Tournament Of Champions - General Discussion

[crimsongrl]

Quote

Guy has rounded up 16 of America’s top culinary stars — the very best of the best. The group comprises a mix of familiar faces and under-the-radar talent you may not know as well. Eight competitors are from the east coast and eight are from the west coast, and each has been ranked and given a seed number in his or her region. What’s about to unfold over the course of five weeks is a bracket-style tournament to find out who among them is the ultimate culinary champion.

 Airs Wednesdays at 10|9c

 

Tournament of Champions

Edited March 6, 2020 by crimsongrl

[suebee12]

I really liked how this tournament was designed. I especially liked the blind judging. Sometimes I truly think that chefs win because of their reputation! Not sure we really need Simon and Justin but since it is a blind judge, they are there to answer questions about the cook so maybe we do!

I went back and watched so I could compare the scores and boy did they vary!

Antonia vs Marcel

47    TASTE     45

28    EXEC      27

17    PRES      17

92   TOTAL     89

 

Eric    vs    Jet

37  TASTE  38

20  EXEC   22

15  PRES   16

72  TOTAL 76

 

Alex   vs  Darnell

37   TASTE  36

20   EXEC   22

14  PRES    14

71 TOTAL   72

So Marcel is actually in second place by scores, just not by bracket!!  Can't wait to see next week's rounds. And I noticed that Marcus won't  be judging then.

[jlc]

I am so happy for Darnell!! I love when he competes because he looks like he is having fun, and his food always looks great. I am also really happy about the blind judging and the fact that Alex lost in the first round. Most of the time when she wins I think it is just because everyone is afraid of her. So glad she is out and we don't  have to listen to her all season while she expects to win.  So time for her to move on!

[spiderpig]

I agree with the above comments.  The format moved along quickly and that's a powerhouse lineup of chefs.

While Alex normally doesn't bother me, I was thrilled to see her lose.  She always has this slightly smug expression when she's competing and fully expects to win every time.  You could tell when they announced Darnell's name that she was trying hard not to show how pissed off she was.

I'd like to see Amanda (always a bridesmaid) Freitag win something for a change.

[jlc]

8 minutes ago, spiderpig said:

could tell when they announced Darnell's name that she was trying hard not to show how pissed off she was.

I noticed the same thing. Her arrogance is so annoying  and that whole ICAG thing that she promotes needs to follow her as they go far far away!

[Rammchick]

The lineup is basically Top Chef vs. the Food Network.  I think this' the first time I've actually seen the Top Chef winners identified as such on a FN show.  Spinning the wheel to put together a dish is one of the games often played on Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen, but this also included equipment and genre.  I did think the category "Sweet" was a little misleading, considering that the ingredients are savory and it doesn't imply that a dessert should be made.  But all in all, I thought this was a pretty breezy 95 minutes, and I (almost) didn't mind Guy Fieri.

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by Rammchick

[Rickster]

I liked this a lot too, especially the blind judging and the pace of the show. I did think the wheel spinning a bit gimmicky and would at least have dropped the cylinder with the piece of equipment. I’d also like them to have a little more time.
 

I think it’s hard to compare scores across challenges since each is so different.

I thought the time slot was a bit odd and would have thought this would be a 8 or 9 pm show (on the East Coast)

[srpturtle80]

Just got to watch this, I was sooooooo excited for it as competitions like this are one of my favorite things to watch. 

Before I even started I thought that “ICAG” winning it all was a foregone conclusion so I was also thrilled to see Darnell beat her. I’ve watched him on Guy’s Grocery Games and always found him a delight to watch. Yay!!

Jet Tila is my favorite FN chef so I was also thrilled to see him win.   This is so much fun, so excited to watch more! 
 

Does anyone know how many episodes there will be?

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by srpturtle80

[mlp]

I've enjoyed this so far and the chefs I wanted to win their rounds did so.  I wonder why they gave Alex such a big build up at the beginning when they had to know she lost in the first round (smirk) when they were putting the show together.

I was sort of astounded to see Top Chef mentioned several times.  This show was similar to some of the things they do on TC so maybe they finally decided to stop pretending it doesn't exist.

I didn't realize that Darnell has credentials beyond winning GGG.  He has an interesting background and must be older than he looks.

 

[dewelar]

40 minutes ago, mlp said:

I didn't realize that Darnell has credentials beyond winning GGG.  He has an interesting background and must be older than he looks.

They mentioned he was 20 when he cooked for Team USA in 2008, so that would make him 31-32 now.

Loved this show, loved that they did blind judging, and especially loved that Paper Chef Guarnaschelli lost. Best thing FN's done in ages.

[Ellee]

I find it interesting that Antonia might be going head to head with Richard Blais. 

[roughing it]

Love the blind judging - instead of chef vs. chef it's dish vs. dish.  

I'd love to see Marc Murphy win sometime, I've never seen him win a challenge.

[hoosiermommy]

I knew Alex was going to lose when she was describing her dish.  She committed the fatal flaw the Chopped judges talk about all the time...her dish was disjointed.  There was nothing connecting a salad, a quesadilla and the protein.  I was surprised she came up with such a poor dish, not that she lost with it.  It makes me wonder if she didn't really want to be on this show at all since it looked like she phoned it in.

I am really looking forward to the Brook vs. Michael and the Amanda vs. Elizabeth match-ups.

Edited March 9, 2020 by hoosiermommy

[2727]

How are the matches decided in a bracket competition? Is it usual for the top ranked person to go up against the lowest one, or are they picked randomly? I would have expected the two lowest seeds to compete, then second lowest, etc.

What does ICAG stand for?

[Rickster]

9 minutes ago, 2727 said:

How are the matches decided in a bracket competition? Is it usual for the top ranked person to go up against the lowest one, or are they picked randomly? I would have expected the two lowest seeds to compete, then second lowest, etc.

What does ICAG stand for?

In tournaments like the NCAA basketball (I think it’s no coincidence this is airing close to March Madness) the top seed goes against the lowest one, and so on. This theoretically increases the odds that the best players/teams meet in the finals, vs knocking each other out in the early rounds

[srpturtle80]

20 hours ago, Rickster said:

What does ICAG stand for?

Iron Chef Alex Guarnaschelli

I watch a LOT of Guy’s Grocery Games and that’s what his nickname is for her. I’ve also seen her refer to herself as that as well. 🙄

Edited March 7, 2020 by srpturtle80

[candall]

One more thumb up for blind judging.  I don't watch GGG, so I'd never heard of Darnell and thought he was pretty much in there for cannon fodder.  With all those massive chef-y egos, it was probably hard to find people who would agree to be designated "last."  (I thought Marcel was very gracious about it.)  Richard Blais was all pissed off to be #5, LOL.

Anyway, I thought there was no way this guy was going to beat Alex Guarnaschelli   Ha, surprise!!

 

What a fun show.  Darnell is the only chef I haven't heard of!  (After this one, I was a little bit bored trying to figure out skill levels/personalities from scratch on Anne Burrell's new Vegas competition.  Heh.  I'm lazy.)

[dleighg]

On 3/6/2020 at 1:48 AM, mlp said:

I wonder why they gave Alex such a big build up at the beginning when they had to know she lost in the first round (smirk) when they were putting the show together.

It was *almost* like they wanted to embarrass her with that build up LOL

[dleighg]

 

As for Jet Tila, twice it was mentioned his "culinary world records." My thought was, is that a thing? Is this relevant to this competition? A little sleuthing and I found this reference: "Tila has also set three world records: for creating the world’s largest stir fry (4,010 lbs.); the world’s largest seafood stew (6,656 lbs.); and the largest California roll (422 ft.)."

Ah, yeah, not relevant.

Edited March 7, 2020 by dleighg

[dleighg]

It occurred to me that when Alex called herself "an Iron Chef," that the show hasn't been on in ages. 

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by dleighg

[Christina]

I actually found ICAG's "Darnell, let me teach you the art of bitterness," funny. It was in response to Guy asking for a quesadilla while she was pouting about the waffle iron.

I've liked Darnell in everything I've watched him in, and would absolutely love it if he took it all home. His cooking during that Thanksgiving challenge came across as much more advanced than the others, to me. 

Also, Alex absolutely did not get her plates all over to the table in time. 

[jlc]

1 hour ago, Christina said:

Also, Alex absolutely did not get her plates all over to the table in time. 

And Darnell knew it. I think he may have contested the results if he hadn't  won! I hope he wins it all, he seems like a great guy.

3 hours ago, dleighg said:

It occurred to me that when Alex called herself "an Iron Chef," that the show hasn't been on in ages. 

 

Yes, she hasn't been an iron chef in ages. Isn't  it about time she moves on?

[mlp]

8 hours ago, dleighg said:

It was *almost* like they wanted to embarrass her [Alex] with that build up LOL

I thought just the opposite.  She's always made out to be such a big deal by Guy and FN in general that I thought they were softening the blow of losing for her by emphasizing her "greatness."  I'll bet the other excellent chefs get sick of the favoritism.  

[Ashforth]

13 hours ago, candall said:

(After this one, I was a little bit bored trying to figure out skill levels/personalities from scratch on Anne Burrell's new Vegas competition.  Heh.  I'm lazy.)

Is there a thread for the Las Vegas show? I saw an episode today and it was enjoyable but could not be more of a copy of Top Chef. I'll just say Anne is no Padma and Scott Conant is no Tom Collichio. 

[pdlinda]

57 minutes ago, Ashforth said:

Is there a thread for the Las Vegas show? I saw an episode today and it was enjoyable but could not be more of a copy of Top Chef. I'll just say Anne is no Padma and Scott Conant is no Tom Collichio. 

I watched both new shows and was struck by how many aspects of BOTH were copies of other cooking show competitions: 

The blind judging from "Beat Bobby Flay," the tasting table on the Burrell show a knock-off from Top Chef, the spinning wheels from GGG, the "monitors" on Guy's show from "Next Iron Chef", teams competing with whole menus from "Next Food Network Star" and I could go on and on.  I liked both shows but I preferred the new chefs spotlighted on the Vegas show rather than the established stars on Guy's show whom I've seen innumerable times on the various established shows.

[Ashforth]

I'm watching the rerun. I've always like Antonia Lofaso, and when she jumped up in excitement over judge Nancy's compliments and then turned to the camera and blurted, "Oh! I peed!" it was hard to stop laughing. 

[Darian]

This was so enjoyable. A bit of trash talking, but seemed in good fun, and I love seeing the camaraderie. I cannot staaaaaannnnnnd Blaise, so I am hoping he gets a smackdown.

I am thrilled for Darnell. Thank you, blind judging.

I didn't even think I was going to watch, but am so glad I did. 

[TexasTiffany]

Add me to the growing list who like the blind judging. I've always thought any Food Network chef/judge who was competing was given a huge pass since they are in the FN stables. Past Top Chef people were always discounted in order to elevate the FN chef/judges. Darnell's win over Alex is exactly why they should have done blind judging in the first place. Stop the facade. 

Upthread someone posted the judges points for each dish. Darnell's use of the waffle iron and using it to cook the mushrooms was clever. I expected Alex to come up with something more sophisticated than a quesadilla and then her execution of it to be so poor. I could do a better job even with my flat iron, seriously. Alex should not have gotten such high points having that on her plate plus the judges said her dish was not as composed. The judges were being kind having the outcome be only a 1 point difference. 

Thank you, Darnell, for beating that smug, rude ICAG. I can now watch the rest of the tournament without the bottle of Pepto in hand. 

I did think it funny that Richard Blais didn't like being ranked in a 5th position. People reacted differently. Antonia wondered why she got a 1st. Marcel acknowledged that he hasn't been on these competitions lately and understood his rating. What did Alex say, something about how she wanted to be America's sweetheart? 

I like Amanda, Marc, and Maneet as judges, but how did they get such high rankings without FN favoritism? I watch most of these cooking competitions. When these chefs compete, they usually lose. Guy said part of the rankings were based on competition wins so they should not have placed so high. FN shenanigans wanting their in-house players to look fierce. 

I like most of these people so I'm excited to watch the rest. 

 

[springbarb]

I guess I'm one of the few who likes Alex; she seems to be a legitimately good chef who has a good attitude. She clearly deserved to lose--her dish had no cohesiveness, and Darnell was smart with the mushrooms on the waffle iron. But I like her.

[dleighg]

Regarding the close point score between Alex and Darnell, which seemed to be generous to the ridiculous mess Alex put on the plate. I know we're told the judges don't know who the two chefs are. But they might expect they are a 1 and 8 seed, and may have been trying to be kind to the "obvious" 8 seed 🙂

 

[roughing it]

On 3/7/2020 at 5:53 PM, pdlinda said:

I watched both new shows and was struck by how many aspects of BOTH were copies of other cooking show competitions: 

The blind judging from "Beat Bobby Flay,"

Is BBF really blind judging though?  The reactions of Bobby and his competitors when the judges make their comments, you'd have to know whose dish they were reviewing.

[pdlinda]

24 minutes ago, roughing it said:

Is BBF really blind judging though?  The reactions of Bobby and his competitors when the judges make their comments, you'd have to know whose dish they were reviewing.

I agree.  That's why I think the program developers for the new show "tightened up" the concept to make it more powerful in judging the contestants.

[jcbrown]

5 hours ago, springbarb said:

I guess I'm one of the few who likes Alex; she seems to be a legitimately good chef who has a good attitude. She clearly deserved to lose--her dish had no cohesiveness, and Darnell was smart with the mushrooms on the waffle iron. But I like her.

Come sit by me. Nice to be able to be a party of two. I just got a cookbook of hers and started to leaf through it but realized it is interesting and well-written so I set it aside to actually read through. I like and respect her. She loosens up a bit on that silly supermarket show she hosts. I think the ICAG persona is a character.

I really enjoyed this show. I actually DVRd a rerun of the first episode to watch it again (I deleted it after watching it the first time but decided later I wanted to revisit it).

[Ashforth]

6 hours ago, roughing it said:

Is BBF really blind judging though?  The reactions of Bobby and his competitors when the judges make their comments, you'd have to know whose dish they were reviewing.

Not sure whether to take this to the BBF thread... but I think I have read somewhere that Flay and the episode's competitor are not really standing there during the judging and that part is filmed later and edited in. Regardless, Flay's food style is so distinctive that, imo, most of the time the judges would know which dish is his.

[GaT]

I just heard about this show & watched the first episode & I liked it. Guy isn't overbearing as host, the chefs are all good, I like the way they pick what they cook & how, & blind judging is always good. I can't believe Alex lost on a FN show, Alex never loses on FN shows, maybe she pissed someone off.

6 hours ago, Ashforth said:

Flay's food style is so distinctive that, imo, most of the time the judges would know which dish is his.

All they have to do is check which dish has the peppers & they know it's his.

[CrazyDog]

This episode was WAY too long, but I caught most of it. I was really rooting for Marcel to go further - he's come such a long way since his Top Chef days. I'd like to see him show up more and get more TV spots.

I think it's a very unpopular opinion these days, but I've really soured on Antonia. I used to love her, but on some of the shows I've seen her on in the last few years, she's come across as dour, not wanting to be there, or even mean. It's just my impression of her lately.  That being said, she seems to win a lot and is definitely a favorite here. Bah.

Blais really needs to dial it back to about 1000. 

LOVED Darnell winning. He's so talented, and I can't wait to see him get more exposure. It seems like the Food Network likes him too. Best win of the show already! 

I really like Christian as well.

So grateful there's actually blind judging here. 

[Fig Newton]

This show didn't bother me. It was good natured, fun to watch.

Make me number 2,812 who prefers the Blind Judging. Does not make sense to do it any other way.

Food Network over saturates these celebrity chefs.  It's just too much of the same thing on similar shows. Most of them have become smug and somewhat elitist. Alex doesn't bother me as a person, but it bothers me that she is on just about everything that FN does. At least with this show they are willing to show some new talent and I am ever so pleased that Darnell won his round. He seems to not be lost in the vapors that is celebrity and seems fairly humble and proud of his accomplishments.  I hope he remains that way as his popularity soars !

 

[JTMacc99]

5 hours ago, Fig Newton said:

Food Network over saturates these celebrity chefs.

That's been their thing since day one. Used to be they only did it with their own people. 

5 hours ago, Fig Newton said:

At least with this show they are willing to show some new talent and I am ever so pleased that Darnell won his round. He seems to not be lost in the vapors that is celebrity and seems fairly humble and proud of his accomplishments.  I hope he remains that way as his popularity soars !

Ah, well they are pretty sharp over there when it comes to spotting guys like Darnell. I do think he won fair and square, which is great. Regardless of how he fares the rest of this show, I can almost guarantee that if they included him here, they have plans to do things with him elsewhere.  

And they should! He's got a good style, obvious cooking skill and television worthy charisma.

 

On the topic of this show in general, really the ONLY thing that I didn't like was that the seeding put Brooke up against Michael Voltaggio. That's a real bummer for me, as those two have some serious cooking chops and would have been really fun to see up against some of the FN regulars.

 

[Brookside]

Sorry, I could only bear it for about 20 minutes.  Too frenetic for me.  I know it's a competition, but so is The Great British Bake Off. 

[Ellee]

Taped it and found myself forwarding through to the results.  Just me?

[dleighg]

I got to wondering about the scoring. I think at the beginning Guy said that the scoring was 50 points for taste, 30 for execution, and 20 for presentation. And sure enough the scores are in the 70s or 80s--

But there are three judges? So they must be dividing the actual scores by three and rounding?

[mlp]

4 hours ago, dleighg said:

But there are three judges? So they must be dividing the actual scores by three and rounding?

I don't actually know but I've been assuming that must be the case.

I was pretty happy with last night's results although I would have preferred to see Marc beat Christian.  I have never liked Elizabeth Falkner and her karate moves and kicks and I love Amanda so I was delighted that she won.  I don't mind Richard Blaise but I really like Beau so I was also happy with that result.  

This show must have been a huge amount of work to put together.  Coordinating the schedules of all those busy people and getting some world-class chefs like Marcus and Ming all in one place at the same time had to be a real challenge.  

[jcbrown]

2 minutes ago, mlp said:

I was pretty happy with last night's results although I would have preferred to see Marc beat Christian.  I have never liked Elizabeth Falkner and her karate moves and kicks and I love Amanda so I was delighted that she won.  I don't mind Richard Blaise but I really like Beau so I was also happy with that result.  

This show must have been a huge amount of work to put together.  Coordinating the schedules of all those busy people and getting some world-class chefs like Marcus and Ming all in one place at the same time had to be a real challenge.  

I agree, I was rooting for Marc. Christian is too ON for me. I have also never liked Elizabeth Falkner and love Amanda so I 100% agree with you there, too. Blais is okay but for some reason I've never cared much for Beau. I'm okay with the result, I guess.

Nancy Silverton's enormous collar was very distracting.

[candall]

I loved Episode 2 as well.  In fact, they could cut the show down to two contests per episode and I'd be pleased as punch to watch an extra hour or two.  They really had to rush and edit to cram in all three matches and it was the judges' commentary that suffered.  Judge Marcus Samuelson had barely any remarks on camera.

 

I thought Richard Blaise was candid and honest, commenting afterward that losing feels bad and <shrug> what are you going to do?  Well, for one thing, Richard, don't be all amused and winky-wink with the audience that you're a tiny bit insulted by your fifth place seed.

 

Now.  Here's my big question.  On Beat Bobby Flay, I can accept it when the guest chefs pull out some ridiculously extreme ingredient, because there are only two of them and they each know which dish they'll be cooking if they have the opportunity.  Makes sense they'd submit an ingredient list.

     But how did Elizabeth Faulkner happen to have that goujoubanga(?) handy?  I've never even heard of that!  And it was a plastic bag full of fermented bean goo, wrapped in butcher paper and tied up with string?  Was that just hanging out next to the spice rack?  Does Elizabeth carry that bag with her everywhere, just in case it's going to be a match for the competition assignment?

     I know the chefs on Iron Chef were told in advance about "the secret ingredient," so they could plan their menus, but I don't want that little bit of a cheat to be happening here.

[dleighg]

3 minutes ago, candall said:

But how did Elizabeth Faulkner happen to have that goujoubanga(?) handy?  I've never even heard of that!  And it was a plastic bag full of fermented bean goo, wrapped in butcher paper and tied up with string?  Was that just hanging out next to the spice rack? 

I noticed that also; I'm guessing that they brought (or requested) a lot of their "favorite secret ingredients" in the thought that this might help them win. 

[jcbrown]

5 minutes ago, candall said:

Does Elizabeth carry that bag with her everywhere, just in case it's going to be a match for the competition assignment?

This is what I am going to choose to believe.  🙂

[mlp]

2 hours ago, dleighg said:

But how did Elizabeth Faulkner happen to have that goujoubanga(?) handy?

I thought it was gochujang.  If so, it's not really uncommon any more.  I've seen it on several shows and I actually have some in my refrigerator.  I can believe that it was available.

[dleighg]

8 minutes ago, mlp said:

I thought it was gochujang. 

I also have it in my refrigerator. But the way she described it sounded nothing like what I have in my fridge.

[GaT]

So glad Richard Blais lost, I don't want to hear his shit talking through the rest of the competition. I'm really surprised Marc Murphy lost, that's 2 chopped judges down. 

Edited March 13, 2020 by GaT

[jlc]

50 minutes ago, GaT said:

So glad Richard Blais lost, I don't want to hear his shit talking through the rest of the competition. I'm really surprised Marc Murphy lost, that' 2 chopped judges down. 

I am glad Blais lost because he needed to be put in his place for once. He has an ego as large as Alex Guarnaschelli. They both lost. And the show is now better for it!