Pandora

I was really pulling for Kat. Oh, my heartbreak of watching Kat desecrate a firm Top Chef rule, when she should know better than to serve something TOTALLY OPTIONAL TO THE DISH AND BAD TO BOOT, oh, the humanity. Damn. I actually enjoyed this episode otherwise, I thought it was well done too. I like respectful competition, and both of them being friendly and practically neighbors was a nice touch. But both clearly were out to eliminate the other too. May the odds ever be in your favor, chefs! And the way it was set up to let them play nice or naughty picking each other’s….well, pickles, even one by one so they could respond to each other, and the after-interviews and comments while selecting, awesome. From what I saw, they took a middle road. Nothing either really wanted, a little unpleasant, but ultimately they could work with what they had. Interesting. TL;DR, Kat is gone, sad. But it was great to watch anyway, very Top Chef-ish to me.

I’ve never worked in a kitchen, so I don’t know what level of chef hell is appropriate for this sin. Cleaning someone else’s stuff could be good or inappropriate or whatever, I don’t know. It was clear Shuai felt awful for it, and I’m glad both he and Henry survived. It was a mistake. I did like that the other chefs were looking to help, instead of doing a happy dance over another competitor’s misfortune. I love that about this show. Kitchens seem crazy to me. Speaking of crazy kitchen stuff, Massimo’s unintentional arson was spectacular to me. Glad nobody was hurt or seriously derailed. Even stupid me thinks twice about what I toss into hot oil. Geez. Katianna going home was a bummer because she was a strong competitor but it’s true, all it takes is one bad dish and you can be gone.

Not even mute works. Bailey has very exaggerated expressions and body language. She shrugs all the way up to her ears, cocks her head sideways, flings her hands up in the air, I watch with the sound off and it’s funny to see her gesticulating through it all. Having said that, I do like her. I know it’s a minority viewpoint but she seems nice enough, and I’m glad LCK made her feel better about her abilities.

I knew Kat and Corwin were goners when Kat launched into a long explanation of the batter. It was pretty clear at judges table how watery the dish turned out. I loved Paula’s sideways eye roll when Massimo said he handled stress well. His apology was nice of him, he can be very—animated.

I loved the callback to top scallops too. That will never grow old. Kat impressed me tonight. To land in the quickfire top 3 with 15 minutes cook time, good for her. Her elimination dish was creative. And the go-go dancer background, what’s not to like?

I hope I didn’t unintentionally imply that. My apologies if I did. It’s a messy situation all around. And there are all sorts of unknowns while everyone has to deal with this quickly, instead of having weeks or months to investigate and establish a clear picture. Canadian soccer apparently lost their appeal over the 6 point deduction, so it’s win or go home vs. Colombia today. Watching U.S. women vs. Australia now. I’m rooting for the U.S. but am disappointed Sam Kerr isn’t on the pitch. I wish someone could fix this ACL injury plague.

And the shots from her home gym (I think) filled with kids watching he were awesome.

I have mixed feelings about this. I hate seeing the players take the hit from what staff did. It’s really not fair to the players. And the players have denied knowing what was happening. So far as I know anyhow. On the other hand, cheating can certainly provide an unfair advantage. You can’t ignore that fact, it’s like an athlete who is unwittingly doped. They may not have been at fault at all. But they probably had an advantage. It’s an ethical dilemma. What a mess. I really hope this doesn’t go badly for Canadian soccer.

I’m not sure what FIFA was specifically allowed to do in this situation. Maybe administratively deducting 6 points might be easier than eliminating the Canadian women’s team altogether. I have no real idea though, and don’t much care to read FIFA rules to find out. Apparently the investigation is uncovering waaaay more drone spying than just these Olympic Games. It may go back to 2019 and involve the Canadian men’s team too. Which means the Canadian women’s gold at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo is under suspicion. Which is awful to me, I’m a fan of Christine Sinclair and anything to tarnish her gold medal would be awful. The gold medal shootout was epic too. Both Sinclair and Stephanie Labbe (goalie for the Canadian women in Tokyo) have denied any knowledge or use of spy drone footage.

Darn dust blew in my eyes…

I wonder if the young lady holding the umbrella for the speaker knew she was going to be famous?

Thank God it's not just me. The way this ceremony is going, I was thinking someone tossed a bit of acid in my drink.

Wait, WHAT?!?!?!

The preview to the opening ceremonies is on NBC right now. I’m not thrilled to see the coverage team included Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning. Nothing against either of them, but I’m not sure what insight they can provide as far as the Olympics are concerned. I’m much less thrilled about reports of a coordinated attack on rail transport in France, which is certainly screwing things up for everyone. I hope the ceremonies go ahead smoothly.

Almost here! Just saw the Mongolian athlete’s outfits for the opening ceremony. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna162158

I loved Savannah’s fangirl reaction to Emeril. Actually watching all the chefs squee was great. It’s one of the things I love about the show, watching the chefs meeting these culinary icons. They’re so cute!

I love Rasika kind of nerding out over Carla Hall too.

Between Kristen “hopping” into the quickfire challenge and faking everyone out with the start, I’d say she’s knocking it outta the park.

All they had to do is kneel down. How bizarre. That’s gonna go down in college football history as a top 10 “what were they thinking?!?”

Carmona’s father died shortly before the match. Apparently she wasn’t told until after the game and celebration. https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38229486/spain-winning-goalscorer-carmona-learns-father-death-women-world-cup-final

I’m a little disappointed Australia didn’t make it to the final. That would have been glorious. And Tony Gustavsson is so fun to watch, he’s one of the most animated coaches around. But they had a good run, I’m glad they had so much success on their home turf.

I think they showed the bedrooms once, when the baby-purée guy had his back problem and had to leave. But yeah, otherwise, not one shot that I can recall. What a waste of money and resources. I’m thinking they probably did the landscape and Florence shots pre- or post production, when they had more time but didn’t have access to the expensive villa. Which after the House Hunters lead-in, seemed like a natural star of the show. Honestly looking back at the whole show I can’t figure out what was actually on screen for an hour per show. We saw almost no background of the cheftestants, little of their interaction outside of the game, and little of the villa interior. I guess that leaves the actual cooking along with Alex and said cheftestants tasting food and snarking. It may sound weird but they focused too much on the cooking imo. Especially since the dishes were usually substandard. I’d would’ve liked to see more interactions outside the kitchen, maybe I would have cared about the cheftestants. And more nonnas and local food producers! Those people were awesome! I agree with everybody else, this show could have been great but they really missed the mark. What a shame. It was great to hate-watch, though.

I love Carla. But I’m afraid she would cry every time someone got eliminated.

Suni Lee is the reigning Olympic individual champion, not sure how much more known you can get in Olympic circles. The two para athletes are less of household names but I’m glad Top Chef chose them to both highlight their own talents and the Paralympics in general. It’s more of TC doing good where they can, imho.

I like the change of using the athletes instead of family members.