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 gonna shake down in two rounds.
-[bell dings] -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!
-[bell dings] -Round two, I go head-to-head with the winning contender.
Let's go!
It's their turn to surprise me with their signature dish.
-What? -Oh!
-Don't try this at home. -I know you didn't, Bobby!
-[Bobby] Bottom line? -You're gonna run out of time!
Everyone's out to beat me.
-[snap] -[bell dings]
[audience cheering]
All right, everybody.
My special guests tonight are just as fabulous as
they are fierce.
Please welcome Chef Maneet Chauhan, and the always amazing,
Carson Kressley. -Oh, what's up?
-Ha! -[Carson vocalizing indistinctly]
-[Carson] Look out, Maneet! -Oh!
-I caught it! -Whoa, you did!
Oh, I still got it! No, no, no.
-Please sit down. -How you doing?
Fantastic.
So, uh, you winning a couple Emmys here and there?
Yeah, two primetime Emmys and one international Emmy.
-Ooh. -[Bobby] Oh, an international Emmy?
Yeah, you know, I get around.
And I have mine on my bar, which is mirrored, so it looks
like I have more than I have. It's a very good trick.
-Hi, Maneet. -Hello, Bobby.
What have you been doing in the TV circuit these days?
The usual. "Chopped."
"Supermarket Stakeout."
You're on every other show that Carson's not on.
Yes. Now we are on it together.
-I know, I love it. -We're taking over the world.
-Finally, yes. -Here it is.
Look out, "Next Top Model, Norway."
-Here we come. -Yes!
-Let's bring out some chefs. -OK.
Our first contender spent years honing his craft in Japan.
From Cincinnati, it's Hideki Harada.
[Bobby] Yeah.
[audience cheering]
Whoo!
Our next contender is bringing the flavor
with his Nepalese cuisine.
From Tampa, Florida, by way of Nepal, it's Rajesh Pathak.
Whoo!
-OK! -[cheering]
This always brings me back to that time I was stuck in that
women's prison. -[laughing]
Good evening, Hideki, Rajesh. I liked your entrance.
-Thank you. -Nice little...
You gonna bring some of that style to the kitchen?
Yes, absolutely. That's the plan.
What about you, Chef? How you feeling?
-Feeling great. -What are you feeling great about?
-Taking you down. -Yes!
Here's the way it's gonna work.
I'm gonna give you an ingredient of my choice,
and you must make that the star of your dish.
And that ingredient is...
king trumpet mushrooms. -Whoa!
-Come on! -[audience] Ooh.
-You good? -Yeah.
-You got this, right? -Feeling great.
This is a gift for you guys. 20 minutes on the clock.
Make some magic mushrooms
with the king trumpet. -[bell rings]
Whoo! Go, go, go guys!
The king trumpet looks quite sturdy and stout.
[Maneet] These are really meaty, and it's very versatile.
You can roast it, deep-fry it, make purees out of it.
I mean, I think I would roast them whole, you know, treat it
like a piece of meat almost.
Absolutely, and they can both put their international flair.
It's gonna be an international trumpet mushroom
showdown, y'all.
[Bobby] Rajesh, what are you making, sir?
I'm making a dish called mushroom choila,
which is a mushroom salad.
So choila is a typical Nepalese dish made with any kind
of protein tossed with spices, but I'm doing a vegan version
with mushrooms.
I grew up eating the same dish in a chicken version,
so I think this represents what Nepalese cuisine is about.
Who's cheering for Rajesh?
-Whoo! -[cheering]
[Rajesh] I grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal.
I think I was seven when I realized I wanted to be chef,
but my family all thought that getting a degree was important,
so I moved to the United States
and enrolled in business school.
After graduation, I started pursuing other opportunities
in the tech industry.
But I was finally able to achieve my dream when I opened
my restaurant in 2022.
Nepalese food is all about a balance of flavor and spices.
We focus on ingredients, and the cooking style is very basic.
Beating Bobby would be a dream come true.
And I want to say to the Nepalese community,
if you dream it, you can "Kathman-do" it.
Hideki, what are you making?
I'm gonna do a trumpet tempura with a little light broth.
I like that.
Tempura makes everything better.
[Hideki] I've tempura-d a lot of things in my life, so it's something
that I'm very familiar with.
I want to make a dipping broth on the side using
chicken stock, grated ginger, soy, sugar, and a little
bit of mirin, which is Japanese cooking wine.
Let's hear it for Hideki!
[cheering]
[Hideki] My first job was at a buffalo chicken wing place.
I started out as a wing shaker, and I fell in love with being
in the kitchen.
With my father's encouragement, I attended culinary school
in Japan, where I gained a whole new level of respect
for the culture and the cuisine.
Today, I'm a husband, father, and I own two
restaurants in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Beating Bobby Flay with my Japanese cuisine would
be a dream come true.
All right, Bobby, I'm taking you out.
[Maneet] What are you more concerned about?
Japanese cuisine or Nepalese cuisine?
Uh, both.
Cumin, coriander, cayenne absolutely are very
authentic to the dish. I want to toast them.
That just brings out the flavor of the spices.
-Chefs, 16 minutes left. -[clapping]
Rajesh, choila, it's a kind of a salad?
It is a salad, but it's sauteed mushrooms.
OK, so who do you have with you in the audience?
Oh, I've got my wife here.
-Oh, hi! -And she's more excited than I am.
You're his good luck charm, right?
-Yeah. -Awesome.
-Best of luck, Rajesh. -Thank you.
Now I'm making tempura batter using A.P. flour, rice flour,
eggs, and water. -Tempura, what a great idea.
We gotta keep it simple.
There'll be enough flavor to take Bobby down?
I'm gonna season it well. I'll get the broth seasoned.
Best of luck. Just under 13 minutes.
The tempura batter is looking really good.
My question is, what's it gonna be flavored with?
Also, how you cut these mushrooms is a big deal
because they're very dense.
There's a chance they might not cook through.
[Rajesh] Mushrooms can have a bland taste, so I'm using some
tomato, jalapeno, and garlic, and it's gonna
be more of a dressing for my salad.
Traditionally in Nepalese cooking, especially when
there are momos, which are dumplings, there's always
a spicy tomato sauce. -[Carson] And what are they called?
-Momos. -What did you call me?
-[Bobby] Eight minutes. -I'll be right back.
[Hideki] I feel like there's some color missing.
So I grab shishito peppers and get the vegetables
in the fryer.
Frying mushrooms takes some of the moisture out of it,
so you kind of get a hearty mushroom taste.
So what's the plan for these?
So I'm gonna plate these separately with a little
side broth.
Like a dipping sauce slash broth.
But what's the flavor here?
I don't even know if he's put any flavoring in the batter.
-You know, we're feeling good about time? -I think so.
Let's hear it for Hideki, everybody.
-[cheering] -I'm gonna pop over here.
Rajesh and the stylish headwear headquarters.
Thank you.
Is there some kind of dressing happening?
Yes. It's freshly made cooked tomatoes.
-That looks spicy. -Rajesh, keep cooking, dude.
Keep cooking. Multi-task.
Yeah, keep cooking. Don't let me distract you. I'm not even here.
Only three minutes left.
[Rajesh] Now I'm mixing mushrooms, the dressing, and the spices
all together for my salad, with cilantro,
scallions, and lemon juice. I feel great.
This is the dish I wanted to do, so I'm happy with what
I created. -[Bobby] 45 seconds.
Whoo!
[Hideki] I start plating the broth into the ramekins.
Oh, my god.
[Hideki] Time's ticking, so I'm taking the tempura out of the fryer
and just go straight to the plate.
I'm a little nervous about not being able to taste my tempura,
but I'm confident the mushrooms are cooked perfectly.
[audience] Seven, six, five, four,
three, two, one. -[bell rings]
-[Maneet] Whoo! -Good job.
Nice job, chef. Beautiful.
There's nothing more joyous than beating our little
Robert William Flay.
[laughing]
And to see who's going to take down Bobby Flay,
it's going to come down to who used the king trumpet mushrooms better.
Chef Hideki, what did you make today?
I made a king trumpet mushroom tempura with shishitos.
This broth that you've created has these wonderful flavors
and lifts the dish, and I think that was very much needed.
Though the idea of the tempura was a great one, if you had
added flavoring to it, you would have augmented
that bite, because right now it's bland.
I did love the shishito because, you know,
sometimes the mushrooms can be a little boring, and that gave
us something a little bit different texture.
The tempura idea, very smart.
But it just didn't have that crunch that we were
looking for.
Chef Rajesh, what did you make today?
I've got a king trumpet mushroom choila,
which basically is a mushroom salad.
What you have created in terms of flavor is amazing,
but the vegetables are very haphazardly cut.
So if I get one bite which is perfect, the next bite could be
overwhelming because there's too much onions in it.
A mushroom is not very flavorful, so you did a great
job of amping up the flavor by surrounding it with all
these things.
You get the spiciness, you get the brightness.
To Maneet's point, I just had, like, a big chunk of
raw garlic,
it was shocking and not in a great way.
The plate isn't perfect, but I know I've got the flavors
in there, so I'm hopeful that this will take me to
the next round.
Moving on to beat Bobby tonight is...
Chef Rajesh.
[cheering]
[Hideki] I'm feeling bummed.
There's a lot of things I could have done differently,
but I'm happy I got to be here.
For somebody to beat Bobby, they have to bring
their flavor game, and you got that.
And you have a better outfit on.
Thank you.
Rajesh, way to go.
You brought the hat, you brought the flavor.
You feeling good about round two, huh?
Very, 100%.
So, what are we cooking tonight?
What's your signature dish?
So, my signature dish tonight is...
chicken momo. -Chicken momos.
-Oh, oh. -Ah-ha!
Oh, my god.
I've never made them, but Maneet was talking about
them a little bit while you were cooking.
-You're welcome. -That's not really gonna help me very much.
He's a momo virgin.
[laughing]
45 minutes on the clock, and your time starts now.
[Maneet] Whoo-hoo! Go, go, go, go, go!
I have been eating momos my entire life.
-Right. -Momos are dumplings.
Traditionally, it's either goat or buffalo.
-Oh, wow. -They are spices like cumin, coriander, ginger, so really
a lot of flavor in it. -[Carson] OK.
It can be served in broth, but usually there's a dipping
sauce on the side, usually tomato-based, and spicy. -OK.
Rajesh, why do you think that this is the dish to beat Bobby?
So Bobby has never made this dish, so that's one of
the reasons I want to make it.
So momo to any Nepalese is very close to their heart.
Any gathering, momo is like a crucial thing.
I'm making chicken momo with tomato cilantro sauce,
and a tomato sesame jhol.
The first thing I start working on is my aromatics
for my stuffing, ginger, garlic, red and green onion,
and green cabbage to bring that crunchiness.
Now I'm adding cumin, coriander,
turmeric, and cayenne pepper.
How many times have you made this dish?
-Probably 10,000 times. -[Carson] Oh, wow.
10,000, but who's counting, right?
[Bobby] Nepalese food, you know, I really don't know very much about it.
I know I can make something flavorful, so I'm making
chicken momos with a tomato chutney sauce,
and a green chili yogurt.
I start working on my tomato chutney with shallots,
ginger, and garlic, canned tomatoes,
some pomegranate molasses, and some tomato paste.
Bobby's bringing out all the spices.
All the spices.
[Bobby] Curry, some coriander, some cumin, and some honey.
Definitely some Indian inspiration in here, for sure.
I'm certainly not going for authenticity, because I don't
even know what it is.
It's time I get started on my sauce
with tomatoes, ginger, garlic.
Bobby is making the sauce with canned tomatoes, while Rajesh
is using fresh.
It's more rustic, whereas Bobby's is refined
and, like, Italian.
-Yes. -The sauce is supposed to have some kick, so I'm adding
Thai chili. -35 minutes left.
[cheering]
-How is it going? -So far, so good.
I've got the sauce heating up.
I'm making the second sauce to go with it.
-More like a broth kind of sauce. -OK, fantastic.
[Rajesh] Now I'm adding ground chicken and some butter to my stuffing
mix to avoid the chicken to be dry.
-Best of luck. -Thank you.
Oh, Bobby, I think you're in trouble.
-You do? -[Bobby] I'm making tomato sauce.
You know that this is Nepalese and not, like, Italian?
I'm a little worried.
Do you want me to give you a hint?
-Yeah, sure. -Run.
-[laughing] -[Maneet] 32 minutes left.
On Bobby's station, there was a sauce, but he hasn't even
started working on the filling.
Rajesh has his filling, and he's going to be making
two sauces.
[Bobby] So now I start making the filling.
I have some cooked shallots, ginger, and garlic,
a little bit of honey, and then some curry
and some cumin.
So the one thing about momos is that the filling is never
cooked, and as you're steaming it, that's the time
when the entire... -Oh, that's when it happens.
Yes, because if you are putting something warm in a dumpling
and then you steam it, it'll burst.
I watered the edges of the momo wrapper to make sure that
it sticks together when I seal them.
When folding the momo, you want to give some design
on top.
You want it to look like momo and not empanada.
[Maneet] That looks beautiful.
Ooh, less than half an hour left.
It just seems like Rajesh is so much further ahead.
[Maneet] Yes, he is.
[Carson] I mean, I feel so bad for Bobby, struggling in his own kitchen.
-Bless him. -[laughing]
[Maneet] 23 minutes to go!
♪ Let's go ♪
So, Bobby put onions with spices,
-Oh. -and then he chilled it,
and that is what he's adding for flavoring in the chicken mix.
I'm gonna put some chicken fat in there as well,
for some juiciness. -Let me go razzle-dazzle 'em.
-AKA Operation Distraction. -[Maneet] Yes.
-[cheering] -Do not be dazzled by my bedazzled baton.
Tell me, who are you -- ho! God, I caught it.
That looks delicious. That's your filling?
[Bobby] That's my chicken, yeah.
And then here is your dipping sauce.
[Bobby] It's my tomato sauce. Want to taste it?
I'm gonna turn into a momo-sexual.
[laughing]
It's delicious.
All right, I'll be just over here.
See you later.
Oh, these dumplings look so nice.
They're like little handbags and works of art.
And then the chutney.
[Rajesh] I'm gonna blend it with some cilantro.
Sounds like it's going to be
amazing.
All right, 19 minutes and 22 seconds, everybody.
[slight ringing of bell]
-Oh, that didn't work. -[Rajesh] Now my momos are folded.
It's time to get them steamed.
-I tasted Bobby's chutney, and it tasted very tomato-y. -Was there raw spice?
[Carson] Wasn't even the spice, it was just very acid-y.
I was getting heartburn just looking at it.
Yeah.
Bobby's also really struggling with making the momos.
-Making them. -Yes.
[Bobby] This is the part that I don't like.
I feel like I have, like, 10 thumbs.
You need me to teach you how to wrap Bobby?
Yeah, that'd be great.
I believe that's called shade, Bobby.
It's all right.
It may not look pretty, but I have to get this done.
If he doesn't start cooking it right now, we might get
raw momos. Ugh.
[Bobby] So I want to pan sear them just to get a little texture on
them, and then I'll steam them.
So this actually is a great technique.
You let it sear and then pour water in it, and then
you cover it, so then it's, yeah. -It steams it well.
That actually sounds annoyingly delicious.
It is annoyingly delicious.
[Rajesh] Now I've got my tomato sauce ready.
Then I take a very tiny bit of the sauce, and I add some
water, lemon juice, sesame seeds, salt,
and some Sichuan pepper, and blend it for
my jhol broth. -Seven minutes, chefs.
[Maneet] Whoo!
[clapping]
I've got a sauce for you to try.
Oh, we're having chutney? Oh, it looks gorgeous.
-Ooh. -Wow.
-That's spicy. -It's got a kick to it.
[Maneet] It's got a kick to it. What's the second sauce?
-That's the broth. -OK.
That one's nuttier, more sesame.
-[Maneet] Sesame. -I like that one.
-Awesome. -You're happy?
-Very. -Come on, guys, you think Rajesh got it?
[cheering]
So now I take the tomato chutney that I blended
and slathered on the plate, and then I make a hot sauce
with serrano chilis, vinegar, honey,
and cilantro, and I fold it into the yogurt.
So, Bobby, we did get to try the chutneys that Rajesh made.
Yeah. How are they? Amazing?
The way they're supposed to be. Delicious!
[Bobby] Good. I love that.
This little pepper top looks like a little hat!
Oh, look how darling you could wear that to
the Kentucky Derby. -[Maneet] Aw.
-Coming up on four minutes! -Four minutes everybody!
Best of luck!
[Rajesh] I want to give a different texture to the judges,
so I pan-fried some of my momos just to give a nice char.
Then I start my plating with the sauce,
one pan-fried momo and two steamed momos.
I want to serve the jhol on the side so that the judges
taste both sauces separately.
[Maneet] One minute to go!
[Bobby] So I plate three of the dumplings with the crusted
side up, and then I put some toasted sesame seeds, some of
the green chili yogurt, and I finish it with lime zest.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one.
-Whoo! -[cheering]
[Rajesh] This is a dish that is so close to my heart.
I feel great.
Rajesh's momos look picture-perfect.
I don't know, Bobby's looks really good.
[Bobby] I think I made some good-tasting dumplings.
Whether they're momos or not, I don't know.
-Nice job. -Thank you.
Beautiful.
Tonight's challenge was a chicken momo.
And now we would like to introduce you
to the judges.
First up, the chef-owner of East Wind Snack Shop,
Chris Cheung.
The co-owner of Rai Rai Ken and Ban Rai, Sakura Yagi.
And the chef-owner of While in Kathmandu, Bikash Kharel.
[Maneet] Whoo!
Judges, you can start with the first chicken momo in front of you.
The chef that made these really knows how to fold a pretty momo
and went well with the sauce, but when you use these skins,
those pleats tend to dry out a little bit
right after cooking.
So that's pretty much my only knock on the dish.
I thought the plating was absolutely gorgeous.
The chutney in the middle, super fragrant,
really delicious.
Eating it together with the momo was a really
nice combination.
I think the jhol wasn't necessary.
The plate itself was great as is.
The design of the momo itself is folded.
It's how a Nepali momo is done.
The flavor content of the momo itself was as good as I could
make as authentic momo.
I think for the jhol, if it was served with the momo in it,
would have made a big difference.
Not doing that kind of took away from the essence of
jhol itself. -All right, thank you, judges.
We'll have you switch plates.
This momo, I couldn't stop eating it with this
yogurt sauce.
The momo had this beautiful caramelization on it.
It was seared perfectly well.
But when you use chicken as a filling, it's going
to dry out a little bit.
I thought this momo was super fun.
It was juicy.
Right when you bit into it, you could see the juices
flowing inside.
And the yogurt, as well as the chutney, went really
well together. -The plating was super nice.
The momos were seared really nice.
I personally was not a big fan of the chutney.
Great sauce by itself, but for the flavor profile of
a momo, this was a little overpowering.
-Thank you, judges. -There can only be one winner.
Here are your ballots.
I'm proud that judges are seeing the authenticity in my momo.
So at this point, I think the decision's 50-50.
All right, we have a split decision tonight.
And the winner is...
Chef Bobby Flay. -Oh, wow.
I'm surprised.
As a judge, you find some dishes that just
make you happy.
So that's why I went with this one.
-Thank you. -Rajesh, you won in our books.
-Great job tonight. -Thank you.
Thank you, Chef.
I'm proud of what I presented today and representing Nepalese
cuisine here, that itself is a win to me.
-Seriously -- [grunt] -I mean...
How do you do this?
The man hasn't been to Kalamazoo, let alone Kathmandu.
Tell me about it.
Looks like my momo stole the show.