SalleeB Shares: Food Network Star Week 3

Creating Some Homemade Happiness on a Plate!

And the challenge is....."Cook the Word", or match a dish to a catchy, descriptive term!

How's "Better Off Bread" or "Carved for Attention?" These are two of the terms that the finalists had to work with this week for their opening, individual challenge.

The catchy terms were assigned by the perennial mentors Bobby Flay and Giada de Laurentis. Additionally, a  food photographer assisted each chef with creating a magazine worthy picture of their dish.

Click Here  to see a pic of each chef and their playful phrase.

Food Network Magazine's founding editor, Maile Carpenter, matched the gorgeous pictures of each chef's food to the cleverly worded phrases without knowing who had created each dish. 

And the Secret Is...

Unfortunately, the chefs didn't know that if Maile couldn't match their food picture with a phrase, the mentors wouldn't sample their dish. Jernard, Martita, and Monterey had the three dishes that Maile couldn't match in the "Cook the Word" challenge.

And the Winner Is....Tregaye!

Tregaye won with her Mount Everzest dish, Lobster Bread Pudding cooked in an individual bundt cake pan and topped with citrus zest.

Road Trippin' Themes

"Family Road Trip" was the team video and cooking challenge. As the winner of the individual challenge, Tregaye assigned the teams of two before the teams were given their road trip themes.

Tregaye obviously had a strategy in assigning the teams.

Regrettably, her strategy didn't work very well. Several of her assigned teams worked incredibly well together. Their filmed intros and dishes were worthy of an actual Food Network show.

Top Teams

• Jernard and Joy won the challenge. Their partnership and southern cooking was solid Down South Family with tremendous appeal. Honestly, they could have a show right now!
• Monterey and Rob filmed an amazingly professional video. The partnership was dynamic, but their dishes weren't very well received. This dynamic duo are safe due to the quality of their filmed intro. Loved Rob's black shirt with chains! 
• Damiano and Erin put an Italian spin on camping. Bakers bake and Erin's upscale spin on S'mores was judged to be flavorful and unique. They're safe for another week.

Bottom Teams

• Martita and Ana, spent more time talking about their abuela's (grandmother's) drink of choice than what they were cooking. Good job on that pairing Tregaye!
• Tregaye and Yaku found themselves on the bottom. Yaku's performance and food kept him safe. However, Tregaye's energy started out okay, but then she was sidetracked into a clownish performance that I found painful to watch. Additionally, Tregaye's Crab Topped Corn Muffin? wasn't found to be kid-friendly.

SalleeB is Shocked! 

My mouth literally fell open when the mentors announced Martita was going home. Really? Really! I took to Twitter and tweeted #FoodNetworkStar to let them know the really short version of  how I feel about this decision.

In my opinion, it is inevitable that Ana is going home.

Ana has already given a plethora of excuses for her poor time management. I find her very unpersonable. She makes a catty comment, blinks like she just realized it was catty, and then shrugs her shoulders and says it's the truth. Yeah, the truth according to Ana. Why not go ahead and send her home NOW?

Yes, Martita was repeating her culinary point of view in the same way and cooking similar dishes.

I agree she sounded very rehearsed and polished,  but the camera loves her. She sparkles and comes right through the camera and into my living room. Martita can fix rehearsed and one note.

You can't fix  unpersonable. 

Ana wanted to be less scripted and more conversational in the team challenge. Look how well that went! Yes, I'm being sarcastic. 

Bobby and Giada, what were you thinking?
I believe that Week 4 will only further reinforce the fact that Ana needs to be sent home. Maybe I'm wrong and she can improve. However, I'm from Missouri and Ana will have to "Show Me" an improvement before I will change my opinion.