‘Rachael vs. Guy’ recap: Food truck wars

The competition actually got serious on Sunday night’s episode of “Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off.” The show has been entertaining for weeks, but in terms of actual cooking, it doesn’t come close to “Iron Chef” or “Top Chef.” For the first time, the reality TV show turned into a real cooking competition when the remaining four chefs took over food trucks.

Each contestant had to prep, cook and serve 100 portions of a dish in a little under two hours. That would be hard for actual chefs to pull off. Lou Diamond Phillips, the show’s Season 1 winner, made a special appearance.

On Rachael Ray’s team, Hines Ward, Kathy Najimy and Carnie Wilson created a Comfort Cruiser food truck. Ward created his son’s favorite chili cheese dogs, Wilson attempted to do a less labor intensive dish with a meatball, mashed potatoes and gravy, and Najimy gave her mom’s macaroni and cheese what she called a Mediterranean twist with olives and parsley. Why Wilson thought peeling, boiling and mashing potatoes and rolling 100 meatballs would not be labor intensive is beyond me. She was still a hot mess running around her station.

Guy Fieri’s lone team member Daddy “D” Dean McDermott took on a triple pork taco with avocado crema and tomatillo sauce for his Mexican food truck called Nacho Deano. He nailed it. He didn’t even get to serve one-third of the people waiting for his food and he still won the challenge.

Instead of taking the bottom two contestants and putting them in the blind tasting, Ward, Wilson and Najimy battled to remain in the competition. They each made their best dish on a stick in 20 minutes. Najimy made glazed pineapple and pound cake on a stick, Ward did a shrimp and steak on a stick and Wilson did a steak and avocado salsa. Najimy’s dessert stick never had a chance, Ward’s sriracha happy face plate decoration couldn’t save his dish and Wilson emerged the victor. Wilson and McDermott will battle next week in the finale for the $50,000 prize.

Best moments:

Najimy telling the food truck crowd that she’ll make out with everyone who likes her macaroni and cheese. Eek. I think a couple people ran in the other direction!

Wilson trying to explain her mental state while cooking. “It’s like being a horse in a race. It’s fine when you get started to walk and trot but you want to gallop. You have to gallop. You have to get to the finish line!” Still no clue what that mess is talking about.

And what would an episode recap be without a snippet from the lovable Hines Ward? “I’ve always been that type of person to step outside of my comfort zone. My strategy going into this week is sticking to what I know.” Huh?

ALSO:

‘Top Chef’ recap: Stefan Richter loses his party pants

‘Rachael vs. Guy’ recap: Daddy Dean McDermott is really a wizard

‘The Taste’ recap: Those auditions desperately needed seasoning

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