Keith Eats Everything At A Seafood Championship

Keith and friends eat everything at the LRA Showcase in Louisiana!
Get Keith’s Hot Sauce! – https://heatonist.com/collections/keiths-hot-sauces

APPEARANCES:
Keith Habersberger @keithhabs
Becky Habersberger @becksmecks2
Jared Popkin @jaredpopkin
Kwesi James @kwesi_james
Ryan Garcia @muchosgarcias

EXTERNAL CREW:
Director of Photography Chris LaPointe

EDITED BY:
Mishelle Martin

ADDITIONAL EDITING BY:
Tulica Singh

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– In 2004 in New Orleans, the first annual Great American
Seafood Cook-Off was held. They invited chefs from
all over the country to showcase and celebrate
their specific seafood dishes. Now it’s in its 21st year, and they have invited me to
eat alongside the judges. 14 of America’s greatest seafood chefs, one gigantic exposition hall full of Louisiana food and drink, and one Keith to eat it all. Let’s eat the Great
American Seafood Cook-Off. Also, there’s a parade. (energetic music) All right, let’s go inside! It’s very New Orleans here. (jaunty music) I found out this is the 77th annual, I think, of this sort of showcase. The seafood competition
only started in 2004, but this convention celebrating food has been happening for a while. It already smells insane in here. It smells like a Shake Shack
and a seafood restaurant. Specifically, I’m getting
cheeseburgers and catfish. Let’s go in. I guess. Here? Here? The boudin from the Best Stop. Mm. It’s like a sausage. It’s also got like, rice in it. I never had before. Whoa! Not too spicy. Flavorful, salty, fatty. It is good. – It’s a zydeco party in your mouth. – It truly is.
– Absolutely right. – A zydeco party in my mouth. – A zydeco party in your mouth. – That’s what I always say. Woo, mouth’s hot. Mouth’s warming up. Mouth’s warming up. It’s very tender. If you’ve never had boudin before, it’s like very squishy, in a yummy way. It’s like eating jambalaya
in a sausage casing. That was the Best Stop. We have to go to the next stop. I gotta get a Crave-A-Ball. Oh! Oh, yeah. Look at that. Wow. This is a fried boudin stuffed
with pepper jack cheese. Whoa. Whoa! Yeah, delicious, cheesy, fatty. It’s sort of like a mozzarella
stick with a spicier cheese. And then you got all the Cajun flavoring. That’s nice. That’s a good ball. That’s a good ball. – No, I can’t. – One more.
– No, I can’t. I have rules. – You ate too many. – It’s so delicious though. It was great. I’ll be back. Okay, Kwesi.
– Yo. – Let’s see who’s got something else. – [Vendor] Have you had a drink yet? – Oh, let’s get our drink on. – I mean, yeah.
– Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s before 12. – [Keith] It’s five o’clock somewhere. The Gin Brigitte. – Brigitte. Brigitte. French. That is tasty. – Refreshing. Very summery. – Oh, weather appropriate. – Ooh, the grapefruit makes it
nice and a little bit bitter. – Cute, too.
– Mm-hmm. – Presentation on point.
– You got a big ol’ leaf. – Mm. It’s fancy ’cause it’s French. – It’s fancy ’cause it’s French. – Mm.
– Mm. – And Desiree, it’s pink. – Mm-hmm. – Oh! I gotta start eating
before I start drinking. – I know. – Because Daddy is about
to get a little crazy. – Hey, can I eat anything here? – Hey.
– I’m sorry. These are crawfish Cajun flavored chips. – Just shake it up. Get that ol’ look. – The El Matador Cajun tortilla chips. Look at the shape of these, first of all. – That tastes so nice. I’ve never had that
flavor before on a chip. – You never had? – A Cajun type of chip. – Delicious.
– That’s divine. – I could snack on those all day. – The touch.
– And the underlying chip is also delicious. Little tortilla chip. We’re gonna take ’em with us. We can take that too? – Where am I gonna put it? Where am I gonna put it? – Where does all this go? – We gotta get a bag. We need a shopping cart. – Oh yeah! It’s gonna go down today. – Yeah.
– Yeah. – Thank you very much.
– Thanks. – Good chippies. This is the best way to
do “Eat the Menu” ever. Just a convention, everything’s so close. – So close. – It’s free because everybody paid. – Everything is warm. – They’re just putting it in my mouth. – It’s everyone’s happy. – Should we have some beans? Beans! Alright, we’re here for the beans. – We’re here for the beans.
– What should I do? – [Vendor] We’re known for our red beans, so you gotta go for the red beans. – Okay, lemme do the red beans. Red beans and sausage from Blue Runner. That’s a delicious red bean. (Kwesi laughing) Oh my gosh, that’s so good. We don’t get this much in LA. I do love red beans and
rice down in New Orleans. So delicious. Man, that’s some good beans. (Kwesi laughs) The sausage wasn’t bad either. We love a kielbasa. – Hell yeah, I will. – When Keith really likes something, he throws his hands back like that. – [Vendor] Oh yeah, I saw that. – And then I wanna, I wanna see if it can throw my hands back. Let’s see it throw my hands back, man. – [Vendor] You can only
find ’em in Louisiana. – Mm.
– I wish these were national. I’d eat ’em. – It’s the hand back. – You living it.
– Throw my hand back. – You living it?
– Mm-hmm. – All right.
– Let’s go home. – Let’s get some sausage, Kwesi. – Sausage. – Sausage. From Richard’s.
– Thank you. – Richard’s is a
hilarious name for sausage because Richard is Dick. – Oh, no way.
– Yeah. – Oh, that makes sense. – So that’s a very funny name.
– Richard’s. – Richard’s. – [Keith and Kwesi] Richard’s. – So Dick.
– It’s French Dick. It’s Dick in French. But the boudin from Richard’s. – Richard’s.
– Richard’s. Out of Charles Point, Louisiana. Richard’s.
– Okay. – You have to try it.
– Wow. There’s a lot of stuff in there. – Yeah?
– What’s in there? – I always think it’s like
eating jambalaya in a sausage. – In one.
– Yeah. – That’s good.
– This is one big family. – Tony Chachere’s hot sausage. Ooh. Oh, great texture on it.
– That’s good. – Mm, mm. The heat comes around in the
sort of the second wave a bit. – Very good. Very good.
– Very nice. Sort of a red pepper flake heat. Good boudin. Mm, oh! (Kwesi laughs) Oh yeah! Mm. That was good boudin. But the first boudin
place was better boudin. – Mm-hmm, I reckon.
– So you said- – And the fried boudin was also
incredible, but it was fine. Kwesi’s about to have his own show where he goes around to convention halls and learns about the
culture of that thing. – Oh, Kwesi knows. – Yeah, Kwesi Learns.
– Kwesi Learns. – Kwesi Learns.
– ‘Cause you don’t know yet. – I don’t know yet. – But you will know, you will know. – I know a little bit about everything, but a lot about nothing. – That’s right.
– Boom. Let’s do it, man.
– Let’s do it. – Where the gator at, y’all? Where the gators at? So we’re in New Orleans. We’re
gonna go meet the gators. We’re gonna go meet the gators, boy. We’re gonna meet the gators. – [Keith] We gotta go,
we gotta, we gotta go. – We gotta go meet the gators. – I’ll follow you, you don’t-
– We’re gonna meet the gators. Hi, I’m Kwesi and this is a gator. Oh, it’s just a baby. It’s just a baby. What’s this gator’s name? – It doesn’t have a name. Have you named it? – Kwesi, second of his name. Hi.
– How you doing man? – I’m good, yo. I came a long way from Brooklyn. – Thank you for being here.
– Now I’m holding a gator. Yo, this is crazy. He’s so soft on the bottom. Oh man. Look at this state one
time for Louisiana, y’all. – Yeah.
– Oh man, yeah. What do we have here? – Okay, so we’re with Surfside. We’re a vodka iced tea
and vodka lemonade RTD based out of Philly. – Quinta, we got your
peoples out here, son. – Hell yeah.
– Philly represent. Know what I’m talking about? She runs ABC. (laughs) – Would you like to sample? – I’ll take everything. – No, just one.
– I’ll take one. (laughs) – What do you think?
– Lemme know. – It’s very, it’s not
overpowering in flavor. – No.
– It has a tint of alcohol? – Yes.
– I had no idea. This is one of those slow creeper uppers. – Yeah.
– You know what I’m saying? Like you are at a barbecue. Keith is out sous viding something. And then like, damn. I’m
feeling kind of tipsy. – It’s a porch pounder. – It’s a porch?
– Pounder. – Pounder. A black man wanted
to tell the French, yo. – Here we go.
– Oh my God. – Louisiana fish fry products.
– What’s up? – [Keith] Tell us about this place. – Maker of the number one selling fish fry and chicken fry in the United States. – Really?
– Prove it. – You getting ready to try it. – Okay. – The Louisiana fish fry product. – Uh-huh. – That’s a long time.
– Wow. That came outta the
fryer just a minute ago. – Yeah, be careful.
– That’s fresh. And no sauce with it too, you know? You not hiding nothing. – Hey, hey, you gotta try. – Hit it. – Hit it. – [Vendor] This is the it sauce. That’s our remoulade sauce. – Ramalot? – Remoulade.
– Remoulade. – Yes.
– What does remoulade mean? – It is a Creole mustard base with a little bit of horseradish
and some other seeds. – Wow! that’s the secret sauce. – What do you think? – That’s why people keep coming back. – That’s fantastic.
– Yeah. – Oh my God. – Put that on a shrimp taco, fish taco. – Wow. Anything like that. – Isn’t it nice? Like,
my mouth is left warm. Not like crazy spicy, but my mouth is warm
just from one bite, woo! – It’s doing Big Band Jazz in my mouth. – Yeah, uh-uh.
– The blackened shrimp. – Blackened? – Yeah.
– And what makes it blackened? – It’s the seasoning and the spices. – [Kwesi] Ah. – [Keith] I’m gonna hit that
around onto to you first. – My back is sweating.
– Yeah? – Yeah. This is so good. So much good spices. Oh my gosh! Mm, mm. Get in there. – The blackened shrimp. Oh. (Kwesi laughing) Okay. – [Kwesi] Oh my God. – It’s a little unfair.
– Wow. – It’s a little unfair to
gimme something that delicious. It’s a little unfair. – Put some of the South in your mouth. – That’s really good.
– Okay, that’s what he said. Wow! (Kwesi laughing) – That was good. – [Kwesi] I’m gonna
take that home with me. – That blackened shrimp
was, ugh, delicious. Especially with that remoulade. – [Kwesi] It was finger looking good. – Yeah, you should get a
squirt of that remoulade on it. – Goodness gracious.
– That’s so good. That was a good shrimp, I told you. That was good shrimp. – Good shrimp.
– Fantastic. That’s like, finger licking good. Yo, Keith threw his head back. – Woo, woo, that was good. – He just went, oh, wait a minute. – Should we try a beer? – I think we should try a beer. – I want to try whatever
these little guys are. – [Kwesi] Oh, I drink this. – I want this. And this is the Cutwater
Espresso Martini little beverage. You can taste that one. That one’s boozy. How much, what’s the percentage on that? 13%? It sure is. Woo! That is like a real espresso martini in terms of alcohol content. That’s a lot. Woo, you can light my breath on fire. – [Kwesi] Yeah! (laughs) – I think that’s what you want. I think that’s what you want. Hey, how’s it going? I’m trying this, it’s so boozy. – So boozy. – I know. It’s a lot. – What they say, great things
come in small packages. – I know and terrible things are giant. It’s New Orleans.
– New Orleans, the outside. – How can we not have a
drink? It’s New Orleans. – We’re outside in New Orleans. It’s hot outside. – In my welcome bag they gave me beads and I did have to show my titties. (Kwesi laughing) Hey. – Hi.
– Tell me what you got. – Well, we’ve got some of
the best pork on the planet. – Hell yeah. I love to hear it. – Really.
– Prove it. – Prove it? Try it. Put it in your mouth. – The pork chop from Beeler’s. First of all, it’s a great
crunch on the outside of that. Good little fat cap on the
side of that pork chop. Delicious flavor. I love the little crunchy
fat you got going on there. That was a good little pig. I understand what the wolf is doing. – Oh my goodness. – Okay.
– Chorizo on the house. – The chorizo for good measure. Woo! Flavor explosion in there. – Wow.
– Great texture. Not too hot. Very juicy and fatty. Totally delicious. Good pigs. Good pigs, good pigs. – Mm. What’s up? – The thing that’s not just chicken. – What?
– What? – [Keith] What do we got here? – Sous vide chicken breast.
– With crispy skin. – Okay.
– You be sous vide. – I be sous viding.
– You be sous viding, bro. – I’m always doing it. I’m doing it all the the time. I gotta. I gotta, okay. Also, this is, can we see
how beautiful this is? – Spike Lee going on.
– Look at this, elevated. I love the fact that the chicken skin is just fried to a crisp. This is from Bell & Evans. The sous chicken breast with
crispy skin and poulet jus. With the crispy skin, it has
the flavor of a fried chicken, but the unbelievable moistness that you can only get from sous vide or maybe the best rotisserie in your life. Wow, you’ve never had
a fried chicken breast that’s that juicy
because it can’t be done. But you guys did it. Shout out, most beautiful
thing I’ve had so far. – Guys, fantastic. Thank you so much. Cheers. – Mm.
– I’ll take that from you. – Oh, that’s good.
– Come on. – Scallops.
– Scallops. – Lemme gallop over
there for them scallops. This is Fleet Select. Oh, look at the size of this scallop. – Oh!
– God. It smells so good. Look at this thing. This is massive. The Fleet Select scallop. – [Kwesi] Awesome, what a name. (triumphant music) – Come on now. Buttery little sear on that. The texture of a scallop is
just unlike anything else. That is so delicious. I’m drinking the butty. – You like it that much?
– I’m drinking the butter. The salty butter. I mean it’s salty butter. Oh, that was nice. But we gotta get an
oyster. I mean, come on. Gotta get an oyster. Right? Woo! That felt good! Can I get into one of these? – [Vendor] Absolutely. – [Keith] Where’s this oyster from? – St. Bernard. This is a big boy. A little hot sauce on there already. Briny. – What is, what is it? What is briny? – Briny.
– What does briny mean? – Salty.
– Oh. – Saltwater. That hot sauce hit me on
the back of the throat. (Keith laughs) It’s good though. – Can I taste the briny? – Get in there, Kwesi. – Can I taste one of the brinies? – These already had some Tabasco on ’em. These don’t. – I’ll taste tobacco.
– Tabasco. – I’ll taste Tabasco.
– Tabasco. – I’ll taste a Tabasco.
– What a shot. – (laughs) And then
straight down the gullet? No, no fork? – Slurp it up. That’s brimey. – Briny.
– That’s grimy. – Briny, briny. He said grimy and them brimey. – That’s brimey. (laughs) That’s brimey. – B-R-I-N-E-Y.
– That’s briny. – There you go.
– That’s brimey. – No, briny.
– Brimey! That’s brimey! – That sounds like a
nickname for your buddy. Hey, it’s Brimey.
– Hey Brimey! It’s me Joey. – Hey Brimey.
– It’s me, Joey, Brimey. – [Keith] We gotta go to this section because it’s called Keith. – Alright.
– Eat often, that’s for sure. That’s for sure. – [Kwesi] Hey, Keith’s in the house. CJ, how? – [Keith] So this is a
filet and a skirt texture. – [Vendor] All the same bite. – The Bavette cut from Keith Valley. You’re right, the flavor
is more into like a flap. – So, so easy to chew, which sometimes you can’t get depending on the cut of a flap. That’s delicious. That’s delicious. – Yep.
– Thank you very much. – Thank you.
– My name’s Keith. So I had to stop by.
– There you go. – Because I had to. That was good. I mean, I love steak or munchies. Gotta hop in here. Look at all these. – That’s a lot of pigs.
– Best pork on the planet. – Hell yeah.
– Oh, prove it. – [Keith] Alright, gimme. What should I have?
– Come on. – I feel like this guy looks incredible with that little fat cap. So this is a how many days? – 21 days dry aged. – 21 day dry age pork chop. The pork chop, mm. Oh, that fat is excellent. Wow, just the base pork
flavor there is so good. That’s incredible. – Salt, pepper. Finished on the George
Foreman grill right there. – Wow, really? – I was about say, like that is just an
easy, simple seasoning. But it’s so delicious. – Thank you, chef. – You don’t get to try pork very often. I’m always saying positive
things, but it is all delicious. It is Heartbrand beef. Heartbrand beef burger. – [Vendor] Best burger here from Texas. – That’s nice. I love the cook on it too. Mm, that’s a delicious little burger. Also, there’s like almost
no seasoning on this. And it’s delicious. Oh, let’s get a cookie. – Cookie time now.
– It’s cookie time. – It’s cookie time.
– Okay. Aphrodite Divine Confections. – Because it’s divine.
– They’re divine. From this whole thing,
if I can only eat one, what would be the one? – Cinnamon Toga. – Cinnamon Toga.
– We both said the same thing. – Then it has to be true. – I love coffee. – [Vendor] When you eat that, you’re gonna wish you had a cup of coffee. – I love this kind of-
– Cream cheese. – Okay. Oh, it smells good. It smells like a coffee cake. Whoa. That is coffee cake as a cookie. It’s kind of dry in a really good way. Mm, I freaking love coffee cake. And that is a coffee cake cookie. That is so bomb. I do want coffee with that. – Damn, this is so good. – So it’s cooled down a little bit. We’re gonna try that Buster’s. – Ooh, it’s still so hot. We’re gonna try it. This is a eggplant and catfish batter. Or is that a fried green tomato? – That’s a fried green tomato. That’s what I kind of thought it was. – The fried green tomato. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It’s boiling hot. I love a catfish batter. The amount of breading on
here gets in a nice crunch ’cause the tomato itself is goo. It’s pretty much goo at this point. It’s been fried. Ooh, it’s hot. Don’t touch it. It’s also a little bit spicy. No, I can, I can power through. Alright, let’s hit the next spot. That was really good. Look at these. These are wild. Out of Salisbury, Maryland. Handy Seafood, the crab salad. Oh, that’s nice. It’s like a pico de gallo with crab. It’s delicious, fresh crab. That’s refreshing. That’s summer. Get in there, Kwesi. – Thank you.
– That’s good. The jalapeno in there. Jalapeno, I should say. – That is fishy and nice. – [Keith] Yeah, you like it or not? – Put that in there.
– Because I don’t know. Do you like crab? – Mm-hmm, a little bit. – Kwesi doesn’t like
it, but he’s being nice. – That’s not what I said. Where do we go? Where do we go? – I want it.
– Okay. Desiree’s having popcorn. All right everybody,
it’s time for popcorn. – Popcorn!
– Woo! – [Kwesi] This is the show sponsored by… – Desiree and popcorn.
– Yum! – Yum!
– Tastes like popcorn. – Oh, that was so funny.
– Got it. – It really fell apart.
– Got it. You saved the popcorn. (laughs) – Oh, Tony Chachere’s.
– Hey Tony! – We got some pork rinds. I gotta hit a little bit of it, right? – My bad.
– That’s nice. It was very flavorful. I love pork rinds too. – What’s the Spanish name for pork rinds? – Chicharrones.
– Chicharron. – That made me sneeze.
(Kwesi laughs) I was breathing in that pepper. It’s good though. It’s got a good garlic flavor. But it is gonna make me
sneeze again, so let’s go. – What’s this?
– Ooh. – What’s the best? – I have this in my house. – You have this in your house?
– I have this in my house. – Okay, a little ginger, Kwesi, you’re literally right in front. – My bad, my bad, my bad. (laughs) – This is the Fever-Tree. This is the ginger beer mixer. That’s a nice little ginger beer. What would I mix this with? Do you think? Vodka? – Whiskey. – Yes.
– Whoa. Specifically hitting the Irish whiskey. Love to hear it. – You wanna step it up? Try the blood orange ginger beer. – The blood orange ginger beer. They said you couldn’t do that. That used to be illegal. – Not anymore. – It used to be illegal
to combine those flavors. – We like to push limits. – Well, you did a great job pushing the Senate to approve this. It’s incredible. Really great work out there. I do need some alcohol in mine. – Yeah.
– You know? Desiree’s got me something. Desiree’s got me a margarita. A margarita, Orange Power. Oh, that’s like an alcoholic creamsicle. It’s like a sherbet, you know? Mm, it’s nice. It’s like, it’s a boozy
little summer treat. – Kwesi James wanna hit that too. – Yeah, that’s nice. – Wow.
– That’s nice. And also my mouth was hot
from some spicy stuff. So that was kind of perfect. Huh? – [Vendor] You got three different drinks. – Don’t have booze in
them though, so I’m not, I’m not being irresponsible. This one does. – We ain’t driving, y’all. – We’re not driving. (Kwesi laughs) This is amaze, look at this. You said this is a hillbilly nacho? – No, redneck nacho.
– Redneck nacho. My mistake. Wow, this looks wild. Wow, that’s heavy. – No, that’s delicious. Flavor wise, if you’ve ever had a pulled pork mac and
cheese, it’s kinda like that. But also with a crunchy, you know, pork rind on top. – Yeah. – No, I know, right? – Wow. Look at that. – Woo wee! – The shrimp burger. I mean, it’s just a delicious, it’s almost like a po’boy, like a grilled shrimp po’boy flavor. The texture of this with the
big lumps of shrimp is awesome. I’m starting to get kind of crazy. I’m gonna be crazy once you start judging. (Kwesi laughs) I missed this earlier.
– Whoa! What’s this? – This is a bluefin tuna tartare. – Oh, okay.
– Whoa! – Oh, that’s so good. So tuna’s great. But the little marinade, the little, the little soy and vinegar situation here. Mm, that is a good little poke. The teensiest little kick. – I want some of that.
– That’s good. – [Kwesi] That’s good? – Have you ever had swordfish
when it’s like a steak? It’s kind of like a steaky fish. This has a nice chew as
well. It’s really good. – The steak of the sea. – Swordfish is the steak of the sea. But bluefin tuna is also delicious. – It’s the steak of the sea! – It’s not, again, swordfish
is the steak of the sea. But bluefin tuna, they’re
huge and they’re delicious. – It’s not the steak of the sea. (laughs) – You got snails?
– Escargot. – Hell yeah.
– I like my escar-stay. – Fresh one.
– Yeah. Dad joke, ha ha! – Local butter, wild caught snails. Now you imagine someone catching a snail. I don’t imagine it’s
that hard to catch them. – ‘Cause it’s slow.
– Right? So it’s really like found ’cause
they’re not gonna get away. Once you see a snail, you’ve caught it. Right? You’ve caught it. It’s not getting away. The snails. What I love about snails,
they just taste like butter. They just taste like the
butter they’re cooked in. Let’s just go to the- – Oh, a mouse!
– Oh, oh, oh, oh! – Little Ratatouille.
– It’s not real. – [Kwesi] It’s not real. (laughs) – It’s not real. Don’t worry. Whoa, okay. What’s the best bite? – [Vendor] Pistachio Crunch
is probably very nice. – Yeah, that’s what I want. – The pistachio cream. Yeah, that’s good. – (laughs) My bad. – I love that. Wow. Nutty, creamy, coats your
mouth like peanut butter. That is nice. – I gotta try that now.
– That’s good. – I want that!
– That’s good. – Gimme some of that. – I mean it’s pistachios, guys. – Come on, man. – [Keith] These pistachios are so good. – Oh, ow!
– Yeah, that’s good. – Ugh!
– Starting to sweat. – Sweat, baby.
– That hot sausage. One bite, whew. – Good.
– It’s got my temples warm. All right, we gotta do the parade. – Do you guys want me to get
something for you to throw? – [Keith] What could we throw? – I’ve been throwing beads and stuff. – Oh my gosh. Can we have some beads? – Yes!
– Thank you very much. And shrimps, shrimps. – [Desiree] I’m gonna be out
there trying to catch a shrimp. – I gotta throw some shrimps. Parade!
– Yeah! (jaunty music) – Who wants a shrimp? Shrimp! – That’s a shrimp! That’s a shrimp! That’s a shrimp! (Keith shouting) Woo! (jaunty music) Whew, that’s hot, baby. Whew, it’s hot in New Orleans! It’s hot in New Orleans! – Now we’re gonna start tasting the actual dishes from the chefs. There are 14 chefs competing. They’re from different states. They all had to win like a little regional
competition to get here. So this is the best of the
best from all these like, known for seafood places, right? And what is more known
for lobster than Maine? This chef is Chef Wilson Rothschild. We have Maine lobster and corn flapjacks. I’ve never had this sort of dish at all. So let’s get in. There’s a huge delicious claw
just sitting right there. You also have this nice little sauce. We’ve got some actual kernels
of corn, some fried onions. I was gonna do this in one bite and I’m like, no, I probably shouldn’t. The lobster with flapjacks. Whoa, the lobster’s already
been hit with that butter. So it just has this unbelievable
texture and butter flavor. The corn flapjack is like not
too sweet, not too cornbready. It’s sort of right in between. I love the actual corn itself. It is the little pops of
like, corny sweetness. That’s sort of what they say about me. (drum rimshot) The lobster’s like, crazy. It’s just like the most
deliciously buttered lobster. Mm, this is like such a little symphony. (steel drum music) A lobster playing the
steel drums right now. (steel drum music) What do we have here from Chef Ben Rosen? Alabama Summer, pecan grilled
and marinated Gulf cobia. Cobia? Cobia? Cobia? I don’t know what that fish is. He started at Cracker Barrel, Applebee’s, worked his way up. He cooks for his family. And now he’s actually in the League of Supreme
Chefs or something like that. – [Producer] Yeah. He’s currently chef de partie. – Chef de partie. Chef de party? Chef of the party? He’s chef of the party. Chef de partie. Let’s give it a try. Let’s try the Gulf cobia, Alabama Summer. Damn, that’s delicious. You can taste the wood smoke. The actual pecan gives it this nuttiness. It has a really incredible texture. I’m cutting it more like
a steak than a fish. It’s not falling it apart. It’s like staying really delicious. But it is still flaky and tender. Mm, a lot of wood smoke flavor on this. More than I’ve ever had on a fish. Let’s try the risotto. Mm. Oh damn! Damn! It almost is like a black garlic oil. Have you ever had that like on a ramen? Like, that’s the kind
of flavor I’m getting, salty, garlicky. And it is giving this risotto so much intense salty flavor on top of its creamy, buttery finish. It’s like kind of out of control. It tastes like I’m eating in a wood cabin by the river. Like, I can see the antlers on the wall. This is crazy how flavorful this is. Like, the smoke on this fish. I’ve just never had a smoked
fish that wasn’t like, you know, a breakfast smoked fish, right? Like this is a barbecue fish. God, it’s good. God, I should’ve said grace. (angelic choral music)
(producer laughs) I should’ve said grace before. This is Alabama. Next up, I got some food
from the chef from Georgia. And helping me to judge it is my Southern friend Jared Popkin. – Woo! B’s back, baby. Papa’s home. – [Keith] Papa’s home. – Georgia’s a perfect place to start. – That is a nice place to start. This, first of all, smells amazing. This is the Pescado a lo Macho, which makes me think of manly fish. Now this looks like a Thai dish, right? All right, let’s try
the Pescado a lo Macho. – Cheers, my friend. – Whoa. – Whoa. That’s a knockout. Is
that what you’re saying? You’re knocked out. – That’s a macho fish. – That is a good fish. This is like really beautifully fried and then you get past the
fried to a insanely fresh fish. – And the sauce is sort of insane. The sauce is so much flavor. – [Jared] It almost feels like
it’s supposed to be spicy. You know, it’s supposed to be spicy. There’s no spice. – But it’s warm. Almost like how a curry is warm without necessarily always being spicy. It’s gonna make my temples sweat, but I’m not gonna cry, you know? – Aw, that’s really beautiful. – You know?
(Jared laughs) – No, but no, that’s, no, no. It’s like it’s how my
body reacts to curry. – [Jared] Oh. (laughs) – I start getting sweaty,
but it’s not so hot that like my nose is running,
but my temples sweat. – That’s really exciting.
– And I’m already getting it. If you wanna feel how warm
the sides of my head are. It’s from this. – I wasn’t expecting to feel anything. – This is the Bounty of Mississippi
from Chef John JD Davis. Sweet potato crusted snapper,
red snapper, I should say, Miss and Maddie Bayou okra and tomato rice with
Mississippi red pepper sauce and basil dressing. The bounty of Mississippi. – The bounty of Mississippi. Most wanted thing in Mississippi. – I’m hunting it down. – I’m here for your meats. – Today I got a bounty on
the best steak in Texas and I’m gonna find that. – [Jared] At first glance, didn’t realize the fish
was on the thing on top. – [Keith] Oh, you didn’t
realize this was fish? – I mean, I do now, but I swear to God at quick glance, I thought that was like a
thing of mac and cheese. – Piece of cheese? (Jared laughs) Bounty of Mississippi. – I’m here for your bounty. I really like this. – Hmm.
– Talk about good and simple. I really like this in taste. I don’t know how simple
or hard it is to concoct, but in terms of taste, this is something very
nostalgic to me with fresh fish. – [Keith] The sweet potato
breading isn’t working for me. – [Jared] Wow, I like the breading. – You’ve already got this tomato sauce, which is kind of sweet. You have the pesto,
which is kind of sweet. You’ve got this breading now
on the fish, it’s all sweet. I don’t, I’m missing
like something brighter. Some more lemon or some salt or another spice to take
it another direction. But again, you know, everyone
knows I’m not a sweets boy. So like it’s gonna be harder for me to like a sweet dusted anything. – I think I like sweets. I really enjoy this dish. It’s like easy to eat. I wish my grandma could make that. – I wish your grandma could make this too. – (laughs) Yeah. – From Chef Abby O’Sullivan,
Highlands & Homelands. Seared arctic char with
maple frenette smoked glaze. This is from Vermont. – Woo!
– Shout out, Desiree. – We have some Vermont heads in the room. – [Desiree] Yeah! – Get a whiff of this here. It smells crazy. – What’s it smell like?
– I don’t even know. – It smells bad. – No, I think it smells kind of good. But it smells like Chinese food. – There is ginger in here.
– There it is. All right, let’s try this. – [Both] Cheers. (intense music) – That’s strange. – (laughs) I’m at a loss here. – I don’t even, I don’t even
know what to think about this. – I don’t even know what to say. – Let me try this right here.
– Armando goes, “React.” (Jared laughing) – What’s that? – [Producer] North Atlantic arctic char, mussels, goat cheese, Vermont made fernette,
spiced eggplant pickle salad. – Eggplant. It also, does it? It has like a little
bit of a numbing spice, like a Szechuan peppercorn
on it, which I love. And that’s what I was smelling at first. I was like, this smells Asian
’cause I smelled the ginger. I smelled the Szechuan peppercorn, which is not, which I like. It’s making the sides of
my tongue kind of funny. – Yeah.
– So I’m into this. – I realize this is more my fault. I don’t like eggplant in general. – [Producer] It’s not your fault. – That’s my fault. (laughs) – Looks beautiful. – That sauce has a taste of
something so familiar to me, and I can’t put my finger on it. – The mussels, fire. The mussels, fricking fantastic. That has that maple sweetness. I would never have assumed you could put something
sweet like that on a mussel. – That might be the best
mussel I’ve ever had. – That was slam dunk good. I’m gonna give it five dunks. – Five dunks?
– Five dunks. He’s gonna hurt his legs. – Three, four, five dunks. – That’s 10 points.
– Yeah! I love mussels. I’m happy she killed it. – That mussel is insane.
– Yeah. – [Desiree] I’m very
upset there are only two. – The mussels are so delicious. Like beyond, almost
candied in this weird way. But great texture is still very fresh. Well, Jared, thanks for hopping by. – Thanks for having me, baby. – Well, and you know Jared’s here because we’re actually shooting
a bunch of Try Guys videos here in New Orleans as well. And we’re doing burlesque,
we’re doing jazz, and we’re doing voodoo. Some really cool stuff
down here in New Orleans Jared, thanks for stopping by. – Oh, thanks for having
me. I love doing this. What’s up y’all? Good to see you, baby. All right.
– We’ll see what’s next. All right, next up is the dish
from our chef from Virginia. And joining me is a man who can do quite the
Virginia accent, Ryan Garcia. – Oh well, hello there,
Keith Habersberger. Virginia. What do we got here, Keith? – We have, from Chef Matthew Brusca, fried cobia collar with green Romesco and Virginia farmer’s salad. Look at that.
– Woo wee, pretty. – Let me cut you a little bite right here. Let me cut you a little bite. – I can’t with my knife myself. – No, we’re all out of knives. Only Keith’s got knives. – I need Daddy Keith to cut for me. – Daddy Keith will cut you a piece. – Big daddy. – Big, I don’t know if they say big daddy. – All right, big daddy. Cut me off a piece of that catfish. – I feel like they say father. (Ryan laughs) Father. – Little Romesco sauce. – Let’s try the fried cobia collar. – Wow, that’s so nice. – Mm. Okay. So those Romesco has a
strong parsley taste, but it’s actually quite good. They’ve cut it with a little bit of lemon. Something a little bit buttery. It’s still a very strong
raw parsley flavor, which is very intense. But with the fried fish gives it this very zesty
sort of fresh vibe. And let’s try the farmer’s salad. – [Ryan] Farmer’s salad.
Did you get the radish? – Mm-hmm.
– Good, I was nervous. – Mm! – [Ryan] The little bacon bits in there. Like, what fun. – This is sort of doing like the fish that had the fresh sauce to make it fresh and then the salad has
the bacon to make it less. You know, like the salad is
all fresh and then salty bacon. The fish is all salt and
then a fresh sort of sauce. – Yeah. – It’s a fun little interplay here. Both of these feel like a
great sitting on the patio in summertime watching the sunset dinner. This feels like something
served in the Shire. – Hmm.
– You know? A nice quick fried fish. – Sam.
– With a farmer’s salad. – More fish please. – Is there any radishes in there? – More radishes in it, please. – Oh.
– Yes. A bacon bit, I wasn’t expecting that. – Oh, I love it.
– I love it. Little bit of pig. Just a little bit. – Just a little bit of pig. No potatoes though. – That’s all right. We’ll have potatoes for every other meal. – Okay. Oh, this is the fried catfish herb aioli. No one- – This is from Tennessee. (both yelling excitedly) Time for Tennessee, everybody. And I knew it was gonna be catfish. Of course it’s catfish. It’s the only seafood there. So this is fried catfish with
herb aioli, smoked trout roe, hot sauce, vinegarette, and peaches. – Is Tennessee known for its peaches? – No, but it’s known for being by Georgia. – You missed the peach. – I’m not gonna do the
peach at the same time. – You’re not doing the
peach at the same time? – Well, ’cause they’re
so separated on the dish that tells me I shouldn’t
put them together. – I’m going together. – Okay, let’s try it. Oh my God, the peach. – Yeah, I think the peach
is supposed to go in it. – Maybe you’re right ’cause
the peach is in a hot sauce. – Yeah.
– Whoa. – [Ryan] It’s got a kick. – And the peach is also just perfect. The sourcing the peach here is incredible. Okay. Okay, Ryan. – Try it.
– Let’s try it together. – Does it hit every quadrant? – It hits ’em all. Yeah, you have the spice, you have the sweet, you have the salty, you have the fatty, you have the crunch, you have the soft, you have the squish
with the peach as well. You’ve got these nice herbs.
– Whoa! – I mean, this is very much in line with the times I’ve eaten
like, Michelin chef food. – Yeah.
– It’s beautiful to look at, a lot of flavors to slowly
work your way through. It’s kind of tastes like
a perfect sandwich bite. – Wow. – ‘Cause you have that aioli, you have that salt, you have that sweet, you have the hot sauce, you have this, it almost is like having a po’boy bite without having a sandwich. And it had all the beautiful meld of a perfect sandwich, with a little bit of a smoke on the roe. – Like, nothing was overpowering. And then just that tang from that little spice from the sauce stays with you afterward to say, “Hey, I hope you had a great time. “Come back again sometime.” – Come on back and see us.
– Anytime. You are welcome here anytime, honey. – Herbaceous. Delicious. So freaking good. – Little fish eggs in there. – Not enough. Not enough. Give me more of that ’cause
that was so delicious. Look at this. We haven’t done that to any plates yet. All right, next up is our chef from Ohio. Now this is Chef Christian
Gill, and there’s drama. – Oh, crazy. – Dun, dun, dun! All the chefs, they ship their
local ingredients, right? Because when the guy from Maine, he’s bringing lobsters from Maine. So everybody ships their stuff here. However, the guy from
Ohio, poor Chef Christian, his stuff didn’t make it.
– Great. – So this morning, he shopped
in the convention hall with all the different food distributors and got all his ingredients to cook today. So it was supposed to be Japanese sweet shrimp chermoula. Chermoula? Chermoula. So overcoming adversity, here we go, Ohio, let’s see. – That’s like a fun
competition show on its own. – He’s been on or won 11
different competition shows that are like “Guy’s Grocery Games,” which is like kind of
going on the fly cooking. So he’s definitely well-versed
in this sort of thing. But let’s see how he does it today. Oh, it has a great charred smell. It almost smells like they either charred whatever, the shrimp, or they charred whatever this fruit was before they emulsified it.
– Yeah dude, mm. – All right, let’s give it a go. Bright and tart and sweet. A very strong like, wood char flavor. So a little bit smokey, but more in that like, wood fire grill. Very sweet with the sauce. A little salty. – I’m getting more of the
smoke than like, anything. – [Keith] Yeah, I’m getting the char is kind of hitting hard on this. – When I got a little bit of
the pineapple with the sauce, it helped ’cause the sauce, I wanted more from it, honestly. – And we do have to
take into consideration, this isn’t what he planned to make. – What a crazy situation.
– Right? So I think he did a tremendous job. I think it’s delicious. – Nailed it, Christian. Like, how’d you do it? – How do you do it? I mean there is a lot of food
to choose from out there. – Oh, and a lot of booze. I was walking around and I was like, wow, everyone here is just partying. Everyone’s like, oh, fresh
pressed juice with vodka. (Keith laughs) What? – Well, thanks for coming through, Ryan. – Yeah, I’m gonna go back out there and see what else I can muster up. Maybe some catfish or something. – Ooh, there’s some
good catfish out there. – Okay bye, Keith!
– Bye! Let’s see what’s next. All right, next up, we have a dish from the chef from Arizona, but joining me to have
it is actually the emcee of the Great American
Seafood Cook-Off, Gerald. Come on in here. – What’s happening, baby?
How are you, brother? Good to see you, baby. – Nice to meet you. – Of course, brother. Nice to meet you. – So you went out there in the action. – [Gerald] Yeah. – [Keith] Seeing it all
go down. What’s the vibe? – I think what I love
so much about this event is seeing the communal aspect of the chefs kind of coming together while they’re waiting
on their time to cook. And I can tell you the team from Arizona, Nick and Robert are some
cats and characters. – Really?
– Yeah, yeah. – [Keith] This is
chicharron-crusted catfish. Holy shit, that sounds incredible. – [Gerald] Bro. – With mole amarillo and
charred garden relish, topped with lime pepita butter. I have never had pork fat crusted fish. Okay, that’s great. So the catfish itself is so
light and flaky on the inside, but you have this nice
fatty crust on the outside, the onions and these little peppers are giving you some nice
like, vinegary notes. It’s good. We also have, is this bacon? What is this? What is this? – Oh, I’m gonna tell you,
I’m like the hype guy. I’m not the food guy,
I’m on the emcee side. I’m pretty sure it’s pineapple, so right? Yeah. How good is that?
– That is so good. – You got charred pineapple.
– Oh yeah. I know while you still got it. – Whoa! Whoa! It’s also like so salty and like sour and you have that charred flavor. That is a crazy bite of pineapple. – I’m loving-
– Woo-hoo! (Gerald laughs) – You know what’s cool, Keith, is, you know, I’ve been emceeing
this event now since 2018 and I never get to eat.
– Really? – This is a monumental moment
for me to be able to sit down and eat one of the dishes
that’s being presented. – You should be eating it every time. – It’s such a treat.
– That’s delicious. I mean, the mole is so
good and not too bitter. There’s just so many really great flavors dancing around together. But the catfish is just so good. I’m from Tennessee. Catfish on Fridays is
just, it’s the way of life. So I don’t get catfish all
that often in Los Angeles. But this is such a nice delicious
reminder of of the South. – Culturally you’re right though. Fridays it’s huge, even
down here in New Orleans. – Yeah, they’re just bottom
feeder little river fish. But gosh, they’re good. You stick your arm in the water, you bring, pull out a catfish. It’s like a Slowpoke. A Slowbro.
– (indistinct) – Well, what do you
want everyone out there to know about this festival
or yourself as well? – Yeah, so ultimately, as good
as this food is, you know, I really fall in love with the chefs, with their personalities, their stories. You know, you think
about most food cultures across the country, whether
it’s here in New Orleans where I live now in Lafayette,
Louisiana, where you know, so many people develop so many flavors that come from adversity, bro.
– Yeah. – You know what I’m saying?
– Absolutely. – We don’t have a whole lot.
– Yeah. – And let’s make a gumbo. We don’t have a whole lot,
let’s make turkey wings. – Catfish, right?
– Turkey. Yeah, exactly. A fish nobody wanted to eat.
– Yeah. – And look at what we’re
doing here today, bro. You know, under the bright lights we’re eating crackling and catfish, bro. – [Keith] Delicious. – [Gerald] That’s what I’m saying, baby. – Well thanks for stopping by.
– Of course. – Make sure you hit up Gerald online and let’s see what’s next. All right, next up we have
a dish from Massachusetts and what kind of pun can I make here? And here’s Kwesi. – Ah! I won a frying pan! Here’s the story! I threw away Courtney’s
frying pan and I won one. The biggest one! Ah! All I do is win! All I’ve known is success, Keith! All I wanna do is some fried food without my wife being mad at me! Did I do well? A frying pan! I won her a frying pan in New Orleans, and I’m bringing it back to California! Woo! – All right, we’re gonna
be having the Min al-bahr, which means from the sea in Arabic. It’s from Massachusetts. It looks really nice. We’ve got a hummus. We have some sort of crustacean, either a crab or lobster meat here. We’ve got some nice dollops
of, I’m assuming a goat cheese, but it could be some other kind of cheese. – [Both] Cheers. – So much flavors. – This is a really good, all the things you like from a Mediterranean restaurant dish. You’ve got a really good hummus. You’ve got the tabbouleh,
you’ve got tahini. And then you’ve got these big sort of foamed yogurt giving you that like yogurt or like kefir. There’s different kind of Middle
Eastern like yogurt things. – Everyone is playing
nice with each other. – Mm-hmm. – Because it’s like a
United Nations recess and everyone playing hopscotch in unison. – [Producer] So this chef does describe his food as not his own, but as an attempt to recreate traditional culturally relevant dishes. So I feel like that’s what you said. – Uh-huh.
– Yep. – Hopscotch.
– Hopscotch. – United Nations hopscotch. It’s a little bit overwhelming for me, but that’s really because
some of the things in this like, aggravate my
tongue if you don’t know. I have a goofy tongue. But tahini specifically, I
think I’m like allergic to. (Kwesi chuckles) All right, well this is delicious. Great job, Massachusetts. Let’s see what’s next. – Whoa, I can’t pronounce that word. – Massachusetts.
– Massachusetts. – Massachusetts.
– Massachusetts. – Massa.
– Massa. – Chew.
– Chew. – Sits.
– Shish. – Almost.
– Oh my gosh! (laughs) – Massachusetts. – Next up is a dish from Seward, Alaska by Chef Kevin Lane. Savor the sabor. Crispy crust Alaskan sable fish with barbecue shrimp soubise, soubise. I don’t know what that is. Soubise, sweet and sour tomatoes, roasted oyster mushrooms, shrimp, salt and vinegar chips. I love this like sesame crust going on. I love these mushrooms. I love these little chips. Let’s try just the sable fish first. – The sable fish.
– Cheers. – Cheers. – Oh my god, that’s good.
– Mm. Throw my hands up in the air.
– Mm-hmm. Ooh, oh my gosh. It gets even better. The sesame.
– Mm! – The crisp of the skin and the sesame is like this nutty flavor and it’s also really beautifully salted. – What a beautiful surprise, the sesame. – Mm, the sauce feels like it’s a like a coconut milk
or something like that. – I got the Holy Spirit. – Ooh, lemme try a sweet and sour tomato. I love these skinned. They look like they were like, poached and then skinned so
they’re like, half cooked. Mm! Oh damn! Yo, Kwesi. – This how you do it in Alaska? – Yo.
– I love that. Oh damn! Oh my God, the flavors! – The flavor of that was insane. It was like a sweet
and sour tomato Gusher. – It melts in your mouth
and not in your hand! – It was so good. Just like Gushers. (laughs)
– Oh snap! – Got a little bit of the fish skin fried up next to the chips. I thought it was a chip. No, it’s fish skin. – It was a illusion.
– Whoa. – Mm!
– Yeah. – Mm! Salty and nice. – Okay, Alaska.
– I see you, I see you. – You’re up in your own world. You’re up there. – Sarah Palin eating good up there, huh? – Yeah, Sarah Palin’s living large. – Shit. (crew members laughing) Damn, Sarah.
– What’s up, Sarah? – What up, y’all?
– How you been, girl? – Shit, running government poorly? – Okay, next up, from Chef Daniel Roy, poached Florida clam. We’ve got these little peppers that look like old
fashioned Christmas lights. – Yeah. – You know what I’m talking
about, the old big ones? We’ve got these beautiful
foamy little clams. It looks like there’s bacon on there. – [Kwesi] How dare you move that. – It’s probably called a lardon, probably a vinegar in here too. So I think you’re gonna try
to slurp it all at once. You ready?
– Yeah. Two, three. – Boop! – Thank you, Keith. – You got a little foam on your nose. – [Both] Boop! – You got foam on your nose. (Kwesi laughing) – It’s Miami. The taste could’ve been more
popping and in your face. It is very subtle. There is a contrast
from what it looks like. – [Keith] What are you chewing on? – I don’t know. Something’s very crunchy. – You shouldn’t eat nothing,
you should spit it out. – That’s a lot of crunchiness. – Maybe you’re eating the shell. – [Desiree] You might be eating the shell. – It’s missing something.
– Mm-hmm. – It has a really good flavor,
but not a great flavor. I’m getting so much of the
bacon and so much of the corn and the clam is like, fine. It’s like, it’s good. I’m think it needs like
a hit of hot sauce. – Yes.
– A hit of more lemon. Maybe I should eat this
little Italian parsley. No, that didn’t do it. That’s just normal parsley. – I wonder if we were supposed to put the pepper inside of it. – I am wondering about the pepper. – On top because it’s missing a punch. – [Desiree] Eat it, eat it, eat it!
– Yeah. – I’m not eating it.
– Like, am I eating it wrong? – Yeah. No, eat it.
– Take a tiny bite. – Oh, that smells hot. – You can do it, Kwesi.
– Do it for the internet, yo? – Just the tip. Just the tip. – Damn, that’s hot, bro. – Yeah?
– That’s hot as [bleep]. – Don’t eat anymore.
– Damn. – [Desiree] Eat it.
– You’re done, you’re done. You’re done, you’re done.
– [Desiree] Come on. – Damn, that is fricking hot. – We have to have him do
other videos this week. – [Desiree] We don’t today.
– You can’t have him shitting. – I know, I gotta poop this out. – He’s gotta poop this out.
– [Desiree] Well, he’s gonna– – He’s got shells and peppers in his guts. – [Kwesi] Damn. – All right, Kwesi that was amazing. Thanks for dropping by. Make sure you check out “Kwesi Learns” when it drops on 2nd Try. Until then, see you next time, Kwesi. – Oh!
– Bless up yourself. – Bless up your damn self. – Let’s see what’s next.
– [Desiree] Take your pan. – [Kwesi] [bleep] yeah! – And now it’s time for our
Louisiana representative. And joining me is my wife Becky! (crew cheering)
Here’s Becky. Here’s Becky. Wow, okay, so we have- – That looks really beautiful.
– From Chef Karlos Knott. All roads lead to Arnaudville. It’s Roman-style pizza
with Louisiana shrimp smothered in a Champagne
etouffe with roasted red pepper. I imagine this is coulis. Coulis? Coulis? Imagine I-S is coulis.
– Coulis? – Coulis? Coulis? – You just got back from Paris. – [Desiree] Oui, oui. Sure, it’s coulis. – Roasted red pepper coulis. Now look at this. There’s a little special touch here. It obviously has a pizza box, and they put the Try Guys on the boat. I’m not sure if everybody’s box has the Try Guys on the boat. He’s also a brewer and gave us a little bit of his saison. – So let’s try a little saison.
– Brew master. – Brew master. He’s a brew master. Mm, beer. (laughs) We love beer. I mean, he’s doing all
the right things, right? He’s getting me a little drunk. He put my name all over the box. Let’s get a little bit
of this Romesco sauce. Oh, my shrimpy. – Could you imagine eating
this on a first date? – Becky says that every
time we eat anything sloppy. – Could you imagine? Not slimy.
– Sloppy. – Just something messy.
– I said sloppy. – Oh.
– Sloppy, sloppy food. – Is it’s your first
date and you’re like… – All right, let’s try the Roman pizza. – Could you even imagine?
– I couldn’t. Salty, salty. – The salt is there. – Yeah, well definitely ’cause of the roe and the salt probably on the pizza itself. It’s definitely got a salt kick. – It’s hard to not eat. I want to like, go back for bites. – I know, it’s good. It’s really good. – It’s also dangerous in white pants. – It’s very dangerous in white pants. It’s oily. It’s sloppy. You know, and that’s not a negative. We have fun with our sloppy foods, our ribs, our fried chicken, our barbecue. You know, sometimes you
get a little sloppy. In our final state, South
Carolina, chef Danny Smith. A tour of the Carolina Low Country. Pan seared Carolina grouper,
Garden City shrimp cake, White House Farm sweet
corn and fennel rice grits, golden beets and greens,
blue crab butter sauce. This is like a thick cut grit. – This is a fat grit, yeah.
– This is almost just corn. – This is gruts. – The gruts.
– The gruts. Whoa, that is rich. – That’s grits-otto.
– That’s grits-otto. – That’s grits-otto.
– That’s grits-otto. – They invented it here. – That fish tastes like it was injected with butter from birth. That fish has had butter running through its veins its entire life. That is the most buttery
fish I’ve ever had. – Especially with the most buttery grits I’ve ever had.
– Yeah. All right, I’m gonna try some of the crab. Okay, the crab is nice. Way less buttery. Very delicious. Just great crab flavor. There’s not a lot of dressing going on, which is good because of how much flavor I was just hit with. I kind of wanted something
a little more neutral. Let’s try her. – Shrimp cake. – Whoa, a really strong bell pepper flavor in the shrimp cake. – I’m getting all bell pepper. – I’m getting a little bit of shrimp and a lot of bell pepper. Very strong capsicum, which is what the rest of
the world calls bell pepper. If you didn’t know that,
like the whole world. I’d say that it’s also rich
though, in a sweet way. This is coming in with like
too much heavy of flavors. It’s also unfortunate for it coming in at the end of my
day where I’ve eaten a lot. So it’s like, ugh. (Keith moaning) Becky, thanks for coming through. – Oh, of course. – Yeah, it’s great to see you. – It was great to see you.
– Thanks for making the trip. – Oh, nowhere I’d rather be.
– Oh thanks. – Than here in New Orleans.
– Beautiful. – Eating this food.
– Hell yeah. – I’m gonna take this. – You can take it with you, okay. – I mean, why not? (upbeat jazzy music) – And now it’s time for the
best and the least best. Now we started today
in the convention hall, walking through all the different vendors. There were lots of delicious things. There were occasionally things that were like just meat with no seasoning so you could taste the quality of the meat ’cause a lot of those vendors
are actually for restaurants. But there was still some great stuff. Honestly, the Keith’s area
had some delicious steak. Delicious pork. I really loved the dry
aged pork chop that I had. Jumping around the boudin
from all over was great, but actually the Best
Stop was my favorite, was the best boudin I had of the day. But I did like the little
fried boudin balls as well. Really I mean, it’s a bunch of people showing off their delicious food. So almost everything was delicious. Loved the little margaritas,
loved the little sodas, had a great time. But the real deal is the actual contest. – [Desiree] So I was just told, you’re not picking the winner, but there’s a tie for
both second and third. So you pick the second and third place. – Okay, so the winner doesn’t need me, but the almost winners do. I think my top three today, if I were to place
first, second, and third. In third place, you know, third place I think is a well
deserved Alabama smoked fish. It was my first thing that I had. I was like, oh my gosh,
this is so delicious. I thought that was so much smoked flavor. I’ve never had that flavor on a fish. It was like everything on the plate was balanced and delicious. That garlic, ooh, my God. In second place, I would actually give it to
my home state of Tennessee. The fancy little fried
catfish was so delicate. It was a perfect sandwich bite. The peach and the hot sauce
was so clever and creative. It was visually the best of the day. I think it was the most beautiful one. Tasted like a perfect bite of a sandwich. I was blown away by it. Job well done. I did not think Tennessee had it in ’em. And my winner of the day, I’m actually gonna give it to Alaska. I couldn’t believe how good
the Alaskan sable fish was. Every element on that was great. The mushrooms were the
best mushrooms of the day. That fish had so much great flavor and so much good seasoning on it. The sauce just confounded
me, it was so delicious. It was one of the two plates
that I completely finished with Tennessee being the only other one. It just felt like a full delicious meal. That really left me wanting
more, more and more of it. I was like, I could eat this forever. So that’s ultimately why
I made it my winning dish. Now some special shout outs. I loved the pesca di macho. I think it was the macho fish. I thought that Peruvian sauce was so good. That probably would be
fourth place for me. My least best of the day, look, everything was great. These are all tremendous chefs. So I was being very picky at times. I thought that while
the mussels from Vermont were one of my favorite bites of the day, the whole dish just was
a little unbalanced. You know, I think it
was some brave choices, but only the mussels were
the star of that dish. And there was a lot of
other stuff on the dish that was just fine. The Bounty of Mississippi, I was really excited to be a bounty, but it just sort of tasted
like a good Italian dish. Didn’t scream seafood to me, didn’t scream Mississippi to me. I don’t know what would
scream Mississippi, but I just thought it was
a little bit underwhelming. And the South Carolina sampler,
I really wanted to love it. They gave me so much. But everything was just a little too rich, a little too much of itself. Too much butter, or too much
sweet or too much bell pepper. And again, all of those things didn’t really meld together like I wanted. Now it’s time for me to go announce who is second and who is third place. Maybe I’m not announcing it, maybe I’m just whispering
into someone’s ear. I like to think I’m announcing it. – [Desiree] I think
they need you now, so. – They need me now. Let’s go! – Thank you for being here, man. We appreciate it. You know, this is the crowning achievement for a lot of these guys
in their moment, you know? And to have you be the tiebreaker. I mean, was there any pressure there? – A lot of pressure. I did not think my
opinion mattered at all. And I guess it does, which is, which is a big day for me. – Third place in the 21st Annual Great American Seafood
Cook-Off goes to Virginia! (crowd cheering) Second place goes to Georgia! (crowd cheering) First place and the new
King of American seafood is Chef Wesley True from Tennessee! (crowd cheering) – It was an amazing day at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off. Congratulations to Tennessee. They took the title. They, of course, were my second place, but I thought they could
have been first place, too. It was really a tossup
between those last two dishes. I gotta see Alaska before
I go to let ’em know that Alaska technically is my best fish dish of the year award. So we’re gonna put that graphic
over that dish right now. What an incredible
prize to be taking home. It really was fun. I wanted to say thanks so much to the Louisiana Tourism Board for bringing me out specifically. Obviously, the seafood part of that board, it’s been so cool. Everybody has been
really nice to work with. This seems to happen the beginning of every August so if you’re ever nearby, come do it. It’s a blast. Good food, good people. I wanna say thanks to all our guests. Thanks to Ryan. Thanks to Jared. Thanks to Kwesi. Thanks to Becky. Thanks to Gerald and thanks to me. We’ll see you next time on “Eat the Menu.” Bye. (light music) – [Desiree] I do wanna
go up to her and be like, “I didn’t get to have a mussel, please.” – Please, could I have any more mussels? – I’m from Vermont.
– I’m from Vermont. Can I please have a maple mussel? – It was mind-blowingly good.