Food Network Star Season 9 - Episode 4 Recap

Photo - Food Network

In the fourth episode of Food Network Star, the nine remaining contestants were split into teams of three to create a menu and a 60-second movie trailer for a focus group of movie enthusiasts.  The focus group decides which meal they want to try based on the trailer, and then vote on which menu they liked the best.

This sounds like a challenge straight from Rachael Vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off and that is not a good thing.  The three different teams were: 1. Musical - Lovely Jackson, Chris Hodgson, and Rodney Henry, 2. Romance - Damaris Phillips, Viet Pham, and Chad Rosenthal, 3. Western - Russell Jackson, Nikki Dinki, Stacey Poon-Kinney.  Nikki Dinki should have an advantage over the other contestants, because as we know, she has done some acting in the past.

Here are how each of the contestants did during the creation of their trailer and the cooking of their menu:

• Team Western - Received the most orders
• Nikki Dinki - Tried to be patient with Russell as he botched lines.  Made the appetizer for her team and went with chili, which impressed Alton Brown.
• Russell Jackson - Fumbled over his lines in the Western trailer, but came across fine after it was edited.  His spaghetti was disappointing.
  
• Stacey Poon-Kinney - In charge of dessert and made a smores popcorn dessert, which the judges seemed to like.
• Team Musical - Received the second most orders
  
• Rodney Henry - The one who has a musical past, but you can't understand him when he's singing.  Of course made pies sticking to his theme, and the pie didn't work.
• Chris Hodgson - Seemed to want to take over as team leader for the Musical crew.  Made some lobster mac and cheese, which had too many flavors.
• Connie "Lovely" Jackson - Made doughnuts out of pizza dough, which Chris was not a fan of.  The judges also weren't fans of the heavy doughnuts that they couldn't bite through.  The dials seemed to say that the crowd liked Lovely tonight though.
• Team Romance - Received only 10 orders
• Viet Pham - Responsible for dessert and did berries with CO2 yogurt, which did not impress many people.  Alton Brown felt he is not growing week to week.
• Damaris Phillips - Made shrimp and grits as her romantic dish, which didn't have enough seasoning.
• Chad Rosenthal - Made some korean style wings which a lot of people liked.  Came off as a bit creepy during the trailer.  Bobby couldn't hold his laugh in when critiquing his acting.

Giada De Laurentiis was back this week to join Alton Brown and Bobby Flay with the judging of the contestants, but still no Bob and Susie.  Giada's squealing laugh was a bit much during the trailers.

Although the contestants competed as teams, they judged them as individuals and the bottom three consisted of Lovely Jackson, Viet Pham and Rodney Henry.  Two members were from the Musical team and one from the Romance team despite the Romance team having the least orders.  Viet Pham was told he was safe, leaving Rodney Henry and Lovely Jackson as the bottom two.  The judges then told Lovely Jackson that she would not be continuing on in the competition due to not growing in the competition and making a bad doughnut.

What do you think about the elimination this week?  Do you think there is any chance Lovely will be able to make it back with the "Star Salvation" that is pretty much a Top Chef ripoff?

Here is the link to the first episode of Star Salvation.