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Tournament of Champions - Season 6 Discussion Thread

Harry24

By Harry24
in Tournament Of Champions

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Rammchick
Rammchick

I'm not a fan of Britt's either.  But can we do without the insults to her size, pls?

mlp
mlp

Simon has long been one of my favorite people on FN so I was horrified when I read that he has a glioblastoma.  The odds are against him but I'm fervently hoping he can beat them.

MerBearHou
MerBearHou

Jet did an Instagram Live yesterday and was so genuine and gracious.  He said he'd received hundreds of DMs from people saying they were so upset by his loss and weren't going to watch TOC anymore.  H

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Rammchick

Rammchick

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(edited)
On 4/14/2025 at 9:02 AM, LizMcCully said:

someone please eliminate Britt. She seems to take the easy way out, channeling grandma or family. Kaleena cooked a way better TOC-worthy dish. Britt big as a barn needs to be taken out. And I felt horrible for Jet, taken down by a greasy burger. 

I'm not a fan of Britt's either.  But can we do without the insults to her size, pls?

Edited by Rammchick
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DEL901

DEL901

Final 4 breakdown - male contestants in the F4

Season 1 - None

Season 2 - Jet and Darnell

Season 3 - Jet and Tobias

Season 4 - Jet

Season 5 - Jet

Season 6 - None

So, anyone who disputes unconscious bias just has to look at these results.  The judges can’t see the gender of the contestant they are judging and other than Jet… well, the men have disproven that old adage that women are cooks and men are chefs.

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Stardancer Supreme

Stardancer Supreme

17 hours ago, susannot said:

Antonia is just not going to be defeated!

All women!!

I think the mystery guest judge is Martha Stewart.

All the male chefs knocked out of TOC 6! Love it.  We will have a new Women chef's banner in the Arena this year! Also one of the final judges will be Maneet, since she showed her 2 championship rings...

607:

Judges: Cat Cora (and her shoes!), Ming Tsai, and Michael Symon.

Lee Ann Wong vs. Joe Sasto - Mama Wong wins! Thank goodness she took the Mustache out! 

Kaleena Bliss vs. Britt Rescigno - The Angry Italian wins! Honestly, I was going to be happy for either of these 2 chefs to win. I'm looking forward to seeing Kaleena in TOC 7.

Nini Nguyen vs. Sara Bradley - Sara wins. I will also look forward to seeing Nini in TOC 7.

Kevin Lee vs. Antonia Lofaso - The Princess Warrior takes the Dragon Slayer out again! I believe that if she doesn't win the belt this year, Kevin might not do TOC 7 if Antonia is still in contention. 

 

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HappyDancex2

HappyDancex2

Well I had both Joe and Nini and they both lost so my brackets are done unless Antonia wins.  I was hoping for Joe….he had a better chance than nini.  I said next year I need a “current cooking bio” before I pick my brackets!  I thought Sara was going to be like Fabio and just drag him out for the name but hasn’t cooked competitively in awhile.  Who knew Sara was cleaning it up on every iteration of Chopped!!!  /soreloserinmybracketsLOL. But I won a fancy dinner out and a ninja multicooker slow cooker looking thing so I’m happy.

I snickered when I realized there was going to be another female champion.  
 

I think Guy is trying to balance out finding big name culinary people to be judges to increase the cache but the real experts are people who compete and judge cooking competitions.  I’d like to see Eric Greenspan as a cheftestant or judge.  Did Aaron may do the first season?  Hoping to see Rocco back as a judge next year.  Maybe Brooke and Bobby can come back together BWAHAHAHA.

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Bastet

Bastet

I was dozing off periodically while watching (because it was late and I was in bed, not because the show was boring), but I'm happy with all the results.  I really wanted Antonia to win, and Lee Anne, but with the others I'd have been happy either way.  I love that we have all women in the final four.

I want this to finally be Antonia's year!  I'm really hoping the final is between her and Sara, and as bummed as I'll be for Antonia if she doesn't win, I will also be happy for Sara if she does as I have always liked her a lot.

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DEL901

DEL901

(edited)

No male winner yet again is particularly annoying for Guy and the team since all the previous (female) winners sat this season out which I think was supposed to help a male win.  And I’m convinced that the brackets were set to give the men an advantage….which worked in the round of 32 where 10 men and only 6 women advanced. 

Then the round of 16 happened and all six women won and the only two men who won…competed against men.  This continued in the round of 8, with both men losing against women.  

Crazy to think that in six seasons, there have been 24 spots in the Semi Finals and the only men to reach that level are Jet (x4), Darnell and Tobias.  

They are going to have trouble recruiting top notch guys. It has to be embarrassing when none of them have ever reached the finals.  Will Jet or even Shota come back.  Michael V and Eric A and even Marc M don’t compete any more.

Edited by DEL901
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meowmommy

meowmommy

On 4/14/2025 at 5:27 PM, DEL901 said:

Crazy to think that in six seasons, there have been 24 spots in the Semi Finals and the only men to reach that level are Jet (x4), Darnell and Tobias.

Which means not a single white male has ever made the semis.  I secretly wish that, for an unofficial sociological study, there was a parallel judging where it wasn’t blind tasting, to see how many of them would have gotten through.

I have hearted LeeAnne for a long time but would prefer to hear less about her awful year.  She deserves to be judged on the merits of her cooking, not her personal calamities.  Did the little one whose picture we saw sprout from the time LeeAnne competed on TC AllStars while pregnant?  I always forget that Tiffani and LeeAnne were on TC 1 together.

And just another quirk.  The reporters used to say things to the judges like, “This chef made chicken nuggets using the garlic press while playing the harmonica.”  This season it’s all passive voice, as in, “The gummy bears were sautéed with the rotting pine bark in the rusty coffee can.”  Clearly a production decision, but for me inexplicable.

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DEL901

DEL901

(edited)
3 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Which means not a single white male has ever made the semis.  I secretly wish that, for an unofficial sociological study, there was a parallel judging where it wasn’t blind tasting, to see how many of them would have gotten through.

An even more meaningful observation:  while the female winners have represented a range of ethnicities, the men rising to (not the top, since they seem to have trouble getting there) as high as they can go, the largest group of men has not been represented… may have just been a fluke it is happened once or twice or even three seasons, but all six?  It is making quite a statement.

It will be interesting if it is addressed at all…. Last year Guy teased Jet about being their only hope.  But at this point, he has to tread a careful not to imply they are disappointed in having another female winners.

Edited by DEL901
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dleighg

dleighg

I wonder if they've sprinkled too many white-guys-who-run-multiple-restaurants in, because they are well-known. White guys are pre-privileged to get to that category, but they might be too long out of the fast thinking on the feet stage to do well under these conditions. I have not counted up to determine how many of the white guys fall into this category, but it's certainly a few.

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Stardancer Supreme

Stardancer Supreme

(edited)

This show is definitely a case study in how expectations (mainly Guy's) are subverted when the talent of the women chefs actually outshines the male chefs.  You can tell that Guy expected the male chefs to run away with the competition with the male coded prizes (A huge pickup truck, a championship belt, championship rings). If TOC didn't have those prizes, would the women fight as hard?  I know Guy isn't a complete misogynist; but he has that male chef arrogance like most of the others. 

I also wonder why we haven't seen so much of Ryder Fieri. We are pretty tired of Hunter at this point; maybe the baby boy is the more charismatic son?

Edited by Stardancer Supreme
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ILuvShibaInus

ILuvShibaInus

On 4/16/2025 at 12:57 PM, kirklandia said:

They stopped doing the dubious geographic categories.   If Guy really wants to guarantee a male chef makes it into the final, I guess it's time for another bracket refresh.
Battle of the sexes? 

Just rename the show Top Chef: TOC and you'll have a male winner in no time once blind judging goes out the window. The Battle of the Sexes idea would guarantee a male in the finale if you would have 16 men compete against each other (same with women) so 1 man vs. 1 woman in the finale. Expect to see some type of manipulation next year with the brackets. 

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DEL901

DEL901

On 4/16/2025 at 9:37 AM, Stardancer Supreme said:

This show is definitely a case study in how expectations (mainly Guy's) are subverted when the talent of the women chefs actually outshines the male chefs.  You can tell that Guy expected the male chefs to run away with the competition with the male coded prizes (A huge pickup truck, a championship belt, championship rings). If TOC didn't have those prizes, would the women fight as hard?  I know Guy isn't a complete misogynist; but he has that male chef arrogance like most of the others. 

It doesn’t even have to be arrogance, but just the unconscious bias that “women are cooks and men are chefs” that we’ve all grown up with and that has been reinforced forever.  It goes with the assumption that men are just naturally “better” at cooking (or whatever the task happens to be) which has caused women to have to fight for a chance in so many fields.  He just managed to demonstrate it by the blind judging.  

I don't find Guy’s commentary to be biased, and it was kind of funny when he misquoted Star Wars after Jet lost “You were our last hope”.  But he didn’t bring it up before hand to urge Jet to win one for the men which would have shown favouritism.

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DEL901

DEL901

Good to hear Guy calling out the fact that the winner will be a woman.  Again.  

I’m sure producers will be thinking about how to reduce the likelihood of this happening again next year, especially after this year not having a single returning champion and them doing some “tweaking” of the brackets, which did work in the round of 32.

If they don’t do something, the top guys won’t return.  The #1 seeds in Group C & D crashed and burned.  Tobias went out in the first round.  Jet missed the semis for the first time since season 1.  Will either of these two come back?  And others like Michael V don’t participate any more.

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CrazyInAlabama

CrazyInAlabama

(edited)
Spoiler

Britt vs. Antonia- winner :  Antonia

exact tie score at 82 each.  Deciding factor is taste score prevails. 

Sara vs. Lee Anne-winner : Sara

Sara is frying the chicken with the feet on. And Lee Anne used a stapler on the chicken en papillote. 

Final Two:  Antonia vs Sara    

Winner of Season 6 :   Antonia 

 

Edited by CrazyInAlabama
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Fukui San

Fukui San

When the finalists were going gaga over Martha being the fourth judge, I was thinking "wasn't she on Chopped a while back judging random contestants and everyone on the thread there thought she was annoying?"

Certainly a tough set of parameters. I wonder if it's easier to accept to be the losing chef who knows why they failed and lost by a margin than someone who lost by the barest of margins.

One thing I've thought about regarding why female chefs win here all the time but have a tougher time in other shows. One thing is that in this show it's one chef vs. one chef each cooking on their own. Not even the hand chosen sous chefs of Iron Chef. One thing that frequently brings down female chefs on Top Chef, for instance, is when chefs are put into teams and women often get the short end of the stick due to interpersonal dynamics. The guy chef persuades his partner to do a dish his way, for instance. Or one chef on a team has to make do with a lesser budget. Or they get stuck with the Front of House position of death for Restaurant Wars. Certainly I wouldn't say that sexism of the judges when they know who cooked what is never an issue. I just think that a large part of this phenomena is women getting somewhat frequently shafted by group dynamics issues. Here, where they don't need to collaborate with anyone but can cook their own dish, they are more in control of their own fate.

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dleighg

dleighg

4 hours ago, Fukui San said:

When the finalists were going gaga over Martha being the fourth judge,

at the beginning of the introduction ("turned a catering business into an empire") I was sure it was Ina Garten, who I love. I like MS well enough, but the fawning over her was a bit much. I think of her more as a lifestyle guru than a world-renowned food expert.

I like Mei Lin, but that outfit was ridiculously unflattering.

So they just happened to have pretty little delicate scissors to cut open the parchment papers? And how long did it take to find a stapler?

For some reason I paid attention to this version of the stew room. It has a little microwave and under-counter fridge-- with absolutely nothing in it! Shouldn't they have stocked at least with some water bottles? Maybe they couldn't get a "official water of ToC" sponsor.

I was rooting for Sarah (but appreciate that we would have had to listen to even more whining from Antonia if she lost). Sarah's loss was certainly telegraphed so no surprise.

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Quilt Fairy

Quilt Fairy

10 hours ago, Fukui San said:

One thing I've thought about regarding why female chefs win here all the time but have a tougher time in other shows. One thing is that in this show it's one chef vs. one chef each cooking on their own.

I think that's part of the appeal of this show.  There is no place to hide. 

  • Like 6
Stardancer Supreme

Stardancer Supreme

(edited)
17 hours ago, DEL901 said:

Good to hear Guy calling out the fact that the winner will be a woman.  Again.  

I’m sure producers will be thinking about how to reduce the likelihood of this happening again next year, especially after this year not having a single returning champion and them doing some “tweaking” of the brackets, which did work in the round of 32.

If they don’t do something, the top guys won’t return.  The #1 seeds in Group C & D crashed and burned.  Tobias went out in the first round.  Jet missed the semis for the first time since season 1.  Will either of these two come back?  And others like Michael V don’t participate any more.

I don't think that would be such a bad thing. There's plenty of chefs of both genders who would love to duke it out in TOC.  If the "top guys" don't return, I will still tune in because it is a show that I really like.  This season was Antonia's to lose and I am glad she finally got the championship.

 

608:

Judges: Maneet Chauhan, Brooke Williamson, Mei Lin, and Martha Stewart in the finale.  I was able to figure out who the judges were at least 90% of the time; If the producers want to keep us in suspense, how's about not showing them at all until it is time for them to judge the food. Showing them from the back and a poor blurring job does not impress me when I can tell who they are by what they are wearing (and skin tone, since Marcus Samuelsson is the only Black male judge). 

Antonia Lofaso vs. Britt Rescigno - Antonia Wins!  As risky as it was for Antonia to fry a whole fish, it was far riskier to not cook that protein properly. As soon as Mei Lin said her fish was undercooked, Britt was done.  Congratulations on getting married and see you next season!

Lee Ann Wong vs. Sara Bradley - Sara wins.  Fried chicken, no matter how fancy the bird is, always wins out.  Mama Wong will be back next season.

 

Antonia Lofaso vs. Sara Bradley:  Now we all know that Wagyu beef is not a good meat to make sausage out of. Heh. Sara almost had a chance until she decided not to use the Sausage Stuffer in her cold dish.  I had forgotten that the SS had to be used in both dishes. Sara also didn't make sausage as good as Antonia's; so I took a few notes on what to use should I ever decide to make my own sausage.  I wonder if Maneet's question about the SS not being used in the cold dish was because of producer shenanigans or being experienced enough in TOC to notice that Randa wasn't utilized properly. Antonia scored high in all categories, and she is the winner of TOC 6!

Antonia finally wins the belt, ring, and the money! I wonder if they are going to keep to the rule of TOC winners not competing anymore. I guess they should, because Antonia has earned the right to judge other people's food for a change.

I'm ready for next season!

 

Edited by Stardancer Supreme
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dleighg

dleighg

33 minutes ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

I wonder if Maneet's question about the SS not being used in the cold dish was because of producer shenanigans

I had a similar thought about Brooke's statement "Of course this chicken was cooked before putting it in the parchment" and then getting the "Oh no, it was completely cooked in the parchment."

I mean, NOBODY would cook it first and put it in the parchment, and I think Brooke knows that.

  • Like 4
DEL901

DEL901

Sara made a rookie mistake not using the sausage in the cold dish… but she is a rookie, what what a wonderful debut, making it all the way to the final.

Looking forward to next season, even if a guy finally wins, although for them, making it to the finals will be a victory, LOL!  

Regardless of the reason(s) why the women are so successful (many theories have been proposed and it is probably a combination of all the above), at the end of the day, this show has highlighted the quality of women chefs and given them a showcase, even if inadvertently.  

And good for Antonia coming back and fighting, rather than giving up and staying home, even if that was her first instinct.   She worked hard and deserved this win.

  • Like 11
Salacious Kitty

Salacious Kitty

2 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

Antonia finally wins the belt, ring, and the money! I wonder if they are going to keep to the rule of TOC winners not competing anymore. I guess they should, because Antonia has earned the right to judge other people's food for a change.

I'm ready for next season!

 

Antonia said at the very end that she wouldn't be back. 

  • Like 2
janeyjay

janeyjay

I've liked Antonia since her first season on TC, so I was thrilled that after coming so close, she took that belt and the title. Even got a little teary when she realized she won. I've also seen her in the judge role -- Wildcard Kitchen comes to mind -- and she's very good in that capacity as well, so I look forward to hearing her comments in next year's tournament. 

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Stardancer Supreme

Stardancer Supreme

5 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Antonia said at the very end that she wouldn't be back. 

Sure, she's not coming back to compete; she's been on TOC for 6 seasons. Maybe after a year to cool off, she can be a judge. She will have to come back to get her ring and banner unfurled in TOC 7, though. 

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