Gbb

I didn't suspect she was pregnant, but I did notice the loose, flowy tops. I just thought the show was doing a good job of acknowledging that a woman's body doesn't bounce right back to normal immediately after birth.

Congratulations, cooksdelight!!! So...how was the food at the reception? ;)

Good for him! I know he could be a shit-stirrer, but by and large the other cheftestants seem to like him and that says a lot. I'd love to try his food. Prawns with guajillo-dashi butter!!

No fake-out. Dacascos is back, baby! I hope the finale comes down to Jason and Cory, and I hope they both end up with jobs on FN. I was a little surprised they didn't have him on for the Game Day ep, but I guess it's because they had him up their sleeve for next week! Hey la, hey la, my boyfriend's back!

In my house it was "Dick's hatband" :) I remember it more as "Ayn Ah hailped!" (This is apparently my "throwing in my 2 cents on obscure Southern references post).

If I'm not mistaken, Cory has been on Top Chef. Not as a contestant but as a local chef/food authority for one of the elimination challenges on the season in... I want to say New Orleans. Does anyone remember or am I thinking of someone else?

Thanks for starting a thread. I think it was the long pauses when Cory was cooking that killed him. I'm sure it was partially the editing monkeys but Amy's did come across much more natural and conversational than his did. Combine that with how they both did on the mentor challenge and the fact that Amy's the last woman standing and I think that did it.

And the article also names her father as Alexander DeBenedetti, so that's that. I may have to let most of my mockery of her go. If she could survive that, she's made of extraordinary stuff, and if her smile looks forced, so be it. Do what you need to, Giada.

AB posted a pic of him and Dacascos together on his FB page a week or two back.

You may well be right on that issue, but he's also deleted a post from cooksdelight as innocuous as "you should listen to the critiques from the judges" so he is really not allowing anything except praise posts to stay on his FB page.

No, we don't. I do know a couple of guys who talk a lot like that but they're the kind of person who's always "on." It's tiring in real life. I suspect producers have to told him to dial it up. At least I hope that's what it is.

I still think Cory could bring something really valuable to FN long term, but Jason became my front-runner and favorite in that moment.

Love him too. And he's not wrong. He's clearly talking about Hell's Kitchen, no? Is it still on?

I wasn't sure whether to put this one here or earworm, but I really love this commercial and the song has been stuck in my head for a month because of it. Still, before I looked it up to paste it here, I couldn't have told you what car was being advertised, not even which brand, so I'm not sure how effective it is.

I think we're seeing Matthew's real personality, just the worst side of it. (His erasing a "critique" as mild as "I think you should listen to the judges" bears that out to me). He's shown (in Comeback Kitchen, imo) that he can behave like a decent guy and not a smirking know-it-all. When he's given direct feedback that he's being an ass, he knows how to rein it in. The problem is, he's getting feedback saying "Be 150% of yourself" from Bobby without any provisos like "By that I mean, be energetic and fun and knowledgeable about food, *not* a camera-hogging ass who thinks no one knows as much as you do." At the end of the day, spiderpig is right though. Who do we spend our time talking about? Matthew. He's annoying as hell but this season would be a snooze without him.

Maybe. I wonder if he was going for that kind of chatty cross-talk kind of thing you see on The Kitchen but it fell flat? As for favorite, I'm not emotionally attached to any of these guys yet. However, in terms of food authority and who could be a credible, polished persona on FN, I'd choose Cory. In terms of pure entertainment value, I'd choose Jason if he could dial it back about 6 notches. If the producers are thinking long term (stop laughing) they should continue to play up Cory's resume so people really understand how long he's been in the business and how much he knows. I could see him winning and going on to be one of the FN chefs with actual weight to them (there aren't enough).

What a twit. (I went and read the thread to see the comments he's allowing to stay up. It made me gag).

8:50 into the episode: Brooke: "I don't see pork belly." Sheldon: "Was pork belly on your list?" Brooke (TH): "I cannot believe I forgot to order the main ingredient on my pork and beans."

So I just finished binge-watching season 14, and I need somewhere to go with all my feels. I hope some of you are still watching this thread for sign of life. Most of my feelings are swirling around Sheldon, Brooke, Shirley, Katsuji, and to a lesser extent, John. Most of my comments will be about the finale, but there I have a few about the season as a whole. For example, JIM!!! ????? Losing him to a sudden-death quick-fire while Emily of all people stayed was 18 kinds of wrong. This season soured me a bit on all-stars but if they do another one with a full roster of all-stars, I hope they have him back. Speaking of Emily, my feelings about her evolved a little over the series. I dislike when people revel in their bad attitudes, so her intro of herself put me off. By the time she left the show, I realized she's just kind of an Eeyore who sees the world in a "this won't work out for me" kind of a way and she's probably doing the best she can. On to the finale. I really, really, REALLY wanted Sheldon to win it all. To the point that my heart was hardly in watching the finale at all. I don't understand how they could say his flavors were so much better than Brooke's and send him home over butchered fish. It seemed like it was Tom and Graham against the rest on that one, and whatever Tom wants... Which brings me to the grassy knoll. I barely remembered Brooke at the beginning of the season. I didn't remember whether I wanted her or Kristen to win in Seattle, but I remember being upset when Kristen was sent home over Josie. And as Brooke racked up win after win this season, I didn't think much about it, because she's clearly an excellent chef. At some point, however, it started to feel pre-ordained. A win or two that seemed suspect, a dish issue glossed over here or there, something just whispered "golden girl." To the point that when she was sent home, my immediate thought was, "Of course! So she can win LCK and come back and take it all like Kristen did to her." (I didn't realize at the time that I wasn't the only one wearing that particular tin foil hat). I think at some point it began to feel like hers to lose to Brooke too, or maybe it was just that she was never going to be satisfied with anything less than winning this season, but I did get a sense of entitlement from her that bugged, especially with the pork belly. The way I saw it, when they were in the cooler checking supplies and she realized she hadn't ordered pork belly (which is what she said at the time, revisionist history notwithstanding) she went straight to Shirley and asked for some of hers. No pausing to ask herself if she should, no wondering if she was putting Shirley in an awkward position (really, how does Shirley say no without being a bitch?), just "are you going to use all your pork belly?" I don't think Brooke is a bad person or a bad chef, I just think in many ways she's an anti-Emily and expects the world to accommodate itself to her because it usually does. And I wish the finale hadn't felt to me like there's nearly nothing Brooke could have done to lose it. The other person I just have to weigh in on is Katsuji. I know feelings about him are pretty strong, and I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, but I do feel compelled say that I like him. As much as his edit and his own words and actions might try to convince me otherwise, there are several things that tell me there's far more to him than a shit-stirring ass. I remember the way Dougie used to describe him, something like "the nicest asshole" or words to that effect. There's the fact that he was chosen over and over again to be a sous in both seasons, and when he was he worked hard and did everything he could to help his chef, even when it was John. I think he's a complicated guy, but there's a lot of good there. So when does 15 start? ?

Far be it from me to defend Matthew (and I'm not - he's still way too immature and self-important), but his camera-hogging is a whole separate issue from how Addie and others handle it. On these group shows, there's back and forthing and cross talk aplenty (in a mostly good way, not the awkward way Matthew's doing it) and it comes across as friendly, engaged banter. Audiences are used to that. The problem with Addie seizing up when Matthew jumped in (and Rusty to an extent, when Corey did it to him) is that it made the whole thing even more awkward and cringe-inducing. And it made THEM look bad and sullen for not wanting to engage with their cohost. Again, I'm not saying Matthew did the right thing or did it well or that they shouldn't have *felt* put out by it, I'm just talking about the optics of *showing* those feelings. I think these guys would all be well-served by taking some improv classes before going on a show like this and practice the "yes, and..." mentality. When you're in front of an audience, you never say no or freeze when your partner says or does something that you think is stupid or throws off the plan you had in your head for the scene, you take whatever they give you and build on it (yes, and...) and/or find a way to connect it back to what you're trying to do. When Corey started yammering about Jazzfest being the gateway to summer, Rusty could have agreed and said "yes, and to great summer food like these crawfish pies" and kept going. When Matthew grabs the gravy and a sandwich and starts noshing, instead of putting her hand up, saying "excuse me," and shutting down, she could have smiled and said, "I told you these things are good. He can't even wait til they're ready!" laughed and continued on. I'm not saying I don't understand their frustration when Matthew jumps in to "save" them (or that I wouldn't freeze like a deer in the headlights if he did it to me). I'm just saying you will never come out of it looking good if you shut down/freeze out the interruption. You'll look awkward at best and sullen at worst. Roll with it and let HIM be the one who comes off looking awkward. I'm picturing Matthew doing that to Jason in a presentation. I could be wrong, but I can't imagine Jason missing a beat.

Hugh is so pretty and charming! I would fight you for boyfriend status, but you can have him if I can have Eddie -- although Eddie and Valerie together might be cuteness overload. Speaking of Eddie, I wonder if he'll be back for Star Salvation this year? eta - Damn. According to this article, Star Salvation will be Alex Guarnaschelli and Jeff Mauro this year. I really like Jeff, but I love Eddie :(

I thought it was funny too. "Did you do X?" / "No, but the kids are still alive." :) First time I saw some personality in her :)

A Facebook Live post from Food Network just popped up on my FB feed (Scotch eggs for the curious) and reminded me of this question I've had for awhile now. Not sure this is the best place for it but since they did several live-streaming type challenges on Comeback Kitchen, it seems as good a place as any. When contestants do streaming events on social media, does it go out live to everyone or is there a sooper sekrit group that gets special access? I wonder, because I never see anyone post on here "Hey, Joy Thompson and Rob Bermeister are streaming live on FB right now demonstrating carnival desserts!" I'm sure there will be live streaming challenges coming up on this season's FNS and those will have already taken place. Has anyone seen any of them?

On those things we agree 100% :) Please bring Alton back and/or swap Giada and Bobby for somebody who gives a damn.