The Battle for Mac and Cheese Supremacy: A Blind Taste Test Showdown

In a thrilling blind taste test showdown, three experts gathered to determine which dish would reign supreme: Bobby Flay's mac and cheese versus Kimberly Wilson's signature mac and cheese. The competition was fierce, with each chef bringing their A-game to the table.

Todd Coleman, an editor at Tasting Table.com, got things started by digging into the dishes directly in front of him. He praised Bobby Flay's dish for its crispy fried sage, which he loved, but noted that the consistency of the sauce was a bit off, being almost too gummy. The chef's decision to make pasta from scratch was also commendable, but ultimately didn't quite come together for Todd.

Next up, Chef Marco Canora, cookbook author and owner of Hearth, took his turn tasting both dishes. He was struck by the subtle heat in Kimberly Wilson's mac and cheese, which he appreciated greatly. The addition of a chili, which Marco couldn't identify but didn't overpower the dish, added depth and complexity to the traditional comfort food. However, he was put off by the presence of truffle oil on top of shaved truffles, which he felt canceled each other out.

Finally, Frank Pinello, Chef and owner of Frank Supper and Lil' Frankie's, took a seat at the judges' table. He was nervous about his own dish, having taken a risk with making pasta from scratch in just 45 minutes, but hoped it would pay off. As he tasted both dishes, he worried that his amateur mistake with the white truffle oil on top of the shuffles might cost him the win.

In the end, Frank's doubts were confirmed when the judges gathered to deliberate. With a deep breath, they shared their thoughts and wrote down which dish they preferred on the card in front of them. The result was unanimous: Bobby Flay's mac and cheese had won over the hearts (and taste buds) of all three experts.

While Kimberly Wilson's dish was delicious, with a subtle kick from an unidentified chili, it couldn't quite match the sophistication and layering that Bobby Flay brought to the table. His decision to add crispy fried sage and shaved truffles took his dish to new heights, making it a true masterclass in comfort food.

As for Frank Pinello's risk-taking move with pasta from scratch, it ultimately didn't pay off. While he showed impressive technical skill, the flavors didn't quite come together as cohesively as Bobby's did. Still, the competition was fierce, and both chefs left with their heads held high.

In a post-competition interview, Frank revealed that his grandmother had taught him everything he knew about cooking, including how to make pasta from scratch in just 45 minutes. He credited her with teaching him the importance of layering flavors and not being afraid to take risks in the kitchen. "It's all about bringing your passion and energy into the dish," he said.

The battle for mac and cheese supremacy may be over, but the war is far from won. Both Bobby Flay and Kimberly Wilson are already planning their next moves, each determined to become the ultimate mac and cheese champion.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm Bobby fle each week one Brave Chef will try to take me down in my house this culinary battle is going to shake down in two rounds round one to get to me first two contenders have to go through each other using an ingredient of my choice are you ready two people that know me well will decide who's got the skills to beat me don't let us down guys round two I go head-to-head with the winning Contender it's their turn to surprise me with their signature dish I didn't see that coming I didn't either bottom line ring this Bell everyone's out to beat me all right you guys ready to see a culinary battle I'm going to bring out two people who have known me long enough to know my strengths and to know my weaknesses first let me introduce you to Iron Chef Alex Guan Shelli and my very first co-host on Food Network Jack Nick how you doing I've known you ever since you started cooking almost when you were a wee little lad a wee little l a wee little L Jack is my co-host from grillin and chilling way back in the day this is grillin and chilling I've watched your career for a long time but today we're just going to have to kick your butt so the objective today is to find someone who can beat Bobby fle let's meet the chefs first chef up is Harlem's catering Queen Kimberly van Klein hi everybody how are you and Bobby say hello to James be awarder winning Chef Christopher Lee you guys think you have what it takes to beat me today I know what I got what it takes to beat you today all right well first things first in order to get to me you need to go through each other you're going to have 20 minutes to make a single ingredient shine that ingredient is brussel sprouts you guys ready to do this let's do it go first I'm going to make a puree then I'm going to make a sauté with the Spanish prawn and then I'm going to blanch the leaves as garnish I'm kind of taking a risk with a 20-minute time frame but I'm confident I could pull it off I decide to use red Spanish prom to enhance the proc Sprout dish and I made a sauce using the juices from the prawns slightly sauté them and then I add a little shallot Caper and golden raisins with little curry powder to finish the sauce five minutes they come from two very different schools of thought I always try to think about what the signature dish might be and frankly after watching these guys I mean it could be anything 220 I don't have my plates out I don't have my skirt steak see it on one one side checking on my bruss those sprouts and time is just getting away 20 minutes definitely go by quick but through my experience I'll finish the dish on time has Kimberly taken her steak off the grill yet that's what I'm worried about 40 seconds put the steak on the plate it on there it is 5 4 3 2 1 chefs Jack and I are looking to see which one of you really made brussel sprouts to starve your dish and can therefore go on to be Bobby Christopher can you tell me exactly what you made bruss Sprouts three different ways a puree lanch leaves and then a sauté with red shrimp the accents the display of technical skill is one thing that you have in Spades I thought the pron came across very well your brush was Sprouts seems to be a little bit light in flavor I would love to seen it more robust sometimes less can be more by the time the Guan chali and the shrimp head juice team up the Brussels sprout really becomes supporting actor I mean she could have just ate the puree and the bruss spouts by himself and then you were to taste the bruss Sprouts Kimberly could you tell us what you made sure I made a sear skirt steak with a cauliflower puree and Brussels sprouts with a crispy Panetta so hopefully you like it the combination is marvelous it melts together unbelievably well we talk about flavor profiles I think you hit it right ahead on the nail cauliflower steak Panetta I see a real coming together of really deep flavors the nutmeg just kind of seems to make the Brussels sprouts Brussel sprouter but presentation Wise It's a lot weaker than Christopher's dishh presentation wise it wasn't my best plate but the flavors there so I'm hoping that Chris goes home and not me Chris is a very refined chef but kimbery is bringing big flavor for sure this is anyone's game all right guys who's it going to be there is someone who edged the other out by just an inch Kimberly you're the winner I have no regrets whatsoever the fact that I show a lot of technical skill in my dish made me really satisfied with what I did all right Kimberly you conquered the Brussels sprout but now we're going to move on to something much bigger what's your signature dish the dish is mac and cheese mac and cheese it's going to be so good I'm going to send your mother home 45 minutes your time starts now you beat me to it huh Bobby there's a little bit of Broiler gridlock because Kimberly has her four little red dishes underneath the broiler too she wants the perfect color she does that's part of the perfect mac and cheese burnt my sage I don't know where my mind went that quick but my sage it burnt so I'm down to the wire now so I have to get my sage done as fast as I can I really want to take this win but to Beat Bobby fle today everything on the plate it has to be cooked perfectly so I'm a little nervous less than a minute left so the very last minute I decided you know what I'm just going to put a few very thinly sliced white truffles on there why not I took a little white truffle oil and put them on top of the white shuffles to bring out the flavors the white truffle that's the kind of last minute decision that can sometimes get you in a lot of hot water 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Stop I took a major risk making pasta from scratch hopefully I'mma blow the hats off this Arena right now Chef so to be objective we've brought in three experts first up we have Todd Coleman who is an editor at tasting table.com next we have Chef Marco canora cookbook author and owner of Hearth and next we have Frank presen Zano Chef owner of Frank supper Lil Frankies and sauce judges as you know this this is a blind taste test please start by digging into the dish directly in front of you I'm a sucker for fried Sage you know I love how crispy it is and that woodsy element there's a sweet note to this with the cheese which is nice the noi itself it's a little bit gummy consistency of the sauce as well is almost the same throughout pasting Yi with a pasty sauce it was a little heavy for me I tasted Mone cheese I think that made it bind a little bit too much together however to make a housemade nooki from scratch is very commendable overall I like this very much judges if you want to taste the second dish Now's the Time what strikes me about this is the little subtle heat that's in there I really like the fact that there's a little touch of like a Chili I'm not sure what kind of chili but doesn't like overpower anything it just kind of adds to it which is really nice I love the mushrooms and the Savory umamin that it adds to this and I love that it's not too far Filled from a regular macaron trees it's really satisfies I'm picking up both truffle oil here and shaved Truffles and for me that's a no no when you put them together they kind of cancel each other out for me I don't really enjoy it that much so that's a big problem here for me judges will give you a minute now to gather your thoughts and you're going to write down which dish you preferred on the card in front of you I'm a little nervous about who's going to win it was a risky move to make no in 45 minutes but I hope that risk paid off thank you gentlemen white Shuffle oil on top of the white shuffles it was a very amateur mistake so I'm worried because kimbley can easily win this thing and the winner is Mr Bobby flavor good job it was fun at the end of the day Bobby's dish just had that level of sophistication and layering that knocked it out of the park it's all about the calabrian Chili's my grandmother would probably look down on me and she would be very proud of me I'm grateful for all that she has taught me it just brings everything full circleI'm Bobby fle each week one Brave Chef will try to take me down in my house this culinary battle is going to shake down in two rounds round one to get to me first two contenders have to go through each other using an ingredient of my choice are you ready two people that know me well will decide who's got the skills to beat me don't let us down guys round two I go head-to-head with the winning Contender it's their turn to surprise me with their signature dish I didn't see that coming I didn't either bottom line ring this Bell everyone's out to beat me all right you guys ready to see a culinary battle I'm going to bring out two people who have known me long enough to know my strengths and to know my weaknesses first let me introduce you to Iron Chef Alex Guan Shelli and my very first co-host on Food Network Jack Nick how you doing I've known you ever since you started cooking almost when you were a wee little lad a wee little l a wee little L Jack is my co-host from grillin and chilling way back in the day this is grillin and chilling I've watched your career for a long time but today we're just going to have to kick your butt so the objective today is to find someone who can beat Bobby fle let's meet the chefs first chef up is Harlem's catering Queen Kimberly van Klein hi everybody how are you and Bobby say hello to James be awarder winning Chef Christopher Lee you guys think you have what it takes to beat me today I know what I got what it takes to beat you today all right well first things first in order to get to me you need to go through each other you're going to have 20 minutes to make a single ingredient shine that ingredient is brussel sprouts you guys ready to do this let's do it go first I'm going to make a puree then I'm going to make a sauté with the Spanish prawn and then I'm going to blanch the leaves as garnish I'm kind of taking a risk with a 20-minute time frame but I'm confident I could pull it off I decide to use red Spanish prom to enhance the proc Sprout dish and I made a sauce using the juices from the prawns slightly sauté them and then I add a little shallot Caper and golden raisins with little curry powder to finish the sauce five minutes they come from two very different schools of thought I always try to think about what the signature dish might be and frankly after watching these guys I mean it could be anything 220 I don't have my plates out I don't have my skirt steak see it on one one side checking on my bruss those sprouts and time is just getting away 20 minutes definitely go by quick but through my experience I'll finish the dish on time has Kimberly taken her steak off the grill yet that's what I'm worried about 40 seconds put the steak on the plate it on there it is 5 4 3 2 1 chefs Jack and I are looking to see which one of you really made brussel sprouts to starve your dish and can therefore go on to be Bobby Christopher can you tell me exactly what you made bruss Sprouts three different ways a puree lanch leaves and then a sauté with red shrimp the accents the display of technical skill is one thing that you have in Spades I thought the pron came across very well your brush was Sprouts seems to be a little bit light in flavor I would love to seen it more robust sometimes less can be more by the time the Guan chali and the shrimp head juice team up the Brussels sprout really becomes supporting actor I mean she could have just ate the puree and the bruss spouts by himself and then you were to taste the bruss Sprouts Kimberly could you tell us what you made sure I made a sear skirt steak with a cauliflower puree and Brussels sprouts with a crispy Panetta so hopefully you like it the combination is marvelous it melts together unbelievably well we talk about flavor profiles I think you hit it right ahead on the nail cauliflower steak Panetta I see a real coming together of really deep flavors the nutmeg just kind of seems to make the Brussels sprouts Brussel sprouter but presentation Wise It's a lot weaker than Christopher's dishh presentation wise it wasn't my best plate but the flavors there so I'm hoping that Chris goes home and not me Chris is a very refined chef but kimbery is bringing big flavor for sure this is anyone's game all right guys who's it going to be there is someone who edged the other out by just an inch Kimberly you're the winner I have no regrets whatsoever the fact that I show a lot of technical skill in my dish made me really satisfied with what I did all right Kimberly you conquered the Brussels sprout but now we're going to move on to something much bigger what's your signature dish the dish is mac and cheese mac and cheese it's going to be so good I'm going to send your mother home 45 minutes your time starts now you beat me to it huh Bobby there's a little bit of Broiler gridlock because Kimberly has her four little red dishes underneath the broiler too she wants the perfect color she does that's part of the perfect mac and cheese burnt my sage I don't know where my mind went that quick but my sage it burnt so I'm down to the wire now so I have to get my sage done as fast as I can I really want to take this win but to Beat Bobby fle today everything on the plate it has to be cooked perfectly so I'm a little nervous less than a minute left so the very last minute I decided you know what I'm just going to put a few very thinly sliced white truffles on there why not I took a little white truffle oil and put them on top of the white shuffles to bring out the flavors the white truffle that's the kind of last minute decision that can sometimes get you in a lot of hot water 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Stop I took a major risk making pasta from scratch hopefully I'mma blow the hats off this Arena right now Chef so to be objective we've brought in three experts first up we have Todd Coleman who is an editor at tasting table.com next we have Chef Marco canora cookbook author and owner of Hearth and next we have Frank presen Zano Chef owner of Frank supper Lil Frankies and sauce judges as you know this this is a blind taste test please start by digging into the dish directly in front of you I'm a sucker for fried Sage you know I love how crispy it is and that woodsy element there's a sweet note to this with the cheese which is nice the noi itself it's a little bit gummy consistency of the sauce as well is almost the same throughout pasting Yi with a pasty sauce it was a little heavy for me I tasted Mone cheese I think that made it bind a little bit too much together however to make a housemade nooki from scratch is very commendable overall I like this very much judges if you want to taste the second dish Now's the Time what strikes me about this is the little subtle heat that's in there I really like the fact that there's a little touch of like a Chili I'm not sure what kind of chili but doesn't like overpower anything it just kind of adds to it which is really nice I love the mushrooms and the Savory umamin that it adds to this and I love that it's not too far Filled from a regular macaron trees it's really satisfies I'm picking up both truffle oil here and shaved Truffles and for me that's a no no when you put them together they kind of cancel each other out for me I don't really enjoy it that much so that's a big problem here for me judges will give you a minute now to gather your thoughts and you're going to write down which dish you preferred on the card in front of you I'm a little nervous about who's going to win it was a risky move to make no in 45 minutes but I hope that risk paid off thank you gentlemen white Shuffle oil on top of the white shuffles it was a very amateur mistake so I'm worried because kimbley can easily win this thing and the winner is Mr Bobby flavor good job it was fun at the end of the day Bobby's dish just had that level of sophistication and layering that knocked it out of the park it's all about the calabrian Chili's my grandmother would probably look down on me and she would be very proud of me I'm grateful for all that she has taught me it just brings everything full circle\n"