Tonight on NBC their new cooking show FOOD FIGHTERS airs with their final episode for season 1. On tonight’s episode called, “Jim Stark” a retired fashion executive from California competes against professional culinarians in the season 1 finale. Chef Elizabeth Falkner guest stars.
On the last episode it was the perfect recipe for the ultimate culinary battle when America’s best amateur cooks put their signature dishes to the test against five professional chefs. This week, a high school teacher tried to win $100,000 going up against culinary experts specializing in everything from seafood to Haitian cuisine before facing off against celebrity chef Jet Tila. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it we have a full and detailed recap, right here for you.
On tonight’s episode it’s the season finale of this high-stakes culinary game that pits the best amateur cooks in America and their treasured family recipes against five professional chefs. This week, a retired fashion apparel executive and married father of four from La Jolla, CA, tries to win $100,000 going up against culinary experts specializing in everything from Latin cuisine to hearty southern food before facing off against acclaimed celebrity chef Elizabeth Falkner.
Will FOOD FIGHTERS be another huge hit for NBC? Well we’ll have to tune in tonight at 10PM EST and let us know what you think. We’ll be recapping all of the action right here for you. In the meantime, hit up the comments and let us know your thoughts on this new show.
RECAP: Jim Stark, a sweet but cocky southern gentlemen hailing from Mississippi, loves to cook and seeing he’s been praised for his cooking – and the fact it’s a great passion of his – he truly thinks he can out-cook several professional chefs. Hence on tonight’s episode of Food Fighters, we watch a father of four and grandfather of two literally cook for his life!
What we have to remember is that money in on the line!
Jim’s first competitor of the night is Josh Stone. This chef is known as the Sandwich King and yet Jim had wondered if the other man could actually turn every kind of meat into a great a sandwich. So he decided to test this theory by testing Josh’s cooking capabilities – he chose Fried catfish as the main ingredient and ended up getting lucky.
Apparently, Josh has never cooked catfish in his life and despite his numerous restaurants – fish has never been that big of a deal on his menus. And though he tried winning the judges over with his fried catfish sliders that had a bit of Asian influence – he couldn’t beat Jim’s good old traditional style catfish.
Jim won his first round and because of that – thousands of dollars in prize money. But, and here’s what he has to remember if he wants to win the full 100,000; he still had to work his way through several more chefs. And they might not be as easy to beat.
Jim’s second competitor was Yaku Moton-Sprull otherwise known as the “Shaq” of cooking (he’s really tall guy). And so Jim chose chocolate cake to fight him with. Jim’s grandmother is the creator of an infamous chocolate cake that everyone just can’t help but love. However Yaku has years of culinary experience behind him – so he attempted to make an elaborate chocolate cake that was going to abundant with spices and flavor.
Yet what hurt Yaku in the long run is that some of his cakes had the misfortune to burn during the baking process. As in he didn’t exactly give the judges an experience he was hoping for.
The judges went with Jim’s cake in a decision that was four to one. So triumph but he didn’t awe the judges either. The next person Jim has to face is Deborah Benaim. She’s young but oh so multi-cultural. What isn’t naturally in her background (like anything outside of her Venezuelan roots) can easily be found in her in upbringing – after all she was raised in Texas.
So Jim couldn’t go with the barbeque ribs he was originally counting on and instead shoe to go with Steak. Hoping in that field at least – he could outshine her!
In a three to two decision (quite close) Chef Benaim won the third round. As for Jim, though he lost out winning 15,000 there still is a chance he could walk away with plenty of money to not even feel that dent. But Jim is closing in on the Menu choices he had left and the few things that have remained is going to have to fight Chef Marcel Vigneron. This chef favors modern cooking and it’s worth noting that he likes to experiment with his dishes so he’s a bit well-rounded.
Jim went with baby back ribs. His family secret recipe kind of gives his ribs an Asian twist (which is rare because it’s over a hundred years old and not many people where mixing things up back then) while Marcel on the other hand first soaked then deep fried his ribs. Now, Jim had a slight mishap in the kitchen. He slightly burned his ribs and was simply hoping the judges wouldn’t be able to tell and again he got lucky. The judges went with his dish in a three to two result.
Marcel’s ribs while delicious were also a tad dry on the inside.
In the final competition of the night, Jim had to go head to head with Elizabeth Falkner. She’s been in the business for over 20 years refers to herself as a cooking athlete but is known professional as the Super Chef for her world renowned and award winning pastries. Out of all of the contestant – Jim feared her the most.
But she made a crucial and risky decision by making her cheesy polenta with grits. She thought grits was similar to polenta and it’s not. They’re different textures and, sadly for her, polenta happened to be smoother of the two. So hers was gritty and Jim’s was smooth on the palette.
Jim won the final round and 70,000 worth in prize money. And while he was ecstatic with his win – Elizabeth took her defeat the hardest out of the professionals. She just doesn’t like to lose!
