Ariane is at it again with the lamb, which she cooked perfectly in a microwave earlier this season. This time, she’s butchering it and pounding it out, and we smell doom when Leah offers to tie up the roasts, then admits she did it hastily. At the judges’ table, it shows: the reviews are harsh—Ariane’s herbed rub is a “mess,” says Barber. A summer-berry trifle is equally not impressive. Still, Padma praises the team’s roasted potatoes.
Team Pork loses points for Fabio’s ravioli, which are overwhelmed by pesto. Sharp-tongued new judge Toby Young declares that the green sauce is the “big bad wolf which has blown this plate’s home down.” At least Jeff’s fried green tomatoes get the thumbs up.
Everyone remarks that chicken soup is a faux pas on a hot day, but the flavor is just too darn good to write it off. Along with Jamie’s chicken cutlets and Carla’s fruit dessert—named the best dish of the day—Team Chicken pulls off the win.
Both of the other teams are on the chopping block, and Tom scolds them for taking the lamb off the bone and the fat off the pork. Toby describes it best: “When faced with a well-reared piece of meat, I want to have full-blown, unprotected sex. I didn’t even get to first base with the pork.” Talk about food porn.
It’s the lamb team that gets the most heat: Ariane needlessly tenderized already-tender baby lamb, and Hosea and Leah did nothing to stop her from tearing the poor animal apart. Padma tells Ariane to get packing, but we know it was the producers, not the judges, who decided to keep Leah on for drama. In the trailer for next week, she gets even more than cuddly with Hosea. Wonder what Toby would have to say about that.
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