S12.E05: Motorsports Tailgating

[smiley13]

I hate that FN keeps dragging Irvine back up.  Go ahead and be a liar, it's all okay, FN will keep bringing you back.  But then again, this is the network that spotlights Gee-Ah-Da and Bobby Flay so that does not say much about them.    Wonder why Bobby has not gotten them to invite January Jones on as a guest "celebrity"? Or Gee-Ah-Da could could convince her buddy John Mayer......

[cooksdelight]

Quote

But the drivers don't get to tailgate.  :)

I have been to races and they certainly did not round up any authentic looking race fans who do tailgate to test the food.  Now that could have been hilarious!

Oh honey, I've been to many NASCAR races and yes, the actual people who attend and tailgate would have had some colorful comments. These were paid extras, unfortunately. I think having a driver there to sample the food would have been a hoot. I know they don't get to tailgate, but could you imagine the glee and funny comments from Dale Jr?

This show has become a cliche, as I also hate the term "hacks." To me, a hack is a criminal of some sort. Then again, they brought back 'hashtag'Matthew'hashtag''bullshit''hashtag' for that stupid pre-show contest.

[smiley13]

Having a driver there would have been fun, as long as it was not Danica .  

[Madding crowd]

The whole hack idea is dumb, it's like the magazine Real Simple which always has a feature like "New uses for zip ties" or "10 things you can do with corn cob holders". I always hate that because I don't desperately need to find new uses for household items. In this case, the contestants were given limited time and limited items so I think they did the best they could. I do have to say I am surprised every week on who goes home. I thought Monteray would be a finalist.

I really have no idea who will win. Joy would be my guess. Damiano charms Giada, but I can't understand him half the time. The rest are just OK with the exception of Ana who I can't stand. I'm not a housewife watcher, but I think she is boring and too above it all. And I never understand it when people say so and so is above this show so they shouldn't have to do the same things as the others. Then don't go on the show. 

[Pepper Mostly]

16 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

it's like the magazine Real Simple which always has a feature like "New uses for zip ties" or "10 things you can do with corn cob holders". I always hate that because I don't desperately need to find new uses for household items.

hahahahaha, remember when Sandra Lee showed us a new use for our melon ballers? Like I was lying awake at night, thinking of ways to get more bang for my melon baller buck.

[DeLurker]

5 minutes ago, Pepper Mostly said:

hahahahaha, remember when Sandra Lee showed us a new use for our melon ballers? Like I was lying awake at night, thinking of ways to get more bang for my melon baller buck.

That can be interpreted in the wrong way...at least I hope I did!

[qtpye]

These so called "hacks" were awful.  Hit something with a pan use a turkey baster instead of a spoon.  I agree the french press marinade was the best.

Hey, I have a great hack.  When you no longer need to use your pen...it's a back scratcher!  You can take a unused trash bag and...make it a bag for something else!  Someone used a smoothie maker as a blender...so, I am going to use my blender as a smoothie maker!  I am brilliant.  These life hacks are so useful.

[Snarklepuss]

It's becoming obvious that this season TPTB decided to mix it up by adding a few stereotypes to the mix.  This season, in addition to:

• Mom with 5 kids who makes that her POV.  Throwing in Southern too to add another schtick to the pile
• Italian romantic swoon interest (yeah, no) with an accent,
• Assorted southern BBQ-tailgaiting guys, plus
• Supposedly lovable (?)  momma's boy guy from New York complete with accent and
• The loud, overweight slightly sloppy guy/Guy Fieri stand-in (Lunch Lady Rob embodies at least 2 stereotypes in the same person),

now we also have the comedians who can cook - Tregaye, Jernaud, and to some degree Lunch Lady Rob) and another new category - reality show diva (Ana).  So I guess that's the influence of the woman who replaced Bob Tuschman.  I've never even seen her photo, to be honest.  Not loving how she is helping to take an already ridiculous show and making it even more ridiculous.  I want Bob back.  This might as well be "Worst Cooks in America" now.  I can only hope that whoever wins is more of a real candidate than the show is making them look like they are.

[cooksdelight]

Snarklepuss, she looks like Kathie Lee. The dark-haired woman on the Kitchen. I think. See... she's so non-existant, I'm not sure what she does.

[spiderpig]

4 hours ago, smiley13 said:

I hate that FN keeps dragging Irvine back up.  Go ahead and be a liar, it's all okay, FN will keep bringing you back.  But then again, this is the network that spotlights Gee-Ah-Da and Bobby Flay so that does not say much about them.    Wonder why Bobby has not gotten them to invite January Jones on as a guest "celebrity"? Or Gee-Ah-Da could could convince her buddy John Mayer......

Smiley, you must read the same Blind Gossip items I do.

[Alapaki]

I agree that the idea of hacks is . . . pretty hacky.  But the whole show is really just such a joke, I just can't get too worked up about it.

At this point I think the main reason I tune in is for Giada's tits.

That, and to see if they ever decide to go full "running man" and have the contestants play a real game of Russian Roulette to determine who gets to pick teams first and who gets a massive head wound.

[Hero]

I cannot stand Damiano. I feel like he is so fake and uses his accent to get farther into the competition. I don't think he is good-looking and it annoys me that is looks and accent are front and center rather than his cooking skills. 

[qtpye]

1 hour ago, Suzy123 said:

I cannot stand Damiano. I feel like he is so fake and uses his accent to get farther into the competition. I don't think he is good-looking and it annoys me that is looks and accent are front and center rather than his cooking skills. 

But he figured out how to put sauce on a plate with a turkey baster...even though there is no "turkey season" in Italy.

Perhaps he will take off a mask and we will find out he is actually, Dom from New York, who realized that Giada would only allow an Italian on the channel if he fit "a dark haired heart throb" stereotype.

[gryphon]

Suzy 123, thank you for saying what I was thinking about Damiano. He sounds SO fake!   I had to fast forward the episode--without commercials, it made it roughly 20 minutes. I'm hoping to check out Star Salvation in hopes that it's better.  

[spiderpig]

5 hours ago, Alapaki said:

That, and to see if they ever decide to go full "running man" and have the contestants play a real game of Russian Roulette to determine who gets to pick teams first and who gets a massive head wound.

You brought to mind the famous SNL skit The Claudine Longet Invitational.  Can't find a clip on youtube.

[spiderpig]

I'm sure all of you remember the infamous biathalon, or whatever it was, on Top Chef.  The contestants, all of whom could run rings around this bunch of losers, had to run around in the snow and shoot at targets.

That was a low for TC.  But we're talking FNS here.

Edited June 21, 2016 by spiderpig

[SomePity1066]

13 hours ago, Lura said:

My crude cousin would have rated this show ten farts.

...aaaaand now I have that in my head ! I just know I'm going to say that in front of a group of adults now :)

But totally agree, especially about the race car contest - that was so bogus ! If the cheftestants (do we still say that ?) have to compete in silly, non-culinary ways to earn an advantage then how is it still a COOKING competition ? I have crazy knife skills and can competently made four of the five "mother sauces", but can't dunk a basketball and I'm lousy at Jenga. Guess that means I'm a bad cook ?

[grisgris]

Ugh. Thumbs down on the whole episode.

I'm confused about the first challenge. Did Damiano or Monterey win? I thought Monterey had the best demo and hack idea, but her chicken was raw. Damiano's idea was just stupid, but I guess that at least Giada enjoyed the final result. (Well, he could have served her up anything and she would have given it the thumbs-up.) We've already brought up Joy's lame "blending in a blender" error, but what was so original about Tregaye using a skillet to pound meat?

It would be nice to have a genuine food authority to make some of the cameo judging appearances. Katie Lee, seriously? Word to all who insist she got where she is today via her short-lived stint as Mrs. Billy Joel. I can't stand "The Kitchen," (not solely because of her) and she is, hands down, the worst cook on the show. These are the opportunities to call in the Chopped Judges and the Iron Chefs, not has-been celebrities.

Robert Irvine has demonstrated numerous times now that he does not belong on "ensemble" programs, whatsoever. He had nothing of substance to offer from a judging perspective, and yeah, what does Erin being a baker have to do with her being able to successfully prepare brats for a tailgate party? Did she make the pretzel buns from scratch? I have to admit that I had something come up during part of the competition. I was totally pissed that she was so star-struck and tongue-tied by him. I have those two pegged for the next season of "America's Home Cooks," or whatever that mentoring show is that RI actually won last year.

I didn't mind seeing Monterey go at all. I didn't like her and I knew she was going to cry when she got sent home.

When did Giada develop that squeaky little girl giggle/laugh? I don't remember hearing that before. I've seen her throw her head back and laugh like a hyena, but not that. Obnoxious. Yeah, they those two definitely need Suzy and Bob to rein them in and give them a reality check. However, those two don't have the best track record of picking winners, either.

I don't really have a dog in this lame fight.  Go back to the junkyard.

[Snarklepuss]

16 hours ago, smiley13 said:

I hate that FN keeps dragging Irvine back up.  Go ahead and be a liar, it's all okay, FN will keep bringing you back.  But then again, this is the network that spotlights Gee-Ah-Da and Bobby Flay so that does not say much about them.   

Just saw this on another thread, it's not just FN that keeps dragging him up, now he's getting his own talk show now on the CW helping people "resolve conflicts".  This has nothing to do with food, cooking or restaurants either.  Totally ridiculous.  I love the comments below the article, though!  I guess he "lied" about his family therapist certification, LOL.

http://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2016/06/robert-irvine-talk-show-coming-to-cw.html

[Darth Nigel]

13 hours ago, Alapaki said:

... have the contestants play a real game of Russian Roulette to determine who gets to pick teams first and who gets a massive head wound.

Well, 5 out of 6 people really enjoy Russian Roulette and would play again...

[TDT]

1 hour ago, Snarklepuss said:

Just saw this on another thread, it's not just FN that keeps dragging him up, now he's getting his own talk show now on the CW helping people "resolve conflicts".  This has nothing to do with food, cooking or restaurants either.  Totally ridiculous.  I love the comments below the article, though!  I guess he "lied" about his family therapist certification, LOL.

http://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2016/06/robert-irvine-talk-show-coming-to-cw.html

I guess he'll be a copycat of Steve Wilkos,in that he'll probably throw a chair or two when something pisses him off LOL..

OT: Speaking of Wilkos is there a PreviouslyTV thread for his show..?

[HyeChaps]

There was a time that there was a camera challenge every week. Why is that gone?

[bad things are bad]

Shouty chef-like character Robert Irvine gets his own show! People come to him with problems and he yells at them to "hurry up" and "stop whining" and "you have to change NOW". Victims, I mean guests, agree to get better just to make him STFU

I do NOT get why there is any love anywhere anytime for Irvine. I.just.don't.

[Wings]

23 hours ago, Suzy123 said:

I cannot stand Damiano. I feel like he is so fake and uses his accent to get farther into the competition. I don't think he is good-looking and it annoys me that is looks and accent are front and center rather than his cooking skills. 

I agree!  

Fabio from Top Chef was delightful and he even admitted to pushing his accent a little bit when it served him.  Adorable man.  Damiano does not have this charm.  And you cannot understand him! Giada likes him, of course. 

 

ETA  Robert Irvine is not appealing to anyone, never mind the lies.  Other FN chefs don't like him either.  Not even a little.   Why is he there?

Edited June 22, 2016 by wings707

[cooksdelight]

25 minutes ago, wings707 said:

I agree!  

Fabio from Top Chef was delightful and he even admitted to pushing his accent a little bit when it served him.  Adorable man.  Damiano does not have this charm.  And you cannot understand him! Giada likes him, of course. 

 

ETA  Robert Irvine is not appealing to anyone, never mind the lies.  Other FN chefs don't like him either.  Not even a little.   Why is he there?

Fabio and his wife have an adorable son, truly a mini-me version of him. Love Fabio, he's such a generous person who donated signed items for a charity auction to raise money for our local animal rescue group.

I often wonder if Irvine has dirty photos of somoene at FN that he uses as leverage because I can't think of any other reason why they keep him around.

[Maverick]

38 minutes ago, wings707 said:

 

ETA  Robert Irvine is not appealing to anyone, never mind the lies.  Other FN chefs don't like him either.  Not even a little.   Why is he there?

Um, Guy does.  Not 5hat it nullifies your point. 

[J-Man]

Not that it mattered in the end, but was there some reason Damiano didn't get an advantage for winning the first challenge? He ended up getting the first pick of the proteins, but that was because he won the auto race. Shouldn't the winner of the first challenge have received that advantage?

[xaxat]

Can Robert Irvine actually cook? He doesn't really do any on FN and it feels like everything on his resume prior to landing at FN was an exaggeration or total fabrication.

[akr]

The only thing I've liked Irvine on was his Dinner Impossible show (I think that was the name) - and he definitely had a talent there for creating reasonably good food for a large crowd in a hurry, and coaching a team to keep on track, etc. There would be no miscounting of portions (as on today's MC Australia) on his watch, either. I don't have any aspirations to cook an entire spread of adequate food for a large crowd, so most of these tricks are of interest to me only as a spectator, and I'm not at all sure his taste buds are any more reliable than Guy Fieri's (whose own restaurants range from adequate to terrible - I'm from his hometown so I've had stuff catered by his restaurants, and I wouldn't have paid money for any of it), so can he really cook? Depends on what you mean by cook, I suppose, but he seemed to be a decent coach on that mentors show.  

re Damiano - I seem to remember that it's his brother who's actually responsible for the quality of the food at their place, whereas Damiano is basically the pretty boy front man.  Damiano is probably good enough to get by on these cooking contest shows if he sticks to a few things he does well, although the turning on of the smarm to cover the holes grates, but his brother might have the chops to win any contest that was actually based on how good the food was.

Edited June 22, 2016 by akr
to complete a sentence.

[Snarklepuss]

2 hours ago, Maverick said:

Um, Guy does.  Not 5hat it nullifies your point. 

Yup, Robert Irvine and Guy F. are like besties so my take is that's one reason we can't get rid of him.  Guy was I think the best man at Robert's wedding.  I only know that from reading "Food Network Gossip".  Not that I really care.

I liked "Dinner Impossible" once upon a time long long ago not even because of him but because the show was a cute concept and I loved his sous chefs George and David, but since then Irvine's become ever more of a douche canoe and totally insufferable. 

[spiderpig]

2 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Fabio and his wife have an adorable son, truly a mini-me version of him. Love Fabio, he's such a generous person who donated signed items for a charity auction to raise money for our local animal rescue group.

You had me at funds for a local animal rescue group.  Fabio Forever!

[nottopbravo]

Spoiler

 

Now that Monterery's gone, who's going to be the in-house narrator for the rest of the season?  She got more talking heads than anyone.

Edited June 22, 2016 by nottopbravo
Nothing to spoil but the food

[MerBearHou]

Monterey often seemed high to me!   She is seriously spacey which annoyed me tons. 

[backformore]

19 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

Just saw this on another thread, it's not just FN that keeps dragging him up, now he's getting his own talk show now on the CW helping people "resolve conflicts".  This has nothing to do with food, cooking or restaurants either.  Totally ridiculous.  I love the comments below the article, though!  I guess he "lied" about his family therapist certification, LOL.

http://www.foodnetworkgossip.com/2016/06/robert-irvine-talk-show-coming-to-cw.html

How ridiculous!   I noticed that it implies, but does not explicitly state, that he is qualified.  You cannot call yourself a "therapist"  without certification - which requires a Masters Degree in psychology, social work, or family counseling.  Irvine is a joke.   I don't see a shred of talent, or anything that I would want to watch on TV.  I have seen some of his "Impossible"  shows, and he's a condescending prick.

10 hours ago, HyeChaps said:

There was a time that there was a camera challenge every week. Why is that gone?

It seems they're more focused on snapchat and YouTube.  Makes me wonder what kind of "show" the winner gets.

[Aquarius]

6 hours ago, bad things are bad said:

Shouty chef-like character Robert Irvine gets his own show! People come to him with problems and he yells at them to "hurry up" and "stop whining" and "you have to change NOW". Victims, I mean guests, agree to get better just to make him STFU

I do NOT get why there is any love anywhere anytime for Irvine. I.just.don't.

Well, Dr. Phil made a fortune doing just that.  Of course, he does have some sort of psychology degree . . . I think.

1 hour ago, nottopbravo said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Now that Monterery's gone, who's going to be the in-house narrator for the rest of the season?  She got more talking heads than anyone.

Tregaye.  And you just know she'll be on fleek.

4 hours ago, J-Man said:

Not that it mattered in the end, but was there some reason Damiano didn't get an advantage for winning the first challenge? He ended up getting the first pick of the proteins, but that was because he won the auto race. Shouldn't the winner of the first challenge have received that advantage?

I can only hope it's because someone realized how completely ridiculous it was that Damiano won.  Maybe between Giada's over-enthusiastic "Brava!!" and the over-pronunciation of his name, someone in editing got confused, and wrongly awarded him with the win.  Because, really?  Essentially an unstuffed cream puff resting on squirted raspberry puree, and then-a snap-a-chat-a video-a that-a no-one-a could-a understand-a?  That's the winner?

On 6/20/2016 at 7:41 PM, bluepiano said:

I really can't put my finger on what Rob is about. That "walk on the wild side" thing has never been there consistently.

Oh, but it has.  Check out the bowling shirts.  ;-)

Edited June 23, 2016 by Aquarius

[Wings]

15 minutes ago, Aquarius said:

Well, Dr. Phil made a fortune doing just that.  Of course, he does have some sort of psychology degree . . . I think.

He is well qualified.  He has 3 degrees in psychology (different areas) and a doctorate.  

 

Robert Irvine is a joke. 

[Aquarius]

2 minutes ago, wings707 said:

He is well qualified.  He has 3 degrees in psychology (different areas) and a doctorate.  

 

Robert Irvine is a joke.

Dr. Phil is also a joke, just apparently a well-qualified one.

[cooksdelight]

LOL, they should have titled the episode "How's That Workin' For Ya?"

[bluepiano]

To each his own, but Erin's apparent crush on Robert Irvine seemed weird. If I were a woman I couldn't imagine finding anything attractive about him, personality as well as looks. But she indicated that her father was a macho, military guy, so I guess there's some working out of unresolved issues that needs to happen.

Irvine did a Restaurant Impossible at a soup kitchen, and he seemed to have genuine appreciation for the people who ran it and the work they did. Otherwise he has always seemed to me like a waste of time. Guy Fieri annoys me but I can see why some people find him entertaining. I don't see anything redeeming about Irvine. I guess some producer thought he was a good candidate for the role of a "tough love" pseudo-therapist. Well, at least he's probably a slightly better choice than Jon Taffer of Bar Rescue.

Maybe Monterrey's next career move will be acting. I can see her playing the attractive but scatterbrained girlfriend and/or neighbor on some bad sit-com. She must've had California hippie parents to give her that name. But it could've been worse. They could've named her Big Sur.

Edited June 23, 2016 by bluepiano

[TDT]

3 hours ago, bluepiano said:

Maybe Monterrey's next career move will be acting. I can see her playing the attractive but scatterbrained girlfriend and/or neighbor on some bad sit-com. She must've had California hippie parents to give her that name. But it could've been worse. They could've named her Big Sur.

 

i thought Monterrey already was an actress..? i see she has a IMDb profile...

[Surrealist]

Erin's mouth annoys me. It's as if it doesn't fit on her face. It's small. 

Sorry, this is a completely superficial gripe.

[spiderpig]

2 hours ago, Surrealist said:

Erin's mouth annoys me. It's as if it doesn't fit on her face. It's small. 

Sorry, this is a completely superficial gripe.

Maybe she's churning up buried memories of Clutch Cargo.

[MajorWoody]

Supposedly Irvine got his advanced degrees in therapy from that esteemed institution of higher learning, the one that advertises on matchbook covers : The University of PO Box 2000

[cooksdelight]

1 hour ago, MajorWoody said:

Supposedly Irvine got his advanced degrees in therapy from that esteemed institution of higher learning, the one that advertises on matchbook covers : The University of PO Box 2000

"But wait!! There's more!"

[LexieLily]

Just got caught up and watched this episode. The challenge was tailgating and Erin made bratwursts with beer. Why exactly would she have been expected to use seconds of her presenting time to mention she's a baker when that had nothing to do with anything?

[Jesse]

She served the brats on pretzel rolls, didn't she? I assume she made those, although there was essentially zero mention of it.

[BW Manilowe]

Besides the CW daytime show, I read awhile back that Robert Irvine's opening a restaurant in the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas sort of soon. He has or had another restaurant near Myrtle Beach, SC, I think.

[spiderpig]

a) I like turtles.
b) Irvine looks like a turtle
c) in this case, a+b does not equal "I like Irvine".

The only RI shows he did that I liked were where they renovated a school cafeteria and a kitchen for the underprivileged.  In both cases they scrapped the silly 48-hour/$10,000 limits and did some real charitable work.

Watching Erin get all swoony about Irvine made me uncomfortable.

I honestly don't see a front-runner in this year's batch of candidates.  Just a bunch of characters I want to see go away.

[biakbiak]

7 hours ago, Jesse said:

She served the brats on pretzel rolls, didn't she? I assume she made those, although there was essentially zero mention of it.

They only had an hour and a grill, I can't imagine she made those rolls.

[Jesse]

Yeah, fair.