S09.06 The Whole Enchilada

[Whimsy]

Airs 8/30/18

The final two teams head back to Los Angeles, where Tyler Florence welcomes them to the historic Pueblo de Los Angeles, the epicenter of LA's Mexican heritage and culture. He introduces Bricia Lopez, co-owner of James Beard-award winning restaurant Guelaguetza, and they explain the Mexican ingredients and flavors the trucks will be using in their final challenge: chayote and habanero peppers. Both trucks pull out all the stops for the win, but only one team is awarded the $50,000 grand prize.

[LexieLily]

Why was this finale shown in the guide as two hours when it was only one?

...but wow, the Wing It truck almost doubled the final amount of the New England truck.

[rainbowrockgal]

They sneaked in a showing of Tyler's new show Bite Club,  as the second hour... it might be interesting...

Edited August 31, 2018 by rainbowrockgal

[mlp]

I liked the Wing It fellows and I'm happy that they won.  They beat the seafood people handily even without the bonus from Tyler.  At the very end, clearly staged, they all ran off into the sunset and none of them was carrying the bag with the money.  :)

I have no idea what any of them did to support themselves before this show so I wonder if they'll continue with something food-related.  50K split three ways is very nice but it's not really life changing.  New found confidence might be.

[rainbowrockgal]

Yeah agree, on the whole a very unfulfilling end...

[GaT]

So that happened. As long as New England Grill didn't win, I didn't care who did.

I watched Tyler's show that they snuck in by pretending it was part of this. Seems like a Chopped spinoff, I won't be watching.

Edited August 31, 2018 by GaT

[Maya]

Once again, the “worst cooks in America” were able to come up with a tasty and complex dish featuring a difficult ingredient, this time chayote (what?). I know they didn’t win that challenge, but the judges still liked it. Hmmm...

[MerBearHou]

I'm one of the few, it seems, that really, really liked the New England team.  All 3 of them.  They seemed to like each other so much and just had a good time.  Plus I love their NE cuisine.  Yes, Christine was goofy but I found her endearing and a trouper and I cheered her on, clearly way out of her comfort zone.  I was rooting for them to win, but just KNEW that Food Network would love the "journey" of the Wing It guys to win the whole thing after coming from Worst Cooks.  I have zero idea how they got so knowledgeable about food if they were truly "worst cooks" and actually beat all of these seasoned chefs.  If I was the chefs/cooks on this competition and lost to worst cooks who claimed to be disasters in the kitchen just a year ago, that would be hard to take.  These 3 guys (and I like the guys themselves) were mentored by Tyler and had a pre-existing friendship/relationship with him -- no way they weren't going to win.  And wings are a really popular dish across so many lines so kudos to them for choosing that concept.  I do wish them well!

[LittleIggy]

I didn’t even watch because I knew the wing guys would win. Lackluster season.

[meowmommy]

42 minutes ago, MerBearHou said:

These 3 guys (and I like the guys themselves) were mentored by Tyler and had a pre-existing friendship/relationship with him -- no way they weren't going to win.

The only thing going against that argument is that it's based on sales totals, and the difference between JWI and NEG was more than Tyler's subjective choice of the special dish.

What I don't like is that these guys are clearly not interested in running a food truck.  The prize should be cash plus a truck, and the contestants should be people who really want to have a food truck.  The potential to win ~$16K, IMO, is not enough to justify going through this gauntlet.

11 hours ago, GaT said:

I watched Tyler's show that they snuck in by pretending it was part of this. Seems like a Chopped spinoff, I won't be watching.

(They tricked my DVR into thinking it was two hours, and ran them together.  So I hope I'm not breaking a rule by discussing this show here.)  Chopped does this all the time, with four chefs from the same city.  If one is not from that particular city, I don't know what makes it particularly interesting as an average, non-foodie viewer.  And they made a big deal about being in an unfamiliar kitchen.  Again, as a viewer, who cares?  Surprised at how much time they spent covering the actual cooking, especially in the first round.  It almost felt like real time.  And real time is too long.  Kind of cheesy to have them judge the cooking standing in the middle of the kitchen.  I thought there'd be a twist where the chef/judges would get to cook in the second round, but no.  Yet another FN competition show with no apparent prize for winning.  Maybe that's why the chefs chosen as judges didn't seem to care.

I liked Tyler's stand-and-stir shows.  He's a good chef and a good teacher.  I hate that they've got people like Ree Drummond and Valerie Bertinelli doing cooking shows while they've relegated Tyler to competition shows.  

[bluepiano]

I was confused by the wing guys thanking Tyler for his mentoring. From what they said, it sounded like Tyler had been giving them cooking lessons prior to the start of the season. If so, then I guess Food Network really was invested in their success, due to the tie-in with Worst Cooks. Arguably that's favoritism, but who really cares, since this is just another silly FN show.

37 minutes ago, meowmommy said:

What I don't like is that these guys are clearly not interested in running a food truck.  The prize should be cash plus a truck, and the contestants should be people who really want to have a food truck.  

I like this show a lot better when the competition is between actual professional food trucks. Than it's not just people looking for their 15 minutes of TV fame. And we learn something about the business of running a food truck. Nothing this season seemed to be connected with the reality of the food truck business.

Apparently the Just Wing It guys were pretty good cooks. I don't know how contestants for Worst Cooks are chosen, and I've never watched that show, but if you want to be on TV it would be easy to fake being a bad cook when you're really not.

Serving various kinds of wings is actually a good concept for a food truck, and I could see that being successful. Not so with New England Grill. My city has a ton of food trucks, and I can't remember any with a sea food concept. Other than fish tacos, it's not easy-to-handle street food, and I think people would have concerns about freshness. Nothing will get you sick faster than eating spoiled fish.

Overall, a pretty bland season. It was also strange to me that they made a big deal out of the western theme, because it seems to me that every season most of the episodes take place in Southern California and the southwest.  It would actually be more of a novelty if they shot a season in New England or the Great Lakes region. That would increase the likelihood of encountering bad weather (even in the summer, with thunderstorms and sweltering heat/humidity), but that might actually add some interest. Though I'm sure that the production company doesn't want to deal with the hassle and potential extra costs.

This show is in definite need of some retooling, or at least going back to being a competition between actual professional food trucks.

Edited August 31, 2018 by bluepiano

[Pallida]

I got distracted by the Just Wing It guy calling a green onion “chives” and decided to google chayote fritters. Found the website they were looking at when the voiceover said they found a website on how to treat chayote: https://www.caribbeangreenliving.com/chayote-fritters-or-accra-de-mirliton-2/

[mlp]

Quote

I was confused by the wing guys thanking Tyler for his mentoring. From what they said, it sounded like Tyler had been giving them cooking lessons prior to the start of the season.

I don't know what they actually meant but I do remember reading, seasons ago and long before Wing It, that the "recruits" on Worst Cooks actually get a lot of cooking lessons and mentoring behind the scenes.  I thought that's what they were referring to.  Could be wrong of course.

[meowmommy]

25 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

Not so with New England Grill. My city has a ton of food trucks, and I can't remember any with a sea food concept.

As a native New Englander who doesn't much care for fish or seafood, I'm really, really tired of every single 'New England' concept on TV being lobstah or chowdah.  

28 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

And we learn something about the business of running a food truck. Nothing this season seemed to be connected with the reality of the food truck business.

Agreed.  Most of the time was spent on parking hassles and screaming at passers-by to try to get them to buy something.  And I'm too lazy to go back and re-watch, but I'd swear that the places they parked in LA were right in front of No Parking signs.

[TDT]

Something is telling me that those three will be getting a Food Network show of their own..possibly food truck related,with them improvising recipes

Each episode im sure will end with a mention of the title.."and remember,when in doubt.. (all three in unison ) JUST WING IT!!!"

[Kathy]

This season was boring.   I want to see people who actually want to run a food truck.  They should win the truck.

[eel2178]

4 hours ago, meowmommy said:

What I don't like is that these guys are clearly not interested in running a food truck.  The prize should be cash plus a truck, and the contestants should be people who really want to have a food truck.  The potential to win ~$16K, IMO, is not enough to justify going through this gauntlet.

I'd be even more generous and let the people who lose keep their trucks, while the team who wins gets the money and the truck.

My favorite season was the one where everyone was aspiring to run their own foods trucks and all the challenges were related to how to run a better business.

[Pallida]

41 minutes ago, TDT said:

Something is telling me that those three will be getting a Food Network show of their own..possibly food truck related,with them improvising recipes

Each episode im sure will end with a mention of the title.."and remember,when in doubt.. (all three in unison ) JUST WING IT!!!"

I think they'd fail. I don't think they can improvise recipes - they repeatedly were "inspired" by their competitors, and after finding their base recipe for the chayote fritter on a website clearly shown during the show, I'm pretty convinced they used internet recipes too. I'm all for people who can follow recipes well, but I don't think they are innovators.

[MajorWoody]

Now that the season is done, it appears the latest version of Who Is Food Network Pushing For A Series? has reached the preordained conclusion. 

 

As if anyone thought there would be any other winner besides the Three Stooges who allegedly were unable to boil water a year ago, and now are culinary experts, at least in a very specific simple genre. 

 

The only bright note in this blatant example of Network Self Promotion is that the screeching lady was finally shut down, albeit six weeks too late for most of us. 

 

Did anyone else say that after the New England crew won the first challenge, that it was obvious the Wing Dudes had to be given the second challenge?

 

Also, the usual producer fakery was on full display, as amazingly (!!!!!!) the trucks find last minute parking on LA streets with no effort, including directly in front of a active concert venue, which somehow just happened to have available truck parking right by the front door. You would think that the hundreds attending the concert would have snagged those primo spots right in front of the doorway. 

 

Also, it seemed every street they parked on before the last stop had zero pedestrian traffic. There was also one scene where they did “reviews” by the customers, which included such gems as “It tasted good, and stuff like that”. So profound.

For this show to have any credibility, they need to revamp it. They need to use actual food truck chefs, who are interested in the business, not characters in search of a Reality TV payday. They need to drop the phony drama about parking issues, when it is obvious it is already scripted, and just send them to different towns and go head to head at events. If they have trucks that purport to be a specific type of food (Moo Shu anyone?) , that truck should actually produce that food. 

 

Finally, may we never see or hear again that annoying screechy lady, the Unfunny Comedian. 

[spiderpig]

55 minutes ago, MajorWoody said:

Now that the season is done, it appears the latest version of Who Is Food Network Pushing For A Series? has reached the preordained conclusion. 

 

As if anyone thought there would be any other winner besides the Three Stooges who allegedly were unable to boil water a year ago, and now are culinary experts, at least in a very specific simple genre. 

 

The only bright note in this blatant example of Network Self Promotion is that the screeching lady was finally shut down, albeit six weeks too late for most of us. 

 

Did anyone else say that after the New England crew won the first challenge, that it was obvious the Wing Dudes had to be given the second challenge?

 

Also, the usual producer fakery was on full display, as amazingly (!!!!!!) the trucks find last minute parking on LA streets with no effort, including directly in front of a active concert venue, which somehow just happened to have available truck parking right by the front door. You would think that the hundreds attending the concert would have snagged those primo spots right in front of the doorway. 

For this show to have any credibility, they need to revamp it. They need to use actual food truck chefs, who are interested in the business, not characters in search of a Reality TV payday. They need to drop the phony drama about parking issues, when it is obvious it is already scripted, and just send them to different towns and go head to head at events. If they have trucks that purport to be a specific type of food (Moo Shu anyone?) , that truck should actually produce that food. 

Finally, may we never see or hear again that annoying screechy lady, the Unfunny Comedian. 

You speak for me. Woody.  This show went down the drain when the prize became cash instead of - duh - an actual food truck.  Based on our latest car purchase, I can't imagine how much of an investment a food truck would require.  Serious applicants only need apply.

I used to like Tyler, but he's become a FN shill.  Especially after "I mentored you hapless guys on WCIA and YOU WON TGFTR!  (wink-wink).

Ugh.  If I want a reality show I'll watch Black Mirror on Netflix.  If I want a cooking competition I'll watch Top Chef, although they've been skating on thin ice lately.

[bluepiano]

23 hours ago, meowmommy said:

As a native New Englander who doesn't much care for fish or seafood, I'm really, really tired of every single 'New England' concept on TV being lobstah or chowdah.  

Agreed.  Most of the time was spent on parking hassles and screaming at passers-by to try to get them to buy something.  And I'm too lazy to go back and re-watch, but I'd swear that the places they parked in LA were right in front of No Parking signs.

The parking hassles were obviously scripted, given the way that the police or local officials just happened to show up as if on cue (because they were) and acting like they didn't know a show was being filmed. As with all  "reality' shows, we're not supposed to think about they're being camera crews and production people all over the place.

A few seasons back on "Food Network Star" there was a woman from New England (Michelle?) who did some variations on traditional New England dishes that did not involve seafood. But of course she also did the obligatory lobster roll and clam chowder.

Edited September 1, 2018 by bluepiano

[Simon47]

So who won? I didn’t watch. And how much money did they make?

[TVbitch]

I love how Tyler announces right before crowning the winner that none of these people have ever set foot in a food truck before this competition. If he would have announced that at the beginning, I could have tuned out. The Just Wing It guys stated they just wanted to "prove" themselves. The other guys said they learned "perseverance." Christine was like, it taught me I could do something I never in a million years thought I would do. ... ...Um, is it suppose to be The Amazing Race in food trucks or something?  Ridiculous. 

[LittleIggy]

They most def do need to go back to having actual food truck people as competitors. The prize should be a tricked out, state of the art food truck. 

[Amarsir]

17 hours ago, Simon47 said:

So who won? I didn’t watch. And how much money did they make?

Two days of selling with two ingredient challenges. New England won the first challenge (chayote) and got a $350 bonus. Just Wing it won the second and got matched for their sales in the special product (habanero) for $582. 

Ultimately neither challenge mattered as Just Wing It had something like $5650 while New England Grill had $3999.

---

I'm happy for the Wing guys, though not as happy as FN execs probably are. But I don't think there was any fix to it. It's huge to have hometown advantage and  habanero is not a tough product for a wings truck, and I'm sure FN realized that. But they were likely set well in advance and the guys could easily have been eliminated earlier if they hadn't actually been selling.

Edited September 2, 2018 by Amarsir

[MajorWoody]

6 hours ago, Amarsir said:

 

I'm happy for the Wing guys, though not as happy as FN execs probably are. But I don't think there was any fix to it. It's huge to have hometown advantage and  habanero is not a tough product for a wings truck, and I'm sure FN realized that. But they were likely set well in advance and the guys could easily have been eliminated earlier if they hadn't actually been selling.

 

Other than Tylers Magic Ledger, there is no way of knowing how much anyone is actually selling. Seeing how the producers push completely false images and scenes (parking issues, injury issues, vehicle maintenance issues, and others) throughout this show, I have my doubts that the sales numbers quoted by Tyler each week would pass a legitimate P&L audit. 

[hatchetgirl]

I laughed when New England bought 3 avocados for their chayote tacos... on flour tortillas! Blech! What was that lady thinking "ooh, i love that they did these on flour tortillas!" 

The editing was hilarious. I liked that the trucks were downtown and then suddenly... on HOLLYWOOD BLVD! That was some crazy transporting 

I finally figured it out... with her dark eyebrows - christine is Milhouse's mom!