Neither team should have won episode 4 of Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars

During the June 12 episode of Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars, it was all about a "Recipe Showdown." Both teams had to think up a recipe that they would then have to not only write out a full recipe for, but also host a live stream demonstration of how to make the dish. During this live stream, they would have people cooking along with them, so the recipes had to be as clear and concise as possible.

On top of needing solid recipes, the teams also needed to have a dish that only needed 30 minutes to prepare since that is all the time they had for their demonstrations. And of course, they needed people who could handle being on screen and engaging an audience.

Both Gordon Ramsay and Lisa Vanderpump were part of the "studio audience" that was cooking with the teams, as well as two judges from the Delish team. And while the people in studio were important in terms of guiding the recipe, it is really the people at home that the teams needed to consider when it came to these recipes.

Food Stars gave us a recipe for disaster in Season 2, Episode 4

Team Ramsay went first with a bacon cheeseburger on a pretzel bun that should have been a relatively easy demonstration. The problems started with the fact that the recipe didn't even mention the bun or the bacon. So going into the demo, the team was off to a bad start. And then during the demonstration, it was like watching a slow motion car crash. We had people not talking and looking lost on camera. And forget the fact that it seemed like the team forgot that they needed to get everything done in just 30 minutes.

After watching that demonstration I was convinced that Gordon Ramsay's team was going to be the losers. And then team Team Vanderpump did their presentation.

Overall, I do tend to think that Lisa Vanderpump's team did a much better job with their actual live stream demonstration. The problem is that we had an actual chef who not only came up with the recipe, but guided everyone through the creation of the dish. And he didn't seem to know how to adjust things for a home cook following along.

The dish itself was called Star-Spangled Shrimp Skewers, and way too much time was spent chatting about the ingredients themselves. And the biggest issue was that the pineapple for the skewers needed to be cut into stars and people struggled with it. Even Gordon Ramsay had a hard time with this step. The fact that one of the presenters didn't even bother to go out into the audience to help was a big fail on the team's part.

We also have to point out that it was frustrating for us and the live stream audience to see them speeding through how to put the skewers together. It made everything seem rushed and even Gordon and Lisa had to rush to finish in the 30 minute time frame.

Honestly, neither team deserved a win for their performances. But the fact that Team Ramsay won over Team Vanderpump is wild to me. The fact that the team that missed ingredients, almost didn't complete the recipe in the time frame and had a members just smiling at the camera without actually offering anything helpful made them a clear loser in my eyes.

Team Vanderpump wasn't much better, but the fact that their dish was called too hard for the home chefs made sense. Their recipe and the demonstration were far from perfect.

Honestly, I really don't think either team deserved a win this time around. And it is probably a good thing that it was outside judges making this decision so that none of us can claim that it was about playing favorites when it came to which team won or lost.

This episode felt like a disaster in terms of what went down. Here's hoping these potential Food Stars are able to find a way to turn things around, because at this point no one seems like they have what it takes to be Gordon Ramsay's (or Lisa Vanderpump's) next Food Star.

What did you think of this episode? Were you surprised by the outcome?