The ten remaining finalists divide into two teams, with each team creating a five-course menu for an experiential restaurant. Diners will experience a completely different environment for each course, such as an appetizer in the jungle and a main course in the desert. Each finalist must also make a video menu describing their dish for the diners, who will select which one they want to taste. Special guest Tyler Florence dines with Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay and helps decide which finalist is sent home.
Giada De Laurentiis challenges the bakers to make their best animal cake decorations for the first round. One team's party is over, and the remaining three meet their client. The Eric Carle Museum wants a cake for their kick-off celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It isn't child's play as the baking teams make cakes that pay homage to one of the best-known children's books. One team wins $10,000 and gets their cake featured at the celebration.
Giada De Laurentiis challenges the three final chefs to make a dish that represents the person they're most thankful for, and they each have to incorporate a different type of squash. The chef who most impresses judges Alex Guarnaschelli, Carla Hall and Christian Petroni wins a critical advantage for the dinner round, when the chefs have to make the ultimate Thanksgiving feast. The final three chefs battle through hours of cooking until the best walks away with $25,000 and the title of Ultimate Thanksgiving Challenge Champion.
The results are in! America has voted to determine who will be the next Food Network Star. Before the winner is revealed, all of the finalists are back in the studio to tell all and view never-before-seen footage from the season. Bobby Flay, Alton Brown and Giada De Laurentiis each share their favorite moments during an emotional look back at the final three's journey to the finale. Then, suspense rises as the time comes to reveal who will walk away as the new Food Network Star.
In the first challenge, the remaining finalists have to update their family favorites with a culinary twist. They have to film an Instagram story about their process while they cook, too, and food blogger Molly Yeh pops in to help judge. Then the finalists head to the aquarium to cater a five-course, VIP dinner in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Shark Night. Each course is inspired by an ingredient in a different shark's diet. Man v. Food's Casey Webb helps Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay decide which finalist will be eliminated.
Fifteen eager Food Star Finalists arrive at Hollywood's famous Grauman's Chinese Theater, where they meet each other for the first time and are welcomed by Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis. For their first Camera Challenge, the finalists must create a breakfast dish that reflects their personality and culinary point of view. Their first Star Challenge finds them shooting promos for their shows as well as cooking for a panel of Hollywood's press, including Mario Lopez from television's Extra. The first finalist is sent packing.
In the premiere episode of Food Network Star, 15 hopefuls arrive in New York to compete for the ultimate dream job: to host their own show on Food Network. The finalists arrive at the Food Network kitchens to greet their team leaders, Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis, and meet their rivals for the first time! Special guest Robert Irvine gives the finalists their first Star Challenge: to create their very own Pop-Up restaurant from the ground up - with an extremely limited budget and very little time.
Giada De Laurentiis challenges four of America's best baking teams to create a kid's toy cake decoration. One team is sent packing, and the remaining three teams meet their special VIP client for the second round, teen ventriloquist and winner of America's Got Talent, Darci Lynne. She needs a cake for her 14th birthday sleepover party, so the bakers are challenged to make a cake that reflects her love of performing and features her puppets, Petunia and Oscar. The winning team wins $10,000 and the honor of serving their epic cake at Darci Lynne's party.