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] -[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 didn't, Bobby!
Bottom line?
You're gonna run out of time!
Everyone's out to beat me.
[snaps]
[bell dings]
All right! Whoo!
All right guys, it's showtime.
Tonight, I'm joined by two ladies that I've known for
a very long time.
Here to find the joy in my pain, it's Food Network's
Katie Lee Biegel, and journalist and author,
Hoda Kotb.
Mnh-mnh, mnh-mnh, mnh-mnh, mnh-mnh, mnh-mnh.
Oh, yes.
-It's your first time here, right? -Yeah.
I had to get you to retire from the "Today Show" to get
you on "Beat Bobby Flay." -That's what it took.
So glad to have you here. You look well-rested.
I gotta say, the 4 AM wake-ups are bye-bye,
and it's so nice to be here right now. -Don't miss those.
-So my daughter, Sophie. -Yeah, I know Sophie.
She's working for ABC News in New York.
She's anchoring the middle of the night.
Wait, first of all, she's anchoring?
Yes.
Congrats, that shift is horrible.
-It is very horrible. -Horrible, but she's doing it.
Hey, you gotta pay your dues, you know that, right?
Uh-huh. I do.
I'm so happy for her, by the way, Bobby.
And now I'm on your turf, man.
[Bobby] I know, I'm so glad you're here.
But you've kinda switched gears a little bit, too.
I built this wellness platform and we call it Joy 101.
So now I'm the CEO of a company and I make my kids call me
boss lady. So I'm loving my ride.
Absolutely, positively.
-So, Bobby, we are done being nice to you. -[Bobby] OK.
We're gonna meet our two contenders
that are here to... -Great.
-...take you down tonight. -Let's bring 'em out.
Our first contender is taking Korean cuisine to new peaks
in Montana. It's Chef Emma Woods.
[audience cheers]
Yeah! Oh!
Don't throw your back out.
[Katie] Whoo!
All right, your kick was higher than mine.
Our next contender, Bobby, is known for his fine dining.
From Copenhagen to California, he's worked at some of the best
restaurants in the world.
Coming in from Palm Springs, it's Quentin Garcia.
Hello.
-[Hoda] Oh, yeah. -[Katie] Whoo!
[yells]
You're done!
-He's finished! -You OK?
I'm fantastic.
-How you guys doing? -Good.
I like the entrances. So, we all know how this works.
I'm gonna give you 20 minutes on the clock, one ingredient of
my choice, and you have to make that ingredient the star of
your dish. And that ingredient is...
cabbage.
-Nice. -[audience] Ooh.
-That's a great ingredient. -Good.
Hoda and Katie will taste your dishes and they will decide
which one of you goes up against me in the second round.
Twenty minutes on the clock.
Time to roll up your sleeves and your cabbage.
[bell dings]
[audience cheers]
[indistinct lyrics]
[Katie] I'm excited about this.
I feel like cabbage is finally getting its due.
How do you -- I'm sorry, this is so basic --
you just cook it on the stove?
Well, there's lots of different ways to do it.
I love putting like a spice rub on it, and then you can
grill it. -Grilling it?
Grilling it or face down in a cast iron pan.
It's really delicious.
I make a dish kind of like that,
but I make a miso-maple butter glaze to put on it.
Ooh. I was thinking coleslaw.
-You cook at home? -No, no, Bobby, no.
My plan for making this dish special is definitely adding
some of those Asian flavors that I'm so used
to working with.
Emma, what are you making?
I'm doing a hard-seared cabbage with a miso brown
butter glaze. -Sounds great.
That was exactly one of your go-tos.
Perfect.
♪ Move like this. Can you move like this? ♪
I was born in South Korea, and when I was three and a half,
I was adopted, and I grew up on Cape Cod.
I always wanted to be a chef, so I started working
in the kitchen as a teenager.
After I graduated college, I returned to South Korea,
and I spent two and a half years there, trying to absorb
as much about Korean cuisine as I could.
Now I am the chef and co-owner of Whistle Pig Korean
in Bozeman, Montana.
I would like to prove to myself
that I can go up against the best.
No pressure, just all the Korean grandmothers
and aunties relying on me to not mess up.
Quentin, what are you making?
A shrimp taco with charred harissa, tahini,
roasted cabbage. -Whoa!
-Whoo! -These chefs are not playing.
I've never really seen a taco focused on cabbage, but I think
it's a very bold, interesting route to take.
So I grab some limes, I'm juicing them immediately,
and I start mixing in harissa, tahini, and gochujang.
I rub the marinade directly on the cabbage.
So, by the way, I don't know if you know this, Quentin got
his first job in a restaurant at age 11.
-What? -[Hoda] Yeah.
Here we go.
From an early age, I knew that I was a creative person.
So at 11 years old,
I walked into my first professional kitchen,
and I haven't left the industry since.
And then at 23, I became the youngest executive chef
in Napa Valley.
Now, I'm the executive chef at Thompson Palm Springs,
where I opened up Lola Rose,
an Eastern Mediterranean restaurant that
I'm absolutely in love with.
It would be really cool to get to a point in my career to be
able to hang with the big dogs.
I think when I face Bobby,
he's definitely gonna make it hard for me.
But that's why I'm here.
[Katie] All right, we got 15 minutes.
Now I start working on my Korean slaw.
-Chef Emma, how are you? -I'm well.
I'm doing really well.
I love to make cabbage with
miso, brown butter, maple syrup.
Oh, it's so good. Hope you like it.
And you're gonna do some kimchi, too?
I'm gonna add some of it in to my cabbage, just to add
a little umami flavor. -Perfect.
[Emma] So green, I'm gonna sear.
And then the red is just so pretty.
-Wanna add some color. -I can't wait to try it.
-Good luck. -Aw, thank you.
Chef Quentin, how are you?
[Quentin] So right now, I'm already getting the cabbage going.
It's super important that this
gets that nice charred flavor on there.
Otherwise, it's just cabbage with shrimp.
-That's kind of the goal. -[Katie] All right.
You've got 12 minutes and 45 seconds on the clock.
So Emma's really making cabbage the star by having
the cooked cabbage, and then she's also doing
some raw cabbage.
And then Quentin was taking the heads off his shrimp.
He's grilling it.
-It's a very Bobby Flay dish. -For sure.
[Quentin] Next, I make a beautiful crema of Calabrian chilies
and some bright herbs.
-Nine minutes to go, guys. -I'm gonna go take a look.
Hey.
[audience] Whoo!
What you got, Quentin? Let's go.
-So right now... -Oh!
...I just finished up the shrimp a little bit.
[Hoda] Ooh, I love it.
[Quentin] So we're gonna chop all that up.
I just told Bobby you worked in your first restaurant
at age 11, and he's scared of you.
[laughs] No, he's not.
No, he's not, but he should be!
-[Hoda] Oh my God. -Oh, I'm coming back.
Look at that, ooh, you charred it, huh?
Oh yeah, gotta get some color in there.
Girl, you got some color and it's cooking through.
-Can't wait to taste it. -[Emma] Thank you.
All right, Imma let you do your thing.
Six minutes, kids.
-Hoda is skipping back. -You like it here.
I can tell you like the energy here.
-It's very awesome. -So what are you thinking?
I think that Emma's using cabbage in like a bigger,
bolder way, so she might have the edge.
Quentin's got a lot going on.
I think his shrimp are very charred.
-Very charred. -Two minutes and 45 seconds.
[Emma] I gotta start building my plates.
First, the braised cabbage, and then the slaw,
and then some toasted pine nuts.
I'm feeling really confident.
Cabbage is the star on my plate.
One minute and fifteen seconds to go.
[Quentin] So first, I put down my tortilla.
I put down the crema, a little bit of the shrimp.
-[all] Ten, nine...
[Quentin] And then that grilled cabbage.
...six, five, four, three, two, one.
[bell dings]
[Quentin] I hope that I didn't give too much char onto my shrimp,
but overall I'm still feeling positive.
[Bobby] Good job, Chef.
Good job, Chef. Good job.
So Hoda, I am really hoping one of these two is gonna take
him down tonight. -But who's it gonna be?
It's a good question.
Chef Emma, tell us what you made.
Today I have prepared a seared cabbage braised in a brown
butter miso sauce topped with a Korean cabbage slaw.
Emma, you have the miso giving that umami and then the spice
from the kimchi.
My one issue is there's almost too much of the butter,
giving like a greasiness.
But flavor-wise, all the cylinders are fired up.
-Thank you. -You brought the heat.
You brought the crunch.
I love what you did with this dish.
Delicious.
Quentin, tell us about your dish.
We have a charred cabbage taco,
a little bit of lime roasted shrimp,
and an herbed Calabrian chile crema.
Well, Quentin, super flavorful.
The cabbage is nicely cooked.
The shrimp is a little over-charred for me.
I do agree with Katie, the char comes through strong,
but this aioli is absolutely delicious.
-Thank you. -[Katie] Two really good dishes.
A little too much char here, a little too much butter here.
Those are negatives? OK.
Now we both have something against us,
but it's good to know the cabbages are cooked well,
so I'm feeling really, really good.
The chef moving forward to beat Bobby tonight is...
Chef Emma.
[audience cheers]
Congratulations.
I lost!
But I think that I lost to a really good opponent,
so he's definitely at risk of losing today.
[Katie] Emma, you balanced the flavors.
You really have what it takes to beat him.
You know, Bobby, she has a higher kick than you.
Definitely.
♪ Welcome to the game ♪
♪ Welcome to the jungle ♪
♪ Where you're about to get humbled ♪
[Bobby] OK, Emma, congratulations.
You made it through round one. How do you feel?
Good. Ready.
-What is your signature dish? -My signature dish is...
♪ Ain't nobody gonna stop it ♪
♪ Welcome to the game ♪
...bibimbap. -Oh, bibimbap.
It's a Korean rice dish, it's so good.
Sounds yummy. We got 45 minutes on the clock.
Your time starts now!
OK, so let's talk about bibimbap.
The base is crispy rice, so I'm sure that Bobby
is excited about that.
And it usually has a sweet and spicy sauce,
vegetables, and an egg usually. -Mmm.
Hey, Emma, why is this dish your signature?
I own a Korean restaurant and this is our main dish
that we serve. -All right.
-Bobby's terrified. -I do love this dish though.
Well, you might love it, but that doesn't mean
you can make it. -[all laugh]
This is actually a very hard dish to make 'cause there's so
many components usually.
[Emma] So I am serving a bulgogi bibimbap,
and bulgogi is Korean barbecued beef.
First, I'm going to get started on my purple rice by combining
white rice and the black forbidden rice.
I love the color, and also that black rice does have a little
bit of texture to it.
And then I get started on my beef tenderloin.
Tenderloin's the right type of cut for this
just because, even if I do cook it to well-done,
it's not gonna get too tough.
-I got you, Emma. -[Emma laughs]
So I'm making bibimbap that has shiitake mushrooms,
filet mignon, 'cause it's tender, it will cook
very quickly, and I can keep it nice and medium-rare.
And then I'm going to surround it with some pickled crunchy
vegetables, bok choy, and the egg.
All right guys, under 36 minutes to go.
Feel the heat coming from over here.
[Emma] I am marinating my beef in soy.
I do a little soju, very similar to an unfiltered
sake, and garlic.
Yo, Emma, you're like lightning. So you're using beef tenderloin?
-Yes. -Any other protein or is that gonna be your main?
-Just an egg on top. -Love it.
All right, what are you doing? What's happening here?
-Ginger? -So I'm making a marinade.
-Soy sauce, sesame oil, gochujang. -Uh-huh, uh-huh.
-That's right. -You got that one, yup.
And I'm gonna marinate my filet.
-Got my rice going. -This is your rice right here?
-Yeah, it's too hot. -Is it burned?
-Not yet. -Let's see.
-Aren't you glad I came? -Yes.
-Take your time, don't rush. -Oh God.
You got all kinds of time. Shouldn't he relax?
-[all] Yes! -Take it easy.
Emma, high gear, kick it into high gear!
-I'm going. -All right, go get 'em, Bobby!
Thank you.
[Katie] We've got 31 minutes on the clock.
[Hoda] All right, Katie. Emma's in the zone.
Bobby seems panicky. His rice almost burned.
Unclear if he's up to this.
[Katie] Bobby's really kind of struggling
just to even get his garlic peeled.
[all laugh]
There's so many components and time feels like
it's dwindling away.
Can you, uh, clean some garlic for me by any chance?
Uh, I'm good, we're good.
I don't like the confidence that you have lately.
She saw you peeling that garlic and was like,
"I got this in the bag." -[audience laughs]
♪ I will not stop! ♪
[Katie] 23 minutes left.
Who's cheering for Emma?
Emma, you've got a bunch of veggies you're chopping up.
What do you have in there?
-Emma. -Oh, I'm sorry.
-I'm off in my own little world. -Oh, Emma.
What do you got?
I got carrots, some zucchini, some mushroom,
sprouts, and hopefully all the veggies get done in time.
Bibimbap traditionally is very colorful.
So I'm going to sauté up the mushrooms,
zucchini, and carrots,
get a nice golden brown caramelization on there.
And then I'm going to blanch the spinach
and some bean sprouts.
I love all the veggies that Emma's got going.
-It's so bright. -[Hoda] Mm-hmm.
Some people like a lot of veggies.
Other people prefer more rice.
I would say it's the preference of who's ever eating it.
All right, Bobby, what veggies are you gonna put in yours?
I got some cucumbers, some shiitake mushrooms.
I have some daikon, baby bok choy.
With bibimbap, if you don't have these crunchy elements,
it can really feel very one-note.
So while my rice is cooking, I'm pickling
the daikon and cucumbers in grenadine
and white wine vinegar.
[Katie] 18 minutes on the clock, chefs.
[Bobby] So the beef, I'm just pouring
that soy marinade over it, and then I'm just gonna sear it.
You just wanna get the flavor on there.
[Emma] It's time to work on my gochujang sauce.
I'm mixing gochujang, the Korean fermented pepper paste,
sugar, rice vinegar, and some sesame oil to it.
Oh, our beef's going in the pan.
[Emma] I'm just looking for a little
caramelization on the beef itself.
[Bobby] So I take my rice out, and then I sheet it a little
bit by crisping it up in a cast-iron pan.
And then I'm gonna put it along the walls of
the hot stone.
Coming up on 11 minutes.
Oh, she's already putting that rice in the bowls.
-[Katie] It does look good. -Is there anything we can taste?
[Emma] Yeah, all of these vegetables.
-[Katie] Mmm. -Mmm.
-Eh. -[Katie] Mmm.
-[Hoda] Oh my God, try the mushrooms. -Mm.
Mmm.
-Emma's rice is so good. -[Hoda] Emma's rice, oh.
-What do we have here? -Sesame shiitakes.
I gotta make some eggs.
-Oh man, that's good, Bobby. -[Bobby] Is it?
-[Katie] Yeah. -Mm-hmm.
-How are you feeling? -[Hoda] You need some --
are you OK? Want me to block him?
-Good luck. -Thank you.
-Eight minutes left. -See you guys.
All right, so what do you think?
Bobby's mushroom situation over there was delicious,
and Emma's was amazing.
I think that hers is gonna be
most authentic. -Yes.
She's got the dolsot bowls on the burners to crisp up
the rice, which is very traditional in this dish.
Mmm. That's gonna be so good.
Emma, how are you doing on time?
-You got all your components? -[Emma] I just need my eggs.
-You got it, you got it, girl! -Under three minutes, everybody!
[Bobby] My steaks look good. They're nice and medium-rare.
And then I start building.
Put the rice, shiitake mushrooms.
I have the cucumbers. I have the daikon.
And then I have the filet mignon.
And I top it with the egg.
[Katie] Ooh, a minute, thirty seconds.
Yes.
[Bobby] And then I take some of the gochujang sauce,
swirl that around.
[Emma] Now that I have my veggies and the beef in the bowl,
I'm willing these eggs to fry faster.
Emma, there's only 35 seconds left!
Get those eggs on there!
These are definitely the ugliest fried eggs
I've ever made, but I think I can make this work.
ten, nine, eight, seven, six,
five, four, three, two, one!
-Beautiful job, beautiful. -Thank you.
Wow!
-Pretty good, right? -Yeah.
It makes me nervous that he was able to execute a dish
that I do every day, and he just whips it out
in 45 minutes. So I'm like, "Oh, God."
Emma, Bobby, you both did such a great job.
So no matter who wins today, just congrats
to both of you guys. -Thank you.
-[Hoda] Great job. -Thank you.
And now it's time to introduce you to the judges.
First up, chef and founder of Nowon restaurants, Jae Lee.
Chef and owner of Pig & Khao, Leah Cohen.
And chef and founder of Dokodemo, Shin Takagi.
So judges, as you can see,
tonight's challenge was bibimbap.
So please start with the first bowl in front of you.
♪♪
All right, so visually, very beautiful.
I love the fried egg, it's classic.
The steak is marinated in soy and cooked very well,
but the rice is a little mushy, and in this dish,
that sauce was really lacking.
The sauce is there, it just needs to be more of it.
I think the shiitakes add a really nice umami flavor,
the beef is nice and tender, but I think really
what's lacking is just that sauce.
Great presentation, very colorful,
but when it comes to seasoning, it was lacking umami flavor.
It didn't really hit my mark.
OK, judges, why don't you try the second dish, please?
♪♪
[Jae] All right, so for this,
it looks even more traditional than the first.
It has a traditional gochujang sauce on the side.
And you know what's really interesting about this is
the choice of purple rice.
I was a little skeptical, but it works.
You could taste every grain in this rice.
That rice, I was surprised too. But it's a crunchy winner.
And flavor-wise, I really like this steak.
The beef was really nice and tender.
But as far as the garnishes go, it just made it kind of like
hard to eat because there's kind of a lot in there.
But overall, this is very reminiscent of traditional
bibimbap that I would get at a restaurant.
Judges, thank you so much. Take a vote.
[Emma] I'm feeling very nervous.
I definitely could have pared down some components.
But at the same time, going up against Bobby,
and you know he goes all out.
So I didn't wanna just kinda like half-ass it.
Judges have voted and the winner is...
[intriguing music plays]
Chef Emma!
[audience cheers]
I beat Bobby Flay. It was not on my bingo card.
I'm definitely bringing back a little bit more confidence
and I'm ready to just like really lay into
my Korean heritage and flavors.
Hoda, your first time here and you already beat Bobby!
-Oh my God! -Last time.
What are you -- last time.
-Thank you, I appreciate it. -Thank you so much.
-Thank you. -Great job.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
-[Hoda] Emma crushed it. -She really did.
-High five! -Poor Bobby.
-Poor Bobby -- so sad. -Sad.
My name's Emma Woods and I just beat Bobby Flay.