by Allison L. Nowacki and Bryan J. Polk

This week on Food Network Star marks the halfway point in the competition. It was midterm time and the contestants needed to incorporate everything they have learned over the last several weeks. Their camera challenge was to prepare their signature dish and present a two minute long demonstration for the camera as they focused on one area of improvement given to them by Bobby Flay. The pressure to do well this week was high, as two contestants would be going home. The cooks that remained would be continuing the competition in New York City. During the camera challenge, everyone seemed to be hitting a personal low point except for Whitney, who had taken Bobby's criticism to be more personal and warm to heart and completely ran with it. Because of this, Whitney was the winner of the camera challenge and got two advantages in the star challenge that followed.

While lounging around the house, the contestants were startled by a knock on the door. The man who was doing all the knocking was no other than Bobby, who had come to give them the star challenge for this week. Bobby challenged the contestants to cook an eight-course dinner at the house for the entire selection committee and, more importantly, Wolfgang Puck using only ingredients already in the pantry. It was here that Whitney was informed that her advantages were to pick two contestants to go shopping for the evening's décor and to pick the course order in which the contestants would be cooking. Immediately, Penny and Mary Beth volunteered for the shopping task, where they ended up meeting with HGTV's Sabrina Soto at the local Target to help them find everything they would need to create perfect place settings. Whitney chose Jeff, Vic, Mary Beth, Penny, Jyll, herself, Susie, and Chris as the course order. This did not bode well for Chris who would have preferred any course except desserts.

While Mary Beth and Penny were bonding, the drama was only heating up over in the house kitchen. Not only were there too few burners and ovens, but they were tight on room as well. Chris even claimed sabotage because the temperature he had set his oven to had been adjusted to a hundred degrees hotter then he originally set it at. It was pretty selfish of Chris to hog the small oven considering Mary Beth had to completely change her cooking method to accommodate him on top of having the décor task at her feet.

When it came time to serve the dishes things didn't get better for a few of the cooks. Mary Beth served some butternut squash soup that had been over spiced and Chris apologized for his chocolate cake before he even served it. While those were just some minor missteps, Jyll had made a major one with her sweet corn risotto. Right as she had served it, Wolfgang stated that it wasn't risotto and took Jyll back into the house and showed her how to properly cook the dish that she had presented. While this was thoroughly embarrassing for Jyll, she took it in stride and kept a smile on her face. Wolfgang was impressed with her ability to not crack under pressure but the other judges wished they could have seen something more genuine.

Later at evaluation, Susie, Jeff, Whitney and Vic were praised and were told that the four of them would be safe and were all headed to New York City to continue their Food Network journey. Up for elimination were Jyll, for coming across as fake, Chris, for acting immature, Mary Beth, who is not the best cook and Penny for having problems coming across as warm and friendly. In the end, Chris was asked to leave because he just could not over come his lack of maturity or kitchen experience. As promised, this was a double elimination week and Penny was also cut because while she can cook great, she just cannot come across as friendly when on camera.

With Chris and Penny out of the competition the drama is removed from the game, as well as their chances to become a Food Network Star.

Food Network Star airs Sundays at 9/8c on Food Network.

(Image courtesy of Food Network)

You can find more from Allison and Bryan on their weekly podcast at notmakefriends.com