The Next Food Network Star reality competition show is now its ninth season. In that time, it has created some true culinary celebrities (Guy Fieri, the platinum blonde Diners, Drive-In & Drives host won Star before moving on to successful TV shows and a…ehm… less successful restaurant ) and a few talented presenters who have flew under the radar yet continue to enjoy success on the Food Network (like Aarti Sequeira and Melissa d’Arabian). The show, too, has tried to retool itself a few times, like last season which switched to a Voice like competition with celebrity judge mentors. While that approach wasn’t exactly jumping the shark, this season’s return to a simpler format is a plus. At its best Star is a show about entertaining people, delicious food and just how hard it is to have both of those things in one host.

Formatting shtick aside, the current season, which is currently about half-way over, is still entertaining but somewhat less memorable than seasons past. Perhaps that’s the competitors or that the show is just wearing thin after so many seasons (which is the reason why I’ve mostly stopped watching Hell’s Kitchen, although I am drawn like a moth to light to any show that combines cooking and overly dramatic music, after 11 seasons of watching Chef Ramsey yell about overcooked risotto and undercooked fish).

Going into this episode, the Final Five were: Damaris Phillips, a perky, quirky southern belle somewhere between a younger, non-racist Paula Dean and a Kristen Wiig character; Nicki Dinki, a pleasant and somewhat dull chef with a pro-veggie concept; Rodney Henry, a rock-and-roll pie baker; Russell Jackson, a “culinary rebel” (didn’t last year’s winner already have that moniker?) with a POV centered around a group of gastronomic sins like fat and alcohol; and Stacy Poon-Kinney, a restaurant owner with no real discernable genre.

This season also featured a new twist (cough…gimmick), a web-based spin-off called Star Salvation where rejected chefs had a chance to complete more cooking challenges in order to rejoin the competition a la Survivor’s Redemption Island. The winner, Connie “Lovely” Jackson, beat out five others chefs with her inventive, homemade party food and rejoined the main Star cast to “whup [their] ass and win Next Food Network Star” .

On to this week’s episode. I’ll try not to be so exposition-heavy in the future but as this is the first week of Celebrity Café Star recaps, a little background info was in order.

The show started with all six chefs having to make a pasta dish that they could explain well on camera.

While the chefs cooked, we’re treated to more shots of Buitoni fresh pasta packages than you’d see in a typical commercial. While Star has never been a show afraid of a little product placement, a few moments of this Buitoni cook-off reminded me of this ) hilarious 30 Rock exchange.

Anyway, after all the pasta was cooked the contestants learned they had to describe their partner’s dish rather than their own. Damaris’ Linguine Bolognese (which hopefully she can cook better than she can pronounce) was called “nice,” “delicious,” “mouth-watering” and other bland, non-descriptive words by Lovely whose Fettuccine Alfredo with Lemon Shrimp was met with a weird story about Damaris’ worst breakup.

Damaris’ tale of woe at least was an improvement over Rodney who was left tongue-tied by Stacy’s Chicken Saltimbocca with Brown Butter Angel Hair. While the dish looked better than Rodney’s “Late Night In Little Italy” Seafood Pasta, Stacy was at least able to describe it adequately, despite running out of time.

Russell and Nicki both produced good-looking dishes, a Pork and Veal Sugo and a Burst Tomato Pasta. While Nicki ran out of time, her presentation was warm and informative unlike Russell’s rambling performance.

After a quick time lapse of Los Angeles, the judges gather to crown Nicki the winner. Her dish was relatively simple but looked like something I’d want to whip up for tomorrow dinner with the Buitoni pasta that’s actually sitting in my fridge (oh, I must have caught the product placement bug). Her reward was the ability to handpick her team in the next Star Challenge, a field shoot at two local eateries.

At the first shoot, winner Nicki, Damaris and Stacy had to profile a donut place. While Damaris and Nicki do very well, Stacy stumbles when she tries to cram too much into her short segment and won’t let the Donut Man (no, not that Donut Man ) have a word in edgewise even when he tries to tell her about their unusual choice of potato flour.

Next, Russell, Lovely and Rodney visit a pizza place known for their use of a secret, 500 year old yeast (a fascinating tidbit unfortunately quickly forgotten about by the contestants). Here, pie man Rodney finally lets his personality shine unlike Lovely whose performance was muted by two untalkative patrons. I felt bad for Lovely here as I have done many, many field shoots myself (including ones on cupcakes and pizzas) and know the pain of working with uncooperating interviewees.

After the viewing for the judges and a panel of experts, Team Donut was chosen as the winner, saving under-performing Stacy for one more week. That left Russell, Rodney and the newly reappointed Lovely for elimination. While both Russell and Rodney have had iffy performances and food over the competition, it was Lovely who was ultimately sent packing once again. Perhaps it proved she was cut the first time for a good reason.

Right now, Nicki seems like the Star front-runner. Her veggie-centric, “meat on the side” concept is new and timely and her on-air personality, although slightly bland, is pleasant. But we still have a few more weeks of Star to go, so it’s still anybody’s game.

The Next Food Network Star airs Sundays at 9/8 central on Food Network.