Easy come, easy go. Lia, last week’s winner, was told to pack her knives after her pallid attempt at Latino cooking.
Injustice ruled on Episode 5. The chefs started on their elimination-challenge dishes thinking they had 3 hours to prepare, then were told that the meal had been moved up; they would only have 90 minutes. Sara N. seemed to be in a good position as she had had the foresight to buy pre-made tortillas just in case she didn’t have time to make her own. Unfortunately, her failure to understand the difference between guacamole and ceviche doomed her dish.
Howie on the other hand looked like he was going to run into another timing crisis. The halving off his prep time did not dissuade him from sticking to his original plan of braising his pork, even though a good braise takes time. Perhaps it was all the sweat dripping into the pot, but his half-time pork took top honors.
Joey’s animosity toward Howie seems to have dissipated, but I still don’t trust the guy. Collecting kudos for his winning pastry, he modestly claimed to have had little pastry experience while earlier he had confided to the camera (and to the viewing audience) that he had had quite a lot.
Hung once again distinguished himself for pure arrogance. His quick-fire pastry creation, a runny chocolate mousse pie tarted up with sliced strawberries, looked like something you’d find on the back of a package of My-T-Fine pudding mix. And he seemed to have invested more effort in pronouncing “arroz con pollo” than he did in cooking it. Once again, he attributed any criticism of his cooking to the judges’ personal preferences. He was a lot easier to take when he cooking like a top chef.