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I'm Bobby Flay.
Tonight, one brave chef will try to take me down in my house.
Whoo!
Bring it on.
I grew up watching Bobby Flay on television.
He's an Iron Chef, top of the top,
but I have a dish that can really take him down.
Bobby Flay is the American Dream.
He built an empire from nothing.
Beating Bobby Flay would be like "Mamma mia!"
[ Laughs ]
This culinary battle is gonna shake down in two rounds.
Round 1 -- two chefs compete against each other
using an ingredient of my choice.
Fire away.
Wow!
[Bleep]
FLAY: Two judges decide who's got the skills to beat me.
I don't know, Bobby. I think you might be in a little bit of trouble.
Round 2 -- I go face-to-face
with my contender and their signature dish.
All right. Give it to me.
What's your signature dish? What are we cooking?
And I'm not gonna know until they tell me
what dish it is we're cooking.
How much time is left?
Only one chef will be left standing.
I'm nervous.
It's not over yet.
Bottom line -- everyone's out to beat me.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
You guys are hungry for a culinary battle,
and I'm in fighting form tonight.
Now, I have strengths and I have weaknesses,
and I have two people that know them very well.
Here to determine who I'm going up against tonight
are Chefs Alex Guarnaschelli and Jeff Mauro.
So, Bobby, everybody knows what a powerhouse you are.
You're the homecoming king.
You're the guy that doesn't have to study for the test.
You always win everything.
It's time for all that to change.
MAURO: So, it's our job
to find somebody perfect to beat Bobby Flay.
I'm always looking forward to a challenge, that's for sure.
All right, chefs. Come out, come out, wherever you are.
Say hello to Sarah Grueneberg.
She's the executive chef at one of Chicago's
finest Italian restaurants -- Spiaggia.
Let me introduce to you the executive chef
at La Piazza in Los Angeles
and native Italian, Alberico Nunziata.
[ Cheers and applause ]
FLAY: You guys have some serious résumés.
Now, here's the way it's gonna work.
In order to get to me,
you have to go through each other first.
And to make things a little bit more interesting,
I'm gonna throw you one single ingredient
that you need to highlight in your dish,
and that ingredient is...
...zucchini.
[ Crowd murmurs ]
Across the room comes this giant zucchini,
and this is a hard ingredient.
If you don't treat it right, it gets lost.
ALBERICO: I see Bobby with the zucchini, I feel like, "What do I do?"
It's simple but not so simple.
Now, I want you to make a star out of this ingredient.
Jeff and Alex -- They're gonna decide
who moves on to Round 2 to take me on in my house.
You guys ready?
You have 30 minutes.
[ Bell dings ]
Go!
[ Cheers and applause ]
GUARNASCHELLI: You know what I think is tough
about an ingredient like zucchini?
It doesn't have a lot of personality.
To make it the center of a dish,
you got to recruit other ingredients to bring it to life,
but then you risk losing the zucchini.
This is the thing that we learned on "Iron Chef,"
which is if you don't make the ingredient
the forefront of the dish, you have no shot to win.
I grew up watching Bobby Flay on television,
and I'm totally starstruck,
but I'm excited to show
that I have what it takes to take him down.
I just want to know what you're thinking, what you're doing.
SARAH: I'm gonna make zucchini baskets -- like nests --
wrapped around feta cheese
and a charred-zucchini pesto.
Do you think that this is the way to beat Bobby Flay?
I think this is the way to beat my Italian friend over there.
This competition is crazy.
The adrenaline is going up so much,
and my plan is to make a plate
rich of colors and rich of technique.
You have a bowl of calamari right here.
I want to do the zucchini like a caponata di zucchini,
but it's my version with honey and lemon dressing.
Awesome.
MAURO: Uh-oh. She's got a 2-liter.
Is that seltzer?
That's seltzer.
She's gonna fry. Cool.
GUARNASCHELLI: Sarah chose something
that was really complex to do.
When she fries that, is the cheese gonna fall out of there?
Is it gonna leak out of there?
FLAY: Alex and Jeff -- They're thinking,
"Which one of these people is gonna have
a better chance to beat Bobby?"
Because in Round 2, I'm cooking their signature dish,
and I'm not gonna know until they tell me
what dish it is we're cooking.
This is gonna be a tough battle for me.
I feel confident because I'm a modern Italian chef
that takes inspiration from other cultures.
Growing up in Texas, I was raised by my mom.
She taught me how to really focus
on what I want to do and work hard.
I've been to Italy six times. I got the bug.
Every time I go, I want to learn something else
or cook some new dish or try something different.
This cuisine keeps me inspired.
Bobby Flay is like the pinnacle of an Iron Chef.
This is one of those experiences that I'm never gonna forget.
How are you doing over there?
We're waiting for you.
You're waiting for me?
I'm waiting for you.
[ Laughter ]
You excited?
Excited, nervous. Almost everything.
I'm originally from Napoli, and I grew up in a huge family.
My mother and my grandma were cooking,
and I always was helping them.
We have an obsession about food. [ Laughs ]
Bobby needs to watch out for me,
because I bring to my food my history, my life.
Beating Bobby Flay would be like a dream.
Maybe I will cry. [ Chuckles ]
FLAY: Five minutes to go, everybody!
I know that I grew up watching Bobby compete on television,
so there's always been a part of me
that wants to beat Bobby Flay.
GUARNASCHELLI: I see a lot of ingredients
that I sort of associate with your style of cooking.
Alberico is using honey and lemon.
Obviously, they walked in here and they got inspired.
Um, where did my ancho go?
I have to add a different layer and depth to the dish
with a charred-zucchini and ancho-chili sauce.
FLAY: Ancho chili? Interesting.
I"m coming for you, Bobby.
Oh, I like that.
Breaking into my wheelhouse.
[ Laughter ]
[Bleep]
That's a lot of intricate work,
to stuff squid with such little time left on the clock.
FLAY: He's so nervous.
ALBERICO: The time is flying away,
and I have to push myself at the limit.
SARAH: I feel really confident with my dish,
but I'm not sure how I'm gonna tie it all together,
so I'm using zucchini in a small salad on top.
Uh-oh. I burnt my pine nuts.
GUARNASCHELLI: With so little time left.
MAURO: Fastest-cooking thing in the world is a pine nut.
One minute left.
ALBERICO: I have to hurry.
I'm giving 100%, and I hope it will be enough.
5, 4...
3, 2, 1.
Step away from the stove, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Jeff and I here -- We really want one of you to beat Bobby,
so this is gonna be about what we feel you did
to either bring the zucchini to life
or let it fall by the wayside.
Ladies first.
SARAH: I made fried zucchini stuffed with feta
with charred-zucchini, ancho-chili vinaigrette.
I love the idea of feta and zucchini,
and the thing I really like about this dish
is you didn't stray too far from the zucchini.
What was the inspiration behind that ancho chili?
I wanted to add a little smokiness to the dish.
I think it's one of the best uses of ancho chili
I've seen in a really long time.
Yeah, it is probably the best I've seen.
But I am tasting a lot of feta in this.
I'm losing some of that zucchini flavor.
Alberico, tell us what you made for us here.
I did a caponata di zucchini calamari.
And I did a dressing with honey and lemon.
Sweet and sour -- an Italian sweet and sour sauce.
Agrodolce is one of my favorite flavors. Love it.
Just the right amount of acidity,
and then the tomatoes and the peppers
kind of come in and add to the tang.
There's something really beautiful
about this plate of food.
Thank you so much.
But this feels like a squid ragout with zucchini in it,
and not a dish that's centered around zucchini.
All right. You guys have a lot to decide.
Yeah. Give us a moment to strategize.
[ Indistinct whispering ]
This is very hard -- picking someone
that we both believe we can get behind to beat him.
And we picked that person.
And it's you.
[ Bell dings ]
Jeff and I here -- We really want one of you to beat Bobby.
And we picked that person.
And it's you, Sarah.
[ Laughs ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you so much. It was amazing to be here.
What you made was so beautiful, but the zucchini got lost,
and we can't have anybody getting lost with this guy.
FLAY: Thank you, Alberico.
Thank you so much.
SARAH: You were so great!
I'm a little bit sad, because I feel like
I left the kitchen too early,
but the fact that I was here --
That makes me like -- I'm a good chef.
GUARNASCHELLI: Sarah, your cooking
was absolutely beautiful.
Thank you.
She's obviously gifted and a risk taker.
I think that's what it takes.
I don't know, Bobby. I think you might be in a little bit of trouble.
[ Laughter ]
All right. Give it to me. What's your signature dish?
What are we cooking?
Chicken Parm.
[ Crowd murmurs ]
I hope your brought your mallet.
Just pound the chicken. That's all.
I use my elbows.
[ Laughter ]
FLAY: Italian food's not really my go-to
in terms of what I cook professionally.
Definitely did not think chicken Parmesan.
But the spontaneity is the great thing about this competition.
Everyone says my chicken Parm recipe
is the best one they ever tasted,
but let's see what you can do.
You ready to do this?
I'm ready.
Sarah, you've given this a lot of thought.
You've got some real tricks up your sleeve.
So, the two of you are gonna have 60 minutes
to make your own version of chicken Parm.
We're not the judges.
We've got some non-biased experts for that.
There's only one criteria to this battle.
Is it good enough to beat Bobby Flay?
Your time starts right now.
[ Cheers and applause ]
You know, this is my arena. This is my house.
You know, I'm bringing over 30 years of cooking experience.
This is sort of like the street version of "Iron Chef."
Let's get it on.
GUARNASCHELLI: He's got equipment. He's got plates.
And she has the chicken and the cheese.
They're doing completely different things.
I'm challenging Bobby Flay with chicken Parm
because I've been working on this dish since I was 14,
and I think it's hitting close to perfection.
FLAY: Chicken Parm is definitely not in my wheelhouse.
Is it gonna put me at a little bit of a disadvantage
because I'm not gonna be able to think about it for a long period of time?
Absolutely. But that's okay.
I'm not going down without a fight.
Should I be nervous?
FLAY: Absolutely.
[ Laughter ]
SARAH: Bobby is world-renowned, and he's a master chef.
Beating Bobby Flay would prove
that I've come really far in my career.
I think I have a dish that can take him down.
My chicken Parm is gonna look traditional,
but it's not because I'm using the whole bird --
the thigh, the breast, the skin, the livers.
I really want to use the entire bird.
I just admire so much that you're trying to do so much in an hour.
Are you gonna be able to get all this done?
I am.
GUARNASCHELLI: I don't think
I've ever seen Bobby make chicken Parm,
but I see a lot of really signature Bobby things coming out.
He's got piquillo peppers
and garlic cloves in the food processor.
I love chicken Parm.
I mean, if you don't like chicken Parm, you're lying.
But it's gonna take me, like, the first 15 to 20 minutes
to even get a full game plan as to where I'm going.
So I'm going to gravitate towards ingredients
that I like to use and make a piquillo-pepper pesto.
MAURO: Oh, that looks good.
So, Sarah is doing something
very different from what Bobby did.
She's making, like, some chicharrónes.
Mmm. Fried chicken skin.
She's gonna use this chicken in many, many ways.
How much time is left?
You got 45 minutes.
45. Thank you.
Was that some pancetta?
Guanciale.
Guanciale.
I'm going to make a sausage mixture from my Texas heritage,
so I need to mix some delicious pork with the thigh meat,
some bread, milk, garlic, black pepper, chilies,
and then press it down to the breast and then fry that.
I got to make sure I go the extra step.
Sarah's really taking kind of a whole-bird approach.
Talk about a really modern
and cool interpretation of chicken Parm.
That's a twist I've never seen.
You using chicken breast or thighs?
I don't know. I haven't even found the chicken yet.
That might be the most important ingredient.
I know. I'm trying to get my act together.
I don't know what I'm doing really quite yet.
I feel like Bobby looks like me in the first challenge.
He's kind of running around like a crazy person.
[ Clattering ]
They could not be more different right now.
No.
I think she's nose-down and ready to beat Bobby.
All right. 30 minutes left, guys.
People ask me, "Do you still get nervous
when you cook in competitions?"
To be perfectly frank, I'm always nervous,
but I don't leave anything on the table.
I don't see any chicken at Bobby's station.
I'm nervous.
It's not over yet.
I want this so bad. I'm gonna beat Bobby Flay.
[ Bell dings ]
How you doing, Sarah? I'm a little behind.
Bobby flies by the seat of his pants.
I think he genuinely doesn't know what he's doing yet.
But Chef Sarah -- She is in command.
She could really challenge Bobby and take him to task.
FLAY: When I'm cooking in competition,
I try to make all the components first.
So, a lot of times, when people watch me cook in competition,
they think that I'm way behind --
and sometimes I am, believe me --
but I always bring everything together at the end.
I cannot believe how Bobby is sweating,
and I cannot believe how many different things
he's got going on.
It's like being the point guard of a basketball team.
You need to be able to see the whole court.
It's the same thing in a culinary competition like this.
MAURO: Bobby, what are you doing?
I'm gonna season the chicken breast
with some ground fennel seed, bread crumbs,
and the flour and the eggs,
and then I'm gonna put a piquillo-pepper pesto on top
with a little bit of tomato oil
to kind of emulate that old-school flavor.
I'm always pushing myself
to keep learning about Italian cuisine
because I love Italian culture.
Sarah's got all fresh, all beautiful heirloom tomatoes.
Bobby's gone completely canned.
I was inspired by this awesome dish from Calabria
that takes chicken livers
with a little bit of fresh tomato and mint.
[ Singsong voice ] Delicious.
I got to say -- a good chicken Parm --
the chicken's got to be thin.
MAURO: Even, right?
20 minutes left.
Look at her go. She's piping out her sausage.
I want people to taste my dishes
and feel the heritage in the dish.
My chicken sausage has spicy peppers in there,
'cause Calabria is the only region in Italy
that has indigenous spicy peppers.
Is that a strategic move --
using some of Bobby's flavors in her own cooking?
FLAY: Sarah is stealth.
She's using chili peppers. That's awesome.
It's amazing how you give two chefs one dish,
and they both have nothing to do with the other.
Golden brown -- that's all it needed.
That's the prerequisite for great chicken Parm --
golden and brown.
SARAH: In order to incorporate
all the flavor of the sausage mixture,
it needs to get cold so that it will set.
If it's not cold, it's gonna separate in the fryer.
Sarah went for something that's definitely in her wheelhouse
that she clearly has had a chance to make
and really think about in her restaurant.
MAURO: Exactly.
SARAH: Is that Fontina?
FLAY: Yeah.
I love Fontina.
Me too.
GUARNASCHELLI: With chicken Parm,
we're looking for that mozzarella, the Parm.
Stringy.
Here, he seems to be going in a different direction
with that kind of cheese.
Fontina's a nutty-like cheese.
It melts really nicely. This is gonna taste damn good.
Most people use mozzarella for their chicken Parm,
but I'm using burrata, because it's super creamy and rich.
I am genuinely worried, and I'll tell you why.
Her chicken is in the fridge. It's raw.
There's less than 15 minutes left.
If she's gonna take ice-cold chicken from the fridge
and drop it in the fryer, the temperature of the oil's
gonna drop so much, her chicken's not gonna cook
and it's gonna be soggy. That worries me.
Uh-oh. I think we're getting the chicken out of the fridge.
There's 10 minutes left, chefs.
I feel like I need a defibrillator.
SARAH: My nerves are crazy.
If I'm moving too fast, then I'll mess everything up.
The only thing I see is what has to happen to get to the goal.
FLAY: I love competing against people
who have great skills in the kitchen,
'cause it makes me push the envelope for myself, as well.
So, I'm gonna make a fresh chili pepper tomato relish
that's kind of sweet and sour to put on top.
Whoo!
Uh-oh. Bobby is definitely Bobbying up his chicken Parm.
[ Crunching ]
SARAH: That delicious fried, crunchy skin --
That's like my secret weapon.
I'm gonna put it on top
so you're always gonna have crunchy parts on the chicken.
All right. Chicken's coming out of the basket.
Look at that -- down-home Texas style.
There's something about
that nice, even crispness on that chicken --
just those Southern roots.
How you gonna cook those chicken livers, Sarah?
Throw them in flour and throw them in the fryer real quick.
They're going in the tomato sauce.
I don't know if she's gonna finish.
Are you putting mint in your chicken Parm? And basil?
SARAH: Yes. Yes.
MAURO: Five minutes left.
Chicken livers right in there?
Can you please finish your plates?
We need you to beat Bobby Flay.
As I'm building my plate,
I want to feel really proud of it.
It has contrast of color. It has contrast of texture.
The chicken is cooked perfectly.
All those things are so, so important.
I see Bobby put his dish together,
and I see him drop that really elegant pesto
and all those little nuances on top.
He's really getting something very delicate and finessed.
One minute left, guys! One minute!
FLAY: Chicken Parm -- long time coming.
What, are you done?
30 seconds left, you're coming over to chat with us?
30 seconds left, Sarah.
Sarah, we're hungry!
[ Laughter ]
5, 4...
3, 2, 1.
Hands up. All right!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Whew.
For Round 2, we have three judges.
Billy Grant, executive chef of Bricco in Hartford, Connecticut,
Marisa May, restaurateur at SD26 in New York City,
and Lauren DeMaio, home cook
and food enthusiast from Norwalk, Connecticut.
All right, judges, we will now begin our blind taste test,
so please start with the round dish in front of you.
I think this is delicious. I love the thickness of it.
And I actually love the crispiness of it.
I also like the cherry tomatoes and the little pimiento --
little different flavor on top.
I think you're right on, Billy. I think this is a great dish.
What's different to me is this is a different cheese here,
which might be a little bit too overpowering for me.
I like the traditional chicken Parm with the mozzarella,
but I like the different cheese here.
I think that kind of brought it to another level for me.
I grew up in a very traditional Italian-American house,
and my mother just nailed into my brain
that the thinner the chicken cutlet, the better,
so I did enjoy that this was a thin cutlet.
GUARNASCHELLI: It's like the number-one thing for chicken Parm.
All right, judges, please try the square plate in front of you.
Do you taste anything unique in the sauce, maybe?
Hmm.
It's meat of some sort.
Yeah. It's chicken livers.
I have never tasted chicken liver
in a chicken Parmigiano -- ever.
It works, and yet I'd rather focus
more on the cutlet being the meat
and the sauce just being the sauce.
DeMAIO: I like the livers in the sauce.
The cutlet is so large, and it's got a lot of breading on it.
That kind of helps, like, balance it out.
This one, actually, I think is seasoned a little better.
It's really juicy, and it feels like maybe the chicken
was salted or even maybe brined a little bit.
All right, judges. We are ready for your decision.
Make your notes and choose a best dish.
The time has come.
SARAH: I'm super excited, super pumped,
because I think that I showed the judges
straight-forward flavors yet elevating the dish.
FLAY: I made a chicken Parmesan that was slightly inventive
but also saves the authenticity of the dish.
But it's in the judges' hands.
I don't know what's gonna happen.
Did Sarah's chicken Parm beat Bobby's chicken Parm?
It's as simple as that.
And, by a decision of 2 to 1...
...Sarah, you beat Bobby Flay.
Oh. Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ]
You and I really beat Bobby Flay, 'cause we picked
the right person, but Sarah did all the work.
MAURO: I think we put our money on the right horse.
SARAH: This win shows me that I can really do anything.
I'm gonna keep pushing in life and do some bigger things.
I just learned one really important lesson.
Always put your chicken in a fryer.
[ Laughter ]
I'm Sarah Grueneberg, and I just beat Bobby Flay!
All right!
[ Cheers and applause ]