Beat Bobby Flay: Lobster Newberg Challenge 💥 Full Episode RECAP | S8 E1 | Food Network

All right, you guys up for a challenge tonight? All right. I'd like to introduce you to two people that are determined to get me beat. Michael Simon. Boom. And Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. The two of you may know my weaknesses better than anybody else, I would say. We do. So today, we're going to do things a little differently. Oh, really? Yeah. Ooh. We're ramping it up. I'm ready. Now, Bobby, our first contender, she's an iron chef, a resident chop judge. She's a New York legend. Alex Guarnaschelli. Wait, what? No way. I knew one day this would happen. Our next contender, Bobby, is one of the country's finest. He's a fellow iron chef, TV host, cookbook author, and a far better golfer than you will ever be. Mr. Michael Simon. It's hammer time, buddy. Oh, God. All right, now, since Alex and I are going to be up there, come on out, Katie. OK, they're going to cook. You're going to decide who's going to go up against me? Yeah. I like it. And we have one common goal, and that is to take you down. Bring it on. Oh, we're bringing it. Alex. Oh, here comes the smoke. You guys ready to play the game? Mm-hmm. You're going to have 20 minutes to make the ingredient of my choice the star of your dish. And that ingredient is spinach. What a crappy ingredient. Spinach? I mean, this is an ingredient that has no taste, no matter what you do. What about you, Popeye? We're going to cut through you like butter. I like that trash talking, Michael. Today, we slay the flay. Katie, your cohort here, will taste and choose which one of you troublemakers takes me on in round two. 20 minutes on the clock. Don't forget, it's all about the spinach. Ready? Go. I am making quail egg and bacon on toast with spinach pesto and fried spinach. So I'm making a spinach and Greek yogurt dumpling with guanciale. There's only one more thing I can do with spinach, make a vinaigrette. Spinach stems with some green apple. I'm going to give this vinaigrette a little pop. Two minutes and 45 seconds. I'm screwed. Time is moving very fast. The dumplings are ready to go in some brown water to toast the outside a little bit. Oh. I lost my hair. Just don't lose your eyebrows, Michael. I lay down my spinach pesto. I drop some wilted spinach on the toast. A little bit of that bacon. Then I put a quail egg sprinkled with chili flakes on top, and I airlift that on the spinach pesto. 90 seconds. I get the dumplings with the guanciale, the spinach, onto the plate. 10. Finish that with lemon and Parmesan cheese. Then I finish with a vinaigrette and fried spinach leaves. 4, 3, 2, 1. This is Bobby's worst nightmare. Me and Alex gunning for him. Either one of us would be equally matched against Bobby. So, Bobby, tonight the three of us are here with a common goal to take you down. Alex, Michael, it's all going to come down to what you did to make spinach the star of your dish. Michael, what did you make? I made a spinach Greek yogurt dumpling with guanciale and Parmesan. Wow. I loved that little brightness from the lemon zest, especially with the pork. You know, you had me at guanciale. But if I had to critique something, maybe those dumplings were a little bit tough and doughy. But all in all, play. I don't think you can make a dumpling this good. You haven't had my dumpling yet. Here's Michael's dumpling. I hope you choke on it. All right. Alex, what do you have here for me? I made quail egg on toast with bacon, and then spinach pesto, spinach stem vinaigrette, and I did fried spinach leaves for texture. I basically just spinached the spinach. I love that vinaigrette. So bright. It really just cuts through that buttery toasted bread. I would have liked to have seen the egg had more of that, like, runny yolk. But it's hard to find anything wrong with this. Pick one. Let's go. I'm actually secretly rooting for Alex, because I don't want to go down against Michael, because I'll never hear the end of it. All right. So the chef that is going to move forward is... Chef Alex. I'm not moving on, but I lost to one of the best chefs I know, and there's a lot of pride in that. And I get to sit down and relax. You know, now I get to hang out with you. Yeah, this is way better. Burnout. Alex, I mean, you killed it with this dish. Thank you. You're so laser-focused. Let's beat him. Dump him. Alex, congratulations. Thank you. You cook a lot of French food. I do. All right, what are we cooking? What's the signature dish? I wanted to take French roots and go truly American, so I picked... Lobster Newberg. Really? I think I've made lobster Newberg once in my life. You know, it's lobster and sherry and some cream, something like that. For this round, we've got three food experts standing by to do a blind taste test. Your 45 minutes, guys, starts right now. Yeah! I finally have that balance between the richness of the cream and the brightness from the alcohol, so I'm gonna drop the lobster gently and just baste it a little bit with the sauce. Now I'm slicing my white truffle on my mandolin. White truffle, talk about next level. Bobby, you got rice, she's got white truffles. Just because you put a pretty dress on it doesn't mean it always tastes good. It's go time, people. I start laying down my roasted sunchokes. I'm getting super nervous. My hands are shaking. I'm feeling my heart beat fast, so I can't imagine how Alex feels. I top that with the lobster meat, the truffles, and the fried head-of-the-wood mushrooms. 30 seconds, guys. Put some of the crusty rice on one side of the bowl. I take the lobster, put it next to it. Newberg sauce, and then crispy lobster on top. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I'm actually pretty happy with my lobster Newberg. If I pull out this one, these guys are never gonna hear the end of it. Time's up. I see his dish. It looks beautiful, so I'm gonna just say a prayer to the Newberg gods. Please let me beat Bobby Flay. Alex, Bobby, congratulations. Honestly, I'd say one of the most intense competitions I've ever witnessed. Oh, yeah, this was the best one I've ever seen. But as you guys know, it's a blind taste test. Now I'd like you to meet your judges. The executive chef and partner of Porterhouse, Michael Lamonaco. The chef and co-owner of The Spotted Pig, April Bloomfield. And executive chef and restaurateur, Wiley Dufresne. So, judges, the challenge today was lobster Newberg. Try the first dish that's in front of you. Michael, what do you think? Well, I thought the dish was just beautiful. I love how the lobster was cooked. There's sunchokes in here, there are crispy mushrooms, and they sneaked in some white truffle in here. That in itself is a great surprise. I actually agree with you. I love white truffle, so I'd always have more. There's a lot of technique on this plate. The textures are great. There's crispy, there's creamy. I think if I was to speak negatively in this dish, maybe it's a wee bit too saucy. I think the alcohol could have cooked off a little bit more. I would have liked that a little bit. All right, judges, if you guys could please switch your plates. April, what are your thoughts? This is kind of like a poor man's version of lobster Newberg. But I love this dish. Yeah, absolutely. The rice is perfectly cooked. It's got some lovely sweet leek, and it's got that really nice crust on the bottom. The rusticity of this dish versus sort of the elegance of that one was a nice contrast. The lobster, there's some crisp element to it, like it was deep-fried, but a little overcooked. But the rice, something I didn't expect in a lobster Newberg, and I think that's what makes cooking exciting. All right, judges, time to vote. I really don't think I'm gonna win. He gets how to put flavors together. He knows how to make them taste like better versions of themselves. He's pretty much the worst kind of competitor you want to find yourself up against. Chef Alex! I feel like I'm dreaming. I think I just beat Bobby Flay. The reason why I chose your dish, Alex, was because it's vibrant, it's decadent, it's just a really damn fine dish, and I could eat that all day long, so... Thank you. Bobby, it's truly an honor to cook with you.