SFist Watches: Your Locals On Reality TV

They then learned that their challenge was to create a dish inspired by their favorite movie, to be served at a dinner party hosted by Richard Roeper and thrown for Aisha Tyler. Another local! Wonder if she'll judge every dish by throwing around the word "subjective." She liked to use that one a lot when I was in AP European History with her in high school.

The chefs broke up into teams of two, with Ryan paired with Kiwi Mark, Zoi paired with Antonia, and Jen paired with Nikki. When Ryan and Mark begin to discuss their favorite movies, Mark started throwing out titles like Bad Boy Bubby, and Crazy Bad (not sure if that's an actual movie, or just Mark's opinion of Bad Boy Bubby). At least he didn't throw out the obvious Lord of the Rings. Most of the teams seemed to come up with dishes first, and then tried to find a movie they could pass off as the "influence." Jen and Nikki chose Il Postino because they both like cooking Italian food, and Zoi chose Talk to Her, and convinced Antonia to go along with it.

Back to Ryan and Mark, who were still trying to come up with a movie. Ryan threw out Dumb and Dumber, because that diarrhea scene is rife with culinary influence. Mark mentioned To Kill a Mockingbird. Wonder what roasted mockingbird tastes like? Then Ryan tries to come up with the title of A Christmas Story, and it was pretty hilarious. Finally someone pointed out the obvious title, and they went with that, taking the Chinese turkey scene at the end as inspiration. Mark seemed unsure whether the movie was a comedy or not.

In other news, Dour Dale, Richard La Douche and Twitchy McTwit teamed up for a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory first course, but Dale and Richard nixed Andrew's plan to serve the dish while on his knees, posing as an Oompa Loompa. Ha! Their other plan of serving their salmon and white chocolate wasabi dish covered in plastic wrap filled with smoke failed when Richard's mini-smoker failed. THANK GOD. Just serve the damn dish. Besides, any food that comes to the table covered in plastic wrap is inevitably tacky looking, and smoke is best reserved for tiki drinks served in volcano glasses.

Party time! Jen and Nikki's course was served third, and it was a fresh tortellini with cavolo nero, ricotta, pecorino, squash, and "grains of paradise," an African peppercorn. Colicchio thought it was good, not great. Daniel Boulud didn't like the shape of the pasta, but Richard Roeper thought it was rustic and fab.

Ryan and Mark's Christmas Story came next, a quail breast with carrot puree, cranberry chutney, and a quail spring roll with watercress puree. Padma loved it and Tom Allen declared it his new favorite dish. Aisha Tyler almost licked her plate she loved the carrot puree so much.

Zoi and Antonia presented their dish by talking about Talk To Her's passionate women and vibrant colors, and then served a dish that wasn't very passionate or colorful: roasted rack of lamb with saffron cauliflower puree, romesco, and a parsley orange, sage, and rosemary gramalata. Colicchio didn't like that there were two thin chops on the plate, instead of one big meaty one (that's what she said!), no one thought the colors were very vibrant. Aisha Tyler didn't find it "transcendent" in any way.

Judging table! Teams Willy Wonka and Top Secret! (Lisa and Stephanie) were the top two, with Richard and his white chocolate wasabi getting the win. Back in the kitchen no one could fucking believe that that dish could possibly taste good, especially Zoi. Alas, her team and team Good Morning Vietnam (Spike and Manuel) were in the bottom two. The judges thought team Talk To Her's wasn't as vibrant as they had sold it. Luckily, Spike and Manuel's spring rolls were suckier, and they got the loss, and Manuel had to pack his knives and go.

Next week: Yelling and chair kicking!