The beginning of the third season of Worst Cooks in America started with the all-important casting. Thousands of self and family nominated aspiring cooks made their way, food in hand, to be judged to try to get on the show. The hosts this season are of course Anne Burrell, who hosted the past two seasons; and her new competition, Iron Chef Bobby Flay.
Sixteen hopefuls were impressively bad enough to be invited onto the show. The first contest was to make a signature dish with ingredients from the Food Network pantry. David Shelton stood out for all the wrong reasons as he made a “dishwasher salmon”. His wife went vegan, partly because of his cooking, and with a dish like this everyone can see why. Not finding a dishwasher in their kitchen, David had to “settle” for baking it. He was worried it would be raw, but half an hour in a hot oven made sure it was anything but.
After their first challenge, the judges took turns picking their teams. Each picked one for their own team, then one for the other side. Chef Burrell ended up with David Shelton, Kelli Powers, Anthony Schiano, Dorothy Strouhal, Rachel Margolin, Richard Chen, Robert Tamke (who Burrell described as her sad puppy), and Sean Bennett.
Iron Chef Bobby Flay ended up with Melissa Rhodes (a recovering anorexic), Vinnie Caligiuri, Benjamin Dennis, Erica Weidner, Libby Floyd (a shopping network hostess), Sarina Weeraprajuk, Sherrill Moss-Solomon, and Tiffany Michelle (a professional poker player and was on the Amazing Race).
The challengers were given their first task of making breakfast. Each team had to cook pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Dorothy had major issues listening to Chef Burrell, not because of inattention but because of her attitude. Burrell confronted her on this and Dorothy responded that, “It’s Anne’s way or the highway.”
Kelli and Tiffany were the winners for this round. Richard was let go on Anne’s team for not taking the competition seriously. He had come to the show to prove to his fiancé that he is “not a loser”, but his angry attitude did him no favors. Libby, the hostess, was sent home from Bobby’s team. She vowed never to cook again, as she was just told she is the worst of the worst.
Next week has the contestants heading to China-Town to experience new cuisine.
