S15.E04: Little Tools, Big Challenge

[FormerMod-a1]

Quote

The chefs make upscale versions of kid-menu classics while using child-sized cookware, utensils and mixers; after a visit to a food incubator, the chefs must present dishes based on their own heritage for immigrant food influencers.

[Fiero425]

Gregory from season 12 was so overly critical as one of the judges during the challenge! I thought of him being a more kind individual! Even if he were right, let someone else kvetch who has tenure on the show! He finally gave Chris kudos at the end thank GAWD! As usually, looks as if the hot chicken's going to be the winner! ;-)

Edited December 29, 2017 by Fiero425

[Thumper]

I am so hungry tonight -- I want to eat every dish presented!

[Bastet]

I hate when they have to cook for kids on this show.  It assumes kids have shit for palates, which only happens if their parents cater to their pickiness and feed them nothing but the five foods they love most.  Screw it.  To make them use Barbie's kitchen equipment is even worse.

So it was nice to hear the cheftestants saying we don't have to dumb down a menu for kids, we can make really good versions of typically pedestrian foods and kids will like it.  And, indeed, these kids who've grown up eating a variety of foods, duh, liked a variety of foods - their criticisms were largely in line with what adult criticisms would be, not "Ew, you used weird ingredients" ignorance.

The top three of the QF all looked good to me.  I thought Fatima's salad was the most creative, but I'd have eaten any of them, and I love that it was all women on the top.

I liked the visit to Comal Heritage Food Incubator, and agree with Fatima that every city needs something like that.  Lovely to see it highlighted. 

Carrie's pierogie and Tyler's tri-tip being paired together cracked me up, since they both had little clue as to their heritage.  Tyler saying he had no heritage made me laugh.  When you're not Native American, and your ancestors came here many generations ago, I guess you can feel that way.  I'm in the same boat on my dad's side, and less so on my mom's, but I still feel a connection to my favorites of the "old country" dishes, even though I mostly cook from other cultures, with a few new-American classics thrown in.

Joseph's pasta and Tanya's gumbo was a lopsided pairing.  Joseph's grandma kicks ass, but he didn't do her dish any favors.  Tanya talking about her mom's aspirations, as a woman, and a black woman, being discouraged and how there was progress for her but still a difficult path, was my favorite part.  And her gumbo looked good.

Mustache Joe's tortelloni; not hard to combine France and Italy, but it did look very well executed.  Tu's canh chua I couldn't get a real sense for, so I'm not surprised to see neither one in the top or bottom.

Fatima's dal chawal looked good, and Brother's stewed chicken did, too.  That he shared it with others for the first time was touching, in light of the background, that it was the one Creole recipe his dad had time to pass down, and Brother being embarrassed by it at the time.  That was my other favorite moment, his sharing of that story in the car.

Adrienne being in the weeds with her dish made me sad, as I liked her combination of cultures.  I liked her story about her dad's family not caring that he was marrying a white woman, but caring that she didn't know how to cook southern food.  Bruce's lamb in his goulash looked awful.  How is he so good that pretty much all the judges know him when he keeps making basic mistakes?  (I've eaten at his restaurant; it's quite good, but not wow.)

Chris's fried chicken and biscuits is not my type of food (well, really just because I don't get excited by biscuits and, to my personal preference, traditional greens are overcooked), but he nailed the heritage aspect and I LOVE him coming out on top with a cuisine so often dismissed. 

Bruce was my pick for elimination, because he's the one who didn't even understand why he was on the chopping block at first.  But Joe's dish had more overall problems, and, ultimately, Tyler failed at the concept, producing something all over the place, even though it had some good individual components.  So I agree.

[Michichick]

I thought Bruce was a goner just based on all his talk about his family early in the episode. I was bummed about the bottom three because I like all three of the guys and Tyler is probably my favorite of the three. 

Edited December 29, 2017 by Michichick

[Fiero425]

1 minute ago, Michichick said:

I thought Bruce was a goner just based on all his talk about his family early in the episode. I was bummed about the bottom three because I like all three of the guys and Tyler is probably my favorite of the three. 

Their egos preceded them all unfortunately; esp. Bruce and Tyler who speak so confidently about their fare! They stunk and deserved to be on the bottom! The Bears are in serious trouble; the delusion real!  ;-)

[jackjill89]

I like Tyler and thought he'd make it much, much longer, but I was taken aback at his tiny soft spot on the dragon comment. Come on, you aren't THAT good. No one is. Fiero425 -- you are right, his ego got in the way!

I'm not a fan of Bruce. He hasn't impressed me at all. 

[Christina]

The older teenagers are okay, but I've never enjoyed watching kids cook and their critiques to the chefs had me rolling my eyes and yelling, "Get off my lawn!" They probably were given a few sentences to choose from since there were a few that didn't sound like words kids would say. It was nice of the chefs to just smile and thank them, as opposed to the bitchy little people who would yell, "Get off my lawn!" You all know the type.

Storms just knocked the electric out and I had to wait for the router to start again, and it's taken me thirty minutes to get this far, so I'll be back to bitch later. Well, maybe not because I think I liked it in general.

[hendersonrocks]

I want that grilled cheese Caesar salad like whoa. Tanya’s Mac & cheese, too. I appreciated the touch that the lil’ judges were children of chefs.

I was a little surprised Brother wasn’t in the top three, based on comments. Not at all surprised by the bottom three but real sad the Bear Den was broken up so soon. Tyler just couldn’t make it work, but I appreciated his comment at the end that he deserved to go home.

My hope from the elimination challenge is that white chefs and viewers take some time to think about heritage. We have it as white people - it takes different forms, but we have it and it’s important for us to think about it within the context of our family histories. 

[Souris]

I want Chris's biscuits NOW. Oh my god, those looked good.

[MerBearHou]

1 minute ago, Souris said:

I want Chris's biscuits NOW. Oh my god, those looked good.

Same here!  Like I want to call his restaurant tomorrow and see if they’ll mail some to me in TX!  So glad Chris won.

[rustyspigot]

So Padma hates Bruce until the end of time. I'm fine with that.

[HunterHunted]

3 minutes ago, hendersonrocks said:

My hope from the elimination challenge is that white chefs and viewers take some time to think about heritage. We have it as white people - it takes different forms, but we have it and it’s important for us to think about it within the context of our family histories. 

The real problem is that culturally we view WASP heritage as the norm and every deviation from it as the exception. Oh, you're Italian; how interesting. Oh, your grandfather was Lebanese. America views being a white person as the default and everyone else is the strange one, especially if you're brown. I'm Nigerian-American. If I describe myself as such, I will be asked when I got here. Birth. Birth is when I got here. The Real Fuckwits of New Jersey can barely speak English, describe themselves as Italian or Italian-American (except for Soggy), and nary a soul will ask if they immigrated. Fuq that noise.

26 minutes ago, Fiero425 said:

Their egos preceded them all unfortunately; esp. Bruce and Tyler who speak so confidently about their fare! They stunk and deserved to be on the bottom! The Bears are in serious trouble; the delusion real!  ;-)

I don't know why Bruce is so bad at this. He's clearly familiar with competitive cooking competitions. He's done Chopped, Knife Fight, and Beat Bobby Flay. He also isn't completely delusional like Phillip Frankland Lee. But yeah, Bruce kind of sucks at Top Chef.

This is probably the best "cook for kids" challenge this show has ever had. I demand that they all be like this or with the kids from Top Chef Jr. You can even let Curtis come back.

[Fiero425]

6 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

The real problem is that culturally we view WASP heritage as the norm and every deviation from it as the exception. Oh, you're Italian; how interesting. Oh, your grandfather was Lebanese. America views being a white person as the default and everyone else is the strange one, especially if you're brown. I'm Nigerian-American. If I describe myself as such, I will be asked when I got here. Birth. Birth is when I got here. The Real Fuckwits of New Jersey can barely speak English, describe themselves as Italian or Italian-American (except for Soggy), and nary a soul will ask if they immigrated. Fuq that noise.

I don't know why Bruce is so bad at this. He's clearly familiar with competitive cooking competitions. He's done Chopped, Knife Fight, and Beat Bobby Flay. He also isn't completely delusional like Phillip Frankland Lee. But yeah, Bruce kind of sucks at Top Chef.

This is probably the best "cook for kids" challenge this show has ever had. I demand that they all be like this or with the kids from Top Chef Jr. You can even let Curtis come back.

Yep, seen Bruce all over the place and he's stumbling BiG time on "TC!" He might need the humbling! ;-)

[Blonde Gator]

24 minutes ago, hendersonrocks said:

I want that grilled cheese Caesar salad like whoa. Tanya’s Mac & cheese, too. I appreciated the touch that the lil’ judges were children of chefs.

I was a little surprised Brother wasn’t in the top three, based on comments. Not at all surprised by the bottom three but real sad the Bear Den was broken up so soon. Tyler just couldn’t make it work, but I appreciated his comment at the end that he deserved to go home.

My hope from the elimination challenge is that white chefs and viewers take some time to think about heritage. We have it as white people - it takes different forms, but we have it and it’s important for us to think about it within the context of our family histories. 

I thought some of the kids' comments about the dishes were hilarious, they weren't pulling any punches when they didn't care for something.  Of course, they weren't ordinary picky fish-stick eating children....but my own grandson always wants me to make duck for Cub Scout pot lucks, go figure!

As for "white people's cooking", I am German and Swedish, German food is delicious, but not something I grew up eating often, even after visiting Germany.  Swedish food (lutafisk) is not my thing at all.  I have always lived in SoFla, so I can cook some mean Cuban, some Caribbean, Deep South, and have traveled extensively in Central America, so most of my cooking is NOT anything of my own heritage.  I'd have had a hard time with this one, and probably would have done seafood and hearts of palm as a native Floridian.  So I see why this challenge would be hard for those chefs who are 4 or 5 (or more) generations removed from their immigrant roots. 

This is THE tough challenge for the person who gets to PYKAG.   I felt sorry for Tyler, but I, too, agree that it should have probably been Bruce based on mangled lamb. 

Just have to comment (again) about the collegiality of this season.  I really, really like this group of chefs for how they seem to support each other, with none of the skeevy game-playing we saw in early seasons of TC.  It was nice.

Oh, and Isaac Toups from 2 seasons ago (I swear I'm going to New Orleans to eat at his restaurant in 2018) was a judge on Beat Bobby Flay tonight.  Rerun should be on again soon if you want to DVR it, he's one of my all time faves from Top Chef!

26 minutes ago, Souris said:

I want Chris's biscuits NOW. Oh my god, those looked good.

I wish TC would post the winners' recipes on the site like they used to years ago, each week.  I made someone's roasted chicken for a late-season "this is what I'd want as my last dish on earth" episode, as chosen by the celebrity chef diners, and it was fantastic. 

Chris's whole dish looked perfect. 

[Fiero425]

28 minutes ago, Blonde Gator said:

I thought some of the kids' comments about the dishes were hilarious, they weren't pulling any punches when they didn't care for something.  Of course, they weren't ordinary picky fish-stick eating children....but my own grandson always wants me to make duck for Cub Scout pot lucks, go figure!

As for "white people's cooking", I am German and Swedish, German food is delicious, but not something I grew up eating often, even after visiting Germany.  Swedish food (lutafisk) is not my thing at all.  I have always lived in SoFla, so I can cook some mean Cuban, some Caribbean, Deep South, and have traveled extensively in Central America, so most of my cooking is NOT anything of my own heritage.  I'd have had a hard time with this one, and probably would have done seafood and hearts of palm as a native Floridian.  So I see why this challenge would be hard for those chefs who are 4 or 5 (or more) generations removed from their immigrant roots. 

This is THE tough challenge for the person who gets to PYKAG.   I felt sorry for Tyler, but I, too, agree that it should have probably been Bruce based on mangled lamb. 

Just have to comment (again) about the collegiality of this season.  I really, really like this group of chefs for how they seem to support each other, with none of the skeevy game-playing we saw in early seasons of TC.  It was nice.

Oh, and Isaac Toups from 2 seasons ago (I swear I'm going to New Orleans to eat at his restaurant in 2018) was a judge on Beat Bobby Flay tonight.  Rerun should be on again soon if you want to DVR it, he's one of my all time faves from Top Chef!

I wish TC would post the winners' recipes on the site like they used to years ago, each week.  I made someone's roasted chicken for a late-season "this is what I'd want as my last dish on earth" episode, as chosen by the celebrity chef diners, and it was fantastic. 

Chris's whole dish looked perfect. 

Thanks for the reminder of "Beat Bobby Flay!" I had so much else going on I totally forgot about it; "TC, Dance Moms," MSNBC news, and "Dexter" on Demand during their marathon this week! ;-)

[Eulipian 5k]

2 hours ago, Thumper said:

 

I am so hungry tonight -- I want to eat every dish presented!

 

Yes sir! The sight of Chris’ plate set the juices flowing, I could practically taste it thru the screen. And sorry Tom, the fried okras on Tanya’s gumbo sounded like a great plate  too.

[Fiero425]

12 minutes ago, Eulipian 5k said:

Yes sir! The sight of Chris’ plate set the juices flowing, I could practically taste it thru the screen. And sorry Tom, the fried okras on Tanya’s gumbo sounded like a great plate  too.

I've never cared for okra going back to my childhood! If my mom made a gumbo, she had to put some aside without it! It's just one of those things that has always given me a nauseated feeling! I went to NOLA's for a job interview over 30 years ago where I was taken out for lunch! I didn't relent and probably came off poorly due to my aversion to the slimy stuff! If a gun were put to my head, I might deal with it deep fried and breaded! ;-) Can someone tell me if Bobby Flay was beat? I was watching it, but with my sleep apnea, passed out and totally missed judgment! For some reason it's not on Demand on RCN! ANYBODY? ;-)

[Blonde Gator]

3 minutes ago, Fiero425 said:

I've never cared for okra going back to my childhood! If my mom made a gumbo, she had to put some aside without it! It's just one of those things that has always given me a nauseated feeling! I went to NOLA's for a job interview over 30 years ago where I was taken out for lunch! I didn't relent and probably came off poorly due to my aversion to the slimy stuff! If a gun were put to my head, I might deal with it deep fried and breaded! ;-) Can someone tell me if Bobby Flay was beat? I was watching it, but with my sleep apnea, passed out and totally missed judgment! For some reason it's not on Demand on RCN! ANYBODY? ;-)

Yes.  He should have made rice with the ropa vieja.  I love Isaac Toups!

[GaT]

Too bad, I liked Tyler. Chris' food looked so good, everything made my mouth water.

[Rammchick]

To me, the critiques seemed all over the place.  One chef's dish was not elevated enough, then Chris comes along and makes fried chicken and biscuits.  Definitely not elevated.  Speaking of which, lemonade fried chicken sounds intriguing, and I'm not even a fried chicken lover.  

Seconded on admiring the camaraderie of this season.  It's hard to see anyone leave.

[sweetandsour]

I NEED those biscuits!  I might drape myself in those biscuits if it were socially acceptable.

Surprised at a high-level that the bears were bottom three, but not when it came to the actualities of their dishes. I wonder if his emotions and affairs back at home are distracting Bruce enough to affect his performance (but without a lot of talking heads from him saying that or strongly implying it, like with Laura). It sucks, but is understandable, that even after you're eliminated, you don't get to go back home. You stick around for a competition that you're no longer in. Though I also believe he's not good at these challenges. In the first challenge, he even said he's so familiar and comfortable with those kinds of street fair settings because of work he does for charities, but his time management left something to be desired.

Adrienne did not get the same memo Bruce did about swearing in front of the kids. When she was announced as the QF winner, she dropped a nice "oh shit" for them.

Chiming in as the nth person about the positive support and friendships from the chefs. This group might just be very consistently congenial and respectful of other each other, or maybe TC is purposely editing more congenially, or both. The producers/Bravo is right to think that TC is not the kind of show people watch for drama. (Or for stupid Logan Paul, but whatever.) I always thought that was a huge misstep for The Biggest Loser (showing contestant backstabbing and bitchiness), though the cast was probably put through the wringer on that show, surviving week-to-week was reliant on gameplay, and if what you've got is shitty people, you can't always edit them to seem like nice people.

[bluepiano]

4 hours ago, Fiero425 said:

Their egos preceded them all unfortunately; esp. Bruce and Tyler who speak so confidently about their fare! They stunk and deserved to be on the bottom! The Bears are in serious trouble; the delusion real!  ;-)

Bruce started the season as one of the favorites based on his resume and connections. Even though we've been told the judges aren't playing favorites, I can't but think that if these were blind taste tests he'd be gone.

 

4 hours ago, jackjill89 said:

I like Tyler and thought he'd make it much, much longer, but I was taken aback at his tiny soft spot on the dragon comment. Come on, you aren't THAT good.

And he said, "they took me down." No, you did it to yourself.  Presumably "they" was whoever came up with the idea of the challenge. Did he think they were targeting him, knowing that he didn't have a strong ethnic or cultural identity?  Paranoid, much? Issues of being a white guy from Southern California aside, he got sent home for making a bad dish. Not for failing to adequately evoke Southern California Swedish cuisine.

 

3 hours ago, Blonde Gator said:

Chris's whole dish looked perfect. 

4 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

The real problem is that culturally we view WASP heritage as the norm and every deviation from it as the exception.

I wish Chris had said what  lemonade fried chicken is. (Maybe he did but the edited it out). I'm wondering if the lemonade imparts flavor or if its helps create a crispier crust. Guess I'll have to do my own research.

Actually, a lot of WASPs I know have an inferiority complex about being "white bread" with nothing interesting to offer in the way of food, music, or culture. At least that's true of the ones from the Midwest or California. The southerners work that whole "Down South" thing for all it's worth.

Edited December 29, 2017 by bluepiano

[spiderpig]

3 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

I don't know why Bruce is so bad at this. He's clearly familiar with competitive cooking competitions. He's done Chopped, Knife Fight, and Beat Bobby Flay. He also isn't completely delusional like Phillip Frankland Lee. But yeah, Bruce kind of sucks at Top Chef.

I'm sure Bruce came in with high expectations due to name recognition, but he's not doing his brand any favors with his performance on TC.  His restaurant may be good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there based on how I've seen him cook on this show.

Fatima's crunchy greens with grilled cheese croutons appealed to me most out of this episode.  Yum.

[Wings]

I want Chris' brown sugar, buttermilk biscuits, now!  I'm glad he won; that was the dish I wanted to eat out of all of them. The others did not draw me in which is unusual.  Normally I have a hard time choosing.  I have to choose only one, it is a game i play all by myself. 

Edited December 29, 2017 by Wings

[spiderpig]

1 minute ago, Wings said:

I want Chris' brown sugar, buttermilk biscuits, now!  I'm glad he won; that was the dish I wanted to eat out of all of them. The others did not draw me in which is unusual.  Normally I have a hard time choosing.  I have to choose only one, it is a game iplay all by myself. 

Yeah - when people rave about biscuits there must really be something going on.  I wonder what his secret is?

[Wings]

Just now, spiderpig said:

Yeah - when people rave about biscuits there must really be something going on.  I wonder what his secret is?

People go nuts over Tiffany's biscuits at her restaurant Sweet Cheeks, too. 

I have never seen butte milk in the grocery.  I have powdered buttermilk culture.  Something like that. 

[biakbiak]

When at the table Tom said Tyler should have just done the swedish mearball and pancake then at Judges table he said he should have scraped them and just done the tri tip and pico de gallo so I am still sort of confused why Bruce who's dish seemed a real mess with poorly cooked lamb stayed.

Chris's dish looked amazing and I imagine it was to beat Tanya's gumbo whoch I have been fortunate to try and is lick the bowl good.

[HunterHunted]

6 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

Actually, a lot of WASPs I know have an inferiority complex about being "white bread" with nothing interesting to offer in the way of food, music, or culture. At least that's true of the ones from the Midwest or California. The southerners work that whole "Down South" thing for all it's worth.

But this is my point exactly. They only have an inferiority complex about their food or culture because it's the default. It's considered standard here in America. These people think there isn't anything unique or interesting about it because they are so used to it being the default. Go to Japan, China, Brazil, or Nigeria. Those places have successful American "white bread" restaurants. And you know what isn't exotic there? Japanese, Chinese, Brazilian, and Nigerian food. It's like thinking you don't have an accent. You have an accent.

[Wings]

My lineage is mostly English, Welch and Danish  Boring and  not known for exquisite food. 

I would figure out what I wanted to make and claim that as my heritage. :^) 

[HunterHunted]

15 minutes ago, Wings said:

My lineage is mostly English, Welch and Danish  Boring and  not known for exquisite food. 

I would figure out what I wanted to make and claim that as my heritage. :^) 

My ethnic heritage is Nigerian, but I grew up in Pittsburgh eating pierogies. Your heritage is what you want it to be. Tyler didn't grow up eating Norwegian food. He grew up eating California cuisine--make California cuisine. If he and his dad had a tradition of stopping to get a sandwich at the Jewish deli after baseball games, make some Jewish food. I live in Texas and know many people of all ethnicities here who always have tamales for holiday meals. Tyler's problem is that he viewed heritage as just ethnicity.

Edited December 29, 2017 by HunterHunted

[biakbiak]

22 minutes ago, Wings said:

My lineage is mostly English, Welch and Danish  Boring and  not known for exquisite food. 

I would figure out what I wanted to make and claim that as my heritage. :^) 

On the Ellis Island challenge Blais did well with English and Irish. I imagine they wouldn't have batted an eye if there was someone like Kristen who is ethnically Korean but grew up not knowing that cuisine and therefore cooked the food that her family cooked. Marcus Samuelsson another TC Masters winner cooked both Swedish dishes ans Ethiopian and sometimes combined the two. 

[spiderpig]

I grew up with Grandma's Depression/WWII-era cooking.  A big barrel of flour attached to a kitchen cabinet, and she always had forearms dusted up to the elbows with flour.  Rolling out pie crust on waxed paper Wonder Bread wrappers.  She made her own donuts for my grandfather, cooking them in Spry. Limited eggs and butter due to rationing, thus my favorite cookies of all time are molasses cookies cut out with a water glass.

Nevertheless, we always ate at a formally-set dining room table with salad, main course and dessert.  Oh - and ice water served from a Sunsweet Prune Juice bottle.

Memories.

[Totale]

2 hours ago, Wings said:

I would figure out what I wanted to make and claim that as my heritage. :^) 

Here comes my Irish 7 course dinner.

Thing is, i don't remember anyone saying Tyler's food tasted bad, just that it didn't go together.  I thought making food that tasted good trumped the stated requirements of the challenge, but apparently not this time.

[avecsans]

I may be in the minority, but I didn’t like the Quickfire. Mostly because of the ridiculous twist of using tiny utensils, but also because I found the kids to be annoying.  I like kids, I have kids, but these three came off as condescending little twerps.

I’m not sad to see Tyler go.  I think that he and the rest of the bears have an inflated opinion of their own talent. I think I want the final four to be Tanya, Fatima, Adrienne and Chris. And if Chris comes to my house to make chicken and biscuits, I will move him up to number one on that list.

[dleighg]

Because I was somewhat distracted, I missed it-- who was the guest female judge at Judge's table?

[biakbiak]

41 minutes ago, dleighg said:

Because I was somewhat distracted, I missed it-- who was the guest female judge at Judge's table?

Nilou Motamed she was briefly the editor of Food and Wine and has been a judge on the show before. Her family immigrated from Iran to Paris when she was a child.

[dleighg]

10 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

Nilou Motamed she was briefly the editor of Food and Wine and has been a judge on the show before. Her family immigrated from Iran to Paris when she was a child.

Interesting. I completely missed her brief tenure, though I don't closely follow things. Her own webpages aren't even updated! (Even though her tenure ended 6 months ago)

http://www.niloumotamed.com/About.html

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilou-motamed-269a537b

Edited December 29, 2017 by dleighg

[annewithaneee]

Just the description of Chris's lemonade fried chicken made me rethink vegetarianism for the rest of the episode, that sounded soooooo good. 

The Quickfire was fine, but between the Cutthroat Kitchen-esque twist and the baby judges, I wasn't in love with it. 

I'm glad we got to see Tanya distinguishing herself. She was my favorite since she walked out on episode one, but she's been getting very little air time other than struggling mightily last episode. I still think she's a long shot for making it to the finals let alone winning, but maybe she'll be around for a bit longer.

I'm genuinely sorry for the loss of his mother, but I still can't get onboard with Mustache Joe at all. Just when I was softening, I noticed that his chyron has him as Joe(seph?) Sasto III. I feel like that tells us everything we need to know about him.*

*Obligatory disclaimer that if your name has roots and you commonly include your suffix of being the third or fourth or eighteenth when identifying yourself in writing, you do you. My tongue is firmly in my cheek about a specific reality show character who I viscerally dislike and think of as 'that douchecanoe'. 

[NaughtyKitty]

Both of my grandmothers were of Swedish descent but born and raised in North America.  The only Swedish dish I ever had was "Swedish Bread and Gravy" - cubed old bread, white gravy, topped with crumbled bacon.  I always loved it, but somehow doubt it was really Swedish.  I would have had trouble with this theme as well.

I thought the QF was to make a HEALTHY version of a kid's standard.  I was bothered that Tanya was in the top 3 when she had nothing healthy in her mac and cheese.  It sounded good, but not in the spirit of the game.

I was happily impressed when the chefs all banded together to help one of the contestants plate his pasta.  I enjoy the lack of meanies this season.

Edited December 29, 2017 by NaughtyKitty
Fixed a typo

[eurekagirl mOo]

All in all a good season. I do love the niceness.. Enough with the snarky remarks! We want cooking and they are delivering.

Could have done without the teeny, tiny cooking utensils. This isn't cutthroat kitchen! 

And I generally like kids, I enjoy when they bake and cook BUT I don't need smart mouth kids "judging". I know there the kids of chef's but seriously? 

[susannot]

Sorry to see Tyler go.  But I figured he was in trouble when he said "I have no heritage.  I'm a white guy from Southern California."  He got that mindset into his head and couldn't deal with the challenge.

But  loved this episode.  The wonderful diversity of the chefs this season, and the differing cuisines, and the interesting discussions of heritage the episode has sparked, both here and on the show, has made this one of my favorite episode.

I guess my new favorite chef is Chris, based upon his fried chicken and biscuits.  I would eat that dish every day for the rest of my life.

[FormerMod-a1]

I really want to try those biscuits, too.  One chef, upon tasting them, said something like "I know I won't be in the winner's circle".  They sounded good, but all the reactions make them sound even more divine. 

[spiderpig]

4 minutes ago, susannot said:

I guess my new favorite chef is Chris, based upon his fried chicken and biscuits.  I would eat that dish every day for the rest of my life.

What do we have to do to get Chris/Bravo to share his recipe?  I'm a carb hog and was ready to lunge through my monitor to get at his biscuits.

[Caseysgirl]

Tyler lost me with his parting words.  I realize that in order to compete at this level you have to have a pretty strong ego and confidence, but some humility ( at least for the cameras) goes a long way. Those "f.......'s" didn't defeat him;his lousy performance did.

Edited December 29, 2017 by Caseysgirl

[HunterHunted]

Just googled brown sugar biscuit recipes

[Straycat80]

Was not a fan of the kid challenge. And some of the things the kids said sounded like producer fed lines. But I wanted Tanya’s Mac and cheese now! 

Also would want Chris’ biscuits. Didn’t he say they were lemonade sugar biscuits? They looked so good and the judges looked like they were in heaven eating the fried chicken. 

[Fiero425]

10 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

Just googled brown sugar biscuit recipes

 

I love buscuits, but they're so fattening and loaded with salt; it drives up my blood pressure! I limit myself to a can of Pillsbury Grands Jr. 3 or 4 times a year! When I ate others more often, they just put weight on me and made my hands shake before getting on blood pressure medicine! lol!

7 minutes ago, Straycat80 said:

Was not a fan of the kid challenge. And some of the things the kids said sounded like producer fed lines. But I wanted Tanya’s Mac and cheese now! 

Also would want Chris’ biscuits. Didn’t he say they were lemonade sugar biscuits? They looked so good and the judges looked like they were in heaven eating the fried chicken. 

Some kids are just more sophisticated and articulate; not all are empty-headed "duh-machines!" I know I was rather precocious early on and would actually correct adults' ENGLISH! These kids are children of chefs and work in the kitchen regularly! I can imagine them being able to thoroughly explain themselves without a limited vocabulary of "it's good" or "I hate it!" ;-)

Edited December 29, 2017 by Fiero425

[Kaiju Ballet]

7 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

I wonder if his emotions and affairs back at home are distracting Bruce enough to affect his performance

Maybe a lot of this is being shown to justify why he's not performing at the level one would expect, given the fact that he's so well-known. I'm not sure why undercooked lamb can ever be forgiven over having a non-cohesive dish.

Despite Tyler's babbling about dragons (I had a seriously puzzled expression over that), I did find his acknowledgment of Top Chef's positive effect on him as a chef to be gracious.

I was really moved by Brother's story, and the pain he still seems to feel from that fifth grade memory. I'm glad that the show touched on how "heritage" can (still) be a source of shame for people who don't fall into the Epcot Center version of non-mainstream acceptability.

This season does have really likeable contestants! I'm always relieved that Fatima delivers (especially if the worst thing that can be said is that the flavors are there but snobby judge has had better versions) Fatima seems absolutely delightful.

Chris deserved that win, especially when we saw the contestants falling on the biscuits like a hungry horde of zombies. I was jealous of them!

[HunterHunted]

24 minutes ago, Straycat80 said:

Was not a fan of the kid challenge. And some of the things the kids said sounded like producer fed lines. But I wanted Tanya’s Mac and cheese now! 

Also would want Chris’ biscuits. Didn’t he say they were lemonade sugar biscuits? They looked so good and the judges looked like they were in heaven eating the fried chicken. 

It was lemonade chicken. You use the lemonade to brine the chicken. The biscuits were brown sugar buttermilk.