The American Barbecue Showdown (2020) s01e02 Episode Script

1
Oh, hey, guys!
- Hi! Hey!
- Come on over, y'all!
-Nice to see everybody.
- Good to be seen.
- How's it going?
-Feel like somethin's missin'
now there's only seven of y'all.
I won the last challenge.
That feels great.
Everyone here has competed before
and this is my first time competing.
So it validates that I'm
I'm good at what I'm doing,
that I can compete
with this level of barbecuers,
and I wanna keep building on that
as long as I can.
So, who is ready for an old fashioned,
all-American barbecue?
-Whoo!
-Yeah!
-Yeah!
-Yeah, high five!
You thought
the summer was over,
but let's party like it's the biggest
barbecue day of the year one more time.
Fourth of July, everybody, huh?
-Whew!
-Yeah!
I mean, this is the biggest barbecue day
in the year.
So, tonight,
we're throwin' a Fourth of July themed
buffet barbecue feast
for first responders.
-All right!
-That's great.
It may be a party for them,
but this is gonna be a job for y'all.
This is a day where barbecuers
cook copious amounts of food,
lay out spreads for everybody
to have somethin' to choose from.
This is a hot and fast cook.
These proteins won't go on
until the last ten, 20 minutes,
-depending on the protein you're assigned.
- Oh.
So most of the hard work
will go into the prep time,
any planning, marinades and sides.
Today, each of you will be serving
one iconic American dish,
and one side, either savory or sweet,
-to serve 50 people.
-Uh-oh.
This is gonna be tough.
I'm not really used to cooking
for big, big groups of people.
I don't cater. This is not my thing.
Aaah!
Cookin' for that many people
uh It's a challenge.
You've proven you can cook for the four
of us, but can you cook for the masses?
I expect perfection
from the first plate to the last plate
and everywhere in between.
Anybody nervous?
-Yeah.
-Hell, yeah! A little bit.
Don't panic. Just do it.
We've selected which dish each of you
will be making at random.
-Okay.
-Phew.
And the answer to that
is in your grills.
-Whoa.
-Ooh.
Y'all know,
no Fourth of July party is complete
without some sides and dessert.
Come up with some good sides
to go with this party, okay?
All right.
Today is just a classic backyard cookout,
so you'll only have
what everybody else has in their backyard.
A classic kettle cooker,
a pellet smoker,
and a ceramic smoker.
You've got five hours
and they're showin' up hungry.
All right, y'all. Go ahead, get smoking.
-Yes.
- Do it for America!
Whoo!
Being in the bottom two
in the first challenge,
it's--- It was a humbling
experience for me.
I ain't cookin' for my skinny butt
no more. I'm cookin' for other people,
cookin' for judges,
and I gotta think of it that way.
So I'm hopin' for a cut of meat
that I can kick the flavors up a notch
so I can redeem myself.
Whoo!
Yard bird on the grill today.
Nice pork chop.
Oh, yeah, I'll make this work.
I got what looks like a baby brisket.
That looks like a tri-tip.
Oh, you're kiddin' me.
If you've never done tri-tip,
you can mess it up real, real quick,
'cause it's-- It's hardly no fat.
You need fat in barbecue.
Ask me when's the first time
I touched a tri-tip.
When's the first time
you touched a tri-tip?
Today.
Ooh! Cheeseburgers!
Aah!
Sausages. Okay.
Got some work ahead of us.
No problem.
What is that?
I don't know what mine is.
I think that's lamb.
Yuck.
Lamb is not a good thing
for Fourth of July to to be judged on.
How's it going, Tina?
I can't believe what I have.
-Oh--
Tina is not impressed by her protein.
-She is shaking her head.
She is dejected.
- Tina is
I want a steak. I want
a tomahawk steak.
Whoo! I got a cowboy rib-eye
tomahawk steak.
-That's no bueno.
- Sorry.
When I cook for catering,
I think about it totally different
than cooking in the restaurant
or cooking for my family at home.
They're gonna be cookin' for 50 people.
When you're making a buffet dish
to serve that many people,
you need to consider portion size,
each serving needs to be consistent,
and it all comes down to timing.
Cook it too early
and you're serving cold food to 50 guests.
So, cooking en masse
that's a whole different ball game.
All right, now I'm preppin' my pork chops.
Tryin' to do a little French style.
Somethin' goin' on here, you know.
Get this meat from between
uh, the bones here
and get it nice and cleaned up.
Today, I'm gonna do a brined pork chop.
I'm gonna do a garden salad
with my mother's homemade dressing on it.
I wanna get some apple on this pork.
It's gonna give it
somethin' nice and sweet, and
kind of helps
with that natural taste of pork.
I'mma make you do what I do, babe ♪
Barbecue and blues go together.
I talk and sing to my meat, man.
You know, I get back there and--
Do what I do, baby ♪
Anything I say ♪
Gon' go today ♪
Make you do what I do, babe ♪
When I'm rubbin' it down,
gettin' it right, you know,
and I might tell it somethin',
you know, like
I'm gonna rub you, baby ♪
And smoke you all night long ♪
I'mma rub you baby ♪
Till the meat fall from your bones ♪
Somethin' like that.
So, I'm usin' brisket.
They had some good-lookin' briskets
in that locker.
I've gotta cut this up,
because I've gotta get it
in small enough chunks
to get through a meat grinder.
So the burger that I'm gonna make
is gonna be
a smoked bacon brisket burger.
What I'm gonna do is get this bacon
good and sliced up.
I'm gonna put it on the smoker
and then I'mma actually take this,
I'm gonna put it in my meat mix.
This bacon mixed with that beef,
It's gonna add some smoky fat
down into the beef,
and it's just gonna be amazing.
Okay. I hope this is even enough.
I took every piece out of the fridge
that was in there.
This is the spine bone,
and that's a pork chop,
and I'm used to pork,
so this
I think is the tenderloin.
So I'm gonna make sure
I put that on the skewer.
The only thing I've ever had lamb in
is Middle Eastern style food.
So I'm gonna do kabobs with lamb,
and tzatziki salad with cucumbers.
I'm just gonna roll with that.
So, I'm gonna put some olive oil,
coriander, cumin seed,
cinnamon, mustard seed,
cardamom, garlic, ginger, rosemary.
I need some lemon and some yogurt
to tenderize it.
I marinate other things in yogurt,
and it looks messy, but it does taste good
on beef and chicken,
so should be good on this.
Let's see, how does this thing go on?
I don't know
how to put this thing together.
If you need help, holler. You might not
want it after my performance last night,
-but I'll give you my insight anyway.
-I've made sausage before.
I just haven't used
that particular grinder, so
I don't really like to ask for help.
Grubbs just made sausage
for the last challenge,
and it put him in the bottom two.
I'm really concerned
that making sausage for 50
is going to be my death knell.
It is a lot of prep work
from a recipe I've never made before
um, that I'm just gonna
make up here today.
I just don't know where to go with it.
But I will try to make
a sweet Italian sausage
with a Dijon aioli and my mom's brownies.
Oh, hey, guys.
What are you workin' on?
I am working
on my seasoning for my sausage.
I've done a little bit of sausage making,
um, at my house, not a ton.
I would say I got mixed reviews, frankly.
What meat to fat ratio
are you plannin' on usin'?
Um, I am probably gonna be going
with a almost 50/50.
I know that's a little bit, um  bold.
Um You're making me
a bit nervous, though.
-Your face is worrying me.
-I have that face.
Sausage can be very tricky.
You have to get your fat emulsion right.
-Good luck.
-Thank you so much, guys.
Ultimately,
the ratio you're looking for
is 70% meat and 30% fat.
I'm concerned about that sausage.
- Really? Why?
-I don't think that ratio's gonna be good.
50/50?
When you have the incorrect ratio
of meat to fat in your sausage,
you have a mealy texture,
creating a terrible mouthfeel.
- I'm savin' this for the judges.
- That's a That's a
-Mm!
- It's a good piece of meat.
I am so excited.
I have an eight-bone tomahawk steak.
And I'm going to cut it
into rib-eye steaks.
This is a huge piece of meat.
I'm adding a little steak seasoning to it.
Salt, pepper, coriander,
a little bit of dill, cumin in there,
a little bit of lemon.
Get some flavor in there
and let it meld for a little while.
You need to make sure
that it has the right flavors,
the right seasonings,
and it's very hard to cook enough food
for 50-plus people.
The tomahawk is what kind of scares me.
The tomahawk side They're a big steak.
Tomahawk rib-eyes have to have seasoning.
The problem is they're so thick.
How do you season that? 
You only get it on the outside surface,
but you're gonna be servin' the inside
as well.
Here's a little tip.
Season the inside after you cut it.
I don't have such a great cook
the last time out on this.
I was a little shy on the seasonin',
but I'mma make up for it today.
I'm making Grubbecued chicken
with some Carolina barbecue sauce,
and then a blueberry cobbler.
Where I live,
it's like the chicken capital of Georgia.
There's chicken plants
everywhere, so
I have a killer, kick-butt recipe
for doing chicken.
Everybody likes chicken.
You put a good sauce on it?
Cain't beat it. Just cain't beat it.
I'm fixin'
a western North Carolina style sauce,
which is a vinegar peppery sauce,
just a little bit thicker.
And with the skin on the chicken,
you need a thicker sauce to cling on.
You don't wanna baste it
and have all the sauce run off.
I don't wanna go home,
so this is my redemption plate.
You can't have no red vinegar sauce
without no pepper flakes.
You gotta put salt in it.
-Remember?
-I am. Thank you, Ms. Tina.
You don't want no bland stuff
up in there.
Boy, that's some spices. Mm.
Might be a little bit
too much spice for the judges right there!
You might have to go see a medic
if you take a bite.
Growing up in the house,
we didn't have Fourth of July
like everyone else would,
like all my other competitors,
so they definitely got
ample years ahead of me.
Never used this rig before.
It looks like it's got a lot of room
and we got a lot of people to feed,
so it'd be great to use it.
I don't know where the power button is.
I don't even know where you put the wood,
to be honest with you.
I won the last challenge
with items within my wheelhouse.
Today, here I am with a meat
I've never seen or touched
and a smoker that I've never used before.
I just don't know how it's gonna turn out,
so I'm trying to test it.
This is gonna be my test,
see if hot and fast works.
I got two things I know how to do,
one unit,
I don't even know if it's workin',
and a meat I've never seen before.
Hopefully, I can make somethin' good
out of it. I know I can.
I know fire and meat,
so that's all I need.
-Did you grow up around tri-tip?
- No.
Tri-tip was definitely
not prevalent in the Southeast.
Tri-tip I first ran into
on the West Coast.
It's really more of a California thing,
and Rasheed's a Georgia boy,
so I don't know if he'll know
what to do with this piece of meat.
I refuse
to be beaten by a challenge.
I'll always think my way
out of whatever situation there is,
so I've gotta stand out with my sauce.
I plan on making a smoked tri-tip
served with a side of chimichurri.
Whenever I'm making a steak,
I like to make a bit of chimichurri
to go along with it.
I've just never made that much chimichurri
for this many people,
but I'm making this as a sauce,
topping, a condiment.
I'm gonna add cilantro and parsley,
sage, garlic,
red chili flakes,
a little salt, some limes.
I may mince and dice up a habanero,
a Scotch bonnet pepper
to toss in there.
It's a great Latin condiment.
My goal is to make sure
there's always some element of my heritage
in there, one way or another.
All right. Here we go.
I had forgotten about the sides.
Uh, yeah, there are sides happening,
and dessert.
Times 50. So you have to have enough
sides, enough proteins for 50 people.
-This is hectic.
- I don't envy them.
I've got
my meat seasoning, it's cubed.
It is in the freezer.
Next step will be brownies.
This is my mom's brownie recipe
and my father's favorite brownie recipe.
Also my favorite brownie recipe.
I've been eating this brownie
my entire life.
You don't wanna overcook it,
you want it to be under
you know, wiggly.
It's so mushy and delicious.
I like to use
unsweetened chocolate with butter,
melt that up,
and once those are totally melted, um
I will add a bunch of sugar
and then some flour,
a little bit of vanilla
and then a couple of eggs.
I'm making deviled eggs.
These are the yolks,
got some mayonnaise in there.
Then I add some salt and pepper.
Every Fourth of July celebration
that I've ever been to,
somebody's gonna
either bring deviled eggs,
or I'm gonna cook deviled eggs.
It's just a given for a backyard party.
Also gonna crumble some bacon
to go up in there.
Bacon makes everything good.
To go with tri-tip,
I plan on making elote,
which is a Mexican street corn.
Whipped up some mayo,
some lemon juice, some lime juice, salt,
paprika, some of the chili topping
I'm putting on the elote.
I wanna get these done
'cause I'm gonna put 'em on the smoker,
get a little bit of that char.
That's what I like, bright colors.
Eat with your eyes.
I gotta get this salad made,
'cause this was my dish.
I mean, I'm the one that chose it,
so I gotta make it.
It's gonna have fresh dill,
cucumbers, tomatoes with Greek yogurt,
lemon juice
and maybe a little splash of vinegar.
I'm usin' green onion
'cause I think it's milder,
less offensive, and, in the heat,
it won't leach out so much water
and make the salad kind of runny.
Nobody wants a runny
cucumber salad.
Boatright.
-Hey, hey.
-You feeling good?
I'm feelin' great.
I ended up getting the pork chops.
- Nice.
-Okay. And what side are you cookin'?
I am not that good at sides,
just to be honest with you.
Uh, salad is somethin' I know I can do.
I don't know one event that we ever went
to that we didn't have some sort of salad.
-Or two. Or three.
-Hello.
So I'mma do a garden salad,
and I'm gonna do a
recipe that I used to see
my mom and my dad do,
a good vinaigrette, uh, based, uh
salad dressin' with mayo.
I'm gonna make y'all proud today
and your taste buds happy.
Good luck, Boatright.
-Thank you.
-Good luck.
Boatright's making a garden salad, like
how good is this garden salad
gonna have to be?
Let me tell you, it better be
the best damn garden salad
I have ever had.
It better come out of about 42 gardens.
His I'm worried, worried,
-worried about these pork chops.
- Exactly.
Leaf lettuce better be
made of dollar bills.
-Ooh.
- Gonna rely on a salad?
The salad,
I only have it partially cut up,
'cause I had to stop, come out here
to tend to a fire that went out.
So that's the name of the game.
-Kev, you wanna give me a hand?
-I got you, baby.
Ooh, boy!
Can y'all come on over for a minute?
Uh-oh. What now?
You gotta be kiddin' me.
- We got a little treat.
- Whoo! Look at 'em!
-Oh, my gosh! Look, it's alive!
-Crawfish!
- Look at it! Look at it!
- Oh, my God!
Whoa! I got a fighter on the floor.
I want it I want it to fall
onto my plate.
-It's okay if it falls.
-Lemme get that. That's my phone. Hello?
No, I gotta call you back.
We're doin' a mid-smoke challenge.
Oh, no!
Seafood. Oh, my!
Oh, God. Okay.
I gotta figure this out.
I gotta figure out
how I'mma work with this.
I love shellfish,
but I can tell you this much.
I don't cook with it.
I didn't see the twist coming.
Oh, my God!
Would have been great
to know about it earlier in the day,
because I am Type A.
I kind of have, like,
a total time schedule laid out.
Like, every single step
I've identified already
and I've planned for.
There wasn't time
in the schedule for a twist.
Well, where I'm from, there is
no celebration, especially in the summer,
but any time of the year,
with family you gather together,
that is without seafood, okay?
We're talkin' grilled, broiled, fried,
sautéed, smoked, you name it.
So we thought we'd add
a little seafood to the mix.
I don't know how y'all are,
but I cook lobster.
I cook scallops. I cook shrimp
on the grill sometimes. It's so hard.
These could have flavor
that is succulent
or nasty.
You guys' challenge is,
we would like each of you to create
a delicious seafood appetizer
to serve 50 first responders.
-No.
All right, y'all.
Clock's tickin'.
-I'd grab a bucket and grab some seafood.
-Get smokin'. Let's go.
- Need a bucket.
- Got my bucket.
Reason we're doin' this sounds crazy,
but you gotta be able to spin on the fly.
I'm not gettin' nothin' but oysters.
I wanna see
how you adapt right off.
I wanna see who frowns and who's there,
like, "Come on, bring it, let's go."
I'm lookin' forward to that.
I'm grabbin' shrimp
because it's about the only thing
I even remotely know what to do with.
I can't believe I'm gonna do lobster.
Most everybody went for the shellfish,
like the
you know, the clams,
the mussels and the oysters.
So I was trying to strategize and it
it's not workin'.
So I grabbed lobster
because nobody else grabbed lobster.
Sorry.
Did I drop one?
- How much time we got left?
- I don't know.
Come on, guy.
I picked a combination of lobster,
crab and shrimp.
I love a smoked corn and crab chowder.
And, since I have
all those other beautiful crustaceans,
I might as well add them to the party.
I'm gonna call this
a corn and shrimp chowder.
First, my sausage,
before I even start to think about that.
Growin' up in Jamaica,
the ocean was literally my backyard.
My grandfather was a fisherman.
He'd take me out on the boat,
and this is actually
what we would sort of catch in the nets.
Some shrimp, clams and mussels.
He'd just put it all in a pot
and boil it down. And
curry's like salt in Jamaica.
It's with everything.
I'll make amazing curry
and lemon garlic smoked seafood broil.
So, uh, I'm gonna put it in the oven
to get it going, then finish it over,
uh my Green Egg
to get that smoky flavor.
In my younger days, going to college,
I worked in an oyster bar
for about a year and a half.
You gotta break the hinge,
cut the muscle at the top of the shell.
Boom, off she goes.
And they cook great on the grill.
I was happy as could be
when I saw those oysters.
I popped, man. This was like,
"Grubbo, this is your day, brother."
I'mma put a butter garlic sauce
on the oysters
and cook 'em on the grill
with a little Parmesan parsley.
I think I should have enough
to please everybody.
Now I gotta worry
about my chicken gettin' done.
Where I come from, bait ain't barbecue.
I'm nervous. I don't cook seafood.
I really don't have much of a plan
with these,
other than sauté 'em in some butter
with some lemon.
Hey, I might do
a little shiggin' while I'm here.
Can somebody give me a lesson
on how to devein a shrimp?
Come up from the back,
come across,
kind of deveinin' at the same time,
peel it open like this.
Get that black vein out the back.
That's the dookie chute.
I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeve
when it comes to cookin'.
I'm strugglin', man. I am strugglin'.
But it doesn't help that it's hot
and I'm surroundin' myself by fires.
So I've gotta do somethin'
to get myself together and regroup.
I've decided these long sleeves gotta go.
-Oh, my!
Okay. Okay, I can't I just
Uh Okay.
Good God!
If this jumps
-Why are they sca-- So scary to you?
It's just I've never had
to kill somethin' and then cook it.
There's a first time for everything.
Tina, what is happenin'
over here? Like
Oh, my!
Murder.
I don't wanna go home,
so I've just gotta get past.
being afraid of havin' to
murder the lobsters,
dispatch the lobsters.
Dispatched.
Is that the proper word?
Oh, my God, he's lookin' at me.
I don't know if I can even
If I'm tall enough to
Tina
-Ooh, Lord!
I think it's done.
I feel like you did good.
I'd hug you, but I might get you dirty.
I should have did shrimp.
The heat is on now, for sure.
Aah! My pork chops have been brimin'.
I cut 'em. I lost count.
When we got stopped
for the special challenge,
I thought these pork chops
had me nervous.
That shrimp has me nervous.
I still gotta devein 'em
and clean my shrimp.
The thing about serving
so many different dishes,
you have sides and desserts
and proteins, is timing.
I've ground my sausage once.
However, I'm not sure
we're gonna have time
for a second grind, which
Melissa is not gonna be happy about.
You have so many different things
goin' on at one time,
and it's so easy to get caught up
in doin' one thing
when you need to be doin' ten others.
What I'm gonna do
is get it out there on that grill.
My other Fourth of Julys
are not this stressful.
I gotta clean all this murder scene up.
I haven't cooked a thing.
I haven't cooked a thing!
- Ms. Sylvie.
-Yes, sir.
Can I borrow your amazing palate
to give this tri-tip a taste?
I've never had it.
I can't even get it where I am.
So I actually made a test tri-tip first,
before I started making
the rest of my tri-tip,
just so I can understand
the muscle structure,
like, how will it cook?
-Lunch.
-Little tough.
-Mm-hm?
Little tough. It's chewy.
Tri-tip has grains
running in different directions.
So you have to make sure
you're cutting those against the grain.
Otherwise, it is an inedible cut of meat.
I'm real happy
I got that test one done.
About to put the real ones on right now.
I ran this one at five.
I think I'mma run this the, uh
all the other ones at 600.
I'm gonna get this first round
on on time.
Hopefully, it'll fit.
I really hope this tray
will give me what I need and want,
'cause this my first time
cookin' on one, man.
Everybody got their style of cookin', man.
I'm old school, baby.
I'm low and slow, 'cause I don't think you
rush to make somethin' beautiful, and
it's a art to me, man.
You know what? I don't think that
50 gonna fit on here, Grub.
The biggest issue right now
is gonna be space and heat.
What's up with Boatright?
How many pork chops is he cooking?
-A boatload.
Has he started on his sides or
-his seafood?
-The seafood is yet to come.
-So he just on the pork chops?
-Yeah.
Boatright is showin'
his inexperience right now.
It's almost to the countdown
and he hasn't even started
on the seafood or the side.
No.
He hooked on those pork chops.
They better be some good pork chops.
I've ground my sausage once.
Just gonna fill this guy up.
All right.
So, I'll get one complete one.
Stretch it out.
Stretch it out.
I'll say I'm pleased
that I seem to finally have gotten
the casing on the right side.
I did jinx myself!
The casing broke.
So, we're gonna take a little pause.
No problem. Put on some gloves, um
and do the first round.
All right, we've got one hour.
-Aaah!
-One hour left in the cook.
Murder. It's a murder zone!
Time movin'.
Caught it. Caught it!
I don't wanna hold it up far
because I would like it
to not break on me.
It is gonna be really close.
My main thing,
make sure this chicken's done,
'cause the oysters are 20 minutes out,
I started on the oysters.
They only take six minutes to cook.
I think I'm on track.
Got a nice little wiggle to it.
151 on this end.
Hm.
I'm over temp on some of these pork chops.
I'm worried about Boatright, because pork
chops is such a lean, unforgivin' meat.
The very thing happened
that I didn't want to happen.
They don't have the look that I need.
If you cook it too early or too long,
you can dry it out.
I don't want no damn pork chop so dry
I gotta eat it in the rain.
I'm a low and slow guy and
there's definitely nothin' low and slow
about this competition.
I'm poachin' some butter with some garlic.
So I wanna do, like, lobster medallions
with, like, a seasoned butter.
Of course, I'm gonna put wine in it.
Oh, I sure would like to drink this.
About right now,
you ain't kiddin'.
I'm not a big drinker,
but I know Melissa likes wine.
Tina has absolutely no idea
what to do with these lobsters.
Typically, it tends to soak up the flavors
very quickly.
So you have to be very careful
about how much stuff you put on it.
I do have my burgers on right now,
but I still gotta finish my shrimp.
Thirty minutes, y'all.
I'm glad lamb is somethin'
that you don't cook well-done.
Really hot.
Put my
sausage on.
I hope we're not gonna be
graded on the consistency of size.
Worried less
about what my links
look like, because
I just needed them to be done.
All right, come on.
Come on, get on there, guys.
They smell so good, the dang bees
wanna eat it. Get up outta here!
What I have here
is the last of the pork chops going here,
and on the Traeger.
I'm fallin' behind.
I'm still lookin' back
at this shrimp, like
what am I gonna do?
That's where I'm at right now.
I still need to make the salad
and the shellfish, the shrimp.
And I have less than 30 minutes.
It is definitely not lookin' good
for me right now.
The struggle is real.
This is what you call "barbecue disaster"
at this point.
Guys, our guests are here.
Oh, God, they're here.
Whoo! Hot!
Y'all welcome to America's birthday party.
Hi!
- Happy Fourth!
- Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
Happy recreated Fourth of July.
Hi, y'all!
It ain't over till it's over.
I'm trying to salvage what I got goin' on.
I redeemed myself on some of these.
Most of 'em
I'm grabbin' right now, right at 140.
I have somethin' to put on the table.
Even if it's the only thing.
Five minutes, everybody! Five minutes.
Let's go.
Five minutes!
I'm gonna go
until they say "stop."
I think they're okay,
as good as I can do shrimp.
Man, that's good.
Ninety seconds!
Oh, no, God!
In ten, nine, eight
-seven, six, five
four, three,
two, one!
-Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
-Happy Fourth of July
- Whoo!
-It's a Fourth of July miracle.
- Yeah!
-Oh, my God.
This challenge was very hard.
Oh, hallelujah!
It's all up to Melissa and Kevin now
to taste what we put before them.
Oh, my God.
Whew.
This is for our first responders.
For the people
who put their lives on the line for us.
So you better wanna get 'em
some good stuff.
Give them some of the best food,
best barbecue
you ever cooked in your life,
because these are the people
who take care of you.
All right, judges.
Let's start with Grubbs.
I made Grubbecued chicken
with some Carolina barbecue sauce,
some garlic butter grilled oysters,
blueberry cobbler
with a little honey in it.
Boom, man. I think I can
bring the judges around. I really do.
cucumber,
topped with shrimp cooked in, uh
-Pretty good barbecue chicken.
-Tastes like good chicken.
Ooh, he's got a cake. I like cake.
I will tell you,
this barbecue saucin' is good.
-I catch sweet, I catch heat.
-Yeah.
I still don't have
quite, probably, enough salt.
- But
but I'm catchin' more flavor.
Cut that oyster.
-Nothin' special, but not bad.
- Mm. Not bad.
Ol' Grub came through a little bit.
Pretty good bounce-back.
-I was about to say.
- Yeah.
Would you like to try
some tri-tip?
I made smoked tri-tip
served with a side of chimichurri,
smoked mussels, clams and shrimp,
and a lemon curry garlic butter,
and Mexican street corn.
For being my first time ever
serving tri-tip,
I have no idea
what the judges are gonna say.
That tri-tip's not bad.
I think there may be
one or two pieces in here
that may not be cut across the grain,
so they're gonna be a little tough.
Uh-huh.
But the piece I had was very tender.
And that's what I'm judgin'.
The chimichurri sauce was excellent.
-Flair to it.
-Yes.
All right, guys.
Next up is Ashley's burger.
I made a bacon brisket burger,
mashed potato salad
and Ashley's easy shrimp.
And I'm startin' to question,
did I do enough?
This little shrimp
sad, pathetic little shrimp thing?
-Yeah.
-I don't even taste it.
-Mm.
-He said he never cooked seafood before,
-and he's right.
-And it shows.
-Yeah.
-And it shows.
Give me a little taste.
-Patty, what did he make that patty with?
-Brisket.
-He-He ground up brisket.
-Oh, my God.
Mm, mm, mm!
That is so good.
That's a good-ass burger.
This is a cowboy tomahawk rib-eye steak.
I smoked it, then grilled it.
I made some tomahawk cowboy rib-eyes,
Japanese mayo shrimp and deviled eggs.
I hope the judges like it.
I don't taste any seasonin'
on that tomahawk.
Not as much
as I would want on it.
The area surface
where you have the seasoning
is not hitting your tongue,
we're not getting any flavor.
That's a good damn deviled egg.
That's a hell of a deviled egg.
I'm not gonna say it's as good
as my deviled egg.
- Word.
-But it's a pretty good deviled egg.
How's that shrimp?
It's pretty, pretty, pretty good.
This is a sweet Italian sausage.
I made sweet Italian sausage
with a Dijon aioli,
corn and shrimp chowder,
and Mom's brownies.
The sausage, I'm pleased
that I got that sausage on the plate.
Oh. I don't know what that is.
I just got a mouthful of fat.
Ooh.
The meat emulsion
is just not proper.
I don't like the flavor.
- The flavor is not there for you?
-Mm-mm.
That sausage, she went with a 50/50
meat to fat ratio.
I mean, it was really just a hot mess.
And the end result shows.
Yeah, I gotta agree with you
on, uh on Georgia.
I was very Like, from the start,
I'm sayin' I'm a sausage guy.
Once again,
I was disappointed with the sausage.
Her chowder wasn't bad.
I really, really enjoyed that.
-Yeah.
- And to make a man
who's not a brownie man
like a brownie
I think that was pretty good too,
good dessert.
But Georgia's sausage,
which was the main course,
she totally fumbled that one.
Mr. Boatright.
Man, them pork chops look good!
I made today
the brined pork chop and the garden salad.
I never got a chance
to make Mama's dressin'.
And the shellfish
- Let me steal a little sliver.
-Yeah.
-Tender enough?
-Whoo!
That's tender as a mother's love
right there!
All right, that's-that's it!
I am hopin' with everything in me
that this pork chop is so kick-butt good
that they be like, "Hey
Biggie J, baby, you got to stay.
This pork chop's off the chain,
we need more from you."
First of all,
this is not a dish.
This is pork chops with some garnish.
He didn't get the seafood item.
-Yes.
- Very disappointing.
All he can do
is give me these two pork chops?
These better wow
the hell out of me when I eat 'em.
- That's--
-Really good.
-That is juicy, flavorful.
- Yeah.
It's actually pretty damn good.
- Yeah.
-Yeah.
This is drunken lobster.
Used a whole bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.
And I didn't drink any of it, I promise.
I made lamb kabobs,
Middle Eastern style,
and tzatziki salad and drunken lobster.
I'm really thinkin'
this can go either way.
Mmm!
Now, Melissa, you look like
you are in heaven right now.
- That is good.
-Okay.
It's that good, huh?
This is grilled perfectly.
The texture of it's good.
I don't know what's in that butter.
That may be the best lobster
I've ever eaten.
Mm. I like the lamb.
I can taste the Greek seasonings on it.
I can do with or without the salad.
-Mm.
-But the lamb, it's perfectly cooked.
It has wonderful texture.
It has great flavor.
You guys think you're ready?
-All right.
- All right, everybody!
We just wanna say
thank you guys so much for coming.
Once again, happy Fourth of July.
And let's have a round of applause
to our first responders
and EMTs who showed up tonight.
-Thank you.
- Thank y'all for comin'.
- Yeah.
- Happy Fourth!
-Yeah
-Did y'all have fun?
-Whoo!
-Yes!
-Oh, yes. Definitely.
-Did we ever?
One of you really blew us away
with your buffet dishes today.
One of y'all
went out your comfort zone,
and you nailed it,
and that's exactly what we asked for.
Today's best Fourth of July dishes
were made by
Congratulations, Tina.
-Oh!
Tina!
I'm not crying! I'm gonna jump!
- Oh! You deserve it.
-I can't believe that!
Tina, I thought your dishes
were fantastic today.
I guess I'll have to cook lamb
for people now.
Oh, my gosh, thank y'all so much!
As much as we would love
for all of you to stay,
unfortunately, we have
to send somebody home.
So, judges, whose fireworks
failed to go off?
Georgia
-Oh, no.
- step forward.
And Boatright, step forward.
Sorry to say,
both y'all plates had a few issues.
Georgia, I thought your chowder
was excellent,
but you fell short
on the main focus, your sausage.
The fat to meat ratio
was just completely off.
You should've gone with the 70/30.
You went with the 50/50.
Understood.
Boatright, this competition today
was about value.
Gettin' everything done.
Only thing we got on that plate
was a pork chop,
which I gotta say,
it was one of the best pork chops
we ever had.
You hit the ball on that.
-Hit it out the park.
-Thank you.
It was excellent, it was juicy,
it was smoky, it had good flavor,
but everybody else here
had to bring everything home.
-Yeah.
-And we needed you to bring those sides
and that seafood dish home.
We didn't have
anything else to judge, unfortunately.
I understand.
So, judges, I know
it's a hard decision to make.
Who's goin' home today?
I'm so sorry.
Boatright.
Your dish fell a little short today.
You'll be the one goin' home.
All right.
I had to make everybody else
carry the weight, and, uh
I didn't bring my A-game,
didn't make the mark.
I came to this competition
to bring myself out of my comfort zone,
and sometimes, in barbecue,
you're not bringing your A-game,
you're in your head or whatever
the case may be. You have a off day.
But you always come back.
You keep on fightin', keep on pushin',
and you live to smoke another day.
-Keep in touch.
-Definitely, definitely.
You know what?
I wanna raise a toast
for a wonderful party.
Everybody put heart and soul into it,
but I gotta give it up for our winner,
-Tina.
- Yeah! Tina!
Thank you!
Listen, y'all gonna clean all this up?
'Cause we're tired. It was a long party.
Yeah!
- We got it.
- We got it.
We got it, don't you worry.
For our next challenge,
get your wet naps and bibs ready.
We're fixin' to rack up
some serious ribs.