Food Network Star - Season 8 - Episode 4 Recap

The theme of this weeks episode of Food Network Star was Fashion Week in New York.  To pull off fashion week, it looked like Food Network rented an empty warehouse and some folding chairs, and gathered 20 people off the street to watch the contestants in action.  The contestants were faced with the challenge of making over a bland dish, and making it look and taste great.  The winner of this challenge would also receive a $10,000 dollar gift card from Discover.  It's about time, with all the products that the Food Network is plugging during these episodes, that they share some of the wealth with the contestants.  Ted Allen was also there to help out with the evening.

Team Bobby is up first to present to the judges and 'crowd'.

• Eric Lee is assigned fish sticks and tartar sauce and he has some trouble in the kitchen with the wrappers of his fish sticks, but recovers in time to send a pretty good dish out to the judges.  However, he does pretty bad with his presentation and seems to be babbling and struggling throughout.
• Michele Ragussis was assigned flounder and broccoli.  Another fish to cook for the seafood chef from New England.  This time we didn't get complaints about flounder being a muddy fish and not up to her standards like last weeks catfish, although flounder are also bottom feeders.  Her presentation is decent, but she babbles about different areas of New England, which confuses the judges.
• Nikki Martin has pork chops and apple sauce, which gets Giada and Bobby into a little argument over if the dish is 'fashion week' food, and they argue like middle-schoolers.
• Malcolm Mitchell has meatloaf and mashed potatoes and was the star of Team Bobby this week with both his presentation and food.  He seems to be winning over the judges week after week.

Team Alton is up next and Alton requires all members of his team to wear bow-ties as it is fashion week, however, Judson is the only one who listens(that actually didn't happen).

• Justin Warner deconstructed Beef Stroganoff for his dish and his plate was very fashionable and the judges loved his dish and his presentation.  The judges also seem to be gravitating towards Justin after his past 2 weeks of performances.
• Emily Ellyn was tasked with transforming ham and pineapple and she comes out with a ham and pineapple headband for her presentation.  Her presentation was very good and she may have given Justin a run for his money for the top spot.
• Martie Duncan has a tuna casserole, in which she leaves the mold ring on due to it being too hot when it was time to serve.  This didn't have much of an impact on the judges as Martie made out that it may be.
• Judson Allen was last and fumbles through his presentation of seafood alfredo and says his mantra is 'food + fashion = love,' which really annoys the judges as they have never heard that before.

Last up was Team Giada.

• YVAN LEMOINE TRANSFORMED SHEPHERD'S PIE AND WHILE HIS FOOD WAS A GOOD, LIGHT TRANSFORMATION OF SHEPHERD'S PIE, HIS PRESENTATION WAS OVER THE TOP LOUD AND HE SCREAMED THROUGHOUT!!
• Linkie Marais stumbles a bit through her presentation of her chicken pot pie.
• Martita Jara impresses the judges with her Latin style chicken and rice and they love her energy this week.
• Philip Ippy Aiona does Salisbury steak and does not impress the judge at all with his food, presentation, or his favorite Hawaiian shirt.

After all of the presentations are over, Justin Warner is declared the winner of this week and the winner of $10,000 dollars.  As the winner of the week was probably between him and Emily, Team Alton is considered the winner of this week and no one from their team can be up for elimination, which Judson thanks his team members for as he would have definitely been up for elimination again.

The bottom 2 from Team Giada and Team Bobby are Ippy and Eric Lee and they are given a French Toast dish that they just have to make a 1 minute presentation about.  Eric claims that he remembers when he was 6, his mother made him french toast for Valentine's day.  I am sure everyone who is Eric's age remembers what they ate for their 6th Valentine's day.  Eric pretty much lists the ingredients of the french toast and doesn't use any words to describe the taste.

Ippy's presentation consisted of him taking a big bite of the french toast and him chewing and talking with his mouth open for the entire minute segment.  When it comes down to who the judges are going to eliminate, Bob and Suzie decide that Ippy would be the one to stay and Eric would be eliminated this week.  They complimented Eric as being one of the better chefs they have had on the show, but his personality was just not enough.

Do you think Eric should have been the one to go home?  Will there be more prizes for the contestants?  Also, with the the finale of Food Network Star scheduled for July 22nd, that gives us 6 more Sundays between now and the finale.  With 11 contestants remaining, that means, there will be 5 left for the finale unless there are some double eliminations.  Do you think we see double eliminations in the future or double episodes?

Image Sources - Foodnetwork.com