Flay gets festive: all-star culinary colleagues face-off in ‘Holiday Throwdown’
Making Christmas dinner with your colleagues is all fun and games — that is, unless your colleagues are all professional chefs. After seven weeks of cooking alongside some of the best in the game, celebrity chef Bobby Flay (“Bobby’s Triple Threat”) has one last chance to prove himself a festive-feast champion as “Beat Bobby Flay: Holiday Throwdown” airs its final episode Tuesday, Dec. 19, on Food Network.
“Food Network’s favorites come together for holiday-themed culinary competitions and the chance to beat Bobby Flay,” a series description given by the network explains. “In each supersized episode, three chefs must bring their A-game and battle it out over two festive rounds to get to Bobby.” In true “BBF” fashion, the chefs must first compete against each other, creating spectacular dishes that feature secret ingredients of Bobby’s choice. Whoever does it best moves on to the final round, then forcing Flay to cook their own surprise signature dish, with Flay testing his culinary prowess against the chef who knows it best. If Bobby can’t cut it, the guest chef takes home the greatest prize of all: the pride of knowing they beat one of Food Network’s best.
So far, this holiday special edition has seen Sunny Anderson (“The Kitchen”), Darnell Ferguson (“Worst Cooks in America”), Duff Goldman (“Ace of Cakes”), Chris Scott (“The Great Soul Food Cook Off”), Alex Guarnaschelli (“Alex Vs America”), Eddie Jackson (“Outchef’d”), Michael Symon (“Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out”), Antonia Lofaso (“Cutthroat Kitchen”), Damaris Phillips (“Southern at Heart”) and more face off against Flay, with guest judges Tiffani Faison (“Duck It!”), Katie Lee Biegel (“The Kitchen”), Carson Kressley (“BBQ Brawl”) and Bobby’s own daughter, Sophie Flay (“Bobby and Sophie on the Coast”), all stopping in to give their say.
During this upcoming season finale, however, the pressure (cooker) is on, as chef Jeff Mauro (“Sandwich King”) taps in as judge and Flay faces his toughest competition yet: Andrew Zimmern (“Family Dinner”), Brooke Williamson (“Top Chef”) and Jet Tila (“Ready Jet Cook”).
With a slate of restaurants and businesses to his name, Bobby Flay is hard to beat. But if anyone can manage it, it’s one of his Food Network colleagues. As this Christmas-party-turned-food-fight reaches its end, Tila, Zimmern and Williamson hope to take down their very own culinary Goliath. “Beat Bobby Flay: Holiday Throwdown” airs its final episode Tuesday, Dec. 19, on Food Network.