HappyDancex2

It’s ironic because I had Beat Bobby Flay on in the background yesterday and she popped up there. When I heard her name I thought “didn’t I just see you on Chopped??” She’s making the food competition rounds for sure. Oh and she did indeed, BBF I was less offended by David’s hat and glasses look and more peeved by his incessant use of the word “sexy.” Kristen’s comment of the episode was “the old run it underwater trick” in her delightful deadpan voice. She was awesome. David dumped about a cup of salt into that small pan of butter. He was totally on tilt.

My guess for a mid market city would have been Cleveland Ohio. Easy theme based trips to Rock HOF and pro football HOF which always film easily on camera. Vibrant food scene with caliber chefs that own multiple restaurants in the city. We can obviously trot out Michael Symon and his tree of chefs (maybe not Jon Sawyer at least back in Cleveland anyway) but plenty who have made appearance on cooking competitions. Obvious polish boy, sausages, pierogis as featured foods not to mention the West Side Market vibes. The city itself is set up for those kitschy challenges that look great on TV, it’s on a Great Lake so there could be waterfront challenges using lake fish like perch and walleye. There is a restaurant that rehabs and trains former prison inmates. interesting twists could be an hour south of Cleveland is the very contrasting Amish country. So much cheese and furniture. Nary electricity to be found or sugar in those berry pies until the credit card machine avails. Would have loved to see Padma there! An hour west is very much farmland, German influence, Farmer Jones whole area which is renowned through out the restaurants in the country. I smell a micro green challenge LOL. Northern Ohio can be very diverse and would make interesting albeit formulaic TV.

Liver of all kinds is just…..offal. I’ll see myself out.

Buddha’s food looks a lot like Eric Ripert (clutches pearls)….that whole fussy genre doesn’t make it for me anymore. I’ve kicked Fancy Fussy Pants cuisine and modernist multi course upside down balloons lets eat nitro ice cream smashed right on the table cuisine to the back burner. I guess I got tired of leaving the restaurant a whole lot lighter in cash but still craving a slice of pizza that might feel like a mouthful of food 😂 I did catch Tom C’s little comment to Buddha on the kitchen walkthrough that he probably wouldn’t be doing a third TC. Not sure how we were supposed to take that but I took it as Buddha was already too good for this format. Unless he truly took a whizz in the soup it was his to lose. His sheer amount in his technique bag is pretty impressive. I think the only thing that stood out wonky to me about Buddha is the way he stands. He seems like he already has a lot of back problems and his feet are almost super ducked out. I noticed in the stand lines he’s often standing askew like his feet were screwed in too tight. I think working on a line has messed with his neck alignment. Egoscue could really help. He’s too young.

Sara had time to cut into 2 liver pieces. I would have flung that puppy across the room into a fryer at that point!!! Pretty much something would have been better than nothing…there was no time for the salamander. I still want to try that cake!

The most surprising thing for me tonight was the fact that we have to assume Buddha has given a lot of thought to this final menu and his explanation didn’t sell me. I got the idea of bringing his countries back to himself but his menu didn’t seem cohesive to me. It also didn’t seem enticing, which was odd because Buddha generally has showy and powerful dishes. I was afraid he was going to get overtaken and he almost did by Sara. Liver is harder to cook than sweetbreads lol and maybe the creaminess of sweetbreads would have cut that cookie butter flavor down a bit. Tom showed a lot of great personality and I love the interaction between he and Gabri. I finally feel like we got a rounder edit of his personality and whimsy. Gabris food has looked like too many ingredients to me all season but this menu looked enticing to me. I’m so happy for him and he’s very easy to watch and root for. Loved Padmas outfit and Tom’s coat.

Dammit Sara!!!!!!!!!!

I think recreating the journey of Padma would be a mistake. Ethnic model who grows into the role of food judge? Replacing her uniqueness would be such a challenge. I guess it depends on how many seasons they think they have left. Hiring in the vein of professional host seems better than professional chef to me. Like a Ted Allen type. Maybe for a season just do a series of guest hosts to see what vibes on set and on TV and they can get a feel of what matters. But pass of the pykag to Gail and see if she has the right tone to be doing that as well.

What did surprise me was during the wall challenge that Gabri reacted with such frustration and Buddha actually took it in stride and was laughing. Buddha had the bruh kid so I was thrilled at how little he knew about food in general. And why was Buddha using words like “lardons” when the kid doesn’t know a leek is?! gabri “pine nuts. Put in pie nuts!” suni “what??” gabri “oh just put in whatever you want” 😂😂😂 wish we could see the unedited full footage of that one!

Imagine this season with Gabri and Dawn paired up for every challenge. Frenetic energy of non finishers each round! His pure emotion has me on his side now…they kept him in for so long my annoyance has turned to admiration. He is easy to watch now because he’s so true to himself. For him the difference of his food being showcased and winning and his actual cooking which is scattered and time hindered…is basically having a chef above him like Buddha keeping him on task. At least in this format. I can’t see a situation where Buddha doesn’t win but I’d be thrilled to see Sara take it. Would have loved to see Ali make it to the finale so he could have the chance to have Amar as his sous lol. The comments by the guest judge really seemed to resonate about the mushroom steak and croquette just not being amazing enough for the semifinal. Sure did meet the brief though.

What a beautifully shot episode highlighting the Eiffel Tower and b roll shots of such a gorgeous city! Really well done. ”oh hey are those pizza rolls?”

The finale was oddly edited to give the sappy side of YY being the kind hearted helper of the year to Carson but I will say that each person held true to their limiting belief. Carson lost all confidence and it’s like he ran out of emotional gas. His body language and stress had him shrug shouldered leading up to and during the fire making challenge. It was like watching someone move in mud. He was so slow and so self defeating. Carolyn didn’t do a good enough job answering questions and she looked confused and undeserving again. She went back into her nutty shell of overthinking and Jam was just loose and chatty and dropped some comedy….at least the edit seemed like that. I will give Heidi a lot of credit for doing the fire making challenge. Definitely too little too late but it was her only play. She should be proud. the whole thing was so lopsided I thought the editors were trying to throw us off of Carolyn being the obvious winner or having a close vote between Jam and Carolyn. also weird was the oddly framed shots of the champagne being poured repeatedly during the aftershow. Label wasn’t clearly shown, looked like random zoom shots with human torso as the backdrop….anyone know what that was all about? If that was product placement then I’m an unhappy sponsor!

Count me in for the vote to move countries! Peachy said that winter snow wouldn’t play well but they should try LOL. Survivor igloo! The seasons are so short now it would at least be interesting to see what kind of challenges they could come up with. The budget now for the challenges are these long elaborate rope or water courses that end in a puzzle. It would be cheaper to have the wheel of doom and make them eat worms and pigeon feet again.

Actually this was my point if I didn’t articulate it correctly. The editors clearly don’t have to show what they show. THEY could ease up on her for a variety of reasons, most of which comes down to who cares what she looks like because it’s not relevant. I don’t think that calling attention to what I see in every episode that I think is unnecessary and unflattering to Sara is demeaning to her is something that needs eased up on….I’m in her corner.

I found it amusing that after Sara’s dish was presented all three judges looked at each other and the other judges picked up on the awkward and called them out LOL. I thought the challenge might actually been accidentally served in the order of worst to first but didn’t turn out that way. Glad Sara didn’t get knocked for the style element of this challenge….if this isn’t your jam it’s a rough road for sure. And clearly her pants angles or fitness or whatever I’m not sure is some inside joke that we are not privy to….maybe a lost bet? I mean seriously she gets the unflattering angles every week and now we have her running at the end of the episode? It can’t be real…someone ask the question please! Actually I don’t want to know but I’m glad she makes damn tasty food and has a wonderful attitude in the show. I actually thought Tom’s concept sounded pretty good and his caviar pearls looked amazing! Too bad they tasted like a slice of humble pie.

I can’t even say anything snarky about Buddha. I’m fairly well versed in food and I could not follow what he was making until it appeared at the table. The editing had him explaining a charcuterie plate then something served in a wine glass and I saw cherries…it was baffling. Sure Buddha has thought about this a lot but I think the bottom line for me is that he’s a master of a LOT of techniques. He can make his arsenal of techniques execute challenges on demand. Dammit Buddha…you a balla LOL Feel bad for Ali…in the quick fires he’s the bridesmaid now for the last few challenges. Buddha is peaking and they can barely fake be happy when he’s winning everything. Guest judge Jeremy had the sultriest voice….how does one speak in that hush tone with such authority? I was riveted by his elegance.

Buddha did an exceptional job keeping Gabri on time. And himself too by ditching the crepes that were not working. That frenetic energy of Gabri that can put him in the weeds was skillfully directed by Buddha. I don’t think that makes Gabri any less of a chef, it just showcases Buddhas skill as a competition show chef. Gabri makes great looking food that has been enjoyed this season! I kind of thought Amar and Sara were going home because it would be odd to have a world all stars season with 3 out of 4 chefs being from the American version of the show. Agree that team elimination at this point is brutal. The lucky knife club at this stage isn’t quite fair with the luck of the draw Buddha pairing. I did chuckle at the twinning body language of the final pairs to be eliminated. Amar and Sara were Team Arms Crossed and Ali and Tom were Team Hands Behind Our Backs LOL.

Frannie is ruled by food. The PBJ sunk her boyfriend. And the taco bar contributed to her ouster. Her biggest fault in game was her inability to see the bigger picture of the game timeline. Why would you ever make yourself a target by winning a reward challenge when you were winning immunity challenges? She was good at winning the battle but lost the war.

I believe Buddhas wife is a pastry chef at a higher end establishment so he probably gets exposed to a lot of techniques and flavor combos and….specialty molds LOL….that other chefs wouldn’t necessary see around the dinner table. That and he’s like Richard Blais and a student of the show so he looks like he has a pretty big arsenal of dishes that fit a broad range of categories to tweak for these challenges. cheftestant Tom asking his teammates if they were happy with their assignments before the relay started when it was clear that Gabri wasn’t just shows how obtuse he is. If I was forced to French those racks after saying I’ve never done it before and King Brunoise of the Red Pepper decided to lord over me while I was doing it with his step by step TikTok tutorial voice I would have stopped and told him he could bruinoise little meat chunks as well LOL.

There have been times when the more loaded looking team at the team picks have ended up losing so I was interested to see how this played out. Bad luck that a non RW chef drew a captain knife. Her picks were pretty baffling. Pretty sure when they stood as a foursome I saw flames engulf them. buddha definitely had his concept ready for RW. Only thing surprising was that he didn’t use of of his specialty molds.

Yam squared is starting to bug. It seems like everyone’s faces are starting to clear up. I wonder if the merge beach has less sand fleas or toxic leaf sap or wood mold that was wreaking havoc on many.

Pretty sure Buddha missed the most obvious usage of the hand mold by not serving something made from buddhas hand.

This. And his editing isn’t helping him but he’s so dismissive. Like Eh the other guy is making a veggie plate so everything should be fine. Everything is ok. Everything in my cart looks great. Eh I won’t look at pricing. It will be ok. Hey you put this back and get it at Whole Foods. Etc etc His terse affect doesn’t leave much room for kind negotiation. He’s steamrolling over people. Kind of interesting that even the guys don’t offer some more blowback. And kicking the basket is very childish. But casting knew this…..LOL

I’m glad you looked it up. I only have a vague recollection of them as well, even as you describe some of the events! That season is a serious blind spot although I have the sneaking suspicion I am enjoying this iteration of Amar than his OG debut. Have you tried Raos sensitive marinara? It doesn’t have onions or garlic, but I swear, tastes like it has onions and garlic. Hidden gem.

I wonder how a Boston Rob would fare on the heavy handed hidden immunity idol fake idols in a cage stealing a vote with a shot in the dark to lose a vote to gain an advantage? And now you can’t rely on your manipulation….err…social game of your immediate tribe members which tribal councils have come down to luck of a rock in the bag draw. He’s such a student of the game I would love to see him adapt. And dodge duck dip dive and dodge. Survivor Vintage. Bring them back and throw all of the challenges at them in shovelfulls. It’s so confusing as it is they might as well go for the full Peachy Experience. and the Season after that is Survivor Reset. Just a naked man on a fallen tree chillin waiting for someone to barbecue some rats.