Chopped 2019: Put Down the Chopsticks

[Gramto6]

They haven't been too bad. At least no JZ eating sweets with chopsticks! All the sweets kind of make my teeth ache. I do prefer the savory competitions, but this was OK too.

[cooksdelight]

Watching the ice cream episode last night, I finally gave up and fixed a waffle bowl of buttered pecan with salted caramel sauce. Sigh .....

[mlp]

9 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

a waffle bowl of buttered pecan with salted caramel sauce.

Yum.  That sounds a lot better than everything that group last night made.  The only contestant I liked was the young woman who owns an ice cream store and who went out after the second round.  I didn't care who won.  I've always liked Florian so I was happy to see him on the judging panel.

[nitrofishblue]

At least they provided an ice cream machine for each person

[awaken]

 One sentence I never thought I’d hear uttered! “Your milkshake is too haggis forward.”  😂

[awaken]

On 10/2/2019 at 10:35 AM, cooksdelight said:

If I hear one more person say MARScapone I may go postal.

Ugh, one of my pet peeves with this dhow!  C’mon, chefs!!

enjoying the sweets tournament so far! 

[Rammchick]

Re: Zakarian and the chopsticks -- I just went Googling to see if anyone has cracked the code of why he eats everything with chopsticks.  On Reddit, they theorized that the metal of the utensils changes the flavor of the food.  While that may be true, he never did that before he saw Martha do it (and there are bamboo utensils he could use instead).  But let's get real -- is pork brains salad with Pad Thai vinaigrette and cookie dough croutons really so delicate that the slight metallic tang of a fork actually makes any impact to the taste?

Edited October 29, 2019 by Rammchick

[cooksdelight]

Yeah, he never used chopsticks until Martha did. He can be such a poseur sometimes.

[Gramto6]

Oh please, just stab me with a chopstick. MS is eating desserts with  chopsticks!! I just can't...

[cooksdelight]

As soon as I saw she was a guest judge I changed the channel.

[Maverick]

Not just any dessert.  Ile flottante.  

[mlp]

Martha herself wasn't too obnoxious except for the chopsticks but having her "present" the fourth ingredient was.  They really need to stop fawning over her and just treat her like they do any of the other judges.  

I was disappointed that the woman who came in second didn't win.  I liked her.  I didn't like the winner during her first round or the finals.  Her grim expressions and the stud below her lower lip just put me off.  

[cooksdelight]

The people fawning and making a fuss over Martha should remember .... she’s been in prison after being convicted of felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators. Everyone deserves redemption but they are going overboard.

[xaxat]

In addition, while I know she started out as a caterer, I always thought of her culinary reputation as being the result of a bunch of staff writers/chefs working for her.

[cooksdelight]

4 hours ago, xaxat said:

In addition, while I know she started out as a caterer, I always thought of her culinary reputation as being the result of a bunch of staff writers/chefs working for her.

Every recipe of hers I have tried was not good. Nathalie Dupree, on the other hand... her cookbooks are gold. 

[AZChristian]

12 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Every recipe of hers I have tried was not good. Nathalie Dupree, on the other hand... her cookbooks are gold. 

I made a crocheted poncho based on the instructions from the one she made in prison.  The instructions were crap.

[libgirl2]

20 hours ago, mlp said:

I was disappointed that the woman who came in second didn't win.  I liked her.  I didn't like the winner during her first round or the finals.  Her grim expressions and the stud below her lower lip just put me off.  

Me too. I was not thrilled she won.

[Rammchick]

19 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

The people fawning and making a fuss over Martha should remember .... she’s been in prison after being convicted of felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators. Everyone deserves redemption but they are going overboard.

Also responsible for more stress in women than any other human ever born, to present utterly perfect tables and meals for all occasions.

[sharifa70]

What was with the swooping, in-out-in-out camera work? It actually made me dizzy to the point where I couldn’t watch. I had to just skip ahead to the tastings.

Are the producers getting bored? Do they think we need this in order to stay interested? It reminds me of those late-night, low budget tv ads by some local business with a shouty spokesman (usually something like a used car lot or second-hand sporting goods).

Edited November 13, 2019 by sharifa70

[awaken]

Enjoyed the meatless episode!  All the chefs were decent  and I would’ve been happy for any of them to win!  The Stuffed eggplant inspired me, I’m going to make that this week! 

[libgirl2]

Arghhh! Fell asleep last night during the Thanksgiving episode despite my HUGE crush on Chris Holland. I'm going to have to watch it on demand tonight even though I spoiled it already. 

[Rammchick]

Oh c'mon, Food Network, really?  You couldn't give a donation to each of the contestants' charities?  Instead, they each got a gift certificate for Food Network crap they probably don't need.  Nice way to celebrate Thanksgiving, you bunch of cheapskates.

Edited November 21, 2019 by Rammchick

[meowmommy]

Didn't like the meat episode per se.  If the second-place guy hadn't been such a sportsman of a competitor and finished plating the dessert for the guy with the cut hand, he likely would have won.  As in no good deed goes unpunished, especially on FN.

[spiderpig]

3 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Didn't like the meat episode per se.  If the second-place guy hadn't been such a sportsman of a competitor and finished plating the dessert for the guy with the cut hand, he likely would have won.  As in no good deed goes unpunished, especially on FN.

I would have thought the winning chef would have given part of his award to Mac (like our fan favorite Lance) for saving his bacon, but not this time.  Boo. Hiss.

[meowmommy]

7 hours ago, spiderpig said:

I would have thought the winning chef would have given part of his award to Mac (like our fan favorite Lance)

Chopped has come a long way since Lance and Yoanne.  None of it good.

Edited November 28, 2019 by meowmommy

[Westiepeach]

5 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Chopped has come a long way since Lance and Yoanne.  None of it good.

I remember that...

[spiderpig]

10 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Chopped has come a long way since Lance and Yoanne.  None of it good.

Time to bring back the Obnoxious Bus for a special stop.  "Chris Coleman - party of one".  I reran the ep to see where he worked so I'd make sure to avoid it. It's Stoke in Charlotte NC.

On the other hand, the next time I'm in Manhattan I'll check out the Landmark restaurant and give kudos to Mark Moran who should have won on general principle.

[roughing it]

So whatever happened to Aaron Sanchez?  He's never judging anymore.  (OT - also I never see Kelsey - the cute blonde from NFNS...I would prefer a cooking show with her rather than Molly Yeh)

[Rammchick]

1 hour ago, roughing it said:

So whatever happened to Aaron Sanchez?  He's never judging anymore.  (OT - also I never see Kelsey - the cute blonde from NFNS...I would prefer a cooking show with her rather than Molly Yeh)

Aaron appears to have jumped ship and shills for Gordon Ramsay on Masterchef.  

[ArtFossil]

On 10/30/2019 at 4:09 PM, cooksdelight said:

The people fawning and making a fuss over Martha should remember .... she’s been in prison after being convicted of felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators. Everyone deserves redemption but they are going overboard.

Meh. Martha Stewart didn't commit insider trading. What she did do was to lie to a federal investigator. I thought her sentence too harsh, but she served it with grace and creativity. I'm a fan.

Edited December 8, 2019 by ArtFossil

[GaT]

So I'm watching the "Holiday Sugar and Spice" episode. One of the chefs made a floating island. Jeffrey ate it with chopsticks. 

[cooksdelight]

46 minutes ago, GaT said:

So I'm watching the "Holiday Sugar and Spice" episode. One of the chefs made a floating island. Jeffrey ate it with chopsticks. 

He’s why I skipped this episode. I knew I’d get mad and throw something at my TV.

[sharifa70]

5 hours ago, GaT said:

So I'm watching the "Holiday Sugar and Spice" episode. One of the chefs made a floating island. Jeffrey ate it with chopsticks. 

He who eats liquids with chopsticks should at least avoid phrases like “It has a good mouth-feel.” Dude.

[spiderpig]

7 hours ago, GaT said:

So I'm watching the "Holiday Sugar and Spice" episode. One of the chefs made a floating island. Jeffrey ate it with chopsticks. 

Oh Geoffie - get over yourself.  I'll bet when you were a kid you called your parents "Mater" and "Pater".

(Insert massive eyeroll here)

[libgirl2]

10 hours ago, GaT said:

So I'm watching the "Holiday Sugar and Spice" episode. One of the chefs made a floating island. Jeffrey ate it with chopsticks. 

I saw him with the chopsticks last night and just knew there would be posts. How can you get a real taste of something soft like a pudding or ice cream? How freaking pretentious. I was glad when he and his wife lost in that couple challenge last week. 

Edited December 11, 2019 by libgirl2

[Rammchick]

1 hour ago, libgirl2 said:

I saw him with the chopsticks last night and just knew there would be posts. How can you get a real taste of something soft like a pudding or ice cream? How freaking pretentious. I was glad when he and his wife lost in that couple challenge last week. 

According to something I saw on Reddit, he does that because the metal utensils would interfere with the taste of the food (supposedly).  No one else (besides Martha) does that, so are we to assume that Geoffrey has a more sensitive palate than the others? 😉

I was pleased to see that Maneet and her husband won the Chopped hosts' contest from last week.  She's looking fabulous!

Edited December 11, 2019 by Rammchick

[libgirl2]

37 minutes ago, Rammchick said:

According to something I saw on Reddit, he does that because the metal utensils would interfere with the taste of the food (supposedly).  No one else (besides Martha) does that, so are we to assume that Geoffrey has a more sensitive palate than the others? 😉

I was pleased to see that Maneet and her husband won the Chopped hosts' contest from last week.  She's looking fabulous!

So why doesn't he use a plastic fork and knife? How does he cut steak? 

I was thrilled Maneet  and her husband won too. She looked stunning! 

[cooksdelight]

Quote

he does that because the metal utensils would interfere with the taste of the food (supposedly).  No one else (besides Martha) does that, so are we to assume that Geoffrey has a more sensitive palate than the others?

OMG, he is such a fricken’ tool! He’s been using metal utensils for years now, and only started up with the chopsticks once he saw Martha using them. I did a little Googling and there are a bunch of articles with testing about how a utensil affects the taste of food, as well as how the bowl, dish, plate it’s on can affect taste. They talked about metals, plastics, colored cutlery .... not one single survey or test mentioned chopsticks, or recommending them.

He’s full of it.

[sharifa70]

I thought this Sugar & Spice episode was one of the weakest groups I've ever seen. Did the judges really like anything? I half-expected to see both dishes get cut in the dessert round. And no, runner-up, you certainly did not "crush" this competition.

[spiderpig]

2 hours ago, Rammchick said:

According to something I saw on Reddit, he does that because the metal utensils would interfere with the taste of the food (supposedly).  No one else (besides Martha) does that, so are we to assume that Geoffrey has a more sensitive palate than the others? 😉

So why doesn't pwesious Geoffie use bamboo forks and spoons?  Shoot - you can get buried in an environmentally friendly bamboo coffin these days. 

And BTW, have you stopped stealing you servers tips>

[mlp]

27 minutes ago, sharifa70 said:

I thought this Sugar & Spice episode was one of the weakest groups I've ever seen. Did the judges really like anything? I half-expected to see both dishes get cut in the dessert round. And no, runner-up, you certainly did not "crush" this competition.

I so agree.  The only thing that actually looked good was the undercooked floating islands.  Thiago Silva was pretty arrogant when he was on Best Bakers but he definitely has talent - not seen last night - so I wasn't sorry to see him lose but I didn't like the winner either.  In fairness, pastry chefs don't usually have to deal with time constraints like savory cooks do so the Chopped format doesn't allow them to do their best work.

[sharifa70]

50 minutes ago, mlp said:

I so agree.  The only thing that actually looked good was the undercooked floating islands.  Thiago Silva was pretty arrogant when he was on Best Bakers but he definitely has talent - not seen last night - so I wasn't sorry to see him lose but I didn't like the winner either.  In fairness, pastry chefs don't usually have to deal with time constraints like savory cooks do so the Chopped format doesn't allow them to do their best work.

The winner lost me in the first round when she (and the other female chef) tasted the Advocaat straight out of the bottle. No. No!

[Rammchick]

7 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

OMG, he is such a fricken’ tool! He’s been using metal utensils for years now, and only started up with the chopsticks once he saw Martha using them. I did a little Googling and there are a bunch of articles with testing about how a utensil affects the taste of food, as well as how the bowl, dish, plate it’s on can affect taste. They talked about metals, plastics, colored cutlery .... not one single survey or test mentioned chopsticks, or recommending them.

He’s full of it.

Cooksdelight, you crack me up.  You're so right.  And ok, if you want to go to Noma and do that, by all means.  But on Chopped, you're probably getting herring on a bed of arugula with fortune cookie sauce.  The metal fork could hardly make a difference.

[spiderpig]

On 10/3/2019 at 7:47 PM, cooksdelight said:

As Geoffrey and Martha get a bit older, we might send them some of these to help them eat soup and ice cream. 🙂

Are they available on Amazon?  My hand/eye coordination has gone straight to hell.

On 12/11/2019 at 2:31 PM, mlp said:

I so agree.  The only thing that actually looked good was the undercooked floating islands.  Thiago Silva was pretty arrogant when he was on Best Bakers but he definitely has talent - not seen last night - so I wasn't sorry to see him lose but I didn't like the winner either.  In fairness, pastry chefs don't usually have to deal with time constraints like savory cooks do so the Chopped format doesn't allow them to do their best work.

I didn't like the winner either, but her charity was Save the Whales so I cut her some slack.  Not a whole lot, but a bit.

[Gramto6]

OMFG! GZ ate a tostada with chopsticks!! This is just beyond anything really believable... I just can't any more with his pretentious tasting. If I see he is a judge in the future, I'm watching something else.

[libgirl2]

6 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

OMFG! GZ ate a tostada with chopsticks!! This is just beyond anything really believable... I just can't any more with his pretentious tasting. If I see he is a judge in the future, I'm watching something else.

I know! Its a tostada, pick it up!

[Rammchick]

10 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

OMFG! GZ ate a tostada with chopsticks!! This is just beyond anything really believable... I just can't any more with his pretentious tasting. If I see he is a judge in the future, I'm watching something else.

Not to mention the ice cream he ate that way during the dessert round.

[cooksdelight]

I have already started skipping his episodes, welcome to the party!

[libgirl2]

How can you possibly get a good taste of something like a tostada with chopsticks? Or a sandwich? And then dessert. I get wanting to try some aspects of a dish separate but if its meant to be eaten as a whole, eat it as a whole! He really bothers me. 

[Maverick]

 I'm really not interested in a New Year's episode before we've even gotten through Christmas.