Cook at all Costs

Do luxury ingredients always make the best dishes,

or can humble items be transformed into a recipe for success?

This is Cook at all Costs.

I need something. I need something.

With $25,000 in their bank,

three home cooks will have to bid on all their ingredients...

I'm ready.

...in a high-stakes auction-packed cook-off.

-Five thousand dollars! - Sold!

The home cooks can spend big for the best ingredients,

save their money for the basics, or gamble on a surprise.

Chicken hearts.

In the end, the winner

will go home with all the cash left in their bank.

Oh, man!

The back pantry is home

to the hottest names in today's culinary world.

Surprise!

These celebrity chefs will prepare the mystery boxes,

ingredient temptations, and judge the dishes.

You gotta make Mama happy.

All right, Chef. Send out those boxes.

It's the ultimate cooking competition where skill meets strategy.

Let me get my buzzer fingers ready.

This is Cook at all Costs.

All right, home chefs! Are y'all ready?

-Whoo! -Do it, let's do it.

Nick, Vivian, Ryan, welcome to Cook at all Costs.

Let's go.

In this round, you'll be creating a dish

in any style that you choose using one of three ingredient boxes.

Those boxes, along with everything else you'll be cooking with,

will be coming into the kitchen along the line,

and it leads to the back pantry and our guest chef and judge.

She burst onto the scene at only 28 years old.

The proud owner of Mokbar and Ms. Yoo cocktail bar in New York City,

Chef Esther Choi.

- -

Whoo!

Esther Choi is definitely an inspiration.

She's a fellow Korean American, and she's doing great things.

I'm so excited to be cooking for her today.

Right now, Chef Choi is preparing ingredients

for three very different boxes.

Chef Choi, please send out those boxes.

You'll start by using your bank of 25k

to blindly bid on these three ingredient boxes.

The cook with the highest bid gets the Spend Box,

which has high-quality ingredients to help you create a high-quality dish.

The lowest bid gets the Save Box,

which is made up of basic grocery items.

So, you're gonna have to get creative with it.

And the cook caught in the middle gets the Surprise Box,

which contains unique ingredients that'll really put your skills to the test.

But in the end, only one of you will win

and walk away with whatever cash you have left in your bank.

Okay. You'll have to enter a minimum bid of $2,500,

and you can lock in your bids now.

My bidding strategy is to bid low

because I feel more comfortable with the Save Box.

I'm not like a lobster/caviar guy. I have two little kids.

I have daycare costs. Come on. I mean, we're not doing that kind of thing.

I really want the Spend Box

because I wanna make a splash in the first round.

So money is no object.

Okay, Ryan, let's take a look at your bid.

$3,500. Someone's trying to spend.

All right, Nick. $2,510.

$10 over the minimum. I see where you're going.

And Vivian. $2,501.

Oh! Okay.

That means Ryan, you bought the Spend Box,

and your bank has been adjusted accordingly.

Vivian, you bought the Save Box.

-And Nick, I hope you like surprises. -We'll find out.

Home cooks, you have 45 minutes to make your dish,

but be ready, 'cause you never know what ingredients

Chef Choi might be sending down the line

that you will have the opportunity to bid on.

Nick, Vivian, Ryan, are you ready to cook at all costs?

-Ready. - Ready.

Oh, yeah.

Well, good, 'cause your time starts now!

Oh, rib eye, Taleggio. Okay.

I am pretty excited that I got the Spend Box.

Cabernet Sauvignon. Okay.

Because I have a dry-aged rib eye steak, which is a luxury cut of beef,

Taleggio cheese, one of my favorite Italian cheeses,

and kale, which I literally cook every day.

I spent $3,500 on this Spend Box.

And honestly, that's probably what I'd spend in New York for that steak anyways.

Cabbage, smoked Gouda, maybe cilantro, chili powder, and ground beef.

When I open the Save Box,

I see ground beef, smoked Gouda cheese, some cabbage.

I think that I can take these humble ingredients

and transform it into a delicious dish.

Um, burgers.

At first, my mind goes straight to a hamburger,

but then I quickly realize, "Oh, I don't have a bun."

Um...

What am I going to cook?

Oh, Vermouth! Good. It's not a cocktail-making show.

In my Surprise Box, there is a crazy assortment of ingredients.

Vermouth, rapini, blue cheese, and...

Oh, God.

...a whole beef heart.

I'm just staring at this massive thing.

Okay.

Ooh!

Okay, the proteins are revealed.

We've got some dry-aged rib eye in the Spend Box,

ground beef in the Save Box,

and the protein for Surprise, beef heart.

-What am I doing with this, Jordan? -You got a big heart.

Big heart, whoo! Okay.

I'm a dad. I am constantly being judged for my cooking.

Every meal, there is some complaint about what Dad has done incorrectly,

so I can definitely cook on the fly,

on the ground, in the water, wherever you want me to cook.

Oh, what to do with this?

Oh, God.

Actually, you know what? Where'd that vermouth go?

I'm just gonna try this.

I realize that I can marinate my beef heart with vermouth

and then grill it, basically.

And I can make rapini and blue cheese fritters.

Okay, I like it.

My steak's seasoned.

I know what I'm gonna do with the steak. I don't wanna throw it on the grill,

because I want a nice brown crust on my rib eye.

I want some sort of Taleggio steak sauce and then a sautéed kale.

I was a semi-professional rugby player for years.

Competition is something I've been doing my entire life.

I'm hoping to show Chef Choi that I know how to cook a luxury cut of beef.

Saying I'm a Michelin-star cook is probably being a little too immodest,

but I would describe myself as having Michelin-star talent.

I cook these all the time.

-Hey, hey. -Yo!

What are you working on? Some upgrades? What do you have here?

Filet mignon, which I am tying bacon to it.

So you get bacon, you get the fillet.

-Yeah. -It's a nice upgrade.

Which box do you think the filet mignon would help the most?

So I feel like the Surprise Box with the beef heart.

You know, as a home cook, you might not be used to cooking beef heart,

and if you don't cook it right, it could be very... bad.

-Yeah. Just terrible, chewy, mealy... -Yeah, yeah.

-Gamey. -...gamey.

So the filet, obviously,

beautiful piece of meat, and really forgiving.

-Hard to mess up. -Yeah, true.

What do you think is in the Spend Box that makes it worth the big bucks?

So the Spend Box has so many nice ingredients.

Obviously the dry-aged rib eye. You have the Taleggio,

which goes really nice with the dry-aged rib eye.

It has like sure winners in that box, right?

-I agree. -Mm-hmm.

I know you got a few other upgrades up your sleeve.

When these upgrades are ready, send them out.

Okay, let's do it.

I'm very competitive. I've run seven marathons.

I was in a marching band in college,

where you had to compete for a spot on the field every single week,

and I came here to win.

So I'm gonna give 150% to this competition.

I am going to make meatballs stuffed with the Gouda cheese.

A burger's out of the question, so my next thought is a meatball.

I'm making smoked Gouda-stuffed fried meatballs with a tangy slaw.

But the biggest challenge with my Save Box is that I'm missing a starch.

Looks like it's time for your first live auction.

My favorite part.

My strategy for this auction is to bid on ingredients that I need,

but I'm also gonna bid on ingredients that the other contestants need

just to drive up the price a little bit.

Your first item up for bid is... yellow potatoes.

Meat and potatoes, perfect pair. I need to get those.

The opening bid is $500.

-And the auction starts now. -

We got $500 going to Vivian.

-Do I hear $600? -

-Do I have $700? -

-Do I have $800? -

-Do I have $1,000? -

$1,000 going once, going twice...

-Sold! Sold to Vivian. -

$1,000 for potatoes?

All right, the next upgrade is...

heavy cream for $800.

This could really add some richness to your dish.

Oh my God. I actually could use cream, like, right now.

I could make a sauce out of it, which would be unbelievable.

I really need a liquid dairy component