Thursday, July 14, 2011

Food Network Star's food truck follies,Design Star sets up shop and True Blood's sparkly shocker



The theme for this week's challenges on The Next Food Network Star was food trucks,with Tyler Florence(host of FN's Great Food Truck Race)as the special guest adviser.

Teams of three were formed and before folks could check out which meals on wheels to sample,everyone watched the promo videos that each team made to showcase their concept.

While the other two teams received a decent reception for their mini-commercials,Jeffrey,Whitney and Susie seemed to have ruined the appetites of all with their "Balls on a Roll" theme. No one lined up to taste their food while the other wagons had crowds galore.



Things weren't harmonious for the other teams,either-Penny took forever and a day to make her wraps ready and customers had to wait extra long because of her slowness.Lucky for her,those wraps were the best of the bunch served that day.

Mary Beth and Penny wound up snapping at each other during the judging,with Penny literally being catty at one point. If it wasn't for her decent dishes,I think the judges would've kicked Penny out long ago.



However,it was Orchid who went home this week for being easily overshadowed by her team mates. Too many expectations were placed on her from the start of this season and while she did her level best,Orchid was a bit too subtle to really catch on fire here.

Next week,tensions boil over as the remaining contenders make a eight course meal for Wolfgang Puck and accusations as well as embarrassing cooking lessons are added to the menu:





A brand new of Design Star started on it's new night,Monday,along with a new host(Tanika Ray)and a mentor,S1 winner David Bromstad.

While I miss the former host Clive,Tanika seems nice and including David was a smart move,indeed. He's a very nurturing presence and the contestants would do well to heed his suggestions.



They began with this show's now classic opening challenge,which is to decorate your living space. One of the better rooms in the penthouse suite that the designers are sharing in Brooklyn was the Bonus room done by Kellie and Karl.

While Kellie worked wonders with the under the stairs nook,Karl earned an early win for his tastefully striped focal walls that gave the right amount of pop to the room without overwhelming it.



In second place were Leslie and Cathy,who pulled the Great Room together nicely. Leslie scored some major points for the rubber tire coffee table while Cathy's wall seating wasn't very comfortable there.

Despite a slight clash of personalities at one point(over a large table that was too big for the moving men to deliver in any way,shape or form),the ladies managed to work well with each other and created an amazing room in the process.



The first to go home was Blanche,who teamed up with Mark on one of the bedrooms. Mark's unpainted or not even varnished bookshelves were at least well made and useful as room dividers but Blanche's attempt to frame wallpaper was messy.

Worst of all,the tea lights that she tacked up on the walls looked awful. Judge Vern called them "Grandma's dollies" and they did seriously detract from the aesthetic value of the room.

Next week,another classic challenge will be on deck,the "white box" makeover. That should be fun to see but scary for some to pull off:





As usual,a lot is going on with the gang on True Blood,as Jason is being painfully turned into a werepanther breeding stud,Sam's little brother plots to rip off his benefactress and Sookie runs into Alcide,who is back with a seemingly reformed Debbie Pelt.

However,let's check in with Eric and the witches;Lafayette is understandably terrified at the prospect of dealing with Eric and planned to plead for mercy at Fangtasia,unaware that his dreaded enemy has lost his memory and is in a rather meek and mild state of mind(for a vampire,anyway).

Pam is definitely in the know and furious about it,demanding that Sookie keeps Eric at her house and quiet about what happened. She's convinced that Bill set Eric up and is more than happy to take out her frustrations upon Lafayette. Fortunately,Tara and Jesus are determined to save him from Pam's boot stomping fury and Tara was smart enough to enter the fray armed and ready:





Meanwhile,Sookie is dealing with an amnesiac Eric in her home and by nightfall, he's on the loose when she gets a most unwelcome knock on her door. Her fairy godmother Claudine has returned and insists that Sookie go back with her to Fairy Land,something that Sookie has no interest in considering her last visit.

While this little stand-off is going on,Eric swoops in and drags Claudine off to the side to drink her blood. He winds up draining her dry,which causes her to change back into her natural Brothers Grimm persona before poofing into fairy dust.

That was a surprise,considering that it didn't happen in the books. I don't know where the show is going with this but so far,my interest is peaked,indeed:



RANDOM NOTES:

HELL'S KITCHEN: Gordon Ramsey plans to open those dreaded doors yet again for another batch of culinary misfits and he promises that big changes are on the way. Even so,we'll still get many of our old favorites including Gordon's flame broiled wrath upon his less than sharp chef contenders:

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