Season vs. Season

[JTMacc99]

A place to discuss which season needed more seasoning in comparison to a different season, which perhaps was a bit over seasoned.

Okay, enough of that. I am finding it rather interesting to see episodes from previous seasons and discover that time has distorted my memory somewhat. For example, I didn't mind watching some of the season 7 episodes at all, which surprises me because I don't remember enjoying that one very much. 

My best guess is that I didn't like the way it ended, so I remember the whole season less fondly.

Which by the way, is probably exactly what is going to happen when I think about season 11 three years from now.

[imjagain]

I'm watching the all stars season. Wow, Jen lost her mind when she was eliminated. I don't remember her, I have to go watch her season. And Jaimie was really unlikeable from jump. One thing that surprised me, Carla always seemed to be picked last when they had to choose teams. Despite winning a few challenges in a row.

Edited June 28, 2014 by imjagain

[Gulielma]

Carla could cook her ass off, but she wasn't the fastest.

[AriAu]

Carla could cook her ass off, but she wasn't the fastest.

 

And she made the best crust! She was an underdog that whole season and was a grown up who avoided most, if not all, of the drama with Hosea and Leah and Stefan's generally arrogance etc...

As the fastest line, I also remember cracking up whenever they showed her run-she looked like Big Bird, with arms flapping and legs going all over the place. For someone with such style and a modeling background to move like that cracked me up.

[nitrofishblue]

Carla will always be my most favorite Top Chef competitor. I was s happy when she was able to take her quirky personality to The Chew. She does very well there.

[cooksdelight]

I'm watching Hung's season for the first time on rerun today. They let them re-do Restaurant Wars. Has that ever happened before or since? And Tom C. having to come in to babysit them in the kitchen?

[scarynikki12]

I don't think so.  That RW must have been truly awful for them to re-do it, since they usually just accept it when they shitty food as it gives them fodder for Judge's Table.

[cooksdelight]

I'm friends with him on Facebook, he's an executive chef in NYC. Seems to stay very busy.

I also noticed some weird background music in these episodes, different from later seasons.

[wallflower75]

I'm currently watching season 2, and I must know--is it just me, or is there not a single person worth rooting for in that entire cast?  I thought some of the people in the Texas season were bad, but this bunch...yikes.

[cooksdelight]

That was the worst season I have watched. The bullying of Marcel, Cliff's exit, Ilan's attitude. All of it just sucked.

[Julia]

Giving credit where it was due, it took a special kind of suck to stand out on that season, but Betty was the Hoover at the heart of a black hole. Ilan wasn't far behind, though. 

[cooksdelight]

I've eaten at Grub, Betty's restaurant in LA. It's good food, and she's a very nice person. Funny, quirky, nothing like what we saw on TV. Reality competitions seem to bring out the devil in people.

[Julia]

I've eaten at Grub, Betty's restaurant in LA. It's good food, and she's a very nice person. Funny, quirky, nothing like what we saw on TV. Reality competitions seem to bring out the devil in people.

 

I have to wonder if the face she shows customers is all that deep. That was not first-time bullying. 

[cooksdelight]

That's a good question. I'm friends with her on Facebook as well, and she's never had a harsh word to say to or about anyone. She has a large group of friends she hangs out with, she loves to go to concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.

[Julia]

Well, it's good that she's capable of civilized behavior with people she doesn't think are beneath her.

[wallflower75]

Still watching season 2, and WTH??  Did I miss something, or did Mia go from I'm-not-letting-anyone-throw-me-under-the-bus-to-save-their-own-ass to I'm-stepping-aside-don't-eliminate-Elia in like, two seconds?  Why?

[cooksdelight]

That threw me for a loop also. I saw the season rerun on Esquire a while back, first time I'd seen that season. I cannot remember who the guy was she had a problem with, but there must have been something going on behind the scenes that we missed. Was it Cliff? He was the one who went after Marcel also. Something very underhanded about the guy.

She may have been thinking of her family and how close she was to perhaps getting violent with the guy, and didn't want them to be ashamed of her.

[wallflower75]

Almost done with season 2. I know who wins because I started watching the show from season 7 on, but if I were watching this completely unspoiled, I don't think I would've watched. Marcel was a smarmy little jerk, not that he deserved getting manhandled by Cliff, but Ilan was just as bad.

I think this cast would've greatly benefitted from Anger Management classes.

Sorry, this thread is supposed to be about comparing seasons and I'm kind of taking over with my season 2 thoughts. So I'll tie it in real quick! I can safely say, even before I get to the other four seasons I've missed, that this is going to be my least favorite season. At least the other seasons had people to root for even if I wasn't happy about the outcome.

[Bella]

ITA that Season 2 was the worst, though I thought Texas was pretty awful, too. 

[cooksdelight]

Texas WAS awful. Wallflower75, if you've not seen that one yet, brace yourself. The Mean Girls took over the season and it was ugly.

But, Chris Crary more than made up for it in the eye candy department. :)

[wallflower75]

Texas WAS awful. Wallflower75, if you've not seen that one yet, brace yourself. The Mean Girls took over the season and it was ugly.

But, Chris Crary more than made up for it in the eye candy department. :)

 

I have seen Texas, and you're right, it was bad.  Their ugly side started with the way they ganged up on the first guy eliminated while they were at judge's table and only got worse once they found someone vulnerable enough to attack in Beverly. I wasn't much of a Beverly fan--I found her very annoying--but as with what happened to Marcel, their behavior was inexcusable.  Texas is an example of a terrible season that had a good ending with Paul's win.  And it had eye candy--helloooo, Chris Crary!  And Grayson.  Grayson was a riot.

 

Well, leave it to me to get sick over a three-day weekend.  At least it gave me a chance to get started on season three.  Not liking Hung at all with his arrogance and recklessness--running around with a knife?  Really?  But it's interesting to see the ones who appeared on All-Stars in their first go round.

[snakenax]

2 and Texas are definitely the worst from a 'these people are just awful' perspective, though I have to give season 11 the prize for worst season in that it was so outright boring I quit halfway through(and then when I found out who won I was like 'Really?'). My favorite seasons are probably All Stars, 4, 5 and 7. Though out of those only in season 4 did I think the winner was much to talk about.  Season 10 really was made Kristen winning, since otherwise it's a bit of a quiet and uninteresting one.

[cooksdelight]

Remember when the Texas finalists had to do the biathlon thing, and cooking in a gondola? I really wanted Tom and whoever else was a chef judge to try that. Just once. Then realize how stupid it was.

[HyeChaps]

The Texas season was awful for many different reasons.  One was the challenges themselves.  Just terrible.

Compare with the wonderful challenges of Hung's season.  My favorite was the mis en place relay.

[wallflower75]

I have to agree--some of the challenges they had in Texas were ridiculous.

 

Just finished season 3, and although Hung wasn't my favorite cheftestant, I can't quibble with his win--even his fellow competitors acknowledged that they knew early on he was the one to beat.  I felt kind of bad for Casey--she pretty much shot herself in the foot in the finale.  It was nice to see her be voted as season 3's fan favorite over CJ, that's for sure.  I didn't have a good impression of him from watching the Seattle season and his original season did nothing to improve it.

 

On to season 4...

[cooksdelight]

Oh goodie, you'll get to see Richard Blais and Lisa Fernandes. And figure out why Lisa was never asked back to another competition and why Richard is viewed as such a complete whiner. :)

[Julia]

Oh, Lisa made me nuts. She was so determinedly unpleasant at every possible opportunity. I have to say, though, I felt vaguely bad about how little I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt until I read the interview where she said that she didn't worry about viewers who disliked her because none of them could afford to eat her food anyway. Which, wow, class struck asshole much? and hey, Lisa, selling a lot of street eats from that food truck you ended up with?

[cooksdelight]

There are certain chefs that think their food is the answer to all the world's problems. She's one of them. Her arrogance really showed through during that season. I can still see her sneering and making shitty remarks. I would almost like to watch Blais' meltdown again, just so I can laugh at him.

[cooksdelight]

I watched the NYC season yesterday, where they went to New Orleans for the finale, and Hosea won. They picked sous chefs, and Hosea picked Blais. He kept saying "You should have won" and Blais had that pouty about-to-cry look on his face all the time. I sometimes wonder if Bravo fawns over him so much now so that he won't have a nervous breakdown from "being robbed."

[Julia]

I watched the NYC season yesterday, where they went to New Orleans for the finale, and Hosea won. They picked sous chefs, and Hosea picked Blais. He kept saying "You should have won" and Blais had that pouty about-to-cry look on his face all the time. I sometimes wonder if Bravo fawns over him so much now so that he won't have a nervous breakdown from "being robbed."

 

Yeah, but Hosea was such a manipulative little prick. He most likely figured the best way to get Richard-the-solipsist invested in his victory was to stroke him and simultaneously remind him that the last time he was in the finals, he lost. 

[cooksdelight]

Agreed, I never liked Hosea. But Karma got him when the season aired. His fiancé broke up with him after seeing him canoodling with Leah.

[snakenax]

Hosea I think is probably the overall worst chef to win a season personality wise, and food wise he seemed nothing special. I'm not fond of Kevin, Elan or Nicholas but none of them were quite so eurgh. I really wish Carla had better confidence in her abilities when working with other chefs, because I kind of feel she would have hands down won the final competition if there had been no sous chefs because her flaws came pretty much from buckling under other people's bad suggestions.

[wallflower75]

After a bit of delay, my season 4 watch is underway...so far, it's been pretty good.  I am getting a little tired of some chefs' attitudes when it comes to preparing meals for people who aren't big-name chefs, critics, or celebrities--the block party being a perfect example.  The losing team was like, "We don't get why we lost.  We made the kind of food these people really like!"  Excuse me, "these people"???  Just because we can't all afford to eat at your (overpriced) restaurant every week doesn't mean we don't like good food.  It's not just this season--I think back to the bad attitude Harold and Tiffany had about making food for kids in season 1, and there are probably a couple more instances that I'm forgetting at the moment that have rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Oh, and I'm also tired of Jennifer making all the excuses in the world for Zoi.  "She shouldn't go home because she didn't want to make pasta salad and they made her."  "She shouldn't be in the bottom even though her film food dish didn't measure up to some of the others."  Whatever.  If the food's not good, she's where she deserves to be.

 

Sorry, clearly it's time for my happy pills.

 

One more thing I've noticed:  Is it just me, or did the person having to bleep out all the cursing have to put in overtime in this season?  Seems like there are a lot more beeps than in previous seasons.  Not complaining, just curious.

[Totale]

One more thing I've noticed:  Is it just me, or did the person having to bleep out all the cursing have to put in overtime in this season?  Seems like there are a lot more beeps than in previous seasons.  Not complaining, just curious.

 

I don't remember which season is which but at the end or in the reunion show of one of them Tom called them out on maybe they'd want to consider their public image before swearing up a blue streak on TV.  Maybe it's the season you're watching.

[cooksdelight]

Totale, season 4 was when Blais choked and Stephanie won. And that evil Lisa had it in for everyone. For that reason alone, Blais crying, it's one of my favorites.

[wallflower75]

More than halfway through now...I really like Stephanie.  She seems sweet and down-to-earth, and doesn't seem to have an overinflated ego like many chefs.  Richard keeps telling the camera how witty and whimsical he is, which is sometimes an indication that one isn't those things.  (Although I will admit to chuckling when he talked about how Antonia bonded with the little boy during the Common Thread challenges and said, "It makes me want to go out and have a bunch of little Blaises.")  It's been a while since I saw All-Stars, but did Dale say at one point in that season that he'd had anger management therapy?  Because punching things after losing a Quickfire challenge...yikes.  He may be talented but working with him would scare the living hell out of me.

 

Also, at this point, I don't see how Richard can say he was robbed.  I haven't kept an official tally of how many challenges he's won compared to Stephanie, but I'd say they're pretty close to even.  Maybe because he's done better than her in the Quickfires?  Because she's been closer to elimination and I don't know that he's ever been in the bottom half in elimination challenges?  Well, back to watching...maybe I'll figure it out down the road...

[cooksdelight]

Richard just couldn't accept being beaten by a woman. In my opinion, anyway. When you get to the finale episode, I'll be interested to hear your perspective.

[Gulielma]

 

Because punching things after losing a Quickfire challenge...yikes.

 

In partial mitigation, Dale punched the locker when he realized that the elimination challenge coming up was a team challenge--and that he'd be stuck on the disfunctional team that just lost the quickfire.

 

During the All Stars season, I wondered if Dale's anger management classes included karma jujitsu. Specifically, when he won the quickfire before Restaurant Wars, realized that he definitely didn't want to work with Marcel and appointed Marcel captain of the opposing team. Of course it helped that Marcel managed to assemble a team consisting almost entirely of chefs who hated his guts.

[AmandaPanda]

Started rewatching season 1 from the beginning today. Somehow, Stephen manages to be even more insufferable than I remembered him. I also forgot how in the early seasons, there were a lot more personal chefs, home cooks, culinary students, etc. than in later years. I don't think Candace, Lisa or maybe even Stephen would have ever made it onto a later season. 

[biakbiak]

Richard just couldn't accept being beaten by a woman.

 

I agree that Richard was pissed about not winning but I saw absolutely nothing in his behavior in any of seasons and appearances on this and other shows that he had any issue with women. I think he would have been just as pissed if Andrew, Dale, or Spike had managed to make it to the finals and he lost to them.

[wallflower75]

Whoa.  I didn't especially care for Lisa before the Serve and Protect challenge, but after it...I get the hatred now.  Bitching because she thinks someone sabotaged her (when the rice wasn't the only thing wrong with her dish) and then throwing Andrew under the bus by pointing out what he did wrong...urgh.  And what kills me is her attitude when the judges ask her why she thinks she's in the bottom, and she's all, "I don't know, you tell me."  Uh, hello?  Woman up and admit you know your dish was flawed!  Did you honestly think that badly-cooked rice was going to earn you a spot in the winner's circle for this one?

 

 

I also forgot how in the early seasons, there were a lot more personal chefs, home cooks, culinary students, etc. than in later years. I don't think Candace, Lisa or maybe even Stephen would have ever made it onto a later season.

 

One of the things that soured me on Ed from Texas was in the beginning when he laughed at the girl who told him she was a chef on a cruise ship.  Granted, his attitude toward her paled in comparison to the Mean Girls and their treatment of Beverly later on down the road, but it still stuck with me.

Edited September 26, 2014 by wallflower75

[wallflower75]

So I've reached the end of season 4...and thank God I knew who won, because if I hadn't, I would've been terrified that it was going to be Lisa!  I rolled my eyes when she said "Congratulations would be nice, you're making me feel like you think the better chef went home" to Richard and Stephanie after Antonia was eliminated.  Her perception was correct--clearly they thought Antonia was better, and they were disappointed that she was gone.  I suppose congratulating Lisa for making the finale was the right thing to do, but would half-hearted congratulations make you feel better when you know what they really thought?  It wouldn't make me feel better.  Although--I wasn't crazy about Richard's confessional comment that "it's the bronze medal, big deal."

 

As for Richard's reaction, I agree with biakbiak that he was simply pissed about losing, period.  I don't think Stephanie being a woman had much to do with it, if anything at all.  In fact, this might get me tossed from this thread, but I don't know that I saw anything super-objectionable about Richard in this season.  (It could be my serious dislike for Lisa getting in the way.)  If I'd seen this season before watching All-Stars, I might've been more disappointed that he lost the first time.  And if he hadn't turned into an entitled jerk, I might've rooted for him to win the All-Stars season.  Alas, he became a jerk, so I rooted for Antonia.

 

And now on to Season 5...was Stefan really that big a villain?  Because this may also get me tossed from the thread, but I kinda sorta liked him occasionally in Seattle.

Edited September 27, 2014 by wallflower75

[Julia]

I disliked the way Stefan went after John Tesar, but I thought his bromance with Fabio was adorable, and I really liked that he upset that massive douche Hosea. So.

Edited September 27, 2014 by Julia

[cooksdelight]

LOL, you're not getting tossed. 

 

Stefan wasn't a villain to me, he was more of a blowhard who says what's on his mind with no filter. Season 5 is one of my favorites, I hope you enjoy it as well and will look forward to your perspective.

 

When I said Richard seemed to be hurt most by being beaten by a woman, I based that on comments he's made since his loss to Stephanie. Saying "I choked" or "it wasn't my fault" kind of stuff. It just totally turned me off to him. If he hadn't done that "where are they now" show with Fabio, Jen and Spike, I might not have seen his disgruntled, hateful side. I feel for his wife and kids.

 

I like Stefan. I wanted to take my friend Abi to his restaurant in Santa Monica earlier this year but it was closed. A lot of people see him as a douche, but if you know his background and his family ties, you might see him differently. He bites his nails and is constantly in this pose that eeks insecurity, to me.

[SFoster21]

Watching the pea puree season on Esquire today. Anybody know if that was finally solved?

[Julia]

Tom said nobody had any way of knowing, but that if Alex had cheated, it would be punishment enough for him to know he cheated (which, no). Padma, who knew nothing Tom didn't know, at the same time announced that she knew he didn't do it because really, her authority should be enough to sell something like that, don't you think?

 

Stephen said that he knew Alex didn't steal it, not because he had any information, but because he trusted Alex. Amanda claimed that she saw Alex make it, but since no camera caught any of it and Alex was pretty much the only other contestant who thought Amanda deserved a spot in that kitchen, there are those who think that she was being a little fanciful. Alex himself when asked directly kept saying that it would be totally counterintuitive for him to have stolen pea puree but not so much answering the question. Both Amanda and Alex obliquely suggested that everyone was picking on them because they were jewish.

 

So the only thing which got solved was that if Alex did do it, he wasn't ever going to be forced to acknowledge it or pay for it.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Julia

[cooksdelight]

Amanda claimed that she saw Alex make it, but since no camera caught any of i

Either I've lost my mind, or it was filmed. During the reunion they had, when the subject came up, Ed and his buddy Tiffany were adament that Alex stole Ed's puree. Then out of nowhere, there's footage showing Amanda standing right beside Alex when he made his. Ed forgot to pack his and just refused to admit the possiblity. Even once the footage was aired, Ed still had his nose out of joint.

It showed Alex taking a bag of peas out of a cooler. A bag of peas. Next thing I remember is him with his back to the camera and Amanda watching him do something.

[Julia]

Either I've lost my mind, or it was filmed. During the reunion they had, when the subject came up, Ed and his buddy Tiffany were adament that Alex stole Ed's puree. Then out of nowhere, there's footage showing Amanda standing right beside Alex when he made his. Ed forgot to pack his and just refused to admit the possiblity. Even once the footage was aired, Ed still had his nose out of joint.

It showed Alex taking a bag of peas out of a cooler. A bag of peas. Next thing I remember is him with his back to the camera and Amanda watching him do something.

 

Nope. They announced on the reunion that there was no footage. The only footage they did find was footage of Ed telling Alex that he was making pea puree the day before which they showed on the actual episode after Alex lied about knowing that.

[cooksdelight]

OK, wouldn't be the first time I've lost my mind. :)

But somewhere after the season ended I saw footage of him grabbing a bag of peas, not a bag of puree.

Anyhow, the best thing I got out of this season was a recipe from Ed Cotton for those fantastic fried banana things on a stick. I remember Tom telling him they were great stoner food. He kindly gave me the recipe and I made them... and yeah, I can see them being munchie nirvana. Delicious.

[FormerMod-a1]

I think I remember the grabbing peas out of the cooler too.  But then the only other shot of him was stirring already pureed peas.  So there was no middle.  So there was proof he bought his own peas, and that was pretty much it.  I actually am not convinced of either scenario - I don't know that he stole the puree, but I also don't know that he didn't.  So I let it go (until reading this conversation).  We'll never know.  And now hopefully I'll forget about it again.  :-)