Guy's Grocery Games - General Discussion

[mlp]

I don't understand why they make the winners start the run for their 10 items from way back by the judges.  They waste several seconds and some energy just getting to the produce aisle.  It's not like they're trying to save money by making it harder to get all the items because Guy often points things out and practically hands things to contestants so he clearly wants them to win as much as possible.

Edited August 31, 2015 by mlp

[cooksdelight]

I was jonesing for a fried Twinkie after seeing Marcel add those to his dessert.

[Hero]

Sooooooo glad that Anne lost! They should really stop inviting to be on these shows.

I still can't forget how she acted when she was on Chopped.

[BennyB]

 

I don't understand why they make the winners start the run for their 10 items from way back by the judges.  They waste several seconds

As Guy was doing his 3 2 1 GO countdown....he was already pushing Marcel before he said go.....Marcel already started running at the '3' point. (If that makes any sense)

[mlp]

 

As Guy was doing his 3 2 1 GO countdown....he was already pushing Marcel before he said go.....Marcel already started running at the '3' point. (If that makes any sense)

 

I noticed that too.  As I said, Guy often helps the contestants (within reason) succeed.  That's why I don't understand why they make them run that extra distance.

[nottopbravo]

When it was down to the final two, I kept wondering how the hell Anne was going to run around in the outfit and shoes she was wearing.

[BennyB]

I was more worried about Eric Greenspan...if he won and how he was going to run up and down the aisles without having a heart attack! :-0

Edited September 2, 2015 by BennyB

[cooksdelight]

Yeah, I think the judges saw Eric sweating and huffing and decided it was in his best interests to cut him.

[candall]

I should have been rooting for Anne--she's squarely within my demographic.  But I was so happy to see that little werewolf take the win.

 

If he'd been the one playing for animal shelter dogs going to war vets, it would have been perfect.

[Darian]

I should have been rooting for Anne, too, as my beloved (late) sister had Type I diabetes (back in the days when insulin was not as pure, and monitoring was done only a few times a day, so there could be swings in blood sugar). But...she's worn on me, and I have always liked Marcel. 

Edited September 2, 2015 by Darian

[cooksdelight]

Anne comes across as mean to me, and she didn't used to do that. I enjoyed the show she once had. But I thought she would cut Marcel's ankles with her cart if she thought it would help her win.

[MajorWoody]

I was jonesing for a fried Twinkie after seeing Marcel add those to his dessert.

Don't you mean a deep fried "cream filled sponge cake"?

Edited September 2, 2015 by MajorWoody

[HunterHunted]

Sooooooo glad that Anne lost! They should really stop inviting to be on these shows.

I still can't forget how she acted when she was on Chopped.

Ugh, she is such a sour humorless bint. It sort of works on Worst Cooks because the humor comes the sheer awfulness of the cooks and Anne as a straight man. Everywhere else she's an unpleasant condescending television presence.

[cooksdelight]

My favorite lunch is a good BLT. I'd have used those potato nuggets to mash up to make a larger patty, and pan fry it for my "bread." I love adding a little horseradish to my mayo, a good Bibb lettuce, thick smoked bacon, a big tomato slice, top that with some pepperjack cheese and sometimes a fried egg. When I do the egg, I usually do it open-faced, and knife & fork it. Which is why a fried potato nugget patty would be perfect for this.

Penny's divorced? I cannot imagine why.... :) Melissa is a dunce for complimenting Penny for those nuggets when she didn't do a thing to them. She had time to remake those into something else. I hated she wasn't cut first.

Were they required to take something from each of the 3 clearance carts? It seemed that way.

Justin, don't stick your finger into the sauce to taste it. Unless the blender is still running. :)

"The man is a mad, cruel puppeteer! Let me quit now before I poison the judges. This is for real?" -- Chef Ron (I love him!) He seemed to love every minute and it showed on his plates. I'm sorry he didn't win.

[HyeChaps]

So satisfying to see Penny get dumped.

 

Ron Ben-Israel is cute as a button.

[Taeolas]

As Guy was doing his 3 2 1 GO countdown....he was already pushing Marcel before he said go.....Marcel already started running at the '3' point. (If that makes any sense)

 

I get the feeling that for the "special" episodes (Celebrity or Theme episodes, like Fathers Day or Mothers Day), they seem to relax the rules a bit, especially for the final shopping spree. Usually by Guy shoving them along before the countdown. 

 

As I said earlier in this thread, they should give the contestants an extra 10-15 seconds to account for the run to the Produce aisle. Or, let them 'bank' time from advantage wins and other elements as they go through. So winning Round 1 or Round 2 might give them an extra 5 seconds.

[mlp]

I adore Ron Ben-Israel so I was sad that he didn't win.  What really struck me was how OK all of them acted.  If I hadn't known a thing about any of the contestants before the show, I wouldn't have disliked any of them, even Justin Warner whom I basically loathe.  He was nowhere near as obnoxious as usual.  Neither was Penny.  

 

This is the only show where I've noticed that the judges switch seats between events.  Judges on all shows probably get up and walk around and do other things while waiting for set changes but they return to the same seats so it's not obvious.  On GGG they often are in different seats after the break.  That bugs me a little but I'm not sure why it does.

[Hero]

Ugh, she is such a sour humorless bint. It sort of works on Worst Cooks because the humor comes the sheer awfulness of the cooks and Anne as a straight man. Everywhere else she's an unpleasant condescending television presence.

She got a lot of heat on Facebook after her Chopped episode aired. Everyone is sick of her crappy attitude.

[candall]

Just watching now, came to see if the board was blowing up at a Penny Davidi appearance.  It's disappointing when she's not in Evil Queen character because I am reduced to enjoying her "use of the potato nugget as French fry" and her hummus pronunciation faceoff with Melissa.

 

I didn't see the Chopped episode.  Could someone give me a Cliff Note?

 

Sweet Genius falls below my tolerance for machinations.  "Pork liver and peppermint oil, inspired by the Brazilian Tree Frog."  But Ron Ben-Israel was fun.  He needs to get out more.

[Psychobunny]

I wanted Ron to win but I can't be sad that he did so well considering he's a baker, not a chef.  I also loved that he basically made all his grandmother's recipes and I love that everybody loved the Kugel.  (People insist my mother make Kugel when the come to dinner).  In case people haven't seen him outside of hosting Sweet Genius, here is a link to some of his work.  I think it's stunning.

http://www.weddingcakes.com/#/collections/

[cooksdelight]

I didn't see the Chopped episode. Could someone give me a Cliff Note?

Candall, you can read all about it in the Food Network Star alums thread, or the Chopped All-Stars and other special people thread. :)

[jcbrown]

Bummed that Madison didn't win but at least Aaron McCargo and Elizabeth Falkner both lost.

[mlp]

I think there must be something in the air in Flavortown Market that makes people less annoying than they are elsewhere.  Last week, Penny and Justin Warner (whom I loathe) both came across OK.  This week Elizabeth Falkner came across well and I usually can't stand her.  Madison always seems about the same to me - smug and smarmy.  I didn't really care who won.

[MajorWoody]

Regarding the money run at the end of this last episode, isn't a pizza wheel a pizza cutter? I realize they give them a lot of leeway since it's for charity, but my wife and I thought that the pizza board he grabbed was not what was on the list, a pizza wheel.

As others have posted, Penny, Falkner, and Warner were actually somewhat decent on GGG. Now if only we could figure out the secret to that, and translate it to Blais and D'Arabian.

Edited September 15, 2015 by MajorWoody

[spiderpig]

I thought the same thing.  He grabbed a pizza peel, not a pizza wheel.  Whatever.  It was for a good cause.

 

[Hero]

I wish the athletes didn't have help competing. I feel like the chefs did most of the work.

[jcbrown]

 

I wish the athletes didn't have help competing. I feel like the chefs did most of the work.

Agreed. That was a pretty pointless episode.

[Psychobunny]

I think the grandmother who won looked familiar.  I think I previously hated her on chopped but she seemed slightly less annoying this time.

[joanne3482]

I didn't like that that grandmother was a professional chef. I know the little grandmother in red was a caterer, but somehow the winner's 'win' was tainted in my eyes because of her career. I didn't think (and could be wrong but it doesn't say on the FN webpage) the other two grannies were professionals in the kitchen. 

[spiderpig]

I didn't like the winner either. She had such an entitled attitude. Yep, she was on Chopped, where she said she'd opened 8 restaurants and recently closed the last one. I thought "what kind of endorsement is that?"  I wish red granny had won.

[cooksdelight]

They are doing a grand championship type of thing where past winner come back to compete for a bigger prize. Round two is on tonight. I am dying laughing, because there is a female who looks just like Richard Blaise!!

[Grommet]

I've never watched this before and stumbled on tonight's episode. I enjoyed it. The contestants and the judges were likable and the fast pace was fun.

[cooksdelight]

There will undoubtedly be more talk about Guy in the coming months. He's trying to pull out of the Johnny Garlic restaurant chain he co-founded, but his partner wants a court to intervene and do a fair valuation of the value of the restaurants.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/Guy-Fieri-Wants-Out-of-Johnny-Garlics-Restaurant-Chain-363555761.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DCBrand#

[Maverick]

 Frozen garlic and basil?  Is that a thing?  I've seen minced garlic in a jar and basil and other herbs in tubes in the produce section but I've never seen frozen herbs.  That read like some cheat placed there for when they do the frozen aisle only games.

 

 You could tell manbun was not happy and felt cheated out of his win.  

[Lizzing]

 Frozen garlic and basil?  Is that a thing?  I've seen minced garlic in a jar and basil and other herbs in tubes in the produce section but I've never seen frozen herbs.  That read like some cheat placed there for when they do the frozen aisle only games.

 

 You could tell manbun was not happy and felt cheated out of his win.  

The frozen herbs are a legit grocery store thing.  All of the regular grocery stores here (think Walmart Marketplace, Albertsons, rather than Whole Foods or Trader Joes) have them.  While not as good as fresh, I like them because they're easy and better than dried for a lot of things, like soups.  Plus, they last longer than fresh and I don't have to be bothered to make my own herb cubes, 'cause I'm lazy like that.

 

I was soooo glad Phillip didn't win.  I really didn't care who did, just not him.  I still suspect Blais liked the winner because she is his doppelganger.

[Psychobunny]

I am also glad Phil manbun didn't win. He seems to be another chef who is going on any show that will take him. I will say that his food sounded interesting but his ego left a bad aftertaste. I was rooting for the winner.

[Janimo]

FWIW, Philip the manbun is currently a contestant on this year's Top Chef....I'm glad he lost on GGG.

[Brookside]

The frozen herbs are a legit grocery store thing.  All of the regular grocery stores here (think Walmart Marketplace, Albertsons, rather than Whole Foods or Trader Joes) have them.  While not as good as fresh, I like them because they're easy and better than dried for a lot of things, like soups.  Plus, they last longer than fresh and I don't have to be bothered to make my own herb cubes, 'cause I'm lazy like that.

 

I was soooo glad Phillip didn't win.  I really didn't care who did, just not him.  I still suspect Blais liked the winner because she is his doppelganger.

 

You can get some of the frozen herbs at Trader Joes.

 

Also glad that sulky Phillip didn't win.

[jcbrown]

Like most of us, I watched hoping that Philip would go down in flames. I did not care who won as long as it was not him. I want him off Top Chef in the very near future, as well. Noxious little douchebag and FN is throwing him at several shows. He was also on Chopped.

[penbrat]

I missed parts of each of these episodes - was the girl who one trying to look like Richard Blais or was it just a coincidence?

[MajorWoody]

On the latest episode, while doing the ABC challenge, the one chef used asparagus for the letter G, saying it was Green Asparagus.

What a crock. If you are going to do it by letter, what is the point if you can basically just affix a descriptor to something and make it fit? I can understand green onions, or green tomatoes, which are are different type than the regular ones, but as far as I know, asparagus is only green.

[chessiegal]

On the latest episode, while doing the ABC challenge, the one chef used asparagus for the letter G, saying it was Green Asparagus.

What a crock. If you are going to do it by letter, what is the point if you can basically just affix a descriptor to something and make it fit? I can understand green onions, or green tomatoes, which are are different type than the regular ones, but as far as I know, asparagus is only green.

Actually, you can buy white asparagus.

[RealityCheck]

And there is purple asparagus.

[MajorWoody]

Even so, asparagus is commonly green. I can see using white asparagus for the letter W, since it is not what people usually associate with asparagus.

Kind of like using Y for lemons, since they are yellow, or king crab for O, since they are orange.

This is not the first time someone has done this with the ABC game. It just seems if you are going to have limits to what you can use, you should try to stick to them.

[Taeolas]

I think the overall goal of the games is to encourage creativity; and that includes bending the rules during the game stages too. I remember early on, they had a No Carts challenge and someone went and grabbed the biggest mixing bowl they could find before getting their ingredients; that was a smart bending of the rules.

 

For ABC challenges, I think they're fine with ingredients as long as it doesn't bend the rules TOO much and the cheftestant shows how they are justifying it. For Colour adjectives, I probably wouldn't give them a by, unless it's a food that often has a colour added to it, even for other types. So Yellow Onion, Green Asparagus, etc are fine... But Yellow Lemon isn't because we don't usually have a colour adjective tied to it. 

[Surrealist]

Troy Johnson and I follow each other on Twitter. He tweets and RTs some of the funniest things I've read on social media.

[mlp]

I vaguely remembered Troy Johnson from Crave but that show didn't really give me any sense of his personality.  I get a huge kick out of him on GGG so I'm not surprised to read that he tweets funny stuff.  I'm always happy when I see him on the judging panel.

 

And speaking of judges................. I absolutely cannot stand Melissa d'Arabian.  I loathe her only slightly less than I detest Robert Irvine which is to say a whole lot.  She emotes like she's in a junior high school play or talking to a kindergarten class.  Gah.  I think possibly she and Guy are actually friends in real life so I guess we're stuck with her.  Aarti can be annoying because she's pretty subjective in her opinions but at least I find her likable.

[TK81]

Last nights GGG, appalling. They are so sexist, one guy had raw shrimp, the girl had sweet potato that was not fully cooked and yet the girl gets sent home first. This is not the first time either. Seriously this is so beyond annoying, am I the only one who feels as though GGG has a tendency to be on the sexist side. That's why I stopped watching Chopped.

[mlp]

I'm female and I can't agree.  There have been several times in recent months when the sole woman was eliminated first but, in every case, I thought it was the right decision and had everything to do with the dish and nothing to do with sexism.  Last night the guy had slightly under-cooked shrimp, not raw, and the woman had under-cooked sweet potato which would have been hard and starchy.  I thought sweet potato was an odd choice and it didn't sound good to me even if it had been cooked perfectly.

[HalcyonDays]

Last nights GGG, appalling. They are so sexist, one guy had raw shrimp, the girl had sweet potato that was not fully cooked and yet the girl gets sent home first. This is not the first time either. Seriously this is so beyond annoying, am I the only one who feels as though GGG has a tendency to be on the sexist side. That's why I stopped watching Chopped.

 

I think judging is so subjective on these shows that it's sometimes hard to see WHY they chose someone. We also can't taste the food, so we don't know how bad - or good - it is. I've thought the same to be honest, especially Chopped. The decisions they make seem biased at times (whether gender, race, someone who was an apprentice to a judge, best sob story, yadda). But no, I don't think it's sexist, though I get irritated at the judging. The critiques are edited, the food we can't taste, each judge has their own food item/type preference, so we don't get the whole picture. I do get the anger though, I yell at the TV, at the judges "stupid" decisions too.