- [Narrator] Welcome to the "Great American Recipe".

The celebration of American home Cooking, told through our most cherished recipes.

- [Jason] It's a cooking reality show with a little twist.

- It's an explosion of flavors, it's an explosion of cultures.

- Honoring generations of family tradition.

- [Jason] A show celebrating the multiculturalism that makes American food so vibrant and delicious.

- It's about honoring your heritage and the people you love.

- Seriously.

- Your food is all part of that American story.

- God, it's beautiful.

- It is a competition.

We are contestants, but it also focuses a lot on the story.

Where we're from, how we learned this dish.

Is it grandmama's recipe?

Is it something we picked up, something we were inspired by?

- [Jason] Season three of PBS's "The Great American Recipe" featuring eight contestants.

Two from our area, Ingrid Portillo of Monroe and Tim Harris of Fort Mill.

- I think it's a testament to how the Carolinas have grown a lot.

It's becoming its own melting pot.

- [Jason] The show giving each a chance to show off the foods they grew up with.

- It is not just the food, but it's also story how you got to creating those dishes.

How to make those recipes.

I was born in El Salvador and I came to the United States as an 8-year-old.

- [Jason] For Ingrid, immigrating to the United States was done more out of need as opposed to want.

The Salvadorian Civil War forced Ingrid's family to split up.

For five years, she was raised by her grandmother.

- My Abuelita did all the cooking.

The things that I remember most about my Abuelita is the smells of my grandma's kitchen.

- [Jason] Then came her turn to leave her home country.

- At eight years old I had to say bye to Abuelita and embark on a journey to cross borders to get to the United States.

- [Jason] The months long journey culminated with 8-year-old Ingrid swimming across the Rio Grande River to make it to the United States.

- I was so excited because I finally got to meet my mom.

I am going to have her for the rest of my life, but I'm, I'm never gonna have my grandmom.

I'm never gonna have my abuela.

She's, I don't think I ever gonna see her again.

- This is the only picture Ingrid has of her grandmother.

She honors her now by cooking the very same dishes she used to make.

- I am making sopa de mi abueal con tortitas.

which means my grandma's beans soup.

It has meat bones, beef, Salvadorian cheese.

The memories are not going anywhere.

They're still alive.

In every ingredient, they're still in there.

- Ingrid is now passing down her grandmother's family recipes to her own daughter, 15-year-old Luna.

- This is what I love about home cooking, this right here, teaching the new generations.

- It brings me a lot of pride 'cause you know, I've always grown up being very sure of like the person I am and the type of people my family is a part of.

So being able to share recipes and stories, it really helps me connect with my culture and my family.

- I think it's fundamental for development, for, to build close bond with your children to remember where you come from.

- [Jason] With 32,000 followers on Instagram and more than 400,000 on TikTok, Ingrid caught the eye of producers from "The Great American recipe".

- When I got there, I didn't know what to expect and I was like nervous, but I was so excited.

- I love how you have all of these kind of textures and then you have like this nice fried component too.

- Right now I am cooking some bacon.

My name's Tim Harris.

I live in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

I'm 45 years-old and I'm an insurance auditor.

- Tim Harris's Love for cooking is something he only recently fully realized.

A long time grill master, it wasn't until the COVID lockdown, working from home and all the negativity he was seeing online, that sparked a new interest.

- So I was joking one night about like, I'm gonna take it back old school and I'm just gonna start taking pictures of what I'm making for dinner.

And it kind of just opened up into this whole community of foodies and chefs and food products and techniques.

- I would say that's when I noticed that there was passion behind his cooking and that he really wanted to pursue it in a bigger way.

- [Jason] Tim's social media posts of the dishes he was creating started leading to opportunities.

- He ran down the stairs and he was like, this person sent me a message in my DMs.

He's like, this can't be real, right?

And I was like, no, it's definitely fake.

That's definitely not somebody reaching out to you for like legit opportunities on this.

And he was like, well, I'm just gonna message him back.

And I'm like, eh, okay.

- That opportunity was legit, a spot on Guy Fieri's "Grocery Games", which he competed in last season.

- So luckily for me, I, they, everybody had reached out to me even to be on "The Great American Recipe".

Somebody reached out to me and was like, Hey, have you heard of the show?

Like, yes, I've heard of the show, would you be interested?

We're casting for it.

Like, yes, what do I need to do?

Let's do it.

So it's, I've been very fortunate.

What I'm making here is some southern fried flounder with some cheesy grits and we're gonna finish it off with some sauteed mustard greens.

So I was really glad that I could represent the South, South Carolina, the low country with some of the recipes that I grew up with and what I call home - [Jason] Each week, "Great American Recipe" contestants competed in two challenges.

Unfortunately though for Ingrid, she had to leave the show after just two episodes due to personal reasons.

Tim went on to win both challenges in episode four.

First for his grits casserole- - [Tim] With country ham, spicy sausage and bacon in there.

- Whoa.

Wow.

- Okay, that's- - [Jason] And then his raspberry tartlets.

- I love how crisp but delicate the crust is.

I love the amount of raspberry filling you have because it's bright and tart, it's excellently made.

- But despite winning those two challenges, Tim was not selected to be among the top three to advance to the finals.

- Winning was a first priority, but more importantly than to me than that was making sure that I represented South Carolina well and that I made South Carolina proud.