S03.E09: The Semifinals

[chitowngirl]

Two teams of Friends and Families remain to see who makes it to the finale and who misses out on the chance to win $100,000; a unique dessert is key for one team to win immunity in the most important safety bake of the season. Then, the remaining three teams desperately try to guess and bake their way into the finale.

Edited November 20 by chitowngirl

[mertensia]

I'm getting a repeat of tonight's Hell's Kitchen. 😪

[tv echo]

Jessica and Lenore won the safety bake and ensured their spot in the season finale. They were the only team to guess correctly: Neapolitan Vertical Roll Cake.

Katelyn and Ronan were eliminated. They were the only team to add (incorrectly) coffee to their cake. All teams made variations of a Hazelnut Dacquoise (I think).

So the final three teams who will compete in the finale will be: Jessica and Lenore, Becky and Daniel, and Janusz and Keiron. (I think I got their names right. I'm relying on cast pics in this TVInsider article.)

Edited November 22 by tv echo

[blackwing]

Figures that the only episode in which Katelyn did not annoy me, she ends up going home.  I found her likeable in this episode.  There's something about the way she was baking with joy and took the moment to dance in happiness that I found very real.

I don't drink coffee either and I've never used a french press.  But even I could have seen that the french press wasn't used at all.  

Lenore and Jessica have to be considered the frontrunners in the final.  Their deduction of the clues in the safety bake was unparalleled.  "It looks like a butt."  Nobody else picked up on the pattern of the cake in the dome.  With the comic cake and the vertical cake, they seem to be hitting their stride.

Daniel and Becky seem to be hit or miss... they nailed it with the marjolaine and the conchas.  But then they have a disaster like their rainbow cake last week.

Janusz and Kieran are good bakers, but they don't seem to be the best detectives.  Janusz still annoys me but Kieran makes up for him.

This is the first time where I wouldn't mind if any of the three finalists won.  The previous two seasons had a team that I actively disliked.

 

[freeser]

55 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I don't drink coffee either and I've never used a french press.  But even I could have seen that the french press wasn't used at all.  

Not only was the French press clean and unused but the bag of coffee did not look like it had been opened either.  I felt using coffee was a poor decision and it was.

[borealis]

Janusz' accent & voice remind me of Latka Gravas.

[Quilt Fairy]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

Nobody else picked up on the pattern of the cake in the dome. 

No, the brother/sister team saw it, but they interpreted it as coming from a tower of square cut (somethings).  I thought they might be on to something, especially with the serrated knife, but the other team used it to correctly cut the thin layers of cake required for the horizontal roll cake.

A nice semi-final.  The winners of both bakes were pretty much spot on with the mystery desserts, and Mr and Mrs Mormon were the right team to go home. 

So we finally see Yolanda in the super sexy dress we've noticed in her earlier confessionals.  But what I've come to realize is that, while it is teasingly close to NSF broadcast TV, there is a lining on that dress that is the perfect shade of her skin, so there's a lot more coverage that you think. 

Edited November 22 by Quilt Fairy

[Red Bridey]

I don't understand why all the contestants feel they have to dress like kindergarten kids. Is that how bakers dress? I don't! Not that I am a real baker, though I make a mean pound cake. I don't know how I feel about the Campbell Soup Kids Team losing. I liked them and found them as annoying as hell. Just like Janusz and the other guy. I like the other guy. Janusz not so much.

[chitowngirl]

If were binge watching this season and took a drink every time Curtis said, “the stakes couldn’t be higher”, I’d be in a puddle on the floor. He says it EVERY episode.

[Grizzly]

I liked Katelyn and Ronan. They clearly love each other. How refreshing to have no sniping, no fights, just support. She can certainly bake. Joel seemed to also appreciate them and to really be sad that they left.

I'm sensing with all the teams, or at least the family ones, that one person is the baker and the other is along to help out. 

This seems to be Lenore and Jessica's to lose.

[blackwing]

I wish this show spent more time on the actual baking.  Instead, this show is so formulaic.  They get 3 or 4 hours to bake.  We see the teams discussing the clues and what they think they should make.  Joel comes in and chats with them.  Some jokes, "what are you making", banter.  Then he leaves and goes to the next team. 

Cut to Curtis and Yolanda slowly walking by each pod and observing.  Cut to Curtis and Yolanda with their comments.  "All teams are making some variation of a lemon mousse tiered cake.  However, Harry and Hermione are the ONLY team to put fresh mint in between the layers.  If fresh mint is an element in the mystery dessert, it could make a huge difference in advance them to the next round!"

Then ALL OF A SUDDEN, there are TWO MINUTES LEFT and the bakers are scrambling to finish decorating.  Judging etc.  "REVEAL THE MYSTERY DESSERT!"  "please be a blueberry pavlova, blueberry pavlova" "I want to see a cube and lots of flowers, cube and flowers!"

Too much formula.

1 hour ago, Red Bridey said:

I don't understand why all the contestants feel they have to dress like kindergarten kids. Is that how bakers dress? I don't! Not that I am a real baker, though I make a mean pound cake. I don't know how I feel about the Campbell Soup Kids Team losing. I liked them and found them as annoying as hell. Just like Janusz and the other guy. I like the other guy. Janusz not so much.

Campbell Soup Kids... spit take!  Now that you said it, I can't unsee it.   Agree that they were annoying (particularly the way that Katelyn talked like she was explaining things to a five year old) and agree completely that Janusz is annoying.

6 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

I'm sensing with all the teams, or at least the family ones, that one person is the baker and the other is along to help out. 

This seems to be Lenore and Jessica's to lose.

I think with the two family teams here, it seemed clear that Daniel and Katelyn were the bakers or the lead bakers.  But other family teams (Kai and Starlett and the sisters and the uncle/niece) they seemed like equals.

I just looked at the Wikipedia page.  I did not know that Jesse and Justin are brothers-in-law.  I had thought they were just friends.  They competed with the friends teams.

The friends teams on this episode, all four of them are experienced.  Lenore and Jessica are the team where each of them has her own bakery.  Janusz competed on The Great British Bakeoff / Baking Show.  Someone said that Keiran was a contestant on some other baking show.

 

[mlp]

I liked Katelyn and Ronan and was sorry to see them leave but they were the right ones to go.  As said upthread, it seemed obvious to me that the coffee and French press hadn't been used.  I agree that Janusz is somewhat annoying but I like him anyway.  I don't care much for the brother and sister so I hope Lenore and Jessica can pull off the win.

[DanaK]

I'm kind of glad Katelyn and Ronan are finally gone. It felt like they both were putting on a cutsey persona that annoyed me

Also, Jessica (I think it's her) seems to be a very, very talented baker and has really impressed the judges at times with what she comes up with

Two things I really like and am amused by about this show is one, when the bakers parade their baked food to their competitors as they bring it to the judges and the competitors loudly admire the goods, and two, as the bakers show and explain the item they baked to the judges, the other bakers doubt themselves even if they don't know if the baked goods are the right ones or not

Edited November 23 by DanaK

[ruffy666]

On 11/22/2024 at 2:31 PM, blackwing said:

I wish this show spent more time on the actual baking.  Instead, this show is so formulaic.

I mean, you're totally not wrong but also this is what makes this show different from the gazillion other baking shows on Food Network for example.  I also wish it were a little less formulaic but luckily this season has contestants who are mostly enjoyable so it doesn't bother me too much.

Everyone seemed to love Janusz when he was on GBBO and I always thought he was extremely obnoxious-- and that continues on this show :)  His partner is a lot better and helps mellow him out a bit.

[lh25]

On 11/22/2024 at 1:45 PM, chitowngirl said:

If were binge watching this season and took a drink every time Curtis said, “the stakes couldn’t be higher”, I’d be in a puddle on the floor. He says it EVERY episode.

That and "If the mystery dessert was (what the bakers made) you could be safe".  Well, yeah, that's pretty much the rules of the show.  We don't need to hear them in every episode!