I'm Bobby Flay.
Each week, one brave chef will try to take me down in my house.
-I'm not worried about Bobby. -What?
-[crowd gasps] -Ooh!
This culinary battle is gonna shake down 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.
Round two, I go head to head with the winning contender.
It's their turn to surprise me with their signature dish.
[yelling]
-♪ Friendly competition ♪ -Is that distracting?
This is gonna be the first one I don't finish.
-Flay's in trouble! -Whoo!
-[Bobby] Bottom line... -[exclaims]
...everyone's out to beat me.
All right, I'm ready to bring the house down.
Who's ready to cheer me on tonight?
[cheers and applause]
Please welcome two amazing women,
ready to give me a hard time.
[cheering]
From Food Network, Katie Lee Biegel,
and actress and comedian, the amazing Aisha Tyler.
Ladies, looking good tonight!
All right!
Bobby, I think you have some people who are excited to see you lose tonight.
No, they're just excited to see you guys.
-[Bobby] Welcome. -Thank you!
I mean, we've run into each other, I think,
but it's been a long, long time.
-Yeah, I feel like we've done demos, and cooked together. -[Bobby] Yes.
I mean, you've cooked and I've annoyed you.
-[laughter] -Which is what's gonna happen today!
What are you currently working on these days?
-I started my own cocktail company. -I love that.
The best part is whenever I go to a bar,
it's just research and development, so...
-[laughter] -You can write this off.
-[Aisha] Yeah! -[Bobby] And, uh,
-my good friend Katie. -I'm back!
[Bobby] She's really good at this.
I'm sure you guys have figured out a strategy
-for this evening-- -We're not telling you!
-Okay, fine. You're just gonna get me drunk, obviously. -[Aisha] Very sneaky.
Yeah, I'm just gonna get you lit!
-[laughter] -I'm ready!
All right, so let's bring out some chefs.
[Katie] Our first contender runs one of Houston's
hottest record bars and lounges.
Executive chef, Jeff Potts!
[cheering and applause]
All right!
Our next contender is determined to open New York City's first
Michelin Star Jamaican restaurant.
-Oh, yeah! -[Aisha] Yes!
From Queens, let's hear it for chef Brittney Williams!
[cheering and applause]
Oh!
All right!
Jeff, Brittney, how you doing tonight?
Doing excellent. Got a lot of tricks up my sleeve.
-[Jeff] You're not worried about him, are you? -Absolutely not.
-All right. -[exhales]
-[laughter] -[Bobby] Here's the way it's gonna work.
I'm gonna put 20 minutes on these clocks.
I'm gonna give you an ingredient of my choice.
And you must make that ingredient the star of your dish.
And that ingredient is...
...the Japanese mountain yam.
-[crowd gasping] -So excited about that ingredient.
-Do you use this a lot? -More than you know.
-How do you feel about this? -I'm okay with that.
-'Cause he's very excited. -We have Jamaican yams.
All right guys, 20 minutes.
If you're in a jam,
just use your Japanese mountain yam.
-[bell rings] -[cheering and applause]
[Katie] That's a big yam!
So this Japanese mountain yam.
The outer skin is actually quite hairy.
-So it should be peeled. -[laughter]
[Aisha] Typically, like, yams and sweet potatoes have a drier, fluffier,
more potato-y texture, and this is a little,
I don't wanna say sliminess, but maybe, like,
okra can kind of get.
-That's sliminess. Yeah. -Yeah, slimy!
I would definitely roast it.
I'd spice rub it, I'd crust it,
make a glaze for it.
[Jeff] I worked for a few years in a Japanese restaurant,
and we worked with these yams a lot there.
So I'm making Japanese mountain yam soup,
with ikura, which is salmon roe.
I'm going to blanche some to take away that slimy texture.
Jeff, what are you making?
A potato soup, little bit of Japanese influence.
-We're gonna make it good. We're gonna party. -[laughter]
[Jeff] When I was a kid, my mom was a terrible cook.
Sorry, Mom.
But she'll tell you that I learned out of necessity,
and so I went to culinary school.
From there, I worked in some of the best restaurants in Houston,
but got my crash course in Japanese cuisine
at Shun Japanese Kitchen.
So today, I am the executive chef
at 93' Til in Houston, Texas.
We serve an eclectic mix of a lot of cultures,
and I was nominated rising star chef in Houston by CultureMap.
I am definitely a man on a mission,
and that mission is beating Bobby Flay.
All right Brittney, what do you have going on?
So I'm about to get ready to create this curry.
I think that's a great idea.
[Bobby] The only thing about curry is, like,
it takes a long time to cook the curry out.
[Brittney] I'm making curried yam with braised cabbage.
I grab onions, garlic, and scotch bonnet peppers.
I don't know enough about Jamaican food.
[Bobby] There's lots of curries, lots of tropical fruits, coconut,
it's so good.
I grew up in Queens, New York, baby.
How I got started cooking was because of my mom.
She was a phenomenal cook,
so after culinary school,
I've worked at Mark Forgione,
Eleven Madison Park, And Ludlow House.
Today, I am a private chef and caterer in New York City.
My biggest influence is the little island of Jamaica.
The boldness, the flavors, the people, the vibes.
Beating Bobby will prove
that Jamaican cuisine is one of the best cuisines.
All right, we have just under 16 minutes on the clock!
Chef Brittney, is this a variation on a dish you've done before?
Yes, so, Jamaicans, we always use yams in our cooking.
Are you going creamy at all, with coconut?
That might be a good idea, actually. Thank you.
[laughter]
So for my curry sauce, I use curry powder,
I add canola oil, toasting the curry powder,
so that it cooks through a lot faster.
Then I add the scotch bonnet.
-Hey, how's it going over here? -Excellent!
You think you can do a soup in 13 and a half minutes?
I can do a soup-ish.
Are you worried about Brittney?
Nah, don't be worried about me.
[laughter]
That makes me worry about her a little bit.
[Jeff] I pull my yam and get it into a blender.
I'm adding garlic and shallot,
and my heavy cream just to thicken it up.
I'm gonna say Brittney has the smarter preparation here,
because if she gets that curry flavor right,
it's gonna be bold,
and Jeff said his is almost gonna be like a soup.
I don't want almost something.
[Brittney] I'm making braised cabbage,
because that is the traditional side dish in Jamaican cuisine.
I get it into a saute pan,
with a little bit of onion and scotch bonnet.
And then I blanche my yams
to help remove some of that starchiness.
So I go ahead and add in a bit of chicken stock to my curry sauce,
then I add my aromatics.
I'm gonna go check in on these guys.
[Brittney] Once my yams are blanched,
I go ahead and add add it to my curry sauce.
Brittney, how's it going over here?
It's going pretty good!
[Aisha] I'm both excited and terrified to see
that there's a scotch bonnet pepper.
[Brittney] Don't ever be afraid of the scotch bonnet.
It's sweet, a little bold,
and if you like a little sass, it's your go-to pepper.
Sounds like my college boyfriend.
-[laughter] -I mean...[laughs]
-It smells amazing over here, I'm really excited. -[Brittney] Thank you!
I get my soup into the whipping siphon.
Oh, snap!
Someone's getting molecular!
[Jeff] Running the soup through the siphon will aerate the soup
and give it that light, fluffy texture.
Well, I'll leave you to it.
I don't want you guys to be stressed out.
[audience cheering]
[Jeff] I start with cutting some of the raw yam,
just to add some texture to my soup.
And I add a single charge.
Adding that charge aerates your base.
Ah, only two minutes left!
[Jeff] So I plate the raw yam first.
Uh-oh!
I'm really not happy with the texture.
It seems like the charger is giving him a hard time.
It sounds and feels like it's blocked.
I'm starting to panic.
At this point, I barely have any time left,
and I have no idea what I'm gonna do.
It's too thick.
Come on, baby.
We've got one minute, guys!
It's too thick.
[Jeff] The siphon's blocked.
So I add a second charge to it.
-[liquid splatters] -See, there she is.
[Brittney] First, I put down the cabbage.
And then the curried yam.
[Jeff] I top it with some basil, radishes,
and a little bit of salmon roe.
[all chanting] Ten, nine, eight...
[Brittney] And finish with the microgreens.
[chanting] Five! Four!
Three! Two!
-One! -[bell rings]
[cheering and applause]
Looks like we have two very different dishes here.
[Aisha] All right, chefs.
It's all gonna come down to what you did
with the Japanese mountain yam.
Chef Jeff, tell us what you made.
A Japanese mountain yam "soup."
Topped with a little bit of ikura.
I think you did a great job with texture,
having the crunch of the raw yam
and then the little pop from the salmon roe.
But, there is a lot of raw garlic going in there,
I'm gonna be tasting that tomorrow!
And that garlic just kinda overpowers the yam.
[Aisha] I also agree that the garlic was a little heavy-handed.
But I liked that there was this play
between kind of salty and briny, and the lightness,
-the delicacy of the mountain yam. -Thank you.
Chef Brittney, what did you make for us?
Curried Japanese mountain yam,
with braised napa cabbage.
[Aisha] So I think the thing we were worried about
was whether this was gonna have, like, big curry flavor.
And it definitely does.
That being said, something starchy underneath
would have done a better job of soaking up all that curry deliciousness.
Like Aisha, I would have liked something to soak up that sauce.
But I like the texture that you've got on those yams.
And overall, some good flavor.
So I think that we need to talk it over.
[Brittney] They felt that I needed the bit of starch
for that curry sauce to really soak into.
However, he might have lacked on the flavor.
And the chef moving forward to beat Bobby tonight is...
Chef Brittney.
[cheering and applause]
[Brittney] Good job!
Brittney, get out there and crush it, for the both of us.
Brittney, at the end of the day,
this came down to flavors,
-and I think that you've got that. -Absolutely.
I'm excited for you to give a big old JA punch
to our good friend, Bobby Flay!
-That's all I'm saying! -[applause]
All right Brittney, congratulations.
You know, I've hung out a lot in Jamaica.
Queens.
[laughter]
[Bobby] I love those flavors.
What are we cooking tonight? What's your signature dish?
My signature dish is...
-Jerk snapper. -[audience gasps]
Bobby knows a thing or two about being a jerk.
[laughter]
And we cannot judge this round.
So instead, we have three experts standing by to do a blind taste test.
[Aisha] Forty-five minutes on the clock,
and your time starts now!
[cheering and applause]
[Katie] So, typical jerk seasoning,
we're talking about a mixture of garlic,
thyme, ginger, nutmeg,
-cinnamon, chili. -Mm!
And the jerk seasoning can either be dry or wet.
-[Aisha] I love snapper, too. -[Katie] Yeah.
Light and delicate.
[Katie] I love when you get a spice mixture crusted on fish.
[Brittney] My signature dish is jerk snapper,
stuffed with callaloo and pimento smoked carrots.
The jerk sauce is the most important part of this dish.
It needs to get done first.
I add ginger, garlic, scotch bonnet, thyme,
scallions and onions to a blender.
Then I'm adding my spices.
Nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, pimento.
A little bit of brown sugar, rice wine vinegar,
and soy sauce for the umami.
So, Brittney.
Is that a wet jerk sauce that you're doing right there?
Ooh, yes, it is.
[laughter]
My dream is to open the first Michelin star Jamaican restaurant.
Beating Bobby will prove that it can happen.
[Bobby] I love Jamaican food.
Like a lot of tropical flavors,
you'll find lots of heat.
It's something that I've played around with many times.
So I'm making jerk snapper,
with a mango hot sauce, and also some plantains.
So I'm cooking the mangoes,
and I have some fresh ginger,
scotch bonnet and white wine vinegar,
some tangerine juice, little bit of honey.
-I gotta see what's going on. -Yeah, tell me what's going on over there.
-Just under 39 minutes on the clock! -[applause]
[Katie] Okay, Brittney!
Where did you learn the recipe?
From my mom, and my dad.
[Brittney] Jerk snapper is my signature dish
because it was one of the things that I grew up on.
-[Katie] So what are you doing right now? -[Brittney] The callaloo.
I get onions, garlic, scallion and tomatoes into the pot.
[Brittney] So callaloo is essentially like the Jamaican collard green.
-Let's hear it for Brittney! -[cheering]
[Katie] Yeah!
[Bobby] I'm working on my pickled shallots.
I want that crunch on top of the fish.
I'm using grenadine and red wine vinegar.
[Katie] Bobby, Bobby, Bobby.
I don't see any jerk happening.
-Not yet. -Except...
[laughter]
[Katie chuckling]
[Bobby] Throw it over the sliced shallots.
-Let's not hear it for Bobby. -[laughter]
[Brittney] I have to scale these fish
as quickly as I can.
She's got a whole fish, and she's just scaling them now.
[Katie] And Bobby's using fillets.
[Brittney] I know that filleting the fish will make it cook faster,
but jerk snapper traditionally is supposed to be eaten whole.
I look at the clock and I realize
I need to get this fish in the oven,
like, five minutes ago.
-[Katie] Coming up on 29 minutes! -[cheering and applause]
[Brittney] What makes my version of the jerk snapper so good
is my jerk sauce.
Then I stuff my fish with callaloo,
put a dollop of butter,
a little splash of beer on the inside
and fold it up into the parchment paper.
The beer gives flavor to the fish
and helps it to steam.
[Aisha] So we were worried about the time,
but maybe because of the steam, it might cook a little bit more quickly.
-Smart. Smart move. -Mm-hmm.
[Brittney] Now I need to start on my carrots.
I'm using carrot juice,
coconut milk, with pimento, nutmeg and clove.
And then, I take some of the carrot juice
and add it to the pan.
Boom, boom.
[Bobby] So I'm making plantains.
I slice them, and I start sauteing them in a pan.
-Let's see how we are doing over here. -[applause]
[Aisha] Okay, well, while you're cooking,
I'm gonna make you a beverage,
'cause maybe if you get drunk,
you'll fall apart and then you'll lose.
-[laughter] -[Aisha] I'm gonna make a variation on a negroni,
it's called a negroni sbagliato!
-Oh, yes! That's my favorite! -Nice!
So you do know that my dog's name is Negroni, right?
[Aisha] Oh, snap!
All right, you know what? You won. I'm just gonna drink.
-[laughter] -[Aisha] What's that?
[Bobby] Coriander, ginger.
-Just gonna make a little spice rub. -[Aisha] Oh!
[Bobby] It's, uh, coriander, allspice,
cinnamon, cloves, garlic powder,
cayenne, a little brown sugar.
I like to dry jerk rub, to crust the piece of fish,
'cause it becomes a part of it.
Here's a negroni sbagliato for you.
-Ooh! -[Aisha] Have a sip.
-[Aisha] That's for you, cheers! -Oh, cheers. Thank you.
-[Bobby] Brittney! -[Brittney] Oui?
-Cheers. -All right.
[cheering and applause]
-Barback! Clean that up! -I got it, I got it.
[laughter]
[Bobby] So I'm rubbing the fish with the jerk rub,
and I'm sauteing it in a cast iron pan.
[Katie] We have such different preparations here.
Bobby's doing a dry rub,
and really crispy skin on that snapper.
Bobby, why don't I smell any spices coming from your station?
-[audience] Ooh! -[Aisha] Uh-oh!
-Smells pretty good over here. -I don't know. It's debatable.
[Bobby] So I get a nice crust on the outside,
and then roasting in the oven.
Then after the plantains are cooked,
I make a brown sugar, rum, butter sauce.
-[audience gasps] -[applause]
Why do you guys always clap for flames?
[laughter]
Next, I have to smoke my carrots.
Let's go check this out. We've only got eight minutes on the clock.
[Aisha] Let's see what's happening.
-[Aisha] Is this a smoker? -[Brittney] Yes ma'am.
-[Katie] Oh! -I'm gonna smoke the carrots
in pimento wood.
[both] Wow!
[Brittney] Smoking the carrots in pimento,
it just reinforces all that spicy goodness.
-All right, good luck, Brittney! -Yes, good luck, Brittney!
-Thank you! -[Aisha] We're rooting for you!
-We just came to toast to your defeat. -You did?
-Cheers to that. -Cheers.
-[Aisha] Uh... -[Katie] That looks incredible.
-No it doesn't. -Terrible.
[Katie] It's not a plantain challenge.
[Aisha] All right, good luck.
-Here's to Brittney! -Brittney, everybody!
[cheering and applause]
[Brittney] I am milking every minute
of this clock for these fish to stay in the oven.
[Katie] A minute 30!
[Brittney] I plate my carrots,
and ladle over some of the carrot juice.
[Bobby] So I'm gonna plate the fish now,
some of the hot sauce, some of the pickled shallots.
Brittney, how's it going over there?
-[Aisha] Ooh, look at those! -It's looking good!
My fish look beautiful!
I am serving the fish in the parchment,
because that's just how we eat it in Jamaica.
I grab the blowtorch to give the skin a good once over.
[audience chanting] Ten! Nine!
Eight! Seven!
[Bobby] And then, the rum glazed plantains.
[audience] Four! Three!
Two! One!
-That's it! -[cheering and applause]
Wow!
[Bobby] Brittney's looks very dramatic.
It's big. It's impressive.
Ooh!
[Brittney] Bobby's dish looks bright, it looks good,
but I think mine looks better.
-Did you make extra? -[Bobby] I didn't. You know what happened?
My station was filled with liquor.
[laughing]
[Katie] We know you like to imbibe!
Who would have done that to you?
Brittney, Bobby. We'd like to introduce you to our judges.
The chef/owner of Lolo's Seafood Shack,
Leticia Skai Young.
The executive chef of Lure Fishbar,
Preston Clark.
And the chef/owner of Thaimee Love,
Hong Thaimee.
[cheering and applause]
Judges, please start with the first plate in front of you.
The fish is perfectly cooked.
It's moist on the inside,
and it's crisp on the outside,
and I love that rum in the plantain.
But I would have liked if the sauce was a bit less sweet.
It's vibrant, and the heat in the sauce
is really, like, a punch.
But the fish I think is a little bit under seasoned.
[Preston] I like the acid, the way the acid kinda cuts
through the sweetness of the plantains.
And the heat in the, uh, sauce is delicious.
It could use a little bit of salt.
There's a lot of sweet components.
All right, judges. Please try the second plate.
I love the presentation of this dish.
It seems very authentic to me,
I mean, I love the callaloo,
and the carrots are a nice touch.
The only thing is with the fish,
it could be cooked a little bit more evenly.
I'm a fan of rustic way of serving,
so I definitely like the presentation,
and the stuffing I think is just great.
But the fish, unfortunately, is too under for me.
I really love the technique of cooking it in the parchment.
Much of it is very moist.
I think the carrots are a nice touch.
Um, I would have loved to see it a little bit more incorporated as a dish,
versus just, like, on the side.
But, uh, phenomenal dish nonetheless.
All right judges, we're gonna ask you to take a vote.
I definitely wish I had time to get that fish in the oven sooner.
Thank you.
[Brittney] I'm just hoping that my flavors
are what really propels me to get this win.
And the winner is...
Chef Bobby Flay!
[cheering and applause]
[Brittney] I'm a little disappointed,
however I am extremely proud of myself.
I chose the dish because you had the rum,
you had the heat, we have the pickled vegetables,
so I loved all of that and how it came together.
Thank you Brittney, thank you!
Bobby, whenever you're ready to go to Jamaica, come through.
And I'm not talking about Jamaica, Queens,
I'm talking about Kingston, Jamaica!
Clearly, I have to make the drinks a lot stronger when I come back.
-Yes, you do. -[laughter]
-[Aisha] Oh, my god. -[Katie] Always?
I did my best!
[Katie] Tell you what. You make a mean drink.
It did soften the blow a little bit when he won.
My fish had the judges saying,
oh, snap...er!
[cheering and applause]