S10.E05: All Fun and Game Day

[Drogo]

Competition is in the air as the recruits enter boot camp to see that it has been transformed into a game day arena. They must put their culinary knowledge to the test in a game of Family Food, where only one team can be named the winner.

For the main dish challenge, the recruits must cook for a crowd and impress their guests with the ultimate game day sandwich and an appetizer.

[LexieLily]

I watched especially for it today and Anne really doesn't seem to like Daniel - it was apparent in their "five minutes with Anne" advantage time.

[HunterHunted]

1 hour ago, LexieLily said:

I watched especially for it today and Anne really doesn't seem to like Daniel - it was apparent in their "five minutes with Anne" advantage time.

Though Anne seemed to be livid when Jeff had her doing random things like chopping vegetables and turning the blender on. Jeff had not thought through what he needed her to do.

I don't know how someone could fuck up sandwiches, but they did. Both attempts at deviled eggs looked disgusting.

[mlp]

Anne really wasted her save on Kayla.  I don't know what Anne thought she saw in her because she has seemed the least bright of the ones left on the red team.  I was happy to see both her and the hyperactive housewife leave.

With all the "coaching" Rachael and Anne do from the balcony, I don't understand why one of them didn't tell the people with eggs to put them on first so they'd have time to cook and cool.  Even if they had done that though, the contestants would have had a hard time completing the task because it takes time to peel a bunch of hard-boiled eggs no matter how skilled you are.  

I like Laura OK but I can't imagine why anyone would think that putting potato salad on a sandwich would be a good idea.  The texture is all wrong.  

[spiderpig]

Thank you Lexie, Hunter and mlp for expressing my own thoughts so perfectly.

(And putting flour in brine and wondering why it didn't look right?  What planet do these people come from?)

[LexieLily]

56 minutes ago, mlp said:

Anne really wasted her save on Kayla.  I don't know what Anne thought she saw in her because she has seemed the least bright of the ones left on the red team.  I was happy to see both her and the hyperactive housewife leave.

If I'm doing my math right, Anne has four cooks left and Rachel three so Rachel has to use her save within the next two weeks, right? Is it like the American Idol Save where you had to use it by a certain point or can Rachel just save it until the last week?

[HunterHunted]

2 hours ago, mlp said:

Anne really wasted her save on Kayla.  I don't know what Anne thought she saw in her because she has seemed the least bright of the ones left on the red team.  I was happy to see both her and the hyperactive housewife leave.

With all the "coaching" Rachael and Anne do from the balcony, I don't understand why one of them didn't tell the people with eggs to put them on first so they'd have time to cook and cool.  Even if they had done that though, the contestants would have had a hard time completing the task because it takes time to peel a bunch of hard-boiled eggs no matter how skilled you are.  

I like Laura OK but I can't imagine why anyone would think that putting potato salad on a sandwich would be a good idea.  The texture is all wrong.  

Boy did she waste a save on Kayla.

I'm going to give Laura a slight pass on the potato salad. There are sandwich places that put fries and coleslaw on their sandwiches, including the beloved by some, but not me, Primanti Brothers from my hometown of Pittsburgh. Fat Sal's is another place. This show does a terrible job of educating the contestants. However if you are a person that has a somewhat decent palate and are barely adventurous in your diet, you, like Daniel and Laura, might attempt to make something a little innovative without really understanding why it works. Daniel didn't understand that his bread to filling ratio was off and his spices weren't quite right. The reason why the fry and coleslaw sandwiches work, but the potato salad one does not is because the fry coleslaw sandwiches have textural contrast and the slaw is more of a vinegar dressing so you get that quasi pickled element.

1 hour ago, spiderpig said:

(And putting flour in brine and wondering why it didn't look right?  What planet do these people come from?)

I forgot about the flour brine. I kept hoping that it was some type of buttermilk brine for chicken or onion rings. Then when I saw how gloopy it was, I just shook my head.

[theatremouse]

20 hours ago, LexieLily said:

I watched especially for it today and Anne really doesn't seem to like Daniel - it was apparent in their "five minutes with Anne" advantage time.

I can't say if this is why Anne doesn't like Daniel, but it is why I don't like Daniel: he's on a show called worst cooks. He has to know he's there because he doesn't know what he's doing and has historically sucked. Yet he seems extremely overconfident about everything he does. And when she calls him on doing stuff poorly it comes across to me in a "we've been over this 68 times dude, come on" way. So he both: seems confident AND seems to be disregarding instructions (possibly due to overconfidence). I could see how that could piss her off right quickly.

I'm not saying none of them should be confident if they've learned new things and retained that, sure be proud of your newfound knowledge, but that's different than "now I'm great at this so I'll just do whatever the fuck I feel like".

 

Also bahn mi are SUPER easy to make and require a pickled element anyway so it was kind of the perfect choice for this challenge. His did not look good at all.

Edited January 31, 2017 by theatremouse

[steven T]

The rest of these cooks left seem adequate so i'm not caring who wins.  So glad that manic Maria is gone.  Anybody with half a brain should be able to tell when you have way too much on a sandwich, and she was proud of it.  I'm not sure why they didn't know about boiling the eggs right away, but when you are bad cook, you don't think about it, I guess.  They had a recipe to follow so I guess there is no excuse.

[Amarsir]

17 hours ago, mlp said:

I like Laura OK but I can't imagine why anyone would think that putting potato salad on a sandwich would be a good idea.  The texture is all wrong.  

I was afraid she was going to make it with raw potatoes. Sure would have a crunch on your sandwich that way!

 

44 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

I can't say if this is why Anne doesn't like Daniel, but it is why I don't like Daniel: he's on a show called worst cooks. He has to know he's there because he doesn't know what he's doing and has historically sucked. Yet he seemed extremely overconfident about everything he does. And when she calls him on doing stuff poorly it comes across to me in a "we've been over this 68 times dude, come on" way. So he both: seems confident AND seems to be disregarding instructions (possibly due to overconfidence). I could see how that could piss her off right quickly.

He also says things like "the other contestants have very simple palates." Which ... look, I get that he's eaten a variety of dishes and that is a leg up on the others. But copying a Vietnamese recipe doesn't impress me compared to the people trying to innovate.

[HunterHunted]

3 hours ago, Amarsir said:

He also says things like "the other contestants have very simple palates." Which ... look, I get that he's eaten a variety of dishes and that is a leg up on the others. But copying a Vietnamese recipe doesn't impress me compared to the people trying to innovate.

Daniel's arrogance is the most annoying thing about him, but I don't think the other contestants are trying to innovate either. The rest of them are so clueless. They're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. They don't know enough to call their food innovative. There is very little thoughtful intention behind most of what the contestants do in the kitchen. Much of the regular innovation with food and food trends is just slight tweaks from an existing dish or recipe. The problem with Daniel's sandwich was that there was no tweak. He attempted to recreate an existing sandwich that met and fulfilled the challenge brief without making it his own. For example a bahn mi inspired southern style fried chicken sandwich is slightly innovative, but it's innovative because you know that the southern chicken is a brined fried chicken sandwich with pickles and a bahn mi has similar elements. You take the bahn mi seasonings and use them to brine and flavor your fried chicken. You add the pickled carrots and radish. It should feel like theme and variations.

[JeanneH]

1 hour ago, HunterHunted said:

The problem with Daniel's sandwich was that there was no tweak. He attempted to recreate an existing sandwich that met and fulfilled the challenge brief without making it his own.

Which is, again, something Anne has called him out for before (copying what he's seen and not being original, innovative, "making it his own"), as mentioned upthread. I really think that's what's got her irked with him - taking the easy way out all the time, and breaking the rules to do it.

[Amarsir]

8 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

Daniel's arrogance is the most annoying thing about him, but I don't think the other contestants are trying to innovate either. The rest of them are so clueless. They're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. They don't know enough to call their food innovative. 

Maybe not innovative to the world of food, but it is from their context. To say "I've had potato salad with a sub, so I'm going to try potato salad on a sub" is a creative leap. I'd even call it evolutionary, bearing in mind that the driving force of evolution is mutation and survival of the fittest. Most mutants die. Sure, your southern-fried bahn mi is a much more calculated experiment, but that's because you have the experience to know what works. If these cooks can learn to follow recipes properly and learn to apply their taste buds, the experience will come.

Which reminds me - much better challenge than last week. Make your own sandwich and follow a common recipe? Much more useful than filleting a flounder.

[OneWouldHope]

Quote

I like Laura OK but I can't imagine why anyone would think that putting potato salad on a sandwich would be a good idea.  The texture is all wrong.  

From time to time, I go to a Japanese grocery store near the office, where they also have prepared foods for sale. I've seen there a ham sandwich with potato salad on it and it intrigues me. I often  say to myself, "TODAY I'm going to go and get that sandwich." And I go but I always get something else. I think I always feel the carb ratio is just too high. But I'll bet it's good and I WILL go get it one of these days. I think Laura's only problem was the chunks of potato were too big - I mean, clearly too big - WTH? How could you not see that?

Also what HunterHunted said. ?

Re the Kayla save: I almost believe Anne was just being soft-hearted last week, because Kayla did seem to be so awfully upset to be leaving. But by this week, it was more like, "Yeah, it's my time..."

[spiderpig]

If this show were on the level (yeah - right...) Anne and Rachael would focus on guiding contestants toward valid cooking skills and concepts.  Instead, each week is a new stunt dreamed up by producers, designed for entertainment purposes only.

How difficult is it to screw up a sandwich?  I made my own when I was three.

I still watch, though.  Maybe I should get a life.

Out of the remaining bunch, at least Daniel and Laura seem to have functioning brains.

And if Ann is a flight attendant, shouldn't she have a basic working knowledge of food?

[LizBug]

The contestants are settling down  ... hooray!! ... but are by no means predictable.  

I don't quite understand why they're being judged on being "creative" in their choices when they barely know how to cook basic items.  Wouldn't it be better for them to master a simple recipe and later add in some creativity?    

Guess it wouldn't be as interesting though if someone didn't add everything in the kitchen or potato salad to a simple sandwich.

Edited February 2, 2017 by DallasGypsy
expand my thoughts

[mlp]

Quote

I've seen there a ham sandwich with potato salad on it and it intrigues me. I often  say to myself, "TODAY I'm going to go and get that sandwich." 

Let us know when you do.  Ham, bread and potato salad just sounds squishy and bland to me.  Laura's was even worse because, as someone else pointed out, she had big chunks of potatoes rather than thin slices which would have worked somewhat better.  I understand coleslaw because that's basically salad dressing of some kind with crunchy stuff in it but ......................potato salad?  Nope.

[Drogo]

23 hours ago, spiderpig said:

And if Ann is a flight attendant, shouldn't she have a basic working knowledge of food?

And who doesn't know that cold cuts are already cooked, hence why you can eat them cold? 

[theatremouse]

From the way it was edited, I couldn't tell if what she didn't understand was that it was already cooked, or that because it's already cooked, her using it in her sandwich would not count as one of the required "cooked" items. Both ways it's dumb, but the manner of the dumb evades me.

[JeanneH]

Count me as dumb, because until they brought it up it never occurred to me that cold cuts were already cooked. When you think about it, of course they are, but it never crossed my mind that someone would think it odd or wrong to cook cold cuts. This is probably because where I grew up and live people sometimes have fried bologna in sandwiches. Obviously, that would count as cooking already cooked cold cuts. I don't think this is what the contestant was doing, but still...   Anne would have a fit.

[theatremouse]

Right, it looked to me like when the contestant originally explained her sandwich, she was just going to put the roast beef (was it roast beef?) on the sandwich. And then it seemed like Rachel was reminding her she had to cook at least 2(?) things on the sandwich? So possibly then she was like...well I'll cook it then...so the point was, even though yes fried bologna is a thing, for the purpose of the challenge requirement cooking an already cooked item, while potentially a...say...creative choice...wouldn't fulfill the "cooked items" rule.

Obviously, we didn't see that type of conversation happen. We just saw Rachel telling her it was already cooked. But what makes me think that it's being cooked wasn't completely lost on her was earlier when she was describing it she sounded like she was just going to put it on the sandwich. We never saw her say anything about cooking it. So I think it was just Rachel's explanation that we did hear that made it seem like she didn't realize it was already cooked. Then again, I'm still not sure. Maybe she really thought it was raw and that she had to cook it, and that's why she thought it counted. I still can't tell.

[steven T]

I'm not a fan of cold cut sandwiches so i always cooked or microwaved the meat, whether it was ham, bologna, turkey or roast beef, and I had to have the cheese melted and usually the bread toasted.  When I go to Subway I only order hot subs.

[Eliza422]

10 hours ago, steven T said:

I'm not a fan of cold cut sandwiches so i always cooked or microwaved the meat, whether it was ham, bologna, turkey or roast beef, and I had to have the cheese melted and usually the bread toasted.  When I go to Subway I only order hot subs.

Ooh, I'm the same way!! I like my sandwiches exactly like that.