01x08 - Bland to Flavor b*mb

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat music playing]

Welcome to the show
that makes you feel guilty

for not taking home that doggie bag,

that leftovers show!

And you should feel guilty.
What you gonna do, throw it in the trash?

Home chefs are finding delicious ways
to give old leftovers new life,

and we're gonna show you how.

I'm your host, Jackie Tohn.

Three skilled cooks will compete
over two rounds,

creating new dishes out of leftovers.

The cook with the best dishes
goes home with $10,000.

Let's make over some leftovers.

[man] My name is Mike Marina.

I loathe to throw away food.

I call myself a food nerd
because I always see potential in things.

Leftovers are a great way
to be really creative.

[woman] My name is Leticia.
I have two teenage kids.

We use a lot of leftovers,

and they love my cooking.

To say that I love cooking
is putting it mildly.

I am possessed by cooking.

[man] My name is Yaniv.

Running my own restaurant,
you need to learn how to reuse

and repurpose.
I'm so excited to share my knowledge.

I want to make my daughter very proud.

[Jackie] We're so excited
you guys are here!

Please meet
our two favorite resident judges.

To my right,

supreme culinary influencer
and restaurateur,

-David "Day-Old Donuts" So!
-[competitors whooping]

And to my left, the woman that holds
the key to my heart, and stomach,

world-renowned chef, cookbook author
and culinary royalty from across the pond,

Rosemary "I'll Take That To Go" Shrager.

I cannot wait to see
what you can do. [exhales]

Yep.

The three of you
will compete over two rounds

to determine
who will be the overall champ.

Round one will put
your everyday leftover skills to the test.

We wanna see how quickly and creatively

you can take all the leftovers
from the fridges behind you

and turn them
into a delicious original creation.

-Whoo!
-[Yaniv chuckles]

[Jackie] Round two will raise the bar,
but more on that later.

All right, guys, it's time for round one.

-It's the Pressure Cooker.
-[clock ticking]

Okay, you've been sick and surviving
on some seriously bland foods

to help you recover,
but you're feeling better

and craving something flavorful.

-Okay.
-All right.

You have 30 minutes
to take these notoriously bland leftovers

and turn them into a flavor b*mb.

-[imitates b*mb whistling]
-A dish that really packs a punch, okay?

Okay.

[Jackie] The more leftovers you use,
the better,

but how and what you use
is ultimately up to you.

So, the leftovers
you'll be working with are...

rice,

-matzo ball soup, the soup of my people.
-[Leticia chuckles]

[Mike] All right.

[Jackie] Chicken pot pie,

toast,

-and wellness shots.
-Great.

[Jackie] You'll also have access
to a limited pantry

-and some staple fridge extras.
-Oy.

-How you guys feeling?

-Pretty confident?
-[both] Oh, yeah.

[Jackie] You do it all the time.
We are really looking forward

-to seeing what you come up with.
-Okay.

Ready, set, go!

[judges laughing] Good luck.

-[Jackie] Show us those flavors!
-Oh, God.

All right, let's see what's going on.

Oh, my God, there's not even salt.

I think the smart thing he's doing
right now, he's tasting everything.

Oh, my God.

That is actually the key
to know what you're dealing with.

[scoffs]

Oh, we about to go on a journey with this.

Oh, my God.

All my spices are here.

-All right.
-That's what I want to see. Season.

Yaniv, what are you doing?

So, I'm gonna make
a version of Tunisian meatballs.

For the first round,

I'm gonna make rice pot pie meatballs

in a turmeric ginger soup
with sumac yogurt sauce.

The meatball's gonna have
the rice and the pot pie mixture,

and I'm gonna use
the crust as the breadcrumbs.

I'm using the carrots
and broth from the matzo ball,

and then I'm gonna spice it up
with turmeric shot, ginger shot,

for nice, flavorful soup.

The rice will be enough
of carbs and starch

that I don't need to use the bread.

Let's try to spice these guys up.

A little bit of harissa.

Oh, my God, that smells so good.

I grew up in Israel
and I have a restaurant called Jaffa,

in Miami, where I'm also known
as the Spice Detective.

You grow up in the Middle East,
spices are everywhere,

and then you come here
and people don't know what za'atar is.

When my daughter Rachel was born,

I was so afraid
that she's not going to have

the appreciation
and the palate that I had.

A little bit of za'atar.

So, I created the Spice Detective.

It's all thanks to Rachel.

We better get some spices outta Yaniv.

You can't call yourself
the Spice Detective

and then deliver us some white rice.

-We'll see what happens.
-That would be a bit of a disaster.

I'm not gonna diss anyone's mother
or what they eat when they're sick,

but I don't think
this person's feeling a lot better,

'cause this stuff is pretty bland.

[Yaniv] Mike, what are you making?

[Mike] So, I, God willing...

[Yaniv] Yeah?

...will probably be
pulling off a little bit of arancini

-using the rice.
-[Yaniv] Oh, my God.

[Mike] I'm turning these leftovers
into arancini with pomodoro sauce.

So, arancini is
a really cool Italian appetizer

using cold rice that's oftentimes stuffed
with cheese, deep-fried and served

with a really zesty tomato sauce.

I can use the rice for my arancinis,

wrap it around
some of the Pepper Jack cheese

that I found in the fridge
and make a really poppin' tomato sauce

using the stock from the chicken soup.

And I can use the ginger shots
to give it a little extra zing.

I'll use the crust
from the chicken pot pie

and fry it up and use it
as crumble for the texture.

So, I'm using everything but the toast.
I will make you a flavor b*mb.

Arancini.

[Mike] I've made arancini before,

but I always have used rice
that I've cooked myself.

It fits.

The rice I'm using
isn't naturally super starchy,

and I'm worried that it's just gonna be
a shell around this cheese.

So, I try to fold in some dried herbs
and a little bit of Parmesan cheese

with some salt and pepper,

hoping that it's gonna
give it that adhesiveness

that I need to bind it together
and give it a little flavor.

Let me go ahead
and get my arancini-stuffing shuffle.

-♪ Go a little bit to the right ♪
-[Jackie] Hey!

♪ Place the Pepper Jack in
Little bit to the left ♪

-♪ Little bit to the right, now ♪
-♪ Pray that I'm gonna win ♪

-[Jackie] ♪ Little bit to the left ♪
-♪ Little bit to the right ♪

♪ Pepper Jack goes in ♪

That was the "Arancini Shuffle."

That's the greatest thing
that's ever been on television.

[Mike] I'm a personal chef and caterer.

I've cooked everywhere from yachts
to single bachelor pads to big mansions.

I feel like one of my big advantages

is that I'm used to cooking
in unfamiliar kitchens.

So, it's hard to throw me off my game
because I play every game.

Okay.

This chicken pot pie is, like, so creamy.

[sighs] Oh!

I think I'm going to just wash this.

[Yaniv] Leticia, what are you doing?
What's your dish? Tell me.

I'm gonna be making arroz con pollo.

-[Yaniv] Oh, that's nice.
-Arriba.

-[Yaniv] That's nice.
-Arroz con pollo.

-Sí.
-Yeah!

I'm gonna make an arroz con pollo.

I have the rice, the chicken filling
and the vegetables and chicken broth

from the matzo ball soup,

and I'm going to use the pot pie crust
and the brioche toast to add some crunch.

Then a little bit of the turmeric
and the ginger shots to add a kick.

I think that I can use every ingredient.

Yes! It's working!

Leticia, what's working?

I have just washed
and drained the creamy part

-off the--
-The chicken.

-Exactly. Off the filling.
-That's what I thought.

There's chicken in there, pollo,

tomatoes, broth.
It's going to be super flavorful.

I started cooking
when I was a little girl in Brazil.

I decided to become a chef
to pay tribute to my beautiful country.

With these flavors from Brazilian cuisine,
I know that I can wow the judges.

Guys, how are we doing on time?

We've got 20 minutes left, cooks.
Twenty minutes left.

Twenty minutes left?

David, what are your expectations
for this round for them?

For me, it is the flavor components
that they're adding.

Like, look, my man's right there, Mike,
he's using sriracha.

I want to see that type of stuff.

A little squirt of that.

I would like to see them use
the wellness shot.

But what if they sort
of add some ingredients

and turn it into,
like, a delicious Arnold Palmer?

So, they give you their little dish
with a little drink.

-Put a little vodka in, Rosemary.
-Why not?

A little bit of vodka
doesn't hurt anybody.

-But I do--
-It's hurt one guy.

[indistinct babbling]

Getting the party started, baby.
[imitates air horn]

There's pre-cooked carrots.
What a mirepoix.

So, for the soup,
I'm doing somewhat of a mirepoix.

That's the base.

Then I'm going to use the broth

from the matzo ball,
and then I'm going to spice it up.

A little ginger.

Turmeric. The magic one.

With a soup,
it's going to give it a lot of flavor,

and I want to bring
something soft to the palate,

something creamy, so I take
the yogurt that was in the fridge...

I'm gonna try to make a sauce.

...and I mix it with sumac,
which is incredible and zesty and citrusy.

Yaniv, is the Spice Detective
hot on the case?

I tried to go gentle on you.

Yes, let's go.

I'm reducing my sauce.
It's looking really nice. Cool.

I still really want
that crunch to be there,

so, I'll use the crust
from the pot pie, chop it,

toss it in a little bit of butter
and let it toast,

then top my arancini
with my buttery chicken pie crust.

So, not only are you getting
a little crunch from the fry,

but you're also gonna get
a little bit of butteriness.

So you get some sexy caramelization
and some butteriness.

Hi.

[Leticia] Sticky rice.

Once I put the rice in the pan,

then I put the meatballs
and the chicken and vegetables.

Chicken stock leftovers
right into my new arroz con pollo.

Oh, yeah.

And then I put the broth,
and then everything comes together.

It's working, guys.

[Jackie] Leftover rice seems
incredibly hard to reuse.

-David, I need a leftover tip.
-Oh, I got you, boo.

When bringing rice back to life,

add a few tablespoons of butter
and a splash of broth,

then cover the pan
and steam the rice on low.

My man.

We've got five minutes, cooks.
We've got five minutes.

[Yaniv] That's not a lot of time.

-I'm gonna try something else, Mike.
-You gotta try something else?

This is, like, too slow

and it's not giving me
the crispiness that I'm looking for,

so I'm gonna try it... in the fryer.

We want texture, we want crunch, too.
We don't want it to be mushy, right?

Let's see.

I prefer to pan fry,

but it's taking too long
and it's starting to fall apart.

The batter needed time to sit,
but we don't have time.

My only hope will be to deep fry it.
Otherwise, I have no dish.

Rosemary would not be pleased
with mushiness.

And it works. The deep frying works.

-You all right, Yaniv?
-Yes.

It's cooked through, the egg
and the crunchiness on the outside.

-One minute and 30 seconds, cooks.
-[Leticia whooping]

We've plated already? Are we plating?

-[Mike] Yes, indeed.
-I love this adrenaline.

Let's do this.

I love my dish,

but every dish, it's nice to have
a little bit of an element of crunch,

so the puff pastry and the brioche
will be like a bread crumb.

-[David] It smells good in here.
-I was gonna say, smells so good in here.

Oh, that's perfect.

Wow, they have time
to celebrate over there.

[judges] Five, four, three, two, one!

-Time's up. Let's eat.
-[alarm beeping]

Ha ha ha ha!

-Hi, Yaniv.
-[Rosemary] Hello. What do we have here?

[Jackie] You were given bland leftovers
and asked to make a flavor b*mb.

Tell us what you made
and what leftovers you used.

[Yaniv] What I created for you is
a real flavor b*mb.

It's a version of Tunisian meatballs
with the chicken soup on top of it.

So, I took the like, really stale soup
and I gave it a lot of flavor

with ginger and turmeric shot.

For the meatballs:

rice and chicken pot pie, the filling,

and then I used the crust
like, breadcrumbs,

added flour and egg,

and then I deep fried them.

And I finished the whole plate
with a smear of yogurt spiced with sumac,

which rounds up
the whole flavor in your mouth

and the crunchiness of the meatball.

[Jackie] Great.
That's four out of five leftovers.

-Go in with me.
-[David] Okay, well, let's get it.

Yeah, try to get some of the yogurt.

First, that amount of heat is perfect.

-I went a little easy on you.
-[David] This speaks of your identity.

-You can see who he is as a cook.
-100%.

[Rosemary] I'm loving that sumac.

It actually does balance it out.

You've been really clever.

I would have never thought
about making this dish myself.

It looks like a brand-new dish.
You'd never guess this was a leftover.

I've never schmeared yogurt
on soup in my life.

[David and Yaniv laugh]

[Rosemary] Uh... The only thing
I do not like:

-I think your texture for this is wrong.
-[Yaniv] Mm-hm.

-It's too mushy.
-[Yaniv] Okay.

[David] I kinda miss texture.

So, think about the textural crunch
for the next round,

and I think this dish
would have been perfect.

-Moving on. Thank you, Yaniv.
-Thank you.

-[Jackie] Hey!
-Hey, guys.

Look what we have here.

[Mike] So, for you guys today

I have
a Pepper Jack cheese stuffed arancini

with pomodoro sauce on the bottom.

Okay, fabulous.
I'm gonna turn my knife right side up

'cause it's not my first time
using a knife.

[Mike] The leftovers that I used are

the rice to actually fold over
the Pepper Jack cheese.

-Get sauce. Come here.
-Okay, sauce me up.

[Mike] The ginger wellness shot
inside of my sauce along with the soup

of the matzo ball soup...

-in my sauce.
-[Jackie] Got you.

-[Rosemary] Okay, got it.
-The broth.

[muffled] Okay.

[Mike] I took the crust part
of the chicken pot pie,

tossed it in a bit of butter,
salt and pepper and some herbs

to add a little bit
of extra crunch to the dish.

[Jackie] So, that's four
out of five leftovers.

-It's like a comfort dish to me. You know?
-[Mike] Yeah.

Surprisingly, you have rice in this,

but it tastes like
a deep-fried pizza bite to me,

and you did something I wanted
from Yaniv's dish, which is texture.

-[Jackie] Right.
-[David] Crunch.

But it just seems like a fried rice ball
to me with some cheese inside of it,

-so...
-I hear you.

Also, the rice is
a little bland for me, right?

I think you were trying to make that up
with the sauce, which tasted great,

but I think the rice not being flavored
or you doing something with it

-was probably a misstep for me.
-I hear you.

It is good and bad.

I think the idea has been really good.

You should have put something else
in there, like chopped parsley or chops,

or some coriander or something like that,
which would give it some zap,

give it something else
that would actually come through it.

You were halfway there,

-in terms of flavor.
-I gotcha.

[Rosemary] Think about whether the meal
is going to balance or not.

-And taste! Taste! Taste!
-Heard.

My advice for round two: more dancing.

-More dancing? I'm in.
-[all laugh]

-[Jackie] My man.
-Let's go! All right.

-[Jackie] Thanks, Mike.
-[Rosemary] Thank you, Mike.

[Jackie] Hi, Leticia.

[Leticia] So, I made an arroz con pollo.

-[David] Oh, say that again.
-Arrrrroz con pollo.

-[David cheers] Hey!
-[Jackie] My hair blows back.

[David] Arroz con pollo.

I just picked up my knife
like I'm gonna cut arroz con pollo.

-[David] You're gonna cut rice.
-[Leticia] So, I used the chicken pot pie.

I browned the chicken filling,
scraped the crust along with the brioche

so that I could make a crunch.

I put in the broth
from the matzo ball soup,

the ginger and the turmeric and the rice.

I did some sofrito, as well.

[Jackie] So, you used all your leftovers.
Amazing!

-Yo. Flavor b*mb.
-Ooh.

[all] Flavor b*mb.

[David] Did you hear
Yaniv was the Spice Detective?

Is that why
you came after him with this dish?

-[Jackie] Well... [laughs]
-[David] Is that why you came after him?

We use a lot of spices
in Latin America as well.

[Rosemary] After being sick for a week,

-if you gave me that...
-[Jackie] Clear your sinuses.

-My God, that would do the trick.
-Right.

It's a good look on the sofrito because
a sofrito adds so much flavor to this.

Everything's coming through.
It's got paprika, the chili is enough.

You've given us a great flavor b*mb there.

[David] I'd say like the one thing
that I didn't like about it

had to be the texture of the rice,
because it was already cooked.

-It was really mushy, right?
-Yeah.

But, on the other hand,
it just tastes really good.

-[Jackie] It tastes really good.
-Wonderful.

[Jackie] All right.
Well, thank you so much.

Okay, cooks. It's that time.

The fact that my seasonings
weren't up to par

is just frankly downright embarrassing.

And now I know that my next dish
has got to be flavor-forward.

You guys are halfway to the $10,000,
but it's not over yet.

Now, remember, we're going to take

round one and round two into consideration
when we're picking a winner.

Onto round two, the Takeout Takedown.

Okay, last round,

you used your skills
with everyday leftovers

to create a flavor b*mb out of bland food.

Well, this round gets tougher.

We're starting you off
with takeout leftovers

from my very own personal refrigerator.

You brought it in.

[Jackie] And they're already flavor bombs,

but you need to turn them into
a completely new fancy dinner.

-Uh-oh.
-I'm scared.

[Jackie] Without any further ado,
my fridge!

[all laugh]

-[Leticia] Oh, wow.
-[Jackie] Get it out here!

-[Mike] Yeah!
-[David] Well, look at that.

[Rosemary] Brilliant.

As you might imagine

from the number of pictures
of my dog on my fridge,

I spend quite a few Friday nights alone.
And sometimes I like to tie one on.

None of your business. T-H-A-I one on.

Whoo!

In my fridge

you will find...

the takeout leftovers
from one of my favorite Thai restaurants.

-[Yaniv] Oh, my God.
-[Mike] Oh...

You like your drink.

-[David] Yeah, just a little bit.
-I'm thirsty, Rosemary.

Rosé all day.

[Jackie] But keep your hands off my rosé.
You are only using the leftovers.

The takeout leftovers
you'll be working with are:

pork larb,

pad thai with chicken,

and beef panang curry.

And everyone will get
a small side of chili sauce.

[imitates b*mb whistling]

You'll each randomly choose one
of these tasty leftover takeout dishes

and whip us up some sweet vittles,
but they have to be fancy vittles,

and don't go making us
Thai food out of Thai food.

We didn't schlep you from your homes
to not change the cuisine. Fair?

[contestants] Fair.

-I'm gonna come to you with these dishes.
-Oh, snap.

Take some Thai food, honey,
and no peeking.

All right. Thank you very much.

This round has me apprehensive,

mainly because we're using
a finished product.

We have to fight against textures,
seasonings, and depending on what I get,

my dish could change radically,
or it could just be a hot mess.

You guys have to really figure out
how you're going to deconstruct this

and use these individual ingredients.

I'm curious to see
what you're going to do.

All right, you've got one hour to cook.

Ready...

Go! Shoo.

All right. Let's see
what we are working with today.

-[Mike] Oh.
-Really?

I get a Thai beef panang

and it looks awful.

It doesn't taste very good.

I don't know that I can transform

this dish into magic.

Oh. Oh, my God.

I get the chicken pad thai.

It's, you know, dry, cooked noodles.

Oh, God. [laughs]

So, I open it up
and I see some sad-looking pork

and a quarter of a head
of uncooked cabbage.

I am working with pork larb,
and I have a lot of work to do.

See, the dance and the laughter
is all gone right now.

Yeah.

Pretty sure that's ABC food.

-You know what it means?
-[Rosemary] No.

"Already been chewed."

[Rosemary] I've never heard that ever.

Who do you feel like is a front-runner
at this point in the competition?

I'm gonna give it to Yaniv.
Yaniv did a great job on the flavors,

and, on top of that,
I liked his presentation.

[Jackie] Rosemary, what do you think?

[Rosemary] Mike, texture, presentation,
hit the button, but the flavor was wrong.

[Jackie] Hmm.

Leticia's got the run on this one because
she got every single element on that plate

and when you took a mouthful, it burst.

Hmm.

-And, in fact, you said it: flavor b*mb.
-Yeah.

Okay. How do I make this high-end?

-[Rosemary] Yaniv?
-Yeah?

What are you cooking?

I'm taking the pad thai
and I'm making it into "mac and cheese."

-What?
-What you mean "mac and cheese"?

-Macaroni and cheese.
-Oh, macaroni and cheese.

-Sorry.
-Wow.

My takeout dish is chicken pad thai,

and I'm going to make
a pad thai mac and cheese

with a sprout basil salad on the side.

I'm using the complete pad thai
in the mac and cheese.

I will bake it in cheese sauce.

And then I'm using all the leftover lime,
basil and sprouts in the salad.

Let's see what we have.

I have Pepper Jack,
Parmesan and cheddar in the fridge,

so the first thing I need to do
is create the cheese sauce.

Do you think your mac and cheese dish
is high-end enough for us?

That's my worry.
I'm gonna use very high-end cheeses.

Okay. [laughs]

I can't actually fathom it.

And high-end spices.

He's making fancy mac and cheese.

Mac and cheese is not a high-end... dish,

but I know I can make it flavorful
and different enough.

A little bit of coriander.

[Jackie] Oh, my God,
look at all the stuff Leticia has.

[Leticia] Let's see
if we can do some magic.

Leticia, what do you got
going on over there?

So, guys, get excited for this.
I'm gonna make some mole.

-[judges] Mole!
-[Leticia] Mole.

-[David] You got enough time for mole?
-Holy mole. Yep.

The leftover that I have
is a Thai beef panang,

and the dish that I'm going to create
is a beef mole with sweet potatoes.

I'm going to braise
this leftover beef panang in my mole sauce

and then I'm gonna
roast the sweet potatoes

that I found in the pantry
and put the beef mole on top.

I'm not using rice.

The smells and the spices?
Oh, my goodness.

[inhales and exhales deeply]

In my opinion, mole is just a tomato sauce

kicked in
with a million other ingredients.

Peanut butter.

-[David and Jackie] Ooh!
-Chili powder.

Oregano.

Beef stock.

-Let's see what happens.
-[Jackie] See what else.

Yeah. Got any ranch in the fridge?
Throw in whatever's in there.

[Leticia] Let's do it.

I'm worried about
all the pantry and fridge items.

You can't really conceptualize
how her beef leftover's going

to incorporate with all that.

Let's do this.

Okay.

Mike, what are you making?

Whoo... Buddy! What I'm making
is going to be a bit of a risk.

-Mike, you making gnocchi over there?
-Yeah, I am, actually.

It needs to be soft and pillowy.

Soft and pillowy, baby.

I got the pork larb. I'm gonna make that
into a potato gnocchi in cream sauce

with ground pork and a fine herb salad.

I'm gonna use the instant potato flakes
we have in the pantry to make my gnocchi

and then the ground pork from my pork larb
is gonna be inside of my cream sauce

to give it a good little hearty flavor.

And finally,
the cabbage that came with it,

a little bit of the chili sauce
and the Thai basil

are gonna go into my salad.

All right, cool.

Work on my sauce.

As soon as I finish my gnocchi,

I start working
on my béchamel cheese sauce.

Let's get this guy going.

I start melting some butter,
then I add a bit of flour

with some cream
and some shaved Parmesan cheese

to make a nice thick béchamel sauce.

So now I have the base of my sauce

and I need to add my leftover pork.
The problem is...

I need you to dry out
a little bit for me, buddy.

This pork is actually super wet.

If I were to add it to my sauce,
it would have the potential to break it.

Look at you. There you go.

After it's dry, then I add it straight
into my sauce and fold it all together.

Here you go, badass sauce,
doing your thing. All right. I see you.

-Thirty minutes left, cooks.
-[Yaniv] Whoo.

-[Jackie] Thirty minutes left.
-Okay.

[Yaniv] So, part of my plan
with the pad thai mac and cheese

to elevate it
is to serve a smaller portion.

[Jackie] You're making individual cups
of mac and cheese?

-[David] You want to elevate the plating.
-Exactly.

-It's all about the presentation.
-[Jackie] 100%.

[Yaniv humming]

So, I'm trying to make it pretty,
but after the feedback from the judges,

I know that I also need
to bring crunch into this challenge.

So, I find some peanuts,
I find some walnuts,

to create a nutty crust
for my mac and cheese.

Yaniv, what's going on?

[Yaniv] I'm working on the crunch.

He took the notes.

I like it when people listen to me.

[Yaniv sighs]

[Leticia] Next, I blend the mole
and then I put it back in the pot

and I braise the meat in my mole sauce.

[shouts] Holy mole!

Then I need to add a little bit
of flavor to the sweet potatoes.

Garlic.

Yes. Butter.

Garlic.

Oregano.

All right.

Okay, let's see.

Leticia is dancing to a song
no one else is hearing.

I'm so here for the dancing.

She's in the zone.

I'm using every leftover they gave me.

I got the pork larb
inside of my cream sauce.

The leftover cabbage that came with it

is going to be my base
for my fine herb salad.

My salad needs another dimension to it
and another color.

It's not popping the way I want it to.

The feedback that the judges gave me
specifically about flavors

really stuck home with me,

and so every step of the way, I'm going
to be jam-packing my dish with flavor.

Can't believe I'm about to do this.

So, I add a little bit of the chili sauce
just to give it a little extra zing.

It turned out pretty well.

Cooks, you have ten minutes.

I know my mac and cheese is rich,
so I need fresh salad.

Okay, salad.

So I chop
all my beautiful leftover sprouts.

I add some carrots that I find,
some onions and some olives,

and I make a salad to balance everything.

All right.

I've seasoned my salad,

I have everything ready in time
to make my Parmesan crackers,

and I can tell you the way that I did it.

You can use grated Parmesan
if you have it at home.

You just go ahead and put it
on a non-stick surface, parchment paper,

but not an oily pan.

Make it into like, a nice little disc,

pop it in the oven
at 350 degrees for six minutes.

No more. No less.
After the six minutes happen,

they should pop off
and be nice and crunchy. Every time.

Cooks, you have five minutes left.

-What?
-Oh, my God.

I do have one big concern.

The color of the sweet potato
is exactly the same color of the mole.

Plating is definitely the part of the dish
that I am most nervous about.

The judges, they want a fancy dish,

so I do a basil oil.

I gotta make
a little nice presentation, you know?

The green element...

Okay.

...is going to save my presentation.

Okay.

Uh-oh. Look at Yaniv.

-[Jackie] Oh, it's getting stuck.
-Oh, my God.

The mac and cheese is sticking
to the tray.

-He didn't grease the pan enough.
-[gasps] I hope he did.

[Yaniv] I'm gonna have to go for it.
I might not have anything

to bring to the judges.

Let's see the flip. Moment of truth.

[Yaniv] Say a silent prayer.

Come out of the pan. Please.

This is scary.

Ta-da.

No, he's done it.

[Mike] Oh, God.

I realized my sauce is broken.

I added in too much oil to it.

There is a decidedly unsexy puddle
of olive oil on my plate.

-Shouldn't have done that.
-[David] No pressure.

I'm praying that my flavors
go all the way through,

because I know my presentation
is not gonna win any awards

with a bunch of oil on the plate.

[Jackie] Thirty seconds left.

[Mike] Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Come on, baby.

Plate.

Corn tortilla.

I need to add some crunch.

I decide to add some corn tortillas
that I found in the fridge.

Stay still. Stand still.

Whoo!

[judges] Five, four, three, two, one!

Whoo!

-[Jackie] Let's eat.
-Well done.

Yeah. Let's do it.

-Bring those plates to the judging table.
-Gotcha.

-Okay.
-[Mike] Okay.

At the end of the day, judges are looking
for how many leftovers we incorporate,

the flavor and presentation.

And I've got all three.
Check. Check. Check.

Oh, wow.

-[Jackie] Wow. Oh!
-[Mike] Here you go, guys.

[Yaniv] Voilà.

Let's start with Leticia's plate.

You were given Thai food leftovers
and asked to make us a fancy dinner.

Tell us what you did.

I had the Thai beef curry panang,

and I've made a mole sauce,

incorporated the beef
and the leftover curry with the sauce.

So, the base is made of what?

-Sweet potatoes, a little bit of butter...
-Oh.

...a little bit of garlic, shallots.

[Jackie] It's not the most beautiful thing
to look at.

-I would like to see what it tastes like.
-[Jackie] Oh, I see.

-There's a huge piece of beef.
-[Rosemary] Yeah.

I didn't touch the beef in terms of size.

Well, I might.

Yes.

Yeah. 'Cause that's
a giant-a*s piece of beef.

Yeah.

There's flavor there, that's for sure.

-[Rosemary] Yeah.
-It's basilly basil.

I really do like
that you like to be very flavor-forward,

but panang curry is sweet enough as it is,

and then you added the sweet potato puree,
so it's sweet on top of sweet.

That's where that balance issue
comes to play, right?

It's quite a clever thought,
but, unfortunately,

the softness of both,
because the sauce is so thick,

and with the puree, it's a mush together.

It would have almost been better

if you'd done chunks
of the sweet potatoes.

That would have given you texture.

-Right. Yes.
-[Rosemary] Do you see what I mean?

[Jackie] Thank you, Leticia.

-Whoo.
-[Jackie] All right.

Moving on to Mike. You ready, friend?

-Whoo, yeah.
-[Jackie] Whoo, baby.

[Mike] I was gifted the pork larb.

I used the pork to make a rich cream sauce

tossed with a few herbs
and some potato gnocchi

that I seared in butter.

I took the cabbage and the Thai basil
to create a really composed herb salad

right on top so you kind of get,
like, a real balance of flavors.

I don't know if I would have put
the wet slaw on top of the tuile,

because now you're losing
the crunchiness with that.

Plating I think in the first round,
you did a better job.

-Okay.
-[David] But it looks delicious.

First of all,
I think the balance of seasoning is good.

I like it.

But my problem is the star of your dish

is the gnocchi,
which wasn't from the leftovers.

-Heard.
-It's very ambitious you made a gnocchi.

I will say this, though.
It's a little greasy for me.

Even with the slaw, it's a little greasy.

Yeah, the sauce broke.

I just still can't believe
you made potato gnocchi out of pork larb.

That is insane.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much, Mike.
One thing I told you

to carry on into round two
was more dancing, and where is it again,

the dancing?

[judges cheering] Hey!

-[Jackie] Give us some body rolls.
-How's that?

What? There you go.

-[Jackie] Okay. Yaniv.
-Yes.

[Yaniv] I used the whole pad thai.

What I did is I cut the noodles
and the chicken in there

to create the mac and cheese,
and then I used the lime and the sprouts

to create a salad,
and created some crunch on top.

Taking some feedback.

I can't believe this was pad thai before.

-Neither can I.
-Nor can I.

-[Jackie] We're digging in.
-[David] Cool.

Okay.

Your balance of seasoning
in there is seriously good.

Thank you.

But your presentation...
It tastes better than it looks.

-It's not a fine-dining dish.
-[Jackie] Mm-hm.

It didn't have to be
a mac and cheese, per se.

It could've just been
a cheese pasta, right?

-Right.
-[David] The way you could've plated

probably would have elevated
that dish a lot more.

But you did add the texture,
which we didn't have in the first round,

and you didn't steer away
from the noodles.

'Cause I couldn't wrap my head

around what you were gonna do
with already-cooked noodles.

-And it tasted great.
-Thank you.

Seriously, Leticia, Mike and Yaniv,
incredible job today.

I mean, what an undertaking.

And even though my mom
always told me never to gossip,

we do have quite a bit
to talk about behind your backs,

so why don't you go ahead and hide
in this giant Chinese food container

-so we can make a decision. Bye-bye.
-[Yaniv laughs]

-[Mike laughs] All right.
-Off you go.

-It's big enough to house all of you.
-[Mike] Bye.

The only thing about Let--

-Hey, can you guys hear us?
-[Yaniv] Nope.

Okay, but you're saying nope,
so that means you can.

Jeez, Yaniv.

David, what are you feeling?

Mike kind of made a lot of mistakes.

In the first round,
his presentation was great,

but the flavor was off.

The second round,
the gnocchi was an oil slick.

There's only two people
that could really take this:

Leticia or Yaniv.

[Rosemary] Leticia, on the first round,

I felt she actually elevated that

-to something extraordinary.
-[Jackie] I do too.

[Rosemary] And on the second one,
I think delivered on flavor,

-but she got her textures wrong.
-[David] Hmm.

[Rosemary] Yaniv delivered on all flavors,

but he lost out on all presentation.

I think Yaniv presents
a very cohesive dish.

[Rosemary] He actually, mac-- So Leticia,

for the first round,
she actually used every ingredient.

-That's something to think about.
-Yikes. Okay.

Okay, cooks, we're ready for you.

-Come back out.
-Heard.

The person we've chosen
for the winner today

and the 10G smackeroonies

did a great job on creativity,

incredible at incorporating leftovers,

and, most importantly,
made delicious food.

The winner is...

Yaniv!

-[cheering]
-[Jackie] Hey!

I made you a cash-erole.

Dude.

And I am on cloud nine.

-Well done.
-Good job, brother.

Rachel, my daughter,
is gonna be so happy and so proud.

I'm bringing cash-erole home, baby.

Come on, Spice Detective!

♪ We ate a lot of food ♪

♪ We had a lot of fun ♪

♪ Now I'll work it off ♪

♪ With a nice long run ♪

No, a real run. I gotta take my shoes off.
I gotta work it off. Congrats, Yaniv.

We're so proud of you.

Hurray!

[closing theme music playing]