Glutton For Punishment

Cooked nettles quickly lose their sting and taste like spinach, but in the Nettle Eating Competition in Dorset, England, the nettles are eaten raw. Picked just before the competition, the nettles are consumed with natural accompaniments such as caterpillars and slugs, and washed down with copious quantities of local ale. Will Bob eat his way to victory or will he lose it all?

Bob is about to meet his match - a mean-tempered 150lb nanny goat - which he must milk at the Goat Milking Competition in Pennsylvania. To train, Bob learns the proper milking technique and how to make goat's milk products like goat cheese and yogurt. During the contest, Bob must chase down the goat, roll up his sleeves, and get the most milk in a bucket in just two minutes.

Kung-fu tea (Kungfu cha), the 'espresso' of Chinese teas, remains an important part of social etiquette in Hangzhou, China. This is no timid tea party though. Combining piping hot tea with martial art moves, it's more like the flair bartending of caffeinated drinks. The server must pour the tea from great height and from behind his back with great precision.

In smoking hot Austin, Texas during the month of August, ice cream is not just a treat, it is a lifesaver! At the Austin Ice Cream Festival, competitors make ice cream the old-fashioned way - by hand-cranking freezing cream until it sets. It takes a strong arm and considerable stamina, but true ice cream purists know it is worth it.

Sushi has been a treasured part of Japanese culture for hundreds of years. And these days, virtually every North American neighborhood seems to have a sushi joint. In this episode, Bob has five days to learn the intricacies of cutting raw fish, assembling traditional sushi plate and creating his signature roll.

Bob, a self-trained chef, has never had his culinary skills tested at a culinary institution. In this challenge he'll find out if his knife skills are sharp enough to compete against culinary professionals in a Knife Skills Competition at Kendall Culinary College in Chicago.

Bob loves bagels, but mastering the art of the hand-rolled Montreal bagel takes time that he doesn't have. In 5 short days, Bob has to learn how to make this Montreal staple carb from start to finish, and then tackle the toughest skill of the process, hand-rolling perfect bagels, before he goes before the entire team of bakers at the famous St Viateur Bakery.

Bloody fingers, cuts, scrapes, and sore hands await Bob as he takes to the stage, grabs a peeler and strives to be the fastest at the annual Potato Days Peeling Contest in tiny Barnesville Minnesota. The inhabitants of Barnesville, one of the best potato producing areas in the US, pride themselves on their spuds.

Bob heads off to a popular Chinese dumpling restaurant in Vancouver, where he'll have five days to learn how to make dumplings in a fast-paced kitchen while chefs scream out orders in Chinese and slam out thousands of dumplings a day. Bob's task is to learn the most difficult one -xialongbao (soup dumpling) - a dumpling with complex filling and folds.

Bob is strong, but does he have the strength to husk the bark off a bundle of coconuts in minutes - with only his bare hands? His skills will be put to the test at the 13th Annual Coconut Festival. Bob will train by learning the proper technique of removing the husk from his Polynesian teacher, a master at all things coconut.

Bob loves cars and food but he has never combined them together. This will change as he is pitted against elite engineering students in the Edible Car Competition at Brown University, Rhode Island.

Gumbo, a stew containing everything from poultry, shellfish, and smoked pork served over rice, is a staple in many homes across Louisiana. Bob will be put to the test to see if he has what it takes to win the Gumbo cook-off in New Iberia, Louisiana - The Gumbo Capital of the World.

There was a time when chocolate was for kids, but, in these days of gourmet, vintage, fair trade, rare bean bars, chocolate has become a distinctly grown-up affair. In this episode Bob will have to master the tempering and blending of his own unique chocolate creation under the watchful eye of his mentor, a master chocolatier.