S14.E04: Panic on the Panel

[Totale]

13 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

See?? I don’t get this. Having him, Adam, Amy, who’ve already been through the process. Just give them a show already!!

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.

[springbarb]

1 hour ago, 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."

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?"

[Simon47]

55 minutes ago, 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?"

Giada was very rude this episode critiquing Harrison and sending him home. Sadly, I think it was right for Adam to go home due to him already having many shows on the network.

 

Spoiler

Why wasn’t Adam on Star Salvation? He probably gave up and continued to work on his other daily lives.

 

I loved Manny calling out Bobby’s bearnaise sauce was broken. He offered great criticism and would be a great judge on Chopped.

Amy doesn’t bother me that much. It’s just that people are probably saying that they don’t like her because she uses words that mean the opposite of what they think she means, like inertia (week 2).

Katie continues to bug me with her bossy attitude and her mimicking what Harrison had said. She can go anytime. I don’t handle bossy people.

 

The oldest contestant this year is Samone (46). The oldest contestant that is here right now is Palak (38). Youngest is Manny.

Edited July 2, 2018 by Simon47
Fixed mistake

[dewelar]

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.

Edited July 2, 2018 by dewelar
Get rid of weird formatting that I don't even know how it got there

[J-Man]

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.)

[cooksdelight]

49 minutes ago, J-Man said:

Does anyone else think that Giada was extra-tough on Harrison because he might have spurned her advances?

I was about to type something simiilar, but you read my mind and beat me to it. :)

[19Bee63]

13 hours ago, LillyB said:

God help me, but I like Manny.

I do too!  Which means he is doomed to lose.

[dahling]

As much as I loved Adam 10 years ago, I lost that loving feeling this time.  He didn't have the same spark or eagerness.  Kind of visiting your high school again after you've been through 3 years of college.  If this had been my only exposure to him, I would be very meh about his departure.  Godspeed, Adam - hope you get to go back to doing what you do best. You seemed pretty defeated in your closing comments. 

Harrison must have been awful for him to beat out Katie the word stealer/interrupter. I enjoyed his comments about her more than anything else he's said or done so far.  Katie appears to be the third rail of this season. Get partnered with her, you're toast.

The second challenge concept was actually really great, and I liked that they admitted that the winners of this show basically end up judging other shows. Giada does not take criticism well. That was not a good look on her. 

[potatoradio]

15 hours ago, rustyspigot said:

Her repeating Harrison was like a bad SNL skit.

Ha - like a perky version of Delicious Dish. Wheee!! Schweaty Balls! Yay! Oh, look - the South is rising again....

Aaaaaand, the award for Biggest Debbie Downer Pain the Arse goes to....Amy! Congratulations, girl. You're a rare treat who can make things like living in Hawaii and eating cheese with wine for dinner sound like experiences to be endured and suffered instead of cherished*. "Don't be jealous...I've brought you Hawaii on a plate." Bitch, please. Park yourself here in the midwest and talk to me about how I can find fresh fish caught daily that I can eat raw served with pineapple I pick from my yard. Sit down. Go away. May the lighted vagina swallow you, then spit you back out, proclaiming, on national TV, "ew. Smells like dorianfruit. And sour."

Er, Jess? If you're so good with words, you should be better at picking ones that get more bang for the buck. Piquant? Sure, I know what it means, and it may be a perfect word, but it conveys nothing. And your delivery is about as exciting as a dietitian explaining which vitamins and minerals come with which foods. Your words should excite you more than that. 

And now, Adam and model-face with abs kick off the "Giada's cleavage" therapy. Nobody gets out of "Star" without a proper show of awe for The Apparition that is Giada. Bow down to the cleavage and teeth, boys. Sexual orientation and single status need not be considered. Now get that starry eyed look on your face and interesting fold in your jeans or it will get the rhhhhiiiiiiicohhhhhhtaaaaaa bath...

I'd like the firehouse guy much more if I didn't think a win for him would mean yet another travel, shove food in my face, belch catchphrase snore of a show. 

*Yes, I know, Hawaii is not a simplistic paradise or utopia, but of all places you could live, I just can't with this whining privileged bullshit. How about a little gratitude so the mass unwashed don't want to throw you in a Greeley slaughterhouse or stuff you down a Gary smokestack?

[GaT]

7 hours ago, AAEBoiler said:

This show has the worst contestants and I wouldn't watch any of them on a regular basis. Guy Fieri's "Guy's Big Project" in 1 season showed how this concept should be done. It had an actual focus on what they were looking for (finding a host for a travel show) and actually gave lessons that led up to their selection. FNS has devolved into a bunch of stupid challenges with no guidance on how it develops someone to front their own show. If it gets any ratings at all it's just people hate-watching it so they can bitch about it on the boards. Hey, that's what I'm doing! :-)

This show was originally about finding someone to be a host for FN shows, but that stopped a long time ago. Now the purpose of the show is the show, whether or not the person who wins gets a successful show is irrelevant.

Edited July 2, 2018 by GaT
added an s

[jackjill89]

I really miss the old Next Food Network Star. I loved the early days when, for better or worse, the show premiered a week later. It was fun. I liked when the audience had a say in it too. I actually miss Kermit and Medusa.

I thought this was a good episode, since all they will be doing is possibly judging game show food. It's really too bad that this is where it has ended up, but at least they are giving them relevant challenges. 

Glad Harrison is gone. He was on my last nerve. Glad Adam is gone too. Didn't like him before, didn't like him now. He always was more of a personality than a chef, so it was fitting he went out on a food-only type of challenge.

[cameron]

4 hours ago, ruffy666 said:

No disrespect but you guys who like Manny, what the #$)!& are you smoking... :)  He seems like a good guy but he does not know how to string together a coherent sentence.  Listening to him go around and around in circles and try to complete a thought without actually saying anything at all is painful.  PAINFUL. 

It's wild to see someone who can be super charming in interviews turn into such a mess on camera (for example, I could really get into Amy's self-deprecating snark but when she's on camera it's just plain uncomfortable!)

Christian emerged relatively unscathed this episode.  I ended up liking Jess .37% more because she is able to describe food well.  Everyone else can pack it up.

But he can cook and does come up with good dishes.  Rather have a good cook than a professional speaker cook.

[parrotfeathers]

36 minutes ago, GaT said:

This how was originally about finding someone  to be a host for FN shows, but that stopped a long time ago. Now the purpose of the show is the show, whether or not the person who wins gets a successful show is irrelevant.

And that's the gospel truth.

3 hours ago, J-Man said:

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.)

Yes, but he had that accent!!  That can real a lady in every time.

[spiderpig]

This episode was gratifying in many ways.

• Harrison went home (thank the Maker!)
• Adam went home (and took his tight little "I've got this" smile with him)
• Katie Interruptus would have gone home had she been teamed with anyone other than Harrison (even Adam)
• Giada busted loose and put her true inner beyotch on display for all to see (well, we knew all along...)
• The holiest-of-holies anatomically correct female judging table was prominently displayed and lit for our mutual enjoyment

I really have nothing to complain about since so many itches were scratched in this outing.

[bluepiano]

7 hours ago, ruffy666 said:

No disrespect but you guys who like Manny, what the #$)!& are you smoking... :)  He seems like a good guy but he does not know how to string together a coherent sentence.  Listening to him go around and around in circles and try to complete a thought without actually saying anything at all is painful.  PAINFUL. .

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.

6 hours ago, 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?!?" 

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.

Edited July 2, 2018 by bluepiano

[hilaryvm]

Watching Harrison was painful, because he apparently clearly missed the point of the entire challenge.  Instead of just judging the food he was given, he tried to do something else altogether, which I can't exactly figure out.  I mean, what show on food network has judges tasting food and then asking about how it could be made differently?  That whole sequence was weird and uncomfortable, even without Katie butting in and finishing his sentences (which I hope she was taken to task for, even though we didn't see it).

[Surrealist]

3 hours ago, potatoradio said:

Er, Jess? If you're so good with words, you should be better at picking ones that get more bang for the buck. Piquant? Sure, I know what it means, and it may be a perfect word, but it conveys nothing. And your delivery is about as exciting as a dietitian explaining which vitamins and minerals come with which foods. Your words should excite you more than that. 

Exactly, I would expect a food writer to be better with language and description, but I do like Jess.

I agree with you about Amy. I didn't mind her as much last night, but usually she gives off a smug vibe.

[biakbiak]

I thought Jess was great describing the food and I love the word piquant. I thought she did the best describing the food and Christian did the best doing the play by play when they were cooking.

Edited July 2, 2018 by biakbiak

[bluepiano]

4 hours ago, cameron said:

But he can cook and does come up with good dishes.  Rather have a good cook than a professional speaker cook.

Respectfully disagree. Since we sitting at home don't actually get to eat the food, who cares how good it tastes? Television is a communications medium. If you can't communicate, you shouldn't be on TV. I'm not advocating having someone who is only a good talker. But presumably in this great vast country of ours, it shouldn't be that hard to find someone (or 10 finalists) who can cook, are knowledgeable about food, and have a good TV personality and presentations skills.

I see a lot of contestants on Chopped who seem to have all those qualifications, and wonder why we don't see more of them showing up on FNS. Maybe it's  because the professional chefs who compete on Chopped consider this show beneath them. (With very occasional exceptions, like Christian this year).

Edited July 2, 2018 by bluepiano

[cooksdelight]

One of my friends, Top Chef competitor, and someone who knows what to do with an egg. Giada, Bobby... you wish you could come up with this. It’s to die for.

[Jesse]

22 hours ago, Wings said:

Bobby even mentioned he was a judge on his show!  

Which they showed tonight!

I actually thought having them judge brought it back a little to the old days of actually testing them on the skills they would need to be on Food Network -- nowadays, it's most likely they would be a judge. And having them judge themselves instead of other contestants cut down on gamesmanship. 

[Skyfall]

13 hours ago, Wings said:

Yes!  I had forgotten about that show.  It was done well and made sense.  The contestants had more promise for the most part, if I recall.  The winner, who I have forgotten, isn't doing anything, right?  I will have to google. 

Grill Dads finished off the season and are coming back with a new show/name later this month. ESB was pulled and then randomly saw a burn off, unlikely he’ll be back unless it’s as a judge or on Guy’s shows.

Re: Giada - She needs to be replaced by Damaris and Alton/Jeff/Tyler

Edited July 3, 2018 by Skyfall

[shksabelle]

5 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I thought Jess was great describing the food and I love the word piquant. I thought she did the best describing the food and Christian did the best doing the play by play when they were cooking.

 

IMO, Jess is full of herself. 

All that lipstick is very distracting. 

And, if you want to show off your big vocabulary, pronounce the words correctly. The English pronunciation of “piquant” is     “pee-cant”. The “qu” is not pronounced like “quit”. 

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, shksabelle said:

 

IMO, Jess is full of herself. 

All that lipstick is very distracting. 

And, if you want to show off your big vocabulary, pronounce the words correctly. The English pronunciation of “piquant” is     “pee-cant”. The “qu” is not pronounced like “quit”. 

Thank you, I agree, Jess is full of herself and pretentious.  It felt like she was just looking for a place to show off her favorite pretentiously uttered word.  She has become my least favorite contestant now that Harrison has been eliminated.  "The judges didn't understand how my story related to my dish".  Well, perhaps that should be rephrased as "I failed to make my dish understandable to the judges", but of course that would involve a certain amount of humility that she doesn't possess.

And Palak - I am completely FLOORED that no one caught her mistake about capers.  They are not a berry, they are the bud of the flower of a Mediterranean bush.  There is such a thing as a caper berry, but it's the berry of the bush, not the bud that she was asked to describe.  I can't believe that even Giada didn't catch that one!

I failed to understand why they narrowed down the bottom four involving so much emphasis on presentation ability, then chose to base the elimination solely on cooking ability.   Unless what I often think about this show is true and it's all engineered in advance to produce their desired result.   It's absolutely no surprise to me that Adam was eliminated.  Early on this season I said he was the Matthew of this season and guess what?  He was eliminated just like Matthew was, when they were good and done with him.  And like Matthew, he's completely gone, too.

Edited July 3, 2018 by Yeah No
Clarification.

[biakbiak]

I don’t consider the word piquant pretentious, particularly when they want the contestants to not use the same words over and over again.

[Simon47]

Piquant means having an appetizing Sharp taste or flavor. Pretentious and wanting to impress everybody. No difference between the two words. 

[Yeah No]

4 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I don’t consider the word piquant pretentious, particularly when they want the contestants to not use the same words over and over again.

It was her motivation for using the word that was pretentious, not the word itself.  She thought she was going to impress everyone with it. 

[jcbrown]

6 hours ago, Yeah No said:

It was her motivation for using the word that was pretentious, not the word itself.  She thought she was going to impress everyone with it. 

I disagree. She is a novelist so she is likely used to choosing the perfect word. I have a similar proclivity (see what I did there?) so I actually appreciated that she chose the word piquant. 

[biakbiak]

6 minutes ago, jcbrown said:

I disagree. She is a novelist so she is likely used to choosing the perfect word. I have a similar proclivity (see what I did there?) so I actually appreciated that she chose the word piquant. 

I agree it didn’t seem like she thought it was some sort of impressive word, it just fit the moment.

[meowmommy]

22 hours ago, hilaryvm said:

I mean, what show on food network has judges tasting food and then asking about how it could be made differently? 

I'd say that's pretty much the sum of Maneet Chauhan's judging style on Chopped.

20 hours ago, bluepiano said:

I see a lot of contestants on Chopped who seem to have all those qualifications, and wonder why we don't see more of them showing up on FNS. Maybe it's  because the professional chefs who compete on Chopped consider this show beneath them.

When the most successful alumnus of TNFNS is Guy Fieri, I'm sure a professional chef hesitates before pursuing that path.  But I also suspect the dearth of professional chefs on this show happens perhaps because, at least in its initial iteration when they gave the winner a six episode show, FNS was supposed to represent more than just having cooking qualifications.  And now that they're not even guaranteed a show, the qualified talent pool has undoubtedly shrunk.  Why run this gauntlet for the alleged prize at the end?  

17 hours ago, Skyfall said:

Re: Giada - She needs to be replaced by Damaris and Alton/Jeff/Tyler

So much this.  How cool would it be to have someone who's actually been through the gauntlet, and knows what it's like, doing the judging.  As long as it's not Melissa D'Obnoxious.  Tyler and Valerie and Alex all do a better job of judging than LBH.  You don't ever get the sense with any of them that there's anything personal about it or that the focus should be on them.  LBH's one shining moment was when she abruptly told Matthew to GTFO.  That was it.

As far as the pasta being underdone, I would have thought the panel would notice how quickly it came out of the water.

Palak really shot herself in the foot, although it turned ok for her, when she picked her dream team, not knowing they'd be pitted against each other.

[biakbiak]

4 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

Palak really shot herself in the foot, although it turned ok for her, when she picked her dream team, not knowing they'd be pitted against each other.

It was Jess not Palak who picked the teams.

[meowmommy]

12 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

It was Jess not Palak who picked the teams.

Whoops.  <slinking away>

[Mahamid Frauded Me]

I thought I was seeing Giada's PEZ head spin with anger at Harrison, wasn't she just last week eye boinking him ?  Wasn't Amy last year the one that almost got eliminated for not washing her hands after handling raw chicken ?  Sadly, this show has gone downhill for me.

Edited July 3, 2018 by Mahamid Frauded Me

[biakbiak]

44 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

Whoops.  <slinking away>

It’s the shows fault for how non memorable these contestants are.  

[akr]

12 hours ago, Simon47 said:

Piquant means having an appetizing Sharp taste or flavor. Pretentious and wanting to impress everybody. No difference between the two words. 

I think it's more specific than that. A quick dictionary definition is about as helpful in this context as trying to put into words what a particular odd fruit tastes like - where you can say it's like this or that other thing, but really there's no substitute for tasting it.  "Piquant" says something to me that "appetizingly sharp" does not, and has fewer syllables and isn't the same old, same old.  I would say that capers are piquant, for example, but lemons are not. I'm not sure I could tell you why.

[Simon47]

1 hour ago, Mahamid Frauded Me said:

I thought I was seeing Giada's PEZ head spin with anger at Harrison, wasn't she just last week eye boinking him ?  Wasn't Amy last year the one that almost got eliminated for not washing her hands after handling raw chicken ?  Sadly, this show has gone downhill for me.

I rewatched the episode and I saw how mean Giada was to Harrison. She made him feel very uncomfortable!

[akr]

To expand on my theory of piquancy - it suggests a light, lively, and somewhat complex flavor.  Pace Picante sauce also does not qualify.

[Simon47]

2 minutes ago, akr said:

I think it's more specific than that. A quick dictionary definition is about as helpful in this context as trying to put into words what a particular odd fruit tastes like - where you can say it's like this or that other thing, but really there's no substitute for tasting it.  "Piquant" says something to me that "appetizingly sharp" does not, and has fewer syllables and isn't the same old, same old.  I would say that capers are piquant, for example, but lemons are not. I'm not sure I could tell you why.

So things that are piquant are like NY strip, Curry chicken, etc?

I don’t know what Jess meant by “piquant” until I looked the word up on the dictionary, so it’s actually a new word for me. When Food Network Stars use new vocabulary words, that tells me they think they’re smart. Especially when it’s a strange, mysterious word (a word that even the elderly haven’t heard of).

I have not changed my mind about Katie Button. She will still be annoying. She might even win the whole shabam.

[akr]

1 hour ago, Simon47 said:

So things that are piquant are like NY strip, Curry chicken, etc?

I don’t know what Jess meant by “piquant” until I looked the word up on the dictionary, so it’s actually a new word for me. When Food Network Stars use new vocabulary words, that tells me they think they’re smart. Especially when it’s a strange, mysterious word (a word that even the elderly haven’t heard of).

No to both of those.  Anything piccata; probably some things made with berries or sumac.  I wouldn't think of it with something rich and predominantly umami-flavored, like those examples - although something could also have umami flavors, that's not what would make it piquant.

Just because a word is unfamiliar doesn't mean it's pretentious.  We've all got some gaps in our knowledge here and there. 

Edited July 4, 2018 by akr
deleted random capitalization.

[Simon47]

55 minutes ago, akr said:

No to both of those.  Anything piccata, Probably some things made with berries or sumac.  I wouldn't think of it with something rich and predominantly umami-flavored, like those examples - although something could also have umami flavors, that's not what would make it piquant.

Just because a word is unfamiliar doesn't mean it's pretentious.  We've all got some gaps in our knowledge here and there. 

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

[akr]

28 minutes ago, Simon47 said:

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

To be honest, I haven't been sufficiently motivated to watch this episode yet, so I'll take your word for it.  I think it may be less a case of trying to impress, though, than an inability to fit her thoughts to the task at hand.  They all have certain go-to ways of talking that they resort to even if doesn't fit the occasion, because saying nothing is even worse than saying the wrong thing.  I certainly thought she was foolish not to have a set of ready-to-hand stories that didn't involve starving, dirt floors, or eating rats, for example, for use when she was trying to pitch the viewer on eating something, but that was a couple of shows ago now; at the time, I didn't think it was pretentious so much as that it was completely inapposite. 

Edited July 4, 2018 by akr
repetition

[Yeah No]

7 hours ago, jcbrown said:

I disagree. She is a novelist so she is likely used to choosing the perfect word. I have a similar proclivity (see what I did there?) so I actually appreciated that she chose the word piquant. 

This isn't about anyone else that searches for the perfect word.  I do it too.  This is about Jess alone.  Somehow when I see people use words like that and then mispronounce them like they're trying to appear more cultured or smarter than they really are, I tend to see them as pretentious.  If she had a different attitude, I'm sure I wouldn't feel that way.  She just comes off to me as a know-it-all food snob in the worst possible way, so almost anything she does appears pretentious to me.  

[dewelar]

Allow me to thoroughly disagree with the idea that Jess was motivated to say "piquant" by a need to impress anybody. I certainly didn't get that vibe from the pattern of her speech at the time, and she was doing a perfectly fine job of being impressive without busting out the ten-cent words.

[cooksdelight]

57 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

This isn't about anyone else that searches for the perfect word.  I do it too.  This is about Jess alone.  Somehow when I see people use words like that and then mispronounce them like they're trying to appear more cultured or smarter than they really are, I tend to see them as pretentious.  If she had a different attitude, I'm sure I wouldn't feel that way.  She just comes off to me as a know-it-all food snob in the worst possible way, so almost anything she does appears pretentious to me.  

Thank you, you said it better than I could because I’ve been trying to find the words not to call her a “b” word.

Wearing those sneakers with the leopard dress did it for me, right off the bat. 

[shksabelle]

“Pez Head”

that is sooooooo perfect

thank you, Mahamid Frauded Me

[Simon47]

9 hours ago, Yeah No said:

This isn't about anyone else that searches for the perfect word.  I do it too.  This is about Jess alone.  Somehow when I see people use words like that and then mispronounce them like they're trying to appear more cultured or smarter than they really are, I tend to see them as pretentious.  If she had a different attitude, I'm sure I wouldn't feel that way.  She just comes off to me as a know-it-all food snob in the worst possible way, so almost anything she does appears pretentious to me.  

I think she was just wanting to impress everybody. 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.

My last post, I said Katie Button. I meant Katie Dixon.

[Wings]

15 hours ago, Simon47 said:

I rewatched the episode and I saw how mean Giada was to Harrison. She made him feel very uncomfortable!

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.  

[biakbiak]

3 minutes 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.  

So did Adam with his “maybe you should have stacked them,” about the bruschetta. I wanted Giada to snap back and say “that would be a sandwich”.

[mme ginger]

20 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I agree it didn’t seem like she thought it was some sort of impressive word, it just fit the moment.

I just finished watching this ep. I find it so sad that people are suspicious of someone who has a decent vocabulary. I mean sincerely, people automatically believe people to be pretentious because they display some knowledge? It really seems to confirm every awful stereotype of Americans. Jess’s use of “piquant” passed without hardly a thought from me, except “Oh, what a good word!”  As for her pronouncing it wrong, which I didn’t pick up on - I don’t pay complete attention to this show! - I’ll give it to her as a reading vocabulary thing. She pronounced it the way you might think most Americans would. I mean, I’m pretty skeptical many Americans would use the French pronounciation. ? Definitely a good number would know, but probably not most. 

I’m also leery of calling women names, especially with something as altered as a tv show, so I believe that Giada is judged extremely harshly on these types of sites. I loved Giada when she started but I definitely have lost a lot of tolerance for her*. I certainly had no desire to subsidize her trips to Italy and never watched any of those shows, and, yes, she comes off quite pretentious on her newer shows. But while she appeared to overreact to Hamilton, I’m withholding judgment, because I think she gets a bad edit. But I was annoyed that no one called her on her undercooked pasta! Although, when Manny called Bobby on his broken sauce, it did occur to me that calling these people on these faults - given their relative positions - I could see how this would be very frightening! 

 

*And I never liked her awful aunt, who seems to be so popular with people, but who I always found so pretentious and condescending to Americans. 

[bluepiano]

On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 12:29 AM, Yeah No said:

I failed to understand why they narrowed down the bottom four involving so much emphasis on presentation ability, then chose to base the elimination solely on cooking ability.   

 

Agree completely. No one should ever be eliminated from this show based solely on cooking. This is not Master Chef. Amy (among others) failed miserably on the judging challenge. She has shown little food knowledge and zero ability to intelligently critique or talk about food.  The judging challenge should've directly eliminated people, since being a guest judge is likely all the winner of this show will get to do.

On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 12:29 AM, Yeah No said:

And Palak - I am completely FLOORED that no one caught her mistake about capers.  They are not a berry, they are the bud of the flower of a Mediterranean bush.  

That's a huge miss on the part of the judges. And the show's staff for not catching that.  I'm sure Adam knew she was wrong. I remember in his first go-around on this show, back when they used to care about things like that, he nailed the food knowledge challenge.

13 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Wearing those sneakers with the leopard dress did it for me, right off the bat. 

Maybe it's the times we live in, and I'm no fashion maven, but some of the outfits we've seen this season have been ridiculous. When Christian came out wearing red shorts and slip-ons, like he'd just come from the beach, I could only shake my head. For me it diminishes whatever last shred of legitimacy this show has. I don't expect jacket and tie, but at least look like you care a little. Are there no wardrobe people? How do they let someone walk on the set looking like that?

Edited July 4, 2018 by bluepiano