S18.E08: Restaurant Wars

[VintageJ]

Loved Gail at Kokoson.  She was giddy over the menu and loved her going over it saying “I want that, can’t wait for that, and that is always my F*&#$ing favorite ...”. All of the judges had a great time. They were laughing, smiling and talking.  Maria was a great FOH.  She was engaging and attentive.  It was like you were at her house in Tucson and the judges felt that.  The fact that Padma chose to tell her in real time that she was killing it says a lot to me.  It was clear to me after their service that Kokoson won.  Penny would have to be flawless to beat them.  And I was thrilled to see Maria win.  If Shota had won, it would have been equally justified. He was great.  I think the reason Maria won was because she ruled FOH and a big part of dining at the chef’s table is interaction with the chefs and she gave them a great experience on top of the wonderful meal.  The food spoke for itself.  And I love Maria so I’m glad she won.  

Team Penny. No one wanted to do anything, it seems, except cook.  They didn’t want to interact with the judges, didn’t want to assign roles, didn’t want to take charge, nothing.  Sara could see the problems but as someone upthread mentioned, she didn’t voice them.  Dawn should have communicated more about her first dish, but someone should have pushed more to say we need more info to make this cohesive.  But then again, they just settled on seafood as a theme and decided to let each chef just cook so they started out with no clear direction.  They could have had general guidelines for the progression like the first course should be raw, second course a pasta, etc.  but they just left it up to the individual so ... this happens.  

 

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by VintageJ

[blixie]

Quote

Maria made the sandwich, and also the mole that was part of one of the other chef’s dishes,

It was Shota's first dish and it was the most well received part of it, so Maria's dish was 100% her, and  well received though Tom thought it didn't fit the kaiseki service progression, which, Tom, don't tell the Japanese guy how it fits or doesn't. I think Maria deserved the win for acing her own dish, significantly contributing to Shota's dish and the hot pot, and handling FOTH, which most chefs show how much they hate. Shota lead the way, but like he's won so many times and I think this was an opportunity to recognize both his accomplishment by having the team win, and Maria's unique contributions that helped them get there. 

[dleighg]

34 minutes ago, VintageJ said:

So I have a question.  Could someone explain the progression of a 7 course tasting menu? 

I think generally lighter to heavier, and Padma dinged them for cold-warm-cold. 

12 minutes ago, VintageJ said:

Maria was a great FOH.  She was engaging and attentive.  It was like you were at her house in Tucson and the judges felt that.

early in the meal, Maria sort of interrupted their conversation to inject a comment (I can't remember exactly what it was) and they "called her on it." I thought that was going to be a problem, but I guess their comment to her was really just in fun, and that they appreciated her engagement. 

[blixie]

I found this via google:

A 7 course dinner menu includes an hors d'oeuvre, soup, appetizer, salad, main course, dessert, and mignardise.

But usually I don't think they are this prescriptive, but it's more that smaller, lighter, or cold served courses are first and even finishing with dessert can be blown off in favor of different ending,  but they usually hate when people do that, or rather I don't think anyone has ever won trying most recently the second place finisher in Kentucky.

 

[KnoxForPres]

13 hours ago, sharifa70 said:

Kokoson was hands-down the least stressful experience I have ever had watching Restaurant Wars. Not just least stressful, but simply a pleasure to watch from planning to service. I was a little scared because the drama-free edit often ends up being the losing team, so this turned out to be just a delight for me.

 

For me, this is the correct answer. They were amazing and indeed such a pleasure to watch. 

I think Dawn could have shouted from the hilltops her dishes and another step up to be Master of the House a la Les Mis and Kokoson wins every time.  They were smart, executed well and made some of the best food judges can recall on RW.  

[carrps]

13 hours ago, sharifa70 said:

If this was any indicator of how Shota is as a boss, I would work for him in a heartbeat. Good for Maria, too. 

I said the exact same thing when we were watching the episode!

[staphdude]

This is how restaurant wars should be run every season. 
 

Maria was great and it was a much deserved win. Her interaction with the diners set a tone that complemented the excellent food.

I abhor fish so Penny’s menu combined with their uninspired service left me shaking my head.

[Irlandesa]

2 hours ago, KnoxForPres said:

I think Dawn could have shouted from the hilltops her dishes and another step up to be Master of the House a la Les Mis and Kokoson wins every time.  They were smart, executed well and made some of the best food judges can recall on RW.  

I agree.  If progression were the only thing separating the winning team from the losing team, then I get why Dawn might be up for elimination. 

But it wasn't. It was the lack of an engaging front of house. That's on all of them. It was the execution/taste on some of the dishes. That is on the individual chef since they mostly worked separately by agreement. The judges are smart enough to distinguish between taste/execution of a dish and whether or not it fits in a meal progression.

Dawn was involved in Penny's three best dishes.  Two of them she made.  And with the third, she suggested seaweed to top off the dessert.

[SemiCharmedLife]

20 hours ago, Bastet said:

I forgot to mention that, but I thought the same thing last night once I saw it written:  It should have been Kokozón to better incorporate corazón with kokoro.

In print, "Kokozón"  would have looked more like a combination of the two languages, but in pronunciation, having the "s" (Kokoson) would be easier for diners to say it correctly, since the  Spanish "z" is pronounced as an "s."  Maybe the chefs thought "Kokozón" would be mispronounced as Kokozone.

[Ms Blue Jay]

What an amazing episode.  I was really emotional throughout.

I loved the Underdogs crushing it and seeing Maria excel and to see what exactly her skillset is.  I watched their dinner set twice, it was such a triumph.  I was all set to be annoyed with her for the first 15 minutes of the episode, but man the story really took a turn.

I loved the shot of Maria saying to Shota "Whatever you think (?) Papi.  I trust you blindly."  The entire team had such a winning attitude towards the project and each other.

It was so fascinating to see this team of superstars, and Chris (sorry) fail so spectacularly.

One thing I really want to note, though, is that it was very awkward and hard for the Superstar team to play Host like Maria did because all the judges did was talk shit about their dishes.  It was easier for Maria to play Host because they only had compliments for her team.  I guess that's all their own fault, but it's just something I wanted to note.

I've seen posts of Shota coming up with the concept, but Maria did contribute the "heart" connection which was also pretty cool.   Shota did have a lot of overarching ideas though and it was great.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 5/21/2021 at 9:14 AM, Lassus said:

Yes.  I thought it was somewhat unfair that the Penny team was docked for not being more outgoing.  I mean, they had other issues with timing and cohesion, but the flip of the coin put all of the shy people on the SAME TEAM.

You could also say that the chefs with the most wins ended up on that team.  I don't know if that's accurate but that's certainly my impression (and one of the chefs said similarly when the teams were picked.)  All 3 of them except for Chris have been highly successful in this competition.  The coin flip made it seem like it was Maria's team's to lose.  They completely shocked me by winning so handily.

I don't think it's unfair that they were docked for something that was a requirement of the challenge.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 5/21/2021 at 11:39 AM, Fukui San said:

Fired from his job in December for what is said to be Sexual Harassment. 

Holy crap!

On 5/21/2021 at 12:15 PM, dleighg said:

I don't think it affected the result in any way, but one would think that the judges would not be as eager to eat a second multi-course meal. 

But one could also argue that the second team got more time than the first!  (Unless they somehow started later?!)

[Ms Blue Jay]

22 hours ago, seltzer3 said:

Also this episode, as a teacher reminds me why I hate assigning group work or group projects.

Are teachers forced to, as part of curriculum?  I've always been curious.

[dleighg]

6 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

(Unless they somehow started later?!)

I'd be willing to put money down that they started later. That's always the way they've done it in things where they get served over a period of time.

[Ms Blue Jay]

21 hours ago, I Want My MBTV said:

 You could see the difference in the two teams in the planning and on Kokoson while Shota was kind of driving it since he's done this before everyone was talking and giving input while on Penny it was like crickets. 

Shota also did a great job with purposely trying to highlight what the other chefs were good at, though, like suggesting Maria's mole.

Nobody told Sara to make yogurt or whatever she's good at, LOL.

[caitmcg]

6 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

But one could also argue that the second team got more time than the first!  (Unless they somehow started later?!)

Both teams had three hours on the countdown clock in which to set up and cook, so yes, Penny started later so they could serve the judges second. This is how all the elimination challenges work, because they never have all the contestants serving the judges at once. Even when it’s an individual challenge, they’re grouped into staggered serving times so only two or three serve the judges at once, yet they all get the same amount of time on the clock..

[biakbiak]

30 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Unless they somehow started later?!)

Yes, they stagger the start times when serving at different times on challenges. This is not usually done on restaurants wars because all the teams are serving at least one group of judges at the first seating but it’s routinely done when the challenges have them present individually in courses.

[jpgr]

3 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Dawn was involved in Penny's three best dishes.  Two of them she made.  And with the third, she suggested seaweed to top off the dessert.

It was Sara who said the dessert should have seaweed.

[hula-la]

3 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Are teachers forced to, as part of curriculum?  I've always been curious.

Collaboration is in my curriculum (I teach Home Ec in Canada, so it will differ based on the subject area and jurisdiction), but how they asses it will differ by teacher. I definitely have students do cooking labs in partners/groups of 4 because space and cost. I’ve increasingly given students the option of working in partners or alone for non cooking related projects because a crappy partner sucks. And, I’ll be honest, having to mark 12 projects instead of 24 is great sometimes! 

[PhoneCop]

4 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

You could also say that the chefs with the most wins ended up on that team.  I don't know if that's accurate but that's certainly my impression (and one of the chefs said similarly when the teams were picked.)  All 3 of them except for Chris have been highly successful in this competition.  The coin flip made it seem like it was Maria's team's to lose.  They completely shocked me by winning so handily.

I don't think it's unfair that they were docked for something that was a requirement of the challenge.

Going into it, they were actually tied on elimination challenge wins.

Kokoson: Byron, Jamie, Shota x 2

Penny: Dawn, Gabe, Sara x 2

If you count quickfires, however, then Penny had the edge—Jamie and Shota have each won one, while Sara has one and Chris has two.

[seltzer3]

4 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Are teachers forced to, as part of curriculum?  I've always been curious.

No it was optional.  I teach math, so I thought there was a way maybe to incorporate group projects for a semester as part of a grade.  That was a hot mess from beginning to end.  Never again.

[Ms Blue Jay]

26 minutes ago, PhoneCop said:

Going into it, they were actually tied on elimination challenge wins.

Kokoson: Byron, Jamie, Shota x 2

Penny: Dawn, Gabe, Sara x 2

If you count quickfires, however, then Penny had the edge—Jamie and Shota have each won one, while Sara has one and Chris has two.

Thanks.  Kokoson also looks rougher because Jamie had already been eliminated.  Was she the only contestant that's clawed their way back so far?  I think so right?

[seltzer3]

2 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Thanks.  Kokoson also looks rougher because Jamie had already been eliminated.  Was she the only contestant that's clawed their way back so far?  I think so right?

Yup that is correct.

In all honesty too Penny has Chris.  Who in my personal opinion is the weakest chef, so the teams aren't as stacked.  Penny is still probably the stronger team, because the other three, up until this episode never hit the bottom.  

Kokoson's team makeup because all 4 of them very yo-yo in their performances.  They would slam it out of the park, or completely fall flat on their faces (Shota and Jamie especially).  And tonight's episode was the former.

[stewedsquash]

11 hours ago, blixie said:

It was Shota's first dish and it was the most well received part of it, so Maria's dish was 100% her, and  well received though Tom thought it didn't fit the kaiseki service progression, which, Tom, don't tell the Japanese guy how it fits or doesn't. I think Maria deserved the win for acing her own dish, significantly contributing to Shota's dish and the hot pot, and handling FOTH, which most chefs show how much they hate. Shota lead the way, but like he's won so many times and I think this was an opportunity to recognize both his accomplishment by having the team win, and Maria's unique contributions that helped them get there. 

Shota explained that the tongue sandwich was the braise part of the kaiseki meal and Tom then understood it. 

I loved Kristen's reaction to Jamie talking and I can't remember who noticed her perplexed look and they said It's your first time hearing this (paraphrasing). It was a funny moment with her. Jamie just seems so oblivious when she does it that it doesn't bother me. And she cooks such pretty food that is well received. Her cake was one of the prettiest, precise looking desserts, usually they are just slap dash thrown together looking. 

It really is still a hard season, because I still like everyone and the ones that I was iffy on have won me over.

Edited May 23, 2021 by stewedsquash

[Vermicious Knid]

Sara's exit interview.

I much prefer Chef's Table to traditional Restaurant Wars. I hope they do this again, maybe with a couple of servers so the chefs can mostly concentrate on just their cooking. Had the judges been able to see the preparations it probably would have been Shota for the win and Dawn going home. I believe Maria won because she got to schmooze the judges.

I'm hoping Jamie puts that tres leches cake on the menu because I am there for that. She hasn't changed anything yet but maybe has to wait for the season to finish. And oh look, she also features octopus: Grilled Spanish Octopus: yellow frisee, black sesame seeds, cripsy rice
ginger sambal sauce.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, Vermicious Knid said:

win and Dawn going home.

I seriously doubt that. At the end of the day she made two of the best dishes of the night and got praise that might have put her ahead of some of the dishes on the other team. All of them agreed to go the individual route, all of them agreed to not have a person in charge of catering to the guests, and none of the other three even pushed back on Dawn not knowing exactly what they were going to do (Gabe “just as long as it represents you!”) and none of their dishes were ready so that the other team members could taste and judge before actual service/finalizing the progression.

Edited May 23, 2021 by biakbiak

[GreyBunny]

On 5/21/2021 at 7:12 PM, sharifa70 said:

Kokoson was hands-down the least stressful experience I have ever had watching Restaurant Wars. Not just least stressful, but simply a pleasure to watch from planning to service. I was a little scared because the drama-free edit often ends up being the losing team, so this turned out to be just a delight for me.

If this was any indicator of how Shota is as a boss, I would work for him in a heartbeat. Good for Maria, too. 

I felt bad for Penny having to follow that, but it was a little too painfully obvious that they didn’t have a Plan. I did agree with Sarah’s elimination even though I’ve enjoyed her.

Have we ever had such a nice-seeming group of cheftestants? Sure, Gabriel annoyed me but I wasn’t hate-watching until his elimination or anything. It really has been nice to watch for the food rather than the drama.

As a northwesterner, the food from Kokoson looked more familiar than the courses from Penny. We do love our seafood, but we have ingredients and flavor profiles that are distinct for our region. It looked like Penny just threw together a bunch of seafood dishes from wherever and called it Pacific Northwest because the main part of the dish came from under the water.

[biakbiak]

12 minutes ago, GreyBunny said:

As a northwesterner, the food from Kokoson looked more familiar than the courses from Penny. We do love our seafood, but we have ingredients and flavor profiles that are distinct for our region. It looked like Penny just threw together a bunch of seafood dishes from wherever and called it Pacific Northwest because the main part of the dish came from under the water.

I mean for better or worse, mostly for the worst, that was in fact their concept. Take seafood available locally and putting their viewpoint/style on it, they just didn’t execute it well on a variety of levels. I will never forgive the waste of the side of salmon. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by biakbiak

[Vandy10]

On 5/22/2021 at 12:21 AM, marybennet said:

Really irritated:  I watch by streaming, buying the episodes on Apple, and they don't have the whole episode.  It ends at 47 minutes (length of a regular episode, I guess), which is just as team Penny arrives at the judges' table.  A friend who buys them on Amazon said they have the same problem.  What happens to team Penny at judges' table?  How do people respond to Sara's being PYKAGed?  (Irritated.)😖

I had the same problem the other day buying from Apple. But, I went back today to rewatch the delightful Kokoson service, and surprise! There was an extra 7 minutes. So, try again if you really want to see the end. I think they fixed the problem.

[sharifa70]

5 hours ago, GreyBunny said:

As a northwesterner, the food from Kokoson looked more familiar than the courses from Penny. We do love our seafood, but we have ingredients and flavor profiles that are distinct for our region. It looked like Penny just threw together a bunch of seafood dishes from wherever and called it Pacific Northwest because the main part of the dish came from under the water.

I agree. Dawn (crab) and Sara (halibut, salmon) at least felt somewhat local but just because it was crab, halibut, and salmon. Did we ever hear what kind of crab she used? I hope it was Dungeness because Dungeness.

@biakbiak: I, too, hope they really did eat that salmon later, because the waste is shocking. Sara is local so fingers crossed....

Edited May 23, 2021 by sharifa70

[Chyromaniac]

On 5/21/2021 at 5:47 PM, Bastet said:

It should have been Kokozón to better incorporate corazón with kokoro.

I thought they had decided on Kokorazon  (or -son, the writing was scribbley), then at some point there was a switch.  Perhaps there were rights issues with the better options, and Kokoson was the closest they could get.

[dleighg]

31 minutes ago, sharifa70 said:

Did we ever hear what kind of crab she used? I hope it was Dungeness because Dungeness.

I vaguely recall her asking for "crab clusters." So, snow crab? It did look like those "crab sticks" you get from that sort of crab.

[SemiCharmedLife]

10 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Sara's exit interview.

 I believe Maria won because she got to schmooze the judges.

 

I don't agree with this- Maria received praise for her lengua sandwich and made a tasty molé that was paired with Shota's appetizer. She also collaborated with the hot pot. She also did most of the decor on her own and did a great job with FOH.  

One thing that surprised me was that Maria was well received as FOH because she gets a lot of negative feedback here on this forum.  Sometimes her personality can rub people the wrong way.  This could have gone either way...

[seltzer3]

10 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Sara's exit interview.

I much prefer Chef's Table to traditional Restaurant Wars. I hope they do this again, maybe with a couple of servers so the chefs can mostly concentrate on just their cooking. Had the judges been able to see the preparations it probably would have been Shota for the win and Dawn going home. I believe Maria won because she got to schmooze the judges.

I'm hoping Jamie puts that tres leches cake on the menu because I am there for that. She hasn't changed anything yet but maybe has to wait for the season to finish. And oh look, she also features octopus: Grilled Spanish Octopus: yellow frisee, black sesame seeds, cripsy rice
ginger sambal sauce.

Quote

 

"There was some talk about where your dishes fell in the menu. How much do you think Dawn’s lack of information about her first course affected the way the judges viewed your halibut?
I will be the first one to admit that my halibut dish fell short. I wanted to use albacore but was given opah, which tasted off, and the only fish I had left to use was halibut and not much of it. Making such a huge switch in the middle of chaos really threw me off my game.

Dawn is a very intuitive cook. I can relate to her in the sense that we have a vague idea of the dish we want to cook, but can’t really communicate it well until we are in game mode and are actually creating. It was a huge bummer to have been placed in the position of “team leader” to a certain extent. It was as if the judges thought I personally made the decision to place my dishes in that order when in reality it was very much a team decision. Not knowing the temperature or richness of Dawn’s dishes did not help my case, but neither did Gabe’s very large amuse with raw fish. We all just dropped the ball on communication."

 

Yikes.  So it looked like Dawn wasn't the only one who wasn't really sure what her final dishes were either.  Sara switching her fish at the last minute really is problematic.   And Gabe really should not have made an amuse, and spent his time focusing honing the other 7 dishes.

This is definitely an equivalent of people throwing in random slides in a group project 30 minutes before class starts.

Edited May 23, 2021 by seltzer3

[dgpolo]

2 minutes ago, seltzer3 said:

And Gabe really should not have made an amuse, and spent his time focusing honing the other 7 dishes.

As someone upthread mentioned, Gabe almost -had- to do the amuse. The way they structured their team as 'everyone for themselves' meant each had to do 2 dishes in a 7 course meal. He might have done better to do a second dessert. Maybe?

[AnnA]

Obviously I don't have the palate to appreciate some of the menu items these chefs prepare.  I'm not opposed to them doing so but I can't find a shred of enthusiasm for tongue.  

[weixiaobao]

Uproxxx pointed out Chris's dessert must be crazy good for Dale to want second even though it was the 14th dish he ate that night and must have been full.  Hunger of course to me is one of the greatest ingredient out there for a good meal.  Which is a factor on why going first tend to be better.  I will give another example, on Top Chef duel, Marcel and Richard went head to head on making a dessert with a hot and a cold component.  Richard serve second.  And in that 3 to 4 minutes between the judges eating/criticizing Marcel dish to eating Richard's dish, the heat transfer between the two temperature making his component not very hot and not very cold to the point of not much of a temperature gradient.  But despite this, he won that challenge due to Marcel messing up.

On 5/22/2021 at 10:34 PM, stewedsquash said:

I loved Kristen's reaction to Jamie talking and I can't remember who noticed her perplexed look and they said It's your first time hearing this (paraphrasing).

It was Maria.

20 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I mean for better or worse, mostly for the worst, that was in fact their concept. Take seafood available locally and putting their viewpoint/style on it, they just didn’t execute it well on a variety of levels. I will never forgive the waste of the side of salmon. 

Nice observation there.  And I agree on that principle because I am part of the clean plate club.  Even when I am on a diet, I just throw thing in the refrigerator and finish it later.  The thing to point out is that why Gabriel/Nelson went home.  They had the crispy skins in the menu.  And by getting that part of the dish, Nelson over cook their fish.  Gabriel redid it and cook the fish well but the skins ain't crispy.  So they decided to use Nelson's fish because it fit the menu.  And Gabriel thought about cutting the fish off and leave only the skins but he didn't want to waste food.  Which ended up being the reason they went home.  In the exit interview (upthread somewhere), Sara did say that she switch the protein during the process and ended up not having enough fish. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by weixiaobao

[Msample]

One of the judges pointed out ( Tom I think ) was that for a menu focused on seafood, they only got like one piece of actually cooked fish. I think it was in response to Sarah's dish having only the salmon skin was kind of the turning point in Penny's overall menu that contributed to their downfall. 

And for those that don't care for tongue, it is a staple ingredient on a lot of mexican menus so I can see why it was used here. 

Spoiler

 

 

[Bastet]

13 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Had the judges been able to see the preparations it probably would have been Shota for the win and Dawn going home.

Nothing about Dawn's delayed communication rose to a level that they'd send her home for it despite producing two of the team's best dishes.  She could have on day one inscribed on a tablet every single ingredient and technique she'd use and Penny still would have lost, so the person responsible for two of the three best dishes on the losing team was never going to be a candidate for elimination.

[marybennet]

8 hours ago, Vandy10 said:

I had the same problem the other day buying from Apple. But, I went back today to rewatch the delightful Kokoson service, and surprise! There was an extra 7 minutes. So, try again if you really want to see the end. I think they fixed the problem

Thanks, Vandy10!  I was just able to watch the end. 
 

I was very sad about Sara’s leaving. Not sure who I’d have wanted to leave instead. They’re a group I’ve liked across the board all season.  I found her charming and even a little touching. I’m a teacher, and I see in students sometimes—maybe especially but not only women students—the combination of the super-competence that is usually there in her and a sometimes disabling lack of confidence. (Maybe I see it in me, too, some days of the week.) It’s not unusual for those things to be together.

[HyeChaps]

How were they able to have the menus printed without knowing what the dishes were?

 

[biakbiak]

5 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

How were they able to have the menus printed without knowing what the dishes were?

 

They had several revisions and Sarah finalized it shortly before the guests arrived. It’s not as if they didn’t eventually know what Dawn was going to do, they just didn’t know when they were coming up with their dishes. Also, I didn’t screenshot it but the menu didn’t seem to be heavily detailed. And as the interview with Sarah indicates Dawn wasn’t the only person who’s dishes changed close to service. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by biakbiak

[emmawoodhouse]

That makes it sound like whatever was printed on Penny's menus was not what the judges were actually served. I doubt the dishes varied much, since we weren't privy to any discussion of it, but they did need a bit of lead time to print out the menus.

[biakbiak]

7 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

That makes it sound like whatever was printed on Penny's menus was not what the judges were actually served. I doubt the dishes varied much, since we weren't privy to any discussion of it, but they did need a bit of lead time to print out the menus.

If that were the case I can’t imagine the judges not mentioning that and asking about it as we have seen them do before when a dish didn’t match the menu. With a decent printer after the template was designed it really does not take that long to print out 10 menus. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by biakbiak

[emmawoodhouse]

Yeah, that's true. I guess the cheftestants printed up their own menus, so they could delay until pretty late into prep. 

Which makes Dawn's mystery dishes less of a problem. Not that a mystery dish would have stopped anyone on that team. They seemed to just do their own thing with little thought to cohisiveness. 

[buttersister]

36 minutes ago, emmawoodhouse said:

They seemed to just do their own thing with little thought to cohisiveness. 

The theme was go fish--every chef for themselves. Was it because their team had a lot of previously winning chefs? There was an aroma of We Got This in the air. Dawn was affected by the survival of the fittest spirit--and she wasn't the only one. They were out-cooked, out-hosted, out-hustled and $5 says Gabe goes next. 

[emmawoodhouse]

I dunno. Chris was okay this week, but he's otherwise been circling the drain for a while.

[Fukui San]

Speaking to the relative strength of the two teams, the Pack Your Knives Podcast does a fantasy season between its two hosts. They score it with the chefs earning points for wins and high placements, losing points for eliminations and low placements. They said that the chefs in the eventual losing team going into Restaurant Wars outpointed the chefs in the eventual winning team by something like 122-95 or so before the results from Restaurant Wars were included. They were definitely stronger to that point. 

The theme for Penny needed just one more adjective added to “seafood”. Home style seafood, or Caribbean seafood, or fine dining seafood. Something that brought a sense of focus to the menu. 

I need a food scientist to explain to me how pasta cooked in water and served in broth can be dry and brittle like Chris’ was. It just doesn’t compute. 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Fukui San

[Vermicious Knid]

They all made mistakes on Penny but this was a team challenge. Dawn chose to prevaricate and shut all her teammates out and not knowing what she was making led to a cascading effect on everyone else. But the judges didn't see any of that. Didn't Tom used to float through the kitchen during prep so they had an idea of what was going on?

[biakbiak]

48 minutes ago, Vermicious Knid said:

But the judges didn't see any of that.

The judges did know that Sarah wasn’t sure what Dawn’s dish was going to be because she brought it up at judges table and they didn’t give a crap and there was never any thought to eliminating Dawn because her dishes were so strong the idea was immediately dismissed.

As Sarah noted in her interview she also changed her dish significantly based on the kind of fish and the amount she had of it when they started cooking, that wasn’t on Dawn. Neither was Gabe’s tostada that Kristen found inedible and no one liked or the quality of Chris’s pasta, those were the things that doomed Penny along with the poor service and none of those things were Dawn’s fault. They were all in the weeds so none of the dishes were tasted to decide on the progression so even that isn’t Dawn’s fault.

Edited May 24, 2021 by biakbiak