By Arthur Perkins
 
This was an exciting episode from start to finish, just as you would expect for Restaurant Wars. Padma introduces the chefs to Steven Starr, a restaurant entrepreneur, the guest Judge for the episode. He says that Restaurant Wars is about Food, Design, Décor, Service, and Ambiance. It starts with a Quickfire challenge of creating a concept for a new restaurant and making food to match, all in 30 minutes. The winners will each head the Restaurant Wars teams. Here are the concepts and signature dishes:
 
Stefan - "old stuff from Europe"; fried white asparagus with trout, asparagus salad, white asparagus soup
Fabio - complete Mediterranean meal of appetizer, salad, main course; tuna and swordfish carpaccio, roasted vegetable salad, filet mignon sandwich (Steven says needs salt)
Hosea - Mediterranean seafood; shrimp with morel mushroom cream sauce, garlic potato puree, poached asparagus
Jeff - simple and fresh; grilled salmon w/ sunchoke, artichoke puree, grilled corn and asparagus salad
Jaime - seasonal cooking; Chilean sea bass w/ creamed corn, bacon, peas and garlic scape
Radhika - no articulated concept that I could discern; pan-seared cod, butter braised corn, spinach, chorizo w/ cream sauce (Steven says good seasoning)
Leah - Asian; tempura poussin w/ daisi soy sauce and rice wine vinegar (Steven says tasty)
Carla - homemade rustic foods; cod seared in tomato oil with Italian salsa and mache green salad (Steven says it need salt)
 
Before this started, Jaime stated that she did not want to win because the winners would be in charge for Restaurant Wars and the head of the losing team almost always is eliminated.
 
Fabio and Jeff did not have to worry about that, as they were rated Worst by Steven Starr. The winners were Radhika and Leah. Radhika picked Jaime, Carla and Jeff, Radhika picked Hosea and Fabio and was left with Stefan as the unwanted last pick. You would think Stefan is plotting some kind of revenge against both team heads for their reluctance to pick him. Watch what happens, as BRAVO says. Hosea tells you to expect sabotage by Stefan.
 
There is a brief interlude where the TV audience is shown Hosea and Leah canoodling the prior evening. it looks pretty intense although Hosea claimed that nothing ultimately happened. They do show Leah in his room first thing the next morning, so draw your own conclusions. Leah's statements lead you to infer that something did. The significance of this is that both are now on the same team and there is going to be some reaction to whatever happened. It is going to create a more strained atmosphere on their team because both Hosea and Leah came into the competition with significant others.
 
The concept that is selected by Leah's team is Asian Influence. The concept for Radhika's team is Middle Eastern/Indian, the Old Spice Trade. Next are the key decisions on who will do what. Leah and Hosea want to work together, so the only possibility is one be exec chef and the other Sous chef. Leah should be and chooses to be Exec Chef. Fabio wants to showcase this skills outside the kitchen, so he elects Front of the House. Stefan chooses to do desserts, where he will be able to be independent and not piss anyone off. Radhika chooses the Front of the House role for herself because nobody else wanted to do it. Jeff and Jaime share the Exec Chef and Sous Chef roles but as best as I can tell they are co-equals. Carla is doing desserts, which is her specialty.
 
The menu chosen for Sahana (Radhika's team) is:
Whole wheat naan bread with garlic oil
Curried Carrot Soup w/ smoked paprika oil and raita
Grilled Scallops w/ chickpea cake, masala tomato sauce and arugula salad
Cinnamon and Saffron Braised Lamb Shank w/ Israeli couscous
Seared Snapper, White Lentil Tabouli, tomato water and pea shoots
Baklava Cigars
Spiced Chocolate Cake, Crème Fromage and Cashew brittle
Frozen Yoghurts (Fig and Mint)
 
The menu chosen for Sunset Lounge (Leah's team) is:
Amuse bouche - vegetable rolls with mushrooms, carrots, cabbage, sweet chili sauce
Sashimi Two Ways(tuna and salmon, radish salad, yuzu vinaigrette
Grilled Beef Short ribs w/ ginger, vegetables and  beef demi-glace
Coconut Curry Bisque w/ shrimp dumplings
Seared Black Cod, fresh vegetables and Chinese cabbage
Chocolate Rice Parfait, Grape Jelly and Pineapple
Lemongrass and ginger Pannacotta, peach puree, ginger honey
Frozen mango, bitter chocolate and mint lollipop
 
The process for Restaurant Wars is brutal:
1. Plan Menu for 30 minutes
2. Shop for Décor at Pier One with $5000 per team (note - they were both nice and there was no commentary shown on them as a negative factor for either team)
3. The next morning, spend what appears to be $3000 each team split between Whole Foods and Restaurant Depot.
4. Prep for 6 hours at Bridgewater, apparently a central kitchen for multiple restaurants Starr owns
5. Sahana cooks first, then Sunset Lounge
 
In the shopping, Jeff finds two boxes of lamb shanks in the freezer. Prep starts There are small bones that give Leah fits in trying to get them out neatly. Hosea comments that she did it wrong, as you should debone before portioning. In the kitchen there are serious equipment problems. Isn't it amazing how this can happen for a major challenge? Do you think maybe some elves were sent in the night before to screw up burners and make a freezer non-functional? Anyway the freezer problem affects both Carla and Stefan as both have sorbets. Carla elects to pray that they will freeze to be enough right. Stefan takes action and creates what looks like a non-stove double-boiler of ice to freeze his sorbet. Leah knows at plating that her cod is a lousy dish.  Carla, master of desserts, had problems not only with the sorbet which is understandable, but also with chocolate cake, which should have been a no-brainer for her. She asked for help from Radhika, who was not able to help her with a not-sweet-enough problem.
 
The Front of the House competition between Radhika and Fabio is instructive. Radhika is introverted and tentative and does not create the right aura for her team. Fabio does fabulous, which matches his prediction that "I'm in the front of the house; we can serve monkey ass in clamshells and they will like it." Strong statements for sure, but he proved to be justified in his self-confidence based on his thick extrovert personality leavened with grace and charm. Radhika spent too much time in the kitchen, leaving the host role vacant. Tom and Padma decided to teach her a lesson she would never forget by just having the Judges Table individuals leave without a goodbye from Radhika because they did not want to wait for her to appear.
 
The Judges Table discussion summarized by Tom to:
Sahana wins the food by a slight margin.
Sunset Lounge has a big win Front of the House.
Sunset Lounge has a huge win in desserts,
The Judges decided to let the tally of the diners' comment cards decide the outcome. It went by a small margin to Sunset Lounge. They picked Sunset Lounge as the close winner. Leah had to take a lot of flak for her cod dish, rated by all to be the worst dish. Stefan is judged the Winner of the evening and wins a set of General Electric appliances.
 
The losers team is called out. Jaime and Jeff had to explain who did what, but they are off the hook because their dishes were better than the other team's. It is between Carla and Radhika for elimination. Carla messes up the dessert that was impacted by the freezer chaos, but she also messed up a chocolate cake. She was asked why she didn't ask for help. she responded that others were busy and all she could do was send out her desserts with "a lot of love" accompanying them. That comment really inflamed both Steven Starr and Toby Young. Radhika was told she she should not have been the Front of the House. She said that there was nobody else to do it, but was reminded that she had the option as head of directing Jeff to do it.
 
The decision was a difficult one that could have gone every way. Radhika was asked to "pack her knives and go." by Padma, who gets to get the bad news while the Guest Judge gives the good news. It should be noted that Toby Young was pretty reasonable tonight. With all the problems and angst in the kitchen, he correctly judged that his adding to that would not have been appropriate. What I think is most important is that both of the team leaders were short on experience and that definitely had a negative impact on how their teams functioned. Leah was lucky, as the vote  for Sunset Lounge was close. Radhika had a difficult time doing something unfamiliar and her team's failure was strongly influenced by her lack of leadership and individual performance.

(photo courtesy nbc)