akr

They actually weren't wearing aprons at all - it was the guest chef who had a black apron on. Funny!!

Yay for Minoli! She's the one of the four I would most want to see more from, and she seems like such a lovely person. A pretty good job from all of them, really - at the end, the guest chef seemed almost a little disappointed that there hadn't been more drama beyond Eric's jam not setting & Conor leaving off his twigs. It sounded like someone will go straight through from tomorrow's mystery box, rather than setting them up for another pressure test to get in. So, will there then be a Thursday episode in which they all cook for immunity from a Sunday elimination? I had been thinking it was going to be four days of cooking from the eliminated contestants, but that's not what it seemed like from the preview. (As for the somewhat polarizing, but obviously talented, Conor: I actually think he might not have gone back to the ice cream well that much again, after it got him sent home. The dish yesterday looked really good, so I'm reminded that when he cooks Greek food I'm interested, but I still can't get behind someone who calls himself! "mulletbae." Just cook, please.)

That's why I mentioned the test bombs in the south Pacific. I am old enough that I had a teacher in Junior High who was on one of the Navy boats nearby - close enough that when they were asked to look the opposite direction and hold their hands over their faces, they could see the bones in their hands when it went off. Needless to say, he thought that they had been too close. At least one of the Nevada tests was of an H bomb. I could also have mentioned Russia & Kazakhstan (USSR), Australia (British), North Africa (Algeria, under the French), and Xinjiang (China) as other sites of above-ground testing of nukes, including in some cases H bombs. [edited to leave out info re testing by India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.]

Yes, that's why none of us survived Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Or any of the test bombs exploded in Nevada, the south Pacific, etc. A single bomb is a localized catastrophe. The (additional) trouble is you don't know where it'll stop after the one.

I'm pretty experienced, but am no longer patient with most complicated recipes. For me, it really is the three on the bottom that I would have no desire to cook. If I make gnocchi, Chris, it won't be with sorghum (and I don't even remember what he accompanied it with). I'm not doing 45 ingredients, Byron, especially if the results are lackluster. And I might try to cook foie gras, if I didn't have to spring for it, Jamie, but not with French toast & blueberry compote. Why would I want foie gras to remind me of PB&J? (Also, I trust Shota, but I'm not drawn to the turnips in his dish. I might order it on a menu if it was highly recommended, but I probably wouldn't put the effort into cooking it myself.) I wish they'd put the top 4 recipes up on the website. Gabe's, Maria's, and Dawn's all sound good (assuming Dawn has tweaked the buttermilk sauce to her satisfaction - her choice of gai lan as the vegetable drew me in), and if I read Shota's recipe through, it might be more likely to give it a go as well.

I like Liam! My primary reaction to the professionals version, though, is that if that's what professional pastry chefs do, I have absolutely no interest (and certainly no desire to be one, even in a daydream or something). Those construction challenges are just tedious, and I'm a lot less interested in super high-end finesse in identical individual desserts than in whether stuff tastes good. Give me the amateurs any day, even the celebrities who don't know what they're doing. So, I need the comic relief from Liam & Tom to stay even a little interested. Consider it a way to expand the audience, I suppose - some of us won't watch this one for the competition alone. As it is, I'll probably only last a few episodes.

Agreed! I thought this and the Chef's Table adjustment to restaurant wars were also great adjustments to the pandemic. It's hard to say when restaurants will be back or at what level, and many chefs have been turning to providing recipes, meal kits, or cooking classes in the meantime; and I can imagine higher-profit small seatings a la the chef's table as a way to supplement lower day-to-day earnings, or earn money with less overhead, or as a pop up or such, as well.

I thought the only significant difference between Maria's & Kristen's versions was that Kristen thought the quantity was excessive & so didn't fill her bowls to the top - but maybe I wasn't fully paying attention. As for Shota, I think the difference was just the sauce, and it's why he probably wasn't really in contention for the win. I thought top two were Gabe & Maria, and that Gabe won in part because Maria's recipe, though it got the job done, was confusing, arguably served too many (I think Maria would disagree, but in any case it's better to be over than under), & needed an editor (which she knew). (As for Gabe's - stellar sauce, apparently, and readily reproducible; I think the banana leaf was just for presentation, so you could leave it off if you weren't throwing a party, or particularly interested in that level of presentation. I expected him to win, especially with the editing earlier, but thought that if there was a bit of suspense, it was Gabe v. Maria)

This year it's always, "in a shocking elimination," or "one of our favorites is leaving," or something like that, no matter who's going or how unsurprising it is. Honestly, they probably built up Connor & Therese as much as they did so they could say it was shocking when they left. By this time I've figured out these teasers mean nothing, other than that an elimination will actually take place, in what will almost certainly be yet another perfectly ordinary elimination episode. It feels like a desperate plea to keep watching. Didn't they used to save that kind of promo for actual surprises most of the time?

You're right, he's good, too. I tend to forget about him, perhaps because he's never irritating, unlike a lot of the other guys, but he's a solid role player and it would leave a pretty big hole if he left. Yes, I definitely want to see more of Punkie & Lauren as well as Ego. I'm just starting to get a feel for them & what they have to offer is still fresh.

I can usually tell them apart, but I couldn't remember their names before you mentioned them. This has been an era with extremely strong women in the cast (the best female cast since the 70s, I think - Kate, Cecily, Aidy, and Leslie Jones, in particular; also Vanessa Bayer & now Ego Nwodim & probably Chloe Fineman; and no weak links among the women, just a few who don't stand out to me quite as much and end up filling standard SNL roles rather than jumping out as individuals). (Some of this is just taste - I hated the Kristin Wiig era, and whoever gets slotted into trying to recreate that energy is somebody I'm not going to get excited about.) (There are other women over the years I've really liked - Tina Fey & Amy Poehler, for example - but never such a great ensemble all together.) The men, though, aside from Kenan & the particularly strong WU update of Colin Jost & Michael Che, have mostly been pretty forgettable lately - again, fine, but mostly just filling standard SNL roles. Bowen Yang is the first in a while that I've really gotten excited about (He & Ego are the ones who will keep me watching when the old guard moves on). I even forgot about Pete, who is distinctive, and I like him just fine, but I wouldn't really notice if any of them weren't there - someone else could step right in. Aside from the Trump Boys, and Vladimir Putin, and the stuff Pete filmed from home, I'm hard pressed to remember what any of them do.

Well, so long to Eric & his lucky pants (cute pants, Eric!). Unless he hates medicine, I think he'd be better off finishing up his training there and having cooking as a hobby - he can be the colleague who throws great dinner parties, showing off the specialties he does well, & experiment with other things to destress in his time off. Only he knows how he feels about both options, though, so - good luck to him. Sabina was again quite impressive, and we got to see some of the other two guys' strengths here. Scott really was in very good shape until the very brief lapse in concentration with the gel, and Brent was smart to redo the onions and good at keeping his cool. I had to go to the recipe to figure out where the legumes were - turns out they were "flowering legumes." There was also a very complicated spiced butter that I guess everybody successfully completed, as they never showed it at all. It would have made the dish more interesting if they'd let us know about it. I mean, it looked good, but it also just looked like a very nice lamb with sauce, berries, & some decorations.

I suppose her issue with the abortions at the private clinic was that it wasn't something she felt Nonnatus House could be associated with - they were looking at a partnership of some sort.

(re Esther Keys) The actress is 14 or 15 (born in 2006). There's no way they're going to film a rape scene.

The review was from 2014, and I left out some more flattering passages, because I was focusing on the parts that seemed to reinforce the issues with the choice of name. I presume they've worked out some of the early problems, and it looks like at least some of the chefs have come on since that time. It seems to be a popular place I w.ould guess that they do what they do well, but may not have as much ability to come up with new things on the fly.

The review I drew from above is mixed. For example: "Other bites are decent, if a little clumsy – they don’t seem to master the delicate dance of salty, sweet and sour flavours so well. Kingfish sashimi filling betel leaves is too sweet topped with sticky chilli-peanut sambal. A fluffy steamed bun holding salty shredded beef, pickled cucumber and fresh chilli should be a party, but it’s a little texture-less and blah. Likewise the pork and prawn mince filling the soup dumplings is good, but they’re thick skinned, and come drenched in oil insufficiently spiked with black vinegar to counter the richness." It closes with this: "This isn’t a highbrow restaurant. It’s a pretty, packed-out crowd pleaser, working a tried-and-tested formula guaranteed to get bums on seats. Like Charlie’s Angels, in restaurant form." https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/restaurants/lucy-liu So - mostly fairly tasty, but uneven, Asian-inspired food appealing to Westerners looking for something a little "exotic," getting by largely on ambience vs other restaurants serving comparable food; and part of that ambience they're striving for, of some sort of Orientalist sexy exoticness, is achieved by calling to mind a particular famous sexy Asian-American Hollywood star. I don't suppose it's worth it to her to object as it would make her seem like a scold to some. And, some people might even think she's behind the restaurant, unless they read the fine print.

This explanation for how they chose the name has been floating around: (seen on both twitter & reddit). Needless to say, ick. I mean, I suppose they can say we just like the name because it's alliterative, but the reason the name has drawing power is that there is already a well-liked famous person named Lucy Liu. In a review from 2014, when they opened: " 'All names attached to this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.' That’s the bold claim Lucy Liu’s owners Scott Borg, Zac Cribbes and chef Michael Lambie are making about their new pan-Asian restaurant on the old PM24 site. Which is pretty funny when you think about it. Not just because the eponymous actress is gigantically famous, but because the restaurant has a lot in common with a summer blockbuster itself." In other words, no one is fooled - just because they say that, doesn't mean it's true. It really means they're aware there's an issue and are trying to get out of there being any consequences for it. Here's Adam Liaw's take on it:

That's always the problem with an overdose, though. If you're with someone, it's your responsibility to get help even if you're afraid it might get you in trouble. People die all the time because the person they are using with didn't want to call for help & get caught. Sometimes they are even charged with murder, if they provided the drugs. "We don't know that?" Neither does he. That's why you don't try to handle it yourself, or accept the consequences if you do. That he did it for her sake? No. Once she shows up at the ED, however delayed, the cause is going to come out. Did she take too many drugs, of her own volition? Sure. But nobody ever disputed that. He made a good speech there, but its not good enough. It's such a classic OD situation & the motives, mixed at best, are going to be obvious to the review board, especially with him just dumping her on the pavement outside the ED & racing off. They can't prove it without his buddy's testimony since he had him erase the video, but at best it's a proof issue.

They could have managed a more relaxed, intimate, or educational style. I don't know that this small group setting requires you to be quite so gregarious; you can just tell them what you're doing & why, answer questions, and make sire everyone has what they need. It seemed Sara, at least, was aware that having no particular theme beyond seafood, no plan for progression, & no designated responsibility for any aspect of service, were likely to be major problems, but she wasn't able to successfully stand up to Gabe on these issues, and I don't remember that anyone else even tried. I suppose no one wanted that role for themselves, so they didn't push it.

He deprived her of medical attention for a good half hour or more instead of calling 911 immediately. This could have cost her her life, & probably cost her a lot of brain damage. His friend wasn't providing medical attention, he was providing cover.

I didn't think I liked Tamara's earrings either until Sean tried one on - then I loved them. I had thought I preferred Hugo's up to that point, but the boxier shape was less appealing on, & suddenly Tamara's didn't look as insubstantial as it had when hanging on the plinth. All just personal taste, of course. His headpiece seemed the clear winner to me, though. Tamara's seemed too pared down, & Dan's just wasn't to my taste, for the same reasons I didn't particularly care for his engagement ring (I preferred Hugo's, but I suppose Dan's looked more classically like an engagement ring, & more expensive.). Overall, Hugo & (Sunny? Sonny?) were probably my favorites, & Tamara also put up some really nice stuff. My favorite piece of the season was probably Hugo's penguin/treble clef pin.

I thought the sauce looked terrible, but when I look at the recipe on tenplay, it actually looks very tasty, and the prawns themselves looked great. Per the recipe, Justin didn't add that much tomato paste (they list a tablespoon for a scaled down quantity of sauce, along with some beetroot powder). The texture was appropriate for romesco, which is basically what it was aside from the addition of, essentially, a bit of food coloring that made it look like a cheap jarred pasta sauce. If they'd left it orange, it would have looked good as well as tasted good. Meanwhile, the Stokehouse team's substitutions to make their dish more red ended up sacrificing the flavor. I think the dish would still have been red if they'd just done what they planned, and maybe garnished with tomatoes. So, the win is plausible to me, but all of the semi-suspenseful battles were 2-1 so it's possible they gave a gift to the Turquoise Team on a genuinely close call. (I do think they gave a gift to the appropriators of Lucy Liu's name on their dessert, so they wouldn't get skunked, and gave a gift to the Green Team of not announcing their probable loss on the third course.) (As for the pink team, I think the Tonka team genuinely lost the entree, and Depinder could easily have had the better curry. If both teams are asked to put out an entire Indian menu with a range of options for each course, I would expect that to be too much for her to manage, but just one dish? Sure.)

I really didn't expect Pete to be the weak link on this team. Very impressive from Sabina & Justin, and a good effort from Amir, up against a dessert nobody was going to beat. I appreciated Sabina, Justin, & Amir's teamwork throughout, too (including Amir's "perfect" cook on the prawns). Pete needed handholding every step of the way on the fish itself, and his corn elements sounded pretty lackluster. You have to know corn is going to be too sweet if you don't add a lot of complexity to it, & corn was his idea from the get-go. I don't know why he didn't do more there. Probably nobody had a chance against the Stokehouse team's main (well, aside from Depinder & Kishwar) Looking forward to the relay. I hope "Justin goes rogue" is a red herring, & that Sabina, Jess, & Tommy are also safe. I would assume the relay is round 1 of a two-part immunity challenge, so if it is a fake-out, Scott & Dan would likely be the most at risk, but I've been wrong about most of these so far, so - who knows?!

Honestly, the surprise is that any team beat the professionals. They rarely did in the old seasons, and there's not much reason to expect a different result this year. It serves more as a good opportunity for the contestants to learn from seeing the restaurant chefs in action. I wonder if the Movida team chose the Jerusalem artichokes in part because the Green Team chose the lemongrass - it meant it might be dangerous to throw them a softball. In any event, it really slowed them down, just trying to figure out what to do with them. Even if you're familiar with them, it's hard to hero them in a dish (other than, say, a pureed soup of Jerusalem artichoke, which would be tasty if done right, but not a main). As I type I'm starting to get some ideas, but nothing good enough to beat that quail, and to put up 20 plates, under time pressure? They were always going to lose that course. And then the Movida team aced the lemongrass course, too (wow, did that look good), and you'd just be hoping in a regular Masterchef immunity test against a professional to get a 7 or 8 to their 9 or 10.

Well, sure, but it wasn't for her sake that he spent so much time trying to cover up his involvement before taking her to a hospital. Who knows what the consequences of that were.