Can Maneet Chauhan Beat Bobby's Titans?

Chef Maneet Chauhan’s list of Food Network accolades is long: She’s a veteran Chopped judge, a two-time Tournament of Champions winner and led Master of 'Cue Kyle Bryner to victory during her first team captain appearance on BBQ Brawl. But the Titans? “You guys have been the things of my nightmares,” she says. “I haven't slept for the last four nights.”

Yes, $25,000 is on the line. But for Maneet, outscoring chefs Michael Voltaggio, Brooke Williamson and newest Titan Ayesha Nurdjaja in one night would “be a kind of a self-validation, that yes, I can do this, and I can do it over and over and over again.”

Bobby Flay has seen her competitive spirit in action many times before, warning: “Don’t sleep on Maneet.”

At just 32 years old, Charlie Mitchell is a 2024 James Beard Award winner, was awarded Best Chef in New York State, has worked at well-known establishments like Eleven Madison Park and earned a Michelin star as executive chef of Clover Hill before taking on his current role of executive chef at the two-star Michelin restaurant Saga.

He’ll blind judge each round, and while he’s looking for flavor, he’s also looking for his dishes to tell a story. “Intentionality is also very important … being able to see the decisions that are made by the chef, and understand why you made those decisions, is important.”

“Charlie definitely is a tough judge,” says Ayesha of her fellow New York chef. “I think that he strives for excellence and expects excellence. He’s also the nicest person ever, and I’m excited to see him here today.”

Maneet chooses to battle fellow Tournament of Champions legend Brooke Williamson for Round 1. Brooke was the first-ever winner of Tournament of Champions in 2020, with Maneet just missing out on the finals after a loss to Amanda Freitag. The very next year, both Brooke and Maneet made it to the finals, with Maneet inching out Brooke with a score of 93-90 for her first victory. “We are friends, but the day that Maneet and I met in the finale of ToC didn’t go my way,” says Brooke. “I would love to show Maneet that I’m capable of beating her.”

Both Brooke and Maneet had continued success in Tournament of Champions, often making the finals or semifinals each time they competed. In Season 5, Maneet became the first repeat winner, beating Antonia Lofaso by just one point. (Antonia came back and won Season 6, where both Brooke and Maneet served as judges.)

Bobby gives Brooke and Maneet 45 minutes to cook two dishes that include lamb loin and mangoes, which the Titans feel is … perhaps a little on the nose. “Notice how we didn’t say ‘thank you’ when you showed us the ingredients?” Michael prods.

“I have to be hospitable to our guests,” Bobby grins. “This should be a good face-off … they cook similarly … their food is very fresh, very flavorful, very bright.”

One of the biggest challenges for both chefs will be making sure the lamb loin, which doesn’t have a lot of fat, stays tender and moist.

Brooke begins work on a tartare, which she knows Bobby isn’t “a big fan of” (back in his Iron Chef days, Bobby once made a lamb tartare the judges refused to try) but feels she can “get a lot of flavor into [it].” For her second dish, she sears a spice-rubbed lamb loin in lamb fat and puts it into the oven.

Across the kitchen, Maneet surprises the onlookers when she pushes lamb loin and mango through the meat grinder for kebabs — “Mango is certainly a tenderizer,” says Bobby — and pulls out a pressure cooker to make a mango lamb curry.

“Maneet’s cooking like she’s been in this kitchen before,” Ayesha says.

Brooke’s spice-rubbed lamb loin comes out of the oven a few minutes late. (“How many points does it take to lose a round?” speculates Bobby. “Not many.”) Pressing on, she gets the curried lentils on the base of the plate and a couple slices of the lamb loin, then tops it with a glaze made from honey, hot pickled peppers, fresh mango and mint.

Judge Charlie confirms everyone’s fears: the delicate lamb is a bit overcooked and doesn’t hold up to the other elements on the plate. “The use of the mango, especially with the chili, really shines here,” he says. “The creaminess from the lentils is also very nice … the lamb really took a back seat to the mango here.”

Brooke’s tartare includes mango jam, harissa and puffed rice. “The textures are really nice,” says Charlie, enjoying the toast on the puffed rice. “I think the sweetness from the mango kind of wins here. I think the lamb gets lost a little bit. Maybe a little bit of acid would’ve took it to the next level.”

Charlie awards Brooke six points, noting the use of the mango in both preparations was great, but was underwhelmed by the lamb in both dishes.

Maneet’s meat and mango mixture comes together for a chapli kebab — an Indian street food where “chapli” means “flattened.” She fries the kebabs and serves them in a pool of mango mint chutney spiced with Thai chili, hoping to touch “every and every flavor palate that you have in your mouth.” She tops everything with a mango slaw.

“For starters, it’s really pretty,” says Charlie. “I think the flavors here are very successful.” However, Maneet may have been a little heavy-handed with the Thai chili. “I like little pops of spice throughout a meal, but not too much.”

In Maneet’s pressure cooker is coconut curry lamb loin, which she serves with mango rice, but Charlie doesn’t feel the braising technique worked with the lean cut. “It kinda dries out the lamb, and the curry isn’t really helping it enough,” he says. “And the rice has a nice texture, but this is really too sweet.”

Charlie also gives Maneet six points, and with the feedback, she’s honestly “pleasantly surprised.” Charlie says her chapli kebab was his favorite dish of the round, but the curry was his least favorite of the round.

It’s a tie going into Round 2. “So technically, I still didn’t beat her,” says Maneet. “Nor did she [beat me].”

Brooke literally gasps when Bobby reveals the Round 2 ingredients are yellowfin tuna and avocado, which practically scream out to the California-style cooking she’s known for — Michael reveals she was even on the California Avocado Board.

But Ayesha’s up to bat. “Tuna is something I always have on my menu because it’s such a crowd-pleaser,” she says.

For Maneet, it’s quite the opposite. “I do not work with yellowfin tuna and avocado much … you are not going to get tuna avocado curry on any of my menus.” And while Maneet got the chance to experience Ayesha’s flavors through her restaurant and said she was “blown away by the flavors,” they’ve never competed against one another before.

Ayesha practically empties out the pantry as soon as the round starts. “The entire Mediterranean has made its way to Ayesha’s station,” Bobby chides.

Surrounded by jars, bags of herbs and deli containers of yogurt and butter, she admits, “I think I feel pressure … I’m going up against the Goliath … I know Maneet. I like to call her my friend, but I know what my job is, so I am determined to crush her.”

With the yellowfin tuna perfect for a raw preparation, Ayesha also tries her hand at a tartare with avocado, serrano chiles, shallots and Castelvetrano olives. She pairs the tartare with circles of avocado slices battered, wrapped and fried with kataifi, shredded phyllo dough, to add crunch and texture. “I’m not 100% happy,” she says after time’s up. “I love the way the fried kataifi avocado came out, but I feel like the tuna tartare wasn’t really finished.”

For her second dish, she makes grilled tuna topped with almond dukkah, a Middle Eastern spice and nut blend traditionally prepared with a mortar and pestle — dukkah means “to pound” or “to crush” in Arabic. For extra crunch, she fries the sesame seeds and almonds for her dukkah. She serves the seared tuna on top of smashed avocado with serrano, red onion, lime juice and chiles.

Charlie’s feedback from the last round rocks Maneet, causing her to rethink everything, feeling forced to “tone it down.” But Bobby becomes worried she’s misunderstood the judge. “Charlie didn't say he didn't want spice,” he says. “He just said that he uses it sparingly. I think she’s holding back on her spice rack … that’s her strength.”

Maneet refocuses: “I am known for big, bold flavors, so I decide I am going to stay true to who I am as a chef and I’m going to play to my spices.”

She makes fenugreek-crusted seared tuna, crusted nested avocado mash with citrus, cilantro and “a little bit of serrano, not too much,” dotting the finished mash with pomegranate seeds. Maneet also reaches for kataifi, using rings to shape them into circles before frying them and adding them on top of the seared tuna.

To showcase the versatility of the ingredient, for her next dish, she makes a tuna three-way dip. She cuts up raw tuna, adding half to a “mayo dressing” by blending avocado, salt and lime juice, and the other half to a second dressing with sesame oil and soy sauce. The third element is tempura-fried tuna and avocado.

“That round was intense, but there is some whimsy in it, and there is a lot of flavor in it,” she says.

Charlie sees Maneet’s vision for the tuna three-way dip, spooning the dip onto the tempura-battered avocado like a chip. “It’s a beautiful dish and ambitious,” he says. “I think it works very well … the avocado is super playful.” He loves the fun play on a sushi roll and the temperature contrast between the warm avocado and cold tuna dip. “But I think I don’t identify it as tuna necessarily. The crispy bites are really nice, but the raw preparation, you kinda lose it here.”

Of Maneet’s seared tuna: “The cook on the tuna is really, really nice. The fengugreek adds spice and also a nice crust to it. The tuna really shines here.” But he feels the avocado mash isn’t giving much other than its natural fattiness to the dish. He gives Maneet six points.

Charlie loves the cooking of Ayesha's grilled tuna and the almond dukkah. “The almond and sesame toasted on top adds nice complexity to it, but the tuna kinda gets lost a little bit.” He’s a bit underwhelmed by the smashed avocado. “It kinda reminds you of guacamole. It would’ve been nice to have received something a little bit unexpected.”

Fried avocado is a hit again this round when he moves onto the second dish, saying the fried kaitifi is a “fun” way to serve it: “I think the avocado got a love of love … I’ve never really seen it done like that before. And even in the tartare, it’s a nice amount of avocado, and the texture is nice, and it shines. But I feel like the tuna kinda takes a back seat here.”

Much to her dismay, Ayesha gets five points for her dish. “I am devastated,” she laments. “I have never gotten a five. I would like to cut a hole underneath my feet and then just jump in it.”

Even Bobby has to admit, “I’m glad I’m not cooking tonight.” The Titans agree it’s possibly one of the lowest-scoring matches in a long time, possibly in the show's history.

With the Titans down a point going into the final round, Michael is up to cook, and Maneet gets to choose the two ingredients. She reveals they’ll have 40 minutes to make just one dish with poha — rice that is parboiled, dried and then flattened, often used to make breakfast dishes or snacks in South Asia — and makhana, popped seeds from the prickly water lily plant also referred to as fox nuts. Maneet says she picked poha because she made it once on Beat Bobby Flay and he had never had it before, figuring, “If you haven’t had it, maybe the Titans haven’t had it.”

While Michael is familiar with poha thanks to hours clocked working with a pastry chef in India, he’s never even touched water lily seeds before this moment, let alone cooked with them. Like Ayesha, he’s also never gone head-to-head with Maneet before.

“I’ll get you back for this one day,” he tells her as they head to the pantry.

“Aw, I love you,” she replies.

Michael knows he’s going to have to do more than just get by to beat Maneet. So he does something unheard of in Bobby’s Triple Threat kitchen: He makes dessert.

“My goal is to make [Charlie] smile a little bit,” he says. “No one’s ever made a dessert in this competition, so it’s a bit of a risk.”

Like Ayesha emptying the pantry, Michael brings every appliance and kitchen gadget into his station, whizzing back and forth between the food processor, the fryer, the blender and the stovetop. He loads a charger into an iSi whipper and, with just a few minutes left on the clock, he pulls out a bucket of liquid nitrogen.

“I’m in awe of Michael right now,” Ayesha says.

“It could be spectacular, but it could also backfire,” Maneet says. “Michael is a mad scientist.”

Michael’s dessert is a cardamom and coconut poha rice pudding with fox nut granola with brown butter, maple syrup, oats, corn cereal and curry (“I don’t want this to be too sweet”), and a salted almond praline dome made with just about every almond in the pantry, frozen with liquid nitrogren in a ladle that he was barely able to release from its mold in time to plate.

Charlie is immediately impressed with the praline dome and finds the sweetness of the dessert balanced. “A lot of fun textures in here,” he says. The poha pudding could have used a bit more refinement, though: “I was expecting it to be a little bit creamier or smoother. It kinda reminded me of uncooked grits a little bit.”

Maneet also steps out of her element. Bobby and the Titans are stunned when she says she’s making chile relleno, Mexican stuffed poblano peppers. With an Indian flair, of course.

“I think this is actually a perfect opportunity for Maneet to get her flavors into a dish without it feeling overpowering,” says Brooke.

Her chile relleno is stuffed with poha pilaf seasoned with cumin seeds, turmeric, curry leaves, peas and onions. After stuffing the poblanos, she batters and double-fries them with a blend of fox nut, poha and chickpea flour. She serves the chile relleno with some of the additional pilaf on the side, alongside a trail mix made from toasted fox nuts with deep-fried poha and cashews.

When the clock runs out, Maneet feels she has put in her all. “I’m happy with my dish. Even I am kind of amazed at my creativity that I could come up with something of this sort.”

“The rice pilaf is nice with the trail mix here with the puffed fox nuts,” says Charlie. “And the pepper’s really interesting. It’s really nice, and I like the flavor of the poblano, and the texture of the batter really holds up nice and crispy, but you can’t really identify what the filling is.”

"Out of all the rounds, this is the hardest to judge, because Michael and Maneet [went] in completely different directions," says Ayesha.

"This is why you should be given [ingredients] that you have no idea about," says Maneet. This was also judge Charlie's introduction to poha and fox nuts.

"First and foremost, this kind of cooking is very different from what I do," Charlie says before delivering the scores. "I [was] genuinely blown away at the level of execution."

"Does that mean we can get you into the kitchen soon?" Bobby asks.

"No," he immediately fires back with a laugh.