Reprinted with permission from www.healthywaytocook.com

Last week, the cooks served up spoonfuls of comfort food. This week, it’s all about perfect pairings.

Team Challenge

For the team challenge, the cooks must each create a dish using five ingredients selected by their mentors that pair well with an Argentinian Malbec. The winning team gets the benefit of guest judges Michelin-starred chef David Kinch and sommelier Andre Mack during the Solo Taste Test. Nigella’s Team will be using calf’s liver, harissa (hot chili sauce), couscous, ground lamb, and lamb sausage. Malarkey’s Team must cook with figs, almonds, bone marrow, filet mignon, and sea salt. Anthony went all meat for his team and selected beef steak, chorizo, beef tongue, lamb kidney, and lamb chops. Ludo’s Team has an odd assortment of white miso, bonito flakes (dried, smoked fish), charcoal (huh?), smoked eel, and cassis.

Tony encourages his ladies to drink as much as possible, and it seems to have spilled over to Nigella because she seems a tad tipsy, too. Tony chooses Uno’s Thai beef salad spoon for judging. Ludo selects Gregg’s short ribs, which his team says has no “wow factor.” Nigella goes with Erika’s spoon that had something with cilantro, and Malarkey picks Adam’s squab with red wine reduction.

The judges ultimately chose Gregg’s short ribs, and I think the only person happy about that is Gregg because he’s perpetually pleased with himself.

Solo Taste Test

The cooks must create food and wine pairings using one of four different wine styles: German Riesling, California Chardonnay, French Côtes du Rhône, and Italian Barolo.

There’s some berries and Riesling, we learn that artichoke makes wine taste too sweet, pork shoulder, duck, salmon, and the chef questions whether Sarah can pull off her dish. Khristianne accuses the white wines of being easier than the reds, and Diane’s ego may be getting in the way of her cooking.

The four mentors taste the spoons blind and vote for the best and the worst. Since the spoons are paired with wines, the judges should be hilariously hammered by the time they have to vote out two of the cooks. So, what did they cook for us this week?

• Mia paired shrimp and charred cauliflower with Chardonnay.

• Gregg paired pasta with Bolognese sauce and a glass of Barolo.

• Erika’s miso orange sea bass is paired with Chardonnay.
  “You almost use the wine to get the taste out of your mouth!”

• Adam’s seafood with saffron aioli is paired with Chardonnay.

• Diane serves up blood sausage with potato gratin and Côtes du Rhône.
  Ludo thought it was cheating because the blood sausage was already made.

• Sarah poached salmon and served it with clam salad and a Chardonnay.
  The judges practically spit it out.

• Paul paired Côtes du Rhône with rack of lamb.

• Uno gave the judges chicken and egg and Chardonnay.
  “I just don’t know what the **** is going on here.”

• Huda baked a lemon zabaione and paired it with Riesling.
  “It’s waaaaaay too sweet. Sweet on sweet. Sweet, sweet, sweet.”

• NinaMarie cooked braised pork shoulder and paired it with Barolo.
  “That had really good flavor but it’s horrendous looking.”

• Jeff paired Chardonnay with seared sole and sweet pea puree
  “I’m transported back to 1986.”

• Lauren paired steak and polenta with Côtes du Rhône.

• Khristianne’s braised duck is paired with Barolo.
  “I thought that was sexy.”

• Shawn’s sea bass with goat cheese ravioli is paired with Chardonnay.
  “Who would put goat cheese with fish?”

And how did their dishes pan out? There was some good, and some really, really bad. Tony’s best is NinaMarie’s pork shoulder, and his worst is Huda’s sweet sloppy lemon zabaione. Ludo’s best is Khristianne’s duck, and his worst is Sarah’s salmon. Malarkey also enjoyed Khristianne’s duck, and he hated Erika’s sea bass. Nigella also selected NinaMarie’s pork shoulder as her favorite, and her worst is Shawn’s cheesy sea bass.

Both Khristianne and NinaMarie are winners this week with two votes each. As for the worst, two of the four cooks up for elimination will be going home. Huda, Shawn, Sarah and Erika are the bottom four. Two cooks from Nigella’s kitchen are at risk (Huda and Erika), and two from Ludo’s kitchen (Shawn and Sarah).

Huda’s sweet sweet sweet was not going down well with anyone except for Nigella. Tony recommends she pair Riesling with sauerkraut next time. Both Erika and Shawn cooked Chilean sea bass, and it turns out that Tony hates Chilean sea bass. That’s so…specific? Somehow, Sarah’s salmon was described as both bland, and overpowering.

In the end, the mentors eliminated one cook from each team: Erika from Nigella’s team goes home, and Shawn from Ludo’s team.  Wow. Anthony Bourdain really doesn’t like Chilean sea bass.

Next week, the cooks make us some sandwiches.