Rachel Klein runs Miss Rachel's Pantry in Philadelphia — a wholly vegan kitchen with a tasting-menu bent. She picked vegan cheese steaks against Bobby Flay. In Philadelphia. About a Philadelphia sandwich.
The vegan cheese steak is two impossible builds stacked. The meat substitute has to slice, sear, and crumble the way ribeye does on a flat-top — or it doesn't fool the muscle memory of anyone who has had a real one. The cheese has to drape, melt, and bind — which non-dairy cheeses famously do not do. Klein has been solving both problems on her menu for years.
Bobby brought a non-vegan version, which is permitted by the rules of the show but is, in retrospect, possibly the wrong strategic call. The judges, blind-tasting, chose hers.