Nick DiGiovanni - I Cooked Against A Michelin Star Chef

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

I cooked against a chef with THREE Michelin stars in an epic cook-off challenge using ONLY ingredients from 7-Eleven.

Today I'll be competing in the most difficult cooking competition of my entire life. I'll be cooking against chef James Kent, who runs two restaurants in New York City and has three Michelin Stars. Each of our dishes will be evaluated by an Iron Chef and Top Chef Judge. There can only be one winner. Hello, chefs. For today's challenge, you each have $20 to spend on your ingredients. The wrinkle, you're gonna have to spend this at 7-Eleven. You think you can turn 7-Eleven into good food? I will have a few pennies to spare.

See you soon! You out of my fucking way, let's go! Chef, we have five minutes to grab everything you need for your dish. You're ready? Let's do this. Let's go. All right, I'm not going to lie. I'm pretty nervous.

Honestly, I just have absolutely no idea what I'm going to make. And I also rarely go into 7-Eleven because we don't have that many of them where I'm from. We gotta hurry up, Nick. Protein, protein, protein, protein, protein, protein. Here, two dogs. The only seven-lemon I've been to is in Tokyo, and it's like the best restaurant in the world. What does 7-Eleven have? Tons and tons of frozen stuff, but we only have 30 minutes to cook.

I don't think I'm going to have enough time for that kind of thing. Raman hot dogs, spicy, spicy, spicy, spicy, crunchy, crunchy. Hmm. I think flaming hot Cheetos. Have you gotten anything yet or no? No. No. To my knowledge, the most iconic thing at 7-Eleven is these little taquitos here.

The key is you always got to take the ones from the back. This is the most fresh. 179 each. Three for four. Three seven-eleven rewards. Oh, maybe I can convince them to give me rewards. They have one cheeseburger left. Hey, get out of you.

Get out of you. Let me think. Oh, nori, nori, nori, nori. Oh, here we go. Kim cheese sweet sweet snack. Oh, I'm going to get a blue cheese. you know we get better ingredients in this so this is like yo it's a stretch but we're gonna do something dope the food's gonna be delicious we're gonna what we have

we work with what we're forced to have do they not have fritos you're kidding me they have to have fritos fritos in the corner of the star they only had one bag of fritos in the entire thing I think we're good tomato sauce 279 I can work with that I think I need some greens I'm gonna cross my fingers and hope this all fits with my twenty dollar budget but I need one more thing and that's some cheese. I think I'm ready. Let's go. Oh shit. Pretty good. 1847. Yeah, you got to put this in a little bit better, bro. Come on, dude. You know the hot dog fell out. Yo, dude, you're killing me. One quarter to spare. I got $20. I got to fit it all in this. You think I can make it happen? Oh wait. 18. Oh no. Is that over 20? Oh yeah, you're done. You can borrow my quarter, bro.

Can I take out one takedo? Is that okay though? I feel bad taking one of these out. That's okay to take it out? That's okay to take it out? Yeah, okay, so $20 and $3. See, I can give a discount for you, three cents. Oh, he got it. Oh, he's no fucking discounts, no discount. No discount. He gave me a-discount. He gave me the $0.000.

Don't listen in. Don't listen in. Damn, I should have muscle for discounts. I just bought efficiently. Thank you so much. Have a good one. You know, this guy needs all that he can get. Our judge is waiting on us.

We gotta head back. All right, chefs, you are back from 7-Eleven. Are you ready to make a Michelin-Star level meal for me? Yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. the clock your time starts now so I'm gonna be making a fancy Frito chili pie walking taco many people call it the idea of a walking taco is that you have this sort of taco meal but you can have it in the Frito's bag where you can

walk along the street and eat a taco and this is gonna be the star of the show today do you like spicy I do like spicy you like cilantro I love cilantro you got to play to the judges likes and needs he's buttering me up already and I like that I gotta go back to the paper go go go go go all right okay so what are you making Yeah, we're doing a ramen corn dog. So basically, this is some of the garners for the ramen. This is the spice. Little chili sauce in here.

Add a little bit of flavor. First things first, I need to do a little bit of prep work here. We are using a few ingredients on the side. That is okay. Looks like they gave me kind of a not great knife. Real chef brings their own knives, just gonna say. It's not the size that matters, okay? So we're mincing up this garlic, and I'm gonna first make that nice bolognays

that goes on top of our Frito chili pie. I love a little chili situation that I can walk and talk with. Some good knife work, man. We're going in such a nice work. short amount of time that the idea of speed, but they didn't exactly give me a knife that is synonymous for speed. Chef James.

Yo, yo. Chef Nick is complaining about the quality of knife. He feels like it's not really the level that he wanted to be. Yo, chefs have their own knives. What kind of question is that? Where's your knife, chef? I came on an airplane. So this is Tamago.

It's a Japanese egg custard. Where's the Tamago gonna play a role in our corn? Just a little garnish on top of the corned a little gnarried egg. A little nory egg. When you're feeling confident, you talk about garnish. We have 24 minutes to go on the,

Oh, that's it. Let's go. Let's go. Looks like chef is going for something Asian-inspired over there, but I can't entirely tell. So I'm opening up my hamburger here. I don't really need the bread. We can see how disgusting that is, so I'm going to take off the bread from this thing. But what we do need is that beautiful beef inside, and it looks like it's a nice thick patty of beef.

So I'm going to go ahead and just start mincing that up as well. My ground beef is looking quite good, and then we will head over to the stove. He's saying the ground beef is looking quite good. I'm not sure I agree. Okay, what's happening now? We are making the corn dog batter. Okay, good. That's a lot of power.

I need a bigger bowl. I'm steep. I know it's a little bowl. It's good to know that even big deal Michelin Star Chefs sometimes use the wrong bowl. That's fair. This kid is in your kitchen. What do you think about that? You know, I gave him an extra dollar at 7-Eleven.

It was 25 cents. I let him win a little bit. So here, this is when it's going to get a little bit more interesting. Put this in here so you can dip the dog in. So we take this ramen. So we're going to wrap it around the dogs. That's just going to slip right up. This is what we're going to do.

Oh. No, you did. Better, come on. Yes, he did. It's called thinking on the fly. I mean, if you fed that to a child, they would say no, thank you. Yeah, God no. Pan goes on.

These are extremely, extremely hot. A little bit of olive oil. Garlic goes in. And then we're going to let that go until it gets nice and aromatic. So I want to make a somewhat sort of spicy, nicer bowl in these here, and that's why we're going to go in with a little bit of this red chili flake. It's going to be pretty spicy. I kind of want to consolidate the flavor of my beef a little bit more, too, so I'm going to toss that in there. How's it going?

Good? You're making a mess? Yeah, a little bit. What do you have in there? Chili? You like spicy? Yeah, that's why I like you. I got some rich. I am a little spicy.

I am a little spicy. And that's the ground beef that was from the 7-11. That is from the 7-11. Yeah. So we're gonna have to give it a lot of flavor to hide the 7-11. We're gonna have to give it a lot of love. Yeah, okay, good.

That's right. Let's taste a little bit of this. It's coming along, but it needs more work. Time is ticking, but these guys seem like they're going really slowly. Should I deduct some time from them? I think I should deduct some time. Gentlemen, I have decided that I'm gonna deduct five minutes

from your time, because it feels like maybe you don't need all this time. Let's go, chef. So here we go. We now have 15 minutes on the clock. I'll be done five minutes before that. I'm starting to quite a little bit more. Dipping the first dog into the deep fryer.

Wow, it looks good, chef. Look at that. This looks like a winning hot dog right there. That looks amazing. Would you eat this? Yeah, I would. You would? Is it because he's your boss that you're saying that?

No. Do you think enough of the noodles got in there? Yeah, definitely. Look at that. Oh, look at that. Oh, I like that one. Oh, this looks like a good one. It has some weird bits hanging off it.

So how we got some base. I'm going to go ahead and pick a few of these leaves while my sauce just sits there at that low simmer and the real way to cut these is going to be to lay them out then roll them up nice and carefully and chop it all up We'll toss it back in the sauce and back over the heat and while that's sitting there over low heat I'm gonna head back to my workstation a little jalapeno a little red onion a little bit of scalyon and a little bit of cilantro is gonna help us finish this dish Nick I don't want to put any pressure on you but chef James it looks good over there I'm a little nervous I'm not gonna lie So we have the tamago with all the like spices from the ramen we have the ramen dog I think I'm gonna mix some of this into the and make a little norie blue cheese. And also have some to kind of dust it on top. With the crunchy hot chitos, I think that's what I'm thinking.

All right, so the next thing, I would say the star of the show, I have to open up my takitos here. I have never had one of these, so I have no idea what's waiting for me on the inside. It looks okay. I wouldn't say it looks great, but it looks okay. What we got here? What we're working with?

Have you had a 7-Eleven tachito before? You know what? I had one piece of one yesterday. Was it good? We did a little recon. What? We did a little recon. I gotta learn what I'm doing over here.

Of course the Michel I'm sorry, Chef, went and did we go on. I wasn't even here yet. There are seven lemons everywhere. I'm just gonna scrape out the insides of these takkitos, because hopefully they're gonna add a bunch of extra flavor into that bolognese we're making. I'll scrape out my last tachito.

Remember, this was a bonus that we were supposed to have returned, but that guy in there was so nice. And this, we bring to our bolognese. The final step here is gonna be tasting this, making sure it's perfect, because I wanted to sit nicely on top of my final dish here. It might not be as pretty as chefs, but it's gonna taste better.

This competition is really heating up. We've got Chef Kent, who's making a corn dog. We've got Chef Nass. Nick, who's making kind of a Frito pie variation. The pressure is on, and we have less than 10 minutes left. Less than 10 minutes. So this is blue cheese, nory, scallion, and then a little bit of dairy.

And this is what you need to see chefs doing, taste their food. Actually, not terrible. We got some jalapenos here? Yes, please. I like it hot. Let's go. Maybe it likes hot. Make this like spicy, citrusy.

And again, what do you need to see chefs do? You gotta taste your food. Always taste. I'm gonna start thinking about my plating. I need to go find a white plate. I think this one will be best. So here's my plan. I want the Fritos back to stand out.

I want it to scream 7-Eleven. I'm gonna taste one, make sure they're good. Towards the end of one of these competitions, your hands definitely start to get a little bit shaky, and I am definitely getting a bit nervous, but we can do this. I'm gonna go down onto my plate with some of this salt. This is gonna be a fancy plating salt that we use

to finish our plate. I'm gonna lay this in a pile so it can hold my Fritos back. This needs to stay standing straight up, I'm going to lose this competition. Then I'll take my fritos back and wedge it into this salt. And hopefully that'll sit up for the judge later. I know he's about double my age. He has a lot more experience.

So in case you want to go to 7-11 on your own later. I think there's some bribery happening here. Yeah, I saw those hundreds in your Waleigh, Brodha. I got some money too, bro. I mean, you need much bigger bills. There's five minutes left, people. Here, so this is taking out that little egg custard that we're doing.

Oh, don't tell me you're gonna roll it. Somebody's just been in Tokyo. Let's see if this is what we want to do. Oh. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Okay.

Thank you, Oryagosemus. Here you go. It's the only thing I learned. Oh my god. Look at this presentation over here. Chef Kent. He's in your kitchen.

That's smoke and mirrors. Showing you up. He's got drama on a plate. I need to finish with a few nice and light and bright things here. I need to get perfect thin knife cuts in my jalapenos. Once we've done that, I'm going to go ahead and cut some of these green onions out of bias here. I'm going to chop up some of these red onions. Then I'm going to separate out a few carrots for my salad here.

We have 30 seconds left chefs. We have 30 seconds left. So we're gonna chiffon out some of this, this Nori. This is basically just kind of last minute garnish to drop on top. With a little wow factor, a little bit of spice, a little crunch, we're dropping the Noria on top. I'm gonna reheat my tomato sauce

and add a little bit in there to thin it out just a tad bit. This is going on top of our Frito bag. And then to finish, we'll top with all those beautiful garnishes. If this falls over, I am done. But I will say this bull and these smells incredible. We are down 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, Five, four, three, two, one.

Done, chefs! Let's go. Jeff, nice, good job, guys. Good job, guys. Wow, I'm tired. I just want some water. Time for the tasting. The first dish is Chef James Kent.

Let's go, let's go, what's up? Okay, what did you make me? It is a ramen corn dog. The preheated rolling hot dog that's in 7-Eleven with a ramen batter, and then we made a tamago. I put some Norio on top, drop some Cheetos on top, and took a blue cheese, spicy sauce on the side. Now, is it delicious?

Oh, it's definitely delicious. I think I'll be the judge. A little crazy looking, but it's... I mean... I think it's delicious. Obviously, when you're looking at a dish, whether it's made from ingredients from 7-Eleven or from the finest kitchens,

what you're looking for is something that is beautiful, that is creative, and most importantly, is tasty A-F? So, is this going to be that? Let's see. I'm going to try to get a perfect bite. Don't forget that sauce. I'm getting the sauce.

I'm getting hints of ramen seasoning. I'm getting tanginess from the blue cheese. Let's see, what are these guys are supposed to do for me? I don't know. I love the flavor of the seaweed. I'm not sure the seaweed should live where it lives, but I like the flavor. I mean, the cook on the hot dog, which was already cooked, is perfect.

Did we get enough of a ramen texture, though? We have the tamago. Is there enough crispiness here? All right, I think I've had enough. I'm ready for the next one. Chef Nick. My dish is sort of an elevated take on a walking taco or Frito chili pie. I took that iconic 7-Eleven tachito, scraped all that good stuff out of the the middle and made a nice bowl in haste, which I then just put over the top of a bag of Freeto's.

A snack that for me just screams 7-Eleven. I have to say your presentation is beautiful. Enjoy. Thank you. It's both nostalgic and it feels like it is a little bit elevated because he used all of Chef Kent's plating tricks. I like that. So now the question is, how will it taste? So I'm going to get a good dip of this Frito chili situation. Just hold? One more. Nick asked me whether I like things spicy and I do, so I'm hoping that he's given me a good amount of heat. I just had a jalapeno.

I'm still here with you, thank you. Okay, Nick did a really nice job bringing some acid to the front, which is, you know, because if you've got something that's packaged, sometimes you get a dull flavor. He's got some brightness in here. Chili all over me, hang on. If I was at a tailgate, this would kind of be a dream dish.

This is a dish that you'd be like, I'm definitely drunk, and this is gonna be a dish that I'm gonna wanna eat. Do I feel that chef Nick elevated this dish enough to be a Michelin-worthy dish? That is the question. This has been an amazing, Amazing day. You guys brought your A-Games. I would like to say that both of you are the stars of the 7-11 cook-off.

But unfortunately, only one of you can be the winner. And while both dishes showed creativity, had great taste, one of them to me stood out as really being Michelin level. And the winner is Chef James. Oh! Let's go. Come on. Let's get it right of the line. Let's go. Wow, hey, good work today. I have to say, I'm gonna just give Chef Nick a moment of real free. Here's that $100, here's the $100 I promise you. No, no, no. I'm just gonna say you came into a kitchen that you don't know, you just got right off a plane,

and you made a dish that honestly, anyone at home would be proud to serve. This is a tale of everyone at home realizing, even with $20, even at 7-Eleven, you can create some pretty incredible food. James, thank you for the healthy competition. How do you feel? Feel good, it was fun.

You got the big win. Yo, if I didn't get the wind, I would have left the building. Trying something new, going to 7-Eleven and cooking at this level, it's good time. Go check out James' restaurant's Crown Shia and Saga. He's got three Michelin stars across the two of them, and the food will blow your mind. If you do come, give him a hard time for beating me today. He might have won the cooking challenge, but who has cooler shoes on today? I'm going to lose that too.

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