Dessert Wars

I was wondering how they were going to adapt Restaurant Wars into a dessert only setting. I'm not sure I like it. It somehow loses a bit of the drama that chefs cooking multi-course meals usually deal with. I know they had special orders but still. Let's review. The challenge for our two teams was to prepare and stock a pastry shop. Each chef had to prepare 3 desserts on the menu and one item on the menu is required to be a bread item. The reward, aside from bragging rights to having won the first Dessert Wars, is $30,000. Nice. So off they go to shop...where nothing exciting happens but still you have to pimp the grocery store or no free access to film inside the store.
Back at the kitchen things start to get interesting. Two of Team Diva's desserts involve pie or tart crust. Simple right? A building block of every pastry chef's training. But if you work in a larger scale bakery that cranks out a lot of pies and tarts, there are machines that help you roll your dough (dough sheeter) into thin, precise crusts.
The black team has no problem using this machine. However Whiny Heather chooses to hand roll all the dough for her team. Why? Could be she's had bad experiences with a dough sheeter in the past and is uncomfortable using it. Or. It could be that she fears it will be seen as a short cut. While this is the first season of Just Desserts, the chefs have had plenty of examples of how shortcuts bite them in the ass from 8 seasons of Top Chef. So Heather rolling her own could be a wise choice....IF she rolls all of them perfectly.

Then there's the lemons.
Seems that Morgan can't find two bags of lemons. Since he can't find his two bags of lemons he bought, he claims Yigit took his lemons and on top of that, is upset that Yigit took all the lemons out of the Pantry. If Morgan's not careful the Whiny title is coming off Heather and will be slapped on his broad forehead.

Not much else of interest happens during prep except Yigit covers himself with a large bowl of whipped cream...and not in a good way.

Although as cute as he is I'm betting he could get plenty of folks to cover him in whipped cream in a good way.

Next day finds the chefs hustling to get ready and open their pastry shops. Our guest judge for Dessert Wars is Nancy Silverton, she of many awards, cookbooks and dessert establishments.

Will she be tough? Nit picky? Will the chefs be ready in time?

The black team appears to be. Team Diva?

Not so much. Now I watched closely to see if Team Diva's case ever looked as full as the black team's case and below is the best I could find.

Some stuff but just not as eye catching as the black team's display. Not a good choice. Onto the desserts.

Zac

Yigit

Heather

Morgan

Eric

Danielle

The best in my opinion and the ones I'd buy if I were in the two shops? Zac's donut offering and Morgan's Chocolate Mousse, as much as it pains me to say in Morgan's case. While he might be a total dick he has a ton of talent. Zac loves to fry things and I love him for that. However over all Whisk It Away takes the title and the money.
The worst is Heather's crust for her lemon tart and Yigit's chocolate tart. Her decision to hand roll turns out to be the wrong one. Now because Team Diva lost they come in for the most criticism which they no doubt deserved. But part of me is kinda pissed that the black team put up a chocolate chip cookie and a pretzel stick as Dessert War entries. I thought Johnny's bullshit line about having something you know will sell was crap. It's Dessert Wars, I want amazing. Geez, at least make an interesting shape with the pretzel.

In the end Whiny Heather finally whines no more.