Sparklers (2021) s01e01 Episode Script

1
(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
shooting 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 shit 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 fuck.
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 shit.
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.
Fuck'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, cocky 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 kill 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)