S13.E03: All-Terrain Eats

[Whimsy]

The ten remaining finalists divide into two teams, with each team creating a five-course menu for an experiential restaurant. Diners will experience a completely different environment for each course, such as an appetizer in the jungle and a main course in the desert. Each finalist must also make a video menu describing their dish for the diners, who will select which one they want to taste. Special guest Tyler Florence dines with Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay and helps decide which finalist is sent home.

[cooksdelight]

"It's not fair! I just don't understand!" 

Suzanne... your food sucks. You can't present your food in an interesting way. No, you are not a Food Network Star.

Go away.

[ivygirl]

...And Southern Bieber lives to cook another day.

Au revoir, Penny 2.0. You just go ahead and believe that a little more butter would have saved you.

I know my lack of Jason love is often at a table of one here, but my concern from the bake off seems to have borne out: he's cranking up the "southern charm." It's too much for me.

[BryroseA]

Oh my good holy lord, WHAT was Giada wearing when they intro'ed the challenge? It looked like Dolly Parton c. 1983. 

5 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

"It's not fair! I just don't understand!" 

Suzanne... your food sucks. You can't present your food in an interesting way. No, you are not a Food Network Star.

Go away.

Suzanne blamed EVERYONE but herself for all of her failures, I noticed. Nothing is fair, it's always that someone else interrupted her or threw her off her game. Never that's she's just not that good a cook and suck on camera. Nooooo, not that. 

I know my lack of Jason love is often at a table of one here, but my concern from the bake off seems to have borne out: he's cranking up the "southern charm." It's too much for me.

SAME. He's just making shit up at this point. I'm from the South--close to Tennessee--and no one talks that way, "honey." Try pouring that buttermilk out your other boot. 

Edited June 19, 2017 by BryroseA

[cooksdelight]

7 minutes ago, BryroseA said:

Oh my good holy lord, WHAT was Giada wearing when they intro'ed the challenge? It looked like Dolly Parton c. 1983

Oh yes...I was thinking early 80s myself.

 

Jason is making up southern cliches, ending with "honey" to try and make it authentic. 

[Christina]

Watching Suzanne was actually uncomfortable. I couldn't even snark at her because she seemed so completely overwhelmed and anxious, then she would blame the others for not having a voice, when it was clear to me that they were trying to give her room prove herself, and she just didn't have the ability. She obviously doesn't see herself the way many of us do, and it's not even a self-important narcissism like Matthew last season, just blinded by herself and her ability.

How did she make it this far in the first place? Was she our low hanging fruit to snark on? 

Cao is the other person with something a lot different to show, but can't seemed to step it up. I'm not convinced FN actually cares about other cuisines, so she is probably the next one out if she can't improve her food. 

Still not sure if there is anyone I would watch. I go back and forth with Corey each episode, thinking the food looks good before he says or does something to annoy me. The same goes for the rest of them though.

[JTMacc99]

This season has oddly removed the right people in the right order. Not what I expected. 

And for the love of God Cory, slip in the "award winning chef" somewhere in your video when you are trying to convince people to eat your food. It was that easy. 

[cooksdelight]

Cao's problem is the Vietnamese food she wants to cook takes all day and night. You can't get any of the same flavors in under an hour. That's going to be her undoing. Anyone coming on this show had better be able to bring flavor + personality in 1 minute or less.

[xaxat]

10 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

"It's not fair! I just don't understand!" 

Suzanne... your food sucks. You can't present your food in an interesting way. No, you are not a Food Network Star.

Go away.

I agree. But I don't think it was a good look that the last two episodes consisted of male contestants attacking her skills, or lack thereof. 

10 minutes ago, BryroseA said:

Oh my good holy lord, WHAT was Giada wearing when they intro'ed the challenge? It looked like Dolly Parton c. 1983. 

I was trying to figure out if it was a poorly constructed dress or her bra, but it really looked like we could see her nipples. 

Bobby to Cory (who was recognized as a promising chef by Food and Wine magazine) "He's a good cook."

Truffle oil makes an appearance!

[LexieLily]

4 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

Cao's problem is the Vietnamese food she wants to cook takes all day and night. You can't get any of the same flavors in under an hour. That's going to be her undoing. Anyone coming on this show had better be able to bring flavor + personality in 1 minute or less.

I also don't think it was good look of the show to have an undercurrent of "our stupid viewers couldn't possibly know what pho was by looking at it." I know what pho is and I've never had it before. Thanks, Giada.

[hula-la]

27 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I also don't think it was good look of the show to have an undercurrent of "our stupid viewers couldn't possibly know what pho was by looking at it." I know what pho is and I've never had it before. Thanks, Giada.

Especially when she then explained it as "Vietnamese pasta". 

[Christina]

25 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I also don't think it was good look of the show to have an undercurrent of "our stupid viewers couldn't possibly know what pho was by looking at it." I know what pho is and I've never had it before. Thanks, Giada.

I was actually wondering if it was a commonly known food to those of us outside of food and cooking shows and who do not live in areas with Asian communities. Giada's comment about baklava made me think the same thing, because I think it is more common than pho, but she also said something about it not being explained. 

There seems to be an assumption that the audience is not going to know what you are speaking of unless you explain it, for all foods except steak and potatoes. There is also an assumption that if you do not taste your food and say how great it tastes, the audience won't know, so basically, I think FN thinks everyone is stupid, and yet I watch, so they may be right about me. 

[backformore]

41 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

"It's not fair! I just don't understand!" 

Suzanne... your food sucks. You can't present your food in an interesting way. No, you are not a Food Network Star.

Go away.

AND - if you call your team members "FUSTrating" instead of frustrating, then I don't want to hear you speak on TV ever again.

 

41 minutes ago, BryroseA said:

Oh my good holy lord, WHAT was Giada wearing when they intro'ed the challenge? It looked like Dolly Parton c. 1983. 

It reminded me of a pastel version of Morticia Addams - a tight dress with impractical scarf-y things attached to the sleeves.

[Catronia]

So happy Suzanne the blamer is gone. This week, she got the course she wanted, she ate up all the presentation time, and, still, "it's not fair!"

I think a lot of the dining room orders had way more to do with what the people wanted to eat than the presentations. I love potato gratin, but not as an appetizer. Skirt steak with a refreshing fruit salsa sounded way more appetizing. I'm just not a broth person, unless it is exceptional, and I love mushrooms, so I would have ordered Trace's pasta (though it did look dry -- a splash of cream wouldn't hurt). Baklava is generally too sweet for me, and I love berries, so the compote/crisp. None of this had anything to do with the presentations, just food preferences.

[Jaded]

I don't usually watch this show. There wasn't much else on so I watched FN for most of the night. When Glada came out I thought that dress kinda looked like Summery witch wear and all she needed was a pastel colored broomstick to ride off on. She's so obnoxious and patronizing. That lady who went home deserved to. She came across like a long lost even less talented Kartrashian with the ego of one too which was especially noticeable with the comments she made after being sent home. What an airhead.

[mlp]

I'm relieved Suzanne is gone.  Watching her was very akin to second hand embarrassment.  She had no self-awareness at all.  Also, I have no idea what baklava has to do with mountains.

If I didn't watch food TV, I would have no idea what pho is (or how to pronounce it).  I've never seen it on a menu around here or even heard it mentioned anywhere.  So Giada had a point about explaining it as much as I hate to agree with her.

I like Jason but I liked him better on the baking show where he was more laid back.  He seems to be trying a little too hard although FN likes a big personality so he may be doing the right thing.  The other contestants seem to like him so that's a plus.

Every time I look at Addie, I see Chelsea Clinton.  She can leave any time.

[spiderpig]

So we had a baby-blue shrink-wrapped Giada with Elvira sleeves.  Was this to take our minds off the stunning ineptitude of Suzanne?  Still watching from the Left Coast.

Edited June 19, 2017 by spiderpig

[Sew Sumi]

Jason bugs. I just can't with people who refer to themselves in 3rd person. I don't care that he is a great baker; if you're not the Queen, you don't refer to yourself like that. It just sounds stupid. 

Glad that Middle Eastern Mama v.2 is history. I guess they have to cast some cannon fodder in these things. 

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, LexieLily said:

I also don't think it was good look of the show to have an undercurrent of "our stupid viewers couldn't possibly know what pho was by looking at it." I know what pho is and I've never had it before. Thanks, Giada.

Yeah. I'm not an expert in pho but it was pretty clear what was in the dish based on her description and then holding up the dish.  She didn't mention pasta but I could see it when she held up the bowl.  I think people didn't choose her dish not because of not understanding pho but rather she ran across someone offering pasta, mushrooms and bacon.  It may not have been great but it sounded great. 

She shouldn't have blamed everyone else for her boot but I did find it kind of funny that Giada's main complaint was that she didn't describe what baklava is because it was her group that kind of steered her astray.  I don't think you need to describe specifically what baklava is but she should have highlighted things like the nuts, pastry and fruit because there are subtle differences in how people prepare the dessert.  And that is one thing she did do in her original presentation but the way she did it was way too detailed that the group didn't like it.  As a result, she got flustered and went in the complete opposite direction.  But what she doesn't realize is that her first presentation was pretty bad as well.

I do like how eliminations were done this week.  There was no immunity granting based on an overall team win or an immediate pass for having the better dish/more orders in the head-to-heads.  Both Cao and Trace deserved to be in the bottom and they were there even though they were up against one another.

[LittleIggy]

I thought Giada's dress made her look like one of Capt. Kirk's alien conquests of the week. 

[J-Man]

Suzanne was just a disaster from day one. She's delusional and not a team player. She brought down the rest of her team this week and took no responsibility for it.

Are they doing "Star Salvation" again this year? I certainly hope not, because I never want to see Suzanne on another cooking show again.

And again we have cooks who are unable to properly pronounce the names of their dishes. First it was Nancy and vichy-SWAH, and now it's Trace with pen-NAY. (I won't get into "gratin.")

I wonder if they pre-screen the diners to see if they have any serious food "issues" (strong likes or dislikes, or health or religious restrictions.) Because there were some dishes that some less adventurous diners may have passed on even if the video presentation and the preparation of the food was excellent. For example, some people won't eat lamb or raw fish. I don't care for duck myself, so I wouldn't have ordered David's dish.  I guess in the end it didn't really matter, since they didn't appear to take into account each dish's popularity in the judging.

[Maverick]

Thanks o the judges for putting themselves, us and Suzanne out of misery.   What a joke.

 Jason may be over the top, but I'll take him over Bland Bieber, Forgettable Hawaii Blonde, Rowdy Rusty or Matthew.

 Did Tyler really just grunt his way through the judges commentary or was he just edited that way?  He came off like he just got off the road for Food Truck Race and found out his Comeback Kitchen had contract had a rider forcing him to show up for the main show. 

[pinguina]

What the heck was Giada wearing?  As someone said, she seemed to have borrowed from Dolly Parton. OR this!

2 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

I thought Giada's dress made her look like one of Capt. Kirk's alien conquests of the week. 

The head to head was interesting.  What I listened for was not "passion" or "entertaining" but what was in the dish and what it looked like, as well as knowledge by the presenter.  In the first course Addie did a better job describing her dish with polish.  Rusty was just bombastic and his dish was really a side dish.  Addie was right with her choice of appetizer.  And Addie showed "passion" in the dish itself where it rightly belonged. 

Matthew's presentation seemed kind of weird to me - although his dish did look good.  David did a good job of meshing a pretty good presentation (still kind of loud for my taste) and a good dish.

Amy and Cole (??? The guy with the beard that is not Rusty). His presentation seemed angry - I understand this.  When I first began presenting I was so nervous that I sounded upset or angry or rushed.  But got way better with - yes, practice.  

I don't eat baklava (sp?) very often nor am I a world eater, but I know what it is (I watch the Great British Baking Show!) and that you need to put butter (lots of it) in it.  Yeah, Suzanne was the right choice to go home.

What was the point of having the diners choose between two dishes?  Shouldn't it have been brought up somehow during the judging?  Because (despite certain personal preferences) choosing a dish because of a presentation would be a good indicator which type of host/cooking expert someone would like to see on tv, right?

[HappyDancex2]

What I took from this is that people will order what they want to eat, regardless of the TV Personality delivery.  Especially if it's a free meal...they will choose the meat or heartier dish over anything video presentation.

Dear future ethnic cuisine competitors:  You might want to cue up all of the dishes you can make in 30 minutes, complete with a corny story that may or may not include your grandma in the old country, even though you were born in Minnesota.  And please learn how to use a pressure cooker.  She needed chicken bones and cartilage (feet?  wings?) in a pressure cooker with aromatics and veg.  Frankly if you are trying to make Pho/Broth/Soup and are using a whole chicken in water in a regular large pot you deserve to be eliminated because that's just dumb.   Why not make rice paper egg roll (the vietnamese kind) with nuoc cham sauce?

How did they find 2 obnoxious ladies to represent middle eastern mommas?  Sigh and cue eye roll.  I couldn't get over that pink lipstick that looked positively slimy....she looked like the complete opposite of a food authority...she looked like that Theresa Giudice woman from the Real Housewives franchise.  You can't be seriously tasting your food with that much lipstick sliding around utensils.  Shudder.

Giada is trolling us with what she chooses to wear.  She'll either come out in pasties next week or a toga with grape leaf wreath and a pair of butterfly wings strapped to her back.  Either way, that's just Jadda being Jadda.  At least she's interesting.  I don't value her food opinion because she never touches her lips to the fork...she can't possibly be tasting enough food.  She's just guessing IMO.

Positives?  That experiential pop up restaurant looked kind of fu....

[J-Man]

I'm setting up GoFundMe to send Suzanne back to "the mountains of the Middle East," where she grew up. 

[HappyDancex2]

Just now, J-Man said:

I'm setting up GoFundMe to send Suzanne back to "the mountains of the Middle East," where she grew up. 

I'm in.  Put me in for a dinar or 2.

[spiderpig]

11 hours ago, xaxat said:

Truffle oil makes an appearance!

Have these contestants ever seen a single Food Network show?  Any show?

Truffle oil is not your friend.

[HappyDancex2]

1 hour ago, mlp said:

I'm relieved Suzanne is gone.  Watching her was very akin to second hand embarrassment.  She had no self-awareness at all.  Also, I have no idea what baklava has to do with mountains.

If I didn't watch food TV, I would have no idea what pho is (or how to pronounce it).  I've never seen it on a menu around here or even heard it mentioned anywhere.  So Giada had a point about explaining it as much as I hate to agree with her.

I like Jason but I liked him better on the baking show where he was more laid back.  He seems to be trying a little too hard although FN likes a big personality so he may be doing the right thing.  The other contestants seem to like him so that's a plus.

Every time I look at Addie, I see Chelsea Clinton.  She can leave any time.

TOTALLY agree on Jason...what happened to him?  He's almost a caricature of himself on this show.  I didn't see all of the Baking Championship but enough to see his aw shucks personality which may or may not appeal to everyone but seemed totally natural and congruent.  Now he's the Guy Fieri of southern bogus euphemisms.  He's getting shouty.  and barky.   If he dyes his hair blonde and puts on a bowling shirt I'm going to demand to see who is behind the camera.

I'm going to miss Suzanne.  I thought they would fodder her one more week.  It's not like she's suffering being on the show....she was 2 swipes of butter away from executing food network star y'all!

[biakbiak]

It seemed weird that Cao didn't use a pressure cooker. There are tons of Vietnamese dishes that don't require hours to cook, pho seemed like a ridiculous choice for so many reasons.

[GaT]

So glad Suzanne is gone, she was just incompetent, & I couldn't get past the Penny Davidi "Mediterranean Mama" crap.

Personally, I wouldn't want to eat dinner in a place that "immersed" me in scenes.

What was the point of the diners picking whose food they wanted to eat? Did it count in the judging at all?

[HappyDancex2]

Rusty "cool and calm and collective..."   No

Suzanne "fustrated..."  No    Duck Lips  NoNoNO   The guys being SO patronizing to her at the end of her take waiting for her to say "phyllo".....   No

[Christina]

Jason may not win, but with Damiano completely bombing as a judge on the baking competitions, I expect he'll be dragged to the end and begin showing up as a judge on future shows. My conspiracy theory is that this season is set up for Matthew to become their online chef for brief clips on the website and social media. 

Maybe, he'll just be dragged to the end and then get that job and one of the others will get a seat at the table with Bobby and Damaris, possibly the woman who worked with Martha Stewart. In any event, it's fixed and I'm just here to point and laugh and judge from the comfort of my couch. 

[dewelar]

2 hours ago, GaT said:

Personally, I wouldn't want to eat dinner in a place that "immersed" me in scenes.

This whole thing confused me. When they described what an "experiential restaurant" (ugh) was, I pictured something like Rainforest Cafe (which is not exactly what I'd call "trendy", but whatever). Instead, I saw a big empty room with big stock photos projected on bare walls, with everyone reacting like it was the greatest thing ever. I mean, WHAT? Is this a thing now? Most of the contestants ignored the theming anyway other than saying "I'm taking you to the jungle/desert/wherever" every few seconds, but I did notice that the two who actually fit their dishes to the theme -- Jason and Amy -- were both in the top three.

 

I agree that Jason has nosedived since the Baking Championship, but at least tonight he made me laugh, which is one more positive thing than anyone else made me feel this week. I'm so dern with most of them already. Yes, Suzanne, we know you don't understand. That's why you're leaving. Sadly, Cao will be right behind you if she doesn't change things up big time next week. I do like her, but she doesn't seem to understand how to modify what she's doing to fit the parameters of the show.

[LizBug]

Giada's blue dress was so tight that I wondered how she was going to sit down in it.  Well, she may have 'hiked it up' but that made it even shorter ... so, instead of getting the outside seat at the table (upstage camera position), she was stuck in the back where the lighting was horrible.  Being backless, the dress didn't give her boobs any support which she desperately needed.  Then, she changed to that other dress (which again didn't support her boobs) for the judging.

[cooksdelight]

6 hours ago, J-Man said:

I wonder if they pre-screen the diners to see if they have any serious food "issues" (strong likes or dislikes, or health or religious restrictions

For the most part, they're SAG actors. I've had three friends now who are actors who've been chosen to be a diner on this show....instead of lowly me who doesn't have a SAG card. LOL, I have lost count of the number of times I've applied to be a diner.

Cao was also in disbelief that no one wanted to try her dish. Rusty figured it out, he realized his mistake and took ownership. Cao can go next, even though I had hopes she'd do well. She's not doing well.

And can I add a huge thank you that they didn't pick one team as the "winner" and then choose from the "losing" team. I am on Matthew's side in one aspect, I hate team challenges when it's a competition for one winner.

[penbrat]

Bye Bye Mama whatever your name was.  Too whiney and too many excuses.  I do like how her team tried to encourage her and help her, even though they suffered from her antics in the end.

 

Still really like Jason – his attitude and his cooking.  His dessert looked yummy.  As of now, I would probably check out his show and maybe stay at home mom’s show.  I am iffy about Rusty and Corey and have no interest in the reset of them.

 

Would love it if Matt would go next, but because he brings the “drama” I am guessing he won’t be going any  time soon.

 

Appreciated Tyler as the guest judge.  So far this season I have enjoyed the guest judges way more than Bobby or Giada.   The guest judges have brought way more energy and made more constructive comments that either Bobby or Giada, who both continue to look like they wish they were any where else but on this show.

 

Lastly, I admit that I am fashion challenged.  I am more of a comfort first, fashion second kind of girl.   But what the heck was Giada wearing?  It looked as if she had a blue table runner shooting out of each arm.   If I wore such a thing, I would have dunked the “sleeves” in the toilet the first five minutes I had it on.

Edited June 19, 2017 by penbrat

[smiley13]

I was still cleaning from Fathers Day dinner and did not get to watch as closely as I like to, but was glad to see Mama Chef or Chef Mama or whatever she was calling herself go.

I did catch the two blonde Mean Girls crowing that more people were placing orders for their food than whoever they were up against.  Seeing that really makes me hope that one or both of them is an epic failure next week.   Addie just puts off a "thinks she is superior" vibe and home cook is not far behind her.

And yes, I agree with Matthew on not being a fan of team challenges.

Caodan can head out next.  I have heard of "pho" but would never order it somewhere.  Again, her food did not look appetizing.

Edited June 19, 2017 by smiley13

[Catronia]

Yes, Jason and Amy actually adhered to their themes with their dishes -- so did Trace, I think, with the wild mushrooms, and Cory with the raw tuna which seemed beachy enough to me. Matthew did a little with the chilis and Southwestern flavors. Almost none of the others did.

I like David and think his food looks good, but "bringing the islands to the desert" is just cheating the theme. (I imagined myself saying "welcome to the jungle... the URBAN jungle!" And serving some kind of Nova salmon appetizer.) Forest and pho? Mountains and baklava? Sweet potatoes and jungle? Skirt steak and jungle (despite a little tropical fruit tossed in there)?

[BryroseA]

To be fair, some of the theme/food pairings were a lot easier than others. If you can't nail beach/seafood there is something wrong with you, but...forest/pasta???? 

Edited June 19, 2017 by BryroseA

[Wings]

Trace is wearing a wig or a weave like Hair Club for Men.   It is a dead give away when you see a profile view.  The bottom of the back is the tell.  Penne with truffle oil.  Oy

I had Pho once and it was just okay.   You often hear judges on Chopped or GGG praise cooks for coaxing so much flavor out of a broth in a short amount of time so it can be done.   I just don't think Cao is able to cook well.   

Jason doesn't bother me and I am shocked he doesn't!  

I think the judges favor Jason, Cory and David at this point.  Maybe Rusty, too. 

The set and theme were nuts.  I loved David bringing Jamaica to the desert!    I like him.  What is desert food anyway?  

Corey will do better, his presentation was rushed due to Mountain Mama and I think the judges got a heads up in that.  

The dishes I wanted to eat were Addie's steak, David's duck, Amy's shrimp and Jason's dessert.   I hate Backlava even when done well, way too sweet and filo dough sticks in your teeth.  Ugh

On 6/19/2017 at 5:42 AM, BryroseA said:

To b fair, some of the theme/food pairings were a lot easier than others. If you can't nail beach/seafood there is something wrong with you, but...forest/pasta???? 

I think that was titled the pasta course.  Odd, I know.  

Edited June 21, 2017 by wings707

[Broken Ox]

21 minutes ago, Catronia said:

Mountains and baklava?

Yeah, but she grew up in the mountains, so...

[schnauzergirl]

It seems to me that every season has its "Suzanne," the person you wonder why in the world she (or he) was selected.   Suzanne saying it was unfair was so childish, especially since she's been making baklava "forever," either in the mountains of the Middle East or in Detroit.  

[cooksdelight]

11 minutes ago, wings707 said:

What is desert food anyway?  

I would think something cool and quenching. In a hot desert, you want something to cool you off. Or I do, at least.

[backformore]

17 minutes ago, Catronia said:

Yes, Jason and Amy actually adhered to their themes with their dishes -- so did Trace, I think, with the wild mushrooms, and Cory with the raw tuna which seemed beachy enough to me. Matthew did a little with the chilis and Southwestern flavors. Almost none of the others did.

I like David and think his food looks good, but "bringing the islands to the desert" is just cheating the theme. (I imagined myself saying "welcome to the jungle... the URBAN jungle!" And serving some kind of Nova salmon appetizer.) Forest and pho? Mountains and baklava? Sweet potatoes and jungle? Skirt steak and jungle (despite a little tropical fruit tossed in there)?

I agree. Keeping to the theme was a difficult element of the challenge, so some of them took it as, "cook whatever you want, and just introduce it as reminding you of forest/ jungle/ desert/mountain."

The easy one was beach, because seafood and beach are a natural fit.  As are mushrooms and forest.  But yeah, David's "bringing Jamaica to the desert" was ignoring the theme. 

Weird to me was the team aspect. What's the purpose of choosing team members, if how well the team does has no bearing on your own success?  Suzanne's team members helped her with her presentation, but that only made their own presentations rushed and loud.  The contestants didn't seem to know that there was not going to be a winning team, so there was no point in helping teammates win their challenge.

[Wings]

I wonder if originally the plan was to have winning/losing teams but learning from their previous mistake Suzanne might have been on the winning team again so they changed it! 

[Wings]

Unless Cao makes a fabulous dish and does an improved talk I think she will go.  

They might have their eye on Jason to do a dessert show Saturday morning which will be cancelled and then he will appear as a baking show guest judge for a stint.   He doesn't have to win to show up as a judge either.  

I sensed Matt is wearing thin with the judges.  

[mittsigirl]

11 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

"It's not fair! I just don't understand!" 

Suzanne... your food sucks. You can't present your food in an interesting way. No, you are not a Food Network Star.

Go away.

So glad she is gone! Such a whiner, everyone is the cause of her shortcomings, never blames herself!

11 hours ago, xaxat said:

I agree. But I don't think it was a good look that the last two episodes consisted of male contestants attacking her skills, or lack thereof. 

I was trying to figure out if it was a poorly constructed dress or her bra, but it really looked like we could see her nipples. 

Bobby to Cory (who was recognized as a promising chef by Food and Wine magazine) "He's a good cook."

Truffle oil makes an appearance!

It looked like there was kleenex stuffed in the shoulders of that backless, mess of a dress.

[mittsigirl]

8 hours ago, HappyDancex2 said:

 

What I took from this is that people will order what they want to eat, regardless of the TV Personality delivery.  Especially if it's a free meal...they will choose the meat or heartier dish over anything video presentation.

Dear future ethnic cuisine competitors:  You might want to cue up all of the dishes you can make in 30 minutes, complete with a corny story that may or may not include your grandma in the old country, even though you were born in Minnesota.  And please learn how to use a pressure cooker.  She needed chicken bones and cartilage (feet?  wings?) in a pressure cooker with aromatics and veg.  Frankly if you are trying to make Pho/Broth/Soup and are using a whole chicken in water in a regular large pot you deserve to be eliminated because that's just dumb.   Why not make rice paper egg roll (the vietnamese kind) with nuoc cham sauce?

How did they find 2 obnoxious ladies to represent middle eastern mommas?  Sigh and cue eye roll.  I couldn't get over that pink lipstick that looked positively slimy....she looked like the complete opposite of a food authority...she looked like that Theresa Giudice woman from the Real Housewives franchise.  You can't be seriously tasting your food with that much lipstick sliding around utensils.  Shudder.

Giada is trolling us with what she chooses to wear.  She'll either come out in pasties next week or a toga with grape leaf wreath and a pair of butterfly wings strapped to her back.  Either way, that's just Jadda being Jadda.  At least she's interesting.  I don't value her food opinion because she never touches her lips to the fork...she can't possibly be tasting enough food.  She's just guessing IMO.

 

This comment made me spit out my coffee! So true, you never know about Jadda!

[cooksdelight]

30 minutes ago, wings707 said:

I sensed Matt is wearing thin with the judges

He's wearing thin with me. There's not much of me left.

He has that smug smile on his face when they start talking about his food, then it goes to a stone-faced-killer look when they tell him of his shortcomings.

[Snarklepuss]

10 hours ago, spiderpig said:

So we had a baby-blue shrink-wrapped Giada with Elvira sleeves.  Was this to take our minds off the stunning ineptitude of Suzanne?  Still watching from the Left Coast.

I got the feeling that both dresses this week were attempting to go for "sexy" with a no-cleavage look, which obviously failed.  Giada's gotten a lot of flak on social media for her crazy revealing necklines over the years.  I'm wondering if that might have anything to do with her recent trend towards higher necklines.
 

9 hours ago, HappyDancex2 said:

TOTALLY agree on Jason...what happened to him?  He's almost a caricature of himself on this show.  I didn't see all of the Baking Championship but enough to see his aw shucks personality which may or may not appeal to everyone but seemed totally natural and congruent.  Now he's the Guy Fieri of southern bogus euphemisms.  He's getting shouty.  and barky.   If he dyes his hair blonde and puts on a bowling shirt I'm going to demand to see who is behind the camera.

I think Jason is going over the top with his southern bit a la Paula Deen.  A little too much South coming from his mouth!

 

9 hours ago, spiderpig said:

Have these contestants ever seen a single Food Network show?  Any show?

Truffle oil is not your friend.

I know, it's like the kiss of death on any cooking competition including "Top Chef" so why they don't know this is beyond me!