S15.E09: Bronco Brouhaha

[Ellee]

53 minutes ago, dleighg said:

so all of these superfans were tailgating before an empty stadium. Makes sense. What do you think they had to pay the real football players to come out and eat food?

Don’t know. Whatever they paid them apparently wasn’t enough. Otherwise all the food would have received rave reviews.  :D

[Wings]

I like this season a lot.  Carrie is my favorite and has been since she baked that cake.  It was funny to see the chefs grousing about her winning with toast.  She didn't win with toast, she won with her combination of flavors.  That means her toast tasted less like bath oil than the others. 

Joe w/stash is not a favorite of mine but I don't dislike him.  I may have missed something.   

Tail gating food bores me.  I get it that some make very fancy food.  I don't know exactly what is considered fancy tail gate fare though.  I am pretty sure it does not include lobster thermidor or Coquilles Saint-Jacques.  So upscale ribs and chicken wings?  <shrug>  I would have made small strawberry short cakes or pineapple upside down cup cakes.   The sweet would be a welcome relief from all of that heavy stuff.  

[meep.meep]

1 hour ago, LeighLeigh said:

I wish that Gail would be on every episode. I can do without Mr. White Glasses.

I don't.  Graham keeps it all about the food.  Ms. Perky Breasts wants to probe their psyches.

I really think Mustache Joe should have gone home.  He screwed up the Quick Fire, screwed up the Sudden Death, and screwed up the Elimination - should have been finito.

[bravofan27]

This episode was weird. I have no problems with Joe F going home. I was praying hard for Chris though. I was soooo happy that Carrie choose him for the challenge. It made me so happy to see Chris visibly pleased he was picked first. Now with the clique broken up, he's the cool kid! Yay!

I was stunned by how passive Bruce was with Fatima. I know guys like that-- they are afraid of hurting women's feelings or saying anything that isn't really supportive but seethe inside. Then they act like savages with their man-cave friends. Bruce should get over feeling he needs to play supportive pappy  with women. He clearly knew her idea was bad, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings and say anything (assuming it wasn't deliberate sabotage but I doubt that). I actually know someone who totally resents and almost hates his wife with a burning rage, but he's super sweet and kind to her face. Of course, he's totally cheating on her (but he holds her when she cries, bleech).

Carrie on the other hand, is effectively directive. Chris had an idea, she tweaked it, he agreed, and it worked out for them.

I also thought the group left is really awkward. I don't see any connection between Bruce and Chris (maybe with the bear cave broken up Bruce can start paying attention to someone else), and Adrienne had to fight back disdain for Joe Stache. Fatima was the happy glue that held them together and kept the conversations going. Now they will just stare at each other.

[The Solution]

2 minutes ago, bravofan27 said:

I also thought the group left is really awkward. I don't see any connection between Bruce and Chris (maybe with the bear cave broken up Bruce can start paying attention to someone else), and Adrienne had to fight back disdain for Joe Stache. Fatima was the happy glue that held them together and kept the conversations going. Now they will just stare at each other.

I would love to see them add Sam Talbot, Elia, Spike and Battleax Betty to the mix now. That could redeem the season for me.

[HappyDancex2]

I'm starting to see the issues having such nice cheftestants (except claudette LOL).   There just isn't much to work with at all so we've gotten:

Bruce backstory to adopting a baby, Birth mom in labor, Bruce is having a baby!,  Hey daddy you're a daddy, baby shower, Bruce shows picture of baby, Baby Pictures!, Bruce has the sadz cuz he's here and not with Baby, Bruce using Baby as motivation, Bruce wants just a couple hours with the new Baby, Did you know Bruce had a baby?, Same picture of Baby, Bruce skypes with Baby, Bruce is now losing motivation for being on Top Chef because of Baby, No one puts Baby in a corner....oh sorry....

The reason we are getting hit over the head with it is because outside of Tonya telling people to Get Woke and Claudette throwing everyone under the bus, there isn't much drama to show so we are left with mediocre challenges and lots of airtime to fill.   The secondary Bruce story is he makes too much pasta and polenta and the third one is how he's friends with all the judges.   That's scraping the bottom of the barrel for topic points!!

[chiaros]

Regarding Joe Sasto's Mac n Cheese..  :-)

 

Heh.

Didn't he also talk about the performance of his team in RW last week in glowing terms? Perhaps he needs to stop and reassess.

[PamelaMaeSnap]

As a sportswriter who does not really love football (I'm 99% baseball and the other 1% the Wizards when they don't suck), but does love tailgate/Super Bowl party food, I was ecstatic that Chris won the tickets because of his love for the Iggles ... maybe even enough for me to watch and root for them (oh, who am I kidding? I hate Brady so much I'll do what I usually do and go see a movie or something in an empty theater). But seriously, I WAS very excited for Chris!

I was sad to see Fati bounced over Mustache Joe in this situation ... I really adore her ... and now am just trying to send whatever healing vibes I can to her. Having trying to stay unspoiled but having seen a photo of her (with Bruce and Tyler, I think) after her surgery, I don't know if it's just my imagination that she looks tired and run down or she really was just fighting so hard to get through this. Kinda wish she could have the same "you can come back when you're healthy and do it again" pass that Lee Ann got ... certainly won't be surprised and would be thrilled to see her return on a future All-Stars, which seem to come about every third cycle anyway.

Also, we're heading to Chicago for a wedding in March (which is killing me because it means I can't go to an Expos event in Montreal I really wanted to attend) so hoping I can get hubs and his friend to make reservations at Joe Flamm's place. (Without getting into gory details, the last time we went to a Top Chef-related restaurant, a few weeks ago, we'd made reservations several weeks in advance and it was our last night on a big vacation and we were all excited ... but I had eaten a bad clam earlier that day ... let's just say that I was able to eat ONE STRAND of pasta and spent the rest of the time feeling incredibly glaringly awkward walking across the HUGE dining room EIGHT TIMES during dinner. Sad face. Though the rest of my dining party rated the meal next to last on our week's worth of dinners so maybe I didn't miss that much ... )

[Wings]

I like them getting along but the simultaneous truth is I do miss a good  villian.  Tanya and Claudette were not great bad guys. It takes more than a bitch and passive agressive victim to make history in this arena. 

[TVbitch]

Wow, Tom REALLY did not like Joe S's sudden death cauliflower. His face was priceless the moment he put it in his mouth. And then he kept bringing it up later. I think he really wanted to punch Joe in the face for that cauliflower. 

[Kimmykun]

Mustache Joe's into crystals, you guys. 

[jackjill89]

Sometimes I can't get over the stupid decisions the chefs on TC make. Nachos? As soon as Fatima said it, I knew it would be a bust. They get soggy too fast! So frustrating, because she was one of my favorites.

Mustache Joe has had some huge fails lately. I wouldn't be sad to see him leave. 

It seems like the only thing Bruce really excels at is pasta. 

[hkit]

35 minutes ago, Kimmykun said:

Mustache Joe's into crystals, you guys. 

Highlight of the episode for me. Because of course he is. "Crystal" has become a verb my husband and I use to describe certain doucebag actions, so Joe completely validated our silly marital inside joke. 

[Lamb18]

So Mustache Joe has the phone call of doom. And Bruce still has his permanent bedhead. It's smoothed down a little for the Quickfire, but  it will find a way to spike back up.

Did Bruce say the kind of pasta he was making was his spirit pasta? I thought I heard him say "spirit." Now if I had a spirit pasta I think it would be elbow. I like the shape. Hey, Snidely, don't diss Carrie! I bet she'll knock off a good toast. I wonder if Snidely knows Phillip Manbun Lee, a fellow forager.

Fatima does not look good. That partial collapse after she presented her Quickfire dish. I can't help wonder how much the cancer was affecting her. Bruce's bedhead is emerging during the Quickfire as he kills Padma with his pasta. I guess she doesn't have a spirit pasta. I knew Carrie would do well. Ha! Snidely Joe! Take that! Carrie won - that's the best revenge for disrespect. I wonder if Joe F. loses. He looked a little teary in his talking head.

Cauliflower taking the place of another item - how about rice? I saw that on Top Chef, Jr.? Now if Mike Isabella was here he's try making a cauliflower scallop, especially as he was so successful doing that with a leek.

Oh, rats, it's Joe Flamm! Another bear is down! A major tearfest accompanies Joe on his way to heaven, oops, the sequester house.

Shutout to my town by Padma! Minneapolis! And I work across the street from the stadium! I know a perfect Vikings Quickfire if TC was ever in Minneapolis: make something with lutefisk. It's kind of like fish jello.

I wonder how lentils will work in nachos. It seems kind of weird. Well the Bedhead is flattened a little. Humidity must flatten it out, or sweat, for that matter. The fried mac and cheese looks OK when it's fried with the corn flour. Those ribs look good.

I think Adrienne will be safe. She's my favorite, although I do like the rest OK.

Funny! Chris and Carrie are probably here now. Maybe I'll see them on Sunday. (I'm a Super Bowl volunteer & I have the 1:00 - 11:00 shift on Sunday.) Tom, don't make Adrienne cry.  Tom is looking old. Now why is Bruce dinged for making a good steak?

Oh, poor Fatima. Maybe she'll kill it in LCK.

Edited February 3, 2018 by Lamb18

[Nordly Beaumont]

12 hours ago, dleighg said:

I like Fatima, but her vocal fry (only in her talking heads, not in "real life" when cooking and talking with the other chefs) was driving me nuts

I notice that too. But I give her a pass because I can't even imitate vocal fry in my real life, but get me talking on a teleconference  and my voice gets so fried that if I have to talk much my throat will hurt! I know that I'm doing it, but somehow can't stop. It's weird.

Quote

Shoutout to my town by Padma! Minneapolis! And I work across the street from the stadium

Hey! I bet I know where you work! (If I'm right, we work for the same company)

I immediately liked Carrie because I loved her smile. Now I love her confidence. I mean, TOAST in a sudden death quickfire?! Plus I'm originally from MT, my nephew and brother-in-law both rope in rodeos so to find out she was a roper was pretty cool.

Edited February 3, 2018 by Nordly Beaumont

[HappyDancex2]

Watching the replay....I can do without hearing Chris chiming in “my man” as a response after he asks a question like “what are you making?”  

I’m crabby LOL 

[LeighLeigh]

Did you hear Chris on the Pack Your Knives podcast? He swears like a sailor. I don't know why, but it surprised me.

[April Bloodgate]

On 2/1/2018 at 8:11 PM, HappyDancex2 said:

 

I really don't care for flowers in cooking.   Stop trying to make lavender happen.   They are putting it in craft beer now and it tastes like soapy beer.  Stop. It.

I love floral flavors in my food and beverages. Give me them all!

16 hours ago, LeighLeigh said:

I love Carrie and Chris, but....

we invented poutine where I come from and if it doesn't have cheese curds, it is not poutine, but chilli cheese fries.

(Although, I am sure it was delicious.)

This really bothered me too. Why were they trying to call it poutine? Especially when green chili cheese fries are kind of a staple here in Denver. I don’t know why Carrie wouldn’t just embrace that.

I haven’t been a big fan of mustache Joe up to this point, but I did really like his TH about basketball. That was funny.

23 hours ago, rhys said:

I'm headed to Denver tomorrow. I'm thinking about trying to go to Carrie's restaurant. Has anyone tried it? What did you order ? I'm so impressed with her too.

I haven’t eaten at Carrie’s place, but I really want to now. I can recommend Acorn and Work & Class.

[Thumper]

I don't know about other florals, but lavender is NOT a "flavor" in my book.  It is a "scent," and not a good one, IMO.   it does seem to be the rage, though.  ?

[Fukui San]

The two guest judges David Kinch and Adam Perry Lang have authored two of my favorite challenger performances ever on Iron Chef America. Kinch in particular had one of the consensus best performances ever in his Cabbage Battle where he obliterated Bobby Flay with very understated, heartfelt food. It's not that surprising then that Carrie's Fancy Toast resonated with him. It's very much in the same vein. Simple looking but thoughtful and profound.

Lang was more of an acquired taste, I think. He did a lot of clever things in his Chicken Battle, but lost to Flay by a point.

I loved Fatima's delivery of "The 1989 Tour. Obviously." in her talking head with Bruce.

[Peper81]

12 hours ago, LeighLeigh said:

I wish that Gail would be on every episode. I can do without Mr. White Glasses.

I agree; I love me some Gail.  They need to bring back Hugh Acheson.  He’s one of my favorite judges.

[bobbobbob199]

35 minutes ago, Fukui San said:

The two guest judges David Kinch and Adam Perry Lang have authored two of my favorite challenger performances ever on Iron Chef America. Kinch in particular had one of the consensus best performances ever in his Cabbage Battle where he obliterated Bobby Flay with very understated, heartfelt food. It's not that surprising then that Carrie's Fancy Toast resonated with him. It's very much in the same vein. Simple looking but thoughtful and profound.

Lang was more of an acquired taste, I think. He did a lot of clever things in his Chicken Battle, but lost to Flay by a point.

I loved Fatima's delivery of "The 1989 Tour. Obviously." in her talking head with Bruce.

Kinch's food is pretty understated for a three-star restaurant, but I'm still surprised that he went with Carrie's toast because his style is much more refined and I thought he would prefer carefully presented and precise dishes. I've been to Manresa, and there is a heavy use of flowers, I remember having a squash blossom stuffed with trout, his "into the vegetable garden" dish has a lot of flowers, and he uses flowers in other dishes as garnish too. I guess whatever taste best does win, though, after all, even if isn't as elaborate/cheffy/well-presented. That seems to be the message they are trying to give off this season

[Lura]

To begin at the shallow end, I keep thinking how cool it would be if Carrie could only give Giada lessons on how to smile without baring her teeth for the dentist.  Big kudos to Carrie for knowing the way to winning David Kinch's heart, and Carrie's smile of delight could have lit a town square at Christmastime.  Carrie's knowledge of flavors and how to use them, her overall fairness to her fellow cast members, and her keen originality may take her all the way to Queen of Cuisine in the final round.

There's no other way of saying it: Padma has been irking me.  I believe that I'm tiring of her being friendly like a pal one moment and snappish and almost snobbish the next moment.  Her comment to Kalman was rude and out of line.  Say what you will about Bruce, but we all had ample evidence of seeing him work as hard as anyone else did on his dish.  He deserved the same respect that his contemporaries did.

I feel very "up" about the cast this season.  It seems to be, for the most part, filled with interesting people who appear to get along well, who have cheered each other on, and who have been fun and interesting.  I've hated seeing most of them go, which must mean that I've cared about them. 

I like the judge with the glasses.  He's judged quite a few shows, and he's always seemed fair, direct and amusing.  Actually, if I didn't care for him, all I'd have to do would be to imagine Richard Blais there in his place, and I'd like him even more!  LOL

[Bastet]

7 minutes ago, Lura said:

Actually, if I didn't care for him, all I'd have to do would be to imagine Richard Blais there in his place,

That's one way to make Graham Elliot more tolerable, indeed, but I could happily go the rest of my life without either twit appearing on my screen again.

[meep.meep]

I am sure that Padma's comments about Bruce always making pasta were intended to be humorous.

[cooksdelight]

4 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I am sure that Padma's comments about Bruce always making pasta were intended to be humorous.

Maybe she should try laughing when making snide comments and then they wouldn’t come off as snide. Her sour face and nose in the air was rude.

[LeighLeigh]

Agreed about Padma's comment. Still wondering if it had to do with her waistline and the 12 or 15 pounds that she said that she gains each season.

[Madding crowd]

I am a vegetarian and had one of my best dishes ever at Graham Elliot’s bistro here in Chicago. I think it’s odd that he closed all his restaurants and left Master Chef and only appears here occasionally. I like his personality but he is always second fiddle on these shows.

[LeighLeigh]

Regarding JoeStache's phone call of doom: has there ever been a winner who has had one?

(I think we saw Brooke talk to her son). 

[sabretooth]

Quote

I would have made small strawberry short cakes or pineapple upside down cup cakes.   The sweet would be a welcome relief from all of that heavy stuff.  

This! Granted I haven't been to an NFL Game since my Bills pulled off The Greatest Comeback in NFL History in 1993, but in seeing friends tailgate pictures, there's always something sweet on the table, even if its just a bag of Chips Ahoy or some Rice Krispie treats. 

It would have been a risk, but it would have been neat to see a cheftestant take a breakfast/brunch approach to tailgating. A lot of tailgating lots open at 8am or 9am on game days. If you're going to be making chicken wings or whatever in a parking lot, then scrambling some eggs or having a quiche/fritatta with some bacon is not outside the realm of what could be considered tailgating food. And I know I may be cynical, but breakfast food can sop up the alcohol just as well as wings/poutine/nachos can. 

[cooksdelight]

I used to make some different types of tailgate food.... silver chafing dishes full of crab dip, nacho dip, baskets of chips and crackers, a grill full of ribs and burgers, several different kinds of dump cake (cake made with a cake mix, cubes of cream cheese, fruit, topped with melted butter before baking). I used to do private catering and I would look at a tailgate party as another dinner party. I think that’s why they liked Bruce’s steak and the Carrie/Chris dish.... it wasn’t the same old-same old stuff.

I think the right person was eliminated, even though I love Fatima. Joe had bad fried mac & cheese, but he also made other elements of their offering that the judges liked. Fatima threw all her stuff into one basket, which was her downfall. As the judges suggested, if she’d thrown in with Bruce and had his stuff on top of her nachos.... all she would have contributed were bagged chips. So that wouldn’t have saved her either. And I can’t wrap my head around lentils instead of good ol’ black beans on nachos.

[Kroliosis]

On 2/2/2018 at 1:44 AM, Cliodude said:

Bruce is the worst. Guy couldn't even go home to see his new born son. Who does that? It's not like he's in the military defending our freedoms. He's a joke. All he can make is pasta. I have know idea how that guy has survived. Fatima blew it with nachos. Duh. But Joe should have gone home for the mac and cheese. Really ridiculous. If you can't make fried mac and cheese, you should go home. Case closed. But really Bruce is the joke overall. I would have gone home once the kid was born or if I knew the kid was going to be born when the show was happening I would have just bowed out. Chefs shouldn't have children. They work too many hours to care. Their love is their restaurants. And he's a spoiled, privileged white guy so don't give me the immigrant working 16 hours a day story. This guy COULD have been home for his kid's birth. Total loser. 

THIS!!!!   Especially after his crying on his Chopped episode about how desperate he was to get a baby FOR his wife.  There is absolutely zero reason he couldn’t defer a year if he was so desperate to be on another reality tv competition! He missed a once in a lifetime experience for reality tv!  Gross. 

[cooksdelight]

Bruce didn’t know about the baby when he agreed to appear on Top Chef, they hadn’t found a surrogate yet. Yes, he could have bowed out at the last minute, but his wife really wanted him to go. They had been disappointed in the past, one adoption agency they were working with filed for bankruptcy and closed their doors right as the Kalmans were close to adopting a child. You have to be in their shoes to know what motivated their decisions.

[Wings]

So the woman was a surrogate?  I assumed it was an adoption that had been arranged when the bio mom was pregnant.  The baby looked black, to me.  

[cooksdelight]

They called her their surrogate, I am not sure either of them are part of the parentage.

[LeighLeigh]

I don't believe that there is a parentage link to the baby. He is super cute and Bruce has posted videos of him laughing, playing peek-a-boo, tasting food for the first time... Really adorable.

[seltzer3]

I really have an issue with the elimination of Fatima (may be biased since I did not want to see her go home).

Whenever there are pairs/teams challenges.  Majority of the time, the judges pick the worst pair/team, and then pick the worst person in that team (For example, watch season 4.  They picked the worst duo, and then eliminate the biggest culprit).  I mean this season they have always picked the worst trio, and then eliminate the worst person.

So its really weird that this episode, they picked the other two duos....and then pick the worst out of the four.  Had they done it the way they usually determine pairs and trios, they would have deemed Adrianne and Joe the worse pair (since Tom talked about how he hated everything on that team), and then eliminated Joe.  I just wished they have a more consistent policy of judging.

Joe is one lucky dude, he scraped by twice this episode (All Joseph Flamm needed to do was pulse or rice his cauliflower finer, or Fatima made a better version of Nachos).  I know everyone hated Claudette, but Joe easily should have been axed last episode(when he made 3 dishes, and all 3 dishes the judges hated).

[PamelaMaeSnap]

The baby is ADORABLE (I also thought from the newborn pix he may be black) and am still convinced that Bruce is a Beatles fan with the name Jude Paul ... I am so glad that Bruce is home and happy and being, no doubt a fabulous father. I realize we were really near his restaurant not long ago (looking at an apartment on Union in Pasadena) but don't know if we'll get back there ... well, if he sticks around, we'll be in SoCal soon enough I'm sure some Pasadena dinners will be on the agenda. 

LAMB18, if you see Chris while you're working SUPER BOWL please give him a huge bear hug from me LOL (I know you can't, but I can dream) or at least let him know how many snarky people he has rooting for him here!

I do love the nicknames. Snidely Joe may be my favorite. And the crystals! I would not have had him pegged for being a sensitive new-age guy (credit to Christine Lavin for that). 

[Blonde Gator]

As much as I hated seeing Fatima go.....her final Exit Interview was one of the best ever.  Reflective, introspective, focused on what she'd learned, and totally not bitter.  She is such a lovely person, I wish her all the best. 

Whoever posted earlier about her cancer perhaps slowing her down during filming is correct, IMO.  As young and as energetic as she was when this was filmed, you could visibly see her getting exhausted during her challenges.  I'd imagine she wasn't feeling well and just pushing through it, and not really thinking about why.  Because who would imagine that in one's 20's?  

[chiaros]

22 hours ago, chiaros said:

Regarding Joe Sasto's Mac n Cheese..  :-)

 

Heh.

Didn't he also talk about the performance of his team in RW last week in glowing terms? Perhaps he needs to stop and reassess.

Oh, I forgot to include this shot...regarding the mac n cheese...;-)

[seltzer3]

I also realized something with the fried mac & cheese.  Noticed that Joe quickly sprinkled cornstarch on the mac & cheese, which I found odd.  I've never really seen that for frying in general.  

Shouldn't Joe make a cornstarch slurry or batter and dip the mac & cheese pieces in it then fry it?  The only thing I've seen dry sprinkle for frying are for korean wings.  But when you do that, you dip the wings in the corn starch powder (and squeeze it with your hand, so it sticks).  It doesn't surprise me that his way end up failing.

[biakbiak]

22 minutes ago, seltzer3 said:

I also realized something with the fried mac & cheese.  Noticed that Joe quickly sprinkled cornstarch on the mac & cheese, which I found odd.  I've never really seen that for frying in general.  

Shouldn't Joe make a cornstarch slurry or batter and dip the mac & cheese pieces in it then fry it?  The only thing I've seen dry sprinkle for frying are for korean wings.  But when you do that, you dip the wings in the corn starch powder (and squeeze it with your hand, so it sticks).  It doesn't surprise me that his way end up failing.

Tossing in cornstarch not a slurry or batter just dried cornstartch is extremely common in frying particularly in Asian cuisines, it helps get a crispy brown crust. In fried chicken i do cornstartch and baking powder first, than the batter and it always turns out amazing. If i am frying tofu its also dried cornstartch so it made sense to me.

Edited February 3, 2018 by biakbiak

[cooksdelight]

I was yelling “use baking soda, ya goof!!” 

[seltzer3]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

Tossing in cornstarch not a slurry or batter just dried cornstartch is extremely common in frying particularly in Asian cuisines, it helps get a crispy brown crust. In fried chicken i do cornstartch and baking powder first, than the batter and it always turns out amazing. If i am frying tofu its also dried cornstartch so it made sense to me.

 

Yeah, but that's the thing, he wasn't even tossing the mac & cheese in cornstarch.  For tofu, that is true do dip it, to make sure everything sticks on to it. Or you put the pieces of tofu in a bowl filled with cornstarch and stir it together. It looked like he just randomly sprinkled on top of the mac & cheese, so it wasn't evenly coated.  There was scattered white blotches on parts of the mac & cheese.

Edited February 3, 2018 by seltzer3

[Bastet]

6 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Joe had bad fried mac & cheese, but he also made other elements of their offering that the judges liked.

What did he make that they liked?  I thought they found each element less than it should be been: the ribs (Adrienne) were the least flawed (I think there was only one thing they didn't like about them), then the slaw (I have no idea who made that), then the mac & cheese (Joe).

4 hours ago, seltzer3 said:

Whenever there are pairs/teams challenges.  Majority of the time, the judges pick the worst pair/team, and then pick the worst person in that team (For example, watch season 4.  They picked the worst duo, and then eliminate the biggest culprit).

I'm so used to that, it took me a moment to realize four people were up for elimination; Joe and Adrienne's dish came in last, so someone on their team would be eliminated, and that would clearly be Joe.  (When deliberating about who of the four should go, they immediately dismissed Adrienne, because the ribs weren't great, but they weren't elimination-worthy compared to the others.)  So when I realized they were talking about who among the bottom four, not bottom two, would go home, I got nervous for Fatima.

[cooksdelight]

Joe made the slaw and one other thing... can’t remember, but I remember the judges discussing it and saying he shouldn’t be dinged for the mac & cheese alone since he did other elements.

[Bastet]

3 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

Joe made the slaw and one other thing... can’t remember,

I have no idea what that fourth thing would be - there were ribs, slaw, and mac & cheese on that plate.  They didn't like any of them, although they didn't dislike the ribs. 

That still puts him fairly even with Fatima - they didn't like her nachos, and they didn't like either of his dishes.  So does the fact he made two things and didn't succeed with either one tip the scales in favor of eliminating him, or does the fact he did more than she did tip the scales in favor of eliminating her?  I suspect they disliked her nachos a little more than they disliked his mac & cheese, and the slaw was a non-factor (individually; as part of deciding how the teams performed, the fact Joe and Adrienne put forth three elements that went together would be contrasted with the fact Fatima and Bruce put two completely separate dishes together).

[cooksdelight]

It wasn’t an individual food item, it was some component of whatever was on the ribs, I think. I’ve already deleted my recording so I can’t recheck.

[LeighLeigh]

I believe it was the sauce on the ribs.

[Wings]

3 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

I was yelling “use baking soda, ya goof!!” 

I was yelling bread it or make a batter!