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Welcome to "Guy's Grocery Games."
Go!
On this show, the chefs are cooking and shopping
Ah!
...with real foods they're grabbing off the shelves
of a real market.
Where's that sauce? Go, go, go.
This is getting out of control.
four competitors will face off
in three intense culinary challenges.
Bring it.
The name of this game is no carts allowed.
Can can.
Where are the cans?
What?!
Oh!
Oh, no!
Three of them will be checking out with nothing.
You're killing me.
GUY: But the last chef standing
has a chance of bagging some serious cash.
Yes!
We're talking up to 20,000 bucks.
Judges, I hope you're ready.
Fiesta or fiasco?
Ahh!
Oh, my God.
...put in your culinary creativity...
Ah!
...and let the grocery games begin.
Clean up, Aisle 6!
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
Four chefs are about to go
on the wildest shopping trip of their lives.
Let's meet 'em.
First up, Karen Forsberg,
a private chef and a single mom from Los Angeles, California.
I am a big, funny, loud, Jewish mother.
Yeah, baby.
As a private chef, I shop for millionaires, frugal folks,
and my 14-year-old daughter.
I'm always navigating the supermarket
with a meal as a mission.
Next up, Stanley Hagerman, a Cordon Bleu grad
and a sous-chef from Los Angeles, California.
Big smiles.
STANLEY: This game is mine to win
because I know what it's like to go through obstacles in life
and come out on top.
I was homeless as a child.
Becoming a professional chef,
I've cooked for some of the best restaurants in the nation.
Winning would show my daughter
and my community back home in Chicago
that there are other options in life.
Next, we've got Tom Ramsey, an investment banker
turned soul-food chef from Jackson, Mississippi.
How's my hair?
Looks very nice. Lucky you didn't bleach it.
I have a beautiful wife, four kids, two kittens.
We all live in one big, happy house.
I used to be an investment banker
but decided to give it up for my first love, which is food.
Winning a competition like this
would prove to me that I made the right choices.
And to wrap things up, Nia Pullinzi,
a bakery chef and bride-to-be from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
[ Whistles ]
In high school, I entered a state cooking competition
and won a full ride to the Culinary Institute of America.
I learned to cook from my huge, Italian family.
We all get in one tiny kitchen.
That's where you learn the real Italian cooking.
I'm more than just a pretty face.
I'm a beast in the kitchen.
Welcome, chefs.
Good to be here.
Excited.
Pumped!
All right, so you got to ask yourself,
what do we have in store for you in this store?
Three off-the-hook culinary challenges,
each with their own twists and turns.
And let me tell you, they are tough.
So you're gonna have to shop, prepare, and plate your dishes
in a real-life supermarket
while trying to race against the clock and beat each other.
Sounds simple.
[ Laughs ] Real simple.
Are you guys ready for your first challenge?
Oh, yeah.
Your first game is really a family classic to me.
Spaghetti and meatballs.
TOM: What?
The first game is gonna be spaghetti and meatballs,
and I think, really?
Is that it?
There's got to be some kind of twist.
Chefs, to your carts.
You are going to have 30 minutes
to prepare a spaghetti and meatball feast.
Give it to me in three, two, one. Go!
There they go!
Ooh, she almost took it out right at the pole.
The second Guy says "Go," I'm hoping my feet move,
and I run for the pasta aisle first.
Guy says "Go," and I'm running toward pasta.
This is gonna be funny. Come here.
I forgot to tell 'em, this game's called, "Out of Stock."
Check this out.
This is not it.
Attention, shoppers.
We are sad to inform you that we are out of stock
of pasta and ground beef.
No.
Thanks for shopping in Flavortown Market.
[ Laughs ]
Out of stock.
How are you out of spaghetti
for the meatballs and spaghetti challenge?
Of course, there's no pasta.
No pasta, no pasta.
So, we get the flour out.
Some people think out of the box.
I don't even have a box.
Almost immediately, I've got my head, Asian.
See an Asian section here.
Then I see the ramen,
grab three or four of 'em, throw 'em in the bag.
Use ramens.
'Cause I'm thinking some kind of Hong Kong noodles.
All right.
Okay.
No pasta. What can I substitute?
And then I think wonton wrappers.
Okay.
You can use them to make ravioli.
The key to making great meatballs is flavor,
but ground beef is out of stock.
[ Scoffs ]
So I grab ground pork and mild Italian sausage,
and that is gonna make an amazing meatball.
Oh, my God.
Squeezing behind.
Working in a restaurant,
I'm pretty good at substituting items.
I see Filipino noodles.
I grab it.
On it.
I'm just running around
as fast as I can through the grocery store.
Started to skateboard on the cart.
I see Italian sausage.
I'm from Chicago.
Italian sausage and beef combos.
Growing up, that's what we put in our spaghetti.
I'm like, "This is a no-brainer."
Attention, shoppers.
I hope you don't burn your meatballs
like you're burning your clock.
You're 5 minutes-plus in the shopping.
Let's go!
Okay.
There was no meat.
How am I gonna make meatballs without ground beef?
But my style is the "whatever works" method.
There's ground chicken.
I thought, "Oh, my God,
I can do chicken meatballs with egg noodles."
International foods.
And do it Jewish Penicillin style.
Jewish Penicillin is chicken noodle soup.
I am ready.
As always, I am so glad I'm not the one
that is deciding the winner.
That is the job of our three distinguished judges.
First, let me introduce the winner
of season 5 of "The Next Food Network Star,"
Melissa d'Arabian.
Thanks for having me.
The awesome, super cool food editor.
Give it up for Troy Johnson.
And famed Latin chef Lorena Garcia.
[ Laughs ] Thank you.
Judges, I got to tell you, this is one wild battle.
What do you think?
Grocery store's out of stock of something, you know,
we make do with something else.
LORENA: You improvise.
TOM: So, I'm running to the meat section,
and I'm trying to find something already precooked
so I can narrow the time.
I'm thinking duck confit, which is precooked.
Confit.
And I grab chicken sausage, which is also precooked.
Chicken sausage.
GUY: So we're 10 minutes into this,
and I've got 2 chefs up here cooking.
Where are the other two?
Okay, my nana would be rolling in her grave
if she saw me looking at the canned sauce.
Traditionally, my family, we cook our red sauce
at least, you know, four to five hours.
I'm out of time, so I grab the canned sauce.
We like onions. Italians love onions.
And we eat a lot of garlic.
But I want to elevate it with garlic and onion and olives.
I can do this.
I need to start cooking.
Canned sauce, oh, my God.
TOM: Yo!
I can't find the sesame oil.
Well...
I decided late in my career to put away my suits...
Nobody said this had to be Italian.
...and trade it in for a job
that, you know, I was really, really, really passionate about
and start cooking.
I haven't gone to culinary school,
and I'm not gonna say I'm self-taught, but I am self-made.
What do you got in here, homey?
Fry up some chicken skins, put on top of it.
You have soft noodles. You have a soft meatball.
I wanted something crispy,
and that fried chicken skin would give just a great crunch.
There we go.
[ Whistling ]
To create a meatball, I want to use bread crumbs.
I want to use cheese.
I want to use all the elements from Italia.
I want to bring all that to my meatball
while still tying into my Jewish roots.
And I've got to get the soup going.
Having a grocery store at your disposal right there is amazing.
Okay, which exact aisle has --
Ah, thank you.
I need chicken stock, so I just grabbed a jar of chicken base.
STANLEY: I make some really great meatballs.
I put some heirloom carrots in 'em, give 'em some nice color.
For my sauce, grab a can of sauce that I'm familiar with.
I have to sweat some garlic, some onion, some thyme.
The sauce is gonna be amazing.
Italians love olive oil.
Oh, maron.
Okay.
I'm starting to cook my sauce.
Inside of the tomato is the best part.
Is it starting to smell good in here?
I haven't even thought about the wontons yet.
I'm just focused on getting that sauce as flavorful as I can
and making that meatball.
To bring a salty note to a meatball
is use a really good parmesan cheese,
and I love olive briny juice in meatballs.
TROY: Nia's got 5 minutes left.
She's got to get that meat in there
and get it done and cooked.
Oh, my God.
My water's not boiling.
I am finally done making my raviolis.
I need to put them in the boiling water.
She's got pork sausage in there.
I hope that cooks.
Oh, my God.
Not gonna finish.
There's no way.
I'm so, so stupid.
GUY: Nia, you gonna make this in 5?
I don't think so.
NIA: 5 minutes left, and these raviolis need to cook.
I need this water to boil.
Putting them in.
STANLEY: Though this may not be
a traditional spaghetti and meatballs...
It's missing something.
...I'm making spaghetti and meatballs.
Stanley is quiet but focused.
He could be a surprise.
You seem very calm, cool, and collected.
Well, I'm confident.
I'm gonna blow these people out of the water
with my Jewish Penicillin spaghetti and meatballs.
When are you gonna drop your pasta?
Have you ever cooked egg noodles?
[ Clicks tongue ]
I'm not getting overcooked pasta.
There you go. I don't want it.
I want to wait until the last possible second
to get the noodles into the water.
I don't think a lot of people realize how classic ramen is.
It's not just dorm microwave food.
I put my meatballs in the fryer. I pull up the basket.
It's still a meatball, but it's mushy,
and I know I'm gonna get kicked in the teeth
for a mushy meatball.
Tom is not a trained chef, and yet his meatball solution,
I think, is the most chef-y.
TROY: Well, Tom seems like one of those,
if he doesn't know something, he reads 47 books on it.
[ Laughter ]
They seem to be holding up, nice and tender.
I got to plate. I'm, like, sweating bullets.
And all I had for garnish was organic cherry tomatoes.
I'm just, like, not happy.
GUY: One minute, chefs. One minute.
I am praying to God I get everything on this plate
and my meat is fully cooked.
Usually, I toast pine nuts, but I don't have time.
Oh, no.
I'm not sure that I would want a waxy pine nut.
I'd leave them off.
NIA: I hope they look past the raw pine nuts
and they like the raw pepper.
KAREN: Oh, no.
Now starting to feel the pressure.
Come on.
Here we go, 25 seconds.
Oh, no.
And the noodles aren't cooked.
As I was finished, I look over, and Nia's frantically plating,
and the chef in me wants to kick in and help, but...
Oy.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Stop working! Back down! Walk away!
She got that on.
Ahh!
KAREN: I was moving so quickly,
I realized the noodle's not in the dish.
This could be my downfall.
Chefs, the challenge was spaghetti and meatballs,
your interpretation.
We had an out-of-stock situation on ground beef,
as well as pasta.
Karen, please present to the judges.
It's Jewish Penicillin spaghetti and meatballs.
It's made with all the great homemade things
you would find in Jewish chicken noodle soup.
I used fresh onion, garlic, carrots, celery,
and I finished the meatballs in chicken stock
to give it that extra flavor.
I love that you have Jewish roots,
and you showed them excellently here.
But spaghetti and meatballs,
I can't get over the fact that I don't have any spaghetti.
I really, really miss my noodles.
So sorry.
Love the creativity, Karen.
I think that great choice of a dish.
I sadly didn't get any noodles, either.
I love this fun, visual play on matzo ball soup.
But the biggest crime for me is that stock.
It's tasting more salty than deep chickeny.
Got it.
There is a risk in using the jar of chicken stock.
It doesn't have a homemade chicken flavor.
Up next, Chef Tom.
Let 'em know what they're having.
This is an Asian spaghetti and meatballs,
inspired by the noodle stands in Hong Kong.
And you would always get, you know, these great ramen noodles.
You get a soft-boiled egg.
A lot of fresh stuff. Radishes.
For one simple spaghetti and meatballs,
you've turned it into some kind of art project,
and it looks beautiful.
I can't get past the texture on the meatball.
It's too mushy for me.
In terms of the chicken and the skin, crispy,
but I probably would have liked it
kind of somehow incorporated through the meatball.
But all in all, beautiful dish.
TOM: I'm thinking, "Okay.
I'm not out of the woods, but I may have a shot at this."
Now onto Chef Nia. Take it away.
Okay.
Well, Guy said to be creative, and I made a meatball ravioli
with a traditional marinara sauce.
When there was no pasta,
the first thing that came to my mind was wontons.
I can make a ravioli out of that.
We can work with it.
My inspiration for this dish is my family.
Normally, we put raw green pepper on top
and a little sliced, briny olive.
So that was my little touch.
Chefs, is it cooked?
Definitely.
Fantastic. It's cooked.
The pork is cooked.
Aah!
Actually, I'm gonna start with how well you played the game.
To me, A-plus on that.
I tried.
Execution issues, I think, are the problem here.
Untoasted pine nuts, kind of waxy in your mouth.
Raw green peppers?
Maybe that stays a family thing.
[ Laughter ]
Ouch.
But I want to tell you this --
This sauce, to me, redeems the entire dish.
I loved it.
Great points on creativity.
I am not crazy about the wonton.
Something happened that it just became very chewy.
Okay.
My family would kill me
if I lost the spaghetti and meatball challenge.
Boom, boom. Boom, boom.
The final chef to present his spaghetti and meatballs
is Chef Stanley.
So I have Filipino noodle with meatballs.
Growing up, we always cooked with Italian sausage
and not spaghetti,
so I turned the Italian sausage back into meatballs.
I also put in some fresh, organic cherry tomatoes,
just to kind of give it a little color.
I love Italian sausage, so that tastes great.
That's a welcome reprieve from a regular meatball.
You played the game.
It does look a lot like spaghetti and meatballs.
Here are a little of my problems.
Herbs like this that I can't eat.
And I think the raw tomatoes are a bit of a crime,
but I will say,
very close replica to spaghetti and meatballs.
Thank you.
Initially, the judges' responses were very harsh,
but it ended not so bad.
Judges, thank you very much.
Chefs, hard-fought first game.
We need to ask you to retire to the kitchen
so the judges can deliberate.
We'll call you back in just a few minutes.
That was painful.
"Guy's Grocery Games" is like nothing
I've ever experienced before.
Chefs, thank you very much
for your hard-fought battle for game one.
The challenge was spaghetti and meatballs, your interpretation.
We had an out-of-stock situation on ground beef,
as well as pasta.
You were responsible to make your interpretation.
The judges have made their decision.
Karen, I'm sorry.
You checked out.
Karen, nobody wants to see you go home.
We thought it was a good dish.
It showed your roots.
If you'd only had noodles.
Listen, you're a fierce competitor,
did a great job.
Okay, take care.
Five noodles in a bowl would have made the difference.
I'm still confident as a chef.
I'm just very disappointed
that the world didn't get to see what I have to offer.
All right, congratulations, Chefs.
You survived your first grocery game.
Now, this next competition, this next challenge,
the next game should be no sweat.
I'm asking you to make a fantastic Family Meal for 4.
Done.
Now, there is only one catch to this.
Okay?
No, no, no.
Now, you need to make an amazing family meal
using only what's in...
Wait for it.
...this envelope.
Oh.
There you go.
Go ahead, let me see.
NIA: I pulled the money out.
Oh, my God.
Hear a little jangle, jangle.
I pour it into my hand, and it's, like...
$6.35!
[ Laughter ]
And that's why I like to call this the Budget Battle.
And to help you stretch this dollar, what do you need?
Not a credit card, no. You need...
Uh-oh.
...something that's under your cutting board. Go ahead.
Coupons!
All right.
Go to your carts.
Once you acquire all of your ingredients,
you will come over to the checkout three.
Hi, there!
And she's gonna check you out.
So, it's not just about getting it done.
It's about getting through the line and getting to the kitchen.
The Coupon Battle begins in three, two, one.
Go!
Stanley's out first.
STANLEY: I was homeless as a child,
so you know, we grocery shopped with nothing.
I don't think we could have survived without coupons.
All right, what are we doing?
What are we doing? What are we doing today?
The first thing I'm thinking is,
"Oh, my God, I got to calculate all this in my head."
I'm looking down at the coupons.
I see frozen peas.
Peas on sale, right?
I know that I can make a nice, hearty soup out of peas.
Got coupons for tofu. It was 69 cents.
Halfway under budget.
And then I figure I can find something else
to fill the rest of that budget with.
Only thing I'm missing -- I need some meat.
No, I think I know what aisle it's in.
I can cook on a budget.
Even my fiancé thinks I'm stingy.
I look at the coupons.
The first thing that catches my eye is a can of beans.
Cannellini beans.
They're 49 cents each.
So, definitely pasta fagioli,
which is a hearty bean dish with pasta.
Macaroni and cheese.
It doesn't matter, 'cause I'm just using the noodles.
Sometimes when you're on a really tight budget
and you're focusing on coupons,
you can end up with some really creative combinations.
GUY: Attention, shoppers.
We have a couple in-store specials today.
Bone-in pork chops are only $1.91 a pack!
$1.91? I'm all over that.
All right, I think I'm good.
Also, split chicken *** are only $1.50 a pack.
TOM: Split chicken *** are $1.50.
Boom.
Now I've got a cheap protein,
so I've got in my head chicken and dumplings.
Just gonna grab some produce.
My strategy is to take really inexpensive ingredients...
And onion.
...and treat them with so much love,
it makes just glorious flavors.
2 for $1.
We're 3 1/2 minutes into shopping, Chefs.
$1. This says 75.
With the pasta fagioli, I always cook with yellow zucchini.
It's what I grew up on.
I grab the yellow, praying I'm under budget
because honestly, I didn't add it all up.
Oh, my God.
Stanley is the first one in line.
I hate waiting in lines.
STANLEY: She's ringing up the items,
and I see prices going by.
I barely made it.
All right.
Thank God.
Like, I'm under budget. I start cooking.
You know, I'm ahead of the game right now.
All right, come on.
NIA: $3?
I thought the zucchini was 89 cents a package.
Okay.
Okay, we're at $7.
Yeah, we'll take away one can of beans, please.
WOMAN: You need to take something else.
Oh, my gosh.
Oh. Killing you.
I'm about to push her over.
You're gonna knock it out?
She's probably a ninja.
The onion, please.
I cut out onion, garlic, and tomato that I needed.
That was not my plan.
At this point, I just need to start cooking.
Green zucchini.
Zucchini was the one coupon you picked?
Okay, so that's it, $6?
WOMAN: Perfect.
Luckily, I got 35 cents left over.
I run back to my station.
How did these guys do in the world of shopping?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The key strategy here is to get your protein on sale
and then build the rest of the meal around it.
I'm surprised that Stanley is chopping the pork
off of the bone.
That's the source of a lot of flavor.
Normally, split-pea soup has ham hock in it,
but I've been substituting with the pork chop itself.
I'm hoping that they will be, like, "Oh, wow.
"He still replicated a very traditional dish
on this very small budget."
I got to find out what is going on over here
in Stanley's kitchen.
STANLEY: A little bit of tofu.
How much money did you spend?
Barely $5.
Okay, so you have $1.35 left?
All you have is salt, pepper, and tofu.
Do you have any spices or anything that could help this?
I have a restaurant called Johnny Garlic's.
Uh-huh.
You can't buy any Johnny here.
When Guy says garlic, I realize I have no garlic.
I take off running.
I grab garlic.
So, I'm thinking I can make a quick garlic confit.
Thank you.
I do not want to serve bland pea soup.
Just about 10 minutes left.
We're gonna get lots of flavor out of nothing.
I think spending $3 for yellow squash
versus 89 cents for green squash is probably not Nia's best move.
Okay, we got this.
I know that I need some substance to my sauce.
I need herbs. I still have 66 cents.
Oh, my God. I run back to the produce.
Bok choy, beets.
Green onions, 50 cents. Cha-ching!
In Louisiana, green onions -- you put it on everything.
Roasting the onions.
She needed that little last bit of flavor.
These might just save my day.
Canned biscuits are my secret weapon.
The canned biscuits that you beat on a counter?
Those make great dumplings.
They make a fluffy, non-dense dumpling.
You have 35 cents.
Nothing you want to do with that 35 cents?
An herb garnish or anything?
Guy is making me feel freaky
'cause I've got 35 cents left over.
I think, "Earthiness."
I can get earthiness out of a potato skin.
So I grab the potato.
I check out, pull the skins off,
but I don't want them floating around in this pretty dish.
So I wrap 'em in cheesecloth.
All right, bring you down to a simmer.
I make a bouquet garni that I can pull out at the last minute.
GUY: Under 2 minutes! 2 minutes in the competition!
My soup comes out bright, bright green,
and, you know, I'm all about presentation.
I'm just hoping just the color alone would just wow the judges.
Wow! That's impressive.
I'm so in the zone, I'm not even looking at the clock.
Red pepper.
Nia, you got to get some food on that plate.
Come on.
I'm worried I'm not gonna make it.
GUY: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Stop cooking!
ALL: Ohh.
There's no pasta. There's no eggplant.
I can't even garnish with green onions.
I'm praying that I'm not going home.
All right, chefs.
You stretched your money and your culinary muscles
in the budget battle.
Let's see how you did.
First up is gonna be Chef Tom.
I made chicken and dumplings, a classic budget-stretching food.
I was really in a panic
until they announced the sale on chicken breast.
And then I had a little bit of money left over,
and so I made a potato-skin bouquet garni.
Very nice.
One of my favorite dishes growing up
is my mother's chicken soup.
You took me there on the first bite.
The consistency of the dumplings are right on, congratulations.
Great creativity.
Thank you.
Troy, what do you have for us?
I think that the broth
is a little thick and gooey for me.
You lost it a little bit there.
I mean, it's a classic dish, and you executed it really well.
Thank you.
I'm happy.
All I've got is out there.
Up next, Chef Stanley.
What do you got for us?
I have warm pea soup and a little bit of sautéed pork chop.
Pork was on sale. Tofu was on sale.
Cream is expensive, so I emulsified the soup with tofu.
I love the creativity of using the tofu
and subbing it out for cream.
Brilliant.
Thank you.
The problem for me is,
when you're gonna spend the money on the pork chops,
then you got to leverage that ingredient.
That pork chop could have stayed a pork chop.
It is now a garnish.
Okay.
Stanley, I am a fan of your pea soup.
Thank you.
Great flavor. Love the color.
I think that is a perfect meal for four.
Right.
I think that that was a great meal
to have for the night, you know, if that's all the money you had.
Nia, why don't you tell the judges what you made for them.
Well, what I wanted to make was a pasta fagioli.
When I'm on a budget, I always go for beans.
I sautéed some zucchini,
and what I wanted to do was cook a shell macaroni on top
and then put the scallions on top,
but I didn't have time.
Judges, if you don't mind, I'd like to show you.
This is what the dish would have looked like
had she managed her time appropriately.
Wow.
I'm so sorry that you didn't make it
because the two dishes are completely different.
You went in the right path with the flavors.
Thank you.
I love beans.
I think they're such an underused, inexpensive protein.
Good job using them here.
But I think the decision that ruined your dish
was the yellow squash,
which, frankly, would be better off if they had been green,
and you would have saved over $2.
So, just being open when you go into the produce aisle
to changing your plan a little when you compare prices.
My dish is not what I wanted to give to the judges.
Judges, thank you very much.
Chefs, hard work.
A lot of hard work in game two.
I'm gonna ask you to retire to the kitchens
so the judges can decide who will be checking out.
Thanks, guys.
Thanks, guys.
STANLEY: So, how do you think y'all did?
I think I'm okay.
Yeah.
NIA: Tofu? The tofu that you used?
It's so amazing.
You two have fun.
[ Laughs ] In the next round.
You deserve it. You did great.
STANLEY: No, you can't think like that.
You did.
Chefs, the judges have made their decision.
This was game two of "Guy's Grocery Games."
One of you will be checking out.
Nia.
Okay.
I'm sorry, you checked out.
All right.
Nia, your first dish was fantastic,
and then your second dish --
obviously, you had great dreams for it.
Unfortunately, 2/3 of those dreams
are still on your stove.
Thank you.
I let myself down because I made stupid decisions in the kitchen.
I know that I'm gonna have to go home
and tell my fiancé that I did not win.
You know, $20,000 or not,
we're gonna have an amazing time,
and I'm gonna marry the love of my life.
All right, congratulations Chef Stanley, Chef Tom.
You made it to the final game.
Now, I'm not gonna tell you what to make.
I'm not gonna tell you how to make it.
I'm not gonna give you a budget.
The key here is to make sure
that your dish is better than your competitor's.
Really push yourselves to the culinary limits.
TOM: So, Guy says,
"For this challenge, I want you to go big."
And I'm thinking, there's no way he's letting us off this easy.
Okay? You feel good?
Ready to go.
The twist will be
you can only cook from one certain area in the store.
Uh-oh.
And that area will be Aisle 1. No.
I know. It'll be Aisle 8.
This will be the Frozen Food Feud!
[ Laughs ]
My heart just dropped.
I'm thinking, there's not a lot of options in the freezer aisle.
So, you can grab as many frozen items as you want.
[ Laughs ]
Ohh.
25 minutes.
The Frozen Food Feud begins.
Go!
Oh, no, how about something sweet?
I think frozen food actually gets a bad rap.
I haven't done any dessert.
You have to know what is good frozen.
Hmm, what can we do? What can we do?
That could be interesting.
Going sweet might be the smart direction.
I have some frozen cheesecake, and I see strawberry ice cream.
This dish is coming together in my head.
I'm gonna make strawberry cheesecake ice-cream pie.
Anything else? Anything else?
I mean, that's heaven.
Oh, this is just killing me.
I got two kids in college,
so $20,000 would be fantastic for me and my family.
There are certain foods that can stand up to freezing.
Shrimp's one of 'em.
And as I run by, corn catches my eye.
And I think macque choux.
It's like creamed corn but not as soft.
Chef, what do you got going?
I'm doing a shrimp with macque choux.
What'd you get right here?
That is a little southwestern sauce.
Southwestern sauce.
I'm not sure what that means,
but I know it's gonna be packed with flavors.
Out of control.
Some popsicles.
I can make a simple gastrique.
Are you making a savory dish, a sweet dish?
What are you...?
No, it's gonna be dessert.
You're best at dessert, of all the things you do?
Well, I want to switch it up a little bit.
All right.
All I need is something creamy to make this dish come together,
and I don't see anything.
Got to be something. Oh, wait, ice cream.
Vanilla ice cream.
Vanilla, vanilla, vanilla. Vanilla.
Attention, chefs. A little tidbit helper.
We are now gonna grant you two fresh items
from the produce department.
Two fresh items can also be added to your cart.
So, I'm going over to produce.
I grab the red bell pepper and parsley.
So, I run to my station.
I grab some blueberries and some mint, head back to my station.
I need to get my pie crust baked first.
Take the frozen cheesecake,
add the strawberry-cheesecake ice cream to that.
And I'm praying for a miracle on this one.
Re-whip it.
Who doesn't like popsicles?
I want to get the popsicle melted,
and I want to add a mint.
Just to add some freshness.
And to also cut all the sweetness a little bit.
The items that Stanley has already chosen
are overly sugary, frankly.
That may be his downfall.
Ohh.
Just breaking my heart.
I got corn in the pan, frozen garlic,
frozen cilantro, frozen onions.
I hope it works.
12 1/2 minutes.
STANLEY: Frozen food?
I've had so much of it as a child.
I grew up pretty poor, so ever since then,
I've just had a drive
to not ever myself be in that situation again,
and also any child of mine or anybody close to me
to never be in that situation again.
$20,000 could really help.
See that? Don't wipe it down.
Just flip it over.
TOM: Oh [Bleep]
These aren't peeled.
I grabbed the wrong shrimp. I've got to peel this now.
Oh, my God, shrimp, come on.
That's a whole 'nother time element.
And I taste the southwest sauce.
Oh, my God, that's salty.
And it's a salt bomb.
Everything's going wrong.
Rear back.
Some food down.
It's got so much salt that I can't put it on the plate.
I think, ice cream.
The creaminess of the ice cream will cut this.
This is going against every way that I cook.
A minute and 30 seconds.
As I'm plating it,
it looks like a light pink blob just oozing on the plate.
Tom is doing a savory dish, and his dish looks good.
30 seconds!
TOM: I know Stanley has gone sweet.
It's gonna be something that immediately
catches their attention, and I've made half-*** macque choux.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Stop working!
[ Sighs ]
I think, "I'm doomed."
STANLEY: I'm just hoping that the judges
just happen to have a sweet tooth today.
Wow! What a battle.
In game three, it's the Frozen Food Feud.
Chef Stanley, please go ahead and explain to the judges
what you've done for your best dish.
So, here I have
a strawberry-cheesecake ice-cream pie
and popsicle gastrique.
I love popsicles.
I love cheesecake.
I love ice cream.
So you just raided the frozen-food section
of all the desserts.
Pretty much. I mean, you know,
sometimes you get the munchies in sweets, you know.
They do it for you, you know, so...
GUY: Great.
Judges?
This is right up my alley!
Good for you for leveraging frozen food.
Thank you.
And embrace something that is actually delicious frozen.
I love it.
Nice.
I love the combination of the cheesecake with the ice cream.
I actually think it works really well
if it would have probably a little bit more time to set,
but I'm a little bit thrown off on the blueberry gastrique.
I don't know if it really worked well.
I don't know, it's something there that is just off for me.
STANLEY: I'm nervous.
I had this whole idea of what I wanted it to be,
and you know, I'm just hoping for the best.
Next up, Chef Tom.
I made a southwest shrimp macque choux.
Macque choux is one of those dishes
where two cultures met,
and this is where Native Americans met the Creole.
Macque choux generally has cream or a goat cheese
or something like that to thicken it up,
and so the only thing I could think of was vanilla ice cream.
Tom, I feel like I'm in New Orleans
when I'm eating the dish, so you took me there.
Excuse me, where?
New Orleans. New Orleans?
How do you say it?
Louisiana.
Louisiana, so I felt there.
I think that the corn is a little bit overcooked.
Of course, the shrimp.
You can do your best in terms of defrosting it really fast,
but I think that you can feel that
in the texture of the shrimp.
Sure.
Melissa?
I think you suspect what the big problem here is.
I think it's the first time
where I really feel like the seasoning is off.
For me, it's salty.
Yeah.
You got ice cream in that sauce,
and you still made it savory and piquant.
I think you really succeeded here.
Great job.
The judges didn't hit me with a bat,
but they sure weren't singing my praises.
Gentlemen, the judges need to deliberate.
Please retire to the kitchen.
We'll call for you in just a bit. Thank you.
Oh, man, that was hard.
Where do you guys stand?
I love what Stanley was able to do
in terms of the flavor, but the creativity of Tom was fantastic.
Judges, do we have a decision?
Yes.
GUY: Great.
Chefs, would you come back in, please?
One of you goes home checked out.
The other has an opportunity to go on a super shopping spree
to bag up to $20,000.
The chef that is going to be staying with us will be...
[ Sighs ]
Winning is validation. Everybody needs validation.
I need somebody else to tell me I'm doing a good job.
Stanley, you were such a delight today,
and you knocked it out of the park.
Tom just edged you out, but thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Chef. Appreciate it.
All right, thank you.
Thank you.
STANLEY: I have no regrets.
The message is still the same.
I'm making it happen,
and anybody from my hometown of Chicago,
especially the south side, you can make it happen, too.
Chef Tom?
[ Sighs ] Can I breathe now?
Come on, buddy. Get up there.
Congratulations. Chef Tom!
Oh, man.
GUY: All right.
In my hand is a list of 10 items.
You have two minutes
to find as many of these items as possible.
Each item you check off on the list and put in your cart
will be worth $2,000.
Grab all 10 items before the time is up,
and you will win $20,000!
Okay.
I'm just thankful
that I'm the one that does a lot of grocery shopping.
Are you ready?
Judges, are you ready?
I'm ready.
3, and 2, and 1.
Go get 'em! And he's off!
TOM: My heart is beating out of my chest,
and I'm flying through this market.
All right, meat in a casing.
All right.
GUY: And we got sausage.
Luckily for me, the first aisle I turn on
has three items I need.
It's got meat in a casing.
It's got tuna steaks.
We're over to tuna steak.
And the whole milk is right there at the end,
so I grab all 3 of those, first 10 seconds.
We've got whole milk, that's 6,000 bucks.
I've already got 6 grand, I'm feeling pretty good.
I make the corner, and I'm looking for the rest of it.
We just passed frozen. Now we're down to...
Tortilla chips.
Tortilla chips. 2 more thousand.
4 items, 8,000 bucks.
Blueberry waffles, got to be in the freezer section.
Going after blueberry waffles.
I go to grab it, 2 more grand.
Get out of there!
Blueberry waffles, $10,000!
Jelly, jelly, jelly, jelly!
GUY: Now what have we got left?
MELISSA: You just passed it!
You just passed it!
Grape jelly!
Grape jelly's over here!
I hear 'em gasp, and I think,
"Oh, my God, I missed something."
People are weighing in.
The fans are going nuts.
I turn around to see what I missed, and there's grape jelly.
57 seconds!
LORENA: Hurry up!
6 items, $12,000.
Caffeine-free soda on the end cap.
Boom, 2 grand. Soda.
Can of olives.
Can of olives.
I know I've got to get something that goes into hummus.
35 seconds!
I don't want to have to look for chickpeas.
Hummus. Lemon is in hummus.
But lemons are in hummus.
Can of olives is probably his next best bet.
Lemon is in hummus.
So I go flying to the produce aisle.
Where the hell are the lemons?
Can of olives is down that aisle.
Where are the lemons? I see grapefruits.
I see tangerines. I see oranges.
I see everything but lemons.
Where are lemons?
Lemons.
Lemons are --
4 seconds, 3 seconds, 2 seconds.
And at the last second, the lemon goes in the cart,
and I look,
and I see $2,000 worth of canned olives right there!
Time's up! All right!
Winning 16 grand -- that's big.
That is really big.
Money equals college for kids.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Ramsey with $16,000!
Almost as important as that $16,000
is that I've quieted that little voice
in the back of my head that's telling me,
"Hey, you didn't go to culinary school.
"Hey, this wasn't your first career.
Hey, this isn't -- You're not really a chef."
That little voice is getting quieter now.
You are the winner! Congratulations!
He rocked the house on Triple G! Yeah!