At least we got to see how Sandee does her hair before she was booted out of the kitchen. An opening montage showed her, with blow dryer and round brush, coaxing her locks into their distinctive up-do.
Things started going South for her during the quick-fire challenge when guest judge Norman Van Aken, “the godfather of South Florida cuisine,” pointedly extracted a large floral garnish from the mojito that accompanied her ode to citrus. The elfin Van Aken also implied that she hadn’t sufficiently controlled her overly liquorice-y mint.
Sandee was joined in the bottom three with Sara N. and Micah, but as the contestants started preparing for the elimination challenge, the focus shifted to the other two women who were plagued, respectively, by self-doubt and daughter-sickness. In fact they both made it to the final three, while Sandee bombed.
Her dish, a very restaurant-y affair of vanilla-butter-poached lobster, pancetta-wrapped dates and truffle slaw, made no use of the charcoal-grill’s ability to sear or char or smoke. She used the grill simply as a heat source. Worse, head judge Tom Colicchio likened her dish to “putting lipstick on a pig.”
The judges had to decide, in the words of moral philosopher Tom Colicchio, “what’s the bigger sin: no barbeque or not upscale enough.” (Last week, Colicchio wrestled with a similar issue, “What’s the greater crime,” he mused, “leaving something off the plate… or Clay’s dish.” Clay’s dish was deemed the greater, indeed the greatest, crime.)
Sandee’s exit spared Howie and Joey. Howie once again demonstrated a bad sense of timing, cooking and slicing his pork way too far in advance. Joey fell back on a dish inspired by, and apparently not much elevated beyond, the barbequed chicken of his childhood.
Joey, who’s been mouthing off since Episode 1, made what seemed like a gratuitous dig at Howie when they went before the judges. Even though he admitted that he hadn’t tasted Howie’s dish, when asked who should go home he answered, without hesitation, “Howie.”
When Howie confronted him, Joey defended himself by saying “I’m a very emotional person. My blood flows red. Competition brings out the animal in me.”
Tre was also included in the bottom four, but I got the feeling that the judges just wanted to warn him that he should not rest on his laurels. Meanwhile Hung, who’d received immunity in the quick-fire challenge, was firing on all cylinders. Hung is “almost always at a dead sprint,” commented Lia.
Brian was the star of the episode’s redemption story. Last week he wrestled—manfully, but unsuccessfully, with eels and snakes. This week, he rode that affinity for long, thin shapes to the top. His grilled seafood sausage was acclaimed as the perfect marriage of gourmet and barbecue.