Beat Bobby Flay: Rack of Lambs Challenge | Full Episode Recap | S6 E2 | Food Network

All right, guys, it's payback time. For this week's rematch, I've invited two friends of mine who are back with a vengeance. Host of The Kitchen, Sonny Anderson and Jeff Morrow. Oh! Down! Have you guys ever been together? Not on this show, because it's too powerful. It's like asking for a tornado to strike. Bobby, what happened to your wrists? I burned myself. Third degree, fourth degree, whatever? Whatever degree. That's okay, because we're going to give you the tenth degree today, Bobby! We have some people that have been here. They have studied the game, and they're back to whoop your tail, Bobby. Ooh! You ready to go down? I'm very ready. Bring them out. All right. Back for redemption, please welcome the executive chef of Harlow's Sag Harbor, Jordan Andino! Whoo! Please welcome the chef and owner of Union in Pasadena, California, Bruce Kalman! Whoo! Whatever. Welcome back. Jeff and Sonny here certainly want one of you to beat me more than ever. But you know the way this works. First, you must go through each other. Ooh! You have 20 minutes to make an ingredient of my choice, the star of your dish. And that ingredient is... rack of lamb. I don't work with rack of lamb too often. I don't know if I'm going to be able to cook this in 20 minutes. Rack of lamb is delicious and tender, but it's really easy to dry out and mess up. You have 20 minutes to make the best rack of lamb of your life. Ready? Go. I'm making a Middle Eastern spice, rack of lamb, with a pine nut and kale couscous salad. I'm making lamb elanese, which is a breaded and pan-fried lamb chop served with a shaved cauliflower salad, which is going to balance the gaminess of the lamb. All right, guys. Just under six minutes! I see you've got some golden raisins. What's going on there? My cauliflower salad. I'm loving that you're cooking with some colorful cauliflower. My salad has shaved cauliflower, golden raisins, lemon, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, wild arugula. Five minutes! I take the lid off my couscous, test it, perfect. I add kale, pine nuts, dark raisins, golden raisins, and a little bit of cumin to help complement the rack of lamb. All right, Jordan, what are you doing with your lamb? I just saw you throw it in the oven. What's the plan? Yeah, so you get a nice char on it. It's going to go well with this sauce. It's a pomegranate honey mustard. Okay. Sounds like a lot of stuff going on over there. Pardon me? Sounds like a lot of stuff. I can't hear you. I don't talk to losers. Oh! So I go and flip my chops, and I notice that they're not fully cooked, so I'm starting to worry a little bit about the clock. Jordan, you happy with your chops? No. Come on! Cook, baby! I know it's not to proper temperature, so I throw the lamb on, do a last-minute sear, and I have to make sure the lamb gets on these plates. Two minutes, chef! I shave a little bit more Parmesan and a little bit of lemon for good measure, place the salad in the middle of the plate, put my chop on top. 30 seconds! Look at Bruce. He's getting his chops down on the plate. Jordan's still cooking them! 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Ding! Jordan, Bruce, I hope one of you guys are really ready to go, because we want to beat Bobby Flay today. We're all gonna come down to what you did to make the lamb star of the dish. Chef Bruce, what did you make us? A lamb melanese with a shaved cauliflower salad. The lamb is cooked perfectly. The only tricky part is kind of around the bone where it is a little underdone, but the salad is just so creative. It's colorful, and the pop of the raisin in there is really nice. This chop is delicious. You just stayed with flavors that worked, but let's talk about the salad. There is something in your dressing that's just way too acidic. So I might have made some mistakes with my salad, but I really showcased the lamb. Hopefully that was good enough to take this. Jordan, what did you make for us? The Leeser and Spice rack of lamb with a kale and Israeli couscous salad. I really like your sauce. Something happens when you put it on the lamb. It speaks. And the couscous, I love the texture of it, but I really don't feel there's a flavor profile happening there. I think my lamb chop is cooked almost perfectly. It's like just a stitch under. What I do appreciate is that you did get a nice sear on the lamb. Bruce is a chef to be reckoned with, but I really felt good about this dish, so I think it's gonna be a close call. Chef moving forward to compete against Bobby Flay is... Chef Bruce. I'm not gonna be able to get my redemption shot at Bobby Flay, but I'm just gonna continue just pushing forward, and I'm gonna cook amazing food. Bruce, we chose you because you brought the trifecta. You fried, you breaded, you cheesed us. It's pretty obvious we chose you because you got literally out of the chops to beat Bobby Flay. We coming for you. Bruce, welcome back. Thanks, man. Last time you were here, time got to you a little bit. How you feeling about your confidence level? I think you should be a little nervous. Okay, so let's get to it. What's your signature dish for today? My signature dish is... pasta carbonara. Oh! Pasta rematch. I love it. All right, guys, to keep things kosher, Sonny and I are not gonna judge this round. Instead, 3 food experts are gonna do a blind taste test. You'll have 45 minutes. Bruce, you had better work it, honey. Your 45 minutes starts now! I pull my pasta. It's about 90% of the way cooked, and I want to finish cooking it in that stock so that it really creates this beautiful melding of flavors. I add my egg mixture, toss it really fast so the eggs don't cook in the pan. One minute! Oh, look at that. I get out my trusty pasta fork and I start twisting up pasta, laying it on my plate. It's perfect. Feeling like Bobby's in trouble. I taste my dish. It has, like, good pepper flavor. Just gonna add a little fresh parsley through the pasta, add it to the plate. I'm gonna add some more pancetta and bacon. Grated Parmesan cheese and then also fried parsley. Bobby is messy. He just... Bobby Flay just went down! Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one! Bruce's dish looks really silky and beautiful. To me, it's gonna come down to the seasoning. I think my pasta's gonna cook nicely. We'll see what they say about the sauce. Chef Flay, Bruce, congratulations, really. Now it's time to meet your judges. We have the chef and owner of Frank Little Frankie's Supper and Sauce, Frank Prisanzano, host of Cooking Channel's Simply Laura, Laura Vitale, and the executive chef and owner of Commerce Restaurant, Harold Moore. Judges, as you know, this is a blind taste test, so please start with the plate right in front of you. I love the presentation. It's simple, it's sleek. I'm also incredibly impressed with the amount of pepper, just enough to tingle the back of your throat. The only thing I'm missing is more sauce. You want that pasta to wear it like a coat, and I'm missing that here. I think the guanciale is cooked perfectly. If I had to change this, I would really make it a little bit more saucy. The sauce itself is excellent. My only issue is, it seems like there's no pecorino in this. Traditional carbonara has a pecorino cheese, so I'm kind of missing that. All right, judges, switch your plates. Dig in to plate number 2. The presentation looks very interesting. It has really good pork bacon flavor. The texture of the sauce is just beautiful. However, it's a little heavy on the black pepper for me. I can almost still taste it. I think the sauce is really nice, but I felt like the black pepper inside the pasta was overwhelming. And also, the fried parsley, you just don't put it on a carbonara. Carbonara doesn't belong there. So I'm hearing these mixed reviews, and it's just, it's neck and neck right now. Both of our pastas were cooked perfectly. Both the presentations looked gorgeous. I think it's all just gonna come down to flavor. And the winner is... Bruce. Welcome to the winner's circle. Whoo! That's right! Yeah! I'm just totally ecstatic right now. It's definitely, you know, one in the bucket list. You know, check it off. I beat Bobby Flay, and I did it making pasta carbonara. Carbonara, it's very difficult to pull it off, and you nailed it right here. Bobby, the parsley, I told you to salt it! You out-flayed yourself today! Bye! Bye, Bobby. My man. We beat Bobby Flay. We beat Bobby Flay with that beautiful Bruce. laughs