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Tournament Of Champions - General Discussion

crimsongrl

By crimsongrl
in Tournament Of Champions

JTMacc99
Message added by JTMacc99,

Spoiler Policy: Any information about an episode posted before it happens on the East Coast Food Network broadcast should be put under spoiler tags. 

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MerBearHou

MerBearHou

Heading to the new thread for Beachside Brawl — it’s a fun show.  After seeing her on Julia and Beachside, Antonia is a fantastic host.  I would never have guessed it!  Thank you, Bastet!

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bad things are bad
bad things are bad

Forgive me if it's been mentioned but Marc Murphy went to Poland to work with Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen,  feeding refugees.  I was annoyed by him last year, but this utterly redeems him 

Lady Jane
Lady Jane

I saw this on my DVR, and said, "oh good! That Guy Fieri show is on! And it's two hours! Yay!" Please send help. I don't know who I am anymore.

springbarb
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

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MsNewsradio

MsNewsradio

Posted this under the Fast Foodies thread, but posting here as well since Justin competed in the last season of Tournament of Champions - 

Justin was in a massive boating accident over the holiday weekend and is now in the hospital. While it looks like he'll make a full recovery, he doesn't have health insurance, and his family has started a GoFundMe:

Justin Sutherland GoFundMe

From the site:

On Sunday, July 3rd, like many Minnesotans, Justin was enjoying a day off, boating on the water with friends. Of course, he was the "Captain" and of course, he had to wear an official captain's hat.


While piloting his boat, Justin’s hat blew off. He tried to grab it, hit a wave, and was knocked off the boat. He fell into the water near the motor, and the propeller did a number on his head and left arm. His arm is broken, but his grip remains strong and there appears to be no nerve damage. His jaw is severely broken, but doctors are optimistic that with several more surgeries he will be grinning in no time. In addition to his broken bones, he sustained many lacerations, but with plastic surgery, they will become a reminder of his survival story.


The great news is, he is going to be fine. With some time, he will possibly be better than fine. He is adding more character to the face we know and love, and the most important news, his beard is intact.


Justin is currently in the hospital and set to be there for some time, having had many surgeries so far and facing many more to come. 

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RealityCheck

RealityCheck

The new season of TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS premieres Sunday, February 19th at 8PM ET/ PT.

Quote

 

The chefs representing the East Coast are: Eric Adjepong, Karen Akunowicz, Kelsey Barnard Clark, Maneet Chauhan, Leah Cohen, Madison Cowan, Tobias Dorzon, Graham Elliot, Tiffani Faison, Darnell Ferguson, Jose Garces, Ilan Hall, Stephanie Izard, Christian Petroni, Britt Rescigno, and Jonathon Sawyer.

The chefs representing the West Coast are: Carlos Anthony, Nate Appleman, Shirley Chung, Tiffany Derry, Elizabeth Falkner, Mei Lin, Antonia Lofaso, Crista Luedtke, Brian Malarkey, Shota Nakajima, Viet Pham, Joe Sasto, Tracey Shepos Chanami, Adam Sobel, Jet Tila, and Lee Anne Wong.

Judges include, Michelle Bernstein, Scott Conant, Cat Cora, Rocco DiSpirito, Lorena Garcia, Alex Guarnaschelli, Nancy Silverton, Daniela Soto-Innes, Ming Tsai, Jonathan Waxman, Andrew Zimmern, aand one of the most highly regarded chefs to be revealed in the finale on Sunday, April 9th at 8pm ET/PT.

Simon Majumdar and Justin Warner deliver real-time play-by-play.

 

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FormerMod-a1

FormerMod-a1

Excited to see Jose Garces!  Decidedly NOT excited to see Ilan Hall.  Why?????

Also happy to see most the other chefs, whether returning or new.  Kind of sad at no Brooke but she did dominate and has appeared on a lot of other shows, and I expect that will continue.  

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Bastet

Bastet

I can only hope Ilan Hall and Graham Elliott are eliminated immediately, and then this will be great.  (Viet Pham kind of bugged me recently when I watched him on Bobby's Triple Threat, but not like those two, who I cannot stand.) 

There are a few I don't recognize by name that I'll have to look up to see if I recognize the faces, but I'm excited by this.  I wish Brooke was competing again*, but I'm happy many of my other favorites are returning -- Tiffani and Tiffany, Stephanie Izard, Eric Adjepong, Karen Akunowicz, Shirley Chung, Antonia Lofaso.  I really liked Kelsey Barnard Clark on Top Chef and haven't seen her since, so I'm looking forward to her.  Same thing with Mei Lin.

I recently found out my mom knows Jet Tila's mother-in-law, so I'll have to see if I can learn any good behind-the-scenes tidbits once it's over.

*No Michael Voltaggio, either, so I thought maybe this conflicted with Bobby's Triple Threat's filming schedule, but Tiffany Derry is competing, so that's not it (plus, FN would never be stupid enough to prevent them from doing both if they wanted to).

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Maverick

Maverick

 This show is morphing into Top Chef: The Next Phase,   There's hardly any Food Network star on it.   I don't recognize some of those names.  If they come from the most recent seasons of TC I won't know them since Bravo made the head scratching decision to stop having a second showing of TC later in the evening, which is when I watched. 

 Graham Elliot is a weird choice.   Did FN and Ramsay do a trade where they got him for Blais (I don't know a lot about Elliot but if so I'm thinking upgrade).   Nyesha isn't in this either so I'm wondering if they're excluding for being involved with Ramsay's Next Level Chef.

 Props to Madison I guess for coming back after last year's fiasco but I'm already rolling my eyes at the redemption hype Guy will be spewing for his her time on the show.

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meep.meep

meep.meep

On 1/14/2023 at 6:41 AM, DEL901 said:

Excited to see Shota from Top Chef.  Surprised to see Graham Elliot as I tend to think of him as Gordon Ramsey’s former sidekick. 

Shota was also on Iron Chef Gauntlet, when Stephanie I. won.  So he's a FN guy too.

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Salacious Kitty

Salacious Kitty

1 hour ago, jcbrown said:

Is Guy trying to make it seem more like a sports program, with all the idiotic nicknames? (Sincerely asking--I do not watch sports.)

There really aren't THAT many athletes with nicknames, idiotic or not. This seems endemic to Guy. He seems to give EVERYONE a stupid nickname. 

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Bastet

Bastet

On Saturday (I think) I came across a ToC marathon on FN that concluded with something with a "new" designation and 2023 date, which I assume to be this preview thing mentioned, but I was watching something else at that time and now I can't find anything beyond season three on either the FN app or Discovery+ when I go to their respective ToC pages.  Any hints?

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kirklandia

kirklandia

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

On Saturday (I think) I came across a ToC marathon on FN that concluded with something with a "new" designation and 2023 date, which I assume to be this preview thing mentioned, but I was watching something else at that time and now I can't find anything beyond season three on either the FN app or Discovery+ when I go to their respective ToC pages.  Any hints?

According to my cable guide, it will be showing again on Wednesday and on Friday.

image.thumb.jpeg.15e21ea3be718e4434a542f1ec194c2e.jpeg

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DEL901

DEL901

6 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

They released the "brackets" for this year. A lot of big names are absent, especially in the West. 

I think that this will continue to happen.   I remember, I think it was season 2, when the judges wanted Mark Murphy’s dish to be spicier and he told the camera, “but that’s how I cook”, I knew he wouldn’t be back.  Brook won the first year and came close the next 2 years.  I was surprised she came back last year.  Alex G is now a judge.  No one established is going to want to be seen as a loser, year after year.  

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FormerMod-a1

FormerMod-a1

Brooke dominated "the west" - she won the whole thing season 1 and won "the west" season 2 and 3 and routinely beat out heavy hitters like Michael Volt and Antonia and Jet.  I think having her sit out gives a chance to the others.  And, you need others to sit out in order to make space for new competitors, many of which are big names.  Add to that many like Brooke and the Volts are now in many other shows and even timing may be an issue.  

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Jaded

Jaded

Since I can't remember which of his shows I heard Guy say this on since he's put his kids into episodes of all of them including this one I'll add this here. He made a joke about participation trophies recently which made me think of how similar to me him adding his kids on his shows is. I say that because they probably wouldn't end up on them otherwise. I go back and forth on how much I can like him. It frustrates me that he's a part of so many shows that are entertaining since it's all the other participants that usually provide the entertainment that makes me want to watch.

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pdlinda

pdlinda

2 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

Well, well, well. Last year Alex lost and now she’s a judge. 

Alex seems to have attained "favored chef"  status at the FNC. 

Regardless of her performance and overall demeanor, she seems to be able to qualify for all the plum spots she is assigned. 

 

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Catfi9ht

Catfi9ht

On 2/14/2023 at 12:24 PM, Jaded said:

He made a joke about participation trophies recently which made me think of how similar to me him adding his kids on his shows is. I say that because they probably wouldn't end up on them otherwise. I go back and forth on how much I can like him. It frustrates me that he's a part of so many shows that are entertaining since it's all the other participants that usually provide the entertainment that makes me want to watch.

I go back and forth on him too. One thing I do notice is that some chefs have ridiculously toxic personalities on other shows, but when they go on Guy's, they're very likeable and lose the toxicity. I think it's because of his personality that the toxic crap isn't tolerated on his shows.

For his kids, I constantly remind myself that he's trying to set his kids up for success which is what any loving parent would do given the chance.

With his game show, he has the strangest "friends". Some are fantastic, and some I can't stand. You can tell he's loyal to a fault.

The man is an enigma to me, but he seems like an all-around good person based on his charity work and open intolerance of bigots.

Regarding this show, I love the wheel, but hate the uneven application of the rules and trash-talking. I'll still watch because of the creativity, but it's probably my least favorite of his shows.

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Bastet

Bastet

1 hour ago, Catfi9ht said:

it's probably my least favorite of his shows.

I'm the opposite; this is the only thing I can stand to watch him in - because of the caliber of competitors and the blind judging - and I'd like it even more with a different host (and certainly without that talent-free son of his wasting time with inane questions to the competitors).

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Guest

Guest

I've warmed up (slightly) to Christian over the years, but is it wrong that I kinda want him to make it just far enough to get beat by Maneet again? 😆

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HyeChaps

HyeChaps

There was a time when the words "Top Chef" were never uttered on Food Network; probably a challenge to the Iron Chef franchise.

Now, they are throwing it around all over the place--not just winners, but finalists.

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potatoradio

potatoradio

1 hour ago, HyeChaps said:

There was a time when the words "Top Chef" were never uttered on Food Network

"MasterChef" as well - we noticed that now both shows are freely included in the contestants' list of wins/competitions. I would love to hear the agent/producer chitchat around these negotiations. OK, I'll trade you one Graham Elliot appearance for another season of Blais on Next Level Chef.  

At my table for one, I am cheering the lack of "B-dubs" and the Volts. Whew. This is a season with lots of contestants I can root for and the few I don't like are just annoyances, not the show spoiling level of dislike. 

I don't mind Guy in general. He's paid a ginormous salary to be a carnival barker - and sometimes he makes me laugh. We always get a kick out of watching any show of his where he drags his son Ryder into things - poor kid really seems, ah, not into the cooking entertainment business. 

This is a welcome Sunday night diversion as we ride out the last of winter here. 

 

 

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Bastet

Bastet

I cannot stand Graham Elliot, so I'm glad he was quickly dispatched with.  If the same happens to Ilan Hall, I don't think there will be anyone left I dislike.

I was rooting for Kelsey, but that was a tough match-up.  I'm glad Eric won, and enjoyed his reaction to finding out Alex is one of the judges.

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MerBearHou

MerBearHou

I like Kelsey very much, and I love Jose so that was a tough one — in the end, I was glad Jose won, but was sorry they were paired against each other.

I am apparently out of the loop — why do so many dislike Graham Elliott?  

Delighted for wonderful Eric to win.  He is a gem.

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Harry24

Harry24

(edited)

I’m a little surprised by just how much I enjoy this show.  I’m one of those who found the Guy who appeared in the ads for DDD all those years UNBEARABLE, and couldn’t imagine under what circumstances I would ever watch a show he was in.  Then Covid hit, someone on this board mentioned that he was a much better guy than he seemed, and I tried GGG, which I mostly really enjoy.

They key, IMO, to why TOC is so enjoyable is that blind tasting.  It makes it so interesting.  I LOVE that there have only been women finalists to this point.  I feel confident that would not have been the case with non-blind judging.

The line-up of contestants this year is pretty fascinating.  I was so surprised that Eric beat Graham.  Outside of Top Chef, I’ve not seen Graham as a TV personality, but you can’t deny that is one heck of an impressive resume.  I really like Eric as a person and as a TV personality but have wondered if he might not be quite at the very top level as a chef.

Thank goodness Jet took out that annoying Malarky protege.  Same for LeAnn (sp?) taking out the Actual Malarky.

I hope Garcas can demonstrate why he became an Iron Chef.  I really enjoy when the food blows the judges away.

A few of the match-ups bum me out.  I’m sad that Shota and Antonia have to face each other.  I really like both of them.  I was SO looking forward to seeing Stephanie kiss ass and take names, but Madison these days is cannon fodder, and that could be kind of sad.  He really hasn’t been able to build on that amazing Chopped run, when it seemed like he was something extraordinary.  Then again, maybe he’s living the life he wants.

Edited by Harry24
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Catfi9ht

Catfi9ht

44 minutes ago, Harry24 said:

A few of the match-ups bum me out.

Same. Johnathan Sawyer, who lived in Cleveland for a while, is an excellent chef. I was so happy every time I ate at one of his restaurants. He's been on a few FN shows, mainly Chopped, and he usually gets the shaft because he pairs unusual things together. I think he might be "too weird" for FN.

He goes up against Maneet in the first round. The guy can never catch a break.

My husband reminded me last night that a friend of a friend was on Master Chef? (Whichever one has non-chefs on.) Anyway, the poor guy had a miserable experience. He said both Gordon Ramsey and Graham Elliot were extremely toxic to the contestants. I've also heard other stories from folks on here about how toxic Top Chef was to the contestants and allowed contestants to bully some contestants. When Graham showed up, I wasn't happy. Glad he got eliminated. Let's not bring toxic personalities from non-FN shows to FN please and thanks. Bobby Flay, Scott Conant, and the other jerks from Chopped are already enough.

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Guest

Guest

7 minutes ago, Catfi9ht said:

Bobby Flay, Scott Conant, and the other jerks from Chopped are already enough.

Bobby doesn't bother me, as I think these days he's more of a curmudgeon than an actual jerk, and can be pretty nice a lot of the time. I was bummed, however, by seeing so many clips of Conant as a judge in the preview show. That guy seriously rubs me the wrong way.

As they were all filing in at the beginning and Stephanie walked in, I was amused by all the build-up about how fearsome she is and all the trepidation from the other chefs, and she just says "Hi! 🙂" in the most easy-going way possible.

Also: this show is loud by nature, but Malarkey is just so, so very loud. It's uncanny. He might be a nice enough person, but thank goodness he's out early.

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jcbrown

jcbrown

I was happy to see that Elizabeth Falkner has decided to wear a chicken on her head. Or maybe she just goes to Anne Burrell's stylist. (I can't stand her and the sillier she looks, the better. She is a sore loser and no fun to watch, for me.)

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mlp

mlp

5 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Also: this show is loud by nature, but Malarkey is just so, so very loud. It's uncanny. He might be a nice enough person, but thank goodness he's out early.

I actually like Malarkey.  I do wish he'd calm down but he has a very good reputation as chef and businessman and he seems to be a nice guy.  OTOH I can't stand Carlos, his protégé, who copies his behavior.  I'm not sure why that is but I think it's because Malarkey has a shtick he's having fun with and Carlos is just too impressed with himself.  And not original.

I realize that the editors show us what they want us to see and hear but I sure didn't expect Lee Ann to beat Malarkey.  Neither did she.  I would have liked to hear more of the judges' comments.  

I was relieved when Jet's name came up as winner of his round.  I'm looking forward to watching Shota and Viet.  I remember seeing Viet years ago on some show I've forgotten except that the chefs were cooking outdoors.  I was impressed with him then and I'm glad to see him again.  

I'm really sick of Guy giving everyone a stupid nickname.  I know some of the chefs already had them but Guy seems to think everyone should have one.  It seems disrespectful to me.  

 

 

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schnauzergirl

schnauzergirl

(edited)

I'm over the nicknames, but what really gets me is Guy saying so-and-so is "the one and only."  Each of us is "the one-and-only" so just stop it, Guy.

For years I avoided Guy like the plague, chiefly because of the DDD commercials, then caught an episode of GGG and enjoyed it.  He's a showman, brings in the viewers, and devotes much of himself to good causes.  I do wonder how far Guy would go as a participant in TOC..

Edited by schnauzergirl
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