Original subtitles

[Terry] 100 of America's best home cooks were given a chance to

prove themselves in the biggest home cook competition

in the world.

- I'm here for this. - Whoa, OK.

[Terry laughs]

Now, only 32 tried-and-true cooks remain.

You look around and they're just dropping like flies.

[Terry] And the reveal of our mega-money mixer has blown

the stakes sky high.

This is insane.

- Let's mix it up. - Yeah!

Tonight, no one is safe...

It's a nail-biter.

...as every single cook comes down

to the kitchen to compete...

I'm here to win today.

...and their numbers are cut nearly in half.

[all] Oh.

[Terry] Ultimately, one cook will stand alone as the best of the best

and take home life-changing money.

- [crunch] - Oh, hell yeah.

[Terry] This is "100 Cooks"!

[cheering]

[Terry] Welcome back, everyone.

Now, as you can see, we're already at $115,000

for the grand prize.

We're giving away a total of a quarter million dollars.

- [all cheer] - [Terry] Yeah!

And we're offering big cash sums to best dish winners

if they decide to take the money and leave on a win.

But, you have to earn it.

Tonight, every single cook will come down to the kitchen

to compete. - Whoo!

- Yeah! - Whoo!

But by the end of the night,

nearly half of you will be going home.

[all] Oh.

- [chef] Damn. - [chef #2] Oh my God.

This is savage.

- Who's ready to cook? - [all cheer]

- All right. - Let's mix it up.

The first challenge is, roll it.

Here we go. Game day grub.

- [chefs] Yeah! - [all cheer]

- Yeah! - OK.

Things like nachos, wings, dip,

and sliders. And guess what?

Those are the exact four items you're gonna be making tonight.

So let's find out who will be making them.

- What is half of 32? - [all] 16.

Exactly.

Mixer, roll it.

Cook 55. Come down to the kitchen.

My name is Brianna Conley from Chicago, Illinois.

I'm a stay-at-home mom.

I started cooking right after I graduated from college

and posting recipes because people really liked it.

I love game day because my family and I all get together

and everyone loves it.

Now, before I call the second cook down, Alex and Nick,

would you mind bringing over the box?

Brianna, please reach into that box

and pull out one piece of paper.

[Brianna] I got nachos.

All right, that's the game-day dish you'll be making.

And so will the next three cooks I call down.

Here we go. Roll it.

Cook 20.

Come down to the kitchen.

38.

- 29. - OK, bet.

Bet, bet, bet.

My name is Marcus Wilson.

I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.

I'm confident in my cooking ability.

I've been waiting for game day this entire competition.

This next cook will be picking a brand-new game-day favorite.

Let's roll it.

Cook 30.

What are you hoping to get?

Believe it or not, I'm hoping for dip.

Go ahead and dip your hand into the box.

- [Nupur] I got that dip! - [all cheer]

So that is what you'll be making, and so will the next

three cooks I call.

Cook 92!

- Cook 100! - Whoo!

Cook number one.

- Whoo! - [Terry] Wow.

Finally, like I'm here. Number one is in the building.

I've been waiting.

[Terry] All right.

This next cook will prepare a different game day item.

Roll it.

Cook 86.

OK, Tom, wings or sliders?

Wings.

Well, let's find out the next three cooks that'll be

making wings with you.

Cook 39!

28.

14!

Keloni.

All right, these next four cooks will be clearly

making sliders-- roll it!

Number 96!

I've been dying to come down and cook again.

It's been since the first episode that I've gone

down there, and I had the best dish there.

Best egg dish-- 96!

[all cheer]

[Gerry] I was really looking forward to coming down

and showing again that I know what I'm doing.

48!

95!

33!

There's a lot of stiff competition.

Cream of the crop is rising to the top.

It's game time.

As you can see, you've been divided into

four food divisions--

Nachos, wings, dip, and sliders.

The cooks who make the top two dishes in each game day food

division will be safe.

The bottom two in each division will be eliminated.

You'll all have 35 minutes to make your game day grub.

Start cooking!

[all cheer]

[Brianna] Yay.

Game day food has to be addicting.

It is not eaten out of hunger.

It's eaten out of excitement and energy.

It's often eaten like this, too.

Remember, it's like--

The visual's important when you sit down and you first look

at it, but then after that, it's gotta go the distance.

Yeah.

Salt.

I'm gonna be making a jerk chicken nacho with

a mango salsa.

I added in some, like, pimento, allspice,

cinnamon, brown sugar, browning.

[Terry] Ooh, jerk chicken nachos.

- Yes. - I've never even--

I have never heard of that.

[Brianna] Mango kinda cools the spice in the jerk.

I have two sons. They both love to cook.

They have like mini cutting boards and they try to like

mimic me cooking.

My son made me this bracelet for good luck and as a reminder

that they're always with me.

I would love to be able to win this for my kids.

Are those chicken thighs?

Yes, they are. They're juicier.

[Marcus] The stakes are really high.

I mean, half of us are going home.

Being that it's nachos, people are gonna default to

something Southwest and put tomatoes.

I want my food to stand out,

so we gotta do something different.

I'm gonna do beef bulgogi nachos.

Dark soy sauce, fish sauce.

We're gonna add a little bit of Asian twist.

It's not just about the money.

It's also about the opportunity to represent my family

in Atlanta, Georgia.

My mom saw me walking up to her cooking when I was

two years old, so I can only imagine what it feels to

my parents to see their son on Food Network.

That's pretty cool.

Number one thing we have to nail is the marinade.

There's not a lot of time,

and there's some tricks that I can do

to get more flavor quickly. We're gonna do the beef.

I'm gonna add some baking soda, and we're gonna velvet it.

Adding the baking soda, it's gonna change the pH

balance, and it's gonna allow the meat to absorb more of

the marinade quickly, and it's gonna

make it more tender.

[Terry] What are you making right now?

I'm making an indigenous version of nachos using

a butternut squash cheese sauce.

To make my cheese sauce with cheese, flour, butter,

I take my butternut squash.

I blend that up with milk and slowly incorporate

the cheese sauce.

Top with some fresh corn and chipotle in adobo.

[Terry] Ooh.

Onion and beefsteak tomatoes, because they're

nice and hearty.

I'm from Kanyen'kehà:ka Mohawk territory, and my mother always

would cook cornbread, or we would have

Three Sister Soup.

And I was shown just how to indigenize anything.

[Terry] That corn with the nacho and the cheese,

that sounds so good.

- Just beat the heck out of it. - Yeah.

We are making your favorite fast-food burger-style nachos

and some really good processed cheese,

'cause who doesn't like that? Liquid gold.

Trying to get my-- my sauce to not be

messing with me.

I was trying to find ways to take my traditional Mexican

cuisine and use it in a modern way, like with a chicken wing.

I decided to go with a Ana-style mole chicken wing.

There's sesame seeds, there's peanuts, there's three

different types of chiles, dark chocolate.

Hopefully it's not too spicy.

I need this to work because I know who I am up against

and they're here for a reason.

I like my stuff fire. Fire, so...

Right now, I'm toasting, I'm roasting some of

my ingredients to make a apple chipotle fall wing.

So, this is gonna be the sauce for my wing.

Apples come through, chipotle, cacao, thyme.

I think of fall when I think of football.

So, I want my wing to taste like fall and I wanna have a dip

that goes and just enhances that flavor.

- It was real close on that one. - I see the yuzu.

Are you doing something very Asian-oriented?

[Bryce] Very Asian.

I'm gonna do some orange gochujang chicken wings

with a kimchi aioli.

Making a little gochujang sauce.

Honey, gochujang, rice vinegar, orange juice.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to have some time off

from working in the oil fields.

Spent a couple months in Southeast Asia.

I gotta get a lot of these flavor profiles that

you would normally not get in Montana.

I'm gonna deep fry those bad boys.

I've been waiting for somebody to really get on that

deep fryer. - [Bryce] That's what I'm saying.

I love deep-fried stuff.

Come on, Keloni, you got this.

Today, I'm gonna bring a little island flair to

a Buffalo sauce, so I'm gonna make a passion fruit Buffalo

sauce with a passion fruit ranch.

Oh, I'm friggin' stoked.

Like, game day appetizer food, like, that's right up my alley.

For my game day grub, I'm making crispy lilikoi

chicken wings.

I infused Buffalo sauce with passion fruit.

I also doubled down on passion fruit and made

a passion fruit ranch.

I'm swinging for the fences here, and I'm stoked.

- I'm ready. - [Terry] Seventeen minutes!

- [chef] Come on, Keloni! - Yeah, Keloni!

[chef] Let's go, Keloni! Let's go!

This is the first time I've looked into the seating in

the audience and just seen rows and rows of black squares.

Oh, my God. It's beautiful.

It means we're getting to the best of them all.

It means we're gonna find the winner.

I think dip is hard.

- OK, what would I do for dip? - Yeah.

I think you can probably unlock more flavor with a hot dip.

I agree.

I am doing something that is similar to chaat.

It is like an Indian street food that has a lot

of different layers.

Typically not eaten as a dip, but we're gonna try to

transform that into a dip.

There's like potatoes, chickpeas, pomegranate,

like a spicy tart tamarind sauce.

So that's where we're gonna go for today.

[all cheer]

[Terry] Oh, it smells so good in here!

- [chef] Yeah! - What are you making?

Right now, I'm making the Go Birds bacon cheddar

cheeseburger Rotel dip. - [Alex] That's so game day.

I love it. I love your vibes.

What's going on, everybody? My name is Justin Rowland.

I'm from Philadelphia, PA,

but I'm currently based out in Maryland,

and I'm a full-time school counselor for middle schoolers.

I tie in my job as a school counselor with cooking because

we have a big giant griddle outside that we make

breakfast in the morning.

I also have a grilling club in the summertime and during

school where I teach the kids how to grill outside.

Y'all know I love to cook, but a lot of people don't

really know the other side of me, which is this,

you know, mentoring kids every day.

Whoo!

But I gotta represent for the 215.

You know what it is, man.

I'm making a seven layer dip, and one of the layers

is spinach.

It's almost gonna be like saag paneer, just to, like,

have a nod to my mom.

The next layer is sour cream.

The third layer, beans.

The next layer is guac, which is not one of the ones

that my mom usually includes. - Nupe Dogg.

- What? - [Nick] What are you doing?

- I'm making seven layer dip. - Why not ten?

Will you settle in your seat? Don't give him any ideas.

If I get more time, I'll make more-- more layers.

- I see you, Nupe Dogg. - [Terry] All right, my man.

What kind of dip we got going on?

A whipped smoked salmon dip.

My family and I used to go fishing all the time as a kid.

I make renditions of this.

[Terry] You got your potatoes shaped here.

Oh, yes, sir. I'm ready to roll.

I really wanna focus on my chip because I know it's gonna

make me stand out.

I'm gonna toss 'em in some beef tallow.

Bro made a whole bag of chips.

[chip crunches]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Terry] Eight minutes left!

I'm making Monte Cristo sliders.

You come over to my house, we're getting ready

early on game day.

So Monte Cristo is like a French toast style breading.

And you put ham, turkey, Swiss cheese.

But I'm going to make it into a slider format.

And I'm dousing it in some butter and a Dijon mixture.

And then I'm going to bake it until it's crispy.

Are you making Monte Cristo sliders?

- With almond liqueur? - [Holley] No, uh, no.

I'm making the signature drink of Alabama,

which is the yellow hammer that we have in the mornings.

Don't show this shake to any bartenders out there.

- Sorry. - Whatever-- whatever you need, go ahead.

- Sorry, sorry. - No, you're fine.

I'm gonna make an Italian sausage and pepper slider,

season my veggies, put that in some provolone cheese.

So this dish is my daughter's third favorite.

She kinda has a sliding scale.

This is something I make all the time.

Really excited to try to bring this to the table.

I'm making skirt steak sliders with a chimichurri sauce.

As a Brazilian, we love our steak.

- Did you marinate that? - Um, just some salt.

- That's how Brazilians do it. - No, but it smells so good.

Oh, my man. What are you doing?

Hey, Terry, I'm doing a Japanese fried chicken slider,

yuzu chili oil aioli,

pickled Japanese cucumber salad.

And you're gonna fry those suckers?

[Chris] Oh, hell yeah. It's my wheelhouse.

[Terry] What is your sport of choice?

- Uh, I played football in high school. - That's great.

We lost our CIF championship, and that still haunts me to

this day, so... - Oh, listen, but you can win this one.

- I'm here to win today. - [Terry] Five minutes.

- Start plating. - [all applaud]

And we're almost out of time.

Does this feel like a football game?

- Is that why-- - No, it feels like-- right?

- That's what I mean. - By the way you came up here, out of breath.

[Brianna] Time is getting down to the wire, and I'm not too

confident that the chicken is cooked exactly how I want it.

I don't know if I have enough time

to get everything on the plate.

I'm not trying to be cocky,

but I think these nachos look legit.

I think these are game day ready.

[Terry] This is for the big game. This is it.

- Two-minute warning. - They asked for ten?

I'm gonna give them ten.

Each of the individual components tastes great.

At the same time, I'm also seeing what all the other chefs

are doing, and it makes me a little nervous.

One minute up!

[Bryce] Probably the most beautiful chicken wing I've ever seen.

Like, it looks picture perfect.

If that tastes how it looks, who knows what's gonna happen?

[Terry] We're in the final 30 seconds!

Looking to my right and seeing the other three contestants

there, I'm really happy with my dish.

I'm feeling very confident.

I have a lot of components in my slider, and that's really

gonna impress the judges.

[all] Five, four, three, two, one!

- Step away from your dish! - Good job.

I'm going to call you up by group.

First up, we have the nachos division.

- Brianna, - Today I made you a jerk chicken

nacho with a mango salsa.

Yeah, it looks like

the chicken is not fully cooked.

Oh.

- [chef] Oh, no. - [chef #2] Oh, no.

I'm so sorry. Judges cannot taste your dish.

That means you're automatically eliminated.

I checked the temperature on it,

and I could have sworn it was good.

So I'm just really disappointed in myself.

[Terry] Thank you, Brianna.

It was just really disappointing to go home on

a dish that I know I've done a thousand times.

Hi, judges-- today I've made you a blue corn tortilla nacho

with butternut and sage squash cheese sauce

topped with beefsteak tomatoes.

- The cheese sauce is delicious. - Thank you.

[Alex] The tomatoes, I don't think you need 'em.

The addition of the lettuce and the tomatoes with all that

you had already put there ended up feeling a little muddled.

The beans, the corn, that squash.

I say, stick with that.

[Terry] Up next is Amy.

I did the double meat cheeseburger nachos.

First of all, I'll say I love the plating.

[Alex] I could really make a dent in this.

Maybe a little bit of heat somewhere here, or like slivers

of chili, just to kind of keep me going.

- OK. - And the last cook, Marcus.

I made you all some beef bulgogi nachos.

[Nick] You've got a variety of different ingredients that

you've put on this beef.

Beautiful combination of flavors.

You're the only one that didn't put tomatoes.

You used cabbage instead of lettuce, which I think is

an interesting play.

You know, I kinda wanna eat the whole thing with,

like, a beer. And I don't drink beer.

[all laugh]

I would pick any of these three at my table, and only two are

gonna work out.

Judges, you can turn and discuss.

Which cook did not make the cut and is leaving?

Unfortunately, that person is...

Number 20. Nikki, I'm so sorry.

Being in this competition has meant everything to me.

You don't normally see Kanyen'kehà:ka food anywhere.

I'm so proud of myself.

Now it's time for the dip division.

Today, I've made ten-layer dip.

[Alex] I like the taste of everything.

I think you achieve varying textures and tastes without

being muddled. - The flavors are good.

I think you could have actually packed even more spices

in there. - Thank you.

Today I made a chaat-inspired dip.

Spiced potatoes.

On top of that are some spiced chickpeas.

This is wildly spicy. You are a wild, wild man.

If we were to eat this whole dip and watch the game...

[Alex] I'd be at the hospital.

Greek yogurt, I would maybe dot that on top.

And pomegranate is really sour.

So if you get too much of it, it's almost unbalanced.

What you have here is a whipped smoked salmon dip

with some homemade chips.

Some of the best homemade potato chips I've ever had.

The dip, I think you could have

gotten a little bit more creative.

You could have topped it off with some smoked trout roe

or some of those salmon eggs in the pantry.

You got the Go Birds bacon cheddar cheeseburger

tomato dip.

You're the only one that gave us a warm dip, so right away,

that's something I love.

[Nick] The flavors are amazing in there.

I can taste those multiple blends of cheese.

I can see all the little fine details of how much work

you went through to chop up those onions

and those tomatoes, peppers, everything that's in there.

- Nice work. - Appreciate you. Thank you.

It's time for the judges to decide.

The two cooks who will unfortunately not be continuing

are...

100, Mike, and 92, Tarun.

I'm sorry.

This experience has been wonderful.

Uh, bummed that it didn't fall in my favor.

[exhales heavily]

I'm kind of shocked I was eliminated, but every single

person in this competition is super talented.

Next up, we have the wings division.

Up first, Cook 86, Tom.

[Thomas] What I made here is a wing that is an apple-chipotle

fall wing with a jalapeno maple glazed dip.

[Alex] The wing is just perfectly cooked.

[Nick] Taste-wise, I'm not getting all that much from the wings.

If anything, it's almost a little sweet.

Today, I have made you an orange gochujang

fried chicken wing with a kimchi aioli.

The gochujang and orange together is working almost like

an elevated orange chicken. - [Alex] That's right.

I would eat like a dozen of these and be kind of mad

when I got home.

Like, why did I have to eat so many?

[Ana] Today I made you Ana's mole chicken wings.

Mole is a bold move with wings and in 35 minutes.

For me, this mole read a little bit sweet and a little

bit too heavy on the chocolate note, but we love that you made

something so personal. Thank you.

I took you back with a classic.

I made my own Buffalo sauce and I made a lilikoi ranch.

[Nick] Ranch is delicious. It's tangy, it's creamy.

I looked down at these wings and I thought right away,

"Emoji chicken wing."

Beautiful-looking chicken wings.

- Thank you. - [Terry] All right.

Thank you, cooks.

Which wings were best?

[Alex] This was the closest of all.

The razor's edge of choices.

The two cooks that are unfortunately leaving us are...

[tense music plays]

- 86 and 28. - [Terry] Tom and Ana.

[Thomas] This won't be like the last time I'm jumping on

some kind of cooking competition.

This is just gonna propel me to my next victory, and I hope

it's sooner rather than later.

[Alex] Ana, I mean, it's hard to eliminate somebody when

they make something that is

literally tattooed in your heart.

It's that you simply got outcooked by two other people.

I gave it my all, and I'm proud of what I made.

You know, I was just a little immigrant girl born in Mexico.

I didn't learn English until I was ten.

Cooking brought me back to loving who I am.

And finally, we have the slider division.

Gerry.

My daughter's third favorite recipe of mine,

Italian sausage and peppers with marinara sauce.

I love the bread and I love that you made tomato sauce

from scratch so quickly.

But I wish the sauce didn't feel like it was in Jersey

and the rest of the dish was in Philly.

Understood.

I made skirt steak sliders with chimichurri

sauce and provolone.

The flavor and the cook on the beef, delicious.

But then this side has cheese and chimichurri.

The bottom side has nothing. Just a ratio thing.

Yeah.

Welcome to game day in the South.

We're having a Monte Cristo slider.

What you have here for a drink,

it is a Yellow Hammer and it's got vodka, amaretto,

rum, pineapple juice, orange juice.

I mean, I'd be drunk-dialing like my fourth-grade boyfriend

if I drank this. - It's strong.

Welcome to Alabama football.

This is just so layered that every bite has

every ingredient in it.

It's really fun and playful and well-put-together.

I think I have the same question again on this one,

which is whether or not you did enough actual cooking.

And last is Chris.

I prepared for you today a chicken karaage slider with

a yuzu chili oil garlic mayo.

The fact that you made your own slaw

and your own pickles, I love.

This is a lot of really good cooking.

Yeah, you maximized that 35 minutes with this one.

All right.

The two cooks that are going home tonight are...

[tense music plays]

The two cooks that are going home tonight are...

[tense music plays]

...96 and 48.

[Terry] Gerry, Raphaella, thank you so much for being here.

I'm going home, and I'm bummed.

I came into this competition and I was very scared

and insecure about my cooking, and I'm so proud of myself

for making it this far.

I'm definitely disappointed.

I think I put my best foot forward, but I understand

this competition's getting harder and harder.

[Terry] Holley, Chris. Thank you.

Please head back to your seats.

All right, there could only be one best dish.

And the cook who's gonna experience our money ball is...

♪

[Terry] Cook 29, Marcus! Come on down!

[chef] Marcus!

Would you like to tell him why he made the best dish?

[Alex] Game day food is not about hunger.

It's about grazing.

And you just rolled all that into your plate,

and it was a knockout. - Oh, wow.

Thank you. Thank you.

Are you ready to see how much your dish was worth?

Let's do it. Let's mix that thing up.

- [Terry] Oh, yeah, let's go! - Let's go.

[Terry] All right. Let's mix that money.

OK. Show me the money ball.

- Roll it. - Big money, big money.

Hold on, I gotta come down here.

- Uh-oh. - [Terry] Remember now,

you can take this and go out on a win.

Or you can put this back and keep going

and see if you can win this grand prize.

I'm ready.

- $25,000! - [all cheer]

Yeesh!

Catch this!

25K? That's very tempting.

You have $25,000 in your hands right now.

- Oh my gosh. - [Terry] What's your final answer?

You better take it.

I came here with something in mind that I wanted to finish.

So my final answer is, here's $25,000-thou-wow.

- Back to you. - [judges & Terry] Oh!

- Wow! - Oh, my God.

- Wow. - Really?

Marcus is going to keep cooking, y'all.

The money ball is tempting, but you can't put a price

on winning. So I'm here to stay.

- [all] Whoo. - [Terry laughs]

Oh!

$140,000.

Let's see how many players are left.

24.

Over 75% of you have left the game.

[Bryce] You look around, and they're just dropping like flies.

It's definitely getting harder out there.

[Terry] Are you ready for another challenge?

[all cheer]

The 16 people who didn't cook in the game day challenge,

come on down to the kitchen! - Time to show up, big boy.

Let's go. Go get it.

[Terry] Whoo!

You took a nap.

- Let's mix it up. - Let's go!

[all cheer]

It's cook's choice.

You can't just cook anything.

You will get a choice between two styles to highlight

in your dish, either grilled or fried.

The grilled is not competing against the fried.

Every dish for themselves. You have 40 minutes.

Bottom eight cooks will be heading home.

[Alexia] I cannot believe that half of us are gonna be eliminated.

This is insane!

[Terry] Forty minutes on the clock.

Start cooking!

[chef] Go get it, go get it, go get it.

[Terry] Whoo! Wow.

24 people left, $140,000 on the line so far.

I think the pressure's really high right now down there.

[chef #2] Come on, Alexia.

I'm making what is called chicken Alexia.

It's an Italian fried cutlet with a ricotta cheese,

tomatoes, mozzarella.

There is so much talent in this room.

My edge is it's authentic to my heritage.

I grew up Italian-American,

surrounded by my family, food, and love.

My father and I cooked together.

Five years ago, I lost my father to COVID.

Feeling his energy as I'm cooking, and it's like

he's watching over me. That's truly what I feel today.

Now, we're making a deep-fried shrimp and grits.

Gotta make these grits done, put 'em in the blast chiller,

fry 'em in a little panko.

This is a classic Southern dish.

I love taking classic dishes, though,

and adding that good Zo twist to it.

I'm gonna cook the shrimp in the sauce right here.

The trick to the cheesy grits is making sure,

right when they're finished cooking, you add in

the butter, the cheese.

The grits have to be cool enough so that I can cut out

a piece and deep fry 'em.

♪

Oh, my God.

We're going in for the flavors.

Let's do it.

I'm doing a suya fried chicken and suya mac.

This is Nigeria-inspired.

I am a first-generation Nigerian kid.

Suya spice is what we use on all of our proteins,

whether it be fish, chicken, beef, you name it.

Go for it. Hit it in the oil.

[chef #3] Make sure it's not raw.

[Rece] Oh, wait, where's the meat thermometer?

[chef #3] In your station, on the baking sheet.

We're going.

Grilling is an art.

People think grilling is just going outside and throwing meat

on a grill - [Alex] So hard.

and flipping it all around until it's charred enough

and looks cooked through, but it's not.

It's all about precision and timing and not too much

fire, or the food tastes too blackened and charred.

- It's actually really complex. - You are grilling a watermelon?

- Yeah, it's a grill challenge. - [Terry] Well.

And I'm doing grilled, so grilled rack of lamb.

I feel pretty confident.

Back home in Akron, Ohio, I'm down by the grill with

my dad, especially in the summer.

Ooh, that's a hot grill.

I chose the style with grilling versus frying

because I don't fry much.

From being an athlete, I try to eat more healthy foods.

- [Terry] You're doing steak right now? - Yep.

And then we're gonna do a mashed potato purée.

Everybody in my family cooks.

My mother went to culinary school, actually, for a little bit,

and my grandmother used to cook.

Steak, potatoes, and asparagus was the dish that I cooked a lot

with my great-grandma, so that was my one way of honoring her.

I gotta figure out these mushrooms.

Look at how many mushrooms are on his cutting board.

[Alex] It's a lot.

[Nick] He's got the whole mushroom kingdom.

Hey, I'm Doug Chau.

I'm a software engineer from the Silicon Valley.

My passion for food definitely came from my mom.

So I was a software engineer for ten years, and so by that

point, I was trying to look for something different.

When I quit my job and I decided

I wanted to do content,

food was, like, the first thing that kind of

came to mind for me.

[Terry] What are you making?

It's like a grilled mushroom tofu salad.

It's like an appetizer. I'm gonna try to give 'em something cool, Terry.

I know that tofu tastes good with soy sauce.

I do add a little bit of bonito soup stock,

and then I'm just blending it up.

It's very, very simple, but it's, like, super good.

[Terry] Twenty minutes.

[all cheer]

Smells like friggin' summer barbecue.

I'm doing a grilled salmon with a plantain purée

and a garlic herb butter sauce.

Hi, my name is Maxine Chikumbo,

and I'm based in Frederick, Maryland.

I work in the clean energy sector.

I am here to put Afro fusion cuisine on the map.

I decided to settle on a peri peri chicken.

It has roots in Mozambique with Portuguese influence.

So I'm just prepping my veggies and such.

Peri peri chicken is like, smoky.

I want the judges to see that I've used the grill,

and once it's partially cooked,

then I'm gonna finish it in the oven.

And then I decided to pair that with something that I knew was

gonna make me stand out, which is chakalaka.

It's really delicious.

I'm thinking if I make this,

judges, there's no way they're gonna forget me.

I put these juicy chicken thighs in the oven,

but something was off.

The temperature is not raising quickly.

- [Alex] You OK? - [Maxine] Uh, trying to figure this out.

I don't think the stove's working.

[Alexia] Look, it's not hot.

[Maxine] I feel like my meat should have cooked a bit more.

I'm gonna have to use the torch, I think.

I'm thinking, wow, like, I can't believe this is happening to me.

The chicken is my centerpiece.

Three minutes left!

[Alexia] In this competition, you really have to roll

with the punches.

You have to adapt to any situation.

One minute!

My time's running up, so I take my chicken out of

the oven, kind of freaking out, like, what should I do?

Then I decide to plate.

If I'm gonna go home, give me a chance to explain

what I wanted to deliver.

- Pull it out. - Take one out.

Pull it out of the fryer and then temp it.

[Terry] Whoa, look at that. Yes, sir.

[Keloni] Finish strong, y'all, let's go.

- Come on. - [chef] That looks dope.

[all] Five, four, three, two, one.

[Terry] Step away from your plates.

[Maxine] I am very nervous.

I've seen other contestants get sent home for undercooked food.

I know that the probability is basically a certainty.

All right, cooks. First up, we have cook 25.

[Zo] Today, I prepared for you an inverted deep-fried

shrimp and grits.

A little cheese in there, put some bacon down,

created my shrimp sauce.

- [Nick] It's delicious. - [Zo] Thank you.

This is Southern comfort in a bowl.

[Alex] The restraint you showed by poaching the shrimp

and frying the grits, to me that was the smartest thing you did.

Really nice job.

So I have a Moroccan dish for you today.

Grilled Moroccan lamb.

The spices are really well done.

Oh, thank you.

I have a Baja fish-style taco with fried cod.

There's something about this I love.

Today I made steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

I don't wanna cut this steak 'cause I want it to

be perfect-- I'm nervous.

- [Nick] Is it perfect? - That's what we're going for.

[suspenseful music plays]

- [Johnnie] Talk to me. - [Alex] Oh.

[all cheer]

That's a mic drop.

[Nick] Johnnie, the steak is cooked perfectly.

The seasoning is on point. Delicious.

Rece.

I have for you a suya fried chicken

and a suya mac and cheese.

[Nick] I have some bad news for you.

That chicken on the inside, it's raw.

OK, I see it. Argh.

It's a big piece.

And that's the risk with taking a piece so big.

Rece, I'm so sorry.

[Terry] Because the judges could not taste your meal,

you are automatically eliminated.

Bye, y'all.

Up next is Jeff.

I made a grilled lamb with a watermelon, feta,

and mint salad.

[Nick] You cooked it beautifully.

It's very hard to cook lamb to that kind of perfection,

but you've left this fat cap on top.

I present you a yakitori maitake mushroom

and tofu salad.

[Alex] I like everything on this dish.

I like how much time you took to develop, like, a deeply

grilled, charred taste.

Whatever it is that you actually do,

you should probably be cooking. - [chef] Way to go, Doug.

Today I've made for you an Italian-style crispy

chicken cutlet.

That was my father's favorite dish.

Love the plating. It screams Italian-American.

The fried chicken is good. I'm not sure I'm the biggest fan

of those really thick raw tomatoes.

I usually do bake those, but we had an oven situation.

- OK. - Maxine.

Today I made for you a peri peri inspired

dry-rubbed chicken with a chakalaka,

which is a Southern-African relish.

[Nick] All good?

- No. - [Nick] No?

It's not cooked.

Yeah, I-- I was struggling with the oven.

Also, it needed more time.

I mean, I am gonna taste the chakalaka.

[Alex] I am too.

It's the most delicious thing I've eaten all night.

- Without a doubt. - Wow.

- Thank you. - [Nick] You get that nice curry flavor

and it's got its own sort of marinade that you eat with it.

It's delicious!

I want you to be judged anyway.

I think this is that good.

We'll talk about how to handle this.

- OK. - [Nick] Thank you.

- [Terry] I just don't know. - Thank you.

[Nick] Thanks.

[Maxine] I really hope that my chakalaka will save me

because, Chef Alex and Nick loved it.

I think the flavors were there,

but I think the execution was horrible.

I know my dish would have been absolutely perfect if the oven

had been working properly.

You know, a lot of people are going home right now.

Let's go.

[Terry] The judges have made their decision.

But before we get started, I would like 63 and 34

to step forward.

Both of your dishes had some undercooking issues.

Normally, that could equal an elimination.

While we were judging, we took a look at the oven.

It turns out there was a malfunction.

In the spirit of fairness,

you are both safe and you can sit back down.

Whoo!

So relieved and thankful. Proud of myself that what

they did taste was good enough for them to really believe

that I had done a good job.

We already lost Rece, so now we are only asking the judges

to eliminate five more.

Cook 19, 53, 56,

83, 91.

Unfortunately, you're all eliminated.

I'm sorry.

[Angel] All the way to the top 24,

I will leave here with my head held high.

You're a really good cook. You should cook.

It's been awesome competing against all these cooks

that have so much talent.

I told myself, if I'm gonna go home in this competition,

I want it to be on a dish that I'm proud of.

OK. Cook 44, 57,

75, 81, and 84.

You are all safe. [chuckles]

- Congratulations, guys. - [chef] Oh.

- [Justin] Let's go, baby. - [Terry] Good job, cooks.

So, 25 and 66,

both of you had the top two dishes.

The cook who won best dish in this round is...

- Zo, number 25. - [all cheer]

[chef #2] Yeah, Zo! Yeah!

[chef #3] Oh, my God.

[Zo] I'm glad that this won best dish.

I'm getting comfortable in the kitchen.

I can see the prize. It's feeling closer and closer.

Zo you wanna see how much money your dish is worth?

Come on. Let's mix it up.

[Terry] Let's find you a good money ball.

[Marcus] Ooh.

$15,000.

- [chef] Whoo. - [chef #2] He said 15.

[chef #3] I thought he said 50.

You have a choice.

You could take this money and call it a day,

or we could put this money back in.

And you have to beat all these other chefs to get

the grand prize.

I'm a betting man. I'mma bet on myself.

Put it back in there.

Zo is putting this into the pot.

Can we take a look at what the pot is at now?

- [chefs cheer] - [Terry laughs]

[Terry] $155,000.

No guts, no glory. I love it.

[Terry laughs]

[Keloni] Nobody gonna take it, bro.

We're all staying.

We're gonna battle this out.

[Terry] Ooh.

- [Nick whistles] - Ooh.

18 cooks. That was intense.

Each of you is now closer than ever to taking home

the grand prize as the winner of "100 Cooks."

82 cooks have left the building.

[Bryce] $155,000. It's getting serious.

It's only gonna get harder from here.

[Terry] Start cooking!

It's duo or die!

I'm not leaving until they drag me out of here.

Sometimes it's what you don't put, not what you do put.

I'm not trying to go home right now.

- [Nick] Plate, plate, plate! - [bleep]

[Nick] This is gonna be the hardest judging

we've done so far. - Without a doubt.

Someone's going to regret not taking this money.

- You know what I'm saying? - [all exclaim]