Original subtitles

[Bobby] The greatest form of teamwork I know is cooking on the line.

And away we go.

The line in a restaurant is a battery of chefs working

together to get the food out of the kitchen.

And my teammates, well, they're ballers.

Start cooking.

Each week, a great restaurant challenges us to their cuisine.

-Let's go! -Damn!

[Bobby] You're watching two lines go to work.

We're opening the doors in 60 seconds.

90 minutes to cook, 240 plates.

-That's a lot. -Whoo.

[Bobby] And just like in the real world,

the diners are our judges.

If you guys win, you get $25,000.

Let's go, baby!

[Bobby] This is truly behind the scenes of

the restaurant world.

Service starts now.

[contestant] We got this, guys, we got this!

♪ Let's go ♪

♪ It's getting heated, but we undefeated ♪

I love this team.

This line is about cooking, and you guys are great cooks.

-It actually feels really good to be cooking. -Yeah.

-Yeah, exactly. -Because we don't always get to do it anymore.

Like, we're running teams. We're running lines.

[Claudette] As chefs, every single day,

we're standing in extreme heat, extreme conditions.

But we kind of are gluttons for punishment -- we love the line.

What country are we going to today, Chef?

We're going to Southeast Asia. I love this food.

Same.

When I think of Southeast Asian food, I mean,

they bring the heat. -Yes.

♪ Whoa Crazy ♪

♪ Bring up the energy ♪

♪ We ain't playing with anybody or anything ♪

I'm Leah Cohen.

I'm the chef and owner of Pig and Khao in New York City.

Pig and Khao is a Southeast Asian restaurant.

The brand has been around for about 14 years now.

If we could win this competition today, it would

mean a lot to me, but it would really mean a lot to the team.

To get that win against Bobby will just give them

the confidence that every younger cook wants and needs.

Ah, yes! Hi, guys.

-Bobby, how are you? -Hi, Leah Cohen.

I am such a huge Leah Cohen fan.

Her whole team is brilliant.

Trying to beat the Pig and Khao team today is not gonna be easy.

-These are your line cooks, really? -Yes.

[Leah] Antonia, Mike, and Claudette, like, come on.

These chefs are such pros.

They're just like straight ringers.

You guys are in, like, your chef whites,

and we're here with, like, our t-shirts.

But I don't think that any of those chefs' specialty is in

Southeast Asian cuisine.

So I think we have a great advantage.

This is my squad.

We have Ben, my husband, my first sous chef,

Marissa, who is a current sous chef, and then Matt.

-[Leah] Matt's the heart of the team. -Who's expediting tonight?

That would be me.

Expo is basically you are the one calling out the tickets

and conducting everything.

I will be completely honest, I am not expediting

in my restaurant all the time.

And so I'm definitely a little bit rusty,

but I'm so good at it.

So how's this gonna work tonight, Bobby?

[Bobby] Here's the way it works, OK?

So there's gonna be two hours to prep.

At the end of the two hours, it's 90 minutes of service.

Each line is serving six dishes.

There's 40 diners.

They're all tasting every dish, and they score it from one to

five stars -- there'll be scoreboards up.

You'll see the total scores, and then you'll see

the averages of each dish.

And then the line with the most stars

at the end of the night wins.

And if you guys win, your team wins $25,000.

-Ooh! You guys ready to take home that money? -Nice.

[Marissa] Of course.

I'm actually not going to do anything with the money,

because I'm gonna give it to my team.

For me, the win is just like seeing them happy and knowing

that I have bragging rights against Bobby.

And then Laurence is the restaurant manager.

-Laurence Kretchmer? My buddy. -[Bobby] It is.

-I know he's your buddy. -Yep. He's your buddy, yep.

Yeah.

-Are you talking about me? -[Leah] Yes, we are.

-Yes. -Hi. How are you?

[Bobby] Laurence, he and I have been business partners 35 years.

He's the front of the house, and I'm the back of the house.

I'm your eyes and ears in the dining room.

I get feedback from the dining room.

And then you're gonna decide whether or not you want to

make adjustments. -[Leah] I just want to win.

I will take everything he has to say and change whatever

we can to improve the scores. -You have two hours to prep.

Let's go!

Go, go, go, go, go!

Comin' down, rolling racks.

-You guys feel good? -We feel good.

OK, you guys got this. We got this.

The thought process behind coming up with a menu was,

do dishes that are big sellers at the restaurant.

So, I'm gonna have you do the mushroom salad

and the kinilaw. -[Matt] Perfect.

[Leah] Kinilaw is Filipino ceviche.

-You're gonna do the Khao soi and the crab curry. -Mm-hmm.

Ben, you're gonna do lumpia,

and you're gonna do the steak.

So, you're gonna grill it and then finish it in the oven.

And then I'm gonna expo. I'm gonna prep here.

You guys are gonna prep over there.

Don't be intimidated, because you have the advantage,

because you work in the kitchen all the time. -Perfect.

Love that it's Leah Cohen.

-Pig and Khao in New York is the standard. -[Bobby] Is great.

-Yeah, yeah. -Like, we got to bring it.

All right, what are you making tonight?

I'm making the things I actually like to eat

in this cuisine.

So, crispy shrimp, red Thai curry,

and then I'm gonna make a pork lumpia.

-[Antonia] So, I love a tiny egg roll. -[Claudette] Yeah.

-[Antonia] Done. -Sounds great.

I know how to work with herbs and chilies.

So I'm making laksa soup, and it's gonna be spicy,

but it's gonna be flavorful and deep.

And I'm doing a Hainanese chicken.

OK. And then I'm gonna make

some lemongrass and green curry mussels.

And I'm going to make a adobo-glazed pork tenderloin.

-[Bobby] Simple and flavorful. -Delicious.

Yeah. You're expediting.

-I love it. -You're going to run the line.

I love expediting. I think I'm really good at it.

But normally when I expedite, I outrank the people

that I'm expediting for.

And tonight's gonna be a little bit different,

because I am not in charge of Bobby Flay.

We have two hours of prep before doors open.

The cuisine is very prep-heavy.

It's, like, very prep-intense, so you gotta be fast.

Pig and Khao's gonna be hard

to beat because this is their game.

I'm doing a mussels with

a lemongrass and green curry sauce.

Just starting to sweat these aromatics.

Then I'm gonna, like, toast the curry.

I love the sort of the back-and-forth

of the flavors, the heat, the sweet,

the sour, all those things kind of going on

in your mouth at the same time.

Everything Bobby knows about Southeast Asian cuisine is

probably stuff that he's read in my cookbook.

Yes, tell them, chef.

Have you learned anything from Leah?

Totally. I love her.

I mean, she's judged so many of my dishes.

When I'm like doing "Beat Bobby Flay," or even when I'm cooking

at home this kind of food, I see her face.

-Wow. -Heard that everyone?

-Bobby dreams about me. -[Ben] Damn.

That's not what I said, but it's fine.

Oh, OK, sorry.

She knows that I bring the flavor.

I'm just trying to work on my curries to start.

We're doing a coconut crab curry.

So on the spicier side, we're using canned curry paste.

So I am adding lemongrass and Thai chilies.

And then if you don't fry the curry paste long enough,

you're not building the flavor.

This is what we do. This is what we're known for.

And this is what I've been learning my whole life.

My mom is from the Philippines.

And I had always been interested in learning about

Southeast Asian food.

But I found it to be really intimidating.

I was cooking Italian food.

And I just felt like there was no connection.

So I wanted to pack my bags and double down on learning.

I moved to Southeast Asia.

And I really discovered myself through learning about all

these different cuisines -- I came back to New York.

We opened Pig and Khao in 2012.

And I hope we're around for a long time.

I feel like we got the flavors, um,

and hopefully we should -- that should make us win.

♪ Yo ♪

I am currently working on my Hainanese chicken.

There's something super comforting to me about

chicken and rice.

I've had it my entire childhood, and when I've had

Hainanese chicken, it doesn't

have any bells and whistles on it.

You can't hide behind too much sauces

because the chicken's really the star.

Like a perfectly poached chicken,

it's the star of the dish.

Chicken breasts can overcook really easily and be very dry.

My goal is to get this chicken as tender as possible.

I'm making a super flavorful broth with chicken stock,

black vinegar, lime leaves, lemongrass, and soy sauce.

So I'm going to put it in a little sauna into the oven

and slowly cook it.

Hopefully this will do the trick.

Calm down.

Did you just tell yourself to calm down?

Yes, chef.

-[bleep] love you. -Taste this.

-It's supposed to be like green onion... -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

...citrus, a little heat.

I would go spicier.

-Yeah. -[Antonia] Yeah.

I've been working at Pig and Khao for four years now.

I'm currently the sous chef.

Marissa was recently promoted to sous chef,

and she's killing it. So this opportunity

is going to just give her some confidence

that will carry on into the restaurant

and into the kitchen. -I'm making a curry, Khao soi.

[Leah] Khao soi is our number one selling dish.

It's a curry noodle dish with chicken thighs.

It's spicy. It's creamy.

It's red curry with lime leaves,

Thai chilies, lemongrass, very aromatic herbs.

Hot, behind.

If we win this prize money, I'm gonna use my portion to

travel to the countries in the cuisine I cook.

You done with this?

Uh, for now, yeah.

But I don't need you busting my [bleep].

Just go do your thing. Go do your thing.

My team, you know, we are a family.

You know, Matt will text me at like 2 o'clock in the morning.

[Matt] I'm not crying. It's the shallots, guys.

[Leah] He's a busser, he's a server, he's a line cook.

Cooking was just something that I enjoyed doing.

Chef Leah gave me the opportunity to cook.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Hey, listen, I'm always telling her that.

-Matt, we love you. -I love you guys too.

Yo, Matt, I'm gonna give you this salmon

for the kinilaw. -[Matt] Heard.

Kinilaw is the equivalent of a Filipino ceviche,

and so you're using calamansi and vinegar as an acid with

some coconut milk.

How we doing, guys?

-[Bobby] Good. -Great, chef.

Ben, what are you doing today?

I'm making the filling for the lumpia.

-[Laurence] Uh-huh. -It's a Filipino spring roll.

It's just, like, super crispy and the most quintessential

Filipino dish.

And, like, I've had lumpia all over the Philippines.

We got married there.

This is the best lumpia I've ever had.

In the lumpia filling, we have pork, soy sauce,

and carrots, ginger, scallions, and garlic.

So these get rolled -- honestly, like I volunteer for

the rolling because, like, I'm the best non-Filipino roller in

the Eastern Seaboard.

-[Laurence] Wow. -Of lumpia, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you have, like, a big trophy that says that?

No, I just made it up, actually, but, like, I think

I am. -[Laurence] I believe you.

-How is it working with Leah? -Oh, it's great.

To work with my wife, to us, it's, like, normal,

because that's how we met each other.

We were with each other, like, 100 hours a week.

Why are you acting like you're so quiet?

I'm not so quiet, but I got [bleep] to do.

I'm just like a fungus. I kind of, like, grow on you.

[Leah] It'll be our 10-year anniversary this summer.

He's kind of my rock.

He's also kind of like my punching bag.

But he can prep his ass off. He can cook.

He can fix a sink. He can do it all.

[Ben] I don't line cook anymore, but, like, I came out of

retirement for this one.

So I really just want to win this for her.

We're a really good team.

All right, guys, we have 48 minutes of prep left.

-Does anybody need any prep? -[Antonia] Yes, lettuce cups.

-[Michael] Just separate the lettuce? -[Antonia] Yeah, just the cup.

-[Laurence] What are you making? -[Antonia] So I am doing pork lumpia.

You and Leah's line are both making lumpia.

I know.

It is very, very hard because it's gonna be, like,

lumpia against lumpia.

When you have the same dish, one's always gonna be better

than the other, but I've made this dish before.

It's a small little mini, like, cigar-looking egg roll.

Inside the pork, it's gonna have, like, a ton of

aromatics, ginger, garlic.

I'm doing it Vietnamese-style, so it's wrapped in, like,

a little bit of, like, a lettuce cup.

It's super delicious.

You good with the lettuce?

-[Michael] Almost done. -Thank you.

All right, gang, can we get together for a pre-shift lineup.

With 240 dishes from each kitchen,

let's be super-focused.

Take great care with making sure that you go

to the right place with every plate.

[Bobby] I'm gonna start crusting some pork.

It's paprika, cinnamon, coriander, cumin,

a little brown sugar.

I'm gonna sear them, and then I'm gonna glaze

the adobo glaze on the outside of the pork.

But I gotta get this pork in the oven -- 15 minutes.

-[Bobby] Antonia? -[Antonia] Yeah, chef.

-[Bobby] Michael? -[Michael] Good.

-Claudette, you good? -I'm good, chef, but I gotta

hurry up. -Doors are open.

[distant conversations]

I'm a longtime viewer.

I'm super excited to be at the Food Network kitchen today.

[diner] The food looks incredible.

I'm ready to eat and enjoy this whole experience.

-We have two killer lines cooking, and I love this food. -[woman] OK.

[Laurence] Lot of different flavors happening.

Start talking to the guests, people are placing

the orders, and I'm seeing more Pig and Khao dishes,

which means that the home team's gonna get slammed late.

-Michael, real quick. -How you doing, man?

CJ's your head server tonight. Pig and Khao --

they have a couple of dishes that I think are gonna

lean early. -OK.

Which means you might get hit late.

Our dishes are leaning a little more entree, so we're

probably going to get much busier much later.

You know the name of the game is get the food out.

-Absolutely. -[Laurence] All right.

-Leah. -Yes.

-This is Diana. -[Leah] Hi, Diana.

She's going to be your head server tonight.

-OK. -And her goal is to get your food out the second you have

it ready. -Awesome, thank you.

[Leah] Matt, are you good on the rice crackers?

I'm gonna do it right now.

Why don't I do it, and you just set up

your station? -Heard.

[Antonia] How much time?

[Laurence] Chefs, we're right at about two minutes

before tickets start flying.

[Leah] Antonia is also making a lumpia.

I feel like our lumpia has to be better,

or the Filipinos will come after me if she wins.

[Bobby] How much time?

Guys, 45 seconds and counting before liftoff.

I have to set my station up.

Come on, cook!

The food's gonna be great tonight.

I'm really looking forward to the crab curry.

[Antonia] 30 seconds.

We are plating and delivering 240 plates in 90 minutes.

That is not an easy thing to do.

-Whoo! -Hey, everybody, get ready.

Whoo!

Service has started.

[stuttering printer noises]

-Tickets are firing. -[Leah] OK, let's go.

-Two lumpia all day. -[Matt] Two lumpia all day, heard!

Fire three soup. Sorry, make that four soup.

Four soup, yes, chef.

It is a quick, hard, fast 90 minutes.

Everybody needs to be locked in.

-Any mussels or no? -[Michael] Not yet.

[Michael] Fire one more shrimp.

The station that has nothing going on is gonna get slammed

at some point -- there's always a reckoning.

I don't wanna get in the weeds. We have nightmares of this.

-Nightmares. -One soup, five chicken all day.

All day is the total sum of one item that you need.

Just like, how many should I be prepared for in

the immediate future?

Two chicken, two shrimp, eight soup, yes chef?

[Michael] Yes, chef.

[Claudette] Laksa soup, it is like a seafood Tom Kha.

I really wanted to do something seafood today

with crab and shrimp heads.

For my garnish, I am doing fried shallots,

a puffed fried tofu square, and a beautifully

poached shrimp.

All of those little touches at the end really make

a difference in the overall texture of the soup.

-Four more soup. -[Claudette] Yes, chef.

-12 all day. -[Claudette] Yes, chef.

Crushed on soup. Yes, chef.

Getting crushed on the soup station immediately out

the gate is not the best scenario.

Even though this is chaotic, I need to maintain

organized chaos.

12.

Because daddy don't [bleep] play -- hey guys, soup.

Seat 3 and seat 6.

Our diners are scoring every single dish from

one to five stars.

Forget the fact that they don't know who cooked what.

They don't even know who cooked period.

[man] Good curry flavor to it. Really subtle spice.

Feels like a really rich broth, as well.

And you know, I'm obviously a fan of crab,

but everything's cooked perfectly.

[woman] Wow, wow, wow, wow. That is delicious.

Hey, first Laksa soup score, four stars.

-Heard, chef. -[Laurence] How many are you guys?

-Eight. -Oh, you're eight.

Can you give us second? 14 and 15 together.

Have a great time.

-Thank you. -Thank you.

One, two,

three, four -- clear that ticket.

-Fire one more chicken. -Three chicken, heard.

-Three chicken. -Four mushroom.

-[Leah] Three ceviche. -[Matt] Three ceviche, heard.

-Fire one lumpia. -[Antonia] Copy.

[Matt] Ceviche walking.

[diner] There's a really sweet sort of acid to it

that's pretty balanced.

This is one of my favorite dishes that I've tried today.

I'm not a huge fan of salmon. Man, that ceviche slapped.

-That was delicious. -Big raves.

People are loving ceviche and the fact that it's not like...

-[Leah] Oh. -...straight acid -- they're loving the balance.

-Oh, great, awesome. -[Laurence] Good dish.

[Laurence] So early on, I'm watching both scoreboards, of course.

I'm looking at the averages, but I'm also watching

the total scores because that's telling me

who's getting more plates out.

You guys, these guys have 185, we have 119.

Averages are neck-and-neck. They just have more food out.

As I thought, the home team's gonna get slammed late.

Especially Bobby with the mussels and pork adobo.

-Nobody's opening up with that. -Can I get 10 more lumpia?

10 lumpia, are you sure?

10 for real, because they can't sit.

Lumpia is delicious.

You have, like, that crunch, the pork,

the refreshing elements of the lettuce,

the fresh herbs, like...

all the things. -Seat two, table five.

[CJ] I have pork lumpia for both of you.

Please enjoy.

[diner] I thought it was delicious, perfectly crisp,

and had a really nice spice to it.

My lumpia is beating their lumpia.

Ooh.

Ben, you have three lumpia all day.

[Ben] Roger that, three lumpia. Heard.

I know that our lumpia will be better than Antonia's.

And I don't say that to be cocky, but, like, Leah's lumpia

is some of the best lumpia I've ever had.

Lumpia Shanghai. The sweet chili sauce.

Enjoy.

I would say ours is just like very traditional.

I don't know what kind of lumpia that Antonia's making,

but my lumpia should be beating hers.

Mm. I'll give that five.

The middle, like, exploded with flavor.

I'm a well-traveled person. It was the best I've ever had.

[Leah] Can you give me two lumpia now?

-Yeah, two lumpia right now. -Let's go four lumpia.

-[Leah] Five lumpia. -[Matt] Heard that, five.

[Antonia] Oh my god!

My lumpia went from a 4.0 to a 3.4.

God! I think I cursed it.

Literally, the second I even looked up and I was like,

"Oh my goodness, my lumpia dish is beating their lumpia dish,"

it literally imploded.

I've been doing exactly

the same at the exact same time.

You want to get Laurence and find out why all of

a sudden it goes from a 4.1 to a 3.4?

-What did I do? -Ooh, yellow, yellow.

Seems like trouble in paradise.

[Antonia] The fryer's at the same temperature.

I'm not changing anything that I'm putting in

the lettuce cups -- like, what's happening?

I have no [bleep] clue.

I didn't change anything. Not one thing.

Leah, we're getting great feedback on

the Lumpia Shanghai. -OK.

I just had a guest grab me to tell me they just got back from

Southeast Asia, and this was the best they ever had.

Oh, wow.

[Ben] So, right now, our lumpia is averaging higher

than the home team's lumpia.

And like I said before, I'm not surprised.

-[Antonia] Hey, Laurence. -Yeah, what do you need?

Why did my lumpia go from 4.1 to 3.4?

-I'm finding out right now. I got you. -Thank you, Laurence.

-I'm sorry. -I got you.

I've had both.

The pork lumpia, I found it a little greasy.

It was also a little thin.

If I had to pick between the two lumpias, I would pick

the Lumpia Shanghai.

The crispiness of it was delicious.

OK, I know you want to know about the Pork Lumpia.

I'm getting a little greasy, and I'm getting this comment...

-Anything else? -...that they would like it to be thicker.

-OK? -[Bobby] Yeah.

Except the first half of the diners absolutely

loved it, great. -Yep.

I can't do anything.

The lumpia are already filled.

The other team had thicker lumpia.

So I don't know what to say.

Other than if they've gotten the other lumpia and they're

comparing it to it, it's gonna score lower.

This is like death by the other team's lumpia.

Behind.

And it sucks because it was doing so well.

Pig and Khao's winning the battle over lumpia,

but the averages are not that far apart.

-So this is anyone's to win. -Fire one mussel.

-One mussel. -[Michael] One more shrimp.

-[Michael] Three shrimp. -[Antonia] Three shrimp all day.

[Bobby] It's been 13 minutes, I've had one order.

I have 79 to go.

[Bobby] I'm gonna get my ass kicked.

There's really nothing I can do unless I start cooking

the food now, but when food sits, it's not good.

I've gotten my ass kicked before.

It's just another night in the kitchen.

-I just need steaks right now. -[Ben] Yeah, I know.

But it has to rest for at least one second.

The steak, the star of it is really the Jaew sauce,

the Isan sauce.

It has fish sauce, tamarind paste,

toasted rice powder for nuttiness,

lime leaves, and a lot of chili flakes.

OK, let's take two steaks.

That's pretty good, pretty good.

Perfect cook on the steak. A little kick from the chilies.

Probably a four for me.

-[Ben] I like that. -You guys are doing great.

-Keep it up. -Thank you.

We think you're doing great. You keep it up.

Killing it, killing it, killing it, killing it.

Leah's crushing it on expo.

I need you to push me a Khao soi and a steak.

Khao soi, steak, and a crab. Eight Khao, four steak.

-Heard. -Heard.

She's confident. She's not frazzled.

Give me six crab all day.

She's a bad mamma jamma right now.

-[Michael] Fire one mussel, one pork. -One mussel, one pork.

Uh, one more pork. So two pork all day.

[Bobby] And then this is my sweet chili glaze

for the bottom of the pork.

And then I have some green onion sauce

that's gonna go on there, as well.

Take these pork out, my man.

We're gonna go pork, seat seven, table 14.

Seat four, table two.

Put out, like, five dishes.

Do you know what's gonna happen to me?

I'm gonna get absolutely murdered.

It's gonna be bad.

Excuse me, did you have the pork?

-I did have the pork. -[Laurence] How was it?

I thought it was cooked really well -- it's really tender.

I'm finding the sauce a little too sweet.

[Bobby] Ooh, 3.0.

The pork is just getting low threes, which is not great.

I tasted one of the sauces, and I thought it was, like,

a little bit on the sweet side.

So I immediately added some more heat to it

and some more acidity.

Bob, we're getting some feedback.

Pork was cooked perfectly. Could use a little more acid.

-That the sauce was very sweet. -Got it.

I'm already fixing it.

They're tasting what I was thinking.

So I added some sambal, which is like a pickled chili sauce.

It improved it immediately.

[distant laughter]

It's a little spicy, a little herby.

It's delicious, yeah. I like it a lot.

Bobby, whatever you did with the pork, it's already gone

from three to three-five, so... -Great.

[Michael] All right, we're gonna go lumpia, seat one, table ten.

-Seat one, table ten. -Really,

I need the ceviches. -I got eight ceviche, heard.

-Five chicken all day. -Five chicken, heard, chef.

I got to make this chicken tastier.

The Hainanese chicken starts to take a dip in overall stars.

So I'm adding more of the sauce.

The chicken breast, it had a long spa bath in the broth.

So I'm adding a little bit more -- after that,

I really don't know what else I can do.

And I think it tastes delicious.

Three chicken.

[Michael] We're gonna go chicken, seat two, table three.

-[CJ] Hainanese chicken. -Ooh, OK.

-[CJ] Please enjoy. -[man] Thank you.

The Hainanese chicken was really dry, and it was drowning

in the sauce.

I rated it a 2 because I'm a softy,

but it should've been a 1.

[Claudette] I added the sauce.

It's what it is.

I [bleep] up by doing breasts,

but that's what Hainanese chicken is.

There's no refiring of Hainanese chicken.

So at this point, I gotta work with what I have.

Giving it all the juice I got.

Nine hot.

[Leah] OK, four Khao soi.

I think that our Khao soi is phenomenal.

We serve it with crispy wonton noodles on top.

-[diner] It's really flat. -[diner #2] Yeah.

You know what, they're not flavor-maxing.

What? They don't like the Khao soi?

Really?

The Khao soi score is really low, and I'm, like,

very confused by it because it is the number-one selling

dish at Pig and Khao, and Marissa makes it all the time.

-Let's go. -I'm pushing.

-I'm pushing. -I want to get the score up.

Like, one point can make all the difference.

-[Ben] Marissa. -[Marissa] Yes.

[Ben] You're dragging Khao soi. Let's go, dude.

What's up?

[Leah] We got to pivot, and we got to figure it out.

We can't fall behind.

-Who had the Khao soi? -I did.

-How was that? -It wasn't bad.

I just feel like it could use a little bit more

texture and flavor.

[man] It's a little bit watery for me.

I didn't taste that many seasonings.

-It's a little bland. -[Ben] Marissa, taste your Khao soi.

Make sure it's, like, spot-on.

[Leah] How does the Khao taste? It's fine?

[Marissa] Yes.

I really thought that the Khao soi would be, like,

one of the top, if not, like, five-star dish.

A little more feedback on the Khao soi is watered down,

so maybe it can be thickened up. -Watered down.

-Reduce the Khao soi, please. -[Laurence] And that it was a little bland.

They want it spicier. Add some chili flakes to it.

Oh, wow, really? OK, heard.

It just needs to be, like, thicker.

So we try to reduce it down more and cook it longer.

Thank you, Laurence.

I want to get the score up.

Like, this should be our winning dish.

-Right behind you. -[Leah] Four crab.

-[Marissa] Four crab. -And give me two more Khao soi.

[Diana] For you, we have the coconut crab.

Enjoy.

[diner] Had a good amount of crab, a lot of heat.

It's really flavorful.

[Marissa] I noticed that the coconut crab curry is one of

the top seller.

It's making me feel very relieved, proud.

-You added chili flakes? -[Marissa] Yes, I did.

-[Leah] And you're reducing? -[Marissa] Yes.

Perfect. Thank you.

[Diana] Khao soi. Enjoy.

Got some sweet taste to it with a hint of spice.

And the chicken is definitely tender.

Got a lot of flavor, good punch, good kick.

My compliments to the chef.

[Leah] The score is starting to go up.

We're at 49 minutes. We got 49 minutes.

[bleep]

This is the calm before the storm.

-It's coming. -Fire seven mussel.

Seven mussels. See, here we go.

-[Michael] And fire two more mussel. -Two more mussels.

Mussels are, like, they cook very quickly and are

incredibly tender if you don't overcook them.

As soon as the shell opens, they're done.

-Fire five mussels. -[Bobby] So that's 10 all day?

-[Michael] 14 all day. -Understood.

[Bobby] I want the mussels to swim in that green curry broth.

And I'm gonna serve it with a little grilled bread, as well.

All right, we're gonna go mussels one.

[CJ] Mussels, here you are.

[woman] The spice levels on this is incredible.

Yes, my entire mouth feels like fireworks.

This is definitely a five for me.

-[Bobby] Five mussels up. -[Michael] Thank you.

We're gonna go seat two, table four.

[diner] I'm really impressed with the broth.

It was nice and light and refreshing and bright.

How the mussels look, all right?

I'm in the building, baby.

[Michael] Six mussels.

[Bobby] This is gonna be a wild dash to the end here.

-[Melissa] Why hello, hello. -[Laurence] What's up?

So now we're in the heat of service and in walks

a VIP guest, Melissa Clark.

How's it going?

-It's good, how's it been here? -Crazy.

Crazy?

[Laurence] Melissa is a food critic, she's a cookbook author,

she's also judged a fair bit of competition.

Nothing's getting past Melissa.

So the concept for tonight is Southeast Asian, and each

kitchen is gonna send you a special off-menu item.

Fantastic, I can't wait to see what they're doing.

I'll be back to check on you.

-[Melissa] Thank you. -Thanks so much.

All right. This is very exciting.

Chefs, if I can get your attention for one second.

We have a VIP guest that has arrived.

So the way it works is when a VIP comes in,

the winner gets 10 stars.

The losing dish gets zero stars.

Who is it?

-Melissa Clark. -[woman] Ooh!

Melissa Clark is a New York Times food writer.

[Leah] She is no joke.

She is going to pick us apart, so we just have to be

on our A game. -This is a big one, guys.

Make it count.

We need these 10 stars so badly.

Seat one, table seven. Seat one, table seven.

In the real world, when I'm expediting, and a VIP walks in,

I'm gonna be the one that makes the dish for them because

everybody else on the line is slammed with their orders.

-You good? -I'm good.

The actual dish that I'm making is a ginger carrot soup with

fried shrimp.

I think it's a wonderful opportunity to show off

my ability to balance flavor.

So I'm cooking green onion, carrot, ginger, and then I'm

gonna use coconut milk and use that almost like a yogurt.

And I'm mixing that with lime zest and lime juice.

I'm really hoping that Melissa is going to taste

the depth of this soup.

Mm.

-Enough ginger, enough salt? -More acid.

[Michael] More acid. You still taste carrot, right?

Yeah, you have that sugar,

that carrot sugar that's really delicious.

Ben, can you fire the VIP please?

-[Ben] Heard that, fire the VIP. -[Leah] Thank you.

I'm focusing on expo, so I'm having the person I trust

the most cook the VIP dish, which is Ben, my husband.

[Ben] For our VIP dish, we're doing a scallop green curry with

a veg succotash, corn, peas, and tomatoes.

And I really just want to get some color.

[Matt] Yeah, Ben!

It feels springy and delicious.

And then I sear the scallops.

I want to make sure that the scallops are perfectly cooked.

[Leah] We've never actually had it on the menu at the restaurant.

We've ran it as a special.

People just rave about it, and they just want me to put it

on the menu -- it's just like a winning dish.

-Ben, after this, you're gonna need like 10 steaks. -[Ben] Yeah --

[Ben] Yeah, I got that.

[Michael] Whenever you're making a soup, I think the number one

most important thing is texture.

And when I think Southeast Asian, I think about

the freshwater prawns that I had in Thailand and how

delicious they were.

Prawns wrapped in spring roll wrapper to fry.

Michael, how many lumpia?

[Michael] Chef, you're gonna have to give me a second.

I want them to get, like, a crispy, juicy shrimp,

the funky shrimp head, plus, like, the super tangy,

fatty coconut milk, because I'm ready.

[Laurence] Can I get hands?

-OK, your first dish. -[Melissa] All right.

[Laurence] A ginger carrot soup with crispy shrimp.

-[Melissa] Ooh, look at those shrimp heads. -[Laurence] That's for you.

-[Laurence] That's for you. -[Melissa] I'm into it.

-Please enjoy. -Thank you.

[Judith] It looks amazing.

[Melissa] Well, it's beautiful, and it smells good.

-[Melissa] Oh, the soup is so good. -Very nice.

-I think I have to cut this. -Yeah, I think you're right.

It's a soup, but it's not spoon-friendly.

Can you give Ben the coco cream, please?

-[Matt] Heard! -[Leah] Ben did a great job.

[Leah] Looks exactly like I would make it. I think we'll win.

OK, because they're firing independently, you're getting both dishes.

I don't wanna hold anybody's food in the kitchen.

-We can do it, we can do it. OK, we can do it. -I know you can do this.

-[Melissa] Scallops. -[Laurence] Seared scallops with a green curry.

-[Melissa] Beautiful. -[Laurence] Please enjoy.

-Thank you. -It's like spring to me.

All right, I'm gonna have a little more of this and then

I'll cross over -- my only problem

is that the fried coating on the shrimp,

it's a little soggy, it is -- -Yeah, and it's hard to eat.

-Yeah. -It's a little hard to eat.

The flavors are great, but I'm not so sure

about the textures. -All right, I'll move on.

But wait, we have to eat the crispy shrimp head, Judith.

It's just a nice crunch.

I give bonus points for giving me a shrimp head, personally.

Like, I like that. All right, let's try this one.

OK.

Ooh, it's got quite a kick.

[Melissa] Ooh! The green curry is so good.

They are not holding back on spice in that, I like it.

Nope.

I feel like I'm feeling it in my entire body.

Like, I'm vibrating, literally, I'm vibrating.

And the scallop is perfectly cooked.

Damn, OK, this is gonna be

harder than I thought to choose.

It is really much closer than I thought.

Wow, that is very, very close.

The averages are pretty neck-and-neck.

So those 10 stars, those are everything.

[Bobby] I got mussels dying up there.

Ah, harder than it needs to be.

After I finish making this VIP dish, I now have so many

tickets hanging off the printer.

[Antonia] You want me to give you all the lumpia?

-[Claudette] I have six chicken. -Everything.

-[Claudette] Yes, chef. -[Michael] We are backed up.

[Michael] Ah, more tickets trying to bury me.

Twelve-and-a-half minutes left. We are in a virtual dead-heat.

Come on, plate all the food, please.

I mean...

I don't even know what to say anymore.

You all are glued on the scoreboard.

-No, they're gonna win. -[Laurence] You don't know that.

[Antonia] They have 74 more stars.

That only matters if you don't get every plate out.

-I'm gonna have to ask you... -OK, I'm just telling you how it works.

So at this point, Pig and Khao has positioned themselves well.

However, Bobby's got a lot of plates left.

The balance can easily get tipped.

Let's go, guys! 10 minutes.

We're gonna turn off the scoreboards,

so take your looks.

This last push is gonna determine the winner, guys.

Let's go.

Chef. Steak one time.

Give me, like, two more crab and give me two Khao.

-[Mike] Heard! -[Marissa] Heard.

We just got seven more pork.

[Bobby] So I'm just getting slammed with all

the mussels and the pork.

-[Bobby] Three mussels. -[Michael] Thank you.

We're gonna go with two mussels, one and two,

table one, one and two, table one.

[Bobby] How many do I owe you after this?

-[Bobby] Three? -That's correct.

These two, mushroom and a steak.

-[Leah] Am I missing any tables? -All kinds of mussels up here.

And the mussels, send this one to seat 409.

-Seat 409? -Seat 409.

-Here you go. -That's everything for me.

Yeah, I'm all done. Everything's out.

We're both missing two dishes.

Can you -- can you tell me what they are?

-The mussels. -[woman] Uh, mussels.

So how many mussels altogether?

I'm missing two mussels.

[Michael] I have sent all the tickets that I have.

We think we're done.

Bobby, do you have any more mussels?

Because he's saying that he's missing two, but we're all out of bowls.

I have no bowl. Oh, you know what? I have two bowls right here.

They have extra. Oh, OK.

When service gets that busy, food gets moved around,

plates get moved around, and things can get lost.

Guys, we're at 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

Remember, if it gets to the pass, it gets scored.

If it doesn't, it gets a zero.

OK, salmon, ceviche, and a steak for five.

[Bobby] Come on.

Every plate of food that doesn't go to the dining room

is zero stars -- it's a race to the pass.

-Bobby, hurry, hurry. -[Bobby] How many do we need?

-[Bobby] Two? -[Michael] Two.

[Marissa] Let's go.

-[Antonia] Bobby, do you need help? -No.

-OK. -[Leah] Two steak for five.

I'm done. Whoo-whoo!

Ten seconds. You got the mussels out?

I need that. Gotta be in the pass.

Here you go. Two mussels.

Two, one. That's it.

-Time's up. -Whoo!

Hands off and suffer the expediters.

-[Antonia] Aye, aye, aye. -Good job, dude.

-Thank you. -Ah.

Wow. You good?

Yo, I never want to expo again.

I know this is not your kitchen, but damn!

Thank God we're done with this.

That was so intense. It was so hard.

I think my team just crushed it.

Good job, chef.

So service is over.

I think that we can still pull this out, because Bobby didn't

get hit until the very end.

So I'm hoping that all those stars, and hopefully winning

the VIP dish, are just gonna bring us on home.

OK, chefs.

-This is who cooked for you. -Oh my God.

Hi, guys.

Melissa Clark and her friend, Judith.

Both dishes were really great.

It was very, very hard to decide.

I can tell you that.

So let's start with this shrimp and carrot ginger soup.

It was delicious.

But I needed to use a knife and fork.

However, I loved that shrimp head.

Loved eating the eyes, loved the crunch.

As far as the scallops with the green curry, that curry was

like, "OK, can I do this curry?

It's so spicy, can I do it?" Like pushed me to the edge,

but I loved it -- scallops were cooked perfectly.

I loved the sweetness of the corn,

the sweetness of the tomatoes.

It just came together, and so because of all that,

the green curry and the scallops, that was my pick.

I don't know who made which dish.

-[Laurence] Ben made it. -Whoo!

-Great job, chef, great job. -[Bobby] Good job, guys.

That's a -- that's a punch to the gut.

I think we're in real trouble now.

-We needed those 10 stars. -But it was all delicious.

[Melissa] Thank you.

Thank you for coming. Really appreciate it.

[whispering] OK.

I know that doesn't dictate how the rest of service went,

but it makes me feel like we're that much closer to winning.

All right.

Are you ready to find out who cooked for you?

-[all] Yes. -Please welcome our home team.

-Hi, guys! -[Laurence] Claudette.

-[Michael] Hello. -[Laurence] Michael, Antonia,

and Bobby.

-[indistinct] -That's for you. I'm clapping for you.

And now our visiting team, the line from Pig and Khao.

Matt, Marissa,

Ben, and Leah.

It was very close.

Pig and Khao, out of a possible total of 1,200 stars,

your final score was...

925 stars.

-Great job. -It's a lot.

I don't know what that means.

I don't know if that's good or bad.

I feel like it's good, but there's still a lot of

stars there for the other team to score higher.

And now, for the home team.

[Antonia] I think that we are right there.

I think if we lose, it's not gonna be by much.

And if we win, it for sure is not gonna be by much.

Your total stars for the night.

887.

Pig and Khao wins.

Whoo!

We won! Yay!

I could not be more excited.

Yes!

Oh my God! Yes!

-Oh! -[Bobby] Good job.

Thank you, thank you.

They killed it today, and I'm really proud that

we could do this as a family. -[Laurence] Yeah.

Thank you.

The Leah I saw today was so fired up and so passionate,

so it feels great to win. -Who controls the $25K?

-I'm giving it to them. They're splitting it. -[Laurence] OK.

The prize money is damn sure rewarding,

but I get to say I beat Bobby Flay and his team.

Super proud.

-Thank you guys. -Thank you guys.

-Thank you. -Thank you.

[groaning]

-[Antonia] That was close. -Man!

Their food is so good.

-So good. -Yeah.

I mean, I was happy that we were even, like, able to go

toe-to-toe with them. -Agreed.

It wasn't a blowout, though,

so we did our best. -[Bobby] No, it was great.

All right, let's go to Pig and Khao for dinner.

-I would love that. -Let's go.

You're buying, though.