Original subtitles

Welcome to the heart of America.

Barbecue country.

Home to the ultimate test of pit fire mastery.

I'm talking about the one and only Barbecue Showdown.

The sexiest thing in barbecue.

Oh!

We're back!

Whoo!

- And we did not come to play. - Yep.

Buckle up, buttercup.

Tens of thousands applied,

but only nine of the most talented barbecue cooks in America made the cut.

I just hope this decision I made was a good one.

Amen, sister.

These cooks are here to show us their stuff.

Yes! Oh, look at that.

And you won't believe what we have in store for them.

Ooh, I love a plot twist!

We're serving up some tangy twists.

What?

- Are you serious? - Told y'all things was gonna be different.

What is going on, Lord?

They'll either shine bright...

You won. You hit the jackpot 'cause this is good, girl.

I thought I was going home for sure.

...or burn out.

What I did was put my heart on the table.

Time for a shot. Or two. Or three. Or four.

Honey, we've even brought along some new friends.

-Chef Matheson! -Hello!

Hey!

-Here you go. Little chicken sandwich... -There you go.

Tuffy Stone is standing there in front of me. This is gonna be huge.

Chef Kwame Onwuachi.

I really gotta bring it today.

Things will get full-on fired up.

Holy Lord.

Hope y'all brought your appetites...

-I'll be over for supper, I promise you. -That's a juicy piece right there.

...'cause this showdown is about to get lit.

My favorite thing to do. Playing with fire.

Ooh, it's hot there, isn't it?

We gotta get smokin'!

Mm-hmm.

We're here!

Yes! Hey, I'm Shaticka.

-Staci. Nice to meet you. -Nice to meet you. Where you from?

- Kentucky. - What's up? Let's go!

I'm extremely competitive. I've been competitive my whole life.

Let's go!

I can go out here and do this just as good as any man can,

and that's how I feel. I don't care who you are.

Let's go, cowboy!

I've won titles. I've won buckles in rodeos.

I've won chuck wagon competitions.

But this is a bull I've never been on in my life,

so let's get him in the chute.

Let's get it ready 'cause this cowboy's ready to ride.

What's up? What's up? What's up, y'all?

Oh my God!

I absolutely cannot believe I'm on Barbecue Showdown.

I'm still waiting for somebody to say, "Psych!"

I'm literally living my wildest dreams right now.

- Hey! - Good morning, everybody.

Oh my God!

Gather round, you little barbecuties.

What's up, everyone?

Welcome to Barbecue Showdown.

And if you don't already know, I'm your host, Michelle Buteau. Hey!

And truly, you nine are the best in barbecue.

You have the secret sauce to make you stand out.

But only one of you guys

is gonna walk away with a $50,000 cash prize...

-Yes! -Oh my God.

...a new offset smoker...

Oh, all right.

...and the title of Barbecue Showdown Champion.

Yeah!

These two, your judges, they know all about making cuts.

You know 'em. You love 'em. You probably had nightmares about 'em.

Ding-ding!

Give it up for world-renowned barbecue legends

Melissa Cookston and Kevin Bludso.

Let's go, yes!

Kevin is a James Beard award-winning pit master,

a New York Times bestseller,

and he Mr. Low and Slow in a '64.

Okay!

You guys are the best at what you do.

More important, you love what you do.

Bring that today. I need to taste your heart and soul on that plate.

And, of course, a barbecue icon.

She's a pit master,

a restaurateur,

and seven-time world barbecue champion,

Melissa Cookston.

-Yeah! -Okay.

Succeeding in this competition is all about technique and execution,

and we've got a whole new playground for you to bring the fire.

Every square inch of this barbecue compound is yours to use.

Behind me, you've got a smoke shack

with all the state-of-the-art equipment you could ask for

and a supersized pantry of incredible ingredients.

And right now, you're standing in the pits

with even more pro-level barbecue toys for you to play with.

Nice.

Everything from offset smokers to ceramics, barrels to open fire.

We've got it all.

-Yeah. -Let's go.

And your meat locker over there is stocked with all the finest prime cuts imaginable.

All right!

But we're not here to mess around.

When you step into those pits, you need to be prepared for battle.

Every single cook is your chance to prove what you're made of,

and every mistake could be a ticket home.

We know the nine of you are some of the baddest barbecuers in the game.

But are you bad to the bone?

-Oh! -All right!

For the first challenge,

you'll have five and a half hours.

Each of you will be barbecuing

a big, bad, bone-in protein

with a scratch rub or sauce and two sides,

all of which need to represent

your personal style and story.

But you'll be slicing your bone-in meats table-side,

so we can see that perfect cross section.

We're looking for tender, juicy cuts of meat

with an even color all the way through.

When y'all slice and cut that baby open, I need to hear Beyoncé singing in my ear.

-Y'all ready? -Yeah! Bring it on!

In three, two...

one! Get smokin'!

It's exciting!

You grab the whole thing? Did you grab the whole thing?

- Oh man. - We gotta get how many?

Are we really grabbing the whole thing?

I'm like, I'm letting y'all kill y'all selves first!

Ooh!

I'm double-checking one more time. We're going here.

Cannot wait, baby.

This is a wild first challenge.

Bone-in protein.

You have to tell your story.

How do you even do all that stuff?

It's gonna start by picking the right protein.

Pick something that you know, that you're familiar with.

There's enough meat in there. Bone-in is typically a longer cook.

Why does it take longer to cook bone-in meat?

I think there's a common misconception

that the bone radiates heat.

That bone takes a long time to heat up, and it does not radiate heat.

So that's why you might order a medium steak,

but up next to that bone, it's still rare.

- Yeah. - Mmm.

Being from Kentucky, bison, you know,

they used to run free

and used to have all different trails that went across the state.

For this challenge, I'm choosing to do bison spare ribs.

True Kentucky girl all the way.

I've actually worked with buffalo quite a bit.

I love the flavor. It's really beefy. It's like a beef ten times on steroids.

Hair is up. It's all business.

So I grabbed the bone-in chuck short ribs.

I'm also always trying to find ways

to hide healthy things in my food for my kids.

So I'm doing a strawberry red-wine barbecue sauce.

Strawberries are for the kids, something healthy,

and the red wine's for me.

- Barbecue will change your life. - Yeah.

My name is Kareem El-Ghayesh. I am 36 years old.

I'm from Austin, Texas, and they call me the Egyptian Cowboy.

I moved to Austin, Texas, from Cairo, Egypt.

I was here, in Austin, Texas, to see my friend.

As soon as we landed, he took me, and we went to get barbecue.

I took my first bite of brisket, and my life has never been the same.

So I decided I'm gonna move to Austin.

I mean, it's a move across the world for barbecue.

I'm making my favorite country-style dish in Egypt.

So this is basically gonna be slow-cooked, um, oxtails.

I think a lot of folks here are cooking tomahawks.

It doesn't represent me as much, so I'm gonna stick to my roots.

Today, I'm making oxtail with caramelized onion,

baked rice, bone marrow and garlic bread,

and anchovy chimichurri.

I opened the food truck in October 2022.

I offer Egyptian barbecue in my food truck.

And since the opening,

it just feels like I'm hanging on to the side of a rocket ship.

The rise of the business has been extremely fast.

So these little oxtails right here are gonna go inside my rice dish.

I'm Shaticka. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee.

I'm 46 years old,

and I'm the bougiest barbecuer you've ever met.

I am bougie in all aspects of my life.

But, baby, on that grill, you talking about extra bougie.

I want the best ingredients.

I want the best cuts of meat. I want the best wood.

That's how you gonna have some bougie food up on that smoker.

She bad and bougie. Right, Ticka?

You're bad and bougie.

Went to culinary school, I've worked in fine dining,

and now university. That's where I'm the executive chef at.

But, baby, barbecue is not something that you learn in school.

It's where you learn in your backyard, where you learn with your family.

-What you doing with those ribs? -I got a little Caribbean rub going on.

Oh yeah. Caribbean girl!

Ah! Rasta girl!

Today, I'm making Caribbean rub dino ribs,

roasted parsnip mashed potatoes,

whisky glazed green beans and carrots,

and a whisky crème brûlée.

Why are you hitting the Caribbean flavors?

For some reason, I feel like my soul passed through Jamaica. So it's...

Are you Jamaican?

I'm not Jamaican. I feel like I'm Jamaican, but I'm not Jamaican.

I love the flavors, baby. I love the flavors.

What do you got going on?

Man, I'm going one of my childhood favorites,

which is a tomahawk,

and by "childhood," I mean what I wanted as a kid but didn't get.

My name is Luis Rivera. I am 34 years old.

I am from Chicago, Illinois, but I was born in Venezuela.

So when it comes to bone-in tomahawks,

I always relate it to my special birthday dinner

that my brother's been doing for me for years.

No matter the weather,

he always comes through with his big ol' tomahawk.

I'm here because of him,

and so I feel like I can't fail him on this challenge.

Right now, I'm making the chimichurri that's gonna serve not only as a dressing,

but it's also gonna be my marinade.

So today I'm going with a tomahawk with chimichurri,

guacamole and fresh tortillas,

a spicy sofrito rice,

a Venezuelan slaw,

and a guasacaca sauce.

When did you start smoking barbecue?

- Maybe four years or so. - Oh wow.

Yeah, I'm a rookie. I'm... I'm a rookie here.

I am a backyard barbecuer.

My brother, he was my culinary chef that taught me my ways.

And yeah, I may be new, but I cook like I got years under my belt.

Most of the chimichurri will be burned off.

Everything chopped. Stop blending chimi.

That is the worst thing people do.

It takes away from it.

And if you're from South America, you know you never blend your chimi.

So I'm gonna go ahead and have it sit and marinate a little bit in this Yeti.

I'm gonna go ahead and insert it in there.

I got Christmas.

Christmas with bones on it, brother. What you got going on?

- About to put these oxtails on. - I'll be over for supper. I promise you.

- There you go. - Making up what we call our original rub.

Which starts out with a base of some homemade seasoned salt,

some lemon pepper, garlic pepper, smoked paprika, turmeric,

and a little bit of black pepper.

Goes on about everything you got, even ice cream.

My name is Kent Rollins. I'm 66 years old, and I'm a chuck wagon cook.

Been a cowboy all my life.

I feed cowboys now for a living, and we feed 'em better than anybody else.

We gonna bust a move.

Ooh-hoo!

Being in a competition is nothing new to me.

We compete every day.

We cook outside with a chuck wagon, and Mother Nature is our competition.

That's what we call "Cowboy up. Get it done."

- What you got going there, Unc? - Well, it's some dead cow meat, Nephew!

I like some dead cow. Don't you?

Today on the menu, one of my most favorite meals.

It is a bone-in rib eye roast.

Then we're gonna have us some bone marrow thyme garlic sauce

to put over some homemade bread.

Oh my goodness!

And then what? Dinosaur taters.

Top it off with what?

Ancho chocolate cake.

On that rib roast, I'm not gonna salt this as much as I usually would

because I have been known to over-salt meat and give it to people

because where we come from, we sweat a lot. We need some salt.

We are going to town, brother. We eating high on the hog.

Looks like Kent and Luis both have a tomahawk.

So Kent looks like he's cooking his whole,

and that's a totally different cook.

Look like he's making the pouches and putting garlic, I love that,

but that could be good, and that can be bad

because you're cooking a tomahawk like a roast.

I don't know if that's a good idea.

I would break that tomahawk down into individual steaks.

Number one, you can get better seasoning to it.

Uh, number two, you have better control over it.

Christmas with bones in it.

You took my ribs, man!

Tung, what you got going on, boo?

So I'm doing some plate ribs. I didn't wanna do it. You took my ribs!

My name is Tung Nguyen, 36,

and I'm a chef and owner of Slow & Pho in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I wanna incorporate these Vietnamese flavors

to show who I am as a person.

So today I'm making a plate rib shaken beef.

Bo luc lac is translation to shaken beef.

With a curry mac and cheese, a goi slaw, and a homemade steak sauce.

I'm not a big bone-in protein guy.

So this is gonna be a huge challenge for me.

Walked into the meat locker,

tried to find the smallest bone-in protein because we don't have that much time.

I wanted the short ribs.

I couldn't find the short ribs, so I went with the plate ribs.

After I sectioned off the plate ribs, I put my binder on.

I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and garlic. It's traditional, Texas.

The risk with beef plate ribs are, they're huge.

So, obviously, with a huge protein, it'll take longer to cook.

It's a bigger piece of meat. I got to get this meat on the smoker now.

I'm putting some plate ribs in. Getting this to smoke.

All right.

♪ Every day is a new day To find my way again... ♪

Three and a half hours. You guys have three and a half hours left.

The hell?

I'm getting nervous.

Join the club.

Gonna check my fire. Make sure we're good. I think we're all right right now.

- Hey, Kareem. - Howdy.

- How's it going? - What's up?

-Tell me what you're making. -Braised oxtail.

I smoke them,

and then it's pressure cooked over lots of onions.

Are you nervous about oxtails in the pressure cooker...

A little bit.

...and pressuring out some of the smoke and flavor?

I don't normally like to revert to pressure cookers,

but I'm trying to get this done on time.

I was thinking of cooking a tomahawk, just to be safe.

But we'll see. Yeah.

-Good luck, Kareem. Good luck, bro. -I'll do my best. Thank you.

-Good luck. -Thank you, ma'am.

- Thank you so much. Pleasure meeting you. - You too.

I hate that he... he pressure cooked those... those oxtails.

And I don't know if he said he wanted to get a tomahawk,

or that's what he thought about doing.

But I hope that pressure cooker works out for him.

I think I'm gonna, you know, play it safe with the tomahawks.

So I'm gonna serve both.

So I'm gonna have bone-in sliceable meat,

as well as shreddable oxtail.

I'm doing a lot today.

I feel nervous because I'm dividing my attention now.

I have oxtail cooking. I have all my sides getting prepared.

Then I have to worry about this thing now.

If I don't grab that tomahawk,

I'm gonna feel worried about the entire challenge.

I'm gonna season it, throw it on the smoker.

Probably about 30 minutes before, give it a quick sear. Think I'll be okay.

- Got some tomahawks? - Yes, sir.

This one is probably gonna take an hour, hour and a half on the smoker.

I wanna get more butter on it, baste my rib roast with garlic butter,

get some more flavor, keep it nice and moist.

I'm Sloan Rinaldi. I'm 60 years old.

I'm a fourth-generation Texas pit master from Houston.

We actually don't have that much longer on here.

Barbecue came naturally to me.

I wanna say because of my family heritage, man.

For sure. Being a fourth-generation pit master,

it just... I think it had to be innately in me.

My great-grandfather, John Fowler,

started smoking barbecue from the back of his general store in 1909.

But I never saw myself as a pit master until later in life.

Had a pit built and started smoking on that.

I'm the first woman in 100 years in my family to smoke barbecue.

No other woman ever took it on.

When you realize you're good at something, the passion, man, began immediately.

Did not expect to do the rib roast the first time at Barbecue Showdown.

But, you know, again, you just adjust, adapt, and overcome, man.

Ah, let's see. I think we're good.

Just over three hours, guys.

Three hours!

It's going quick.

I don't know why I feel I gotta run everywhere.

What you running for?

I don't know. It seemed like a good idea.

God.

These little oxtails right here, beautiful color.

I really love what I see right now.

They're looking good. I'm about to baptize it in some broth.

And braise it for a couple hours. Hopefully, they become tender, tender.

We know the protein is what's happening.

But how many times, Michelle,

has it came down to, "We gotta go with the sides to see who wins"?

-Yeah. -So that has to sink in with them.

-Yeah. -The little mistakes, the time management.

I'm hoping not to see that today, especially on your first day.

Mmm.

I figured I gotta start a bread 'cause everybody else got a bread.

You did a bread?

I can do a bread. I did a dessert.

Man, you a overachiever.

I'm trying to char some corn for a corn and tomato salad.

I just hope I got the fire up high enough.

The wind's whipping through,

and instead of letting the flame come up on its own,

it's whipping it and kind of laying it over.

Like that.

If I had a dollar for every biscuit I have,

we could buy Georgia and Oklahoma

because I have made a lot of biscuits in a Dutch oven.

Always cook with your heart, but don't use modern stuff.

Use your hands. They're an extension of your heart.

Hey, it's always worked for me.

I'm gonna keep going till they tell me to go home anyway.

Fixing to get the mac together and get in the oven.

Got my baked beans in. It's a family recipe.

I am gonna be making my mammy's baked beans.

They've been in our family for over 100 years,

from my mammy to my mamaw to my mom to me.

To get it where I wanted it to be, I needed to render the bacon all the way.

People will put bacon in baked beans and not let it render enough,

so you're not getting all the flavor, but that's where the magic happens.

Mm-hmm.

- What's up, Tung? - Hey. What's going on?

Just doing my finishing touches on the, uh, curry mac and cheese.

This is the house barbecue sauce that I made.

Sweet, tangy, kind of like umami for me. Yeah.

I mean, very good and all the sweetness that you have.

-Yeah. -So I...

Sweetness and smoke doesn't match sometimes.

-Yeah. -You know, that has to be perfectly done.

What are you doing now to make sure that doesn't happen?

Keep on tasting it.

Cut a little meat off, see how that works with the sauce.

You have your ribs on the smoker.

- Yep. - What are your concerns about this cook?

My concerns is those ribs.

So I was wanting to do beef short ribs initially.

Someone had already took 'em. But with the plate ribs,

I'm not sure on how long to cook versus all that kind of stuff.

And are you crutching those?

Huh?

- Are you crutching those? - Yeah.

At what temperature are you gonna crutch 'em?

Uh, around, like, 195, wrap it up.

So internal temperature, you're looking at 195 before you wrap?

No, finished product. I never worked with these before.

I know they took what you really wanted, but there was still pork left.

It's just ribs. It's a beef dish that I'm trying to replicate, so...

So if they came up, and they wasn't as tender as you wanted,

and time was running out, what would be your backup plan?

Uh, probably cook it in pressure. Pressure-cook it.

- Good luck to you. - Thank you.

I think Tung's plan's kind of a train wreck.

When we ask you to cook something

that speaks on who you are and where you're from,

and he pulled something he never pulled before.

Maybe he can rein this in, but it's not looking good.

I don't know. I don't think he's never crutched before.

'Cause when you asked was he gonna wrap, he didn't know what we were talking about.

I know.

I'm gonna make this guacamole that we eat with all of our dishes.

♪ Oh, where are the peppers? ♪

I'm looking for a sweet pepper that's gonna give it the contrast

from, you know, the tanginess of the lime and the tartness of the onion.

There's so many peppers in this pantry. Peppers I've never even heard of.

And I start dicing up and throwing them in the guac.

You know, they always tell me, "Taste your food."

Eh.

Those are spicy red peppers, and I am burning.

I know that Judge Melissa does not like spicy food.

I used some scorpion. You might have grabbed that one by acc...

I didn't grab a Carolina Reaper.

-I can assure you. -Yes, ma'am.

What you're telling me is that you hid a Carolina Reaper in the pinto bean?

-It's just a garnish. It's a garnish. -Okay.

So what am I gonna do? And I was like, "You know what?"

"How are you not gonna have a Latino dish if it ain't something spicy?"

I'm going with it. I'm not scrapping it. That's who I am.

-Luis! Why you sweating, boss? -Yes, sir.

Oh, it's a little hot, a little spicy.

♪ Catch me down in the boondocks... ♪

-Time? -Two hours 30 minutes.

Heard.

I think I'm louder than I actually am.

Melissa.

Caw-caw! Caw-caw!

Oh, it's beautiful. I love it.

It's exactly what I want.

Nice dark bark. Now that the muscles have broke down and everything,

I'm just trying to keep some of that juiciness in there.

So I'm gonna wrap it with this pink butcher paper

just because it helps with, uh, keeping the bark

versus us doing it with foil.

Foil can cause the bark not to be as crispy.

I'm gonna put it back in for about another hour.

Here we go, baby. Just do its thing.

So I'm doing unsalted butter, trying to keep it moist.

And then when you wrap it, it's kinda steaming too.

Needs some... So that's what I'm doing.

- You finally wrapping 'em? - Yeah!

-Finally! -Attaboy!

A gust of wind took out the last little bit of life.

She has... Okay. We'll get her going. Come back to life!

The one step I did miss with the Green Egg,

I had gotten my charcoals going,

and then I was busy getting everything else together

and didn't add the wood.

I just wrapped my ribs and threw a chunk of hickory in there

in hopes that it would at least, you know, get some of the smoke flavor in there.

I realized at the beginning, I just had the charcoal in there.

Leaving the wood out is, uh, not ideal.

Yeah, it was kind of an important step to miss.

That's okay. It's how we learn.

So I'm gonna leave these and then run back in there.

All right, do your thing.

Where we at? Where we at?

I'm gonna be go ahead and pulling out tomahawks.

So there isn't a lot of time left, and Luis just put his tomahawk on.

Should we be concerned?

Um, he can get some smoke on it and then do a reverse sear,

and he'll get it up to temp.

You know, the question is,

what temperature is he planning on serving it to us at?

I think you have to listen, pay attention, and give us what we want.

And we don't want rare.

Coming up on one hour!

Can you hear me?

It's just like home. No one... responds.

The charcoal bed is glowing.

So as soon as I'm ready to sear, I'm gonna go right away.

I am good, my friend,

as far as I know.

Only got one hour.

Tung's beef ribs. He was the first one to put those beef ribs on.

We got a hour left.

Those things should be done by now or close to it.

They need to come off and sit.

Let's hope this works.

Come on.

Oh!

Just... Ch-ch-ch...

It's too tight.

What am I gonna do? What to do?

It's not tender enough for what I want. Just trying to tack in the sauce now.

-He's putting steak sauce on his ribs. -Is that good or bad?

It's bad. Give us the opportunity. We wanna taste the meat.

That's not gonna hide anything.

If anything, it's gonna amplify the bad cook.

It's not gonna get tender on time.

So I hope the flavor makes a difference, right?

-That... that sauce is sweet. -Yes.

So if he puts that back in the smoker with that sauce on there,

it's gonna caramelize and turn bitter.

Mmm.

And that's what we told him a lot of times.

Sweet and smoke doesn't match.

The flavor's there. I know that for sure.

Maybe when I serve it tonight, I cut it thinner,

nice little smaller bite so it doesn't have that chew.

Forty-five minutes!

- What? - Forty-five minutes!

Forty-five. Heard.

It's about 200.

So we're there.

Not bad.

No worries. No worries.

Right around 45 minutes,

I take those bad boys out of the Lang smoker,

and I throw them on the Santa Maria.

They're coming. They're a little slow.

That actually has me stressed a little bit.

I realize the temperature on these tomahawks,

they're way too low.

I am extremely worried that when I slice into that tomahawk,

it's gonna be extremely raw.

I know that Melissa does not like medium rare or rare at all.

110. I wanna pull at 130.

Big pieces of meat take their time. You don't wanna rush it and dry it out.

So I'm playing with fire.

I'm gonna make sure I get these to temp and then whip out the tortillas.

Hey, how much time we got?

Thirty minutes. Thirty minutes.

- Thirty minutes? - I messed up!

I did not add my brown sugar and my butter

before I wrapped my stuff.

Damn! Now I gotta try to make something up real quick.

I'm about to go throw some butter on there with some brown sugar.

I have 30 minutes to go.

So I'm hoping that it could help with that whole process.

What the hell? What?

And it matters 'cause it helps it to finish breaking down.

God-dawg, so I'm just about to try to cheat.

We got some butter biscuits.

They cooked a little longer than I wanted to on the bottom.

I'm good on the sides.

I'm blowtorching this to get, like, a nice crust on it.

Gonna garnish it off with some fresh herbs

just to balance out the creaminess from the mac and cheese itself.

Fifteen minutes, guys! You only have 15 minutes left!

Just don't drop 'em on the way out.

Oh! Fifteen minutes.

I got 15 minutes 'cause I wanted it to rest.

Oh, I forgot to add the sugar and my butter before I wrapped it.

So I'm just trying to get that last process in.

Come on, y'all.

We'll just pray for the best.

So Shaticka is just standing there,

kind of staring at her smoker with 15 minutes left.

Think she's standing, trying to bring it up to temperature or something?

I think those beef ribs should be off by now resting.

I don't think they gonna get no rest time before she cuts.

Could be in trouble.

Come on, daddy. Go on. Do what you need to do.

Turn this meat into a "ten" piece of meat.

Is it a prayer?

-♪ I'm gonna lay down my burden ♪ -♪ Lay down ♪

♪ Down by the riverside... ♪

Going in for a butter baste because everything is better with butter.

Do this as many times as possible.

♪ Down by the riverside... ♪

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Thank you, Jesus. My rib roast is perfectly cooked.

-Whoo! -♪ Down by the riverside... ♪

I'm waiting. Give me ten more minutes.

Give me ten more minutes, and I'll take it out.

Ten minutes, everyone! Ten minutes!

I'm freaking out. Time is winding down.

I don't know if I'm gonna be able to cross that finish line.

It creeped up on me, the time.

I start grabbing these tomahawks by the bone,

and I'm flipping 'em over the fire.

And that fire's shooting up. It's a fire show in my station.

I cannot have these burn.

I don't want something that is burned on the outside, rare on the inside.

Like, the judges are gonna hate that.

Finally, I think I'm at a right temperature.

I take them off, and I throw 'em in the oven inside to let rest,

and I start making my tortillas.

Minutes left, minutes left, and I'm like,

"Oh man! I gotta get these tortillas rolling."

I still have to plate all my food.

It's gonna take about one or two minutes a tortilla.

I've already burnt, like, four of 'em.

I gotta bring my dessert out and plate it.

I'm just warming up the potatoes and the leeks,

and I gotta toss those in the brown butter and add some goat cheese.

I'm good. I'm good.

Waiting to the last second to pull your meat?

The last second. Always.

Checking on the rib,

and it's still tight.

I'm like, "What should I do?"

I'm not gonna serve it on the bone.

I'm gonna cut it off the bone and cut it thin.

If I had gotten the smaller ribs, then it would've been all right.

Very confident with the flavors. Very confident with the sides.

Let's just see where the ball goes.

Flavor's there. Can't do nothing about the tenderness. Gotta roll with it.

I don't wanna take you out.

But I have to.

I don't want to, but I have to.

I'm trying to make sure everything gets on the plate

when it's supposed to get on the plate.

I am still waiting on the dino ribs to do their thing.

Damn!

One minute, you guys!

One minute left!

Everything is just gonna come together right on time.

I got bones falling off, so we might be okay.

They're not exactly what I want to be.

Headed around the homestretch, and it's nearly a done deal.

- We got this. Final stretch. - That was a close call.

My stomach is in a knot. I'm nervous.

Oh, this is gonna get tough.

I feel like I'm missing something. Got it. We got it. We got it.

Ten,

nine, eight,

seven,

six,

five, four,

three,

two,

one! Time is up!

Show me the meats!

I did the best that I could.

-Oh man. -It's time for a shot.

Or two. Or three. Or four.

Ah!

- Look at this. - All right.

Amazing!

Wow! Look at this spread, you guys!

It's amazing.

Please give yourselves a round of applause because this is a feast.

I can't wait to dig in.

I would say bon appétit, but it's more like "bone" appétit, right?

Don't forget you're gonna have to slice your bone-in meat table-side

so the judges can see your perfect cross section.

Kareem, you're first. What's your story behind your dish?

So I moved from Egypt to Texas to follow my passion for cooking barbecue.

All right, that looks good.

I made for you a blend of both worlds.

I made a smoked reverse-seared tomahawk steak

rubbed in salt, pepper, garlic, and oregano.

And the Egyptian dish that I made

is a classic country-style braised oxtail with caramelized onions.

To go with that, I made a country-style baked rice dish,

as well as roasted veggies with beef tallow,

and a bone marrow topped with panko breadcrumbs.

To finish off the meal, I made my fennel and anchovy chimichurri.

Did you always plan to cook the tomahawk?

I changed my mind.

Yes, I heard you when you were speaking in the beginning of the challenge

that you need to see crispy bark and juicy inside the slice.

So I didn't think that was gonna be achieved in the oxtail.

Your tomahawk steak,

I think, um, is perfectly cooked.

It's so tender, it melts in your mouth.

You hit it on this one, man. This is a perfect medium.

The flavor is there. The smoke is there. This is a good steak, man.

Your oxtail... I am a oxtail guy.

I can tell by your braise that it's seasoned,

but I feel like you lost some salt content by putting it in a pressure cooker.

The bone marrow, for me,

there's so much going on on it, I couldn't really taste it.

Yes, sir.

Kent, you're up next. Show us that perfect cross section.

I have a rib roast tomahawk.

Got a ancho chili garlic lemon butter rub on it.

That's juicy.

What's the story behind it?

I feed cowboys with a chuck wagon,

and, you know, beef is really important when you're on a ranch.

They're not gonna eat chicken, I don't think.

So we'll do a big ol' standing rib roast like this.

Then we have some dinosaur potatoes, little Parmesan, garlic, green onion,

a butter biscuit,

and a bone marrow that was grilled really hot and fast

with a garlic thyme butter sauce on it.

And for dessert, one of my favorite cakes in the world,

ancho chili chocolate cake.

On your tomahawk, did you taste yours?

Yes.

You think it's seasoned where you need it to be?

I could've stood a little more salt, but I over-salt so much at home,

so sort of backed off a little today.

If you was to move on...

you gotta get that seasoning right. And look at your bone.

That's not a char.

That's a dirty smoke burn.

And that might be the hint of flavor that I'm picking up on that.

So get your woods under control when you do that if you was to move on.

The biscuit is nice and fluffy.

- It is overcooked on the bottom. - Yes.

Might've been too hot a skillet when you poured the batter in.

You know, my wife will kick my butt for burning that biscuit

'cause I don't burn biscuits.

-Thank you so much, Kent. -Thank you, ma'am. And thank y'all.

Sloan.

All right. I have made for you a prime rib roast,

my great-grandmother's candy baked beans,

and a five-cheese jalapeño white truffle mac.

The flavor on this prime rib with that smoke,

I can taste Texas all in it.

That's what I do.

And your baked beans, I could put that on a couple of blocks of ice

and drink it as a cocktail. It's that damn good.

Keep it Texas. Keep it 100.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Gerald.

Story behind this, my mother-in-law is from the islands. I did her oxtails.

So I was able to smoke it,

then I braised it with a beef broth, did the garlic mash.

Corn maque choux is definitely a New Orleans dish.

And plantain.

- Big papi. - Sir.

Excellent job on that oxtail. It's tender. Once again, a good smoke ring.

I don't know who got the best one, you or Kareem.

But we was worried about both y'all with them oxtails.

The braise that you did on it,

almost spot-on.

Thank you.

Shaticka.

So I have a Caribbean rub dino rib

with some roasted parsnip mashed potatoes,

whisky maple glaze green beans and carrots,

and a splash of whisky crème brûlée.

I like to put a little Caribbean vibe in my food.

Those Caribbean flavors did it. You got the right smoke in it.

It's juicy.

Don't start crying with your bougie ass.

I think that you got these huge dinosaur bones perfectly tender.

-Thank you. -But the bark is a little bit bitter.

- When you were praying? - Yes.

- And you bumped that heat up? - Mm-hmm.

It's almost like something caramelized in the bite that I got.

Uh, but the flavor of the meat is... is really good,

and the texture is spot-on.

Thank you so much.

Staci?

I did a bison rib

with a Montreal type of rub

with a truffle salt included

and then a blueberry chipotle bourbon barbecue sauce. I had to include bourbon.

Always have to include bourbon with Kentucky.

My sides, I did a charred tomato basil salad with feta

and then a turnip mash with horseradish.

The barbecue sauce may be a little too sweet.

-But I love it. -Thank you.

Maybe it's your use of bourbon.

Maybe. Bourbon makes everything better.

Melissa, tell us what you made.

So I have made short ribs with a strawberry red wine barbecue sauce,

and I have, uh, smoky potatoes

and charred leeks.

They are perfectly cooked. But you know what would have hit a home run on this?

-Tell me. -If you'd had some type of smoke on it.

-Some type of wood. Good job. -Thank you.

Just get your smoke game up.

-It's a barbecue competition. -Thank you. Yeah.

Tung, you're up next.

All right, so I made my version of bo luc lac,

which is "shaken beef" in translation.

I wanted to try and incorporate Vietnamese dishes with smoked meat.

A Vietnamese slaw

and a curry mac and cheese.

- Tung. - Yes.

I was really worried about this sauce that you were putting on the outside

and hitting it with fire

and adding more sauce and hitting it with fire,

but I'm okay with it.

You already know it's tight.

It doesn't have a good chew, and it's just not tender,

but I think your ribs have really good flavor.

I don't think it's penetrated all the way to the bone.

Yeah.

We need to just really focus on getting flavor all the way to the bone,

and then, um,

there's a funny texture going on with the pasta.

Almost like it's been parboiled, cooked a second time.

Yeah.

Al dente is the perfect pasta that we're looking for.

- Yeah. - But for me, this is really rubbery.

Yes, ma'am.

I think you had more than enough time.

- I was looking for way more flavor on 'em. - Yes, sir.

The mac, all the steps you was going through on this mac,

I was waiting on a wow factor.

I know that you're better than what this is presented right here.

Yes, sir.

Luis.

- All right. - You're up next.

So this is my birthday dinner

that my family has brought to me for many years now.

Uh, my rice was inspired by my niece. She makes her own sofrito.

The tortillas that my wife actually makes.

The guacamole paying homage to my wife's culture.

I'm bringing myself to you guys today.

Uh, the guacamole is spicy.

That guacamole got a kick.

That was a mistake of mine.

The steak is a little under for me.

You didn't get your protein on till, like, a hour and a half

before it was turn-in time?

My original goal was to do a smoke for an hour and then a 15-minute sear.

Um, I underestimated the cut, um, how thick it was.

And if I did it half an hour earlier,

I think I'd have probably gotten closer to a medium.

I can live with that if the seasoning comes through.

You marinated for how long?

About two and a half hours.

Well, that two-and-a-half-hour marinade

is still lacking the flavor that I need to get.

You guys, that was an incredible meal.

Melissa and Kevin have a very hard decision to make,

so while they deliberate, you guys head back to the pits.

- Bye! - Bye!

Thank y'all.

So how... how nervous was anybody?

I wanted to throw up, man. Come on.

You know, we asked you to give us a cross section

that had flavor from the bark to the bone,

all while telling us your story on a plate.

There was one dish that really delivered on that.

The winner of this first challenge is...

Congratulations, Kareem.

I really love the fact that you told us your story

while still staying true to your Egyptian heritage

and fusing it with Texas barbecue.

- Good job. - Thank you.

- Keep it the Egyptian Cowboy. - Thank you, sir.

But there is another person we wanna recognize today,

and that person is Shaticka.

There you go, girl.

Girl, you pulled that out by the skin of your teeth.

Yes, yes.

Sadly, it's not all fun and games. It's still a competition.

And unfortunately, we have to send someone home today.

Melissa and Kevin, which two cooks do you think are on the chopping block?

Our two least-favorite dishes tonight were prepared by...

...Kent...

and Tung.

Tung, I just feel like those beef ribs got away from you.

You started on 'em early.

If you were to move on, like I told you earlier,

settle down and get some more flavor into that protein.

Kent, you know, we like seasoned food.

The meat was just a little bit lacking, which was supposed to be the superstar.

This is the hardest part of my job on the Showdown.

We fall in love with all of you 'cause we respect you so much,

but it is a competition, and somebody does have to go home tonight.

Tung, I'm sorry.

Oh, thanks, everybody.

You're just starting, baby. You got a long ways to go.

This is just the beginning. I lost on the first night before.

- Yeah. All right. - Okay? All right. Good luck, man.

I'm feeling down. Um... But, you know...

Coming here thinking your food's good. You know, it just got away from me.

- You know I love you, my friend. Hear me? - Yeah, I hear you.

Oh Lord.

Picked too big of a protein. Took too long to cook.

Um, didn't incorporate the seasoning that I want in there.

Not everybody comes out a winner and, you know, just grow from it.

You can't just take one loss and quit. I'm gonna come back stronger than ever.

Kevin, what you got for us?

I know that ain't what I think it is.

Come on, have a beer.

Come on. Grab what you want.

Everybody got one?

Bring it in, guys. Great job, everybody.

Cheers!

Let's go!

Oh, but don't sip it. Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh!

-What? -Put it back, okay?

'Cause this is what you're gonna be using tomorrow for your next challenge.

- What? - What?

Bye!

Oh my God!

Barbecue and beer is a perfect marriage.

It's like bacon and eggs. It's like New Orleans and Mardi Gras.

But the definition of cooking with beer for me

is a spoon in one hand and a beer in the other one.

Oh gosh.

Beer competition.

Are you freaking kidding me?

Wow, beer. I don't drink beer. I don't like beer.

I know nothing about beer. I'm panic-stricken.