Sparklers (2021) s01e10 Episode Script

1
(upbeat music)
(glasses clink)
(bright upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Welcome to Sparklers.
Part cooking competition and travel show,
featuring some of the
world's best sparkling wines.
- So what makes this
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.
You might side with your friends.
You might side with a foe,
I don't know, we'll see.
- First place took a big risk
and it wound up paying
off, Meg that was
- [All] Yeah.
- That was, that was awesome.
- I was feeling a little rough there
not winning anything for a very long time,
so it's nice to win a challenge.
- Second place, George, you crushed it.
- Thank you.
- So perfectly paired.
- I needed those points,
so it feels good to have the points
but we've all become closer and closer.
I love each one of these people.
It really sucks to judge your friends,
but that's your job when you
win the Perfect Bite Challenge.
So, certainly I have to.
- This is gonna be a little controversial,
but I am gonna go with the homie, Maryam.
- Oh, you're coming with me
Okay.
- Let's go, let's go.
Let's do it.
- Let's go.
- Let's do it.
- Oh my gosh.
(indistinct chattering)
(upbeat music)
- Today's challenge is interesting.
It's a Ratatouille,
which is a peasant dish,
primarily made of root vegetables.
It's not a dish that I
would immediately think of
to pair with champagne.
It'd be really interesting to see
what kind of spin they put on it.
So depending on what they do,
it could go really well
or really poorly, I feel.
(tense music)
The two teams will be
pairing Ruinart Champagne.
With addition inspired by
Chef Ludo's Ratatouille.
- I mean ratatouille is a simple dish.
It's a vegetable stew
from south of France.
And of course our France
we have tomatoes, zucchini,
eggplant, garlic, a bit basil,
and we take all these vegetable
and make a stew with that,
And it becomes the Ratatouille.
- [Meghan] So chances are,
you've heard of Chef Ludo before.
He's a Michelin Starred chef from France,
known for taking simple
traditional French food
and elevating it.
- What I start to do
is cutting the eggplant
and marinating the eggplant in salt,
to take up all the water.
(gentle music)
Then after I saute the
eggplant with olive oil,
give a little bit of a
coloration to make them crispy.
(bright upbeat music)
(eggplant sizzling)
Then we give a coloration to the onions,
the garlic together.
We add the zucchini, the bell pepper,
and we cook everything together,
to caramelize the vegetable
a little bit together.
(bright upbeat music)
And then after, we add diced
tomato, basil, chilly flake,
and we let cook slowly,
measured for like 30 minutes.
Then we add our eggplant
and we cook again for 20 minutes.
And after we had a lot of
chopped herbs to Ratatouille.
And voila! That's it.
That's the best Ratatouille.
That's the way.
The thing about all Ratatouille,
it need to be like a
stew, melt in your mouth.
Okay, you don't want the
vegetable to be too crunchy.
You don't want that much texture.
Not too many texture.
Okay, a little bit, but not that much.
(bright upbeat music)
Oh yeah, Chef Ludo,
it's cool, it's nice.
Look at this beautiful color,
the champagne have a beautiful color.
Look at this.
Champagne, Ratatouille,
you don't think too much about that,
but it works very well together.
Very well together.
'Cause the Ratatouille's
gonna be a little bit fat
with the olive oil, you know?
So acidity, fat go very well together,
just amazing.
Amazing combination.
(bright upbeat music)
- [Matt] Ready to make some Ratatouille?
- [Claire] I'm so ready
to make some ratatouille.
- How ready are you?
- So ready.
- Yeah?
- Some Matt
- Mattatouille, or Ratatouille?
- Some Mattatouille.
Matt and Claire touille.
- So team LA, I mean, this is big.
What we're doing right now
is trying to put you in sole
possession of first place.
- I know, so no pressure whatsoever.
- No, because if we don't win,
they're both in first place
- [Claire] I know.
- And you're in second place.
- I'm in second place
and I'll have to have an
extraordinary comeback
to make that work.
I think we have everything.
- We've got what we need,
except, we gotta hit the garden.
- We gotta hit the gardens
- To get some herbs.
Okay.
- You got scissors?
- I got scissors.
- Gorgeous.
Let's go to the garden and kick some ass.
- Let's do it, let's win.
Shall we go to the theater?
- Let's go to the theater.
The Theater of Nature.
- [Matt] Na-ture.
(mellow music)
- Do they have what we need?
(footsteps pattering)
- I don't know..
- Shit!
(footsteps pattering)
- Yeah, We're not feeding the chicken.
Sorry guys.
(chickens clucking)
(mellow music)
- [Claire] That doesn't look like sage.
I mean it does, but it
doesn't feel like sage.
- [Matt] Smell it?
- I guess that's sage.
- Is it? Here.
It is today.
- How much do we want?
- We want probably five or six sprigs.
(mellow music)
- There's gotta be rosemary somewhere.
- We think, right?
- Chickens, where did you put it?
- I've never seen it like this.
Is this rosemary with these flowers.
What the
- Let me touch and smell it.
- It must be, right?
- That's rosemary.
Fuck yes, thank God.
- I've never seen that kind of Rosemary.
- Just one of these.
- Let's do two, just to be safe.
- That's nice.
Okay, well we got sage and rosemary.
- Let's get to the kitchen.
(dramatic music)
All right, we've got our
bounty from the garden.
- We've got our herbs.
- Okay.
- So now we just need to get going here.
Have you made a ratatouille before?
- Never, I've seen the movie a-bunch.
- (chuckling) Same.
- So when you try to do
ratatouille a little different,
maybe you explore other
parts of the Mediterranean?
- Yeah, cause ratatouille is
already a Mediterranean dish
that you see like in south
of France quite a bit.
But yeah, we wanted to
- Tagine.
- add some, some warm spices there
- Go a little Moroccan?
- kind of on the other side of yeah.
- Well, apricot.
- Yeah.
- And then add some apple for sweetness.
- Add some apple, we just
want a little bit of sweetness
and we're gonna add some Mascarpone
- [Matt] Oh, Yeah
- to our tomato sauce.
It's kind of at the base of
all these beautiful veggies.
- Saucy.
- Just to add some fat,
this, the Ruinart Blanc
de Blancs is so lean.
It's like a razorblade of acidity.
So it's nice to add a little
bit of this fat in there,
that this can just slice right through.
- Oppa!
(dramatic music)
- Mhh, mhh, mhh okay.
So you're gonna start
getting the sauce ready
- Let's hope.
- Correct?
- Yep.
- I'm gonna just start chopping
a lot of things. (chuckles)
Jesus Christ, I don't wanna.
All right.
(fire blazing)
- Oh, hi there?
- (Claire chuckles) An amateur.
How are you doing?
- Doing all right, how about you?
- I'm doing well. (chuckles)
So not only could I potentially
take it away if we win this,
but we have, you know, our
so-Cal pride to defend
- We got so-cal versus no-Cal.
- 'Cause last time we were against them,
we kicked their ass.
- We got to hold the title.
- Man, I said that no karma's
gonna come and get us.
- (sighs) No, I think
being confident is good.
I think that it's a
it's an important thing to be confident
because we have a really worthy team
that we're playing up against.
And you know
- Oh, they're great.
I know they did something
clever and creative.
- You got to go into it
knowing you're gonna win.
You can't hope you're gonna win.
You gotta know it.
(dramatic music)
- Yeah, I think just a
little bit of sweetness
from the apple will be really fun.
- Oh, I'm sure of that.
That's gonna be tasty.
These guys are almost ready
to make their way over
- To the sauce.
- To sauce.
- Ooh, I like the heated
- Does that smell good?
Oh
- That smells nice.
- Smells like Southern California.
AKA LA.
- Where there are winners.
- All right, so we added
our chopped up apricots.
- [Claire] Yes, sir.
- One of our kind of key ingredients
to make it a little more Moroccan.
A little bit more Northern
African-Southern Mediterranean.
Oh yeah, Tagine spice.
We got our apricots,
we got our red pepper,
garlic, shallot, thyme, sage.
The cheese is gonna add some fat.
- Yes it will.
- Oh my goodness.
I wanna just eat this.
This is how we get
Claire into first place.
(upbeat music)
- Heck yeah.
- Claire, I need your spoon
- And my face?
- and your palate.
It's been mildly salted,
two little dabs of mascarpone, Tagine.
- I say add more mascarpone.
- Cool.
I'm in.
- A tiny dash of pepper, more salt.
Oh, that's good.
- Okay, so at this point,
we're about to get this at
the bottom of our oven pan.
- [Claire] Correct
- [Matt] Which will be
our presentation pan.
- [Claire] And then I'll start lining in.
(bright upbeat music)
Okay, so just a nice base.
- I gonna cut some additional
basil right next to you,
just FYI
- Thank you, for this.
- For the top.
- Gotta make it look pretty.
Pretty for Meghan.
- She is absolutely a queen of the look,
and I mean that positively.
- Yeah.
- She really gets presentation.
(bright upbeat music)
All right, let's go get this in the oven,
and get you to first place.
Ready?
- Yeah.
- Vamonos.
- Yeah baby, let's go do it.
- Let's do it.
- Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.
There's no time.
(oven door creaking)
(suspenseful music)
I think it looks good.
- Feel good?
- I'm feeling good about it.
- I feel happy about it.
- I think it looks nice.
- It's beautiful.
- And I think it's gonna
taste really pretty as well.
- It's exciting.
- All those nice warm spices.
- We gotta get you in first place.
- We gotta get me in first place.
- Oh, let's do this, okay.
- (sighs) I'm so nervous.
I hope she likes it.
- Don't be.
- Oh, here she comes.
Hello?
- [Meghan] Hi guys, how are you?
- Good, how are you?
- Good.
- Glad to see you already have
some Ruinart in your glass.
- Yes, I didn't waste any time.
- No, we made you something lovely.
- We did.
- So we think.
- So yeah, it should be pretty fun.
- We're excited about all the
- Some fun basil, getting some
- Delicious bites.
- Delicious basil.
- [Meghan] How do you feel about it?
- I feel pretty good about it.
Like all the flavors are
coming together nicely, so
- No pressure for you, Claire.
- No pressure for me whatsoever.
(both chuckling)
Trying not to think about that.
Just trying to have fun with it, you know?
- May you enjoy it.
- Thank you.
- Am I supposed to do
the whole thing at once?
- [Claire] Put it all
in your mouth at once.
- [Matt] No, you can cut it up.
- That's gonna get
- [Claire] Bite-size.
- [Matt] Wanna make sure you
have all the right stuff.
- According to me.
- Thank you.
- Don't stare.
(dramatic music)
- (chuckling) I just love
people's faces when they eat.
- I'm gonna take another bite.
- Please.
- Does that make you more
nervous or comfort you?
- Both.
- I don't, I don't
I can't read into it.
- I learned in life,
if you're not nervous,
you're not doing the right thing.
- Oh, well
- [Claire] Being nervous means you care.
- Something about my whole
first part of this show.
- [Matt] Mmhh.
(Claire chuckles)
- Okay.
- [Claire] Okay.
- Thanks for
- She's very stoic.
- Our pleasure, Meg.
- Absolutely.
- I appreciate it.
- Enjoy the next round.
- Okay, will see you guys later.
- Cheers.
- But only mildly enjoy the next,
you know
(Meg chuckles)
We'll see.
- You feel okay?
- I feel good about it.
Like you know what?
- Yeah.
- I think we did a great job.
- But we gotta get you to first place.
- Yeah.
- Let's do this.
- Let's do it!
- Get your glasses,
let's get outta here.
- I'm gonna take this, 'cause
it's actually really good.
Now, I feel good, whoo!
- I can't believe I'm back
in the kitchen with you.
- I know, right?
We're about to crush it.
- I can't believe you chose me.
- (chuckling) I'm surprised myself.
I'm not gonna lie.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Heck yeah!
Woo! Hoo-hoo-hoo!
- Frenemies?
(both chuckling)
- Yeah, we're definitely
frenemies, for sure.
we have equal amount of points right now,
if I'm not mistaken.
- I know.
So we're like in this together,
but not
- At the same time.
- together.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I want you to win,
because I need to win.
- (chuckling) Exactly.
- But when this is over,
it's anyone's game.
- Oh, you going down.
You going down.
- Okay, all right.
- But for now
- You can keep talking.
- So cheers.
- Cheers.
- Yes, yes, yes.
So we're doing it pretty
classic style at first, right?
- Yep.
- But then we're gonna,
you have this amazing, brilliant idea
to kind of turn it, make
it into a sandwich, right?
- Yeah.
- So we're gonna do like an
open face-style sandwich,
make it super saucy,
so it's not really dry.
- And rich, because the wine is creamy
- Exactly.
- The Ratatouille is like,
hopefully, a longish cook,
but it's not super fatty.
- Right, exactly.
- So some butter on caramelized toast
should add a nice
- All of that.
- Yeah, layers of flavor.
Okay, but we also need more herbs.
- Yes, we should definitely
- We gotta go to the garden.
- Yes, let's do it.
- All right, let's go.
- Let's do it.
(dramatic music)
- We need rosemary a
little bit, and thyme.
And then you got chives, right?
- [George] I did get some chives.
- [Maryam] So maybe we
should grab some of those
for garnish?
- [George] Yeah, let's do it.
- [Maryam] This is so beautiful.
- We got enough thyme
(both chuckling)
- I like your witty pun.
Nailed it.
I didn't know this was
gonna feel like foraging.
- Right. (chuckling)
It's such a big garden.
- Mr. Sham now, I did a
little loop over there.
- Oh, okay.
- Chives are where?
- Chives are right over here
in this corner.
- All right cool.
- I think there might be some,
I don't know what's over there.
- Oh, those are some peppers.
(suspenseful music)
(footsteps pattering)
It's really nice.
- I think I found thyme, Maryam.
- It's about time.
- I think so.
It smells like it.
- No?
- No, it smells like it.
I think this is it.
- There's lavender,
but that's not really
what we're looking for.
(George chuckles)
- Is that it?
- Yep, this is great.
- Right, I'ma go head back.
- Yeah, I'm coming.
I've got some more little
freshies over here,
I'm on my way.
(chicken clucking) Okay,
we got a plan, right?
- [George] Yes, yes.
- Okay.
You get started over there,
I'm gonna stand here and chop some herbs,
and all that fun stuff.
- Perfect, perfect.
- I'm so excited to make
this into a sandwich
because a lot of times
vegetarians, you know,
they go to a sandwich
shop and they're like,
"Ugh! There's nothing for me to eat."
- Right, right.
- So I thought it'd be really
fun to do a take on that.
But at the same time also,
I feel like we talked about
this with the cassoulet.
You want like more, a
little bit more like flavor,
depth of flavor sometimes.
- Right.
- Plus you don't have a lot of time.
So it kind of helps give us some flavor
without needing a long, long cook time.
So we're gonna put a little
bit of our twist on it, right?
- [George] Yes.
- Some smoked paprika.
- Yes, definitely smoked paprika.
- I brought it from home.
- (chuckling) You always come so prepared.
- That already smells delicious.
(suspenseful music)
You know, we don't live that
far from each other in Napa,
we can cook together more often.
- We should. We should definitely
cook together more often.
- When this is all over.
- Yeah, for sure.
- I'm not gonna give you any
tips or tricks before that.
(both chuckling)
(vegetables sizzling)
- I think this would actually benefit
from a little reduction
from the champagne.
Just reduce it a little bit.
- Do you want to?
- Yeah, why not?
- Why not?
- Yeah.
- Go for it.
(vegetables sizzling)
That looks amazing.
(indistinct)
- I think it'd be good without.
(machine whirring)
Oh yeah.
- The good stuff.
- Oh yeah, I like that.
- [Maryam] Yep.
- Hey, I like sauce, so,
I think that's pretty.
- Plus we'll save some for
the bread, she can dip in.
- Oh yeah, yeah.
Is it like that?
- I don't know.
- Do you think that looks good?
- I don't know, not really.
I'm just kidding.
- (chuckling) I know you're not
Kidding, not kidding.
- Oh God, these people
like you see pictures of
Ratatouille and you're like,
"Oh my God, that's stunning."
I feel like this whole episode
and challenge with Ruinart,
for me, has been like
a lesson in discipline.
Like, just slow down and take your time.
Don't rush.
Maybe I needed it.
All right, we gotta get this in the oven.
Ready?
- Yes, let's do it.
(oven door slams)
- All right, let's go.
We got to plate up.
- Let's do it, let's do it.
- It looks amazing.
- I'm very excited.
- We only have a few minutes left.
So the bread is buttered,
and extra butter here.
- Now I like that, actually.
- Not enough butter, not enough.
Just kidding.
- All right, I'm trying
to heat this up now.
- Okay.
(sauce sizzling)
Yeah, cool.
- Perfect.
I think the marscapone down first.
And then the light sauce.
- Yep, go for it.
I'm coming over with this to you're right.
- Cool.
(dramatic music)
- Me coming in.
- Coming in hot.
And actually, we could
probably do two layers.
- Okay, I'm coming in, coming in.
So much for about a bite from the hat.
What do you think?
- That looks great.
- Oh, look at it, oozing mascarpone.
- Cheers, my friend.
That was fun.
It was good.
- Cheers.
- How do you feel?
- I'm so excited.
I'm excited.
- Good, good.
- I think we did something down here.
- (chuckling) We did something.
- Hey, Meg?
- Hi, fam.
How are you?
- [Maryam] Good, how are.
- Good.
- [Maryam] Welcome to our kitchen.
- Thank you.
- You have an empty glass
that needs to change.
- Whoo! You guys popped the magnum.
- Maglife
- Now we're talking.
- Maglife.
- Maglife.
Magnums can show you care.
- (chuckling) It's true.
- (chuckling) Thank you.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
- Salute, my friend.
(glasses clink)
Cheers.
- Good to be back.
- I thought the Ratatouille
was a really interesting pairing.
So I'm interested to see
what you guys are showing.
Are you done with it?
- Yeah, yeah.
- We did too.
We wanted to make a classic ratatouille,
but we also wanted to like
present it in a different way.
So we were excited that
it was a vegetarian dish,
and decided to make kind of
like an open face sandwich
with it.
- Cool.
- It did look really
pretty in the cast iron,
but we think this looks very nice too.
- Do you know that if the other team wins,
Claire's in first place?
- That's wild.
- [Meghan] Which is crazy.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So do I like dip it in the sauce, or?
- However you like.
- Okay.
- Yeah, yeah, just bite in, go in
- And we have a little
towel on the side for you,
should you need a little on that.
- Right?
(George chuckles)
- It's quite the sandwich.
- [Meghan] It's beautiful.
It's like one that I would like eat alone.
So no one sees what it looks
like while I'm eating it.
- Sorry to make you do it, in this
- Very good.
(all chuckling)
(dramatic music)
- Yeah, make sure you get
all the veggies too in there.
That's, it's important
- I'll take a few bites.
- The veggies are very, very important.
(tense music)
- [Maryam] Pressure's on.
I always get so nervous at this part.
- Yeah, me too.
- Okay.
(both chuckling)
All right guys, if you
would gather everybody up,
we can go to the results.
- Okay.
- Amazing.
- Bring the magnum. (giggling)
- The magnum is definitely coming.
- Okay, thank you.
- Thank you, thank you so much.
- If we don't win this, we're in trouble.
- Right, right.
- In big trouble.
I really wanna win another
prize before this is all over.
- I just want to win
one prize. (chuckling)
I've come in second so many
times. (both chuckling)
- Does that mean we can do now?
We're here.
- All right, one cheers,
'cause that's over.
- Okay, cheers.
(dramatic music)
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Maglife.
- Whoo!
Well that was
- Yes.
That was a fun one, yeah?
- It was good.
- It was so fun.
- Another
interesting challenge.
- Yeah.
Have any of you made ratatouille before?
- Not until this day.
- Yeah.
- So anything could happen from today?
- This is intense.
- And look,
so-Cal versus no-Cal, what do you know?
- It's real.
- Here we are again.
- Here we are again!
Well, hey, this really like defines
what happens for the ending, I think.
- Yeah, this is where it
- Yeah.
- This is where things are happening.
- The three-way tie
It's about to get broken.
- Three-way tie will be broken.
- Yes, there's so much pressure right now.
- It's either gonna be single first place,
or a tie for first place with you two.
I don't know which one.
- It's tough no matter what.
- Regardless, yeah.
We're fighting to the end, no matter what.
- Of course.
- No matter what, cheers guys.
This is a good one.
This is a fun one.
- This was a tough one, and a good one.
- It's true, that magnum
- My precious.
- Hi team?
- Oh, hello.
- How's it going?
- Good, it's good.
- How are you?
(men chuckling)
- It's nerve wracking.
- Yes, yes, yes.
- Whoo! So ratatouille, I don't
know who came up with that.
- Sounds like rat
- I mean, you guys actually surprised me,
'cause I was like, how is
this gonna go with champagne?
And it just proved once again,
that champagne goes with everything.
Sparkling goes with everything.
So
- [Matt] Especially champagne.
- and you guys did not make my job easy.
And this one was really tough.
And as we know, there's a lot on the line.
- There is, we just spoke about that.
- They keep reminding us.
- Yeah, I mean, I tried to
like quickly run the scenarios
and it's kind of crazy.
- It's almost, yeah.
- So, if I've done my math correctly
- Uh-oh.
- If you guys win,
Claire's in first, and the three
of you are tied for second.
If you guys win, you're
duking it out for first.
But either way,
the final One Bite challenge
determines everything.
- So much more real now.
- Yeah.
It just got real competitive,
as we all became closer friends.
- So no pressure.
- So you know,
No pressure, yeah.
- I'll drink to that.
- No pressure at all.
No pressure, no pressure, no pressure.
Just some Ruinart.
(tense music)
- You guys both gave me
something really awesome.
You guys had beautiful plating.
You know, I love creative elements.
I love being a little off the
charts with my ingredients.
So it was really cool that
you guys included apple,
which was unexpected, and
the plating was beautiful.
And then you guys made a
lovely open face sandwich.
Also unexpected.
I loved the sauce on the side.
Everything was delicious.
It was really, really,
really, really hard to decide.
And I have to go with what
paired with the sparkling.
(Claire weeping)
Okay, are you guys ready?
- [Claire] No.
- Ready as we'll ever be.
- Yeah, no, I'm not actually.
- (sighs) This is this
is a really hard one.
So
(chuckling)
Claire and Matthew,
you guys with the little
bit of apple, and
- Wait, hold on, she
hasn't said we won yet.
- Yeah, yeah.
- You guys got it.
- You guys got it,
but that little bit of apple,
like kind of pop of acid,
that really matched
well with the champagne.
I have a special place
in my heart for you too
as you both know.
So automatically, I was like,
oh, it's definitely gonna
be George and Maryam.
But yeah, so that's the way it went down.
But both were really I mean, literally,
it was really hard for me to
pick a winner on this one.
So now we all have to go after Claire.
- Yeah, I was like, "That
was a target on my back."
- You're on top of the mountain now.
- You're going down.
- [Meghan] And now, Claire has to go down.
'Cause the three of you are tied.
- That's so gnarly.
- I think the most dangerous
zone right now is you three.
- Yes.
- I know you're not sorry.
I know you're not sorry.
- Whew!
- I think there's a way
I can still tie with you guys as well.
- I'm sure.
- There is?
- So that we're all on the same
page, Claire has 12 points.
The three of you are
tied with nine points.
I've got six.
So I'm climbing my way up from the bottom.
- Hey girl.
- Still
Claire, you're adorable, but
we're all coming for you.
(all laughing)
- [Matt] Yeah, let's do it.
- Go baby!
(all laughing)
- [Matt] Damn! The drama!
- So much drama.
- [Claire] The drama is palpable!
- [Matt] Drama for your mama.
- It's stress.
- It's going down though.
- This is gonna be
intense, this next episode.
- One last "One Bite Challenge."
- We have a lot of champagne.
- We do.
(crickets chirping)
(upbeat music)
- [Matt] The strategy involved
here is psychological.
- [Claire] There was
for me a clear winner.
- [George] I've been watching
Meg just kind of rise,
and kick all of our asses.
- [Meghan] Claire, are you nervous?
You should be.
- We're gonna throw a curve ball.
- You guys, I respect that.
'Cause that's what I would
do too. (Maryam chuckling)
- [Claire] This is it.
- [Matt] This defines a lot of our lives.
- [Maryam] No pressure.
- [Matt] Learned in this challenge,
we got to go big or go home.
And I'm not ready to go home yet.
(upbeat music)
(glasses clink)