S14.E09: For the Kids

[theatremouse]

1 hour ago, stewedsquash said:

John and the cream cheese flour bit. I will have to record it again and watch it over but I swear during his talking head he was saying that he was doing a stream of conscious thing when he was doing the tasting and just randomly guessing what stuff was. Or something. 

I get that being blindfolded, or not knowing at all could throw them off. The thing that gets me about the flour/cream cheese isn't that he got it wrong but that they were eating with their fingers. I don't understand how texture-wise he could remotely confuse the two. That's what makes absolutely no sense to me. It had to have obviously not been powder. So I remain WTF.

[sourpickles]

I finally got around to commenting on this episode, as someone else said above, sometimes by the time you get to it, everyone else already has!  I even kept notes this time, so let's see here.............second everyone on the horror of Mike V's tattoos.  Let me state that I am VERY pro tattoo, but the neck/throat/chest ones are distracting as hell, and his didn't even look good.  On the other hand, I didn't find him as big of a dick as others did on his season, so I can't say I was bummed he came back.  There was discussion on the forum several episodes back about where the big prizes had gone, and someone even mentioned the blind taste test, and BOOM.  There they were.  I love the blind taste test, and the wine prize would work for me!   Emily was awful.  I do not care for her but she really struck me as one of those people who might very well be a great chef, but totally out of her depth on reality tv.  She clearly had issues thinking on her feet and was constantly in the weeds.  Kiss of death dessert, too.  I think she was the only one to do one, and she didn't even do it well.  I cracked up when John didn't get the pimento.  That was classic.  Shirley and the barf bucket, ew.  I kind of found the potshot about scallops Padma took at Casey delightful.   Casey's going to be next to go if she doesn't pull it together.  Her dish this week sounded good, looked bad, and she whined all the way through.  I didn't see but a second of it, but that childhood pic she had of her and the cake was scary.  It looked like it was covered in dolls or something.  And Padma, she had to have pissed someone off, the angles they had on her, especially in the white dress, she was all boobs and gut.  I thought she was preggers again for a moment.  I have come round to the thinking that Brooke is indeed getting the winner edit, which is ok?  I guess.  I'd rather see Sheldon or Sylva.  And was I the only one wondering if Brooke took gymnastics?  Girl has some calves on her.   John can go any time.  I think I've finally figured out what really bothers me with the constant reference to him being a better (fill in the blank), it is the CONSTANT need for validation.  I hate when people do that.  Well, that's all I can think of at the moment, I'm sure I'll be back with more nonsense later!

9 minutes ago, Court said:

Maybe? They all run together now!  But I think you're right. That does ring a bell.

But I remember thinking that he should have just made what he wanted and made up a story. 

He made some muddled green mess or some such and he was REALLY depressed about the whole thing.  I believe many people said the same thing, like "Dude, you're doing well, make some shit up and cook well!". 

[spiderpig]

18 minutes ago, Court said:

On another season, there was a challenge where chefs were told to make a dish about their father or something to honor their father. One of them, a guy, had so much trouble with it because he was estranged from his father.

Who was this? Help, please!

Wasn't that Kwame?  Apparently he had a horrible childhood, and although he was always quiet during the competition, he seemed extra withdrawn during that assignment.

[Randomosity]

6 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

I get that being blindfolded, or not knowing at all could throw them off. The thing that gets me about the flour/cream cheese isn't that he got it wrong but that they were eating with their fingers. I don't understand how texture-wise he could remotely confuse the two. That's what makes absolutely no sense to me. It had to have obviously not been powder. So I remain WTF.

The only thing I can think is that maybe he was thinking that the flour had been turned into a paste to avoid having the texture give it away? I could possibly imagine the flour paste texture being closer to that of cream cheese (but still, not really, let's be honest...), but that still leaves a gaping hole in terms of the two tastes...

[ratgirlagogo]

That was Kwame.

ETA: obviously late to the party in posting.

Quote

sourpickles:He made some muddled green mess or some such

Yes, I had to go back and look it up.  Jerk broccoli with some kind of cornbread thing.  No bueno.  The challenge was to do what you were doing ten years previous - and Kwame had been in high school and things had kind of bottomed out between him and his dad at that point.  BTW this seems like another argument AGAINST that whole "cooking from the heart" thing they always push on these cooking competition shows - the bad dish Kwame made perfectly expressed his heartfelt feelings.

Edited January 30, 2017 by ratgirlagogo

[chiaros]

1 hour ago, MajorWoody said:

Sylva seems like a legitimate contender for the finale, a nice guy to boot, and a great cook. But am I the only one who noticed in his talking heads, where they cut back to him several times while he had on a purple tshirt, his mustache was gone in one of the middle TH's, yet he had the same shirt on. My guess is for some reason they added it after the season, and made sure he wore the same shirt. My wife didn't believe me, so I played it back and there was no doubt he was clean shaven in the middle TH. Wonder what that was all about.

See here, and here.

In fact. thinking about past seasons, I recall that some cheftestants in some THs had different hairstyles and facial appearances (let alone clothes) like being tanned vs non-tanned. These were, IIRC, especially noticeable in seasons where the finales were held months after the end of the "first part", but these THs were sprinkled into the season throughout the episodes, again IIRC.

Edited January 30, 2017 by chiaros

[Lura]

I REALLY like Sylva and Sheldon.  Sylva has led the most awful life, with one hardship after another.  Now, after his restaurant was torched, he could probably use that winning money more than ever.  He has the most beautiful smile and gets along well with the others.  Most of all, he's one good chef.  I'd be really happy for him if he could win this money, honor, and opportunities.  Maybe his dad would change his attitude about Sylva cooking for a living.

[RealReality]

5 hours ago, Court said:

On another season, there was a challenge where chefs were told to make a dish about their father or something to honor their father. One of them, a guy, had so much trouble with it because he was estranged from his father.

Who was this? Help, please!

Black guy, last season cannot remember his name and that poor kid never quite recovered after that

Kwame?

 

Eta: way to go aging brain!  It was kwame! 

Edited January 30, 2017 by RealReality

[RealReality]

5 hours ago, Court said:

Maybe? They all run together now!  But I think you're right. That does ring a bell.

But I remember thinking that he should have just made what he wanted and made up a story. 

Yeah, i think the problem was that he really took the assignment to heart.  But I also thought he was sort of hoping to reach out to his dad by cooking a really great dish for him on national tv.

He never really recovered from that and it was too bad.  The better move would have been to make whatever and just randomly tie it to your dad ("my dad use to watch pbs a lot, which had the Julia child show, so here is my duck a'lorange")

[biakbiak]

7 hours ago, stewedsquash said:

John and the cream cheese flour bit. I will have to record it again and watch it over but I swear during his talking head he was saying that he was doing a stream of conscious thing when he was doing the tasting and just randomly guessing what stuff was. Or something. 

@archer1267 and @seltzer3

He did say that but given that was filmed after I assumed that was just covering his house. Even stream of consciousness doesn't explain mistaking cream cheese for flour.

[DarkRaichu]

13 hours ago, sourpickles said:

And Padma, she had to have pissed someone off, the angles they had on her, especially in the white dress, she was all boobs and gut.  I thought she was preggers again for a moment.

Was that just the angles?  I thought the white outfit was not flattering to begin with

[sourpickles]

1 hour ago, DarkRaichu said:

Was that just the angles?  I thought the white outfit was not flattering to begin with

That could be it too!  It was bad, and highly noticeable.

One thing I forgot to put on my earlier post, about Brooke/Sheldon, and "termos".  IDK if it is an accent thing or what, but my grandmother was from Eastern Europe.  She lived here well over fifty years but still had a very strong accent, and "th" was not a pronounceable thing.  She said "termos" and "tree"(instead of three) and so forth.  It might sound odd if you hadn't heard it before, but the look on Brooke's face was like he was speaking alien.  It wasn't THAT big a deal.  And I'm sure Sheldon didn't care, I haven't decided if it is because he is way chill, or just stoned all the time.  The look on his face when Shirley was describing her exploits was awesome!

[Princess Sparkle]

I go back and forth on Padma, but the faces she made when John thought cream cheese was flour and anchovy paste was curry paste had me busting a gut.  They didn't even necessarily look rude, more like "Wait, SERIOUSLY?"  

I still can't believe that at this stage of the competition, Emily made an ice box cake and Casey thought it was appropriate to make crab in between two pieces of white bread.  But while I just felt bad for Emily, Casey enrages me because she gets so defensive and really thinks it's tiny things separating her from the top group when she's in the bottom.  She kept focusing on "a couple flakes of salt", but Michael Voltaggio and Padma seemed to indicate the acidity of the dish was very off as well, and she has clearly forgotten her two disgusting fish dishes that put her in the bottom.    

[Tarasme]

11 hours ago, RealReality said:

Black guy, last season cannot remember his name and that poor kid never quite recovered after that

Kwame?

 

Eta: way to go aging brain!  It was kwame! 

Yep, Kwame and another Voltagio (*sigh*) episode. Michael was very sympathetic to Kwame and understood how Kwame's emotions got in the way of what he was trying to do.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

Top Chef Goes Blind

After a blind taste test, the chefs cook their favorite memories for charity.

[Nysha]

I think Casey and John will be the next two to go, unless one of the other three just have a horrible service. But, I'm okay with anyone left winning. John's an asshole and Casey is clearly more in love with herself than necessary, but they both can cook.

As for Brooke not following the rules - she's not the first one to ignore the rules for a really good dish. As long as the dish is good, it gets a pass because the food is the important part of the challenge. The ones who get dinged for not following the challenge rules are the ones who also give the judges sub-par food.

And finally, thank goodness Emily is gone. While I have no doubt she's a good enough chef, she's not a good cheftestant. She doesn't have a good TV personality and the rest of the chef's cooked circles around her.

[akr]

I figured John just tasted, said to himself I'm not going to get this one, and then said whatever popped into his head rather than waste time trying to get it right (and maybe realized quickly he was not doing well so just decided to have fun with it).  He knew it wasn't flour, he just wanted to move on to the next thing.  He'd also avoid making some embarrassing misses along the lines of the ranch dressing for hoisin (actually I can sort of understand that when I think about it, but I definitely had to think about it!).

I'm pleased to see (in no particular order), Silva, Sheldon, Shirley & Brooke as the top contenders for the final 4.  

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, akr said:

I figured John just tasted, said to himself I'm not going to get this one, and then said whatever popped into his head rather than waste time trying to get it right (and maybe realized quickly he was not doing well so just decided to have fun with it).  He knew it wasn't flour, he just wanted to move on to the next thing.  He'd also avoid making some embarrassing misses along the lines of the ranch dressing for hoisin (actually I can sort of understand that when I think about it, but I definitely had to think about it!).

I'm pleased to see (in no particular order), Silva, Sheldon, Shirley & Brooke as the top contenders for the final 4.  

I guess mileage varies because I find guessing flour for cream cheese much more embarrassing than ranch/hoisin.

[akr]

Doesn't count because he wasn't trying. ;)

7 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

I guess mileage varies because I find guessing flour for cream cheese much more embarrassing than ranch/hoisin.

[meep.meep]

4 hours ago, Nysha said:

As for Brooke not following the rules - she's not the first one to ignore the rules for a really good dish. As long as the dish is good, it gets a pass because the food is the important part of the challenge. The ones who get dinged for not following the challenge rules are the ones who also give the judges sub-par food.

It's very common on this show to have a chef say something like: " I was inspired by the lining in my mother's old overcoat, so I made you a little pork belly."  You don't have to have any agreement between your inspiration and what you put forward, as long as your dish is good.

Casey had crab macarons on her menu at Aveline, the restaurant she had in San Francisco.  They were pretty darn good.

[biakbiak]

4 minutes ago, akr said:

Doesn't count because he wasn't trying. ;)

To me it does and not trying is his excuse after the fact. Also, I find not trying embarrassing.

[FormerMod-a1]

Two reminders.

1) Don't post spoilers without spoiler tags in the episode threads.

2) If someone does post a spoiler, report it and ignore it - i.e. do not respond or call them out in thread.

[Jobiska]

I wasn't that keen on the length of the "Termos" interchange, but good ol' mellow Sheldon seems to take it in good part:  he posted on his Facebook "My Sistah Brooke Williamson get jokes! She always make fun at da way say words that start with "TH". It's practically impossible for me to pronounce [crying laughing emoji]"  

[pastafarian]

On 1/27/2017 at 11:14 PM, bluepiano said:

When the "chefs" on Hell's Kitchen struggle with that I've always assumed it's because their nincompoops.

1

Correct assumption!  :D

[RealReality]

14 hours ago, Jobiska said:

I wasn't that keen on the length of the "Termos" interchange, but good ol' mellow Sheldon seems to take it in good part:  he posted on his Facebook "My Sistah Brooke Williamson get jokes! She always make fun at da way say words that start with "TH". It's practically impossible for me to pronounce [crying laughing emoji]"  

He is a really good sport.

Jokes based on making fun of someone's accent are really just low hanging fruit.  And in that case it wasn't even funny.  

But hey, maybe she would be amused at someone making fun of her flat affect by mimicking her.

[archer1267]

Re the accent thing:

I just watched the Season 10 semi-finale. During prep, Brooke calls out "thirteen minutes!" and Sheldon replies, "tur-teen." Brooke then says "tur-teen" too.

Sheldon says, "Brooke, your pidgin is getting better."

Obviously, the accent is an ongoing thing with them and it's playful, not Brooke being a bitch. 

[RealReality]

7 hours ago, archer1267 said:

Re the accent thing:

I just watched the Season 10 semi-finale. During prep, Brooke calls out "thirteen minutes!" and Sheldon replies, "tur-teen." Brooke then says "tur-teen" too.

Sheldon says, "Brooke, your pidgin is getting better."

Obviously, the accent is an ongoing thing with them and it's playful, not Brooke being a bitch. 

MV, but I still find it low hanging fruit.

If you can't find a better joke than someones accent...i say just leave the joke alone.

Just because someone doesn't take offense to a joke doesnt automatically make it less offensive.  To me, at least.

[bobbobbob199]

34 minutes ago, RealReality said:

MV, but I still find it low hanging fruit.

If you can't find a better joke than someones accent...i say just leave the joke alone.

Just because someone doesn't take offense to a joke doesnt automatically make it less offensive.  To me, at least.

They both made an Instagram post about it, so I don't think it was offensive to anyone.

[RealReality]

7 minutes ago, bobbobbob199 said:

They both made an Instagram post about it, so I don't think it was offensive to anyone.

I disagree.  Like I said, just because someone doesn't take offense to a joke doesn't automatically deem it inoffensive.

If all it takes for a joke to be inoffensive is that the person telling the joke and the person hearing the joke both don't find it offensive than any racist joke told between two racists would not be offensive since neither would take offense and both would find it funny.

I'm not saying that this was the situation, but the argument that just because Sheldon wasn't offended it must not be offensive just doesn't make sense to me.  It can still be offensive even if he doesn't take offense to it.

And I'll go a step further and say that even if the brunt of the joke, or a person in the group that is the object of the joke doesn't find it offensive, it still doesn't automatically make the joke inoffensive.  Just because Sheldon is super laid back doesn't mean the joke isn't offensive, it just means that Brooke got lucky she didn't run into someone who doesn't appreciate their accent or culture being the butt of a joke.

And not even a funny joke.  Just a lazy, low hanging fruit joke.  

Edited February 1, 2017 by RealReality

[biakbiak]

9 minutes ago, RealReality said:

disagree.  Like I said, just because someone doesn't take offense to a joke doesn't automatically deem it inoffensive

He apparently was teaching her pidgin English over the course of theor friendship, it's not really a joke just something that they do as illustrated by the previous clip. 

[bobbobbob199]

28 minutes ago, RealReality said:

I disagree.  Like I said, just because someone doesn't take offense to a joke doesn't automatically deem it inoffensive.

If all it takes for a joke to be inoffensive is that the person telling the joke and the person hearing the joke both don't find it offensive than any racist joke told between two racists would not be offensive since neither would take offense and both would find it funny.

I'm not saying that this was the situation, but the argument that just because Sheldon wasn't offended it must not be offensive just doesn't make sense to me.  It can still be offensive even if he doesn't take offense to it.

And I'll go a step further and say that even if the brunt of the joke, or a person in the group that is the object of the joke doesn't find it offensive, it still doesn't automatically make the joke inoffensive.  Just because Sheldon is super laid back doesn't mean the joke isn't offensive, it just means that Brooke got lucky she didn't run into someone who doesn't appreciate their accent or culture being the butt of a joke.

And not even a funny joke.  Just a lazy, low hanging fruit joke.  

But not taking offense is different from enjoying the joke. If he makes a Social Media post recounting the incident positively, he not only did not take offense but also genuinely enjoyed the encounter. So if both of them enjoyed it (an inside joke between the two) I don't think Brooke is doing any harm.

[RealReality]

1 minute ago, bobbobbob199 said:

But not taking offense is different from enjoying the joke. If he makes a Social Media post recounting the incident positively, he not only did not take offense but also genuinely enjoyed the encounter. So if both of them enjoyed it (an inside joke between the two) I don't think Brooke is doing any harm.

But again, not taking offense, or even joy between the person telling the joke and the person hearing the joke isn't any way to measure its level of offensiveness.

One racist telling another racist a racist joke is going to be an encounter that both enjoy.  It doesn't mean that the joke isn't offensive.

And even if Brooke was lucky enough to run into someone laid back enough to think that their accent/culture being the butt of a joke is something they are willing to laugh off that doesn't necessarily make it inoffensive either.

It makes it what it is, a lazy, low hanging fruit joke at the expense of someone else's accent/culture.

And not even a funny joke.  

[RealReality]

23 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

He apparently was teaching her pidgin English over the course of theor friendship, it's not really a joke just something that they do as illustrated by the previous clip. 

He looked confused in whole foods as she did it over, and over and over.  

She also appeared to think it was a joke, not her faithfully repeating a lesson.  But hey, different strokes for different folks, it looked like she thought it was a joke when she was doing it in the whole foods multiple times.  And he looked confused.

But hey, I'll be happy to hear someone make fun of Brooke's flat affect, since I find that a far more amusing joke.  But I would guess that people have more respect than to do that to her.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, RealReality said:

He looked confused in whole foods as she did it over, and over and over.  

She also appeared to think it was a joke, not her faithfully repeating a lesson.  But hey, different strokes for different folks, it looked like she thought it was a joke when she was doing it in the whole foods multiple times.  And he looked confused.

But hey, I'll be happy to hear someone make fun of Brooke's flat affect, since I find that a far more amusing joke.  But I would guess that people have more respect than to do that to her.

Perhaps Sheldon does and we haven't seen it but on the Seattle season we saw Sheldon and Josh make fun of/joke about Brooke's  very real phobias (heights, water, one or two others) and she took it in the same good natured way that Sheldon took her termos  comments, judging an edited version of inside "jokes"* between friends is difficult.

*I use quotes because by definition inside jokes aren't funny on their face it's how they have evolved because of their relationship. My BF has two masters and a doctorate but she sometimes mispronounces words because she has only read them, I correct the pronunciation out of habit and then she will add "I'll have you know I have a large passive vocabulary!" More than one person has thought this was a fight but it's just an inside joke between two friends that isn't funny to others but amuses both of us.

Edited February 1, 2017 by biakbiak

[sourpickles]

Frankly, if Sheldon didn't think it was a big deal, then that's that.  I'm all for cheftestant peace.  Goodness knows they could use some .  And I look at it this way.  After a few weeks with my Grandma, I was speaking with no th either.  Can't wait for this season reunion...you know it'll be a sound bite.....

[spiderpig]

2 hours ago, sourpickles said:

Frankly, if Sheldon didn't think it was a big deal, then that's that.  I'm all for cheftestant peace.  Goodness knows they could use some .  And I look at it this way.  After a few weeks with my Grandma, I was speaking with no th either. 

This.  We've had enough genuinely bad behavior to pick apart.  Brooke may be a bit aloof, but she doesn't seem mean-spirited.  Let's blame the editors - they determine what they want us to see.  

[FormerMod-a1]

Let's move on from the "thermos/termos" debate.

[spankydoll]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 10:26 PM, susannot said:

Im going to Maui in a month and Sheldon's restaurant is at the top of my agenda.  

 

Please report back!  My son will be stationed in Hawaii in the Navy for the next four years and we are planning at least a yearly visit.  I plan to hit Sheldon's restaurant.

Make sure to check out Sam Choy's Island Seafood Grill. The food is wonderful and if Sam is there he will sit with you and dish about Chopped.

 

John is tough to watch. He is constantly trying to keep himself in check. It's like watching a zebra try to will itself to being polka dotted. He is just mean and shady.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

On 1/31/2017 at 8:02 AM, RealReality said:

 

Edited February 2, 2017 by HawaiiTVGuy
Never mind, saw that the topic was no longer ripe for discussion.

[sourpickles]

Quick question I'm trying to sneak in before we're all watching tonight's episode.  According to my notes (which may or may not be accurate as I scribble away) someone used Beijing Spice (?).  Does anyone know what that is?  Is it like Five Spice?  Thanks in advance!

[biakbiak]

24 minutes ago, sourpickles said:

Quick question I'm trying to sneak in before we're all watching tonight's episode.  According to my notes (which may or may not be accurate as I scribble away) someone used Beijing Spice (?).  Does anyone know what that is?  Is it like Five Spice?  Thanks in advance!

Shirley was doing a take on yang rou chuan, so in this case it's basically cumin and chili flakes.

[bobbobbob199]

3 hours ago, sourpickles said:

Quick question I'm trying to sneak in before we're all watching tonight's episode.  According to my notes (which may or may not be accurate as I scribble away) someone used Beijing Spice (?).  Does anyone know what that is?  Is it like Five Spice?  Thanks in advance!

Yeah it's heavy on the cumin and chilli, I think it's actually an Uyghur style-Xinjiang dish that's popular in Beijing.

Edited February 2, 2017 by bobbobbob199