thank you Minnesota has millions of families each with distinct stories we've invited three Cooks to share their cultural culinary Journeys with us from family recipes to Brand New Creations the cooks will then show off their skills flavors and Ingenuity competing for the crown to be named the winner the food is delicious and there's room for everyone at our table welcome to the great Minnesota recipe tonight on the great Minnesota recipe let's do it here's a little taste if you try this you will be converted there is no doubt in my mind so be afraid be very afraid hope we're having a clear I'd have a hard time making a double deck or peanut butter jelly sandwich fabulous oh for the love of Pete I'm gonna show off a little bit I'm gonna make it I think so funding for the great Minnesota recipe is provided in part by Doherty appliance sales and service Goat Hill Marketplace the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund and viewers like you thank you welcome back to the great Minnesota recipe the competition is finally here I hope you're as hungry as I am because it's time for Maria Derek and Santi to start cooking two delicious recipes for us that's right this season we're asking our Cooks to start with an appetizer to help the judges get to know them then they'll create a new and exciting take on the Minnesota staple the hot dish that perfectly reflects their life experiences and love of Minnesota while the cooks get their aprons on and the judges get settled let's take a look back at all the recipes we've tasted so far here comes the best part this is absolutely delicious it's really colorful solid so the pumpkin seed learned so much today thank you yeah the aroma is incredible it's it really feels like home it's like a surprise we've had an incredible time getting to know these cooks and I know they're excited to get started and we've got three exciting judges ready to taste the food and Crown a winner I'm Jillian Forte I am the head chef and general manager at Sarah's table Chester Creek Cafe hello my name is Al Sands I am a professional boxer and was the Haitian Temptation entrepreneur with Haitian heat and yeah a bit of a local foodie I am so happy to be back this is the second season of The Great Minnesota recipe and I'm thrilled to be back with the introductions out of the way I think it's time we get cooking don't you Cooks first up today the judges would like you to make an appetizer you'll have 30 minutes and complete however you like you've got everything you need so let's get started on your marks get set cook and here they go I know you can tell they're already getting they're getting in their Zone they've been ready there's they know what their next move is going to be a bit nervous yeah once I start cooking I think I might get into my own Rhythm and then I'll be really really pumped for the appetizer I'm doing uh it's kind of like a sweet and savory Brussels sprout dish and I don't usually like brussels sprouts but I've had versions of this and it's really really good so I tried to kind of recreate it at home and it's been fantastic it's a sauteed brussels sprout and it's got bacon parmesan cheese and then this balsamic vinaigrette over it and it's just fantastic it's so good oh my gosh I am nervous I'm excited I'm terrified all sorts of feelings going on so for my first recipe I'm doing a bowl of Fritter it's a sweet potato Fritter and a cauliflower Fritter um the best thing about this is the batter itself it's a turmeric batter it comes from the two important women in my life my mom and my grandma that's where I learned how to make these fritters this is going to be light and crunchy I mean they are just delicious I'm excited to Showcase some of our traditional foods and be able to showcase the diversity and the creativity we can work with the native ingredients for the appetizer I'm going to be making a bison bone marrow Tartine so we're going to take like a Sourdough Loaf and slice it horizontally fry the bottom half and we're gonna take the Bison bone marrow spread it across some grated tomato that's seasoned with salt pepper some oregano and spread that across as well some garlic that's roasted and then we're gonna top it off with like a fresh little salad we're gonna put that right on top and it's going to be almost like a flat bread type of deal I think it's a great appetizer because it really showcases the bison and it's a very refreshing dish to start off with and kind of marries and leads into the hot dish everybody's got a different a different approach do you take everything in pre-measure you know it depends on the recipe if I've never made the recipe before I will usually pre-measure things really and lay them all off and so that I'm ready to go honestly when I look at a recipe I just use it as like flavor combinations like oh that would taste really good with that when I look at a recipe I will read it two or three times and then whatever technique is in the recipe I say no I can do it easier this way yeah Shannon let's go check them out let's go see what they're doing okay okay we'll be back okay Maria I can smell that bacon oh yeah it's nice and Smoky hi okay so what do you say to the person that is not a fan of Brussels sprouts um I think that's fair because it's kind of a stinky vegetable but if you try this you will be converted there is no doubt in my mind I agree anything with bacon I was just gonna say that took the words right out of my mouth yeah it definitely needs to be done I think if you want people to try things that might be a bit iffy you have to give them something they're a bit more familiar with so I think the bacon really helps cushion that well we'll let you get at it and we can't wait to taste it thank you hey Derek Derek what are they making that bison bone marrow Tartine right now I'm just working on kind of distressing I'm gonna do some uh parsley in there some shallots some olive oil lemon juice lemon zest salt and pepper oh it smells good what kind of bread is this oh that's a Sourdough loaf so I just cut it horizontally fried the bottom half this is going to be the vessel for our dish today I love the vessel I love that love it yeah the shouts smell really good um why shallots versus like an onion do you always use shallots oh shallots just import some good flavor onto this dish normally I'd go for some leeks or some ramps which are forageable here in Minnesota um fortunately I kind of ran out of my supply for the year so I'm gonna have to wait for the spring emeralds to start popping up and those are one of the first things that we see in the spring so I got that to look forward to at least then the rest is just like a fresh little salad on top well have fun yeah thank you Santi look at all the colors I know I love it oh my gosh that looks so good um I'm making my two favorite snacks as a kid and as a girl kid right now I'm making my sweet potato fritters and my cauliflower fritters best part of this I'm using the same batter it's a turmeric based Banner that I learned from my mom um so this appetizer I'm honoring two of my most important ladies in my life my mom and grandma so this is this is their dish looks incredible looking forward for you guys to try it that does look good I'm a big fan of sweet potatoes oh me too love love and I usually bake mine so now now I've got something in my own little Arsenal exactly something different and it's you won't be disappointed yeah my grandma used to sell those at the market I watch her make sweet potatoes she'd sell it for like 10 cents at the market you know oh my goodness well we're looking forward to seeing what it comes what it tastes like this is just the waiting game I always make the mistake of burning things yes just like how mom makes it okay Cooks 10 minutes left minutes Derek I need some help station appreciate the humor it is looking so good over there it smells incredible I wanted to snitch and there's a really wide variety of what's happening over there there's the frying there's somebody that's roasting some an element there's somebody who's deep frying in elements so there is definitely a differences from each station wow I see that all of them are very relaxed yeah they look like they're having fun they're very focused yes I think that the most important ingredient in food is to have fun and to love what you're doing so I'm hoping to see a lot of joy and a lot of smiles and excitement and intensity I guess is kind of what I'm looking for like somebody's really focusing and concentrating on their dish they're tasting it as they go I want to watch them analyze as they go to I think a lot of times Cooks just go on autopilot but when you're doing something at this level I want to see more concentration smells good lots of lemon I love lemon skin go wrong with women is way fancier than mine it looks like you got some good stuff going on I've got the stinkiest vegetable I could find Bacon's the key to everyone's Hearts though yeah you can't go wrong with bacon yes you want to make more or good luck I like to integrate my own personal style in everything I do in the kitchen and I am hoping to see a lot of that it's always refreshing for me to see new approaches and and learning and new techniques from them so I'm here to discover what they have to offer you're already done yes oh my God it's so pretty she's making it all look good balsamic glaze maybe yeah bacon balsamic brussels sprouts Parmesan Parmesan oh my goodness gracious I make hot sauce so I like having a little punch of flavor I really hope that they they get the vibe that you know there is competition out here and I better bring my A-game otherwise you can just fade into the background yeah I'm looking for good food great times Good Vibes and great personalities Cooks you have one minute left okay good timing or too much cheese I don't know if you can have too much parmesan I think that's the thing that Everyone likes too much parmesan I'm gonna call that good oh my God I almost forgot my bacon oh that looks delicious very nice I was concerned about the time but I ended up having like 10 minutes extra foreign five four three two one hands off I think it went actually better than I expected I did almost forget to put my bacon on my appetizer it was sitting right there and I think I had like a minute or two left and then I finally realized I was missing something but other than that I think it went really really well yeah I'm happy it's over with uh put out on the plate I guess that's really what comes I was having a little bit of trouble with the oven just uh getting up to temperature to cook those bones through I kind of pulled up those bones last minute to get that marrow out cutting the sweet potato was really hard um usually it's fine I don't know if it's the knife that wasn't sharp enough but I was concerned when I was cutting slicing my sweet potato you know like oh gosh I hope I don't slice my fingers foreign hi Maria hi there your appetizer looks absolutely amazing thank you so much would you tell us what's in it uh yes I did a charred Brussels sprout it's charred in bacon fat from the bacon bits there and then it has a balsamic vinaigrette glaze and then parmesan cheese over the top the Brussels sprouts are nice and soft well cooked and the crispy bacon is just like a nice texture yeah foreign I like that the Brussels sprouts are cooked all the way through thank you um one recommendation I would have is if it's served as an appetizer especially if people are standing around is to cut them into quarters so that the bites are smaller that makes yeah but it's absolutely wonderful I think a good balance nice combination of textures if you make this at home it's because your family likes it I like it yeah thank you Amalia said I need to cut them smaller which I totally get some of those brussels sprouts were really really big and I should have quartered them instead of have them but yeah I feel like those are pretty minor critiques which is really nice so hi this is like a really beautiful presentation that you've got here can you tell me what you what you've done thank you so this is uh my bison bone marrow Tartine so I try to incorporate some new ingredients revitalizing old traditions and bringing them into our diets and so we got the sourdough some bone marrow we got some grated tomatoes that are seasoned with salt pepper Mexican oregano and a fresh little salad on top that incorporates parsley shallots lemon zest lemon juice and salt and pepper it's supposed to be light and refreshing to light your appetite to the next dish the hot dish that's incredible that's that's very light that you said very refreshing yeah I like that like subtle hit of that meaty kind of flavor it kind of reminds me of like a foie gras like that smooth buttery kind of feel but meaty in a distinct kind of way that's not not a steak or something like that it's it's it's very unique it's awesome I like your your approach of taking the the marrow out of the bone and put it in on toast that works really really well one recommendation I have is to kick up the salt a little bit if you like heat I think you could use some of that here to elevate the flavor because bone marrow tends to have a sort of a a taste a stronger Taste and to tame some of that I think that a little bit of salt and the heat could really really complement that flavor it's absolutely wonderful I love what you used to garnish it I love the way you presented it so it's a star dish for me thank you amazing the presentation unbelievable this is beautiful thank you it is delicious thank you yes congrats thank you they're really pleased with how it turned out they recommended more salt and more pepper I think that was really my main roadblock I just was kind of self-conscious about keep going in there with I mean I could have probably went through 10 spoons but yeah I guess I should have just went for it all right Santi tell me about your dish I have sweet potato fritters and cauliflower fritters two of my favorite snacks um also my family loves them this is street food snacks that I ate growing up in Malaysia my mom used to make the cauliflower fritters and then the sweet potato fritters something my grandma would make you could eat it like that or dip it in your favorite um sauce I have for you just a store-bought um sweet chili sauce I can use as a dipping so Bon Appetit so the this one is the Savory one and this is actually they're both Savory they're both serious okay great sweet potatoes are a superfood in my kitchen I like the the color the turmeric gives to the batter I like that it's fluffy so that's probably because of the soda water I love that the cauliflower was just done perfectly delicious it's very very light yes I do appreciate that one recommendation I have is trying to make your sauce from scratch figure figure out something perhaps easy that mimics the flavor of the sauce that you buy at the store but it's absolutely wonderful I really really like it yeah and your presentation is outstanding thank you I appreciate it now that I think about it that I did have that extra time I should have made some sweet sauce but I'm glad that was done that appetizer round was definitely needed to calm my nerves now be ready ready my game mode next round watch out guys wow I mean these these Cooks these chefs I mean they're chefs to me all these contestants are a caliber has been very high I was excited to see that the appetizer element was added I was happy to see that because that gives sort of a little preview allowing them to have a little bit of you know I'm gonna show off a little bit here's a little taste uh that way the the judges can really get a sense of who they are where they're coming from so that when they dig into that hot dish they have a little bit of preview thank you cooks for these delicious and creative appetite appetizers now that the judges know a bit more about you it's it's suppress them with your hot dish don't forget your hot dish must include a protein a vegetable and a sauce or soup to bind it all together you'll have 75 minutes to prep cook and serve your hot dish to the judges and don't worry about plating it's a hot dish after all you'll present the judges with the finished 9x13 pan and they'll serve themselves okay cooks are you ready yes all right on your marks get set cook foreign I'm nervous about everything I'm nervous about running um to get my stuff I'm running I'm worried about fighting over the fridge trying to get stuff out of the fridge I don't know cutting my finger I don't know has so many things I'm worried about don't drop the name of my hot dish is the Zen hot dish East Meets West I want it to assimilate my Malaysian flavors with Minnesota flavors and the biggest challenge was these two are just complete opposites right Malaysian flavors are bold intense in your face type of flavors and then Minnesota flavors kind of chill laid back you know I call it polite flavors like most minnesotans are and so the challenge was how do I balance these two flavors and not that one overpower the other so there was a lot of brainstorming a lot of trial a lot of errors us got a bite that's rice this Curry there's roasted eggplants there's roasted corn there so tater tots there's a lime Crema there's parsley and then here's the biggest highlight it's pickles that inspiration came from our great Minnesota State Fair you know you go and you have fried pickles but then I thought okay how do I add this without overwhelming the entire dish so then I thought oh yeah let's chop it up put in the batter add some pickle juice in it and that's right and it was delicious and so I hope everyone feels the same way like the hot dish I'm a bit nervous because I've done that a handful of times and maybe it was a bad recipe to pick but about 50 50 it goes really well or it doesn't go well at all so I'm really hoping it leans more towards the wall side I picked it because when it does go well it's fantastic I'm doing a baked mac and cheese but for the protein element it's kind of a Cajun style um there's Cajun sausage with the seasoning and different sauteed vegetables it's kind of layered in there and then the top it's got that crunchy kind of panko topping and it's really really good if the cheese sauce goes well then it's fantastic well you start with like a roux or a bechamel kind of sauce with flour butter cook that down and then you have to mix in kind of equal parts of milk and then the pasta water the pasta water is super important oh For the Love of the Heat and then a handful of different kind of cheeses I've had to experiment with them a lot I'm doing an american cheese and then a habanero jack cheese to add a kick oh no at times myself with different recipes and everything and um yeah I made the hot dish at home and all of that it turned out pretty well when I did make it and yeah it's just a lot of timing myself and making sure that I can get everything prepped and ready as much from scratch as I can go my noodles aren't cooking I gotta say it might have an advantage with the two little kids screaming at me all the time because I'm running back and forth so and I'm still able to do it within that time frame so it's promising oh my goodness am I in the way Derek I'm excited I'm ready to start cooking maybe the thing I'm most nervous about is the time limit for the hot dish I think it's crunching a lot of things in that short period of time I get a lot of different moving parts to get done and piece together yeah so the hot dish it's composed of many different layers in the base it's my Indian spaghetti it's with the kids I cook for call it it's basically wild rice quinoa mushroom onion ground bison bind it all together in a tomato sauce and then the second layer we're going to roast off some mushrooms some lion Main and mix it in with some ricotta cheese some stinging nettle make that for the second layer and then for like a traditional Minnesota topping we are going to take some Masa and make these fried corn Donuts put that on top sprinkle some cheese put it on the broiler and then to garnish it we got some green onions some Mexican style cheese and a chili sauce that we make with some stocks some marble ancho and guajilla peppers I didn't really practice so much prior to the competition I haven't even actually created ever made the full recipe I just kind of visualized it and made it in trial but with certain elements missing so this would be the first time actually having everything together but uh I'm confident that it'll work out I just bumped my head okay judges you've tasted the first tastes thoughts I was surprised at the diversity of dishes I kind of in my mind thought maybe they'll all kind of go for something similar but they were completely different and I really really liked that like different flavor profiles different preparation techniques so now Maria claims that people that don't like brussels sprouts or vegetables this will make a believer in that you know what did you think about about her approach and and really how she made something that's pretty traditional I would have liked to see something more adventurous I enjoyed the Brussels sprouts um vegetables are a very large part of my Cuisine while training for fights and cutting weight things like that pay a little bit of firmness to them they want it all soggy the timing was great and of course can't go wrong with bacon yeah so I would say that it's a pretty classic preparation of Brussels sprouts bacon is a pretty nice I mean who doesn't love bacon right it's standard it was great and I think it was well prepared it wasn't as creative as maybe I was hoping that it could have been but it was excellent preparation great plating so then we move on to Derek who really was out of the box for his appetizer I like non-traditional dishes I come from a very adventurous culture where we eat you know everything from the head to the tail so I like to see people take different approaches to non-traditional proteins his approach to the dish was absolutely original out of the box creative one of the things I was looking for in this entire competition was the uniqueness ingredients and when they had initially said or when he had said he was going to uh give us bone marrow as part of one of his dishes I thought to myself okay we'll see how that plays out and the presentation was beautiful the flavors were balanced I thought it was definitely the most creative and out of the box dish that was here today I think bone marrow yeah I never would have it never would have occurred to me it was such a great idea it was nice presentation um and he had lots of different layers on there which I really like like the Tomato layer added that brightness The Parsley is that freshness mixed with lemon that was nice and bright I almost wanted a little bit more of that meaty flavor and I think the salt that we talked about could have been just brought it up that balance between salt and sour but it was really gorgeous and it felt really good and healthy to eat I was like this is whole food this is real this is the real deal this is like this is quite high quality you already talked a little bit about Santi um could could you imagine yourself maybe eating that as a street food oh yeah I could like I mean I know whether if I was walking down the street and I smelled that I'd be like yep where is that coming from I'm going there you know yeah and I probably would have dunked it in that sauce and found more sauces and yeah I know I would that would be good as a Minnesota fair food I really thought that if I saw frying sweet potatoes anywhere I'm getting those put it on a stick absolutely come on laughs Cooks you have one hour remaining 15 minutes went by fast fast I think this is all going to be time management just making sure that all the moving parts are coming out at the time I needed to be done and that I can get it assembled and ready for oven by the time it needs to go in you know Derek's a little quiet you know he's kind of mysterious so I try try to mess around with him I hope Karma doesn't come and bite me Maria is kind of far so I can't really mess with her but maybe I'll try this gets more and more nerve-wracking I couldn't get my water to boil forever it was probably I want to say half hour 40 minutes before my water was like actually sort of boiling and the noodles were getting done and I was getting nervous because that was really cutting into my time over something so simple hi Maria Hi how are you doing I am oh that's looking good thank you thank you well we're seeing a little more bacon here oh yeah that is always a fan favorite oh yes yes it's kind of cheating having all the bacon and everything it's just point the favor in my way well and I appreciate how you have really taken like what your family wants your husband and your kids what they love to eat and it's all homemade right like you don't cook the instant Foods these are these are easily things that we see packaged in the store and you're really you're really doing a good job oh thank you you're popular Comfort foods thank you I appreciate that we're gonna get nosy with the other okay chefs as well good luck thank you it's good all right good work see you in a bit their dishes seemed way more complicated than mine and I was just trying to focus on that sauce and getting that water to boil the sauce was really really daunting for me because one small thing could just ruin it so when I was focusing on that there was nothing I was talking to myself I was trying to figure out how to make it perfect and I thought my sauce was going to split and it was going to be not creamy it was going to be clumpy and gross so that's happened before but yeah overall the things I was concerned about didn't happen so that was good hi Derek what do we have two hairs that's good right now I'm just working on these corn Donuts dumplings however you want to call them I don't I don't got a name for them just yet it's a new creation as of like two weeks ago that's with corn so I use the Masa okay three oh yeah yeah it looks good trying to do things healthy as possible I mean I could have frying it isn't the best option I could have baked them but they just don't get that same taste as the fried ones so all right did you see there's maple syrup in there you can smell it yeah it smells so good you keep an eye on the time yeah all right all right just checking I'm feeling State Fair here Minnesota State Fair I'm healing it yeah it's a compliment it is it's ringing through my heart good luck with everything it looks good yeah I thought I was going to be a little bit more crunched on time that's what I was most worried about but it's doing good on time I was I managed my time very well tomato sauce is way too sweet so it was just such a challenge to try to bring it back to where I wanted it let's try my best with that the ground bison was just uh I've never had ground bison like that before just the texture was so odd to me I was thinking man I should just brought in my own bison some that I'm really familiar with and I just got a big bowl of mushrooms just thinking that they're already clean and some dirty mushrooms there's like a whole bunch of dirt in there so I tried one of course it was very gritty so I was kind of worried about that uh influencing my Dish as well I'm hoping out in the clear you know I was I was afraid I was gonna burn my rice I didn't so thank goodness other than that hey can I check this can real quick you know I also grabbed the wrong can at the beginning and turns out I grabbed Derek's tomato sauce so I got the wrong one coconut milk he's trying to sabotage you over there it kind of work we avoided disaster because I needed coconut milk think of it he caught that station over there I'm running out of space can you tell us a little bit about what's happening well right now I'm just about to make my pickle fritters so you know you think about the state fair you think about fried pickles so I'm trying to incorporate some Minnesota flavors into my hot dish work I got tater tots and then I've got my rendang sauce here I've got some eggplant I've got some corn I've got some turmeric rice um yeah and I'm going to put put it all together and throw it in the oven all right good luck oh yes all right thank you well with that cooks you have 30 minutes thank you oh surprise what am I just drop it right now how you doing Sante I am doing good how are you it's in the oven it's in the oven it's in the oven are you serious oh yeah you're gonna come help me now okay everything's done are you done too yeah I don't know how I feel about that you guys thank you yes 10 000. it's a minute five more minutes I'm gonna take the foil off what you making the Derek looks like chili sauce is a little too hot nice competing one right so be afraid be very afraid yeah this looks like Santi is still kind of running around she's still doing a whole lot over there Cooks five minutes left that went by fast oh my gosh you gonna make it you think so this is awesome it's intensive I'm sweating for them I'd have a hard time making a double deck or peanut butter jelly sandwich okay Maria she'd pull her down and she's checking yeah You Can Tell She's Like got the mom thing down oh yeah oh absolutely yeah for sure Cooks you have one minute remaining coming up wow Derek's leading this to the last minute he's pulling it out oh that really came together he's a home look at that look at him oh that's so bad yeah okay five oh my four three two one done Maria please bring up your hot dish that looks amazing oh a surprise on the top more bacon I thought a room was incredible oh there's those onions oh there's a nice little kick to it that's kind of fun is that from the andouille thing a little bit yeah and I did put some Cajun seasoning in there too okay it is very very delicious um I like to your approach to a dish that is a classic but yet you made it your own one recommendation I have is maybe to add a little bit of a garnish something yeah green on top but it is very very delicious oh thank you classic comfort food with a beautiful Twist on it a mix it's it's definitely scoopable and I want to keep eating again just like your last dish um I think it's really good it's it's basic but it's it's delicious and definitely comforting thank you I'd bring it I'd bring it to a potluck okay thank you amazing twist yeah yeah on a home-cooked classic some baked mac and cheese obviously I love the bacon I love the spicy kick to it it's yeah very well done very well done Derek please bring up your hot dish hello thank you and so the sting nettle made it into the ricotta correct it's mixed in there I love the smell of this dish I thought it was interesting that the quinoa and the wild rice would cook at the same time but that's because some wild rice takes close to an hour to cook right and some of it is 15-20 minutes correct the rice that takes a little bit longer is more that genetically modified wild rice from the University okay okay that's the stuff you see in stores I use some hand harvested wild rice this rice is from Leech Lake and there's a lot of time and effort that goes into collecting this rice and processing it it's highly valued in our community it's it's our gold I like the Masa and corn combination as a crust I like that it's a brown nicely um I like that you garnished it so it has a lot of color a nice contrast of layers it's very very delicious very well rounded you got your sweet you got your heat you got your herbal flavors in there as well nothing is overpowering the other one very well balanced appreciate it very well balanced I can feel Mexico in there for sure with the cojito and the chili de Arbol on the top and the wild rice of course speaks of Minnesota and the quinoa of Peru so it's it's a really interesting Fusion I think of all of those different Native cultures which is nice nice take on Fusion thank you appreciate it overall very very good excellent thanks so much please bring up your hot dish hot dish wow so I think this looks great I love the banana leaves on there I feel the Zen yeah and I can see why you call it Zen there is a lot happening here um it's uh very adventurous of you to bring all this together into a hot dish I was surprised to see the rice underneath I was like where's the curry oh my gosh there it is that thing it's a great presentation great garnish up top uh Santi your your dish surprised me favorably I didn't know what you were going to do with your layers how it was going to look but it looks beautiful and it tastes amazing thank you I think I said this earlier but I thought I would learn a thing or two from you and I think I did there are some flavors in there that I am excited to delve into you did a really nice job introducing that to me and yeah thank you it was delicious oh thank you guys I'm dying to know what you guys think about the dishes now let's start with Maria I like that a lot one thing that I would prefer is to see more sauce that is binding everything together what happens with pasta sometimes is that pasta and rice continue to absorb the liquid that you put around them and when you put them in the oven it continues to absorb that so that's probably what may have happened she may have had enough sauce to begin with but not enough so for me and I didn't put enough sauce I could use a little bit more depth of flavor but it's good it's delicious the baked mac and cheese with bacon on top home-cooked classic I love that visually it's great on the eye of the panko I've never had that before out of all my experience with baked mac and cheese flavor was well balanced I love the andouille sausage additive to it um I would have liked a little bit more cheese in there to really bring it around but it definitely has elements of a gourmet mac and cheese I enjoyed it I thought it was a very solidly done macaroni and cheese I was surprised that she put American cheese in it I will say um but it tasted great it didn't stick out to me I was like that's kind of strange um the bread crumbs are a nice touch but they were flavorless and so I think that she could have added some olive oil some more spices to that there could have been something happening more with the breadcrumbs but I would happily serve this recipe to my family any day I think the spice level was Minnesota nice you know just a little bit above Minnesota nice maybe but um overall really really good moving on to Derek Derek's was interesting there's a lot going on yes there's definitely a lot going on the bottom layer had flavor a lot of flavor As you move to to the top especially to the the corn topping that was a little bit on the tough side for me and that's what happens sometimes with the Masa when it's cooked and it's fried Masa is is like pasta it absorbs a lot of flavor so you have to over flavor it so you end up with flavor at the end so it lacked overall seasoning you know from the top to the bottom but the dish is interesting the dish is a fusion of flavors a fusion of cultures it's a multicultural dish and he he did a a good job at incorporating all that and it's lacking that sauce again that Saucy element that I was talking about with the other dish you're never finding this plate anywhere else this was definitely one of a kind you won't find this at a restaurant you might not find this at another dinner table this was one of a kind he he forged for some of his own ingredients took them right out of the woods himself I was impressed um even with the cornbread cakes on top yeah that he had time to do that in 75 minutes I was impressed with it all the wild rice he had the native elements in there all the different flavors I really liked that one very well done I definitely agree that it was definitely the most interesting and unique dish that I've seen so far I think each one of the layers could probably stand alone on its own I could see it maybe slightly more successful as an entree in that as a hot dish just because I don't know that the flavor is melded exactly into this beautiful Harmony in my mouth right so I liked I liked the creamy Ricotta and I liked when I could taste the nettle but I had to dig around and just eat some of that by itself to see to get that real flavor I loved the corn donut on the top but yeah it was hard to eat and it didn't necessarily love the wild rice at the bottom they just like I said I think each individual element was spectacular together I think maybe it could use some more tweaking or as an entree but creativity wise presentation spot on let's move on to Santi beautiful presentation right with that banana leaf and all the different colors there was Greens there was it just looked appetizing the minute that she put it down I I was very very impressed it smelled um amazing so the second one was was great and and I was intrigued because there's all these smells and sights that I'm not used to and I couldn't pinpoint them as a chef I want to know I want to be able to pinpoint every single ingredient in there and I couldn't and so that was that felt exciting to me yeah and then the taste of course the taste was fabulous the aroma permeates the entire room when she was cooking it over there I could smell it over here um so for me it was inviting from there to here I have it in front of me and I I can smell it and I can taste it because now I've had the opportunity to dig into it uh the creaminess that I was talking about is in the chicken so there is a saucy element in there that is on top of the rice so the layers were put together in the right order and so the rice is first followed by that creamy chicken and then those pickles really really brought it home for me that's very very unique and of course incorporating the tater tots which connects it deeply to Minnesota it's it's it's it's absolutely wonderful the presentation the garnishes the authenticity with the banana leaves this is a five-star dish for me I was visually speaking when she first set it down I thought okay tater tot hot dish with banana leaf underneath it and then I dug into it and I saw that that uh that curried rice so oh oh my gosh then then the scent hit me and I thought okay that's different that's not something you get served every day in Minnesota you know it yeah blew my mind that one that one blew me away the tater tots everything was very well balanced um you had your eggplant you had um uh the curry rice you had the corn was even in there and it wasn't too much of one thing but everything was very well balanced I really I really enjoyed that one do you have one dish that you're leaning towards oh absolutely oh I appreciate the flavor I appreciate multiculturalism and absolutely authenticity there definitely is one that that really takes the cake for me I think I have a favorite but I could be suede well now we'll see if if what is each of your minds matches okay good luck yes well Jillian candy swayed so yeah sauce a little bit I didn't put enough because my noodles soaked it all up okay 10 more minutes it's over with I'm feeling relieved and happy with what I put out could have been better I'm really happy without the corn Donuts really proud of how those turned out it's a recent experiment and I just felt like today when I was executing it just the dough came together exactly how I wanted it and I was able to fry it up really easily and it just came together really nicely I'm proud that I managed to combine two completely opposite flavors together as one and it worked and I think the judges said they feel they feel Zen so that was my goal you know you know I did have a battle with my drizzle my squeeze bottle so didn't turn out as pretty as I wanted it but you just thought it looked lovely all right I'll make do where are we too high oh what else goes in there it's a tough one um I think we all did the best I mean they're all different hot dish so I wouldn't want to be in the judge's place right now you know I think it's going to be hard for them that's a good question I think that's up to the judges you gotta get your smelly vision's on well it looks like it's time it is my great honor to announce that the winner of season two's the great Minnesota recipe is Santi congratulations wedding feels great oh my gosh I know Mom and Dad would be so proud um they you know they've always encouraged me um to do my best and yes I can I can hear my dad bragging to everyone about it um yes I can this is for them this is for them I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my mom and dad um they they instilled us passion in me so yay it feels great this is the beginning I mean I've got big goals Big Dreams I'm gonna keep cooking and I'm gonna go for my passion so I'm gonna keep doing this well it looks like they left us all the leftovers just for you and I I have to share I'll share with you well yeah so take like a little tiny bite yeah I can't believe the season's over but I don't know it's so good I wish we were judges right I know what's going on oh my gosh that's really good okay all right try that one oh me too over here okay I have to get my sausage I don't know how they made that decision no I don't know either okay one last bite one last bite yep yep gotta get a tater tot come on very good all of them I know it's amazing well that's another season in the books in the recipe looks oh well we'll see you next time on the great Minnesota recipe it would be well very good food all of you can cook so well funding for the great Minnesota recipe is provided in part by Doherty appliance sales and service Goat Hill Marketplace the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund and viewers like you thank you