24 in 24: Last Chef Standing season 2 episodes 2 and 3 recap — Izard wins the golden knife while chefs tackle a noodle-making challenge

Episodes 2 and 3 of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing season 2 aired on Sunday, May 4, 2025, continuing the high-stakes culinary competition with intense eliminations and creative cooking challenges. The Food Network series, which features 24 chefs competing across 24 hours for a $240,000 grand prize, saw Stephanie Izard and Lawrence “LT” Smith finally face off after opting out of the first battle.

The 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing episodes also introduced two key themed challenges—'Simplicity' and 'Resourcefulness'—highlighted by a blind taste test and noodle dish cook-off. In the process, Stephanie Izard won the Golden Knife, while two chefs, Smith and Laurence Louie, were eliminated.

The remaining 11 chefs then tackled a demanding three-course black-tie dinner challenge.

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24 in 24: Last Chef Standing: What happened in the episode?

At the beginning of episode 2 of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing, the long-awaited head-to-head battle between Stephanie Izard and Lawrence “LT” Smith kicked off. Both had chosen to skip the premiere’s first challenge by heading to the 'breakroom,' forcing a showdown in episode 2.

Their challenge was to transform peanut butter, jelly, and bread into a refined dish by adding just three additional ingredients from the pantry. Izard selected apples, cheddar cheese, and onion to create a soup and sandwich lunch, while Smith used miso, anchovies, and lettuce to create a PB&J Caesar salad.

Graham Elliot served as the guest judge for the round. After tasting the dishes, Elliot declared Izard the winner, eliminating Smith from the competition. Following the elimination, the 12 remaining chefs participated in a 'Simplicity' challenge, starting with a blind taste test of a pasta dish.

Each chef had to correctly identify up to seven ingredients, not including the staples—pasta, salt, pepper, butter, and olive oil. The actual ingredients to identify were arugula, basil, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice, pistachios, and parmesan. Kathleen O’Brien-Price, Nini Nguyen, and Kelsey Murphy each identified five correctly, leading the group.

The number of ingredients each chef correctly identified determined how many they could use in the subsequent noodle-making challenge. Izard, now wielding the Golden Knife after defeating Smith, was given an extra ingredient and could take one away from another chef.

She chose to penalize Kevin Lee, who had previously won the Golden Knife in episode 1. Izard now had three ingredients to work with. The challenge permitted chefs to make their own pasta, and ingredients used for the dough and basic seasonings were not counted against their total.

Jonathon Sawyer emerged as the winner of the noodle challenge, earning $2400 and taking the Golden Knife from Izard. Chef Laurence Louie, one of the newer TV competitors, was eliminated after falling short in the challenge. This marked the second elimination of the night and reduced the roster to 11 chefs.

In episode 3 of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing, the focus shifted to the 'Resourcefulness' theme with a three-course black-tie dinner challenge. Sawyer, now holding the Golden Knife, selected six challenging ingredients for everyone to use in at least one of their courses: pimento cheese, Carolina Reaper peppers, strawberry milk, dried scallops, carrot tops, and shell-on pistachios.

Each chef had 60 minutes total to prepare an appetizer, entree, and dessert, with only 20 minutes allotted for each course. The guest judge for the black-tie dinner was Jet Tila, known for his appearances on Tournament of Champions.

After the appetizer round, Tila praised the intensity of the challenge, exclaiming:

“That was insane! What just happened?!”

The top four appetizer dishes came from Sawyer, O’Brien-Price, Nguyen, and Gabe Bertaccini. These four were allowed to skip the entree round and advance directly to the next phase.

After the entree course, Tila selected Kelsey Murphy, Izard, Elia Ambourad, and Bryan Voltaggio as the top four, sparing them from the dessert round. The remaining three chefs—Kevin Lee, Damaris Phillips, and Brittany Anderson—competed in the dessert course to avoid elimination.

By the end of episode 3 of 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing, no additional chefs were eliminated, but tension remained high as the competition narrowed.

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24 in 24: Last Chef Standing episodes 2 and 3 will be available to stream on Max the next day.