Rammchick

"I like strong...black...man coffee!"was definitely the line of the night.

To me, those were welks. Conchs are something completely different. Yay, Cody is back. Ugh.

Perhaps the Jack Frosters weren't given the win this week to amp up the tension for the finale. They are definitely head and shoulders above the 3 Kings and have been the best team since the beginning. It's almost like the judges were looking for things to ding them for.

I am of the tribe for whom rugalach is a special treat, so it was pretty funny to watch the confusion they had with it. I laughed out loud when Haley said (for the umpteenth time) that since she's just a girl from a small town in Kentucky, she doesn't have rugalach on the menu at the bakery. I guess there are no Jews in Kentucky. Who knew? I thought for sure that those who made it in unconventional shapes were going to get dinged, but they didn't. And btw, macaroons are not Hanukkah cookies. They're for Passover.

Totally agree about the losing team. It was absolutely awful how horrible they were with each other, or really, how that guy in particular treated the sugar artist. On a similar but opposite note, I'm pleased to see how supportive and complimentary the 3 Kings team is with Robert, since his team in Halloween Wars was so nasty to him. Too bad the Jack Frosters hadn't developed their idea a little better. Their horse and sleigh was just adorable, but it really was a big, empty, white backdrop with other elements that didn't belong. I love those carved pineapple poles that one guy does, but they don't fit on every piece and shouldn't be there. By virtue of the type of fruit it is, it just reads too tropical.

This is my public apology to Padua. He unfortunately looks like the cocoa version of a vanilla person I can't stand, and I have to admit that I was glad to see him eliminated this week. Definitely not his fault, and he seems like a good guy to boot. So I wish him the best, just not on my TV where I can see him. I'm starting to feel like Haley is taking advantage of her pretty blue eyes in getting away with murder. Really? I had to decorate the plate too? Oh, OK, I'll do it next time. Lucky for her that there was gonna be a next time.

Doesn't it seem that these groups are far less talented than those we've seen on other, similar shows? There appears to be one front runner (not sure of the name, but they sculpted that bird this past week) and the others are nowhere near in the same league. The group that went out this week was the same one that did that awful witch last week. I used to teach comparative anatomy, and all I could think of when I looked at that piece was that the skin had been flayed off her face and we were looking at the muscle groups underneath. Really horrible.

I'm with all the rest of you, I seriously didn't get it at first. I also thought those candies had to be baked into the cake. Which brings up another question. No one except Duff tried any of the candy (I seem to remember him putting a malted milk ball in his mouth), or at least we didn't see it. So wasn't the point to coordinate the flavors of the cake with the candy, at least somewhat? That suggests that you had to try the candy too. I also didn't get the outcome. Susan's flavors were good, even though the ornament looked squashed. The other contestant, whose name escapes me, had a better looking cake, although all brown, but it didn't taste that great. So when does flavor trump presentation or vice versa? Or was Susan "chopped" because she did poorly in the first round too?

This whole thing was a farce. Did anyone seriously think the outcome would be anything other than what it was? I don't get the philosophy that says you have to break someone down to build them up. Brought to you by bullies everywhere since...forever. But I hope Emily feels like she legitimately won and has gained a lot of confidence from this experience. And Robert can now go back to the rock he crawled out from under and stay off the shows I watch!

"Look at me when I'm talking to you"??? Oh fuck off. Cut the crap and stop with the demeaning attitude. These contestants are adults, they shouldn't be spoken to like that by a jumped up little martinet. I'm looking forward to watching him go down next week.

Amarsir , I too am a lifelong sufferer with weight issues. First and foremost, congratulations on conquering yours! I agree that this particular chef might not have been the best representative for healthy cooking given the differences in approach that she had with the other contestants. In the end, it makes sense that she won over the judges with richer, rounder flavors that full-fat products can impart to food. Sadly, people are so conditioned to imagine "rabbit food" as the only healthy alternative that "diets" usually fail, and at least from my experience, fail spectacularly. Instead of Rocco Despirito, the third judge should have been a real nutritionist, who could have spoken more intelligently about the value of balance in eating habits. So while I applaud Food Network for attempting to celebrate a more healthful style of cooking, they didn't quite achieve what they set out to accomplish.

You said basically what I was going to, anonymiss. It's not sugar or fat that are the enemies, it's quantity. And salt and high fructose corn syrup stuffed into everything to the point where it's unavoidable. Sure, steamed fish and veg are healthy foods, but a steady diet of that and you'll be running for the Twinkies in a day. Better to teach good substitutions, as the winning chef did.

Real film productions go to great lengths to ensure the continuity of makeups as the shoot goes on. That's generally one person's job, and you'll see it in the credits. They also produce many copies of hands and ears and faces, etc., for just this purpose. Actors on heavy effects movies have to endure it being applied every day, and there are many backups made just in case something gets damaged over the course of a day and has to be replaced. Not sure if they have time in this particular instance to create multiple copies of their makeups but that's usually how it's done. I also really like this finale. The challenges they did in previous seasons were also examples of how effects and makeups can be used commercially, but it's kind of amazing that it took so long to hit on this format, especially given the film emphasis in general on this show. Does anyone know if Patrick and Mackenzie got married yet?

Phil and I are "of the same tribe", so to speak ;) So that's why his calls with his parents resonate so much with me. I'm convinced that we all have the same parents, in fact ;)

I'm really enjoying this show. I find Phil child-like and hilarious, and I can relate to his interactions with his parents.

One thing I really appreciate about these holiday-themed shows is, they have a limited number of episodes. They don't start out with a (seemingly) million contestants whose names I can't remember and they don't go on for weeks and weeks (I'm looking at you, Gordon Ramsay). That being said, I love me some Ron Ben Israel and could happily watch him in twice the number of episodes this show will have.

Did you know that Chef Corey had a Vietnamese fiancee?

God, what an awful episode. The sitcom moms should stick to their day jobs.

Mackenzie's dress made her look like a gold crocodile, complete with belly scutes. Not the sexiest look in the world. I'm in agreement about Ben's not being as good as the judges made it out to be. The skin texture was rough and didn't make sense to me.

Talk about a heart growing three sizes...I just might marry Mark Murphy if he asked me. How lovely of him to run after Dante when he was chopped on the redemption show and give him a pep talk. What a guy. Sure, offering him a job or some money would've been nice too, but that only appears to be Gordon Ramsay's shtick.

I'm not sure that Ben's past performance is what saved him. There appears to be a lot of stock put in self-awareness on this show. If someone's work is judged to be poor, and the contestant acknowledges that in fact, this wasn't his or her week, it goes a long way with the judges. Kevon thought his character was great. His reaction to their critique made that obvious. So while Ben's might have been worse -- and I personally think it was -- he was right there with them in nodding and saying, "Yeah, I know it was bad."

I'm with you guys. Personally, I can't stand Robert Irvine. A lying liar who lies. And kids? Not so much. The Fierrification of the Food Network is complete. Ugh.

New Chopped shows coming our way: http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/CHOPPED-IMPOSSIBLE-and-CHOPPED-JUNIOR-Heading-to-Food-Network-20150915

He was very sweet to Salma. I also thought he was going to be a precocious little shithead, and he turned out to be a nice kid.

I saw that, and I assumed that it was from the paint she used, that that purply color had red as an undercoat.