TNFNS, Season 6, Ep. 4

SPOILER ALERT!!!

It was an emotional week on The Next Food Network Star, or at least that’s what I gathered from all of the crying. Seriously, what was with the waterworks this week? First, Susie(!) tears up at the “best thing I ever ate” challenge after Herb tells the sob story about his wife being the first person to say something nice to him, then Herb himself (more on this later) breaks down and starts sobbing, and then Aarti (after she wins for god’s sake!) starts dabbing her tear filled eyes. Hopefully we can declare a moratorium on crying next week.

Does anyone else hate the “Camera Challenge” and “Star Challenge” screenshots they show after Bobby or another judge announces what the challenge is going to be? It’s been a really annoying addition this year. The only thing that would make it worse would be some weird sound effect, like a jet flying by. I assume they’ll add this later in the season.

Well, it was a bit of same old, same old this week with Aarti impressing the judges and maintaining her lead. She just keeps on chugging along. Brad still had his hat on. Do we know what his hair looks like? Did he just get a really bad haircut right before the show and is letting it grow out? At least the judges liked his fried chicken. Cooking is like 50% of the competition, so if he could just get that other 50% down, he’d be all set. The Mrs. said that Aria is starting to annoy her. Not a good sign for the family style dinner queen. She’s basically fallen off a cliff since the first episode. Someone needs to tell her to do some damage control and quick. The surprise for the week was of course Brianna. Despite the fact that she’s running around the kitchen in high heels, she’s managed to grab the judges’ attention. Better late than never I guess.

Say goodbye to DAS, the unlucky contestant who will not be cooking next week. The vote wasn’t that surprising since he hasn’t been very dynamic, didn’t cook all that well, and was for the most part boring. He also didn’t know what the highest cut of meat was and Bobby mocked him for it. It was interesting that at the judging he suddenly knew that prime was the highest cut and went on a mini-discourse about marbling or something. The Mrs. asked if he googled it when he got home after the challenge. Good stuff. At least DAS kept waving those arms when he got voted off, saluting with both hands as he said farewell to the other contestants and then saluting again as he walked out the door. Well played, sir.

And finally, back to Herb who was having some sort of life crisis this week and may need counseling. What a pathetic display. This is a cooking show, we don’t need to see him crying and questioning his life in front of the camera. A quick word of advice Herb: Get some self-esteem you loser!

Until next week . . .