Season 9 (2016) Celebrity edition final episode synopsis
For the final episode of Season 9 celebrity edition, it was Nicole Sullivan (MadTV, King of Queens) against Loni Love (The Real, Gossip Queens).
Nicole was playing for the charity Bianca’s Furry Friends at the North Shore Animal League.
I read on the promo page Loni was playing for the Shriners but in this episode she stated it was for the American Red Cross.
Nicole was on Anne Burrell's red team.
Loni was on Rachael Ray's blue team.
Nicole beat out Mike the Situation in the previous episode in which Jwowww helped.
Loni beat out John Henson in the previous episode in which Kendra helped.
Anne was going for her seventh win in 9 seasons.
There have been 2 seasons of the celebrity version with Anne versus Rachael in both.
First day they planned and practiced the three courses for the next day when they do it for the judges.
So Anne asked what Nicole was interested in making and she said meat and potatoes and then Anne just suggests super fancy food like lobster, caviar, morel mushrooms, etc. Last season's celebrity Anne tried to get Jenni Jwoww to kill a lobster and she wouldn't so Anne wanted to make sure Nicole could kill the lobster and although she wasn't super pumped about it she was ok and did kill the lobsters. Even though her charity is for animals!
Rachael suggested a take on chicken and waffles that Loni did earlier which was chicken inside a sour cream biscuit but it ended up looking like a chicken sandwich.
Nicole's first course: Stuffed Potato and Fried Cauliflower w/Agliata
Nicole's second course: Tagliatelle w/ Lobster & Asparagus
Nicole's third course: Roasted Cornish Game Hen w/ Potato Cake & Morel Jus
Loni's first course: Chicken on a Biscuit w/Slaw
Loni's second course: Bird's Nest w/Butter Grits & Greens
Loni's third course: Pork Two Ways (ribs and chop) w/ Creamed Corn
Both groups seemed to be making a ton of food for these 3 courses.
Rachael as usual did the teaching hands on with Loni whereas Anne gave instructions and Nicole did the work by herself.
Rachael noticed that Loni is pretty slow in the kitchen and Anne noticed that Nicole is flighty/unfocused.
Since Loni was slow, Rachael tried to skip measuring things to speed it up.
They practiced on quail eggs but the day of Rachael changed to a regular egg I guess because it was faster.
When Loni tasted food, she took a big spoonful.
When Nicole did, she used the opposite end of a fork for a tiny bit.
90 minutes on first course.
60 minutes on second.
30 minutes on third.
Even though the celebrities were supposed to be cooking by themselves, Rachael and Anne were right there in the kitchen basically directing most everything like get this and do that and yes that's ok. Rachael got pretty bad with her nervous badgering.
Loni's first course she felt her slaw was too hot from jalepeno pepper.
Nicole was worried about overcooking things so she doesn't let the potato and cauliflower cook as long as probably should.
Loni was slow on 2nd course so she was running out of time, forgot bacon, Rachael loudly freaked out.
For Nicole's 2nd dish, the judges thought it had too much chive.
Loni had 4 large pork chops in this small pan so they didn't cook perfectly.
Nicole got the chicken in 3rd course too hot so it ended up dry inside.
The three judges were:
Sara Gore, TV personality and chef?
Laura Vitale host of Simply Laura on Cooking channel
Akhtar Nawab NYC restaurant owner/chef
The judges said the exact same thing all judges say:
From the worst cooks, these are really good!
It's anyone's game at this point!
We have a lot to consider.
We're all on the same page, right? Because this is lots of money!
This was one of the most difficult decisions to make!
Even though Nicole seemed like a lock for weeks and even during this episode, Loni won and so did the Red Cross.
So Anne lost!