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?
-Ooh. -[Bobby] 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. -[man] Yo!
-♪ Friendly competition♪ -Is that distracting?
-This is gonna be the first one I don't finish. -Flay's in trouble.
-Whoo! -[Bobby] Bottom line...
-No! -...everyone's out to beat me.
[bell ringing]
All right. No matter what they throw at me,
I'm rolling with it tonight. Let's do this.
Please welcome two people
who are not gonna go easy on me tonight.
The very funny actress, Ellie Kemper,
and chef, Michael Voltaggio.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
-[grunting] -[crowbar clattering]
I'm here to beat up Bobby Flay!
No, that's not the name of the show.
-It's just beat... It's a cooking show. -[Bobby] It's Beat Bobby Flay.
-[Michael] It's like a competition. -[chuckles]
Ellie, of course we know you from The Office.
And then you were also on Kimmy Schmidt.
-Yeah. -Yeah, I got a mention in that show.
Yes, you did. But do you remember the line?
It was not very, um, positive about me.
But I didn't care, it was really funny.
Jane delivered the line. You know, it's about her being single.
And it was something about like,
"I can do this, this, or date Bobby Flay."
-[laughing] -It was like, it was like...
That's a beautiful shoutout,
and, you know, Tina Fey is your biggest fan.
-Tina was here, too. Yeah. -I know she was.
-This bright and cheery stuff, it's not... -[laughs]
-I know. I know. -This isn't the right place for that.
We're here to beat Bobby, remember?
-Crowbar. Crowbar. -Okay. Crowbar. Crowbar mentality.
Let's bring out some chefs.
[Michael] So, our first contender, he's a Southern boy,
but there's nothing down home about his cooking.
Please welcome, Travis McGinty.
[audience cheering]
[chuckles]
[Ellie] Well, I hope you had your coffee, Bobby,
because our next contender is known
as the brunch queen of Atlanta.
-Okay. -Suzanne Vizethann.
[audience cheering]
Good evening, Travis, Suzanne, how you doing tonight?
You're gonna remember my name when I leave here today.
-Really? Okay. -[audience] Ooh.
-[chuckles] -[Bobby] Here's the way it's gonna work.
I'm gonna put 20 minutes on the clock.
I'm gonna give you an ingredient of my choice.
And you must make that ingredient the star of your dish.
And tonight's ingredient is, one of my favorites...
poblano peppers.
-Ooh. -[audience applauding]
All right.
-You know what you're gonna do with this? -I'm thinking.
-How do you feel about this? -Uh, I feel okay.
Man. The confidence went right down the drain.
All right, guys. Put some pep in your step
-and get after these poblanos. -[bell ringing]
[audience cheering]
-[electricity buzzing] -[metal clanking]
Poblanos, it's a great starter chile.
It's got heat, but not crazy heat.
This chile is its own vehicle.
So, you can stuff it, like a chile rellenos.
And if you have a dried poblano,
it becomes an ancho chile.
-Like a raisin to a grape. -Yes. Exactly right.
[Michael] I hope that they connect those two ingredients,
make an oil or something out of the ancho.
Travis, what are you making?
[Travis] I'm doing a stuffed poblano pepper
with chorizo and a mascarpone crema.
Sounds delicious.
The easiest thing that you can do to impart some flavor, is to stuff it.
And roasting the poblano
will give it that char that it needs.
[Ellie] So, Travis, he's known for his Mediterranean-inspired,
New American food.
-Big flavors. -[Ellie] Yeah.
Growing up on a military base in Gulfport, Mississippi,
my father was always on deployment,
and my mom worked a lot of hours in the hospital.
So, I was always fending for myself in the kitchen.
I moved to New York to attend culinary school.
And then, worked at neighborhood gems, such as Celestine.
Which led me down the Mediterranean avenue.
Now I am the executive chef of Ten Hope in Brooklyn.
Serving up New American, Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.
A win over Bobby would prove that this country boy
can cook with the big dogs from New York City.
[Suzanne] Poblanos aren't really my thing.
And so I'm deciding to lean into breakfast
and do something that's more familiar to me.
Suzanne, what are you making?
Poblano romesco sauce on a toast with a egg.
-Green chiles and eggs, all day. -Yeah, right.
Next, I take my chopped onion and garlic
and get that going under the salamander.
-The brunch queen of Atlanta. -[Ellie] Yeah.
[Suzanne] Growing up in Atlanta, I just
always wanted to help out in the kitchen,
just kinda was like, "Okay. I love this."
So, after culinary school,
with a passion for breakfast,
my best friend and I opened The Hungry Peach.
I then became a Chopped champion.
Thank y'all so much.
That gave me the confidence
to open my own restaurant
Today, I'm the chef and owner of Buttermilk Kitchen.
I love taking familiar dishes,
and putting my own spin on them.
If I win today, it's just gonna be ultimate bragging rights.
So, Bobby, this queen of brunch has arrived,
so it's time to wake up.
-Okay, Suzanne. Are those piquillo peppers? -[Suzanne] Yup.
-Little bit of breadcrumbs. -More poblano than piquillo, right?
-[Suzanne] Yes. Right. -[Michael] Are you gonna beat our chef over here?
He doesn't stand a chance.
-[chuckles] -Whoo!
-How's it going, Chef? -[Michael] What's the tea?
[Travis] So, I have some chorizo cooking right here.
I'm gonna infuse this into the chorizo as well.
So there's gonna be peppers throughout every little aspect of this dish.
-[Michael] So, you're gonna stuff it. -[Travis] Yes.
-And then that's mascarpone? -[Travis] Mascarpone, buttermilk, and some crema.
Anyone using any anchos?
Anchos? No.
-But that's a very good idea. -We we're just talking, you know...
-No, no. -...maybe a little ancho oil.
I don't know, you guys do whatever you want. I'm gonna go back here.
-[audience chuckling] -Thirteen minutes, chefs.
[Suzanne] So, I make a poblano cream.
I take heavy cream and then add charred poblanos into it
so it can infuse.
So, I've got my poblanos, my onions, and my garlic,
and I throw it all into the blender to make a sauce.
With sherry vinegar, piquillo peppers,
breadcrumbs and just a little bit of olive oil.
[Michael] I'm a little nervous about Suzanne's romesco though,
because I would almost leave the piquillos out
-and just make the romesco out of the... -No. I like the idea
that it's a green chile romesco.
[Michael] And then, I like Travis' approach,
with the chorizo. I just hope that that flavor
-doesn't overtake the poblano flavor. -[Ellie] Mmm-hmm.
[Travis] The chorizo with the crema, has to come together.
The crema's gonna absorb it
and it's gonna season every single thing as it gets mixed.
So, now we're gonna listen to Chef Michael
and do some ancho oil.
I used the dehydrated ancho chilies
and blend them up with a canola oil and olive oil.
[blender whirring]
[Suzanne] I grab sourdough bread.
It's gonna hold up to that sauce.
-Seven minutes! -[audience cheering]
-[Ellie] Hi, Suzanne. -Hi, would you like to taste the sauce?
-I would love to taste the sauce. Is this me? Okay. -[Suzanne] Go ahead.
Tell me if it needs anything.
[Ellie] I love that. There's a little bit of spice.
It's sweet. I love that.
Travis, she's got a great sauce going on here.
I bet she does.
-Well, you won the bet because she does. -[audience laughing]
[Travis] I'm gonna start filling my peppers.
I gave myself a little bit extra time for plating
because presentation is key.
-Is it... Oh, can I just do that? Okay. -Yeah, straight up.
Um, that's delicious.
So, the good news is I think one of you is gonna beat Bobby tonight.
-[Travis] Hopefully, it's me. -[Suzanne] Come on.
I have to start frying my eggs.
[Michael] I mean, does Suzanne's toast
scream poblano enough,
going up against Travis' stuffed pepper?
-I'm a sucker for an egg on anything. -Yeah.
Two minutes! Get it on the plate!
[Suzanne] I take my bread out of the salamander,
it looks great.
I add my poblano romesco sauce,
and my sunny-side up egg.
Then, I add some more poblanos.
[Travis] I wanna hit it with that ancho chile oil.
-[Bobby] Ten. -[Ellie] Nine.
[Travis] I top it with mustard frill greens.
[Suzanne] And finish it off with a little bit of the poblano cream.
-[audience] Three. Two. One! -[Ellie] Three. Two. One.
-[bell ringing] -[audience cheering]
[Travis] Texturally, I hit it on the mark.
Taste-wise, it's on the mark.
It looks absolutely amazing.
[Suzanne] I look over at Travis' dish,
the poblano is like the main vehicle.
But I've used the poblano three ways.
So, game on, Travis.
[bell ringing]
All right, chefs. I gotta say nothing gives me more pleasure,
than seeing Bobby lose.
[audience chuckling]
Chef Travis, what did you make?
The stuffed and roasted poblano,
with chorizo and a mascarpone crema.
[Michael] The presentation is stunning.
Love the oil. I don't know where you got that idea from,
-but it was a good one. -I don't know. [chuckles]
[Michael] The chorizo was sort of big.
I would've maybe preferred it to be, like, diced.
So that when you mix the crema and the chorizo,
it felt more like they were friends.
Yeah. I thought the chorizo was a little bit big.
But I love the symphony of flavors
that's in my mouth right now.
The poblano is definitely the star of this dish.
Suzanne, what did you make?
I did a roasted poblano romesco sauce
with toast and a sunny egg.
I really love the combination of the toast,
sunny egg and peppers.
It's a nice variety, I feel, of textures.
I think that poblano toast could be, like, the new avocado toast.
-You kinda nailed that. -[chuckles]
For me, the poblano flavor in the romesco got slightly diluted.
So, I would've maybe just pulled back a little bit on the vinegar.
So, Ellie and I are gonna discuss.
[Suzanne] My mind is always overthinking, what could I have done better?
But Michael calls my toast the new avocado toast,
and that's pretty cool.
The chef moving forward, to beat Bobby tonight is...
Chef Travis.
-[audience cheering] -Hey, good job.
Good job. Good job.
I obviously wish the decision went the other way.
But, I had fun. It was an awesome learning experience.
Travis, that was honestly one of the best
first round dishes I've tasted here.
-Thank you, chefs. -It is the only first round dish I've tasted here,
-but it's really good. It was really good. -[all chuckling]
[electricity buzzing]
[Bobby] All right, Travis, congratulations.
How do you feel about round two?
I feel like it's gonna go my way.
-Really? -I think so.
What are we cooking tonight? What's your signature dish?
My signature dish is...
-shakshuka. -Shakshuka.
Oh, very good.
Can't remember if we've done that dish here before.
Bobby, why can't you remember? Do you think your memory's going?
Oh, absolutely. I don't remember what happened in the first round.
[Ellie] Okay.
[Michael] To make it fair, we've got three experts
that will pick the winner in a blind taste test.
[Ellie] Forty-five minutes on the clock.
And your time starts now.
[audience cheering]
-[electricity buzzing] -[metal clanging]
[Michael] So, shakshuka is a North African dish.
-Okay. -It's basically a tomato stew.
It has chilies, garlic, paprika, cumin.
And then you either put, like, poached eggs,
-or crack them on top of the stew. -Mmm-hmm.
So they're almost like sunny-side up.
It really is like a one-pot dish though.
Delicious.
Travis, why shakshuka?
Well, it's a staple of our restaurant on the weekends.
You're putting pork belly in the shakshuka?
It's very non-traditional,
but it pays an homage to where I grew up.
So, I'm pretty much marrying two worlds.
You don't need flyer miles for that.
My shakshuka is a little bit different,
because the pork belly and collard greens
gives it that Southern flair.
-Shakshuka! -[chuckles]
I think Shakshuka is one of the world's great brunch dishes.
My approach is a little more traditional than Travis'.
So, the first thing I'm gonna do is get my sauce made,
'cause it needs to cook for a while.
So, onions, garlic, I put some harissa in there.
Hey, Bobby, did you just add
an entire jar of harissa?
-Two jars. -[Michael] That's spicy though.
It's a chile paste in North African cuisine,
and if you put too much, it can be too hot.
-All right. I'm gonna go see what's up. -Please do.
[Michael] Thirty-seven minutes, chefs.
-Travis, Travis, Travis. -[Travis] Chef.
What is going on?
-You need these peeled? -Yeah. No, please.
So, what's the plan?
[Travis] We're gonna get the pork belly on to the sauté pan,
let it render out a lot of its fat.
What do you think about Bobby's ability to beat you?
He's beaten a lot of people before, but he's never beaten me.
Ha-ha. Oh.
What is Travis gonna do?
[all] Beat Bobby Flay!
[Bobby] I start cooking some merguez sausage,
which is a spicy lamb sausage.
You put two jars of harissa in there?
-[Bobby] It's very spicy. -It is? Is that intentional?
-Uh, no. [chuckles] -[audience chuckling]
I'll work on it.
[Bobby laughs] Yeah.
[Michael] All right. Bobby is gonna bring the heat, apparently.
But, not in a good way, Travis, so I think you're fine.
-His stuff's a little spicy. -Very spicy.
-[Ellie] Smells good. -Yeah, I mean,
Travis has a really interesting approach.
-He's got his pork belly, he's got some peppers charred. -[Ellie] Yup.
He's really making it a Southern-inspired shakshuka.
Bobby's going with very traditional flavors. It's quite spicy.
-[Ellie] Mmm-hmm. -[Michael] So, for him to get that flavor balanced
in the next 33 minutes, it's gonna be a challenge.
-Okay. Well, good. -[chuckles]
It's definitely got a lot of heat to it.
I chop up some piquillo peppers,
I just want that sweet red pepper flavor in there as well.
And then I add some honey,
uh, to just kinda quell all the big flavors.
[Ellie] Did he just add honey?
He's trying to get rid of the heat.
-Oh, so that was honey. -Adding something sweet...
-Oh, interesting. -...is gonna...
That's because he's panicking.
-[Ellie] I see the beads of sweat. -He's like, "What else
-can I put in here, like..." -Yeah. Right. Right. Right. [chuckles]
[no audio]
[both chuckling]
[bell ringing]
Coming up on 29 minutes.
[Travis] In my shakshuka sauce we have the tomatoes,
cumin, clove, harissa,
and then the bell peppers.
[food processor whirring]
Travis, what spices are you using?
-Cumin, coriander, some ginger. -Keep going.
-[Travis] Oh, yeah. -[audience chuckling]
You understand you just told Bobby what to put in shakshuka, right?
-I'm just being inspired. -Well, all right. [chuckles]
I add cloves, some cumin, and some coriander.
And then I'm making compound butter with feta cheese.
and unsalted butter.
You know, Bobby's got the baguette out there,
so I'm assuming we're gonna get toasted bread.
Which is obviously a good side dish
to sort of soak up all those flavors.
[Ellie] Twenty-seven minutes!
Okay.
-[Bobby] Do you like spicy food? -I like spicy food
-that's cooked well. -[chuckles]
-[Bobby] You wanna taste it? -[Ellie] Yeah, I'll taste it.
-Is there a pail for me to throw up in? -Yes. Right here.
Okay. Okay. Good.
Oh, no. It is kind of good.
It's kinda good. But there's a lot of time left for you to mess this up.
So, and I have faith that you will.
-Okay, Travis. Is there anything I can try? -Yes.
Here you are.
Ooh!
That is so good, Travis!
-Whoo! -Thank you so much.
That is amazing!
Well, my job is done. Travis clearly has this.
Thank you so much.
[Ellie] Good job, Travis.
Keep walking.
[Travis] The collards are done. I'm gonna strain them.
Once the collards go into the rendered pork fat,
I'm gonna slice and dice the pork belly.
And then, I'm gonna add shallot and a minced garlic.
[Michael] Travis' approach with the pork belly and the greens,
-I hope the judges are just wowed by how good it tastes. -[Ellie] Mmm-hmm.
And don't necessarily hold him accountable for breaking tradition.
[Travis sighing] All right.
[Bobby] So, I plate the sauce into a earthenware dish,
that can go in the oven.
-I'm gonna go check in again. -I don't blame you.
[Michael] All right, chefs, 14 minutes to go.
[Bobby] And then I put the eggs in.
Uh, just give me a second.
-Is it hot? -Travis.
-I think you're okay. -[audience laughing]
It's actually really, really flavorful though.
-It's hot, sweet, spicy, annoying. -[Bobby chuckles]
I want the eggs to just finish cooking in the tomato sauce.
-[Michael] Travis. -[Travis] Yes, Chef.
-[Michael] Is this room temp right now? -[Travis] Yes, Chef.
Do you think you should get it hot together, like, in the pot
and then put it in there and put it back in the oven?
It should have enough time for everything to kind of marry together.
[Michael] Good luck, 10 minutes to go.
[Travis] I'm gonna ladle the sauce in.
I hit it with the collard greens and the pork belly.
I'm gonna crack open the eggs on top.
Once that's all encompassed, it goes right into the oven.
So, Travis, what are you serving on the side?
Crispy, crunchy, buttery bread.
-Well, good. [chuckles] -Well, great.
[Travis] To toast the bread, I get the skillets nice and hot
with butter and canola oil.
I'm gonna slather the toast with the feta butter.
And then, I'm making breadcrumbs with a little cotija cheese.
What are you doing with those?
I'm just gonna sprinkle them on top.
Do you think that's a good idea?
[Michael] I feel like he's adding some things there
-to sort of mute the spice. -Mmm-hmm.
[Bobby] And then I'm gonna put them in the salamander,
just to give it a little bit of crustiness with the breadcrumbs.
Travis, two minutes and 30 seconds. We gonna be okay, Chef?
[Travis] Just gotta do a little improvisation.
[grunts] Oven's not quite working.
-Travis' eggs still aren't cooked. -[gasps]
[Travis] The eggs have to cook in the shakshuka,
because that's the pivotal point of this dish.
[Michael] This was point, I was asking him, like,
-why don't you cook everything together in the pot... -[Ellie] I know.
...put it in there, crack the eggs on top, and get it in.
-You would have all that heat to sort of... -Right.
-[man] Whoo! -[pan clattering]
[audience cheering]
-You feel good? -We'll see.
Time just got away from me.
All I can do is hope and pray that everything comes out right.
[bell ringing]
Two minutes, guys.
-I'm a little nervous. -I'm very nervous.
-[grunts] -[audience cheering]
Whoa!
Transformation!
I mean, those eggs are cooked, but not enough.
[Travis] I'm gonna play an audible right now.
We're gonna try and torch these things and see if it works.
[Bobby] So, finishing my plate,
I take them out of the salamander,
and then just I garnish it with the toast with the feta.
[audience] Ten. Nine.
[all] Eight.
[Travis] I have the nice goat cheese and I have some mint.
The herb and the cheese will help cool down some of that harissa.
[audience] Two. One!
[audience cheering]
Looks good, man.
And now, we're gonna introduce you to the judges.
Chef, restauranteur, and consultant,
Brian Duffy.
Chef and cookbook author, Aliya LeeKong.
The owner and operator of The Fox & Falcon,
David Massoni.
Judges, please start with the first dish.
This feta butter on the bread is out of this world.
The tomato sauce is cooked down really well.
But little bit too much heat for me.
Getting a little bit more of that harissa.
[Aliya] The harissa adds beautiful heat
and I actually feel like it's a great level of heat.
There's just lovely seasoning at every level in here.
I wish my egg was just a little bit more runny.
[David] The sauce is amazing and feta butter is
what I'm putting on bread from now on.
The egg just was overcooked.
Judges, please try the second dish.
[David] Great ideas here.
I love the idea of pork belly and collards.
But much like the first dish, the eggs aren't perfect.
[Aliya] So, I love a good twist on a classic.
So, you crossed worlds here and I think that's such a cool idea.
But, these eggs were just not cooked enough at all.
[Brian] The sauce, it's got a really good tomato flavor to it,
a good amount of fat that's in there from that pork belly.
The mint is really great, it cools that heat down.
Unfortunately, over here, we had that egg that was a little bit overcooked,
here we have an egg that's undercooked.
All right, judges. Thank you so much for your feedback.
-Now it's time to vote. -All right.
[Travis] Chef Bobby Flay had a overcooked egg.
I had an undercooked egg.
It's all gonna come down to the sauce.
And the winner is...
Bobby Flay.
[audience cheering]
[dry heaving]
This, the way that the sauce came together,
layering, in a really, really fast way,
that's why I chose that dish.
[Travis] Of course, you throw that thing
into the oven a little bit earlier
so that the eggs had time to cook.
I mean, that's where it killed me.
But this experience has been absolutely fantastic.
I should've used that crowbar when I had the chance. Okay?
-Thanks, Ellie. -[Ellie] I definitely wanna come back for revenge.
I feel like I didn't do my job right. He won.
I had the judges shook with my shakshuka.