The quick fire challenge was to reinvent the taco. There was everything from Chorizo tacos to squash tacos. The top 3 faves were the duck tacos, jicama tacos and pomegranite tacos. Richard wins with his jicama tacos and they will be featured on the menu at Chef Rick Bayless' restaurant Topolobanpo (don't ask me how to say it).
For the main challenge, everyone splits into two teams to cook for a block party. I love Chicago and it was fun watching the teams drive through the city to their destination while I said I've been there or I've seen that. OK back to the show. The teams find out to get their ingredients, they have to go door to door in the neighborhood where they will be cooking for the block party. How would you react to a bunch of people in white coats asking to look in your fridge? One woman had a pantry so big that Spike wondered if she was stocking up in case of war.
Both teams get good supplies and start on their menus. One of the girls (I'm still learning the names so I can't remember who) gets stuck making pasta salad and is complaining about it saying it won't win Top Chef. I say make the best darn pasta salad you ever made! At least you won't lose.
The block party looked like fun with pinatas, dunk tanks and games, plus food. What more could you want? Ribs, sliders, corndogs, mac & cheese (are you hungry yet?) about the only things you wouldn't normally see at a block party was the paella and chicken waldorf salad. One team did smores on a stick, marshmellows heated and rolled in graham cracker crumbs then chocolate shavings, pretty clever!
Spike thinks his red team did so well that they chilled out by drinking beer and playing some of the games with the kids and sitting on the dunk tank. The blue team sees this and thinks they are sunk since the red team is so relaxed.
The judges had a hard time since both teams had problems with their food. The smores on a stick didn't stick real well with the judges and the mac & cheese turned into a brick. The paella was not so much paella as it was rice pilaf and Erik had the sog factor going on with his corndogs. The pasta salad was terrible and the waldorf salad apparently wasn't very appetizing either. With the judges ripping on the food, I wondered if the party goers left hungry and went to McDonalds. They all seemed pretty happy with the food, maybe they are used to hard mac & cheese and soggy corndogs.
Trying to save themselves, an obviously tipsy Andrew stands up to the judges saying he isn't going home and Spike starts trash talking the blue team by saying his team was the hit of the block party and nobody liked the blue team. Well the judges liked the blue team and declared them the winner with Stephanie's "sexy drink" and dessert and Erik has to pack his knives because of his soggy corndogs. Let's hope the talent starts to show next week. Double D
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