Best Baker In America - General Discussion

[RoxiP]

Has Jason ever claimed to be educated (which in no way parallels with being intelligent)?  Didn't he work in a cafeteria when he originally competed?  What matters is he is a great baker because this is a baking show.  He appears to be knowledgeable about what constitutes a good bake and isn't that the important thing?  He hasn't changed from his first appearance...i guess if it ain't broke don't change it.

[dleighg]

10 minutes ago, RoxiP said:

He hasn't changed from his first appearance...i guess if it ain't broke don't change it.

I don't think the way he speaks has changed (his accent, for example), but he used to throw all sorts of stupid "as a" things in (as spicy as a skunk in a cabbage patch). (That was not supposed to make sense).

[Irlandesa]

4 minutes ago, dleighg said:

I don't think the way he speaks has changed (his accent, for example), but he used to throw all sorts of stupid "as a" things in (as spicy as a skunk in a cabbage patch). (That was not supposed to make sense).

He'd have a saying every now and then but those sayings didn't really start happening until after he won The Next Food Network Star, IIRC. 

So yeah, it was definitely like he may have said a silly saying once or twice and then TFN told him to amp it up when he was on camera.  There has been less of that on this show and even on the Christmas cookie show.  I wonder if it's related to the change of leadership at TFN. 

His mannerisms and the way he speaks are definitely authentic.  What was an "act" so to speak was the impression that he couldn't go through a sentence without some kind of metaphor that made no sense.

[springbarb]

13 hours ago, dleighg said:

and I think it was more that she wanted to see something surprising. Doing a drip cake is a decoration that requires no real thought- it's just an add-on that doesn't arise creatively out of the challenge. 

I agree--I think the comment about drip cakes was more that she was expecting more from potential best bakers in America than drip cakes, which are overdone and, in this case, didn't connect at all to the actual dessert.

[RoxiP]

I’ve never even eaten a piece of a drip case. Not enough frosting!  Lol. 

[Grizzly]

I love Jason's shirt even though it's a bit big on him. And as someone mentioned last week, Carla has got the gun show going on! It's amazing how creative these bakers are. Unfortunately, the dramatics were back. Very surprising for 4 to go to the bake off. And that power outage could have screwed everyone.

[mlp]

2 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Carla has got the gun show going on!

There is an interview with Carla in this month's FN Magazine.  She said she's been training for a "body building competition."  I really liked her outfit this week but not the theatrics.  They cheapen the competition IMO.  I also don't like the safe contestants remaining in the kitchen during the bake off, chiming in and even tasting things.

There must be quite a bit of time we don't see between the announcement of the challenge and the start of baking.  There's no way all those people come up with complex designs in seconds and I don't think that some of the ingredients they use would be available unless the show knew beforehand that someone would need them. 

I hope Jason wears some of his wild jackets before this show is over.  I always get a kick out of them.  The contestant from Kentucky talks just like him but in a higher register.  :)

[Rammchick]

12 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Carla has got the gun show going on! 

I will say one thing for Carla.  I'm loving that she's rocking her gray hair.  Because of no access to a salon, mine has finally had its wicked way with me, and I'm embracing it.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Rammchick

[Cheyanne11]

15 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Carla has got the gun show going on! It's amazing how creative these bakers are. Unfortunately, the dramatics were back.

Carla looks amazing, but yes, I hate the dramatics.  It's so over the top and comedic for bakers who are taking this competition seriously.

Also, jello?  Seriously? 

[Grizzly]

Usually the judges harp on texture but it wasn't mentioned in the Jello round. 

As soon as Clarice said what she was doing, I thought she'd be eliminated. Guess Yasmine's champagne and strawberries did her in. Her dessert would be a big hit at Wimbledon.

[Rammchick]

On 5/5/2021 at 1:22 PM, Rammchick said:

And btw, I'm sure many of you know this, but for those who don't, Gesine Prado is Sandra Bullock's sister.

Interestingly, Gesine was a judge on one of last night's episodes of Chopped Sweets.  And she was billed as Gesine Bullock Prado ;)

[needschocolate]

On 5/17/2021 at 7:15 PM, Grizzly said:

And that power outage could have screwed everyone.

The guy who got to finish baking in another kitchen got lucky because he ended up gaining time. Once the power came back on, he already had stuff baked.  

[TVbitch]

I don't mind them doing the regional theme, but I would rather see beautiful bakes rather than these mostly ugly mash-ups. 

Do they think we find Carla's theatrics delightful? Cuz all I think is that they just wasted 5 minutes showing us Carla instead of showing us baking. 

[Rickster]

On 5/18/2021 at 1:17 AM, mlp said:

 

There must be quite a bit of time we don't see between the announcement of the challenge and the start of baking.  There's no way all those people come up with complex designs in seconds and I don't think that some of the ingredients they use would be available unless the show knew beforehand that someone would need them. 

 

My suspicion is that they know the challenges in advance and get the pantry stocked with the ingredients they want to use, even if they don’t know if they will be in the second challenge.

 

[springbarb]

23 minutes ago, Rickster said:

My suspicion is that they know the challenges in advance and get the pantry stocked with the ingredients they want to use, even if they don’t know if they will be in the second challenge.

Agreed. Some of these ingredients seem unique enough that I don't think a typically stocked competition kitchen would have them.

Carla's theatrics were so cringe-worthy. That was awful.

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, Rickster said:

My suspicion is that they know the challenges in advance and get the pantry stocked with the ingredients they want to use, even if they don’t know if they will be in the second challenge.

 

Carla said on Twitter that they can work off of their own recipes because so much about baking is technical.  I'm guessing they are told, bring a recipe for this, that, and some other things. 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Irlandesa

[LittleIggy]

Gelatin desserts are the state food of Utah? How white! And I say that as a white person. 😆

[dleighg]

I've only watched the first half, but every time the judges said something nice about one of the other bakes, the camera swiveled to him (Aaron) and he looked like he wanted to ax-murder his competitors! It was kind of amusing.

Edited May 22, 2021 by dleighg

[Spunkygal]

Honey child, butter my biscuit and call me a polecat, but leave it to FN to mess up a formerly good show. I hate that this season they have the safe bakers off to the side, commenting and tasting the playoff bakes. Why couldn’t they just leave the format the way it was? 

[MerBearHou]

6 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

Honey child, butter my biscuit and call me a polecat, but leave it to FN to mess up a formerly good show. I hate that this season they have the safe bakers off to the side, commenting and tasting the playoff bakes. Why couldn’t they just leave the format the way it was? 

I could not agree more.  I cannot stand the safe bakers’ banter and noise and it’s gotten to where I put captions on and mute until I can tell the judges are speaking again.  

My gosh, the eliminated baker really, really underbaked tonight. 

[LittleIggy]

They must have told Carla to tone it down tonight because I found her bearable. Here in Harrisonburg, VA there are ads for Shirley’s Popcorn promoting a new Scotcheroo flavor popcorn. They show the inspiration treat in the commercial.

Edited May 25, 2021 by LittleIggy

[mlp]

This was one of my favorite shows.  It had highly skilled contestants and some dignity.  Carla and the new format are ruining it even though there are still very good bakers competing.  Jason and Gesine are fine.  

I hate that the ones who are safe are carrying on, commenting and even tasting things and giving their opinions.  Who on earth thought it would be  good idea to let competitors weigh in on their rivals' work?

I'd love to know how this is filmed in real time.  One baker took her pots de creme out of the oven and immediately (as it was shown) piped a meringue onto them which miraculously didn't melt.  

[Bumblebee84047]

On 5/18/2021 at 11:49 AM, Cheyanne11 said:

Also, jello?  Seriously? 

Speaking as a Utahan, I can say that Jello is not a state dessert as much as a state joke.

[Grizzly]

1 hour ago, Bumblebee84047 said:

Speaking as a Utahan, I can say that Jello is not a state dessert as much as a state joke.

I don't live in Utah but every holiday my mother would make lime Jello with mandarin orange slices. She even had special Tupperware that put a shape on top. Kind of miss it.

[Madding crowd]

I’m probably an outlier here but this show is not as fun for me as the Spring Baking shows. Using the state desserts seems like it would be  interesting but most of the results are brown, lumpy concoctions that seem to have ten desserts in one. On top of that, I don’t mind having all the bakers use cookies or rice treats but when every dessert has to be Huckleberry flavored or butterscotch, it’s boring.

[DEL901]

I liked the first couple of seasons, but they have ruined it.   The whole point of h aging professionals is to let them show their art...not have a couple of folks do the final challenge as the others watch and then critique.   I’m in Canada and we just saw episode two, but I don’t know if I can stay I. It for the whole slog.  I agree that I preferred the Spring Baking Challenge, even with that dumb leader board they introduced.   And I prefer it when the host is not also a judge (a Leo looking at you Chopped Desserts). 

[Spunkygal]

I would be fine with Carla if FN grew a brain and brought back some derivation of The Chew with her, Clinton and Michael Simon. Of course it couldn’t be called The Chew because I guess ABC owns that name. And I don’t mind her on the Halloween Baking Championship because the stylists give her such awesome makeup and costumes, but she is too much on this show. I do like Cornpone Jason and he has good comments. I adore Gesine, the baking goddess, and her comments. So they are both welcome to stay, IMO.

[springbarb]

Jason continues to bother me--I just can't take him seriously, even when he's giving serious comments. Carla needs to continue keeping it toned down.

I do continue to appreciate the level of baking in this show. I'm so used to the season competitions; this group is clearly more skilled, and I appreciate that. I also don't mind the format of the show, though I think they should give the first round more time and focus less on the second round.

[Leeds]

Way too many false eyelashes going on here.  Particularly Gesine.  Whoever she is.

[Spunkygal]

6 hours ago, Leeds said:

Way too many false eyelashes going on here.  Particularly Gesine.  Whoever she is.

Ha! You should see the false eyelashes on my local female news anchors! They look like tarantulas! 

[TVbitch]

On 5/24/2021 at 8:58 PM, Spunkygal said:

I hate that this season they have the safe bakers off to the side, commenting and tasting the playoff bakes. Why couldn’t they just leave the format the way it was?

And the comments are not even spontaneous and natural, they are clearly scripted to point out a specific attribute of the bake, which the judges could easily do. It's just dumb! And these bakes are still mostly ugly, oozing, gloppy hodgepodges. I do admire the bakers than can still actually make them look good. 

Bake Off: The Professionals UK just started. It has some problems of its own, but at least sometimes there are beautiful, magical bakes. If anyone would like help finding the episodes online just PM me! 

[Spunkygal]

@TVbitch, wait, what! There’s a Bake Off The Professionals?! Why am I wasting time here? Please Pm the link, thank you! 

[ShelleySue]

On 5/25/2021 at 11:46 AM, Bumblebee84047 said:

Speaking as a Utahan, I can say that Jello is not a state dessert as much as a state joke.

We had a family member who lived in Salt Lake City (he has since passed).  When we would go to visit him his caretaker would invite us to a cookout with her family.  There would always be a table of jello desserts. Her speciality was something with broken up pretzels.  Maybe they were all having a laugh on us.

I watch this show while I'm doing other things so I may have missed a major component of it.  Is one of the objectives to take a dessert from another part of the country and turn it into a dessert from your part of the country? I apologize if that's a stupid question.

On 5/24/2021 at 11:58 PM, Spunkygal said:

Honey child, butter my biscuit and call me a polecat, but leave it to FN to mess up a formerly good show. I hate that this season they have the safe bakers off to the side, commenting and tasting the playoff bakes. 

 I know that this was filmed during COVID and they are all "in a bubble" and have probably formed relationships with each other. But in reality how can you be rooting for three people who are competing against each other?  Does that make any sense?  Of course you want them all to do their best, but you can't want them all to win because that isn't possible.  Then you add to that the fact that the safe bakers will be competing with the remaining playoff bakers in the next round.  Maybe I'm too competitive of a person because I'd want the best baker to slip up and the weakest baker to continue so that weakest baker would be my competition. (I know athletes do better against stronger athletes, but I'm neither an athlete nor a great baker!).

[dleighg]

5 minutes ago, ShelleySue said:

Is one of the objectives to take a dessert from another part of the country and turn it into a dessert from your part of the country?

It was just that the decoration should "reference" your home state.

[susannah]

On 5/19/2021 at 9:48 PM, LittleIggy said:

Gelatin desserts are the state food of Utah? How white! And I say that as a white person. 😆

That is kind of an odd thing to say. I am pretty sure race wouldn't need to be injected into dessert making.

[susannah]

On 5/25/2021 at 6:53 PM, springbarb said:

Jason continues to bother me--I just can't take him seriously, even when he's giving serious comments. Carla needs to continue keeping it toned down.

I so agree about Jason. I can't take him seriously either. Carla does like her theatrics, which mostly don't bother me, but she knows her stuff!

[susannah]

On 5/25/2021 at 10:41 AM, Grizzly said:

I don't live in Utah but every holiday my mother would make lime Jello with mandarin orange slices. She even had special Tupperware that put a shape on top. Kind of miss it.

I don't live in Utah either, nor any of my family, but my grandmother used to make the same, only adding cottage cheese. I LOVED it and would make it myself. Sadly though, I can't anymore. They changed something somewhere, maybe in the jello, and it won't set up really well now, with those ingredients. Also, I looked up what Oregon's "state" dessert is and it is marionberry pie. We are also good for pears and apples.

Edited May 30, 2021 by susannah

[crazycatlady58]

22 minutes ago, susannah said:

I so agree about Jason. I can't take him seriously either. Carla does like her theatrics, which mostly don't bother me, but she knows her stuff!

Yes, obviously anyone with a southern accent can't " know their stuff".

[emmawoodhouse]

15 minutes ago, crazycatlady58 said:

Yes, obviously anyone with a southern accent can't " know their stuff".

Carla has the remnants of a Southern accent. And knows her stuff. 👍

[dleighg]

39 minutes ago, susannah said:

I so agree about Jason. I can't take him seriously either.

I am so much happier now that he's mostly dropped the "as spicy as a pig in a hot spa" nonsense. Now he's ok with me.

[susannah]

16 minutes ago, crazycatlady58 said:

Yes, obviously anyone with a southern accent can't " know their stuff".

It has nothing to do with his accent. It has to do with all his expressions, instead of saying what he means clearly.

[Enigma X]

Jason will forever irk me.

[Grizzly]

Northeast episode. Michele looked like he had a rough night. Sorry he was in the bake off with Jackie since I like them both. Then Jackie said she didn't really like chocolate. Girl, we can not be friends! If the judges couldn't make a decision tonight, what are they going to do if the finale is this close? 

[springbarb]

On 5/30/2021 at 6:05 PM, susannah said:

It has nothing to do with his accent. It has to do with all his expressions, instead of saying what he means clearly.

Exactly. He needs to stop saying things like, "That lemon would knock a hog out of the mud!" I had hoped he might have toned it down, which I remember him doing for another competition show, but that's not the case. Does something need salt? Does one flavor highlight or subdue another? Say that. Stop making odd comparisons and trying to sound folksy. I know that's his brand, but I really, really dislike it.

[emmawoodhouse]

5 minutes ago, springbarb said:

Exactly. He needs to stop saying things like, "That lemon would knock a hog out of the mud!" I had hoped he might have toned it down, which I remember him doing for another competition show, but that's not the case. Does something need salt? Does one flavor highlight or subdue another? Say that. Stop making odd comparisons and trying to sound folksy. I know that's his brand, but I really, really dislike it.

Yeah, last night there was something about a pig that had absolutely nothing to do with the cake. Can't stand the schtick.

[susannah]

28 minutes ago, springbarb said:

Exactly. He needs to stop saying things like, "That lemon would knock a hog out of the mud!" I had hoped he might have toned it down, which I remember him doing for another competition show, but that's not the case. Does something need salt? Does one flavor highlight or subdue another? Say that. Stop making odd comparisons and trying to sound folksy. I know that's his brand, but I really, really dislike it.

I agree! Those kind of expressions don't give any idea what he is referring to. Is it good or not good? He does seem to have quite a few hog or pig expressions. Just makes him sound stupid IMO. I wish I could remember whose they were but two of those mirror cakes were gorgeous. The angel wings on the one looked kind of ridiculous.

[mlp]

I thought Jackie should have gone because nothing on her admittedly very lovely dessert evoked whoopie pie - to me anyway.  Michele's certainly did.

I absolutely loathe that they have the safe bakers in the kitchen kibitzing and commenting and even tasting and weighing in with their opinions.  I hope this show reverts to its previous format if there's a next season.  I'm finding this season hard to care about and this was one of my favorite FN shows.

[jcbrown]

This season is leaving me cold. I have never heard of most of the desserts they are tasked with and many of them are stupid (hello, piecaken). Fix this, FN. 

And I agree  that FN is also being stupid in not developing something for Carla and Clinton and Michael. I wouldn’t even care what it was; I would watch it.

[susannah]

6 hours ago, mlp said:

I thought Jackie should have gone because nothing on her admittedly very lovely dessert evoked whoopie pie - to me anyway.  Michele's certainly did.

I absolutely loathe that they have the safe bakers in the kitchen kibitzing and commenting and even tasting and weighing in with their opinions.  I hope this show reverts to its previous format if there's a next season.  I'm finding this season hard to care about and this was one of my favorite FN shows.

Why does having the safe ones cheering for and encouraging the bakeoff ones bother you?

[dleighg]

7 minutes ago, susannah said:

Why does having the safe ones cheering for and encouraging the bakeoff ones bother you?

I'm not the original poster but it bothers me as well. They are not "being-a-judge-worthy," they have simply survived for the moment. So it seems "above their place" to be commenting on their peers (and at least one future competitor).

It is different on Top Chef Last Chance Kitchen, where the peanut gallery is those who have already been eliminated, so it's clearly all friendly in that case.