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

This week, we wanted you to show us the love.

Salmah: Comfort for me just equates to my grandma.

This is one of her dishes that she made for us growing up.

This is an ode to my amazing husband.

My husband is my favorite human being in the whole world.

I started cooking for my wife on our second date, and I haven't stopped since.

Steak is definitely my love language.

Graham: Brad, be careful!

You got a really hot pan!

Salmah: How I did that, I do not know!

Ha ha!

[Theme music playing] Alejandra: This is "The Great American Recipe," a celebration of foods from across the country to around the globe...

I am making bison short rib.

Bison is a traditional Native American food.

Alejandra: steeped in years of tradition... Abbe: Chicken soup is truly Jewish penicillin.

Will cure anything.

[Singers vocalizing] Alejandra: This season, our home cooks from regions all across the country get their chance to share their most treasured recipes.

Hmm!

It tastes like Mom's.

Graham: This shows us what we are all about, "Great American Recipe" highlighting all the diversity.

Leah: Who taught you those secrets?

My mom.

I love that.

Our food memories is how we keep it going.

How we're talking about the people we love is so important.

Maria: Thanks, guys.

Alejandra: After 8 weeks of challenges celebrating the heart of American home cooking... Whoo!

Whoo!

one home cook will be named... Wow!

the winner.

Welcome back to "The Great American Recipe."

♪ [Theme music playing] Ted: Back to the barn.

Leanna: Back to the barn.

Leanna, voice-over: Stepping into week 3, after getting beat up a little bit last week...

I know quite a bit about jerk as well, and I'm not getting that flavor throughout the dish.

my motivation is just to redeem myself.

I'm ready to just rock and roll.

Maria: You guys ready to cook?

Let's cook.

Abbe: Last week was great.

The winner of this round is...Abbe.

[All clamor] With a kugel?

[All laugh] So, yeah, I'm ready to win again.

Hi, everyone.

Good morning.

'Morning.

Welcome back, cooks, to week 3 of "The Great American Recipe."

We are back with our judges: Tiffany Derry... Hello, hello.

Leah Cohen...

Welcome back, everybody.

Alejandra: and last, but not least, Graham Elliot.

Aloha, y'all.

Alejandra: Last week, you showed us your daily dishes.

Let's talk about this week's challenges.

I don't have to tell you that the best meals are the ones that are cooked from the heart, so, for this first round, you will have 60 minutes to cook a comfort-food recipe.

And remember, your dishes will be judged on taste, execution, presentation, and how well it achieves today's theme.

So remember, each dish is a chance to impress our judges and get one step closer to award the eventual winner with their very own recipe featured on the cover of "The Great American Recipe Cookbook."

All right.

[Sighs] Who is ready to cook?

Khela: Yes, please.

Ha ha!

Alejandra: And your time starts now.

[Claps] Let's go!

Alejandra: All right, judges.

What are you hoping to see this round?

Tiffany: I like the idea of what does comfort mean to different people?

Because everyone's coming from all over, I think we'll see some variations and I think that's exciting to see.

Starting off at a deficit, trying to make dough in an hour.

In week 2, I was in the bottom.

When I think about what dish I'm going to make to redeem myself, I know that it's got to be something that comes from my heart.

Today, I am making garlic knots, along with a lasagna soup.

And yes, I did say lasagna soup.

I start to get some seasonings up in here.

Voice-over: So, to make lasagna soup, you need beef broth, diced tomato, tomato paste, the ground beef, and ground pork.

OK.

The soup is going.

Just hope this works out.

Voice-over: So I need to focus on my garlic knots.

All right.

Hello, Leanna.

Hi, Chef Tiffany.

What was that you put here?

So I'm making some dough for garlic knots, and since I don't have a proofing oven and enough time to let it rise, I turned the oven on and then turned it off, put a damp cloth on it, and gonna try and get that yeast going a lot faster.

Then you're making what?

A lasagna soup.

Ah.

So my grandpa had this Italian restaurant that he absolutely loved, so the memories of going to that spot and just having the lasagna, the garlic knots, the smell of it just-- it just brings back joy.

It's one of my happiest memories.

It feels like a hug, it feels like comfort, and I'm gonna put all of that into this dish.

Well, good luck.

Can't wait to taste.

Thank you, Chef.

♪ This is game face.

Making Portuguese bean soup, chicken soup for the soul.

Voice-over: As a nurse practitioner, comfort means taking care of somebody when they're sick.

In Hawaii, our chicken noodle soup is Portuguese bean soup, so that's what I'm making now with a sweet cornbread and liliko'i butter.

Portuguese sausage.

Voice-over: Hawaii is made of so many different cultures.

So many people came over to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations.

Many were Portuguese, so their influence on cuisine plays a big role.

So I've got Portuguese sausage, cubed-up ham, some kidney beans, and veggies.

The pressure cooker is where it needs to be.

Here we go, friends.

Into the pot.

♪ Eh, maybe a little more.

Voice-over: Comfort food, to me, is stuff that's got sauces and gravies and mashed potatoes.

So I'm making my bacon-wrapped meatloaf with mashed potatoes.

Oh, I forgot the breadcrumbs and the eggs.

Ha ha ha!

Voice-over: My meatloaf has ground beef and ground pork, green onion, and garlic.

Trying to make them roughly the same size so they cook the same.

The secret to my meatloaf is the glaze.

It is a balsamic glaze, tomato paste, then some Italian seasoning and some red pepper flake.

Voice-over: I've never cooked a meatloaf in this short a time, so I make 'em smaller than I normally do and get them in the oven ASAP.

♪ Got to peel these shrimps.

Voice-over: For today's challenge, I'm gonna be making shrimp and grits.

A lot of people associate it with Southern cuisine, but the more I started researching a ton of Native foods, the more I realized that shrimp and grits is actually a Native dish.

Voice-over: Grits are ground-up corn, and shrimp comes straight from the Gulf, and those are traditional foods for Native folks in those areas.

It's so simple, but it's so good, and that's totally my cooking style.

Voice-over: This is a dish I cooked a lot when I lived in Washington, D.C., working on Native American policy.

I was really far away from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, missing my family, but I had one cousin that also lived in D.C., and this is one of the dishes that we would cook together.

I use Cajun seasoning, and then I threw a bunch of salt and pepper into it.

I remember what the judges were saying: if you're gonna go for it, really go for it with the seasonings.

OK.

I'm sauteing the shrimp with some butter and some bacon fat.

These smell good.

I'm gonna let those guys just hang out for a bit.

So...I'm gonna get started on the grits.

I'm using Pima corn grits from a tribe in Arizona.

They smoke it before they mill it, so it has this really rich, smokey flavor that maybe the judges have never had before.

It'll hopefully give me that extra edge.

All righty.

♪ So I am making brik pastry, which is a North African street food.

Voice-over: So brik, it's a very thin piece of dough that you then stick an egg inside, you fry it, so it looks like a half-moon; it's, like, crispy on the outside with the egg still runny inside.

I think the comfortness of it actually stemmed from my dad.

He's one of 16 kids.

His parents emigrated from Libya to Israel, and they grew up in extreme poverty.

So, because there were so many children, they really didn't get quality time with their parents, so the one fond memory that my dad has is the times where my grandmother would take my dad to the market where this kind of brik pastry was what they would be able to splurge on, so, to him, it's, like, very warming.

So, for us growing up, when we were either home sick, or kind of having a hard day, he would make this for us.

Voice-over: To make the brik, you actually paint the dough onto the pan, kind of like a crepe.

Maria: Whoa.

It looks cool.

We'll see if they come out.

Oh, it's so hard.

Voice-over: I try to peel off the dough, and it immediately just disintegrates.

Alejandra: This is not the sort of confident Brad we've seen before.

This is a very frustrated Brad.

Brad, voice-over: I don't know why I keep making dough.

Any sort of thing that requires precise measurements-- immediately not my thing, like, no good, no bueno, but I would like to try this recipe for my dad.

Our relationship, it's not easy, and it's a struggle because he has this very close-minded, traditional mentality of how things are supposed to be.

My personal life doesn't really fit into the mold of what the family expectations are, and I grappled with being gay and finding connection with, like, a very traditional kind of, like, internal self, but I still want him to be proud.

Let's see if I can even get one done.

♪ Abbe: I'm making a blintz casserole with a dried fruit and nut topping.

"Blintz" means "pancake," and it is rolled up with a cheese filling.

It has ricotta, little bit of sour cream, little bit of vanilla.

My blintzes always make everyone feel like they're wrapped in a big hug because it's something we look forward to every year on Yom Kippur when we break the fast.

We've been celebrating with the same group of friends for 28 years.

It's pretty remarkable.

So I started filling the crepes.

These are breaking apart.

Graham: Abbe has got these crepes, and she's filling it, and what's happening is they're starting to tear because that filling is so wet.

As soon as you start to roll, they kind of break apart.

This is very sad.

I want to go see if there's any way we can, like, kind of save this dish.

Yeah.

OK. Abbe, how we doing?

Awful.

Awful, Graham.

Let's see what we got.

Do we have any more crepes?

I have a few more crepes.

You have a few more crepes.

To save the dish, what about almost, like, a lasagna, laying some of the crepes, the filling, some crepes, and then just throwing it in the oven and kind of baking it and then cutting out a piece?

That way, you don't need to worry about putting them in the pan, doing anything.

Just get in the oven.

Frying.

OK, let's go.

Voice-over: Graham suggests to present it to them as a deconstructed blintz casserole.

Great idea.

You're a sweet guy.

Graham: Come on.

You got it.

Thanks, babe.

Heh heh!

Did you just call Graham "babe"?

Abbe: I called him "babe."

♪ We're gonna switch this up to dredge the chicken.

Ted, voice-over: I am making fried chicken tenders with coleslaw and a honey-mustard dipping sauce.

Despite what everybody thinks, I don't only cook with feta cheese.

The person that inspired this dish is my father Andonios.

When my father first came to America from Greece, he actually landed in Birmingham, Alabama.

My father was the first one in his family to come over to America, so what did he start eating?

He started eating some Southern foods, and fried chicken was one of them, and that became a bit of a comfort food for him.

And, of course, then my youngest daughter, Adalyn, loves chicken tenders.

One of her favorite meals, so, for me, when I think about comforting her, it always reminds me of my dad.

[Sizzling] ♪ Ah!

Garlic.

Heh!

For this round, I am making my grandmother's kitchri with stewed chicken.

Kitchri is one of those, like, really old, vintage, Guyanese dishes that came with us from East India.

So it's a smooth rice boiled down with some coconut milk, some spices, and the yellow split peas.

It's gonna boil down, and then the rice and the peas are just gonna absorb all of that coconut milk.

In the meantime, I am working on my stewed chicken.

For the stewed chicken, I use onion, garlic, culantro, and then, to round it all together, I add burnt sugar just so you have that sweet and then, you know, the savory, a little bit of heat.

Comfort, for me, just equates to my grandma.

This is one of her dishes that she made for us growing up.

[Chuckling] It's a hug in a bowl.

My grandma's a huge inspiration to me.

In 1990, my grandmother immigrated over to the States and she lived with us in New York.

My grandmother taught me so much about Guyanese cuisine, and now she's in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and it is difficult, but when I think of kitchri, that automatically brought me back to her, and I feel comforted.

And I think that's it for now.

I'll just let the chicken stew.

Ha ha!

All right, that was a little corny joke to myself.

♪ 30 minutes left, guys, 30 minutes.

Let's see how this dough is looking.

I check on the dough.

It's--it's supple.

That's a good sign.

I want to get my garlic knots just right for my grandfather.

Let's try it, girl.

Leanna?

Yes, ma'am?

How are your garlic knots coming?

I don't have to make many, so we're not gonna have-- have the have-nots.

We're gonna have the knots.

Voice-over: I feel a lot better today about my time management.

I'm like, "OK, might have pulled this off, Le."

Relle: Do you like passion fruit?

I love passion fruit.

Try it.

It's the passion-fruit butter that goes on...

Girl!

the cornbread.

Good?

That butter is everything!

All the things!

Oh, my God!

Relle, voice-over: My Portuguese bean soup is still in the pressure cooker, so I made my liliko'i butter.

Liliko'i is passion fruit.

We call it butter, but it's almost like a curd.

It's so, so good to go with the cornbread muffins.

Voice-over: For the cornbread muffins, I use pancake mix, whole milk, granulated sugar, two eggs, cornmeal.

No wasting.

Get this in the oven.

I think this will win the judges over.

I'm so excited!

♪ Oh... Khela, voice-over: I don't have too much time for my mashed potatoes.

I get mine in the pressure cooker so I can set it and forget it.

And I throw them into the pressure cooker with some chicken stock 'cause it adds flavor.

OK, I can breathe for a second.

Alejandra: Khela's making her mashed potatoes in a pressure cooker.

What do you think about that?

It's a dangerous thing because there's so much moisture in there, and once you start mashing them up, there's a chance for them to get kind of gummy and-- Tiffany: Hey, maybe she's gonna teach us something new.

Alejandra: Yeah.

[Khela sighs] ♪ [Sizzling] Let's do a little brown butter.

Hello.

Hi.

How are you?

Good.

What you got going on here?

I'm doing shrimp and grits.

Oh, great.

Is this something that is traditional?

This isn't traditional for Coeur d'Alenes, but it is traditional for folks in the Southwest.

Do you want to have a taste?

I do!

Ooh.

OK.

The texture on it's really nice, but watch your salt on that.

OK.

But the flavor's great.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Needs salt.

Surprise, surprise.

Focus.

♪ Brad: Abbe, this is such a disaster.

Yours a disaster, too?

Disaster.

I can't make the dough.

It's not-- Not as bad as my disaster.

No.

Brad, voice-over: Finally, I'm able to, like, scrape one off.

It's not great.

I'm like, "All right, this is acceptable."

I have one.

[Chuckles] Voice-over: So the warqa is basically just, like, looks like a wrap.

Put the egg on and then fold it over, put it in the oil.

One minute's enough to get the outside crispy enough, but also keep the egg properly done.

Hopefully, they taste OK. Little by little, I'm getting them, so I'm really excited to make this dish for my dad.

Graham: 20 minutes left on the clock.

♪ Oh, my God ♪ Maria: What are you doing, Abbe?

You got a lot going on.

Uh, well, it would have helped if the crepes would have worked.

Maria: Uh-oh.

So now all I have to live on is my fruit.

Ha ha ha!

My deconstructed blintz casserole is baking, so I make my dried fruit and nut topping.

Half-cup almonds.

Voice-over: Serving the blintz casserole with something a little nutty, a little chewy, a little tart will offset the sweetness of the cheese.

I know it will be great.

[Crunches] ♪ Oh, that purple cabbage looks wonderful.

I am on to my coleslaw.

It's nice and thin for this.

Voice-over: I'm doing this one from scratch.

This isn't bagged cabbage and carrots that you would find at your supermarket.

My secret is celery salt.

Celery salt's one of those things in Chicago that you always have on your hot dogs, and you got to have it in your slaw.

Salmah, do you eat coleslaw?

Do I-- yes, I do, but does it have carrots inside?

Fun fact: I'm allergic to raw carrots.

Then you're not eating carrots.

OK. Not gonna do that, then.

No, but thank you.

I appreciate the offer.

Think my stew is in good standing.

Just take a taste of that one.

Voice-over: My stewed chicken is exactly how I want it to taste.

Now I can turn my attention over to the kitchri.

So now all I have to do is just...chaunkay.

Ha ha!

And chaunkay is a spice concoction, fried in oil.

And in my pot here, I have some cumin seeds, garlic, mustard seeds I'm going to infuse into the kitchri.

Voice-over: Last week, I was in the top two for both rounds, and I would like to repeat that again for my grandma.

Do you hear the sizzle?

Ha ha!

And that's just gonna infuse.

Everyone, you have 5 minutes left.

How are those potatoes, Khela?

Khela: Um, I hope they're gonna be OK. Leah: OK.

There's 5 minutes left.

I'm mashing my potatoes.

The meatloaf's aren't even out of the oven.

All right, Khela.

What can I do?

Maria, voice-over: Oh, man.

Khela, Khela, Khela.

What if we plate the potatoes and then do the sauce on top, and then leave the meatloaf for last?

OK. Maria, voice-over: Khela says, "I collect introverts," and so she's collected me.

And then, in the Native tradition, we're always adopting people into our family, so I'm helping Khela plate some of her stuff.

Watercress in.

Leanna: This is it!

Voice-over: I'm pulling the garlic knots out of the oven.

Ooh!

Look at that!

So dang happy that the dough worked out.

I can't believe this is even out of the oven.

Ha ha ha ha!

We got it.

[Snorts] Abbe, voice-over: I think it's as good as it's gonna get.

The blintz casserole is out of the oven.

I got the job done.

30 seconds left, guys, 30 seconds.

Let's get the sauce on.

♪ Alejandra: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Hands up!

Whoo-hoo!

Great job.

[Scattered clapping] ♪ Alejandra: Cooks, you had 60 minutes to cook the ultimate comfort-food dish that can put a smile on anyone's face.

Relle, come and join us.

Today, I made for you Portuguese bean soup with cornbread and liliko'i butter.

Portuguese bean soup is Hawaii's chicken noodle soup.

Tiffany: I can see how this is comfort food, right?

A big bowl of soup, some chunky vegetables, heartiness of legumes.

Any given day that you are giving me this, I would feel the love, I would feel the comfort.

Leah: I completely agree with Tiffany, but I think the most successful part of this dish is the cornbread.

It is perfect.

It is crumbly, it is buttery, and then the liliko'i butter just goes good on pretty much anything.

Mahalo.

Alejandra: Brad?

For this round, I made brik pastry, and there's a, hopefully, runny egg in the center.

This originates from my dad.

Whenever I was sick or feeling bad, this is what he would make for me and my siblings.

Graham: Brad, the dough, it has, like, a really nice crunch, but with the egg, I know it's supposed to be runny, and I've got a lot of raw, undercooked egg white.

Tiffany: But, when it comes to comfort foods, I think this is a beautiful story that you have with your father.

Thank you.

Alejandra: Abbe?

I have for you a deconstructed blintz casserole.

I think it hits the spot.

Leah: The flavor of this blintz casserole is there, but I wish you'd toasted your nuts a little bit.

It would have enhanced the flavor.

Abbe: Mm-hmm.

Graham: Abbe, it's a very comforting dish, and the fact that you were able to complete this dish in your own way is a testament to what this challenge is all about, which is love.

Thank you.

Alejandra: Khela?

I made you bacon-wrapped meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Graham: Khela, the presentation of the dish definitely could use some work... Khela: I know.

by making it a little-- less brown?

little less brown, but overall, I think the taste is there.

Tiffany: Yeah, I agree with you.

The potatoes are delicious.

They're creamy, so you know what?

They work in a pressure cooker, y'all.

Graham and Alejandra: Ha ha!

Thank you.

Alejandra: Ted?

I made fried chicken tenders with coleslaw and a honey-mustard dipping sauce.

This is something that I cook for my girls, and they love it.

Ted, this dish-- if I couldn't already tell by your wardrobe, I'd know you're a dad.

Like, this is-- this is dad food right here.

This is what you cook for kids, guaranteed that they're gonna love it.

Tiffany: And you look at it, you're like, "Chicken tenders, a little coleslaw," like, but gosh!

It's flavorful.

It's crisp, it's juicy, you made a delicious slaw.

This is what we've been waiting for.

Thank you.

Maria, it's your turn.

I made shrimp and grits with a Arizona Pima 60-day corn.

My cousin and I would make this on Sunday dinners when we both lived in Washington, D.C. Maria, these grits are where it's at.

I really, really love the texture.

I have not had this type of grit before, and it's very warm and inviting.

Leah: And the shrimp is cooked perfectly.

They're plump, they're juicy, there's really nice color on it as well.

Overall, I thought it was a really successful dish.

Thank you.

Leanna, please come join us.

So, today, I made for you a lasagna soup with homemade garlic knots.

I used to enjoy going to an Italian restaurant with my grandpa and my dad, so this was my ode to Grandpa.

Tiffany: Leanna, you nailed the flavor of lasagna.

Super-worried about the garlic knots at first.

Mm-hmm.

Ha ha!

And I think that they're properly done, and the soup here is delicious.

Thank you.

Graham: I love that.

This is something that ties in with family, so you nailed the theme; even if I didn't know that story, I'd want to go swim in this.

It's, I think, the best thing you've made.

Thank you.

Alejandra: Salmah?

I've made a kitchri and stewed chicken.

Thinking of comfort, automatically, I go straight to my grandmother.

My grandmother's 88, and she's going through the stages of Alzheimer's.

[Sighs] Thank you.

♪ So what I've served to you in a bowl is a hug for my grandmother.

Well, darn, why you have to bring up grandmothers?

I can't help but think about mine, and... [sniffles] mine's not doing so well right now, but she's still here, and even if she's not here fully, we still have our memories, and our food memories is how we keep it going.

And what we're doing right now and how we're talking about the people we love is so important.

And I didn't plan on crying today... Ha ha!

but I'm gonna tell you a little bit about the food, if that's OK...

Sorry.

Ha ha!

as soon as one of them go and come back to me.

[Laughter] Leah: I feel the love in this dish.

It's warm from the spices, it's very well-seasoned, and you wanted us to get to know your grandmother, to get to know you, and I think you were really successful with that.

Tiffany: Yeah, Leah, I think you're right.

It felt very comforting.

Overall, this is a very good dish.

Thank you.

Salmah, voice-over: I am so happy and proud that I was able to celebrate my grandmother and that the judges liked my dish.

♪ Alejandra: Cooks, we asked you to make us a dish that would fill us with joy and comfort, and you did not disappoint, but we do have to recognize some special dishes that stood out this round.

Our first favorite dish belonged to... Ted.

Good job.

Yay, Ted.

[Applause] Graham: Your chicken tenders with the slaw and that honey mustard, it was very comforting, lot of love, a beautiful story, and super-tasty.

Thank you.

Ted, voice-over: Last week, I was in the bottom two, and now I'm in the top two.

I feel on top of the world.

Our second favorite dish was... Leanna.

Whoo!

Ted: Yeah.

Tiffany: Your lasagna soup felt like a bowl of hugs, and we just felt the love.

Leanna: Thank you.

Finally!

I am absolutely elated and relieved.

You know, maybe a little bit of extra sprinkling help from Grandpa.

Alejandra: Thank you all for sharing these wonderful home-cooked meals with us, and be sure to take what you learned into the next round.

Mm-hmm.

♪ [Birds chirp] Alejandra: In the last round, you all presented comforting dishes that you'd serve to brighten someone's day.

In the next round, we want you to keep sharing that love.

You'll have 90 minutes to plate your most beloved and heartwarming dish and, as always, your dishes will be judged on taste, execution, presentation, and theme.

Good luck, everyone.

Your 90 minutes starts now.

♪ Alejandra: Judges, what are you hoping to see in this round from our cooks?

Leah: I think, for this round, the theme is the most important thing, you know, just putting love on a plate.

I'm looking for perfection.

[Laughter] ♪ Ooh.

These about to be many crab cakes today.

Graham: I may or may not see big, old lump crab meat on Leanna's station.

Leah, gasping: Sure do.

But I already love her-- I love this dish.

So today, I am making oven-baked crab cakes with roasted corn salsa.

This is an ode to my amazing husband.

Voice-over: Crab cakes with corn salsa is one of my husband's favorite dishes.

My husband is my favorite human being in the whole world.

He makes me belly-laugh, he makes me smile until my cheeks hurt.

I love my husband.

You don't want 'em too big 'cause then your crab cakes will fall apart.

Voice-over: I am very particular about how I like my crab cake.

If I am paying you for a crab cake, I expect there to be crab.

I do not want a bunch of breading, I do not want a bunch of filler.

I want crab, and that's how I make crab cakes at home, that's how my husband likes them, and so that's how I'm making them for the judges today.

Leah: I just hope that she takes the time to pick through it... Graham: Shells.

and make sure that it's clean.

You know, that little, tender care is really important.

Leanna, voice-over: I think being a favorite in round one has definitely given me an added confidence boost.

I'm feeling good.

Got some lime up in there.

All right, Leanna, go get you another pair of gloves and let's start making these crab cakes.

♪ I'm soaking the elk meat in the milk first because it takes all of the gaminess out.

Voice-over: In this round, I am making elk stew.

Elk stew is just a pretty traditional stew.

It looks like a beef stew that you might cook at home, with potatoes and onions and carrots and celery.

Tiffany: Hi.

Hi.

What's going on over here?

You have a stew.

What are the other flavors in there?

I've got some rosemary going on, garlic, turnip, and I'm gonna do some potatoes, too.

OK, and why this dish?

What makes this special?

This is in honor of my brother.

OK.

He passed away last year.

What was his name?

Joe.

Joe?

And you would have this dish with Joe?

Yeah, I mean, every time you go to the res, you essentially have elk stew, so... Yeah.

and that was, like, every weekend.

Maria, voice-over: Growing up, Joe and I were super-close, and... it's hard doing a cooking thing without Joe 'cause we would cook together a lot.

He was a chef, and I think Joe would be proud, for sure.

[Sighs] Tiffany: Now I am really, really excited to have this dish in honor of Chef Joe.

Yep.

Thank you for sharing with us.

Yeah.

This is special for us as well.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

♪ Alejandra: One hour left, cooks.

Salmah: All righty.

For this challenge, I am making chicken curry and roti with a whole chicken cut down into pieces.

I make this dish for my husband.

This round's dedicated to my husband Naim.

Naim and I have been married for 17 years, but we've been together for 22.

I've known him since 1996, so practically, like-- I don't know.

You do the math.

So the way to my husband's heart really, truly is chicken curry and roti.

It'll put a huge smile on his face.

We got married so young, so you experience so many things together.

You know, my parents raised me, but he just nurtured who I am and just continued to encourage me to go forward in life.

Like, I'm here today because of his encouragement.

This is actually a dish that I learned to make once I got married.

So the essence of a good curry, any curry, is your masala.

Masala is a spice blend.

We're all gonna smell like curry now.

Heh!

We use curry powder, garam masala, jeera, cinnamon, clove.

It's all dried spices which have been toasted, and what I'm doing right now is I'm blooming the spices to extract the best of its flavor.

Ted: Just like cooking class.

Just--ha ha ha!

I love it.

I love it.

Thank you.

Ted: I want to get these all about the same size.

Leah: So Ted is busting out that chicken breast again, but he cooked it so well in the first round that I think he's really starting to take all our advice, and he's feeling his groove and he's feeling some confidence, and I love that because I really am rooting for Ted.

Ted keeps it simple, and it works.

Yeah.

Ted: I am making a cavatappi pollo, which is a cavatappi noodle with seasoned chicken breast, mushrooms, and a sundried tomato Alfredo sauce.

I took my wife to this little hole-in-the-wall, Italian restaurant on our first date, and what does she order?

She orders my favorite dish, which is what I'm making here.

Voice-over: The first step in making this dish is cooking the chicken breast in some olive oil and some of the oil from the sundried tomato jar.

A little sear on some of these.

That's what we want.

It might be a little bit early to cook it up, but hopefully, it doesn't dry out.

I do consider myself a romantic, big-time.

I started cooking for my wife on our second date, and I haven't stopped since.

♪ Maria: Abbe, what you making?

We're having red beans and rice today.

Red beans and rice is a traditional Southern dish that my mother-in-law first served me when I was just dating my husband, and it was the last dish she served me before she went into the throes of Alzheimer's.

I'm wearing a little spoon that had been hers as a child.

I hope it gives me luck, but more importantly, it reminds me of her.

So red beans and rice is pretty special.

I hope I do it justice.

Voice-over: I'm also making cornbread because you can't have red beans and rice without cornbread.

So, I follow a very basic recipe: cornmeal, flour, and a little sugar, baking powder, salt, some oil, and eggs.

I don't like it too sweet.

I don't like it too savory.

So I think we got it.

♪ Ribeye?

Brad: Ribeye, yeah, like, I feel like I've made a lot of stewy things, so I'm like, "Let me just keep it simple this week and just, like, let the ingredients shine."

Steak is definitely my love language.

So I decide to make a steak night.

The components are dry-aged rib steak, wedged fried potatoes, and string beans with shallots.

So I'm gonna do a reverse-sear, so I'm gonna start them in the oven and cook them up to their proper internal temp, and then I'll finish them with a nice, quick sear, and they'll get, like, nice and crusty, but perfectly medium-rare on the inside.

Alejandra: Hello, Brad.

Brad: Hey.

What's going on?

Hello.

This is my favorite perfume in the world.

Right, so this is gonna be with string beans.

OK.

So we got shallots with string beans, we got some potatoes I'm gonna fry, but I'm just parboiling them, and then I got the steaks reverse-searing in the oven.

[Gasps] What's the love story behind it?

What's-- So the love story behind it is, growing up, we kept kosher, and so steak nights were super-expensive, like, kosher meat's, like, astronomical, and especially, we were a family of 6-- 3 siblings, my parents-- so it was always, like, a super-special occasion to, like, go out for steak.

As I got older, like, that became, like, how I expressed love, so either when I return back to my parents' house, I love cooking steak nights for them, but also, like, date nights, like--I'm super-single, but, like-- Ha ha ha ha!

when I'm trying to court someone.

"Super-single."

Ha ha ha!

"Super-single."

Super-single, but, like--heh heh!

Ha ha ha!

When, you know, when I do try to court someone... Yeah.

Like, and I want to, like, make the first thing to, like, kind of cook and impress them... Yeah.

it's immediately steak night.

I love that.

So we'll see.

All right, well, thank you so much, Brad.

Thank you.

I can't wait to try that steak.

Khela: ♪ The best part ♪ ♪ Voice-over: For this round, I'm making chicken spiedini with amogio sauce.

This one is for Brewer, my husband.

When I met Brewer, we were super-poor, and when he saved up enough money, the first place he took me on a fancy date was this Italian restaurant, and this is the dish that they're famous for.

Voice-over: It's pounded-out chicken, breaded with parmesan and bread crumbs, then it's rolled and put on skewers, and then cooked on a grill.

When we got married, we had this for our rehearsal dinner.

Voice-over: This dish, it has a special place in my heart, so I hope the judges like it.

God, I love the smell of cheese.

OK. ♪ Relle: ♪ My oil's too hot now ♪ Voice-over: I am making some shrimp tempura sushi, as well as some misoyaki salmon.

Misoyaki is, like, this sweet and savory, umami-packed glaze.

♪ Please don't spill ♪ ♪ Please don't spill ♪ I'm doing multiple dishes again, so I have to nail each component.

Make slices in the shrimp like this so that they can lie flat, 'cause otherwise, they stay curled like this, and that doesn't work in sushi.

Sushi, you need a straight strimp-- straight shrimp.

[Giggles] This dish is for date night with my husband Corey because I think the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so let's make something that my husband enjoys.

OK. Shrimp.

Good.

The shrimp tempura has a little bit of panko on the outside for that crunch, and then I fry it.

Brad: Guys, 45 minutes, 45 minutes.

♪ Da da da ♪ ♪ Corn over there sounding like it's about to be popcorn.

[Chuckling] Let me go check on that.

Voice-over: I get my crab cakes in the oven, and then it's time to work on the roasted corn salsa, which is an ode to my mother-in-law.

She used to roast corn on an open fire for my husband, and that was one of his favorite things.

Roasting corn helps to bring out some of those natural sugars that's in there.

There is no substitute for that little bit of char that you get from the grill.

I've got to get some green in here.

I know the judges love to see pops of color.

Doing my best.

♪ Leah: Salmah, tell me what you're ma--ooh, that looks good.

Thank you.

I am making chicken curry... OK. and roti.

Girl, you're speaking my language right now.

Ha ha!

OK, so what kind of roti are we making?

We call this oil paratha roti.

OK.

The dough comes together with just flour, a little bit of baking powder, and then we add fat into it.

And then slowly adding warm water, and this is how we develop all the layers for the paratha.

Mm-hmm.

Basically, once it's rolled thin, then I will take it, we separate it out, take a little bit of oil...

I hope it comes out good.

Ha ha!

And then, finally, roll it into a cone... OK. and you see, as I'm rolling it-- you get those layers.

you get the layers.

I'm real excited.

I think it's really adventurous of you...

I know.

Ha ha!

to do the roti.

I mean-- I'm trying.

I am nervous about making roti for the judges... Good luck.

I'm excited to try your dish.

Thank you so much.

Voice-over: because if you know how to make roti, you know it does take some time, and I hope that I've allowed myself enough time to fry it up.

Ted: Salmah, I think it's the first time I ever tasted my pasta water to make sure...

It was salted?

Heh!

it was salty enough.

And you know what?

It makes a difference.

Voice-over: I've got to get my Alfredo sauce going.

I like my Alfredo a little cheesy, so I'm gonna put a little extra Parmesan into heavy cream, get some cornstarch in there, get it nice and thick for a nice, thick sauce.

All right, I did it.

♪ Maria: It tastes good.

The texture of the meat just needs more time.

I'm a little unsure if the elk's gonna be as tender as I want.

Usually, this dish takes all afternoon, so doing it in 90 minutes is definitely compressed, but I'm just hoping for the best.

Abbe: Maria, do I pop it now?

Huh?

Or do I have to wait for the little thingy to come up?

Abbe, voice-over: I'm cooking my red beans in the pressure cooker, but I'm not really comfortable with it.

So you need to twist this.

[Hissing] Oh!

Abbe, voice-over: I grew up in a family where my mother would say to me, "Oh, who uses those?

They explode!"

[Hissing] Uh-huh.

And then, once that little thing goes down... Mm-hmm.

then it's free.

Abbe, voice-over: It's something I'm not experienced with.

I can do it for you if you want me to.

Abbe, voice-over: But I am just using it because of the time constraints.

I just hope my beans are done properly.

10 minutes!

[Sizzling] Graham: Brad, be careful.

You got a really hot pan, and fat's melting off and fire's coming up, so just control the heat.

Brad, voice-over: As I'm searing the steak, there is a lot of excess fat.

I don't think I have time to render it down.

Hopefully, this will be ready.

♪ Khela: Smell that cheese?

Man.

Warm chocolate and warm cheese are my two favorite smells.

Voice-over: My chicken is cooking nicely, so I'm starting on my sauce.

So it's got butter, shallots, garlic, fresh lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and fresh herbs.

♪ Ah, that's delicious.

Yum, yum.

Voice-over: So you can serve this dish a lot of different ways, but today I chose to use linguini, so you can pour the amogio sauce over top.

Almost.

Here we go.

[Indistinct] Voice-over: To make shrimp tempura sushi, I use some cucumber, and also some avocado to get that creamy texture.

We're good.

The sushi, it's done, so I take the salmon out of the oven.

It looks great, but I want to torch it to get that crispy, golden brown on top.

Leah: You guys see Relle has that torch going on?

Oh.

I love a good torching action.

Tiffany: One minute!

Let's close it out strong, y'all!

♪ Alejandra: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!

Hands up!

Time's up!

[Applause] Leah: Good job, everyone.

Awesome.

Salmah: How I did that, I do not know.

Ha!

Ted: Looks great.

[Leanna chuckles] ♪ Alejandra: This week, we wanted you to show us the love that's naturally connected to your cooking and food legacy.

Graham: As always, we'll be judging your plates on taste, execution, presentation, and this week's theme of the recipes full of love.

All right, let's get started.

Leanna, come join us.

Leanna: I've made for you baked crab cakes with a roasted corn salsa.

This is an ode to my husband.

Graham: Leanna, this is a beautifully executed crab cake.

It's flavorful.

There's not a lot of binding.

I love that you roasted the corn, and it really sums up love and caring for somebody.

Tiffany: Just be careful when you are picking your crab because I had just a little shell in there.

Sorry, Chef.

Alejandra: Ted.

I made my cavatappi pollo.

Previously, you tried my feta and spinach-stuffed chicken breast I made my wife on our second date, but there was a first date.

I took her to this little Italian restaurant, and this is my favorite dish there, and she orders it.

Keeper.

Yes.

Yes.

[All laugh] Graham: Ted, awesome dish.

Really beautiful.

The only thing I would say is that the chicken did eat dry.

I'm not a big fan of chicken breast, and Graham did mention that the chicken was overcooked, but I love how, to this day, you remember the dish that you guys had on your first date, and it reminds you of when you guys first fell in love, and I love it.

Thank you.

Abbe, please join us.

I made you red beans and rice with cornbread.

This dish is inspired by my mother-in-law.

She was a gracious Southern woman.

Graham: Abbe, I think it's great when you have a mother-in-law that you can connect with and really learn from.

I think you did a great job.

Tiffany: I think that this is a lovely dish, and then your cornbread execution is flawless, but the beans are under, so they needed a little bit more time in your cooker.

Thank you.

Alejandra: Relle.

Today I made for you some shrimp tempura sushi and a misoyaki salmon.

This is for my husband.

Graham: Relle, this is a dish that's obviously got a lot of sentimental connection to you and your significant other.

Beautiful job on the sushi roll.

Leah: I agree with Graham, and the shrimp is cooked really nicely, but the salmon's a little overcooked.

If you get to that point where it overcooks, there's no way to come back from it.

Thank you, Relle.

Mahalo.

Khela?

This is chicken spiedini with amogio sauce over linguini.

So my husband and I first met waiting tables, and we were poor.

[Chuckles] So, the first time he had enough money to take me out, we went to this restaurant that created this dish.

Khela, I think your theme is right on point.

The idea of your first big date, going out, spending the money, it's pretty special.

Leah: So I think you cooked the chicken really nice.

It has a nice char, a nice crust on the outside, and the inside is nice and juicy and tender.

The pasta is well-cooked, but I actually wish you'd pour the sauce on top because I didn't rea-- I thought you were supposed to dip it in.

I didn't realize that I was supposed to pour it on top.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Salmah?

I made chicken curry and roti, and this is the way to my husband's heart.

Graham: I love a great curry, and that's what this is.

It's delicious and the meat's coming off the bone, and then the potatoes are cooked nice, so technique-wise, I think you nailed this.

Leah: Yeah, so I think you did a really great job with the curry, and the roti is, like, almost there.

It's flaky, it's what you want roti to be.

The chew is great; I just wish it was a little bit more cooked.

It has that kind of almost raw-flour flavor, but other than that, I think it's a really nice, homestyle, warm dish.

Thank you.

Brad?

So, for you today, I made a dry-aged rib steak with some wedged potatoes and string beans, and I chose to make this today to honor my parents.

Brad...wow.

[Chuckles] Wow.

[Laughter] Brad: Is that a good "wow" or a bad "wow"?

I really don't know.

This right here is a... huge piece of meat.

It is beautiful because it's nicely charred.

You show your love through cooking.

You did such an amazing job on the potato and the green beans, and the reverse-sear is a really smart preparation, especially when you have a limited amount of time, but...I took this off, which is, like... Brad: Right.

a good 10 ounces or so... Brad: Ah.

of just pure fat.

But overall, I think this is a delicious dish.

Thank you.

Maria, please come up.

Maria: I made elk stew.

My brother passed away about a year ago, and so... [voice shaking] I wanted to make this for him.

Leah: This is a really nice, warm, inviting bowl of stew, and I really think that you can feel the love in this bowl, and I think it's important to talk about the people that we've lost because we want to honor them, and I think you honored your brother in this bowl.

Tiffany: Maria, you needed just a little bit longer... Yeah.

to get it as tender, I know, as you wanted.

But the flavors really came through, allowing everything to cook together, and I think that Joe would be very proud of you for the dish that you made.

Thank you.

♪ Maria: You guys are too much.

Aw!

[Sniffles] Leanna: It's OK. Maria: Mm.

Maria, voice-over: I'm glad I could share that with the judges today.

[Sniffles] Oh... thanks, guys.

You did great.

[Sniffles] ♪ [Voice trembling] I think of Joe with every recipe I make.

I just miss him a lot.

[Sniffles] [All chuckle] ♪ Alejandra: All right, let's dive in.

Whose beloved dish do you want to start with?

Let's start with Brad.

Brad created this beautiful steak, and he did that reverse-sear, so he captured a little bit of a different cook on it.

It was a massive plate.

What are your thoughts on it?

Graham: The idea behind the dish was great.

The sides with the potato and the green beans were awesome, but it's very hard to visually get rid of that 8 ounces of fat sitting there.

Just take that off.

Leah: Yeah, but I think, with Brad, it's really impressive for a home cook to prepare a large steak.

I feel like people find it intimidating.

That shows a lot of love and a lot of care.

Let's talk about Salmah.

I love curry, and I think that the story behind it with her husband that she's basically spent her whole life next to is so beautiful.

I loved it.

I thought that was great.

I love the fact that she toasted those spices.

I love that she used a whole chicken and broke it down, using dark and white meat so you get whatever adventure you want to take with that bite.

Leah: I agree.

The love is there in the curry, but we also have to focus on the roti, right?

And I wish she took that little, extra minute to just cook it out a little bit more because it had that raw flavor.

Graham: Yeah, and what'd you guys think of Leanna's crab cakes?

Tiffany: I really loved Leanna's crab cakes.

I do like crab cakes, and I I thought that this was a very well-put-together one.

Lots of crab, not a lot of filling.

It wasn't a perfect dish, but it was a delicious, flavorful, spiced-well dish and that, to me, goes a long way.

Let's not forget, though, she did not pick that crab.

There were some shells...

Yes.

pieces in there, and she could have kind of picked through it a little bit.

But Leanna made a great crab cake.

I'm not gonna deny that.

Alejandra: Let's take a look at the other side.

Which dishes were the least successful?

So I think Relle-- you've got the sushi roll and you've got the salmon, but the salmon overcooked.

We know that.

Tiffany: The sushi was fine, but I would have just omitted the salmon all the way.

You would have just omitted the salmon?

Yeah.

Let's talk about Abbe's red beans and rice.

Tiffany: Abbe didn't have enough liquid in there to truly break down the beans.

It should have started to thicken itself.

It's hard to move on from there.

I do agree the beans could have gone more, but her cornbread was good.

You slathered all that butter on there and you said that was good, right?

Graham: Oh, her cornbread was great.

All right, now let's talk about Ted.

He had some pasta, there was the chicken, the special sauce.

Graham: And I think this is a solid, solid dish.

Like, I would get that at a restaurant and be really happy with it.

What'd you think, Leah?

I think the chicken was a little bit overcooked.

Alejandra: So it sounds like you've come to an agreement, correct?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Well, then I think we can bring our cooks back in.

♪ We asked you to cook and present a dish that is most beloved among your family and friends.

It was a very difficult decision for our judges to place anyone in the bottom, but unfortunately, there were two dishes that weren't as successful.

Abbe, your cornbread was great.

We really enjoyed that salted, sweet butter, but the dish itself was red beans and rice, and the red beans were undercooked.

Graham: The other dish that wasn't quite up to the level was-- Relle, your misoyaki salmon with edamame and the shrimp tempura sushi roll was very ambitious with the amount of time you had.

The only issue that we had was really on that salmon being overcooked.

Alejandra: Those are some really good pointers for all of us to learn from.

OK, now let's get to the good stuff.

Judges, it is time to find out which recipes are your top picks for this round.

Graham: The first dish that grabbed our attention was... Leanna, and your crab cakes and corn salsa.

Wow.

We loved everything, from the story to the execution, the flavor.

All those things combined on the plate, harmonized.

It was awesome.

Thank you, Chef.

Great job.

Thank you.

Our next beloved dish was... Salmah.

Your chicken curry and roti was delicious.

You had really great layers of flavor.

Congratulations.

Great job.

Tiffany: Both of your dishes were outstanding, but there can only be one winner.

♪ Leanna.

Salmah: Yeah!

Well, that's a complete 180.

[Laughter] Leanna, voice-over: I can't believe it.

It was like, "Wait.

What?

Did they say me?

For real, for real?"

Tiffany: You never know.

That's why, every time you cook, you just have to cook with all your heart, you have to make sure you hit the mark that you're going for.

But your dish was flavorful, it was truly love on a plate, in honor of your husband.

I hope he sees this.

[Laughter] Aw!

Leanna, voice-over: The greatest lesson for me coming out of week 3 is that I just need to get out of my own head and get out of my own way, and if I can do that for the rest of this experience, I could walk away with a big win.

Alejandra: Great job, everyone.

We'll see you back here next week for your next "Great American Recipe."

[Birds chirp] Alejandra: Next time on "The Great American Recipe"... We're hosting the first-ever "Great American Recipe" bake sale.

Salmah: That's my language.

Relle: I'm ready to be the comeback kid this week.

Ted, voice-over: In the Greek community, you always had bake sales at church.

Warm chocolate smells so good.

Tiffany: Brad, no cooking on the floor, please.

OK. Leanna: What I'm hearing is more rum.

I support this!

[Laughter] Alejandra: Judges, which treats came out on top?

♪