I'm Bobby Flay.
Each week, one brave chef will try
to take me down in my house.
-This is my show. -Today it is. Tomorrow, who knows.
-Ooh. -Trash talking.
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.
It's do or die, Bobby.
[Bobby] Two people that know me well
will decide who's got the skills to beat me.
Yeah!
[Bobby] Round two, I go head to head with the winning contender.
Let's go!
[Bobby] It's their turn to surprise me with their signature dish.
What?
-Ah! -Don't try this at home.
I know you did it, Bobby!
[Bobby] Bottom line?
You're going to run out of time!
Everyone's out to beat me.
All right, everybody. We have a killer show tonight.
Here to knock me down and not help me back up,
it's Food Network's Eddie Jackson and Maneet Chauhan.
[audience cheering]
You're going down, Bobby!
[Bobby] Nice hips, Eddie.
Those moves are going to take you down tonight, Bobby.
Maneet, I see you on Instagram a lot with your co-hosts
doing a bunch of dance moves.
-[Maneet] Yes. -Brooke Williamson, Antonia.
[Maneet] And all I say is what I lack in grace,
I make up an enthusiasm.
You're really good, though. You're part of the
Food Network dance crew.
Yes, that is true.
I think I'm in the dance crew as well.
-Yeah, you are. -You see the moves, Bobby.
[Bobby] Any strategy tonight?
There was a whole strategy meeting backstage
where we were talking about,
you know, all the trash talking that Eddie does
and none of the trash talking that I do.
You?
She's like the Michael Jordan of trash talking.
Trash talking, no question.
I feel like you practice at home.
-In the mirror. -In front of the mirror, yes.
What? What, huh?
Bobby, really?
Really? Bring it on.
All right, let's bring out some chefs,
-get this thing going. -[Eddie] Let's do it.
Our first contender got it from his mama.
She taught him Caribbean cooking,
and he's coming for your crown.
Chef Bernard Bennett.
[audience applauds]
Our next contender is making a name for herself
in my hometown, that's Houston.
Here to bring some zing with their Vietnamese flavors
is Chef Lena Lee.
[audience applauds]
[screams] Wow.
I like that spin.
-There you go. -[all cheer]
What's your goal this evening?
I'm going to take him down first, and then you.
How about yourself?
My goal is to cook with passion and love
and showcase my skills.
So you're just gonna show me
you're not going to try to beat me?
No, no, no. I'm going to show you,
and then they're going to hire me,
and you're going to be out of here.
She just wants to beat me, but you want my job.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -[all laugh]
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.
-Loin of lamb. -[all] Ooh.
[Maneet] Wow.
I am feeling horrified.
Growing up in Vietnam, we eat pork and chicken
more than lamb and beef.
These two behind me,
they're going to taste your lamb dishes,
and they'll decide which one of you goes up
against me in the second round.
20 minutes on the clock.
Wham, bam, thank you, lamb.
[audience applauds]
Lamb loin, this is a good ingredient.
Any type of loin is always going to be very, very lean.
You can look at it right now.
Not a lot of fat going through there.
Now, medium rare is a good temperature
to serve the lamb loin, and it does
have that prevalent gamey flavor.
So the idea is to play along with those flavors,
as opposed to just hiding those flavors.
Hey, Bernard, what you making?
-Going to make a seared lamb salad. -Yum.
I'm making seared lamb loin
with a salad of spinach and basil
and a blackberry vinaigrette.
My strategy for this round is highlighting the lamb
by developing layers of flavor.
So I want to season this lamb
with ancho powder and chipotle powder,
because I love the smokiness of both.
[Eddie] Give it up for Bernard!
[cheering]
I fell in love with cooking when I was young
by helping my mom in the kitchen.
And I promised her I would one day be a restaurant chef.
Unfortunately, she passed away when I was
just out of high school.
I knew I had to make good on my promise,
so I started working in some of the best
kitchens in Chicago.
Today, I am the chef and co-owner of Okan
in Bluffton, South Carolina, which highlights West African
and Caribbean cuisine.
I want to win for my mom, and I want to win for Okan.
Bobby, I'm a big dude with a big heart
who's ready to give you a big old smackdown.
Lena, what are you making?
I'm going to make a honey lemongrass lamb
with glazed carrots.
This dish has all the flavors of Vietnamese cuisine,
and it goes perfectly well with lamb.
For the marinade, I grab fish sauce,
oyster sauce, soy sauce,
honey and sugar, lemongrass and shallots.
Those are flavors that you know
what it's going to taste like.
[Maneet] Who's cheering for Lena?
[cheering]
[Lena] Growing up in Vietnam, I never cooked.
When I got married to my Vietnamese-American husband,
I started cooking, but I was so bad at it.
He suggested culinary school,
and I fell in love with the craft.
I used my training to cook elevated Vietnamese food,
and in 2022, I started Lena's Asian Kitchen,
a healthy meal kit service in Houston.
I want to show
that if a female Asian chef can make it happen in America,
Bobby, tonight, I'm gonna
beat you at your own game.
[Eddie] All right, we got 16 minutes left.
All right, so that's going to be,
-what, the base of the salad? -Yes, sir.
The spinach and basil are floral,
and will accent the lamb.
You doing that lamb make too forgiving, now?
It's not too forgiving,
but when you know what you're doing...
-You're going to take her out, then, huh? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shh, don't listen.
[Eddie] Get it together.
Oh, Okay, so you're scoring it right now.
So how are you going to cook it?
I'm going to pan-seal it on cast irons,
and I'm going to put it in the oven
to get it to medium rare.
[Eddie] And you're going to cook it whole like that
and get it done in 13 minutes?
-Yes. -Okay.
You got 13 minutes and five seconds left.
Wow, okay.
Bernard is going to sear his lamb loin off.
Tons of spices going on.
-Lena over there, she's going to pan-sear it whole. -Really?
Now my cast irons are hot enough
where I can put my lamb in and sear.
-Can be rare. -Yeah.
[Bernard] So next, I check my lamb,
and then I place it in the oven to finish.
Okay, let's do this.
This is when it hit me that I should have cut the lamb
in smaller pieces so it would cook faster,
but I just get that lamb in the oven,
so it would cook evenly.
[Maneet] You think the lamb will be done in time?
It's going to be a good medium rare.
-So you're taking your competitor down? -Yeah.
And then Bobby, Asian power.
Nice! Yeah.
Now, into a saucepan,
I put some butter and let that brown,
and then I put my carrot and honey.
For the salad dressing,
I'm going to grab a Fresno chili, red onion,
blackberries, and apple cider vinegar.
I want that acidic sweetness to really accent that lamb.
-[Maneet] How is everything? -Everything's coming great.
That lamb is in the oven.
If you win, what do you think?
-Like, it'll be easy to take Bobby down? -Absolutely.
-Best of luck. -Thank you.
[Bernard] I check my lamb, and I definitely
want to give it time to rest.
So I take it out of the oven.
So Lena put her lamb in the oven.
She's very confident that it's going to be cooked.
I am less confident about it.
My lamb needs a lot more time in the oven,
but I have to let it rest, because if I don't,
once I cut into it, all the juice will get out,
and then the lamb will not be good.
[Bernard] I lay down my spinach salad.
A minute to go.
I got to get this lamb on the plate.
I see that it could have gone a little bit longer,
but time's almost up.
[Lena] So I'm going to put my carrots on my plate.
-[Bobby] Moment of truth. -Cut the lamb.
[Lena] Oh, God, no.
Shoot, it is rare.
But I don't have time to recook it now.
Then I have a juice, which is the marinade
reduced with a lot of butter in it.
[all] Eight, seven, six...
[Bernard] And I just drizzle my blackberry vinaigrette over the top.
[all] ...two, one.
-[bell dings] -[cheering]
-Thank you, chef. -Here you go.
-Good job, man. -Thank you, sir.
I'm happy. Again, I think the lamb could have gone longer,
but the flavors that I developed
are really going to push through.
My lamb definitely needs some more time to cook.
However, the flavor of the lamb is perfect.
I'm just hoping that this is the winning dish.
All right, we want to find a chef that can beat Bobby.
It's all going to come down to this lamb loin.
So Bernard, tell us what you made.
So I made for you a seared lamb salad
with blackberry vinaigrette.
What you've done here is given me a lamb
that I think is perfectly seasoned.
Now, on the other side, I don't think this lamb
is where it needs to be.
You're not able to bite through it
if you don't get it to that medium rare.
And I think that's the struggle
that I'm having right now.
The blend of spices, it's delicious.
The amount of salt that you've added
is just perfect for lamb.
The blackberry vinaigrette,
it's a good vinaigrette by itself.
But over here, it doesn't belong.
Because when you're thinking of lamb,
it's that gamey meat you need something
-which is stronger, more robust. -Gotcha.
[Eddie] All right, Lena, what'd you make?
I made a pan-seared honey lemongrass lamb loin
with glazed carrots.
Lena, what do you think about the cook of your lamb loin?
Definitely needs to cook a little bit more.
It needs to be cooked a lot more and then rested.
The sauce is delicious.
And I really like what you did with
the brown butter carrots.
It works along with the sauce.
I think you created a sauce and a marinade combo
that really goes with the lamb itself.
But again, both of you, that lamb is so undercooked.
We can't really judge on the cook of the lamb.
So now we have to think about whose flavors do we think
can take down Bobby Flay.
[Lena] Knowing that it comes down to flavors
is a relief.
I don't know lamb, but I know my flavors.
[Bernard] I feel like I built complex flavors.
So I think my chances of making it
to the next round are very good.
The chef moving forward tonight is...
Lena.
[indistinct]
I do not agree with the decision today. [laughs]
But I am happy for Chef Lena.
And I'm excited to see her beat Bobby.
What I loved about the flavor was all the layers
that you created.
It was very expertly handled.
Thank you, Chef.
Put those nerves in the garbage bag
and just throw them outside,
because right now you've got to bring your A-game.
Yes, Chef.
All right, Chef. Round one's over.
You feel like you can beat me in the second round?
-Yes, Chef. -Ooh.
What are we cooking tonight?
My signature dish is...
Spring rolls.
[all] Oh!
[audience applauds]
Bobby is not very good at this.
In fact, I feel like the one time
he did get this challenge, he lost.
As long as it's not lamb spring rolls.
Ooh.
[Eddie] Okay.
Yeah.
All right, here we go.
45 minutes.
-Let's do it! -[audience cheers]
You think about spring rolls, and everybody's like,
-"Oh, it's so easy." But it's not. -It's not.
-The biggest thing, knife cuts. -[Maneet] Oh.
-Everything has to be the same size. -Yes.
Knife cuts and also how you roll it.
-[Eddie] Yeah. Tight. -It needs to be tight.
-Fillings are really up to the chef. -[Maneet] Yes.
Pork, shrimp, they have some that's completely vegetarian.
And you've got to make sure that the dipping sauce
along with that is stellar.
My signature dish is fried pork spring rolls
with chili garlic dipping sauce.
Why'd you choose spring rolls?
I was born and raised in Vietnam.
So I really want to bring my heritage, my roots.
My grandma would make it for me for dinner.
So to beat Bobby's flavor with it is going to be a win.
The first thing I have to do is start
soaking my dry mushrooms
and bean thread to soften for the spring roll filling.
And then I dry shiitake mushrooms
to make some crispy chips to go on top of my roast.
Lena, what filling are you using?
I'm going to make fried pork spring roll.
That sounds really good.
Bobby, what kind of filling are you using?
I'm doing shrimp and pork, mushrooms.
First thing I do is I get started on my filling
by sauteing my shiitake mushrooms,
a little bit of soy sauce, some sesame oil.
I add some ginger, garlic, and scallions.
And get them into the blast chiller to cool them out.
I just like these flavors.
Obviously, Lena has a deft hand
when it comes to flavoring food.
So I need to make sure that mine stacks up.
[Eddie] 36 minutes left.
-Let's go! -[audience cheers]
[Lena] I need to start pickling my cucumbers,
Fresno chili, and carrot in rice vinegar.
Lena, Lena, Lena,
this is in your wheelhouse right here, huh?
[Lena] Yes, Chef.
This is actually my grandma's spring rolls.
So I recreate her recipe.
-So this is grandma right here, huh? -Yes.
I know you ain't got nothing to worry about over here.
Trust me.
Now I'm going to soften my vermicelli noodles.
I actually like the texture of the vermicelli noodles.
They're a little bouncy.
Bobby, is this your second time making spring rolls?
Apparently.
So what's going in the spring roll?
Mushrooms, pork, shrimp.
I'm going to pickle some vegetables.
I'm going to pickle thinly shredded carrots
and Fresno chilies
with the rice wine vinegar and some sugar.
So this is grandma's recipe over here.
You know, it's hard to compete with grandma.
This is my grandmother's recipe right here.
[all laugh]
Let's give it up for Lena.
[audience cheers]
[Eddie] Lena seems so confident, you know, with Bobby.
He's just going on the fly right now.
But one thing we do know about Mr. Flay
-is that he's going to bring the flavor. -Flavor.
This dipping sauce is a really
traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce.
Fish sauce, sugar, water, some lime juice,
Thai chilies, and garlic.
Coming up on 31 minutes and 30 seconds.
Now I need to grab my mushroom mixture,
add a glass chiller, and I add everything together,
the vermicelli noodles, the shrimp, the pork,
lime zest, fish sauce, and some sugar.
-[Maneet] She looks a lot more composed in this round. -Oh, absolutely.
-How you doing, miss? -Really good.
[Eddie] You know who doesn't look composed?
Mr. Bobby Flay.
[chuckles]
[Bobby] You know, I don't know if the flavors are right.
I mean, this is a little out of my wheelhouse.
I've already lost once, so there's a good chance
-I could lose again. -You mess up yet?
Just a matter of time.
[Eddie] 27 minutes on the clock.
Now I have to start my filling.
Some onions, some shallots, shredded carrots, mushrooms,
and bean thread and ground pork.
Yeah, guys. Whoo!
Okay, Lena, how's it going?
Got my pickles done, and dipping sauce is done.
Will you be able to make enough spring rolls?
I will, and this will be cooked.
[all laugh]
-Keep up the good work. -[Lena] Thank you.
[Lena] To finish my filling, I put in some eggs,
fish sauce, salt and pepper, and sugar.
Hello, Bobby.
How are you doing?
Hi, Maneet, what's happening?
You tell us what's happening.
I have pork, shrimp, shiitake mushrooms
I cooked with ginger, garlic, and scallions,
and I'm going to make a sauce.
So how confident are you with your rolling skills?
Mmm. I'm not sure.
Best of luck.
[Eddie] You've got 20 minutes left.
When I'm looking at Lena's filling,
I see some fresh carrots in there.
That's going to give that filling a little bit of crunch.
I look at Bobby's.
I see noodles, pork.
I see mushrooms. I see shrimp.
There's no texture.
So I'm going to wrap up my spring rolls,
and I'm using a wheat wrapper.
Everybody pay attention to Bobby's
rolling skills right now.
[Maneet] Da, da, da.
[Eddie] Uh-oh. They don't look tight.
My technique is not great.
-[Eddie] Oh, what? -[Maneet] What?
[Eddie] What is that?
[laughing]
[Bobby] I don't think anybody's going to recognize me as a
spring roll master, but my goal is to get them
to look somewhat like spring rolls,
and hopefully keep them closed.
-[Maneet] Okay. -That's better.
[Eddie] Lena, what you doing with the beer?
Drinking it.
[all laugh]
We love her!
-[Maneet and Eddie] Yeah! -[audience cheers]
I'm using light beer to soften my rice papers a little bit
so to make it easy to roll.
And the beer will help make it crispy after frying.
I prefer rice flour compared to wheat
because when you deep fry rice flour,
it gives it almost that puffed rice crunchiness.
I feel like Lena's spring rolls
are going to be really light,
and Bobby's are going to be really heavy and dense.
Now let's watch Lena roll that spring roll.
[Maneet] That's how you do it.
[Eddie] And that's how you do it, ladies and gentlemen.
-[audience applauds] -Looks just like mine.
[laughing]
We have a chance, Eddie. We have a chance to win.
[Eddie] We got a great chance.
We should start celebrating.
-Yeah, let's do it. -Yeah, I think we got
a little something in the refrigerator.
Yes.
[Bobby] Seven minutes to go,
and I get my spring rolls in the fryer.
-[Maneet] Hi, Bobby. -[Eddie] What's up, Bobby?
[Bobby] What's up?
Hey, Bobby, have you seen this trick before?
Saber, can you do that?
[all cheer]
[Maneet] The champagne is for the winners.
Cheers.
-Mmm. -It's so good.
Great job. I mean, outstanding job.
Cheers, Bobby.
Now I'm going to make my sauce.
It's peanut butter. It's rice wine vinegar.
It's soy sauce, some sesame oil, some sugar.
I'm going to add hot chili oil,
a little lime juice. I'm going for it.
Are you happy, Bobby?
[Bobby] They look good.
They actually do.
Now I'm going to plate some butter lettuce.
Spring roll in the middle,
some of the peanut sauce with some peanuts on top.
Now I'm taking my spring rolls out of the fryer,
and it looks amazing.
Let's go, Lena. You got to get plating.
How we eat spring roll is that
we wrap it in lettuces and herbs,
and the pickles will be the palate cleanser
after every bite.
[Eddie] Bobby's sauce does look delicious, though.
Yeah, it does.
[Eddie] I like that she split that on the bias like that,
-so you can see what's inside. -What's inside.
[all] Ten, nine...
[Lena] I top it with the shiitake chips.
[Bobby] Some of the pickled carrots and Fresno chilis,
mint, cilantro.
[all] ...two, one.
[all applaud]
You finished? Good.
-[Lena] You? -Yeah.
I don't think I'm gonna open a Vietnamese restaurant
anytime soon, but I think the peanut sauce
with the shrimp and the mushrooms and the pork
tastes really nice.
[Lena] I absolutely think that I showcased my flavors.
The shiitake, the fish sauce is wonderful.
I believe this dish is good enough to be Bobby Flay.
All right, Bobby, Lena,
we'd like to introduce you to your judges.
Actor and founder of Breaker's Supper Club,
Daniel Breaker.
Chef, owner of Border Grill, and Socalo, Susan Feniger.
Chef and restaurateur, Wesley Jean Simon.
[all applaud]
All right, judges, tonight's challenge was spring rolls.
You can start with the spring roll in front of you.
[Daniel] Lovely use of herbs.
The texture of the shrimp on the inside
is just really delicious.
The pork as well, this peanut sauce is creamy, spicy,
not afraid of heat.
When I was trying to eat it,
the roll was sort of breaking up a little bit,
but I'm quite forgiving because it's pretty delicious.
[Susan] I like the pickled carrots quite a bit.
I see that there's vermicelli in there, so I like that too.
Maybe the spring roll
could have been a little bit crispier,
and I would have liked more herbs,
but I thought the flavor inside was really nice.
As soon as I grabbed it,
it was falling apart a little bit,
so could have been rolled tighter.
But as soon as I bite into it, it's just perfect.
Like, the flavors was there.
The peanut butter compliment, the second bite,
it's just beautiful how it comes together in your mouth.
All right, judges, how about we go ahead and switch plates?
[Daniel] Wonderful presentation here.
The crispiness of the roll almost moonlights
as a tempura, like very light, very crispy.
The textures all around are really lovely.
I'm missing a little more complexities of flavors,
a little more bite, heat.
They're there, but they're just a little bit
in the background.
I agree, totally.
The crispiness is really nice on there.
The sauce is really delicious, very light, salty, and sweet.
So I love that, but I need a little bit more heat
and more herbs to just balance the earthiness of this dish.
The whole presentation was beautiful.
First bite, I wasn't getting enough flavor
until I added the sauce.
The garlic sauce was wonderful.
I love the crispiness of the spring roll,
but I wish the spring roll would have stood up on its own
without adding the sauce.
[Eddie] All right, judges, now it's time to take a vote.
[Lena sighs] I can't think right now.
I just want them to say it. Who's the winner?
And the winner is...
Bobby Flay, man.
[audience cheers]
I'm still processing that Bobby beat me
on my own traditional grandma's recipe dish,
but I came in to prove that as a female immigrant chef,
that you can make it in America, and I did it.
-No! -How does he do it?
When I took that first bite,
I didn't even feel like I needed to add the sauce.
It had the right balance.
Thank you, Chef.
Ugh.
I don't feel too bad. I mean,
Bobby may have won, but let's face it.
I have the better dance moves.
I?
You mean to say us?
We have the better dance moves.
I got a spring in my step, and I'm on a roll.
[audience cheers]