01x01 - The Honey Dish

[bunniefuu]

(wine glasses clink)

- [Claire] Welcome to Sparklers,

part cooking competition and travel show,

featuring some of the

world's best sparkling wines.

- [Maryam] Each week, the contestants

have specific ingredients they must use

to pair with a sparkling wine.

- [George] There are two

challenges for each wine:

a perfect bite and a main dish.

- [Matthew] What makes

the show extremely unique

is this is self-judged.

Each of us within the

episode have the opportunity

to become the judge that

oversees what goes on.

- [Meghan] The winner of the perfect bite

will then decide the

fate of their competitors

as they team up to win the challenge.

- You might side with your friends.

You might side with a foe.

I don't know, we'll see.

- [Meghan] The contestants

will face different challenges

and the winners will earn points

as they fight to win it all.

- [Claire] With each challenge,

three points are on the

table for the winners.

- [George] At stake is

an all-expense trip paid

to Limoux France, the

birthplace of sparkling wine,

to visit Faire La Fête

Sparkling Wine House.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat music)

(laughing)

- [Matthew] She's here!

(contestants cheering)

- [Claire] I am so

excited to be working with

this group of people.

They are so talented in

so many different ways.

- [Meghan] We've got food

experts, wine experts,

people who've been in

business for a while.

It's a really great group

of mixed experience folks from all over.

- [Maryam] There are so many

different backgrounds here,

but everybody is very

passionate about food and wine

and everyone is extremely competitive.

- [George] Oh, my goodness. It's stacked.

I feel amazing and blessed to be a part

of such a cohort of

people who are so talented

and passionate about what they're doing.

- [Matthew] So within the cast,

we have some familiarities.

There's definitely some drama,

competitiveness between all of us.

- I'm Claire, and I'm a

sommelier in Los Angeles.

I'm actually up against

my former colleague

and fellow L.A. sommelier, Matt Kaner,

and then there's the Napa crew.

You have Meg Zobeck.

She's a winemaker at

famed Burgess Cellars.

Maryam Ahmed used to work

at the Culinary Institute.

And then there's George Walker.

He's a newcomer to the wine scene,

but he's doing really

big, really amazing things

over at Wade Cellars.

- We all wanna one up each other.

Everyone's here to have fun,

but also to walk away a winner.

- I just wanna beat

Matthew Kaner. (laughing)

- [Producer] Why?

(Meghan laughing)

- He's got red hair! (laughing)

- [Claire] I think these

are the next generation

of what our industry is going to be,

and the people that are

going to be influencing it,

and making a different and

pushing the industry forward.

- Cheers, y'all!

- Cheers!

(bright piano music)

- [Matthew] We're here

on this amazing property.

We're in the Eola-Amity

Hills, Willamette Valley,

where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are king,

which we'll see in these bottles.

- So excited to be here.

- This is gonna be-

- This is so dope, man.

- [Claire] This is gonna be a wild ride.

- This property, this

estate, the wines, all of it.

It's just so beautiful.

- [Matthew] Absolutely.

- Like, I had no idea

that there was such good sparkling wines

that come from this region.

- [Matthew] Here at

Lytle-Barnett we are amongst

some of the pioneers of sparkling wine

in all of Oregon.

They are such a stand out

because most people focus on still wines,

but they have decided

to go a different path,

and focus on sparkling wine.

Every wine they create

is a vintage dated wine.

- [Maryam] These are

extremely food friendly,

very acid driven.

So it's really important that

the competitors decide to make something

that complements the wine.

- [George] This week, our

perfect bite challenge

must include honey made

here at Lytle-Barnett.

- [Claire] Using honey with

Lytle-Barnett sparkling

isn't really a difficult pairing,

but we can only use five other ingredients

for this perfect bite challenge.

- [Meghan] The judge for

this perfect bite challenge

is Emily Schmiedel, who is actually

one of the most well respected

bee keepers in Oregon.

- [Emily] My name is Emily Schmiedel,

and I am the lead beekeeper

for Jacobson co. Honey.

I install and maintain all of the hives

for our program all over

the Willamette valley.

Including here at Anahata vineyard,

and At the Joy.

The one of the most important things

that bees do are pollinate

all of the local flora,

and this contributes to

biologically diverse site

for your vineyard, and that improves soil,

and maintains soil health, which in turn

keeps the vineyard

healthy for years to come.

I think that honey goes

nicely with sparkling wine.

The wine has this acidity,

and then the honey being so sweet,

it could be difficult to

actually bring it all together,

and make it something that's

really wonderful and tasty.

(contestants talking)

- So bee jokes huh?

(George laughs)

- Yes bee jokes.

- Hi!

- Hello

- Hello everybody

- Hello, hello.

- Welcome to Sparklers.

- Yes.

- Thank you.

- I'm Emily and I

actually tend to the bees

here on site at At the Joy,

and so for today's challenge,

you guys will be working

with honey from on-site here.

- Wow.

- Amazing.

- [Emily] Today the honeys that

we're going to be using are carrot seed,

we'll be using buckwheat,

wildflower, and blackberry.

They're very distinctive.

So the flavors in them can

be paired really nicely

with things or it can be really off.

So there's a lot of ingredients

laid out for you guys

to use in creating your perfect bite.

There are lots of cheeses,

but there's just one Oregon truffle.

So if you do so choose to use it,

you'll have to share.

So the winner of today's

challenge will win a stay here,

at At The Joy.

- [George] Yo!

- What?!

- That's gonna be so dope.

- My new house!

- And a case

of Lytle-Barnett.

- Yes!

- Awesome!

- Amazing.

- Now it's a party.

- And

- And?

- [Emily] You will be the

judge of the next challenge.

- [George] Oh-

- Okay.

- So since we're cooking for you,

is there anything that you

are averse to food wise?

Or like allergic to that

maybe we should know about?

- I don't like things

that are overly sweet.

- [George] Hmm-

- Really?

- [Maryam] Good to know.

- It's gonna be an interesting challenge.

- I'm really looking forward

to seeing what you guys make.

Good luck!

- [Claire] Thank you so much Emily.

- Cheers.

- Oof

- (sighs)

- Really want to win this challenge.

- I am so excited to like-

- Gotta bring the heat.

- Oh it's coming. It's coming.

- Mmm I'm nervous.

A little nervous.

- [Claire] Yeah?

- Yeah.

- What are you most

nervous about?

- Yeah.

- Come on.

- I don't really tell people that usually.

- I mean is anyone feeling

strong about going first?

- [George] You know let's do it why not?

- Do it.

- Okay George.

- I'm excited. I don't know. I don't know.

- [Matthew] Get in there.

- We'll see.

- Go George!

(George laughs)

- All right George you're up there.

You're setting the tone.

- [George] Let's do it. Let's go.

I'm ready.

- Good luck.

- [George] Good luck guys.

- [Matthew] Good luck to everybody.

- Good luck to everyone.

- Cheers.

- [Matthew] All right let's do this.

- [Meghan] All right

guys don't screw it up.

(dramatic music plays)

- So I'm not gonna lie,

I'm a little nervous,

because I'm the first

one up in the kitchen,

but I'm ready to rock. Let's do it.

- [Matthew] So I think the

outlier in this whole competition

is going to be George.

The youngest of all of us.

He's a newcomer to the Napa scene,

but the guy knows what he's talking about.

- I am really excited.

I am timed right now.

There's a lot of pressure (laughs).

The way that I ended up in wine

was I was honestly trash in high school.

(laughs) Like I was so trash.

Like my parents saw something in me,

and wanted to be able

to create a life for me,

so they entered me into a tech center,

where I majored in

culinary in high school,

and found a passion for it

where I was cooking food

and got the opportunity to be

able to work at restaurants

at sixteen flipping steaks and

swordfish on the grill line.

So what I'm going to do is I'm

actually going to toast off

some of this bread here.

I think I can really highlight

the honey really really well

with some added texture.

I ended up volunteering at

this wine tasting event,

and poured a Châteauneuf-du-Pape

and at the time I was like

a Châteauneuf-du- what?

Like what did you just call me bruh?

Like hold on.

Like chill.

There's a lot of different

sweetness levels with the honeys

so I want to see which

one is the sweetest,

what the flavor profiles we have going.

That tastes really good.

And you know I just found

this love and this passion,

and I started diving into it.

So I ended up creating my

own business, Graped Out,

where the entire essence of it

was to take the bougie out of wine,

but I had ended up

sh**ting a random message

to info@dwadecellars.com

saying hey, what's up?

My name is George Walker, I'm 26.

Don't know if you all are

accepting any harvest interns

this season but I'd love to work.

And he said you know what?

We're actually not looking for

any harvest interns at all right now.

I'm actually looking

for a right hand person

for the whole operation.

What?! (laughs)

Like oh my god.

- So George is really cementing himself

in a short period of

time on the Napa scene

as someone who's on the scene.

He loves wine.

He's someone who's passion comes through,

so I'm really excited

to see him shine here.

- I just can't wait to see what happens

in his career and on his journey,

but I also can't wait to beat him.

- Yo Maryam is going down (laughs).

As long as I get ahead of

Maryam, I'll be all right.

So what I'm gonna try to do is

I'm going to try to make

a really quick mousse

out of the goat cheese.

Trying to whip it really quickly.

Trying to figure out

which honey I should add,

but I think right now I'm going to go

with this raw carrot because that tasted

really really nicely,

and just a touch of sweetness,

but nothing too crazy.

(mixing noises)

That's nice.

Perfect and I am going

to use the black truffle.

Just to give it little more earthiness.

I'm going to garnish

with just a little bit

of mustard flower here.

Just to balance it out honestly.

So this last step, I wanted

to add just a little bit

of the buckwheat honey,

because I don't think it's that sweet.

Just to have a nice little touch on top

would just be really nice.

I think that looks really good.

(curious music)

- [George] Hey!

- Hi.

- How are you?

- I'm well. What have you made here?

- So I am really excited

because I think this will pair

- Are you a little nervous?

- I am a little nervous honestly.

I'm not gonna lie.

It's fun but it's also

nerveracking at the same time.

So I hope you like it.

- Okay.

- Yeah please try.

What do you think?

(laughs) I love it. I love it.

- It's nice.

- Oh nice.

Thank you so much.

- Yeah, I wish you all the luck.

- [George] Thank you so much.

- Cheers.

- Cheers.

- I think I did well.

I think the dish really came together,

and I think it pairs really

nicely with the wine.

So I'm excited.

- [Matthew] So of everyone on the cast,

I think Maryam Ahmed's

probably the best cook.

She has the most specific food background.

- I know Matthew's coming for me,

and I'm ready for it (laughs).

- [Matthew] So Maryam comes from the CIA,

she put together a bunch

of culinary events,

and living throughout the Napa Valley

really put her at an advantage.

She knows some of the

top chefs in the world.

She's been privy to conversations that

you know money can't even buy that.

- [Maryam] So I own a

creative consulting company

that focuses on food and wine businesses.

My job is really at the

intersection of food people,

wine people, activists,

sustainability experts,

but it started in wine.

Okay, I'm a little nervous admittedly.

Day one, there's a lot

of directions I could go.

I do need to try these cheeses first.

I'm between two cheeses

without even having tried them,

just based on the wine.

So I see that there

might be an opportunity

with this Rogue River.

Emily works with so many different

local farms and producers

that it would be really cool

to be able to use a

local Oregonian cheese.

But I can't use it if it doesn't work,

because I know she's

going to be hyper critical

of whether or not the pairing works.

The cheese is really

salty, a little bit sweet.

It definitely works, I

don't love it but it works.

And then I wanted to

try this triple cream,

and I know I'm not alone in this.

I mean it's triple cream.

It plays really nicely with the wine.

There's something funny-

Not funny but lingering about the finish,

but I think if I were to

correct with acid it would work.

So I actually, my gut is saying

I'm going to go with the triple cream,

but I can make that

call a little bit later.

Emily said she doesn't

like overly sweet things

so I'm thinking about how

to incorporate the honey

and also how to avoid making

a dish that's way too sweet.

I would love to honor as

much of Oregon as possible.

Oh fun kitchen hack by the way,

using tongs to squeeze your lemons.

And basically you're gonna use the acid

from the lemons to quick pickle the apple

that I'm going to use,

with some honey and lemon,

and just hope that those flavors

really play off together,

and then lift the cheese

cause there's this element

of the cheese that I want to bring out.

I want to make sure that

this balance is right,

and I really really

want the honey to show.

And I'm just going straight

into the honey and lemon here,

and like I said, I want to keep this in,

honestly as long as I can,

worst case scenario I use

that as like a dressing.

So if I have my ingredients

counted correctly,

my bonus that I could use are some nuts.

So super quickly I'm

going to toast these off.

I love the elements of

a charcuterie board,

so nuts, cheese, honey, lemon,

I'm kind of like recreating

the charcuterie board

that I would want to eat.

And hopefully Emily will

want to eat as well.

I really don't wanna overwhelm

that flavor of the honey

that I just worked hard

to get into my apple so-

All right, and then we're

just gonna go right ahead

with this really beautiful honeycomb.

I don't want to give too much,

I just wanna honor that this honeycomb,

like came from this property.

There, she's starting to look pretty.

Sparkling wine gives a

little bit of texture so-

The wildflower flavor

from this blackberry honey

is incredible so I don't want

to leave any of that behind.

And then, I have little toasted nuts.

Look at that one ugh that's

the beauty right there.

I love her.

That's the queen bee.

- [Maryam] Hey Emily.

- [Emily] Hi.

- Welcome.

I'm very excited to see you

and to present to you my dish.

- It looks amazing.

- I'll let you choose.

- That's really good I

like all the texture.

- [Maryam] Great I'm

so happy to hear that.

- Talking with my mouth full.

(Maryam laughs)

- How is it with the wine?

- [Emily] It is. It's good.

- Great.

- I think the acidity of the lemon is nice

with the acidity of the wine actually.

- Great. I'm happy about that.

- [Emily] Good Luck.

- Thank you so much.

- [Maryam] I felt pretty good.

I mean, I was just excited to be able

to use the honey the way that I did.

I also feel like she's really nice,

so it could go anyway.

I'm a little bit nervous.

Everybody brought their A game today,

and I'm well aware of that.

- [Meghan] Some of these

people are studying

for their tests, their

MW, their Somm test,

whatever test it happens to be.

I'm not studying that kind of knowledge,

but I'm making wine.

I'm even making sparkling wine.

I'm making wine from different places.

I've worked harvests all over the world,

like certainly I would

hope that I would stack up

as far as wine making knowledge goes.

- [Matthew] Meg is the new winemaker

at the historic winery of Burgess.

This is a high profile,

gonna take over the kind

of Napa scene kind of gig.

- [Meghan] In my first career,

I was negotiating player

contracts for the Denver Broncos,

and fell in love with wine when I went

on a food and wine trip

out to Santa Barbara,

and kind of got bit by the bug.

Came home. Started making

wine in my basement.

Eventually decided I

wanted to quit the NFL

and get into wine.

Traveled around the world,

and then ended up at Burgess Cellars,

which is a historic

winery on Howell Mountain.

- Meghan has an incredible palate.

I think she may or may not

be underestimating herself

at this point in far as her

experience level in the kitchen,

but if you have a great palette,

you have great instincts,

and so I think she's

definitely going to surprise us

with what she creates and how she decides

to pair the wines with

the foods she makes.

- Goodness, well I have to say

I supported small restaurants

really hard during COVID,

so I'm out of practice,

but hopefully drinking while cooking

will help grease the wheels (laughs).

Okay I'm not going to lie I'm nervous.

After she said she's

not really into sweets,

that kind of threw me for a loop,

and then the thing I was planning,

I just realized I had

too many ingredients for.

So, we're gonna do this.

I'm gonna taste through

the honeys really quick.

Carrot flower.

Oh that's delicious. Very sweet.

That Lytle-Barnett does a really good job

of cutting through the sweetness,

which is what I'm going for.

So I have this idea in my head.

I don't know if it's going to work out,

but I'm going to try to

kind of thin out the honey

with some Lytle-Barnett,

and I'm also going to toast some pecans,

to try to play up some

of the savory components.

Then I'm going to mess with some smoke.

A little smokey.

Maybe too smokey.

I was hoping to do a play on pollen.

But I think that's too much.

I don't have enough

time to change my mind,

so I'm going to have to figure it out.

Oh gees.

I'm not going with the truffle.

I'm putting it back.

Don't tell anyone.

I need to remember is that

I have nuts on the stove.

Ooh, and they're burning.

Back to paprika.

Move it or lose it.

I'm going to do a suggestion of paprika.

Again trying to imitate some pollen.

Goat cheese.

Did you know that most of

the hive is made of ladies.

So this is my ode to the

badass beekeeper lady.

Over the top.

Hmm.

I'm choosing now between the Jacobson salt

and the citrus.

It's a huge difference.

I only have a minute left so no pressure.

- [Meghan] Hi.

- Hi.

- Do you need any more

sparkling before we start?

- Oh please.

- Okay perfect.

All right so I have just

started nerding out on bees,

so I'm super stoked to be here with you.

So I was trying to do like an

ode to badass lady beekeepers.

I hope you enjoy.

- It's really nice with the wine.

Thank you. Good luck.

- Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

I'm nervous.

There were a lot of pivots during

that entire making of the meal,

because a lot of ingredients in my mind

did not translate as they

translated on the plate,

so I hope she likes it,

but either way I was

really excited to meet her

so we'll see.

- [Matthew] So from a stance

from my own competitive nature,

obviously for LA bragging

rights I gotta beat Claire.

I know Claire very well.

She worked with me at Augustine,

so we have a similar background,

both being in the LA wine market.

- I've got to be honest,

I think Claire Coppi is

definitely a contender

for highest wine knowledge,

with her day to day work and her passions,

it comes through really obviously.

- Well they didn't know that

I actually did attend the

CIA for several years.

I originally wanted to

go to culinary school.

Just kidding I have an acting degree.

I cook I guess at home.

As an actor I had to work

in restaurants a lot.

To pay the bills, I get

to be a wine director

at a fantastic traditional

Japanese omakase sushi restaurant

in LA called Sushi Note.

Sparkling wine and sushi,

you can't go wrong.

But I loved pairing it with food,

and I loved introducing

a new wine to a person,

and just seeing the light

bulb light up for them.

All righty, I was kind of-

When I was told about the

cheese and the honey components,

I don't know why, but my mind

went to like a Brion Cru.

But a tiny little bite of that.

So I'm gonna do-

I have puff pastry here.

Which has been thawed thankfully,

I did not make my own puff pastry

because I'm not cool at all,

so that's also really really hard.

We don't have time for that.

So I'm going to do the puff pastry.

I still need to decide on

what honey I'm gonna use.

Emily mentioned that she

doesn't like overly sweet,

which I love cause I wasn't going to use

a ton of honey on this,

just a little kind of kiss of sweetness

to balance out more of

my savory components,

so I'm going to use one

of the softer cheeses,

so I kind of need to

taste them just to see.

So I'm going to taste the truffle first.

That's kind of where I'm leaning towards,

cause I think it packs the most flavor,

and I only have so many

ingredients that I can use.

That's delightful.

I think this is the Marin triple cream.

That's nice.

Holy sh*t that's good.

(laughs) oh dear.

That gave me a more

visceral delicious reaction

so I'm gonna go with it,

and just go with my gut,

and now I need to taste the honeys,

cause these are all going

to be wildly different.

So the first one is the raw carrot honey.

Oh that's sexy.

I love the texture.

So I'm going to take the honey,

and just kind of like drizzle

it across the top of this.

The raw wildflower.

Which is really pretty,

it's a little more elegant.

This one looks cool, the raw buckwheat.

Looks like molasses.

Oh my (laughs).

I think it might be too

much with that cheese.

I think it might just be a bunch of

really powerful flavors

fighting each other.

I think I'm going to do

the more delicate one.

I think I'm going to go with

the wildflower for my driz.

Okay.

Just this tiny little bite.

So I'm gonna kind of pinch this up here.

I want to leave a little bit exposed.

I have two ingredients

so far that I'm using,

and then I'm going to

have my egg for my wash,

so that unfortunately does count.

Just going to do a little wash.

Like a little bit on the-

Until they're golden.

So while this is cooking,

I'm going to cut up-

I'm going to put some

really pretty little bits

of green onion on the top.

That kick.

Sorry that I'm not doing

this really fast and cool,

but I'm not a chef.

Puff pastry, egg, green

onion, cheese, flowers, honey.

Honey doesn't count, so that's it.

I'm so nervous.

I don't like waiting.

And you're all just pointing cameras

at me while we're waiting.

How's everybody's day going? (laughs)

This thing is so fancy.

Oh this is not happening how I wanted to.

Oh f*ck.

The puff pastry is spreading out

and no longer containing the cheese.

I hate cooking.

That's okay though, this is part of it.

This is life.

Doesn't always work

out the way you wanted,

but you got to pivot. Gotta improv.

It may not be my original plan,

but I actually am not

horrendously pissed off at this.

I think it's still

really nice looking. Ish.

I think they look rustic (laughs).

Pull this little baby off of here.

Put her on here.

Ah sh*t.

It's fine, that's fine, oh god.

Oh man, I really wanted

to stay in this house.

And the case of wine.

I don't know I still think

those look delicious,

and I'm sticking with it.

f*ck's sake.

(laughs) this sucks.

Okay, and we're just gonna spread flowers.

All right, that's my dish (laughs).

It looks like a mess but

it's going to taste great.

Hey Emily.

- Hi

- How are you?

- Good.

- This one if you want, is all you.

- [Emily] (laughs) Thank you

- You're so welcome.

Hope you like it.

Cheers.

I hope it's not too hot either.

No okay good.

- Mhmm.

It's really good.

I think it's the most savory

thing I've had so far.

- I don't know if that's good or not.

- It's nice with the wine.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, it's good

with the acidity of the wine.

- I like things that look

really organized and pretty,

and I think it fell apart

quite literally a little bit.

But, I'm hoping the theory of the flavors

are there in this so yeah.

- [Matthew] I've always been a red head,

I've always stood out,

and I really leaned into that energy.

I've worked in restaurants

for a very long time.

I've been cooking since I was a kid.

My family on my mom's

side had a restaurant,

so growing up I've been in the kitchen.

- [George] He's so LA.

But at the same time you know,

his personality is very

warm and so welcoming,

and he's very passionate

about what he does.

- [Maryam] Matthew has

this incredible recall.

It's insane.

He'll start telling a story

about a wine he had fifteen years ago

and it is utterly impressive

but also extremely authentic,

and I think there's something

really respectable about that.

- [George] Matt has

really extensive knowledge

about producers.

- Some might say I'm a confident person,

I don't know, c*ck that's

up to you, you decide.

All right, let's do this.

First time to do the

perfect bite challenge.

I'm going to start simple.

So what I'm thinking is,

of all of these lovely honeys,

I did a little bit of research,

and I learned you know,

given our judge doesn't

love overly sweet things,

the buckwheat style honey is

the least sweet of all of them,

so I'm going to take advantage of that,

and let's hope- I'm going to

roll the dice and get there,

but I'm going to do a simple toast point.

I'm going to do some

delicious truffle cheese.

I'm going to do just

butter, simple on the bread,

and then I'm going to garnish

it with the beautiful honey.

Perfect bite and a little bit of flower,

and just make it simple.

Let's go.

All right let's get this pan heated.

Get this bread on here.

Get some delicious butter going.

Butter is better.

Okay, I'm going to let that

simmer for a little bit.

Get a perfect crust.

Meanwhile, I'm going to

cut some cheese over here.

Truffle is a very aromatic flavor.

It takes over your entire palate.

You have to be a little

careful when using it.

Unless you want pure decadence.

I can hear that butter going to town.

It's a good sign.

I want that crispy.

All right, let's taste this honey,

cause this is my first time trying

buckwheat honey in my life let's go.

So buckwheat.

The color is beautiful.

Wow.

Really the dish comes together

once the bread is ready.

Let's pick our flower.

I think I want this guy.

Do I?

No, I want some more color.

Love the sound of cutting crispy bread.

Perfect.

Let's get this going.

All right, so this is the

Mount Tam black truffle cheese.

Honey time.

Kind of double up on the

flavor of the cheese.

Time for some truffle.

Why wouldn't it be?

Lastly, some beautiful flowers.

The flowers themselves are

so fragrant, I love it.

And a little bitter, which might help

with the sweetness, the balance.

Simple. Done. Ready to rock.

Judgment time.

- [Matthew] Moment of truth?

Ugh, this is your fifth time

tasting our little creations,

so I'm only imagining

you've learn as we've gone.

So-

- It's very pretty.

- [Matthew] Thank you. Please enjoy.

- I love truffle.

- Truffle wins.

- Well thank you.

- Pleasure, thank you for your time.

- Why don't you round everybody up,

and we'll talk about the results.

- Perfect. See you over there.

- Okay.

- Thank you.

I went simple.

First challenge I think

that's a good idea.

I feel like it tasted great.

Feel like my presentation was nice,

and I'm actually pretty

confident so we'll see.

- [Claire] Hey how do you feel about the-

- Oh my gosh I'm so excited

to see all the dishes.

Oh my goodness.

- [Matthew] Hello.

- Oh beautiful.

- [Claire] There's some

pretty looking stuff.

- [George] Wow.

Wow that was a lot harder than I thought.

- [Maryam] She like really

switched it up with us.

When she said I don't

like overly sweet things,

I was like I'm gonna have

to change my whole plan now.

- [Claire] This just teaches you,

even if you have a plan it doesn't matter,

because something's gonna go wrong.

And you're just gonna

have to be like okay,

I'm going to work with that then.

- Yeah

- I still had some stuff

go awry.

(contestants laugh)

- [Claire] Oh god, okay.

- Uh oh, uh oh.

- [Claire] Hi Emily.

- [Matthew] Judgment time.

- [Claire] Oh you've got some Rose there.

- Yes I do, hello.

- [Claire] And notes.

- I have notes.

- [Claire] Oh god. Okay.

- So thank you guys.

They were all lovely.

I'll go through what I liked,

and what I didn't like so much,

and so I'll start with

George cause you were first.

I like how you mixed the goat cheese,

and how it was soft.

A lot of people chose to

just sort of use the cheese

as a harder texture and that

was kind of interesting.

The toast had texture that

I didn't enjoy so much.

I feel like it wasn't

quite toasted enough.

- Yeah.

- [Emily] Meg.

The orange was really nice. Loved that.

I thought that went really

really nice with the wine.

I really liked the toasted

nuts as well for some texture.

Claire.

- Yes.

- [Emily] I liked- this was

like this really interesting

duality with the sweet and the salty.

I thought that was interesting,

and I like that you used puff pastry,

no one else had chose to

use that, so that was cool.

The presentation I-

- She imported it.

- It fell apart a little bit.

- It did.

But the the thought was

there so yes I liked that.

And then we have Maryam.

I really enjoyed how you

kept honoring the honey,

and you were actually the

only person to use comb.

- [Maryam] What really?

- [Emily] So clearly in the dish,

and I really enjoyed that part of it.

The apples were interesting,

with sort of this quick

pickle idea. Loved that.

- Smart.

- The acid in that

was really really lovely,

and then Matthew.

Best toast.

- Ooh.

- I'll take it.

I like toast.

- Toast matters.

- I like toast.

- And also,

use of butter.

I love truffle as well,

so that was really amazing.

I think your presentation

was probably my favorite.

- Cool.

- So,

for second place for this challenge,

this person, you'll get

to choose your teammate

for the next challenge.

And the second place winner-

It's Matthew.

(contestants cheer)

- Thank you. Thank you.

- Congratulations.

- And then our first place winner

gets to be the judge for the

remainder of the challenge.

And my first place winner is-

Maryam.

(contestants cheer)

- [George] Congrats!

- Thank you.

- [Emily] I felt like you were

really like honoring the sense of place.

I farm here.

I'm out here literally tending the bees,

so you kind of bringing the

dish back to really honoring

the bees and the honey was

a sweet gesture of course,

but it all played really well,

and I felt like it was

springy and beautiful.

The acid with the quick

pickle was really nice

with the wine too.

Very smart.

- Thank you.

I walked up to that cutting

board without a plan.

I was really, really, really nervous.

Everyone seemed to have a strong

plan going into this round,

and it being the first episode,

I thought I'm just gonna

maybe have to wing this one,

and see how it goes,

but I couldn't be more

grateful for that actually,

because then I could just

kind of lean on instinct,

and those honeys are so amazing,

and it made the call so much easier.

Just getting up there

and tasting the honey,

I knew what to do from there.

- Thank you all of you.

- [Claire] Cheers. Thank you Emily.

- [Emily] Cheers.

- Thank you so much.

(contestants sigh)

- Wow.

All right, so we're all coming back

for vacation sounds like.

- [Claire] Sounds good to me.

Girl if you're offering, I'm staying.

- And Matthew, you get

to choose your teammate.

- [George] Uh oh.

- I'm going to go with George.

We're going boy's club.

We're going boys club episode one.

- Let's do it. Let's do it.

- Let's get into it.

- [Maryam] This is the

first episode of Sparklers,

so to be the winner is really important.

First of all, I get to come back here,

and use this place as

my house for three days,

and until then, I'm going to be sipping

on some Lytle-Barnett thanks

to the case that I won earlier.

The other reason why

it's important is because

it means I get bragging rights,

at least until the next episode,

and I'm going to hold onto that,

and take advantage of it,

cause I know everyone else

here would do the same thing.

(upbeat music)

- [Maryam] Your main

job is to not k*ll me.

- Losing gracefully is something

very important in life.

- [Meghan] Sounds like something someone

who loses a lot would say.

- What are you guys making?

- Well we're gonna make a whole lot of

none of your business.

- [Maryam] I thought it

was a really bold move

that Kaner actually picked

George to be his teammate.

- [Claire] Don't break the yoke.

- [Meghan] Break the yoke.

- This is like operation.

- [Matthew] Just never

enough. Got to keep going.

- It was within the width of an eyelash.

Guys it was so hard to decide.

(wine glasses clink)