Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sparkle-licious
By Monty Ashley | Season 4 | Episode 6 | Aired on 05.06.2008
The first entree is Jen with a Caribbean halibut in mango and avocado salsa vs. Ben and a sweet potato mash with sautéed asparagus and sautéed shrimp. Melissa's mother feels that the women's fish is a little dry and the rice is undercooked, although she likes the salsa. Melissa objects to asparagus and appears to decided to dislike shrimp, so she chooses the halibut. 1-1.
Entree 2: Corey with a grilled flank steak with homemade French fries in a pomegranate sauce vs and Petrozza with a "saucy surf and turf" in the form of a grilled filet mignon. I assume there's some "surf" in there too. Melissa doesn't like the looks of the pomegranate bits on the women's dish, and does not like the fat on the filet. The mother interferes while Melissa chooses and Melissa ends up choosing the men's dish, giving them a victory. High fives and whooping ensue. The women grouse.
The prize for the men: they get to let their hair down and become teenagers. Eh? Also, what hair? I think the longest hair on the team is on Louross. The punishment for the women is to decorate the dining room, and they must deal with a flamboyant party planner. He's dressed in an orange suit with an orange tie, leading Jen to describe him as an "orange flame". It's possible that she had two meanings in mind for "flame" there. I'm not saying she did, and I'm not saying she didn't. All I am saying is that he's acting a lot like Bronson Pinchot in Beverly Hills Cop. Seriously, he uses the word "sparkle-licious" and claims that "Tinkerbell will be jealous". The women mostly just roll their eyes and get on with their work. There's some mockery in interviews, but c'mon. Sparkle-licious?
It turns out that the men's reward is at a Go-Kart track. That's about it. Meanwhile, the Birthday Mother has shown up and is informing the Party Planner that "I want silver. Blue doesn't go. And the red doesn't go. I had a vision? And everything looks wrong." And so on. She wants to know who's in charge of the napkin rings, and Shayna (who is a caterer, and probably has experience with exactly this situation) steps in with napkin-related suggestions. Corey takes the opportunity to sneer in an interview about how maybe Shayna should go back to party planning, which doesn't sound very grateful to me. Then, back at the kitchen, she says something looks stupid and stalks off. She's not dealing well with this punishment.
Oh, there's more to the men's reward after all. They're at a restaurant that serves a "junk food platter," consisting of Rice Krispie squares, little cupcakes (decorated like Hostess cupcakes), cotton candy, Sno-balls, some milk, and a lot of other sugar-delivery systems. Gordon's with them, and he alleges that the chef is reinventing all these "American classics."