Original subtitles

I have won the brisket challenge. So I'm walking in this challenge

feeling more confident than I had in the past challenges.

Time to go big or go home.

It's a beautiful day.

-It is a nice day. -It's gonna be awesome.

We've made it this far,

but only one of us can win the title.

Today feels different.

Yeah, man. It's probably one of the biggest days of our lives.

I really expected to see Kareem in the finals,

but I guess he just didn't have it that day.

We're here now, and it's all about elevating.

You never know what's gonna happen on Barbecue Showdown.

Today, we need to leave everything we got out there.

I'm ready. Let's go.

- What's up, girl? - What's up, you guys?

- Hey, Shelley-Shelley. - What's going on?

A nice day in barbecue country, isn't it?

-Oh my God. -Absolutely.

It's a God-given day to barbecue.

Because it's Sunday in barbecue country, we're taking you all to church.

- Let's go to church! - Praise God. Let's go.

- Come on! - All right!

-♪ Didn't it rain ♪ -♪ Rain, children ♪

♪ My Lord... ♪

Hey.

What's up, y'all? Good morning.

- Hey. - Good morning.

How y'all feeling?

-Doing good. -Let's go.

Please welcome a new member to the Showdown family.

He's a James Beard award-winning chef...

The New York Times named his restaurant number one in the big city. No big deal.

...whose cuisine is all about celebrating family traditions

and time-honored recipes.

Please welcome Chef Kwame Onwuachi.

As you may know, Sunday in the South is dedicated to two things,

family and food.

And nothing speaks to those traditions more

than sitting down to a big, delicious Sunday supper

with loved ones.

And here in barbecue country,

no Sunday supper is complete without a soulful plate

of smoky, saucy, smothered goodness.

-Can I get a "amen"? -Amen.

Okay.

For today's challenge, we want you to create a family-style barbecue feast

that represents what Sunday supper means to you.

We wanna get a taste of your homes,

your traditions,

your families,

and the secret recipes that bring those meals to life.

Okay.

In Texas, for most families, Sunday dinner is a thing.

So this is a very important challenge to me.

For today's challenge,

you have four and a half hours

to present two proteins,

one side, and one dessert.

And somewhere in there

should be a secret family recipe.

We don't need to know the secret.

We just gotta taste it.

I thinking I'm gonna do pretty well in this challenge.

My father is a preacher.

Sunday mornings at our house always started with church,

so I'm thinking I got this.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, any great Sunday supper

has to have four things.

Something baked.

Baked!

Something boiled.

Tell it!

- Something smothered. - Amen.

And, of course, something smoked.

Hallelu!

Hey! Yes!

Well...

Is that too much? I'm so sorry. No one drug-tested me.

We wanna see each of those four things represented across your menu.

And because this is a communal feast,

like one big, happy family,

you'll all be sharing the same local heritage hog.

That's right. One big, ol' hog split between the three of you.

Oh my God!

Divvy it up however you like.

But

that's the only protein for this challenge.

- Hmm. - That's good. I like pork.

So get creative

because we wanna see that hog used in every item of your menu.

- Okay. - Wow.

Except for the dessert. You can skip that.

Okay. Good. Thank you.

Storytelling is a way that we continue our family traditions.

I wanna see that today.

I'm also gonna be looking at technique, if you're cooking things properly,

if things are seasoned well.

Make sure you put yourself on the plate,

but present your best version of yourself at the same time.

This feast is gonna be biblical, honey.

I mean, First and Second Testament.

I'm bringing a donation basket.

-And tambourines for everybody. -Yeah.

And now, you have one last challenge

standing between you and the finale.

Hmm.

-That's right. -Absolutely. Let's get it.

In the spirit of community, y'all wanna do it with me?

-Yeah, why not? -Okay.

And in three,

two, one!

Get smoking!

That felt good.

-I'm hungry. I don't know about you. -I'm always hungry.

I'll take this.

So we have to share this hog that's laid out in front of us.

I'm looking at that butt, and I'm gonna cut the money muscle out.

So the money muscle wins competitions. I definitely wanna win this thing.

- All right. - I wanted to prepare the ribs.

Because these are the best things that I can do.

Everybody likes my ribs, so I really gotta bring it today.

I chose spare ribs

and pig feet and the jowl.

Pig feet is my dad's favorite thing.

I forgot I had these other pig feet over here.

This challenge is all about Sunday and Sunday traditions.

I grew up eating

what my grandparents raised on their farm.

Our Sunday dinner would be pork

because they slaughtered their own hogs, and they had a smokehouse out back.

The... the dirt in the smokehouse even smelled good.

That smell really brings back good childhood memories for me.

When I'm with my family, Sunday really represents a spread of food

that was cooked by loved ones, and it... it also meant us coming together.

You know, Sunday dinner is everything. People work all week.

A lot of times, you can't even get together till Sunday.

But the main thing is you're gonna eat something good.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what they put forward,

but I also wanna see how they step it up.

This is one step to the finale, so I wanna see them bring it.

♪ You can run out ♪

♪ Yeah, run out that door ♪

♪ You can run out... ♪

This is the biggest challenge yet.

After I won the head-to-head with the burnt-end sliders, I'm confident.

I made it to the top three,

so I'm feeling good, and I just wanna continue to do better.

This is the fastest Sunday dinner I'd ever do.

Usually, Sunday dinner starts on Saturday, and then it's finished on Sunday, so...

Oh, you're definitely a long-term cooker.

I am making smoked barbecue pig feet

with a sweet, sassy barbecue sauce.

Smoked ribs that will be deep-fried.

For my smothered,

I have smothered cornbread dressing

with a jowl's bacon gravy.

Candied yams,

some hot water cornbread,

and of course, for my baked, I have peach cobbler.

I'm really excited about going into this challenge.

I want to show the judges my mom's kitchen skills,

my dad's smoking skills,

because I am the fruit of my parents' labor.

Get a little smoke on that.

Shaticka has won a challenge. She's been in the top two.

She's been in the bottom.

She's had a journey.

I think Shaticka second-guesses herself a lot, and she shouldn't.

I mean, she deserves to be here.

She almost got eliminated last time,

but I think Shaticka's stronger when she's down.

My granny used to say, "I'm stronger when I'm down."

A lot of people don't get it.

You know, a lot of times, when you up,

you not plotting,

but when you down, you plotting for your return.

Anytime she's been at the bottom, she's came back solid.

So let's see if she keeps doing what she does.

She always comes back strong after that.

My kids would love everything that I was cooking today,

as well as my husband,

so I'm just keeping all of them in my mind today as I get this meal done.

-There you go. I like that. -Gerald!

What up, Sloan, baby?

- My favorite guy, man. - Hey.

Sloan has been on a tear. She's been number one the last three.

I have to dig deep and put out the best thing that I can.

This isn't skin, is it?

Yes, it is skin.

Great. Great, great, great. That's awesome.

This is a Sunday dinner challenge, and in my home,

we start planning Sunday dinner on Friday.

I wanna bring flavors

that my family has been cooking for a century.

I'm gonna have to smoke something, smoke two proteins.

Part of my menu is gonna be pork belly burnt ends.

With that butt, I'm gonna cut the money muscle out.

The sirloin, I'm gonna smoke it on the pit to get it into my green beans.

That's my boiled element.

I'm gonna take the loin, cut it up into steaks,

and I'm gonna smother that in an onion gravy.

For my baked element, I'm gonna do my mom's baked squash casserole

and apricot fried hand pies.

Sloan's just classic, old-school Texas barbecue with a twist

'cause she can get down on some sides too.

For this whole competition, she's pretty much been on point.

Sloan is obviously very comfortable cooking all parts of that hog.

All right, I'm gonna cut the money muscle out of the butt, okay?

I wanted the butt to get the money muscle.

The bone is on this end, right?

So the opposite of the bone is the money muscle.

They call it that because that's what wins competitions.

All right, so we're gonna cut this muscle out.

The burnt ends and the money muscle,

I'm gonna do in similar fashion.

They'll have the same rub and go through the same braising process.

I'm about to make my own, uh, my own rub real quick.

So today, I'm doing smoked baby back ribs with a bourbon barbecue sauce

and a tenderloin with a whiskey glaze.

I'm doing smothered green beans with a braised pork shank

and a baked bananas Foster French toast for dessert.

I'm adding my pork rub to the tenderloin, and I'm gonna let it sit for a bit.

I got some brown sugar.

I got a little cumin.

Cumin, some people like it, some people don't.

But I'm gonna do it.

Gerald is an interesting one. He's like the Louisiana comeback kid.

He loves Southern cooking, and he brings

that Louisiana, Cajun, Creole flavor to the party.

I'm very interested to see what he's cooking

and how he's feeling mentally

'cause sometimes he gets in his own head and psychs his own self out.

♪ Baby, you can never run From love and blood ♪

♪ Baby, you better go 'Cause I'm comin' home... ♪

It's getting real to me.

I claim myself just to be a backyard barbecuer,

but I do have skills.

And I need to hone in on those skills and trust my gut.

You don't have to be good. You have to be great.

Great is gonna get you to the finals,

and I wanna be great in my own right.

Three hours, you guys!

Three hours!

I'm a little intense.

Let's bring this.

So right now, I am seasoning my pig feet.

Just trying to season these up before I throw 'em on the Big Green Egg.

Bless you, baby.

If you're not sneezing, you're not seasoning.

This is my dad's favorite things. He loves pig feet.

My dad was in the army,

and so he then went and worked at the VA hospital.

No matter what potluck they were having,

they loved for him to bring his barbecue pig feet.

So that was his thing. It's like I'm honoring my father.

I've dropped one of my pig feet.

I'm putting my pigs' feet on the Green Egg to let them smoke.

And I'm going to braise them to be tender as possible.

Now...

Don't want that.

One down.

I find garlic presses... overrated.

-Hello, Gerald. -Hey! What's going on? How are y'all?

-Good. How are you? -Good, good. Doing good.

Right now, I'm mincing some garlic to go into my... my smothered green beans.

I got a pork shank that I'm gonna put in that's smoking right now,

so I'm prepping everything for that.

I wanna know, between the three, who's the one to beat?

Both of these two are phenomenal.

But what about Gerald?

Let me tell you, I got my own style. I'm learning so much through this process.

Take a little bit from everybody, and then use it to beat 'em in the end.

So, G-Money, what you cooking?

How does this speak on your family on a Sunday dinner?

What's typical in... in your household?

I'm a preacher's kid. My daddy's been a pastor at our church for 30 years.

So Sunday dinner was always something that got... got the family together,

with the central place being the church.

So it's my first time here, and it's a competition.

-Okay. -You add a lot of Creole spices.

- Yes. A lot of times... - You're from Louisiana?

I'm from... from St. Rose, which is right outside of New Orleans.

Yeah, my mom lives in Lafayette.

-Lafayette, huh? -Yeah. Laffy Taffy.

Nah!

-Okay. There you go. -I'm looking forward to tasting all that.

My family's secret, uh, secret recipe is a bourbon glaze

that I plan on throwing on there.

You putting all that bourbon? You trying to get us buzzed?

Food tastes better when you're drunk, so that's the plan.

Thank you so much, Gerald. I look forward to tasting.

-Thank y'all so much. Good to meet you. -Good to meet you too, man.

Gerald's in his zone.

He knows what he's doing. He has a plan. He's working his plan.

I mean, Gerald has had a few problems with seasoning.

That's crazy. Louisiana boy having a problem with seasoning.

He backs way off on seasoning.

Gerald's cruising today. He's in his element.

But he's gotta really hit it home on those seasonings.

We all like green beans. I don't like under-seasoned green beans.

He's really gotta hit it today.

To start my green beans, I'm gonna start with bacon fat and onion.

Gonna render that a little bit, then add my green beans.

Bacon fat, to me, it's the best thing to render.

You know, render bacon fat, sauté onion.

In the South, everything seems to start with bacon fat, butter, or onion.

-Hey, Sloan! -Hi, guys. How you doing?

Let me introduce you to Chef Kwame.

I'm excited to taste your food.

I'm repping Texas, honey.

So are we eating what's on your Sunday table today?

Yes, ma'am. You are eating what's on my Sunday table today.

I'm gonna do a smothered pork chop

that my mammy did when I was a kid that I absolutely loved.

Really good gravy and onions. So I'm doing pork-belly burnt ends.

I'm doing a money muscle.

-Okay. -Okay?

-That money is money. -Yeah, it is.

-That is the coveted competition cut. -That's why I did it. Money muscle, right?

You know how many money muscles I've judged in my life?

-Countless. -Don't mess that up.

What's your secret recipe today?

My mom's baked squash. That was my absolute favorite as a kid.

Then the green beans, I'm gonna smoke that sirloin, get some smoke on it,

then get into my beans.

I'm gonna sauté them in some bacon fat I just rendered.

- I smelled it. - Get that going.

In Texas, everything starts with bacon fat, butter, and onions. Right?

For dessert?

My favorite pie that my mom made, fried hand pie, apricot.

You said the other night, uh, you cook better with confidence.

So I'm confident about what I'm doing today.

I'm gonna... I'm gonna nail it.

- Don't mess it up. - Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.

She's like, "You ain't gotta go home, but you gotta get the hell out of here."

All right. Thank you, guys.

So Sloan is really sticking to the roots of barbecue

and her Sunday supper as a kid.

You know, and those smothered pork chops.

Looking forward to it. That's Sunday, baby.

I wish we gave 'em two hours so we could eat quicker. This is making me hungry.

We should change this right now.

All right, we're taking off an hour, yeah?

♪ Pour another round Kiss yesterday goodbye ♪

♪ Lookin' up and gettin' down... ♪

Come on, come on, come on.

♪ Stomp your feet and dance around Pull somebody close... ♪

Yes. Oh, look at that!

The pork shanks, yeah, it looks real good. Uh, got a good color.

I want 'em to get to a internal temperature of, like, 205

so I can pull 'em and then put 'em in my green beans.

♪ I've been burnt out Runnin' just on fumes... ♪

This meal has gotta be bougie.

It's all about being a cute little bougie chef on the grilling,

inside of here, cooking all things Sunday. Soulful Sunday.

Just cut up some of this jowl to put in this collard greens.

This is what my dad loves for breakfast. And he'll make jowls bacon.

It's like bacon, almost, but it's just from the jowl of the pig.

My daddy would say, "Girl, you want some jowls bacon?"

- Shaticka. - Hey there. How are you?

Let me introduce you to Chef Kwame.

-Hello, sir. -It's a pleasure to meet you.

-Pleasure to meet you as well. -Shaticka, it smells incredible in here.

- Thank you. - What's on your menu today?

So today, my two smoked proteins are going to be spare ribs.

I smoked, and then I'm going to deep-fry 'cause that was my dad's favorite thing.

Um, then I also have barbecue pigs' feet because that was his other favorite.

I also have some jowls. I smoked it, and then I put it in my collard greens.

This is how Sunday dinner's supposed to look.

You look like you're dressed for Sunday.

-You are so cute. -Yes!

-Sunday's best. Mm-hmm. -Sunday's best, baby, yes.

How does this represent your Sunday traditions?

Sunday, you come home from church,

and you smell everything simmering in the air.

So all of the... the whole stove would be full of different pots going,

stuff in the oven, somebody grilling something outside.

So this is just... this is me. This is... this is family. This is love.

You feel you have enough time to get everything done?

Um, absolutely. I work best in mass chaos.

I'm actually in my zone. I'm in my space. I feel really good right now.

- Good luck to you. - Thank you.

-I wanna live in here for a little bit. -Yes! Thank you.

I feel like I stepped out of my mother's kitchen.

The smells are so good.

It's like when your mother first come home from church, and they put the apron on.

She's got that fighting spirit going, wearing her Sunday's best,

and I... I think she's cooking up Sunday's best.

- I agree. - Yeah.

She has that calm within the storm, which is needed in competitions like this.

Wait till you see her storm. It's only this tall, but it is fierce.

I need my mama's rolling pin.

- What did Shaticka call jowls? - She said "joel" or something.

- "Joels"? - Yeah.

Two hours, guys! Only two hours left!

- What's going on? How are you? - I'm here working.

- Yeah? - How are you doing?

I'm about to start my green beans.

So with my green beans,

I have a pork shank,

and that's gonna give me my smoke flavor.

It's the same thing that my grandmother used to do for us

Sunday mornings after church.

Come home, and she'll put some green beans in the pot,

smother 'em down while you watch a football game,

and then we can have a great Sunday dinner by the end of it.

My grandmother made the best sweet potatoes.

And then my mom learned how,

and so I learned how to make these candied yams

from just watching them and being in the kitchen.

My mom would be like, "I need you to peel them sweet potatoes."

I wanted them so bad that I would peel all those sweet potatoes.

Cook, babies. Okay.

I'm fixing to start on my dough.

For my fried hand pies, I wanna get it done now

so it can sit in the fridge before I roll it out.

Uh, my mom made... made this when I was a kid,

and I really was so impressed, and I liked it so much,

I have spent my entire life trying to find it somewhere else.

So I'm gonna make it here.

I break up the butter. I put half the butter in first.

I pulse it, get the flour where I want it to be.

I'm trying to give them an incredible melt-in-your-mouth flaky texture.

I'm gonna wrap them ribs 'cause I think they about good.

I'm wrapping my ribs 'cause they got a good enough color.

I don't want 'em to get any darker.

I'm going to put 'em in a little apple juice.

Normally, I do honey. But since I plan on my barbecue sauce being sweet already,

I don't want it to be too sweet.

The judges say they don't like things too sweet.

So I wanna listen to 'em and give them what they want.

You in the semi-finals, they better be some incredible ribs.

Look at that, baby. Yes.

Looks beautiful.

Got a beautiful color on 'em.

Ah!

My smoked pig feet right now are still kind of tight.

I'm gonna get them in some liquid.

I am braising my pigs' feet

to continue that cooking process

because I need it to be extremely tender.

I'm gonna pour in a little apple juice, a little bit of vinegar,

and just let it simmer on down.

Pig feet ain't a easy cook.

It's a point where you gotta get 'em to where they're tender

but not overcooked to where you pick it up, and it falls apart.

And there's only a little bit of meat on the pig feet.

-Yeah. -Pig feet is probably one good bite.

So that one good bite's gotta be perfect.

Now, having those pig feet on the Green Egg,

that's gonna get the char that you want, but I don't think that'll get 'em tender.

So I'm cooking a smothered pork tenderloin.

I'm coating 'em in flour so I can brown 'em.

It'll help later in thickening up the gravy.

My mammy, when I was a kid, the favorite thing for me she would make

was either smothered pork chops or smothered steak.

My mammy made it. That's what I'm gonna do today.

Got some onion in there, some flour, create my gravy.

It's now smothered in the gravy. It's cooking.

Let it cook for two hours. It gets really tender.

It's a classic Southern dish.

She's making smothered pork chops. If you ain't got good gravy, don't try it.

'Cause I'm gonna taste that gravy first, even before I taste the meat.

Might have to check my pork shanks to see how tender they are.

Ooh, ooh!

It's plump, and it ain't late! It ain't late.

Cook this shank might've been the best thing that I've cooked so far.

Goddamn!

All right. I like that.

If you got a shank off, and it's tender,

and it's already pulling, that's incredible.

You way ahead of the game.

The pork shank, I'm most excited about.

You know, him smoking that and throwing that in some vegetables.

I would love to see some big pieces of that.

That's my favorite part.

I should be able to just shred it, throw it in,

allow the green beans to take the flavor from this,

and hopefully, it's a good dish.

Maybe after that.

I'm feeling good at where I am right now. We have two hours left.

And I feel like I'm... I'm not the person that just can sit around.

I feel like I am at my best when it's kind of mass chaos,

and so I decided to make hot water cornbread.

Hey, what make it hot water cornbread? I ain't never heard of that.

- Really? - I'm serious. I swear.

It's not baked. It's deep-fried.

- You actually boil hot water. - Okay.

And then you pour it into your cornmeal mixture so it can cook.

Just till you're able to form some type of patty.

-It fries well. -I got you.

Hot water cornbread is something that one of my oldest cousins taught me

when I was young.

It has just a little of this sweetness

and a nice crunch that goes well with greens.

Oh, it's very bougie,

but what can you expect from the bougie queen?

- Shaticka. You look nice. - Yes.

-Thank you. -How do you feel like it's going so far?

This is the first challenge where I can say that I feel good.

I feel good.

Okay, James Brown. Let's go.

Are you a singer?

- It's like music and food all go together. - Yeah!

-♪ Come together ♪ -♪ Yeah, come on, come together ♪

♪ Music and food, uh, uh ♪

♪ Music and food, uh, uh ♪

We're done? Okay.

I'm gonna pull the money muscle and the pork belly. It's time to braise.

So I'll take them and put them in separate pans.

Pork belly in one, the money muscle in the other.

I'll add the same ingredients.

So I'm gonna add butter, some of the rub that originally went on the pork,

and then, uh, honey.

Now, this will create a braising liquid.

That's gonna assure proper tenderness at this point.

That money muscle has very little forgiveness.

-You have to make sure it's very tender. -Yeah. And not dry.

-And not dry. -Yeah.

'Cause I don't want no chewy pork butt.

Set it right here.

And let it rip.

Ninety minutes, you guys!

I'm just about to shred my pork shank.

So hot. Damn!

Ooh! At this point, it's the top three.

Even though I feel good, who knows what's gonna happen?

So right now, I am making the peach filling for my peach pie.

This was always one of my mom's favorite desserts

that I would love to eat.

Half sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, a little vanilla.

And then I'm just gonna let that cook down a bit.

I want to win this so bad.

So I'm going for it.

This is who I am, and you just build that confidence in yourself

to where nobody can take that away from you.

I got this.

There it is.

Peach cobbler is in.

- Sloan, how you doing? - I'm doing good. Thank you.

So I'm gonna make my mom's fried apricot pies.

How they looking?

Are you kidding me?

After I fried them, I looked over and saw

that I had left out half of the butter that went into my crust.

I knew it was not gonna be the flaky crust that it should be.

But it's too late to fix. I don't have enough time.

I can't believe that I didn't add the remaining butter.

That's disappointing.

My dough's coming apart right there.

Are you gonna make some more pies?

No.

♪ Who's that writin'? ♪

One hour, guys!

Anxiety is starting to kick in.

♪ Who's that writin'? ♪

These are the top three that's left.

They've made their mistakes. They've messed up.

I want greatness today.

♪ You know, God walked down In the cool of the day... ♪

Right now, I'm making the batter for my French toast bananas Foster.

It comes from a cousin of mine,

so this is gonna be, like, an ode to her.

Yeah, now's the time to make a list and check it twice.

It's really about setting yourself up for the... for the finish line.

Okay, I'm gonna be checking my money muscle.

So they're definitely done

and ready for glazing. I feel confident there's a lot of flavor.

Melissa knows more about money muscle than anyone.

Extremely intimidating, um...

I am praying that these are the best money muscles I've ever done.

Out of the smoker.

I have 45 minutes left.

I'm pulling my ribs.

I'm gonna start frying them.

I'm gonna try this.

I wanna smack somebody.

Ten minutes left!

So right now, I'm looking to the end.

I wanna know what I can do to get ahead of my game,

to make sure that that last few minutes is not so hectic,

because that's really where you fail.

This is probably the stiffest competition that I will ever have.

I have to dig deep. There's only one place to go after this.

We're talking about the finals.

These are done.

This is done.

I'm nervous because this is gonna determine who's in the top two.

I've put every ounce of me into this Sunday dinner feast.

I'm smoking the sirloin,

and they are absolutely, perfectly ready to go.

I've positioned myself, I think, fairly well in the competition.

I definitely wanna win this thing.

Three minutes, guys!

-I feel good about my pigs' feet. -Come on, man. Why are you still...

I like that. It's beautiful.

Don't do it to yourself.

All right. I'm feeling all right.

One minute, everybody!

One minute left!

Whoo! Lord, have mercy.

Oh my goodness.

All's fair in love and barbecue.

Ten,

nine, eight,

seven,

six, five,

four,

three, two, one!

Time's up!

Whoo!

Show me the meat!

Semifinalists.

- Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. - Whoo!

Now, it's Sunday.

- Hey. What's going on? - Hey.

What's up, fam?

- Doing well. Doing well. - How you living?

-Living large. -Living!

- Large and in charge. Love it. - Yes, ma'am.

Welcome to the family table.

This looks like an amazing Sunday spread.

Today, we asked you to cook us a Sunday supper

with two proteins and a side

featuring hog and a dessert.

Let's see how y'all did.

Shaticka, you're up. What'd you make for Sunday dinner?

So, for Sunday dinner,

I made a smoked deep-fried spare ribs,

smoked barbecue pig feet,

smothered cornbread dressing,

collard greens with some of the smoked jowl

that I used as well,

candied yams,

a hot water cornbread,

and peach cobbler.

I'm really impressed that you got all of this done in that amount of time.

I wanna start with the ribs.

They're perfectly crispy and perfectly smoked at the same time.

It's real crispy where you fried it,

so I can appreciate that crunch and texture on the outside.

As you can see, I got a clean bite, and I can get a clean pull off of that.

-A little bit more seasoning. -Okay.

Other than that, this rib is on point.

-Good job. -Okay.

The pigs' feet, I really like the flavor.

I would love to see, you know, the skin break down some more.

- I love to eat the skin as well. - Mm-hmm.

But the flavor on it is amazing.

Should it have been a bit more tender on the top? Yeah, maybe so.

But as far as when you bite that bottom, that is a good smoked, barbecued pig feet.

Mm-hmm.

Your hot water cornbread, you make it like my mother make it

'cause hot water cornbread is fried hard,

then doughy and soft in the middle because you sopping up the greens with it.

-Thank you. -Your yams are from another world.

Sweet, the perfect amount of sweetness in it.

The dressing, who doesn't love dressing, right?

The thing about dressing, for me, is I like a lot of sage in my dressing.

- You gave me that. - Uh-huh.

Your greens, maybe a bit more seas...

But I like that vinegar base in there, and I can taste that jowl in there.

And to do all that and then make a dessert

with almost a perfect crust and a perfect sweetness on your cobbler,

you know how to make Sunday dinner, girl.

-You know. -Thank you.

-Thank you so much, Shaticka. -Thank you.

Sloan.

-Yes, ma'am. -Which proteins did you choose?

I have the pork belly,

and I have a money muscle off the pork butt, as well as loin.

What's on the menu for Sunday dinner?

We've got pork-belly burnt ends,

a smoked and glazed money muscle,

some green beans that I started in bacon fat with onion,

and then I smoked a sirloin.

I've got my mom's baked squash casserole,

then I've got some smothered pork chops

that my mammy used to make me when I was a kid.

And finally, apricot fried pies.

- Sloan. - Yes, sir.

Happy Sunday.

Happy Sunday to you.

This pork belly,

and I said I wasn't gonna say it this year on the show,

but I'm gonna say it. This is one of the best pork bellies I ever had.

Your balance of smoke, seasoning, and flavor on this is almost perfect.

- Thank you. - Excellent job on your pork belly.

You got great subtle smoke on it.

You can tell this is not your first time cooking a pork belly.

-Thank you. -This money muscle is...

It's a competition money muscle.

It's the perfect texture.

The only thing I would've suggested

is maybe serving some sauce on the side so we could have dipped.

Okay.

- See that juice there? - Yes, sir.

That means you cooked a perfect, moist money muscle.

This is so incredible, and it has the same sauce on this pork belly.

Maybe if you'd have went another flavor profile

because this one is a good cook of meat,

but you lose me on the flavor.

I would've loved to see something different done to it.

You're picking three different proteins. We wanna see something different.

The pork chop,

to cut it so thick, it was a little dry to the bite,

but this 30-weight gravy you got on here, I can eat this plate just with that.

- Awesome. Thank you, sir. - You know how to build a gravy.

My pork was a bit over, but I got a fattier piece.

- Okay. - Which was great.

Um, very unctuous.

The green beans, for me, were lacking.

Okay.

I'm not sure that sirloin was the best use of meat.

You really needed a fattier piece

to give us that good flavor that we're, I think, used to.

The casserole, it is kind of bland for my taste, so it could've been better.

Okay.

The hand pie, it was a touch dry for me.

I left out the second batch of butter that should've gone into the flour.

- Yeah. - It could have benefited from more butter.

-A little more butter. -It sure could have.

Thank you, Sloan.

Thank you very much.

I wonder who's next.

-This guy. -Hi, Gerald. What proteins did you choose?

So I chose the baby back ribs,

I chose the pork tenderloin, and then I chose the pork shank.

What did you make for Sunday dinner?

I did baby back ribs with a bourbon barbecue sauce.

I had a tenderloin I put with a maple bourbon barbecue sauce.

Smothered green beans.

And I put in the pork shank that I smoked and then braised.

Then I have a bananas Foster's bread pudding.

For me, on the rib, um,

what sauce did you put on this?

It's like a homemade bourbon sauce.

So it's ketchup base, a little honey,

salt, a little molasses for color,

and then the Pendleton bourbon.

And, uh, did you taste these?

- I did. - What did you think?

-I thought they was okay. Yeah. I mean... -Okay? Just okay?

I liked it. I didn't think they were bad at all.

-It's a perfect rib. -What?

What?

The smoke is beautiful.

The texture is beautiful. The moisture's there.

The barbecue sauce is sultry.

It's sexy.

Um, I mean, this is a world-champion rib.

-Wow. -G-Money, I know you heard this.

Preachers got the baddest kids in the world.

- That may be true. - Yeah. Let me tell you.

This is one of the baddest ribs I ever had in the world,

and you know bad means good.

It's tender to the bite, smoky,

the right balance of rub and sauce on it.

You did an incredible job. Where has this been?

Back against the wall.

Your pork tenderloin has a great smoke ring,

and I think it is perfectly cooked.

There's something on the seasoning on the bark that's really forward.

Something that's not traditional barbecue.

Did you put a lot of paprika on the outside?

I put paprika and cumin.

It's the cumin, okay?

Sometimes, it... it can be off-putting.

Yeah, excellent cook, but you had to just throw something weird in there,

the cumin on the pork.

I like the cumin.

See? That's what I'm talking about.

At the end of the day, you cooked this perfectly.

And you made it different than the ribs.

- Yeah. - Which is important.

For me, uh, the green beans,

I love your use of the pork shank.

You get the smokiness from the shank.

A lot of people take it, and they break it down, and it gets lost,

um, but all in all, great job.

Gerald, you cook with an old soul. Do you know what that means?

I'm thinking about my grandfather.

What's he saying to you?

Go.

Gerald, you're going.

Thank you, guys, so much for a fantastic dinner.

We are full in more ways than one.

Kevin, Melissa, and Kwame have a lot to discuss.

Why don't you all head down to the pit? We'll be in touch.

- Bye! - Thank you.

Thank you.

-I think I need a whiskey after this. -Yeah, go pour me one too.

Right now, I've won half of our competitions.

I have yet to be in the bottom.

At this point, I definitely wanna win this thing.

Cheers, guys.

I'm nervous.

I feel good about what I presented.

I know that I put my heart on the table.

I can say one thing for sure.

I really did put my soul into that food today.

We laid it out. We did. We left it all out there.

-Yeah. -You know?

- Hey. - Hello.

-Hey, how y'all doing? -Good. Thank you.

Sunday family dinner is a time-honored tradition in the South.

And, as far as I'm concerned,

y'all could be a part of my family. That was delicious.

Listen, we've had a lot of great meals here on the Showdown,

but that meal

was incredible.

Y'all should be very proud. Give y'all self a hand.

From a technical standpoint,

your dishes were very well executed.

You all proved why you deserve to be standing here today as the top three.

But when it's all said and done, there can only be one winner.

The Sunday family dinner that impressed us the most

had the best overall execution of proteins,

big, bold flavors,

and took us right there to their family table.

The first cook going into the finale is...

Congratulations, Gerald.

Congrats.

Right on.

Good job, G.

- God bless you, Gerald, dude. - You deserve it, man.

-Yeah. -Way to go.

Gerald, you okay?

Never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate being here.

And I'm happy, very happy, not just for myself,

but for everybody that I feel I'm representing in this process.

Ah boy.

G, when you talk about your grandfather,

just think about now what you doing for your kids and your legacy.

And one day, your grandkids are gonna speak about you in the same way.

You did a great job, bruh. You should be so proud.

-Hey. -I've been trying so hard, bro.

-I know, but listen, you're incredible. -Thank you.

Sloan, Shaticka.

Both of you put your hearts on the table today.

Both of you should be very, very proud.

This was such a hard decision,

if not the hardest one we ever had to make.

It really, really came down to splitting hairs,

and they had to find some off my head to split.

Shaticka?

You're going to the finale.

- Oh! - Congratulations.

I told you. I told you.

Wow.

Yeah.

- Sloan. - Yes, sir.

Your Texas roots,

watching you move around in that kitchen,

I so loved that,

and your food spoke volumes

about your level of talent as a chef, as a pit master.

You did an incredible job. You have nothing to hold your head down for.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that very much.

- Sloan? - Yes.

It really sucks to say goodbye.

It does, but it's all good, man. This was the best experience of my life.

You know, I'm 60 years old. I started doing this ten years ago.

And I feel so blessed to be in the barbecue community.

I'm just so thankful.

It's been awesome.

I'm leaving this competition with my head held high.

No regrets at all.

I was competing against some of the best cooks I've ever seen

or ever known, and I'm just so happy that I made it to the three.

I could not be happier for Ticka and Gerald.

Getting to the finale would have been the cherry, right?

But outside of that, it's been an incredible Sunday.

Love you, Sloan!

Gerald, Shaticka, you did it!

-Yes! -Lord, it's crazy. It's crazy.

Thank you, God.

You two are going to the finale,

and one of you will be winning $50,000

and be the Barbecue Showdown champion.

-Yes! -Oh, Lord Jesus!

For your final challenge of the competition,

we're giving each of you the chance to bring your ultimate dream to life.

The chance to show us your vision

for your very own barbecue joint.

Yes!

-Let's go! Let's go! Let's go! Yes! -Let's get barbecuing.

Tomorrow, we're splitting these pits into two dueling barbecue joints.

Side by side,

owned, operated...

- Okay. - ...and fully originated by you.

You'll come up with a full menu, the flavors, the stories you wanna tell.

This is your baby.

Good luck, everybody. See you back here in the morning for the big finale.