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.
This culinary battle is going to 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!
Two people that know me well will decide
who's got the skills to beat me.
Yeah!
Round two, I go head to head with the winning contender.
It's their turn to surprise me with their signature dish.
-Franzino! -Is that distracting?
-You're done. -This is going to be the first one I don't finish.
-Flay's in trouble! -Woo!
-Bottom line... -No!
...everyone's out to beat me.
All right, don't count me out, 'cause I'm just getting started.
Let's do this.
Please welcome two friends who will stop at nothing
to get me beat.
Food Network's Scott Conant and Sunny Anderson.
[exclaiming]
Come on! Yeah! Yeah!
What's up?
How you doing?
Yeah! What's up?
Bring it up! Bring it up!
Are y'all ready to beat Bobby Flay?
[all] Yeah!
I said, are y'all ready to beat Bobby Flay tonight?
-[all] Yeah! -Well, get on then.
[all cheering]
Sunny Anderson is in the house.
[Sunny] Oh, hey, Bobby.
-How you doing? -I'm good.
-How are you? -I'm doing good.
-Hey, Scotty. -Nice to see you.
That was like the Derek Jeter, like, farewell game tour
around the stadium you just did.
That was like the preamble to your losing tonight, okay?
What it looks like right before you go down, Bobby.
That's what I'm talking about, y'all!
[all cheering]
-Oh. -[laughs]
You guys ready to bring on some chefs?
-Yes. -[Bobby] Okay.
[Sunny] She may have opened the first Pakistani restaurant in Charleston,
but she'll be the last one standing tonight.
-Oh, really? -Chef Maryam Ghaznavi.
[all cheering]
That's right, girl.
That's right.
Bobby, our next contender was named Portland Chef of the Year
in honor of his Indian soul food.
Give it up for Chef Deepak Kaul.
[all cheering]
-Yeah! -Two fighters.
We got this.
Maryam, Deepak, welcome. How are you guys doing tonight?
-Good. Thank you. -[Deepak] Great.
-[Bobby] Feeling good? -Absolutely.
-Thank you. -Okay.
Here's the way it's going to work.
I'm going to give you an ingredient of my choice,
and you must make that ingredient the star of your dish.
And that ingredient is pine nuts.
Woo!
-Wow. -That's a tough one.
Yeah.
Deepak, when I revealed the pine nuts, you didn't look very happy.
-You're right. -[Bobby] Okay.
[all laughing]
-How are you feeling about this? -Uh, same.
-Really? -Okay.
These two people behind me, they'll decide which one of
you goes up against me in the second round.
20 minutes on the clock.
Don't leave these guys pining for the nuts.
-[bell dings] -Here we go.
Here we go.
Bobby, you threw him a loop with the pine nuts.
Not an easy ingredient. They're very buttery.
They're super buttery.
-They're so rich. -Yeah.
The challenge with the pine nut is normally
it's a great supporting actor.
Can you do, like, hummus where it's mostly pine nuts
and it's got some chickpeas and tahini and stuff like that
so that the pine nuts are forward?
They're going to be creamy if you puree them.
I would take it. That's why he's Bobby Flay.
-Ladies and gentlemen, world-renowned Bobby Flay. -Thank you.
You should have it.
-You should have it. -Pine nut king.
You should have some TV shows or something.
Yeah.
[woman's voice] Let's go.
[Scott] Maryam has eggplant, which can kind of support
those pine nuts.
Part of my life I spent in Saudi Arabia.
That's the one place I remember seeing pine nuts
topped on a dish.
I'm making baba ghanoush
with roasted pine nuts and tortilla chips.
16 minutes.
-How are you? -It's nice to see you.
-Same here. -What are you making?
-What are you building? -I'm going to be making
-my take on a baba ghanoush, topping with the pine nuts. -I love it.
[Maryam] Baba ghanoush is actually
a aromatic dip made with roasted eggplants,
tahini, and tons of olive oil.
So how are you going to put this together, this baba ghanoush?
It's going to be a baba ghanoush
with my Pakistani spices.
I'm going to go kick through it with the roasted pine nuts
on top with olive oil.
Nice. I like that.
-Thank you. -Well done.
You guys like that baba ghanoush idea?
[all] Yeah!
-That's good stuff. -Okay.
I first learned to cook with my grandmother in Pakistan.
We would sit on the floor, grind the spices together.
So my heart was left in that kitchen.
My husband and I moved to Charleston, South Carolina.
We missed our Pakistan cuisine, so that's when
I did my first pop-up.
Today, I am the executive chef and owner of
Malika Canteen and Ma'am Saab.
The very first Pakistani restaurant in all of South Carolina.
There is not enough representation
of female Pakistani chefs.
So to beat Bobby would definitely be a validation and an honor.
How are you, sir? What do you got going on here?
-I'm picking up a little meatballs. -Meatballs.
[Deepak] In Kashmiri food, there's a meatball that
we make that we put almonds and dried fruit in.
So I'm making a pork and beef spiced meatball
with pine nuts, garlic powder,
some ginger powder, paprika powder,
dried fruit, and a veal demi-glace.
[Scott] So you got the pine nuts inside the meat,
and you're going to put some on top?
I think I got this spot burning as we speak.
Is that what that smell is?
Something about those pine nuts, they get away
from you really quickly, right?
-Yeah, they do. -When you got them in the oven.
Those look perfect.
-Beautiful. -Thank you, Chef.
-Legit. -Legit is right.
Legit stuff.
[Deepak] My family is from Kashmir, India, and that's the source
of my culinary influence.
I moved to Portland, Oregon in 2016 and opened Bhuna.
It's mainly focused on Kashmiri Hindu cooking.
I'm proud of it, and it's a good way
to sort of help change conversation around Indian food.
There's more to it than what we have been sort of putting forth.
I've been cooking for, like, 25-plus years.
I feel ready. Bobby is obviously a force to be dealt with,
and he will be dealt with today.
[Scott] Chefs, 13 minutes and 40 seconds.
Chef Deepak is doing a meatball.
He has some dried cherries and apricots, pine nuts
that he's roasted he's putting inside the meat.
There's so much good fat inside those pine nuts.
That's a love letter to me. I love it.
-They're going to be crunchy. -A little savory and sweet.
-That's a very sophisticated meatball. -Yeah.
Most people are looking for, like, that classic meatball.
[Scott] Yes, exactly.
I've actually made those kind of meatballs here and lost.
-Really? -Oh, yeah.
'Cause I love that, too.
And I like the idea of the baba ghanoush.
She's going to put the pine nuts inside.
Baba ghanoush is like the go-to thing, so.
Yeah.
I'm sauteing my onions along with some Thai chilies
and turmeric.
Seven minutes to go.
I'll put the meatballs in the fryer so
they're golden brown on the outside.
What's going on, Deepak?
Oh, you know, trying to stay focused.
And then I poured the reduced red wine
into my sauce to give it a little more acidity to balance out
the richness of the veal stock.
-Quick little sauce. -This tastes like prune juice to me.
It's really good. You've got, like, five minutes.
Five minutes, Deepak!
Yeah!
[Maryam] I checked the eggplants, and they look good.
They aren't all the way done,
so I diced fresh Roma tomatoes.
But then I realized that I have cut my finger,
so I had to stop.
I have blood coming out of my finger.
-You have blood coming out of your thumb? -Finger.
Oh, no.
Maryam cut herself really badly.
Really?
[Maryam] I'm really getting worried now because my eggplants
are not even done.
I still have to roast my pine nuts.
It's crucial. Like, every minute counts.
Breathe for me, okay?
[Maryam] And I'm running out of time.
That is frustrating.
[Sunny] Less than five minutes!
[Maryam] Since I've lost so much time tending to the wounds,
my plan is to use a manual masher to mash the eggplants
versus having to go for a food processor.
[Sunny] So talk to me. Are you okay over here?
-Yeah. -That's okay.
I cut myself on Chopped and still won, honey, so you got this.
[all cheering]
Two minutes left.
[Deepak] So now I start plating my dish.
Put the two meatballs in each one,
sprinkle the toasted pine nuts.
At this point, I'm just throwing the pine nuts in with the eggplants.
And then grab my flour tortillas,
drop them in the fryer.
[Deepak] I spoon the sauce on top of the meatball
and garnish it with some hunter grass.
30 seconds.
I am not crazy about how they look right now,
but I take the baba ghanoush,
put it in the middle of the plate.
-Nine, eight, seven, six... -[Maryam] And last, I add
-the fried tortillas to the plate. -...five, four,
three, two, one.
[all cheering]
Good job. Good job, chefs. Way to go.
[Sunny] Wow.
Chefs, I really think we have a chance tonight.
Bobby doesn't know how to do this.
Ultimately, it all comes down to what you did with the pine nuts.
Chef Maryam, what did you make?
I made a baba ghanoush with roasted pine nuts
served with tortilla chips.
First of all, congratulations on finishing a round
where you cut yourself pretty awesome.
What I love about this is the spice kick.
It's just that back of mouth like, oh, surprise.
She knows what's up.
I think that the pine nuts are kind of tossed in
just to kind of be there.
And you know I love fried food.
This is just a little bit too greasy.
Yeah, so I really like the cook on the eggplant itself.
It's cooked all the way through.
I agree that it's a little greasy overall.
It makes it kind of one-dimensional
with just that spice and the oils.
Understood. Thank you.
Chef Deepak, what did you make?
I made a pork and beef meatballs with pine nuts
and some veal demi-glace.
[Scott] Your sauce work here is quite nice.
It really creates a moisture content
that the meatballs are kind of lacking.
But the key is obviously the usage of the pine nuts.
And I think that there's a lot on the plate.
I think that it was so smart of you to first fry it,
then do a little bath in the sauce
so it can kind of soak it up.
Your sauce, it didn't get that consistency that
you actually want in a sauce, which is a nice viscosity.
The meatball alone is missing a little bit of
-salt and seasoning. -Okay.
[Maryam] I'm pleased that my spices were able to come through
the dish, even with all the challenges.
My hope is that the judges consider
the extraordinary circumstances I had.
[Sunny] The chef moving forward is...
Chef Deepak.
[all clapping and cheering]
I learned that I should not use a brand new knife
for the first time on camera.
But I'm very proud that I was able to represent
Pakistani female chefs who bring a lot of strength to the kitchen.
[Sunny] What's up, chef?
The flavors were just so exciting.
And what you did with the dried fruit, I just love it.
You have the skills to beat Bobby tonight.
You heard that, Bobby?
-Yeah, I heard it. -Okay.
[laughs]
[Bobby] All right, Chef, good job.
Pine nuts was a very, very tough ingredient.
I'm curious as to what we're cooking tonight.
My signature dish today is lamb Rogan Josh.
-[all] Ooh. -What?
So lamb Rogan Josh, we cook the lamb
in [indistinct] spices and yogurt.
And we kind of slow cook it down.
-Like a lamb stew? -Lamb stew.
-Have you cooked it before? -No.
Good.
On that note, 45 minutes on the clock,
and your time starts now.
[all cheering]
This is a curried lamb dish of Kashmiri origin.
-This lamb is stewed in coriander and yogurt. -[Sunny] Yogurt.
-Yeah. -Spices and ginger.
-It's just like flavor on top of flavor inside the meat. -So good.
There's got to be rice, some bread to push
into that sauce. You know what I'm saying?
[Scott] You want to use the bread as a utensil to grab
a big chunk of that in the sauce and just eat it down.
[Deepak] My signature dish is the Kashmiri Lamb Rogan Josh.
It's a very special dish to me.
It is something that I grew up eating with my family.
First thing I do is I break down the lamb.
And traditionally, you can add cinnamon, chili powder,
ground cardamom, ground cloves,
and some fennel powder.
The next step, we add whole spices to the rice
because it perfumes the dish.
Deepak used a lamb leg.
Bobby used a lamb shoulder.
Lamb shoulder has such great tenderness.
There's really nice fat content.
A lamb leg.
-Tends to be a little bit more muscular. -[Sunny] Yeah.
[Scott] Needs to be braised a longer amount of time.
It must be going in a pressure cooker.
-There's a pressure cooker on the station. -Okay, here we go.
And I'm sure that Bobby has one as well.
[Bobby] I was definitely inspired by Deepak's dried fruits
in round one.
So I'm making lamb Rogan Josh with crispy rice
that has apricots and sour cherries and toasted almonds.
And I'm serving that with seasoned naan.
Right away, I start working with the lamb shoulder.
So I'm seasoning it with turmeric,
chili de arbol, and Maja's curry powder.
And then I get my onions, garlic, ginger,
in the pressure cooker, a little bit of coconut milk.
That might not be classic in this dish,
but I need something to chill out the spices.
Bobby just opened coconut milk.
What is he thinking over there?
Is he in Thailand or something?
In general, with Indian cooking, yogurt is utilized
in place of what Bobby is doing with the coconut milk.
Chefs, you are just under 27 minutes.
-What's going on, man? -I'm good, man.
-You doing all right? -The rice is going.
The lamb is in the pressure cooker doing its thing.
-What are the flavors? -I see some cardamom.
I put a little turmeric, green cardamom,
-black cardamom, cloves. -I think at the end of the day,
-if you're cooking from your heart... -Yeah.
that's the most important thing.
I couldn't agree with you more.
All right, chef. Good luck.
Let's hear it for Deepak, please, guys.
Beautiful.
Bobby Flay.
I think there's some concern that you're taking
-a trip to Thailand. -Why would anybody think that?
[Scott] There is coconut milk.
That's my secret ingredient.
I'm going to finish it with yogurt, but I put
the coconut milk in to chill out the spices a little bit.
Got it. Got it.
So, and what are you going to do with the dried cherries
-and the apricots? -So that's going to go into the rice.
I'm going to crisp this open the pan.
Excuse me, Bobby?
Bobby, are you going to crispy rice right now?
Bobby, talk to me!
Bobby, please don't crispy rice!
-Bobby, no! -[all laughing]
[Scott] 21 minutes and 20 seconds.
♪ I'm feeling hyped up Got the fire inside ♪
You know, Bobby, this is how I know
when you know you're losing. You bring out the crispy rice.
And I don't like that in you, Bobby.
I don't like that at all, okay?
She's lost her mind.
Y'all please, no crispy rice.
[all chanting] No crispy rice. No crispy rice.
How dare you, Bobby?
[laughing]
Now talk to me about Deepak, because I don't care about Bobby.
[Scott] He is making some delicious rice.
Cardamom inside. He has whole cloves inside.
He has turmeric inside.
It's really developing nicely.
So next, I start the raita.
You have yogurt, chopped dill, chopped mint, onions,
cucumbers, coriander, and ground cumin.
It's refreshing. It sort of helps to sort of
clean your palate a little bit.
[Scott] It looks like they're both making raita.
You need it with that spice.
[Bobby] I heard Deepak say he was making a raita.
And so I was like, I got to do that too.
So I pickled some onions very, very quickly.
Give it a nice crunch, some lime juice, and some cilantro.
14 minutes on the clock, Chef. Come on.
Bobby Flay.
Do we have an agreement? No crispy rice?
Okay, fine.
-[bell dings] -Y'all heard it, right?
Saved by the bell.
So I strained the sauce, and I add some Greek yogurt.
And I need a little more heat, so I'm going to add
some more chili to it.
The chili will actually bring out the rest of
the spices flavor in the broth.
-Deepak. -Yes, ma'am.
Please, tell me.
-Is there any crispy rice in the Indian culture? -No.
-Not on purpose.
-[laughs] -[Deepak] That's called burnt.
-Not on purpose. -[Deepak] Not on purpose.
-I smell something burning. -Bobby, did you burn that?
-Burn what? -Something's burning.
Nothing. Nothing's burning.
What are you talking about? Huh? What?
Oh, God, it's me.
I'm scorching the bottom of my pot.
My lamb might be toast.
And sure enough, in all the running around,
I forgot to shake the pot.
My heart just sank. I'm a little concerned about that.
I'm going to salvage whatever I can
from the top layer of it.
You can offset that with something.
A little more yogurt in there, but that's about it.
That might work. Yeah.
I'm a little nervous that it has that smoky smell.
We're going to try it with some butter,
some more yogurt in it, to see if we can help it along the way.
[Sunny] Y'all give it up for our guy, Deepak, right here.
-We got you. -Thank you.
[Sunny] Seven minutes left.
[Bobby] I'm going to take some garam masala, which is a spice mix.
Very classic thing to use in Indian cuisine.
Rub a little on the naan and just toast it.
Okay.
It's burned, right?
It's smoky.
I think that he might be able to build on it.
He put a little dollop of some yogurt and butter will help.
That will kind of cover it.
[Sunny] I think that we're still light years ahead of
-what's going on with Bobby. -Really?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bobby is really coloring
outside the lines.
Oh, no, you didn't, Bobby.
[all laughing]
-Two minutes to go. -♪ Here we go ♪
[Deepak] I just taste my lamb at this point, and it's not terrible.
So fingers crossed.
I put a little swoosh of yogurt down below.
Lay down some rice.
Deepak, you doing all right?
-Yeah, yeah. -Okay, I feel good.
I feel like we recovered.
[Deepak] Spoon in some of that lamb Rogan Josh.
Spoonful of the raita.
How much time?
Coming up on a minute, Bobby.
[Bobby] Put a little crispy rice in the bottom of the bowl.
Add the lamb.
Take a little bit of the pickled onion raita.
Put it next to the lamb.
A couple of slices of the seasoned naan, and that's it.
The last second, I garnish it with some
shaved fennel, shaved radishes.
[all] Eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
-That's it, guys. -Whoo.
-Good job. -Thank you.
That's beautiful.
[Bobby] I think my dish is good.
I think it does taste the way that I've had it before.
So I'm actually happy with my attempt.
[Deepak] I'm counting on the fact that he is not going
the route that I'm going. But it's Bobby Flay.
He's going to bring his A-game.
Bobby, Deepak, we would like to introduce you
to your judges.
First up, the executive chef and partner of Shuka,
Ayesha Nurdjaja.
Chef and owner of Me and You, Jehangir Mehta.
And the executive chef of Musket Room, Mary Attea.
Judges, why don't you start with the first plate in front of you?
All of the spices are really in sync.
The other thing that I love is the texture of the rice.
It's nice and crispy.
The only thing that I would say about this plate
is that the naan is kind of superfluous.
The rice is soaking up all the good flavor of
the curry, and I'm not sure that you really need it.
I think the sauce could have been a little more
on that sweeter note, and then that spice kicking in
would have been my thought of being traditional.
The raita really cools the dish.
The lamb is beautiful.
If it was cooked a little more, I would love that too.
But I really love the chef's take on this.
[Sunny] Judges, please try your second lamb Rogan Josh.
[Ayesha] I think the plate is visually stunning.
If this was a Raita challenge, this is probably the best
that I've ever had.
It's, like, very herbaceous, and I just love the freshness
of it all together.
The smokiness, unfortunately for me,
-is a little bit overpowering. -[Jehangir] The rice is cooked perfectly.
I love the aspect of fennel and the radish,
which is very traditional, and I like that smoked flavor.
The lamb was beautifully cooked, really tender.
I think the spices really balanced blending with
the smokiness and richness of the lamb.
I feel like maybe the sauce might have scorched in
the pan a little bit.
But overall, two great dishes.
All right, judges, now is the time to take a vote.
[Deepak] I am definitely nervous.
It's not a great situation, but I'm trying to make
the best of it at this point.
And tonight's winner is...
the crispy rice of Bobby Flay.
[all cheering]
What is in the crispy rice?
Is it the tears of all your fallen competitors
that you boil the rice in?
What is going on with the crispy rice, Bobby?
At the end of the day, they were both two amazing dishes.
The crispy rice definitely
took it over the edge, and...
[all laughing]
Ayesha, you're going to get me in trouble.
No, but the curry was really outstanding,
-and the flavors were awesome. -[Bobby] Thanks.
-Chef Deepak, great job. -A real pleasure, Chef.
Thank you. It's an honor.
-[all cheering] -Good job, good job.
My goal was showcase a cuisine that they had
never done before here.
If that's accomplished by this, I'm good. I'm happy with that.
So smart.
Look at your face. I hate it.
Battle cheeseburger, put some crispy rice on it.
Battle spaghetti and meatballs,
roll the balls in some crispy rice.
-I'm so sick of it. -[Scott] It seems to be working.
Never roll the dice when I break out
the crispy rice, Sunny.
[all cheering]