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00:00I'm Bobby Flake.
00:02Each week, one brave chef will try to take me down
00:05in my house.
00:05This is my show.
00:06Today it is, tomorrow who knows.
00:08Trash talking.
00:10This culinary battle is gonna shake down in two rounds.
00:13Round one, to get to me, two contenders
00:15have to go through each other using an ingredient
00:17of my choice.
00:18It's do or die, Bobby.
00:19Two people that know me well will decide
00:22who's got the skills to beat me.
00:23Yeah!
00:24Round two, I go head to head with the winning contender.
00:27Let's go!
00:28Their turn to surprise me with their signature deck.
00:31What?
00:32Don't try this at home.
00:33I know you did it, Bobby!
00:36Bottom line.
00:37You're gonna run out of charge!
00:38Everyone's out to beat me.
00:46All right, everybody.
00:47My special guests tonight are just as fabulous
00:50as they are fierce.
00:51Please welcome Chef Vineet Chohan
00:53and the always amazing Carson Kressley.
00:56Oh, what's up?
00:58Ah!
00:59Hello, my son.
01:00Look out, my knee!
01:01Ow!
01:04I caught it!
01:05Whoa, you did!
01:07Oh, I've still got it!
01:09No, no, no, please sit down!
01:12How you doing?
01:13Fantastic.
01:14So, you winning a couple of Emmys here and there?
01:16Yeah, two Primetime Emmys and one International Emmy.
01:20Oh, an International Emmy?
01:22Yeah, you know, I get around.
01:24And I have mine on my bar, which is mirrored,
01:27so it looks like I have more than I have.
01:30It's a very good trick.
01:33Hi, Vineet.
01:34Hello, Bobby.
01:35What have you been doing in the TV circuit these days?
01:37The usual chopped supermarkets takeout.
01:41You're on every other show that Carson's not on.
01:43Yes.
01:44Now we are on it together.
01:45I know, I love it.
01:46We're taking over the world.
01:48Here it is.
01:48Look out, next top model Norway.
01:50Here we come.
01:51Yes!
01:53Let's bring out some chefs.
01:54OK.
01:56Our first contender spent years honing his craft in Japan.
02:00From Cincinnati, it's Hideki Harada.
02:03Yeah.
02:04Our next contender is bringing the flavor with his Nepalese cuisine.
02:15From Tampa, Florida, by way of Nepal, it's Rajesh Patek.
02:19Woo!
02:20OK!
02:22Woo!
02:23This always brings me back to that time I was stuck in that women's prison.
02:30Good evening, Hideki, Rajesh.
02:34I liked your entrance.
02:36Nice little...
02:37Hey.
02:38You gonna bring some of that style to the kitchen?
02:39Yes, absolutely.
02:40That's the plan.
02:41What about you, chef?
02:42How you feeling?
02:43Feeling great.
02:44What are you feeling great about?
02:45Taking you down.
02:46Yes!
02:47Here's the way it's gonna work.
02:48I'm gonna give you an ingredient of my choice, and you must make that the star of your dish.
02:50And that ingredient is...
02:53King Trumpet mushrooms.
02:55Whoa!
02:56Come on!
02:57You good?
02:58Yeah.
02:59Yeah.
03:00You got this right?
03:01Feeling great.
03:02This is a gift for you guys.
03:03Five minutes on the clock.
03:04Make some magic.
03:05Mushrooms with the King Trumpet.
03:07Woo!
03:08Go, go, go, guys!
03:13The King Trumpet looks quite sturdy and stout.
03:16These are really meaty, and it's very versatile.
03:19You can roast it, deep fry it, make purees out of it.
03:22I mean, I think I would roast them whole.
03:24You know, treat it like a piece of meat almost.
03:26Absolutely.
03:27Right.
03:28And they can both put their international fled.
03:29It's gonna be an international trumpet mushroom showdown, y'all.
03:35Rajesh, what are you making, sir?
03:36I'm making a dish called mushroom choyla, which is a mushroom salad.
03:39So choyla is a typical Nepalese dish made with any kind of protein, tossed with spices,
03:44but I'm doing a vegan version with mushrooms.
03:46I grew up eating the same dish in a chicken version.
03:49So I think this represents what Nepalese cuisine is about.
03:52Who's cheering for Rajesh?
03:54I grew up in Kathmandu, Nepal.
03:59I think I was seven when I realized I wanted to be chef.
04:03But my family all thought that getting a degree was important.
04:05So I moved to the United States and enrolled in business school.
04:08After graduation, I started pursuing other opportunities in the tech industry.
04:12But I was finally able to achieve my dream when I opened my restaurant in 2022.
04:17Nepalese food is all about a balance of flavor and spices.
04:20We focus on ingredients, and the cooking style is very basic.
04:24Beating Bobby would be a dream come true.
04:26And I want to say to the Nepalese community, if you dream it, you can Kathmand do it.
04:33Hideki, what are you making?
04:34I'm going to do a trumpet tempura with a little light broth.
04:37I like that. Tempura makes everything better.
04:40I've tempured a lot of things in my life, so it's something that I'm very familiar with.
04:44I want to make a dipping broth on the side using chicken stock, grated ginger, soy, sugar,
04:50and a little bit of mirin, which is Japanese cooking wine.
04:53Let's hear it for Hideki!
04:56My first job was at a buffalo chicken wing place.
05:02I started out as a wing shaker, and I fell in love with being in the kitchen.
05:06With my father's encouragement, I attended culinary school in Japan,
05:09where I gained a whole new level of respect for the culture and the cuisine.
05:12Today, I'm a husband, father, and I own two restaurants in Cincinnati, Ohio.
05:17Feeding Bobby Flay with my Japanese cuisine would be a dream come true.
05:21All right, Bobby, I'm taking you out.
05:23What are you more concerned about, Japanese cuisine or Nepalese cuisine?
05:29Uh, both.
05:31Cumin, coriander, cayenne absolutely are very authentic to the dish.
05:35I want to toast them. That just brings out the flavor of the spices.
05:38Chef, 16 minutes left!
05:44Rajesh Choyla, it's a kind of a salad?
05:46It is a salad, but it's a sauteed mushrooms.
05:48Okay. So who do you have with you in the audience?
05:50I've got my wife here.
05:51Oh, hi!
05:52And she's more excited than I am.
05:53You are his good luck charm, right?
05:54Yeah!
05:55Awesome. Best of luck, Rajesh.
05:58Now I'm making tempura batter using AP flour, rice flour, eggs, and water.
06:03Tempura, what a great idea.
06:04We've got to keep it simple.
06:05There'll be enough flavor to take Bobby down.
06:08I'm going to season it well. I'll get the broth seasoned.
06:10Best of luck, just under 13 minutes.
06:14The tempura batter is looking really good.
06:16My question is, what's it going to be flavored with?
06:18Also, how you cut these mushrooms is a big deal
06:21because they're very dense.
06:23There's a chance they might not cook through.
06:25Mushroom can have a bland taste.
06:27So I'm using some tomato, jalapeno, and garlic,
06:30and it's going to be more of a dressing for my salad.
06:33Traditionally in Nepalese cooking,
06:35especially when they are momos, which are dumplings,
06:38there's always a spicy tomato sauce.
06:40And what are they called?
06:41Momos.
06:42What did you call me?
06:43Eight minutes. I'll be right back.
06:47I feel like there's some color missing.
06:49So grab shishito peppers and get the vegetables in the fryer.
06:52Frying mushrooms takes some of the moisture out of it,
06:54so we kind of get a hearty mushroom taste.
06:57So what's the plan for these?
06:59So I'm going to plate these separately with the little side broth.
07:02Like a dipping sauce slash broth.
07:04But what's the flavor here?
07:06I don't even know if he's put any flavoring in the batter.
07:08And we're feeling good about time?
07:10I think so.
07:11Let's hear it for Hideki, everybody.
07:13I'm going to pop over here.
07:15Rajesh and the Stylish Headwear Headquarters.
07:19Is there some kind of dressing happening?
07:20Yes.
07:21Okay.
07:22It's freshly made cooked tomatoes.
07:23That looks spicy.
07:24Rajesh, keep cooking, dude.
07:25Keep cooking.
07:26Multi-task.
07:27Oh yeah, keep cooking.
07:28Don't let me distract you.
07:29I'm not even here.
07:30Only three minutes left.
07:31Now I'm mixing mushrooms, the dressing, and the spices all together
07:34for my salad with cilantro, scallions, and lemon juice.
07:37I feel great.
07:38This is the dish I wanted to do, so I'm happy with what I created.
07:4145 seconds.
07:42Woo!
07:43I start plating the broth into the ramekins.
07:46Oh my God.
07:47Time's ticking, so I'm taking the tempura out of the fryer and just go straight to the plate.
07:52I'm a little nervous about not being able to taste my tempura, but I'm confident the mushrooms are cooked perfectly.
07:58Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
08:07Good job.
08:09Nice job, Jeff.
08:10Beautiful.
08:12There's nothing more joyous than beating our little Robert William Flay.
08:18And to see who's going to take down Bobby Flay, it's going to come down to who used the king trumpet mushrooms better.
08:27Chef Hideki, what did you make today?
08:29I made a king trumpet mushroom tempura with shishitos.
08:35This broth that you've created has these wonderful flavors and lifts the dish, and I think that was very much needed.
08:42Though the idea of the tempura was a great one, if you had added flavoring to it, you would have augmented that bite, because right now it's bland.
08:49I did love the shishitos because, you know, sometimes the mushrooms can be a little boring and that gave us something a little bit different texture.
08:56The tempura idea, very smart, but it just didn't have that crunch that we were looking for.
09:01Chef Rajesh, what did you make today?
09:04I've got a king trumpet mushroom choyla, which basically is a mushroom salad.
09:07What you have created in terms of flavor is amazing, but the vegetables are very haphazardly cut.
09:16So if I get one bite which is perfect, the next bite could be overwhelming because there's too much onions in it.
09:22A mushroom is not very flavorful, so you did a great job of amping up the flavor by surrounding it with all these things.
09:28You get the spiciness, you get the brightness.
09:31To Manit's point, they just had like a big chunk of raw garlic.
09:34It was shocking and not in a great way.
09:37The plate isn't perfect, but I know I've got the flavors in there, so I'm hopeful that this will take me to the next round.
09:44Moving on to Beat Bobby tonight is...
09:50Chef Rajesh.
09:51I'm feeling bummed. There's a lot of things I could have done differently, but I'm happy I got to be here.
10:00For somebody to beat Bobby, they have to bring their flavor game, and you got that.
10:04And you have a better outfit on. Thank you.
10:11Rajesh, way to go. You brought the hat, you brought the flavor.
10:14You're feeling good about Brantu, huh?
10:15Very, 100%.
10:16So what are we cooking tonight? What's your signature dish?
10:18So my signature dish tonight is...
10:22Chicken Momo. Chicken Momos.
10:25Oh, oh.
10:26Oh, my God.
10:28I've never made them, but Manit was talking about them a little bit while you were cooking.
10:31You're welcome.
10:32That's not really going to help me very much.
10:34He's a Momo virgin.
10:3745 minutes on the clock, and your time starts now.
10:40Woo-hoo! Go, go, go, go, go!
10:46I have been eating Momos my entire life.
10:48Right.
10:49Momos are dumplings. Traditionally, it's either goat or buffalo.
10:53Oh, wow.
10:54They are spices like cumin, coriander, ginger.
10:56So really a lot of flavor in it.
10:58It can be served in broth, but usually there's a dipping sauce on the side.
11:02Usually tomato-based and spicy.
11:04Okay.
11:05Rajesh, why do you think that this is the dish to beat Bobby?
11:08So Bobby has never made this dish.
11:10So that's one of the reasons I want to make it.
11:13So Momo to Indianapolis is very close to their heart.
11:16Any gathering Momo is like a crucial thing.
11:18I'm making chicken Momo with tomato cilantro sauce and a tomato sesame chowl.
11:23The first thing I start working on is my aromatics for my stuffing.
11:26Ginger, garlic, red and green onion, and green cabbage to bring that crunchiness.
11:31Now I'm adding cumin, coriander, turmeric, and cayenne pepper.
11:34How many times have you made this dish?
11:36Probably 10,000 times.
11:37Oh, wow.
11:3810,000, but who's counting, right?
11:40Nepalese food, you know, I really don't know very much about it.
11:43I know I can make something flavorful.
11:45So I'm making chicken momos with a tomato chutney sauce and a green chili yogurt.
11:50I start working on my tomato chutney with shallots, ginger, and garlic.
11:54Canned tomatoes, some pomegranate molasses, and some tomato paste.
11:57Bobby's bringing out all the spices.
11:59All the spices.
12:01Curry, some coriander, some cumin, and some honey.
12:04Definitely some Indian inspiration in here for sure.
12:07I'm certainly not going for authenticity because I don't even know what it is.
12:11It's time I get started on my sauce with tomatoes, ginger, garlic.
12:15Bobby is making the sauce with canned tomatoes while Rajesh is using fresh.
12:20It's more rustic.
12:21Yes.
12:22Whereas Bobby's is refined and, like, Italian.
12:25Yes.
12:26The sauce is supposed to have some kick, so I'm adding Thai chili.
12:2935 minutes left.
12:34How is it going?
12:35So far so good.
12:36I've got the sauce eating up.
12:37I'm making the second sauce to go with it.
12:39More like a broth kind of sauce.
12:40Okay, fantastic.
12:41Now I'm adding ground chicken and some butter to my stuffing mix to avoid the chicken to be dry.
12:47Best of luck.
12:49Oh, Bobby, I think you're in trouble.
12:51You do?
12:52I'm making tomato sauce.
12:53You know that this is naples and not, like, Italian.
12:56I'm a little worried.
12:57Do you want me to give you a hint?
12:58Yeah, sure.
12:59Run.
13:0032 minutes left.
13:01On Bobby's station, there was a sauce, but he hasn't even started working on the filling.
13:10Rajesh has his filling, and he's going to be making two sauces.
13:13So now I start making the filling.
13:14I have some cooked shallots, ginger, and garlic, a little bit of honey, and then some curry and
13:20some cumin.
13:21So the one thing about Momos is that the filling is never cooked, and as you're steaming it,
13:26that's the time when the entire, yes, because if you are putting something warm in a dumpling,
13:32and then you steam it, it'll burst.
13:34I watered the edges of the MoMo wrapper to make sure that it sticks together when I seal them.
13:39When folding the MoMo, you want to give some design on top.
13:42You want it to look like MoMo and not empanada.
13:45That looks beautiful.
13:46Ooh, less than half an hour left.
13:48It just seems like Rajesh is so much further ahead.
13:51Yes, he is.
13:52I mean, I feel so bad for Bobby struggling in his own kitchen.
13:56Bless him.
13:59Let's go.
14:0323 minutes to go.
14:05Let's go.
14:06So Bobby cooked onions with spices, and then he chilled it, and that is what he's adding
14:11for flavoring in the chicken mix.
14:13I'm going to put some chicken fat in there as well for some juiciness.
14:16Let me go razzle-dazzle-um, AKA operation distraction.
14:21Yes.
14:24Do not be dazzled by my bedazzled baton.
14:27Tell me who are you.
14:29Oh, God.
14:30I caught it.
14:33That looks delicious.
14:34That's your filling?
14:35That's my chicken, yeah.
14:36And then here is your dipping sauce.
14:38This is my tomato sauce.
14:39You want to taste it?
14:40I'm going to turn into a MoMo-sexual.
14:45It's delicious.
14:46All right.
14:47I'll be just over here.
14:48See you later.
14:49Oh, these dumplings look so nice.
14:52They're like little handbags and works of art.
14:56And then the chutney.
14:57I'm going to blend it with some cilantro.
14:59Sounds like it's going to be amazing.
15:02All right.
15:0319 minutes and 22 seconds, everybody.
15:07Oh, that didn't work.
15:09Now my MoMo's are folded.
15:11It's time to get them steamed.
15:12I tasted Bobby's chutney and it tasted very tomato-y.
15:16The raw spice.
15:17It wasn't even the spice.
15:18It was just very acid-y.
15:19I was getting heartburn just looking at it.
15:21Yeah.
15:22Bobby's also really struggling with making the MoMo's.
15:25Yes.
15:27This is the part that I don't like.
15:28I feel like I have like 10 thumbs.
15:29You need me to teach you how to wrap Bobby?
15:31Yeah, that'd be great.
15:32I believe that's called Shade Bobby.
15:35It's all right.
15:37It might not look pretty, but I have to get this done.
15:39If he doesn't start cooking it right now, we might get raw MoMo's.
15:44So I want to pan sear them just to get a little texture on them and then I'll steam them.
15:47So this actually is a great technique.
15:49You let it sear and then pour water in it and then you cover it.
15:52Oh, and it steams it as well.
15:53So then it's, yeah.
15:54That actually sounds annoyingly delicious.
15:56It is annoyingly delicious.
15:59Now I've got my tomato sauce ready, then I take a very tiny bit of the sauce and I add some water,
16:04lemon juice, sesame seeds, salt, and some sejuan pepper and blend it for my joel broth.
16:10Seven minutes, chefs!
16:15I've got a sauce for you to try.
16:16Oh, we're having chutney.
16:17Wow.
16:18Oh, it looks gorgeous.
16:20Ooh.
16:21Wow.
16:22It's got a kick to it.
16:23That's spicy.
16:24What's the second sauce?
16:25That's the broth.
16:26Okay.
16:28That one's nuttier.
16:29More sesame.
16:30Sesame.
16:31I like that one.
16:32Awesome.
16:33You're happy?
16:34Very.
16:35Come on, guys.
16:36You think Rajesh got it?
16:38So now I take the tomato chutney that I blended and slathered on the plate.
16:41And then I make a hot sauce with serrano chilies, vinegar, honey, and cilantro.
16:45And I fold it into the yogurt.
16:47So, Bobby, we did get to try the chutneys that Rajesh made.
16:51Yeah?
16:52How are they?
16:53Amazing?
16:54The way they're supposed to be.
16:55Delicious!
16:56Good.
16:57I love that.
16:58This little pepper top looks like a little hat.
16:59Look how darling you could wear that to the Kentucky Derby.
17:01Aw.
17:02Coming up on Four Minutes.
17:04Four Minutes, everybody.
17:05Best of luck.
17:06I want to give a different texture to the judges.
17:09So I pan fry some of my momos just to give a nice char.
17:12Then I start my plating with the sauce.
17:14One pan fried momo and two steamed momos.
17:16I want to serve the chole on the side so that the judges taste both sauces separately.
17:21One minute to go.
17:23So I plate three of the dumplings with the crusted side up.
17:26And then I put some toasted sesame seeds, some of the green chili yogurt, and I finish it with lime zest.
17:31Ten.
17:32Ten.
17:33Nine.
17:34Eight.
17:35Seven.
17:36Six.
17:37Five.
17:38Four.
17:39Three.
17:40Two.
17:41One.
17:42Woo!
17:44This is a dish that is so close to my heart.
17:47I feel great.
17:48Rajesh's momos look picture perfect.
17:51I don't know, Bob.
17:52This looks really good.
17:53I think I made some good tasting dumplings.
17:55Whether they're momos or not, I don't know.
17:57Nice job.
17:59Beautiful.
18:01Tonight's challenge was a chicken momo, and now we would like to introduce you to the judges.
18:07First up, the chef owner of East Wind Snack Shop, Chris Chung.
18:12The co-owner of Rai Rai Ken and Ban Roy, Sakura Yagi.
18:18And the chef owner of Wile in Katmandu, Vikash Karel.
18:25Judges, you can start with the first chicken momo in front of you.
18:31The chef that made these really knows how to fold a pretty momo and went well with the sauce.
18:39But when you use these skins, those plates tend to dry out a little bit right after cooking.
18:45So that's pretty much my own eating out competition.
18:48I thought the plating was absolutely gorgeous.
18:51The chutney in the middle, super fragrant, really delicious.
18:55Eating it together with the momo was a really nice combination.
18:58I think the jewel wasn't necessary.
19:00The plate itself was great as is.
19:03The design of the momo itself was folded.
19:05It's how a Nepali momo is done.
19:07The flavor content of the momo itself was as good as I could make it as authentic momo.
19:12I think for the jewel, if it was served with the momo in it, would have made a big difference.
19:17Not doing that kind of took away from the essence of jewel itself.
19:20All right.
19:21Thank you, judges.
19:22We'll have you switch plates.
19:26This momo, I couldn't stop eating it with this yogurt sauce.
19:33The momo had this beautiful caramelization on it.
19:36It was seared perfectly well.
19:38But when you use chicken as a fill, it's going to dry out a little bit.
19:42I thought this momo was super fun.
19:45It was juicy right when you fit into it.
19:48You could see the juices flowing inside.
19:50And the yogurt as well as the chutney went really well together.
19:55The plating was super nice.
19:56The momos were seared really nice.
19:58I personally was not a big fan of the chutney.
20:01Great sauce by itself, but for the flavor profile of a momo, this was literally overpowering.
20:05Thank you, judges.
20:06There can only be one winner.
20:08Here are your ballots.
20:09I'm proud that judges are seeing the authenticity in my momo.
20:13So at this point, I think the decision's 50-50.
20:16All right.
20:17We have a split decision tonight.
20:19And the winner is...
20:25Chef Bobby Flay.
20:26Oh, wow.
20:27Surprise.
20:30As a judge, you find some dishes that just make you happy.
20:33So that's why I went with this one.
20:36Rajesh, you won in our books.
20:38Great job tonight.
20:40Thank you, chef.
20:41I'm proud of what I presented today and representing Nepali's cuisine here.
20:44That itself is a win to me.
20:47Seriously?
20:48I mean...
20:49How do you do this?
20:50The man hasn't been to Kalamazoo, let alone Kathmandu.
20:53Tell me about it.
20:54Looks like my momo stole the show show.
20:56Looks like my momo stole the show show.
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