Worst Cooks in America Recap for 1/11/2026

Worst Cooks in America Reality Check has our remaining celebrities participate in Blockbuster Bites, which has them cook something based on a popular movie genre.

 

Action Pie Pursuit: They have to do an obstacle course to get pie ingredients. Val Chmerkovskiy and Downtown Julie Brown are in this competition.  They will then have five minutes to recreate the pie.

 

Winner: Julie

 

 

Horror: They will reach into the mystery boxes with spooky ingredients, run into a spider web of doom and identify each ingredient correctly.

 

Amara La Negra and Lisa Barlow are in this competition, with Lisa worried about ruining her manicure.

The three foods are a whole octopus, beef tongue and salmon roe.

 

Winner: Amara

 

Romance: They will have to recreate a date night meal, with one recruit explaining what they are making and how to create the dish.

Ryan Lochte and Lisa Barlow vs. Reza Farahan and Amara La Negra

 

Winner: Lisa and Ryan

 

Comedy: They will have to fill and fold as many raviolis as they can.

Manila Luzon vs. CT Tamburello

 

Winner: Manila

 

Sci-Fi: Taste and identify dry-space herbs and compare them to earthly herbs.

 

Beverley Mitchell vs. Manila Luzon

 

Winner: Manila

 

The red team wins!

 

Now they will make soup and sandwiches. The red team get to take notes on the recipe and the actual recipe for their food. All of it must be cooked in 45 minutes.

 

Blue team: tomato bisque and a roasted turkey club with crispy bacon and giardiniera aioli.

 

Red team: potato and kale soup with crispy chorizo and a pork Milanese sandwich with cabbage slaw and soy mayo.

 

Reza cuts his hand on a potato peeler and must see a medic.

 

Chef Jeff Mauro interviewing Ryan is hysterical.

 

Watching them all pound the meat is probably one of my favorite TV moments on Food Network.

 

Manila compares making the fried pork chop to putting on drag makeup and calls pork Milanese a pork chop in drag…HEE!

 

Before long, time is up and the judges give the pros and cons of each dish.

 

Reza wins for the red team, while Downtown Julie Brown wins for the blue team.  They get Chef Tiffany Derry as their sous chef for two minutes each.

 

Next challenge: making an Italian meal!

 

Blue team: eggplant parmesan stacks with pappardelle alla vodka.

 

Red team: Sicilian eggplant parmesan with spaghetti al pomodoro.

 

I never knew you could make pasta in a food processor.

 

Lisa needs a medic because she cut her hand on the food processor.

 

Manila and Amara mess up the wells for their pasta, making big ole’ messes.

 

Nobody can figure out how to use the cling wrap.

 

Downtown Julie Brown hates wood, so she wraps the handle of her wooden spoon in plastic wrap.

 

Everyone loves the flambe part of vodka sauce.

 

Val and Manila love putting the pasta through the pasta machine.

 

Downtown Julie Brown has issues with her oven, so she uses her two minutes with Chef Jeff, while Reza uses Chef Tiffany with help with the pasta.

 

Time is up and the judges once again give the pros and cons of each dish.

 

The winners are Val for the red team and Ryan for the blue team.

 

Downtown Julie Brown, CT and Beverley are safe, along with Reza and Amara.

 

Lisa and Amara are in the bottom two. They will have fifteen minutes to make a sweet and spicy appetizer.

 

Lisa makes an egg appetizer with bacon and an agave nectar with Greek yogurt, while Amara makes a chicken appetizer.

 

Lisa dumps half the red pepper flakes into the eggs.

 

Lisa is eliminated. She donates $2,500 to Utah Foster Care.