I'm Bobby Flay.
The holidays are here, and it's time for cheer.
Well, not for me.
Happy holidays!
[Bobby] All of my closest Food Network friends
are teaming up to take me down.
Are you ready to get your jingle bell rung hard?
Fire it up.
This battle is going to shake down in three rounds.
Round one and two, they must go through each other.
I have waited for this moment.
You're in my head!
[Bobby] Round three, the winner gets me.
-Let's go, Flay! -[laughs]
[Bobby] In the spirit of the holidays, we're teaming up
for a culinary throwdown.
-Go, go! -I'm going.
It's like three rounds of sibling rivalry.
-Get out of here! -The competition is tougher,
-I'm just going! -the rounds are bigger.
[screaming] Yeah!
-[Bobby] And the surprises? -Ho, ho, ho!
[Bobby] Just keep on coming.
Bottom line, everyone's out to ruin my holiday.
-Come on in, ladies! -Oh, wow.
[laughing]
[audience cheering]
The holidays are here, and I'm ready for a feast.
Give it up for my main guest, Chef Alex Guarnaschelli.
[audience cheering]
-How are you doing? -I feel weird.
There's not usually just one seat.
Well, the last time you were here, uh, for the holidays,
-you competed. -Mmm-hmm.
-Uh, which was really a fun-- -So fun.
-Such a fun night. -So very festive.
Yes, it really was.
The winner is...
Team Bobby.
-[laughs] -[cheers]
I was at my best, I feel.
-Ah... No. -No.
See, I'm a Thanksgiving lover, but I can get into Christmas
-tonight for you. -You can?
If you hadn't guessed, there's a vibe here.
[Bobby] It says "Buon Natale."
I don't speak a lot of Italian,
but I know for a fact that that's Italian.
And I know something you love to do
is Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve.
I do it in my restaurants, and I do it at home.
I love it.
It's really an Italian-American holiday.
There's lots of fish,
and there's at least seven of them.
I immediately think crab, first of all,
-because you love crab. -I do love crab.
Sometimes I put, like, four or five different fish
right in one dish.
Like a rice dish or a pasta dish or something like that.
You're a rule breaker, Bobby.
-I am. -[audience laughs]
-Tonight, we're going to do exactly that, Bobby. -I love it.
You have any Italian chefs here tonight?
Maybe a couple.
Our first contender's Italian flavors are his calling card.
And tonight, he's ringing in the holiday
by ringing you, Bobby.
-Pick up your phone for Chef Christian Petroni. -[Bobby] Yes.
[audience cheers]
Oh, hold on.
Hey, Bobby, everyone's calling me and telling me
that you're going to have a terrible holiday season.
[laughing]
All right. All right.
All right.
Our next contender might be a fish out of water
when it comes to cooking in this kitchen.
But when it comes to competing, trust me,
she's a bona fide shark.
She got the call to take a bite out of you tonight.
Chef Antonia Lofaso.
[audience cheers]
It's so weird.
Bobby, I've been trying to call Christian for days.
And I just don't think this panettone phone is working.
-[laughing] -Christian?
Christian?
My baston's on the fritz.
[laughter]
[audience applauds]
-Can you hear me? -Hold on one second, I got another line.
All right, listen. This might be between you and I now,
but it's really to take down Bobby Flay.
[audience cheers]
Christian and I have been friends for a very, very long time.
We have the same kind of Italian-American background.
[Christian] We've judged together.
We've cooked together.
But we've never competed against each other.
And it's pretty special
because that's one of my closest friends.
[Bobby] Good evening, chefs.
Hi.
You're a little nervous. I can tell.
I'm totally nervous.
I had a chef tell me once
that if I'm not nervous, I'm not ready.
You're right.
Well, I must be in big trouble
because I ain't nervous at all.
Wait, so I have a question, though. I have a question.
Sure.
Are we allowed to negotiate for more time?
[Christian laughs] Negotiate.
[all laughing]
It's very Italian of you.
Here's the way it's going to work.
I'm going to put 20 minutes on the clock.
Or more.
[all laughing]
Yet to be... Yet to be discussed.
-Yet to be negotiated. -Yes. Yes.
-Yet to be negotiated. -This is not Grocery Games.
The theme I've been told is the Feast of Seven Fishes,
one of my favorite things to cook.
But I have to say, with you two in the building,
it makes it a little more difficult
because I know you guys have that game very seriously down.
20 minutes on the clock,
I'm going to give you an ingredient of my choice.
And you need to make that ingredient
the star of your dish.
And that ingredient is...
fresh squid and it's ink.
Oh.
[audience] Ooh.
[Antonia] This is 100% a gift.
It's like as if Bobby asked me
what I would want the first ingredient to be.
I know what I'm making.
Me too.
She makes a delicious dish at a restaurant with this.
-What is it? -You know what?
In like 26 minutes, you're going to find out.
Okay, perfect.
[all laughing]
[Bobby] Just adding that time.
So Alex, she'll decide which one of you
goes on to the second round.
Then we'll bring out one more chef.
And then the winner of that gets to take on me
and gets to make the teams.
So it's a big deal.
All right, guys.
Sign your win on the dotted line
with this squid and its ink.
-[bell dings] -[crowd cheers]
[Bobby] This is one of my favorite ingredients. First of all,
you're cooking with the ink of the squid.
And it's jet black.
And it's got tons of flavor. It's briny.
-Tastes like the ocean. -[Alex] It does.
-All we want is fried squid, right? I feel. -Right.
[Alex] Antonia has a dish in her restaurant.
And it's squid in squid ink batter, fried.
And it's delicious.
Are you doing your fried squid ink squid?
-Yes. -Okay, I love it.
For my tempura batter, I mix all-purpose flour,
a little bit of rice flour, baking powder, salt,
and corn starch.
I mix in soda water to thin it out,
and then squid ink so it's like
that natural ocean saltiness.
It's one of the most sought after dishes on my menus.
[Alex] She has a jar of Calabrian chilies.
She's tearing a page from your playbook.
Are you making a sauce with that or not?
[Antonia] Yeah, I'm going to do a Calabrian chili aioli.
I've seen you use them once or twice.
[chuckles]
[Antonia] I am Antonia Lofaso.
I'm an executive chef and restaurant owner
in Los Angeles.
You may have seen me on shows such as Guy's Grocery Games,
Tournament of Champions, Chopped,
and my show, Beachside Brawl.
I'm addicted to competing.
Chef Antonia!
[Antonia] This is actually the very first time
I am competing on Beat Bobby Flay.
So I do kind of feel like the new kid on the block.
If I beat Bobby Flay, to me, that is just like
the best Christmas present ever.
I feel like Christian is going to go in a pasta direction.
He's got guanciale out already.
[Alex] And eggs. I mean, I'm feeling carbonara-y.
-Bobby, I'm making a squid ink carbonara. -Okay.
The most important part of this dish, believe it or not,
is not even the squid and the ink.
It's the egg yolks.
It's the base of this pasta.
One more, one more.
The heat from that pasta into your egg mixture
will bring this dish together
in the creamy, luscious, rich way
that we all know it.
Look at Christian just grating all the cheese
in the tri-state area.
[Bobby] What kind of cheese are you using there, kid?
I do a mix of Pecorino Romano and Parmigiano Reggiano.
I hit it with Parmesan to give you that umami
and sort of round out the edges of cheesiness.
And then let's get that ink and put it to work.
-[Bobby] Whoa. -[Alex] Yeah, isn't that beautiful?
That's amazing.
[Christian] This is not going to be hard to make the star of the dish,
because wherever this squid ink ends up,
it is going to be dramatic.
[Bobby] I like both of these dishes a lot.
Squid ink carbonara and squid ink fried. Yes.
You brought Antonia in, man. I can't mess around.
I'm Christian Petroni.
I cook simple food from the motherland, for me, Italy.
I've competed on a show like
Chopped, Tournament of Champions,
Triple G, Beat Bobby Flay.
Last holiday season, I was beat by Maneet Chauhan.
You're not worried about Christian at all.
-Who? -[laughing]
Not looking to recreate that again this year.
There is nothing I would want more under my tree
than to take that win from Bob.
Dude, did you drop the pasta yet?
Did you forget or you were waiting?
-I was literally waiting for you to tell me. -Okay.
There's a difference between al dente and undercooked,
and nobody wants that.
[Alex] I love the way that pasta water looks.
I don't think I would have thought to put it in there.
I like it.
[Alex] Coming up on 12 minutes, guys.
[audience cheers]
-[Alex] Hi. -[Antonia] Hi.
-What are you doing? -I got squid.
I got my tempura batter,
some Italian white wine vinegar
with a little bit of mayo, Calabrian chili.
What I like is that I come over here and I smell vinegar.
I know.
She loves vinegar.
I could drink vinegar for breakfast.
[Antonia] Vinegar, heat...
[Alex] I don't need anything else.
[Antonia] You want to taste it, taste it?
[Alex] Yeah, I'll taste it.
-Is it too vinegary? -Mmm.
-I'm going to herb it. -Yes, it needs a little herby.
It's going to be all herby.
[Alex] Is it irritating to have to clean the squid?
Bobby makes you work so hard.
[Antonia] I was just going to say the same thing.
I was like, why do we got to clean our squid?
We only have 28 minutes.
[audience laughs]
Cleaning the calamari on its own
is just pulling away minute of our cook time right there
just to clean enough for as many plates as we have to do.
So I put all the calamari into the tempura batter,
make sure everything's coated, and then very, very carefully
just drop it into the fryer.
Squid is very temperamental.
You have to cook it very, very quickly
so that there's still a beautiful softness to it.
It's very easy to overcook or undercook calamari,
so you really have to pay attention to it.
-[Alex] How are we doing? -Hey, Chef.
[Alex] What kind of pasta?
The squid is going to work really great visually
against these round rigatoni.
It's going to eat well.
-You know what I mean? -I do.
If you're cooking, I know I'm going to eat well
no matter what.
So you're going to cut the squid
and cook it with the guanciale.
Yeah, so I'm going to throw this in
sort of at the very end.
The crazy thing is that the main part of the cooking
doesn't happen until the last sort of two minutes,
so that's the risk in this sort of dish.
Are you doing a cooking show, or are you going to do it?
-[laughs] -[Christian] Hey.
[Alex] Listen, you got two minutes and 40 seconds left.
Yes, Chef.
[Bobby] The pasta has to be cooked.
He's probably going to do it with like 90 seconds to go,
because he needs every second of that pasta being cooked.
[Christian] The guanciale has rendered out,
waiting to be anointed with those rings of fresh squid.
Christian, you got two minutes, dude.
-[Alex] Come on, Christian. -[Christian] Roger that.
I'm putting it into my carbonara egg mixture.
That's very hot. I hope it doesn't cook the eggs.
Killing me. Oh, my God.
[Antonia] Calamari looks perfect.
I hit it with just a little bit of salt,
a little bit of a swish of that aioli
to the side of the calamari.
[Bobby] Look how beautiful it is.
It's jet black, but it's also incredibly light and crispy.
[Christian] I'm adding rigatoni noodle.
It's looking creamy.
It's looking beautiful.
[Alex] Oh, my God.
I'm going to go to the hospital for Christmas.
[Bobby] 35 seconds.
Can I help you?
Do you want me to finish with cheese?
Oh, yes. Finish with some Pecorino.
Here's the thing in kitchens
in which chefs were team players.
Let me just help him so at least he can finish.
Antonia Lofaso, you're the best.
I've never seen the competitor plating
-the other person's dish. -Never.
[all] Ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one.
[audience cheers]
I love you, dude.
Thanks, Bob.
[Antonia] Italian cooking is like five ingredients not overly fussed with.
Alex has had this dish 100 times.
She knows it's a good dish.
[Christian] I'm really proud of my dish.
The noodles are a little al dente.
But if we were in Italy right now,
they'd be super happy with it
because they like overly al dente pasta,
which I'm okay with.
We're all here to say buona notte to Bobby
so we can have a Buon Natale.
It was really a joy to watch you both cook,
but it's all going to come down
to the squid and the squid ink
for who moves on to the next round.
Chef Antonia, what did you make?
So I did a crispy calamari with a squid ink batter
and a Calabrian chili and herb aioli.
That is a dish right off the Scopa menu.
Well, it does look burned at first pass,
and then you eat it, and it's fluffy, crispy, it's light.
It's hard not to eat it all, but it is Christmas,
so there has to be something wrong with everything and everyone.
-[laughing] -Um...
I can't believe I'm going to say this,
but maybe a little too much vinegar in the sauce.
But the chili, the herb, the squid, it's addictive.
Thank you, Chef.
Chef Christian, what did you make?
I'd like to transport everyone here to a piazza
and sitting at a two-person little two-top.
Watching the people walk by,
you order an absolute perfect pasta carbonara.
We have creaminess from egg yolks, Pecorino Romano.
I add some Parmigiano Reggiano.
Traditionally, it gets guanciale,
so we stuck all traditional,
but then added the squid ink to the base,
as well as adding the squid ink to the pasta.
So that's what we did here.
Yeah, that was good.
[audience applauds]
-That was good. -Oh. [laughs]
The egg and the ink and the cheese,
it's rounding out the squid ink in just a beautiful way.
The pasta, just a little al dente.
I almost wish you'd made it without it.
I wish the squid had been your pasta.
Yes, I thought about that, Chef.
You both really made it
the star of the show without argument.
It's a little bit of a nail biter here,
especially since I know I'm off someone's Christmas list
in the next five minutes.
[audience laughs]
I feel really great about my flavors and my sauce,
but I wish this noodle was able to cook
just a couple more minutes.
The chef moving on to round two is...
Chef Antonia.
[audience applauds]
[Christian chuckles]
I just won round one, but this is only, like,
one of three rounds that I need to win
in order to be Bobby Flay.
So I'm not counting all my wins just yet.
[Christian] I wanted this, by the way.
This is the first time
I feel like I don't need to give much advice.
It was really pretty flawless.
Thanks.
I think if anyone can put Bob in his place,
it's Chef Antonia Lofaso.
-Bob. [laughs] -I'm excited about it.
Robert.
So Chef Antonia, you can head back to the kitchen and...
-See you soon. -Bobby, join us.
All right, Alex.
Cannot wait to see who you're going to bring out next.
I have reeled in one of your closest friends.
-Martha Stewart? -No,
this is someone who wrestled in high school.
Oh, that guy.
Please welcome your best friend, Chef Michael Simon.
[exclaims] I'm about to steal Christmas, baby.
You sleep with the fish.
[laughing]
Let's go!
[laughing]
Did you really just throw, like, a branzino at me?
Michael, welcome back.
-How you doing? -I'm doing good, buddy.
How are you?
So last year was really fun for me because I beat you.
-Oh, yeah, that was fun, wasn't it? -Yeah, it was so fun.
Is that your Christmas shirt?
-It is. -Very festive.
Very festive, don't you think?
Did you get it in the boys' department?
-[audience laughs] -Oh.
I'm just going to... I'm just going to like...
I like watching this.
Did you make the, um, calamari from your restaurant
-the first time? -Yes, I did.
-Very creative. -Wow.
And the high school wrestler has landed.
That's rough.
I actually think it was really smart.
-I know. -Do what you know.
I love the dish. It's a great dish.
I just want to talk a little bit of trash.
-Get her fired up. -Wow.
Okay, so Michael, it has been revealed
that it's the night of the seven fishes.
Whoever wins gets to take me on,
and the winner gets to tell us what the signature dish is
and who your teammate is.
So it's a very big round.
20 minutes on the clock, you must make the ingredient
the star of your dish.
I'm assuming it's going to be fish.
-Oh, really? -Yeah.
Bring down the ingredient.
[laughing]
[audience applauds]
Branzino.
[Antonia] Oh.
Oh, it's like the fish you just threw at me.
[laughs]
[Michael] I love branzino.
Often, it's grilled whole.
It's very mild, very lean fish.
[Antonia] It's one of my favorite fish to cook with.
Classic for, you know, the holidays.
I'm very happy with this ingredient.
[Bobby] All right, guys.
20 minutes on the clock.
It's not about the gold. It's not about the silver.
It's about the branzino.
[bell dings]
[applause]
This is the wrong one.
Okay, branzino.
-The official fish. -Yes, it is.
The official fish of Italian restaurants.
Mediterranean sea bass. It's fantastic.
It doesn't have, like, a lot of fat in it.
It cooks very quickly.
When you cook this whole,
would you filet it? What would you do?
I think Antonia's cooking it whole.
Don't be scared, Alex. Don't make that face.
-Wait, Antonia, you're going to fry these whole? -Yes.
I need to get you another fryer.
Shh. Don't scare me.
I know I need to get these fish in the fryer immediately
if this is going to happen.
I score it on all sides, so it kind of opens it up.
I season it really well
inside and out, salt and pepper.
[Bobby] What's that? Flour or corn starch?
[Antonia] Rice.
-Rice flour with salt and pepper. -I like it.
[Antonia] Once I put these very large fish inside of that fryer,
the temperature's going to go way down.
I need to pull it out.
I need to let that fryer recover
and then drop the two remaining fish.
So there is zero room for error.
Once I start frying fish, they better cook.
Antonia, what are you serving with these illustrious fried fish?
[Antonia] Some sauteed fennel and onions.
I'm going to hit it with a little bit of seafood broth
and a little bit of tomato.
-Olives and capers. -Nice.
And then I'm going to do a little salad on top
of some chilies and herbs.
[Bobby] Okay.
I love where Antonia's going for this.
-Oh, I do too. -Right?
[Christian] If she nails it, I think frying it is smart.
What eats better than a whole fried fish?
[Bobby] Michael, very nice filet work, sir.
Very nice filet work.
[Michael] Ooh.
Personally, I would be doing what Michael's doing.
-Filleting the fish. -Mmm-hmm.
Typically, when I do branzino, I grill it whole,
but there's no grills here.
So I'm going to pan roast.
Michael, what are you making?
Bobby, I am going to make a pan-seared branzino.
I'm going to try to get the skin nice and crisp,
and then shaved fennel, citrus salad...
[Antonia] Oh my gosh, I'm using fennel too.
And burnt lemon.
[Bobby] Fennel everywhere.
It's a very Michael Symon dish.
I'm going to try my best, Bobby.
I really want to impress you.
I know.
[Michael] I started competing on Iron Chef 15 years ago.
Over 60 battles.
Many of you know Bobby is one of my
closest friends in the world.
Any time that I could come on and we could talk
trash with each other...
Just because you don't know what to do with flour and eggs
doesn't mean I don't.
Ooh.
It's almost just like
when I'm beating him on the golf course
for money.
Last year, Bobby got the best of me in Duck à l'orange.
This year, it's the Feast of the Seven Fishes.
He's in big trouble.
[Alex] 15 minutes and 39 seconds left.
[audience cheers]
-Are you making like a little fumé? -I'm making a fumé.
De poisson.
[Michael] A fume is a quick fish stock
made with the bones of the fish.
I take the heads and spines, white wine, shrimp stock,
garlic, Calabrian chili, lemon,
and a bunch of coriander seeds.
Making a quick stock is going to uplift the
seafood flavor in my dish.
You're making a stock, which is just so old school.
[Michael] Just a quick little stock.
Yum.
-I'm being very Italian today. Yes. -Are you?
I always think of you as a spicy Greek man
with a few Sicilian cousins.
Well, that's what I am.
[laughing]
-Beautiful. -Thank you, Chef.
[Alex] Hi.
-You got a lot of like greens and stuff. -[Antonia] Yeah.
[Alex] I love the chilies with this.
I do a little bit... So I'm going to do a little bit of chili.
I'm going to hit it with some stock,
a little bit of tomato, capers, maybe an olive.
That's going to kind of be the base.
And I'm going to just do a simple salad on top.
I love the butter, by the way,
-Oh-- -with the tomato.
Tomato, a little lobster broth.
-Beautiful. I love it. -Yeah.
As the onions start to brown,
I'm hit it with a little bit of that lobster stock,
tomato, and I just let that sauce reduce.
All right, 13 minutes exactly.
How you doing, Miss Filet-O-Fish?
Miss Filet-O-Fish. Very funny.
You need a bun over there or anything?
Yeah, and maybe some American cheese.
So I check my branzinos. They're done.
I pull them out of the fryer, let them rest,
hit them with a little bit of salt.
Then I start my salad.
I want there to be like a fresh aspect
to this very rich sauce and this fried fish.
So I think it's important to note that
both these chefs are using the whole fish, but in different forms.
Michael filleted the fish.
He's cooking the filets, and he chopped up the heads
and the bones to make a stock.
Very nose to tail.
And then Antonia just straight up
put the whole thing in the deep fryer.
So they're both making good use of the whole ingredient.
Oh, yeah, both to be respected, for sure.
All right, guys, eight minutes.
[audience cheers]
Antonia.
-[Antonia] Yeah. -Antonia Lofaso.
This is what I came to look at, and you nailed it.
I love how you treated your fish.
-That is just, like, totally ballsy, bro. -[Antonia] Thank you.
-Christian, I appreciate you. -[Christian] Yeah.
I'm getting bullion-based vibes.
[Antonia] A little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're not wrong. Exactly.
I want the fried fish to kind of sit in this pool
of very rich seafood broth.
And then I grab some fennel, a little bit of dill,
parsley, basil.
You took me out in the first round.
No one better. If it's gotta happen,
I'm happy it's you.
Not.
But with being said,
I'm gonna go over to Michael now.
I love you.
[Christian] I like how you're cooking your branzino
to get a nice crispy skin.
So that's really great.
Yup. And then we're gonna just kind of flip it,
baste it at the end,
make sure we don't overcook it.
Um, I'm burning some orange and lemon
that I'm gonna make a vinaigrette with.
When you burn 'em, they get a slight bitter note to 'em,
but it also brings the sugars out.
Nice salad.
[Michael] Nice and bright.
I think I'm gonna put some olives in it too.
The fennel salad was raw fennel,
oranges, fresh mint, fresh dill.
[Bobby] Two minutes to go.
Two minutes!
Michael, will you start plating?
[Michael] Oh, Chef. I'm in the weeds.
Maybe I should have just
thrown these things in the fryer whole.
It would have been way easier.
[Bobby] Two minutes to go.
Two minutes!
[Alex] Will you start plating?
I feel like a barbarian
'cause Michael Symon needs to start plating.
[scoffs] Twenty minutes.
I mean, shouldn't it be like once you get older,
there should be more time.
[Alex] One minute thirty.
[Antonia] I want the fried fish to kind of sit in this pool
of seafood broth,
that salad on top of the fish,
and then just that squeeze of lemon
over the fish and the sauce.
And I'm like, "All right, let's see what happens."
I'm done.
Oh, good for you.
I mean, if I was just frying a hunk of fish,
I'd be done, too.
-[laughs] -[audience] Ooh!
[Michael] The broth is tasting very good.
I topped it with the fish skin side up.
That skin look crispy?
[all] Ten, nine...
And a little of that fennel salad.
[all] ...five, four, three, two, one!
[Michael] I'm pretty happy with my dish.
You know, I would have liked to get the skin a little crisper,
but I didn't wanna overcook the fish.
[Antonia] I feel confident.
I love when I make a dish that I'm into and obsessed with
'cause I lose on that,
it just means that I was outcooked.
And that's okay.
[Alex] Well, I'm excited for one of you
to lead us into a very merry
Feast of the Seven Fishes tonight.
It's all gonna come down
to what you did with the branzino.
Chef Antonia, what did you make?
So I took the whole branzino,
I got it into the fryer.
I did a sauce of a little bit of lobster base,
serranoes, onions, capers,
a bit of pureed tomato.
A quick salad of fennel, herbs, Fresnos,
lemon juice and a finishing olive oil.
This is the most food I've ever been given on this show,
by the way, just as a side note.
[Christian] When you go in there
and you just get that tiny shimmering little chunk
of perfectly white meat,
it's just lovely.
And running it through that tomato-based sauce that you made,
it is so perfect.
I don't know how you just threw fish into hot oil and did that.
That's quite a hat trick.
And a really big risk.
It eats beautifully. It's crunchy.
I like the tomato.
If I had a criticism,
it would be that it's almost too salty.
And maybe, if I were really nitpicking,
'cause someone's gotta beat Bobby Flay,
the gills needed to come out.
But, I mean, this is a holiday fish.
Chef Michael, tell us what you made.
I made pan-roasted branzino
with a marinated fennel salad,
branzino fume
with coriander, garlic and Calabrian chili.
This is also perfect.
It's kind of an embarrassment of riches this evening.
I love that you used the bone and the head.
You put it back into the dish.
The freshness and the brightness
from not only the orange segments,
but the fennel, the mint,
it's just beautiful.
The biggest missed opportunity here, Chef,
is that that skin did not get
where I know you wanted it to be.
It's curious to me how you both went
in such radically different directions,
and somehow you came back
and kind of ended up with very similar dishes,
both of which I would argue could beat Bobby handily.
Oh, yeah.
So this is gonna be quite an evening.
[Antonia] I don't know what it's gonna come down to.
Michael is a massive chef in our industry.
So, for me, I'm like may the best branzino win.
[Christian] The person leading the charge
in beating Bobby tonight...
Is...
Chef Antonia.
[gasps] Oh, my God.
Oh, I gotta go sit down.
-Dude, I didn't think I'd get this far. -Good job.
Taking a whole fish this big
and throwing it in the deep fryer with flour
is only something Bobby would do.
And now someone else did it.
Antonia, you're two for two.
You ready to take it three for three?
-I am. -For all of us?
-Yes. -Okay.
For everyone out there in the world.
[Bobby] All right, Antonia.
First time you've cooked in this kitchen,
-you're undefeated. -I know.
Now you gotta take me on.
-All right. I'm ready. -What are we cooking tonight?
What's your signature dish?
The Feast of Seven Fishes is really special for me.
There's always one dish that makes it to my table.
And that is...
a seafood fra diavolo.
-Ooh. -[audience] Ooh.
[Bobby] Classic!
I do like a fra diavolo.
-Yeah. -What's better than that?
I agree.
So now for the fun part.
You get to pick a teammate.
Okay, so I cannot put Michael Symon
and Bobby Flay together.
Just so that we're clear.
I love you Christian Petroni,
but I can't give him any...
It's a defensive move.
It-- Yeah, it had to be.
Well, Michael, go join your teammate.
[audience cheering]
-We got this? -Oh, yeah.
[Bobby] Michael is not good after he loses.
-He's gonna be a little bit, you know... -Pouty?
A little pouty, a little whiny.
Let Antonia deal with it
'cause I got my man right here Christian Petroni.
-I like this. -I like this.
I like it too.
I'm especially excited that we're together
to whoop him.
It's nothing personal against Christian.
I just wanna beat the hell out of Bobby.
It's all personal against Bobby?
Correct. Yes.
Okay, so you'll have 45 minutes
to cook seafood fra diavolo
and at least two sides.
You need to make sure that you use seven fishes.
You have 45 minutes. Your time starts now!
Oh, he got away!
[audience cheering]
Where's he goin'?
[laughing] Aah!
[audience] Ooh!
Now we have vegetables all in our station.
He's so strong because of pilates.
Seafood fra diavolo usually means tomatoes,
something spicy, red pepper flakes, chilis.
It's often made with shrimp or lobster
and, in the case, may involve multiple types of fishes.
Two onions, two fennel, four carrots.
-You good? -[Antonia] Yup.
Leave a fennel out so that I can do it, uh, for the salad.
Very smart on Antonia's part to separate Bobby and Michael.
So, Antonia, why did you choose seafood fra diavolo?
Oh, Lordy, 'cause I make it every single year.
This is like my go-to.
So, the Feast of Seven Fish
is an Italian-American tradition on Christmas Eve
that's celebrated with at least seven fish
throughout the night.
It could be something as simple as like a shrimp cocktail,
seafood salad.
There's always a pasta dish that has seafood in it.
What seafood are you using?
I'm going like straight how I was in Long Island
and it's gonna be lobster fra diavolo
with a hand-rolled cavatelli.
Ooh, I like that.
You just keep it quiet over there, buddy.
[Antonia] I love cavatelli.
I feel like cavatelli is that pasta
that holds up to any sauce,
like anytime, anywhere.
[Alex] Bobby, what is your take on fra diavolo?
I'm making fresh black squid ink fettuccine
with seven fishes.
You're putting all seven fishes in one dish?
I'm thinking about it.
Wow, that is a very Irish Feast of the Seven Fishes.
[laughing] Oh, my God.
Christian is going to make two side dishes.
[Christian] I love clams.
So the clams are just garlic, cherry tomatoes,
lots of chilis, white beans, white wine.
And it's gonna work so beautifully
up against the uni garlic bread.
[Alex] Michael cooking a beautiful-looking mirepoix,
building some foundation with fennel
for a really great sauce. I assume.
[Michael] The next thing that I do
is grab the lobster so I can get those cooking
so I can get them separated from the shells
and start making the fra diavolo.
[Bobby] I'm really focusing on the pasta dish,
the fra diavolo dish.
I'm gonna make some fresh squid ink pasta.
[Alex] Bobby is using squid ink
as if he's taking inspiration from the first round.
So we're gonna see some fresh pasta,
handmade from both teams.
[Bobby] So the base for the fra diavolo,
I start with some onions, garlic, Calabrian chilis.
I add some white wine, some San Marzano tomatoes,
and we're gonna get it cooking.
[Alex] 37 minutes left.
Hi. All right, where are the seven fishes?
Okay, so we're doing a lobster cavatelli.
I'm doing a seafood salad with mussels, clams,
anchovy vinaigrette,
-and-- -That's four, right?
That's four.
Then we're doing a scallop oreganata with caviar.
And then we're doing a crab-stuffed squash flower.
It's like when you have the Feast of Seven Fish,
you like move through this progression of like
something fried, like something vinegary and salady.
That's literally how you build the feast.
That broth is gorgeous, too.
-Thank you, Chef! -Beauty.
[Michael] For the squash blossom's filling,
I take a little bit of mascarpone,
some ricotta, the zest of lemons
and then a little bit of tarragon and parsley.
-Crab's not in there. -That's great.
-Enough lemon, herbs? -Yeah, it just needs salt.
You're comfortable with the herbs?
I'm very comfortable with everything that you do.
[Michael] We fold it in, crab to that mixture,
put it in the piping bag
and start loading up the squash blossoms.
The batter for the squash blossoms is a tempura,
rice flour, corn starch and fizzy water.
Fizzy water, guys.
Yo, yo, yo, yo.
Thanks, buddy. I love you.
[Alex] Oh, God, that was so sweet.
Bobby's playing the better guy than me.
Don't turn on me, Michael.
I would never turn on you.
I'm not gonna feel bad for you when you lose, Chef.
But I would like to thank you for the soda water.
That was really nice.
-All right, Antonia, do you feel like you're really-- -Nauseous?
-Very. -...gonna beat Bobby Flay?
I feel wildly nauseous.
I don't wanna lose to anyone.
If I beat Bobby Flay, to me, that is just like
next-level winning.
Are you gonna beat Bobby Flay?
-Yes! Yes! -Yes!
She said yes!
[Alex] 14 fishes, 4 chefs, 31 minutes and 30 seconds left.
My hair!
Michael's making this incredible seafood broth
that like starts in a huge roasting pan
with the lobster shells.
[Michael] After I fry the lobster shells,
I put tomato paste
and then hit that with more stock.
All right, tomato paste, stock combined, simmer.
[Antonia] Yeah. Lots of butter.
Fra diavolo literally means
"my brother is the devil."
Taste it.
Oh, that needs nothing. That's good.
Yeah. This has five Fresnos in it, but they're not hot.
The one universal truth about a fra diavolo
is that it should be spicy.
As much as she's bossing me around,
you'd think we've cooked together forever.
By the way you guys are all chatty and happy over here,
it's like team...
Team Suck the Teeth. You know?
-Yeah. How's it goin'? -Good.
I've got tomatoes. I've got mussel broth in here.
I've got some lobsters cooking in here.
-Mmm. -The mussels are steamed off.
Christian, can you tell me what's actually going on around here?
[laughs] So, Chef, I've got some clams here
that are steaming in the burano style.
So lots of white wine.
They're using all sorts of cool
Italian words over here, guys.
Manila clam, squid.
What other fish do we have?
We have prawns, we have lobsters--
-Uni. -We got clams, mussels, uni.
We got squid, we got squid ink...
I started cooking all the seafood separately.
I'm gonna bring them back together later.
This is going to ensure that everything is cooked properly.
I sauté some squid tentacles very, very quickly
in some olive oil and salt and pepper.
And then shrimp with salt, pepper and some paprika.
Then I have rice flour and seltzer water
and I add a little bit of squid ink to it.
It makes it black.
Ode to Antonia Lofaso.
She made this dish in the first round.
-Just cook this off so it gets-- -Yeah, I got it.
You got it?
It's just for like a little fun crunch.
Ooh, are you doing Antonia's dish?
[Christian] Bob felt the need to--
and I agree with throwing a little jab at Antonia.
[Alex] I love it.
How do you feel?
Good. It's gonna be close.
It is? I love when you say that.
Don't you love it when he gets all breathless
and windblown?
I'm working on the scallops oreganata.
An oreganata is basically a mixture of flavored breadcrumbs.
So, oregano, chopped parsley, garlic.
The breadcrumbs go into the cast iron
and they start to get crunchy in all that brown butter.
And I just basted those crunchy breadcrumbs
over the top of the scallops.
[Alex] Smells delicious over here.
I'm just saying.
That looks beautiful, the squash blossoms.
Antonia, everything looks stunning.
And now it's time to roll all that cavatelli
through the maker.
[Michael] Beautiful cavatelli, sister.
[Antonia] Thanks.
So cavatelli's very forgiving.
It takes so much to overcook it
and it can really sit in sauce for a long period of time.
So I know I have a little bit of leeway with it.
The broth that Michael is reducing,
I then throw the cavatelli into there
so that the pasta can absorb all of the liquid.
I think we actually might pull this off.
Yo, Bob.
Nice. Nice.
It's that anchovy butter, Christian?
This is uni garlic butter.
Ooh.
I know you like that, Chef.
[Christian] We want all of it covered on the top
with that uni garlic butter.
I throw it in the oven for just like two minutes.
Please, Christian, don't forget the bread.
[Alex] Bobby's still cutting pasta
with 13 minutes left. I'm freaking out.
[Bobby] So I cook the pasta.
I throw it into the sauce with all the seafood.
So the squid, the shrimp, lobster, crab, mussels.
And I finish it with some anchovy butter.
And I gotta start plating.
[Alex] 9 minutes to go.
I'm already plating.
Go, go, go! Go, go!
I'm going! I'm going!
I start plating the seafood salad.
The mussels and the clams,
highly-vinegared, highly-seasoned.
And then the salad of the celery, the fennel,
the herbs.
[Michael] The crab, I pulled it out of the fryer,
hit it with a little bit of crunchy sea salt,
and then went right on the plate with it.
[Alex] They're almost done over here.
[audience cheering]
[Michael] The scallops, topped 'em with oreganata,
finished them underneath the salamander.
Chef, are you happy with this browning?
That's gorgeous. Thank you so much.
Topped it with the caviar. Scallops done.
[Alex] Four minutes left.
I'm literally getting anxiety.
Antonia's and Michael's food is basically plated.
Bobby and Christian have not one thing plated.
Christian, are you good?
I'm okay. I'm gonna start putting my dish together, Bob.
That mixture of white wine, natural clam juice,
garlic, chilis, tomatoes
have all cooked down right to that perfect point.
Add some white beans
to give a little bit of substance to this dish.
And now, it's time to pull this all together.
[Bobby] The fra diavolo,
I finish it with the crispy calamari.
And then I'm gonna put some fresh parsley
and some basil.
-How much time? -One minute!
-God! -Oh, my God!
[Antonia] So my pasta's already mixed in the pan.
It's been reduced. It's been seasoned. The herbs are in.
All I need to do is ladle it into the bowl.
[Alex] Let's go!
[audience counting down]
Five seconds!
[audience] ...three, two, one!
[Antonia] Oh, now we know.
He did the crispy calamari on it. I love that.
-It's an ode to you. -I love that.
I'll put these down.
Oh, that looks great, dude.
[Christian] I went a little sloppy.
But, hey, listen, it's the holidays.
Put it on the table. Grab a fork. Let's go.
-Yeah, it's all family here. What are we doin'? -Exactly.
No fuss.
[Antonia] Dude, we just cooked so much food.
All I want for the holidays
is to beat Bobby Flay.
This is like a rite of passage
for the American-Italians.
Every time I've made Feast of the Seven Fish,
it would be so embarrassing I went home
and didn't have this win.
[Alex] Team Bobby, Team Antonia,
I'd like to introduce you to your judges.
First up, the chef/founder of Hearth restaurants
and Brodo Broth Company,
Chef Marco Canora.
Executive chef of Butter Restaurant
in Midtown Manhattan
and chef extraordinaire,
Michael Jenkins.
Chef/owner of Frank,
Lil' Frankies and Supper,
Frank Prisinzano.
Tonight's challenge was seafood fra diavolo
and the chefs had to use at least seven fishes
throughout the course of their feasts.
Please start with the first feast in front of you.
This pasta is exactly what I wanna see
on a night like tonight.
It's no easy feat to have like
five different kinds of fish in a pasta
and have them cooked well.
Mussels, shrimp, lobster, clams, calamari,
uni, fresh pasta, that's a lot to do.
And the calamari, I'll be honest,
I was a little scared when I saw the black calamari in the batter.
It was delicious. And it's super-tender.
All the fish was pretty much cooked
perfectly here for me, except for the shrimp.
My shrimp was a little tough.
I thought the sauce here was excellent.
But it could have used a little more of a kick.
Fra diavolo, for me,
you gotta almost go through some pain,
you know, to really appreciate it.
The pasta, definitely a little bit over.
I would have just used spaghetti for this.
You would have got a real strong al dente
and this would have went to the moon for me.
[Marco] The clams and the beans
and that clam liquor that comes out
with the garlic bread,
it is just pure joy.
I also love the irreverence
of taking a really expensive ingredient like uni
and smearing it on some garlic bread.
Like, that is...
Somebody who never knew food costs.
Must be nice. Um...
[all laughing]
[Alex] Thank you, judges.
Please try the second feast.
A lot was done here.
There are a myriad of colors and textures
and flavors.
A deep-fried zucchini blossom
is kind of like a dream come true.
The pasta,
there's a lot of concentrated lobster flavor in there.
I really enjoyed the cavatelli.
This, I think, is a smart use of a fresh pasta
in a short amount of time
because you can get to that perfect al dente,
and you're not too worried.
My lobster was a little over.
Uh, but nonetheless, it was a delicious pasta dish.
I love just a straight-up seared scallop
with a dollop of caviar on it.
Ooh, I'm done. Amazing.
The garlic with the caviar,
eh, I don't know, that didn't work.
Then, over there...
[all laughing]
...amazing! I love that salad.
I love shaved fennel. I love shaved celery.
And then, you know, those beautifully,
perfectly-cooked mussels.
You know, these are not traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes dishes.
But it's fish.
The other plates were more of a traditional take
on the Seven Fishes.
Judges, if you would please pick a winner.
[Michael] Bobby did some beautiful food.
But Antonia stretched herself a lot more
to give the judges more variation.
So I feel good.
[Alex] In tonight's battle,
the winning team is...
Team Antonia!
Shut up!
-We won. We won. We won! -We won!
-I'm so happy. -I'm so happy--
-First of all-- -I'm very happy for you.
I'm very happy you were with me.
You guys are obviously like insane pros
and this is just so ambitious
and so elegant.
You gave us so many different textures.
And it was really an extraordinary feast.
-You guys killed it. -Thank you.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Oh, thank you, guys.
[Antonia] We beat Bobby Flay.
But I love you, Bobby.
-[Michael] I don't. See you later. -I love you.
Go home. Happy holidays.
[together] We're Team Antonia,
and we beat Bobby Flay.