- No it's okay. It's okay, it's okay.
It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
Put more salt. Oh my god, it's way too much salt.
(shrieking)
(rhythmic upbeat music)
In terms of cooking,
I don't really have any professional experience.
But I grew up cooking a lot at home
and people seem to like it.
- The role I'm planning to play
is just very supportive friend.
I'm gonna be an assistant,
I'm gonna be a cheerleader,
I'm gonna be a-sabotaging the competition.
- We don't know exactly what Adrienne's really good at,
apart from the fact that she's really good at everything
because she was the runner up of Top Chef
and we're like the runner ups at nothing.
- Competing against two people,
that's an extra set of hands to get things,
an extra person to run around the kitchen
while the other one is cooking.
So I was a little nervous about that.
(electronic music)
- We're just hoping to make something edible.
Tell us, what's the challenge today?
Childhood favorite things are usually easy to make,
but then we looked at each other
and we were like, "One second."
- What do we eat as a child?
- Yes, very, very different things.
- Good luck.
I look forward to competing against you two.
- I look forward to taking you down.
- Five minutes to grab things starts now.
I see bacon.
You can't see bacon and pass it up.
There were a lot of options.
There were a lot of things that could have been done.
For childhood favorites, I always need butter.
I know when I was a kid, I loved cheese
so I'm gonna take some cheese.
When I saw the sliced cheddar and white American cheese,
I was like, "Yeah, I think this will be fun."
I'm thinking heirloom tomato salad,
grilled cheese incorporated somehow,
and probably some kind of tomato, red pepper vinaigrette.
30 minutes is maybe not enough time to do all that,
but let's give this a try.
- We had very different childhoods.
We don't eat the same kind of things.
Ooh, ow.
So there's cream.
- Sriracha!
- I never ate sriracha.
- Oh really?
Sriracha just makes everything taste better
- No.
(laughs)
There's so much in there, we can't decide on a dish.
So we just start grabbing everything.
- Just start grab everything.
My strategy is grab everything
and then figure out what we're gonna do later.
Doesn't that make a lot of sense guys?
- Oh there's pasta!
- Macaroni and cheese is something I loved growing up too.
- Should we just make mac and cheese?
- We really should make mac and cheese,
but we gotta spice it up though.
- Is there wine?
(record scratches)
Oh, it was childhood favorites.
- So we're thinking something fusion?
Mac and cheese and soy sauce?
And (laughing) I don't know.
- We're gonna wing it.
We're gonna make it good.
(knife scraping)
- First thing I'm thinking,
before the countdown begins to start cooking,
arrange my prep to take advantage
of the thirty minutes that we have.
- Good to go?
- We're good.
- You sure?
- Yes! - Top Chef is a reality show.
How good are these chefs really?
I guess we're gonna find out today.
We're ready to take you down.
- Oh yeah. Bring it.
Let's see about that (laughs).
(intense rock music)
- Go grab salt.
- Nnenna, can you pass me the sun dried tomatoes
while you're there?
It's right back on that shelf.
All the way back.
I promise.
I actually needed something from the pantry,
and she was right there,
so I thought, why not ask her?
Maybe she'll be nice enough to pass it to me.
But, no.
Bam, sun dried tomatoes.
Thanks, Nnenna.
- You never help the enemy.
- [Adrienne] Does not play well with others.
- Ever!
We've been waiting for the thingy to boil.
The water.
- [Nnenna] Right, okay.
- You can just stand there and look pretty.
- Well that I can do.
- You know how to grate cheese?
- Kind of.
Yeah it is my first time grating cheese actually.
And I think I'm doing a pretty great job at it right now.
I did a professional level grating cheese-er grater.
I don't know. - So what are you guys making?
- We are going to make...
- Macaroni and cheese?
- Nice!
- It's the only one that we were like,
"Okay we both had this as a child."
- What about you, you're making uh?
- I'm making grilled cheese and tomato soup.
A version of it.
- (both) Ohhhh.
- But like gourmet?
- No, you know. Just like kid-sy.
- Well ours is gonna be gourmet, so.
- [Adrienne] Oh, excuse me, playa.
So right now, in this pot,
we're making our vinaigrette
which is gonna be our version of the tomato soup.
- What is a vinaigrette?
- I don't know.
- So in the pot, we have some red onion,
tomato, sun dried tomatoes, and oregano.
Which is kind of like our tomato soup
to go with our grilled cheese.
- Wow, this is taking forever.
You have to wait for the water to boil!
That's the most basic thing you need to do
before you cook pasta.
Have you ever made pasta?
- I have!
Okay, this water, it's fine!
Let's just throw the mac in there.
We don't have much time!
- But you need to wait for the water to boil
before you cook pasta.
Bring water to a rapid boil.
- Oh a rapid boil.
Okay, alright. I thought it was like a regular boil.
I didn't -- Rapid!
- How you doing over there?
- What's up?!
How's it going? - Got a little panko, I see.
- What are you doing?
Are you stirring your tomato soup?
- I am.
Tomato soup.
It's got a little red pepper in there.
Gonna make that into actually a vinaigrette.
So maybe I lied when I said it won't be too gourmet.
- We're just waiting for our water to boil.
- Look it! She's already almost done
with the cheese sandwich.
The tomato vinaigrette.
- Show the sandwich some respect.
It's a grilled cheese.
It's not like just a cold cheese sandwich.
- Whatever! (laughing)
- Can we steel some bacon?
- Yeah of course.
- When I think cheese sandwich,
I think like cold and room temperature.
Back up, Nnenna.
Back up, Imma start throwing bacon at you.
- I just kinda mess with her ingredients a little bit,
just kick 'em to the side, you know.
'Cause she thought bacon was over here
move it over there.
Put that over there.
There's a whole strategy behind it.
- She's gonna go gourmet.
So we're gonna have to try to up our game.
- Right.
- Make it a little more gourmet.
- What's better than gourmet?
- The only thing that I know is gourmet is basil.
- You know, I had a lot of confidence going into this.
- Just because the water isn't boiling.
You're losing confidence in us?
I hope Nnenna is like actually distracting her
instead of distracting me.
- Back up, back up.
Get out of here.
- So I figured out how she's making a vinaigrette.
She's using a blender to make it happen.
Can we put the macaroni in now?
Please, thank God.
- Okay, okay, okay, okay.
- How's that?
- Are you done with your vinaigrette?
- The vinaigrette is done, son.
- Oh no!
- Don't sound scared.
- I'm so scared.
- Are you guys making a roux base?
- [Inga] Yes!
- Hmm, okay.
She knows what she's doing.
That's a pro move right there.
Make sure you cook your roux enough.
Nobody likes undercooked flour.
Don't let me scare you.
- We got this.
Look at that butter!
You smell that?
- Hurry up. Gotta go.
Listen, Inga.
If we lose, we're no longer BFFs, alright?
- Don't let the team fall apart now.
- The team is not falling apart.
I will make this mac and cheese.
Oh my god, what is she doing?
Nnenna, go check it out.
- She's doing the thing that you,
you're dressing up the plate the--
- The thing?
- [Adrienne] Plating.
- Plating already?
- Please, let's go.
- Look, this looks --
Okay it's coming to life, alright?
Does it or does it not look like childhood?
What does "Okay" mean?
Do you put the mozzarella cheese on?
- Oh yeah.
- [Crew Member] Five minutes.
- Where's the broil function?
I'm just like, twisting the knobs
being like "work, work, work"
and that didn't work.
Help.
I had to run out and ask a Tasty producer nearby
like "Please. Help me win."
Thank you so much!
- Ooh, yeah.
- Perfect kid size portion.
- You know you have a plated,
kinda chef-fy version of a dish,
going up against mac and cheese.
Mac and cheese might take it.
You never know.
- (both singing) Tada!
- I think we did pretty great.
- I think you guys did really well.
- We're getting our judges up here to
see what they think of our dishes.
- Great 'cause mac and cheese isn't good cold.
- Oh my gosh!
- Oh it's mac and cheese.
- Oh look at their classic, little mac and cheese.
That's some good mac and cheese.
- It's a little hot.
- Whoo! Okay!
- I like the crunchiness.
- It's got a lot of cheese in it.
- The breadcrumbs on top, that was like
the distinguishing factor of having box mac and cheese
when your mom was out of town
and then when your mom would come home,
she would make you mac and cheese in the oven
with the breadcrumbs.
- I'm feeling that.
I see what you did there.
- Oh my gosh! Look at this plating.
- Whoa!
- Did they leave any for me? (laughs)
Mmmm!
- That is like the fanciest grilled cheese
I've ever had in my life.
- That grilled cheese has like three layers
of cheese inside of it. - The tomatoes are really nice
with the acidity and the freshness.
Can I eat more?
- So my favorite between the two,
has to be the mac and cheese.
The grilled cheese was so good
and I did have it a lot as a kid,
but I feel like this was just more close to home
and comfort food and things you grew up with.
- Out of these two dishes, my favorite has to be this one.
I think this one demonstrates really well craftsmanship
in terms of taking something as simple
as a grilled cheese and elevating it.
- So out of these two dishes right here.
I'm feeling this grilled cheese
with the tomatoes on the side.
That's it guys.
I think we have a winner.
- [Crew Member] This amateur versus pro chef
childhood favorite foods
- Can we say two?
It was two versus one.
- [Crew Member] The winner goes to...
(imitates drum roll)
- (all) Ohhhh!
- It's one thing to compete against fifteen other chefs
and you know their level,
but amateurs, you never know.
Home cooks are amazing.
My mom is a home cook and she taught me everything I know.
You guys could have blown me out.
Glad you didn't though (laughing)
- We didn't so.