S15.E07: Olympic Dreams

[Wings]

28 minutes ago, Ellee said:

38 minutes ago, Wings said:

Loved that.  I don't like Claudia at all but Tonya was worse in this situation.  Do what you have to do and politely ignore Claudia was the way to go.  She was being her haughty self.  pfffffft

Tonya was done anyway.  She was pissed she didn't get the speed round and got caught up in her head about the trials of being a black, woman chef.  Pack your bag and leave it at the door, come to win and have fun!  This is not an arena to settle society's slights. 

Oh, wings, do you really think so?

To me, it appeared that Claudette took Tanya out of her game and Tanya finally had her fill.  Might even have been Claudette’s strategy. Don’t know because we don’t see it all as it happened. 

Had to laugh when Tanya told Gail ‘no’ when Gail asked for her side of the story.  

I do have a question though. 

Where was Chris when all of this was going on?  Did he assist either woman?

No one can take you out of the game unless you give them permission.  It was up to Tanya to stay focused on the food and let Claudette twirl.  

Claudette was just being her haughty, self absorbed self.  Nothing new there and no strategy that I saw. 

Chris said in a TH that he was staying out of the way of the women yet he told Tom he didn't know this was going on.  I probably would have done the same thing.  They would have asked to tell them what happened.  He wanted none of that! 

[Blonde Gator]

35 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

I'm not OK with Tom subtly suggesting they make sure their scores were not too high for Chris. I didn't want anyone from the red team to go home either, but you play by the rules or it's cheating. I was curious that we didn't see Chris helping Claudette but it's possible he offered and she denied him. Tanya went into this in a bad mood because she didn't get what she wanted. We didn't see the discussion so it's possible she was outvoted, it's also possible she didn't speak up. She could have told her team members she doesn't have those particular knife skills and wouldn't be able to win her round.

The lights in the olympic round were really unfortunate. They made everyone look sweaty, and made Tom look sickly.

I rewatched the scoring part.  I'm not sure how the subtraction of Besh's scores affect what they showed, but being the bean-counter I am....let me recap so you all can decide for yourselves how that admonishing by Tom may (or MAY NOT) have played out.

After the 2nd round, the scores (not exact, I didn't put in the half points) were:

Blue Team  94

Red Team  89

White Team 69

So....Round 2 was KEY, because of the point deduction(s) for temperature accuracy.  Tanya LOST the whole competition for her team with her "145 degree lamb".  She lost a potential 6 points x 6 (or 7) judges, her maximum potential score was 4 x 6 (or 7) for 24 or 28 points.  Jeff had the least point deduction, -2 points, so he could score 8 x 6 (or 7), for a Maximum of 48 or 54.  Adrienne on the Red team had a -3 temperature deduction, so her score was a potential 7 x 6 (or 7), for a Maximum of 42 or 49.

In rounds 1 and 2, red team scored w/in 3 points of the Gold on each of their 2nd place scores.  But at the end of Round 2, White Team was 20 points behind, a REALLY serious deficit.  That was on both Claudette and Tanya, all alone, by themselves.  (And where was Chris helping them, I'd have to add here)?

In Round 3, both Mustache Joe and Chris had very high scores.  But the only way for White Team to come in 2nd was if Chris had won, or scored just a smidge under Mustache Joe, while Carrie totally bombed.   Carrie bombed, all right, but just not enough to totally crater her team's 20 point lead over the White Team.  THAT is the gist of the math.  And the judges only put up HALF the scores for each chef's total. 

A final observation.  It seemed to me that even though the Olympian judges were sitting right below the TC judges....within earshot of the judges' opinions....it seemed to me that the Olympians really upscored their favorite dishes, sometimes a few points above the judge's scores on the same dish.  IOW, they weren't swayed much by Tom's opinion, if at all.

Having said that, one final thing about this episode.  I really loved seeing the teams all compete in front of a live audience.  It was exciting, and as Tom noted, it helped drive some of the chefs' energy (mostly Bruce and M. Joe, per the edit).   I like this kind of a live challenge, and hope to see more of it in future seasons.  It ranks up there with the Mis-En-Place QF, and the fish filet episode at Le Bernadin (with Bourdain in the kitchen yapping) as a favorite style challenge for me, in all seasons of TC. 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Blonde Gator
Sorry, not "Mustache Jeff", LOL

[meep.meep]

I guess we are all different.  To me, this was one of the worst episodes of Top Chef ever.  The temperature thing lost it for the White team.

Why not have them cook for the athletes at the Training Village, which is in Colorado?  They have different training requirements - it would have been fun to see the chefs have to creatively make a meal for the skaters vs. the cross country skiers.

[Ellee]

9 minutes ago, Wings said:

No one can take you out of the game unless you give them permission.  It was up to Tanya to stay focused on the food and let Claudette twirl.  

Claudette was just being her haughty, self absorbed self.  Nothing new there and no strategy that I saw. 

Chris said in a TH that he was staying out of the way of the women yet he told Tom he didn't know this was going on.  I probably would have done the same thing.  They would have asked to tell them what happened.  He wanted none of that! 

All points that I didn't take in to consideration. 

And, Chris getting out of the way before the competition really got going indicates that trouble was afoot from onset.   Again, something I didn't consider. 

I usually try to be impartial but maybe this is one of those situations that I'm not. 

[Blonde Gator]

6 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

I guess we are all different.  To me, this was one of the worst episodes of Top Chef ever.  The temperature thing lost it for the White team.

Why not have them cook for the athletes at the Training Village, which is in Colorado?  They have different training requirements - it would have been fun to see the chefs have to creatively make a meal for the skaters vs. the cross country skiers.

As you said, to each his/her own.

An excellent idea....remember the Alaska episode (poor Brooke in the helicopter melting down) where they flew out to the Iditarod mushers' camp, and had to make them a power-packed breakfast?  That was a very cool challenge.  Agree with MORE of these kinds of challenges, tho.

[Rahul]

I'm finding many of the Elimination Challenges to be extraordinarily gimmicky this season. I don't care for reality TV gimmicks and unfortunately Top Chef seems to now be following that trend. I found this whole red, white and blue team thing to be silly because clearly the guests were just randomly placed into camps and given some placards to hold (unless they had to design them as an entry fare). Clearly this was just a blatant way to promote Bravo's parent company, NBC Universal and the 2018 Olympics.

In any case, I felt terrible that Tanya got stuck doing the precision round which was clearly not her strength and was then forced to assist the miserable Claudette to the detriment of her own dish. There's not one thing I like about Claudette from her self-absorbed, passive-aggressive attitude to her aesthetic. How can every stylistic choice she makes--from the color of her hair, to the shade of her lipstick and pattern of her eyeglass frames be so damn wrong??  

It was ridiculous that while her lamb was perfectly cooked, Tanya was docked so many points because she did not know the precise temperature at which the thermometer should have registered. Moreover, it seemed she did much more running around like a sous chef to assist her teammate Claudette than any one else had to do--at least from the editing.

I can totally understand Tanya's attitude by the time judge's table rolled around; she is the eldest of the group and has had to endure bunk beds, camping outdoors in freezing conditions and now Claudette's ridiculous antics. Tanya was just over it all and ready to go home rather than descend into a verbal sparring match with a competitor who clearly will throw any of her teammates under the bus to save her own skin. 

I was hoping and praying Claudette would be the one to get sent home. I cannot stand seeing her ugly mug on my screen.

[Blonde Gator]

Oh, and a question for the Peanut Gallery.  (Sorry about these random stray thoughts).

Each team was allowed to choose their own protein, in the "precision" heat (2nd round).

So someone explain to me how Tom would have measured temperature if a chef had chosen seafood?  Do you think it was stated (off camera) that it had to be a protein that is usually cooked to certain exact temperature(s) for doneness?    That's the only thing I can figure, but I wonder why (if it was a thing) it wasn't stated in the challenge.

[Eulipian 5k]

I think the producers encourage the chefs to mention their personal struggles in their confessionals. Tonya's related to her struggles as a chef in the food/financing/restaurant industries. I'm sure they encouraged Le-Ann to "talk about how being preggers and camping/cooking on top of Mt Everest affects you.." or Chris's alcoholism, (note he didn't really have a problem joking about toasting Bruce's baby with champagne). (Wings, Elle: "Its all sauce for the goose")

[LennieBriscoe]

"It depends on whose ox is being gored"  is a saying. 

http://www.profitatanyprice.com/2015/06/whose-ox-is-being-gored.html

Edited January 19, 2018 by LennieBriscoe

[Wings]

21 minutes ago, Ellee said:

All points that I didn't take in to consideration. 

And, Chris getting out of the way before the competition really got going indicates that trouble was afoot from onset.   Again, something I didn't consider. 

I usually try to be impartial but maybe this is one of those situations that I'm not. 

The send off that Tanya got from the other chefs tells a tale of distension in the ranks.  She got a good edit because we all loved/liked her up until last night.  Her bratty passive aggression did not just happen in this one challenge.  

 

14 minutes ago, Blonde Gator said:

Oh, and a question for the Peanut Gallery.  (Sorry about these random stray thoughts).

Each team was allowed to choose their own protein, in the "precision" heat (2nd round).

So someone explain to me how Tom would have measured temperature if a chef had chosen seafood?  Do you think it was stated (off camera) that it had to be a protein that is usually cooked to certain exact temperature(s) for doneness?    That's the only thing I can figure, but I wonder why (if it was a thing) it wasn't stated in the challenge.

The challenge was about interior temp.  They wouldn't have given them pork either.  Those proteins were chosen for them or in their limited options.  

11 minutes ago, Eulipian 5k said:

I think the producers encourage the chefs to mention their personal struggles in their confessionals. Tonya's related to her struggles as a chef in the food/financing/restaurant industries. I'm sure they encouraged Le-Ann to "talk about how being preggers and camping/cooking on top of Mt Everest affects you.." or Chris's alcoholism, (note he didn't really have a problem joking about toasting Bruce's baby with champagne). (Wings, Elle: "Its all sauce for the goose")

Yes, I get that.  I think Tanya ran with it a little too far though.  It showed up in her attitude.  Chris and Lee Ann were fine with their "troubles."  Both delightful people who I cannot imagine would be haughty to the judges. 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Wings

[worleybird]

In her Talking Heads (without glasses), Tanya reminded me of Maggie the Head ED nurse on Chicago Med.

[Eulipian 5k]

Wait, did Padma really say "Baby Faced" Joe??? LOL.

[stacyasp]

Tanya, Chris and Claudette should have determined who was going to do what to help each other on each round...apparently Tanya felt slighted that she had to help Claudette but I’m sure if she hadn’t been such a bitch about it Claudette would have helped her out.  She’s overly concerned with race, women’s empowerment being a role model etc.... you failed on each of those!  And hello you’re a classically French trained chef and you don’t remember what temp lamb is cause you don’t serve it in your restaurant , bullshit!  

[hkit]

1 hour ago, Rahul said:

It was ridiculous that while her lamb was perfectly cooked, Tanya was docked so many points because she did not know the precise temperature at which the thermometer should have registered.

She doesn't get a pass from me on this. Yes, it would have been a good test of "precision" if the chefs were asked what doneness they were targeting and then Tom showed up to check for 125, 135, whatever. But they didn't, and there is no excuse for Tanya saying "145". Tom even gave pause and repeated it. If Tanya wasn't so stubborn, she should have picked up on the fact that was high. Even without Tom's pause, she doesn't get a pass for not knowing that is well done range. This is fairly basic information she would have come across many times during her career. 

I know Claudette sucks, but the point deduction is 100% on Tanya, and Tanya doesn't deserve a pass because Claudette sucks.

4 minutes ago, stacyasp said:

 She’s overly concerned with race, women’s empowerment being a role model etc.... you failed on each of those!  

I really liked her and her point of view, but after sleeping on it overnight, I think I agree with you 100%. For someone so concerned about women chefs and POC chefs, we never saw her attempt to bond with Fatima, who I'm sure is still at a point in her career where she could benefit from a role model. She had an opportunity to walk the walk by interacting with the younger chefs, but instead, she came off as a misanthrope.

[All That Jazz]

Putting together the discussion about holding up numbers with the discussion about Besh being edited out, isn't it logical that Besh held up scores also? And that with Besh's scores tallied, the final standings were as we saw them, but with different totals? So they tossed out Besh's numbers but HAD to come to same standings. That justifies Tom's comment (added later?) about needing a certain result. That comment itself probably should not have been shown because it is confusing unless you know the Besh situation. And any analysis of the tally is flawed because of missing data.

[dleighg]

That whole "highest possible score" confused me on the middle round. Wouldn't it make more sense to grade it out of 10 and then subtract the penalty? It seems it muddles the decision of what score to give. 

And why did they send them to the stew room? Isn't this just a matter of adding up points? (at least for winning and losing teams)

Edited January 19, 2018 by dleighg

[Bastet]

20 minutes ago, dleighg said:

That whole "highest possible score" confused me on the middle round. Wouldn't it make more sense to grade it out of 10 and then subtract the penalty? It seems it muddles the decision of what score to give. 

They were mirroring Olympic scoring.

[Hero]

I looooooove Chris' voice. It's so smooth and deep. I like hearing him speak. His voice is very calming. 

Edited January 19, 2018 by Hero

[annewithaneee]

Well, for me this was a worst case scenario episode -- Mustache Joe winning and Tanya going home. Also they turned up the brand promo volume up to 11, which never makes anything better.

I have no issues at all with how Tanya handled herself. It's not realistic to expect someone to be immune from anger and bitterness. But while she was clearly pissed, she kept it under control. Her voice stayed level and she didn't make any personal swipes. I think she handled the L pretty much on par with how many people do when they go home on team challenges. Team challenges - across reality competition shows, really - often make for an extra salty loser, usually with at least some good reason.

I forgot what exactly she said to the winning team -- something along the lines of them always being loud when winning or losing and they needed to show some empathy and pipe down with their celebrating a bit -- but I thought it was a very small, relatively mild, but fantastic way of letting someone know you're pissed. And to their credit, they went quiet without being defensive. 

[politichick]

2 hours ago, stacyasp said:

Tanya, Chris and Claudette should have determined who was going to do what to help each other on each round...apparently Tanya felt slighted that she had to help Claudette but I’m sure if she hadn’t been such a bitch about it Claudette would have helped her out.  She’s overly concerned with race, women’s empowerment being a role model etc.... you failed on each of those!  And hello you’re a classically French trained chef and you don’t remember what temp lamb is cause you don’t serve it in your restaurant , bullshit!  

She also said she always determines meat temperature by touch, which is why although she was off with the 145 guess, her lamb was perfectly cooked, according to Tom. I think that Tanya was just over the whole competition thing by then. Camping, dealing with other people's bullshit (I'm looking at you, Claudette) and these crazy challenges are simply not her thing. Although it would have been wonderful to win, I think she was primarily focused on expanding her name recognition and reach and establishing a more national presence so that she can be helpful to up and coming women and women of color chefs. Experience has shown that people can't really count on Claudette and I don't know if it was the editing, but she seemed a tad disorganized and to be constantly needing stuff/assistance. I also think Tanya felt that Claudette should have chosen something that she could confidently prepare in the 45 minutes with minimal help so that the ones with more complicated dishes/techniques could gt started.

[cooksdelight]

21 minutes ago, politichick said:

I think she was primarily focused on expanding her name recognition and reach and establishing a more national presence

Well, she didn’t leave a very good impression with a lot of people. 

[Bastet]

47 minutes ago, politichick said:

I also think Tanya felt that Claudette should have chosen something that she could confidently prepare in the 45 minutes with minimal help so that the ones with more complicated dishes/techniques could gt started.

Yes, from Tanya's comment about having a dish she could have executed in 45 minutes, I think it's clear she - already frustrated that she didn't get to do the speed round - was annoyed Claudette chose something that would require so much assistance to complete, when in their pre-challenge discussion of it, Claudette had said she'd mostly need help with plating.

Going by how the other teams all acted like teams, making sure the speed round chef got help to get the dish done in time, just as the speed round chef was going to help with the second and third rounds, while Tanya and Claudette got irritated with each other and Chris just stayed in his own zone, I think the white team just did a poor job of establishing beforehand what the two who weren't the point person in each round would be doing to assist in those rounds, and then it just snowballed from there.

[jackjill89]

What bothered me is it was clear they loved Chris' dish during judging, but at judges' table had much more lukewarm praise. I think they wanted to justify Mustache Joe's win. 

[Destiny74]

I get that dealing with other people’s bullshit is a pain in the ass but, if you have a real problem with it, why would you go on a reality competition show that, to win, you need to be on for months?  Meaning, you will be sleeping, eating, working, and breathing with people who will get on your nerves.

Either suck it up and put on your biggirl panties, or don’t apply to be on this kind of show.  Apply for Iron Chef or Beat Bobby Flay if you just want to show what you got on tv.

Edited January 20, 2018 by Destiny74

[pinguina]

Just some random thoughts/observations:

When everyone was asked what the meat temp. should be (round two), Tonya said 135, then Tom said "145?", and she said something like "Um, yeah."  Did I mishear that small conversation?  Anyone recall that?
I thought it was cute when Bruce thought that Padma and Brooke were there because they heard that he had a new baby, and not there for an early morning challenge.

I'm sorry Claudette rubs me the wrong way.  I'm usually the one to try to give everyone the benefit of a doubt when they come onto these competition shows.  She wasn't exactly gracious with the help she got and seemed to demand more. Then you see (and hear) another contestant turn and say, "Didn't she do this to you?", to another person, then you know that is who the person is.  

I kind of liked how Tonya told the "Bros" to cut the chatter.  She said that they do it when they win AND when they lose.

I've decided that I really like Fatima and Adriana(?).

I felt bad for Chris - he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.  I would have taken a step back, looked the other way, and begun to whistle just to avoid that whole situation with Tonya and Claudette.

[dleighg]

3 minutes ago, pinguina said:

When everyone was asked what the meat temp. should be (round two), Tonya said 135, then Tom said "145?", and she said something like "Um, yeah."  Did I mishear that small conversation?  Anyone recall that?

I heard her say 145

[pinguina]

OH, thank you!

[dleighg]

4 minutes ago, pinguina said:

I've decided that I really like Fatima

I like her too, but she was doing that horrible vocal-fry thing in some of her talking heads. That drives me nuts.

[AnnaBaptist]

28 minutes ago, pinguina said:

I kind of liked how Tonya told the "Bros" to cut the chatter.  She said that they do it when they win AND when they lose.

I've decided that I really like Fatima and Adriana(?).

 

I'm glad that someone told them to tone it down. I get that they were happy about winning, but I could not imagine Fatima, Adrienne, or Carrie behaving like that after a win. It's fine to be "bears", but there is a point where their actions start to go into the realm of immature "frat boy" behavior. Seeing men age 30+ act like that would get old fast. And I am sure that most of the time they just talk a lot, but there is a difference between having a conversation and having a need to constantly say attention-seeking things and monopolizing the dialogue.

[BlackberryJam]

I try to avoid judging reality competitions based on my assessment of personality, but I have a very negative response to women who do not support other women in professional settings. I now have a very negative impression of both Claudette and Tanya. 

On the other hand, I think the re-edit was pretty seamless.  Good job, editing drones.

Considering the terribly low score of Tanya's dish, I don't see how a win on Chris' part would have put the red team in last. Even without consideration of Tanya's point deduction for temperature, if her maximum score was 29 and the score she received was 18.5, that's still damn low. Her precision cuts were appalling. Brother went home last week for not fulfilling the challenge by not making German food. I have no problem with Tanya going home for not fulfilling the challenge by not being accurate on her temperature and by not having precise cuts, even if her dish was delicious. She did not meet the challenge.

It should be about the food, not the personality.

[Corgi-ears]

Brooke: "My daughter and I make crepes every Sunday. We call it 'Crepe Day.'" How does she come up with this stuff?

[dewelar]

3 hours ago, annewithaneee said:

Her voice stayed level and she didn't make any personal swipes.

You wouldn't consider her "get woke" comment to Carrie to be personal? Because I certainly would.

 

Tanya was one of my favorites, but in this episode all her negative traits seemed to be dialed up to eleven, especially (as noted above) her passive-aggressive behavior. She really did deserve to go, and her comment about it being kind of a relief was very telling. I still like her, but from what I can see she's someone I'd avoid when she's having a bad day. I can relate to that, a fact to which Mrs. Dewelar can attest :) .

Edited January 20, 2018 by dewelar
Minor stuff

[Nordly Beaumont]

6 hours ago, Wings said:

Chris said in a TH that he was staying out of the way of the women yet he told Tom he didn't know this was going on.  I probably would have done the same thing.  They would have asked to tell them what happened.  He wanted none of that! 

I don't know if this is what he was thinking, but I know that if two people are in a tense situation a third voice can often make things worse.

 

5 hours ago, stacyasp said:

Tanya, Chris and Claudette should have determined who was going to do what to help each other on each round...apparently Tanya felt slighted that she had to help Claudette but I’m sure if she hadn’t been such a bitch about it Claudette would have helped her out.

When Claudette was going to help Tanya plate she asked her a question and Tanya griped "I can't even hear you, Claudette" - like it was Claudette's fault the room was noisy.

 

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

Yes, from Tanya's comment about having a dish she could have executed in 45 minutes, I think it's clear she - already frustrated that she didn't get to do the speed round - was annoyed Claudette chose something that would require so much assistance to complete, when in their pre-challenge discussion of it, Claudette had said she'd mostly need help with plating.

Yeah, Claudette was so confident she could win the speed round, I wouldn't have thought she'd need all that help to complete it on her own. And didn't she say something about how she should get the speed round because of her experience in LCK? Isn't LCK just a Quickfire? I feel like they all needed to discuss more and be more honest about what they could/couldn't do in the timelines (honest with each other and with themselves).

I can get pretty passhole aggresshole myself (I'm working on it!) so I don't really find anyone completely right or anyone completely wrong. A more realistic timeline from Claudette and a better plan from all of them would have yielded better results.

[annewithaneee]

15 minutes ago, dewelar said:

3 hours ago, annewithaneee said:

Her voice stayed level and she didn't make any personal swipes.

You wouldn't consider her "get woke" comment to Carrie to be personal? Because I certainly would.

I'd really have to rewatch it, and I didn't like this one overall - it just felt off and confusing to me, which knowing now that it had be heavily edited makes sense, plus I did hate the whole result - so I probably won't and I may have to concede this point. I will say it didn't hit me the same way as it seemed to many other folks here. 

So, maybe it was? I personally wouldn't say it definitely, certainly qualified. It was fast, it didn't contain an actual explicit insult, and it wasn't accompanied by any further commentary via a talking head. We've seen worse. 

I don't know -- I think more of what I was trying to say there is I think she handled her frustration in a very human way - messy, imperfect - but I admired how she kept it pretty level. Anytime someone is faced with their impending elimination and a teammate chucking them under the bus and abstains from yelling or outright insults, I think they did fine. It was no "I'm not your bitch, bitch!" for sure.

[dewelar]

1 minute ago, annewithaneee said:

I don't know -- I think more of what I was trying to say there is I think she handled her frustration in a very human way - messy, imperfect - but I admired how she kept it pretty level. Anytime someone is faced with their impending elimination and a teammate chucking them under the bus and abstains from yelling or outright insults, I think they did fine. It was no "I'm not your bitch, bitch!" for sure.

Yeah, I can agree with this much, and the argument that this comment (along with her "don't project that on me" comment to Gail, since "projecting" is often used to imply that the accuser is the one guilty of the behavior rather than the accused) were right at the edge of getting personal rather than over it is perhaps fair. And yes, we've seen a lot worse, and I can't say with certainty that I would have done any better.

[sweetandsour]

I wish they had clarified the hierarchy of winning at the team level better. As Tom said, if Chris won his round, his team would have been in second place.  His team would've had one gold and two bronzes vs. the all-ladies team with two silvers and a bronze. So if gold is 5, silver is 3, and bronze is 1, then they would have tied at 7 points with some kind of tie-breaker. Same with any other variation where the differential weight between medals is the same. The total team score as given by the judges didn't seem to matter at the team level because there's no realistic way Chris' performance could beat Carrie's to slide in to second place - Tom wouldn't have made that point about what Chris' score could mean as they discussed the final dishes.

As a backseat driver (chef?) and in hindsight, knowing how things actually transpired, if Tanya had helped Claudette more to the point that (a) Claudette plated the dish she intended and (b) that dish was judged 6 points better than Fatima's in total, their team would have been in second place with two silvers and a bronze, even with Tanya's temperature snafu and poor knifework.

Tanya was really just sunk from the temperature penalty, which I found insane in actuality. I heard Tom explain the -1 point for every 3 degree differential and didn't think much of it because I thought that was deducted from the total score - until I saw it was deducted per judge. Maybe the point was the chefs should all be within ballpark of their mostly correct guesses, so any penalties were fairly equal across teams or could be overcome. I think Joe had a 6 point base advantage over Adrienne, but he only beat her in total score by 2 points, so I guess she was at least close to closing the disadvantage.

An extremely well-cooked meal with perfect knifework can't really overcome a penalty is bigger than everyone else's. Tanya's final score deficit of 24 points vs. Joe was basically her 4 point-per-judge penalty.  They seemingly would have tied if she was only 6 degrees off, too.  Which sounds weird to say because her knifework was clearly the worst, so maybe they would have scored her lower so as not to tie with Joe.

I wondered if that temperature question came out of nowhere for the chefs. They were maybe not supposed to confer, either - just answer independently. So you compare that to the precision aspect of the knife cuts where we clearly saw Tanya show Chris her cuts and ask for guidance/concurrence (not that that helped much) ... it sucks that precise execution in the cook of the meat was so overshadowed by a spontaneous (?) individual question about temperature whereas they weren't totally on their own with the knifework.  That doesn't excuse being a professional chef and not being able to cite appropriate temperatures, though.

I suppose if Claudette had left more things off her plate that more greatly affected her score, you could argue she failed at the speed aspect. The judges were clear they felt Tanya failed at the precision aspect. If team members are encouraged to help each other with the speed of the first course, I wonder if they could help each other with the precision of the cuts? Like, "hey, I'm cooking my meat, can you do one or two of the cuts for me? That's not my forte." Or would that be considered cheating like NO, you were assigned the precision and someone else helped you with that?

Ugh Claudette, get off my screen. If her Restaurant Wars team loses next week, it could get very interesting at panel. If she pulls the same stuff she's pulled at panel - for the third time - I can't imagine the judges won't see her as a common denominator in the failures and blaming. Or that her teammates would let her get away with it. It also presents a situation where it's not so much "Claudette said, one other person said" as has happened in the past, unless you have the Front of House person saying, "I wasn't back there, I don't know what happened" and the third chef in the kitchen saying, "I don't know what happened between Claudette and the other person" the way Chris said this week.

I normally don't mind at all watching reruns if they're on, but this is one episode I have no desire to rewatch.

[GreyBunny]

19 hours ago, VintageJ said:

she was already smarting over the planning session.  But as one poster said, part of that is her fault for not speaking up.

It was her fault.  Whether she tried to speak up or not, in the end she agreed to it.  Instead of just dealing with it, she got passive-aggressive and took her anger out on others around her, and she got even angrier when others wanted to celebrate their wins or just tried to say or do anything that didn't agree with her attitude that she's the biggest martyr in the room and everyone needs to bow down to her.  Her "get woke" snap at Carrie was way out of line as it insinuates things about Carrie that are really nasty and I haven't seen evidence of.  So glad she's gone.  Too bad it wasn't a double elimination, Claudette and her bus-throwing and her creepy Hot Topic lipstick need to go.

[bravofan27]

5 hours ago, Hero said:

I looooooove Chris' voice. It's so smooth and deep. I like hearing him speak. His voice is very calming. 

He's dreamy and his voice just is part of the dreaminess. LOL

Regardless of the wonky scoring, most likely made even more confusing due to the sliced episodes, the right chef went home. She absolutely didn't do the precision challenge with any precision, nor attempt to. It also did not seem like she made any attempt to think about the temperature, again, maybe cuz she didn't want to ask for help and look like she didn't know (even though she didn't). I see Bruce and Tonya sort of in a similar boat as they are both the oldest, Bruce being in his late 40's, Tonya early 50's, but Bruce has a much better attitude and perspective about the younger chefs. He pays  attention to what others are doing, asks for help, and seems supportive of others. He is also open to learning from the other chefs and listens carefully to the feedback the receive on their food. Tonya however, seems to look for reasons to separate herself from others and downplays their talents. She certainly does not seem open to learning from the other chefs, like she knows it all already. I'm sure it's a defense mechanism but you would think someone who is "woke" would see how that is holding them back.  

Edited January 20, 2018 by bravofan27

[BabyVegas]

Yeah, Tom was...not subtle with that scoring. I think we're all aware that kind of mess goes on in the background, but it's really hard to ignore when Tom out and out says it like that.

Can't be said enough: Claudette suuuuuuuuuuuuucks. She didn't ask Chris hardly at all for help. And at JT when Claudette put her hand on Tonya and did that pitying smile thing while she was blaming Tonya for her own fuckups? I wanted to dive through my TV and yell at her. Claudette basically said that she couldn't cook her dish on her own when she insinuated that Tanya was at fault for her dish missing acid. I'm assuming that part of the reason Tanya was over it by JT was that she was tired and JT can drag on for hours, so she probably had to listen to a whole bunch more of Claudette's nonsense than we did. On the whole, Claudette reminded me of Josie from TC: Seattle and that is not a compliment.

Quote

You wouldn't consider her "get woke" comment to Carrie to be personal? Because I certainly would.

Right before that comment, Carrie said that Tanya should let Claudette finish because Tanya was making Claudette feel bad. I'd bet money that Carrie's guilt-tripping had already worked Tanya to the end of her rope. After the shady shit that Claudette was pulling and having Carrie adding onto it, I can absolutely see how Tanya would have snapped. Then again, I've found Carrie irritating this whole time, so I probably also would have had no patience for her.

Edited January 20, 2018 by BabyVegas

[HappyDancex2]

Claudette did say she busted out great quick food at LCK so she could do the speed round.  It wasn’t until they came back from Whole Foods that she mentioned she hoped she could get it done .

Nice comment by Chris on how they had wisdom on their side and Tonya said they weren’t putting their egos on the plate.  Cue Tonya next saying she wanted to cook her lamb to 145 when she clearly didn’t know temps.  She also oddly  pronounced it bah-to-net having lived in France.  

That being said Claudette did seem to be panicking and using her like a line chef.  I think Tonya did help her when asked and was truly annoyed at how needy she was.  Tonya was not very humble but Claudette seems to suffer from remembering things in a way to fit her narrative later LOL.  

Claudette “don’t u have a list of equipment you need?”  Screw you.

claudette “here’s your sauté pan.  Jeez.”  Jeez yourself

claudette “Tonya’s dish doesn’t seem to be showcasing any of the knife cuts.”  Hmmm maybe could have talked about this when y’all were deciding the menu 

claudette “well we really need her to score a silver or gold so that our team is trending upwards....”.....because your dish stunk and you were in last 

[chiaros]

I will never eat at any of this claudette person's establishments. Ever. 

[Norma Desmond]

I cannot stand Claudette and the bears, especially Bruce. I feel like he's getting the winner's edit. It's reminding me of Brooke in the last season. I will be really pissed if he wins.

[HappyDancex2]

Claudette is worse than Josie.  Never thought I’d say that.

[Destiny74]

I must be the only viewer who likes th bears.  Sure, it is cliquish but they are trying to get through this competition in a way they can keep their spirits up.  At least they are positive and supportive of each other.  I like ‘em.

The people who tend to do the worst on reality comps are people who don’t bother to try and make any kind of friendships.  You get to call home what, maybe once a week?  You might need a few more “you can do this”and “atta boys” than that.  Besides, these people are also living with this huge pressure, who better to understand what you’re feeling.

I don’t know that Tanya hadn’t made friends or not, no one seemed particularly upset when saying goodbye.

No one was particularly upset when Claudette went home the first time either.  And I assume no one will be particularly upset when she gets booted again, hopefully soon.

Restaurant wars is always a good time for us viewers.  Can’t wait to see who screws up.  

[Cotypubby]

I like the bears too. Maybe it’s different actually living with them, but I haven’t seen any bad behavior from them. I thought the bear feet were funny. 

Tonya has only herself to blame. If she really wanted the speed round, then she should have spoken up at the time and not quietly taken what was left and then passive aggressively seethe about it after! 

[dewelar]

1 hour ago, BabyVegas said:

Quote

You wouldn't consider her "get woke" comment to Carrie to be personal? Because I certainly would.

Right before that comment, Carrie said that Tanya should let Claudette finish because Tanya was making Claudette feel bad. I'd bet money that Carrie's guilt-tripping had already worked Tanya to the end of her rope. After the shady shit that Claudette was pulling and having Carrie adding onto it, I can absolutely see how Tanya would have snapped.

Whether or not snapping was justified has no bearing on whether or not the comment constituted "getting personal". On that note, what do you think Tanya was saying Carrie should "get woke" to?

[GreyBunny]

1 hour ago, Cotypubby said:

I like the bears too. Maybe it’s different actually living with them, but I haven’t seen any bad behavior from them. I thought the bear feet were funny. 

I like them too. They're positive and supportive of each other which is nice to see in a competitive pressure-cooker and they're friendly and supportive of the other contestants as well.  Some of the dude-bro-ing might strike the others as immature but they're not at all malicious.  The bear slippers and paws are cute.

[pivot]

On 1/18/2018 at 10:24 PM, Reddust said:

I didn’t think I could dislike Claudette more than I already did but I was wrong. What a bitch. 

I actually thought that Tanya was being an asshole. She had a chip on her shoulder from the beginning because she wanted the quick challenge but didn't say anything to the team. Then after they all agreed to help Claudette in the first round, she turns around and give massive attitude when asked to help. Claudette immediately offers to help her teammates after her round and gets attitude from Tanya. Claudette continues to try to help Tanya anyway including doing a lot of the plating for Tanya. Then, Claudette helps Chris with his dish as well. Tanya wasn't a team player and then was a total ass to just about everyone in the stew room. WTF with telling Carrie to get woke? Carrie didn't do anything wrong and the issue certainly wasn't about race. It was about Tanya being a jackass for no reason. 

And for all her talk about being a mentor to women chefs and WOC chefs, she has been shitty to Claudette - a Latina chef and Carrie in this episode alone. And the other women didn't seem too sad to see Tanya leave either. She just seems to have a sour attitude.

Considering her goodbyes, she seemed to have a lot of problems with people in house. I get that people here don't like Claudette for a variety of reasons, but Claudette was the biggest team player on that team and had Tanya said she didn't want precision ahead of time, a lot of the issues could have been avoided.

Edited January 20, 2018 by pivot

[pivot]

On 1/18/2018 at 11:13 PM, catrice2 said:

Didn't Chris offer to help Claudette and she declined?   It just seems odd to me that her discussion about lack of help did not include him.  If you need help, it shouldn't matter which one of your team mates it came from and if he offered to help and she felt Tanya was not willing, just take his offer?  Something else must have happened that we did not see, but Chris wisely stayed out of it.  

I liked Tanya, but I expected her to go last week or whatever week they showed her talking to her dad.  She just seemed over it then and lacking a good spirit to complete the competition so it was best she left.  Living with other people is always hard.   I don't mind people being proud of their achievements but some of the guys this season are too much for me.  I doubt Chris will be around much longer.  This is clearly a horse race between two very obvious people. 

I sometimes just can't deal with Tom's smugness and condescending demeanor.  Over the years Gail and Padma have become just as bad as he is.  

Claudette smartly told Chris to work on his short ribs. They were going to take the full 2 hours and he need to start them cooking. Even Tom said that they should start the short ribs and then go help the first person. Claudette helped both Chris and Tanya extensively after her round was done.  I honestly think Chris and Claudette had no idea why Tanya had such a piss poor attitude from the second the competition started. Both Chris and Claudette asked her why didn't she say something earlier and Tanya just behaved like an ass.  It looks like her crap attitude continued at Last Chance Kitchen as well.

 

Overall, Claudette is shown getting along with the other chefs in the house and set-up a lot of the baby shower. Tanya seemed to have some serious issues with a lot of people in the house. 

While I am rooting for Claudette to win in large part due to the fact that Tom is always sneering down at Mexican cuisine and his issues with women chefs, I'd be happy to just happy to not have anyone from the blue team win.

[cooksdelight]

8 hours ago, Corgi-ears said:

Brooke: "My daughter and I make crepes every Sunday. We call it 'Crepe Day.'" How does she come up with this stuff?

Personally.... I doubt she spends too much time with her kids, what with a restaurant to run and personal appearances all the time. I think it’s guilt talking.

 

3 hours ago, HappyDancex2 said:

Claudette is worse than Josie.  Never thought I’d say that.

You’re absolutely right. She’s now at the top of my shit list.