Star Salvation & Episode Previews Talk

[cooksdelight]

4 or 5 seasons ago.

[HyeChaps]

Penny was very disliked by folks on the Television Without Pity boards. 

[Hotel Diva]

16 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

Penny was very disliked by folks on the Television Without Pity boards. 

Penny Davidi? I got a sample of her on the FN website.

And Kelsey was in the season before Melissa's season.

[Sew Sumi]

They always do that to put more eyeballs on the teevees next week. Again, copied from Top Chef's Last Chance Kitchen.

[smiley13]

1 hour ago, Hotel Diva said:

Penny Davidi? I got a sample of her on the FN website.

And Kelsey was in the season before Melissa's season.

Who on Earth would dislike Kelsey?  She was a doll, she was good on camera and she could cook.

[Hotel Diva]

1 minute ago, smiley13 said:

Who on Earth would dislike Kelsey?  She was a doll, she was good on camera and she could cook.

She was eliminated on Episode 7 of the season where Aaron McCargo or some guy won.

I really hope Alton doesn't return for Food Network Star. Sure, he's a nice guy, and he would definitely stand up for Matthew, but I don't like how he sabotages people in his Comeback Kitchen show. It's dirty, it's smug, and it's horrific. I saw a couples episode back on Valentine's Day and Kathy and I don't remember who the husbands name was (probably Jon?) sabotaged all the other couples to have sex while they're cooking. When I saw that, I was like, "I'm over all the sabotages."

Too bad Addie (Valentina Lisitsa-lite) didn't return for the competition. But, as I stated in another thread, the best job for her would be a nurse practitioner.

[smiley13]

1 hour ago, Hotel Diva said:

She was eliminated on Episode 7 of the season where Aaron McCargo or some guy won.

 

I know and it was beyond me why she didn't win.  I liked Aaron, but Kelsey was great.

[StaceyNotStacie]

5 minutes ago, smiley13 said:

I know and it was beyond me why she didn't win.  I liked Aaron, but Kelsey was great.

I think the main issue with Kelsey was that she mentioned culinary school too much. I remember her being reprimanded because of it. 

[chessiegal]

Bobby Flay obviously liked Kelsey because he exec produced the shows she got on Cooking Channel, which I enjoyed.

[J-Man]

3 hours ago, Hotel Diva said:

Sure, he's a nice guy, and he would definitely stand up for Matthew, but I don't like how he sabotages people in his Comeback Kitchen show.

When was Alton on "Comeback Kitchen?" The hosts were Valerie Bertinelli and Tyler Florence.

[Hotel Diva]

Oh, I'm sorry, I meant Cutthroat Kitchen. Thank you for telling me.

[J-Man]

It looks like Food Network is showing an hour-long episode of "Star Salvation" immediately preceding Sunday's new episode of "Food Network Star." I presume this is a compilation of all of the previous episodes that were shown on the Food Network website. 

[Skyfall]

On 8/2/2017 at 10:53 AM, J-Man said:

It looks like Food Network is showing an hour-long episode of "Star Salvation" immediately preceding Sunday's new episode of "Food Network Star." I presume this is a compilation of all of the previous episodes that were shown on the Food Network website. 

Always has been but this year instead of full episodes they gave us the already cut up episodes online and it was disjointed imo.

[Simon47]

When will we see more of Adia (Penny Davidi) on Food Network? She seems like she is the nicer and blonde version of her.

[smiley13]

I agree with the choice of who was the last one standing in Star Salvation.

[Skyfall]

No star salvation this year? Man the budget keeps shrinking!

[cooksdelight]

There are no stars to save.

[Sew Sumi]

49 minutes ago, Skyfall said:

No star salvation this year? Man the budget keeps shrinking!

It's online. With no Gertler and no explanation. WTG, FN.

[Wings]

45 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

There are no stars to save.

Understatement.   Looking at the cast I have to believe very few apply or many do and these are the best of the lot.  Jesus take the wheel!  An atheist making this request is serious.  We need higher caliber cooking competitions!  Why is this too much to ask?   Maybe Bravo has to take charge.   

Edited July 2, 2018 by Wings

[Sew Sumi]

Well, thankfully, Rebekah and Samone have been out of our collective misery.

Edited July 2, 2018 by Sew Sumi

[Wings]

19 minutes ago, Sew Sumi said:

Well, thankfully, Rebekah and Samone have been out of our collective misery.

And how the fuck did they even get there?  Talk about NOT made for TV.   Jesus. 

[Sew Sumi]

To quote our Commander in Chief: Sad.

Edited July 2, 2018 by Sew Sumi

[jmthrd]

they used to do the "don't say delicious" challenge on the flagship program and it was always one of the best ones, so i was glad to see it here. the format of the show was nice-- cross between food network competition and facebook video. i'll keep watching this, i guess

nobody here is going to see the other side of the star salvation tunnel, even if i want jason to come back and take the food network star title at the end. that'd be the icing on the cake for this season

[Simon47]

How did only Jason say none of the words that weren’t allowed to be used? Aw man, the Next Food Network Star’s name might be Jason.

So glad I don’t have to see Rebekah or Samone again (well, maybe at the finale). They clearly sounded like they didn’t want to be here.

The advertisements that sponsor FN are continuing to get annoying, just as all ads create misery for me.

[cooksdelight]

I wonder how many air horns Alex went through with this bunch? Harrison’s bread pudding thing looked tasty.

One of my favorite sandwiches is a BLT with melted Provolonoe cheese and a runny egg added to it.

[J-Man]

Actually, I thought most of those take-offs on a breakfast sandwich looked pretty good. Better than most of the stuff they make on the main show.

Alex -- your sandwich is way too much work for a weekday morning. My recipe:

1. Start coffee.

2. Put English muffin in toaster oven

3. Heat up non-stick griddle on stove

4. Put frozen, pre-cooked sausage patty on griddle.

5. Rub butter around inside of silicone egg ring; put on griddle; crack egg into it.

6. Flip sausage, top with a slice of American cheese (the real stuff, not "cheese food.")

7. Salt and pepper egg. Flip if desired.

8. Pull muffin out of toaster, assemble sandwich, pour coffee.

Entire process takes less than five minutes.

[meowmommy]

18 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

It's online. With no Gertler and no explanation. WTG, FN.

Yeah, where is he?  Did he decide, screw it, I'm done?

I know people drool over runny eggs, but to me, runny eggs look like drool.  Yuck.

Loved Alex dinging them on tired cliche buzzwords.  But they could have let it run more than five minutes.  Got no idea why Alex picked whom she picked.

[HHSScot]

I do not remember the previous years’ Star Salvation, but did they ever have the “winner” from the Comeback Kitchen on them?  Maybe they decided this season that the returning contestants only get so many chances, so Amy and Adam do not get invited to Star Salvation.

[jcbrown]

Is anyone else having trouble getting the Star Salvation video to load? I thought it was being zapped by my adblocker but turning that off made no difference.

[meowmommy]

1 hour ago, HHSScot said:

I do not remember the previous years’ Star Salvation, but did they ever have the “winner” from the Comeback Kitchen on them?  Maybe they decided this season that the returning contestants only get so many chances, so Amy and Adam do not get invited to Star Salvation.

Ah, you may be right.  

41 minutes ago, jcbrown said:

Is anyone else having trouble getting the Star Salvation video to load? I thought it was being zapped by my adblocker but turning that off made no difference.

I watched it through the Food Network app on my Roku.  It loaded fine but the way they just jumped right into the competition without any kind of introduction made me wonder if something had been truncated.

[cooksdelight]

Mine was repeating segments of the video over and over. Drove me nuts.

[Yeah No]

15 hours ago, HHSScot said:

I do not remember the previous years’ Star Salvation, but did they ever have the “winner” from the Comeback Kitchen on them?  Maybe they decided this season that the returning contestants only get so many chances, so Amy and Adam do not get invited to Star Salvation.

I remember when Matthew Grunwald, who won Comeback Kitchen last year was eliminated from that season's regular FNS, he was not on Star Salvation.  So it may be a policy that the Comeback Kitchen winners don't get yet another chance.

[cooksdelight]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

I remember when Matthew Grunwald, who won Comeback Kitchen last year was eliminated from that season's regular FNS, he was not on Star Salvation.  So it may be a policy that the Comeback Kitchen winners don't get yet another chance.

That makes sense.

[Wings]

The correct two went home.  Why were they selected in the first place?  Oy

[akr]

Did they add a laugh track to this??  What a weird choice.  

[Simon47]

10 hours ago, Wings said:

 Why were they selected in the first place?

Because Bobby and Giada wanted to attract viewers, and that was the only way they could do it.

[Wings]

2 hours ago, Simon47 said:

Because Bobby and Giada wanted to attract viewers, and that was the only way they could do it.

Lol!  

[cooksdelight]

Well, they’re losing me.

[akr]

The right one certainly went home this time - and the other three seemed to have actually cooked decent food.

[biakbiak]

7 minutes ago, akr said:

The right one certainly went home this time - and the other three seemed to have actually cooked decent food.

Who was it?

[akr]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

Who was it?

Burger! Burger! Burger! guy.  I think his name was Jason.

It seemed like nobody was naming names above, so, while that seemed odd to me, I decided to stick with the pattern. 

Challenge: weeknight one-pan or pot meals; Alex G's example appeared to be some sort of stovetop eggplant parm thing (tomato sauce, eggplant, lots of cheese on top); then they had to dash for pans: dutch oven, sheet pan, saute pan, grill pan. Harrison got the dutch oven and used the pot itself to make the innards of a chicken pot pie and then cooked some puff pastry on the upturned lid in the oven (but kept calling the lid a cast iron pan in his presentation); triple explanation point whatever guy did a generic sheet pan salmon dinner with some oversalted crusted salmon and roasted vegetables and name-checked all of his relatives in his 30-second presentation; Chris, the guy from Miami who was out first, did an arroz con pollo with the skillet, first searing chicken thighs and then adding rice etc and finishing in the oven (holding off plating till the last moment to maximize the chances that the rice would be cooked); and Jess got stuck with the grill pan but showed how you could both grill (fish) and steam (vegetables including bok choy) together at the same time - it was clever, a helpful tip that you could actually follow with the visuals, and the result actually looked very good.  

Edited July 9, 2018 by akr

[biakbiak]

Thanks! I can’t handle watching it. No recollection of Jason or Chris which shows why I can’t be bothered to watch.

[akr]

They're only five minutes long this time, so it's relatively painless, especially if you've just suffered through the main show, which could take some lessons on pacing.  I think they could do the main show in 10.

(edit - well, 5 minutes and change. Closer to six minutes). 

Edited July 9, 2018 by akr

[biakbiak]

It’s more because I absolutely hate FNs sire and 9 times out of 10 8 have trouble playing their videos.

[TDT]

3 hours ago, akr said:

Jess got stuck with the grill pan but showed how you could both grill (fish) and steam (vegetables including bok choy) together at the same time - it was clever, a helpful tip that you could actually follow with the visuals, and the result actually looked very good.  

Something tells me she will be back on the main show soon..

[HyeChaps]

I’m thinking that Alex has the choice each week to let go one or two (maybe three?). 

They don’t say how many each week. It depends on Alex’s judgment. 

And I’m ok with that. 

[cooksdelight]

I am thankful they have someone other than the regular show host(s) doing this part. It’s why I don’t like Tom being the only judge and jury on Top Chef’s version of this.

[Pallida]

I realize that tasting/judging too many things that are similar might get boring, but I prefer the Star Salvation challenge of "everybody do this" over the convulsed challenges that appear on the main show. 

I watched both episodes today, and because the stupid FN website isn't clear, I wasn't sure which to watch first. The breakfast sandwich is a perfect example of seeing how creative these people can be. For example, Jason diverged by making a bagel, and while I don't think he deserved to go far, I appreciated the personal touches and felt like we had a better chance to evaluate creativity.

cooksdelight's sass about this show is way more entertaining than the actual main show or Star Salvation though :) 

[J-Man]

On 7/9/2018 at 10:11 AM, HyeChaps said:

I’m thinking that Alex has the choice each week to let go one or two (maybe three?). 

They don’t say how many each week. It depends on Alex’s judgment. 

And I’m ok with that. 

They probably have to have some flexibility, because they didn't know when or if Adam and Amy were going to be kicked off the main show. Apparently they aren't eligible for Star Salvation. So if and when Amy gets the boot from the main show, they may not have to eliminate anyone from Star Salvation that week.

On the other hand, maybe it doesn't matter how many they end up with at the end, since Alex gets to choose one winner from however many are left, right?

[Simon47]

I am now rooting for Jess to take this title. She understands what got her eliminated in the first place, and how she can cook to do better to get back into the show. I like her.

By the way, there’s a post to discuss your favorite contestants on the main show and on SS. If you want to post, then check it out.

Alex has some really great tips for food. I’d be happy if she were on the main show instead of Giada.

Edited July 14, 2018 by Simon47
Forgot about ICAG