S20.E07: Hands Off

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

The chefs learn Gaggan Anand is the guest judge; they must create a dish inspired by an emoji and are tasked with creating a plate with a message that's visually stunning and can be eaten without utensils.

Original air date: April 20, 2023

[Bastet]

I knew Victoire was making a mistake when she boiled something normally fried, so I got really nervous – I’m not ready to lose her!  I figured it was going to be Dale, but held my breath until Padma said his name.

I watched LCK last week and wanted Sylwia’s cook-off sandwich more than Tom’s, so I’m still bummed she’s gone, too.  Also because her potato love cracks me up (even though I hate them) and I’m going to miss the cheftestants calling her Potato Chef.

Even though the food is undoubtedly some of the most delicious in the world, I would never get my eyeballs back into place after rolling them at a menu written in emoji.  The guest judge was too much for me in general, but Buddha was smart to make something like he would make.  (I’ve never gotten interested in Buddha for some reason, but I always admire how he strategizes.)

I really liked seeing what they came up with for the EC – so incredibly creative!  I’m not normally into high concept challenges like this, but I was fascinated by the results of this one.  I also enjoyed the messages they chose, because a lot of times cheftestants half-ass it when that’s part of a challenge (not that I blame them, but this was nice).

Ali stealing fake plants from the stew room to plate his forest dish made me laugh. 

It was interesting to hear (judge) Tom tell (cheftestant) Tom if the mousse had set the way he wanted it to, he’d have won, not be on the bottom.  It goes along with Padma telling the three in the bottom they had their three least favorites, but on a day they got nothing but great food.

[bosawks]

I’ll repeat what I said in the Live Chat.  I feel like it was a fail to not name this episode “Tits Out”.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I hated the way Tom's pumpkin dish looked.   I can't believe Tom stayed in the competition.    

[catrice2]

Can someone tell me if the contestants get paid per episode?

Thanks

Did a deep dive on Victoire and she is pretty impressive.  Not everyone can cook in this environment at their best but they all are very talented. She is also now working with Barilla on a food allergy awareness program.  

Trying not to get caught up in editing but I get the feeling some of the other chefs  dont feel the best about her skills. 

 

 

[catrice2]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

I knew Victoire was making a mistake when she boiled something normally fried, so I got really nervous – I’m not ready to lose her!  I figured it was going to be Dale, but held my breath until Padma said his name.

I watched LCK last week and wanted Sylwia’s cook-off sandwich more than Tom’s, so I’m still bummed she’s gone, too.  Also because her potato love cracks me up (even though I hate them) and I’m going to miss the cheftestants calling her Potato Chef.

Even though the food is undoubtedly some of the most delicious in the world, I would never get my eyeballs back into place after rolling them at a menu written in emoji.  The guest judge was too much for me in general, but Buddha was smart to make something like he would make.  (I’ve never gotten interested in Buddha for some reason, but I always admire how he strategizes.)

I really liked seeing what they came up with for the EC – so incredibly creative!  I’m not normally into high concept challenges like this, but I was fascinated by the results of this one.  I also enjoyed the messages they chose, because a lot of times cheftestants half-ass it when that’s part of a challenge (not that I blame them, but this was nice).

Ali stealing fake plants from the stew room to plate his forest dish made me laugh. 

It was interesting to hear (judge) Tom tell (cheftestant) Tom if the mousse had set the way he wanted it to, he’d have won, not be on the bottom.  It goes along with Padma telling the three in the bottom they had their three least favorites, but on a day they got nothing but great food.

No I love how they talked about the challenge was to make something that you could eat with your hands, but then acted as if the story was the most important part.I didn't see Tom tell a story at all  and if he did it was not a good one, and they said his was the hardest to eat with your hand but he's still there. 😒

Editing telegraphed the last three and one could have been Nicole based on the food but they liked her story better.

I am ready for another double elimination.

 

[buttersister]

I was worried for Victoire. I got the idea she thought she should make a puree for some reason, otherwise, not sure why she didn't fry them. I would love to taste her flavors.

Bye, Dale. Hope Sylwia kicks Tom's ass.

Edited April 21, 2023 by buttersister
Clarity

[Leeds]

I loathe it when the contestants on cooking shows run pushing and shoving to get an ingredient or recipe style or whatever.  You people are professional chefs; behave like it.

And while we're about it, I have zero interest watching people lick their food off the plate.

Edited April 21, 2023 by Leeds

[bravofan27]

So excited for this new episode. This is my favorite Top Chef group so far. I don't love every contestant, but I think overall the energy is pretty cool and people are great and treat each other well. You can't say that about every Top Chef cohort. They seem really interested in learning and creating. 

Anyway, the emoji guy did not seem to resonate with the others. The chefs just sort of stared at him blankly. It's a bit weird for someone who doesn't think that way and it's a little deep for people, not a way everyone has been trained to think.  

Gabri had a great "fire" emoji story. I loved it. He is great at telling stories and connecting his food to his lived experiences. I think that is important and I'm so glad he is still in the competition because he goes deep with his food and is a great storyteller.

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by bravofan27

[Daisychain]

1 hour ago, bravofan27 said:

Gabri had a great "fire" emoji story. I loved it. He is great at telling stories and connecting his food to his lived experiences. I think that is important and I'm so glad he is still in the competition because he goes deep with his food and is a great storyteller.

Yes, when Gabri told his story about controlling the fire I gasped audibly and my dog Scout woke up and gave me a look like, what do I need to know?

[dubstepford wife]

Dale's story, oof.  "I was an ignorant white guy who thought all Mexican food was Taco Bell, but then I tried real Mexican food and I became slightly less ignorant, so my dish is called, 'Look how not racist I am.'  Enjoy!"

[LennieBriscoe]

Licking the dinner plate. "Use your tongues!" Was that the "Dalai Lama Special"? 👅

Oh, and that new-fangled "Eat with your hands" concept? Yeah, it's called "sandwiches" (and tacos, Cornish pasties, burritos, shashlik, hot dogs, burgers, fried chicken, etc.).

This entire episode bordered on a skit from "SNL."

🤭😜👨‍🍳👩‍🍳🧑‍🍳🌮🥪🌭🍕🍔🍗🥙

 

[Rammchick]

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

Ali stealing fake plants from the stew room to plate his forest dish made me laugh. 

I thought at first he had made a salad, and I said out loud, "That's not edible," thinking it was a live plant.

[dleighg]

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

I watched LCK last week

I thought that spoiling LCK was off-limits here. I don't care because I watch it, but not everyone does.

 

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

Ali stealing fake plants from the stew room to plate his forest dish made me laugh

I seriously thought he'd get dinged by putting a lot of "non-edible plant matter" on his plate.

[DEL901]

1 hour ago, LennieBriscoe said:

Licking the dinner plate. "Use your tongues!" Was that the "Dalai Lama Special"? 👅

Oh, and that new-fangled "Eat with your hands" concept? Yeah, it's called "sandwiches" (and tacos, Cornish pasties, burritos, shashlik, hot dogs, burgers, fried chicken, etc.).

This entire episode bordered on a skit from "SNL."

🤭😜👨‍🍳👩‍🍳🧑‍🍳🌮🥪🌭🍕🍔🍗🥙

 

You mean a “picnic”?

[Auntie Anxiety]

If I wanted a lecture about how guilty I’m supposed to feel about my life, I’d watch the Academy Awards. Stick with cooking, Top Chef. 

[Msample]

It was Dale's time to go, but I would have been fine with Tom being told to PYKAG; his arrogance still bugs.  

[sugarbaker design]

It must've killed Buddha (and his hand mold!) not to be in the top 3!  🖐️

I kept thinking "Thank you, Thing!"

Edited April 21, 2023 by sugarbaker design

[caitmcg]

2 hours ago, dleighg said:

I thought that spoiling LCK was off-limits here. I don't care because I watch it, but not everyone does.

But last week's LCK (the afternoon tea that Dale won and Begoña lost) was part of the main show, so everyone watching saw it.

[HurricaneVal]

I thought the elimination challenge last night produced some interesting food, but I think the parameters of the challenge were a little unclear.  Was it just supposed to be something you could eat with your hands?  Was it supposed to have a good story?  Was it supposed to be multicultural?  Or just cultural?  Was it supposed to be something you smeared across the plate with a sopper-upper tool?

I love the fact that this is an international competition, because we're getting some really interesting food from the non-US-centric chefs, and the US-centric chefs are likewise elevating their games as well.  However, I fear that the language and cultural barriers are hurting the competition somewhat with regards to how obscure and conceptual some of the challenge parameters are. 

We certainly saw this in the emoji quickfire, where some emojis mean different things in different cultures, like the one chef thinking the four leaf clover meant "greenery" and not "luck," or Victoire just picking a sushi emoji at random from the selections left on the board because.....it was a recognizable food she could try to recreate.  That's the problem, subtle nuances get lost when there's a language barrier and the chef's default setting at that point is to take it literally, because that's all they can think of.

We saw that with Victoire making "sushi" for her sushi emoji.  We also saw that with the elimination challenge too, where a lot of the chefs made a variation on what they were given as their example: something tasty attractively smeared on a plate to be scraped or scooped up by hand with something else and eaten.  Which resulted in some great looking and apparently great tasting stuff, no question about that! 

And....not gonna lie....that rainbow "taste of the world" example dish looked incredible, and I'd love to try it for myself.  I'd probably end up with smears of blue on my forehead, red on my cheeks, and green on my chin and finish up looking like a demented toddler, but I'd be happy!

I knew the instant that the judges started talking about Dale's chicken being unseasoned, flavorless, and oddly textured that he was the goner.  It was his time.  I think he looked at Gabri and saw how much he'd been praised by that mole he made in an earlier episode and thought "I know!  The judges really like mole.  I'll make mole!  How hard can it be?  It's just a brown Mexican sauce, right?"  The judges talked more about his chicken than his mole, but I thought I heard something like "even if the chicken was perfect, that mole wasn't all that great."

[PrincessPurrsALot]

24 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

I knew the instant that the judges started talking about Dale's chicken being unseasoned, flavorless, and oddly textured that he was the goner.  It was his time.  I think he looked at Gabri and saw how much he'd been praised by that mole he made in an earlier episode and thought "I know!  The judges really like mole.  I'll make mole!  How hard can it be?  It's just a brown Mexican sauce, right?"  The judges talked more about his chicken than his mole, but I thought I heard something like "even if the chicken was perfect, that mole wasn't all that great."

I remember them liking the mole, but they did not discuss a complexity of flavors in it which usually goes with mole.  It was likely good, not great.  Then the green sauce was simply cilantro (not willing to call that a mole).  The chicken was an off-putting texture.  He did not get any of the flavor of the mole into his chicken.  The dish was a failure from concept to execution.  

There have been several instances now of translation and/or cultural difference issues.  Knowing that they were filming in England, they could study local foods.  However, the more specific or shifting cultural elements are hard to understand. One that stood out tonight was not knowing that the four leaf clover represents good luck.  The show should work on communicating things in ways that do not create a disadvantage for chefs from the middle east, eastern europe, africa, etc. 

[rhofmovalley]

I don't get why the episode was titled "Hands Off" when the food was supposed to be designed to be eaten with one's hands. Shouldn't it have been "Hands ON"?

[Bastet]

6 hours ago, dleighg said:

I thought that spoiling LCK was off-limits here. I don't care because I watch it, but not everyone does.

This episode spoiled LCK; it opened with clips from it, explaining that Sylwia lost their cook-off so Tom was still in the game. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Bastet

[Colorado David]

15 hours ago, Leeds said:

I loathe it when the contestants on cooking shows run pushing and shoving to get an ingredient or recipe style or whatever.  You people are professional chefs; behave like it.

And while we're about it, I have zero interest watching people lick their food off the plate.

exactly this, do you see any high end restaurants serving food sans utensils? it is so gimmicky at its best, like that eating in the dark competition.  just enjoy the food, and stop the silly semantics.

[Bastet]

10 minutes ago, Colorado David said:

exactly this, do you see any high end restaurants serving food sans utensils?

The guest judge's.  That's his thing (well, one of them) -- encouraging people to eat with their hands.  I believe he now has a few dishes that come with utensils, but most are the way his whole menu used to be, eaten with hands (or, with tongue, as we saw in this episode).

(It's common in India, which is where he's from, and that's the cuisine he cooks.)

[Colorado David]

22 minutes ago, Bastet said:

The guest judge's.  That's his thing (well, one of them) -- encouraging people to eat with their hands.  I believe he now has a few dishes that come with utensils, but most are the way his whole menu used to be, eaten with hands (or, with tongue, as we saw in this episode).

(It's common in India, which is where he's from, and that's the cuisine he cooks.)

ok fair enough did not know. another reason i like this show, opens me up to new cultures and expectations.  

[avecsans]

I am so grossed out watching people licking their fingers. And to have to watch them lick their plates???? I spent a lot of the episode with my hands in front of my face like I was watching a horror movie. When Tom talked about half an hour being the optimal time for his mousse to thaw, I knew he hadn’t taken the heat of the kitchen into consideration.  I can’t wait for Sarah to be eliminated. She is just crass, in my opinion. Loving Team Middle East.

[dleighg]

16 minutes ago, avecsans said:

I can’t wait for Sarah to be eliminated. She is just crass, in my opinion.

I guess everyone looks at things differently. I like Sara a lot, and I am NOT the type to like crass people. 

I am somewhat clueless in recognizing faces, but I was today years old today when I realized that Nicole is (apparently) half asian. 

[Msample]

20 minutes ago, avecsans said:

I am so grossed out watching people licking their fingers. And to have to watch them lick their plates???? I spent a lot of the episode with my hands in front of my face like I was watching a horror movie. When Tom talked about half an hour being the optimal time for his mousse to thaw, I knew he hadn’t taken the heat of the kitchen into consideration.  I can’t wait for Sarah to be eliminated. She is just crass, in my opinion. Loving Team Middle East.

 

Not just normal kitchen heat but off camera I am sure they have floods, spotlights etc. 

 

Sarah's ribs looked borderline gross. Maybe its because I'm used to slow smoked BBQ ribs, but hers looked kind of pale, almost grey with no color/caramelization. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Msample

[bravofan27]

9 hours ago, dubstepford wife said:

Dale's story, oof.  "I was an ignorant white guy who thought all Mexican food was Taco Bell, but then I tried real Mexican food and I became slightly less ignorant, so my dish is called, 'Look how not racist I am.'  Enjoy!"

Didn't Gordon Ramsey try that for a time? Going into other countries and making their traditional dishes "elevated" or improving them? Because if Gordon Ramsey pays attention to it, now it's actually important and good.

No one needs Dale to educate the world that mole is a legit food worth eating. I think if he made a mole and explained he experienced emotions blah blah the first time he tried mole, it would have been better-- but making it sound like he tried mole and was impressed because he thought it was peasant food but really rivals French roux was pretty white guy colonization. Yeah, he is still a dick. A dick on prozac. 

Mexico is packed with indigenous foods-- it shouldn't compete or be compared to European fine dining aristocracy crap. IMO. 

[carrps]

Seriously, Buddha was making all kinds of sour faces in the background. He thought he had this challenge in the bag, because he brought "Maybe $1000 worth of molds." I know he can make great tasting food; he just needs to back off all the extraneous fussiness. 90% is unnecessary.

Ugh. That one clip of Sara licking that glass plate so we can see all the (chocolate?) crumbs on her tongue was off-putting and gross. I don't mind eating with my hands, but did the judges get to wash their hands between competitors? Because no matter how much you lick or wipe your hands, if you're eating certain foods, the aromatics and other food "debris" is gonna stay on your hands and influence the taste of what you eat next.

 

[dleighg]

Just now, carrps said:

because he brought "Maybe $1000 worth of molds." I know he can make great tasting food; he just needs to back off all the extraneous fussiness. 90% is unnecessary.

I can't even remember what he cooked or froze or whatever in the mold. You weren't going to eat it, right? So what's the point? It could have been a hand-shaped plate for that matter.

[carrps]

2 minutes ago, dleighg said:

I can't even remember what he cooked or froze or whatever in the mold. You weren't going to eat it, right? So what's the point? It could have been a hand-shaped plate for that matter.

Right! Exactly!

 

[bravofan27]

15 minutes ago, dleighg said:

So what's the point? It could have been a hand-shaped plate for that matter.

He has to maintain standard chef douchery quota. Being extra, fussy, entitled, and elevated is "competition." Buddha definitely thinks he's smarter than everyone, but he's just a douche like all the chefs (I dated a "top chef" in 2013 and he was the biggest dumbass prick douche EVER). 

[mlp]

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

I can’t wait for Sarah to be eliminated. She is just crass, in my opinion.

 

1 hour ago, carrps said:

Ugh. That one clip of Sara licking that glass plate so we can see all the (chocolate?) crumbs on her tongue was off-putting and gross.

All of the above.  I didn't care for her in her season and I still don't like her.  She's crude and she always looks sloppy.  No class at all.

I like Victoire but I think that, despite speaking several languages, she's having the most trouble with thinking in English.  Her dish didn't really meet the challenge.  She just made something from Africa - and not well.  I thought she should have been the one to go.  She and Dale each had food that wasn't great but he met the challenge.  

[MerBearHou]

3 hours ago, dleighg said:

I am somewhat clueless in recognizing faces, but I was today years old today when I realized that Nicole is (apparently) half asian

I felt badly that I had no idea either!  After last night’s episode, I actually spent a little time trying to learn more about Nicole Gomes’ bio.  

[IdEatThat]

I also thought this was a great episode, and other than the “no utensils” twist, the show hasn’t been gimmicky. Just straight up wonderful cooking after all these seasons.   And, I do remember who each of the contestants are.   Survivor should take a page out of the Top Chef book.  There are still contestants on that show I don’t recall seeing before.   

[The Solution]

2 hours ago, IdEatThat said:

I also thought this was a great episode, and other than the “no utensils” twist, the show hasn’t been gimmicky. Just straight up wonderful cooking after all these seasons.  

At least this wasn't another British cooking episode! (It was entertaining and I greatly enjoyed the guest judge.)

 

[Bastet]

12 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I thought the elimination challenge last night produced some interesting food, but I think the parameters of the challenge were a little unclear.  Was it just supposed to be something you could eat with your hands?  Was it supposed to have a good story?  Was it supposed to be multicultural?  Or just cultural?  Was it supposed to be something you smeared across the plate with a sopper-upper tool?

Following comments about who did and did not meet the challenge, I went back and watched what Padma said about the EC -- After the cheftestants were presented with Gaggan Anand (the guest judge)'s Rainbow World plates to lick (the bottom of which, mind you, because not only must he require diners lick that course of their meal, he has to flip the plate over first; I can appreciate the concept and admire the talent while still rolling my eyes at the "Food Rebel" pretension), she said:

Quote

We want you to create a dish that sends a message, that's visually stunning, and that can be eaten without utensils.

Chef Anand expanded with:

Quote

Try to represent your emotions, what you want present yourself as, your beliefs.

We don't know what additional details we weren't privy to, of course, but based on how the challenge was presented on the show, no one didn't meet it, it was just who didn't do it as well.

[Yeah No]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

This episode spoiled LCK; it opened with clips from it, explaining that Sylwia lost their cook-off so Tom was still in the game. 

So now I know why I was confused when they did this.  I thought maybe I fell asleep last week and missed something.  But I was sure I didn't so I was scratching my head.  I thought we were going to start this episode with their cook-off.  Now I feel shortchanged and pissed to suddenly find out that Sylwia had already been eliminated.   I don't remember them warning us that their cook-off was going to be on LCK.  If they did I somehow missed it.  How could I have anticipated that it would have been on LCK when neither of them had been eliminated yet?  🙁

6 hours ago, mlp said:

All of the above.  I didn't care for her in her season and I still don't like her.  She's crude and she always looks sloppy.  No class at all.

Agreed 100%.  I was having a visceral "yuck" reaction to her in this episode.  When they focused on her from the rear especially.  Shallow perhaps but I don't usually have that strong a reaction to a woman's caboose!

6 hours ago, mlp said:

I like Victoire but I think that, despite speaking several languages, she's having the most trouble with thinking in English.  Her dish didn't really meet the challenge.  She just made something from Africa - and not well.  I thought she should have been the one to go.  She and Dale each had food that wasn't great but he met the challenge.  

Agreed here too.  I thought Victoire should have been the one to go.  Tasteless and bland is not good plus as you pointed out her error also included a conceptual issue as well as the technical one.  His was primarily a technical mistake.

On another note, I'm more impressed with Amar this time than in his original season.  He is showing himself to be able to cook different cuisines well enough to get high praise from the judges.

Also, somehow my DVR recorded Andy Cohen's show along with TC and I got to see Gail and judge Tom, which was fun.  I loved how Tom says he still makes "Sunday gravy" in keeping with his Italian roots.  Good for him, I still make it too!

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

I don't remember them warning us that their cook-off was going to be on LCK.  If they did I somehow missed it.  How could I have anticipated that it would have been on LCK when neither of them had been eliminated yet?  🙁

They did.  Padma said, at the end of last week's TC episode upon announcing "One of you is going home, but not yet", that the cook-off would occur on LCK.  So, to see the details, one would have to watch LCK.  (But then a summary of that LCK cook-off explaining why Tom was still around was shown at the beginning of this week's TC episode as always happens in situations like this.)

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Bastet

[Yeah No]

13 minutes ago, Bastet said:

They did.  Padma said, at the end of last week's TC episode upon announcing "One of your is going home, but not yet", that the cook-off would occur on LCK.  So, to see the details, one would have to watch LCK.  (But then a summary of that LCK cook-off explaining why Tom was still around was shown at the beginning of this week's TC episode as always happens in situations like this.)

I figured as much, but seeing as how I'm not the only person confused about this I think they should have made a bigger announcement about it since it wasn't in keeping with their usual way of doing things.  My husband was also scratching his head.  I don't usually miss stuff like that and even if I do he will catch it.  If we routinely watched LCK every week it wouldn't have been an issue but we don't.

[seacliffsal]

I just couldn't with all of the plate licking and finger licking.  And I also don't know why this was seen as cutting edge-there are teens and young adults who don't know how to use utensils because they have grown up on fast food diets, so there is nothing revolutionary about not using utensils to eat food.

I did think that most of the dishes looked really good although I thought the plating of both Ali (who won) and Buddha looked overly busy.  I don't understand why Buddha thought plating his food on a hand was exceptionally clever.

I like the contestants (some more than others) but love the development of the "brotherhood."  I like seeing the bonding and friendships that are developing.  It makes the eliminations even harder.  I agree with others about language/cultural differences.  I interpreted the shamrock as representing Irish food; it didn't occur to me that it was supposed to mean good luck.  They should have had explanations for all of the emojis to help the chefs.  However, I don't particularly think the quickfire means much outside of immunity for one person as there isn't (usually) an elimination connected to the quickfire so missing the meaning of the emoji isn't going to be detrimental to the cheftestants.  But, Padma and the guest judge placed different expectations on the emojies.  Ali was supposed to know that the shamrock represented good luck while Victorie was supposed to know that she should only use raw fish.  Either the emojies are conceptual or literal-but how were they to know?

[Norma Desmond]

I haaate german Tom, thank you Top Chef for providing me with a villain to despise. I thought he would be in the bottom. So disappointed.

 

I was surprised to see Amar doing something so cheffy. Good for him for not staying in his comfort zone and not being a one-note chef.

Dale's choices confuse me. Alas, hope he is gone for good. I like him, but he is not on the same level as the other chefs. At least in the context of this competition.

Victoire's time is up, too.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by Norma Desmond

[carrps]

9 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Also, somehow my DVR recorded Andy Cohen's show along with TC and I got to see Gail and judge Tom, which was fun.  I loved how Tom says he still makes "Sunday gravy" in keeping with his Italian roots. 

My dvr always records Andy Cohen when there's a TC-related person on after the TC episode airs. I also loved that Tom still makes Sunday gravy and was going to make it with his son this coming Sunday because it's the son's birthday.

 

24 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

I interpreted the shamrock as representing Irish food; it didn't occur to me that it was supposed to mean good luck. 

It's a four leaf clover, not a shamrock (which has only three leaves -- St. Patrick used it to explain the Trinity -- there's my Catholic grade school education popping up again). I don't think it hurt Ali (obviously, since he won), but it seemed like they used the misinterpretation to ding Victoire.

 

[bravofan27]

18 hours ago, carrps said:

 

Ugh. That one clip of Sara licking that glass plate so we can see all the (chocolate?) crumbs on her tongue was off-putting and gross. 

 

Sarah has high school girl mentality. She still thinks she is that "cool" high school girl that smokes weed and cuts class. I think it's chronic immaturity. Probably her brain is fried from all the drugs-- she looks busted. 

[HurricaneVal]

I figured out where I remembered the "food rebel" guest judge from!  He was on the Thailand episode of Somebody Feed Phil, where Phil takes his delightful local fixer to dinner--on her birthday, no less--to this exclusive and very famous restaurant where the chef presents a 25 course meal of very small dishes based on emojis.  Everything they ate there looked amazing.  That's the guy!

If you're not familiar with Somebody Feed Phil, it is a food and travel show on Netflix where Phil wanders around interacting with the locals and eating good food, sort of like Anthony Bourdain, but without the sardonic edge.  Phil is the writer/producer/creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, but don't hold that against him, he's warmly funny, kooky, compassionate, and a bit corny.  In the early episodes he Facetimes his Jewish parents to tell them of his travels, and his dad will tell the corniest jokes.  After both his parents passed on, Phil Facetimes celebrities he knows like Ray Romano and Brad Garrett and they marvel at his travels, then tell a corny joke in honor of Phil's dad, who apparently was well-beloved by all who met him.  It's a great show.

So, I was predisposed to liking this guest judge from that experience, and now I realize where the seemingly random emoji quickfire challenge came from.

[LennieBriscoe]

On 4/21/2023 at 12:10 AM, Leeds said:

I loathe it when the contestants on cooking shows run pushing and shoving to get an ingredient or recipe style or whatever.  You people are professional chefs; behave like it.

And while we're about it, I have zero interest watching people lick their food off the plate.

The "run pushing and shoving" is a main component of this show and many others! That's WHY items they need to obtain are placed where they are; WHY the hosts say, "Your time starts....NOW!"; and WHY "first come, first served" works to their advantage!

Totally agree about licking a plate. It's an unattractive, uncivilized, unnecessary gimmick. And I'm SURE Padma licks her fingers in any restaurant whatsoever. Please, girlfriend. 

To reiterate, it was like an SNL parody. 

[meep.meep]

19 hours ago, carrps said:

 

Ugh. That one clip of Sara licking that glass plate so we can see all the (chocolate?) crumbs on her tongue was off-putting and gross. I don't mind eating with my hands, but did the judges get to wash their hands between competitors? Because no matter how much you lick or wipe your hands, if you're eating certain foods, the aromatics and other food "debris" is gonna stay on your hands and influence the taste of what you eat next.

 

I was looking for the finger bowls or handywipes! 

Victoire!  This was the time to break out Ethiopian cuisine!  A little injera, some smoking hot lentil dish, and a little lamb.

What did Buddha put into the hand mold?  Water?  It's just a cold hand-shaped plate.  Why did he think the judges were going to be blown away?

[carrps]

7 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

What did Buddha put into the hand mold?  Water?

Agar agar, for certain. I think it was mixed with water.