“Good things get better, bad get worse…Wait, I think I meant that in reverse.”
That’s a lyric from a musical theater song called “Sorry-Grateful,” a quote and title that pretty much describes the last episode of Next Food Network Star. In “Menu: Impossible,” the contestants somewhat successfully update old dishes but fail to really reinvent themselves.
The episode begins with Alton challenging the top five to make dishes from a limited pantry stocked high with Special K cereal (remember my gripe about product placement last week? Well, this week is perhaps worse, except for cereal swapped for pasta). Damaris and Rodney were tasked with creating a breakfast dish, while Nikki made lunch and Russell and Stacy made dinner. After cooking, they would have to present their dish with a tip to camera.
First up was Rodney, the rock ‘n roll baker, with his Special K Popcorn Chip breakfast pie. His performance was a bit stilted but Alton did enjoy the quiche-like pie with a filling of breakfast sausage and crab meat. Then was Damaris, whose presentation and Special K crusted french toast were met with praise despite the seemingly simple dish. (Side rant: I never get why so many contestants on Star and Chopped make French toast. You can call it pain perdu all you want, it’s still a dish any middle-schooler can make).
And while we’re on the subject of underwhelming dishes a 10-year-old could whip up, Nikki starts the round by saying she wants to make something inventive and ends up with a salad topped with crushed cereal. To give the veggie-centric chef some credit, her original idea of cereal croutons turned into lumps of coal after her fryer was turned up too high. But still, you’re in a high stakes cooking competition and you’re going with a salad and croutons? Croutons!? Thankfully, they like Nikki’s easy on-camera presence.
This challenge does end with two strong showings from Russell and Stacy. The former’s grilled rib-eye with mashed potato was a hit, at least in terms of taste, while the latter’s Special K crusted crunchy chicken excelled both in flavor and presentation.
Despite her prevailing artificiality on screen, Stacy won the challenge hands down.
Leaving behind the pantry cook-off and the overbearing product placement, the top five go to a failing LA restaurant where they are met by big biceped Brit Robert Irvine. Like his show Restaurant: Impossible each cook must reinvent an outdated menu item assigned to them by winner Stacy. An added pressure for her, besides the previously praised chicken dish, was her history with Robert, as she was first seen on TV when her failing restaurant got the Impossible make-over from him.
With her mentor and culinary savoir as guest judge, Stacy knew she had to wow them with her version of crab stuffed halibut with potatoes. While she promised “the same flavor profile with a facelift,” the judges were left underwhelmed by her stiffness and under seasoned crab cake halibut roulade with truffle roasted potatoes and green beans.
Her best move, perhaps, was giving Nikki the task of creating something based off salmon with onion and pepper relish and rice pilaf, a fairly straightforward dish if not for the fact that Miss Dinki hates that kind of fish. Ironically, it wasn’t the salmon that tripped her up but the over-abundant and bland rice that, according to the judges, wasn’t even a pilaf at all. While I don’t fully know what makes a pilaf different from seasoned rice (in fact, a quick web search came up with basically the same answer), Nikki’s definition of “rice with stuff in it” didn’t exactly make her out to be a food authority.
The problems continued as Rodney’s chicken cacciatore inspired pie (calzone?) was undercooked. While Demaris’ issues came from another dislike of her protein. While she claimed didn’t like steak (a bit odd, no, for a carnivorous, southern chef?), she had to “pull up her big girl panties” and cook a fillet with roasted mushrooms and broccolini that got a luke-warm response from the dinners.
The star of the night, and eventual winner, was Russell who turned a uninspired chicken and rice dish into spinach wrapped chicken with lemon risotto. The dish was delicious (as well as gorgeous) and the judges loved his presentation and pitch that he was an “old dog with a lot of new tricks.”
With no real front-runners (other than Russell) and a host of ho-hum performances, the judges decided to eliminate Nicki due to her poor food knowledge. It’s a shame because he concept, meat on the side, was inventive and unlike anything the network has aired before. With the others, no one stands out as being a great candidate for an original show. Heck, it’s down to the top four and I still don’t know what Stacy’s show would be about!
The Next Food Network Star airs Sundays at 9/8 central on Food Network.
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