by Chandra Clewley

 

 

On tonight's episode of 24 Hour Restaurant Battle we are joined by two teams of two. The first team is Ces and Erik, long time best friends who worked together as sous chef and housekeeper for a hotel. The second team is sisters Barbara and Lisa, one a chef and the other a front of the house manager. The two teams have 24 hours to create their concept, plan a menu, design and shop for front of the house and manage the kitchen and wait staff. 

 

Ces and Erik create Bistro 5774 which will be an international bistro. The girls was to create a modern tavern and piano bar in homage to their father, and call it TAP's.Both teams are very experienced. They begin by designing their menu, Bistro's is very small, while TAP's is all of the girls father's favorites. As for the design element, Bistro 5774 sexes up the typical bistro with red, green and black, but Ces is worried that the room will look like a vampire den. Erik, on the other hand is worried about the menu, as Scott doesn't think there is enough on there to create a theme. The girls go for simple, elegant and smart but Scott suggests that they kick it up a notch (they don't and stick with the original plan).

 

The menu for TAP's is: Appetizers of a Modern Caesar, Butcher Block Cheese and Charcuterie Plate, Clam and Pancetta Flat bread, and Nonnie's Minnie Meatball. For the Entrée, they will serve Tuscan Chicken, Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass and Shepherd's Pie. Dessert is Chocolate Fondue and Root Beer Floats. 

Bistro 5774 will serve an appetizer of Seared Black and Blue Sea Scallops and Mango Thai Spring Rolls, their Entrée will be Braised Beef Short Ribs and Italian Stuffed Chicken. Their dessert will be a White Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding.

 

Erik is worried about not having another dish, so he makes the decision to add another one, and borrows eggs, Parmesan, sugar and cream from TAP's! He ends up with a mushroom risotto. Over at TAP's their store bought pizza dough isn't cooking correctly, and the convection oven is too hot, it is leaving it doughy. Once their restaurants open, Barbara from TAP's freezes up and pulls herself away from the finish/expediter position and lets her sous chefs do all of the work. Barbara will have to dig deep to step up and lead the team. During service, her sister Lisa slips and falls in the middle of the dining room, embarrassing her and setting her back for a moment (gahhh! where are your NONSLIP shoes? That's a rookie move Lisa!), but she has no choice but to buck up, since the judges are coming in already. The judges like the food, but aren't sure it is restaurant quality.

 

Meanwhile, over at Bistro 5774, the crowd seems to love the food, but the judges think the decor is aggressive for a bistro. The judges love Ces and his front of the house hospitality, even thought the menu is lacking and not well thought out. 

 

In the end, TAP's had the soul of the sisters but their food was lacking. Bistro 5774 has the restaurant ready quality but their menu was off. TAP's takes the win and goes home with $10,000!

 

Catch an all new episode of 24 Hour Restaurant Battle next Wednesday night at 10/9 c on Food Network.

 

(Image courtesy of Food Network)

 

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