I'm Bobby Flay. Each week, one great chef will try to take me down in my house.
I'm not worried about Bobby.
-What? -Ooh!
This culinary battle is gonna shakedown in two rounds.
Round One, to get to me, two contenders have to go through each other
using an ingredient of my choice.
Let's do it!
[Bobby] Two people that know me well
will decide who's got the skills to beat me.
Yeah!
[Bobby] Round two, I go head-to-head with the winning contender.
It's their turn to surprise me with their signature dish.
♪ Branzino ♪
-Was that distracting? -You're done.
This is gonna be the first one I don't finish.
-Flay is in trouble! -Whoo!
[Bobby] Bottom line...
No!
...everyone's out to beat me.
Here we go, lights, camera, action.
Who's ready for a great show?
[cheering]
Please welcome two people ready for their closeup.
It's Food Network's Geoffrey Zakarian
and entrepreneur and supermodel Ashley Graham.
All right.
Bringing the beauty.
[laughs]
[cheering]
Ashley, welcome.
Thanks for having me.
Uh, I've been a huge admirer of yours.
Tell us about your new show because you're part of--
-[both] Yes. -You're part of the, uh, Warner Bros. Discovery
-family now. -I know. Now we're a family.
-[Bobby] I know. -It's called HGTV's Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge.
And we are making-over this amazing home
into the Barbie Dreamhouse.
But it's everybody that you love
from HGTV is doing a role.
-Part of it, yeah. -[Ashley] Yes.
Where you a Barbie kid when you were growing up?
I love Barbie. In fact, Mattel made a Barbie in my likeness.
-Oh, that's so cool. -She's got curves.
-[Bobby] Love that. -She's the real deal.
Yeah, so this should be quite an evening tonight.
This is gonna be fun. So, we're against him, by the way.
Yeah, that's the hard part, though...
-Starting now. -...because I do love you.
That will all change.
You hang around Geoffrey long enough,
you'll go join the bandwagon. All right,
-bring out the chefs. -Let's go.
So, our first contender is just as skilled with a paint brush
as she is in the kitchen.
-Hmm. -[Ashley] Please welcome
chef and artist, Maiya Keck.
Beautiful painting.
Our next contender has trained under some of the best chefs
in the country. It's Chef Brian Cripps.
[audience cheering]
Maiya, Brian, welcome. How are you doing?
-[Maiya and Brian] Good. -Maiya, you have the rose colored glasses on tonight.
-You ready? -Yes. I'm so ready to beat you into a corner.
-I like it. -[chuckles]
Okay. I'm gonna give you a single ingredient of my choice,
and you must make that ingredient the star of your dish,
and that ingredient is...
couscous.
[audience gasping and cheering]
It's challenging, the base ingredient, you know?
It's better than giving you an onion.
-For sure. -That's a very base ingredient.
What about you? You painting this picture in your mind?
-See how I did that? -[laughs]
All right, guys, 20 minutes to get loose with this couscous.
Ah-ha!
Let's go!
Whoo! Whoo!
Very small pasta.
It really is easy to cook, you just put boiling water over it.
-Oh. -And in 10 minutes, it's ready.
[Bobby] I'm thinking, like, more a brothy kinda thing.
Like, a tomato, fennel, saffron broth.
[Ashley] Mmm.
I love couscous, but I'm really hoping
it's not a salad situation,
'cause I feel like that's super boring.
Maiya, what are you making?
I'm gonna do a couscous salad.
So, I'm making a couscous salad
with Mediterranean flavors,
and almond breadcrumbs.
So I'm going to soak currants in balsamic vinegar.
Then I wanna get my couscous started.
It just steeps in boiling water,
and then I'm going to pickle some shallots with some vinegar
and grenadine.
I love the agrodolce flavors of Italy,
which is a little sweet and a little sour.
My father lived in Rome for eight years,
so I had this amazing opportunity
to absorb the flavors of Italy.
So in college, I was studying painting
and working in kitchens.
I was really becoming very passionate about food.
I moved to Marfa, Texas, where I opened my own restaurant,
focusing on Northern Italian cuisine.
Today, I'm the chef and owner of The Get Go grocery.
It's an independent store
that provides the community with all the things that a home chef would want.
So, I'm here today just competing for myself.
I wanna know that I can beat Bobby Flay,
and I think I can.
Brian, what are you making exactly?
I'm gonna go with the same route, do a little couscous salad,
put it on top of some harissa yogurt.
I love you were like, "I hope nobody makes a salad."
-They're both salads. -Both, two.
[Bobby] Exactly.
I'm using the couscous as the main component of the salad.
It's going to tie all of the flavors together.
I've got the couscous going,
so I peel some lemon zest in there,
add a little bit of salt and olive oil.
And then take the boiling water,
pour it over the top and warp in a plastic warp to get it steeping.
I first wanted to be a cook when I was about eight years old.
I made an omelet for Mother's Day for my mom,
and ever since then, I just was infatuated by food.
Took my first restaurant job at 18,
and I just knew I was home.
At age 22, I packed up and moved to San Francisco
and worked at a handful of Michelin Star restaurants.
And now I'm the executive chef of Tre Rivali
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
We do a Mediterranean-inspired menu
with seasonal ingredients.
I'm here to put Milwaukee on the map,
and Bobby's just the last mountain to climb.
All right, 15 minutes.
[cheering]
Okay, so I see zucchini. Are you doing
a hot, cold, in-between--
[Maiya] I'm doing in-between.
-[Geoffrey] In-between. -[Maiya] It's gonna be room temperature.
All right, let's give it up.
[audience cheering]
Chef, two of my favorite things,
-couscous and pomegranates. -[Brian] Yeah.
-So, what are you making? -A little harissa yogurt.
I'm using harissa yogurt to add a little bit of fat to the dish
as well as some heat.
[Geoffrey] All right, make it great,
because in your next challenge, one of you two,
is going up with that guy over there.
He's pretty good.
All right, thank you.
[cheering]
[Maiya] I wanna get a nice crunchy element,
so I put a little panko breadcrumbs.
And I grind up the marcona almonds
and I throw those into the pan.
At this point in time, I wanna add a little crunch.
Hey, you took my marconas, huh?
She has them,
so I switch up and grab the skin-on almonds.
[Ashley] I don't know with the difference of a marcona almonds--
They're fancier almonds.
-[Ashley] Ah. -[Geoffrey] Some say a bit sweeter.
It's twice the cost of the regular almonds,
but if you toast it,
I don't think you're gonna have a problem.
I think I'm gonna go check in on Maiya.
Eight minutes and 30 seconds.
Maiya, you started as a painter
and now you're a chef?
Hey, how does those two go together?
The creative energy is very similar.
Do you have a dairy that you're putting in?
That's a good question.
Ashley is asking me about dairy,
So, yes, I'm thinking a yogurt sauce would be perfect
with fresh basil.
[whirring]
-[Ashley] Brian. -[Brian] Hey, how are you doing?
-Representing the Midwest. -Yeah, you know it.
I'm a Nebraska girl.
I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.
[Brian] I'm just gonna add some of these almonds here for a crunch.
-All right, good luck, Brian. -[Brian] Yeah,
-thank you so much. -[Ashley] Excited to try it.
All right, guys, coming up on six minutes.
Wow.
[cheering]
[Maiya] I strain the shallots
and add Calabrian chilies.
So then, when cooking couscous,
you don't want it to clump up.
So you take a fork and you fluff it.
And I combine everything into the bowl
with some salty elements like olives and capers.
And now, I just toss everything together
along with the mint and arugula.
[Bobby] Two minutes to go.
All right, you gotta start plating.
[Maiya] First, I put a dallop of the Greek yogurt on the plate
and then, couscous salad,
my pickled shallots and the toasted breadcrumbs.
[Brian] So, with the yogurt down on the plate,
I add the salad.
[all] Ten, nine...
[Maiya] I dice up some chives so there's a green element.
[all] ...five...
[Brian] A couple quick swirls of pomegranate molasses to finish the dish.
[all] ...two, one.
-[bell dings] -[audience cheering]
[Maiya] I'm feeling pretty confidant.
I have a good flavor profile,
and I haven't forgotten that couscous is the star.
[Brian] My dish will beat up Maiya
because of the complex flavors,
little bit of heat, little bit of sweetness.
Kinda has everything that you're looking for in a dish.
So, it is my first time here,
and I am really counting on one of you to beat Bobby.
[Geoffrey] Okay, Chef Maiya, you're up first.
Tell us what you made.
A Mediterranean couscous salad.
It has toasted breadcrumb
with a Greek yogurt.
The couscous, it's fluffy, it's cooked perfectly,
very well-seasoned.
Just... It's a little one note.
This needs something else to sort of, like, carry it.
See, I would have taken something away.
'Cause it's a little bit too salty.
But the creaminess with the textures
was, like, really spot on.
Brian, what did you make?
I made a pomegranate couscous salad
on top of harissa yogurt.
[Geoffrey] It's yummy, and I love pomegranates.
And I love what you did with the couscous with the lemon peel.
It sort of woke up everything.
Both have cooked their couscous well,
but, oh, you got some lumps going on.
I'm obsessed with the pomegranates.
And the lettuce with the couscous is good.
But I will say, it's a little bit spicey.
This is gonna be really hard.
All right.
[Brian] Knowing that the couscous was lumpy,
I should have taken my time a little bit more.
But everything on my plate was a cohesive bite.
The chef moving forward tonight to beat Bobby is...
Chef Brian.
[audience cheering]
Ah!
I just didn't do quite enough to give it that fiery push.
But Brian's gonna beat Bobby.
You won because you layered the flavors better.
-Thank you. -[Ashley] What does it mean to you
-to beat Bobby? -It means a lot.
He's been around, been around for a long time.
-Long time. -And I'm the future.
-Okay. -Here we go.
-Let's hope so. Come on. -All right, Brian!
[cheering]
-Congratulations. -Thank you.
All right, chef, what are we cooking tonight?
What is your signature dish?
My dish tonight is...
lamb kofta.
Ooh, kofta.
-I love lamb. -He's my people.
Geoffrey, can I have your kofta recipe, please?
No.
[both laugh]
[Geoffrey] All right, so to keep things fair,
three judges are standing by to do a blind taste test.
You got this, right, Brian?
-Oh, I got this. -Chefs, you got 45 minutes.
Your time stars now.
[audience cheering]
Uh-oh, he already dropped the apron.
This isn't a good start, Bobby.
It's basically pita with some meat in it.
This dish needs warm spices, right?
Cinnamon, cumin and coriander.
You need to get that flavor in it. It's like a meatball.
You sort of like form it around long metal skewers.
-And then you put it-- -Hot coals or hot grill.
[Brian] My signature dish is lamb kofta
with fresh pita,
tzatziki and chermoula.
I've made this dish a million times.
It's one of my top sellers at the restaurant.
First thing, I wanna get the pita dough working right way.
I'm using flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
-Do you make your own pita dough? -Oh, yeah.
-Oh! Bobby Flay doesn't know how to do that. -[Ashley] Wow.
-It's flour and water. -[Brian laughs]
Beating Bobby with my lamp kofta will prove
that I'm someone to be taken seriously
in Milwaukee and across the country.
After I've portioned out the pita,
I place it near the stove to raise.
[Bobby] So, I'm making a pomegranate glaze lamb kofta
with a crispy pita salad
and a yogurt and tahini sauce.
So, I start sweating some onions and garlic,
tomato paste, some harissa,
get some of that heat in there.
And then some warm spices like allspice and cinnamon.
Hey, Bobby, what is your plan?
Just gonna make some delicious lamb kofta.
-Period? -Yeah, more or less.
Well, that looks good, especially that store-bought ground lamb.
And then I'm gonna get it going on a skewer.
Brian, what are you grinding up there?
I'm gonna be grinding some lamb shoulder.
Just under 35 minutes.
Come on.
I love that you're grinding your own lamb.
And I love that you're making your own pita.
-Yes. -That is real cooking.
[Brian] Yes, it is.
All right, good luck.
[Brian] I wanna grind my own meat today
because I'm able to control the fat content.
Then I'm going to season with salt,
paprika, coriander and cumin and cilantro and parsley.
And then I wanna feed it through the grinder.
And I'm ready to go, so it's time to start shaping the kofta.
Skewers.
So are you doing like a sauce, like a cool sauce for this, or just--
Yeah, I'm gonna do, like, a yogurt tahini
and, uh, pita salad,
-with pomegranates, feta cheese. -Very nice.
Well, it looks good. I don't know, though.
All right, Wisconsin, I love it.
[audience cheering]
[Geoffrey] Wow. The question I have for Bobby
is his kofta is like that.
-Like a corndog? -This might cook
and that might cook unevenly on the skewer.
And look at Brian's. He's gonna make it even.
-See, you've gotta make it even, or it won't cook right. -Yep. Yep.
I put it in the blast chiller so it'll just stay on the, uh, skewer better.
[Brian] I wanna make sure that the lamb is chilled,
otherwise, it'll fall off the skewer, break apart.
Now is the time to start rolling out the pita,
getting them grilled.
[Geoffrey] Look, look, look.
-That's the real deal. -He's doing it.
Oh, beautiful.
And then it needs a little bit of extra heat,
so I toss it in the oven.
[Ashley gasps] Bobby, your sourdough pita
looks so lame.
Especially 'cause you know Brian just made some homemade pita
in, like, five seconds.
[Bobby] I'm not using pita as a wrap for this.
To me, this is more about the lamb,
eating it with some crunchy salad
and having the pita running through it.
So I'm making a crispy pita chip.
[Geoffrey] The judges will know the difference
between store-bought and fresh.
Whatever he's using, Bobby,
was made a month ago.
Twenty-eight minutes.
[audience cheering]
So, I'm making a glaze for the kofta.
It's pomegranate, molasses, mustard, black pepper.
And then, I'm making a yogurt and tahini sauce.
So, it's Greek yogurt, tahini,
which is sesame butter, basically.
Cumin, a little bit of honey in there.
Okay, so Mattel made a Barbie in my likeness.
So, now I'm gonna show Bobby
-what I think he looks like. -[laughs]
-[Ashley] Bobby. -[laughs]
-Bobby, look. -What you got there?
[Ashley] So, you know how we were talking earlier
about my show on HGTV
and how I have, like, a sexy doll?
Well, this is your version of that,
that I think you would wanna be.
Do you have abs like that? Do you have that?
-Oh! Okay. -Oh, okay.
-[Ashley] Okay, all right. -[audience laughing]
But Geoffrey thought that this was yours.
So expectations meets reality.
-He's like, "Hi. I'm Bobby Flay." -[audience laughing]
But I really thought that this one looked like you a lot more.
Oh, my God.
-Hi, Bobby. Can I have some, uh, lamb kofta? -[laughs]
That's great.
Can I try one of your fake pitas?
[Geoffrey] Sure. Pita chips.
-Oh, that's good. -You like that?
-[Ashley] Yeah. -Okay.
-[mimicking eating] -[laughs]
Okay, bye!
-See you later. -[Ashley] There you go.
-We'll put him right here on the pomegranate. -All right, cool.
-[Ashley] Brian? -[Brian] What up?
Okay, I'm loving all of the things you're doing,
-[Ashley] grinding your meat. -Uh-huh.
[Ashley] You made your own pitas.
-What is that? -[Brian] This is yogurt.
-Oh, that's good. -We're gonna do a... [laughs]
We're gonna do a little tzatziki.
To make my tzatziki, I wanna get the grated cucumber,
lemon zest, chiffonade mint right into my yogurt.
It's like a flavor bomb.
-[Ashley] Yeah, I'm excited. -[Brian] You know, if it's done right, so...
[audience laughing]
-What did you do? -Nothing.
I just put a little threat on him just now. That's...
It wasn't a big deal.
All right. Brian, good luck.
[Bobby] So, in my salad,
pomegranate, some chickpeas, cucumbers, mint and parsley and cilantro,
feta, crispy pita chips.
For the dressing, it's white wine vinegar,
some harissa, Dijon mustard
and olive oil and a little bit of honey.
All right.
And now I'm getting that tremula on.
I'd like to consider tremula
kinda like the North African version of chimichurri.
Chop some parsley, cilantro, cumin and coriander,
and get everything into the bowl.
And then I can start zesting my orange and lemon,
and adding the olive oil.
It's intense, man.
Typically, you wouldn't find it on kofta,
but I like the way that it complements the dish.
Now it's time to start grilling the kofta.
I've got a feeling this is gonna be a little crazy.
[audience cheering]
I'm gonna cook it about three-quarters of the way through
on all sides, get that char.
[Ashley] Do you smell that lamb?
-Yeah, that's-- Yeah. -Oh!
-That looks so freaking good. -[Geoffrey] Look, everybody sees it.
-Oh, my God. -[Geoffrey] Oh, wow.
[audience cheering]
-[Geoffrey] Isn't that perfect looking? -[Ashley] Yeah,
that looks perfect.
[Geoffrey] Ten minutes.
[audience cheering]
[Bobby] I take my kofta out of the blast chiller,
it's very firm, it's like almost frozen.
And then I throw it in the oven.
I literally froze my lamb.
Totally frozen.
[Brian] Oh, it's over, Bobby.
It's over.
So, I opened the oven, the kofta is definitely getting softer.
I got the freeze off of it. So that's a start.
-Look, he's frying it. -I'm watching.
[Bobby] And then I'm gonna put it in the fryer
to give 'em some crispiness
and some brown on the outside
for, like, two minutes, max.
Those things could blow up, what Bobby's doing.
They should... They could... I'll tell you why,
'cause there's no bread in 'em.
-They could literally... [mimicking explosion] -Oh!
So I take it out.
-[gasps] -What'd I just say?
-Uh-oh! -What'd I just say?
Bobby's lamb is literally falling apart, exactly how you said.
[Bobby] I'm a tiny bit worried.
I have to say, I'm a tiny bit worried,
but I'm gonna have to go into Iron Chef mode here.
Bobby's lamb is literally falling apart, exactly how you said.
This could be really hideous and taste amazing.
[Bobby] My kofta's very tender, which is a good thing.
So I'm just making sure that the skewer goes back in
and it stays together.
[Brian] I pulled the pita out of the oven
and bring it over to the table,
and then I take a big old smear of the tzatziki
right on the top.
Two minutes.
[audience cheering]
-Are you excited? -I'm so excited.
[laughs]
-Very nice. -[Brian] Yeah.
Couple of spoonful's of the tremula right over the top,
and we're done.
[Bobby] Okay, to plate it,
I put the salad down,
the vinaigrette, some of the yogurt and tahini sauce.
I put my glaze on top of the kofta.
[all] Ten, nine, eight,
-seven, six... -[Bobby] I put some toasted sesame seeds on top.
[all] ...five, four,
three, two, one.
[cheering]
-Good job. -Nice, well done.
-Good job. -Good job.
Wow.
And now I'd like to introduce you to the judges.
First up, the chef/owner of Sofreh, Nasim Alikhani.
The executive chef of Butter Restaurant, Michael Jenkins.
The executive chef, Michele Ragussis.
-Welcome. -[audience applauding]
Judges, please try the first lamb kofta.
Whoo! I love this dish.
Char on the meat is beautiful
and the glaze on the meat is fantastic.
But my meat is a little under only in the center.
[Michael] It is a little rare in the middle,
but there's that nice char on the outside,
which is what I look for in a lamb.
I thought it was really clever the way that the pita was used
in the salad.
[Nasim] The yogurt worked well,
but I wanted to see some more tahini.
What I loved the most
was the brightness of the pomegranate on the glaze.
All right, judges, you can try your second dish.
Delicious.
Lamb is cooked perfectly.
And kudos to making bread,
but I'm having a little trouble
with how I'm supposed to eat this.
Supposed to pick it up? I don't know.
So, I think that the kebab itself was made well.
You know, points for having, what, 45 minutes
to make a pita.
I wish that my kebab had more salt.
Otherwise, I really enjoyed the presentation of the kebab, specifically.
For me, the salt was fine.
The meat worked very well.
But the bread didn't work for me
and the pita turned out to be hard.
[Geoffrey] Judges, thank you for your thoughtful comments.
But it's time to make a vote. Thank you.
[Brian] They really liked Bobby's sauce
and texture of his pita.
On the other hand, the judges seemed to enjoy
the way my kofta was cooked,
so at this point, I'm 50-50.
And the winner is...
Chef Bobby Flay.
[audience cheering]
At the end of the day, it came down to the salt, acid, texture.
And I felt like this dish had all of those in abundance.
Nice to meet you.
[Brian] The judges wanted a little bit more seasoning in it
and if I would have done that,
this would have been a slam-dunk.
You're a winner tonight, baby.
You got me next time, Ashley.
[laughs] Yeah, okay.
-You know, it's the first time I feel bad I let you down. -You did.
[Geoffrey] But he is magic with those spices.
The flavors were hella good.
Well, the judges loved my lamb.
Take that, supermodel Ashley Graham.
[audience cheering]