Monk: In a bit of a change of pace, I’m going to try my hand at TV recapping for the second season of BBQ Brawl, which airs for *checks notes* 10 episodes *gulp* on Monday nights at 9pm ET on Food Network. 10 episodes? Well let’s see how this goes…
Well barbe-cuties, while we may have hit the halfway mark of the 10 episodes a couple weeks back, this is the true halfway mark in terms of remaining contestants. Team Bobby lost once again and this week he has a hankering for brunch. So the advantage challenge – with the advantage being a prize for an individual as opposed to a team – is a barbecue-inspired eggs benedict.
A traditional eggs benedict is an English muffin, Canadian bacon, poached egg, and Hollandaise sauce. Not something that I’ve ever eaten or made myself. The judges agree that it must have the poached egg and Hollandaise sauce, so contestants deviate from that at their peril.
Off the bat, a few appear ready to do so; Erica announces her intent to do shaksuka, a North African poached egg dish. Lu doesn’t want to make a Hollandaise sauce so she goes with a barbecue sauce to go over her immaculately poached eggs. Ara goes with a rolled omelet instead of a poached egg. None of the risks of these folks pay off into a win.
That ends up being Brittani on Team Michael, who wins with her sweet and savory French toast eggs benedict and wins a big $5,000 prize pack from BBQ Brawl sponsor BBQ Guys.
The team challenge is a BBQ Brunch Battle expanding upon the advantage challenge. Each team gets 2 hours for a full barbecue-influenced brunch experience.
I’m convinced Team Michael wins somewhat based on volume, but their “Balanced Brunch” does get some praise in Michael’s salmon and watermelon salad as well as David’s eggs in hell as well as Brittani’s smoked fried chicken. They win pretty comfortably.
For Team Bobby, Erica brings some South American flavor to the challenge and impresses the judges with a lomo al trapo (Colombian-style cloth-wrapped grilled beef tenderloin). While Erica gets dinged for her smoked chicken pot pie, they are safe this week. Erica sprints off the set, lest anyone changes their mind.
Team Eddie loses due to execution issues on dishes from both Christopher and Lu. Christopher’s Puerto Rican steak and eggs needed more acid from the chimichurri sauce and Lu’s frittata didn’t have the right egg texture. Her crepe dessert was more successful but even still, it still had some issues. In the end, between not giving a proper eggs benedict and then a lacking frittata, Lu goes home.
Bells for Lu, the Midwestern sauce queen.
Christopher Prieto Watch
Christopher’s team ends up on the bottom this week but Lu goes home. Even she agrees that it’s the right decision. Christopher is the last contestant standing on Team Eddie but will get a new teammate next week as Eddie now gets a chance to steal a teammate from another team. Who will it be? Will they be put off by Christopher’s confidence? We’ll find out next in what looks to be a seafood challenge.
What was your favorite part of episode 6 of BBQ Brawl season 2? Leave your response in the comments and be sure to check back next week for a recap of episode 7.