The Shows of 2016: New Year, New Chefs, Same Sob Stories

[nitrofishblue]

The worst cooks episode was one big BARF fest. The winner if you could call him that was so annoying. At one point I muted the sound since I couldn't stand to hear his voice. His tears must have won it for him since I thought his food looked like crap. Nothing looked appetizing. As usual the person with the biggest sob story wins.

[Beamish]

3 things regarding the Oktoberfest episode:

1) In the last round, the male contestant almost forgot to use the chocolate sausage (yes, chocolate sausage), but Geoffrey Z. literally stood up and yelled over to the chefs to remember and use all basket ingredients. The chef in question then used the ingredient. There have been several times the judges remark to themselves that a contestant hasn't used an ingredient yet, not mention it to the contestants, then eliminate them. How about there be a little consistency in the role the judges play, dear Chopped producers who make up the rules.

2) Sob story wins, of course. The older dude of German descent, making food actually sticking to the Oktoberfest theme, not winning. The plucky younger line cook wins, of course.

3) The beer looked delicious! I think the judges were getting tanked by the end.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Beamish

[mlp]

Quote

The plucky younger line cook wins, of course.

Also, she is/was at the time the show was made employed at Butter where Alex Guarnaschelli, Chopped judge, is executive chef.  I don't think that necessarily compromises the judging but I do think it should be mentioned.

[BW Manilowe]

Remember that tournament they had on Chopped awhile back, where 12 former (I think) contestants came back to play for 1 of 3 spots to cook against Robert Irvine in the last round of the tournament, I think with the winner winning a certain amount of $ as well?

I just saw/heard an ad & they're doing something similar again this year--starting Thursday, October 20th at 9PM Eastern, I think they said. Only this year it's a Beat Bobby Flay tournament; the F3 chefs will go against Bobby Flay this time.

[MajorWoody]

The only good thing about the Worst Cooks charade was the tattooed circus freak leaving first. I guess since she didn't have Flay slobbering over her to save her , she had to actually try to cook, and failed miserably. She looked like she aged about 20 years since she left Worst Cooks a couple of years ago. Must be that clean living,  spending nights in tattoo joints and gin mills. 

The whiny winner should not have won. His three courses were all terrible, and were almost as bad as his over the top flamboyant acting. If a network show had a character as flaming as that guy the would be protests that he was unrealistic. 

That was one of the worst episodes to air on this series.

[Amarsir]

Well I'll say this about the Worst Cooks Chopped: at least we know they weren't faking on the original show.

I'm trying to decide if I would have liked the show better had the baskets been easier. Those 4 would have been legitimately challenged had a round contained chicken breast, mayonnaise, and a loaf of bread. This was "you gave me ingredients so I cooked them and put them on a plate." (And a failure at that.)

[RealityCheck]

I've seen the promo several times for the Chopped Champions vs Bobby Flay and it looks mildly interesting so I'll be tuning in.  FN managed to lose me as a viewer recently because I am not interested in their Junior (Chopped , FN Stars, Baking) and Teen competitions, especially when the competitors start trash talking.

This article provides details for the 4 week competition.

Quote

Judges:
Week 1 : Bobby Flay, Marc Murphy, Chris Santos
Week 2 : Scott Conant, Bobby Flay, Amanda Freitag
Week 3 : Bobby Flay, Alex Guarnaschelli, Aarón Sánchez
Week 4 : Amanda Freitag, Alex Guarnaschelli, Chris Santos

[ZoqFotPik]

I thought it was weird that they had fennel in the appetizer baskets in both episodes this week. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before. I realize that the episodes were probably filmed weeks/months apart.

[BW Manilowe]

On October 10, 2016 at 5:24 PM, RealityCheck said:

I've seen the promo several times for the Chopped Champions vs Bobby Flay and it looks mildly interesting so I'll be tuning in.  FN managed to lose me as a viewer recently because I am not interested in their Junior (Chopped , FN Stars, Baking) and Teen competitions, especially when the competitors start trash talking.

This article provides details for the 4 week competition.

I think the newest promos for the Flay tournament are somewhat annoying, because they act like he's never, ever been on Chopped before & he has. He's judged at least once, during special shows involving Food Network Star participants & winners. But this will be his first experience as a competitor (once they get to Round 4).

[xaxat]

I caught the newest tailgate episode. Has Chris lost weight? He doesn't look as puffy as he used to. If so, good for him!

[Wings]

I caught the first one with Flay.  He said nothing critical about the dishes, he left that up to the judges.  I liked that.  Because the judges MUST say something negative about all of them, to keep us in suspense, it was refreshing to hear the positive notes.  It gave me a better idea of who would be eliminated.  The less Flay said is the clue.  HA!  

[spiderpig]

Enough with the gimmicky holiday-themed shows.  The Halloween ep evidently couldn't find actual chefs to participate, so they cast amateurs with over-the-top costumes/personalities  and ridiculous basket ingredients.  I wanted them all to lose, and if I'd been a judge I'd be embarrassed to perform on this farce.

[Wings]

What season are on now (31)?  My DVR records all.  I like to have a pile of them but no point in talking about a season that is not current here.  

[Totale]

I haven't been watching Original Recipe but I've enjoyed all three of the Beat Bobby Flay Very Special episodes and look forward to the finale.

[Wings]

1 hour ago, Totale said:

I haven't been watching Original Recipe but I've enjoyed all three of the Beat Bobby Flay Very Special episodes and look forward to the finale.

I am too. I watched the rerun of Robert Irvine yesterday. I love that he lost!  it is so clear that the chefs of FN hate him. strong word but you know it's true!  Watch the finale, pure comedy. 

Okay, back to Flay. I will be shocked if he doesn't win. It is clear that he is respected by all and I am sure thère is envy, too.  

[mlp]

7 hours ago, wings707 said:

7 hours ago, wings707 said:

 

Okay, back to Flay. I will be shocked if he doesn't win. It is clear that he is respected by all and I am sure thère is envy, too.  

 

I've always liked Bobby Flay but I never knew what his reputation was beyond FN.  A couple years ago, I read Marcus Samuelsson's memoir.  In it, he called Bobby one of the best chefs in New York.  I'm inclined to think that, if Marcus says so, it must be true.  IMO Robert Irvine (whom I loathe) isn't fit to be Bobby's busboy.  

[Fostersmom]

I don't know if it was a tournament or just a one and done episode, but I saw an episode with all college students the other night. All of them seemed to be there to just pimp their blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram, and none of them seemed to know how or even regularly cook. They all had the personality of a dishrag and seemed hard pressed to string a sentence about food or their dish together. One of them blotted off his steak with paper towels, telling Alex you eat with your eyes and he's got millions of views on his social media….and then followed it up with his videos are 7 seconds long. The hell? There was another guy who had crazy eyes and looked like a serial killer in the making. The girl who won basically said she didn't cook or want to be a cook, she wanted to be a food commentator. Again, the hell? Made only more ironic by her lack of ability to actually talk about food and zero camera presence. Say what you want about the kids or teens, or even the grandmas of firefighter's lunch ladies, but I've never seen such a pathetically sad, untalented group as the college kids. 

[nonnybaby]

Bullshit decision on the Bobby Flay competition. Horrible.

[TDT]

On 11/6/2016 at 1:56 PM, wings707 said:

I am too. I watched the rerun of Robert Irvine yesterday. I love that he lost!  it is so clear that the chefs of FN hate him. strong word but you know it's true!  Watch the finale, pure comedy. 

Okay, back to Flay. I will be shocked if he doesn't win. It is clear that he is respected by all and I am sure thère is envy, too.  

Speaking of Irvine,has anyone seen his new talk show..? few episodes ive seen i was expecting it to be a Jerry Springer knock-off..turns out its more like a Dr Phil one LOL

16 hours ago, Fostersmom said:

I don't know if it was a tournament or just a one and done episode, but I saw an episode with all college students the other night. All of them seemed to be there to just pimp their blog, YouTube channel, or Instagram, and none of them seemed to know how or even regularly cook. They all had the personality of a dishrag and seemed hard pressed to string a sentence about food or their dish together. One of them blotted off his steak with paper towels, telling Alex you eat with your eyes and he's got millions of views on his social media….and then followed it up with his videos are 7 seconds long. The hell? There was another guy who had crazy eyes and looked like a serial killer in the making. The girl who won basically said she didn't cook or want to be a cook, she wanted to be a food commentator. Again, the hell? Made only more ironic by her lack of ability to actually talk about food and zero camera presence. Say what you want about the kids or teens, or even the grandmas of firefighter's lunch ladies, but I've never seen such a pathetically sad, untalented group as the college kids. 

Was that the one with Andrea Galan(who later infamously went on to compete on MasterChef) ?

[Bastet]

I didn't watch any of the episodes selecting the contestants to go against Bobby Flay in this finale, so I have only this episode to go on, but I absolutely loathed the chef who went out in the second round so much I was - admittedly already in an emotional state given recent events - ready to throw things if he stayed on my screen another minute.  I think he should have gone out in the first round for using camel as carpaccio, but I wasn't there to taste it, so I'll assume the other chef did indeed put out an overall inferior dish. 

But if he'd lasted longer than that ...  What an egomaniacal asshole; it just came off him in waves.  I'm down with some good-natured trash talking in competition, but when you talk about someone with undeniable skill and experience and declare them to be a nobody in the face of your greatness, I'm done.  Everyone else managed to talk up their own skills and even predict their victory without dismissing Bobby Flay in a fit of delusion. 

I love bibimbap (but with egg whites, as I hate yolks, and I know that omits a key texture, but I can't abide the taste, so there we are), so I really wanted to taste both dishes.  That rice from the challenger did look bad, so again I have to give the benefit of the doubt to those who tasted the two dishes.

Flay - and Ted Allen - referenced Bobby never having been crowned Chopped champion.  Has he competed previously and lost, or was this his first time?

[Fostersmom]

1 hour ago, TDT said:

Was that the one with Andrea Galan(who later infamously went on to compete on MasterChef) ?

I had to Google her, but no, she wasn't the particular girl I saw. I don't know if there was a college tournament or not, but more searching lead to me finding out the one I saw was Jenn Cheng as the winner. I've seen enough random episode of the show and never saw another one with all college students, was there a tournament and they were all so insufferable that FN managed to lock all the episodes in the vault or something? Odd. 

[justjen]

7 hours ago, Bastet said:

I didn't watch any of the episodes selecting the contestants to go against Bobby Flay in this finale, so I have only this episode to go on, but I absolutely loathed the chef who went out in the second round so much I was - admittedly already in an emotional state given recent events - ready to throw things if he stayed on my screen another minute. 

I thought maybe I was being more sensitive to it then normal, but then I remembered he was just as horrible on the more recent episode. How can you cook good food with such a horrible personality! It's not UFC, it's Chopped...calm the F down dude!

[Rammchick]

Personality, I thought Bobby 's dish looked like something I wouldn't feed my dog, but as others have said, I didn't taste it.  From the ingredients, it sounded like it had too many sweet elements.  Oh well.  I was just glad the other guy got chopped.

Isn't this a different format than how they did this with Robert Irvine?  I don't remember them both cooking the signature dish of the competitor.

[GaT]

4 hours ago, Rammchick said:

Isn't this a different format than how they did this with Robert Irvine?  I don't remember them both cooking the signature dish of the competitor.

That's what they do on "Beat Bobby Flay". 2 chefs go against each other using an ingredient that Bobby chooses, & the winner of that goes against Bobby & they both make a dish picked by the winner, which is supposedly their signature dish. 

[BW Manilowe]

14 hours ago, Bastet said:

I didn't watch any of the episodes selecting the contestants to go against Bobby Flay in this finale, so I have only this episode to go on, but I absolutely loathed the chef who went out in the second round so much I was - admittedly already in an emotional state given recent events - ready to throw things if he stayed on my screen another minute.  I think he should have gone out in the first round for using camel as carpaccio, but I wasn't there to taste it, so I'll assume the other chef did indeed put out an overall inferior dish. 

But if he'd lasted longer than that ...  What an egomaniacal asshole; it just came off him in waves.  I'm down with some good-natured trash talking in competition, but when you talk about someone with undeniable skill and experience and declare them to be a nobody in the face of your greatness, I'm done.  Everyone else managed to talk up their own skills and even predict their victory without dismissing Bobby Flay in a fit of delusion. 

I love bibimbap (but with egg whites, as I hate yolks, and I know that omits a key texture, but I can't abide the taste, so there we are), so I really wanted to taste both dishes.  That rice from the challenger did look bad, so again I have to give the benefit of the doubt to those who tasted the two dishes.

Flay - and Ted Allen - referenced Bobby never having been crowned Chopped champion.  Has he competed previously and lost, or was this his first time?

This was Bobby's first time as a competitor. He's judged multiple times, including in the eps to select his competitors in this ep.

[Rammchick]

Thanks, GaT, I'm not a Bobby Flay fan, so I've never watched that.  At any rate, the FN saved themselves 25K by giving Bobby the win.  As I said earlier, considering what the dish looked like, you gotta wonder.  And as much as I love coconut rice, it doesn't go in bibimbop.

[sassykattt]

Yeah, that guy got robbed.  He beat Bobby Flay

[Wings]

I thought Flay won fairlly, it came down to the texture of the rice. made sense to me. 

[meowmommy]

I wasn't surprised by BF's win, because I watch BBF all the time and he almost never loses, despite the competitors using their signature dishes.  Which still surprises me, however, considering how often BF lost on Throwdown, which of course was BBF on the competitor's home turf as well as serious pre-Throwdown prep in the FN kitchen.

[Totale]

14 hours ago, meowmommy said:

I wasn't surprised by BF's win, because I watch BBF all the time and he almost never loses, despite the competitors using their signature dishes.  Which still surprises me, however, considering how often BF lost on Throwdown, which of course was BBF on the competitor's home turf as well as serious pre-Throwdown prep in the FN kitchen.

I actually think considering his skill set in both cooking and time management in competition the win/lose ratio on BBF is about right.  The ratio on Throwdown was knocked off by the fact that he'd go to some city for their famous signature dish, and then bring in local judges who had likely had it before and recognized it, or realized the version with hot chilis in it was probably Bobby's, and thumbed the scale to the local.

[Wings]

I loved thanksgiving  with he judges competing. I would like to see more of those. 

Alex is my favorite FN chef and is on my short list for all chefs. 

Edited November 17, 2016 by wings707

[Wordsworth]

Quote

Speaking of Irvine,has anyone seen his new talk show..? few episodes ive seen i was expecting it to be a Jerry Springer knock-off..turns out its more like a Dr Phil one LOL

TDT, is that seriously the same Robert Irvine?  I saw a listing for the show in the guide, did a double-take and thought, "Nah, must be a guy with the same name".  And it's not even a cooking show??

[Maverick]

Irvine increasingly fancied himself as some kind of life coach in each progressive show he did for FN.   His last show for them, Restaurant Impossible Ambush, had him spending more time telling the owner's why their lives were screwed up rather than cooking and managing the restaurant    Or at least as far as I could tell    I long since tired of watching him toss around his bloated ego   It doesn't surprise me he thought he was qualified to have a talk show   

[LazyToaster]

On ‎11‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 1:01 AM, Bastet said:

I didn't watch any of the episodes selecting the contestants to go against Bobby Flay in this finale, so I have only this episode to go on, but I absolutely loathed the chef who went out in the second round so much I was - admittedly already in an emotional state given recent events - ready to throw things if he stayed on my screen another minute.  I think he should have gone out in the first round for using camel as carpaccio, but I wasn't there to taste it, so I'll assume the other chef did indeed put out an overall inferior dish. 

But if he'd lasted longer than that ...  What an egomaniacal asshole; it just came off him in waves.  I'm down with some good-natured trash talking in competition, but when you talk about someone with undeniable skill and experience and declare them to be a nobody in the face of your greatness, I'm done.  Everyone else managed to talk up their own skills and even predict their victory without dismissing Bobby Flay in a fit of delusion. 

I love bibimbap (but with egg whites, as I hate yolks, and I know that omits a key texture, but I can't abide the taste, so there we are), so I really wanted to taste both dishes.  That rice from the challenger did look bad, so again I have to give the benefit of the doubt to those who tasted the two dishes.

Flay - and Ted Allen - referenced Bobby never having been crowned Chopped champion.  Has he competed previously and lost, or was this his first time?

The creepy and egomaniac guy was horrible - he was even worse the first time he competed.  You don't very often get a jerk that openly questions and tries to contradict the judges.  But, the kicker for me was when he attacked Bobby for his looks.  What the hell?  He seemed to take it all really personal.  If he hadn't been so hard to like I would feel sorry for him. 

I really liked the chef that got to go up against Bobby and was rooting for him.  At least he had the good sense to show some manners and respect.  He truly seemed happy to be in the moment.  I think Bobby is a gracious when he wins or loses and that's good to see. 

Oh - PS... I just love Ted.  :)

[xaxat]

I don't know how new it was (TimeWarner dropped dates on the ONDemand menu) but I enjoyed Butcher episode. Four skilled chefs with a nice balance between competition and respect. 

[bad things are bad]

Quote

Speaking of Irvine,has anyone seen his new talk show..? few episodes ive seen i was expecting it to be a Jerry Springer knock-off..turns out its more like a Dr Phil one LOL

Yup, Springer/Maury. Lots of shouty stupidity, at least for the 30 seconds I could stand to watch. If you do watch, you will need a shower after

[LazyToaster]

I think Robert Irvine is one of those people who thinks whoever is loudest is right.  Add to that the muscles and overall body language.  Ugh. 

[xaxat]

Was it ever determined if Irvine can actually cook? I know he did during his stint with the Royal Navy, but weren't most of his self proclaimed accomplishments proven to be fraudulent?

[LazyToaster]

Wikipedia says he began his cooking career upon enlisting in the Royal Navy at age 15.  He completed culinary training & served a 10-year tour of duty.  So, he does have training and you can tell whenever you get to see him cook (as opposed to talk/yell/strut) that he has real skills and knowledge.  However, he did come under controversy from what appeared to be exaggerated resume claims.  It seems that he blamed inaccurate reporting for the issues.  Who knows for sure what happened there.

I think he probably has real skill, I just dislike his overbearing personality - and, he seems to act like that every time I see him.  Just not my cup of tea for sure.  

[LazyToaster]

I watched a show from yesterday, which has to be a record for me because that means I'm caught up on my recordings of Chopped!  Yay me!  Anyway, the show I just watched was the "retro" show.  Favorite moment -- one of the competitors styles himself as Ozzy Osbourne, right down to the long black hair, dark glasses, and dark painted fingernails.  Anyway - when they were critiquing his first course, Alex said something like "OK, there's an elephant in the room.  Did you just wake up one day and decide you're Ozzy"?  Cracked me up!  Gotta love Alex, she just says it out loud.  

[meowmommy]

It figures that FN focused on processed foods from the past--TV dinners (which should have been in aluminum trays, not plastic microwave trays, to be authentic), Spam, Tang, moon pies, etc.--instead of cuisine from the past.  Since FN's focus is on what can be sold, not what can be cooked.

Some of those dishes could have been in the Gallery of Regrettable Food.

I couldn't believe the competitor whose father was born in 1893.  I'm older than she is and my grandfather was born in 1909.

[LazyToaster]

2 hours ago, meowmommy said:

I couldn't believe the competitor whose father was born in 1893.  I'm older than she is and my grandfather was born in 1909.

I know, right?  I think she said that he was 67 when she was born!  

[GaT]

On 11/25/2016 at 2:35 PM, LazyToaster said:

 However, he did come under controversy from what appeared to be exaggerated resume claims.  It seems that he blamed inaccurate reporting for the issues.  Who knows for sure what happened there.

He claimed he had been one of the chefs to the British royal family, that he made the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana, & that he had cooked at the White House. That's not inaccurate reporting, that's lying.

[meowmommy]

22 hours ago, LazyToaster said:

I know, right?  I think she said that he was 67 when she was born!  

Although she has a way to go to catch John Tyler, 10th president, who was born in the freaking 18th century.  Two of his grandsons are elderly but still alive.

20 hours ago, GaT said:

He claimed he had been one of the chefs to the British royal family, that he made the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana, & that he had cooked at the White House. That's not inaccurate reporting, that's lying.

Unless they reported he said it and he hadn't.  But of course he had.  Why they brought him back after canning him the first time I'll never understand.  It's not like they needed him.  There are plenty of chefs out there with legitimate skills and who aren't assholes, who would do a fine job on TV.

[xaxat]

Right now I'm watching one of the Irvine episodes and it reminded me why I dislike him.

The man is a bully. 

I wonder how Irvine the FN star would have treated Irvine the fraud.

[jcbrown]

I saw snippets of the Irvine episodes yesterday, too. He is a bully and he looks like a cross between a Simpson's character and a reptile of some sort. Just cannot stand anything about him

[LazyToaster]

On 11/26/2016 at 10:45 PM, GaT said:

He claimed he had been one of the chefs to the British royal family, that he made the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana, & that he had cooked at the White House. That's not inaccurate reporting, that's lying.

WOW- ok, that was all kinds of weird wasn't it?  It takes a helluva lot of nerve to lie about something so easy to credit or discredit!  Geesh!

And I agree with xaxat -- I doubt if Irvine would be so forgiving of others - he just seems so "gotta be right all the time".  

[meowmommy]

FN's really scraping the bottom of the barrel when they highlight TC Leah as a guest judge.  All I remember her for is liplocking Hosea and being a mediocre chef.  They've used her as a judge on BBF, too.  Blech.

[ZoqFotPik]

I don't understand how the guy wearing the hat made it to the finals. He should have been gone after the first round.

[meowmommy]

I wanted to crush that tool's bones every time he called himself "The Bonecrusher."  A guy who's trying too hard to invent a personality for himself.  If he had won, I would have recommended he use it on dental work.  And a decent hat that fits.

Remember when Chopped was must-snark TV?  Now it's practically an afterthought.  And they don't help by putting it on multiple nights a week.