Who won the face-offs in episode 1 of Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas?

Tournament of Champions’ (TOC) holiday version, Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas premiered on November 5, 2025. 

It welcomed some of the most renowned faces in the culinary world, many of whom fans might know from the previous seasons of TOC. 

The All-Star Christmas version of the culinary show followed the same pattern as the original show, where judges reviewed every dish blindly. 

In the premiere, the panelists comprised Michelle Bernstein, Ming Tsai, and Curtis Stone. 

Hosted by Guy Fieri, the first episode of the show saw three rounds of competition. The rounds were as follows:

Round 1: Jet Tila and Ashley Holt vs. Amanda Freitag and Aarón Sanchez

Round 2: Shirley Chung and Sherry Yard vs. Tobias Darzon and Marcel Vigneron

Round 3: Alex Guarnaschelli and Antonia Lofaso vs. Aarti Sequeira and Crista Luedtke

The first round winners were Jet and Ashley, whereas Tobias and Marcel won the second face-off.

The third and final round was a tie, however, after judging the scores of the savory dish, Antonia and Alex were became the winners.

Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas: Randomizer results, dishes prepared, and judges’ verdict

In the first round, the Randomizer tasked Jet and Ashley, as well as Amanda and Aarón, to cook with top sirloin, honeycrisp apples, metal skewers, and canned pumpkin. 

Both teams also had to include the poaching cooking technique, per the Randomizer. 

Jet and Ashley presented the panel of judges with kofta kebabs, roasted apple fritters, and pumpkin butter.

Overall, the dished scored 82 points. It was Ashley’s fritters that stood out to the judges while the kebab’s were too salty. 

On the other hand, Amanda cooked pumpkin and apple tart and Aarón prepared chiles en nogada. 

Judge Ming thought Amanda’s dish was a “perfect holiday bite.” However, Chris found issues with the cooking on the pepper. 

Consequently, they earned 79 points, and with that, Jet and Ashley won the first round. 

In the second round, Shirly and Sherry, as well as Tobias and Marcel had to cook with little neck clams, strawberries, a box grater, fruitcake, and glaze something on their plate.

Tobias cooked clams casino with fruitcake stuffing, which earned 45 points and a compliment from Curtis, who believed it was a “triumph.”

Marcel’s strawberry fruitcake ice cream with strawberry dust received 40 points but was critiqued for being too sweet. 

On the contrary, Shirley prepared fruitcake soy sauce-glazed clams (39 points). The Tournament of Champions: All-Star Christmas experts thought the glaze was too intense and overpowering. 

However, the team received better feedback for Sherry’s pain perdu (40 points).

Ultimately, Tobias and Marcel were granted the win, as the judges appreciated the taste of Tobias’ clams. 

In the final showdown, Antonia and Alex were up against Aarti and Crista. The Randomizer challenged them to use a whole chicken, navel oranges, a toaster, and chestnuts in their dish. It also tasked them with making their dish peppery. 

Aarti prepared crispy chicken schnitzel (40 points) whereas Crista cooked an orange bundt cake (39 points). Both dishes were critiqued for not having enough pepper.

On the contrary, Antonia presented the panelists with fried chicken with chestnut gravy (40 points), and Alex served them orange and pink peppercorn ice cream sandwich, which Ming called a “huge hit.”

The scores were tied, so the judges looked at the scores of the sweet dishes. That too, were tied. Consequently, they took the savory dishes’ scores into consideration.

Alex and Antonia won the round with only half a point lead. 

Stay tuned for more updates.