Try Guys' 'Without a Recipe' Returns for Season 9 With 'Is It Cake?' Star

The Try Guys will premiere Season 9 of their cooking competition "Without a Recipe" on November 7 on their paid streamer, 2nd Try, with "Is It Cake?" contestant JonnyCakes hosting. The season runs as a six-episode elimination tournament and moves to YouTube a week later, on November 14.

JonnyCakes built his following making cakes that hyper-realistically resemble other objects — the exact skill Netflix's "Is It Cake?" is built around. He's not new to this show either: he has judged "Without a Recipe" in past seasons.

Who's competing?

Two of the four Try Guys themselves, Keith Habersberger and Zach Kornfeld, will compete as contestants. They're joined by:

• Ryan Garcia
• Joyce Louis-Jean
• Ash Perez
• Sequoia B. Holmes
• Kwesi James
• Ryann Graham

Who's judging?

The judging panel mixes credentialed chefs with food-media names:

• Rhoda Magbitang, winner of "Top Chef" Season 23
• Elizabeth Falkner, chef and TV personality
• Valerie Gordon, chef-owner of Valerie Confections and author of the James Beard Award finalist cookbook "Sweets"
• Trevor Evarts, Smosh cast member and former Mythical Kitchen culinary producer
• Jimmy Wong, actor, host and cookbook author

A supporting group of chefs and pastry professionals rounds out the panel: Jude Parra-Sickles, Monique Chan, Kat Turner, Katianna Hong, Mitzi Reyes, Jen Yee and Johnny Ryan Murphy.

What does this change for 2nd Try?

The streamer is barely a year old. The Try Guys launched 2nd Try in 2024, after building their audience first as BuzzFeed employees and then on their own YouTube channel. A ninth season of a flagship format gives the subscription service a reliable returning franchise — the kind of repeatable programming that keeps subscribers past any single viral hit.

The two-window release matters too. Episodes land on 2nd Try first, then YouTube seven days later. That's a straightforward funnel: free viewers get a taste, and the paid tier sells early access.

2nd Try and the group's YouTube channel also carry "Phoning It In," "Trolley Problems," "Escape the Kitchen," "Smoke Show," "Eat the Menu" and "After the Menu." "Without a Recipe" remains the format with the longest track record — and, with a "Top Chef" winner now on the panel, the most conventional culinary credibility it has had to date.