
This is going to be the real crux to the whole thing,
is can the team pay attention to what they're walking into
or do they walk into this so overwhelmed with the task
that they don't get to see the story arc of what's going on?
What is this?
Incredible holiday spirit. Can you feel it?
[Guy] Chefs, you have ten minutes!
I think this middle job is the toughest one.
Going from the raw, getting it set up.
Being able to carry on the message,
Do we have to use all of these things?
I tried to leave clues of "you have to use these whammy things."
I put them all in a bowl for you.
Please don't ignore my red spatula flag for this sucker.
[Aarti] We don't know what the original theme is. It could be breakfast,
it could be lunch, it could be dessert.
It could be dinner, I mean, it could be anything.
So, who better to celebrate the holidays
than one of the Wisemen and two of the, well, much wiser women?
We have renowned chef behind a Nashville culinary empire,
and the winner of Tournament of Champions too,
the one and only dancing spice queen,
Chef Maneet Chauhan.
[judges cheering lightly]
Rockstar restaurateur
and one half of the Voltaggio brothers juggernaut,
the one and only volt of the west,
Chef Michael Voltaggio.
[judges cheering lightly]
And executive chef
and James Beard award-winning culinary great chef AF,
Amanda Freitag.
-[Michael] Woo. -Yay.
Culinary competitors, what do you think of this hot mess?
Oh, my God.
We can't even think.
This is anxiety.
We used to play telephone when we were kids,
you know, it's like, you pass it down, you pass it down.
It's hilarious by the time it gets to the last person,
it's nothing like what was said in the beginning.
It's a telephone game
at another level.
Aarti, tell us about your dish.
[judges laughing]
The stress level right now is through the roof.
I'm stressing.
Whoo!
Oh, looks like we're serving a ribeye steak.
I immediately see the rib eyes sitting on the grill cooking.
So, just looking at this,
there's a potato trough with some demiglace and creme fraiche.
I feel like now is too late to cook them and make a mashed potato,
but a potato pancake would be really fast.
Yes! She's grating the potatoes!
That's what I wanted!
[exclaiming] Oh, my God. She's making potato cake.
[Shirley] Followed by another one.
Vegetable, Brussels sprouts.
Aromatic mushrooms.
And also, she has cranberry bubbling on the stove.
I got it.
A traditional holiday meal with potato and steak.
Got it.
She's going down a very similar path that I hoped.
[Shirley] So I really want to let the perfectly seared ribeye steak
at somewhere warm to rest them so they don't lose their heat.
And Rocco can just come in and flash them, and serve.
Okay, I'm just checking. Checking where...
Okay, there's sweet potatoes.
What am I smelling?
I see the duck,
so I know that that's the centerpiece of our dish.
Oh, wait. What the heck is this?
What is this?
I didn't see this stuff.
I have no idea what's going on.
What are these shallots for, I wonder?
Come on, Aarti.
Figure it out.
There's, I feel like there's five dishes in here
and I don't know what she was thinking.
I'm so confused.
I'm sorry, Crista.
I tried to leave my team options.
I feel like I could've set my team up better.
Right now, I'm just really trying to get some stuff prepped
so that Joe can kinda...
pull it all together.
I'm trying to get a nice broth going for him.
Joe is really good with sauces.
So, no matter what weird ingredients he might need to pull together,
if there's one sauce to unite him, then we're in good shape.
So, I've got miso,
I've got morels, shallots, garlic.
I even throw some shrimp in there,
in case he kinda wants to go into a seafood direction.
I'm very confused about this and this.
-And this. -Okay.
-Well, good. You have seven and a half minutes. -[Aarti] Oh, my gosh.
This is disaster.
[Guy] They're all amazing chefs, very accomplished.
Very creative.
Here's the great thing about this.
Are they gonna use the must use ingredient?
And are they gonna set them up
for the next chef coming in to make sure it gets used.
Keep in mind, they have to make sure that mincemeat,
eggnog syrup, and latke mix are used.
Right now Antonia and Crista are watching, like,
"Why didn't they get my message?"
Mincemeat.
Potato pancake.
And eggnog.
There's these three really random ingredients by the candy cane.
Knowing Guy likes to throw whammies at us,
and also how smart Antonia is.
I think she's using the candy cane to tell me that
these are the ingredients that I have to use.
There's potato pancake mix.
This is so nerve-wracking,
but she's picked up on all my clues so far.
[Shirley] I'm going to use the whammy pancake mix, I'm going to make the latkes.
I don't have time to cook potatoes,
so I'm just gonna add the mix together to make a latke.
Yeah, so she's mixing in the truffle into those little potato cakes.
And then she's actually gonna use the potato latke mix in there,
as it should be used.
So this is my game plan.
So I'm just hoping that I can execute it as well as she imagined.
I hope that Shirley gets the potato latkes done
before Rocco gets there,
so all he has to do is vegetables and sauce.
And then we should be good.
Chefs, we've got five minutes.
You have five minutes left in your cook.
Halfway point. Yikes.
[Aarti] Let's go.
Eggnog?
Use it, Aarti. You have to use it, you have to use it.
Oh! She's brilliant.
This is from Guy.
Eggnog, mincemeat, potato pancake?
Aarti, look. She's got the ingredients.
[Aarti] So I can see that Crista's already opened up
a packet of the potato pancake mix.
So maybe some of this can go in here.
And maybe she's thinking the three of them will work really well together.
No?
Oh, my gosh.
-You're so mean. -Awesome.
Happy holidays. Love you too.
[Aarti] So the first thing I think is,
let me make a potato pancake with mincemeat.
Looks like we're gonna need an egg. Guess what?
Are there eggs?
♪ There's no eggs! ♪
Don't have eggs.
But I'm going to be able to use a little bit of heavy cream
with some eggnog syrup.
I think the mincemeat makes sense with the potato pancakes.
Sort of like potatoes and applesauce.
[Crista] Aarti, look. She's got the ingredients.
She's using it. She knows.
For me, it was really just trying to put a trail of breadcrumbs
or in this case, potato latke crumbs.
[Guy] Here's the great thing about this.
There's three items that they have to use
and the question is, how do they let them know those three items gotta be used?
And then, what's gonna be the end dish?
I have no idea.
[Guy] Chefs, you've got four minutes.
Holiday cooking, it is stressful enough.
This takes it to a completely new level.
[Amanda] But when you're cooking on the holidays,
you're usually in the kitchen all together.
That's what I love about this,
because it's adding the stress that everyone else that's not a chef definitely has.
This is actually really fun to watch.
Antonia definitely left a very clear vision for the way she shop and prep.
But at the same time now,
there's not a lot of leeway for me to really change the recipe.
So, you know, clear vision
versus flexibility.
It can be good or bad.
Feel good, Chef?
Sure.
What's the game plan here?
[Shirley] The game plan is, uh, ribeye.
Cranberry glaze,
uh, we're gonna balance it off with some sweetness.
And then roasted Brussels sprouts
-and mushrooms. -Okay.
-We're gonna balance with the potato latkes. -Okay, got it.
I'm going to work on the cranberry sauce.
[Antonia] She's in a good spot.
She hasn't put anything into the cranberries,
but I left stuff there for her to see, like there's ginger.
[Shirley] I hope I see her vision.
[Antonia] Yes, girl! Yes.
Cinnamon, ginger, cranberries. There you go.
[Shirley] I really do have that many minutes to think through things,
so this eggnog syrup is sitting in front of me.
I feel like using eggnog sugar to balance the acidity of cranberry
is the quick thinking that I have.
Great, she used two of the three ingredients.
So Rocco just needs to make sure that he uses the mincemeat.
Chefs, you have one minute.
Don't leave your final chef hanging.
Okay, so I've got potato pancakes.
What else could I do?
I hate letting people down.
It's one thing if I let myself down.
That's between me and myself, and my therapist.
But for me to let other people down,
for me to be the cause of us not winning.
Oh, that is just the worst.
You cannot tell someone that communicates as much as I do
to not talk to her teammates.
I mean, we have no idea what the other one is thinking.
This is nothing like holiday kitchen stress, you guys.
Like honestly, if I'm ever stressed at the holidays again,
I will remember this day.
And everything else will seem like a walk in the park compared to this.
Thirty seconds. Thirty seconds to go.
Now knowing Rocco has to come into this kitchen,
I really have to put all the clues next to each ingredient.
So I think this mincemeat will go perfectly
with the roasted Brussels sprouts and mushrooms.
So I try to set him up.
Put the mincemeat next to the Brussels sprouts.
So, everything's set up
but I feel like it's very visually,
he can tell exactly which direction we're going.
Joe and Rocco are walking into a hurricane hot mess.
When you go out the door,
they get to come through the door, so hustle back.
5...
4...
Put some butter in that pan, girl.
[Guy] 3...
-2... -Butter in the latke pan!
It needs more fat!
One. Goodbye, chefs.
Keep going.
-[Shirley groans] -[Aarti] Argh!
Rocco, Joe, you're up!
Here they come.
-[whooping] -Come on, you can do it!
-Keep going, keep going. -This way, this way, this way.
-[judges cheering] -[Amanda] Come on, come on, come on!
Oh, my goodness.
All right, it's all up to Rocco now.
All right, so we got steaks, obviously.
Steaks is the main course. They're beautiful.
All right, we got ducks here.
Got some, it looks like latkes, maybe?
So I get to the station and it is chaos everywhere.
Nothing in the oven. Oven's not even on.
I don't know what the challenge is.
Ten minutes in the kitchen, that's all I have.
I don't know what these are.
Morels, noodles.
Clams?
What's happening?
[chuckles] What is going on over here?
-Ten minutes to cook, it's gonna take... -Yeah.
-...two minutes to figure out what you're doing... -[Amanda] Oh!
...with what's there.
Joe, what are you making?
-[women laughing] -You're the worst!
This is so, so stressful.
Morels, noodles.
Clams?
Chefs, we've got eight minutes. Eight minutes left in your cook.
Definitely a very tough situation to be in.
-So now we have, uh, Aarti... -Joe.
...and Crista in the same room together, watching this.
And we have Shirley and Antonia in the same room,
watching what these guys are going through.
It's not the cooking part, they all know how to cook,
it's the figuring out what they're supposed to cook part that's difficult.
I love that Antonia shopped because
she's really good at self-editing.
Rocco gave great accolades of how much he appreciates where things are at, he knows.
Joe has no idea what's taking place.
What's happening?
It's just as stressful as the holidays...
-Maybe more. -...watching Joe cook.
Maybe this makes it better,
-'cause no matter how bad your holiday is, -Right.
-it'll never be this. -Correct.
-Rocco DiSpirito, how're you doing, buddy? -Yes, sir.
We are doing great.
Antonia did a great job shopping.
Shirley definitely put me on the right path.
Looks like a classic holiday dinner with all the trimmings.
We got roast beef, we got cranberry sauce,
We got mushrooms, Brussels sprouts,
potato pancakes.
Very nice.
Rocco figured it out.
[Rocco] What do you think, Joe?
Is it what you hoped it would be?
What is that?
[Rocco] Uh-oh.
No response from Joe, that can't be good.
How're you feeling, buddy?
I am so thrown off
-by what I have on the station right now. -[judges laughing]
[Joe] There's a sauce going on the stove,
there's sweet potatoes in boiling water,
there's some ducks resting in a pan.
These ducks are for sure done.
I see these potato pancakes in a pan,
but I have no idea what they are.
So I'm just gonna tie it all together and finish roasting this duck.
I'm gonna make a beautiful sweet potato puree.
I'm gonna cook down the sauce, continue reducing it.
All right, that's gonna be our sauce.
We got a sauce going.
[Aarti] That's good.
And the good thing is he knows.
-He knows, he's fast, he's scrappy. -Yeah.
Oh, I see mincemeat.
That's not what I would have ever chose under any circumstance.
Do you have mincemeat over there, Rocco?
[Rocco] I have mincemeat.
-So you have to use mincemeat. -What is it for?
Very smart play by Joe.
Oh, that's a smart strategy.
Got it. All right.
Chefs you have three must use ingredients that must be incorporated in your dish.
Three?
So, of course Guy being the generous spirit that he is,
tells us there are three whammy ingredients we need to use.
So now it becomes a guessing game and following context clues
as to what I need to make sure gets on this plate.
What is this?
What else you got over there?
I have eggnog.
There it is.
I knew that those were the whammies.
Look at him. Joe, I'm so sorry.
-[Joe coughs] -[Guy] Go, Joe.
[judges laughing]
There's some ingredients that don't make a lot of sense
that I figured were whammy ingredients, like eggnog syrup.
That's an obvious whammy ingredient, 'cause it's a holiday show.
And I see potato pancake mix.
This is it, whammy ingredient.
Joe, the third whammy ingredient is potato pancake mix.
Oh, okay. Thank you.
What is this?
Luckily, someone started these beautiful little potato pancakes.
We got some mincemeat in there, potato latke mix.
And we need to use some eggnog syrup.
But I don't taste it in any of the components,
maybe Aarti forgot to put it into the dish.
No, no, don't. You don't need to use the eggnog.
No! I took care of it already.
I like a little bit of sweetness in my savory dishes.
I can make a beautiful sweet potato puree using this eggnog syrup.
We're doubling down, that's good gameplay.
-He doesn't know. Okay, good. -That is good gameplay.
[Joe] Sweet potatoes are one of my favorite ingredients,
so hats off to Crista for getting that going.
What screams more holiday-rific than sweet potatoes?
And I ended up adding all of that rendered duck fat and brown butter
to make a super-rich and umami decadent sauce
to lay down across our plate.
Sweet potato puree going on over here.
We got our beautiful little duckies.
Joe Sasto is so smart.
He's a brilliant competitor.
I mean, not only is he good-looking with that mustache,
but that guy is smart and he can cook.
I feel like we're the underdog at this point
but I'm not gonna let that stop us.
Crista's a great shopper.
We have lots of options here.
Mincemeat, classic mincemeat. What do I do with that?
We have to figure out,
first of all that there were must-use ingredients or whammy ingredients.
And then figure out of all the ingredients in front of us which ones they are.
So I taste a little bit of everything.
The eggnog syrup was already in the cranberry sauce.
The potato pancake mix was already turned into potato pancakes.
So the mincemeat, which is essentially a fruit jam,
-was set up next to the Brussels sprouts. -Hello, mincemeat.
Mincemeat!
So Shirley left a clue that the mincemeat could be a great condiment
for Brussels sprouts. I used those to sweeten the Brussels sprouts.
-Oh, yes! -Yes! Yes!
[both] Yes! Yes!
Yes!
[Rocco] So far, I used all the must-use ingredients.
So that is the potato pancake mix,
the eggnog syrup and the mincemeat.
The mincemeat is great.
-Real sweet. -[Guy] Chefs!
You've got four minutes, four to go.
I mean, it's chaos right now.
It is absolute chaos in the kitchen.
We're hoping that, like, I left him enough.
I'm feeling like I'm never gonna think about the holidays in the same way,
because this kind of just ruined it for me.
[Aarti laughing] I know.
[Guy] No pressure at all for these two.
Just the entire team is relying on them.
$20,000 is on the table.
Who's gonna have the great holidays
and who's gonna have the holiday hassle?
We'll find out.
Three minutes, chefs. Three to go.
[Amanda] It's gonna be so interesting to hear
how the telephone line started.
Like, what did Antonia want?
And what did they end up with? [chuckles]
What did Crista shop for
-and what did they end up with? -[Amanda] Yeah.
[Michael] Oh, yeah. Obviously one shop here.
We got lots going on.
[Guy] How're we feeling, Joe?
We're making it happen.
You know what you're making?
Yeah, we're doing roasted duck
with a nice little morel sauce.
-Some gremolata. -[Guy] Fantastic.
-You feel good? -That's it.
-I feel really good about that. -Great.
It's a holiday classic.
So I consider myself a saucier of sorts
and I taste this wonderful little aromatic broth that they have going before me.
And I know I can finish this off and make it the sauce for the plate.
I reduce it out,
strain it, mount it with a little bit of butter,
season it with a little bit of lemon juice
and we have this beautiful morel butter that we could sauce our duck with.
Joe's a hustler.
[Joe] I know there needs to always be some sort of fresh component.
And so I wanna take the fennel tops,
the fresh parsley, a little bit of lemon zest and juice,
and make a beautiful gremolata to cut through
all the richness that we have going on here on this plate.
This is just as stressful as the holidays,
-watching Joe cook. -Maybe more.
[Joe] There's people counting on me, there's money on the line.
And I'm not going home a loser.
[Amanda] Ribeye steaks first put on by Antonia.
Taken off by Shirley.
Put back by Rocco. [laughs]
[Michael] How do they look? Thrice cooked?
[Amanda] I mean, they've gotten a lot--
[Michael] Thrice... thrice cooked rib eyes.
[Amanda] A lot of flare up on them.
I have to, uh, flip the Brussels sprouts, finish cooking those.
I have to make sure I take the mushrooms all the way home.
And the final element is the cranberry sauce.
So the decisions that were made were really, really smart.
To use the latke mixture as a potato pancake makes all the sense in the world.
To use the eggnog syrup as a sweetener makes all the sense in the world.
The mincemeat could have been a condiment unto itself,
and in this case it was used to season the Brussels sprouts.
-He's got all the right things. -He got--
-He got all the ingredients. -All ingredients.
[Rocco] Definitely feeling pressure.
Antonia and Shirley are top tier players.
I need to do well for them.
I need to try to win.
There's $20,000 at stake.
I can't wait for everybody to come back together
and talk to each other. [laughs]
And say, "But I wanted you to do this.
I wanted you to do that."
Rocco, Joe. Two minutes. Two minutes to be plated.
Being the anchor is the most pressure-filled position
to be in on this team.
So time to get this perfect holiday duck feast onto the plate.
Slice it up, dice it up super nice.
I do sauce, we got sweet potato puree.
Got a little bit of that morel butter draped right in the middle.
And I know I wanna present everything a little off to the side
so it's not sitting in that butter sauce.
We got our potato pancake.
Beautifully trimmed and diced duck breast.
A little handful of that fresh gremolata.
Everything's on the line right here.
This is the most important holiday meal I've ever put together.
This is definitely a mess-up game,
for sure a messed up game.
Whether it's telephone or not,
it's definitely messed up, not easy.
I put the potato pancakes down first,
I put the seared mushrooms next to them.
I put the Brussels sprouts in a side dish
because I know they're gonna be sweet,
so I want you to have the option to eat them separately.
I slice the steaks.
And I'm trying to make sure that they're thick enough,
so that there's a nice mouth feel.
The steak temperature was a perfect medium rare.
The cranberry eggnog finally reduced
to the point where I could serve it as a relish,
so I put it right on the plate.
It looks like a traditional holiday dinner.
-Here we go! -Come on, Joe.
[both chanting] Joe, Joe, Joe.
[Guy] 3...
2...
1...
Chefs, that's it. Stop working.
-Whoa! -[judges applauding]
-[Amanda] Happy holidays. -[Michael] That was great.
-Ho-ho-ho. -Whoo!
-Wow. -That was gnarly.
[Guy] All right, judges. Here we are.
All-star chefs had to tag team
to make their holiday plate just for you.
Our chef presenters never heard of any specific description of the dish
and were not told what three mandatory ingredients must be employed.
Mincemeat, potato latke mix
and eggnog syrup.
First to go, Chef Joe.
Now, let's bring in your teammates
so they can see what the end result is.
["The Nutcracker: March" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky playing]
[Guy] Aarti and Crista, come on in.
[judges cheering]
[Guy] You guys did amazing.
-[Crista] Look at that. -[Aarti gasps]
-Look at that. Oh, what a beauty. -[Guy] Look at that.
[Crista] That looks like a holiday plate.
-[Joe] Well done. You guys did so good. -[Aarti] You did amazing.
Chef, why don't you go ahead and present the dish to us.
So, uh, what we have here is a holiday feast fit for royalty.
-Judges. -Oh.
So it's not goose and figgy pudding,
but it's duck and mincemeat.
So you have that little mincemeat mix
in a little potato cornmeal-style pancake down underneath.
We made a beautiful butter sauce infused with morels
to kind of carry that holiday flavor through.
Roasted duck, and then a sweet potato puree
with this wonderful eggnog syrup.
'Cause what's the holidays without that sweet potato?
Okay, that was so stressful.
And, you know, you take all communication away from chefs
and you just debilitate them.
But it was amazing to watch it go down the line.
This is delicious.
Especially the potato puree,
to go ahead and use the, uh, eggnog syrup
to give that the sweetness.
It's absolutely delicious.
Plating is beautiful.
So, Joe, congratulations on that.
It looks like a holiday dish
but, like, in a very refined environment.
Got this beautifully cooked duck
which I thought was super smart, Crista, on your part
to grab something that you would start rendering slowly in a pan.
That way, if you had to walk away from it,
uh, it wasn't going to be compromised.
I really actually think the gremolata brought it all together.
'Cause you have that sweetness and these warm spices in the sweet potato.
So you needed bright and you needed fresh.
The flavor of the mincemeat latke mix pancakes,
it's delicious.
It is very greasy, though.
Uh, so when you bite into it, there's a lot of fat in it.
If you had just left it clean, it would have been great.
When you eat the whole dish together though, as a composed dish.
Honestly, it feels like you guys did it on purpose.
[all] We did. Yeah.
[all laughing]
-Totally did. -Yeah, stick with that story.
All right, up next Chef Rocco.
And before you present your dish,
let us introduce your teammates.
Your shopper, Chef Antonia
-and your prep cook, Chef Shirley. -[all cheering]
-[Amanda] Yeah. -Whoo!
Well, very nice to see you.
Nice job. Thank you, thank you.
So, Chef, go ahead now and describe the dish to us, please.
Yeah, okay. So for this dish allow me to, uh,
transport you back to your favorite holiday, maybe there's snow falling.
You're walking up to the stoop.
You're starting to smell the aromas of beef cooking in the oven.
You enter, it's your favorite auntie, maybe a mom, a dad.
And you see the roast
and someone you love very much says...
[all laughing]
[Rocco] Someone you love very much says, "Can I make a plate for you?"
-What did you actually make? -Yeah.
[Rocco] We made a roast beef with potato pancakes,
Brussels sprouts and the final element is the cranberry sauce.
Happy holidays.
Thought the shop was brilliant, Antonia.
-I think you grabbed all the necessary things... -Brilliant shop.
-[Antonia] Thanks. -...to put together like a holiday plate.
The gameplay was so solid because you gave the clues and they picked up the clues
and it seemed like a very harmonious way that the three of you cooked.
[Michael] The steak is cooked beautifully.
I love the side dishes and the way you presented it,
it feels very holiday-esque.
Like, it looks like a holiday plate of food.
-Holiday? -[Michael] Holiday.
-Christmassy. -Yeah.
The only, like, little thing I would say is that having
these two guys right here next to each other,
the Brussels sprouts with the mincemeat and the cranberry sauce,
two kinda sweet things.
I would eat the Brussels sprouts more as a condiment
because of the amount of sweet that's in it.
The potato pancake is gorgeous. I love it.
Crispy, crunchy.
I wanna slather it with some sour cream and just eat a barrel of them.
To me, the eggnog syrup is lost over here
because the cranberry sauce is really on the tart side.
It's not sweet enough, though the addition of ginger in it is really good.
[Guy] I have to say this.
There's nothing we could put in front of you you guys can't do.
It is unbelievable.
That was the most chaotic, stressful, whacked out scenario.
So, I thank you so much. It was outstanding.
-Outstanding. -Aw.
All right, back to your stations.
-Thank you very much, we'll call you in a minute. -[all] Thank you.
[Crista] Thank you, chefs.
Great, judges, let's score it up.
Remember, we've got 20 points available in gameplay,
20 points available in taste,
10 points available in plating, for a total of 50 points.
I'll tell you what.
Out of the hundreds of competitions that I've seen here in Flavortown Market,
that without question, is one of my favorite
and we really appreciate it, so job well done.
Crista, Joe and Aarti.
Gameplay, 17 out of 20.
Taste, 18 out of 20.
-Plating 9 out of 10. -[competitors exclaim]
-For 44. -That's a really good score.
-We'll take it, we'll take it. -[Guy] Dynamite score.
Forty-four is the number to beat.
Up to $20,000 on the line.
Antonia, Rocco and Shirley.
17 out of 20 in gameplay.
17 out of 20 taste.
Only has gotta be a 10 in plating.
-8 for 42! -[other team cheering]
[Antonia] Congratulations.
-[Guy] Wow. -Congrats, guys.
[Guy] I think you did a dynamite job.
You had a clear focus of where you were going.
I think there maybe was a little editing that needed to be done.
We'll say thank you, we'll say good night.
-[Rocco] Thank you. -And happy holidays.
-We had a wonderful time, thank you. -Thank you.
-Happy holidays. -Thank you.
-Thank you so much. -Happy holidays.
[Shirley] I had so much fun today.
This chef community is just like the crazy family that I have.
Cooking with Antonia and Shirley is amazing,
'cause I got to cook with two of the best.
So for me personally, it was a great day and a big win.
Happy holidays to you and yours from everyone here at Grocery Games.
Ladies and gentlemen,
meet the first ever Holiday Hustle winners.
[all cheering]
Chef Aarti, Chef Crista and Chef Joe.
Job well done.
All right, come on over say hi to the judges. Let's go shopping.
The three of you will work together as a team on the shop.
Okay.
One person will stand here
and read off the clues over the P.A.
-Ooh, fun. -Oh.
The other person will run off
and find those clued items.
And for every clued item you find and put in the basket,
-you will get [clicks tongue] $4,000. -Okay.
Once the first shopper has achieved two items,
that shopper will return and the second shopper will then take the cart
and shop Flavortown Market for the next three items.
For every item that they achieve,
[clicks tongue] 4,000 bucks.
You get all five items, you will get $20,000.
-Let's do it. Let's shop. -Okay.
All right, here we go.
As soon as she reads the first clue,
you will start running towards to go get it.
And as soon as you move, they're gonna start the clock.
Read the first clue.
[reading clue]
[Aarti yelling]
-Go, go, go, go, go! -Pears. Pears.
Pears! $4,000!
Got it!
-[cha-ching] -Pears!
[reading clue]
I'm going, I'm going, I'm going!
It has to be the turkey. Gobble, gobble.
Turkey!
[Joe] Come back, come back, come back!
We have to get it. Go, Joe!
-Let's go, let's go! -[Guy] Go bring us the cart, let's go!
-Start reading. Go, go, go! -Go, read!
[reading clue]
"these are roasting on an open fire", Joe.
[Joe yelling] Chestnuts!
I know the song. I love chestnuts.
Now I just gotta find them in the grocery store.
-Chestnuts. -[judges cheering]
-[Crista] Roasted on an open fire. -[Maneet cheering]
[Maneet] Go, go, go!
$12,000 in the bank.
[reading clue]
[Joe] I know exactly where the ginger is.
I know exactly what cookies these go in. This one's easy.
-4... -[Crista] Go, Joe!
-3...2... -[Aarti] Come on, Joe!
-[Guy] 1... -[Aarti] Grab it!
We got $16,000!
I can't believe we won!
[Crista] We crushed it.
It's all about the Holiday Hustle.
First ever Holiday Hustle winners.
Give it up for Chef Joe, Crista and Aarti.
16,000 bucks.
Hope everybody has a great holiday.
We'll see you next time on Triple G. Adios!
[Amanda] Guys, you did a good job.