Top Moments of the Cutthroat Kitchen Judges' Battle

Browse the most-unforgettable moments and see the best sabotages from the first-ever Cutthroat Kitchen judges' competition.

Episode: Judging Judges

Switching Sides

Frequent Cutthroat Kitchen judges Geoffrey Zakarian, Simon Majumdar, Antonia Lofaso and Jet Tila stepped out from behind the judges' table and into the kitchen for a Cutthroat Kitchen battle. They were all smiles, but each had high hopes for outcooking their rivals. "As a competitor today," Jet said, "I will come in with high standards."

Find a New Filling

Before the judges could begin their Round 1 taquito challenge, Alton unveiled a swap-and-assign sabotage that would ultimately allow Simon to force inferior products — fish sticks, frog's legs and canned beef — to be incorporated into his rivals' dishes. "I'm not really scared of it. I feel like I've had some taquitos that have some questionable meat product in them," Antonia admitted.

Familiar Foes

Geoffrey and Simon have a storied past, as the latter often judges Geoffrey during Iron Chef America battles. Here the two have come to playfully sabotage each other with no other tools but their chokeholds.

Pintsize Sabotage

In true evilicious form, Alton unveiled the notorious mini kitchen, and soon the Iron Chef found himself working in a tiny space with even smaller tools. But he didn't have to stay there long, as a midround challenge meant he and Antonia would swap places — and taquito preparations. "Geoffrey Zakarian has fish sticks," Alton noted after their swap, "a product which I doubt he's ever eaten."

Professional Critiques

Jaime and Ramiro own a famed Mexican restaurant in California, so there's no one better to evaluate the judges' taquito offerings. "I can't find the Mexican flavor in it," Ramiro told Simon, who was ultimately ousted after the first round.

Evilicious Drawing

Round 2's meatball sub test allowed Geoffrey to force Antonia and Jet to enter what Alton called a "meatball lottery," where they'd win sweetbreads, chicken hearts and chicken livers, a bowlful of vegetarian products, or containers of leftovers. "Blue. Yes!" Jet said after drawing the blue ball, which gifted him the assorted meat parts.

Quiet Strategy

"I'm not bidding on [the periscope glasses] because the boys are going at it," Antonia noted of the midround sabotage. "They seem to be going back and forth giving each other things." With her leftovers of beef stroganoff and chicken, she made meatballs that the judge — a meatball expert — called "so delicious," and she survived to cook in Round 3.

Skewed Sight

Geoffrey won two sabotages in Round 2 and gifted them both to Jet, which ultimately contributed to the latter's demise. After he soaked Jet's sub bread in water, Geoffrey forced Jet to don periscope glasses. "All I can do now is to cut my bread in half, open face it, get it in the salamander and dry it out as fast as possible," Jet explained.

Fruit Forager

"Everything, everything was taken away from me," Geoffrey said after being forced to abandon all of the pantry ingredients he had gathered to make his Round 3 fruit tart and instead pick new, lesser ones hanging from a fruit tart on set. "I'm making stuff up; I don't have a crust," he added, before deciding to make what he called "a very exotic, nontraditional" tart without a crust.

Culinary Freedom

Antonia managed to escape sabotage in this final round and had no hindrances to her preparation of a fruit tart, although she's not wowed with her final offering. "My tarts aren't caramelizing," she admitted, "one of the reasons [why] is I didn't use sugar in the tart dough."

Judge's Victory

Although the Round 3 judge — a famed pastry chef — explained that Antonia's crust was less than stellar, Antonia ultimately earned the win. "I've always been the bridesmaid; I've never been the bride. I'm so excited, "Antonia said with a smile.