Next Food Network Star 6 EP 8 – Review

If you are just now starting to watch the Next Food Network Star I’ll catch you up on what you’ve missed.  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing of substance has happened on the show up until this point.  So with seven episodes down we are finally down to the people that everyone has known from day one had a legitimate shot.  Seven weeks worth of ratings fodder, seven weeks getting rid of contestants that should have never been in this contest to begin with.  Seven weeks it has taken to get to a point where people might actually be sad to see someone leave the show.

Last week we saw our first truly idiotic challenge when each contestant had to make dinner incorporating Kellogg’s cereal.  They must have said the word “Kellogg’s” a hundred times.  Apparently that segment was filmed before the big Kellogg’s recall last month.  One of my problems with both Top Chef and Hell’s Kitchen is that the challenges are moronic.  Don’t give people stupid ingredients and then expect them to make it something magical.  Give them great ingredients and turn them lose.  The cereal challenge was stupid; it was “Top Chef stupid.”  Hopefully there won’t be anything that goofy this week.

First Challenge: Each has to present a signature dish with their Culinary POV.  THEN Giada had them prepare the dish with their least favorite ingredient.  Then there families bring them that ingredient.  There were lots of tears (except from Brad which is ironic).

Star Challenge:  Eva Longoria Parker makes an appearance and of course it leaves most viewers thinking, “I wonder what she is promoting?”  Well, it turns out she is a partner with Todd English, one of the great chefs in America, on the restaurant Beso.  Todd explained that the challenge was to create a dish that represents an emotion that was randomly assigned to them.  This is one of the dumbest challenges I have ever heard of.

My thoughts:

Dzintra Dzenis – went home week 3.
Doreen Fang – went home week 2.
Alexis Hernandez – went home week 1.
Brianna Jenkins – finally went home week 6.

Aria Kagan – Dzintra, Paul and Brianna were so obnoxious that we missed some of the early signs of Aria’s snake-iness.  Without the distractions from those contestants her classless attempt to sabotage Aarti has seen her go from fan favorite to the lone name on the “gotta go” list.  She has gone from a firm second place on the FN fan poll to a distant fourth.  Worse, Aria has garnered a whopping 77% of the votes as to who should go home this week at Kristen Hoetzel’s Cooking with Mickey. 1st challenge: her presentation went well and food was good, too. But her forked tongue was showing.  2nd challenge:  She drew the emotion of “melancholy” but by was allowed to swap it with Herb so she ended up with “joy.”  Aria cuts it so close that she doesn’t even taste her food.  Her energy is low and her food was terrible.  Her word should have been “karma.”

Herb Mesa – Herb had a good week last week.  1st Challenge: presentation was not good and the food failed. 2nd challenge: Herb’s emotion was “melancholy.”  Herb’s mafungo didn’t set up right but he was prepared and pulled it out.  Eva liked what she saw in Herb, her eyes tore him apart.  His presentation was good.  Bobby said it was Herb’s best dish to date.

Serena Palumbo – went home week 7.

Tom Pizzica – Penthouse to the cellar.  After clawing his way to the top, Tom fell way off last week.  In fact, it was his worst week to date.  1st. challenge: Great presentation. Great food. He was easily the best in the 1st challenge.  2nd challenge: Tom’s emotion is “jealousy.”  Seriously.  His presentation started great and then got better.  His food impressed both Bobby and Todd, forget the other people – those two guys know great food.  The best single performance of the season.  Back to the penthouse!

Aarti Sequeira – I know Bob Tuschman breathed a sigh of relief after Aarti regained her form climbing right back into the diver’s seat again.  1st challenge: Great presentation but the food did not score highly. 2nd challenge: She struggled to pull her dish together.  Her emotion? “Fear.”  Boy was that prophetic.  She was afraid she had over cooked her rice, she was afraid she didn’t have the recipe right.  Not her best performance.

Darrell “DAS” Smith – went home week 4.

Brad Sorenson – Brad had another good week though far from his best.  He is still a front runner.  1st challenge: Nice but not great presentation. 2nd challenge: Brad’s emotion was “surprise.”  I told you this was a stupid challenge.  Brad feels like his steaks are under done.  Brad’s presentation starts fine but dovetails until Eva asks him when he lost his virginity.  She bailed him out.  No one mentioned the steaks but the other food did not score highly, just fair.

Paul Young – mercifully went home week 5.

In case you haven’t suffered through enough NFNS drama, Adam Gertler, Sunny Anderson, and (the person who should have won NFNS 4) Kelsey Nixon host a rap up show on the Food Network web site called After Party.  It really isn’t noteworthy other than the fact it is hosted by two former NFNS contestants and a Food Network Star who is less qualified than any contestant in the history of Next Food Network Star.

The final four are headed to New York City.

Stats:

“In it to Win it” Quotes – 0.

Number of people crying – 5 (eight if you count Aria’s kids and Susie).

Number of WTF moments – 2 and both involved Aria.

Who should win based on what we’ve seen so far: Tom

Who will win based on what we’ve seen in the past: Aarti

Winner(s) 1st Challenge:  Aria, though Tom was much better.  2nd challenge: Tom

Updated “gotta go” list: Aria.

The finalist who will be going home is . . .

[ad] Empty ad slot (#1)!

Brad