GMA3 Is Hosting the Third Annual Battle of the Holiday Leftovers

Are there any mashed potatoes in your fridge right now? Maybe half of a glazed ham, or a Tupperware full of gravy? Perhaps some stuffing that you just can’t seem to get rid of? I’d hazard a guess that even if you said no to all of the above, there are likely some festive leftovers sitting in your refrigerator right now. 

No matter what or how you celebrate this time of year, there’s always so much thought and planning that goes into ensuring you have a delicious feast fit for an army. But after the festivities have come and gone, you are — without fail — left with excellent but unfinished meals. And even though I love mashed potatoes wholeheartedly, I can only eat them for so many days in a row.

For anyone like me who struggles to decide what to do with holiday leftovers, GMA3: What You Need to Know will be airing a fierce but friendly competition between acclaimed chefs to see who can transform leftover food into something new and exciting. 

This is GMA3’s third annual “Battle of the Holiday Leftovers,” and this year anchors DeMarco Morgan and Eva Pilgrim are joined by co-anchor ABC News medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton and ABC News contributor Rocsi Diaz to host the seasonal showdown. 

The battle will feature three well-known chefs: cookbook author and former executive chef of Union Pacific Rocco DiSpirito, Top Chef season 13 contestant and owner of New York City’s Tadhana restaurant Frances Tariga, and executive chef of The Envoy Hotel in Boston and two-time Food Network Chopped Champion Tatiana Rosana.

The three contestants will each design and cook their ideal dish for re-purposing holiday leftovers on-air, showcasing their own unique taste through the final results. The hosts and cheftestants are joined by three guest judges who are undeniably up to the task of selecting a winner: restaurateur and celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, stand-up comedian and actor Michelle Buteau, and musician and producer Percy Miller, perhaps better known as Master P.

After tasting each of the three final dishes, the judges will select one winner to receive a $10,000 prize that will go to the charity of their choice. Speaking with Food & Wine, executive producer for GMA3 Cat McKenzie recalled that “Every year that we’ve done this, everyone’s come with such great charities…. These chefs play for really great things that are meaningful to them.” And if you need another reason to watch this festive competition happen — besides the promise of creative cooking and raising funds for a good cause — in addition to the announcement of the winner we can guarantee there’s another fun surprise at the end of the episode.

Although they’ll undoubtedly glean some new tips from watching these chefs work their magic, the GMA3 hosts have their own strategies for repurposing holiday leftovers at home. Morgan says that for his family, the solution is always obvious. “It’s just pasta. It’s heavy cream; it’s different cheeses. A little garlic in there and then you put it in the oven and you bake it. But it’s really good. It’s like chicken tetratrazzini.” Meanwhile, over at her household, Pilgrim takes a different but equally delicious approach, explaining to Food & Wine that, “My mom is Korean, so we like to stick stuff in a bowl with rice and then mix it all together, throw an egg in there, and some hot sauce, and the world is right.”

Viewers can tune into ABC at 1 p.m. EST/12 p.m. CST on December 26 to watch this year’s Battle of the Holiday Leftovers go down. And you might want to take notes, so you can use any insights you learn to transform whatever is in your fridge.