desertflower

The episode was stressful but I found it much more interesting than the last episode where Carmie and Richie mostly just yelled at each other. At least here we got a little glimpse of how everyone is dealing with opening the restaurant. I find this show easier to watch when I stretch out the episodes and have some down time in between. Kind of like how I wouldn’t want to binge ER. Too much trauma! I like Richie a lot more now that he has some pride and ownership in his work at front of house. I actually found myself siding more with him than Carmie in this episode.

I didn’t recognize Morimoto at first, I haven’t seen him in a while. Disappointed they didn’t perform better. I wonder if the hosts sometimes get embarrassed in front of the guests when the food isn’t good. Kristen was trying to tell the guests they all made some really good food previously, and I could just picture the guests thinking “Sure, Jan!” 😆

It really is kind of fascinating how a contestant can be perceived so differently by different viewers. It makes me wonder how people would perceive me if I was on one of these shows. I’m not sure I’d want to know, even though I think I’m a nice person. You just never know how your body language or general demeanor might come across. Personally I like Dan and don’t see him as entitled at all. He actually seems pretty self deprecating and will be the first to say when he messed up a dish. And I never thought he was complaining about his disability, it just seemed to me that he was matter of factly explaining some of what he experiences. But I can see how others might find him grumpy. It was for sure Manny’s time to go but he did seem like a really nice guy and I loved his graceful exit and remarks to the judges. Go Savannah!! I’m sorry I confused you with the other young brunette gals in the first few weeks of the show. 😆

Yes, I thought the same thing. The idea of making a video or doing a commercial isn’t bad but they should have also incorporated more of the old format so it wasn’t such a huge shift. When they let the finalists pick someone to duet with I thought “This is what has been missing!!” They needed more partnerships and more styles of dancing.

When Snoop appeared as a mentor I was surprised at how much I liked him, so I think he could be a great coach.

I’m glad Savannah was safe, I’m rooting for her. She and Shota were cute together talking on the bench and he was really sweet and encouraging when she was serving her dish. I like that they are considering the quick fire when they are deliberating, but I bet there are some eliminated chefs who wish they had started that sooner. I remember Charlie (I think?) who won the quick fire but then went home on the main challenge.

I’m surprised Nathan took fourth, I thought he’d be higher. I think Asher had the best voice but Nathan was a great showman and I hope he gets a great gig out of this. He could have a 60s/70s soul showcase in Vegas somewhere and people would eat that up.

I thought it was a little careless of Margaret to just write out another check to the vendor who said they hadn’t been paid without looking into it more. Both she and Francie thought they had paid him already but then it was like oh well, let’s just write another check. Don’t they keep books on those kind of things? I know, nitpicking, but it bugged. I do love the show but it’s definitely one where I have to keep reminding myself not to get too caught up in how realistic something is.

Yes, nice to see Geoffrey Owens, and as a New Girl fan it was really fun seeing Lamorne Morris too. Both bachelor parties were hysterical, the fife music and the dinosaur clicking cracked me up. Would LOVE to see outtakes, as I’m sure they did not get through that with straight faces on the first take. Does anyone else have a lot of trouble using this site on their phone? On mine it constantly tries to reload the page and the ads are insane. Guess I need some kind of ad blocker.

Actually I think the salty comment was about Dan’s dish, who was paired with Amanda, not about Danny who was on the winning team.

Someone should’ve made some cheesy grits. I have a friend who makes it and oh my gosh, I could eat the whole pan. I can only imagine what some of these chefs could do with it. And yeah, as someone else said, some kind of play on a grilled cheese sandwich would’ve been great.

I had a flashback watching this of the one day my family went to Disney World. It was almost 100 degrees and so crowded. Couldn’t find seating in the air conditioned restaurants so we ended up getting some mac and cheese from an outside place. The servings were so big and we were so hot none of us could finish it. My kids were actually asking to throw theirs away. It tasted good but it just wasn’t going well in that heat. We still joke about it.

I really wanted Antonia to win! But obviously Maneet is super talented and knows her flavors, so congrats to her. So I guess next year she’s going to be carrying two belts around everywhere.

I’m so glad John chose Zoey over the trio. I’ve never thought it was fair to match up single singers against harmonizing trios. I really didn’t think Zoey had a chance going in because her blind audition was just so so. But she really stepped it up on the battle and it’s great John recognized and rewarded that. I like Chance a lot, he seems kind and humble.

I’m mixed on Allison. She is really mopey but I love her banter with Todd. Hopefully they can find a good balance with her. I really am curious if they will try to work in any singing for Skylar Astin. I fell down a youtube well of videos of him singing and just WOW. Maybe they can do a dream sequence or something. Heck, Psych did an entire musical episode and their actors weren’t even known for singing. I think they could pull off something similar on this show.