S16.E05: Restaurant Wars Part 2

[Nordly Beaumont]

20 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

That’s extremely common in high end service

lol - I think I just revealed what kind of restaurants I go to! Although I think high end service is something not everyone gets to experience so I won't feel too bad!

Edited January 5, 2019 by Nordly Beaumont

[Rammchick]

1 hour ago, meep.meep said:

One problem that I had was the judges going all together to each of the restaurants in turn.  In the past, they've split up:  Tom and Gail went to one, while Padma and Guest Judge went to the other.  Then the pairs switched to the other restaurant.  But this time, they went all together to the first restaurant, then to the second, then to the third.  Which meant that the third restaurant was never going to come off as well as the first two.  And, surprise surprise, it didn't.  Because as it gets later and later, any mistakes that you make at the beginning get magnified.

Not to mention the fact that by the time the judges get to the third restaurant, they've already eaten two other meals.  Your palate is pretty knocked out after all that food, and I'm betting that the dishes on average don't taste as good.  Any team who goes first has a distinct advantage.

Edited January 5, 2019 by Rammchick

[catrice2]

2 hours ago, pamster said:

So distracting! All I could think of was that yellow suit in “The Mask” cartoon series.

 no you're not the only one.  I thought she looked a hot mess and wondered if she would be flattered by the statement or she would feel objectified and annoyed to be called banging hot

[Sew Sumi]

Who has complained about Nini's knifing? Everyone here seems to agree that it was the right call. 

[Brookside]

1 hour ago, bobbobbob199 said:

Inasmuch as Nini was unfairly eliminated, as everybody has been complaining (and I'm sure Tom realized), its clear that the convenient LCK return happening the very next week is skewed towards her return. 

A lot of people are saying it was the correct decision to eliminate her.  To me the comments are more skewed towards how ridiculous it is not to furnish experienced servers.  Nini did a crappy job handling them; Brian did a good job and won the challenge.  Same conditions, opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of results.

[rhys]

I don't think it was unfair that Nini was knifed. Where did you get that, @bobbobbob199?

[twilightzone]

Nini wouldn't have gotten knifed if she was not front of the house.  That wasn't her strength.  Because she is one of the better chefs.

Kristen Kish also got eliminated because of Restaurant Wars - and fought her way back to win.

[theatremouse]

She did basically nothing useful as FOH and they all thought her dessert was meh and weird and not a complete thought. She had two jobs and failed at both.

[HappyDancex2]

When Tom and the guest judge visited the kitchens before service started the question to Nini (and the Chicken Ballontine) was what are your plans for FOH?  

Nini said " Attention to detail.  Make sure everyone gets their food on a timely manner.  And.....Smile."

Well she did smile.

[seltzer3]

4 hours ago, Nordly Beaumont said:

Just like the cheftestants should know to bring a dessert recipe, they should also know that the servers won't be trained. If not they haven't been paying attention. Surely the night before RW someone in the house said, "you know they don't get professional staff for this, right?"

Except it wasn't like that before.  A lot of the servers in past RW were experienced.  For some reason the past couple recent seasons they all the servers weren't trained.

I wonder if future FOH should pull an Alex (from season 7), where they don't make a dish at all and focus solely on FOH.

[HappyDancex2]

An elevated slice and serve dish for the FOH person would be smart.  Chicken Ballontine had a slice n serve (LOL) except the plating had a lot of components.  The losing team also got screwed when they had to shuck oysters to order.  That was ridiculous.  It's too bad they couldn't change the menu on the fly.  I was looking forward to the fried bass dish they were talking about during menu planning.  Maybe there wasn't enough bass or snapper at Whole Foods.  But the decision to do oysters was doomtastic as well.

[Vermicious Knid]

This was the apex of the nadir of Restaurant Wars. Producer shenanigans with unfinished spaces and incompetent servers is just unnecessary. Screw 'em. This was the most unpleasant episode of RW and I'm done. The next season I'm not going to bother watching it and will just check online to see who gets eliminated.

[bobbobbob199]

2 hours ago, rhys said:

I don't think it was unfair that Nini was knifed. Where did you get that, @bobbobbob199?

I get that from the idea that most people have been harping on the servers being untrained as a bad thing, which was the primary trigger for Nini's mistakes.  I stand corrected if most of you don't think that way. (personally I'm torn. Yes, she was the main reason for her team's fail, but it is top CHEF)

Edited January 5, 2019 by bobbobbob199

[Sew Sumi]

1 hour ago, seltzer3 said:

Except it wasn't like that before.  A lot of the servers in past RW were experienced.  For some reason the past couple recent seasons they all the servers weren't trained.

I wonder if future FOH should pull an Alex (from season 7), where they don't make a dish at all and focus solely on FOH.

FOH is required to make at least one dish. It's been that way for several seasons. 

[eelpout]

16 hours ago, sATL said:

Granted I have not been to a "fine dining" restaurant in a while... why , please tell me why, are the servers writing PAPER ticket orders in the 21st century ?... 

If McD can use an electronic menu board... 

OMG. Millennials think everything can be solved by glass touch screens and software. 😋

[HappyDancex2]

The weirdest thing is that using mactors and or temps has been going on since the beginning of top chef....it’s part of the elusive charm of opening up a crappy pop up in one day....long before pop ups were even pop ups!  When a dish is executed properly it’s a miracle....when a team executes flawlessly it’s treated like an anomaly.  Welcome noobs to Top Chef.

i think it would be fantastic to see RW again for the top 8.  I wonder if there would be an additional harder twist?  Everyone responsible for 2 dishes? LOL  That would be brutal.  Or “It’s Restaurant Wars in the Woods!  Water from plastic jugs, open fire pits and 3 cast iron pans...BEGIN!”  

[hendersonrocks]

9 hours ago, bobbobbob199 said:

I get that from the idea that most people have been harping on the servers being untrained as a bad thing, which was the primary trigger for Nini's mistakes.  I stand corrected if most of you don't think that way. (personally I'm torn. Yes, she was the main reason for her team's fail, but it is top CHEF)

For me both things are true. The servers maybe should have been slightly more experienced, but ultimately it was her fault and she completely deserved to go (for reasons related to both FOH and her failed dessert).

[carrps]

19 hours ago, dleighg said:

my son is 22 and a bit of a fashionista. His pants are "short" to my eye but I think that's the fashion (cold ankles). Maybe the short sleeves are another trendy thing to show off the cuffs? I don't think it was an accident.

Those "shrunken" suits (as I've been calling them) have been a style for over a year now. I see all these guys going on talk shows and looking like they're wearing their kid brothers' suits. And like their man parts are in a vise. LOL.

Did it stand out for anyone else that the client population seemed to skew older than most seasons? Also, most of them didn't look much more dressed up than Sara (agree that she looked like she just came from cleaning the garage). There was one lady who had a line on camera who looked like she was going to the Derby (minus the hat), and she was OVER-dressed. Ha.

P.S. I meant to question that one server that Sara had to hug. She almost seemed mentally challenged. That's a bit beyond just getting inexperienced servers.

Edited January 5, 2019 by carrps
add a p.s.

[theatremouse]

I thought that server was having a panic attack and Sara was being very kind about it.

[rhys]

1 hour ago, carrps said:

 much more dressed up than Sara (agree that she looked like she just came from cleaning the garage). 

Sara looked like she just wandered over from OITNB (well except for the color). She was a mess.

oh those shrunken suits. Good name. What is the term for crushed boy parts? Brian's suit label's were wrinkly too. 

Again, chefs, it's ballotine---one N. You're welcome.

[ProudMary]

On 1/4/2019 at 5:35 PM, HunterHunted said:

Unfinished restaurant spaces and untrained staff have been staples of Restaurant Wars almost from the beginning, especially in the old days when they gave the teams a design budget and they'd have to schlep to furniture stores, Pier 1, and flower markets to create their restaurants. You indicated that you liked it better when the chefs had to personally shop and set up the decor. I HATED that. It wasted a ton of screen time on areas that weren't logically in a chef's purview while skimping on things that we would reasonably expect a chef to have some experience with like cooking, menu planning, training wait staff and servers, expediting, and learning how to turn over tables. Most restaurants, if they can afford it, hire designers.

The contrived things are things like insisting they do Restaurant Wars this early in the competition when the cheftestants don't have the greatest understanding of each other's skills and deficits. Another contrivance was when they had to do lunch and dinner service. But by doing Restaurant Wars so early in the season, we don't really get a true exploration of the drama that results when you have 2 chef/owners on a team like Sara and Michelle were and Sara colossally screws things up in the front of the house. It's doubly embarrassing because of how confident she was. But Nini runs a cooking school; she had no fucking business being front of house or executive chef/expediter. Her team didn't really know each other well enough for Nini to pushback and insist that one of the two executive chefs of actual restaurants (David and Justin) handle the front of house and executive chefing.

Honestly, I thought that was the best idea because each of the four chefs had to assume either the role of Executive Chef or FOH.  There was no hiding that season. 

[HunterHunted]

On 1/4/2019 at 10:18 PM, twilightzone said:

Kristen Kish also got eliminated because of Restaurant Wars - and fought her way back to win.

Kristen more or less eliminated herself because she was the executive chef who fell on her sword rather than admit Josie was slow and obstructionist. It's not Weekend at Bernie's. They can't just strap Josie's useless corpse to them and drag her along with them. Restaurant Wars is a very spare team competition and there aren't any good options on what to do with a team member who is as useless as Josie was. This was actually Josie's second go around on Top Chef so no one needed to protect her fucking ass.

23 hours ago, HappyDancex2 said:

The losing team also got screwed when they had to shuck oysters to order.  That was ridiculous.  It's too bad they couldn't change the menu on the fly.  I was looking forward to the fried bass dish they were talking about during menu planning.  Maybe there wasn't enough bass or snapper at Whole Foods.  But the decision to do oysters was doomtastic as well.

This is why Restaurant Wars is always better a little later in the competition. Even though this was episode 5, it was actually elimination challenge number for 4 for the cheftestants. Pushing Restaurant Wars back 2 or 3 challenges helps the chefs understand the challenge structure, the time constraints, and just general fatigue better. A week later in the competition (they film 2 episodes a week) and more of them might nix the idea of shucked oysters or realize much earlier in prep that they can't shuck all of them and maybe they steam them open or turn them into a soup.

20 hours ago, HappyDancex2 said:

The weirdest thing is that using mactors and or temps has been going on since the beginning of top chef....it’s part of the elusive charm of opening up a crappy pop up in one day....long before pop ups were even pop ups!  When a dish is executed properly it’s a miracle....when a team executes flawlessly it’s treated like an anomaly.  Welcome noobs to Top Chef.

That's the thing. Every once in awhile, we get a server who is far too experienced to be ignored. They were sometimes drafted into prep, sous, plating, expediting, or running the front of the house almost all on their own. By and large, these contributions are rarely acknowledged by the judges. Honestly, it's better for the competition when these inequities are eliminated.

9 hours ago, carrps said:

Those "shrunken" suits (as I've been calling them) have been a style for over a year now. I see all these guys going on talk shows and looking like they're wearing their kid brothers' suits. And like their man parts are in a vise. LOL.

Nope. They haven't been a style for a year. They've been a style for more than a decade.

https://www.gq.com/story/designer-of-the-year-thom-browne-menswear

https://www.acontinuouslean.com/2014/11/20/thom-browne-suit-die/

5 hours ago, ProudMary said:

Honestly, I thought that was the best idea because each of the four chefs had to assume either the role of Executive Chef or FOH.  There was no hiding that season. 

There was no hiding, but it sure as shit was a surprise to both the chefs and the audience. I think the thing that I had the biggest issue with is that they did lunch and then dinner service rather than dinner first and then lunch. Because of the extreme time constraints for lunch, lots of restaurants start by serving dinner and add lunch later once they've understood the timing issues in their kitchens and the dishes. So I didn't mind it so much, but would rather have seen it play out in a way that actually is a bit reflective of the industry and informative for viewers.

Edited January 6, 2019 by HunterHunted

[carrps]

18 minutes ago, HunterHunted said:

Nope. They haven't been a style for a year. They've been a style for more than a decade.

 

Yeah, I knew about Thom Browne ages ago, but I've only seen these suits on just about everyone in the last couple of years, I can still remember watching Stephen Colbert when he first started wearing them (or at least as extreme as I've seen him wear) maybe 18 months ago?

[Mardo2044]

On 1/4/2019 at 1:02 PM, seltzer3 said:

One thing Nini could have done to save her dish was to pour the mixture onto sheet trays and freeze them (And do the thai roll up ice creams).  They may come out icy, but it wouldn't be a puddle mess.

It's something I thought of as well...and I think it has been done as a fix/twist in one of the early seasons.  Not certain why not tried.  I also think she never took and trained the front staff like they showed Sara doing on the spot when clear server was confused. Nino filled ingaps, taking orders herself rather than fix at the source.  Reteach them once and then she would be more free for turning over tables, pushing faster entrees, sorting out glitches.  Definite right decision to send her home.

[Mardo2044]

On 1/4/2019 at 9:51 PM, Rammchick said:

Any team who goes first has a distinct advantage.

Not always.  One season their first service was bad and they had time to fix their issues for second service for Tom's arrival/critique.  So I think it just depends on what your issues are, 1st service servers really don't know what they are doing..etc.

[Mardo2044]

On 1/4/2019 at 4:08 PM, ratgirlagogo said:

That was my impression too.  Eddie is the one who actually cooked that chicken ballotine and Brian got all the credit.

Thank you!  It bothered me his execution of the dish was not mentioned by brian, when it was cooked perfectly and a time consuming complicated dish.

[queenbee9b]

On 1/4/2019 at 11:52 AM, sATL said:

Yeah.. which brings me to my next burning question that happens during RW.. which I missed during the episode (I too was multitasking).. Do furniture delivery people just come and drop everything at the door - for one (ie the FOH chef)  to move to where they want ?

I know someone has to pick out tables/chairs/gobblets/flatware/decor for a new space and do all of the required physical labor, I guess I just like it better when RW is done in existing space, so the contestants can focus on the cook and running the service. 

I work with events and we use a lot of rental - chair, tables, flatware, plates.  They just drop them.  Our facilities people put the chairs and tables out and our caters move the crates with the plates, etc. 

[HappyDancex2]

The best thing MyBlueprint did was provide the 4 chefs on the winning team with 10K each.

[breezy424]

Those suits have been around for a while.  See any franchise of million dollar listing.  Not a fan.  My question is did he do that intentionally or was it is just an ill fitting suit. 

[bluepiano]

10 hours ago, theatremouse said:

I thought that server was having a panic attack and Sara was being very kind about it.

Sara seems to be getting a lot of flak about her appearance, unfair in my mind. While no one seems to be giving her credit for her kindness to the servers, which might've been a factor in getting a better outcome than the other teams. As she said, treat people well and they will generally go the extra mile for you. Compare her attitude to that of the blond woman chef who said to the servers, "I don't want to hear you talking to me." Maybe it wasn't her intention, but it came off like she thought the servers were some kind of subhuman species.

I agree with others that this is the worst RW in my memory, thanks to seemingly more producer shenanigans than usual and the inexperienced servers, and maybe having the extra team.

It also made me wonder about the criteria by which winning and losing teams are selected. The team with Nini as FOH was shown to have done a terrible job in serving their quests in a timely manner. But at Judges Table, that was barely mentioned, and most of the discussion was about how their food fell short. It made me think that a team could do a terrible job running a restaurant, and still win if their food was the best. In which case, focus on your food, make sure the judges get served promptly, and screw all the diners. (I mean, SAG extras).

Edited January 6, 2019 by bluepiano

[Lizzing]

As dumb as it was to have RW this early in the season, and to hire rando temps off the street who don't know what spoons are, it still wasn't as bad for me as S3 and Madonna's dumbass brother.  I hated that RW.  But yep, I agree with the PYKAG result, but I do wish they'd hire people with actual food service experience and drop the added "drama" of hiring people who don't have a clue for service.

Since I just caught up on last week's and this week's episode, I just gotta say those swan? fixtures in the hot tub/large bath are just too much. Also, every time they show the picture of the outside of the house, I very much expect the ghosts of Robert Guillaume and James Noble to pop up on screen.

[xtwheeler]

On 1/4/2019 at 2:39 PM, etexlady said:

Disappointed that Nini was eliminated.  Of course, Tom wants to get rid of as many of the female chefs as possible so no surprise (my opinion). 

I'm wondering what prompted you to feel Tom was inclined to treat the women unfairly and get them out of the kitchen. Tom has been a strong advocate of women in the industry, and he wrote several pieces as #metoo was gaining momentum about sexism in the kitchen. He wrote passionately about "boys will be boys" in the kitchen was bullshit & it is on the men to be aware of and in control of their words and actions. A couple of his pieces actually moved me to tears. I remember in particular a "real men don't disrespect women" piece that was amazing. So I'm curious if there are other things that have given you the impression he's sexist and discriminatory. 

[HunterHunted]

3 hours ago, xtwheeler said:

I'm wondering what prompted you to feel Tom was inclined to treat the women unfairly and get them out of the kitchen. Tom has been a strong advocate of women in the industry, and he wrote several pieces as #metoo was gaining momentum about sexism in the kitchen. He wrote passionately about "boys will be boys" in the kitchen was bullshit & it is on the men to be aware of and in control of their words and actions. A couple of his pieces actually moved me to tears. I remember in particular a "real men don't disrespect women" piece that was amazing. So I'm curious if there are other things that have given you the impression he's sexist and discriminatory. 

I agree. Not that this incident involved sexism, but Tom was on the record as being so disgusted by the head shaving incident in season 2 that he wanted to toss everyone (Cliff, Ilan, Sam, and Elia) except for Marcel. It's pretty clear that Tom does not get down with haraharassment and bullying.

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-2/blogs/tom-colicchio/shave-and-a-haircut-dim-wits

As an aside, I rewatched season 2 a couple of years ago. It's so clear that one of the biggest complaints about Marcel is that he's always talking. He is. However if you watch that season, he's doing that extemporaneous talking to the camera that we now expect of the chefs. The other chefs didn't know what the heck he was doing. It seemed like annoying prattle to most of them. In season 3, the chefs are a little better at it. It's only in season 4 where we see that most of the chefs understand that they have to be "on" when the cameras are rolling. 

[AriAu]

Quote

Those suits have been around for a while.  See any franchise of million dollar listing.  Not a fan.  My question is did he do that intentionally or was it is just an ill fitting suit. 

They had a great Modern Family episode about this 5+ seasons ago where Phil's suit gave out and shredded!

It is interesting seeing so many people go from top to bottom in a matter of episodes, but in this case Nini was foolish to take on FOH when she does more cooking school than restaurant work. Being on the firing line like that takes more than hustle and smile...it takes organization under those circumstances and leadership skills and she seems to lake both.

Restaurant Wars is always a shit show unless there is one leader that everyone on a team is willing to follow-I remember everyone hoping on the back of Blais in the All Star season knowing that he could open a restaurant and play the game well as the best example of a restaurant wars that could work. Doing it this early in the season prevented them from sorting out who really knows what they are doing and following along and that hurt all the teams...they just didn't get the point that you need to survive Restaurant Wars and that it is not really anything you can win.

Quote

It's not Weekend at Bernie's. They can't just strap Josie's useless corpse to them and drag her along with them.

Kudos to HunterHunted-that is the perfect image of Josie....and yes, Kristen did throw herself under that bus to protect her...for NO GOOD REASON

[ProudMary]

17 hours ago, Mardo2044 said:

Thank you!  It bothered me his execution of the dish was not mentioned by brian, when it was cooked perfectly and a time consuming complicated dish.

In fairness to Brian, he may very well have mentioned Eddie's contribution.  They edit SO much out of the Judge's Table discussion that we never know exactly what may have happened in real time.

[seltzer3]

On 1/5/2019 at 9:59 PM, Mardo2044 said:

It's something I thought of as well...and I think it has been done as a fix/twist in one of the early seasons.  Not certain why not tried.  I also think she never took and trained the front staff like they showed Sara doing on the spot when clear server was confused. Nino filled ingaps, taking orders herself rather than fix at the source.  Reteach them once and then she would be more free for turning over tables, pushing faster entrees, sorting out glitches.  Definite right decision to send her home.

Was thinking about past Restaurant Wars.  Ice Cream/Sorbets frozen desserts have been a pretty bad track record.  I remember Carla Hall made a sorbet in her season, and it just melted as well.  Sarah from S11 made a some form of cream for her dessert and it also melted (and they had to scrap it).  Keri, from S13, I think had ice cream for her crepe, that split.  Claudette's ice cream was panned pretty badly last year.

Its actually not a good dessert to do in RW, because if you need so much time for it to set to be frozen.  If you fall behind, is no way of recovering.  Also even if you do the dessert properly, you are the mercy of the service people.  Especially with the recent seasons, where they hire uninformed temps that is such a high risk of plates just sitting there in a hot kitchen.  

Panna Cottas, cakes, and tarts seem to be the safer option.

I'm always amazed at how Stephanie Izard won being FOH.  She made a cheesecake and a pasta dish while being FOH.  How did she do that?!

[Lamb18]

I've kept myself from reading this thread because I wanted to see the episode first, but for some reason Amazon has decided not to release episode 5 to the people who paid for it. So....

[Calamity Jane]

1 hour ago, Lamb18 said:

I've kept myself from reading this thread because I wanted to see the episode first, but for some reason Amazon has decided not to release episode 5 to the people who paid for it. So....

I am unable to watch it on my computer through my service provider, either, which is my usual means when away from home.  I wonder what's up with that?  Can't wait to get home tonight so I can watch!!

[dleighg]

28 minutes ago, Calamity Jane said:

I am unable to watch it on my computer through my service provider, either, which is my usual means when away from home.  I wonder what's up with that?  Can't wait to get home tonight so I can watch!!

Do you go through your provider or through the Bravo site? I usually do the Bravo site when I'm away (and it authenticates you through your provider login)

[Calamity Jane]

24 minutes ago, dleighg said:

Do you go through your provider or through the Bravo site? I usually do the Bravo site when I'm away (and it authenticates you through your provider login)

Yes, Bravo.com, and then the usual is that it wants my provider and a password, and then, boom, I'm good to go.  This week, for some reason, I just get an endless loop of log in, pick service provider, back to log in page, pick service provider, back to log in page, and on and on and on.  After ten tries, I decided to give up and wait until I get home.  Arrrghhh.

[Lamb18]

Just heard from Amazon - I can watch episode 5 tonight!

[biakbiak]

The hosts of the podcast, PackYour Knives were at restaurant wars and share their experience. They were at North East.

[Lamb18]

This Restaurant Wars is more stressful than usual.  It seems almost like it was set up for failure as opposed to challenging with the opportunity for success.

Those short ribs do look kind of nasty. Sara scratching her neck while talking to the judges, kind of ew.

I was looking at the Third Coast's menu as it lay on the table and I thought it said "Roast Puck" (Duck). I was looking at the bearded, shorter guy in the kitchen in Third Coast and wondered did they get extra help? then realized it was David V.  Justin's bisque looks like pumpkin pie.

Nini says "I don't ever want to do this again." Little did she know..  she wouldn't!

[bluepiano]

On 1/6/2019 at 2:32 AM, xtwheeler said:

I'm wondering what prompted you to feel Tom was inclined to treat the women unfairly and get them out of the kitchen. Tom has been a strong advocate of women in the industry, and he wrote several pieces as #metoo was gaining momentum about sexism in the kitchen.

Actually, in the past I can remember Tom being accused of showing favoritism towards female contestants. He brought two women who he really liked back from LCK who then won the title.

[RebeccatheWriter]

8 hours ago, bluepiano said:

Actually, in the past I can remember Tom being accused of showing favoritism towards female contestants. He brought two women who he really liked back from LCK who then won the title.

Agreed. Padma is usually harder on the women than Tom. 

 

I finally was able to see this fully on Amazon. Still don't know why they delayed it, but oh well. It was disappointing to say the least. I do like Restaurant Wars normally, but not when it is simply a disaster. I don't get why anyone would want to volunteer for any job other than line cook. This seems like it would be a better time to fly under the radar.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, RebeccatheWriter said:

Agreed. Padma is usually harder on the women than Tom. 

I think a lot of that is projection. People said Padma wanted Kristen eliminated and hated her because she is prettier than her but in reality the two are super close friends and Kristen is also close to Padma’s daughter. And she is also super right with Fatima who she visited multiple times during her chemo treatments and is also friends with Brooke. 

In the Pack Your Knives podcast they did mention that they thought Northeast benefited a lot from having the judges go first because why they thought their food was delicious, the service was slow and when they arrived at their table it was positively filthy and literally things were swimming in liquid and they had to be the people to mention it and then had to hold various parts of the table decor why the staff turned the table. They did say that the wait staff were really nice just that they had no experience. 

One of the guests in the shuttle described Nini’s dessert as a collection of poop emojis.

[Fukui San]

I listened to that Pack Your Knives podcast for the first time after it was mentioned here! Good stuff. I like that they have a third person who is a restaurateur.  We should clarify that they said that their tablecloth was filthy when it arrived, not the actual food itself.  It's good that they didn't know after dining that their restaurant was the winning restaurant, even though their food was good across the board.

[Rammchick]

On 1/5/2019 at 7:07 PM, Mardo2044 said:

Not always.  One season their first service was bad and they had time to fix their issues for second service for Tom's arrival/critique.  So I think it just depends on what your issues are, 1st service servers really don't know what they are doing..etc.

I was referring to taste, not these other issues (and I agree with you regarding the above).  It's one thing to have to eat (parts of) two entire dinners.  Now they've added a third team.  So to my mind, if your palate is fresh, the first meal has to taste the best, and it goes downhill from there.  All I can think when I watch this is, how do they even know what they're tasting by the time they get to the end?

[Special K]

1 hour ago, Rammchick said:

I was referring to taste, not these other issues (and I agree with you regarding the above).  It's one thing to have to eat (parts of) two entire dinners.  Now they've added a third team.  So to my mind, if your palate is fresh, the first meal has to taste the best, and it goes downhill from there.  All I can think when I watch this is, how do they even know what they're tasting by the time they get to the end?

Agree with this. In the past with two restaurants, don't they sometimes have two teams of judges+VIPs, so that each restaurant is the first for at least one of the chefs.  I can't imagine how much I would not want to eat by the third meal, even if they only ate modestly.

[BarneySays]

On 1/4/2019 at 4:30 PM, albarino said:

I'm not sure why food kept coming back to the kitchen for the Third Coast.  RW menus are limited.  If you take entrees to the wrong table, won't some of them be served?

I got the impression that the guy in charge in the kitchen wasn't paying close enough attention.  He should have been sure that the right food went into the hands of the right servers.  He seemed so distracted by Nini that he failed to do his job.

On 1/4/2019 at 4:32 PM, sATL said:

I've somewhere and remember seeing nbrs on the side of the table (very small - the width of the table). Anther place had something on the table (like a red rose with a glass vase vs. a candle vs. xxxx) that could "mark" a table.

I would think a simply diagram of the restaurant with the tables numbered on the kitchen wall would do the trick, no?