HappyDancex2

Sad to see Bruce go but the previews on the main episode spoiled LCK anyway.....so annoying! I was hoping it was a fake out but it wasn't. Clearly when they showed the legs of the cheftestant coming back from LCK into the main arena it was NOT Bruce and his baggy pants and shorter stature. If you go back to the main episode and take a look you could probably tell from the legs/pants or shoes for sure....I just didn't bother. Nice that the other chefs get to taste some of the food when Tom allows it. Ha

Padma’s eye rolling of Bruce’s pasta and polenta choices messed with his head. Gee Thanks. The governor missed out on an opportunity to taste Bruce’s spectacular pasta and had to choke down Chris’ dry homage ravioli. Sigh. Bruce then decided to make the dreaded risotto. And that was after he chose to make the dreaded panna cotta that never sets in these competitions, that always gets passed off as a crappy semifreddo....and this was after he decided to make up his Seed Phobia. He is clearly mind fucked and I hope he made pasta or polenta on LCK.

Krystal seems a fan of the ever so skinny spaghetti strapped tops or in this case.....cotton corset? I guess she likes to drive home that an imminent wardrobe malfunction will show you the boobage. She's crafty. Which leads me to I can't believe she didn't take full opportunity at Moulin to flash Arie all the goods. Not only do you have to wear a thong but when you bend over in a thong you get to see much more than ahem....butttttttt. I can see how some women would be uncomfortable in either situation. I personally wouldn't want to wear a costume piece that was already up someone else's crack but hey that's just me. LOL Kendall's blue dress was unfortunate. She also has a favorite silhouette which is bardot off the shoulder sleeves. She has a slim build and doesn't seem to dress herself to maximize her assets. She was also in a shapeless jumpsuit as well. Ick. Two hundred thumbs up for outlasting Krystal in France. Too bad Krystal couldn't see them at the Eiffel Tower as she was hunkered down in the abandoned warehouse across the street LOL. Producers loved that shot though the window. Classic

All I could see was "chef-FORWARD" and "episode- FORWARD" LOL What did you guys end up with? This has happened several times this winter and we've gone to scrambled eggs with roasted vegetables....toast (not so fancy I'm afraid.) Today it was the last straw...I took a beef bone with fatty scraps from Mabels BBQ and threw it in the pressure cooker with a chopped sad onion, sad carrots and sad nappa cabbage...water and a few tablespoons of tomato paste. Turned out like a beef soup miracle LOL LOL!!! Well cmon over internet friend and you can use up a few of my tins! You may be on to something....I really don't enjoy rosemary either. There are a lot of places that put it on their fries now to elevate them and I hate it. It's too strong. I do enjoy basil....especially thai basil. I chow down on it like a rabbit with a big bowl of pho. Anise is good as well...I like a good raw fennel slaw. I'm glad that they use flowers in this episode....it's made me realize why I might like or not like some of these strong flavors that are herb-FORWARD.

Since I had one of the original complaints on flower in cooking (BEER SOAP!!!) I'll weigh in here LOL. I think saffron is ok in small doses. I don't like chamomile tea. Garlic blossoms are ok but I don't use a lot of them. I've had Indian desserts that have rosewater in them and I don't like the flavor. And when the lavender is added in any of those herb/salt combos I always think "why did they add that soapy herb???!" So fair to say that the more obvious ones that you listed tend to be on the "no" side for me. For the other list someone posted, I don't care for broccoli but I do like artichokes and capers (mostly for the salt brine though). I've learned to like cauliflower. I don't like vanilla in savory food at ALL. Don't get me wrong, I can eat almost anything but it's definitely not a preferred flavor. I'm assuming that there must be enough people who love said delicate floral flavors that they keep putting it in a lot of things!!

Watching the replay....I can do without hearing Chris chiming in “my man” as a response after he asks a question like “what are you making?” I’m crabby LOL

I'm starting to see the issues having such nice cheftestants (except claudette LOL). There just isn't much to work with at all so we've gotten: Bruce backstory to adopting a baby, Birth mom in labor, Bruce is having a baby!, Hey daddy you're a daddy, baby shower, Bruce shows picture of baby, Baby Pictures!, Bruce has the sadz cuz he's here and not with Baby, Bruce using Baby as motivation, Bruce wants just a couple hours with the new Baby, Did you know Bruce had a baby?, Same picture of Baby, Bruce skypes with Baby, Bruce is now losing motivation for being on Top Chef because of Baby, No one puts Baby in a corner....oh sorry.... The reason we are getting hit over the head with it is because outside of Tonya telling people to Get Woke and Claudette throwing everyone under the bus, there isn't much drama to show so we are left with mediocre challenges and lots of airtime to fill. The secondary Bruce story is he makes too much pasta and polenta and the third one is how he's friends with all the judges. That's scraping the bottom of the barrel for topic points!!

I was also shocked that Carrie picked Chris as her partner. She really is clicking on all cylinders isn't she?! That was a great decision on her part. I thought she'd take Bruce again. I would have taken Bruce! I would have asked him to make a fried ravioli and I would have made an accompanying dipping sauce and sprinkle salad LOL Fati and Bruce talking about her never going to a football stadium except for a Taylor Swift concert was cute! They both seem very affable.

Padma and her meat hating carb hating self is now crabbing about Bruce's pasta. CUE EYE ROLL So the fans in Denver don't get to taste the deliciousness of Bruce's pasta because Padma is sick of it? She could take a couple of episodes off during the season and I wouldn't mind. And when she makes food if she could not make indian food all the time that would be great too. Carrie is impressing me. She makes food people want to eat, with just a twist of interest. Good for her. Her food looks delicious. I think mustache Joe should have gone home for his botched mushy buffalo cauliflower, which is a pretty popular dish. He strikes me as someone who doesn't seem to understand the science behind some details in cooking....like the "smoking" of the cauliflower actually cooked it....like that's weird he wouldn't know it. Last episode he put rhubarb in kombucha to pickle it but he roasted it in the oven, and was very surprised when it became mushy. That was strange too. He went to culinary school?

I loved that Tom was crabby this episode. It's been building! That tailgate food looked so sad. As someone who tailgates, tailgating (can be) so high end and impressive nowadays. I'm trying to figure out if actually being a sports fan has anything to do with it? I really don't care for flowers in cooking. Stop trying to make lavender happen. They are putting it in craft beer now and it tastes like soapy beer. Stop. It. What a coup that the eagles fan won the super bowl tickets. Like WHAT?!

What was that when Claudette looked at Bruce while he was expediting and said “love you Bruce” and Bruce didn’t even look up and said “hmmm.” LOL

I think it’s ironic that they chose the name “common place” for their restaurant and then couldn’t come up with any commonality. And once Claudette expressed she was excited about the menu because they were free to do their own thing as long as they had interesting ingredients or techniques (?????) they should have known they were doomed LOL. Claudette seems enamoured with originality....whether it’s her pink hair or dark lipstick....she values being seen as unique. Her food doesn’t read that way to me, which I find interesting. She should stage at someplace that is really cutting edge so she can see how big her world really is. Joe is a “plant father.” Thought that was adorable. Good for him. How long until someone busts out “This is Top Chef, not Top Polenta with Meatballs.”

I liked that Conifer came together with their menu quickly but I don’t quite understand the whole “let’s do something Colorado since we are here.” And then the guys agreed and they came up with doing Italian /Mediterranean food. HUH??!!!?!? I think the restaurant spaces looked nice with craftsy. I guess they got tired with restaurant depot and pier one LOL. Also nice was having the extra person during service. That would have been too many dishes for 2 people to plate. Brother and the other bear never found out who the winning team was....cue hilarity at LCK if interested.

I don’t buy Chris’ role in all of this. I didn’t buy his last challenge when he said he was oblivious to what was going on between Claudette and Tonya. I think he was well aware but chose not to engage. He used that knowledge IMO. he told Claudette she should be EC and Fati that she should be front of house and gave mustache Joe a knowing bro look that said “those 2 positions statistically go down in RW so let’s save ourselves bro.” That being said, I don’t doubt that he though Claudette would sink herself and that Fati was probably pretty good at FOH....I’m just saying he wasn’t going to put either of them in those positions. And I also agree that since Claudette has a track record of throwing her cheftestants under the bus and rewriting history to fit her personal narrative, putting her in the EC position was probably the best move...least chance of passive aggressive sabotage.

And Tonya made a comment about how she liked the flavors of her sauce and how she got “her onion flavor” in it right? I didn’t mishear that? Did she intentionally say that later in the talking head to make it seem like that’s what she was going for? More delusional pride. She also should have told Brother to F off with the 10 minutes. I would have said no because I was unfamiliar with the kitchen and he had already cooked in there. It would be ok with me if he felt 10 minutes was good for him but why would I put myself at an unfair disadvantage? Tonya says the words of someone pioneering for gender and race but hopefully this is a wake up call that she actually needs to check herself. She seems to be riding on her past accomplishments, which is ok and impressive in it’s own right. But she looks like a fool to keep trotting them out and not seeing who she is now in comparison to others. At least in the context of being on this show.

I liked Tonya initially but she devolved into someone with such a huge chip on her shoulder that simply could not relax and enjoy what the TC opportunity could bring her. The more time she spent around quality peers, the more insecure she got. The more insecure she got, the more delusional boastful she became. it was slightly masked with Claudette since Claudette was herself such a loathsome individual. However after the quickfire of LCK she made the comment of starting a quick cook restaurant and how she felt how great it was going to go now....huh? Based on what? She just made a crappy salmon onion dish and got booted. She also made a stupid comment about when she cut the salmon open she “noticed”it was undercooked so she put it back on the stove. WTF? Why doesn’t she tell us one more time that she cooked in France (a zillion years ago)? Her skills are diminished running a brunch shop....by her own admission she doesn’t cook a variety of foods anymore. She should be humble and ask for help or information but instead she is combative and deluded. Meh. Her place might be great but not sure her actual attitude on this show was a benefit for her.

Claudette is worse than Josie. Never thought I’d say that.

Claudette did say she busted out great quick food at LCK so she could do the speed round. It wasn’t until they came back from Whole Foods that she mentioned she hoped she could get it done . Nice comment by Chris on how they had wisdom on their side and Tonya said they weren’t putting their egos on the plate. Cue Tonya next saying she wanted to cook her lamb to 145 when she clearly didn’t know temps. She also oddly pronounced it bah-to-net having lived in France. That being said Claudette did seem to be panicking and using her like a line chef. I think Tonya did help her when asked and was truly annoyed at how needy she was. Tonya was not very humble but Claudette seems to suffer from remembering things in a way to fit her narrative later LOL. Claudette “don’t u have a list of equipment you need?” Screw you. claudette “here’s your sauté pan. Jeez.” Jeez yourself claudette “Tonya’s dish doesn’t seem to be showcasing any of the knife cuts.” Hmmm maybe could have talked about this when y’all were deciding the menu claudette “well we really need her to score a silver or gold so that our team is trending upwards....”.....because your dish stunk and you were in last

Tanya using shallots to showcase bruinnoise (sp?) cut showed she didn’t think out the dish well and neither of her teammates knew any better. Maybe too much undisciplined backgrounds on one team there since both of the other 2chefs went with the more obvious Apple. I liked her sass. I suspect that being a black woman in the restaurant industry is a whole set of challenges that I won’t even begin to understand. She was abrupt with Gail for sure but she’s an adult and she was annoyed at the whole situation...she didn’t do a great job of explaining her position but that’s probably her “nice” way of saying “please don’t speak for me and I don’t want to talk about this drama anymore.” Hard to see the whole thing because of editing. I enjoyed the challenge though. They should keep this one in some form. I liked Meryl on dancing with the stars. She’s not exactly an eater though.

What was more surprising, that Brother’s dad was an exotic dancer named Mandingo or that he actually thought that dude was really his biological father??? Brother looks straight up Latino to me and none of his facial features and body type seemed to relate to Mandingo’s picture. I had a power of suggestion radler tonight. Too summery, too sweet.

I really wish someone would have made a homemade pretzel bread! I liked the sound of Bruce’s dish. Sour cherry mostarda? Yes please. Man dingo. Snort.

I find it hard to believe Adrienne worked at Le Bernardin or Red Rooster. Either that or she just isn’t built for these competition shows. That whole salt thing was weird coming from a professional chef cooking for professional chefs. Even if she believed that for her guests then she could finish salt for the judges. But the whole thing sounded like an odd excuse to me. I recently ate at Fuscos (Scott Conant) and while delicious it was salted to the edge of salty oblivion. It made me scared to ever go on Chopped! the radlers sounded amazing. I’m inspired to make my own now this summer. Brother came so close to winning the quickfire for immunity with that paella. Game of inches. I made a stink face when Blaise talked about Chris winning hot pot being “too spicy for the home cook.” I know his job is to throw softballs for comments but not sure what the correlation is between home cooks and spicy food tolerance? Ditto that for spicy food and kids, which seems to be a western sentimnt. Plenty of kids in Asia and well, lots of other cuisines of the world whose children eat spicy food.

Bibiana was driving me nuts with her repetitive blathering of not getting any time with Arie but she redeemed herself in my eyes with a succint soliloquy at the end that pretty much said everything I was thinking, down to calling Krystal out with that fake baby voice. She gets a plus one for her ending. Bekah is young but she probably loves the older man attention and Arie doesn't have any self awareness to know that he's rapidly looking like an old sad dude with a girl. She's living in the "I have daddy issues" zone. Bonus for him is that he will get to have sex with her during her prime years until she comes to her senses and gives him the boot....or maybe kills him because there is something slightly off balance about her at times LOL. Pretty sure she makes it to the end on age alone. I've only watched since Nick's season and I think the formula is that the guy probably has his bangable 3 pretty much picked out and so he keeps the obvious boots to make it easy on himself and then a few producer drama picks to keep the show moving along. He really did that girl a favor by getting rid of her early....if he can tell she's really into him and he knows it's not going to happen it's the most merciful thing he can do.

As I was watching this episode all I could think about is that I would NOT have wanted the last round of dishes. I know it worked out that those dishes appeared to be the most flawed dishes however all of those heavy meat centric dishes made me full just watching! By the time I saw the lamb dish with the berries and more farro and a mushroom sauce.....bleck. Even worse the yummy cake was in round one....sweets fill me up and it looked delicious. I agree that it seemed like the setting was more prop like. It would have been exhausting to trudge and shovel and set up an area and then do food prep into the night and in the cold? Hard to believe. Where were the bathrooms? Even on Survivor there are facilities for contact lenses, access to feminine hygiene products and general things that don’t affect production that no reasonable adult is willing to “rough”. I’m glad tom chose lee Ann from LCK and allowed her to compete on her own terms. He knew that snow challenge was next and it’s just human nature to not even put her in that situation but he truly judged her food. If she ends up leaving then she has made a great showing so far. That had to be tough to send a pregnant woman to that challenge but hey every woman is different...some woman are quite active with no issues at all.

I felt bad for the lady who got eliminated whose father met Arie. As I listened to her talk she seemed quite fun and genuine. However what I first noticed about her was that she was a tv anchor whose listed age was 26 and she looked straight up late 40s. Over the next 2 hours none of her segments led me to believe she was young and so I’m horrified at what hair and makeup and lifestyle can do to age a person that quickly. I think the Sephora/ YouTube generation are going to be shocked when they actually do start to chronologically age. put me in the club where Chelsea seems average in looks. She has weird teeth. She made a good entrance but the best she can hope for is a memorable exit. Or at least the token villian. The spray tan lady needs to watch this episode to see where she went wrong was her nasally baby voice vocal fry meeping “so I owwwwnnnn a spraaaaaaaaay taaaaannnnnn businessssssss.” I would buy every advertised item from this show if for the rest of the season they all had to talk in a normal voice. Every generation has a way of dealing with uncertainty as it shows in your voice.....the uptalking babytalking vocal fry has got to be the worst incarnation.