The Handmaid's Tale

Four chefs get to the heart of Italian cuisine with ingredients from the robust Emilia-Romagna region; a surprise challenges the chefs in the appetizer round, while the entrée round ends with very different takes on a veal and mushroom dish.

The chefs showcase what they know about making amazing Venetian dishes; a strikingly strange ingredient in the first basket threatens to throw them off their game, while using polenta to best effect in a half-hour entree round is a tremendous task.

Italy's olive oil capital inspires four chefs as they create coastal cuisine from Puglia; in the appetizer round, a chef's mistake causes a big stink in the kitchen, and a cactus creates a prickly situation in the dessert round.

Four chefs focus on the fresh and humble food of Tuscany; for the appetizer, they must make good choices while dealing with a super-lean meat, and they face issues of confidence and competence to make it to the finale.

Four winning chefs return for the Battle Italiano finale, where they'll represent their regions; emotions run high in a dramatic entrée round, and unfamiliar ingredients in the dessert basket keep the finalists on their toes.

The chefs go overboard while making gluttonous food; they compete for time with the fryer in the appetizer round, struggle to pair ingredients with their steak entrées and pull out the stops with gummy cinnamon roll desserts.

The chefs turn PB&J pancakes into appetizers; a rainbow ingredient in the entrée basket is not a sunny surprise for the chefs; ice cream drama in the dessert round has the judges on the edge of their seats.

Four chefs find a surprise in the appetizer basket and get a bit overzealous pounding pork for their entrée; the final two competitors are tickled pink by the discovery of pink pineapple in their dessert baskets.

Four competitors take the reins as a cactus product and casserole stand out in the appetizer basket; a spicy surprise brings the heat in the entrée round; a special flour for dessert could prove to be inspiring or intimidating.

Four chefs have the green light to go wild for avocados; the chefs struggle to figuring out how to work with a secret meat in the entrée basket and must kick their creativity into high gear to make avocado work well in their superfood desserts.

Shell-shocked, the chefs crush open crustaceans in every round to make sensational seafood meals; big ambitions in a tight time frame might mean trouble for one chef, and the judges wonder if a risky plan in the dessert round will pan out.

The competitors create appetizers that include a central Asian bread and a sweet and sour treat, make a packaged product sing with sole in the entrée round and take on a dessert round featuring an Indian snack and a plethora of pastries.

The chefs are eager to put their own mark on things by grabbing extra items for their appetizers; their pantry picks may not be smart choices; figuring out what to do with a leafy vegetable sucks up most of their time in the entrée round.

Competitors race to turn mystery ingredients into extraordinary three-course meals; this competition is all about skill, speed and ingenuity and only one chef will impress the judges enough to survive the chopping block.

Four brave chefs prioritize flavor over fear as they take on outrageously daring ingredients to make killer dishes for the judges; the chefs prove they have the chops to make a swamp-loving chomper tasty and try not be be stung by a shocking sweet.