Season 19: Last Chance Kitchen

[dleighg]

13 minutes ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

Especially compared to the chef judges who all clearly voted for Sarah and were like super sad when they realized it

I disagree there (other than Evelyn- who clearly said that, and voted against her friend despite that). I think ALL of them knew exactly who they were voting against. Which chef is likely to make a "celery kimchee"? They know that one of the chefs is Jae, since she was just eliminated.

Edited May 7, 2022 by dleighg

[Crs97]

I remember an earlier LCK when Tom and the other chef were criticizing Sarah’s messy spot, saying how they just couldn’t cook among the chaos.  That’s when I decided I want Sarah to win it all.

[Spaceman Spiff]

What impressed me, besides Sarah's awesome run of LCK, was, what I considered to be a calculating look from Budda. I consider him the front runner for winning this thing, and when he saw Sarah, and after tasting her food, he seemed to be sizing her up as the biggest threat.

[Ellee]

Wasn’t there a shot of Buddha tasting the food?

[seltzer3]

3 hours ago, dleighg said:

I disagree there (other than Evelyn- who clearly said that, and voted against her friend despite that). I think ALL of them knew exactly who they were voting against. Which chef is likely to make a "celery kimchee"? They know that one of the chefs is Jae, since she was just eliminated.

I'm actually really surprised that they did a blind taste test from the contestants.  I don't think any of them had any malicious intent, but there could have been potential sabotage.  Since obviously they knew Jae was one of the contestants and if they wanted to get rid of her they would just vote for the other person.

It reminds me of LCK in New Orleans, where Nick, Shirley, Nina were deciding who to make it back by doing the blind taste test.  The three of them didn't have the fondest feelings for Carlos (the last eliminee), and they obviously knew Carlos cooked Latin food, so felt like there was some shenanigans in Louis coming back.

What was interesting was that everyone thought the other dish was Jo.  Jo wasn't that impressive in her run, but it seems like the rest of the final 5 viewed her talent quite a bit.  Also poor Jackson and Luke that no one thought the other dish was theirs.

 

Edited May 7, 2022 by seltzer3

[carrps]

My sister says it's like Sarah torture, and I somewhat agree. She says the other chefs at least get fun outings, but Sarah's stuck in LCK. And not only that, but nearly every time she's competing in LCK, she has a 50% chance of being out. None of the other chefs have those odds and that kind of pressure.

14 hours ago, dleighg said:

(other than Evelyn- who clearly said that, and voted against her friend despite that)

Evelyn looked really pissed, so I knew she'd voted for Sarah. But, damn. Don't say -- out loud -- that you wanted to vote for your friend and not for the best dish.

 

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, carrps said:

My sister says it's like Sarah torture, and I somewhat agree. She says the other chefs at least get fun outings, but Sarah's stuck in LCK. And not only that, but nearly every time she's competing in LCK, she has a 50% chance of being out. None of the other chefs have those odds and that kind of pressure.

There's also the fact that she had to compete against Jae a second time even when she already beat her.  At least she got the time advantage.  She really deserved that!  I don't blame her for saying that if she didn't win she'd come back to burn the place down, LOL.  Now I am going to be somewhat conflicted.  I've been favoring Buddha, Evelyn and Nick but after all she's been through and achieved in LCK alone, Sarah might be my new favorite overall.

[tvfanatic13]

UO- I have never warmed up to Sarah and couldn't care less that she is back in the competition. But I do give her props for her LCK run. 

[estellasmum]

I am absolutely flummoxed at why the remaining people in the competition would even think Jo would be the last one standing. I feel the obvious choice was Jackson, it was FOH that did him in, not food. Really, none of that matters, because everyone was wrong.

I really enjoyed LCK this year. I thought Sarah was totally underqualified and served boring food in the regular competition, and was pleasantly surprised that she seemed to have found a totally different food plane once eliminated. Where was that food in the regular competition?  My husband and I ended up totally rooting for her, and are happy she made it back to the main competition. I really hope she can bring what she brought in LCK to the regular competition, and that she doesn't just do well in LCK format for whatever reason. (West Coast here, so will still have to wait a few hours to find out.)

[paramitch]

I'm just catching up on this season of TC, and became really invested in Sarah's success after watching her continue to beat the odds week after week in LCK.

She's also incredibly funny, self-effacing, and smart -- her comment about her "relationship" with Tom had me rolling. So I'm so happy she managed to persevere. Especially after that incredibly grueling challenge against Jae (and when she absolutely steamrolled her with 100% of votes going for her food in that second to last challenge).

I really liked Sam for the most part on the show, and thought he seemed charming and positive, but there were a few moments that seemed a little stealth-dickish, and in LCK, to be honest, that quality crept in a little more. Then add in his being evidently genuinely inspired by Jeff Bezos (I mean, OH MY GOD NO) and being a visibly poor sport about losing his LCK bout? Yeah, I think he's an ass. I honestly think he was playing "sweet, humble, positive guy" for the cameras and the mask shifted a few times at the end.

This is a great season, however, and I love how positive and supportive everyone is of each other. Tom is also visibly warm and kind to everyone at a new level, and same with Padma. It's like you can see that Lockdown got to everyone (and that Tom and Padma are also being gentler because a lot of these are chefs who are superb at what they do -- and who have lost their jobs or restaurants, etc.).