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S15.E01: It'll Take More Than Pot Luck


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Chef Carrie finished in the bottom 2 in the QF with a wilted, muddled bruschetta & Then! Lawdhavemercy! She was steady slicing on that mandolin, knuckles down & not watching her fingers!!! while she talked to the judges. Folks, please don't ever do that. Hold the veg with a flat palm & watch carefully the whole time, lest you slice your hand open! Soo dangerous!

I know! Gah! I don't cook and damn if I don't know better than that. She was making me so nervous!!

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Then! Lawdhavemercy! She was steady slicing on that mandolin, knuckles down & not watching her fingers!!! while she talked to the judges. Folks, please don't ever do that. Hold the veg with a flat palm & watch carefully the whole time, lest you slice your hand open! Soo dangerous!

I learned that lesson the hard way slicing an onion!

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On 12/9/2017 at 6:58 PM, bluepiano said:

Still hardly ancient. And I also thought it was condescending and maybe a bit of gamesmanship. She's a chef, not a pro athlete. I guess there is a physical component to being a chef, but many of the world's greatest are in their 60s and still going strong.

 

Yes, I so agree. He was being a turd with that comment.

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17 hours ago, annewithaneee said:

Yeah, I agree. It left a bad taste in my mouth, too, to hear that after the Quickfire where the top three were all men, and the bottom two women -- voted by the chefs themselves. We'll see how much they truly embrace diversity.

So not to belabor the point, but why would you assume that the top three in the QF being men and the bottom two being women had to do with anything other than the dishes they cooked? Especially as the voting was by the chefs themselves, and 7 out of 15 are women? Do you think that the men formed some secret voting bloc to ensure no woman made the top three? Seems doubtful. And then you had the same women on the bottom in the elimination challenge, when the judges included Padma and Gail, who certainly have nothing against female chefs.

Edited by bluepiano
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5 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

 

I guess they could scrap the episode, but someone was (most likely) eliminated and I want to see what happened. Surely they could reedit the episode to minimize Besh's presence, edit out sexual innuendo and put in a disclaimer about the timing of when the episode was filmed and when the allegations came out.

The closest they have come to scrapping an episode was one hosted by Natasha Richardson.  She passed away right after the episode aired and as far as I know, it was never shown again.  That and the reunion episode from the first season where Tiffany got drunk.

1 hour ago, Eulipian 5k said:

Get the Kevlar gloves! Every time , no matter how tall the carrot, I go too far and end up slicing fingerprints! Ouch! Get the gloves people!

This always cracks me up.  We had a mandoline when I was in grade school.  I never cut myself.  What's wrong with you guys?

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15 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

The closest they have come to scrapping an episode was one hosted by Natasha Richardson.  She passed away right after the episode aired and as far as I know, it was never shown again.  That and the reunion episode from the first season where Tiffany got drunk.

This always cracks me up.  We had a mandoline when I was in grade school.  I never cut myself.  What's wrong with you guys?

She passed away four months after it aired and its definitely been shown again, it was on the last time they did a marathon and you can currently watch it on Hulu or buy it on Amazon, you can also watch the reunion where Tifanni got drunk on Hulu or Amazon.

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9 minutes ago, bluepiano said:
17 hours ago, annewithaneee said:

Yeah, I agree. It left a bad taste in my mouth, too, to hear that after the Quickfire where the top three were all men, and the bottom two women -- voted by the chefs themselves. We'll see how much they truly embrace diversity.

So not to belabor the point, but why would you assume that the top three in the QF being men and the bottom two being women had to do with anything other than the dishes they cooked? Especially as the voting was by the chefs themselves, and 7 out of 15 are women? Do you think that the men formed some secret voting bloc to ensure no woman made the top three? Seems doubtful. And then you had the same women on the bottom in the elimination challenge, when the judges included Padma and Gail, who certainly have nothing against female chefs.

I'm not sure this is belaboring the point so much as putting words in someone's mouth. Not sure where the leap from "left a bad taste in my mouth" to "suspects a sexist alliance conspiracy" happened, but my answer is no, I don't think that. But to clarify, I meant that was my impression as the episode proceeded in real time. The quickfire preceded the elimination challenge where we got a better feel for everyone's overall performance, and was also shortly after Mustache Joe had a shady talking head re: Tonya's age. It was an off-putting few minutes in the episode for me, and one I remembered in the different bumpers touting the season's diversity. 

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What's with the Alaskan lady saying she lives in Denali National Park?   Is she like a park ranger or something?  Not trying to be snide, just wondering if it's possible to be a resident there.  And, if not, then it's totally pretentious to say so.  But she rubbed me the wrong way anyway.

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When she said that I figured she cooked at a hotel restaurant there or something like that, and that she lives on-site.

Looks like that's probably the case. This is the restaurant: http://229parks.com/ It looks like it's near a couple of the park accommodations. 

Sounds like the "address" is a mileage marker on the "Parks Road"

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40 minutes ago, dleighg said:

When she said that I figured she cooked at a hotel restaurant there or something like that, and that she lives on-site.

Looks like that's probably the case. This is the restaurant: http://229parks.com/ It looks like it's near a couple of the park accommodations. 

Sounds like the "address" is a mileage marker on the "Parks Road"

Thanks.  Looks lovely.

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On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 10:46 AM, Browncoat said:

Totally agree.  For both the QF and the EC, they were told to make what they wanted with very few constraints.  If you can't make your "own food" with those stipulations (or lack thereof), then I don't know how you can.

She also really needs to practice her poker face - she looked so sulky during her elimination comments.

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On ‎12‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 9:20 PM, Wings said:

I agree on Graham.  There is nothing there to like or hate.  He just there filling the space.  My boyfriend, Hugh would be my first choice to fill that slot. 

Personally I dislike him.  He was a pretentious git on Master Chef (and added nothing).  When he describes foods as being "shiitake and stuff" as he did on this Top Chef I lose all respect for him as a discerning critic.

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5 hours ago, Brookside said:

Personally I dislike him.  He was a pretentious git on Master Chef (and added nothing).  When he describes foods as being "shiitake and stuff" as he did on this Top Chef I lose all respect for him as a discerning critic.

Egad I missed him saying that.  Was it episode one or last season? 

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7 hours ago, Brookside said:

She also really needs to practice her poker face - she looked so sulky during her elimination comments.

She also said in a talking head that she had panic attacks before coming on the show.  She looked to me like she was about to have one during the judging.

It's such a high-stress situation, you wonder why someone with anxiety issues would choose to do it.

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9 hours ago, Brookside said:

Personally I dislike him.  He was a pretentious git on Master Chef (and added nothing).  When he describes foods as being "shiitake and stuff" as he did on this Top Chef I lose all respect for him as a discerning critic.

I just went back and watched the judging in the elimination round, where he said that.   He had nothing much to add when he was tasting or when the judges met to talk about the dishes.  He barely spoke at all.  Shiitake and stuff, good god.  That is about all he said.  I think the edit would have included something relevant.   

I would like to know the reason he was hired.  It was not for his charisma!  

Edited by Wings
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Sounds like the "address" is a mileage marker on the "Parks Road"

We were in Denali this summer and did not hear about it. There is a town called Healy about a 5-10 minute drive north of the entrance to the National Park and Healy has a huge Princess Cruises lodge and a bunch of small stores, bars, t shirt shops (and, like every town in Alaska, a marijuana dispensary), with some condo projects nearby. This looks like it is a few miles south of that entrance. Wish I would have known about it since the other choices are not particularly inspired.

All the double entrendres and everyone's apparent comfort with them I guess explains why the harassment in the industry is not particularly surprising, nor is it surprising for Bravo.

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Good episode overall.

One thing I was annoyed at how so many chefs couldn't bake or roast, because there were a lack of ovens.  Uh, wtf?  Maybe top chef should get a bigger budget so they have enough ovens for everyone?

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33 minutes ago, seltzer3 said:

Good episode overall.

One thing I was annoyed at how so many chefs couldn't bake or roast, because there were a lack of ovens.  Uh, wtf?  Maybe top chef should get a bigger budget so they have enough ovens for everyone?

This pushes chefs to be creative.  Tu won with no oven needed for his corn salad.  You have to be quick on your feet and always have a plan B.  Many places they go don't have a spiffy kitchen.  Last season they had one oven with no racks so all dishes had to be cooked sitting on the bottom in danger of burning.  

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One thing I was annoyed at how so many chefs couldn't bake or roast, because there were a lack of ovens.  Uh, wtf?  Maybe top chef should get a bigger budget so they have enough ovens for everyone?

I agree-should not have been a race for oven space. I get it when they race for proteins, but seems like they should have the same tools or lack thereof unless it is supposed to be an advantage....and I don't think that was the case this time.

By the way, big dude (don't bother learning names for a few weeks) who won this week (and knows the historical implications thereof), good luck making only things you haven't made before-how long will that last? I remember being blown away when I found out that Bryan Voltaggio's guacamole filled appetizers were actually on his menu back home!

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Announced on Eater earlier, that the ep with John Besh was scrubbed to be Beshless.  Just took a bit of time for Magic Elves to pull off.  Possibly not the right place to post this but we were discussing it up thread.

Edited by Rammchick
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19 hours ago, Wings said:

This pushes chefs to be creative.  Tu won with no oven needed for his corn salad.  You have to be quick on your feet and always have a plan B.  Many places they go don't have a spiffy kitchen.  Last season they had one oven with no racks so all dishes had to be cooked sitting on the bottom in danger of burning.  

I agree.

In a related sense, it has also always been a source of...interest...to me that Western cuisine, by and large, is so dependent on an oven.  One reads of expatriates heading to postings or jobs in East or Southeast Asia who go into panic attacks when they realize that the "modest apartment" they were scheduled to occupy did not have an oven in the Western/USA sense. Comments about "I don't know how I am going to be able to cook" populate many blogs relating to this.  Many are the posts about Western/'Murcan expatriates in Japan, even, that 1st world country which is part of the G7, panicking about the lack of an oven in their apartments.

Yet E Asian cuisine has never required an oven to be omnipresent in every kitchen, and "baking" or "roasting by dry heat" has more often than not been left to professional establishments through the ages.  People in those places buy baked or roasted goods from commercial establishments more frequently, whilst "home cooking" uses all the panoply of other cooking techniques that DO NOT require an oven.  I find it interesting to think about this in the context of the "expectation" that ovens be available aplenty for cooking dishes on Top Chef.  One might even consider that it reflects the Westernized/Eurocentric thrust of both the program and the discussions on same. Even when many folks in the West do fine with just "stovetop cooking" themselves.

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On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 0:31 PM, Souris said:

 

I learned that lesson the hard way slicing an onion!

I don't understand why that thing doesn't have a guard! Over 40 years ago, I seem to remember having something that was similar to a real mandolin that had something on it to slide the food along with a type of holder to save fingers and hands! Very cheap piece of crap plastic thing which didn't last long, but I never lost any skin using it! ;-)

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10 minutes ago, Fiero425 said:

I don't understand why that thing doesn't have a guard! Over 40 years ago, I seem to remember having something that was similar to a real mandolin that had something on it to slide the food along with a type of holder to save fingers and hands! Very cheap piece of crap plastic thing which didn't last long, but I never lost any skin using it! ;-)

Mine came with a piece of plastic to slide it along with. I was just being stupid and not using it. I always use it now!

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58 minutes ago, Souris said:

Mine came with a piece of plastic to slide it along with. I was just being stupid and not using it. I always use it now!

Still be careful! Those things aren't fool proof - just ask this fool (who happens to be missing a bit of her pinky finger!) It was years ago that the plastic guard somehow tipped (or something - it happened so fast) and I still look away when a cheftestant is using one of those beasts! Especially when the chef isn't even watching what they're doing!

I am so happy this show is back! I love Tom and Padma. I already feel like it's going to be tough to see some of these chefs pack their knives and go. Of course I always think it's going to be awful when "x" chef goes, and by the next episode I've pretty much forgotten about them...

Edited by Nordly Beaumont
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36 minutes ago, Nordly Beaumont said:

Still be careful! Those things aren't fool proof - just ask this fool (who happens to be missing a bit of her pinky finger!) It was years ago that the plastic guard somehow tipped (or something - it happened so fast) and I still look away when a cheftestant is using one of those beasts! Especially when the chef isn't even watching what they're doing!

I am so happy this show is back! I love Tom and Padma. I already feel like it's going to be tough to see some of these chefs pack their knives and go. Of course I always think it's going to be awful when "x" chef goes, and by the next episode I've pretty much forgotten about them...

It seems the longer the show is produced, the worst the talent! Some just aren't qualified and can't deal with the time crunch! Who screws up potatoes 3 times? She was given every opportunity but was gone DAY 1! Idiot! ;-)

Edited by Fiero425
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On ‎12‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 1:38 PM, dleighg said:

When she said that I figured she cooked at a hotel restaurant there or something like that, and that she lives on-site.

Looks like that's probably the case. This is the restaurant: http://229parks.com/ It looks like it's near a couple of the park accommodations. 

Sounds like the "address" is a mileage marker on the "Parks Road"

Interesting. I'm hoping to get up to that part of Alaska next year and visit the park. I looked at the menu and it's definitely more "elevated" than the food you usually find at restaurants in and around national parks. I think people who visit national parks are generally more interested in the scenery and the outdoors experience than having a great meal, but I give her credit for being ambitious. (Though I don't think I could ever eat reindeer. I'm a meat eater, but it's funny how we all make certain distinctions).

Edited by bluepiano
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10 hours ago, chiaros said:

I find it interesting to think about this in the context of the "expectation" that ovens be available aplenty for cooking dishes on Top Chef.  One might even consider that it reflects the Westernized/Eurocentric thrust of both the program and the discussions on same. 

  I would never call the show Eurocentric - I'm not sure I can think of an American television show I would consider Eurocentric as far as that goes.  It is, predictably, Amerocentric.  I'm aware that ovens are not universal in kitchens around the world - but in the United States they are considered standard equipment and since this show is broadcast to a US audience very specifically ( i.e., not even North America generally, since Canada and Mexico each have their own Top Chef  programs, as do many other countries) it's not surprising that the show presents the American style restaurant kitchen as the norm.  Especially since this isn't a contest between home cooks, but professionals working in the rarified and high-priced world of fine dining.  That's why the many many challenges that involve cooking outside of a standard US restaurant kitchen will strike the audience as being, indeed, challenging - this being after all a game show.

Edited by ratgirlagogo
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I don't think there's any need to have a 1:1 oven to cheftestant ratio at the beginning, when there are so freakin' many cheftestants.  They don't issue any challenges that require use of an oven until a point in the competition when the pool has been whittled down so there are adequate ovens to go around, and prior to that I don't have any issue with a general challenge where not every single person can claim an oven in the event they all opt to go that route.  First, how often will it happen that enough people opt for a dish requiring an oven that there aren't enough, and, second, if it does, oh well - adapt and move on is part of the competition.  Chopped only having one ice cream machine instead of two strikes me as contrived.  Top Chef only having, what, ten? ovens instead of 16 does not, given how the challenges are structured.

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Poor magic elves.  They had better speed show this series before more well known chefs take a tumble.  On the rewatch the bio of the bald lady has a picture of her and Mario Batali together...not,something she’d want to use now with him looking particularly smarmy and greasy as well.

The lady who went home lamented not being able to show her skills but the main challenge was as open as meat and potatoes.  She made a braised pork (dry), puréed potato and fennel salad.  This is boring food from the Cheesecake Factory.  This is homestyle food.  Pork is so fatty...hard to serve dry pork that has been braised.  If she didn’t have anything more complex technique wise in her repertoire for a broad challenge, she doesn’t really deserve to complain about chances to shine. She was fodder.

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On 12/11/2017 at 2:25 PM, annewithaneee said:

I'm not sure this is belaboring the point so much as putting words in someone's mouth. Not sure where the leap from "left a bad taste in my mouth" to "suspects a sexist alliance conspiracy" happened, but my answer is no, I don't think that. But to clarify, I meant that was my impression as the episode proceeded in real time. The quickfire preceded the elimination challenge where we got a better feel for everyone's overall performance, and was also shortly after Mustache Joe had a shady talking head re: Tonya's age. It was an off-putting few minutes in the episode for me, and one I remembered in the different bumpers touting the season's diversity. 

I think sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and there are no meanings or cause and effect relationships between events even when it may seem that way.  I think the diversity mentioned by the show was in reference to the cuisine represented more than anything else.  If anything, Top Chef has promoted diversity of sex and background in its contestants more than just about any other reality competition I've ever seen on TV so I personally don't see any issue there.  I think one of the problems leading to a different perception is that being a chef in the US has traditionally been a very white male scene and unfortunately in their effort to diversify their contestants the show ends up having to look harder and wider to accomplish that.  One of the reasons that women tend to go home first one after the other on pretty much every cooking competition show is that in order to attempt to even out the sexes the shows are forced to select from a smaller pool of women so there are unfortunately fewer "shining stars" among them.  There are just far fewer female chefs available out there and this show doesn't want to put only one or two on the cast.  There is far more competition among the white males for spots on the show so the ones that make it will tend to have a higher level of accomplishment in general.   I used to get angry seeing all the women going home one after the other on every show from this to "Chopped" to "Guy's Grocery Games" until I realized this.  It still bugs me but at least on an intellectual level I understand why it happens.  I think in some ways their efforts to diversify the cast actually has the effect of making it look like the white males are favored, which is probably not what they were going for.

That said, I am rooting for Chef Tyler this season, but it has nothing to do with his sex or his ethnic background.  I would root for him if he were a green transexual because I happen to know him and think he's a great chef.

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21 hours ago, chiaros said:

I agree.

In a related sense, it has also always been a source of...interest...to me that Western cuisine, by and large, is so dependent on an oven.  One reads of expatriates heading to postings or jobs in East or Southeast Asia who go into panic attacks when they realize that the "modest apartment" they were scheduled to occupy did not have an oven in the Western/USA sense. Comments about "I don't know how I am going to be able to cook" populate many blogs relating to this.  Many are the posts about Western/'Murcan expatriates in Japan, even, that 1st world country which is part of the G7, panicking about the lack of an oven in their apartments.

Yet E Asian cuisine has never required an oven to be omnipresent in every kitchen, and "baking" or "roasting by dry heat" has more often than not been left to professional establishments through the ages.  People in those places buy baked or roasted goods from commercial establishments more frequently, whilst "home cooking" uses all the panoply of other cooking techniques that DO NOT require an oven.  I find it interesting to think about this in the context of the "expectation" that ovens be available aplenty for cooking dishes on Top Chef.  One might even consider that it reflects the Westernized/Eurocentric thrust of both the program and the discussions on same. Even when many folks in the West do fine with just "stovetop cooking" themselves.

An interesting point.  During a weeklong power outage following a severe storm a while back, we were able to light our gas burners, but nothing else worked.  I found that you can cook just about anything with a cast iron pan and a gas burner.  I'm really looking forward to tonight's episode.  I love the mise en place relays.

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11 hours ago, Bastet said:

I don't think there's any need to have a 1:1 oven to cheftestant ratio at the beginning, when there are so freakin' many cheftestants.  They don't issue any challenges that require use of an oven until a point in the competition when the pool has been whittled down so there are adequate ovens to go around, and prior to that I don't have any issue with a general challenge where not every single person can claim an oven in the event they all opt to go that route.  First, how often will it happen that enough people opt for a dish requiring an oven that there aren't enough, and, second, if it does, oh well - adapt and move on is part of the competition.  Chopped only having one ice cream machine instead of two strikes me as contrived.  Top Chef only having, what, ten? ovens instead of 16 does not, given how the challenges are structured.

I definitely get what your saying.  I think its hard, because it has been a recurring issue in top chef, where they wouldn't have adequate equipment (and not in a here's a twist kind of way).  The Bahamas challenge in all-stars where they had terrible kitchen equipment, and Nina vs Nick, where Nina didn't have an ice cream maker, but Nick had one in his kitchen.

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6 minutes ago, dleighg said:

did anyone else wonder whether the theme and title of this first episode was a sly nod to the special green herb that is popular in Colorado?

They have a whole season and a Viper hostess, so any reference to "Mile High", " "herbs", "edible", (on a show about food!), will seem like a sly nod to the special....

SNL's celebrity "chef" Nat E Dread will be back to judge the smoked meats challenge; here all week , try the veal..

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13 hours ago, susannot said:

An interesting point.  During a weeklong power outage following a severe storm a while back, we were able to light our gas burners, but nothing else worked.  I found that you can cook just about anything with a cast iron pan and a gas burner.  I'm really looking forward to tonight's episode.  I love the mise en place relays.

Ha, me too!  I used my cast iron pan to make pizza a couple of weeks ago.  (Made the dough, prepared everything, and no gas on the grill.....and my oven has been dead for a while, old house, small built in oven, which can't be replaced w/o tearing down a whole bank of cabinets).  Anyway, adapt!  It was a bit tricky, but came out great.  I've been cooking all kinds of stuff on my gas grill for about 2 years since the oven croaked....even cookies and cheesecake.  (I use my charcoal grill mostly for meats/smoking, however)

13 hours ago, seltzer3 said:

I definitely get what your saying.  I think its hard, because it has been a recurring issue in top chef, where they wouldn't have adequate equipment (and not in a here's a twist kind of way).  The Bahamas challenge in all-stars where they had terrible kitchen equipment, and Nina vs Nick, where Nina didn't have an ice cream maker, but Nick had one in his kitchen.

I still laugh at that Bahamas finale on the beach episode.  What idiot goes to the Bahamas not learning how to clean conch?  Thanks for the fond memories w/that one!

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On 12/8/2017 at 9:50 PM, Richness said:

t's also unfortunate that the innuendo came from mustache Joe, because I really want to like him because of that mustache. At least he seems like he can cook well.

Really? Because I hated him right off the bat due to the stupid hipster mustache, and I wasn't surprised at all that he would be the one to go for the smirky, smug innuendo about Padma (who, as has been mentioned, totally encourages it and should stop because it's annoying and played out).  

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Yeah, Fatima was definitely on Chopped. I knew I knew her, and when I pictured her in a Chopped chef's coat, I knew where I knew her from.

And poor Melissa was definitely cannon fodder. Pretty obvious auf...er....knifing.

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 Wasn’t going to watch this season (Padma rubs me the wrong way, as do a lot of the guest judges, amongst other reasons), but I finally watched this eppy and was pleasantly surprised to see 3 folks from the Bay Area representing. Especially the Exec. Chef of Bar Crudo! I love Bar Crudo. Yummy fish, good wine pairings. Brown Sugar Kitchen is good too, but I’ve only been there like once. And, I’ve never been to French Laundry (ha!!) so I don’t really have a goat in that race. 

ETA: make that 4 folks! I forgot about the Vietnamese guy from Oakland. He looks like he’ll be fun to root for.

Edited by MVFrostsMyPie
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22 minutes ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

And, I’ve never been to French Laundry (ha!!) so I don’t really have a goat in that race. 

If you are referring to Rogelio he is not at the FL, he is the exec chef at Traci Des Jardins' The Commissary in the Presidio. 

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