New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

At this point, I completely stop rooting for Rick. I know he’s from NYC and I know NYC chefs come with an edge, but his behavior is unacceptable. At every possible moment, it feels like Rick takes the time to brag about the complexity of his dish or how a given challenge plays to his strengths, all the while lambasting the dishes of his fellow chefs, questioning their decision-making skills, etc. If there’s one chef I want to see go home, it’s Rick.

Meanwhile, in a less bitchy area of Whole Foods, Tony is buying ingredients for grilled pizza and Susan, in a brilliant move, buys ingredients to make carne-asada tacos.

Back at the check-out counter, the bitchiness returns, as Susur jokes that Tony, who’s wearing a sour-puss face from being around Susur, would be perfect for starring in The Sopranos. Tony takes offense, telling the camera, “Thanks for the stereotype.” Jeebus, someone buy that man an ice cream cone.

Back at the kitchen, the Masters seem to be dividing into two camps: those who have tailgate experience (Rick, Jonathan and Tony) and those who are clueless (Susan, Susur and Marcus). Should be interesting to see how this all goes down.

The Masters arrive at the parking lot of the LA Coliseum the next day. As the camera pans to all of the USC football fans, I wonder how many of them will be crying into their beer cups after Stanford whoops their team.

Seeing the hoards of fans wearing USC crimson shirts, Susan finally understands what an advantage it is to be able to wear a USC jersey while behind the grill. “Go Trojans!” she yells while grilling up her steak. The USC fans cheer back enthusiastically. Susan is loving it.

“Sadly,” Jonathan calls over to Susan’s stand, packed with USC alums, “I’m from Berkeley.” The tailgaters boo loudly. “But my wife is from Stanford.” More booing.

Meanwhile, pissy-Ricky makes some snide remarks about how Susur is using his grill as a cook-top, instead of actually grilling food on it, which leads me to secretly hope Susur beats the pants off Rick in this challenge. Rick also questions Jonathan’s decision to cook tacos when he knows that Susan, the queen of Latin food in LA, is doing tacos as well.

The judges arrive, looking extremely out of place at a USC tailgate. Gael is adorable in a large, floppy black hat, looking like she thought she was attending a polo match. James is wearing a purple cardigan, as if he thought a game of croquet was on hand.

They sample Jonathan’s steak tacos with grilled vegetables and a bordelaise sauce. He’s hoping that his upscale ingredients will differentiate him from Susan’s “street food.” James doesn’t like his stale tortilla, while Gael finds his side dish of vegetables to be “wonderful.”

Rick is next with a chermoula marinade over grilled chicken, plus Baba Ganoush, an Arabian dish of mashed eggplant. Pretty strange fare for a tailgate if you ask me. James says that the dish looks ugly but tastes fabulous.

Marcus had some trouble finding time to make meat skewers, so re-arranged his proteins to make grilled chicken plus a shrimp soup and a burger. James notes that there are a lot of components to the dish but that they all taste good.

Susur is next with a Korean-style skirt steak plus roasted cauliflower with Austrian dumplings. The judges are all puzzled by the use of the dumplings, but Susur admits he wasn’t sure what most people eat at a tailgate. Jay finds his skirt steak to be heavenly.


Tony thinks he has the winning dish with his grilled pizza with mozzarella, tomatoes, Romano cheese and arugula. James says that it tastes terrific but that the dough is overcooked.

Continued:       1       2       3       4