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I figured John just tasted, said to himself I'm not going to get this one, and then said whatever popped into his head rather than waste time trying to get it right (and maybe realized quickly he was not doing well so just decided to have fun with it). He knew it wasn't flour, he just wanted to move on to the next thing. He'd also avoid making some embarrassing misses along the lines of the ranch dressing for hoisin (actually I can sort of understand that when I think about it, but I definitely had to think about it!). I'm pleased to see (in no particular order), Silva, Sheldon, Shirley & Brooke as the top contenders for the final 4.

I think so, but it's a mix when it comes to British or Australian Masterchef & Bake Off. But if you look at the main page, it's mostly US shows, with an occasional welcome tipoff to a great foreign series - but they usually wait until they come to the US. You'll notice that the GBBO forum for the current season is marked so that people who are watching whatever season is currently airing on PBS, but don't want to be spoiled about newer seasons, can avoid them if they choose. Once it shows in the US, the forum opens up. Are there some good English ones as well that we should listen in on? ;) Congrats on the weather!

Oh yeah, I can't watch the "Extra Slice" thing either. It would definitely be a different vibe, and not to my taste, so I hope they're wrong.

No, it's the 49ers I pay no attention to. But the aunt I'm named after lived in Minnesota for many years, so that's how I know about Minnesota/North Dakota jokes. We'll see. I hope you're right, but I think it just makes the show more pleasant to watch. I'm not really interested in seeing who breaks down under pressure - or, at least, if they do, I have no problem with them lightening the mood around it. Usually they're commiserating with someone who has good reason to believe they're about to be dispatched, and getting them to at least feel good about what they were able to do . . . which is something I need to be reminded of myself at times.

Well, the ones I remembered were more French & German, and if they drifted further east it seemed more to emphasize the fact that the Eastern European culture had something great going on that the contestants might not be familiar with, without being disparaging, whereas the other is re cultures against which there is definitely more prejudice in some quarters. But I did wonder if the Central/Eastern Europe stuff might have some issues in Britain that I don't think it would have here in the US. To me it's all a little like folks from Minnesota making North Dakota jokes, and vice versa.

Really? I find they keep the mood light (it's just baking) and the contestants' stress level down. The jokes aren't much, of course, but that's clearly purposeful, and they set a tone that this is all just in fun, as much as it can also be quite competitive; the put-on accents that I can recall were pretty much Northern European and didn't carry an edge to me really, though I probably wouldn't do it, but maybe there's an undercurrent in GB that I'm missing out on. Arabic or Pakistani accents or whatnot would be more bothersome. It'll definitely be different without them, but if it also works, that's ok - but I'm skeptical of the motives of the production company. Successful chemistry can be hard to reproduce. The one I couldn't stand was the Irish critic who only seemed interested in whether the contestants could make their items so identical that they might as well have come out of a factory. I mean, yes, it's important, especially in a commercial setting, that nobody feel deprived because their biscuit was smaller or less fancy or whatnot, but he takes it to too much of an extreme for me, and prioritizes it over taste to a degree that I suspect I would often disagree about who'd done the best work. Mary & Paul seem to me to have a better balance about that. I've heard others say they like that about him, though, so obviously MMV.

Love the nickname! I pretty much tune out what he says.

Re what happens when they get to five versus five - perhaps the tribes will merge? Perhaps not - because how can Peck or Nunez "win" if they do - but I suppose we might be seeing all ten tattoo by that point, preferably as individuals. Maybe head to head and the losers up for elimination. I sure hope it's something that involves more tattooing, at least, because the rest of what goes on on this show is pretty hard to watch. Count me in on hoping the flagrantly sexist assholes go home soon.

I wonder whether the plastic surgery obsession, in his case & others, isn't as much fueled by opiate etc addiction (& all tied up, too, in the only way these people seem to know how to make money, or at least get others to get it for them). There could easily be self-deception feeding it (not realizing how much what they like about getting surgery is the drugs they get to go with them), not to mention the psychological aspects of feeling most comfortable when somebody else has to take care of them etc for a while, & the need to be noticed & connect & to feel like they'd just be ok if only they got the next surgery (a substitute &/or companion addiction). All this stuff gets so intertwined that it really doesn't matter which piece of it came first.

That tour of different types of bakeries sounds like a workable concept for Damiano, and actually potentially watchable (the glut of baking contest shows they have interests me not at all, so if they hide him there I won't even be aware of his presence again, which would also be nice). It doesn't have to be too expensive if it's in SoCal, where he is. I suppose they could also have him flirt/teach Italian baking things with five or six average aspiring bakers, so people could apply to be on Damiano's show. Eh. I guess I can more easily see what they might hope to do with him & Tregaye than with Jernard, but that doesn't mean I want to watch any of them. I couldn't watch this week & in light of the comments & who's left, I don't see myself catching up on the rest of this. By contrast, I will go back & watch the last 3 eps of Masterchef Australia, even though I know the results of each ep, b/c I actually genuinely like that show, & the people on it.

What was it Bobby said about Jernard having a "shuffle"? (asking him to demonstrate, either for the guest judges or the "online audience" of, presumably, backstage staff). He should have winced at that at the latest by 1970.

They're revealing who won on the main show, next week.

Yes, I remember the Hatch chili thing, too (as soon as he tasted it, though, he should have recognized it. They're omnipresent). I remember expecting him to do a cannelloni.

Especially since his & his brother's bakery is in Los Angeles! (well, southern Ventura County, as it turns out, but still. I think he always said LA on the baking show but I could be wrong).

They could plop her in any city with a sizable number of ethnic restaurants. Hit Chinatown, hit the local Korean or SE Asian market, middle Eastern, Russian, whatever. I could pull it off in my medium-sized town of Santa Rosa, CA. I looked it up and she lives in Nashville - and a quick google search for highly rated ethnic restaurants in Nashville includes Ethiopian, Thai, Salvadoran (5-star pupuseria), Turkish, Vietnamese, Kurdish (kabobs), Korean, Thai/Laotian, and that's just getting started. It's in the south, which might help with those put off by her point of view as too cosmopolitan. You could do a couple of days of having her visit local places with a film crew, and then have her stay a couple of weeks at their studio filming her whipping up in "her own kitchen" a dish inspired by one she loved from the featured restaurant, to show you how easy it is, and some little tips on where to find unusual ingredients or substitute for them if you can't. Fish sauce. Thai basil. etc. You could leave such a show wanting to try to cook something, or just to order a different variety of takeout that night . . .

In that lady's defense, she was basically badgered into getting them to please a guy that she was with for some time (which of course didn't work out), and what she wanted was to go back to her natural size (DD), before implants (she's not stick thin, so that's not at all uncommon). I was surprised it took significant implants to get her back to that, but since she really just wanted to look like herself again, I thought that was pretty reasonable. Sure, she was a fool to have gotten them in the first place, but she had good insight into the whole thing and seemed to me to no longer have any sort of unrealistic expectations. I don't see any reason why she should want smaller breasts than she was born with (although other women that size might want a reduction); and, despite all of Dr. Dubrow's handwringing about whether she'd be happy, she had said she was ok with him exercising his judgment, but was upfront when asked about her preference being to get back to about what she was before all the tinkering.

^^ Agree with you guys about Yaku & Monterey - and I think they're both handling filmed presentations & interactions with the mentors while cooking very well - good camera presence while cooking & while talking about their food - and are fine and likely to get better on the live presentation aspect. I think the two of them, and Ana, are potentially actually usable regardless of who wins. Stick them on the cooking channel for a bit and/or have them do some backstage work plus occasional popups elsewhere. I like calm & competent. It makes whatever they're doing look doable, and they also add a little pop here and there of something interesting that I might actually add to my own recipes for for similar dishes.

They took a little bit of rib for use in restructuring her nose, so presumably they wanted to check that incision for healing, too.

I think it is - did not meet minimally acceptable levels, too many times. So far as I can tell, the ones who can cook are Ana, Tregaye, Monterey, and Yaku, and Damiano & sometimes Erin IF in their wheelhouse; I only remember Jenard's shtick, not how good he is or isn't. I've liked that Star Salvation has been weeding out those who can't cook or adjust to unexpected circumstances. Bobby's one of the only watchable food network personalities, to me. (Most of them I find too over the top or phony, or boring both in personality AND cooking style.) Obviously, MMV, but I think there is a place for a calmer, less demonstrative sort, and I detect some passion from him, although he may be getting bored. If he wants Ana around, it may be because she actually has some intelligence & cooking chops & therefore seems coachable into someone he wouldn't mind working with (& I do think Joy was nearly as responsible for their mess of a presentation as Ana was). She's shown occasional glimmers of what could be so I could see giving her another chance in a weak field, whereas Joy had the personality but clearly, clearly, isn't a good enough cook and certainly not a food authority on anything but what she already does and that the network already has more than covered. But I think it's pretty clear whoever wins this thing is going nowhere, unless, possibly, it's Monterey via Star Salvation.

Being high all the time interferes with the development of insight . . . .

I thought kimchi & bread pudding would really work! My only concern would have been the moisture content of the kimchi - probably either squeeze it out some, and/or fry it for a bit first, like you would for kimchi fried rice. Kimchi pancakes are standard, but I didn't even remember that when I was thinking about how good a kimchi bread pudding would be. And then Erin pronounced quesadilla with the "dill" just like the herb...expertise, eh? Makes me think she just knows how to decorate cakes, & would find Taco Bell to be exotic and unfamiliar territory.

The only thing I've liked Irvine on was his Dinner Impossible show (I think that was the name) - and he definitely had a talent there for creating reasonably good food for a large crowd in a hurry, and coaching a team to keep on track, etc. There would be no miscounting of portions (as on today's MC Australia) on his watch, either. I don't have any aspirations to cook an entire spread of adequate food for a large crowd, so most of these tricks are of interest to me only as a spectator, and I'm not at all sure his taste buds are any more reliable than Guy Fieri's (whose own restaurants range from adequate to terrible - I'm from his hometown so I've had stuff catered by his restaurants, and I wouldn't have paid money for any of it), so can he really cook? Depends on what you mean by cook, I suppose, but he seemed to be a decent coach on that mentors show. re Damiano - I seem to remember that it's his brother who's actually responsible for the quality of the food at their place, whereas Damiano is basically the pretty boy front man. Damiano is probably good enough to get by on these cooking contest shows if he sticks to a few things he does well, although the turning on of the smarm to cover the holes grates, but his brother might have the chops to win any contest that was actually based on how good the food was.

I think it was "Asian flavors."

Is he shorter than the other guys? Could be an ego thing, wanting to appear bigger on camera than he actually is.

Well, they're not allowed recipes, it sounded like. If they tasted good, she should have used them as a crumble, though. But she was definitely not the worst of the worst this week; I was pleasantly surprised that they agreed with me that Martita had the worst overall performance (bad food, bad presentation). She seemed the obvious one to go, to me, if they weren't invested in having her stick around.