100 Cooks

Previously, 100 of the best home cooks in the country left

their own kitchens and stepped into the arena of the biggest

home cook competition in the world.

The number of contestants continues to go down.

Last time, after our final challenge of the night,

two cooks are still standing.

Now it's time for the judges to decide which of these two cooks

made the best steak dinner to stay in the competition.

This has always been a dream of mine.

If I go home on a perfectly cooked steak,

that's just how it goes.

Being a home cook is special.

I need to pull off a win in this challenge.

I need to be here.

I hope the judges feel the same way.

Tom. Tom.

Thank you, Eileen. Thank you.

I'm so sorry you didn't make the cut.

- Thank you so, so much. - Thank you.

Just to be invited to cook, it's the best thing for me.

I'm so happy. My bucket list is complete.

Oh, yes!

Yes!

Welcome back, everybody, to the "100 Cooks" kitchen!

Now, I know there are a lot less of you, but I'm the kind

of person that doesn't see seats that are half empty.

I see seats that are half full of incredible cooks who've had

a one-in-55 chance

of taking home $100,000.

And trust me, it may be even more, way more.

You cooks are on fire right now.

And how about our fired-up judges?

Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli. And the king of food content,

Nick DiGiovanni.

So who's ready to find out what our first challenge is

and who will be cooking? - Yeah!

OK, let's mix it up!

Whoo!

All right, come on, challenge mixer.

Roll it!

All righty.

- Whoo! -

When Terry's excited, I'm excited.

The challenge is...

Sunday breakfast.

- Oh, my favorite, mmm. - Yeah.

Now, how many cooks are gonna compete in this challenge?

How about...

the lucky number seven? That's right.

Seven cooks. Roll it.

Come on.

Cook number 77, come down to the kitchen.

My name is Nick Perrone.

I'm a 57-year-old manager at Costco.

They announced 77.

To be honest with you, my legs got a little weak,

and I was like, "Holy, , this is really happening."

Cook number 47.

Cook number 21, come down to the kitchen.

Cook number 24!

Cook number 11!

Cook number 58!

- Let's go, Brian! - Our last cook is...

cook number 71!

My name's Melanie Cagle from Houma, Louisiana.

Alex and Nick are gonna taste my food.

It's nerve-racking.

OK, let's talk about this challenge.

I'm giving you all 35 minutes

to make your most indulgent and over-the-top weekend breakfasts.

Now, listen. At the end of this challenge...

only one of you will be safe.

Wow.

One person out of seven.

That's-- that's crazy.

- So, are you ready? - Yeah.

- Yeah. - OK.

Start cooking!

Only one!

I know I said that only one cook will be safe,

but I actually have a surprise plan for the cooks that come in

second and third, but we'll get to that later.

Let's go, Nick!

Back home in Chino Valley, Arizona.

I have my beautiful wife, Haley,

and I have a 10-year-old daughter with her.

So I've decided to make what we would normally make after

we get home from church on a Sunday.

I'm doing a stuffed French toast.

So I do a cream cheese and strawberry stuffing inside

of the French toast.

Perfect.

And I do a scrambled egg with feta cheese,

bacon, and a little bit of basil that my daughter

just goes crazy for.

I've got the sweet, and I've got the savory.

How's it tasting, Nick? Yeah!

The prize money would be very life-changing.

In 2017, my wife, who was a marathon runner,

was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of MS,

and it pretty quickly took her ability to walk,

and so she is bound to a wheelchair.

We would probably dedicate most of the money towards making

our house ADA compatible.

Door frames are not wide enough.

We don't have ramps on all entrances and exits,

so it would give me great joy to be able to improve her life,

um, by winning the money.

So this is my favorite breakfast.

It's a savory Indian porridge.

It's called Ven Pongal, made with mung dal and rice.

And it's flavored with ginger, curry leaves, and peppercorn.

They're all warming spices.

They are aromatic, and they also help

with digestion.

It's eaten with coconut chutney.

It's a very special dish for me.

My mom would make it on weekends, that was like

a special meal I would look forward to.

I would like to preserve my family recipes,

especially since I lost my mom really young.

It's a way of connecting with her.

I love seeing the pressure cooker.

Me too.

It's like, why not use a pressure cooker to make it

feel like you've cooked for hours when you've only cooked

for 30 minutes? - Totally agree.

By the way, everybody is whisking, mixing,

stirring like crazy. - Yeah-- yeah.

They're working now.

Cooking at home with kids is probably a little more chaotic

because I have somebody asking me, "Mom," every, like,

five seconds asking where something is.

My name's Kayla Zenner.

My husband's a farmer, so I really love to bake as much

from scratch and cook from scratch as possible.

And for us, Sunday morning is toasted coconut pancakes.

And then I'm gonna top them

with a homemade chocolate sauce and homemade caramel.

The key to these pancakes is to make sure that you're

toasting that coconut.

It really helps to balance out the flavors and make it not

too sweet.

Check out the pancake flip.

I think she's made a few pancakes.

They look very fluffy, I have to say.

- They look fantastic. -

So I'm browning up my sausage to go into my gravy.

My gravy is looking amazing.

Got a little kick to it, which I like.

My name is Brian Mellot.

I am an Army vet from Greene County, Virginia.

I was an infantryman, a combat infantryman.

I'm still recovering from PTSD, and cooking has been a huge

part of my healing journey.

Once a month, for my church, I've got a cooking crew

that I help lead.

Do a little prayer breakfast-- biscuits, gravy,

hash browns, eggs. Make my church proud.

Fifteen minutes!

- Oof. - Let's go, Matt.

I'm Matthew Han.

I'm 24 years old from Los Angeles, California.

My plan is to make Korean pancakes,

kimchi Korean pancakes.

Kimchi,

bacon.

Oh, that looks so good.

And then you mix that in.

It gets really crispy on the edges.

And that's like a savory breakfast.

So I am making the same as my neighbor.

I'm making good old country biscuits and gravy.

- Oh, you're going head-to-head. - It looks like it.

Biscuits-and-gravy-off? Ooh.

Better be good. Better be good.

All right, why is yours gonna be better?

Because I'm from Louisiana.

Ooh, OK, OK. All right.

You can never have too much Creole seasoning, you know?

I'm a food photographer, and food photography literally

saved my life.

When my husband and I got married, we started a business

pretty much immediately.

It was doing really great for the first few years,

but then the oil field took a turn, and eventually

we ended up in bankruptcy. We lost our home.

Uh, we had nothing.

Somehow, this just managed to

fall into place to where I could make an income taking

photographs of recipes that I made.

And thank God, like, it literally saved us.

I'm eternally grateful.

Anything you're worried about?

The fact that there's only one that's going through.

I think this is the highest stakes cooking competition

that we've had so far. - It has-- yeah.

All I can tell you is

make the best biscuits and gravy we've ever tried.

Yep-- I'll make it like I'm making it for my son,