Hey, can you cook?!
The competition starts now! Whoo! It’s day one of the competition, and they’ve promised to crank up the pressure. The challenges will be every Monday for the next 4 weeks. So let’s meet our contestants!
Angie, from New Jersey, impressed with her fish and orange sauce, but it was the cooking class for kids that had Rachael feeling the love.
Pete, from Washington DC is the only man to make it to the finalist round, and his son even got to talk to Rachael on the phone. They loved his crabcakes, and his son Bruno who was his helper in the video.
From Missouri, we have Pat, who was speechless and teary like the rest of them as she received her phone call. Her submission video included smoked corn beef! Yum!
From Ohio, we have Chrissy, who appealed to Rachael’s love of all things Italian with Italian Meatloaf!
And from New Jersey, we have Suzanne who made a rissoto with everything in a stuffed artichoke! And her 6 month old puppy, gorgonzola, couldn’t be cuter hanging with mom in the kitchen.
They all size up each other on the limo ride to the hotel, where at least one of them - Angie - totally has her game face on. (In fact, she looked a bit.. well, bitchy.) Colby is there at the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel to great them, and tell them they’re in the presidential suite. After a champagne toast, where Angie loosened up a bit, Rachael shows up on screen to welcome them all to the competition - ending with “turn around, I do better in person!” Everyone is excited to meet her, and looking forward to the night of relaxation before they have to hit the challenge trail! Click here to see Scott Owen prepare their welcome meal, and here to learn more about the contestants!
The first challenge is the Amazing Taste - which Rachael finds completely hysterical. It’s a two-part challenge, and it’s time to see who rose to the occasion and who crashed and burned. Colby meets them all in Time Square, where they’re told there is a secret location of their first challenge. First task - find it. They’ll get messages from Rachael, leading them to three restaurants that are known for representing part of the city’s culinary culture. At each restaurant, they’ll have to complete a task to get their new clue. They get their clue and 70 bucks to cover transportation, and they’re off!
The Tavern on the Green restaurant is the first stop, and Brian Young has them shuck and plate 6 oysters. Suzzanne is first and manages to cut herself pretty bad because she’s trying to go too fast, Pete is next, Angie pulls up third but is showed to the kitchen instead of the challenge spot but finds the right place as the Pat and Chrissy arrive as well. Pete finishes first, hires a pedicab and heads off to Dean’s Pizzeria. Angie is lost trying to find the cab, as other’s get to their cabs and head off. Pete is there first, and starts making his pizza dough, which he’s pretty confident for. Pat joins him, and starts on her own - Pete has to ask for another dough, as Suzzanne arrives as well. Angie shows up in last place.
Pat is first done, and heads over for the third spot on the list in Chinatown. Pete is still having problems - Suzzanne finishes, Pete goes from first to last, and follows the rest to Chinatown -a bit confused on how it all happened like that. Flour and water should be easy, right? Ha!
Ricky Tsoi, of Congee Bowery Restaurant and bar greets the contestants with some traditional Chinese dishes. They have to taste them and identify the delicacies: cold jellyfish, clam sashimi, goose intestine, duck tongue and chicken feet. After identifying all of them, they open a giant fortune cookie which directs them to Pier 17 at the South Street Seaport! Pat finishes first and is off to the final stop - after she manages to stop a taxi. The rest of the ladies are there, working on identifying the dishes as Pete gets there and starts as well. The women finish first, but Pete isn’t far behind as he races through the challenge and heads off to Pier 17.
Pat gets there, and can’t figure out where’s she’s going for sure, as others are racing all along looking for the correct place of the challenge. Everyone is lost - there’s no telling where they’re supposed to be going, but they find Colby finally - Pete gets there FIRST beating Pat to the punch. Pete gets the advantage for the challenge. Suzanne is third, Chrissy is fourth, with means Angie comes up last - and worries that she’s going home, but says she won’t give up.
It’s time for the main challenge! They’re aboard the Atlantica, which will be filled with die-hard Rachael Ray fans. The challenge is to create sample platters of hor d’oeuvres in 45 minutes, using three main ingredients. Pete gets to choose the ingredients for himself, and assign the rest to the competition. He chooses Ground Turkey, whole grain white bread and roasted red peppers, and assigns Pat the chicken breast, whole wheat English muffins, and frozen peas, Chrissy gets shrimp, scallions and pound cake, Angie gets phyllo dough, smoked turkey sausage and green olives and Suzanne is left with the sliced hard salomi, chick peas and tortillas. They also have full use of the pantry in the galley, but only 45 minutes and MUST use all their three main ingredients.
And they’re off. Chrissy Cinnimon Apple Poundcake Squares, Sweet and savory shrimp, and fresh yogurt dip. And she’s off to get her Apples in the oven right away. Pat makes English muffins with chicken and pepper peas, with chicken and bbq sauce, with chicken and cranberries. Suzanne makes chunky hummus, salami strips on tortilla, stuffed mushrooms and salami and cheese quesidillas. Pete makes Mediterranean meatballs, no press panini with mozzerella and roasted red pepper. Angie is making jambalyla salad boats and two-faced pizza.
Suzanne preheated the oven, and someone turned it off - Angie says there may have been a rumor that she did it, but she didn’t have time to do such a thing. Colby lets them know they’re halfway there - everyone is running around trying to get things together in the small space, and Suzzanne almost burns Angie, who gets snippy. Poor Chrissy is nervous and seasick on top of it all. Time is running out, and everyone tries to put things together and Chrissy cut herself as well!
Times up! Time to get the food upstairs and see what the fans have to say. Pat says she thought her plate looked the worst, Angie agrees in secret. Pete seems to be getting a good feedback from the fans, but people seems to think that Chrissy whimped out by just cutting up some veges to fill the plate. Suzzanne is confident, as Pat says it all looked overdone, while singing the praises of her own plate - naturally.
Rachael says she’s kinda scared of some of the contestants - they’re a bit more competitive this year! All the fans from the ship are in the audience to see who was the winner.
Next up - we’re in the kitchen, before we get to the big finish - Mario Batali joins to help Rachael with two big announcements. Mario laughs and says “I’m pregnant! and Rachael’s the daddy!” Then admits that he’s there to announce a new contest, Mario’s Ultimate Grilling Challenge. Submit a 3 minutes demonstration of the favorite grilling recipe - and the winner gets to work with Mario and Rachael tailgating at Nascar! Then, from his new book, Italian Grilling, he shows everyone how to make Grilled Portobellos with Rucola and Prmigiano. Also - for every entry - a dollar will be donated to Food Bank New York.
Dun dun dun.. cue the creepy lighting - it’s time for Elimination! Who will walk the plank and leave the competition? Four will be invited to sit at the table - one will be handed a doggy bag and told to go. Pete - his fans loved the flavor combo, but thought the meatball was too greasy. He didn’t win, but was declared safe and sent to the table. Susanne - the fans said the quesidillas were good, but everything else was bland and/or too salty overall. She didn’t win, but was declared safe and sent to the table. Angie - fans loved the jambalia, but the salad boats were too simple - but she’s the winner of the first elimination challenge! She takes her seat at the table with a grin and is declared a spitfire from Rachael.
Angie - fans liked the poundcake squares but thought the shrimp lacked flavor. Pat is also in the bottom two, and the fans thought all of her offerings were too dry. Who is the first person eliminated? Chrissy is the first to go. Click here to hear Chrissy’s final thoughts as she heads back home.
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