Adult stars Jak Knife and Brandi Love kick off season seven with plenty of sizzle.

Jak brings two years of experience working in a deli to the kitchen, though he admits it was “the worst job” he’s ever had. Now, just stepping back into the kitchen gives him flashbacks. 

Brandi rates her cooking skills at a solid 6.5, but she’s quick to confess she’s more comfortable baking than battling over a stovetop. 

Brandi and Jak are thrown for a loop when Chef Jojo announces their challenge: Philly cheesesteak sandwiches with sweet potato chips. 

Jak (understandably) stumbles right out of the gate at the sight of the deli slicer. Meanwhile, Brandi’s nerves are on high alert too, having just confessed that red meat is her biggest fear in the kitchen.

Still, both contestants calm themselves and get to work. Brandi wastes no time lobbing some playful trash talk, hoping to throw Jak off his game.

Before long, Jak is all out of sorts, with Chef Jojo hovering to make sure Jak’s roux doesn’t fall apart. Meanwhile, Brandi’s roux is already earning her some early praise.

Brandi’s confidence seems to be paying off as she keeps the pressure on Jak… but this advantage doesn’t last long. A heavy-handed shake of paprika threatens to totally ruin her dish.

Jak, on the other hand, rallies with chips that are sliced just right and fried to golden perfection.

Time is up and both chefs manage to plate a solid-looking sandwich. But in the end, it all comes down to taste.

Chef Jojo praises the flavors of Jak’s cheesesteak and the crispness of his chips. However, the sandwich is a little dry and the chips are on the verge of being burnt. 

Brandi’s sandwich wins points for its tender meat, rich cheese sauce, and flavorful chips. Still, the paprika incident comes back to haunt her.

Nevertheless, Brandi wins and heads to the semifinals. 

Amanda Nicole calls herself a carnivore who grew up glued to The Cooking Channel. She’s feeling confident in her skills, but Chef Jojo’s kitchen is full of surprises.  

Her opponent, Holly Randall, comes from a family who made dining together a priority. These days, however, she admits that her husband handles the cooking. 

And when Chef Jojo reveals that the soft-shell crab eggs Benedict they’ll be cooking doesn’t come with a recipe, Amanda starts to feel the pressure.

With so many moving parts to the dish, both chefs need to lock into a game plan ASAP.

Chef Jojo demonstrates how to use a bowl with butter over a steaming pot of water to poach eggs and build the hollandaise sauce. 

Even with this detailed demonstration, Amanda and Holly appear completely lost. Both find it hard to remember Chef Jojo’s instructions, but they’re committed to piecing together a dish using their own approaches. 

Holly pulls her crab from the fryer, and it’s looking shockingly tasty. Meanwhile, Amanda finally stirs up a buttery hollandaise and is feeling better about her chances.

The good vibes are short-lived, however, when Chef Jojo needs to step in to fix Holly’s critical mistake. Her error? Trying to poach eggs with the shells still on.

Meanwhile, Amanda scrambles to another working burner when she realizes that her eggs aren’t poaching. 

Unfortunately for Holly, her entire dish begins unraveling during plating. Her egg completely breaks and her hollandaise turns into more of a wet scramble than a proper sauce.

Amanda, on the other hand, is riding high. She’s managed to plate a delicious-looking soft shell crab Benedict ready for judging.

And, unsurprisingly, Amanda’s dish triumphs over Holly’s. Hopefully, Holly’s husband won’t give her too much grief for this one.

Self-described “nerd from Minnesota” Siri Dahl specializes in comfort food, the kind of dishes that get you through cold, Midwestern winters.

Ricky Johnson says he likes to keep things simple in the kitchen and has a penchant for breakfast foods. Ricky’s plan? Win over Chef Jojo with charm and hope his cooking can carry him to the semifinals. 

Siri lights up when Chef Jojo announces that their challenge is poutine fries. This comfort food classic should give her an advantage. 

Siri hopes to score an early advantage by diving straight into the potatoes, since they’ll likely take the longest to cook. But with Ricky’s strategy of copying everything Siri does, it’s anyone’s guess whether she’ll keep the edge.

Shortly into the kitchen battle, Chef Jojo shares a pro tip with the contestants: soak the potatoes in water for five minutes before frying. The result should be a perfectly crispy french fry.

But while Siri stays focused on her work, Ricky gets completely lost in the kitchen. His new strategy will be distracting Siri as much as possible.

With a Cuban father and Sicilian mother, La Sirena comes from an international background steeped in rich culinary tradition. You’d expect she’d be a natural in the kitchen, but La Sirena isn’t sure she inherited the cooking gene. 

Her opponent, AVN winner Gianna Dior, is even less confident. In fact, Gianna rates her cooking skills at a 4.5—actually, make that a -4.5. 

Buckle up, this should be an interesting competition! 

Hopefully, Chef Jojo has taken their culinary inexperience into account when he thought up their challenge: spaghetti and meatballs from scratch.

The chefs dive right in, grinding their meatballs and Chef Jojo warns them of the dangers of cross-contamination.

Perhaps La Sirena wasn’t paying attention to Chef Jojo’s advice. She tastes the raw meat without giving it a second thought.

Gianna struggles under pressure, reacting dramatically to nearly every suggestion and criticism from Chef Jojo. 

Meanwhile, La Sirena’s noodles seem to be as confused as she is. They’re looking much closer to raw than al dente.

But with the clock ticking down, both contestants really start to scramble. The $20,000 question is: can they finish in time?

Despite the chaos, both La Sirena and Gianna manage to plate edible spaghetti and meatballs.

Immediately, it’s obvious that Chef Jojo isn’t as enthusiastic about these dishes as he was about previous match-ups. Gianna’s dish, for example, is “not disgusting.” Her undercooked meatballs and bland sauce, however…

And while La Sirena’s plating might be rough around the edges, her meatballs are cooked through. We’ll see if her skills improve in time for the semifinals.

Both Siri Dahl and Amanda Nicole are riding high as they return to the kitchen for the semifinals. They’re eager to show Chef Jojo what they’ve learned since the first round.

But with a $20,000 prize nearly in sight, the stakes are higher than last time.

Their challenge? Craft the most mouth-watering pork chops Chef Jojo’s ever tasted. 

Siri is thrilled for the challenge, but Amanda can’t help but wish she was working with steak.

Chef Jojo raises the stakes for the semifinals, now requiring that their dishes feature at least three surprise ingredients: celery root, rhubarb, pears, star anise, blackberries, and potato. 

With the clock running, both Siri and Amanda get to work seasoning their pork before turning to sauces and other strategies. 

Amanda is leaning towards a Mediterranean profile, while Siri sets her sights on something sweet.

Amanda’s skills begin to shine as she builds her berry sauce—brightened with blood orange, spiced with star anise, and infused with pears and celery root.

Meanwhile, Siri is really struggling with her sides. Her mashed potatoes look more like a runny purée, and as the clock winds down, she nearly forgets to sauce her pork chop.

Luckily, Siri manages to get everything on the plate just as the buzzer sounds. 

Chef Jojo praises Siri’s mashed potatoes and her pear-infused sauce. Plus, she nailed the cook on the pork chop. Overall, Chef Jojo is very happy with Siri’s plate.

However, he’s not as enthusiastic about Amanda’s pork chop, which suffers from unrendered fat. Still, Chef Jojo compliments her inventive berry sauce.

There’s a lot for Chef Jojo to chew on, with both dishes having distinct strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately, it’s Siri that moves on to the finals.

Expert trash talker Brandi Love faces off against La Sirena in the second semifinal. With just one more cook between them and a shot at $20,000, both chefs are feeling the heat. 

Chef Jojo lays down the challenge: a head-to-head showdown for the best scallops.

And, just like Siri and Amanda, these two semi-finalists will have to work with surprise ingredients. This time, Brandi and La Sirena must feature at least three: fennel, purple cauliflower, wine, purple Brussels sprouts, and baby corn.

Brandi gets to work mapping out her plate and deciding which components need to hit the heat first. La Sirena, meanwhile, jumps straight to the scallops. 

Did La Sirena even hear Chef Jojo’s warning about how fast they cook?

Brandi boils her cauliflower for a purée while leaning on her favorite competition tactic: mind games. La Sirena, on the other hand, is too locked in to her ingredients to notice.

With more than half the time still left on the clock, La Sirena is already ready to plate. The problem is, she’s missing a core component—her sauce. 

La Sirena opts to mix up a combination of teriyaki, lime, and baby corn. It’s an unusual combo, but one she hopes will pay off in the taste test.

Meanwhile, Brandi is making some bold choices of her own. She opts to fry her purple Brussels sprouts… and it looks like a great choice. The sprouts manage to hold their vibrant color while picking up a tasty char around the edges. 

Both contestants get their dishes plated in time, and Chef Jojo kicks off the judging with Brandi. He praises the flavor of her dish, but notes that her scallops are a bit overseared.

Next up is La Sirena and her so-called “mermaid” plate. To everyone’s surprise, her last-minute teriyaki sauce combination works. However, her scallops deliver a flavor Chef Jojo’s never tasted before… and not in a good way.

In the end, it’s Brandi that will be facing off against Siri Dahl in the finals.  

It all comes down to this: Brandi Love vs. Siri Dahl in the This Is Fire finals. With $20,000 and the ultimate bragging rights on the line, both chefs are hungry for this win.

But this isn’t the time for self-congratulations. 

Chef Jojo gets straight to the final challenge of the season: a massive T-bone steak, complete with juicy bone marrow and steakhouse potatoes. 

Neither Brandi nor Siri feel fully confident working with red meat, and both admit they’re out of their depths. 

Brandi goes to her usual playbook, and kicks off the showdown with trash talk and pranks. She even pretends to steal Siri’s paper towels.

But the kitchen pranks are short lived and both chefs hunker down to business. First, they season their steaks before moving on to their sides. 

Siri gets to work on “cowboy” mashed potatoes, while Brandi begins roasting her bone marrow in the oven with a generous helping of butter. 

An almost eerie quiet settles over the kitchen as both Siri and Brandi work to deliver the winning dish of season 7.

Both chefs choose asparagus as their veggie, setting up a nearly identical comparison between their plates at judging. 

As the clock winds down, both T-bone plates look exquisite. Now it’s up to Chef Jojo to decide which of these similar dishes tastes like a winner. 

Chef Jojo tastes Brandi’s dish first, praising her roasted bone marrow, crisp asparagus, smooth mashed potatoes, and flavorful steak. His only critique: a bit too much parmesan in the mash.

Siri follows, and her plate earns rave reviews like, “perfect” bone marrow, “delicious” asparagus, “silky” potatoes, and “phenomenal” steak.

Calling it his “hardest decision yet,” Chef Jojo takes a few extra bites before declaring the winner…

Congratulations Siri! Now, let’s see if she’s ready to face season six champ Melissa Stratton in the Grand Championship.

It’s the This Is Fire Grand Championship: season six champion Melissa Stratton returns to face season 7 winner Siri Dahl. At stake? An extra $10,000 cash prize and the ultimate bragging rights.

Neither finalist has spent much time in the kitchen since their wins, giving Siri a slight advantage. Both, however, are planning to put what they’ve learned from Chef Jojo to good use.

And it’s a good thing they were paying attention… because this challenge comes with no recipes and no playbook. It’s a true choose-your-own-adventure free cook.