S13.W5 (E21-25)

[Athena]

Begins Sunday May 16, 2021.

[katisha]

Well, at least the necessary 2021 dude winner of Masterchef AU isn't going to be Conor.  Thank God for that.  I'm still really shocked that he felt he'd mastered ice-cream after making it about five times.  This time he again showed stunning unoriginality by making olive ice-cream again, just using a different type of olive this time, so I think that's a very fitting exit for him.  And I maintain olives with ice-cream are not a thing and they should never be mentioned in the same breath!

I know not everyone here's a huge fan of Curtis Stone but I will say I'm grateful he was on the show tonight because it meant another challenge where nobody could make ice-cream!

The recap's up too. 

Quote

Meanwhile Conor has taken his ice-cream out of the churner and discovered the texture is different to what he's used to. He's used to an ice-cream-like texture, while this is more the texture of the Hume Highway. He presses on regardless, confident in his ability to get lucky through no particular effort or skill on his part.

 

Edited May 16, 2021 by katisha

[misgabi13]

26 minutes ago, katisha said:

And I maintain olives with ice-cream are not a thing and they should never be mentioned in the same breath!

I agree!  Olive ice-cream should go in the bin!

I was so relieved they didn't invent a sudden fondness for olive ice-cream just to keep Conor (which is what I was expecting) but the rest of the dishes sounded delicious (drama aside).

Curtis Stone being made to stand full length in the video chat with the added knife belt was all sorts of disturbing.  Kind of Knightish, kind of Butcherish, kind of tool!  LOL

[dippydee]

I knew he’d go for green olives next! Of course it’s in ice cream form since he’s been coasting by on it since the start. I’m not saddened by the elimination at all. It’ll be good to see some of the others get some screen time. 
 

If I’m picking, Aaron to go next please. They need to let a few dudes go to even things out a bit.

[displayname]

25 minutes ago, dippydee said:

If I’m picking, Aaron to go next please. They need to let a few dudes go to even things out a bit.

I'm fine with Aaron, Dan, and Eric all going next. I also want Scott and Brent (with that untamed beard!) to go, but it seems unlikely it will happen any time soon now, surprisingly so when it comes to Scott.

[Aerobicidal]

Curried potato taco, bao, falafel, and ice cream made from brined green olives--three parts lack of ambition, one part lack of rationality. It's a winning formula!

I would feel bad for Conor if he hadn't seemed so upbeat, but I'm still absolutely delighted at how the judges' wild overpraising of frozen desserts and the contestants who make them has now taken down two of the early-highlighted contestants. 

And Conor, I do believe you will master green olive ice cream someday, and if I'm ever at your creamery and have the opportunity to taste it, I will almost certainly refuse to.

Lastly, regarding Justin: I don't know if there's an Australian stereotype of what youth pastors are like, but there is an American one (e.g. trying to be "down with the kids" and failing miserably in the process), and he embodies it so much, especially in the way he talks. I would find him absolutely excruciating to be around, but I have no ill will for his competitive prospects on this show. That will likely change.

[katisha]

2 hours ago, Aerobicidal said:

And Conor, I do believe you will master green olive ice cream someday, and if I'm ever at your creamery and have the opportunity to taste it, I will almost certainly refuse to.

😁 Well, you could probably get something equally as disgusting at Creepy Ben's establishment.  I have to mention him because he's more to blame for the endless ice-creams than Reynold, who I hold responsible for the frozen domes more so.

[seltzer3]

So, I'm really confused by the whole Dan's bao situation.  Where Dan was freaking out that he didn't have enough time to proof.  I thought the masterchef kitchen had proofing machines that speeded up the process.  I remember this because I was confused how people were able to make roti and other breads in less than 2 hours, and people said there were proofing machines.  Did Dan just forgot they had a proofing machine, or do they just not have it?

[Niuxita]

Well, today my team won the Women's Champions League and now Conor is gone?!?! The TV gods are smiling down on me!

Given how they made a point to emphasize how his dish was "good but not great" while with Amir they seemed a lot more critical, I was prepared for Conor to coast on mediocre ice creams for yet another week and to basically crown him the winner, so that was a genuine shock to me. Glad that at least reason prevailed for once.

Kishwar's little wink when she said, "It's a moms and dads team today" absolutely melted my heart. Please don't take her away from me just yet, judges!!! I was also very happy to see the Linda/Sabina combo smashing it.

[retrograde]

Things that annoyed me, in order:

Blokey McBlokeface loves Curtis because he's a bloke

Curtis' chain-link belt looked both uncomfortable and impractical 

Curtis is in LA but claims to be cutting up meat from Coles. Hmm.

"Schnitty"

That I still couldn't tell you a single thing about Jess or Scott

Why are they all still bumping elbows? If someone in that room has COVID, everyone in that room has COVID

Those "tacos" did not look good, but I'll take their word for it

I can't believe Conor made olive ice cream twice

[Niuxita]

35 minutes ago, retrograde said:

Why are they all still bumping elbows? If someone in that room has COVID, everyone in that room has COVID

Yeah, honestly. Give up the charade, people. Especially since we saw some of them really actually hug with their whole ass bodies in last week's team challenge. Is it a legal thing, like to avoid liabilities (or something, IDK how that works)?

[displayname]

18 hours ago, katisha said:

The recap's up too. 

It's not available in this collection, along with some others. How do you usually find them?

Edited May 17, 2021 by displayname

[katisha]

26 minutes ago, displayname said:

It's not available in this collection, along with some others. How do you usually find them?

I usually just type Masterchef 2021 into Google News and it comes up there. :)

[ChicagoMe]

The second Conor-with-the-dead-animal-on-top-of-his-head said what he was making I knew he'd be gone - whewwww! I'm sure someday it'll come out that he's related to one of the producers.

Can you call anything you put on a tortilla a taco? They've got to come up with some other name because taco means meat, shredded cheese and lettuce, some guac and salsa. It's a simple item, a quicky meal, a food truck item. It should never take 90 minutes to make a taco. And whatever happened to crunchy corn shells? Whatever that was, with the curry yam innards - being something I wouldn't eat under any circumstances and then to call it something I love - this season is messing with my head. While I wasn't a fan of Po last season alteast she could cook innovative things beyond her cultural influence - this year's contestants are lacking that except for Jess whom we see too little of. Maybe that'll change now that camera hog Conor is gone.

I feel like the judges are trying to pull the wool over our eyes this season. As soon as they started in on their raves over olive ice cream I knew something was amiss. Olive ice cream has no place on planet Earth nor do its makers. Blast 'em both the hell out of MC kitchen, please.

So, what we're left with are some decent cooks, a few to root for with some obvious dead weight in the bunch - they'll declare themselves soon enough. Yet, I'm grateful during this continued Covid lockdown for MC AU for all the cheering and booing I get to do this season.

[akr]

7 hours ago, seltzer3 said:

So, I'm really confused by the whole Dan's bao situation.  Where Dan was freaking out that he didn't have enough time to proof.  I thought the masterchef kitchen had proofing machines that speeded up the process.  I remember this because I was confused how people were able to make roti and other breads in less than 2 hours, and people said there were proofing machines.  Did Dan just forgot they had a proofing machine, or do they just not have it?

Yeast is still a living thing - you can optimize the conditions for it to activate, but it's still going to take time. He used some sort of warming drawer, and I'm not sure what a "proofing machine" is beyond an optimized warming drawer. I'm guessing they have small proofing drawers at their stations, and larger machines for when they need to make a lot of dough for a crowd.

[displayname]

I'm happy Depinder has shown she can do very well with vegetarian food, two different types of proteins, and desserts. I just want her to show she can do more than one type of cuisine too now, and she'll easily deserve the overall win in my eyes.

[katisha]

This episode reminded me (in a bad way) of the old immunity challenges where every now and then, there was a result which seemed heavily manipulated and the amateur cook beat the professional chef.  I'm not saying it's impossible that tonight's four amateurs could have beaten the team from Tonka, but I'm not entirely convinced that they did.  And would that kingfish entree have ever got done if Adam D'Sylva hadn't stepped in and helped Eric?  So if this is the way this week's going to play out, I''m going to be a bit distracted like I was tonight.  

I did get a couple of laughs from the gantry, like when Tom was yelling things like, "Great job! You've got this!" and Adam called out, "Thanks," to which Tom replied, "Not YOU!"  Hehehe! 

And here's the recap.

Quote

If an amateur team beats a restaurant team, they win immunity. Which seems to suggest that it is possible for everyone to win immunity this week. Unless it's rigged, but of course that COULD NEVER BE.

Quote

Tonka's entrees are plated up. They have served beef tartare a la Mexicana, or put another way, cat food with a tortilla chip in the middle. The judges are deeply unimpressed. 

Bahaha! That's exactly what the Tonka entree looked like!

 

Edited May 17, 2021 by katisha

[dippydee]

Wow a whole week of my least favourite things. Mass cooking (sort of) and cooking vs professionals. I’m not looking forward to this much at all.
 

That said, this episode was entertaining. Adam is all kinds of fun. I liked him stepping in to help Eric save at least some of his fish (and Depinder getting a free lesson). I’m glad the pink team is safe (even if I don’t entirely buy it), since I like Depinder, Linda and Elise. Eric was just along for the ride.

[TVbitch]

I will never be able to take Curtis Stone seriously after seeing him on The Apprentice where he pissed off the rest of the cast by smelling up the loo. Personally, I like a NY Strip steak, and I would never put sauce on it. Didn't see that or the ribeye. Maybe they call it something different. Don't know what the Scotch is ...and I just don't care enough to google it. 

Seems like Jock went out of his way to help Amir, or was it Justin, (the falafel), so maybe he is sick of ice cream, too. 

[akr]

25 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

Personally, I like a NY Strip steak, and I would never put sauce on it. Didn't see that or the ribeye. Maybe they call it something different. Don't know what the Scotch is ...and I just don't care enough to google it.

Scotch fillet is ribeye. NY strip is from a particular part of the sirloin. 

[katisha]

Well, that was a bit of a trainwreck, wasn't it?  There really wasn't any suspense at all tonight.  At no stage did I ever think that that combination of cooks were going to beat the professionals.  Their lemongrass entree wasn't lemongrass-y.  They didn't have a clue what to do with a Jerusalem artichoke (and frankly, neither would !).  And they had nobody on the team who's really put their hand up as someone who likes making desserts, which is probably why what they served looked a bit like what's left on the plate after you've eaten the real dessert.   Not sure how TPTB could have "fixed" who ended up on the green team, but if the goal was to make sure the weaker contestants were in the eliminnation, mission accomplished.

[ChicagoMe]

A real yawner tonite - the composition of the team alone made the outcome predictable before they even started cooking, I felt sorry for Tommy because had he been left alone to create a lemongrass dish they might have had a fighting chance. He really struggled with Jess' lack of leadership. Dan or Jess to go home on Sunday.

[dippydee]

29 minutes ago, ChicagoMe said:

A real yawner tonite - the composition of the team alone made the outcome predictable before they even started cooking

Yep. As soon as I saw the team I knew it’d be a one way ticket to elimination for them. No way was that team beating the professionals, but somehow they were even worse than expected. Lemongrass-less starter, their main looked a mess and their dessert didn’t look much better either with all those messy blobs all over the place. 

[akr]

Honestly, the surprise is that any team beat the professionals. They rarely did in the old seasons, and there's not much reason to expect a different result this year. It serves more as a good opportunity for the contestants to learn from seeing the restaurant chefs in action.   

I wonder if the Movida team chose the Jerusalem artichokes in part because the Green Team chose the lemongrass - it meant it might be dangerous to throw them a softball. In any event, it really slowed them down, just trying to figure out what to do with them. Even if you're familiar with them, it's hard to hero them in a dish (other than, say, a pureed soup of Jerusalem artichoke, which would be tasty if done right, but not a main). As I type I'm starting to get some ideas, but nothing good enough to beat that quail, and to put up 20 plates, under time pressure? They were always going to lose that course. And then the Movida team aced the lemongrass course, too (wow, did that look good), and you'd just be hoping in a regular Masterchef immunity test against a professional to get a 7 or 8 to their 9 or 10. 

[Rosenrot]

Ack, I'm behind!

On 5/17/2021 at 2:36 PM, katisha said:

I did get a couple of laughs from the gantry, like when Tom was yelling things like, "Great job! You've got this!" and Adam called out, "Thanks," to which Tom replied, "Not YOU!"  Hehehe! 

Yes! Can I just say that I adore Tom. 

Adam was a great sport and indeed very entertaining, and there is no way in hell anybody can convince me that the pink team won fair and square. I never believed it in the old immunity challenges (there were some exceptions, but very few of them) and I don't believe it now.  

Jock needs to never again say "spankingly good". Like WTF. I already have my mind in the gutter and statements like that do NOT help. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Rosenrot

[displayname]

8 minutes ago, Rosenrot said:

Adam was a great sport and indeed very entertaining, and there is no way in hell anybody can convince me that the pink team won fair and square. I never believed it in the immunity challenges (there were some exceptions, but very few of them) and I don't believe it now.  

 I don't think they "really" beat the pros. If we were to take every single thing properly into account, from the plating to the flavour combinations to the way the menu eats, I'd actually give it to the pros. I'd always give it to the pros, in fact. But that's not the point. The amateurs did well enough to compete against them - so they deserved the win. That's how I've always read the vs Pro challenges, anyway.

I am very happy that Adam found it in his heart to help Eric. That's the spirit of the competition, to me. If I ever visit Australia, I'll give them a visit, their food sounds great.

I do think Depinder's curry looked and sounded quite authentic though. The refinement will come with experience, but her skill and talent are outstanding.

In the latest episode, it's obvious that the amateurs were just not on top of anything. They clearly didn't do "well enough" so they deserved to not get immunity.

Edited May 18, 2021 by displayname

[Rosenrot]

6 minutes ago, displayname said:

The amateurs did well enough to compete against them - so they deserved the win. That's how I've always read the vs Pro challenges, anyway.

Yeah... you may be right. I still think it's a foolish concept overall. 

[TVbitch]

I watched the first chef off. While I do like her, they better be careful about making this the Depinder show, cuz, being the strict contrarian that I am, if they focus on her too glowingly, I will have to root for someone else. : D

 

[Niuxita]

Monday's episode really highlighted the fact that Eric should not still be here after his carbonara fiasco (add that to the growing list of things I'll still be yelling about on my deathbed). He was such dead weight on that team. When he jumped up and down at the praise for his entree I was like, bro, that dish was a success IN SPITE OF not because of you. I'm so happy the three ladies are safe but super pissed that he gets to undeservingly coast on for one more week.

I have such a crush on Tomka's pastry chef. 😍

[retrograde]

Uggggh I hate service challenges, and do not wish to watch a whole week of them. MC is a competition for home cooks, why would any of them be good at running a commercial kitchen, which is a very different and specific skill set? I don't care if these people can cook food at a large scale and manage the timing of several courses. I don't even really care if they're good at team work. It's not what I tune in for. 

[ChicagoMe]

5 hours ago, retrograde said:

MC is a competition for home cooks, why would any of them be good at running a commercial kitchen. I don't even really care if they're good at team work. It's not what I tune in for. 

Amen to that. The way they've set this season up there's been little opportunity to see what these chefs can do in terms of self-expression and creativity, cultural influence (except for Pindo and Kishwar) and an a chance to stretch their own limits. There should never be teams on MC...someone always gets the short end of the stick. There must be an entirely new production team this year...and they suck!

[displayname]

Is "Lucy Liu" really a top restaurant... ? With Tonka and MoVida you could see the quality?

[katisha]

10 minutes ago, displayname said:

Is "Lucy Liu" really a top restaurant... ?

I had to wonder when I saw what they made for dessert.  I mean, boiling cans of condensed milk?  I thought that was the lazy dessert cook's way of making a cheesecake!

If having Blokey McBeardface safe from elimination means we also get to keep Kishwar, I can live with it.  For now.   It was at least slightly more believable that that particular team "might" have beaten a bunch of professional chefs.  And they did work well together as a team, I thought.

What do we think tomorrow night?  Safe or in the elimination?  If they are trying to get rid of some deadwood, they have pretty much a whole team of that ready for the boot even if nobody else ends up there.

[displayname]

12 minutes ago, katisha said:

What do we think tomorrow night?  Safe or in the elimination?

I don't think I can see a team with Pete, Sabina in elimination, but I suppose it does contain Amir and Justin as the weaker ones. Two weak and two strong cooks can make for an interesting dynamic, at least.

[dippydee]

1 hour ago, displayname said:

Is "Lucy Liu" really a top restaurant... ?

I had the exact same thought. The others showed a lot more skill and adaptability. These guys had their preferred choice of ingredients and still somehow made that terrible dessert. It seemed like they were just phoning it in, and trying to use dishes already on their menu. I think the other teams were forced to think and adjust more because of cuisine and ingredient constraints. 

Im glad Kishwar and Tom are safe and it was nice of the Lucy Liu chef to help Kishwar), less so about Aaron and Brent but can’t be helped. I thought they did well as a team.

1 hour ago, katisha said:

What do we think tomorrow night?  Safe or in the elimination? 

I think they’ll be in the elimination. The restaurant team will have home field and I’m not sure they’ll do an elimination with just 4 people. Also are they doing to do a double elimination since they missed Tuesdays one or is it just the one?

Edited May 19, 2021 by dippydee

[katisha]

22 hours ago, dippydee said:

I think they’ll be in the elimination. The restaurant team will have home field and I’m not sure they’ll do an elimination with just 4 people. Also are they doing to do a double elimination since they missed Tuesdays one or is it just the one?

You totally called it, @dippydee, but unless a double elimination is going to be a huge shock on the day of the episode, it looks like we're just losing the one contestant.

I'm really glad the Stokehouse team won tonight.  I'd love to know how the judges were able to praise the Turquoise Team's entree with straight faces when one of its main features was tomato paste out of a jar.  The only thing it probaby had going for it was that it was a tad more red than Team Stokehouse's entree and I guess it also created a bit of fake drama.  

Glad this boring week is over and at least they've set a relay challenge for the elimination.  Those are usually fun.

And the recap has provided some laughs too.

Quote

In the entree they must hero red, leading to a vicious fight between Justin and Jock over whether his dish is red or orange. "Get me a carrot!" Jock barks ferociously, eyes flashing with rage and a total lack of self-awareness regarding how ridiculous he sounds. Justin backs down and desperately tries to make his sauce more red, because today of all days it is vital to hit the incredibly stupid brief.

Quote

The amateurs' main is served, and although it is red emperor, it is yellow – what sorcery is this? "You can see where this dish is heading," Melissa says, presumably meaning a bucket, because it's a terrible dish. Jock bitches that it's not delicious because they tried too hard to make it yellow. The sheer gall of the man. Yelling at people for not making their dishes the right colour, then whining that they tried too hard to make their dishes the right colour. I mean, honestly.

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by katisha

[displayname]

I loved the Stokehouse team's dessert. Loved the way it looked and the idea behind it and the flavours in it. And I agree that Sabina was a strong leader.

I'm fine with any of Jess, Scott, Amir, and Dan going. I'm pretty meh on the others who made it to the elimination, too, apart from Sabina.

[akr]

I really didn't expect Pete to be the weak link on this team. Very impressive from Sabina & Justin, and a good effort from Amir, up against a dessert nobody was going to beat. I appreciated Sabina, Justin, & Amir's teamwork throughout, too (including Amir's "perfect" cook on the prawns). Pete needed handholding every step of the way on the fish itself, and his corn elements sounded pretty lackluster. You have to know corn is going to be too sweet if you don't add a lot of complexity to it, & corn was his idea from the get-go. I don't know why he didn't do more there. Probably nobody had a chance against the Stokehouse team's main (well, aside from Depinder & Kishwar)

Looking forward to the relay. I hope "Justin goes rogue" is a red herring, & that Sabina, Jess, & Tommy are also safe. I would assume the relay is round 1 of a two-part immunity challenge, so if it is a fake-out, Scott & Dan would likely be the most at risk, but I've been wrong about most of these so far, so - who knows?! 

[akr]

8 hours ago, katisha said:

I'm really glad the Stokehouse team won tonight.  I'd love to know how the judges were able to praise the Turquoise Team's entree with straight faces when one of its main features was tomato paste out of a jar.  The only thing it probaby had going for it was that it was a tad more red than Team Stokehouse's entree and I guess it also created a bit of fake drama.  

I thought the sauce looked terrible, but when I look at the recipe on tenplay, it actually looks very tasty, and the prawns themselves looked great. Per the recipe, Justin didn't add that much tomato paste (they list a tablespoon for a scaled down quantity of sauce, along with some beetroot powder). The texture was appropriate for romesco, which is basically what it was aside from the addition of, essentially, a bit of food coloring that made it look like a cheap jarred pasta sauce.  If they'd left it orange, it would have looked good as well as tasted good. 

Meanwhile, the Stokehouse team's substitutions to make their dish more red ended up sacrificing the flavor. I think the dish would still have been red if they'd just done what they planned, and maybe garnished with tomatoes. So, the win is plausible to me, but all of the semi-suspenseful battles were 2-1 so it's possible they gave a gift to the Turquoise Team on a genuinely close call. (I do think they gave a gift to the appropriators of Lucy Liu's name on their dessert, so they wouldn't get skunked, and gave a gift to the Green Team of not announcing their probable loss on the third course.) (As for the pink team, I think the Tonka team genuinely lost the entree, and Depinder could easily have had the better curry. If both teams are asked to put out an entire Indian menu with a range of options for each course, I would expect that to be too much for her to manage, but just one dish? Sure.)

[katisha]

1 hour ago, akr said:

I thought the sauce looked terrible, but when I look at the recipe on tenplay, it actually looks very tasty, and the prawns themselves looked great. Per the recipe, Justin didn't add that much tomato paste (they list a tablespoon for a scaled down quantity of sauce, along with some beetroot powder). The texture was appropriate for romesco, which is basically what it was aside from the addition of, essentially, a bit of food coloring that made it look like a cheap jarred pasta sauce.  If they'd left it orange, it would have looked good as well as tasted good. 

Thanks for the explanation, @akr.  At least that course win makes sense now but on screen, it honestly just looked exactly like straight up tomato paste!

[Niuxita]

8 hours ago, akr said:

the appropriators of Lucy Liu's name

LOL, I've been wondering the same thing ever since they announced the four competing restaurants on Monday and I couldn't figure out if I'd really heard right. Wouldn't there be legal issues there or something, the way TV shows can't use a name for a character unless it's been "cleared"? Does the real Lucy Liu know of this restaurant's existence? So many questions.

Well, the two teams with the least amount of people whose eliminations would sadden me will be competing on Sunday, so all's well that ends well. I do hope Sabina is spared after that impressive display of leaderships skills. I feel like she's still got more to show.

17 hours ago, katisha said:

The sheer gall of the man. Yelling at people for not making their dishes the right colour, then whining that they tried too hard to make their dishes the right colour. I mean, honestly.

This cracked me the f up. Pick a lane, Jock.

[ChicagoMe]

Get the hell out of the way, Jock, and take yourself to the eye doctor! There's over 300 shades of red - next time give 'em a Pantone number if you want to be that picky. Andy, leave Sabina alone - that fish is gonna get filetted with or without you stating the obvious that they need to get it done. Jeez! Sabina in charge - go go go!

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by ChicagoMe

[TVbitch]

Is Lucy Liu really named after Lucy Liu? I thought maybe it was some other Lucy Liu? These restaurants must get a big boost in business from appearing, otherwise why would they come on to have some of their cooking criticized and possibly lose. I noticed they usually have a member of the pro team rush over to help the MC team to negate the validity of any loses and boost their warm friendly image. I think all that stuff is scripted. 

Does Jock get paid by the mouthful? It seems like a point of pride for him to eat the whole dish as quickly as possible. He ate the entire fish dish in like 3 bites! He also always comments on how he could eat a whole bowlful of this or 20 more of that. He can't possible eat like that all the time as he is very trim. He reminds me of supermodels who claim to eat cheeseburgers.

[akr]

26 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

Is Lucy Liu really named after Lucy Liu? I thought maybe it was some other Lucy Liu?

This explanation for how they chose the name has been floating around: 

 

(seen on both twitter & reddit). Needless to say, ick.

I mean, I suppose they can say we just like the name because it's alliterative, but the reason the name has drawing power is that there is already a well-liked famous person named Lucy Liu.  

In a review from 2014, when they opened:

" 'All names attached to this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.' That’s the bold claim Lucy Liu’s owners Scott Borg, Zac Cribbes and chef Michael Lambie are making about their new pan-Asian restaurant on the old PM24 site. Which is pretty funny when you think about it. Not just because the eponymous actress is gigantically famous, but because the restaurant has a lot in common with a summer blockbuster itself."

In other words, no one is fooled - just because they say that, doesn't mean it's true. It really means they're aware there's an issue and are trying to get out of there being any consequences for it.

Here's Adam Liaw's take on it: 

Edited May 21, 2021 by akr
clarifying quote within quote

[akr]

The review I drew from above is mixed. For example:  "Other bites are decent, if a little clumsy – they don’t seem to master the delicate dance of salty, sweet and sour flavours so well. Kingfish sashimi filling betel leaves is too sweet topped with sticky chilli-peanut sambal. A fluffy steamed bun holding salty shredded beef, pickled cucumber and fresh chilli should be a party, but it’s a little texture-less and blah. Likewise the pork and prawn mince filling the soup dumplings is good, but they’re thick skinned, and come drenched in oil insufficiently spiked with black vinegar to counter the richness." 

It closes with this: 

"This isn’t a highbrow restaurant. It’s a pretty, packed-out crowd pleaser, working a tried-and-tested formula guaranteed to get bums on seats. Like Charlie’s Angels, in restaurant form."

https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/restaurants/lucy-liu

So - mostly fairly tasty, but uneven, Asian-inspired food appealing to Westerners looking for something a little "exotic," getting by largely on ambience vs other restaurants serving comparable food; and part of that ambience they're striving for, of some sort of Orientalist sexy exoticness, is achieved by calling to mind a particular famous sexy Asian-American Hollywood star. I don't suppose it's worth it to her to object as it would make her seem like a scold to some. And, some people might even think she's behind the restaurant, unless they read the fine print.

Edited May 21, 2021 by akr
added url

[Niuxita]

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation on the name, @akr. Seems about as short-sighted as naming a Spanish restaurant (ie. one that serves paella, Spanish tortilla, etc.) "Sofía Vergara" (who is Colombian).

[Aerobicidal]

Halfway through Monday's episode, I bailed on this week as it was giving me flashbacks to everything I hated about earlier seasons' immunity challenge episodes and I didn't want to see the Season of Undeserved Praise (SOUP) continue with "OMG you beat real professionals" multiple times. So, I'm happy for myself that I missed that.

But I wanted to quickly thank everyone for all the entertaining posts here and @akr in particular for the info and comments on Lucy Liu. The subject of restaurant names and cultural acceptability/appropriation has been a hot topic in my city pretty recently, so it's interesting to learn about it in other places. (Obviously, it's a complicated and nuanced issue with reasonable arguments on many sides--just saying this as a disclaimer since it wouldn't be appropriate (no pun intended) for me to give my own opinion about it here even if I wanted to, which I don't.)

[displayname]

10 hours ago, akr said:

The review I drew from above is mixed. For example:  "Other bites are decent, if a little clumsy – they don’t seem to master the delicate dance of salty, sweet and sour flavours so well. Kingfish sashimi filling betel leaves is too sweet topped with sticky chilli-peanut sambal. A fluffy steamed bun holding salty shredded beef, pickled cucumber and fresh chilli should be a party, but it’s a little texture-less and blah. Likewise the pork and prawn mince filling the soup dumplings is good, but they’re thick skinned, and come drenched in oil insufficiently spiked with black vinegar to counter the richness." 

It closes with this: 

"This isn’t a highbrow restaurant. It’s a pretty, packed-out crowd pleaser, working a tried-and-tested formula guaranteed to get bums on seats. Like Charlie’s Angels, in restaurant form."

https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/restaurants/lucy-liu

So - mostly fairly tasty, but uneven, Asian-inspired food appealing to Westerners looking for something a little "exotic," getting by largely on ambience vs other restaurants serving comparable food; and part of that ambience they're striving for, of some sort of Orientalist sexy exoticness, is achieved by calling to mind a particular famous sexy Asian-American Hollywood star. I don't suppose it's worth it to her to object as it would make her seem like a scold to some. And, some people might even think she's behind the restaurant, unless they read the fine print.

Well this explains their performance. But now I'm wondering how they were invited when the other three restaurants really did seem to be there based off skill?

[akr]

19 minutes ago, displayname said:

Well this explains their performance. But now I'm wondering how they were invited when the other three restaurants really did seem to be there based off skill?

The review was from 2014, and I left out some more flattering passages, because I was focusing on the parts that seemed to reinforce the issues with the choice of name. I presume they've worked out some of the early problems, and it looks like at least some of the chefs have come on since that time. It seems to be a popular place I w.ould guess that they do what they do well, but may not have as much ability to come up with new things on the fly.

 

 

[displayname]

2 hours ago, akr said:

I presume they've worked out some of the early problems, and it looks like at least some of the chefs have come on since that time. It seems to be a popular place I w.ould guess that they do what they do well, but may not have as much ability to come up with new things on the fly.

But I don't find it to be true. It's strange to me that they wouldn't understand to pick what looks best out of the pantry they were given and would just modify dishes on their menu to fit around the pantry, or why they would choose such a simplistic dessert, and then still mess up on the timing (which they even knew would be difficult with the timeframe they had) because it wasn't even set at the end. They might have had ingredients they were more familiar with, but it's still not produce from their own local provider or markets (their comments on the soy sauce, for instance). The other three restaurants showed the ability to think on their feet - and to be fair, it's also one of the things the Masterchef contestants are judged on. It makes me feel bad for Tonka to be in the same bracket as them.

It also leaves me somewhat confused about the Red Team and Pink Team victories. Pink Team probably didn't "really" win, but they had strong opposition, and would simply have had to be that much stronger to "really" beat Tonka. Red Team, OTOH, while they did show considerable skill and probably did "really" win, still had opposition such that I think Pink Team could have "really" beaten them, too, with what they put out. Not particularly a feeling I'd like to walk away with, where I think the two winning amateur teams had somewhat illegitimate victories, even if I get why.

I also wish the other two amateur teams had been given homeground advantages, just to give them all a fair shot at immunity (but strangely, most of the strong contestants ended up on the Pink and Red Teams with their homeground advantage anyway, lol). And I think the amateurs all should have been allowed to pick first, too.

Edited May 22, 2021 by displayname