ProudMary

I recently finished a re-watch of Sorkin's The Newsroom, which I hadn't seen since its original run ended in 2014. Mary McCormack was in two episodes late in the show's final season. I was surprised when she popped up because I completely forgot she had a role. Oops! For me, it wasn't just Kate's character in TWW that was forgettable; it's the actress.

Tom went on the truffle hunt in Lucca. I think he (and Gail) needed to take the Parma culinary tour too! (I sure wish I could have!)

I absolutely think the judges made the right call. Kevin's pork looked overdone, but I thought it was ironic that Gail and Tom berated both Kevin and Bryan for not crisping the prosciutto, when they were both following the advice of the prosciutto master, who told them, "Never cook!"

Sure looks like both women are safe!

We're not done yet, but it sure seems to me that neither of the women will be going home. They both did very well.

All eight of these dishes look potentially fabulous!

What a beautiful kitchen too! Totally agree!

That curing cellar was amazing!

Oh my God, I'm drooling! I want it all!

Watchmen has been honored for excellence with a Peabody Award. An acceptance speech was recorded (separately) by Damon Lindelof and Regina King. Regina King, Damon Lindelof Address Systemic Racism While Accepting Peabody for ‘Watchmen’ Pair reportedly filmed speech before police killing of George Floyd set off waves of protests

Chef Gregory Gourdet's Back Injury Was Much Worse Than We Saw on TV Excerpt from Bravo's The Daily Dish: "Hours before we got on the plane for the Top Chef finals in Italy I had a debilitating spasm that had me limping and pushing through. I had another one halfway into the first quickfire in Lucca two days later," he wrote. "The next 24 hours was a rotation of medics, doctors and chiropractors giving me shots in my butt, adjustments and pain meds so I could just make it through the truffle challenge. I could barely walk during the truffle hunt and the grocery shop."

I love Daisy's 1930's hair. Oh dear Lord, I hadn't thought of this until I read your post, but they're going to bring back Ward at some point, aren't they?!?! 😲

Just as info, there will be three chefs in the grand finale this season. (Scroll down to the bottom.) https://tvlistings.zap2it.com/overview.html?programSeriesId=SH00812758&tmsId=EP008127580294&aid=gapzap "Finito! SEASON 17 , EPISODE 14 AIRING JUN 18, 2020 TV-PG FINALE CC The final three all stars face off in an epic Italian showdown to cook the meal of their lives in an effort to take home the ultimate title and prize."

I'm sitting here watching Sweet Home Alabama on Bravo (for the umpteenth time) and there was a pop-up in the bottom corner that said "Watch Part 1 of the two-part Top Chef finale starting Thursday at 10."

I enjoyed the scenes of the chefs traveling to Italy together as a group. Was it Bryan sailing across the airport concourse on his wheeled suitcase? (I've had an upcoming cataract surgery postponed twice already due to COVID-19, so my vision is unreliable.) They usually travel separately to the finale destination as there's a break between the initial competition and the finale. I'm glad that wasn't the case this season because had they waited a few weeks for the finale, they might have been in the middle of the pandemic in Italy, postponing the finale and we might not be watching S17 right now, which has been a bright spot in a dark time. OTOH, the way it was done this season, the finalists didn't have the opportunity to study up on the cuisine of a specific international area in advance as they normally do or bring any specific ingredients, which often makes things interesting. Of course, they're all in the same boat. It's not as if anyone has an advantage; it's just different. I loved the truffle hunt, especially Tom's enthusiasm. We've gotten to the part of the competition where I wish I could try ALL of the dishes, even those that land in the "bottom." I was worried for Stephanie and her choice to include the radicchio and wondered why she added it even though she didn't like the flavors it brought to her dish. It didn't make any sense during the scenes where the food was being prepared, so I appreciated seeing her at JT saying that she had included the radicchio on the menu she had submitted originally and felt she had to add it to the dish. The judges have definitely dinged cheftestants for that in the past so Stephanie's decision made sense, even though it could have been the item that could have gotten her PYKAG'd. If I could have pre-selected a final four, it would have these chefs so I'm really happy with where we are right now!

Kevin Gillespie has written a Facebook post on his own racism. It is embedded here, but if you have difficulty seeing it in full, clicking on it will take you directly to it on FB.

When Champagne Padma was describing the parameters of the elimination challenge, she said they would be cooking for chefs who had worked at Michael's and ALSO for a panel of editors and writers from Food and Wine magazine.

From Variety: HBO-Max Acquires Streaming Rights to Young Sheldon

It's on You Tube:

I didn't think it would be possible, but I actually felt bad for Malarkey. I can't blame him for freaking out that his plates didn't make it to the judges' table. How come Gail got a plate? Then the judges told him that the fact that the plates never made it to them made no difference in the way they judged him. That's crazy. How could one plate provide enough of each component to feed all four? Did each of the judges actually get to taste the components that supposedly didn't work together? If this truly was producer shenanigans, shame on them for doing something like this in the lead-up to the finale. It was quite surprising that there are five cheftestants going to the finale. I doubt I'm the only viewer who was expecting the final four to be Bryan, Kevin, Melissa and Gregory. That they decided to take five judges to Italy and that Stephanie is a finalist, is a great bonus. She has been cooking brilliantly the past couple of episodes. From the shallow end of the pool: Roy Yamaguchi is extremely attractive! I've eaten at one of his restaurants, and it was one of my favorite dining experiences, but I don't remember ever having seen him before. I'd say that Eric Ripert is still #1 on my "Sexy Chefs" list, but Roy just made his way to my #2 slot. On to Tuscany!

I'm wondering why they specifically showed us--via a subtitle--Stephanie's check-out from Whole Foods where the cashier said "I'll put it all in one." So far we haven't seen anything missing.

Bravo has all of the Last Chance Kitchen episodes up on You Tube, and over in the LCK thread, our fellow forum member @RealityCheck has posted YT links for easy access to each individual episode. Here is the direct link to that post: https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/107631-season-17-last-chance-kitchen-and-what-would-tom-do/?do=findComment&comment=6144868

If I may make a suggestion to those Top Chef viewers who do not regularly watch Last Chance Kitchen, do yourself a favor and watch LCK's finale episode for this season. No spoilers, but the producers have done something very different this season and I think that viewers of the regular competition will be missing some important information if they haven't watched LCK. Also, unlike most previous seasons, those of us who've watched LCK are already aware of the final outcome of LCK. It is a lengthier episode than most, clocking in at 29:04. For easier access, here is a You Tube link to the series finale. I'm not embedding the link, just sharing, so there's no screen cap showing. https://youtu.be/5Ku1f4nbzf8

@RealityCheck That's very helpful. I wasn't aware that Bravo had the episodes up on You Tube. Thanks for taking the time to compile all the direct links.

I absolutely thought Malarkey did it deliberately just to get under Bryan's skin. Looked like it worked too.