Brooke Williamson Takes Down Bobby on 'Beat Bobby Flay: Titan Takeover'

A lifetime of bragging rights was on the line when the Triple Threat Titans went toe-to-toe on Beat Bobby Flay's "Titan Takeover." Bobby introduced chefs Brooke Williamson and Ayesha Nurdjaja as his co-hosts, and then they turned the tables on him, announcing that fellow Titan Michael Voltaggio, the night’s first competitor, would be cooking against one of them rather than another chef for the first round of competition.

By a roll of the dice, Brooke was selected to cook against Michael for the first of the two challenges in the arena. Bobby told them they had to cook with blood oranges and pistachios, ingredients that Brooke said “go really well together.”

Brooke whipped up a pistachio zeppole (an Italian-style doughnut) with a blood orange caramel sauce that judge Ayesha was over the moon about. “You should trash your restaurant and just open a zeppole hut and just make this dish,” she told her.

Michael also chose to feature fried dough as part of his dish, but with a more savory flavor profile. His pistachio funnel cake is served on a bed of blood orange whipped ricotta with an herb salad with blood orange vinaigrette on the side. Ayesha was a huge fan of this, too, saying that it felt like it transported her to “somewhere on the coast, [where] there's white wine and champagne and guys in like Speedos.”

After a few dramatic moments of Ayesha playfully deliberating between Michael’s savory dessert and Brooke’s sweet one, she announced that Brooke was the winner who would go up against Bobby for Round 2. However, while normally the winner of Round 1 gets to choose their signature dish to cook against Bobby, for this Titan Takeover, Bobby decided that he would get to pick the signature dish instead. “I feel like I’m going to throw up,” Brooke said nervously as she waited to hear what dish Bobby was going to choose.

When Bobby announced his signature dish would be fresh-pasta lasagna Bolognese, Brooke’s face dropped. Attempting to make fresh pasta, from-scratch Bolognese and a baked dish all in 45 minutes is no easy task, and Brooke was temporarily thrown as she processed this news. “Last time you got challenged to Bolognese, you were like, 'That's a really difficult dish to do in 45 minutes,'” she reminded him.

“You’re a Titan,” Bobby reassured her.

Brooke’s lasagna featured multiple layers of handmade pasta, creamy bechamel and meaty Bolognese. In the oven, the noodles crisped up on top. “This has been really fun,” Brooke said to Bobby after her dish was finished.

“That means she likes her dish,” Bobby joked.

“I think their lasagnas look like their personalities,” Michael observed of the two dishes. Where Brooke’s was light and fresh, Michael described Bobby’s as “dark and mysterious.”

For this epic battle, three powerhouse judges were brought in to decide who would reign supreme. Chef and restaurateur Michael Lomonaco, New York Times food columnist Melissa Clark and chef, restaurateur and Bobby's own mentor Jonathan Waxman had the dubious task of deciding between two top-notch chefs and their equally top-notch lasagnas.