Food Network Star Week Four

I think I may have figured how to stay interested in this season, by counting how many times any of the three judges look like they're about to give up and walk out.

Unlike last week's episode, which felt more like a plug for Cutthroat Kitchen, this week's challenges provoked the contestants into demonstrating some of the talent (or lack of) that they would actually need as a food network star. Nicole started growing on me last week and I was glad to see that she's still making an impact. And Emma. I've been having some fun criticizing her, but she's showing signs of developing. I could be wrong about her, it's still too early of a call. She could just as easily have merely had a good week.

Lenny may have peaked. Yeah, he's going for the gusto, but I'm still rubbing my temples after that Payday commercial. I've also given Loreal a cute nickname, "Go Home".

As for the debatable elimination: it was between Christopher, who clearly didn't want to play along with the group, and Aryen, who's been consistently just okay. It's a tad odd to me that three out of four times the judges have eliminated a contestant other than the one the audience selects.

I understand the rationale for keeping Christopher on the show, even if I disagree with it. A Food Network Star has to demonstrate the ability to command a scene by themselves as well as be a team player, and be able to discern which way to lean as required by the situation. Christopher is a strong solo performer and a weak ensemble player. He's showing no signs of growth where he's weak, so why bother keeping him around? Chris has a similar problem, in that he made the commercial about him not the product.

But then Aryen has the opposite problem, she's a great team player but not a commanding soloist, and again there's been no real improvement. So again, why bother keeping her around?

I guess for me it would have amounted to not mattering which contestant was let go, but the truth was Aryen put forth more effort this week. And from that point, Christopher should have gone home.

Just put Chad in the competition already so I can start caring about the outcome.