Summer sauces are the star of the menu, starting with Katie Lee's Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken and Cucumber Salad and Geoffrey Zakarian's Seared Scallops with a Caper Honey Sauce. Sunny Anderson and Jeff Mauro share two new sauces for jazzing up grilled chicken: Lemon Pepper Sauce and Cherry Pepper Honey Mustard. Sunny also makes a T-Bone Steak with an "Any Herb" sauce, and Kansas City pitmasters Jason and Megan Day drop by to make a BBQ-inspired Potato Salad. For dessert, it's a head-to-head Sundae Sauce-off with Katie's Roasted Peach Sauce and Geoffrey's Boozy Chocolate Sauce.
There's romance in the air in the Chopped Kitchen as eight cooking singles are paired up on blind dates! In the first round, the couples get to know each other and the ingredients, which include scallops in the shell and a strange citrus. The six competitors left for round two all decide to grind the protein in the entree basket, and the minimal use of one of the ingredients gives the judges something to discuss. Then, the creme anglaise in the dessert basket seems like a gift for the final two pairs, but neither team makes a dash for the ice cream machine.
The 11 remaining chefs are starting to feel the effects of cooking for seven straight hours. In a shift that tests resourcefulness, Michael Symon and Esther Choi ask the chefs to create a three-course meal worthy of a black-tie event in 60 minutes. But the chefs will have to be resourceful with more than just their time -- ingredients like strawberry milk, pimento cheese, carrot tops, dried scallops, Carolina reaper peppers and shell-on pistachios must also be incorporated into their meal. How they use the ingredients is up to them, but then it's up to judge Jet Tila to decide which chef will be clocking out.
The Neelys are celebrating a "New Year's Eve for Two," and you can bet your bottom it's going to be romantically delicious! First, it's a Grilled Rib Eye for Two with Arugula and Tomato Salad. Then, Gina's fixing up her special Passion Pasta filled with juicy shrimp and sea scallops galore. For dessert, it's a Dreamy Chocolate Mousse that will glide off your spoon like silk. Finally, a concoction that will make even the most finicky of suitors fall madly in love, the Love Potion Cocktail. The ball is about to drop, and this "New Year's Eve for Two" is sure to be a tasty celebratory meal!
Inspired by the bounty produced in nearby Sonoma and Napa counties, Guy Fieri asks his chef friends to make a meal with local wine as the star. Alex Guarnaschelli uses both red and white in her pecan- and breadcrumb-stuffed mushrooms, and she makes a surprise dessert of lemony cake bursting with juicy grapes. Marc Murphy prepares a cucumber-tomato salad with basil vinaigrette and a delicate stuffed quail with crushed potatoes cooked in flavorful garlic confit. Jonathan Waxman uses his culinary wizardry to turn cheap red wine into a mouthwatering wild boar ragu, and he roasts a succulent whole duck with chanterelles and a Cabernet Sauvignon sauce. Finally, Michael Voltaggio makes the unlikely pairing of wine and cherry cola in a delicious Kalimotxo cocktail, and he serves up perfectly seared bacon-stuffed scallops in a delectable green grape and yeast sauce over cauliflower.