Finally, I can almost tell these people apart. Just in time for Challenge Taco! Reinventing the taco as a fine-dining item understandably strikes many of the cheftestants as stupid -- tacos are, after all, a quintessential street food. Richard"s up for the challenge, though, since it involves the word re-invent. His enthusiasm pays off, as guest judge Rick Bayless grants him immunity and the win for a taco reimagineered with jicama shells.
A self-selecting separation into two teams -- Red and Blue -- and an ominously-edited drive kicks off Elimination. Will our plucky bunch get dumped in the ghetto? Heavens no -- it"s a lovely tree-lined street eagerly awaiting their annual block party, where adults and children will come together to eat food and be on TV. After raiding the pantries of the neighbors, all Oprah-style (look, a hoarder!), it"s back to the kitchen for a relatively sedate prep and cook. The cook-then-transport scenario seems a bit familiar, but each menu contains some dubious choices (that"s you, corn dog and macaroni and cheese).
The block party looks like fun -- hell, they have a dunking machine. Team Red keeps it simple, while Team Blue goes upscale -- which, based on the apparent hint offered by a fine-dining taco contest, looks like the wrong choice. Team Red psyches out Team Blue by cooking for everyman, serving their sliders (or America"s New Official Favorite Food), and actually having some fun.
But everyman only likes block party food if it"s well done, and Team Red"s wasn"t. Team Blue ekes out a win, but Richard gets nailed for serving a pilaf instead of a paella (really, how dare he?), and Nikki gets slammed for making macaroni and brick. Stephanie pulls out her second win for ingeniously using gyoza in dessert, and becomes the one to beat.
In a particularly brutal losing round, Team Red"s Erik gets nailed for soggy-ass corn dogs, Ryan gets nailed for a soggy-ass Waldorf salad, and Zoi gets nailed for a pasta salad that"s poor by pasta salad standards, which is actually quite an accomplishment. But it"s Erik that packs his knives, reminding us all that when it comes to mangling American classics, a bad corn dog is the ultimate sin.