01x04 - Pot Roast to French Toast

[bunniefuu]

[upbeat music playing]

This is that leftovers show.

You know, the one
that made you buy a bigger fridge

'cause of all your leftovers.

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

And we're gonna show you how.

I'm your hostess
with the mostest, 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 cash money, baby!

Let's makeover some leftovers!

My name's Nate.
I'm a resident physician at Yale.

The thing I like most
about cooking with leftovers

is how creative it is.

I spend a lot of my day
using my brain doing logical stuff,

and it gives me a chance
to use the other side of my brain

and figure out how to incorporate
different ingredients, different flavors

to make something new that
I then get to eat is, I mean, the best.

My name is Andrew.
Most people know me as "Big g*y Andrew."

I love leftovers. If I open my fridge
and there's any kind of booze,

I'm probably gonna go
straight for the booze.

And drink it.

And then make something ridiculous.

My name is Johnna.
I get bored very easily

when it comes to leftovers.

I have to add something
to make it different.

So this competition
definitely appeals to me

because I am constantly doing this
in my own house.

-[Jackie] Hi, guys!
-[Nate] Hey.

-[Rosemary] Hi.
-Hello.

Okay. Please meet
our two favorite resident judges.

Culinary influencer and restaurateur,
David "Five-Second-Rule" So!

It's actually five minutes.

[group chuckles]

And to my left, my only British friend,

world-renowned chef
and cookbook author,

Rosemary
"Freshen-Your-Drink-Governor" Shrager!

I can't wait to see what you cook up.

The three of you
will compete over two rounds

to determine who is the overall champ.

Round one puts
your everyday leftover skills to the test.

We wanna see how quickly and resourcefully

you can take the leftovers
from the fridges behind you

and turn them
into a delicious original creation.

Round two won't be as easy,
but we'll get to that later.

We'll taste your dishes,
and based on round one and round two,

we'll decide who wins $10,000 cash!

-[laughs]
-Oh, yeah.

Let's get this thing started!

-First up, the Pressure Cooker.
-[clock ticking]

Last night was date night.

You spent hours cooking up
a five-star dinner for your honey,

and it was delish.

You have 30 minutes
to take these fancy date-night leftovers

and make us a home-run breakfast.

Ugh!

That's all you want. Is that all?

The leftovers in your fridge, guys…

are filet mignon,

sautéed asparagus with hollandaise sauce,

mashed sweet potatoes,

and chocolate-covered strawberries.

Of course, you'll have access
to the limited dry pantry behind you

and some staple extras in your fridge.

Okay, cooks. Are you ready?

[contestants] Yes! We're ready!

-[Jackie] Go!
-[David] Go!

-[Jackie] Good luck!
-[David] Breakfast for me.

Should probably close my fridge.

[David] There's some bread or not?
Baguette?

[Johnna] Hmm.

Oh, my God,
chocolate-covered strawberries.

I'd love to see
the look on my husband's face

if I showed up in the bedroom

with chocolate-covered strawberries.
[laughs]

They are so 1984.

Breakfast is interesting

because you can go
so many different ways about it.

You can go a little more brunchy,
you can be a little more fancy,

you can go country-style, French,
even Asian-style breakfast.

He's so right because you can go
for absolutely anything.

Hopefully they cooked the steak right.

I missed the pan again! This is twice now.

[Jackie] Andrew!

Yeah, what's up?

What leftovers are you using,
and what are you turning 'em into?

So, I am starting with,
like, a champagne strawberry compote

-to go on top of some French toast.
-Wowee.

[Andrew] I wanna incorporate
all leftovers.

So today I'm gonna make
a sweet potato fritter and French toast.

I'm gonna take
the leftover mashed sweet potatoes

and make a fritter.

I will cut up the steak,
cut up the asparagus,

and sauté that a little bit.

Put that on top and then place
a beautiful poached egg on top.

With the strawberries, make a compote
and put it on top of the French toast.

[Andrew] I love making a mess
in a kitchen that isn't mine.

So for the French toast,
I found some baguette in the pantry.

It's not
a traditional-looking French toast.

But it will be fabulous
and it'll be delicious

and a little awkward.

I need this egg yolk.
It's going in for these croquettes here.

[Andrew] Croquettes?

-[Nate] You heard me.
-[Andrew] She fancy. She got it.

-Fancy.
-Hey!

-Hello, Nate.
-[Nate] Hello!

What leftovers are you using,
and what are you turning 'em into?

I'm gonna do a coddled egg.

You're coddling your eggs.
That means it's in a container isn't it?

-[Nate] In a little ramekin.
-Little ramekin.

Exactly. It's a foolproof way
to make eggs.

Okay.

I'm gonna be making a coddled egg
with sweet potato croquettes.

I'm using the leftover asparagus
with hollandaise.

Those are both gonna go
into the coddled eggs.

I'm gonna take the sweet potatoes

and turn 'em into
these sweet potato croquettes.

They're gonna be sweet and crunchy,

and I'm gonna make
a simple Bibb lettuce salad

with some of the fridge extras.

And it will be like a really nice contrast
to these other very rich ingredients.

I am definitely
not touching that filet mignon

and those chocolate-covered strawberries.
That's a snack for later.

These croquettes are gonna go briefly
in the freezer, which will allow me

to let them set up a little bit.

And then deep-fried.

[Andrew] Johnna,
what you got going over there?

Some biscuits.

You're not starting
with a Pillsbury can of biscuits, are you?

Hah! You know, I know the secret recipe.

I'm gonna be making
Johnna's biscuits and hash.

The sweet potatoes,
I'm gonna mash those up

and I'm gonna add those to the biscuits.

For the hash,

I'm gonna chop up
my steak and the asparagus,

and I'm gonna add potatoes.

For the strawberries,

I'm going to make
that basically like dipping sauce.

I'm using everything.

So I grew up with one of my aunts
making biscuits stuffed with cheese.

So that's how I got the idea.

I was like, "Well,
what about sweet potatoes?

They taste so delicious."

I have never heard of a stuffed biscuit.

A stuffed biscuit?

Yes.

[Johnna] The number one thing
that's on my mind

is to make these biscuits

that will win the judges over.
They have to be perfect.

They'll be tasty.

Can we call those "big g*y biscuits"
in honor of me?

-[laughs]
-Andrew? What is a g*y biscuit?

"What is a g*y biscuit?" she said.

I mean, a g*y biscuit is just
full of sunshine and fabulousness,

a touch of glitter.

That is you in one.

You're a g*y biscuit.

I am a g*y biscuit.

[David laughs]

-[Jackie] Twenty minutes, cooks.
-[Andrew] Twenty minutes?

That's not real life.

[Nate]
So we have a little water bath here,

and the eggs are coddling

in some cream with a bunch of good flavor.

In the coddled egg, you cover them
and you cook 'em for about six minutes.

That looks good. Oh!

-Behind, behind, behind.
-[David] Hey!

[Nate] I'm nervous about timing.

I don't wanna overcook it,
and I don't wanna serve it cold.

[Nate] You hear that?

Yeah, that's the sound of coddling.

[Nate] And you cannot eat a coddled egg

without little skewers of bread
that's been crisped up in the oven.

This is some fresh baguette.

I found the baguette around the pantry.

It's the perfect spoon
for the coddled egg.

[Nate] That's good.

[Andrew] My French toast is in the batter.

Next, I wanna work
on making my sweet potato fritter.

I'm gonna actually season
the sweet potato like a breakfast sausage

using fennel seed,
and I'm gonna use some Italian seasoning.

And hopefully this fritter turns out.

I've never deep-fried anything,
but I figured if I've got the deep fryer,

might as well use it.

I just wanted
to heat up my steak a little bit.

And I also wanna warm the leftover steak.

It looks like it's decently cooked.

I just wanted to take it
to a decent temperature before plating.

[David] Seems like a mistake to warm up
that meat with no seasoning or anything.

Hey, David?
Got any tips on reheating meat?

Yes, I do.

If you want to reheat
your leftover steak and not overcook it,

reheat your other leftovers in a pan

then use the residual heat
to reheat your steak.

Bam!

-Bingo!
-[David gasps]

My biscuits are in the oven.

So I got some potatoes
from the pantry for the hash.

Hey, Johnna?

What are you squishing over there?

[sighs] So, we're working on the hash,
working on the potatoes for the hash.

-A hash?
-Okay.

And then I chop up my steak,

chop up the asparagus,
add that into a pan.

Isn't there a worry with hash?

'Cause it's maybe a little less creative
to just throw everything in a skillet

and mix it around.

That's immediately what I thought about.

[David] At home, that's great.

But this is a top dish for 10K.
Anybody can do that.

[Nate] Okay. Let's go deep-fry, baby.

Things are kind of crazy.

I'm running around
between the fryer and my station.

[hums] Okay, I'll come back.
Making sure the baguette's not burning.

These are getting good. Okay.

Making sure that
the eggs aren't overcooking.

Okay. Okay, we're close.
My croquettes. Whoo!

And making sure
that my croquettes aren't burning,

and this is really a balancing act.

I'm back. I didn't forget about you.

We have only ten minutes left.

All right, so you guys
wanna know a secret? I've never…

poached eggs before and I'm about to.

-You've never poached an egg?
-Nope.

If you've never done something before,

in what universe would you choose
to do it when $10,000 is at stake?

I hate poached eggs.
But I don't wanna serve somebody

like Rosemary scrambled eggs.

So I'm gonna be brave.

And if I have to make a poached egg,
I'll make a poached egg.

[Andrew] So I read that you take an egg…

put it in Saran wrap,

tie it up, and then drop it in the water.

I really hope this works.

I know what he's trying to do.
That's like some new-age,

just-in-case-you-don't-know-how
to-poach-an-egg fail-safe thing.

[Rosemary] Water
and a bit of vinegar.

-That's right.
-Brings it together.

There, it looks
like Johnna's got it right.

[Johnna] So, my poached egg is cooking.

This is the perfect time
to make the dipping sauce.

Johnna, what are you doing
with those strawberries?

I'm about to puree them
and make a nice little dipping sauce

for the biscuits.

Oh.

[Johnna] I'm transforming
the chococlate-covered strawberries

by putting them in the food processor

to get kind of like that thick syrup
that you would usually pair,

or I would pair, with a biscuit.

The consistency is not where I want it.

[Johnna grunts]

I'm hoping the judges will see past

the fact that these chunks are here

and appreciate
the chocolate for what it is.

[Nate] They're beautiful!

All right, here's the deal,
I've never deep-fried before.

Just pick up the pan.

-Pick up pan?
-And lay it on the bottom. Uh-huh.

[Nate] Yep. Nice.

[Andrew] Those look amazing.

Eggs are ready.

[Johnna] I'm happy with the way
the hash is coming out.

And the biscuits are the star. But…

Wait, what the…

I am very concerned
about this poached egg.

Turn up, get to a boil.

The egg literally drops to the bottom
and does not rise back up.

Whoa.

I have to dig it out.

And I drop this egg in the ice bath.

[David] Typically, you'd put a poached egg
in ice water to stop it from cooking,

but that egg isn't even cooked.

A good poached egg takes a while.

One minute left, cooks. One minute left!

Time is coming down to the wire.

-[Johnna] Mm-mm.
-[David] Oh, no. Oh, no.

She just spooned raw egg on top of it.

I know.

I'm basically hoping and praying
that the hash will cook the egg yolk

just a little bit.

[Andrew] Are these eggs done?
I might have pulled off a miracle here.

Nate, what are you doing?
You're beating the crap out of our food.

Look at that. Nice and dry.

I'm about to drink all this champagne.

Warm honey will change your life, guys.
Look at that.

Come on potatoes, work with me.

[Andrew] That does not looked cooked.

Oh, my giddy aunt.

I don't think his egg will be quite ready.

-Five, four, three, two, one!
-[Andrew] Oh, my egg broke.

[alarm beeping]

So close.

-Hi, Johnna.
-Hi!

[Jackie] You had date-night leftovers,

and we asked you
to make a home-run breakfast.

Tell us what you've made for us
and also what leftovers you used.

[Johnna] This is called
Johnna's biscuits and hash.

-[Jackie] Let's dig in.
-[David] Okay.

[Johnna] The steak and the asparagus,
I used it in a hash

and I added a little bit
of fingerling potatoes,

and then I poached the egg on top.

For the biscuits, I incorporated
the sweet potatoes inside the biscuits.

For the strawberries and chocolate,
I made a dipping sauce.

Kudos to you
for using all of your leftovers.

Your egg isn't cooked enough.

It's a little runny.

[David] When you used the poached egg,

that water ran off into the hash.

It just kinda got ruined at that point.

-Yeah, so--
-Absolutely agree with him.

But look at the color on this. It's great.

I bit into it. It had that nice
little exterior crunch. It was sweet.

I quite like it.
It's just a little doughy.

But it's good flavor.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, this sauce.
I love chocolate, I love strawberries.

I think I've probably said
in the past, "Oh, my God,

I would drink chocolate strawberries."

-No, I wouldn't.
-[all laugh]

-[Jackie] I didn't love it.
-[David] For the next round,

have follow-through
with what you're making

and putting on this plate.

Think about the textures as well.

Think about it carefully.

Okay, Johnna, we will see you in a minute.

-[Rosemary] Thanks.
-Bye.

[Jackie] Hi, Andrew.

So, I'm calling this Big g*y Brunch.

Thank you.

[Andrew]
So what I made is a sweet potato fritter

with steak and asparagus,
poached egg on top

and then French toast
with a champagne strawberry compote.

I used all the leftovers.

The sweet potato fritter
has got the steak and asparagus,

little bit of feta, fennel
and all the Italian seasoning in it.

The French toast,
it was eggs, milk, cream,

and the chocolate strawberries.

My man, what happened to your egg, dude?

This is literally my first time
ever poaching an egg.

-So I tried it.
-[David] Why did you do it?

I'm a risk-taker.

I thought it would be
more beautiful to see it split open and--

It's split open, homie. It split open.
[laughs]

The egg was a slight disaster.

And I'm going to tell you something.

It was brave of you to try.
But that specific technique,

it always takes longer than you think.

-Okay.
-I'm gonna say to you, "Less is more."

[David] The biggest fallacy
in your dish is seasoning.

I'm, like, begging
for salt in your food right now.

And I think I'm missing
that decadence that I want

from a French toast, right?

You know, looks a little bit like
bloody guts on a piece of bread.

-You know what I'm saying?
-[Rosemary] Right. Okay.

What I did like is your little fritter.

I love that sage coming through.

That Italian flavors, that hit my palate.

Keep things within your wheelhouse
in the second round.

I think
that's gonna work better for you.

Awesome.

Okay, Andrew, we're moving on. Thank you.

-Hello.
-Hi, Nate.

-Hi.
-Hi.

-[Jackie] Looks beautiful.
-Thank you.

So this is a coddled egg
with sweet potato croquettes.

Simple Bibb lettuce salad.
Also crusty baguette spears.

-[Jackie] We can just go in. Great.
-[Nate] Yeah, it's finger food.

[Jackie murmurs]

[David] Take it to the coddled egg.

[Nate] So the coddled egg is heavy cream,

an egg, and there's
some chopped up asparagus,

little bit of hollandaise,
topped with a little bit of tarragon,

and then I used
the sweet potatoes in the croquettes.

Little bit of brown sugar,

topped with warm honey
and seasoned simply with salt and pepper.

[Jackie] Okay, so you didn't use
the steak or the strawberries.

Just the asparagus and sweet potatoes.

What's that face, Rosemary?

[Rosemary]
The sweet potato was really crunchy

on the outside, which I loved.

I think the inside,
it's lacking seasoning.

-Okay.
-You know what the interesting thing is?

The thing that I liked
the most on the plate was this.

And this isn't even made of leftovers.

Especially if the coddled egg
was ex*cuted well,

this little crostini
would've been perfect.

I've done this many times.

You're meant to have
your egg hard on the outside

and then the cream
slightly setting on the outside

so it all comes in together.

Unfortunately, it was overcooked.

[David] You just had to execute
on one thing really well.

You didn't have to do
all this extra stuff.

Imagine what could've happened

if you didn't have
to make this side salad.

You would've had extra time to focus,
and you would've knocked it out the park.

Got it.

Keep your clean execution
but get those flavors right.

You just missed the mark slightly,
which is so irritating, and it hurts!

I find that really--

-Because you know you can do it!
-Right.

Thanks, Nate!

-[Nate] Thank you.
-[Rosemary] Thank you.

The judges had positive things
to say about my dish

but there were a lot of negatives.

But I feel like they went a little easier
on me compared to my fellow contestants.

So at this point,
I'm feeling like I have a bit of a leg up.

All right, cooks!

We've given each of you feedback
for the next round.

Which leads me to the Takeout Takedown!

In the last round,
you had bottomless mimosas with brunch.

And now, you need
some carbs to soak 'em all up.

Time for pasta!

You're gonna have to deconstruct
takeout leftovers from my personal fridge!

And you'll have to turn them
into a completely new, fancy dinner.

-Oh.
-[Jackie] Let's see what you get.

Come on, fridgie! Come here, fridge.

-[smooches]
-[laughs]

Hi, sweetie, baby. There she is.

I love you, fridge.

-[gasps]
-[laughs]

-What is it?
-Puddin'.

[Jackie] But ignore the pudding,
that's all for me.

You're gonna be cooking
with takeout leftovers

from a little Italian bistro
right by my house.

Veal Marsala,

chicken parmesan,

or osso buco.

You'll each randomly choose
one of my to-go boxes and get cooking.

I'll get it. Please don't get up.

[Andrew] I'm worried about chicken parm.

Chicken dries out so easily,

and to take something
that was a fried, crispy piece of meat

and then to repurpose it
is gonna be tough.

[Rosemary laughs]

The dishes that you have
are very sort of mono in color.

You need to brighten them up.
Bring them up by some garnishes.

Make it beautiful.

Typically, if we're talking
about leftovers and turning it fancy,

most people will probably take it
and go Italian.

In this case,
you're starting with Italian,

so it's a little more difficult for you,

but that just means
you guys have to get creative

and make sure in this round,
I like it a lot.

Cooks, you have one hour.

Your time…

starts now!

[judges] Go! Go! Go!

[Rosemary] Good luck!

[David] Italiano.

[Nate] Okay, perfect. Chicken parm, good.

I'm so excited to see that I ended up

with exactly what I wanted,
chicken parmesan.

Gives me a good starting point
to win the 10G's.

[Andrew] Veal marsala. Ugh.

It's a pretty small portion,

so I'm instantly worried about
how am I gonna make enough food

for the judges with a small portion.

[sniffs]

Osso buco. What am I gonna do with this?

[Johnna gasps]

-Johnna, what leftovers you working with?
-[Johnna] With osso buco.

Kinda little anxiety here.

Have you ever had it before?

-No. So… [chuckles]
-[David] Oh!

Do you know
the most important part of the osso buco

is the marrow inside the bone.

If she uses that, I will be impressed.

[Johnna] It's not bad.

[Jackie] David, is there
a front-runner for you? Where we at?

I think, flavor-wise,
they're all on the even scoreboard.

However,
Nate did present us with something

that visually looked very appetizing.

But he only used two leftovers,
so maybe Andrew gets the advantage

for the creativity of that fritter.

-[Jackie] Is there--
-No.

-Don't even have to finish the question.
-There it is.

Because they all made major mistakes.

So, there's no front-runner.
There's nothing.

I don't want to talk about the past.
I want to go to the future.

Fabulous.

-[laughs]
-[Jackie] I think…

Nate, what leftovers you working with?

[Nate] I have leftover chicken parm.

-Whoo! Spicy.
-What spice did you just inhale?

-Uh, harissa.
-Look at you, going Middle Eastern.

[gasps] Oh, it's spicy.

I'm starting with chicken parmesan,

and I'm gonna be transforming that
into a crispy pasta tahdig.

First, I'm gonna take this chicken
and cut it so that each strip

is not too terribly long.

Combine it with chopped figs,
garlic, and sliced onions.

This is all going in
with the leftover pasta for the tahdig.

Plate it on a bed of green beans
from the fridge with a faux labna,

a combination
of cream cheese and sour cream.

A tahdig is a Persian dish.
Means, like, "bottom of the pot."

So, it's gonna be
a little Middle Eastern, little Italian.

-Za'atar.
-[Jackie] Za'atar, sure.

We told him that it was under-seasoned,
and now he's going for big, bold spices.

[Nate] You get
all these ingredients together,

and you want the bottom
to get really crispy-crunchy in that oil.

[Nate] Yeah, there we go.

You flip it halfway through and do
the same thing on the other side.

Baby tahdig.

[Andrew] Carrots, green beans, scallions.

-Andrew, what leftovers you working with?
-So, I'm working with veal marsala.

And instantly,
I'm taking it to an Asian place.

-What type of Asian are we talking about?
-It's kind of all over the place.

I have the veal marsala.

So I'm gonna do
a Vietnamese caramelized beef.

I'm gonna caramelize the veal,
and then, with the pasta,

I'm gonna rinse off the red sauce,
mush it up, and make it into a dough

with some flour and try and fry it,
see if I can make a wonton

that can kind of go
as, like, an accoutrement on my plate.

All right.

And then, I wanna do
whatever I can to add color to the plate.

So I will do like an Asian green bean
with some green beans out of the fridge,

a quick pickled carrot,
and then a scallion relish.

I'm washing my noodle, yo!

Strain this out as much as possible.

Johnna, do you know
what you're making right now?

I don't think she does.

-Ha! [chuckles]
-[David laughs]

I am making a little curry
over here with my osso buco.

-Ooh!
-Oh, lovely idea.

[Johnna] I started with osso buco,
and I've decided to make curry.

I'm gonna chop up my veal
and add it to the skillet

with the tomato sauce
and carrots from my osso buco.

That's going to be
basically this curry stew

with a little bit
of basmati rice around it.

And I am not using the pasta.

She's going for bold flavors too.

You can't go any more bold
than Indian food, so.

-Gonna be difficult to present curry.
-[Jackie and David] Yeah.

I immediately take out
the tomatoes in the sauce

and the carrots from my osso buco.

This is where my flavor
is going to come from.

I need garbanzo beans,
cumin, and coconut milk.

Yeah. It should be good.

The judges want the plating
to be elevated this time.

But flavor is, like, the number one thing
that's important for me.

Strain that out.
Get as much of this juice as possible

'cause I need it.

Because you can say
it wasn't the prettiest thing,

but it was the tastiest thing,
and that's what I wanna lead with.

Cumin is my friend. We love it.

Little bit over the back for good luck.

Only 30 minutes left.
You are halfway done with round two.

[upbeat music playing]

They are so concentrating on everything.

They're silent.

It's because you ripped them
a new one in the first round.

That's why. They're scared of you.

Nobody's scared of me. I'm a pussycat.

Bleeding.

He cut himself.

-Oh.
-[Andrew] This is embarrassing.

Can I get a doctor? [laughs]

Come on. You planned this.

[Nate] Oh!

I've cut myself. I've cut myself.

It's the hazard of the kitchen.

-This is the best episode ever.
-Johnna, put your hand in this blender.

Medic. I have a little nick.

Johnna did cut herself.

-Just a little…
-Oh, my God! We all cut ourselves.

They didn't want me to look so bad.
I feel so much better now.

You're back in it.

Blood, sweat, tears.
All going into this meal.

[judges laugh]

[David] Nate, what do you have
going on in that pan, my man?

-[Nate] I got a tahdig going on over here.
-[judges] Oh!

Is Middle Eastern food
within your wheelhouse?

[Nate] Yeah.
I did medical school in Detroit,

and there's
a huge Middle Eastern population.

I had good Middle Eastern food.

-That's something I like to do at home.
-Awesome.

Pasta is very,
very difficult to transform.

But I think this tahdig is interesting.

So at this point,
I'm confident in what I'm making

but I'm not sure it's gonna be enough.

I may be proved wrong, and I hope I am.

Only just seeing it,

that's still Italian to me.
That's Italian.

It better taste completely different
because right now, it looks the same.

[Andrew hums]

Just looking for some fish sauce.

♪ Wa-wa-wa, twerk, twerk, twerk ♪

Did you think I was gonna forget this?

Vietnamese caramelized beef.

All right, here we go.

It's one of the simplest things to make,
but it tastes delicious.

All right. Here we go.

I definitely want to utilize
some green beans that were in the fridge

to bring some freshness to the plate.

Mirin, soy, brown sugar.

You know, this is a brown piece of meat.

So, I definitely want to bring
something visually appealing.

Fish sauce heating.

Y'all, it's about
to smell real bad in here.

[Johnna] Okay.

My veal. That's gonna be the last thing
that I'm going to add to this dish

because I don't want that to overcook.

There's a little bit of bone marrow
in here, so I wanna take that out.

That's good stuff.

[Rosemary] That's the richness
of this whole osso buco.

I'm seriously impressed.

[Johnna] Yes, wonderful.

Fifteen minutes, cooks. Fifteen minutes.

[Nate] Okay, I gotta flip it.

When it comes to this tahdig,

you flip it halfway through and then do
the same thing on the other side.

Oh! That looks so good.

If you don't wait long enough,

the tahdig will not stay together
and it will not be crispy enough.

Cool, cool. This needs a little salt.

Now that my pasta tahdig is flipped,
I need to finish the green beans.

There's a lot of oregano
in this Italian red sauce

and I hope the green beans
help overcome this oregano flavor.

I'm making a very simple dressing
of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest,

salt and pepper.

Not there yet. This needs some more lemon.

Toss my beans and I'm good to go.

Oh, that's good, yeah.

[Andrew] All right, I guess I'm working.
Working pasta.

In the first challenge,
I used all my leftovers.

I feel like that kind of gave
me a little bit of an advantage.

So, if I'm gonna impress the judges,
I need to use everything.

With the pasta,
I grab the ricer and start pushing

the pasta through the ricer.

Ah! Yeah, that's working!

I only need a little bit.

Until I feel like I have enough
to make some dough.

You guys seeing what I'm doing over here?
Wonton out of pasta.

-Is that what you're doing?
-Exactly what I'm doing.

What?

I grab a rolling pin
and start rolling it out,

and I'm really anxious
to get it into the fryer.

The judges are probably
thinking that I'm crazy.

Man, if he's gonna make a wonton,

I'ma scrutinize the crap out of that.

[Andrew]
Let's see if I can make this work.

If that wonton skin is too thick,
I'ma throw it away.

[food sizzling]

Let's pray that this works.
I want them crispy and fresh.

You have five minutes remaining.

Way to up the ante. Okay. I got you.

It's like, damn, Andrew.

So, I have to start thinking of ways
to step my game up at this point.

And I thought of, like, samosas.

The problem is…

I don't know how to make samosas.

But I do know to grab
a quick wonton wrapper

out of the refrigerator.

So I'm making a little side thing,
a little wonton.

I'm going to incorporate
the curry into a wonton.

Now, I will be making curry
two ways for my osso buco.

Yeah, they look good.

They're looking good.

Sixty seconds, my best friends.

[Andrew] Finish strong.

Yeah.

[Nate] Crispy, crispy

Damn, that is cute.

Don't disappoint me, guys.
You're all I have.

Okay, I need the sumac.
Gives it a little bit of color.

So good.

-[judges] Five, four, three, two, one.
-It looks so good.

Let's eat!

[alarm beeping]

We did it. Woo-hoo!

Cooks, please bring your plates
to the judging station.

[Nate]
I have all of my elements on the dish.

I can't believe I've gotten it done.

I'm very proud of what I made.
I think it looks very good.

There's a lot of different colors
and textures going on.

The plate looks balanced.

I'm excited,
and I hope the judges are too.

These look absolutely beautiful.

Really good job, you guys.

Nate, why don't we start with you?

Remind us what leftovers you started with
and what dish you made here.

[Nate] I had the chicken parm,

and I ended up
making a crispy pasta tahdig.

[Jackie] This looks beautiful.

The plating master.

-[snorts] Oh-h*-h*-h*.
-[Andrew] Ooh!

[Nate] So I took off the cheese
from the chicken, cubed it up,

got it in with the pasta

and kinda zhooshed it up with harissa,
some za'atar and then some figs.

So did you use
all of the leftovers in the tahdig?

Except for the cheese
that was on the chicken.

[Jackie] This is interesting.

You actually could have
spiced it a lot more.

-You used harissa?
-[Nate] Yep.

I didn't taste it.
That tomato sauce beat the crap out of it.

[Nate] Sure.

[Rosemary] Unfortunately, to me,

that actually did feel that was
leftover parmigiana from last night.

Okay.

But I have to tell you,
your presentation looked beautiful.

[Nate] Thank you.

[David] I'd have never known
it was chicken parm before so,

that was amazing.

[Jackie] Thank you, Nate.
Andrew, your turn.

Yes, I started with veal marsala
and a penne with some red sauce on it.

And what I made
was a Vietnamese caramelized veal

with a sesame glazed green bean
and a crispy wonton.

One piece for you,

one piece for you.

[Rosemary] First of all, it looks lovely.

-[Nate] Thank you.
-[Rosemary] It does look beautiful.

[Andrew] I took penne, rinsed it,
added flour, and kinda made a dough

out of it to make that wonton wrapper,

and then I deep-fried that.

Mr. Creativity over here.

-Dude, that tastes like a fried wonton.
-Yeah.

But you gave us one little wonton chip.

But the pasta only went so far.

We thought you were gonna say,
"I took the noodles, I rinsed them,

and I threw 'em out."

'Cause I didn't see noodles.

So I thought you were
just gonna be doing an Andrew moment,

and I'm deeply impressed. That's fabulous.

The veal itself, I did a brown sugar
and fish sauce caramelization on it.

You'll also find a scallion relish

and my idea of a wasabi sauce.

That is to die for.

You brought it all together.

Essentially what you did,
you took a veal marsala dish

and you turned it into
a deconstructed banh mi sandwich.

Banh mi's are one
of my favorite things to eat, so…

-Amazing.
-Thank you.

You were under-seasoned
in your last dish.

-Right.
-This one right here? No, none of that.

-Thank you.
-[Nate] Wow.

Thank you, Andrew. Johnna?

So I started with osso buco.

And I did curry two ways.

One is a traditional Indian spice curry.

The second way is in a wonton.

So the same curry in two ways. I got you.
Awesome. And where is the veal shank?

[Johnna] I added it to the curry.

-That is small. I can hardly see it!
-[all laugh]

Next time,
they're gonna start plating on a spoon.

[Jackie] I'm cutting this wonton
'cause we gotta share it.

For that curry, I used a little bit
of the bone marrow to add in that flavor.

And it's some basmati rice with that.

-That's good.
-That's really good.

-This was Italian food!
-[Johnna] Thank you.

[David] I like the creamy chickpeas
that you put in there.

It is delicious! In fact, I want more.

They liked it so much,
I didn't eat the samosa yet.

-They ate it all.
-Oh, no!

I didn't even get to try it!

I'm over here eating like this.

-You're far too slow.
-You gotta elbow your way through.

Well, going from osso buco to a curry,

I think is actually quite inspirational.

Thank you.

Double the quantity,
it would have been perfect!

[Jackie] Well, we gotta figure out
who's gonna win this thing.

So it's probably best we don't have you
breathing down our necks,

so why don't you go
in the Chinese container, huh? Bye-bye.

-[Andrew] Thank you, guys.
-[Jackie] Thank you.

-Wow.
-Wow.

Wow.

-I'm absolutely gobsmacked.
-[Jackie] I'm floored.

The transformations were incredible.

The first round for me?
It's kind of a wash

'cause everybody missed the mark.

I think it's Andrew and Johnna
who gave us the best transformations.

It's such a shame because as beautiful
as his plating was in both rounds,

Nate did not transform
the chicken parm in round two.

[Rosemary]
We can't consider him, I'm afraid.

Because I think the other two
were leaps and bounds ahead.

Andrew's round one,

obviously he did not
knock it out of the park by any means.

[David] For me,
it was one of the worst things I've had.

[Jackie] His round two,
he made a wonton out of noodles.

That might be one of the more
ingenious things we've seen as a whole.

He also put a lot of color in there, too.

Presentation was a lot better.

[Jackie] Johnna's round one,

I mean, there's one thing
to have a runny egg, but it was--

[David] A booger.

It was a boog.

In comparison
to what she did in the first round,

this round showed a lot of improvement.

She took us to a totally different place

where we didn't even know
it was osso buco.

Yeah, if we're talking
about transformation--

But Andrew delivered his own wonton,

and she did not.
She used the packaged wonton.

We all finished.
Everything looked gorgeous.

-It tasted good.
-Right.

Like, we're not leaving embarrassed.

Cooks! Come out
of that Chinese food container.

All three of you did a great job today.

But only one of you
is gonna go home with $10,000.

In the end, there really was one of you
that completely blew our socks off.

And the winner is…

Andrew!

You did it, buddy!

You all did it, but you really did it!

-[Andrew] Wow!
-[Nate] Good job.

Wow. I'm like that. Hey!

So proud of myself.

Compared to the first round,

I feel like
I've definitely redeemed myself.

I stepped my game up,
and they thought mine was the best.

It was a great feeling.

Here is a piping hot cash-erole!

[Andrew] Oh, my God!

My spin-off cooking show.

It's gonna be "Big g*y Kitchen."
And I just come into your house,

and we just make dinner
with what's in their fridge.

It'll be delicious.

Thank you so much for watching.
And remember…

♪ If you're ballin' on a budget
And you have you have a first date ♪

♪ Just reimagine those leftovers ♪

♪ And then slap 'em on a plate ♪

Well, don't slap 'em on a plate.
I mean, what are you gonna do?

You're tryin' to get some, right?
Make it look nice.

[closing theme music playing]