The Solution

Maybe the cheftestants are underwhelming because they don't perform well in 100-degree heat. I know, I'm the eternal optimist...

Something isn't right here. You can't even do the prep work for eggplant in 20 minutes, let alone create an entire dish that tastes good enough to beat something else. Soo seems like a nice enough guy - it's not his fault - but there's some behind-the-scenes manipulation going on here. I thought the Vietnamese pizza looked pretty interesting and I was way more into trying that than eggplant parm.

I got caught up on this show today. There's 3 hours of my life that I won't get back.

I know I said I was done with Billions, but I really enjoyed this episode. So sue me. I gotta say, I loved the shoutout to Uncle Junior's doctor's office.

Battlebots is still on?

I liked that both Buddha and Gabri did well tonight and that the judges touched upon the concept that there wasn't a lot of distance amongst the chefs. I would have been happy eating both meals. Sara just doesn't do much for me, neither in terms of her food nor her personality. My mom used to cook a lot of liver. For the dog.

That's how I pronounce it and I actually speak French.

Victoire spoke really clear and beautiful French in this episode of LCK.

Hard to see anyone from this group go at this point, but agree that Nicole was the right choice tonight. I thought the Root concept could have been the better of the two, but the English breakfast concept was better-executed and it was nice to see Buddha win for that. Also liked that they got rid of most of the extraneous bullshit from Restaurant Wars and added the secret hidden judge.

Charbel's dish looked really good to me, but then so did Nicole's. This just wasn't her day. I'm pretty sure Charbel uses the same Maalouf olive oil that I do. It's from Lebanon and it's amazing. I think we've already missed this year's batch but I have plenty from last year still. Charbel is the man!

Don't lie. 🤣

It's going to be hard to see anyone leave from now on. And one of those boys better take Victoire to the Fast and Furious 10 premiere! (I gotta admit, I love the Fast and Furious too.) I was touched by Buddha wanting the win for Victoire, especially since he had immunity.

As a Jersey tomato-eater (who is also part Lebanese and part Italian), I knew that Charbel would be the winner. That dish looked amazing and was tomatoey and used the time he had available to him perfectly. None of the elements were over- or under-cooked, which can be a real issue with tomato cookery. Besides, Charbel just effing ROCKS!

Sorry. Got this confused with Dexter's Laboratory.

You have no idea how hard it was for me to resist this, but: Tucker Carlson is going to have some free time now. At least I'll be able to sleep tonight now that I got that out of my system.

Do tell!

At least this wasn't another British cooking episode! (It was entertaining and I greatly enjoyed the guest judge.)

Re: The tipping. A real restaurant with service: at least 20% An order that I call in and pick up myself: No tip. I did the tip work myself. The cooks did the actual work and they make an actual wage. Granted it usually isn't a great wage, but their issue is with their boss, not me.

Now I can vouch for Victoire's Italian skills, even though mine are second-generation Jersey-Italian skills! Quickfire was much better this week. If the judge didn't have anything positive to say, he didn't say anything and almost always offered positive reinforcement. The dishes looked good even if they didn't sound good at first. I think it's great that all the chefs get along so well and I wanted to try all of their dishes this week. Except for Buddha's Middle-Eastern fish thing which even Ali gave the side-eye. I have nothing against Buddha, but that was too fussy. It will be hard to see anyone leave from this point on. Loved Tom's Blue-Green striped sweater. James Harden (Philly Sixers) wore a blue-pink one kinda like it a little while ago when he was on the bench that I could not afford (I Googled it). It looked like my pasta e fagioli but I bet it's way better. Even though my pasta fazhool is pretty damn good.

I respectfully disagree. Sometimes that's what the judges deserve.

In addition to Quinta being great, Lil Yachty was also great. I love prog rock and R&B/rap, and Lil Yachty is pretty much prog rap.

The guests this episode managed to make Bill the most likeable and rational/intelligent person on the show. Sununu is a manic liar. Lt. Gov. Sears is a calm collected liar. Lap dances in school? In the library? I see. Cross-dressers and books are the problem, not assault rifles. I wish someone would have looked dead at her and said "Don't lie!" Ari Melber would have told her to cite a specific example. Let's not even talk about lack of gun control being the issue because we'll never fix it. Dumbasses. You can tell by looking at Lt. Gov. Sears' eyes that she's lying and a bad person. If that's some woke bullshit, I'd much rather be on Team Erykah Badu than Team Sears.

Jesus Christ! I was gonna say that Bill must have some awesome coke backstage based on Chris Sununu's behavior but the other guests knew how to act right. I didn't agree with them, but they could act right. Sununu is a fucking asshat. On coke. Better analysis to come after I've had a chance to watch the show again.

I knew someone would catch that! LOL!

I can't believe they only gave them 45 minutes to make biscuits, but Ali's biscuits looked amazing. I love za'atar, having some Lebanese in my background. Most of the biscuits looked pretty good given that they only had that amount of time to conceptualize and bake. The elimination challenge was pretty good this week. They still had to feature English foods, but this week they were good foods - nice cheeses, apples and peas. I think the judges basically made the right decisions all the way through as well. Really enjoying the competitors this season. Victoire is fast becoming my favorite, man she's all in! Nice attitude too. Not to mention speaking English that well after only 4 months. Liking Ali a lot too. Both of them have such nice flavor profiles and great personalities. The only one I could do with less of is probably Amar (and maybe some of the judges, LOL).