S16.E04: Surprise...It's Restaurant Wars

[rose711]

I hate Restaurant Wars because they hamper the chefs from doing their best. It’s the same way I felt about the dessert challenge last week. I like to watch people excel - not flounder because of poor wait staff or terrible restaurant setup

My prediction is that the team that seemed to be “stacked” is going to be one of the losers. I just hope Nini isn’t going home. (If she does, she can win last chance kitchen.)

My assumption was that one from each of the losing team will leave. 

I hate having the episode broken into two parts. I’ll forget it all by next week.

Edited December 28, 2018 by rose711
Wrong word

[cameron]

Can't believe when Kelsey originally wanted to do shucked oysters.  Unless you're an expert shucker, it takes a lot of time when everyone is coming in at one time.

[driver18]

Honestly, I don't understand the continued Brandon-hate I'm reading week after week. Sure he came off a bit arrogant in the first episode, but that was because he HIMSELF said that he could come off as arrogant and then the editors edited the first challenge such a way as to make it appear that way, but nothing else he has really done so since. And what Kelsey said about him today ties into that. She said: "Brandon's really smart. They should listen to him." Thinking back to earlier episodes, what seemed like him being arrogant because of that early introduction really seems more like friendly constructive criticism.

To Adrienne who he was next to in an early challenge, he told her that he didn't think she could pull off making the fresh pasta in the amount of time she had not because of her but just because it would be so hard to do, then added... but hats off to her if she could manage it. And, he was right. She couldn't do it and was in the bottom three. To Kevin, he told him that his dish was too salty, but hey, that was just his opinion, he could check with someone else. And, again, Brandon was right, Kevin was in the bottom three and went home.

The other cheftestants don't seem to mind hanging out with him, joking with him, etc. When Michelle said that she wanted to be executive chef, he was fine with it, just asked if she could talk louder because they need to be able to hear her in the chaos of the kitchen and Michelle is quiet normally. And as we saw so far, Brandon has had no problem with Michelle being the exec chef; he hasn't tried to take over or take the lead. He also is asking others if he can help them. And he does that regularly, asking and helping out his fellow cheftestants in the kitchen.

Now, sure, something may come out later that he truly is a douche, but nothing we've actually seen on the show other than the first challenge which was edited to reflect his own words that he *can* come across as arrogant sometimes show him as a douche. This just seems like an overall nice group of cheftestants and the show was trying desperately to create a "villain" edit early on.

Edited December 28, 2018 by driver18

[AnnA]

nevermind

Edited December 28, 2018 by AnnA

[Rammchick]

5 hours ago, mwell345 said:

That would be 8pm Eastern, which makes sense because IIRC, Million Dollar Listing LA returns next Thursday at 9pm.

Yes, it was announced that the show would be on next week at 8 (shown at 8 PST as well).  Bravo is shuffling the whole Thursday night lineup, so it sounded to me like that time change was going to be permanent.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Rammchick

[dleighg]

1 minute ago, Rammchick said:

so it sounded to me like that time change was going to be permanent.

oooh I might actually be able to watch it "live" rather than the next day :) Early bird here. 9 is too late.

[nenya]

After watching some of the netflix cooking shows, I really wish they would give these chefs a chance to shine. Restaurant Wars is already stressful enough without have to train the staff and decorate on the same day as prep. At least give it an extra day! It sucks to see a good chef go home because of something out of their control. There are plenty of other mistakes they can make, in cooking, in service timing, etc, without having to shine the friggin silverware. 

I get that in real life they have to deal with all this, but they also have more time in real life. 

[dleighg]

1 minute ago, nenya said:

without having to shine the friggin silverware. 

 

that caught my ear as well; it seemed that was the best thing she (he?) could think of to do since other things weren't ready to work on. 

[jackjill89]

The painting the day of dining bugged me as well. I think the smell would interfere with the dining experience.

They really don't need to make it that stressful for them. There is enough stress inherent in this challenge without throwing in the whole decor/set up aspect. I thought they ditched that part a few years ago. Remember when they used to have to shop for decor? Ugh. 

My kids and I were talking about how we would prep to go on Top Chef. Being a good chef and being a good contestant aren't the same things. There are certain predictables every season and I would prep for a few things you know will happen -- have an adaptable dessert or two, practice my knife skills for the mise en place relay, study the cuisine in the city of the competition, etc. 

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, jackjill89 said:

The painting the day of dining bugged me as well. I think the smell would interfere with the dining experience.

I am assuming they are using non-VOC paints which don’t smell much if at all and I say that as someone who is crazy sensitive to smells.

[Lamb18]

I'm watching right now. It looks like Michelle is more prominent this episode. I remember Nina from season 11 but I don't remember which season Karen was on. I haven't read comments yet, but I bet one of you identified her season.

Restaurant Wars 3 Ways - I'm very curious to see how it turns out.  The Pablo/Brandon team and bubble bath/champagne team seems to have hints foreseeing trouble. But I hope Nini's team wins. Justin is on that team, too.  Seeing the decorators setting up the dining room reminds me of Robert Irvine's restaurant makeover show.

The Paducah, KY chef seems to have a complicated way of doing checks. I feel like Nini should have been more prepared to deal with the staff. And Adrian goes to deal with staff and has them read the manual out loud one paragraph at a time?? Weird. That's how I used to have my Sunday School students read from the Bible. I hope what's his face gets his staff organized OK.

It looks like none of the teams are doing that well. I was hoping Nini would do better. 

I hope Nini and Justin survive.

[HappyDancex2]

I'm such in the minority as someone who loves Restaurant Wars!!!   However I continue to be flummoxed by the arrogance of the chefs who think it's too cool to come on TC without a dessert repertoire.   RW format never changes with the servers who are actors and can't write up a ticket, let alone provide 5 star service.   Why is this hard?   And who decides to do FOH and a show off dish????   My strategy would be to SurVIVE Restaurant Wars....hell with impressing anyone LOL

I'm ok with the contrived drama.  The chefs doing their best for 12 episodes would get old to me.   The spread at Makers Mark made that their executive chef looked amazin!   However watching them eat it, try to describe it, make yum noises isn't that interesting to me.  I don't get to eat it.   If I'm not watching them interact with each other it's just a bunch of food I don't get to eat.

[mlp]

Quote

Honestly, I don't understand the continued Brandon-hate I'm reading week after week. 

Thank you for your post, driver18.  I've been meaning to write something similar for a week.  I like Brandon.  My take on the first episode was that he's used to being directive in his own environment and carried that into the show then realized that was out of place when dealing with other chefs and toned it right down.  I didn't see him being unpleasant to anyone and, as you said, he has seemed to get along with the others just fine.  My assessment may change as the show goes on but, right now, I have no problem with him.

[AmandaPanda]

8 hours ago, driver18 said:

Honestly, I don't understand the continued Brandon-hate I'm reading week after week. Sure he came off a bit arrogant in the first episode, but that was because he HIMSELF said that he could come off as arrogant and then the editors edited the first challenge such a way as to make it appear that way, but nothing else he has really done so since. And what Kelsey said about him today ties into that. She said: "Brandon's really smart. They should listen to him." Thinking back to earlier episodes, what seemed like him being arrogant because of that early introduction really seems more like friendly constructive criticism.

To Adrienne who he was next to in an early challenge, he told her that he didn't think she could pull off making the fresh pasta in the amount of time she had not because of her but just because it would be so hard to do, then added... but hats off to her if she could manage it. And, he was right. She couldn't do it and was in the bottom three. To Kevin, he told him that his dish was too salty, but hey, that was just his opinion, he could check with someone else. And, again, Brandon was right, Kevin was in the bottom three and went home.

The other cheftestants don't seem to mind hanging out with him, joking with him, etc. When Michelle said that she wanted to be executive chef, he was fine with it, just asked if she could talk louder because they need to be able to hear her in the chaos of the kitchen and Michelle is quiet normally. And as we saw so far, Brandon has had no problem with Michelle being the exec chef; he hasn't tried to take over or take the lead. He also is asking others if he can help them. And he does that regularly, asking and helping out his fellow cheftestants in the kitchen.

Now, sure, something may come out later that he truly is a douche, but nothing we've actually seen on the show other than the first challenge which was edited to reflect his own words that he *can* come across as arrogant sometimes show him as a douche. This just seems like an overall nice group of cheftestants and the show was trying desperately to create a "villain" edit early on.

Absolutely agree with you. I wasn't a fan of Brandon in the first episode, but he chilled out and put away the know-it-all side. He seems friendly with the other contestants and I enjoy watching him. Honestly, of the Thistle team, Sara is the one I find the most annoying. She crosses the line from being assertive to being a steamroller. She seems like someone who can't deal unless she is full control of everything. 

I don't mind Restaurant Wars, but I do mind it being over two weeks. So much of tonight's episode felt like total filler that I'll have forgotten by next week's episode. 

[spiderpig]

OK, I'll jump in and say RW bores me to tears.  Padma promotes it like a royal wedding.  I want to see chefs cook, not pick out tablecloths and explain to extras how to serve tables.

 

 

 

 

 

 

'

[bluepiano]

On ‎12‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 11:52 PM, GaT said:

I've never understood why they use inexperienced people (who I assume are actors) to be servers. What's the point? Why can't they find experienced people to do the job? In fact, lots of actors work as wait staff in between jobs, they should be able to find actors with restaurant experience, so why don't they?

I don't remember the inexperience of the waitstaff being an issue before, so I assume that in the past they hired professional servers? This show can certainly afford it, so if they went the route of having amateur servers it's clearly to add another element of drama, which they don't need. The winning and losing teams should be determined by how they perform, without the servers being a wild card.

A few years ago the company I worked for took over a restaurant for a charity fund raising evening. It was the restaurant's real chefs and kitchen staff, but all the servers were amateur volunteers, myself included. They gave us about a 20 minute orientation, and then threw us out on the floor. It was challenging to say the least. I felt that it took me most of the night to really get the hang of communicating with the back of the house. Challenging to say the least. And that was without the pressure of being part of a competition. And the diners were all really nice to us, knowing we were amateurs trying to help out.

Edited December 29, 2018 by bluepiano

[dleighg]

10 hours ago, jackjill89 said:

Remember when they used to have to shop for decor? Ugh. 

 

and someone bought scented candles? :)

8 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

don't remember which season Karen was on. I haven't read comments yet, but I bet one of you identified her season.

I think she was on the Charleston series. She had very pink hair then so you may not recognize her. I ate at her restaurant in Boston last year (I have a habit of checking out Top Chef contestants' places).  Oops looked it up, it was the California series.

[Ellee]

Thought for sure this part of restaurant wars would be re-played before part 2 aired on Thursday.   I don’t see it.  Just saying. 

[biakbiak]

5 hours ago, bluepiano said:

don't remember the inexperience of the waitstaff being an issue before, so I assume that in the past they hired professional servers? Th

To varying degrees it’s been an issue every season we just don’t usually see it play out until service starts.

[CrazyInAlabama]

I'm hoping the show is doing it's usual fake out with the customers that were shown waiting in the preview.     I really hope that whatever happens with Nini that her dessert is so great that it blows everyone away.      The dessert she was working on sounds wonderful (however, I'm a nuke everything 'cook').       

 Is Sara front of house for her group?     As a customer, if she is her usual blunt, and authoritarian self, then I would probably be hard pressed to say good things about the dining experience in that restaurant even if the food was excellent.     

I looked at the schedule, and if anyone wants to DVR part 1 and 2, 6 a.m. Eastern on Saturday 5 January is the first chance I saw.         

[Nidratime]

On 12/28/2018 at 12:05 PM, snarktini said:

I hated how the dining rooms were still being painted during food prep, and tables weren't in place a half hour out. Where was the design team? How could they train their (totally unqualified) waitstaff? That feels like producer sabotage.

This seemed to be a big problem, which was not the contestants fault at all. When the chefs arrived to make their food and prepare to open, the restaurant should've already been set up -- maybe with some last minute tweaks -- but seriously!

Edited December 29, 2018 by Nidratime

[bluepiano]

14 hours ago, AmandaPanda said:

Absolutely agree with you. I wasn't a fan of Brandon in the first episode, but he chilled out and put away the know-it-all side. He seems friendly with the other contestants and I enjoy watching him. Honestly, of the Thistle team, Sara is the one I find the most annoying. She crosses the line from being assertive to being a steamroller. She seems like someone who can't deal unless she is full control of everything. 

In the season opener Brandon was seemingly being set up as the season's villain, but that was quickly dropped. I'm enjoying the fact that thus far we don't have a villain, or internal squabbling, or cliquishness, which for me really marred some of the earlier seasons. There was the "Eddie Money" thing, but I think Eddie genuinely felt bad about his overspending. You can say he was oblivious, but I don't think he intended to be selfish or hurt his teammates.  

I agree Sara can be annoying, but I don't think she means to steam roll anyone. It's just kind of her nature, and she's not nearly as aggressive or bossy as some past contestants. But based on the edit of Part One, I have a feeling she may not survive Restaurant Wars. We got the story of her grandfather who paid for her to go to culinary school. Often when they play up the human interest angle it's a sign that someone may not be around long.

[Brookside]

Hello Brian.  If ballotine is the "culmination of an entire career's worth of knowledge" then you might want to learn how to pronounce it correctly.

[LeighLeigh]

Karen, with the pink hair, was from Man-bun’s season. Rather than say “wife”, she always said “spouse”. She worked in an Asian restaurant and was friends with Marjorie. 

[Hero]

I feel like Brian is going to be eliminated. He seems very somber in his talking heads. 

[seltzer3]

Noooo! Don't do double eliminations.  Someone always get screwed horribly in double eliminations (Nyesha). 

Does anyone know how does the double elimination work?  Is it going to be one from each team, or two from the worst team?  It would suck if it is two from the worst team, because it will guarantee the Executive Chef and Front of House will both be eliminated.  
 

I think one thing I have noticed in restaurant wars, is that why does it seem like each season, the wait staff seem more and more useless?  Is it to purposely cause more difficulty in restaurant wars? I remember in earlier seasons the staff were relatively knowledgeable.  Now it seems like they just seem inept.  Obviously Nini, didn't do a great job, but it seem like the staff didn't know anything.  Last season Fatima was shocked that the staff didn't know everything either.

 

[Souris]

I fear that the editing is pointing to Nini getting eliminated -- based on what was shown, she looked like she was indecisive and doing NOTHING. Probably Brian is the other eliminatee.

[HappyDancex2]

Nini had that uptalking voice when she was talking about how confident she was for doing front of house.  Ugh.  Anything but!  She should have stayed on the line and cooked.  She has been excelling at the food, not personality or organization.

Brian is clueless.  He was really proud about talking about the nuances of a reservation book at the place he works at now as somehow being super qualified to run FOH.  He has a self professed Gift of Gab?  How delightful?  When Eddie tried to talk him out of his Ballantine he proclaimed he was VERY confident in it....he almost has to convince himself that he belongs there.  Staying up all night to write a manual is no badge of honor.

[Statman]

I love restaurant wars because that’s how real life restaurants actually work.

If I wanted to watch chefs cook in perfect environments with all the time in the world to prep and serve their dishes then I would not watch TV because that show doesn’t exist.  

[rhys]

17 hours ago, Brookside said:

Hello Brian.  If ballotine is the "culmination of an entire career's worth of knowledge" then you might want to learn how to pronounce it correctly.

Gawd thank you for that. I thought I was losing my mind. I had to go look it up in " Food Lover's Companion. " Ballotine crikey chef.

[hendersonrocks]

Quote

In the season opener Brandon was seemingly being set up as the season's villain, but that was quickly dropped. I'm enjoying the fact that thus far we don't have a villain, or internal squabbling, or cliquishness, which for me really marred some of the earlier seasons. There was the "Eddie Money" thing, but I think Eddie genuinely felt bad about his overspending. You can say he was oblivious, but I don't think he intended to be selfish or hurt his teammates.

100%. I heart your post about Brandon, driver18, and echo this note about Eddie as well. He seems to be going out of his way to be apologetic about what happened with the lamb and making sure he's not sandbagging anyone with his spending. I mean, it has come up every time we've been in Whole Foods since. And Brandon has shown to be spot on with his feedback to fellow chefs. If he really wanted to screw them, he'd say nothing.

I am enjoying this group of chefs a lot and the fact that none of them seem to be blatant asshats has a lot to do with it.

[Dewey Decimate]

On 12/28/2018 at 3:57 PM, driver18 said:

Honestly, I don't understand the continued Brandon-hate I'm reading week after week. Sure he came off a bit arrogant in the first episode, but that was because he HIMSELF said that he could come off as arrogant and then the editors edited the first challenge such a way as to make it appear that way, but nothing else he has really done so since. 

Now, sure, something may come out later that he truly is a douche, but nothing we've actually seen on the show other than the first challenge which was edited to reflect his own words that he *can* come across as arrogant sometimes show him as a douche. This just seems like an overall nice group of cheftestants and the show was trying desperately to create a "villain" edit early on.

As Bart Simpson said, the bad guys are always blonde! Just like in The Karate Kid and World War II! They definitely tried to make him out to be a douche early on, and I admit there is something about his face that's fairly smack-able (a la Louise Belcher with Boo Boo), but he seems like a really good guy. It's also cute how Eddie Money was all "give me the scraps! The cheapest pieces!" while meat shopping. Nice to see someone humble and ready to learn.

[Sandiscot]

I don't keep track of previous seasons and so many of you are really impressive with your encyclopedic knowledge! Didn't they get more days to get the restaurants set up in the past? Or am I  imagining that, which is quite possible!

Edited December 30, 2018 by Sandiscot

[dleighg]

5 minutes ago, Sandiscot said:

I don't keep track of previous seasons and so many of you are really impressive with your encyclopedic knowledge!

well some of us supplement our memories with Wikipedia :)

[xfuse]

14 hours ago, Statman said:

I love restaurant wars because that’s how real life restaurants actually work.

They really don't. You have months/years to think up your menu and plan everything about it. You hire wait staff with experience. You don't decorate on the day and most importantly you have at least one run through. Most time you have a few to work out kinks. There will always be problems but you cut down on alot of them this way.

[Lamb18]

I have to confess Restaurant Wars is my favorite episode to watch in Top Chef.

[Iseut]

I agree that Brandon isn't as bad as I think the Magical Elves want us to think he is. He definitely got the immediate villain edit, and I think they capture every eyebrow raise or slightly smarmy thing he says or does. He's not my favorite by any means, but I'm trying not to let the editors sway me against him.

That said! As a quiet person myself, I'm always annoyed by the perception that quiet = weak. I don't think Michelle would have gotten as far as she has, or would offer to be EC, if she didn't have the voice to do it. People telling me "You're so quiet" irritates the crap out of me...is it ever acceptable to say "You're so loud?" So yeah, that gets my goat, but I understand why Brandon wanted to double check that they'd be able to hear her in a chaotic environment. (Especially since I didn't even know she existed until last week!)

I thought that the design company came off looking worse than any of the chefs...it would have to be so hard to train servers when the actual dining room isn't set up at all. I'm surprised the company would put their name on such obviously shoddy work (though according to the upthread comments, that company is obviously not long for this world). 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think Brandon isn't the most tactful person, but many of the executive chefs aren't, from what I've seen.      A jerk wouldn't have warned Adrienne that her pasta dish was going to take too long, and told her why, so she could change it up.       

I think the real villain this time is Sara, who is getting on my last nerve with her constant remarks about everything.    She has to be the center of every conversation, and I find that pushy, and rude.     In her bio on the Bravo website she says she is big into farm-to-table, and loves to educate her fellow restauranteurs in her area about that.   I wonder how thrilled they are about her help, if she says it the same way she talks to everyone on the show.  

Edited January 1, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[biakbiak]

46 minutes ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

A jerk wouldn't have warned Adrienne that her pasta dish was going to take too long, and told her why, so she could change it up.   

And the thing is I believed him when he stated that he would have been super impressed with her if she had managed to pull it off. He was just being honest in his assessment. Now whether or not he needed to give her that unsolicited but correct advice is another question but since then he has appeared to only provide advice/input when asked.

Edited January 1, 2019 by biakbiak

[rose711]

On 12/30/2018 at 3:00 AM, Statman said:

I love restaurant wars because that’s how real life restaurants actually work.

If I wanted to watch chefs cook in perfect environments with all the time in the world to prep and serve their dishes then I would not watch TV because that show doesn’t exist.  

I don’t think real restaurants have servers with no experience and no time to train them because the tables aren’t set up.

18 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

I think Brandon isn't the most tactful person, but many of the executive chefs aren't, from what I've seen.      A jerk wouldn't have warned Adrienne that her pasta dish was going to take too long, and told her why, so she could change it up.       

I think the real villain this time is Sara, who is getting on my last nerve with her constant remarks about everything.    She has to be the center of every conversation, and I find that pushy, and rude.     In her bio on the Bravo website she says she is big into farm-to-table, and loves to educate her fellow restauranteurs in her area about that.   I wonder how thrilled they are about her help, if she says it the same way she talks to everyone on the show.  

I’ll vote for Sara as being pushy and rude. Seems like she was always that way of she grew up bragging to her friends that Hannakuh was more than the one day they had of Christmas.

Im not a fan of the way Kelsey talks to the other chefs by threatening them. Seems unnecessary. She can be ok otherwise. 

[Special K]

I agree that Brandon at least seems like he is trying to be helpful and collegial.  Like when he told what's-his-name that his dessert was a little salty -- first of all the guy asked for his opinion, which says something about how Brandon comes across to the other chefs.  But looking back, it seemed to me that Brandon was maybe even being kind/downplaying it, based on how the judges reacted later.  I just think maybe Brandon's sense of humor doesn't come across at first. 

I think Sara was kind of a try-hard (or a blow hard?) in the Maker's Mark challenge, and I loved Nini putting the kibosh on that -- "we know you can make everything, now which dish do you want to make?"

[Rai]

I fear deeply for Nini. I don't care if Brian goes. Nothing he's done has been particularly impressive, although I appreciate the level of intensity that he's deploying for Front of the House. But he still seems doomed.

Can we talk about Justin though? I hadn't warmed up to him, and I felt oddly pleased to see his dick side come out. Some kind of vindication for not warming up to him or something. Okay, Nini didn't do a great job getting the FOH set up. Kelsey was mad and went and did something about it. Justin got mad and threw a tantrum. That's not executive cheffing, my friend.

I think Nini's more doomed than Justin, but he ain't doing himself any favors by melting down already.

[desertflower]

On 12/31/2018 at 7:17 PM, Iseut said:

As a quiet person myself, I'm always annoyed by the perception that quiet = weak. I don't think Michelle would have gotten as far as she has, or would offer to be EC, if she didn't have the voice to do it. People telling me "You're so quiet" irritates the crap out of me...is it ever acceptable to say "You're so loud?"

A big "Amen" from a fellow quiet person! (But just know I will say it quietly.) :)  I'm rooting for Michelle to come through as a good EC. 

My heart rate was through the roof on this one! So chaotic; seems more so than in past years. 

I hope Nini is ok, I really warmed up to her last week. I hate to see a good chef go home because they are not great at FOH. On the flipside, one of my favorite parts of watching RW is when when someone really excels at FOH. Joe last season comes to mind, as well as Fabio in his season. Anyone recall any other really great FOH contestants? 

I will join the chorus that it is ridiculous the spaces weren't ready and that the staff seemed totally inexperienced. Of course there might be some good ones hiding in there and they just highlighted the clueless ones.

[Iseut]

2 hours ago, desertflower said:

I hope Nini is ok, I really warmed up to her last week. I hate to see a good chef go home because they are not great at FOH. On the flipside, one of my favorite parts of watching RW is when when someone really excels at FOH. Joe last season comes to mind, as well as Fabio in his season. Anyone recall any other really great FOH contestants?

A great FOH person, like the two you mentioned, is a joy to watch, but a bad one raises my blood pressure even more than the chaos in the kitchen! I don't really even remember bad ones in particular; but I do remember patrons standing around awkwardly and Padma, especially, being really vocal about long waits and poor service, and I just cringe at how awful that must feel for the FOH person. Some people just have a natural gift for it...Brian seems like the type, but his big book that will never get read makes me question that.

Nini is getting a bad edit now, which makes me think that she'll turn things around and be great at it. And her dark chocolate ice cream that doesn't look like dark chocolate sounds amazing.

Edited January 2, 2019 by Iseut

[dleighg]

3 minutes ago, Iseut said:

but a bad one raises my blood pressure

I recently stumbled across an old season (might have been All Stars?) where Tiffany Derry was FOH. She was awful-- her laughing with a table of customers echoing across the room as she simultaneously failed to do the simple things (greet, make sure people got menus and drinks, describe the dishes, etc.) She took the "great personality" thing way too seriously.

[Gummo]

Put me in the vocal minority that LURVES Restaurant Wars! Sure, it's totally artificial and nothing like that happens in real life, but so what? This is a game show, there's nothing real-life about it. It's all about putting these contestants thru hell and seeing if they can still focus and deliver their best work.

I also think the early 3 way restaurant wars is good in that it destroys the contestants' expectations for the season. TC has been on long enough that the rhythm of the season has been well established - at least 1 of the chefs mentioned that he expected RW at 8, just like it's always been. That's reason enough to shake things up and keep the contestants guessing.

Yes, the designers really screwed all 3 teams, but it's still better than the seasons when they sent chefs off to buy tablecloths and centerpieces and who knows what all else.

And as regards dish choices, seems like They Never Learn. As other posters have already pointed out, pulling out complicated, labor-intensive dishes for RW is just stupid, yet here we are.

I could tell by the 40 minute mark that there was no way they could finish in 1 episode. Not sure why so many feel put out by that; haven't they split RW into 2 episodes before?

[RebeccatheWriter]

19 hours ago, dleighg said:

I recently stumbled across an old season (might have been All Stars?) where Tiffany Derry was FOH. She was awful-- her laughing with a table of customers echoing across the room as she simultaneously failed to do the simple things (greet, make sure people got menus and drinks, describe the dishes, etc.) She took the "great personality" thing way too seriously.

She was awful at it. But I have a feeling that she was simply trying to avoid the drama of Marcel and Mike's bickering. If they had said one chef needs to bus tables, I think she and others would have jumped at that to avoid the micromanaging pettiness. 

53 minutes ago, Gummo said:

Put me in the vocal minority that LURVES Restaurant Wars! Sure, it's totally artificial and nothing like that happens in real life, but so what? This is a game show, there's nothing real-life about it. It's all about putting these contestants thru hell and seeing if they can still focus and deliver their best work.

I also think the early 3 way restaurant wars is good in that it destroys the contestants' expectations for the season. TC has been on long enough that the rhythm of the season has been well established - at least 1 of the chefs mentioned that he expected RW at 8, just like it's always been. That's reason enough to shake things up and keep the contestants guessing.

Yes, the designers really screwed all 3 teams, but it's still better than the seasons when they sent chefs off to buy tablecloths and centerpieces and who knows what all else.

And as regards dish choices, seems like They Never Learn. As other posters have already pointed out, pulling out complicated, labor-intensive dishes for RW is just stupid, yet here we are.

I could tell by the 40 minute mark that there was no way they could finish in 1 episode. Not sure why so many feel put out by that; haven't they split RW into 2 episodes before?

The designer stuff is always so insane. In early seasons they had the FOH person out there assembling tables or hanging pictures. Then there were the inevitable budget issues. 

I think it is good to shake things up for the contestants. The chefs coming in are pretty blase about things even though they seem woefully unprepared. That's why I'm not opposed to sudden death quickfires, etc. 

No, they never learn on the too complex dishes. If you are plating with tweezers, it might be time to go on restaurant wars. 

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Gummo said:

As other posters have already pointed out, pulling out complicated, labor-intensive dishes for RW is just stupid,

Especially this year, with three teams.  If you put out good food, and the main ding against you is that you played it safe - "it was a delicious meal, but you didn't wow us; this is Restaurant Wars!" - the worst that happens is you're the second-place team and live to compete another day.

[tvfanatic13]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

Especially this year, with three teams.  If you put out good food, and the main ding against you is that you played it safe - "it was a delicious meal, but you didn't wow us; this is Restaurant Wars!" - the worst that happens is you're the second-place team and live to compete another day.

That assumes 2 people are going home from the worst team. We really don't know how it will work.

I wonder if they will repeat restaurant wars at 8?

[Bastet]

7 minutes ago, tvfanatic13 said:

That assumes 2 people are going home from the worst team. We really don't know how it will work.

They didn't know about the double elimination at the time of meal planning, though, right?

7 minutes ago, tvfanatic13 said:

I wonder if they will repeat restaurant wars at 8?

No, as noted previously, the new episode airs at 8:00 (EST) tonight, and there is no repeat of part one.