Jay Reifel runs The Village Table and Edible History supper club and a pop-up called Knives + Fire — a small ecosystem of dining concepts that exists outside the brick-and-mortar restaurant economy entirely. He is, by trade, the kind of chef the Beat Bobby Flay format was actually built to surface. Most viewers had not heard of him before this episode. Most viewers will not forget him after.
He beat Bobby with mince pie — the British holiday pastry that, properly made, has fruit, spice, suet, and the kind of slow soak that takes weeks. Bobby's pie, per the broadcast, was "more savory than sweet." Mince pie is supposed to be both, with the sweet winning by a nose. Reifel's was. Bobby's was not.