In episode 5 of Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars, it was all about the wine. Both Lisa Vanderpump and Gordon Ramsay's teams were given a bottle of wine from their team leader's brand and they had to find a way to promote the wine with a seasonal campaign.
This episode should have been amazing, but honestly, it was a struggle to watch. I was not invested in what either team was doing and it really felt like Gordon Ramsay's team was phoning it in. They didn't even have a script for their campaign and were kind of winging it for a while.
Overall, Team Ramsay's presentation was lackluster and it didn't feel like they had any real direction. And while Team Vanderpump may have struggled to get on the same page, they did in fact get it together and create a campaign that made sense and had a real story. Even if you barely paid any attention in the lead up to the team presentations, it was easy to tell who would come out on top in terms of representing these wines.
So it probably comes as no surprise that not only did Ramsay's team lose this challenge, but it turns out that they "stole" their idea from a competitor's brand. Over on Lisa Vanderpump's team, Jess Druey already has her own wine brand, Whiny Baby Wine. And her marketing is all about the idea of using the label from your wine bottle as a memento. In their seasonal campaign, Team Ramsay decided to take her idea and use it as their marketing gimmick.
Unsurprisingly, during the grilling where Gordon Ramsay made his decision on who would go home, the fact that the team copied Jess' marketing was discussed, with Lisa Vanderpump making it clear that ripping off your competition is not the way to go. And Ramsay made it clear that he found this tactic to be lazy.
But the copying wasn't the determining factor on who went home this episode. Instead, it was all about lack of initiative and leadership. And that is why Chuan Liu, who chose not to step up even as someone in the beverage industry, ended up being cut from Team Ramsay.
What did you think of this episode of Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars? Were you surprised by what went down during this episode? Are you surprised by who went home?