Alejandra Ramos: Tonight on "The Great American Recipe"...

Pass your recipe to the person next to you.

I've never made this.

Where do I start?

Ha ha ha!

Doug, voice-over: Fufu is something that Adjo really prides herself on, and I want to do her justice.

Jon, voice-over: I'm a rule breaker, but this time, because it's Doug's recipe, I'm following the rules.

Hollingsworth: This is one of the best dishes that we've seen from you so far.

Ramos: But there can only be one winner.

Welcome back to "The Great American Recipe."

[Pencil scratches] ♪ You guys ready?

Great day to do some cooking.

Doug, voice-over: We're coming into Week 6, and this whole competition has been an up and down for me.

Last week, I ended up on the bottom... Doug, your 3-bean casserole had a soft sort of mushiness.

but each week and each cook is another opportunity for me to show what I have and to impress the judges.

Doug: Hey, how's it going?

Adjo, voice-over: Coming into this week, I'm feeling good.

I won last week.

Derry: The winning dish was Adjo.

Ha ha ha!

Adjo, voice-over: I just need to keep executing, making sure my flavors are on point.

Welcome back to "The Great American Recipe."

As always, please join me in saying hello to our judges-- Francis Lam... Hey, everyone.

Tim Hollingsworth... Good morning, everyone.

and Tiffany Derry.

Hey, y'all.

Mae: Morning.

Good morning.

So last week, we loved celebrating the special occasions in your lives and all the food that goes along with them.

This week's theme is all about getting out of your comfort zone in the kitchen.

All right.

Francis.

Yeah?

Could you go grab that box for me?

Mm.

Oh.

Marcella, voice-over: My heart is thumping because I think I know what's coming.

Ramos: Cooks, were bringing back the recipe swap.

Derry: Yay!

Adjo: Oh, my goodness.

Are we the only ones excited?

Ha ha ha!

You want to watch us sweat even more?

Yeah.

OK. Ramos: Ha ha!

So for your first round, we want to see one of your personal favorite recipes but with a little inspiration from one of your fellow cooks.

Inside this box is one of your recipes.

All right.

Come on up, Adjo, and get your recipe.

Oh, it's my reci--OK. Yeah.

No.

You're OK.

It's OK. OK. Whew!

OK, Tim.

There you go.

Next up, Marcella... Mae.

Doug.

All right, Jon.

Thank you, ma'am.

You're welcome.

Kim.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, Adjo... Adjo: Mm-hmm?

are you ready to find out what your advantage is for winning last week?

Yes.

As the winner last week, you get to pick first.

Who would you like to swap recipes with?

Oh, God.

I don't know.

[Laughter] OK. What do you have again?

Doug: A strawberry pretzel dessert.

It's a layered dessert.

Does it involve baking?

Like, 6 minutes of baking.

Adjo: No.

OK. Tim: Rainbow trout with dirty rice.

Adjo, voice-over: I'm not a baker, so I don't want to get any recipes that involve baking, but Tim's rainbow trout and dirty rice feels like something I can attempt.

Ramos: All right.

Go get Tim's rainbow trout.

Everyone else, pass to the person next to you until we say, "Stop."

Doug, voice-over: I actually have to say, I'm excited to do any of these dishes.

I'm up for the challenge.

Ramos: All right.

Stop.

I've never made this.

Kim, voice-over: Being handed someone else's recipe without any prior knowledge of what I'm doing, that's a new one.

So you have the recipe, and for this first round, you'll have 60 minutes to recreate your fellow home cook's recipe.

Lam: And, as always, your dishes will be judged on taste, presentation, execution, and today's theme, which is your ability to adapt in the kitchen.

Hollingsworth: And remember that a recipe is a guideline.

Use this recipe to make the best dish that you can that also represents you.

Derry: Next week, we'll find out which 3 of you will be going to the finale, so please put your all into these dishes.

All right.

Your time starts now.

[Cheering] ♪ Ooh... Kim: All right.

All right.

All right.

OK.

The recipe swap is always such a fun week.

What are we looking for this round?

Derry: This is a tough one, but for me, it's less about them creating that exact recipe.

It's play to your strengths.

If you don't understand something fully, ask but--you know what-- make it your own.

The one thing I would say, though, is read that recipe, and I would suggest here, read it twice.

Ha ha!

Don't know where to start.

Tim, voice-over: I end up with Mae's dish-- vegetarian egg rolls, which is something I've never personally made before, but it's Mama Mae.

She's done it a million times, so I want to get it right.

The enemy of egg rolls is too much water.

That's why after you sauté everything, you have to drain it in the colander.

OK.

In Chinese cooking, everything is about symbolism.

The egg roll is prosperity because it reminds you of a gold bar.

Shall I go ahead and heat up some oil?

Not yet.

Concentrate on getting all this shredded.

I've learned so much from her in the first few rounds, but I am a little worried because I've been given cloud ear fungus.

I don't know what that is.

I don't know what that tastes like.

The cloud ears is a crunch, the texture, OK?

OK. Mae, voice-over: I really have confidence in Tim.

He's a good cook, but I have plenty of advice.

We just want texture.

You don't need all that for texture.

Tim, voice-over: I'm gonna take Mae's advice because this is her dish and this is how she makes it.

Thank you so much.

OK.

I'm off to a great start.

Thank you.

Tim, voice-over: But even though these are vegetarian egg rolls, I am a meat eater, so I'm gonna add some wild boar in order to put my spin on it.

♪ Tim: Adjo...

Yes?

holler at me... OK.

I'll let you know as soon as I get this fish going.

So I am making Tim's rainbow trout with dirty rice.

Adjo, voice-over: I cook fish all the time, but dirty rice.

What is that?

The way I'm looking at this is following the recipe as best as I can but incorporating a little touch of Adjo into it.

Trout is something that we fish for in the mountains of North Carolina, and dirty rice is another Southern dish.

Traditional dirty rice is made with livers and gizzards, but my recipe calls for ground pork and ground beef.

I just came to see if you needed any tips, tricks, or had any questions.

Am I good to go so far?

Yeah.

Trout does good with citrus and, like, little savory.

When it comes to dirty rice-- I don't know if you've ever had dirty rice before-- Mm-hmm.

just think Cajun rice.

OK, just-- You should be good.

OK. Holler if you need me.

I'm right over there.

OK.

Awesome.

OK.

I'm a spice girl.

So I'm making the marinade with rosemary, olive oil, shallots, dill, and garlic and ginger.

I like seasoning, and it just didn't seem like it had enough seasoning for me, so I'm adding my own stuff to it.

That's the African way.

I like that smell.

I like that smell.

Adjo, voice-over: I am definitely less concerned about making Tim's dish than I am about Doug making my dish.

Lots of garlic.

If I'm reading that right, that's about right.

Doug, voice-over: For this round, I got Adjo's fish stew with fufu, and I don't even know what fufu is.

I'm definitely a little bit nervous.

Oh, my God.

That smells awesome.

So the first thing I do is I get started on the marinade for the fish, which is Adjo's special curry-- like, 20 cloves of garlic along with a ton of ginger... ♪ Yah!

Oh, it's good.

It's hot!

Doug, voice-over: and then I need to start on that stew right away with a good flavor base.

She has a ton of habanero peppers.

I don't know about that for me, but we'll see.

Doug, voice-over: I am a heat wimp, so I actually might back off the heat a little bit, but I don't want to jeopardize the flavor.

All right.

Gonna keep that on high heat and get everything cooked down.

Doug, voice-over: And now I'm ready to get on to the fufu.

Adjo: I got you.

Come here, bestie.

Hey.

Adjo, voice-over: Fufu is like mashed potato for West Africans, and it's made out of plantain flour and water, but unless you've been taught how to make fufu, you have no reference point, so I'm gonna set Doug up for success.

I know this needs to be smooth.

It needs to be smooth.

Yeah.

Nothing else goes in there-- no seasoning, nothing.

You don't do salt.

No seasoning?

No, nothing.

It looks like Adjo is showing Doug how to make the fufu... Derry: Go for it, Doug.

Ramos: and that's what this challenge is all about, right?

It's getting them out of their comfort zone, pushing them beyond what they are familiar with, so that we can really test those skills and see how they fare in a different environment.

Lam: It's a great way to stretch yourself.

OK. OK.

I'll be back.

OK. See you.

Bye.

Check on your stuff.

Doug, voice-over: Fufu is something that Adjo really prides herself on, and I want to do her justice.

I can tell the fufu is getting a little thicker, which is great.

♪ I think that's what I'm supposed to be doing.

Mae, voice-over: I am making Marcella's Italian stuffed artichoke dish.

OK. Mae, voice-over: I'm not familiar with Italian cooking and certainly not artichokes.

Marcella, voice-over: The dish is essentially an artichoke that's been opened, stuffed with breadcrumbs, cheese, herbs, and then cooked in a Dutch oven.

Hi, Mae.

Yeah, Marcella.

How are you?

Fine.

I hope I do justice to... You are doing-- Lookit.

You're already doing a great job.

But I don't know if I'm doing right.

Stuffed artichokes are something that my Aunt Mary, who's no longer with us, used to make, and this was one of her signature dishes.

Look what I'm gonna do.

♪ Oh, my heavens.

That's very difficult.

Ha!

Look at that.

Oh, wonderful.

That opens it up.

Hollingsworth: That's so nice just to see them working together and teaching a technique to somebody.

Ramos: Yeah.

If you've not worked with artichoke before, that's a tricky one.

That really is a tricky one.

Marcella: It's perfect.

You got it, Mae.

OK, OK. Mae, voice-over: This artichoke is served with aioli sauce, but I'm putting my own spin by adding two things-- Jaffna curry powder and my green onion.

This is pretty spicy.

♪ It's a lot of butter, dawg.

Jon, voice-over: In this recipe swap, I got Doug's strawberry pretzel dessert.

I have never heard of strawberry pretzel dessert ever.

Getting some of my aggression out.

This strawberry pretzel dessert recipe is one of my favorites because I really want to highlight some classic flavors of Pittsburgh, and we have this at every family gathering.

It's a layer of pretzel crust, cream in the middle, gel, and fresh strawberries on top.

Jon: It's all about the time it takes to chill.

The first step is the pretzel crust, which is just crushed pretzel sticks, butter, and some sugar.

♪ In we go.

Jon, voice-over: For the cream layer, it's cream cheese, mascarpone, and some sugar.

For Jon's twist, I'm adding a little bit of piloncillo.

Jon, voice-over: Piloncillo is raw brown sugar, and it is put into a mold and a cone, and it takes some work to be able to use.

I'm following the recipe, but I'm not sure about the outcome.

My challenge is the cooling time.

It's all about the chill time on this recipe.

I want to nail this for Doug, so I'm feeling a little bit of pressure.

Ramos: 45 minutes.

Tim: Whoo.

Doug: Yes.

Jon: We got it.

OK. Mm.

It's good.

Kim, voice-over: I got Jon's puffy chicken tacos.

I've actually never had a puffy taco, but we make tacos at home all the time.

Hey, Jon...

Yes, ma'am?

Should it be crispy like a taco and, like, a golden brown?

Definitely crispy.

Jon, voice-over: Kim is making my puffy chicken tacos, which is a tortilla wrapped around filling and deep fried.

The corn tortillas, they're simple, but they take a lot of time.

It's about the texture and the thickness of the tortilla that makes all the difference.

I am gonna do a little twist on them because of time.

Kim, voice-over: There's just not enough time for brazing chicken thighs, so the protein in my puffy tacos is going to be shrimp.

Shrimp cooks a lot faster.

Kim, voice-over: I add Oaxaca cheese and cilantro for my filling.

I just think it adds a really fun creaminess.

The next thing I need to do is make these masa tortillas.

Jon, is this a good size?

It should be good, but you want to massage it and give it a little bit of looseness.

Jon, voice-over: Kim is using my tortilla press from Oaxaca, so that's got to give her some good luck.

Hollingsworth: When I was younger, my mom used to make tacos once a week, and we would have puffy tacos.

Ramos: There's a lot of technique involved there.

Hey, Jon.

A little bit thinner if possible, but that would be great.

Thinner.

OK. Kim, voice-over: I'm feeling a lot of pressure to get this dish right.

I want to make Jon proud, but I also want to make myself proud.

♪ So this is foamed, which I think means it's ready.

Marcella, voice-over: I'm feeling really good because I end up with Kim's dish, and it does not include reindeer, it does not include salmon, and it does not include moose.

Instead, it's spinach and garlic pizza.

I would pop up your temperature to 515 at least just for when you open that door.

515?

Yeah.

Marcella is gonna ace this because it's pizza and she's Sicilian.

This thing's shaking.

Marcella, voice-over: I cook pizza almost every Friday night, but this dish is a little bit of a challenge to make.

I cannot believe that I'm going to attempt to make a dough from scratch and a pizza in under an hour.

Marcella, voice-over: As I look at Kim's recipe card, I notice she's incorporated a process in that helps the dough rise faster.

♪ Please rise ♪ Marcella, voice-over: You just mix it all together and put it in a warm bath.

I'm gonna Marcellafy this pizza by a few things.

I'm gonna add some red onion to it, and then I'm gonna add some hard-boiled eggs, which is very common in Italy and Sicily.

Marcella, voice-over: Because we're so close to the finale, I need to make sure this dish is a winner.

So that should be really good.

You have 30 minutes left, halfway there.

Jon: 30 minutes hard.

How's it going, Mae?

I'm here for you.

I'm so happy to have Marcella's help.

Oh, honey, you have to stuff them first.

Oh, darn, darn, darn.

OK. She's very encouraging.

There you go, Mae.

There you go, and I like to throw some lemon in there, too.

Mae, voice-over: I'm hoping that it will fit in the pot nicely, so it can be cooked evenly.

I'm gonna do my best, you know?

♪ The rice is already cooked, and it's just combining it with the spices and the peppers.

My fish is in the oven.

I just need to keep working on that dirty rice.

Hello, Adjo.

Hi, Chef.

You got a lot going on.

Yeah.

I read through the recipe of how Tim makes it.

I'll honor it the best I can while at the same time adding a little bit of my own spices to it.

Let's see what we got.

Yeah.

I would add more flavor into this, and then I would let it do its thing.

I wouldn't keep stirring like crazy, so you don't end up with mushy pieces of rice.

Yes, Chef.

OK. Well, best of luck.

Get everything done.

Clean your station a little bit, too.

Yes, ma'am.

Absolutely, Chef.

I will do that.

I'm all over the place today.

We are literally weeks away from the finale, so I intend to continue to take all the notes that the judges have been giving me the past weeks because I want to win.

♪ It's almost like dough.

Doug, voice-over: This fufu is feeling really stiff.

I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, and I am sweating.

Doug, I see you getting the workout.

I am totally getting a workout, Francis.

I think the stew I have under control.

OK.

The fufu is totally new to me.

And how are you making Adjo's fish stew your own?

I'm doing a quick pan-fry--very quick-- before I get these pieces of fish into the pot... OK. just to maybe give a slight brown or a little crisp.

And what pepper is this you're using?

This is a habanero pepper, not usually at my house, but I put two in today.

Because a habanero is extremely hot...

So, so hot, right?

put the gloves on because it can irritate your skin.

If you touch your eyes, you're gonna be really unhappy.

That's good advice, Francis.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Yeah.

Thank you.

♪ Jon: How we doing, Doug?

I think we're doing OK. OK. How are you doing?

I'm good, man.

Oh, my God.

That looks amazing.

Jon, voice-over: I'm a rule breaker, but this time, because it's Doug's recipe, I'm following the rules.

Got a little bit of work, but I'm feeling really good.

This is sort of the last step.

Jon, voice-over: For the strawberry layer, it's chopped strawberries, sugar, cornstarch slurry, lemon zest, and juice.

♪ The top whipped-cream layer is something that I've added with a little bit of powdered sugar and a little bit of almond extract, and then I'm gonna sprinkle some piloncillo, as well.

♪ Ramos: Marcella, how's your pizza coming along?

Marcella: The dough rose for me finally.

Ramos: Beautiful.

I'm going in the oven.

Let's go.

♪ [Sizzling] Mae: You need to start rolling the egg rolls, right?

Yes, ma'am.

Mae, voice-over: The most important technique in egg roll wrapping is to wrap it-- not too tight, just snug.

Tim: Like a little envelope, mm-hmm, and I'm gonna deep-fry, not air-fry.

Oh, really?

OK. OK. Mm-hmm.

Tim, voice-over: I've got Mae's vote of confidence, so as long as it stays crispy, I think I'll be good.

Tim: Thank you so much, Mae.

Mae: It's gonna look good.

Ramos: 5 minutes left.

5 minutes!

Kim: I'm not used to working with the fresh masa.

It kind of falls apart easily, and this is more time-consuming than I thought it would be, so I'm gonna start putting them in two at a time.

How's that pizza looking?

Ooh, those look good.

It's slow, slow cooking.

Oh, turn up your heat.

Marcella, voice-over: My pizza doesn't have to cook much longer, but I'm running out of time.

Hollingsworth: 3 minutes left.

No way.

Get it on a plate.

There's no possible way I have time to make the pico I wanted.

Kim, voice-over: Jon was planning on doing a blender salsa.

I do not have time to do that, so I'm gonna replace it with a quick guacamole.

I mixed smashed-up avocados, lots of lime juice, salt, and cilantro.

I think it's really good.

OK. Yeah!

Derry: Listen up, cooks.

You have only a minute left.

Bam.

All right.

All right.

Doug: Hopefully, I did the fufu in the way I think Adjo would do it.

OK. Mae: Hey, Marcella... Yeah?

should I put some parsley on top of the-- You could put parsley on top.

Add it on the plate, too.

♪ Ramos: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Time's up!

Time's up.

Ah, whoo!

♪ We gave you 60 minutes to take the recipe of your fellow home cook and recreate it by incorporating your personal style.

All right, Doug.

Come join us.

Whose recipe did you get during the swap, and what did you make?

I received Adjo's recipe, and I made a fish stew with fufu for the first time... [Laughter] and I may not have put as many habaneros as she called for in the stew.

Lam: Doug, if I close my eyes and ate this, I would legitimately think you might have been Adjo.

[Chuckles] Yeah.

Lam: This is so delicious.

The fufu give heft and balance to the stew, and I taste the intensity of her flavor.

The fish is beautifully cooked.

The heat is very mellow.

You've really managed to carry that heat through in a really beautiful way.

Derry: Yeah.

Doug you've managed to season this perfectly.

Bravo for stepping outside of your comfort zone and delivering a delicious dish.

I'm so honored to have cooked my fufu for the first time with Adjo in the room.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

You did good.

Mae, come join us.

This is Marcella's stuffed artichoke with garlic aioli sauce, and, of course, green onion is always, you know, Chinese, so I added that in.

Hollingsworth: I like the flavor of your breadcrumbs in here, but what I really like is the aioli.

I think it's very, very sharp, very, very bright, perfect for dipping the artichoke leaves in and getting the flavor from that.

Lam: Yeah.

I agree, but I got a lot of breadcrumbs in this, and they did eat a little dry, and I think if you toasted the breadcrumbs a little bit-- maybe in a little bit of olive oil-- then they would be crisper.

OK.

Thank you.

Hollingsworth: Thank you, Mae.

Kim, come join us.

So I received Jon's puffy chicken tacos, and I used shrimp instead.

Derry: This puffy taco with shrimp, it's very flavorful.

The shrimp inside is nicely cooked, but the masa itself needs to be crunchier... Kim: Yeah.

so even just turning the fryer up a little bit more just to get that outside golden brown, but I tell you what, your guacamole is so delicious, and it really picks up the taco.

Thanks.

Hollingsworth: Yeah, so I think the corn flavor in the masa is really, really nice.

I think you did a great job utilizing a lot of different pieces of equipment and making a brand-new dish that you've never made before.

Kim: Thank you.

Adjo, come join us.

Hello, judges.

I picked Tim's rainbow trout and dirty rice recipe.

Lam: Adjo, typically in a Western recipe, when you're seeing thyme, rosemary, it's like a little teaspoon of this chopped or, like, you know, half a tablespoon of that chopped, and you were just like, "Khh!

Khh!

Vrrr!"

[Laughter] Lam: What I love about this dish is, you've taken your idea that is, like, everything has to be flavorful to the max, but I just love that you brought that attitude to this dish.

Derry: Adjo, the fish is delicious.

It's nicely cooked.

It's tender, but you left the thyme and the rosemary cold, so all of that that got rubbed on top of the fish, I can't break it down as I'm chewing.

You got to take the time to just grab it backwards and pull it, and that way, you don't have the stem pieces in there.

Thank you, Chef.

Jon.

I was fortunate to get my friend Doug's strawberry pretzel dessert.

I also put whipping cream on top with a little almond extract in addition to some lemon zest.

Derry: Jon, I like that you created your own spin on it.

The almond extract is very nice with the strawberry.

It's sort of in your face a little, and I love almonds, so, for me, that's great.

Hollingsworth: I agree with Tiffany.

This is one of the best dishes that we've seen from you so far, the balance between savory and sweet with that saltiness from the pretzels, but I would fill it up a little bit less.

That way, the textures are a little bit more balanced.

Thank you so much, Jon.

Thank you all.

Marcella, come join us.

Judges, it was an honor today to make for you Kim's spinach and garlic pizza.

I Marcellafied this... [Laughter] by adding some hard-boiled eggs.

Lam: Yeah.

I really like the hard-boiled egg on it.

It adds a creaminess, a richness.

You got a nice rise on the dough, but in the center, it's still a little pale for me.

OK. Hollingsworth: Yeah.

A trick or a technique that I use is a heavier pan to get, like, a little bit more crust, and then you get this caramelized, sort of that old-school, like, pan-pizza feeling.

Thank you.

Hey, Tim, come on.

Join us.

I got Mae's recipe for her vegetarian air fryer egg rolls, but to make it myself, I added some wild boar.

Derry: This is flavor-packed.

What I like is the shiitake mushrooms in there that's playing with the boar, and I also have to talk about your technique.

You look like you've rolled a few egg rolls in your life, and using a fryer is definitely working here, and it's still crunchy.

Hollingsworth: Yes, and I feel like you can really taste where you're from in the dish because the boar gives it almost like a barbecue flair, so I think you did a great job creating a dish that feels like it came from you.

Oh, thank you very much.

Mae, voice-over: Tim did great.

His egg rolls actually looked better than I would have done it.

Come here.

Ha ha ha!

Ohh...

I'm so--I'm so proud of this guy.

♪ Ramos: In the last round, you had to swap recipes and cook the cherished dish of a fellow home cook while putting your own personal touch on the dish.

Nothing like keeping you on your toes to test your skills in the kitchen, right?

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Ramos: All right.

Judges, which home cooks had the most successful dishes of the round?

Lam: Our first favorite dish was... Jon.

Derry: Ha ha ha!

I knew it, buddy.

I knew it.

Lam: You had Doug's strawberry pretzel dessert.

I really feel like this is Jon and Doug coming together to make this dish.

The taste was wonderful, the textures were great, and adding the almond extract really added a lot to it.

Jon: Appreciate it.

I feel amazing.

My confidence is very much boosted.

Derry: Our next favorite dish of the round is... Doug.

Oh, thank you, Adjo.

Thank you.

Derry: You had Adjo's fish stew and fufu.

The seasoning was perfect.

The fish was moist and flaky.

It was really exceptional.

Thank you so much.

Wa wa wa!

We're gonna make an African out of you yet.

Doug: Yes.

Doug, voice-over: I'm feeling so good that I did justice to Adjo's recipe, and I'm also super proud of my friend Jon.

It's my recipe, but he took it to a totally different place, and I'm really happy for him to have this win.

Ramos: Excellent job, cooks.

Now be sure to take what you learned from those recipes with you into the next round.

♪ Ramos: In the last round, we shook things up a bit by having you swap recipes with a fellow home cook.

It's so wonderful to see you work together and help each other out, so we want to keep those friendly feelings going, so in this second round, we'll give you 60 minutes to cook a dish inspired by one of your friends, and, remember, each of your dishes will be judged on taste, execution, presentation, and the theme of presenting a dish inspired by a friend.

All right.

Your 60 minutes starts now.

Yeah!

Let's go.

Yeah.

Whoo!

Adjo: We're doing it.

Jon: We're doing it, girl.

Ramos: Judges, what are you hoping to learn about the cooks in this round?

Derry: I think we'll learn a lot about the type of friends they have, the influences that they have on their life, so it should be a very tasty meal.

Lam: And, you know, the cooks here are great cooks.

They're probably the person that all their friends go, "Oh, you're the cook."

Like, "Let's go to your house for dinner," so I want to see who else in your clique can hold it down.

That's true.

♪ Hello, Portobello Bella ♪ I'm feeling really good coming off round one.

I ended up being one of the top dishes, and it gives me the confidence to do my best for the second round, especially being so close to the finale.

I love a good portobello when all the gills are still tight in.

That's, like, perfect.

Doug, voice-over: For this round, I'm making grilled stuffed portobello mushrooms inspired by a dish from my friend Catherine.

And now we need some garlic.

We're gonna marinate these guys.

My friend Catherine has been in my life for almost 20 years now.

Get into the grooves.

Doug, voice-over: She's so special in my life, and I care about her so much, I actually asked her to be the person that spoke for me at my wedding reception.

All right, so what I'm doing right now is, I'm just taking some English muffins, and I'm gonna dice them into bits.

This is gonna serve as our stuffing.

Doug, voice-over: I'm gonna season the stuffing with all of these flavors of pesto, like fresh basil, parmesan cheese, and pine nuts.

♪ Hmm.

Think it's great.

Doug, voice-over: This dish is something I make often in the summertime when we're grilling outside, almost like a vegetarian substitute for a grilled burger.

Err!

There we go.

Doug, voice-over: I love this dish, so I hope the judges like it.

OK.

Perfect.

♪ They're so little.

Kim, voice-over: For this round, we have to make a recipe that's inspired by a friend, so I'm doing sweet pork lettuce boats, inspired by my friend and sister-in-law Kabu.

They're gonna be really pretty.

They're gonna start with two pieces of romaine together in a little boat, and then I'm gonna fill them with sweet pork and top them with an Asian slaw, Sriracha mayo, and then fresh tomatoes.

The star of the show is really the pork filling.

It needs to be very flavorful.

I started with some caramelized onions, and then to that I added fresh garlic and ginger, and right now, I'm just breaking up my pork into that mix.

Kim, voice-over: My friend Kabu is Hmong.

Hmong people originally come from China.

She's an amazing cook herself.

She introduced us to banh mi, larb, pho, and when she made this dish for us, my daughters went crazy over it.

So, like, I'm really lucky to have her around.

[Whirring] Ramos: So if you were cooking in this round, what recipe would you choose?

I think I'd have to go with my friend's amazing jambalaya, and she hasn't shared the recipe with me yet.

Derry: You just can't recipe-swap.

I thought that's why we're here for, to share.

Well... Ramos: Keep applying pressure because I want that jambalaya recipe, too.

Honestly, it's something that I absolutely love.

♪ Mae: OK.

I'm making Kung Pao chicken with peanuts.

This recipe was inspired by my friend Nancy, and Kung Pao chicken is a wonderful, spicy Chinese dish with a lot of red chilies, and I make this for my husband because people from Sri Lanka want very spicy food... One more, one more.

Now I got to mix my sauces.

Mae, voice-over: and then I make a sauce with hoisin sauce, ground bean sauce, Chinese wine, and chili garlic sauce.

♪ Hello, Mae.

Hi.

You feeling good?

I feel like I'm always rushed for time.

I'm blanching the vegetables.

Then I got to deep-fry the peanuts and the chicken.

I'm making Kung Pao chicken.

Kung Pao chicken?

Yeah.

It's inspired by a friend.

So tell me a little bit about your friend.

We met at college.

She was Cantonese, just like me, and we became like sisters.

Yeah?

Now my friend is gone, I miss her.

Every time I make this dish, I think of her.

Aww, that's sweet.

I get very sentimental about Nancy because she's no longer with me.

I told myself I wasn't gonna cry, but I always feel her spirit's with me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Are you bringing a little bit of her... Oh, yeah.

in this meal today?

Yes.

That's beautiful... you can honor her.

Yes.

She's a wonderful woman, and she says, you know, I have to learn to cook much more spicy, and she was totally right, so true.

You gonna toast your peanuts in the oil first?

Yeah.

I'm gonna fry it first, and then I'll do my chicken.

Then you put it all together.

The peanut, even though it's, like, golden brown, it continues cooking... Yeah.

Yeah.

so I got to be very careful about that, too.

Yeah, definitely.

When you're cooking at such a high temperature, before you know it, your nuts are overtoasted, right?

So true, so true.

Well, good luck.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Tim.

Happy cooking.

♪ [Sizzling] Oh, perfect.

Oh, perfect.

Jon... Yeah?

what are you charring on the stove top there?

Poblano peppers.

I'm making El Paso-style chile rellenos.

Nice.

Jon, voice-over: Chile rellenos are poblano peppers stuffed with a cheese blend, battered and fried.

It's a traditional recipe in El Paso, which is very different than other chile rellenos in other parts of Mexico or the Southwest because the batter, it's nice and fluffy.

That needs a little bit more cooking on the backside.

Jon, voice-over: My inspiration for this dish is my friend Chuy.

Chuy was the chef in a Mexican restaurant that I worked at as a waiter, and I learned so much about how to cook Mexican food from him.

This batter is sort of a foamy meringue batter, so I'm gonna beat the egg whites until they're nice and soft peaks.

And then one of my favorite things is the sauce.

To make my ranchera sauce, I'm broiling tomatoes, garlic, onion, additional poblanos, and some jalapeños.

First round, I won, so I want to keep that momentum all the way to the finals.

This is working well.

45 minutes left.

45!

You got it.

I think this is gonna be pretty good, actually.

Adjo, voice-over: We have to create a dish that's been inspired by a friend.

For this dish, I am making shrimp, garlic butter, herb, and parmesan pasta.

Today is my first time that I'm making shrimp here and making the pasta, so this is gonna be all new flavor from me for the judges.

The first thing I'm doing is cutting my vegetables so I can caramelize them.

Yeah.

We're gonna add the pasta to that.

♪ This dish is inspired by my friends Love and Jay.

Love and Jay are really good friends of mine, and we had a dinner party where I made pasta.

These two are always there for me when I need it, and so they're just people that are very important to me, so I wanted to make it as special as I could for them.

I am marinating my shrimp with some garlic, ginger, and some salt marinade.

Adjo, voice-over: Africans are a very much ginger culture.

We ginger everything.

Ginger is life, literally.

Ha ha!

This is not Italian food.

It's just pasta the way I know how to make it and the way I love it and the way my friends love it.

Tim, what are you making over there today?

I'm working on a little rosemary-crusted rack of lamb.

Nice, nice.

Tim, voice-over: For this round, I'm gonna do rosemary-and-thyme-crusted lamb lollipops over a tomato-parmesan risotto.

The inspiration for this dish is my friend Edward.

Not too long ago, he left his work in corporate sales and became a full-time sommelier.

Definitely an inspiration to me to follow your passion, but most importantly, one of the wine dinners he did, he asked me to help him out.

He knew I had a passion for food and that I loved to cook, and this is one of the dishes we prepared to go with some reds.

Tim, voice-over: I've got my skillets nice and hot.

I check it.

I want to make sure that that fat is rendering nicely.

Oh, yeah.

Look at that.

That's what I'm talking about.

♪ 30 minutes, everybody.

30 minutes.

Jon: 30 minutes.

Thank you.

30.

Where's my little friend?

Marcella, voice-over: For this challenge, I'm making sausage, kale, black bean soup.

Sausage.

Marcella, voice-over: It is a dish that was inspired by my dear friend Kate.

I am breaking up the sausage.

I'm gonna brown them with the onion, and then I'll add garlic to that, and then we get going on the base with the stock.

Marcella, voice-over: I met Kate in college, and we have shared so many of our milestones together, and she really is like my chosen family.

Any good soup takes a long time for the flavor to really incorporate, so getting it going so I can start getting all the flavors infused is key.

Marcella, voice-over: My soup also includes black beans, sweet potatoes, and kale.

The soup is seeping.

The flavors are brewing.

♪ We're gonna give them another moment.

We're gonna fill them here in just a second.

Let me get our English muffins in the oven to toast, really encourage a nice, little, crispy browning.

♪ This is a big head.

Kim, voice-over: To top my pork mixture on my boat, I'm gonna make a crunchy slaw.

Hey, Kim.

Hello.

How's it going?

Good.

How are you doing?

I'm well.

I'm really excited to try this.

How'd you cook the pork?

There's a mixture of, like, hoisin, a little bit of toasted sesame, soy sauce.

Very savory, very-- It should be a little bit on the sweeter side but still, you know, have that enough saltiness that you get, like, decent flavor.

You have a really nice amount of seasoning in here.

Like, on its own, it's maybe almost too much, but construction is also a part of the deal.

Like, make sure you get enough where you're tasting it, but not then overpowering this, right?

Sure, and probably make sure not to over-season my slaw.

Well, you don't over-season, but, like, you know, make it tasty.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, I'm gonna make a tasty.

All right.

Well, thanks so much.

Thank you.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Kim, voice-over: At this point in the competition, every component has to be right, and so for Francis to tell me that he likes the seasoning level, what a relief.

Ramos: 20 minutes left, folks.

20 minutes.

♪ Tim: I'm just gonna chop some shallots, and I'm gonna soon start getting those ready so that I can get my risotto started.

Tim, voice-over: Typically when you see a risotto on a menu, it's always a mushroom risotto, so I thought it would be a really nice spin to blister some tomatoes and have a tomato-parmesan risotto.

Hey, Marcella... Hey.

you got any risotto advice for the Southern boy?

Uh, don't overstir, but don't understir.

Ha ha ha!

No.

I would say slow and low.

OK.

Slow and low.

"Slow and low," she says.

Tim, voice-over: Once again, it's rice, and I've proven that I don't have the best of luck with rice...

I feel like the rice is just a little bit overcooked.

Lam: Every grain is flavorful, but the rice, it's a little bit uneven in the cooking.

Tim, voice-over: so I'm hoping that I can do a little better with my risotto.

The finale, it's so close.

This week, I got to show the judges that I can definitely bring the flavor.

A little extra cheese never hurt anybody.

♪ I'm sweating.

After I take out the peanuts, I deep-fried the chicken in the wok.

What I'm gonna do is get all these chicken done and then put the chilies in, and then my sauce.

♪ Doug: Nice browning across all of those portobellos.

♪ That's looking good ♪ As my sauce is simmering, I'm working on the chile rellenos.

So I've roasted the peppers, I've removed the skin and the seeds from the inside, and now I'm stuffing the peppers with the cheese mixture.

Jon, voice-over: Now that they're stuffed, I put them into the batter mixture, and then you put them into the fryer.

Isn't it amazing?

♪ Marcella: Ooh, what you got?

Tim: Just kind of little, like you said, low and slow.

Looks good.

Yeah.

They're still crunchy.

They're still crunchy, but I was thinking-- Yeah.

I don't cover it.

OK.

If you don't cover it, I'm not gonna cover it.

No.

Think you're gonna be all right.

I hope so, too.

♪ Just what I was looking for.

Adjo, voice-over: I'm working on my garlic-basil-parmesan butter.

Derry: Hello, Adjo.

Hi, Chef.

Would you like to try my garlic sauce?

Sure!

This is gonna be the sauce that's gonna go on top of it.

I added some parmesan cheese.

Derry: I would put a touch of water, and it'll bring your sauce back together, so what happens is, your sauce starts to separate.

One more.

Whisk it back in.

I see that.

You now have back a creamy sauce.

We're not a cheese culture.

I'm not somebody that loves cheese or anything like that.

Normally, seafood and cheese don't go together, but I don't really care about those rules.

I'm like, if it tastes good, it tastes good, but, you know, I am a little concerned you made this a little early.

You just want to be careful about how much more you cook it, OK?

Adjo, voice-over: Any time the judges advise me of something, of course I'm listening.

That's why I'm here, to learn from them.

♪ Jon: Darling.

Hey, you want to swap?

Yes, please.

All right.

This is ready.

It's a little warm, but check for chile and salt.

OK. That's just my broth.

OK. That's delicious.

Ooh!

It's got a back heat.

You could have warned me.

Chile, I think I'm good.

It needs salt.

You got it.

3 minutes left.

Ooh, it feels like it.

We got this.

We got this.

I'm plating, which is a good sign.

Finally, all the chicken is cooked, and the flavor came together in the sauce.

Smile, and the whole world smiles with you.

♪ Just one minute left.

This is it.

Cucumbers are out.

I just don't have time.

What am I doing?

Finishing salt.

Last crack of pepper.

Ramos: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Time's up!

[Applause] Waah.

♪ Ramos: Cooks, you had 60 minutes to create a dish that was inspired by a close friend.

All right, Jon.

Come join us.

♪ Ramos: Tell us what you made and the friend who inspired this dish.

I made El Paso-style chile rellenos from my friend Chuy.

Ramos: Your friend Chuy.

My friend Chuy.

Lam: Jon, in the past, we've talked to you about really bringing the flavor, really bringing more seasoning to the plate.

You brought it all today.

I've been listening.

The chile is well-roasted, and it matches so well with this egg batter.

Jon, I think you did a really, really nice job today.

Thank you.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

Hollingsworth: Yeah.

I agree.

The stuffing is very, very rich, but when you take a bite of that salsa, that's, like, fuerte, you know?

It's a little strong...

It's fuerte.

yeah, but when you taste it with the fattiness and the creaminess of the cheese on the inside, really, really great balance, so I think you did a great job, Jon.

Excellent.

Thank you, Chef, appreciate it.

Judges: Thank you, Jon.

Tim.

Today I've made for you rosemary-and-thyme-crusted lamb lollipops over a tomato-parmesan risotto.

This dish was inspired and created for my friend Edward.

Derry: Tim...

Yes, ma'am?

you did the lamb justice.

Oh, thank you.

It has a nice amount of rosemary and thyme.

It's seasoned well, and I also really like the doneness of the lamb.

Hollingsworth: Yeah.

I think the lamb is cooked beautifully, as well, but I think the rice could have used just a touch more cooking, probably like another 2 or 3 minutes on decent heat, where you still have the bite but you don't get the sort of raw rice grain.

OK.

Yes, sir.

Ramos: Thank you so much, Tim.

Chefs, thank you.

Thank you.

Kim.

I made some sweet pork lettuce boats, and my friend that inspired this is Kabu.

Lam: So, Kim, I really love the crunch of the different vegetables.

You can still taste that pork really nicely, and it does help to season everything else around it.

Really nice job.

Thank you.

You know what I really love about this dish?

It speaks to you.

I feel like in Alaska, you guys have big portions.

This is, like, the biggest lettuce cup I've ever had.

That's probably why you call it a lettuce boat.

We go big in Alaska.

Ramos: It's a lettuce boat.

Ha ha ha!

Hollingsworth: Yeah, but taking somebody else's cuisine and making it your own, I think this is a perfect example of that.

Good.

Thank you.

Adjo, tell us about your dish.

I made shrimp, garlic butter, herb, and parmesan pasta, and my friend that inspired it is my friends Love and Jay.

Derry: All of this is very delicious.

There's lots of flavor going on.

There is no denying there's lots of garlic here.

It's very enjoyable.

Thank you, Chef.

Hollingsworth: Yeah.

I agree, but I feel like the shrimp and the pasta are a little bit overcooked, but overall, it's a beautiful dish.

Well, thank you.

Mae.

This dish is a Kung Pao chicken inspired by my friend Nancy.

Derry: This has got punch.

It speaks a lot to my Texas side of liking a little bit of spice, and I also love how there's so much texture in here.

The peanuts give it a great crunch, and I think it's really very nice.

Thank you.

Lam: My only thing with it is your use of chicken breast, and when you're cooking a large quantity, the chicken breast can easily overcook as you're trying to get it all cooked, and if you'd used chicken thigh, I think it would have stayed a little juicier, a little more tender.

Thank you.

Ramos: Thank you so much, Mae.

OK.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Doug.

So what I've made for you all is a stuffed portobello mushroom inspired by a dish from my friend Catherine.

Hollingsworth: It's a very interesting dish for me, not necessarily the flavors that I would put together in sort of a thing that would substitute a burger, but I like all the textures, all the nuts.

I do wish that that mushroom had char, had some sort of smoke on there.

Derry: Yeah, and I think using the English muffin is a very smart move because it gives you a different texture.

Overall, this is a very good dish.

Doug: Thank you so much.

Marcella.

I made for you today a sausage, kale, black bean soup, and this dish was inspired and taught to me by my friend Kate.

Lam: Marcella, I think this is really, really tasty, and what really impresses me about it is the depth of flavor in the broth.

Everything, all the elements are cooked nicely-- you browned the sausage-- but the broth itself has such good flavor, and I can taste the black bean in the broth.

I can taste that sort of, like, vegetal, green flavor of the kale in the broth.

That's not easy to do when you're putting something together in an hour.

Thank you.

Derry: Yeah, Marcella.

Your soup is lovely, and I like the notes of the spice that you added to it, a little bit of that smokiness that is coming through, and I think it's a very well-done dish.

I can see enjoying this with the kids.

It's a dish that everyone could enjoy.

Marcella: Thank you.

Thank you so much, Marcella.

Thank you.

Derry: Thank you.

Hey, girl.

Girl, good job.

Yes!

Marcella, voice-over: Kate is going to be so excited that the judges enjoyed her soup.

Ramos: Cooks, thank you for sharing these recipes with us.

I'm sure your friends would be very, very proud.

Now please give us a moment while my friends, AKA the judges, discuss your dishes.

♪ Ramos: I'm so impressed with these home cooks.

They really showed us a new side of their cooking inspired by their friends.

Derry: I agree.

Ramos: What are some of the standout dishes this round?

I have to say my favorite was Jon's.

I mean, he did a great chile relleno.

Lam: What he did here was he really layered and balanced flavor because the fluffiness of the egg batter was very rich and oily, but the heat and the acidity of the salsa went perfectly with it.

It was really, really great cooking.

Derry: It was.

Hollingsworth: You know, another dish that stood out to me was Kim's dish.

Her sweet pork lettuce cups were very indicative of her, right?

A building of flavors, I thought, created a really nice spice, and I feel like she made it her own, and I think that's kind of an important thing to do as a chef.

Derry: I agree.

Lam: One of my favorites was Marcella's with her kale, sweet potato, black bean soup.

You could taste everything individually, but when you taste the broth, you taste where all those flavors come together.

Yeah, and I feel like the cook on everything throughout that process held up.

The kale was cooked nicely.

The sweet potato cooked all the way through.

Derry: Yeah.

Everything about that dish was good.

Ramos: All right, judges.

Were there any dishes that you felt needed some improvement?

You know, one dish for me was Mae's dish.

Having used chicken thighs, the chicken itself would have had more flavor, more juice.

Derry: I agree.

She just didn't have the finesse that she normally has with her dishes in this round.

Lam: Yeah.

I think we should talk a little bit about Tim's lamb with tomato-parmesan risotto because I thought the lamb was seasoned well, seared well, and, to me, the risotto also had great flavor, but I thought the rice grains went beyond al dente to a little bit chalky for me.

Yeah.

I agree.

That's, like, that one thing I look for-- Are there uncooked grains of rice?-- and, for me, I got that.

Another dish that I didn't find very successful was Adjo's.

That garlic shrimp pasta was overcooked.

Those are the type of things we've been telling her about understanding when to start things and not overcooking.

Hollingsworth: Yeah.

She has to work on her timing, and everything has to come together in order to create that perfect dish.

Derry: Absolutely agree.

Ramos: Thank you, judges.

It sounds like you made your decision.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ramos: All right.

Let's bring the cooks back in.

♪ Ramos: We asked you to prepare a dish inspired by a close friend in your life.

Since this process is all about growing from week to week, the judges want to give some feedback to a couple of the dishes.

Hollingsworth: The first dish that we felt could use a little bit of improvement was... ♪ Mae's.

Oh.

Mae, your Kung Pao chicken came out just a little bit dry, and I feel like if you had used chicken thigh and cut the chicken a little bit more evenly, you would have had a beautiful dish.

OK.

Thank you.

The other dish was... ♪ Adjo with your shrimp-garlic-parmesan pasta.

It had so much flavor, but it just overcooked.

What I want you to focus on is all of the details.

If you were able to get that together, I think you would have successful dishes all the time.

Ramos: Thanks, judges.

Now let's talk about the dishes that were the standouts this round.

Hollingsworth: The first dish that came out on top was... ♪ Marcella.

Kim: Oh...yay!

Hollingsworth: Marcella, your kale, sweet potato, and black bean soup was delicious.

It was very well-balanced.

It had a great depth of flavor.

It just felt like a warm, healthy bowl of soup that I want to eat when it's cold outside.

It was a great dish.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Our next favorite dish was... ♪ Jon.

Adjo: Oh, good job, Jonny.

Derry: Jon, your chile relleno was delicious, the way that the batter held together.

You roasted the chilies and imparted that smoky flavor into that.

The ranchero sauce had spice.

It was really, really incredible.

Thank you so much.

Ramos: Great job, Marcella and Jon, but there can only be one winner.

Lam: The winner of this round is... ♪ Jon.

Oh!

Jon.

Jon, we really, really loved this dish.

We've talked about flavor almost like a volume knob, and this was beyond that.

This was flavor that was sophisticated and layered and how different elements worked with each other, and it was just really a true joy to eat.

I appreciate it.

Jon, voice-over: The spice was on point.

This is a win.

Ha ha ha!

I couldn't be happier not only just because I pleased the judges, but I really made an effort to make that happen.

Ramos: All right, cooks.

We'll see you next time as you get one step closer to finding out who will make it to the "Great American Recipe" finale.

Thanks so much.

Bye.

Congratulations, Jon.

♪ Ramos: Next time on "The Great American Recipe"... We're focusing on the family recipes that have made you the home cooks you are today.

Marcella, voice-over: This is the dish I've been waiting for.

Mae, voice-over: This is an old family recipe, and we make it all the time.

Doug, voice-over: These flavors tell the story of my family, my heritage on the farm.

Jon, voice-over: No matter what cultural background you're from, Grandma's food is always the best.

Ramos: This is the moment you've been waiting for during these past 7 weeks.

[Pencil scratches]