Sparklers (2021) s01e05 Episode Script

1
(suspenseful music)
(glasses clink)
(inspiring piano music)
- [Narrator 1] Welcome to Sparklers,
part cooking competition and travel show,
featuring some of the
world's best sparkling wines.
Each week, the contestants
have specific ingredients
they must pair with a sparkling wine.
- [Narrator 2] There are two
challenges for each wine,
a perfect bite and a main dish.
- [Narrator 1] With each challenge,
three points are on the
table for the winners.
- [Narrator 2] At stake is
an all-expense trip paid
to Limoux, France, the
birthplace of sparkling wine,
to visit Faire La Fete
Sparkling Wine House.
- [Meg] Last week, I won
the Perfect Bite Challenge.
And as a judge, declared
George and Claire the winners
of the Main Dish Challenge.
- [Woman] Whoa!
- What?
Oh, my God.
- [George] Wow.
- Congratulations, guys.
- [Meg] So, as it stands,
here's the leaderboard.
George is winning with six points,
while the rest of us
are all tied for second,
with three points each.
This week, everyone is on their own again,
pairing a perfect oyster bite
with Italian sparkling wine
from Villa Sparina.
(bright acoustic music)
- It's your birthday.
- I am so excited for today.
- [Meg] A new day.
- I can drink whenever I want?
- [Meg] It's your birthday.
- It's my birthday!
- It's your birthday!
- Happy birthday!
- I brought you some
wine for your birthday.
- Oh, wine, what is that?
- Let's do it.
- [Meg] Some Villa Sparina.
- Yes, today, Villa Sparina.
All right, so this wine is coming to us,
of course, from Italy.
They are based in Gavi,
which is in Piedmont.
- Piedmont.
Piedmont.
- And the wine is made
from the Cortese grape.
- Oh!
- It's really different from
what we've actually been doing.
- We've been doing Pinots and
Chardonnays, and traditional.
- Birthday girl?
- Oh, please, thank you.
- So 30 months on the lees.
- It's traditional method, as well.
- Yes, exactly.
- That's great.
(playful string music)
- [Claire] This is a region called Gavi.
It's located in Italy, as well.
- This is where we get truffles.
We get vitello tonnato.
We get the most incredible pastas.
You can't escape the
food and wine pairing.
- [Narrator 2] Sparkling
wine from Piedmont
is becoming more important.
- And they are producing sparkling wines
also using the traditional
method, similar to Franciacorta.
- [Narrator 2] It's actually
the only sparkling wine
we're talking about not made
from the traditional Champenois varieties,
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, especially.
- [Claire] They're
focusing in on the area's
indigenous grape varieties,
which really gives the
wine a sense of place,
a sense of terroir.
It makes it a little more
distinct and a little more special
at the end of the day.
- To have a sparkling wine
made of Cortese, sets it apart.
It's in a league all its own.
- This week, the guest judge
for the perfect bite challenge
is Ben Jacobsen from
Jacobsen Salt Company.
- I'm excited to hear
what we get to work with.
I think we can go a lot of
different directions with it.
There's always something.
- It's so versatile.
- You can pair a lot of things with this.
- It could be something rich.
It could be something fresh and light.
- So many different ways.
- Hey, everybody.
- Hi!
- Hey, how are you?
- How are you all?
- Good.
- Good to see you all.
Welcome.
I'm Ben Jacobsen.
I started Jacobsen Salt
about 10 years ago.
We're based like 85 miles west of here,
and I'm on the water on
Netarts Bay quite a lot.
In that bay, tens of millions
of oysters are farmed.
Over the course of 10 years
of spending a lot of time
in and around the water,
I've gotten to know
oysters relatively well.
So I think the challenge
today is going to be
to do your best oyster preparation
or the oyster preparation of your choice
with five or fewer ingredients,
and then pair them up with
this, which is delicious.
Any questions?
- What don't you like?
(laughing)
- To avoid.
- Take some notes.
- Not a big fan of mayo, personally.
And I know that a lot of
people will think I'm an idiot
for that reason, but
I'm okay with that, too.
But, other than that, anything
goes, for me, at least.
But you should make what you all like
and what you know is best
for your preparation.
Today's winner of the competition will win
two cases of Villa Sparina.
(glasses clink)
Nice to build up your cellar bubbles.
We're also gonna hook you up
with a bunch of Jacobsen salt.
- Nice!
- Delicious!
- So good for the kitchen.
- Also, the winner of the
perfect bite challenge will
be the judge and the host,
which could be good or bad, I guess.
(laughing)
Cheers.
- Cheers.
- See you soon, for sure.
- Thank you.
(exciting music)
- Anybody got good ideas?
- Who wants to go?
- Who's feelin' strong?
- I got nerves, not first.
(squeals)
- You get to say if you want.
- I'll go second.
- Second.
- I'll go third.
- Third?
(laughing)
- I'll go first.
(glasses clink)
Not 'cause I have an idea,
but because I want to get it over with.
- I'll go second to last.
- Okay, I'll take last.
- There you go.
- I'll take last.
(glasses clink)
(suspenseful music)
- First up is Maryam,
the winner of the perfect
bite challenge from week one.
- I'm really excited about this challenge.
We have beautiful Kumamoto oysters,
which actually are the
perfect oyster for this wine.
I love the brininess and
the freshness of a Kumamoto,
but they have some cream too,
which will play really
nicely with the wine.
Unlike some of the other
wines we've paired with,
there's opportunity to really
bring some bright acidity
into the dish that I want to create.
I'm not confident enough
in my cooking skills
to grill an oyster.
I've never done that before,
but I do want to bring an
element of grilling into my dish.
So I'm going to go ahead
and use one of the leeks.
Just wash it off real quick.
I'm going to put this right on the grill.
I'm going to use some oil,
pretty judiciously,
because I'm going straight
onto a nice hot grill.
I don't have a lot of time to grill this,
but I just want the char,
because I think the char will
be really nice with this wine.
(suspenseful music)
I'm not going to season this.
I don't have enough wiggle
room with ingredients.
So it's just going on
the grill with olive oil.
I'm going to give it about
30 seconds on each side.
I just want to go for
the flavor of the char.
All right, checking.
I'm not getting as much
color as I would hope.
I'm literally like searching
for the hottest part.
It's a really hot grill.
I just don't want to run out of time.
Thank God.
I have color on the leek.
So, my next plan is
I'm actually just going
to pre-squeeze the lime.
Once I get my lime ready
and my fennel ready,
I'm literally just gonna garnish,
and I'm gonna drizzle a
little bit of what is dripping
from the honeycomb.
I'm really excited to feature
the honey in this dish.
Probably a lot of people are like,
what are you talking
about, honey with oyster,
but I'm willing to take a risk today.
Now comes the really scary part,
shucking the oysters.
I've shucked oysters,
but usually it's like on the beach
and there's the confidence
of three glasses of rosé
and there's not cameras around.
I don't want to stab myself.
I can tell anyone who's
ever opened an oyster
is probably sitting at home
wondering what in God's name I'm doing.
I'm asking myself the same
question, so don't worry.
There it is.
Cut.
One down, two to go.
Wow, this is going to be bad.
I'm gonna run out of time.
I can just imagine how I might
have done that differently,
but we're going to move on.
Very quickly, I'm just going
to chop my little leek up here.
What matters more to me is the flavors
work well with the wine.
Then, going straight for that lime.
I do like the traditional use of lemon,
but this is just a fun take on it.
Then, I'm gonna just play a
little bit with this honey.
Could be interesting,
could also be really bad.
I've learned from these competitors.
If you're not willing to take risks,
you're gonna just end up in last place.
I just love this green element
that I'm trying to bring to the wine.
I think the wine can really withstand.
I don't really need the lime
zest in the oyster itself.
I just want it to look
pretty and delicate.
Oh, Jesus.
Look out.
That was my beautiful bite, too.
Lime didn't want to play with me,
but I do have this really
pretty grilled leek.
Best to get out of my own
way and say I'm finished.
Hi, Ben.
- Hey, Maryam, how's it goin'?
- Welcome.
It's good, thank you so much.
Thanks for coming to my kitchen.
- Of course, it's beautiful.
- Please, enjoy an oyster.
- Excellent.
- Oh, I'm sorry if
there's a shell in there.
I'm a little out of practice.
- It's really nice.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, it does go really well together.
- Thank you.
- I like it a lot.
I love the leek in there, for sure.
That's a nice charred complexity to it.
- Thank you so much.
I'm glad you liked it.
- Good luck.
Cheers.
- Thank you.
- Thanks for the sip
of wine and the oyster.
- Of course, thank you.
I'm really pleased with Ben's feedback.
I'm also surprised.
I feel like toward the end
there I was falling apart.
When we're talking about
a challenge like this,
it's either take risks or
completely leave the oyster alone,
which I was tempted to do honestly.
Fingers crossed.
We'll see how it goes today.
- Alrighty, oysters.
I have shucked an oyster before,
but actually I'm not going
to start with shucking.
I lied.
I'm going to do that last.
I'm going to do apples, chives,
and some red wine vinegar.
I'm going to have like a nice little shave
of cucumber on there.
Just keeping it really nice and fresh.
Then, I'm actually going to top it
with a little bit of this smelt roe.
Gives it a little
salinity and a little pop,
along with the apple.
I really, really hope that he likes this.
I'm going to get started
here with my apple.
I clearly don't know what I'm doing.
I mean, it's fun.
It's not fun.
I don't want to ruin the beautiful oyster.
I just want to knock this out
of the way so it can absorb.
'Cause normally you want these to sit,
to absorb the flavor and
to chill in the fridge.
But I obviously don't have
a lot of time to do that.
I wonder how Maryam did.
Maryam always goes into
this just being like,
I have no idea what I'm going to do,
and then she makes something ridiculous.
So, I'm sure she killed it.
This is a little sweetness to it, though.
I like that.
And, especially with this
wine, like really zesty citrus.
Alrighty, red wine vinegar.
I'm going to put some chives, as well.
The challenge for me in this
is the five ingredients,
'cause I'd love to have this
be a champagne vinegarette
and put some of the wine in it,
but I can't do that
cause I can only do up
to five more ingredients.
Oh, well.
That's the challenge, right?
I'm left-handed, so this should be fun.
I'm just gonna get into the joint
and I'm going to start
kind of wiggling in.
Please, God, don't let
me kill myself today
with the shucking.
Then, I'm gonna twist it.
There it is.
Oh, thank God.
Thank you for your
sacrifice, little oyster.
Three oysters shucked.
I should have minced the
apples maybe a little bit more.
And then I'm going to do cucumber
and then the smelt on top.
Eh, done.
I'm done.
(laughing)
I'm done.
- Hey, Claire.
- Hi, Ben, how are you doing?
- Good, happy birthday.
- Oh, thank you, appreciate it.
- Cheers.
- I got a fun challenge for my birthday.
- It's beautiful.
- Oh, thanks!
I love, I mean, everybody
loves Kumamoto oysters.
I think they're one of the most
popular varieties of oyster
and they're so sweet and
so fresh and so pretty.
And these are like really
juicy, nice oysters.
- Good job shucking these.
I can see.
- Really?
- I think so.
- That was the most stressful part.
I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
- You're going to have one, as well?
- Okay.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Oh, I didn't even get a oyster.
(laughing)
- Truly nice.
The apple and the cucumber, really nice.
That reminds me of a spa.
- Thank you.
- Cheers.
- Happy birthday.
- Thanks, man.
See you in a little bit.
I think maybe the smelt got
a little bit lost for me.
I actually didn't get that,
'cause the apples were
so crunchy and bright,
but I like the spa comment.
I'm pretty happy with it.
See how it goes.
- Hey, hey!
I am excited to shuck some oysters.
I don't have too much experience doing it,
so we'll see how it goes.
I'm excited, because I love oysters.
I love them a lot.
This will be pretty interesting
to see how we get it.
I've got half of it.
There's one.
She does not want to.
There she is.
I got it.
(upbeat electronic music)
She looks nice.
Perfect.
I'm gonna try to do kind of
like a foam or a lemon foam,
because I want it to be light,
but still have some character.
You want these egg whites.
(beater whirring)
I think that looks good.
I think that looks good.
Next, for my second ingredient,
I'm going to use a
little bit of lemon zest,
just to give it some
brightness and some freshness.
Now that that's done,
for my third ingredient,
some chopped chives.
Nothing too crazy.
So we have egg, we have
lemon, we have chive.
I think I'm going to finish it off
with just a little bit of caviar.
For my final ingredient,
what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna do some mustard flower.
I believe we're good.
(hands clapping)
- Hey, George.
- Hey, how are you?
- Good, how are you?
- Cheers.
- Good to see you, cheers.
- Likewise, likewise.
So, I prepared some oysters for you.
- It's really pretty.
- I hope you enjoy it.
Awesome.
- Thank you.
May I?
- Yeah, please.
- I'm going to take the center
one if that's all right.
- Awesome, yeah.
- It looks great to me.
Wow, that foam is crazy.
- Right on.
- It's really good.
- Oh, wow.
Thank you so much.
- It's totally surprising.
(laughing)
- That's really nice.
- Oh, wow, thank you.
- It works really well with the wine.
The foam, especially,
kind of brings out the
creaminess of the oyster.
I think it's awesome.
I've never had foam.
Is that meringue or lemon
meringue but egg foam?
- Yeah, it's a play on a meringue.
Exactly.
- Really, really good.
- Thank you so much.
- Have a good rest of your day.
- You too, take care.
- Thanks.
- Cheers.
Feel really good about it.
This was really fun.
Outside of my box, comfort zone,
'cause I usually don't shuck oysters,
but I hope he enjoyed it.
It sounds like he did.
Awesome.
(laughing)
- All right,
I am nervous.
The oyster perfect bite
challenge is going to get me.
Let's go.
I am going to do a very simple
mignonette, quick mignonette,
with shallots and with cilantro,
a little take on what
we would normally do.
I'm not going to have a lot of time
to get it set for flavor,
so we're just going to go
and get the best we can.
We're going to use the micro bullet
to get all the texture together.
That is just how we're
going to roll today.
(suspenseful music)
I love shallot.
I love texture.
I love the flavor.
I love vinegar,
and cilantro is something
that's not traditional
for this use.
I kind of like that.
White wine vinegar in a bowl.
This is important.
I need to have some acid
to go into this dish.
Get this quickly on and ready to rock.
(blender whirring)
That's going to be a
little thicker than normal,
but, in the interest of
time, I'm going for flavor.
'Cause I got to shuck those
oysters at some point.
And one thing I haven't mentioned yet,
I've never shucked an oyster in my life.
So, Bob's your uncle there.
Next, I'm gonna cut jalapeno.
Also a risk I'm willing to take.
This is going to be fun.
I want as thin as I can possibly
get these cross-sections.
I want the flavor and the look,
but I don't want too much heat.
I'm gonna help it with
some acid from this.
I'm really actually very excited
about how this is gonna go.
Let's try these oysters out.
I've never done this before.
Wish me luck, America.
I've seen a lot of videos.
I've eaten a lot of oysters.
I've just never had the chance to really
get in there myself.
I know there's a muscle
I got to cut at the top,
get a separation, keep the licker intact,
underneath this guy,
so that way there can be a
beautiful bite for our judge.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Kumamotos.
Wow, they are sexy.
(forceful exhale)
Take a deep breath.
It's gonna be okay.
I love eating oysters.
That's the first time I've ever done that.
That's insane.
Thank you, guys.
No seeds, get the acid.
(forced exhale)
Oyster time.
(deep inhale)
Glove's coming off.
It's time for judgment.
- Hey, Matthew.
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
(glasses clink)
- I wanted to put
together something simple,
but also something a little bit daring.
I know you eat a lot of oysters.
I know you have great access here.
So, to be true to the oyster,
but also for this wine pairing,
which I'm so passionate about pairing.
May I ask you to taste the
one closest to you, please?
- Absolutely.
Join me here.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- To the fruits of our labor.
- It's really good, to
the fruits of your labor.
I just got to taste.
It's excellent.
I really like the jalapeno in there.
Nice job.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Appreciate that.
- Thank you.
- I think that went well.
My bite was good.
I hope his bite was equally good.
I'm a bold kind of guy.
I got to go bold.
So we'll see.
- I am pretty sure that
everyone shucked their oysters
and that took a long time
and there's only 12 minutes
and everyone looked really stressed.
So I have the advantage of seeing that.
I'm gonna throw these on the grill
and hope that they open up
on there, fingers crossed.
Definitely never done this before.
This is a huge risk, but I
think that's what this is about.
Whoa!
Oh, dear God.
I'm gonna do butter.
Haven't completely decided
exactly what I'm doing yet,
so I'm gonna give myself some
options while that cooks.
(upbeat music)
Not quite done, I don't think.
This is the part that might screw me.
(laughing)
This is torture.
They're big enough.
They're not gonna fall through.
I'm just gonna put them
right on the grill.
I'm gonna take a drink of sparkling.
I don't have much time left.
Oh, it's open.
Yes.
Look.
That actually looks really nice.
Oyster doesn't count.
I have butter, shallot.
That's it so far.
No.
Oh, no.
They're getting ready.
They're not quite there.
I need the other oysters to open.
Lime.
I only have one, but that's
all I need for the judge.
If I can make this happen in 30 seconds,
we're good to go.
The others didn't open,
which means I can't taste it.
That's not ideal.
I have no idea how this is
gonna pair with the wine
or taste, for that matter.
For the judge I'm done,
but I do need to go grab those
other oysters off the grill.
- Hey, Meghan.
- Hi, Ben.
- How's it going?
- Oh, man.
I only have one for you,
because the others didn't open in time.
So I haven't been able to try it,
but I really hope it
pairs well with the wine.
- It looks really good.
I have to say my favorite
way of eating oysters
is barbecued with butter.
That was my favorite way
walking into this day,
so I think it's a pretty good start.
It's really good.
Mm.
It's really good.
Can I offer a little bit of?
- Yeah, go ahead.
- I think the acid could
have been pared back,
because you have both acid
from the lime and the Tabasco,
but overall, it's delicious.
Good luck.
- Thank you.
- Could you round up everybody
and we'll do the official judging?
- Absolutely, yep.
- Awesome, cool.
Thank you.
- Thanks, Ben.
That was nerve wracking.
The time constraint got me,
I definitely took a chance
trying something new,
and I got one done.
That's better than zero.
So at least Ben got to try it.
- Guys, they have all our dishes out here.
I want to see what we did.
Oh!
- Oh, my.
- [Claire] Oh, that's so pretty.
- Wow, that's beautiful.
- [Claire] Oh, look at the plating.
- Wow, wow.
- Oh, wow, this looks gorgeous.
- Oh, damn.
- I still have two on the grill.
(laughing)
- We're almost a half dozen.
- Hey.
- [Claire] It's time, it's time.
- So how do you think it went?
- It was kinda rough.
- [Meg] I'm still nervous.
- It's so different.
- Just cooking oysters.
(laughing)
- I'm proud of us.
I think we did a great job.
- Really cool.
- Did you have a chance
to try each other's?
- No.
- No.
- [Matthew] Just visuals.
- [Ben] Just visuals?
I thought everybody's was really good.
Everybody's definitely
had a different idea
and different approach to it,
which I thought was great.
Meghan, your grilled oyster.
If I had to take kind of
all judginess out of it,
that's how I would normally eat oysters.
You chefed it up a little bit
with a little Tabasco sauce.
Claire, your oyster was so good.
Really, really enjoyed it,
especially with the roe on top.
Matthew, I think you were the only one
that used any little bit
of heat or chile kind of in
its most pure form.
I thought that was really smart.
I love really thinly-sliced
jalapenos, personally.
Great job, everybody.
I think I'm gonna pick the first loser,
also second place, right now.
The second place, in my opinion,
but I'm only me, is
George.
- Wow.
- [Claire] It's so pretty.
- George, you had chives,
lemon, whipped egg,
sturgeon caviar, and mustard flower.
I thought it was exceptional.
I've never had foam or meringue
of any sort on an oyster
and I thought that was
really, really smart.
- Man, thank you so much.
- I thought it was delicious.
It's nice to have every
ingredient there that counts,
that does something.
Great job.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
So for me, the dish that was the best,
that stood above the rest
was Maryam's dish.
(gasping)
- What?
- Damn, girl.
- For me, Maryam, obviously.
Grilled leek, which I thought
was really, really smart.
The leek actually really
shined through for me.
I tasted a lot of that char
and I love char flavor.
For me, that leek
and the charred flavor
really counterbalanced
the sweet brininess of the oyster.
- Wow.
This was a really cool challenge to win.
I really wasn't expecting it.
But, if I look around
at what everybody made,
one of the things I noticed
that I learned about in the caviar edition
of this perfect bite was that
I needed to make sure that
the main ingredient shines.
So, I didn't do much to the oyster
and just put a few things to the side
that I thought might make it better.
And I guess what that means
is I learned something,
at the very least, through this process.
- This means Maryam,
that you're judge of the next competition.
(laughing)
- I'm not making any
friends here right now, Ben.
Thanks so much for picking me.
- I had no idea.
- No, I'm not a villain,
but here we go again, America.
I find myself in this chair
and I know everyone's gonna be upset,
and I'm already nervous.
I am guaranteed to upset someone.
I guess that's the name of the game.
- Now, I leave you all to pick the teams.
George, I think you're
up for picking your team,
so, go for it.
- This is a hard decision, too.
All of you all are so talented
and I don't want to pick.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to pick who I
have not worked with yet
and I'm very excited to work with.
So, Meg, let's do it.
- [Matthew] Team LA.
- Yeah!
- Napa VLA.
- [Claire] It's NorCal versus SoCal.
- I love it, I love it.
- Let's do it.
- Let's get it done.
- I'm ready.
- I want to be more ready.
(suspenseful music)
- It's going to come down
to whoever makes the dish
that pairs best with this wine.
- Let's do this.
- Let's do this.
- Risotto challenge.
- Who's in the house?
- Who's in the house?
- I'll be fine,
as long as Maryam doesn't screw me again.
- Put some butter in there, too.
- That's perfect.
That's good.
- Go one, stop.
And then go two.
- The winner of the Villa
Sparina challenge is.
(suspenseful music)
(glasses clink)