« All News

Search RealityWanted News

Loading

 

 

 

 


 



 


 

 

 

Food Network Star Season 7: Episode 8 Recap

Posted on 07/25/2011 by Gina in The Next Food Network Star

| More

Food Network Star Season 7

 

by Allison L. Nowacki and Bryan J. Polk


It is getting down to the nitty gritty on Food Network Star and the six remaining contestants were in New York City, the home of Food Network. Production really seemed to be pulling out all the stops as Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, greeted the contestants with Bobby Flay in the Food Network kitchens. Ina presented them with their camera challenge for the week, which revolved around the latest food fad, cupcakes.

 

Each contestant must make a cupcake that represents him or her and then present it to the camera in one minute. Some of the cupcakes these people were making are totally off the wall! The biggest biff came from Jeff who made an Italian sub cupcake with deli meats inside. His cupcake was not only the judges least favorite but he also was rather aggressive in front of the camera. Most of the other contestants did well and Ina was impressed with many of them. Mary Beth, in our opinion, did the best with her roasted strawberry cupcake. Her camera presence was genuine, she told a personal story, and all the judges loved her cupcake. Once again, this camera challenge is just time filler as no winner was announced and no advantages given for the upcoming competitions.

 

The star challenge for this week is one of our favorites! It comes around every season and is a Food Network Star tradition. This week the remaining six will be guests on The Rachael Ray Show! Each were assigned a classic home cooked favorite and they would need to put their own personal spin on it. As if that wasn't enough, they then must go on The Rachael Ray Show and in thirty seconds present their culinary point of view and then go through a three minute demonstration of their upgraded home cooked classic while taking a question from the audience! That was a mouthful to type let alone pull off successfully for the contestants. For some reason, when doing their introductions, all the girls had to stand behind the counter next to Rachael on the set while the boys got to sit on a comfy sofa next to Rachael. Sitting on the couch seemed to be a slight advantage as it created an air of relaxation and gave a better ability to connect with the audience without a counter top separating you from them.

 

The quality of the star challenge demonstrations was surprisingly low. In fact, the biggest stand out from beginning to end was Jeff as he presented his braised pork chop sandwich that was topped with an apple slaw, his King of All Sandwiches take on the dinner classic of pork chops and apple sauce. Whitney started off shaky while she just recited the recipe for her white chicken chili, but after she answered a question from the audience she started to tell personal stories and offered cooking tips which caused her to finish strong.

 

While Mary Beth cooked an excellent fancied up version of shepherd's pie, she did not connect with the audience and lost her energy as her demonstration continued. This was still better than how Vic and Susie faired, as they each failed at making a tasty dish and their demonstrations presented the kind of mistakes that worry Bobby, Susie Fogelson and Bob Tuschman. However, the most worrisome performance came from Jyll, when she stated that her culinary point of view was comfort food with a California twist, which was at odds with her having said that her point of view was entertaining during her thirty second introduction.

 

At the end of the episode, the selection committee chooses Jeff as the winner for the challenge, but he was also told that he needs to pay more attention to the food he is cooking. Whitney was also safe this week but she needs to find a way to entice people to listen to her. With the other four contestants up for elimination we are thinking it could be any of them. They all made some pretty big mistakes on The Rachael Ray Show that afternoon, but ultimately Jyll is eliminated. While Jyll is not shocked that she will be going home this episode, she is still disappointed that she won't become a Food Network Star.

 

 

Food Network Star airs Sundays at 10/9c on Food Network

 

(Image courtesy of Food Network)

 

 

You can find more from Allison and Bryan and their weekly reality show podcast at NotMakeFriends.com

 


  


Rate this article

  • Currently 5.00/5

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast) (Log in to vote!)


blog comments powered by Disqus

Go back to the previous page