S14.E04: Panic on the Panel

[Simon47]

2 hours ago, Wings said:

He is an overly confident jack ass who was not doing the challenge correctly. She gave him a chance to change course but he ignored it and kept going.  He earned her wrath fair and square.  

I COMPLETELY disagree with this statement. There was nothing wrong with Harrison’s judging. It was just that Harrison was looking for advice from Giada and she responded the wrong way. If Harrison never asked that question, we would be discussing completely different things.

I enjoyed Harrison. He was a very good-spirited person and he remained confident no matter what the challenge was. Until this episode, where Giada became tired of him and just let him fail miserably. She questioned him on his abilities, she let Katie parrot what he was saying, she even eliminated him over Amy who shouldn’t have been on FN.

If Giada is going to act like this and do this to everybody who criticizes her dishes, then she shouldn’t be on the FN. 

Look what FN has become now. Just plain competition shows and Guy Fieri shows.

ETA: I looked up the name Giada to see what it means, and it said it means “jade”. I think it means “overly arrogant woman who has 200 teeth.”

Edited July 4, 2018 by Simon47
Looked up “Giada” name meaning

[theatremouse]

I don't think Harrison really was judging, and that's part of the problem. He seemed to not understand the point of the challenge. Giada's reaction was over the top pissed, but that doesn't make his performance any better. There is a difference between "judge the dish" which involves both saying what's wrong with it and potentially making a suggestion for what would have been better, and just plain saying "I would've done this other thing instead". Harrison in the judging part was edited to sound like he was only doing the latter. That's not what they asked for. In the second part where they had to actually do it, then those thoughts were useful. But in the judging segment, even before she snapped at him I was cringing watching because it just felt like "what are you doing dude, this is not the point". Simply saying "you could do this instead" isn't helpful judging because it's not saying WHY. If he'd said "this needs acid, maybe a little lemon would help" or he'd said "this is underdone, I'd cook it a few more minutes", that's judging with an "I'd do instead" to address a specific deficiency. But if you're going on about "instead" without it correcting some specific flaw, it just comes off weird, like, yeah, you could do that if you were cooking it, but you didn't. So how about you talk about what's actually in front of you? It almost sounded like he was just deflecting the whole thing.

[TomCorps]

58 minutes ago, Simon47 said:

ETA: I looked up the name Giada to see what it means, and it said it means “jade”. I think it means “overly arrogant woman who has 200 teeth.”

You do know that "jade," when referring to a woman, suggests one who is meretricious: flashy but lacking substance (implicitly, moral substance).  All of which is code for "prostitute."  Give a listen to the song from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita entitled, "Peron's Latest Flame."  Listen closely for the ensemble shouting, "Slut! Dangerous jade!"  You'll see what I mean.  It's apt.

[akr]

I finally went back and watched it and didn't have any trouble with her use of the word "piquancy" - seemed perfectly apt to me.  I've always heard it pronounced with a 'k' sound, but apparently kw is an acknowledged variant, so I can't get too excited about that either way.

Edited July 4, 2018 by akr

[DebbieM4]

On 7/2/2018 at 11:06 AM, Gregg247 said:

 

I don't like Giada, but I didn't mind her going off on Harrison.  he just kept hammering her with "what if" after "what if", to the point where she just threw up her hands and said, 'Yeah, what if I'd made a completely different dish?!?"  She was right.  "Giada, I really liked your dish, but what if you'd replaced the pasta with a steak and the the creamy sauce with a baked potato?"  "Giada, this pasta dinner is fantastic, but I wish you'd added some flour, sugar, and eggs, baked it in a tall pan, and covered it with chocolate frosting.  Oh, and written  Happy Birthday Harrison on the top.  That would have been great, too."

I agree that she was right to be exasperated by what he was saying.  But shifting into bitch mode and being mean was not a good look and not appropriate.  She could have chided him for it, either with humor or not.   But responding to him the way she did was unprofessional.  It wasn't so much what she said, but the way she said it, and it seemed to me that she was clearly reacting on a personal level.

23 hours ago, Simon47 said:

I rewatched the episode and I saw how mean Giada was to Harrison. 

I agree.  There were so many other ways she could have handled it.   I know people who have worked with her, and this is a side of her I have heard about many times.  That big clenched-teeth smile disappears and her claws come out pretty quickly and often when she's not in front of a camera.

Edited July 4, 2018 by DebbieM4

[DebbieM4]

22 hours ago, Simon47 said:

This time, the word Jess used meant she was trying to impress BF & LBH.

Please forgive my ignorance.  What does LBF stand for?  I know who it is, just can't figure it out!

5 hours ago, Simon47 said:

 

ETA: I looked up the name Giada to see what it means, and it said it means “jade”. I think it means “overly arrogant woman who has 200 teeth.”

IIRC, her daughter's name is Jade.   I hadn't realized Giada means jade.

[Sew Sumi]

LBH = Little Big Head

[chessiegal]

1 minute ago, DebbieM4 said:

Please forgive my ignorance.  What does LBF stand for? 

Little Big Head (typo in the quote), thus the comparisons of her looking like a Pez dispenser.

[DebbieM4]

7 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Little Big Head (typo in the quote), thus the comparisons of her looking like a Pez dispenser.

Thank you (and sorry about the typo - I was trying to figure it out and type at the same time!)  I was pretty sure the L stood for lollipop.  :-)

9 minutes ago, Sew Sumi said:

LBH = Little Big Head

Thank you!

[Simon47]

25 minutes ago, DebbieM4 said:

Please forgive my ignorance.  What does LBF stand for?  I know who it is, just can't figure it out!

IIRC, her daughter's name is Jade.   I hadn't realized Giada means jade.

Stands for Little Big Head.

I figured that was her daughter’s name.

[cooksdelight]

It may never be told, but I can almost guarantee you Giada had the hots for Harrison and he didn’t respond accordingly. That’s what her “critique” sounded like to me, a woman scorned.

[Simon47]

Happy 4th of July!

[Skyfall]

15 hours ago, DebbieM4 said:

Thank you (and sorry about the typo - I was trying to figure it out and type at the same time!)  I was pretty sure the L stood for lollipop.  :-)

Thank you!

I know want it to stand for Lollipop Big Head ???

[Brookside]

On 7/4/2018 at 5:25 AM, Simon47 said:

When people like Jess use words like that, that tells me they’re surprisingly smart and know a lot about food. So she is a know-it-all food snob because she uses words that are new to even the elderly folks. She is both pretentious and consummate.

 

Consummate?

[Simon47]

7 minutes ago, Brookside said:

Consummate?

Showing a high degree of skill and flair (which none of these chefs do).

[jackjill89]

I think the undercooked pasta flaw would be a really tough one to judge. It's not obvious, like the broken sauce, unless the pasta is still really hard. Al dente is a bit subjective and I agree the "judges" probably thought that is what al dente should be. Overcooking it would have probably been a better course to take because they are constantly harping about overcooked pasta on cooking shows. 

[DebbieM4]

On 7/5/2018 at 10:42 AM, Skyfall said:

I know want it to stand for Lollipop Big Head ???

Me too!  :-)

[CharlizeCat]

On 7/4/2018 at 7:30 PM, cooksdelight said:

It may never be told, but I can almost guarantee you Giada had the hots for Harrison and he didn’t respond accordingly. That’s what her “critique” sounded like to me, a woman scorned.

I noticed her lingering hand placement on his arm when he left the judging table after his critique  in the first callenge.  Neither she nor Bobby touched any of the other contestants.  I must be way off base because I assumed Harrison was gay. Did I miss something and he's talked about a wife or GF?

Honestly, I knew the people who had to judge Giada's dishes were doomed, no matter who they were or what they said.  Bobby and Giada didn't even deliberate. 

In fairness to Harrison, yes, his rambling on and on with the "what if ... " wasn't appropriate but I have heard judges on "Chopped" (who have been doing it for years) point out how a dish could be improved but that is in conjunction with indicating what's wrong with it. Harrison was probably too nervous and didn't have enough time to formulate and convey the right thoughts.  For me, as a viewer, I appreciate that. I learn from the potential missteps with the dish and ways to overcome the mistake and/or improve the final outcome.  Hearing somebody say, "This is piquant," doesn't really help me in that regard. BTW, I didn't have any problems with Jess using that word. I prefer that to "tangy," "tart," etc.

As soon as Adam started adding basil to his kale pesto (or whatever it was) I knew he was a goner. 

I don't care who wins. I have no interest in any of those people. At least this episode was an honest depiction of what a FNS winner will actually do now. I don't think FN even bothers to promise a 6-episode show. That seemed to have been dropped with Alton Brown and that kid with the bright red lips. Oh, I guess Damaris came after that?

Giada was just a high-strung, arrogant bitch.  I wonder what Bobby thought of her behavior?

[smiley13]

Gee-Ah-Da was awful on this episode.  Her behavior was inexcusable.  No telling what else she did or said that hit the cutting room floor.  Harrison was better than the Parrot, Katie.  Why was she not called out for not having an original thought in her head?  She sat there and repeated what Harrison said.

[Westiepeach]

I watched this again this afternoon and Giada did indeed have her bitch full on. And it shined on for the rest of the show. She was pissed the whole time. Sheesh. I also wonder what made it to the cutting room floor. Totally unprofessional. She definitely had it in for Harrison. 

Edited July 8, 2018 by Westiepeach

[Brookside]

There are two women I can't tell apart, but one of them was wearing the most god-awful outfit ever - espadrilles (bad enough on holiday in Spain), a flounced skirt made from my grandma's curtains (not even those from Gone with the Wind), and an off-the-shoulder blouse that shouldn't be allowed on a two-year-old.

[chenoa333]

This show has taken a big dive into a $hithole. I wish Giada would go away forever. Is there a medical term for people like Giada who have 50 extra teeth? As smitten as she is with herself I'm surprised she hasnt had a nose job.

I don't know the contestants by name but i do like the jolly chubby guy! The Japanese woman is probably going to win and we will never see the winner again on FN unless it's a sunday show at 9 a.m.

And why does FN insist on giving us viewers a 48 hour+ marathon of Diners Drive-In's and Dives EVERY weekend? How about showcasing some of the past losing (but talented) contestants of NFNS instead of f'n Guy Fiero? 

Edited July 8, 2018 by chenoa333

[LillyB]

They did show a Tyler Florence stand and stir show today, it was very good and I wish they would show his shows more often.

 

The chubby guy is Manny and I like him, too.

[chessiegal]

42 minutes ago, chenoa333 said:

And why does FN insist on giving us viewers a 48 hour+ marathon of Diners Drive-In's and Dives EVERY weekend?

Ratings.

[smiley13]

Of the ones left, Manny and maybe Christian are the only ones I like.  Amy, Katie, Jess and Palak can go away anytime.   I generally like the bubbly Southern girls, but Katie gives off a mean girl vibe.  Her little hissy fit over Manny getting the chicken thighs was sad.  Did she think she was entitled to them just because she wanted them??  Move faster next time, lol.  

[chenoa333]

7 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Ratings.

Oh ok. I thought everyone else might be as tired of GF as I am! Lol

[qtpye]

On 7/2/2018 at 12:48 AM, jmthrd said:

bobby and giada were actually good mentors tonight, and i think the show leaning into the star-to-judge pipeline helped with that. since it's midterms, thoughts and placements on everyone:

adam - adam would clean sweep "the next travel channel star" but he's never going to win this. it was his time to go

amy - i like amy in confessionals but not in the competition.  i'd watch amy's show faster than anyone else's, but only if it were confessional amy. tonight on the judging panel i realized that we'd get competition amy and that's not enough for me. fifth place

christian - good rhythm with bobby and giada on the self-critique! a shame i don't remember anything about him in the critiques. runner up

harrison - i don't think harrison realized the skills you need to judge a food network show are different than the skills you need to win a challenge on food network star. you don't need to give out tips for the viewer at home and you don't need to have a take on the dish being prepared; nobody watches iron chef to figure out what's for dinner tomorrow night. he should have caught himself and stopped when giada kept escalating, but his performance tonight was as much of a failure on the show as it was for him for teaching the wrong lessons.

jess - jess is going to win - she'd be the best judge of anyone here, her POV played to an interesting dimension tonight, and "food novelist" is just the kind of title the network is going to want to have. special thanks for splitting the panels for the giada/bobby challenge into a realistic panel with this season's likely top 3 plus adam, and a cringe panel with everyone else. i got to have both worlds tonight!

katie - katie is not going to win but i want her to go far so she can continue to be a bad team player and whine over ingredients other people got to get first. sixth place

manny - +1 for liking manny but i think he's still rushing himself. it happened when he was critiquing bobby's bearnaise as well as his video package-- i think it's what he does when he's nervous. it's gonna come up again and it'll be too tight of a competition to make up for it. fourth place and an invite for comeback kitchen 2019

palak - i like watching palak and she has a level of cooking authority nobody else holds a candle to. but i don't see her judging a show and being good at it. second place

--

sidebar: why does giada not have a competition show? every year it's a new spin on the daytime format but i want her to read primetimers to filth for even suggesting they make a baked pasta

 

On 7/2/2018 at 10:19 AM, TomCorps said:

Man Alive!  Who pissed in Giada's corn flakes?!

I think what disturbed me most about Giada's aggressive response to Harrison is that she was in fact responding to his rhetoric, not his judgment about food.  Granted, he didn't parse his thoughts well.  When he was asking, "Could you add ricotta (mascarpone, etc.)?" he wasn't actually asking, "Could one do this?"  I think he was trying to suggest that if she had added any of these things, it would have improved the dish for him.  In other words, he was attempting to give a kind of "judgment," but was so intimidated by the bitch that he delivered it in a way that was misleading.  Anyway, Giada's epically bitchy, "Yes, Harrison, you can make anything you want!" betrays her inability to understand even the first thing about this dynamic, let alone her inability to accept anyone else's thoughts on how to prepare pasta.  It's as if she would have us all go about endlessly repeating the mantra, "WWGD?"  If you consider that both Harrison and Adam got an ass-whooping for failing to do just that, it's hard to excuse.

 

On 7/2/2018 at 11:07 AM, Surrealist said:

This is the only reason I watch the show. In fact, I don't always watch it live, but still come here first to read the comments.

And damn, Giada was pissed. 

The ones I like so far are Jess, Manny, and Palak.

 

On 7/2/2018 at 11:44 AM, Totale said:

They won't get a show. Nobody gets a show.  Just imagine Oprah up there at the beginning of the season saying "You don't get a show!  Aaand, you don't get a show!"

Now we know there actually is a sin even greater than being a younger and hotter woman than Giada in Giadaworld.  Did she actually undercook her pasta?  Nobody called her on it..  I just figured everyone expects mediocre grub from her.  I would.  I'll bet she kicked back heavy at the idea of being judged by the little people on the show and was forced into it.

 

On 7/2/2018 at 12:12 PM, springbarb said:

Giada didn't bother me terribly during that part of the show; she lost me at the competition at the end, critiquing Harrison's and Adam's variations on her dishes. Her critiques were so nasty that I couldn't tell whether the dishes weren't good, or whether she was just annoyed at what they did. I wish we had heard more of what Bobby thought of them, because the attitude I got from Giada was "Why do you think you could improve upon anything of mine?"

 

On 7/2/2018 at 12:32 PM, dewelar said:

This was my favorite episode of the season by far. After all the complaining about Jason critiquing better bakers than himself on Best Baker in America, they decide to make it into a challenge. I approve. Anyone who was intimidated by the concept needs to go, because it's exactly the kind of thing they're being hired (if they're hired at all) to do.

I hadn't seen Jess as a contender before, but she really brought it this week, which puts her at the top of my rankings. Katie, on the other hand, sank straight to the bottom. She was very fortunate to be paired with Harrison, who crashed and burned spectacularly, because paired with anyone else other than Amy she would have been in the bottom group. Hopefully those two are the next two out.

I've also been liking Manny more and more over the weeks, but if he can't rein in his babbling -- which came back as horrible as ever during his self-critique -- he is not going to win. Really, that first challenge was a bit of a mess overall, and I think Jess may have been the only one who came out of it looking good.

 

On 7/2/2018 at 12:41 PM, J-Man said:

I'm wondering if no one picked up on Giada's undercooking of the pasta because either (1) it wasn't really very undercooked, and/or (2) people are accustomed to professional and TV cooks always reminding them to cook pasta al dente, and since obviously this was the first time they'd tasted a professional Italian cook's pasta, that Giada's met the "official" definition of al dente.

Does anyone else think that Giada was extra-tough on Harrison because he might have spurned her advances? I think many people thought he'd go farther, since Giada tends to fawn over the designated hunk each season (see: Damiano.)

 

On 7/2/2018 at 5:55 PM, bluepiano said:

What a train wreck of an episode on this train wreck of a season. Manny seems like a nice guy and I'm sure he's a good cook, but it's been painful watching him all season, especially with Bobby and Giada laughing in his face as he mumbles and rambles on incoherently, as he did this episode. Yes, painful to watch.  No way he should allegedly be competing to be a TV host.

Adam shot himself in the foot by cooking a dish made by Giada, She Who Should Never Be Questioned When It Comes to Italian Food. You know that she would be super hard on anyone who made her dish. But though I really like him, I can't feel bad about his being eliminated. He got what he deserved for opting to return to this stupid show.

But what a joke that based on one less than successful dish Adam is gone, and we still have Manny and Amy. How is Amy still here? She has been a disaster in pretty much every challenge. In the "judging challenge" she showed how little she knows about food. She sounded so in over her head. I think she's basically just a house wife who can cook and went on FNS because she's bored. (Not a put-down of housewives. Most don't think they're deserving of being on TV).

Funny how she talked about having wine and cheese as her typical mid-week dinner, but when she cooked the ahi poke Bobby said that her family was lucky. Did she even say anything about cooking that for her family?

Christian said he's been on Chopped and a guest judge on Beat Bobby Flay "many times." I guess he knows his stuff, but he's not impressed me. He's way too dependent on little cutesy pet phrases and working the Italian stereotype. I've yet to feel like he's connecting with the audience.

It was a battle of Giada's ego against Harrison's self-entitlement. Apparently he really does think he's "all that" and expected to breeze through this competition. His sense of self-entitlement was so strong that he couldn't even realize when it was time to back down. You never win on this show when you directly challenge a judge. Especially Giada, who has zero sense of humor about herself. Early in the season some people on this forum thought Giada would have a "thing" for Harrison. But it never happened, the way it had for Dom or Luca. Guess you have to be Italian, or at least Italian-American, to get the Giada crush bump.

 

On 7/4/2018 at 1:08 PM, Simon47 said:

I COMPLETELY disagree with this statement. There was nothing wrong with Harrison’s judging. It was just that Harrison was looking for advice from Giada and she responded the wrong way. If Harrison never asked that question, we would be discussing completely different things.

I enjoyed Harrison. He was a very good-spirited person and he remained confident no matter what the challenge was. Until this episode, where Giada became tired of him and just let him fail miserably. She questioned him on his abilities, she let Katie parrot what he was saying, she even eliminated him over Amy who shouldn’t have been on FN.

If Giada is going to act like this and do this to everybody who criticizes her dishes, then she shouldn’t be on the FN. 

Look what FN has become now. Just plain competition shows and Guy Fieri shows.

ETA: I looked up the name Giada to see what it means, and it said it means “jade”. I think it means “overly arrogant woman who has 200 teeth.”

 

5 hours ago, Westiepeach said:

I watched this again this afternoon and Giada did indeed have her bitch full on. And it shined on for the rest of the show. She was pissed the whole time. Sheesh. I also wonder what made it to the cutting room floor. Totally unprofessional. She definitely had it in for Harrison. 

I think Mussolini would have been more open to a self-critique than Giada.  I know she has gone through some horrible things in her past, but she often acts very much like an entitled child of a very privileged family. 

[Simon47]

1 hour ago, smiley13 said:

Of the ones left, Manny and maybe Christian are the only ones I like.  Amy, Katie, Jess and Palak can go away anytime.   I generally like the bubbly Southern girls, but Katie gives off a mean girl vibe.  Her little hissy fit over Manny getting the chicken thighs was sad.  Did she think she was entitled to them just because she wanted them??  Move faster next time, lol.  

Ditto! She reminds me of a very southern Penny Davidi.

[cooksdelight]

1 hour ago, qtpye said:

jess - jess is going to win

Nope!

[Destiny74]

5 hours ago, smiley13 said:

Of the ones left, Manny and maybe Christian are the only ones I like.  Amy, Katie, Jess and Palak can go away anytime.   I generally like the bubbly Southern girls, but Katie gives off a mean girl vibe.  Her little hissy fit over Manny getting the chicken thighs was sad.  Did she think she was entitled to them just because she wanted them??  Move faster next time, lol.  

I agree.  I thought Katie was false from the first episode, trying too hard to be sweet, almost like she was cast to play the southern Belle...?  After her fit about the chicken thighs, she can go.  Maybe be faster next time.  Maybe ask why Manny should compromise his dish with breasts just for you to have what you want.  Maybe think of another dish that you could make with breasts.  Maybe suck it up?

Did she really think we, the viewers, would side with her on this?  Is that why she brought it up three or four times?  Be faster! Realize it is a competition and no one is going to give you anything.  Would she give Manny the thighs if she had gotten there first?  No freaking way!  

She really annoyed me.  Much more so than Jess and her grasp on the English language.

[bluepiano]

4 hours ago, qtpye said:

 

 I know she has gone through some horrible things in her past, but she often acts very much like an entitled child of a very privileged family. 

In my life I have known a few people born with an enormous silver spoon in their mouth, and similar to Giada they were thin skinned and would lash out at anyone who gave them even the mildest criticism. I felt that the defensiveness came from knowing that some people believed they were successful only because of having had everything handed to them. I got some of that from Giada response to Harrison, and have also seen it in past seasons. It's like she's saying, "oh, so you really think I'm just some rich girl playing at being a chef and not a real chef."

 I think that an accomplished professional who knows they have paid their dues and earned their position (in any field) does not feel such an urgent need to defend their turf.