S10.E01: A Decade of Dish-asters

[Drogo]

The new recruits enter boot camp with dreams of becoming great chefs, but their dreams become nightmares when they see photos of their culinary failures mounted on their stations.

To start off, mentors Anne Burrell and Rachael Ray have the recruits cook their signature dishes so that they can assess their skills in the kitchen.

Then, the recruits dive headfirst into a main dish challenge where they must cook shrimp and live lobster. The recruits with the least successful dishes on each team will be sent home.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Drogo
TVGuide's original description was as a special, not a premiere.

[anniebird]

When Anne said, "I hate my entire team" I laughed out loud.

[Fostersmom]

And yet again, I'm left wondering how most of these people are even alive since they seem too stupid to not walk out in front of traffic on a daily basis. Too many caricatures and fake ridiculousness. The big gay guy who of course wants to be called Auntie, the dim pretty boy, the dorky sports guy who can't find a date because he can't cook (yeah, that's the reason), the "zany" (obnoxious) older woman, and the clown looking geek who is of course from Portland. I must have missed what the guy on Anne's team did so wrong with his dish to get the boot, he seemed to have a hell of a lot more potential than the other guy, save the weekly meltdown potential. 

[patty1h]

I keep saying I'm done with this phony show, but I always check it out and my blood pressure skyrockets.  Why do 90% of these non-cooks have to be "wacky"; don't normal looking/acting people want to cook?  Having that "comedy" trombone note play when the contestant makes a blunder doesn't help.  

The premise is that these people may not know how to cook, but they eat, so I find it so phony when they bring their worst dish in as proof of how bad their skills are.  Even I know if I put sardines and cake mix and mustard together, it's a bad dish but I wouldn't want to eat it myself.  They should make the contestants eat those abominations they concoct.

No one can persuade me that most of these folks want to learn to cook - it's fame whore-palooza.  Food Network, what have you wrought?

[meowmommy]

The thread is titled 'WCIA Special' but it's the opener for season 10.

patty1h, everything you just said, x 1000.  Anyone can pretend not to be able to cook and then miraculously improve.  And I'm always shaking my head at FN's decision each season to frame this as slapstick comedy instead of either a straight competition or an instructional show.

And Anne, I hate your entire team, too.

Edited January 2, 2017 by meowmommy

[rustyspigot]

Here have some bath salts. Now go through this door and cook something. Honestly, calm the fuck down contestants.

I was right there with Anne when she was looking down below at the old obnoxious lady shrieking and shrieking over the Lobster.

[mlp]

This show gets more ridiculous every season.  I swear they get at least half of these people from central casting.  I find it hard to believe that normal people, even normal morons, can come on TV for the first time and be so slap-sticky and unrestrained.  All the "comedy" effects are just too OTT.

No one in their right mind would give a fledgling cook shrimp and lobster to prepare for a very first lesson.  Anne Burrell, whatever else anyone might think of her, is a good cook and a good teacher.  If she were starting someone in cooking class 101, I'm sure she'd start with knife skills and so on, not lobsters.  In fact, the first couple seasons of this show did start out that way.

Nevertheless, I keep watching it.  

[SandyToes]

I, too, got sucked in one more time, just to see the opener. Criminy. Tuna and raspberry jam? Even if these people only cook Hamburger Helper, that requires you to read and follow a recipe of sorts.  I agree, that they should also have to eat their creations.  But then, that would entail this being some sort of real show, like it was back in the beginning.

There must be some type of off-camera boot camp, because there were a few references to mis en place, and I can't imagine any of these yahoos having a clue what that meant.

Take this bunch and hand them a "Chopped" basket, THEN come up with a "signature dish."  Heh.

[RockShrimp]

I have to admit I kind of love the sports producer dude who must've had the producers asking him to do sports analogies and then rattled off 15 stupid ones completely deadpan.

[grisgris]

Sheesh ... the casting people at FN must have worked overtime to come up with this year's crop of losers. They pinged every single stereotype you can think of.  I'm kind of sorry the big loud Jewish gay guy got sent home so soon. I thought he could be mined for a couple of more episodes at least for comedy value.

I knew that Anne would keep the eccentric older gray-haired guy from California. Cedrick, the guy she eliminated, actually seemed to have potential and I'm very surprised that Jetta survived over those two. Her first dish was just gross and her lobster dish was a disaster. Again, her looks and demeanor probably saved her.

The only one who seems rootable this early on is the flight attendant who won on Anne's team. When she mentioned that in her homeland they cooked everything from scratch that at least gave me some hope that she's had exposure to proper good cooking. It sounds like with her busy schedule she just doesn't have the time or interest to cook much for herself. Maybe.

Yeah. I agree that FN has this now scripted as a comedy show, no real cooking involved.

Wow! Anne sure was orangey. I think she's out Loompa'd Donald Trump.

[steven T]

This show has gone beyond ridiculous.  They prepared dishes that even 5 year olds couldn't come up with.  At  least the first few seasons the dishes were reasonable like meatloaf, soup, etc.  This year they had unedible crap that Anne and Rachel wouldn't even taste.  It is so fake.  I know its entertainment but this goes beyond that into the realm of the cooks being mentally disabled.  The past seasons were humorous at least, I don't see it happening this year.

[JunebugTx]

6 hours ago, mlp said:

This show gets more ridiculous every season.  I swear they get at least half of these people from central casting.  I find it hard to believe that normal people, even normal morons, can come on TV for the first time and be so slap-sticky and unrestrained.  All the "comedy" effects are just too OTT.

No one in their right mind would give a fledgling cook shrimp and lobster to prepare for a very first lesson.  Anne Burrell, whatever else anyone might think of her, is a good cook and a good teacher.  If she were starting someone in cooking class 101, I'm sure she'd start with knife skills and so on, not lobsters.  In fact, the first couple seasons of this show did start out that way.

Nevertheless, I keep watching it.  

Yeah, I was sitting here watching the episode thinking, "Why on earth did they start with something as hard as shrimp and lobster?"  And also wondered why they can't find normal people who want to learn to cook.  All the shrieking and running around like crazy people gets grating pretty quickly.  I did notice that one of the guys on Anne's (?) team was very encouraging to another team member - I think he was trying to get him to calm down and get something done.

[sofaslug]

My thought when the "cooks" came in was how loud and obnoxious most of them were.  And they all must have family or friends who can cook for them.  Or they do a lot of eating out. 

Looking at what some of them were throwing together, it seems as if they were trying to come up with the most disgusting dish ever (and what a waste of food).

It appears that Jetta ( the only name I remembered) is a part-time comedienne and actress.  Explains a lot.  

I still can't get tuna & jelly out of my head.  Blarg.

[Amarsir]

I think the official story from FN is that contestants are encouraged to do odd combinations in the first episode to "prove they have the creativity to be chefs" or some such. Because forced as this is, it makes for better clips than 16 versions of over/under cooked and over/under seasoned.

Personally I preferred the level of All-Star Academy which had genuine home cooks. But I'm guessing that didn't do as well in the ratings and that they didn't properly connect that failure to the presence of Robert Irvine.

15 hours ago, RockShrimp said:

I have to admit I kind of love the sports producer dude who must've had the producers asking him to do sports analogies and then rattled off 15 stupid ones completely deadpan.

He was my favorite for deadpanning that he had no idea Rachel and Anne had cookbooks.

[spiderpig]

Everything about this show is stupid, fake and pathetic.

However, if I don't force myself to watch I won't be able to appreciate your snark, y'all!

(Although I'm not sure how much more of the Insane Poodle Lady I can take, even with my strong stomach.)

[Amarsir]

3 hours ago, spiderpig said:

Everything about this show is stupid, fake and pathetic.

However, if I don't force myself to watch I won't be able to appreciate your snark, y'all!

(Although I'm not sure how much more of the Insane Poodle Lady I can take, even with my strong stomach.)

Assuming you mean who I think, I did have to laugh when she called herself a "Jaguar" and Anne said "I think you're more of a Volkswagon, Jetta." It's a joke so good I'd think it was scripted if everything else wasn't such a mess.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Amarsir

[spiderpig]

3 hours ago, Amarsir said:

Assuming you mean who I think, I did have to laugh when she called herself a "Jaguar" and Anne said "I think you're more of a Volkswagon, Jetta." It's a joke so good I'd think it was scripted if everything else wasn't such a mess.

That's the one!  If Bea Arthur mated with an ungroomed poodle...

[Snarklepuss]

This show continues to become more ridiculous every season but at this point I watch it for mindless entertainment.  Plus I think they slip a few "real" contestants into the lineup only you might not notice them under the commotion of the fake circus clown act going on in the foreground.

We thought the older woman with two pairs of glasses on was a kook last season.  Now we have even worse in Volkswagen Jetta.  Oy is right.  We also had the David slot of a few seasons ago filled with the dorky New Yorky Jewish guy who went home this episode.  They fill the cast with people that fit a mold of one kind or another.  No way am I buying that they would have made any of those dishes in the first challenge without being hired to be as wacky as possible.  Hey at least if they're going to be fake they should instruct them to try to be a little more believable in the process.  I thought they were supposed to make their "signature dish".  No effort was made to make the dish believable as one that they would actually attempt to make in real life.  It's getting really stupid now.  Of course I still watch, though.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[candall]

Strawberry jelly tuna is bad, but I think I could choke down a big spoonful of that before the okra with mashed sardine pulp.  LOL--I tried to think of a more disgusting combination . . . lime jello studded with chicken livers?  Sign me up, show!!

 

As usual, I was sad for the lobsters.  At least these ninnies didn't rip them in half while they were still alive, as the Top Cheffers are prone to do.  :* (

 

Interesting that Rachel booted her main "character" and kept the normie, but Anne didn't even put her main cray, Jetta, up for elimination--booting regular guy Cedric over sad hound dog Stephen.

[LizBug]

Finally got around to watching this.  Almost didn't make it past the first commercial break ... the caricature, over-the-top level was cringe worthy.  Really glad that the large gay guy was sent home because he was totally rude to people during the "cook your best dish" round.

Ok ... round two up later today.  

[HunterHunted]

On Tuesday, January 03, 2017 at 10:16 PM, Snarklepuss said:

This show continues to become more ridiculous every season but at this point I watch it for mindless entertainment.  Plus I think they slip a few "real" contestants into the lineup only you might not notice them under the commotion of the fake circus clown act going on in the foreground.

We thought the older woman with two pairs of glasses on was a kook last season.  Now we have even worse in Volkswagen Jetta.  Oy is right.  We also had the David slot of a few seasons ago filled with the dorky New Yorky Jewish guy who went home this episode.  They fill the cast with people that fit a mold of one kind or another.  No way am I buying that they would have made any of those dishes in the first challenge without being hired to be as wacky as possible.  Hey at least if they're going to be fake they should instruct them to try to be a little more believable in the process.  I thought they were supposed to make their "signature dish".  No effort was made to make the dish believable as one that they would actually attempt to make in real life.  It's getting really stupid now.  Of course I still watch, though.

I think most of the real contestants made actual food for the signature dish challenge like meatloaf, steak and mac and cheese, andspaghetti with meat sauce. If you've ever known anyone who has been on a reality tv show, they'll tell you that producers tell them to amp it up for the cameras. Not be fake, but be more of yourself. The other thing producers do is to try film for a couple of days so that the participants get accustomed to the cameras, but you can't really do that on a competition show. I can see why the producers feel like they have bring in some wacky ringers until the real cast gets used to cameras.

[spiderpig]

I guess what bothers me the most is the exploitation of extreme stereotypes - the elderly, LGBT, the "hapless bachelor who can't get a girl", the single parent raising kids on vending machine food.  The bulk of the contestants have to be paid performers, otherwise they would not be permitted to function in society without adult supervision.

There must be plenty of people who live on Hamburger Helper and frozen dinners, but have been afraid to try anything they feel is too complicated.  Most of the show's competitors are depicted as Too Stupid To Live.

I'd feel awkward watching them flail around if I didn't think they were plants.

[Wings]

12 minutes ago, spiderpig said:

I guess what bothers me the most is the exploitation of extreme stereotypes - the elderly, LGBT, the "hapless bachelor who can't get a girl", the single parent raising kids on vending machine food.  The bulk of the contestants have to be paid performers, otherwise they would not be permitted to function in society without adult supervision.

There must be plenty of people who live on Hamburger Helper and frozen dinners, but have been afraid to try anything they feel is too complicated.  Most of the show's competitors are depicted as Too Stupid To Live.

I'd feel awkward watching them flail around if I didn't think they were plants.

I havent given too much thought to plants, not sure why.  I bet you are right. The first 4 or 6 are probably plants and the rest are recruited.  They could not have the general public apply because they would get cons.  They can cook but fake it and miraculously improve rapidly. 

The woman with the red index finger will go next given this theory.  She is over the top and way too old to know so little.