Almost immediately, both teams choose to do a savory cannoli. I don't know why that happened, but it did. Cheech decides to do a poached pears in red wine reduction with a "special" brownie and ice cream. Unfortunately, the brownie isn't special, but Cheech saying he had never made a legal brownie and referring to them as Cheech's Special Brownies amused me greatly. Coolio is doing Grandma Cool's Lemon Pudding Cake. He has some problems with it firming up, and at one point cooks it at 500 degrees. Alyssa is doing raspberry profiteroles. That sounds impressive. She has a hard time getting it to firm up as well, but it works out. Joey is stuck with the wasabi cannoli. He's initially worried, but apparently becomes very confident.
On Rachael's team, Lou is doing a lemon curd with limoncello infused whipped cream. He has a hard time with the tart level and the puff pastry, but it begins to work out. Taylor does a Stacked Strawberry Shortcake. It looked really dry to me. I think Northern Stawberry Shortcake is different than Southern Strawberry Shortcake. Ours is like a sponge cake. Does anyone know? I think so. Summer does Shakin' Bacon Ancho Fudge. Her and these mile long names. I don't think I like fudge with bacon and acho chiles, but okay. They collaborate on anchovy cannolis.
They begin to present their desserts. Joey is the spokesperson for his team, and calls them Dessertalicious. Too cute. Lou is the spokesperson for his team, and is excited to learn the pastry chefs recognize him. It was arrogant especially, so it was funny. The pastry chefs think Cheech's is fabulous. They don't like that Alyssa's filling still has the seeds of the raspberry (which, keep in mind, Guy warned her about and she ignored). Coolio's cake is a little moist still. Joey's is good, but very strange. It had a strong wasabi flavor.
Lou's was too tart, but it was good. He saw that coming. Taylor's was awesome and was later voted the best of the competition. Summer's needed more ancho chiles, but it was good. The anchovy cannolis were good, but not enough anchovies.
The pastry chefs had to voted on presentation, best dish per team, worst dish per team, and best team overall. At this point, I thought Rachael's team had won, but actually, they tied. Yep. 13 chefs tied. It's cause there were 4 categories, so 13x4=52. Therefore, tie. Since it was a tie, it is Alyssa vs. Summer. So there's the reason for the leaders. Guess it made sense.
The secret ingredient of the blind cook-off is salad. They have to have one cooked ingredient and must make their own dressing. Basically, they run around like chickens with their head cut off. The two things that struck me as strange, is Summer thought in her 10 minutes she would bake the salmon. Come again? That's impossible. She figures that out and throws it in the pan, but it's still raw at the end. Alyssa decides to not mess with the dressing and just does Balsamic and Sherry vinegar. That sounds not tasty at all.
In the blind taste test, Guy and Rachael think Alyssa's is refreshing and has a nice presentation, but the dressing is bad (shocker) and it is pretty one note without many ingredients. Summer's has a little of everything, which they really love. They note that the salmon is raw. Even though she has raw salmon, Summer wins. Goodbye Miss USA. Now the teams are all tied up.
The gold star for the week goes to Taylor. She went from the bottom to having the best dish this week. She really did something she thought would be good and listened to Rachael's advice. Good job Taylor!
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