Rachael Vs. Guy: Kids Cookoff - General Discussion

[mlp]

I normally can't stand Robert Irvine but he was tolerable while dealing with the kids.  The kid I liked least was sent home.  So far so good.

 

I don't get why the parents look like they're practically in each others' laps. 

 

One kid has/had a brother with some serious illness.  I didn't catch what the mother said about it.  Did anyone?

[Kromm]

One kid has/had a brother with some serious illness.  I didn't catch what the mother said about it.  Did anyone?

I didn't, but I'm sure the show will milk it as the kid's "inspiration" before he gets booted.

Really one of the few really admirable things about version 1.0 of this show (before it's de-Guyification) was the lack of boot-drama. And now they've brought that into it. Yuck.

[HyeChaps]

I prefer for the kids the method of awarding points, week by week.  Rather not boot them off.

[BensBritches]

 

One kid has/had a brother with some serious illness. I didn't catch what the mother said about it. Did anyone?

 

I didn't, but I'm sure the show will milk it as the kid's "inspiration" before he gets booted.

 

The kid who got booted was the one whose little brother had some kind of cancer and the bootee donated his bone marrow to save his brother.  I don't think the kid mentioned it himself during the show.

 

I can't recall anyone's name, but I really liked the youngest boy with the "dapper" scarf... although he may ware on me quickly. His facial expressions were cracking me up.

 

And why do we need to see/hear the parents?  It's my least favorite part of the show.  I don't need to see Kid A's mom backstage freaking out yelling, "Get your steak off, get it off! Oh My God, NOW!!!!"   Spare me, please.

[nottopbravo]

Well, there are a few things I don't like about this show:

 

1) Rachael referring to the kids as "chef"

 

2) The parents (including mom with nose ring)

 

3) The guest judge is who?

 

4) Nine year olds around sharp objects and fryolaters

 

Other than that, what the hell else is on Monday night?

[cooksdelight]

The "chef" thing bothers me the most. They are not chefs. They are kids who enjoy cooking.

[purplemouth]

I didn't have any problems with Olivia, other than her cooking is pretty basic, but I am glad to see her mom gone!

I'm pretty sure this contest is Christopher's to lose. Nicholas is quite a little cook too!

[Kromm]

The "chef" thing bothers me the most. They are not chefs. They are kids who enjoy cooking.

I blame Chopped.  They started this (using "Chef" even on special episodes where it's not Chefs).

[jcbrown]

I feel sorry for Olivia with that helicopter mom ("I want to just jump in and do it for her!"). Please, can Chandler the sniveling bundle of anxiety go home next? Poor kid needs some therapy, not a web series.

 

At least next week has a guest judge I've heard of before.

[Mondrianyone]

Olivia needed to keep her hair out of her food and her food out of her hair.  That was pretty disgusting, and I have a high tolerance for sloppiness in the kitchen.  At least tie it back.  No one wants to find a three-foot strand of hair in their sauce.

[backformore]

Sabrina watched the Food Network too much - "I'm going back to my roots, cooking French food."  Stop.  And shut up with the Julia child impression.  that was cute the first time, now it's annoying.

 

Chandler makes me nervous.  And his mom annoys me.  

[mlp]

Well, there are a few things I don't like about this show:

1) Rachael referring to the kids as "chef"

2) The parents (including mom with nose ring)

3) The guest judge is who?

4) Nine year olds around sharp objects and fryolaters

 

 

I totally agree with the first three points.  Not sure about #4.  Scarlett appeared to have better knife skills than I do.

 

Rachael needs to stop calling little kids "chef."  It demeans the accomplishments and status of those who have earned that title.  I'm surprised that some of the real chefs associated with FN don't set her straight.  Maybe they've tried.

 

Poor Chandler looks like a nervous and anemic little kid.  His mother looks like someone they found hanging around outside on the sidewalk.  

 

I'd never heard of the guest judge and, judging from their expressions, I don't think most of the kids had either.  If I were choosing someone to mentor kids, I'd probably choose someone who has heard of grammar and chews with his mouth closed.  He seemed nice enough but yike.

 

Speaking of which................. It's obvious that they tell the kids to taste their food during their presentations.  They should tell them to finish talking first because they were all struggling to talk after taking a big bite.  I've never really understood the emphasis FN places on that anyway.  No one ever tastes what they just prepared and says, "Hmmmm.  That isn't quite right."  I'm willing to accept that it's good without the visual.  

[Violet Penner]

Do we know why Guy's not here this go around?  (not that I'm complaining)

 

I'd never heard of the guest judge either, but he seemed to be trying to be sweet and encouraging with the kids, so I have to give him points for that.  

 

It makes me a little uncomfortable how much pressure these kids are putting on themselves - to the point where I question whether this is a good idea for a show at all.

 

Flower Head Band girl's flower head bands were annoying me for some reason, so I can't say I'm sorry to see her go.

 

A few of these kids annoy me, but some seem promising.  No real stand outs yet IMO.

[BensBritches]

Olivia needed to keep her hair out of her food and her food out of her hair.  That was pretty disgusting, and I have a high tolerance for sloppiness in the kitchen.  At least tie it back.  No one wants to find a three-foot strand of hair in their sauce.

 

This so much!!!  It was driving me crazy how much food she got in her hair.  Didn't all the other girls have their hair pulled back while cooking/presenting?  I would think it would be an important lesson from Rachel that "chefs" need to keep their hair out of the food (and vice versa). Instead, she seemed to laugh and think it was cute.  That bugged me.

 

Never heard of the guest judge, but I guess his gig is driving around and eating the largest, messiest food he can in his car? Don't think I'll be searching out his show/blog/You Tube/whatever. During his intro Lil Britches and I swore his show was called "Damn Damn."  But it's Daym? As in Daim? Day-um? 

 

I do not care for Chandler, he of the crying after every challenge because he feels he did poorly. He seems ill prepared psychologically/emotionally for this type of competition.  Maybe he would have done better in the previous seasons where they did not eliminate anyone.  His mother drives me nuts... Plus I get bothered by his talking heads about hunting and talking about how he's killed deer before.  It's just a thing for me; I don't like the idea of a 10 year old out killing animals, but I know this is common in many areas of the US and yes it's contradictory of me because I do eat meat! I can't pinpoint why it bothers me, but it does.  Just saying... 

 

My favorite continues to be Nicholas, as I just find him to be a "real" kid and he's funny and apparently can cook (although his knife skills did scare me a bit). 

 

My least favorite contestant continues to be the parents as I just don't see the point of them and their scenes only take time away from us being able to watch the kids actually cook. But overall I am enjoying this show. 

[phoenix780]

I think a couple of the girls didn't have their hair tied back.  And yeah, they should be on them about that like they were with the kid who has a messy station. 

 

I couldn't stand the guest judge to the point where I started fast forwarding him.  I'm not big on people who have that kind of forced high energy in general, although I can appreciate why it'd be good in a YouTube video.  Also in his intro (where I thought his show was "Damn," too) there was a shot of him shoving food into his mouth in a way that I found off-putting.  I don't generally mind them taking a bite to prove it is what they say it is.  His went too far for me, like a celebration of gluttony.

[MarkHB]

Daym's name is the 4th that comes up when typing "Daym" into Google, at least for me.  If anyone's interested his YouTube channel is here.  I think for a lot of kids these days, YouTube presenters are their celebrities, so I imagine at least some of these kids might have known who he was.

[Kromm]

Daym's name is the 4th that comes up when typing "Daym" into Google, at least for me.  If anyone's interested his YouTube channel is here.  I think for a lot of kids these days, YouTube presenters are their celebrities, so I imagine at least some of these kids might have known who he was.

The thing that really gets me is that Rachael (or her equally dimwitted writers) appears to not know the difference between Views on YouTube and the actual number of people who watch the man.

 

She said something like "and 65 million people watch him".

 

Bullshit, Rachael.  He's got 65 million views in TOTAL. With a few hundred videos.  Which is closer to him having around like... 100,000 viewers as a median (no idea of the average, but the median can roughly be guessed if you just scroll through and go to about the middle of his list of videos ranked by views and see the numbers there).  He's had a max of around 7 million views on his most popular video, which is not bad at all (although that's over 3 years), but that likely includes repeat views by some of the same people, and casual one-off viewers who never came back. 

 

His total subscriber base is a little over half a million, but it's worth noting you can subscribe without ever watching a single video (or perhaps ONLY watching one ever). 

 

By the way, by all logic this man should have had a coronary by now.  Even just "testing" all this crap (if somehow he never eats fast food otherwise--which of COURSE he does).

Edited September 5, 2015 by Kromm

[JoJoPowerRanger]

I too am one of those people who wants Chandler to go home. I find myself legitimately concerned about what he'll do to himself if he gets poor criticism or gets eliminated, and that's just way too much pressure on a viewer. 

 

I'd be happy if either Nicholas or Chris won.  Despite the enthusiastic intonation in Chris's voice, he still manages to look bored or flippant when he's performing his video challenges/presentations; however, I buy that his food tastes really good.  And Nicholas won my heart first episode when he said that he hopes Rachael likes him and his scarf. 

 

Happy to see Olivia go home, and more importantly, I'm happy to see Olivia's mom go with her. 

[BensBritches]

Sadness in the Britches household as Nicholas and his scarf shuffle off to obscurity... or the next child cooking reality competition.  The writing was on the wall that he was leaving from the beginning of the episode, so it took away from the pleasure I generally get from watching it.  He really didn't make much sauce, did he? 

 

Julia Child, Jr. can leave any time. She is too affected for me.

 

And once again, Chandler is on the verge of a meltdown.  And once again Chandler has to talk about shooting things, this time with pantomime and sound effects.  Sorry kid, but I need you to go into therapy STAT.  Hope he isn't being set up for a redemption arc, like Dom on Food Network Star. Oh, he's so shy and anxious around the camera, but look, he's getting better and more comfortable and wow, did Chandler come far.  Boring.

 

With Nicholas gone, Lil' Britches and I no longer have a horse in this race.  Maybe Chris or Scarlett (she's not JCj, right?).  I don't have feelings for the other girl either way, the one who said she can't mess up the pasta because she's Italian, or some such thing. I'd be fine with any of these 3 in the finale, I guess.

[jcbrown]

I guess I am on team Scarlett or team Juliana. Sabrina is completely annoying and self-consciously cute, I cannot stand her schtick. And Chandler needs to shut up about loving to kill things and be sent home before he has a complete breakdown.

[Kromm]

I guess I am on team Scarlett or team Juliana. Sabrina is completely annoying and self-consciously cute, I cannot stand her schtick. And Chandler needs to shut up about loving to kill things and be sent home before he has a complete breakdown.

Chandler seems like he could only kill something if it was standing still.  Maybe chained up or caged.  With an Emergency crew standing by in case he collapses. I'm sure he's a nice kid, but clearly his momma wrote that wacked out Viking story for him.

Scarf  kid going home hardly bothered me. I mean I had (bad) visions of another tiny precocious boy like in Season 1 taking it just because Rachel likes cute and thankfully that won't be happening now.

 

Mini Julia got old episodes ago.  Nothing has changed that.

Edited September 10, 2015 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Argh! I despise that even a reality show about kids can't help itself with the intentional manipulation. I mean do ANY of us really believe they'd give the kids different size fryers by ACCIDENT? The one that Julianna had was less than half the size that anyone else had.

"Little Julia" once more was so tiresome.

Lil' Anemic Viking Kid is getting old too.

Gumbo inside a FRIED burrito sounds like THE BEST IDEA EVER!

Yawn. Nobody went home and a predictable double boot next week.

[mlp]

I've been watching this all along so I'll stick it out to see what happens but I'm ready to start throwing things at the TV.  I do not believe that those little kids did everything they were purported to do in 30 minutes.  Or an hour for that matter.  Rachael is driving me nuts with her OTT enthusiasm and effusive praise for every single kid for everything they do.  Worse, she constantly calls them "chef," a title they have not earned and don't merit.  I'm not a chef so I'm not sure why that makes me so mad but it does.  Rachael has said, rightly, that she herself is not a chef so I don't understand why she uses the term for kids.

 

I'm hoping Scarlett pulls it off.  Her knife skills are impressive for a child.  She seems mature for her age without being annoying.

[JoJoPowerRanger]

Now that Chandler has made it into the finals, I'm convinced this show is fixed. Is he related to a producer? He looked down at his note and read his video presentation almost word for word (see below) and still got exasperated, and despite this, he made it to the final 3. I call foul!  Mainly because I distinctly remember a past season where Rachael told a child he/she needed to quit bringing notes to the video challenge because the child shouldn't be reading from a script that late in the competition.  And Chandler made it to the finals pulling that stunt. WHAT?!  He truly is getting treated like Dom Jr. 

 

 

 

I know it was petty of me but I had to take a picture because I was in disbelief. 

 

On the other hand, even though Chandler got escorted to the finish line, I did enjoy the bit of personality he displayed this episode. 

 

 

In other news, I wasn't so upset to see Juliana go home--when she's not in presentation mode, her body language is so closed off and she has big-time RBF, so I assume she's hiding a major 'tude for the sake of the show. And like most people here, I had no problem with Little Julia going home.

 

 

And now I feel terrible for bad-mouthing children. Sigh. 

[LennieBriscoe]

Not so great video and a "sloppy" sandwich, and Chandler moves on? Well, he'll be third, anyway. It's coming down to Avocado Girl and Hot Sauces Boy. Still being told at this stage to smile, HSB is coming in second, IMO!

Edited September 22, 2015 by LennieBriscoe

[mlp]

When I saw the dishes the kids presented, I was sure that little Julia Child wannabe and Chandler were going to be eliminated.  He submitted half a sandwich that was messy and, as stated above, he read his presentation.  I was relieved that I wouldn't have to hear his "macho" nonsense any more (or look at his mother) so I was flabbergasted when he won.  I can't begin to imagine that anyone besides his friends and family would ever watch him in a web series.

 

I feel kind of sorry for Chris when Rachael keeps telling him to smile while he's talking.  That just doesn't come naturally to some people ( me for example) so I understand his situation.  I know why it's important for TV though so I don't think he'll win.  I'm still hoping that Scarlett wins the whole thing.

[BensBritches]

Just watched the last two episodes last night.  I too do not believe these kids cooked all that food in the 60 minutes or whatever they were given.  And this episode, I could not believe how much Rachel helped out. She actually worked Chandler's dough for him and laid it out in the pan!  There were several scenes where you could see Rachel doing something at a kid's station... so really these kids can't cook without "adult" assistance.  Why should I care then.

 

Chandler is "Dom Jr."... the redemption arc I feared is here.  I cannot tolerate this kid going on and on about what he kills.  This is not endearing, at least not to me.  I'm surprised the show things this is something to be flaunted, that this kid kills animals, even if it is to eat them.  And yeah, he read his presentation and laughed through it, yet he makes it through.  I just can't stand the kid and I know it's not nice to speak ill of children, but... he can just go back to his Viking ship and crossbow any time now.

 

Bye bye Julia Jr.  Not sorry to see you go either.

 

And seriously, how were chicken wings "scary food"? The sauce the girl splattered around looked nothing like blood and was in no way scary.  Of course, Chris' dish wasn't scary at all either.  Chandler's dish only scared me because I despise mushrooms and so that pizza would freak me out!

 

If we do take Chandler out of the equation, I really don't care between the two kids left who wins.  But I think the girl, Scarlett(?) is the better choice.

[nottopbravo]

Drinking game:

 

Take a drink every time Rachael calls these kids "Chefs".

 

On second thought, that's probably a bad idea.

[Violet Penner]

Ugh, I wish Chandler would have gone home too. Scratching himself, stumbling over himself, and nervous laughter made for a terrible presentation. And I'm sorry, but wtf is with the "I'm a Viking" bullshit? (There may have been a backstory there I missed). Also do not like the killing animals angle. Bleh.

[Fostersmom]

So, wait, a kid who gets Rachel's help and writes a script, and still presents it horribly and a kid who is more than wooden in his presentations both win over a girl who has shined throughout? Foul. I'm calling foul. 

[cooksdelight]

Go to Lifetime online and watch "UnREAL." You'll never look at any type of reality show the same away again. I also get the feeling the fix was in for who they want to win. Sad, considering it's kids we're dealing with.

[Kromm]

Mini-Julia going was the right early result. but The Anemia Kid staying through two eliminations? Does not compute!

Timely annoying product placement this episode.

And how did Anemia Kid get away with putting a little (inedible) plastic snake on the plate? Or did I imagine that?

Chris, as much as I like the kid, stumbled IMO with BOTH his food AND his presentation this time. I know Rachael acted like his presentation was great (other than no smiling) but really... it wasn't. He was good in the meat in the middle that they showed in the recap, but when we actually SAW him do it, he was all over the place.

So Julianna goes because she has "perfectly cooked" wings (which are actually very tough to cook) but goes home because of her FIRST semi-bad video? Come. On. Girl was robbed because they clearly want Chandler in the finale (and Chris being there started to puzzle me a bit too...) I mean I know they presented this like it was Mauro's decision... but we all know better. The kid deserved that cry. I doubt she even thought seriously for a second that she was the worst of that bunch (and was right if she thought that).

Edited September 28, 2015 by Kromm

[jcbrown]

Okay, after the finale last night my hypothesis is that they sent Juliana home last week to ensure Scarlett did not have competition for the win. It was so clear when she came back as a sous that she should have been in the final three but then Scarlett would have been against a serious competitor rather than the two boys, neither of whom was camera ready. I find Chris infinitely more likable and appealing than Chandler but he really had no chance against Scarlett's final presentation.

[backformore]

Yeah, they were looking for someone to do the online show, and Scarlett was the only one who could do that.  

Both Chris and Chandler have the ability to cook, but neither one can talk on camera while cooking.  They had trouble articulating what they needed from their helpers, which I totally get.  sometimes I have an idea of what I want, but have trouble translating the thought into words that someone else can understand, so I just do it myself.   I saw both of them with that same struggle.

I really liked all three of these finalists.  I wasn't crazy about Juliana's schtick, so I'm glad she wasn't in the finale.

 

I watched while doing other things, so I'm sure I missed a lot.  But I'm not crazy about the kid cooking competitions.  Kids get frazzled and nervous, and it's not enjoyable to watch.   I think I'm done with this show.  

[cooksdelight]

I figure they've had all age ranges of people, professions, kids, etc. in cooking competitions. They'll find a way to have dogs cooking their own kibbles at some point.

[mlp]

I was so sure that the producers had set up unappealing little Chandler for the win that I almost didn't watch because I knew I'd be disgusted.  So I was delighted when Scarlett won, especially since she's been my favorite all along. 

 

What spoils this show most for me is Rachael's OTT enthusiasm and gushing over everything not to mention calling kids "chef."  She talks to them like they're all 4 y/o which makes me nuts.  Even the Chopped judges did all that to some extent which I would never have expected especially from Marcus and Alex.

 

I'd like to see Jeff Mauro host this show.  He's good with kids without being so patronizing.

[cooksdelight]

I agree, Mauro is the best thing that's ever happened to FN, and they should use him more often.

[Kromm]

Mauro always sounds like he has a stuffed up nose though. What's the deal with that?

[Fostersmom]

Did I see an adult hand cooking when Chandler was making his rice? Juliana deserves a prize for not just standing there and letting Chris go down in flames, he was a wreck for a good part of his dish.

[ari333]

Im watching a repeat of this show. I like the kids. They don't seem so rehearsed and actor-ish (not a word) like the kids on Ramsay's show.