S02.E09: The Semifinals: It's All In The Details

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

With only four teams of classically trained and self-taught bakers left, the semifinalists take on the safety bake round, inspired by guest judge Dwight Howard's favorite dessert.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I really liked Dwight Howard, he really got into the spirit of the competition, and was so nice to everyone.   

I don't have a clue about any of the desserts this week, but I'm sorry to see anyone go, and for this contest to end.    I can't wait for the finale next week, but still hate to say goodbye to any of the contestants, except Camille and Laissa.   I've never warmed up to C & L.  

I hope there's a season 3.    

Edited August 8, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[chicagofan]

Damn - my least favorite team won the safety bake. I haven't liked Laissa and Camille from the start and I was surprised that they had the correct dessert as Dwight Howard didn't strike me as a floating island kinda guy. But kudos to them for picking up on the slotted spoon and coming up with the correct dish.

And kudos to Fadi and T for being the only team to correctly decipher the ingredients price list and use both pistachio and cardamom. They're not my favorite team, but as the last self taught team standing I wouldn't be too upset if they won.

But of the 3 final teams I guess I'm rooting for Amber and Yass.

[chitowngirl]

I’m rooting for any team that is not Camille and Laissa

[blackwing]

Back in the Season 1, when we were all listing what kinds of desserts we wanted to see, I said I wanted to see an Ispahan.  An ispahan is something of a rose and lychee entremet, so it was great to see an entremet!

I liked Tarsha and Kristy, but they were an obvious choice to go home.  They had the wrong flavour and the wrong cake base.  I disliked how Yolanda was trying to make viewers think that Fadi and T missing the pansy flowers was equivalent to getting the flavour and cake base wrong.

I have become suspect of all reality shows that rely to some extent on subjective judging.  Unless one team is clearly way off the mark, there's too much wiggle room for judges to send through who they like more overall without giving any concrete reasons why one team was worse than the other.  Maybe I'm just jaded from Lego Masters and Next Level Chef.  Especially NLC which seems clearly rigged.

I've thought this show is rigged to some extent.  I knew that barring a disaster, Fadi and T had an automatic ticket to the finals once they were the only team left with any males.  I also knew that they weren't going to allow the final to be all classically trained or all self taught, of course there would be a mix.  The cynic in me also says that there was no way the show was going to let two teams of two Black women into the final.  I feel that even if Tarsha and Kristy had gotten the flavour and cake base correct, they would have gotten sent home anyways, some reason would have been given.

I liked Tarsha and Kristy, as I've gotten older I find myself always rooting for parent/child teams on reality shows.  Yes, they did have their moments of disagreement, but it's obvious they have a good relationship.  I really liked their last interview, with Kristy being the appreciative daughter and Tarsha being the comforting mother.

I still like Amber and Yass the best.  I think they have great technical skills and I like how well they work together.

I don't mind Camille and Laissa, it looks like others here really dislike them but I think they are competent and I like their energy.  I did find it odd that Laissa was admonishing Camille to "can you please wait for me".  Each of them had to bring two dishes so I didn't see the issue of one walking in front of the other.

Fadi and T are competent, but I find them theatrical and annoying.

I find it poor that the slate is wiped clean after the Safety Bake round.  I feel like how you did in the Safety Bake should have some bearing in the overall elimination.  There should be points assigned to the Safety Bake which carry over into the Elimination Bake.  Fadi and T making ice cream was just embarrassing.  There was absolutely no evidence there was ice cream being made, where is the ice cream bucket or the maker?  Where was evidence of all of the toppings they added besides the caramel?  It was absolutely awful detective work.  At least Tarsha and Kristy made a creme caramel which was a lot closer to the actual dessert.

To me, all things being equal it seems obvious to me that the show wants Fadi and T to win, and has from the beginning.  I'll have to go back and check the details, but I feel like there was at least one episode where they should have gone home but the producers had told Yolanda and Curtis to save them.  And then they got the safety bake win when four teams had done well, it seemed arbitrary.

I also think the show loves Camille and Laissa because they are French.  I get that this is a baking show, and much of baking skews towards French pastry.  But there was a tarte tatin and now a floating island which was referred to by a French name, ile flottante.  Kudos to Amber for identifying it.  I'm with Fadi and T, I had never heard of it.

This was the first episode where I felt like Joel was very intrusive.  It was obvious that Tarsha and Fadi/T didn't want to talk to him and actually said they wanted him to leave.  Tarsha didn't want to talk to Dwight Howard either, that was funny.

[proserpina65]

Well, rats, I was hoping the French women would go home.  And am I really supposed to believe that Dwight Howard loves floating islands?  'Cause I doubt he'd even heard of them before this episode was filmed.

[mertensia]

4 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Well, rats, I was hoping the French women would go home.  And am I really supposed to believe that Dwight Howard loves floating islands?  'Cause I doubt he'd even heard of them before this episode was filmed.

If he's a fan of The Great British Baking Show - which he might be, considering he was apparently happy to be on this - he might be. It was a technical one season, and if he's curious he's got the money to go to France and try one.

That said, they sound so bland to me.

The first round was good - everyone made something different.

"Can I get an autograph?" Nice to hear!

 

[blackwing]

15 minutes ago, mertensia said:

If he's a fan of The Great British Baking Show - which he might be, considering he was apparently happy to be on this - he might be. It was a technical one season, and if he's curious he's got the money to go to France and try one.

That said, they sound so bland to me.

The first round was good - everyone made something different.

"Can I get an autograph?" Nice to hear!

 

I googled.  The pictures make it look not particularly appealing.  To me it looks like a dollop of meringue sitting in a dish of creme anglaise, which to me looks like melted vanilla ice cream.  Is that all there is to it?

Is this a "fancy restaurant" type dessert, considered to be a showstopper kind of like how everyone oohs at a baked Alaska?  I would never order this.

[Mediocre Gatsby]

I didn't even watch this til I knew that Tarsha and Kristy went home. They should have been gone already. 

I wondered if, like Joel with his cinnamon rolls, Dwight would pick something more well known - I thought it was ice cream right away. 

The money and the list on the refrigerator were interesting clues. 

[JH Lipton]

I find Fasi and T (the "Hey, look at me!!!!: team) to be far more irritating than  Camille and Laissa.  Can. Not, Stand. Them.

15 hours ago, blackwing said:

[1] I have become suspect of all reality shows that rely to some extent on subjective judging.  ...   Maybe I'm just jaded from Lego Masters and Next Level Chef.  Especially NLC which seems clearly rigged.

[2] I've thought this show is rigged to some extent.  ....  The cynic in me also says that there was no way the show was going to let two teams of two Black women into the final.  I feel that even if Tarsha and Kristy had gotten the flavour and cake base correct, they would have gotten sent home anyways, some reason would have been given.

Fadi and T are competent, but I find them theatrical and annoying.To me, all things being equal it seems obvious to me that the show wants Fadi and T to win, and has from the beginning. 

[3] I find it poor that the slate is wiped clean after the Safety Bake round.

 

[1] Next Level Chef is so freaking bad.  First, they shouldn't even mention anything that didn't make it to the elevator -- if it's off, it's out.  Then one dish can clearly outshine another, get all the complements while tasting, and be put below slop.  I watched one season -- that was enough.

[2[ Very rigged -- Fadi and T winning the pass to the semis was so utterly fake.  Reality shows don't have to meet the same Standards and Practices as "regular" game shows.  They are definitely the producers' favorites, but blech.  I don't think that they're all that competent either.

[3] I have to disagree -- I think that woud give too much weight to the Safety Bake.  I think having each round being "judged" (or not) independently works better.

[tennisgurl]

Those floating island cakes looked delightful, I like when the show can introduce me to a new sort of treat!

Edited August 9, 2023 by tennisgurl

[jabRI]

The funniest, is I happened to watch today, first episode of 'Project Bakeover' and premiere episode was Tarsha's bakery.  Kristy was also on as her helper.  And I kid you not, when they did the reveal and customers came through, I heard one lady ordering Entremet.  Too funny

Spoiler

 

 

[blackwing]

14 hours ago, JH Lipton said:

I find Fasi and T (the "Hey, look at me!!!!: team) to be far more irritating than  Camille and Laissa.  Can. Not, Stand. Them.

Yes, they are very aware they are on camera and the mugging is irritating.

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

 I'm basically rooting for anyone who isn't Camille and Laissa, they're just so smug and unpleasant. 

Those floating island cakes looked delightful, I like when the show can introduce me to a new sort of treat!

I don't find them smug.  There's been a number of times when they openly admit to doing poorly or saying something they made is terrible.  They don't seem to have the arrogance and overconfidence that I would associate with being smug.

To me, the smuggiest ones were the Cat Twins.  It was probably prompted by a producer, but they often made remarks about how much better they as classically trained are than the self-taught.

[tennisgurl]

23 minutes ago, blackwing said:

To me, the smuggiest ones were the Cat Twins.  It was probably prompted by a producer, but they often made remarks about how much better they as classically trained are than the self-taught.

Yeah, I find the French team to be a bit obnoxious, but the Cat Twins were the absolute worst. I assume they were mugging for the camera and responding to producer prompts, but ugh. 

[The Crazed Spruce]

Honestly, I don't actively hate any of the contestants this season.

[proserpina65]

On 8/9/2023 at 2:32 PM, tennisgurl said:

Those floating island cakes looked delightful, I like when the show can introduce me to a new sort of treat!

I think floating islands look pretty vile, unless they are styled to look like the Galapagos and HMS Surprise is sailing between them.

On 8/9/2023 at 8:22 PM, The Crazed Spruce said:

Honestly, I don't actively hate any of the contestants this season.

I don't either.  I like the French women the least now that the cat ears team is gone, but I don't hate them.

[jabRI]

We had dinner in the NYC East Village tonight, and they offered a crepe cake for desert.  My husband did not understand the big deal (why I was so excited) but it was 20 layers of deliciious!  Had never heard of that before this show, so just thought it was a funny coincidence.