- Why is everything smoking? - We gotta flip the beef. (Ned cheering) - [Ned] We're back, baby. It's another Mystery Box Challenge. - [Keith] Oh, boy. - Today, each Try Guy is
preparing a mystery box. - [Keith] Some goofy things,
some hard stuff, yikes. - [Zach] From which they
must create a perfect meal. - [Keith] It's the "Try
Guys Mystery Box Challenge" sponsored by Kroger. - Oh, we have an actual mystery box. Someone made this sticker? Wow, we're real official today. Thanks, Kroger. Normally I would just
write on this in Sharpie. (upbeat music) Last mystery box challenge you saw us curate
ingredients for our partners to create a dish out of, and this time we are going
to do it for each other. - [Keith] But sometimes
you just got a bunch of weird stuff left from
your last grocery trip. Well, we're gonna replicate that today. But we're gonna be highlighting some of the season's freshest ingredients because Kroger's always
highlighting what's fresh, what's seasonal. - [Ned] I personally love Kroger stores. Because by highlighting the
season's freshest ingredients, it makes it easy for me to plan my meals around what's fresh and what's happening. - [Zach] But every time I cook it's basically a mystery box crap bag. You don't know what you're gonna get. - [Keith] Today we will
be judged by one another as well as resident Food Baby, Alexandria, and our producer, Nick,
who also is food critic. - [Zach] We have one hour to create a meal with these ingredients
as the star of the show. - [Eugene] And we have no recipe. We're not allowed to look at recipes. This is just us doing what we do best, which is being the worst. - I have some fears. I'm not gonna lie. (Keith laughing) - Here we are. - It is mystery box day. Ned, I have a mystery box for you. - And I have a mystery box for you, sir. - We'll just... - Just... (clears throat) I know Keith loves fried chicken. So whatever he gives me, I'm gonna try and make
fried chicken out of it. We'll see how this goes. - Hello, good sir? - Hello, nice lady. Look, Zach and I are not
as culinarily inclined as the other guys. So we really are here for
experimentation and for fun. - Put 60 minutes on the clock. And then you wanna count down with me? - All right. (clears throat) - [Both] Five, four, three, two, one. Yeah. - Alonzee. - Alonzee. - Let's get it going. - Let's get to work. - We gotta go. - [Keith] This still doesn't do any good. - Go, go, go. All right. - [Keith] I'm excited to be
making a mystery box for Ned. I've got some things I have picked out that I think will be
challenging, but possible. - All right, so we've got some red grapes, we got some lemon, cilantro, radishes, rutabaga,
cauliflower, sauerkraut, and last, a pork tenderloin. - [Ned] I love the idea of a fried chicken wrapped pork loin. Yes, we're gonna fry it. And then I will make a
filling of radishes, rutabaga, Dijon mustard, butter,
sauerkraut, maybe almonds. Usually, I like a little nuttiness. - (sighs) (laughs) I
have no idea what to do. - I don't really have a
plan so I hope he does. Here's what I've got for Keith today. Beets, parsley, kale,
carrots, purple yams, pears, and then gnocchi and flank steak. - [Keith] So I know that
I'm gonna marinate this meat in some garlic, some red
wine vinegar, some spices. And I'm gonna try to get
the parsley and the pears and the beets into that marinade. I'm gonna have to make like
the potatoes work in the pasta. Because I can't give 'em
a side of mashed potatoes and a side of pasta. That's lunacy. Mashed pasta, anyone? Mashed pastatoes. - I took the coconut
oil, if you need that. - [Eugene] No, I'm not
a big coconut oil guy. What's your least favorite
oil so I can put it in? (Zach laughing) - [Zach] So for Eugene,
asparagus and chicken strippings, cabbage, limequats, turmeric,
almonds, tomato sauce. He has to combine all of
this in a tortilla, somehow. - [Eugene] I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna wing it. The one thing I don't
wanna do is make a burrito. So what I'm gonna start doing is I'm just gonna start cooking and preparing things individually. And then like a puzzle, I'm just gonna start sticking it together and see what happens. - (grunts) Look at this dinosaur egg. - What I really wanted to
curate was a box of, what else? Asian inspired ingredients. Kimchi, leek, bok choy,
coconut, jackfruit, and mango. We're going a little Pan-Asian here. This might be a little confusing for Zach. - Okay, so jackfruit is
obviously gonna be the star of the show here. - There's nothing weird
about these ingredients. They're just not easy to handle. - [Zach] The easiest thing would
be to chop up these veggies and just make some sort of
like stir-fry ingredient. And then maybe I kind of wanna
steal those tortillas back. - [Eugene] You can't.
- [Zach] Wow. (laughs) - Chaos will reign. - Okay. There's so many things I need to do first. I'm like, I should do this first. No, I should do this first. We're gonna get the meat marinating first and then we immediately
have to wash our hands. Okay, good start. - In the pantry, they had this Parmesan
herb panko bread crumbs. It's like a little bit of
Keith and a little bit of Ned. It's fried chicken, but it's Italian. - Remember, every time you seed, add a clove of garlic in a
recipe, they need more than one. Add some to our meat bath. Add some salt and pepper and move on. So I'm gonna try and take
these boneless thighs and cut them into kind of strips. - I don't know where anything is. - I know. - I need five extra minutes just for... - We need way more time. - [Ned] Why am I frying chicken? It's a total waste of time. It's not even in the mystery box. - We got meat hands. You know, you ever catch a feel like you're just constantly
washing your meat hands? - So apparently, cutting a jackfruit, you wanna get coconut oil on your hands. I feel like I'm being pranked right now. - So jackfruit, if you don't know, is used as a stand-in a lot for meat. - I am Khaleesi, mother of
dragons, and this is my baby. - I just wanted to give Zach
stuff that's hard to make and open. - And then you wanna lubricate your knife. (Eugene laughing) You sure I can't just
smash this on the ground? - [Eugene] No.
- [Zach] No? Okay, just petting my knife with oil. Love this. No one's terrified watching me do this? What could possibly go wrong here? Real big ups to the first person that took a chance on jackfruit. Everything about its appearance
is telling you to stay away. My hands are so slippery. How can I be trusted with
a knife right now? (laughs) It's just chaos. Oh, it cuts like butter. Oh yeah, I feel like a man right now. Oh yeah, we got it. You ready for this money shot? Oh, wow. I've heard of roasted jackfruit seeds, I've never tried 'em. - [Eugene] I've decided to
try to make tortilla chips. - Oh. - [Eugene] I've never done it, but my instinct says you take
the tortilla and you fry it. - Wow, you're going boldly where I did not expect you to go. - I'm trying to be
outside the mystery box, as they say. - [Zach] Oh, for me? - It's fried chicken time. - [Keith] That's a low pan for frying. - [Ned] Oh yeah, girl.
- [Keith] Oh my gosh. - [Ned] Yeah, girl. Oh, sizzle my name. Sizzle me, daddy. Ooh, yes. Yeah, I got that sizzle. - [Keith] Well, this is turning into a bit of a one time situation, but... - [Eugene] Zach, how do
you spell your name again? - [Keith] Oh, Ned. - [Ned] See those... - You are making fried chicken out of a basket that had
no ingredients for that. - [Ned] (laughs) I enjoyed that. - [Keith] Let's go for it.
- [Ned] That was fun. - [Eugene] A. A is for, God, I wanted to say all the dirty words. (Zach laughing) - Whoa, it's beautiful. It is just stunning. - Oh, look at the color. - [Keith] Look at this. This is grown on earth? This is our plant vegetable? Also, I don't know what the
heck to do with cooked beets, but I do know that beets have
a lot of color and flavor. So that's good for a marinade. - [Ned] I personally
don't really like beets. So I gave Keith some beets. I'm gonna challenge him to cook
it in a way that I like it. - [Keith] A pear I'm hoping
will also join the marinade. A compote, that's a thing
that people do, right? I don't know how to make one, but I think that's supposed
to be a fruit sort of garnish that you can put onto meats. No idea if that's gonna
work, but they're all sweet. Every part of the dish will have vinegar. A little bit of vinegar here,
a little bit of vinegar there. Meat it's just getting,
we're getting it globed. Globed in the flavor town. - We can say that now 'cause
we're food networkers. - We are, we have a contract. - Okay. So I'm making my little stuffing for the inside of the pork loin. My dish smells a little
bit like a hot dog stand, which I think will be pretty good. We have mustard. We got sauerkraut. We got some radishes. We got some greens. Mm, I taste mostly mustard. - He's running. Ladies and gentlemen,
the former is running. - Eugene, do you know what your
final dish is at this point? - Nope. I just knew I wanted to make big letters like a children's education show. - Me neither. - [Eugene] F is for fun.
- [Zach] Fun. So much fun. How does one get into a coconut? Monkeys do this all the time. I've seen it in cartoons. I'm gonna kill myself. There's no world in which I get
out of this video unscarved. Oh, I also don't know how to open a mango. Dude, you gave me all of the
hardest foods to get inside. - [Eugene] Beautiful. - [Zach] What's that? - [Eugene] Turmeric. - [Zach] That's a turmeric? - I'm mashing the turmeric
and almond together. I'm trying to form a paste. For what? I don't know. (laughs) (coconut banging)
Oh my God, Zach. - [Zach] I'm in.
- [Eugene] Jesus Christ. - (laughs) Time is ticking, baby. We gotta get into this. - [Ned] Keith?
- [Keith] Yeah. - It's time to pound the meat. - No. - [Ned] Can I use this?
- [Keith] Yep. - You're about to use this? - We'll, I'm gonna use it eventually. - I'll just use it to smash. - Okay, yeah, that's fine. - It's like it's a weapon, see? I use what...
- Dude, absolutely. Do you think you don't have
a weapon in your house, but you do have a cast iron skillet? Guess what, you have a weapon. - [Ned] All right, here we go. - You will kill someone with that if you need to defend yourself. I'm not saying you should try. (skillet banging) (Ned cheering) (knife scraping) - I'd make a great killer. - The goal here is to ruin the pasta. Absolutely ruin it.
(Ned laughing) Because I want it to be mashed pastatoes. I'm hoping we can all
just use our imagination, pretend they're potatoes. I used everything, right? So we got our carrots and kale. They look beautiful. Seasoned rice vinegar. We're just gonna put a dash
of that in the carrots. We're gonna wait. We're also gonna put a
little garlic in the carrots, but we're gonna wait. - [Nick] You have exactly
half an hour to go. - Okay, that's good. I feel actually okay with that. - [Zach] Okay, now we're shredding, baby. Yeah. Okay, my thinking at the moment, I'm gonna make a pulled pork
jackfruit with barbecue sauce and kimchi juice. Give it a little bit of that fusion. I'm gonna put the kimchi,
chop it up into the jackfruit. Then I'm going to have my
mango as a mango salsa. And I'm gonna try and do some
sort of like candied coconut. For now, but if they have...
- [Alexandria] Careful. - Ah. - [Nick] Did you cut yourself? - [Eugene] You okay?
- [Zach] I don't know. I think I have a booboo. Can you kiss it? - Is it bleeding? - [Zach] Not yet. - Oh, then it doesn't get a kiss. - You'd rather kiss the blood? - Well, yeah, that means
you're in real pain. - But... - So go really cut
yourself and I'll kiss it. - Okay.
(Eugene laughing) - All right, get in on this. So what I'm gonna do... - [Keith] Oh, boy. - I'm gonna spread my little filling inside of my pork loin, right? - Ned, this is genius what
you're doing over there. You look like a heckin' chef. - [Ned] Thanks, Keith.
- [Keith] I look at this and I don't think I look
like a heckin' chef. - [Ned] (laughs) This is so funny. Look at this, Keith. Look at this. - [Keith] That looks amazing. - [Ned] A little appendix. - How are you gonna roll it? - Ooh, you know, since we
don't have kitchens' twine, what I can use is bacon. Ooh, that chicken is still hot. I feel like this'll take 45 minutes. And I got 20 minutes to let my stuff cook and figure out what the hell am I gonna do with these grapes. - We're gonna take this out. We're gonna just do the middle because the middle I know
was marinated the best. I'm just gonna go ahead
and lay that one in. I'm gonna pour just a little
bit of this marinate juice into the pan 'cause I want it
to have a little more flavor. And there's that vinegar coming into play. We're cooking in high heat over here. This is a grill technique
we're doing on a stove top. So it's gonna get smoky. - Okay. The turmeric here made
the chicken really orange and yellowish. I kinda like it. Cumin, cayenne, and, let's some Curt chili powder, yeah. I'm using the cheese as sort of a binder to make sure the asparagus and the chicken stay on my tortillas. - [Zach] Whatever you're
making is gorgeous. - [Eugene] I'm gonna let those bake a bit. And when they come out, I'm
gonna add final garnishes and I should be done. - The leeks in the box can
just be mixed in, right? - [Eugene] Yeah. - Like they don't need to
be like featured players. - Sure. How much time do we have? - [Nick] Five. - No. - (coughs) It's smoky in here. We gotta flip the beef. - We've got burning. - Everybody's fine. Ned did a flank steak. This is how you cook flank
steak, unfortunately. - [Zach] There's never enough time. I've never once been like,
ooh, really nailed it. (Ned coughing) - Don't breathe in it, Ned. - How's it all gonna come together? Come on. Jackfruit has kimchi on
top, that'll be good. - [Keith] Definitely rare,
don't wanna see that. We're just gonna stir
those the rest of the way. - I just don't know how anyone's gonna eat this really unwierdly. - I really don't know what
to do with the grapes. Maybe like a whiskey
grape cocktail. (laughs) Like a whiskey sour, but with sour grapes. - We're gonna put vinegar in the carrots. - What are we even gonna serve these on? - I'm just throwing in the
potatoes in with the noodles. - I want this to feel like,
you know, just like a barbecue. So I'm doing just cheapo bread over here. - [Keith] Potato pasta is not mashing. Pasta still looks the same. - Hey, there's knives on the floor. Be careful, everybody. - Who put knives on the floor? - I, 'cause I don't have time. - I mean, it's odd. - [Ned] Okay, here we go. I'm gonna strain Keith's cocktail. Don't be a stranger. - Right here in front. And mix this up one last time. - Oh, I've just been blasting this. You learn something new every day. All right, I'm gonna do
some plating over here. Beautiful. I'm gonna add some kimchi
to here to add some spice. - Oh, Ned, can I get a
little squig of a lemon? - Oh yes, sir, here you go. - [Keith] Just a little corner? I think that would be
the last bit of acidity that might help this all shine. And it is one of the
Kroger's fresh ingredients of the season. I've got it incorporated. - [Nick] Nice. - Smoke.
(Eugene laughing) (upbeat music) To keep things impartial, we have Nick and Alexandria to
judge our culinary creations. - [Keith] I got three plates of what I'm calling vinegar
in three ways. (laughs) I'm hoping that that
acidity carries through. - [Ned] I could have chosen a
completely different concept, but we liked the fried
chicken inside of it. - [Eugene] There are a lot
of the different ingredients that might not have gone together. But this kind of was a project
that happened as I went. - [Zach] I wish I had cooked the kimchi. I think that would have been better. But I didn't. So here we are. Judges, good evening. I hope you're ready to
bring it down South, to South Asia that is. Oh my God, I just realized, I did like a barbecue Asian thing. I just made Eugene. I made a Eugene food. It's you, it's like Texan-Asian. (screams) - South Asia like India? - Ah... - Bring on the food.
(Eugene laughing) - [Eugene] Zach is going to
have to incorporate kimchi, leek, bok choy, coconuts,
jackfruit, and mango. - I am proud to present. We got a pulled jack... - Jesus, why are you
dropping it so hard? (laughs) - [Zach] You got a
pulled jackfruit sandwich with some mango. Served with Zachary's
famous chard bok choy, really feel the burn. And to wash it down, you got a little bit of
sugared coconut water. This is actually a roasted jackfruit seed. It was a lot of stress
that went into this. But I am quite hopeful that
it's going to be tasty. Dive right in. I do hope you enjoy. - Oh my God, it's wet. Oh my God. - [Nick] It's a sloppy Joe really. - [Eugene] That's good.
- [Zach] Yeah? - Yeah, I think it works. - Let me try it. - The flavors actually
go really well together. - [Alexandria] I like it. I can taste the barbecue. I can taste the kimchi. The jackfruit texture is good. I like the mango. - It needs a little more crunch. Just a touch. - I agree. - But the flavor profile is good. Well, speaking of crunch, I
wanna try this check fruit seed. - [Zach] (laughs) That was quite a crunch. Maybe put that in the sandwich. - Hmm. - Is it the same in the outside? - Yeah. - I don't like those. That's not your fault,
it's the seed's fault. They're not good. The bok choy is cooked perfectly,
it just needs some salt. - [Zach] Yeah, I forgot... - But it's cooked perfectly. - I put no salt or any
seasoning of any type whatsoever on this meal. It just occurred to me right now. So pretty remarkable that there is flavor. Barbecue sauce is great, thanks, Kroger. - Cheers. So this is coconut with shrimp? (Nick and Zach laughing)
Is that what you said? - [Alexandria] I would drink that. - [Zach] It's candied coconut water. - So sugar and coconut water. - [Zach] Yeah. - That is pretty good. - [Zach] It's pretty good. Guys, I really show off
when the stakes are low. (Nick laughing) - I always believed in you, but I'm very surprised at
how good this is. (laughs) - This is totally, probably
the best thing I've ever made in any of these videos. And it will do me no good in there without the recipe standings,
'cause that's not this video. - Next for that recipe just
have me choose your ingredients. - Seriously. - [Nick] The first 15 minutes when you were still
standing over the jackfruit, I was worried. But you've really pulled it off. (upbeat music) - [Zach] So for Eugene,
asparagus and chicken strippings, cabbage, limequats, turmeric,
almonds, tomato sauce. He has to combine all
of this in a tortilla. - I need two cutting boards for this. - [Alexandria] Ooh.
- [Nick] Wow. - [Zach] It's my name. - [Nick] It's Zach. - [Alexandria] That's so sweet. - What are those? - Nachos Zach. Pretty much just did
this just for that pun. - That's a good pun. I think we all agree. Comment below if you love that pun. - [Eugene] So I had the tortillas and I decided to create
a tortilla chip of sort, which I've never done. But instead I made them in giant letters and I made them in Zach's name. Then I put his chicken
tenders with asparagus. - [Alexandria] Oh. - [Eugene] With the chicken tenders, I did a crushed almond
and turmeric powder. And on top, you have both
the tomatoes and the cabbage that Zach provided me which
are giving an acidic flavor with the kumquats. The only extra things are the cheese to really bring the nacho
flavor in and the healthiness. - There's nothing on
here that I don't like. I've just never had it all together. - Yeah, I like all these things. I've only ever had cheese on asparagus. - Well, we might've
discovered a new thing. - [Eugene] Zach.
- [Nick] Zach. (dramatic music) - Yeah, that's good. - I like all these things. - Mm, it works. - That's spicy. - [Zach] This is the most
perfect big game food, you know? If there's an actual
playing a foodie ball game, oh, this would go off. - Or just a tired parent
who's like, you know what? The taco casserole is ready. It's in the fridge, heat it up. I'm going out with the girls. (Alexandria laughing)
- [Eugene] That's right. - Eugene is the mom who gave up. - Let's bunk all night. (laughs) - (laughs) Exactly. - [Eugene] I would be a mom who gave up. - [Zach] You are a goddamn wizard. You had no plan. You blindly executed and it's good. It's delicious. - [Alexandria] I thought
all the textures together would be weird, 'cause it's
like the homemade tortilla and the cabbage and... - It's phenomenal. - Yeah, it's so good. - Even the asparagus is good. What do you think? (Zach laughing)
- It's not bad. - [Alexandria] It's good.
- [Nick] It's not bad. - I'm so surprise. - Interestingly, I think
the kumquat lime hybrid was the acid I needed on top. - [Zach] Oh, that's right. You know what's absolutely
blowing my mind right now? Is that if you were to take
off one ingredient on here this wouldn't work as well. This is like, I gave you a
random assortment of bullshit and somehow you had
exactly what you needed. Not a thing more, not a thing less. - Also big letters. - [Zach] Big letters. - [Ned] Here's what I've
got for Keith today. Beets, parsley, kale,
carrots, purple yams, pears, and then gnocchi and flank steak. All right, judges, I've got
the yellow plates for... (judges gasping) Ned, let me grab yours as well. - [Ned] Whoa, Keith. - This looks impressive. - It looks good. - [Keith] This is just a good
old fashion steak and potatoes side of veggies. This is just what it is. This is just as dinner. The flank steak that I
marinated in some vinegars and some seasoning. It's got a little compote or relish made with beets and pear. We've got the goofy purple potato with the pasta gnocchi to try
to make a mashed pastatoes to some degree of success. And then we got some carrots
and kale with some little, a little vinegar to brighten it up. I hope you enjoy. Thank you, judges. - All right, well, let's dive in. - [Nick] Yeah, bon appetite. - I'm gonna start with
the mashed pastatoes. - Me too. - Mm. That's unlike anything I've ever had. - [Nick] I'm also pleasantly surprised. You know my first thought
was actually potato salad. - Oh, yeah. - Like potato salad
and mac salad together? - I mean, it's sort of
room temperature now, but I almost could see
this being served cold. - [Keith] Really? - That's good. Not quite mashed
potatoes, not quite pasta. It's mashed pastatoes. - Thank you, Ned. - [Alexandria] Kale's really good. I love the vinegar. It's really fresh. - All right, let's get to the main course. - [Keith] Beets were a real challenge. But I do know that when you have something with a really strong flavor, you should give it a surrounding
of other strong flavors so that it doesn't overpower. So you kind of hit it with some garlic and then throw some acid in
there to break them down, let 'em be friends. (dramatic music) - Mm. I love the steak. I think it could use a little more salt, but I love this relish
that you've made on top. I don't think I would
have thought to make this. And it's really, really good. - I don't think I would
have thought to make it. Honestly, without the
ingredients presented, I had to figure out what to do. And pears and beets are
something I never cook with, so I paired them. - [Alexandria] Ah.
- [Ned] Ah. - [Nick] You also cooked it really nice, it's perfectly medium rare. - I love the creativity
with the mashed pastatoes. And we kind of have like
a little rainbow here. There's the red of the beets inter-playing with the
red of the medium rare. - Yeah, the colors are beautiful. - I still don't like the beets in this. But the steak is amazing. I would pay $16 for this
in downtown Hollywood. - (cheers) That's what we
wanna hear right there. 'Cause that's how much lunch costs here. - [Nick] Good job. - I don't know, was I supposed to be mean? I mean...
- [Nick] No, this is a... - This is really good. - This is lovely. - This is just mystery box, (laughs) - Ned, it's time for me to try yours. - [Ned] Oh, boy. - [Keith] All right. So we've got some red grapes,
we got some lemons, cilantro, radishes, rutabaga,
cauliflower, sauerkraut, and last, a pork tenderloin. - Hello, judges. - Wow. - (clapping) Wow, that is a presentation. - Up next is my dish. I am, oh, no. - [Keith] Chicken has a way of doing that. - [Ned] Yeah, it's okay. I am very pleased to
present to you my creation. I call it the meat sweats. (Keith laughing) Now Keith, you love fried chicken. - I absolutely do. - You did not give me
fried chicken in the box. However... - You did it. - I turned my dreams into reality. I have made a bacon wrapped pork loin stuffed with fried chicken. Inside there is a nice little sauce of rutabaga, radishes,
sauerkraut, and mustard. Of course, it's carved table-side. - Oh my God. - Dinner and a show? - [Nick] Oh...
- [Keith] Yeah. This is a restaurant. Where are we? Where am I, on the Sunset Strip? In an expensive hotel on the rooftop? This is $100 meal for four. - [Ned] Wolfgang Ned. - [Keith] We ready? - [Nick] We're ready.
- [Alexandria] Yes. Mm, it's really juicy. - And very moist. - [Nick] This is moist.
- [Ned] Nice. - We can eat it all. - Bacon wrapped, that will do it. - [Alexandria] The
mustard flavor is great. - The mustard isn't overpowering either. (Alexandria laughing)
- [Ned] Yeah. - [Keith] You cooked this pork
tenderloin really perfectly. Like it is absolutely perfect. The bacon is crunchy on top. The little fun surprises inside, like the little nuts here and there. The chicken is great. - I can't believe you did this in an hour. - Well, it kept cooking while we were judging Keith's in the oven. I didn't wanna serve you raw pork. - Great salt presence, but
it's leaving me very salted. I'm really thirsty. - And hear you have
daddy's favorite cocktail. - No, you didn't. - I did. - [Keith] You didn't.
- [Ned] I did. It's grapes, lemon, and whiskey. - Whoa. - [Keith] I love it. - [Ned] Did you guys get a strong horse? - It's more of a shooter
than a cocktail. (laughs) - It's spicy. Now I got the whiskey on that one. (Nick laughing)
- Oh my God. It's strong. - I'm just trying to get the judges drank. - [Keith] You really transformed the box into like something that
could go in a cookbook. - [Ned] Wow. - I'm so impressed. I think it's really amazing.
- [Ned] Thank you. - [Zach] Now it's time for the judging. Judges, what is our criteria today? - Well, I think what we
took into consideration is your creativity, the visual appeal. But ultimately, it was
really just about the taste and the flavor profile. - Kind of always is. - [Nick] Yeah, that's
really what it came down to. - [Alexandria] Keith's
dish, it was really good. You perfectly cooked steak. Keith had more of a well-rounded meal. - [Nick] Ned, you were so determined to make fried chicken no
matter what, and you did it. It wasn't one of the dishes
in your box, (laughs) but you fried it up and you wrapped it in
that pork tenderloin. It was really well put together. - [Alexandria] Zach's, you
cooked the jackfruit perfectly. And the kimchi went so well with it. The mango went so well with it. Nothing was seasoned,
but it was delicious. - [Nick] And Eugene,
your dish was super fun. It looked great. From being a man without a plan for a good portion of your cooking, it came together quite nicely. - And the beard, am I right? - [Nick] Oh, that's working. - Yeah, big fan. Points for that. - We loved all of your dishes. They were all good. They all exceeded our expectations and you guys made it really hard. (laughs) - Yeah, this is a really tough decision. - I think this is a very positive show. - Yeah. - So let's get to fourth place. - Okay.
(all laughing) - [Nick] Again, this was a tough decision. We went back and forth. Everything was good, I want
you guys to remember that. Number four is
(dramatic music) Eugene Leeyang.
- Oh. - [Nick] I'm so sorry. - [Keith] Oh my God,
how could this happen? - [Nick] It was really good. But it just sort of felt
like you took each one and layered on top of the other. - That's exactly what I did. - [Nick] (laughs) So we had
to deduct a little for that. - [Alexandria] Yeah. I think the best part about
it was that it said Zach. (all laughing) Okay, so third place is
(dramatic music) Zach.
(Zach gasping) I'm so sorry. We loved yours so, so much. Let me tell you why. - Why? - So you cooked the jackfruit perfectly and it went really well with the mango... - Perfect. - [Alexandria] And the kimchi. However, you didn't season anything. - It didn't need it. You said it was delicious. - It was delicious, but the main flavor came
from the barbecue sauce. - But if I seasoned it the main flavor would come from cumin. That's still in the pantry. - This is "Without a Recipe",
you don't have to fight. - There was no way, no. There is zero way for the
flavor to come from anything other than something
that's not on the table. - Salt and pepper. - I think I should have
made a little puree. - Salt and pepper.... - That's still would have been pantry. - You've got a little crumb right here. - I mean, Zach, that just says Kroger's
barbecue sauce slaps. - It's too good. - So now here we are. - Keith, oh my God. - We had several conversations. - Yeah, this was our toughest call. - It's gonna be close. Because I feel like
Ned's was like beautiful. - Yeah, and I feel like
Keith's was like, go ahead. - The winner of this mystery box is (dramatic music) Keith. (Zach cheering)
- I can't believe it. Even though he made the
thing that was so beautiful? - [Nick] Ned, the drink
did not work for me. - [Alexandria] The star of
your dish was the fried chicken was delicious. And your meal wouldn't
be complete without it. But that wasn't one of your ingredients. - Wait, the chicken wasn't
one of your ingredients? - No, I forced that in there. - [Alexandria] Keith's dish really gave us a whole complete meal. We had one of each food groups. - [Nick] I think it's very hard to get a steak perfectly
cooked to medium rare. Everything in the box shined through. - But did it spell someone's name? - It didn't do that. - But was it a showstopper? - Maybe... - Did it bring it down South? (all laughing) - He did his Southern accent. - Thanks for watching. And thanks to Kroger for
sponsoring today's video. - Get some fresh produce from
Kroger, make your cart today. Make yourself a weird meal
at home and have a nice one. We're the Try Guys. We love you. (lips smacking) (all laughing) - We're gonna use that outro? - [All] Yeah. (upbeat music) - [Keith] It's April, baby. We've got some fresh red grapes. I love grapes. I used to pop as many
as I could in my mouth in the summer as a child and then I'd spit them at my cats. Now, that was a waste of grapes, but it was also a waste of time. So (laughs), and I had a good time.
I've watched enough Try Guys and find it hard to believe every single dish from the guys was "really good" lmao Im not sure if its cuz of the sponsorship or what
I think the only negative complaint was from Ned when he said he didn't like the beets in Keith's dish but he still padded it with positive things right after. Usually they're pretty savage with their critiques lol
I got weirdly excited at how they all made things that were relatively tasty, but got the impression that this was somehow "rigged" due to the Kroger sponsorship. But I want to believe they were actually just winging it completely on their own.
I understand it's just a fun little competition, but I'm mildly (very mildly) annoyed at Ned for adding 2 pretty large ingredients that weren't included in the box; chicken and bacon. I guess I feel like he shouldn't have been 2nd. (I really don't care too much, just a small complaint).
It was a fun video and I hope they do more of these. I kind of like it better when they cook for each other.
I can’t believe so many people are believing that they received true critiques. 😂 Zac used bottled sauce and no seasoning and threw it on plain bread, Eugene threw everything on the tortillas, Keith didn’t do anything interesting at all and just made a steak dinner with sides. Honestly, Ned was the most creative, but fried chicken inside rolled up pork and cooked again wouldn’t have been that great. Yet they all received great feedback. It was an ad for Kroger. Dissing the food would have made people associate their products as bad, even if they aren’t. I get it, but the same spirit of Without A Recipe wasn’t there.
Super disappointed that they’d work with Kroger right now considering they just closed THREE stores in LA to avoid paying their employees hazard pay. Do they do even one second of research before jumping into these sponsorship agreements? It’s hard to believe in them as “progressive” if they’re willing to work with a company that despises labor like Kroger does