S22.E01: Across Canada, We Go!

[Lovecat]

On 3/16/2025 at 2:34 PM, Tango64 said:

I immediately disliked Mimi when she first appeared with the hat and the ink pen (I think?) jammed in it. So I wasn’t sorry to see her go. First impressions and all that, I guess. 

I thought it was a hearing aid or cochlear implant and thought "Oh!  A HOH/Deaf chef, awesome!"  I rewound to check myself and was somewhat let down to just find it was a stupidly-placed pen.

[jpgr]

On 3/18/2025 at 6:32 AM, Lovecat said:

I thought it was a hearing aid or cochlear implant and thought "Oh!  A HOH/Deaf chef, awesome!"  I rewound to check myself and was somewhat let down to just find it was a stupidly-placed pen.

I wanted to like Mimi because I adore Portland, ME. After the first episode, I don't really care whether she makes it through LCK.

[dmeets]

“You five were our least favorites. But we only need to talk to two of you. You two sucked the most. Bye Mimi!”

Sheesh, either Mimi’s dish was so awful compared to everyone else or 15 extra minutes still isn’t enough for a “super sized” episode.

Edited March 20 by dmeets

[paramitch]

On 3/14/2025 at 7:05 AM, Seelouis said:

I didn’t like how Bailey left out Anya when presenting the quickfire and then looked annoyed when Anya called her on it. 

She did it over and over again -- actually ignoring Anya and not answering her attempts to discuss or engage with the other two. And then Bailey's actual presentation for the three was jaw-droppingly rude -- not a word about Anya and utterly left out her dish. I loved that Tom visibly noticed this and did not look happy.

On 3/14/2025 at 7:30 PM, bravofan27 said:

Bailey bragging about working with and learning "everything" from Top Chef Texas Season 9 Sarah, who was the meanest bully ever, was borderline racist to Beverly Kim because she only cooked "Asian" and teamed up with the other bully to make Beverly feel as unwanted as possible, I knew everything I needed to know about Bailey. And she did exactly what Sarah would have done, leaving out the person from a different culture and acting like they didn't exist (Ana). Her food wasn't very well liked and I think she will make more mistakes because her ego is too big and she isn't aware of what she is good at yet. 

Yeah, Bailey's intro made me mentally go, "Okay, you're bragging about working for one of the most horrible people in the history of the show -- strike one." Then I saw how she treated Anya while they cooked. Strike two. Then she made that incredibly rude presentation that sure seemed to deliberately omit Anya and her dish entirely, and I was already done with her. Three strikes and it's just episode one.

It's a personal thing with me, but I just cannot stand a bully. And Bailey being SO tone-deaf as to think working for Sarah was some kind of flex was just mind-boggling to me.

Sarah wasn't just rude, bullying and cruel, she was famously all of those things (and unapologetically so) while on the show. Then when she got backlash, she threw all these tantrums across social media saying the editors did it to her and she was a nice person, all while posting homilies like "Those who mind don't matter. And those who matter don't mind." Etc.

On 3/15/2025 at 6:19 AM, Vandy10 said:

At the start of the show I kept trying to figure out where I'd seen Kat before. Took me a minute, but I realized she's been on some Try Guys food series like Phone it In. On their shows, she's always come across as very cool and calm, almost aloof--probably because she knows way more than they do about cooking. So, it was interesting to see her being more challenged here, and even a little bit frazzled. I hope she does better as she settles into the Top Chef pace. It seems like the judges liked her flavors and techniques; she just has to master the timing.

She was on "Chopped" a few times too. I'm not sure how I feel about her so will be interested to see -- I've always found her a little off-putting.

On 3/15/2025 at 8:46 PM, bravofan27 said:

Cheat sheet:

Each chef revealed a selection of six ingredients that represent their respective regions:

West: Pacific salmon, salt spring island lamb, red fire wheat, foraged mushrooms, hazelnuts, plums

Prairies: Ribeye, walleye, red lentils, sour cherries, tomatoes, cold pressed canola oil

Central: Rainbow trout, peaches, corn, ice wine, pea shoots, pork

Atlantic: Cod, dulse seaweed, potatoes, snow crab, blueberries, screech rum

North: Beets, carrots, crowberries, turbot, arctic char, oats

I don't know what a lot of these ingredients are. But I love meat with fruit. Turkey and cranberries are my favorite ever. I don't know about fish with fruit though. I think the West, with the salmon and mushrooms would be most delicious for me. I'm surprised no one made a desert with the fruits. 

This was so helpful -- thank you for posting it!

Meanwhile, looking at all of these, it makes me laugh at myself because honestly, I am not a super-taster. So on all of these shows, all I see is:

Walleye -- fish.

Trout -- fish.

Rainbow trout -- fish.

Cod -- fish.

Char -- fish.

Not that this is a bad thing! I love fish. But the only one I would probably distinguish by taste would probably be the salmon (or is char also "salmony" too?). So chefs describing these incredible micro-nuances in flavor and texture are all slightly funny to me because I'd be the judge at the table just chowing down on whatever fish was set down in front of me while making yummy sounds, oblivious to the details.

On 3/17/2025 at 6:58 AM, lh25 said:

As far as the contestant making risotto, I think it was a case of her having decided beforehand she wanted to make it and shoehorning it into the challenge.  Rather than thinking about the ingredients and letting them lead to the dish.  I've seen other times I think that's what they did, and it rarely turns out well.

For the apple bowl, I wonder if the smoke he added did anything for the dish?  It looks like it had dissipated before the judges took the lids off? 

That's such a smart analysis on the risotto, and I absolutely agree.

On the apple bowl, I do think the smoke seemed to add something -- the judges all smiled and kind of made a collective "ah" when removing the lid. So it did seem to be appreciated.

Edited May 12 by paramitch
paragraph fix

[mlp]

14 hours ago, paramitch said:

She was on "Chopped" a few times too. I'm not sure how I feel about her so will be interested to see -- I've always found her a little off-putting.

I'm glad it's not just me.  There's something about Kat that turns me off but I'm not exactly sure what it is.