S20.E08: Street Food Fight

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

Guest judge Judy Joo surprises the chefs by challenging them to create delicious street food-inspired dishes; the chefs must get inspiration from the new "Fast X" movie for the largest and fastest mise en place race.

Original air date: April 27, 2023

[Bastet]

The mise en place relay race is always my favorite QF (or at least tied with the blindfolded tasting), but it leading into a 30-minute EC?  That it was in order to be a commercial for a movie irritated me.  But, as always, I enjoyed the relay itself (other than watching poor Gabri being ignored about the lamb and then embarrassing himself). 

The yellow team was a clear winner, and I like that they did it with those ingredients.  I was hoping Gabri would win; I most wanted his dish.

The green team’s strategy was interesting, to each use lamb yet two of them have make another ingredient the star of the dish.  In the commercial break before they presented, I couldn’t decide if it was smart or dumb.  As soon as the judges ate them, I knew it was dumb and that Sara was the only one who pulled it off.

I didn’t realize until his exit interview how young Charbel is!  He’s quite impressive so early in his career.

Last week’s guest judge was a bit much for me sometimes, but I also really liked him at times, and, as I said in the Live Chat, I thought it was lovely for him to come back to the stew room after judging to have a beer with the cheftestants – and invite them to drop by his kitchen.

There were a couple of the QF inspiration dishes I’ve never had, but most of them I have – and all of those I really like, so I was interested in what they did.  Charbel was cracking me up, not knowing anything about his dish (nor did I), and the guest judge’s description of what he came up with – doesn’t look like, taste like, or bear any resemblance whatsoever to what you were given – made me laugh, too.

I’ve never seen a Fast & Furious movie and have no intention of ever doing so, but Victoire as a fangirl entertained me (just like Sylwia with potatoes). 

[catrice2]

Did anyone catch the teams for restaurant wars?

 

 

 

 

[HighHopes]

I do not understand how the judges loved Gabri's poutine. Nothing about that was poutine. You can't substitute french fries for parsnips. And you need cheese curds and not 'crips cheese' !!! They dinged Nicole for her bubble waffles not being light and fluffy, they should have dinged Gabri's poutine for not being anything close to a poutine - not one of his ingredients was the correct ingredient! 

Edited April 28, 2023 by HighHopes

[Jodithgrace]

I dislike product placements, but I do have to take some of the blame. I am one of those people who records everything and watches it on time delay so I can FF over all the commercials. Thanks to DVRs, advertisers have to sneak their products into the shows themselves. Sorry, everybody for making you watch egregious movie tie-ins. 
 

I actually had those grilled octopus balls in Kyoto. The best word I can use to describe them is…weird. I’d much rather have had Charbel’s version. 
 

Gabri said he told his team that he had never Frenched a rack of lamb. He said they didn’t listen to him, but I kept hearing him say it would be fine, and he would make it work. Then, they kept coaching him in terms he didn’t understand. I’m just glad he made up for a disastrous QF with a team win in the EC. 
 

I forget which country Charbel was from. I think he was one of the Middle Eastern trio. I know Ali is from Jordan, because my Son in Law is Jordanian so I told my daughter all about him, but I forget the other two. I hope he does well in LCK. 

[BlackberryJam]

The lamb team failed the moment they all decided to do lamb. 
 

Thrilled for my roasted pepper boyfriend Tom. I was hoping he’d ask Victoire to be his movie date.

[Thumper]

I like all the individual elements of poutine, but together it sounds disgusting.

[Souris]

Wow, I was shocked Charbel is only 25! That really sucks for him to go home the first time he lands in the bottom.

Ugh at the blatant Fast & Furious placement, but it was amusing to see Victoire’s level of fangirl.

I usually love the mise en place race (second only to my fave the blindfolded ingredient identification), but this setup didn’t work as well for me for some reason.

Yellow team clearly did the best at highlighting the individual ingredients, and in interesting ways. I would love to try all of them, but especially Ali’s — peas and potatoes work really well together (samosas!).

Green team totally messed up with their decision to all use lamb.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Souris

[HighHopes]

2 minutes ago, Thumper said:

I like all the individual elements of poutine, but together it sounds disgusting.

It does, but it’s delicious. The got gravy melts the cheese curds and mixed with the crispy fries it’s a salty deliciousness. Great for drunk food, hangovers, and indulging. 

[saracen7]

52 minutes ago, Jodithgrace said:

forget which country Charbel was from. I think he was one of the Middle Eastern trio. I know Ali is from Jordan, because my Son in Law is Jordanian so I told my daughter all about him, but I forget the other two. I hope he does well in LCK. 

Charbel is from Lebanon but lives in the US now. I’ll be sad to see him off the show (depending on LCK), but what an impressive run for being 25! Amar mentioning Ali was only 28 threw me off as well. 

Gabri better bring Victoire to the premiere. 

[Bastet]

55 minutes ago, Jodithgrace said:

I forget which country Charbel was from.

Lebanon. 

 

[The Solution]

It's going to be hard to see anyone leave from now on. And one of those boys better take Victoire to the Fast and Furious 10 premiere! (I gotta admit, I love the Fast and Furious too.)

I was touched by Buddha wanting the win for Victoire, especially since he had immunity.

[Msample]

I’d much rather have a mise relay every season than Restaurant Wars.

[Daisychain]

2 hours ago, Jodithgrace said:

I dislike product placements, but I do have to take some of the blame. I am one of those people who records everything and watches it on time delay so I can FF over all the commercials. Thanks to DVRs, advertisers have to sneak their products into the shows themselves. Sorry, everybody for making you watch egregious movie tie-ins.

Yeah me too, that's why they're chasing us with "Chefs!  Jump in your BMW X3s and X5s and meet me  . . ."  But this has been going on for a long time now.

I'm so sorry Charbel is gone, but this was a really interesting episode.  Poor Gabri icing his knee in the Stew Room.  

We lived in Argentina for a while when I was very little (unforch don't remember a thing), so I was sorry Sara didn't do better with the empanada.  My kids and I have made them with Alton Brown's dough recipe; however, I don't really have to as there is a lovely shop near my town called "Empanadus" and they do it much better than I and have many veggie and meat choices.  My Mom used to make a filling with ground beef and plumped raisins.  I don't know if that's authentic or just the 70s version of that.  It's interesting because most cultures have a dish in that vein.  Is there an "American" version or is that just Hot Pockets?

Anyway, there were so many dishes I wanted to try from the Mise-en-place Elimination Challenge.

Haven't we seen that guest judge previously, or was that another show?  I do recall he's famous and has a huge cookbook about fermentation.  I thought he was our second excellent guest judge in a row -- clear, constructive commentary and no "airs," so to speak.  Very frank and willing to be pleased.  

[SemiCharmedLife]

That was definitely a lot of mise en place!  I usually like when they do the relay in the Quickfire challenge, but they took it above and beyond and it might have been a bit much for me.  So much preparation and so little time to cook!  But, with the caliber of the chefs this season, everyone seemed to do so well.  Even the team that placed at the bottom, with the lamb, probably had solid dishes, but didn't quite live up to the others. I'm eager to see how Charbel does in LCK, since he's been doing so well in the competition until now.

[Fukui San]

This Quickfire was a challenge I would've wanted to judge! These are all foods I love. Takayoki is available at many Japanese/Korean places. There were many unexpected choices from the countries. I wouldn't have guessed the waffle balls from China (even though yes I often snacked on those in my Chinatown street vendor!). I loved Nicole's idea for the Canadianized waffle balls. I actually didn't like Judy Joo's choosing such a straightforward interpretation as Buddha's for the win. I wanted more play and interpretation, so I was disappointed with Nicole and the Takayoki on the bottom and confused at the high placement for Poutine which was 50% fried chicken cutlet for some reason. Very mixed message. The octopus fritter had more relation to Takayoki than Gabri's dish had with Poutine.

The Mise en Place race, for being so stressful, didn't actually amount to much of an advantage. They were all going to get something to cook with, and the team with the "worst" ingredients won. I was afraid that Gabri was going to join the list of eliminated chefs who got eliminated after trying to be accommodating to other chefs and then paying for it.

[Harry24]

I totally enjoyed seeing Sara and Nicole just KICK ASS in the mise-en-place.  I especially enjoyed seeing Nicole handling the pears wrong and responding so well (and so FAST) to Buddha’s instruction.

Edited April 28, 2023 by Harry24

[rlc]

7 hours ago, Jodithgrace said:

Gabri said he told his team that he had never Frenched a rack of lamb. He said they didn’t listen to him, but I kept hearing him say it would be fine, and he would make it work. Then, they kept coaching him in terms he didn’t understand. I’m just glad he made up for a disastrous QF with a team win in the EC. 

Gabri said he wanted to do the peppers. Tom said he was doing the peppers. Gabri said he had never done lamb, and Tom (with arms crossed) again said he was doing the peppers. Gabri basically shut down at that point and said fine, he’d do the lamb. Yet another reason I’m strongly disliking Tom. He has two modes- goofy/charming or obstinate bully. I suspect he uses one to cover the other.

[Ms.Lulu]

54 minutes ago, rlc said:

Gabri said he wanted to do the peppers. Tom said he was doing the peppers. Gabri said he had never done lamb, and Tom (with arms crossed) again said he was doing the peppers. Gabri basically shut down at that point and said fine, he’d do the lamb. Yet another reason I’m strongly disliking Tom. He has two modes- goofy/charming or obstinate bully. I suspect he uses one to cover the other.

That's how I saw it too. my hope is Tom is the next to go. Of the remaining chefs, he is my least favorite. 

[Miss chi chi]

8 hours ago, Daisychain said:

 

We lived in Argentina for a while when I was very little (unforch don't remember a thing), so I was sorry Sara didn't do better with the empanada.  My kids and I have made them with Alton Brown's dough recipe; however, I don't really have to as there is a lovely shop near my town called "Empanadus" and they do it much better than I and have many veggie and meat choices.  My Mom used to make a filling with ground beef and plumped raisins.  I don't know if that's authentic or just the 70s version of that.  It's interesting because most cultures have a dish in that vein.  Is there an "American" version or is that just Hot Pockets?

 

Kansans make Bierocks. Bread filled with meat, cabbage, bacon and onions. Delicious!!!

[Daisychain]

16 minutes ago, Miss chi chi said:

Kansans make Bierocks. Bread filled with meat, cabbage, bacon and onions. Delicious!!!

That's amazing - @bosawks and I discussed being from NJ, but my parents and younger brother moved to Wichita after I effectively left home for college.  Now I want to go on this hunt with him - this dish sounds excellent.  I will ask my brother.  Wichita is by a couple of Nordic/Swedish communities that may be in this vein?

Meanwhile I ordered bad Italian take-out the other day - Wednesday? - calamari that smelled fishy, ugh.  Lesson learned - plus, other lesson, eat locally - we really don't have squid in the Midwest!

[Lovecat]

10 hours ago, Daisychain said:

My Mom used to make a filling with ground beef and plumped raisins.  I don't know if that's authentic or just the 70s version of that.

I've had homemade empanadas in Argentina and can confirm that they do frequently have raisins in them!  I was down there working for a few days and someone's mama sent empanadas in for the office.  Ah-mazing.

[HighQueenEB]

13 hours ago, catrice2 said:

Did anyone catch the teams for restaurant wars?

Spoiler

White - Amar, Sara, Buddha, Ali
Green - Tom, Gabri, Nicole, Victoire

 

[MerBearHou]

After Tom had asserted that HE was going to do the peppers and no, Gabri, you will do the lamb even though you have no idea how to, Tom was very, very kind to Gabri, trying to guide him, giving him little pats on the back or shoulders, interacting with Gabri -- I'm trying to say that I observed Tom seeming to kind of feel badly for being too strong-arm with Gabri and tried to make up to Gabri for it.  Like @ric said above, Tom seems to have these two sides to him and he fights within himself.  Gosh, I liked Tom so much initially, but he has not worn well over time.

Edited April 28, 2023 by MerBearHou

[catrice2]

13 minutes ago, HighQueenEB said:

  Hide contents

White - Amar, Sara, Buddha, Ali
Green - Tom, Gabri, Nicole, Victoire

 

Very stacked talent on one team. Ugh 

[marybennet]

17 minutes ago, catrice2 said:

Very stacked talent on one team. Ugh 

Yes, though memory tells me that sometimes the underdogs win, especially if they do better at corralling their egos than the top dogs do.

[carrps]

22 minutes ago, catrice2 said:

Very stacked talent on one team. Ugh 

Although typically with RW that's bad!

[caitmcg]

Honestly, I’d rather a dumb movie tie-in on TC than their being forced to cook with some brand of mediocre prepared food.

The teams' strategy of focusing on claiming proteins showed how much they’re all stuck in that flesh-as-centerpiece mindset, whereas the all-vegetables yellow team had to be more intentional, and it paid off. All three of those dishes looked and sounded delicious.

Buddha keeps proving himself an exception to the TC rule that making a dessert is high risk, with little chance of reward. He’s probably the most confident about his sweets of any contestant I can recall, but apparently with good reason.

[Rambler]

14 hours ago, Jodithgrace said:

I dislike product placements, but I do have to take some of the blame. I am one of those people who records everything and watches it on time delay so I can FF over all the commercials. Thanks to DVRs, advertisers have to sneak their products into the shows themselves. Sorry, everybody for making you watch egregious movie tie-ins. 
 

What's funny is that Top Chef had a product placement ad in this week's episode of The Rookie. A cop going undercover tells her boyfriend not to watch the latest episode of Top Chef without her. Then at the end, she admits that she watched the episode without him because, you know, Top Chef is so good who could resist?

Nice to see the mise en place make a return after a long absence. The basic setup for the elimination challenge was fine, but it was hurt by the Fast and Furious tie-in. The judges had to eat so quickly that we didn't get any discussion about what was good and bad about each dish as they were eaten like we normally do. Or maybe there was a discussion, but I was too hypnotized by Padma’s cleavage that I completely missed it.

 

[dleighg]

45 minutes ago, caitmcg said:

Honestly, I’d rather a dumb movie tie-in on TC than their being forced to cook with some brand of mediocre prepared food.

 

yeah, I've never seen a single one of those movies (and would have probably lied when asked to raise my hand to say whether I was a fan) but it was pretty innocuous overall.

 

32 minutes ago, Rambler said:

The judges had to eat so quickly that we didn't get any discussion about what was good and bad about each dish as they were eaten like we normally do.

I think 10 minutes is enough to taste and discuss three dishes. It seemed like they were well finished and there were still a few minutes on the next group's cook time. 

[meep.meep]

1 hour ago, caitmcg said:

Honestly, I’d rather a dumb movie tie-in on TC than their being forced to cook with some brand of mediocre prepared food.

The teams' strategy of focusing on claiming proteins showed how much they’re all stuck in that flesh-as-centerpiece mindset, whereas the all-vegetables yellow team had to be more intentional, and it paid off. All three of those dishes looked and sounded delicious.

I kept thinking that Begona must be smiling.  And who doesn't love a zero to hero edit.

Happy that the mise race didn't include chickens, onions, and whipping egg whites.

[bosawks]

I don't think Gabri is going to win but I love him.

[dgpolo]

5 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Happy that the mise race didn't include chickens, onions, and whipping egg whites.

The one mise-en-place that I've remembered all these years was when Hung broke down a bunch of chickens faster than I've ever seen anyone do anything.

When they were doing the Quickfire I asked my daughter 'weren't they supposed to do the mise-en-place?' and she thought so too and said that it was never an EC. So of course it was.

I thought Amar and Ali might get separation anxiety from being on different teams.

After last week I thought I would come here to the forums and see a bunch of posts about Padma's gold pants.

[Ms.Lulu]

8 hours ago, marybennet said:

Yes, though memory tells me that sometimes the underdogs win, especially if they do better at corralling their egos than the top dogs do.

I do think one of the teams has more egos than talent, so this will be interesting.

[Leeds]

I'm trying to give Sara the benefit of the doubt for nominating funnel cakes as a favourite street food as being ironic/self aware about her depiction as a hick.

[Leeds]

10 hours ago, Rambler said:

Or maybe there was a discussion, but I was too hypnotized by Padma’s cleavage that I completely missed it.

 

Never mind the cleavage, what about those hot pants/legs!

[catrice2]

Charbel and Ali are my picks along with a sentimental Gabri so I hated the elimination. At this point I am neutral on Budda. It is hard to say where others fall.  I only think about Sara ,Nicole or Tom because of comments here not their food so it is hard to see them  front runners although  I  know many finalists did not necessarily win a lot of QFs and ECs. Not sure if it is because of the level of talent present 🤔 but I have no clue who is winning this!

Yes I said and feel Charbel looks older than 25 but mature and focused,  same with Ali. I maybe wrong but I would think the winner would be raising their social media presence or silent because they are busy with projects

[Heathrowe]

I would have thought Charbel was 40. I couldn't believe it when he said he was only 25! Anyway - his food generally does look delicious, and I thought this was a tough competition - all of the dishes looked good so they were looking for tiny details to pick apart. I am not sure if I would have thought to go "lamb-free" if I were on that team, but I do think it's a shame that the orange and the prickly pear didn't really much attention. You know if Gabri had that prickly pear he'd have made it shine.

I am disappointed that Gabri's been singled out several times for good dishes but keeps not actually winning. His food is what I want to eat most of the time.  I don't think he will win but i hope he sticks around. Also he made me laugh when he said "You are going to give the Mexican the avocado? Big mistake!!"  The whole thing with Tom and the peppers - I think it's tough because people are competing so they get intense - and then they must realize out of the moment how stupid it is/regret that. But it's already on film! I think Sarah seems like she watched her season and realized she didn't like what was put on film. I would have to re-watch her season but I remember thinking she was really negative. Now she seems kind, funny, and laid-back.

I am just loving this season, though. All of the chef's are pretty lovable, and the food looks amazing. I would much rather watch people at the top of their game put out great food than watch people flounder and fail.

 

 

 

 

[Norma Desmond]

Gabri's poutine looked yummy. I'd love to try a good poutine, but it isn't easy to find in my neck of the woods.

As soon as his team got only vegetables, I knew they were going to win, that seems to be a recurring theme on Top Chef - team lose challenge, team can't get any proteins, team make do with vegetarian dishes & end up winning the challenge.

Is german Tom getting the winner's edit? I fear he is. He's going far, I think.

 

I knew Amar would be in trouble when he was featured so prominently in the beginning. I'm glad he wasn't eliminated. When it came down to Amar and Charbel I was like, it's going to be Charbel cause the editing can't be that obvious lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 29, 2023 by Norma Desmond

[Daisychain]

6 hours ago, Norma Desmond said:

I'd love to try a good poutine, but it isn't easy to find in my neck of the woods.

Mine neither.  I live in a village with a very good restaurant, and even when they serve poutine, it feels like one cheesy/gravy plate of french fry mush. I wonder if I'm expecting the wrong thing.

I listened to the Pack Your Knives podcast.  They recognized Tom's talent but were fairly critical of his inability to budge or make room for others.  I can't say I disagreed.  Gabri told him he literally never frenched a rack before.  The other task was just a brunoise.  Selfish, and pointless as they didn't win.  Next week will be pretty interesting.

[Yeah No]

I hated to see Charbel go, but I was just happy it wasn't Amar.  He has done so well so far it would have been a shame for him to leave just yet.

That poutine was like nothing most people have ever seen and I'm sure a lot of Canadians would not love that interpretation, but this is one of those instances where I have to defer to the judges as we have no idea how it tasted.  Maybe it was everything poutine in the taste in spite of all that.  Gabri's experience in Canada makes me wonder if that was some oddball cheffy variation he had once while there and was trying to duplicate.

I agree with the poster that said the mise en place challenge was a little OTT this time and harder to follow than in the past but I think it was nice to have it back anyway.

Chef Tom continues to grate and his swings between modest/nice guy to selfish, self-serving douche make me wonder if that isn't some character flaw he is completely unaware looks that bad.   As a friend of mine would say, "he really needs to get that fixed". 

On the shallow end of the pool, this time it was me that found Padma's pants annoying.  Not horrible but just not her best look.  This time Sara gets credit for her improved pants, but now I feel like the show is deliberately showing us her from the rear every chance it gets. 

Coincidentally before I watched this episode I saw that FN just aired an episode of "Iron Chef America" from 2012 between Alex Guarnaschelli and Judy Joo.  I know I watched it back in the day but having forgotten who won, I recorded it again.  I have yet to watch it.

[Colorado David]

On 4/28/2023 at 6:19 PM, dgpolo said:

 I would come here to the forums and see a bunch of posts about Padma's gold pants.

or the belly shirt!!! hubba.

i would not rush lamb, it doesnt forgive. better to go with the fish.

[carrps]

9 hours ago, Yeah No said:

This time Sara gets credit for her improved pants, but now I feel like the show is deliberately showing us her from the rear every chance it gets. 

Coincidentally before I watched this episode I saw that FN just aired an episode of "Iron Chef America" from 2012 between Alex Guarnaschelli and Judy Joo. 

Ha! As I was reading your comment about Sara, I was thinking, but she does have a prodigious butt. It even rivals Alex Guarnaschelli's! And then in your next para, there's Alex!

Not that I should talk, my butt is not exactly dainty.

[caitmcg]

10 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Gabri's experience in Canada makes me wonder if that was some oddball cheffy variation he had once while there and was trying to duplicate.

I think it was just his oddball cheffy variation.

[carrps]

6 minutes ago, caitmcg said:

I think it was just his oddball cheffy variation.

I still think it's odd that he wasn't dinged for it's being so different from the original as Charbel was. Dang, Judy Joo raked him over the coals for that tacoyaki. His bad luck that he pick her bestest favorite street food probably.

 

[Iseut]

Whoever called out (cheftestant) Tom for having two modes, obstinate bully vs. goofy charming is spot on. He started out so likable but as the number of chefs have dwindled and he got called out a few times, he's definitely leaned more in to bully territory. 

I might have been able to forgive him for ignoring Gabri about the lamb since he was seemingly trying very hard to coach Gabri through it, but then Judge Tom came by and was a dick about how poorly Gabri was doing and Cheftestant Tom jumped right on Judge Tom's dickish bandwagon, even though it was his fault Gabri was there in the first place. Both Toms came off looking terrible in that scene. 

[Leeds]

Am I the only one who thought the lamb in both dishes looked overcooked and unappetizingly grey?

Edited May 2, 2023 by Leeds

[seacliffsal]

I didn't enjoy this episode as it was so "choppy" with all of the starts and stops during the EC.  I also didn't appreciate the constant whistle blowing during the challenge.  However, I did love that the team that seemingly "lost" all of the rounds and ended without any proteins won (and I thought all of their dishes looked amazing).  So, all of the preliminary rounds of the EC really didn't benefit the winners of each round.

I quite enjoyed the Quickfire.  

But, when both episode challenges take place in the Top Chef kitchen, it means that I don't get to see London or the English countryside and I call 'foul' on that!

[bravofan27]

The fast and furious challenge really was confusing. I get the first part was "fast and furious" (the FASTEST ELIMINATION in TOP CHEF HISTORY!- LOL) then it gets off for me--  some strange connection to different countries in the movie, and this connects to a protein, fruit, and veg. What happened to the food they prepped that wasn't their dish? The team finishing prepping the ingredients first got to pick which ingredient their team had to cook with-- that was it. The instructions on my screen said, "In teams of 3, compete in a mise en place race and then create 3 dishes featuring your teams' mise en place ingredients." Later the next day she says, "The ingredient you choose, must be featured in one of your 3 dishes."

So that's a little mixed message right there with a change in instructions or different nuances. 

Amar should have gone home because he didn't understand the challenge-- he kept thinking it was about the protein and the other stuff were sides. The challenge wasn't about featuring the protein specifically. The whole team featured the lamb which is why the were last and no one featured prickly pear. From there, I think Amar should have gone home because used all three ingredients and didn't try to feature any of them. And he said something about the three of them each using a different part of the lamb. Bottom line-- Amar only cared about the lamb, and he should have gone.

I wonder if Padma could say "fast or fastest" any more possible times. 

 

 

 

 

[HappyDancex2]

On 4/28/2023 at 1:19 PM, caitmcg said:

Buddha keeps proving himself an exception to the TC rule that making a dessert is high risk, with little chance of reward. He’s probably the most confident about his sweets of any contestant I can recall, but apparently with good reason.

I believe Buddhas wife is a pastry chef at a higher end establishment so he probably gets exposed to a lot of techniques and flavor combos and….specialty molds LOL….that other chefs wouldn’t necessary see around the dinner table.  That and he’s like Richard Blais and a student of the show so he looks like he has a pretty big arsenal of dishes that fit a broad range of categories to tweak for these challenges.  
 

cheftestant Tom asking his teammates if they were happy with their assignments before the relay started when it was clear that Gabri wasn’t just shows how obtuse he is.  If I was forced to French those racks after saying I’ve never done it before and King Brunoise of the Red Pepper decided to lord over me while I was doing it with his step by step TikTok tutorial voice I would have stopped and told him he could bruinoise little meat chunks as well LOL.