Past Seasons Discussion

[PepperMonkey]

Tim should have kept the beardlette/stubble. They can't really say he looks much like Prince Harry now. Maybe that's why he shaved it...

I wasn't a massive Dee fan, because it's too early to be a massive fan of anyone, but she started off so strong and just kind of fizzled after the handsome-Curtis-Stone cook along. I wondered why she was insisting on cooking the angus when they got their mystery box, but I think she really wanted to prove she had learned something in that immunity pin test. 

Even though the meltdown is usually a spoiler, I could kind of tell the way the other two were so methodically approaching the Bombe, that Dee was in serious trouble. So I was surprised because she initially seemed so strong, but not surprised because she kind of cratered (imho) after Ser Tim won his not very much deserved immunity pin.

On a brighter note, he already used his pin so LOL (what a maroon). Oh, and MORE HISTORY in immunity challenges, guys, seriously? Let me guess (not a spoiler cause it really is a guess): they are not going to be able to choose so two or more of them will "win" pins???? Ye gods, if they are going to continue to force an immunity challenge upon me (and clearly, they ARE, as it is season 11), they can at least have them cook against chefs, like they have in the past. At least watching that process was interesting, yet it seems to have fallen by the wayside, like Shannon...

[retrograde]

23 hours ago, Aerobicidal said:

It’s only episode five, but this season has already become MasterTim Australia. He’s not going to win the First Mystery Box Challenge of the Season™, but his whole, “Hey boys, okay boys, just call me Blokey McBlokeface boys, thanks Gazza and Mazza and Geozza boys.” Stop trying to make Tim happen. He and Matt Sinclair can ride off together into the bro boy sunset tomorrow and take George with them.

I think one of MC Oz's issues will always be that Australians are not typically emotive or articulate as a people. But this show is constructed in a way where the contestants are the narrators, so the one or two people who really ham it up for the cameras wind up getting 90% of the airtime -- especially if they're the white, ocker men that the white, ocker men who run the networks find "relatable."

[katisha]

24 minutes ago, retrograde said:

I think one of MC Oz's issues will always be that Australians are not typically emotive or articulate as a people. But this show is constructed in a way where the contestants are the narrators, so the one or two people who really ham it up for the cameras wind up getting 90% of the airtime -- especially if they're the white, ocker men that the white, ocker men who run the networks find "relatable."

That's probably exactly what it is, retrograde, but I find it far more interesting to hear from other contestants. For this non-ocker "Aussie sheila", diversity is the spice of life!

[retrograde]

32 minutes ago, katisha said:

That's probably exactly what it is, retrograde, but I find it far more interesting to hear from other contestants. For this non-ocker "Aussie sheila", diversity is the spice of life!

Oh I agree. One way to solve the problem would be to have more narration from the, yknow, narrator. I'm a big fan of Gogglebox Australia and the narrator is one of the reasons I like it more than the versions in other countries. The voice-over (which other versions I've seen don't really have or at least use very sparingly) adds a lot of momentum and even delighful snark to the show. If Gogglebox relied on the families for that, you'd again see much more from just a handful of households willing to talk in a very "reality show" way for the producers. 

[seltzer3]

1 hour ago, retrograde said:

I think one of MC Oz's issues will always be that Australians are not typically emotive or articulate as a people. But this show is constructed in a way where the contestants are the narrators, so the one or two people who really ham it up for the cameras wind up getting 90% of the airtime -- especially if they're the white, ocker men that the white, ocker men who run the networks find "relatable."

Right.  I think if Tim was in the USA masterchef, he would be in the middle of the pack, since the American contestants are very hammy and conscious of the camera.

The Australian cast in general are very reserved.  I mean you have people like Jess last season, where people were annoyed with her perkiness.  So Tim just in particular really sticks out like a sore thumb.

The mystery box challenge was really weird with several of the contestants driving off the cliff.  I don't think I remember so many contestants crashing and burning.  Blackberries and steak sounded like a terrible combination (lol, why is that a good idea).  Totally expected the judges to do a bottom 10 and eliminate 4 of them right off the bat.  

Edited May 7, 2019 by seltzer3

[katisha]

I couldn't work up enough enthusiasm to even watch this episode tonight (plus I've got to start work at 6.30 tomorrow - URRGGHH!) but apparently yet another pin has been given out and we're only a week in! I might try and find out who won it but it just doesn't seem that much of a big deal if they're going to give them out like participation ribbons at a kids' sports carnival.

[PepperMonkey]

Fast forwarding through the ep and I'm glad I was wrong about not cooking against a professional chef. 

I really don't care for Poh and never have and not exactly sure why. I do hope she's okay though because is that a wig she's wearing? 

Gah I seriously wish we didn't have immunity pins in a competition like this; it's about the ONLY thing American version of the show gets right (no pins).

[Rosenrot]

9 hours ago, retrograde said:

I think one of MC Oz's issues will always be that Australians are not typically emotive or articulate as a people.

To me they're very articulate and quite non-reserved, but then, I'm a Finn. 😄 Take it down like seven notches from where MCAU is, and you have MC Finland (or any other reality show with a Finnish cast). 

[seltzer3]

9 hours ago, Rosenrot said:

To me they're very articulate and quite non-reserved, but then, I'm a Finn. 😄 Take it down like seven notches from where MCAU is, and you have MC Finland (or any other reality show with a Finnish cast). 

Oh boy, I can't imagine how you would feel, if you watched the American version of Masterchef.

I find it weird that they have the mentor at random (Poh being picked this week).  I'm not bothered by it, but I could see it problematic in the future.

Example.

Gary: "Your challenge is to make the most perfect roast chicken."
Immunity Contestants *Nods*
Gary: "Your mentor of the week is......Ben, from Season 10!"
Contestant: "WTF*!@#)(*!, The dude only knows how to make ice cream."

[Rosenrot]

1 hour ago, seltzer3 said:

Oh boy, I can't imagine how you would feel, if you watched the American version of Masterchef.

I've actually watched two seasons of it, and yeah, I don't like it a lot. Gordon annoys me and it's too much about the drama and the yelling and the contestants badmouthing each other. (They're very hammy, like you said. 😄) Same with Masterchef Canada. The Finnish version I find too slow and tedious. MCAU is the perfect middle road. 

I was hoping for Derek to win the pin, but as soon as he said he was going to make a dome, I knew he wouldn't. The other two dishes I thought looked yummy.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Rosenrot

[retrograde]

Those were some weird looking buffalo wings.

I still have no idea who half these contestants are. Derek's arms have had more screen time that some of them.

I know this isn't a popular opinion but I like Poh! She's knowledgable and good on TV. I'd have been happy if she'd replaced one of the judges or was the only person replacing Shannon. 

[babs1226]

6 hours ago, seltzer3 said:

I find it weird that they have the mentor at random (Poh being picked this week).  I'm not bothered by it, but I could see it problematic in the future.

There are 3 mentors this season, Poh, Matt Sinclair and Billie McKay.  Only those 3 will take turns.

[babs1226]

I thought Tessa did a great job and the professional didn't.  She deserved the pin, but could that piece of pork have been any smaller? How much did they each actually get to taste?

[SnideAsides]

17 hours ago, PepperMonkey said:

Gah I seriously wish we didn't have immunity pins in a competition like this; it's about the ONLY thing American version of the show gets right (no pins).

I wouldn't call the US version giving automatic immunity for the winners of a mystery box or for a team captain whose team lost an improvement on the immunity pins though.

I also don't necessarily think the issue with the narration is that Aussies aren't expressive enough, so much as it is that between how stagey the confessionals are and how the cooktestants are expected to provide all the exposition as well none of it sounds realistic. Something like the Big Brother diary room or the Mole's self-made video journals, with a narrator handling the exposition, would work wonders.

I am fascinated that this producer who apparently has gone over the show with a fine-toothed comb looking for things to change for change's sake has somehow never considered the possibility that getting rid of the toxic George and the patronising Gary might help improve ratings.

[zibnchy]

43 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

I am fascinated that this producer who apparently has gone over the show with a fine-toothed comb looking for things to change for change's sake has somehow never considered the possibility that getting rid of the toxic George and the patronising Gary might help improve ratings.

But if they got rid of George who would do the job of daintily divvying up the food onto 3 separate plates? And who would do all the profuse sweating? Cracks me up how George often takes a bite and then looks at Gary and Matt to see if they like it before pronouncing it "Yum" or not.

One thing they could change is if they could figure out a way to make the immunity pin challenges interesting and exciting. I just can't bring myself to care and usually ff thru to the end.

Are there 4 young blond women competing this year? Or am I seeing double? Did they stack the deck to try to make sure there's a blond woman in the final?

[katisha]

As soon as Prince Harry was anointed captain of the Red Team I was almost certain they would win even if they served up a huge pile of steaming crap, but in fact their dishes looked very appetising and there seemed to be more care taken with presentation than Blue managed.  It's a shame a team has to go to elimination when they clearly both did a good job but because Tessa is in it, we do get the added OMG!!!!1(*&!!! Immunity Pin DRAMA! I actually hope she doesn't use it and backs her abilities but if using it keeps her there I'd be fine with that.  I like her and she has pretty good skills from what I've seen so far.

[patty1h]

Just finished watching the team challenge for the farmers and it always confuses me when they choose dishes that take a lot of prep time.  They always seem surprised to realize that it takes a lot of TIME to clean shrimp, peel potatoes, filet fish for 100+ people.  I know they want to make something that will appeal to the judges and guests, but it'd be smarter to have a menu with items that aren't so time consuming, leaving them frantic at the end of the cook.

[akr]

2 hours ago, patty1h said:

Just finished watching the team challenge for the farmers and it always confuses me when they choose dishes that take a lot of prep time.  They always seem surprised to realize that it takes a lot of TIME to clean shrimp, peel potatoes, filet fish for 100+ people.  I know they want to make something that will appeal to the judges and guests, but it'd be smarter to have a menu with items that aren't so time consuming, leaving them frantic at the end of the cook.

The seafood team always struggles with prep time, don't they? 

(They don't always divvy it up that way, of course, but when they do I always assume it's going to be worse than they expect.) 

Edited May 9, 2019 by akr

[katisha]

No doubt whoever that person on Facebook was who said the other day of Yossra "I can't stand her" when she'd barely had 10 minutes of screen time (and I think we can probably hazard a guess as to the actual source of that hostility 😞 ) will be pleased about tonight, but I'm not.  She wasn't in my top two or three but I definitely liked her.  

Does anyone know what okra tastes like? I don't know if I have ever eaten it so I'm drawing a blank! And lucky Anoushka, getting out of cooking that gross tripe stuff!

[misgabi13]

Hello all - I have missed you!

What a strange episode tonight - a blonde that I swear I have never seen before, even more Derek guns and the judges praising to the hills the exact same dessert we are all so sick of (pannacotta, 'soil', microwaved sponge etc).

Must admit that I was happy that Waleed, who we have barely seen but seems nice, made it!

I must be in the minority that quite like Tim, but I was gutted when Dee left.  So many people still there who don't seem to be able to cook but coast through.

My main peeve tonight is WHO THE HELL has cauliflower as their most hated ingredient???????

I am also suspect of people being allowed to vote 'flour' and 'sugar' as a favourite ingredient.

Anoushka effectively cooked the same dish that got her into the competition tonight.  But I like her so might give her a pass.

Good to see Derek's guns got some more screen time!

Nigella and her glorious roast chicken on Sunday - Yay!

[Rosenrot]

Oh Kyle. Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. ALWAYS TASTE WHAT YOU COOK! Glad he recovered and got to stay, I like him. 

I can't believe Larissa avoided the second round with a banana sundae (that she originally didn't even mean to cook)!

9 hours ago, misgabi13 said:

My main peeve tonight is WHO THE HELL has cauliflower as their most hated ingredient???????

If I ever cooked anything at all, I probably would. 😄 

10 hours ago, katisha said:

Does anyone know what okra tastes like? I don't know if I have ever eaten it so I'm drawing a blank!

Apparently it's close to eggplant (but depending a lot on how you prepare it). 

Edited May 9, 2019 by Rosenrot

[PepperMonkey]

Okra tastes green if that makes sense. 

I'm from the south so we like it fried (with a cornmeal coating), crispy... almost, but not quite, burnt, and sprinkled with sea salt.

It's also used in many gumbos. If it's cooked wrong it can have a slimy texture, but cooked right the "slime" either disappears or takes on a more "silky" texture.

An acquired taste, to be sure, unless you like it fried or in your cajun stews, gumbos, etc. I personally love it. Tom Colicchio is a well-known "okra as a delicious vegetable" agnostic.

Edited May 10, 2019 by PepperMonkey
Punctuation matters.

[seltzer3]

The whole list your favorite least favorite food was kind of a miss. 

I'm guessing that the producers wanted the contestant to list their least favorite ingredient they like to cook with (because its difficult).  But then, it actually ended up being least favorite for different things.  You had some who hate their ingredient, because they hate working with it, or don't know how to cook with it.  But then you have someone like Derek that doesn't like tumeric, because it stains his fingers. So he essentially gets an advantage over everyone else.  (I like Derek, so I'm glad he survived).  I think that it did not turn out in the way producers wanted it.

You know what would be a more hilarious challenge?  If they were forced to combine those two ingredients together.  The poor contestant that had to combine white chocolate and lamb.

Yikes at the slaughter of minority women so far.  Although we do have several left.  Didn't even realize we had a 15 women to 9 men ratio.  That's probably the most lopsided top 24 we had in terms of gender.

Edited May 10, 2019 by seltzer3

[ppl]

Things I don't want to see for the rest of the season: pork belly, curry

I'm sick of Tim and his whole bloke-y schtick. I never thought we would get a drinking game out of Tim saying the word 'boys' but at least it's slightly less hideous than George's turning of 'e' into 'a' (alimination, alements) or 'H' into Haitch.

I'm loving the restricted challenges this season. The quality of contestants seem to be much higher this year than last year which seems to be the reason why they let the contestants have a free-for-all so many times last year.

[katisha]

I will spoiler this first bit except to say that the second round in today's episode was our favourite, the team relay! We didn't get a white chocolate veloute moment but there were definitely a couple of trainwrecks, which is the next best thing.

• Spoiler

  • Abbey so completely screwed the Green Team by not having a clear dish in mind and I don't think she really realised how responsible she was for them going to elimination.  But maybe she's just one of those "doesn't play well with others" types who is fine cooking alone, but freaks out when others are brought into the equation.  But in saying that, there were four others who could have taken the initiative and none of them even tried to do that.
  • I was so impressed by Simon, who kicked off the Yellow Team.  He got them off to such a great start that at no stage did anyone in that team look even slightly flustered.  And Tessa is very impressive.  I predict she will go far.
  • Red Team's unfortunate key ingredient mix-up could have been predicted from the start when Waleed didn't seem to take in a single thing Nicole was telling him about the ice-cream sandwich.  They're very lucky Green did so badly.

• Meanwhile, I really like Anushka but if she keeps up with this layer cake thing, she's going to be the Parfait Elise of the season.

• And did Steph and Abbey really go and dig out some leopard-print items to wear as an homage to Nigella, I wonder?

Enjoy the show, overseas fans!

[misgabi13]

Just watched tonight's episode and the correct team is going to elimination.

As much as I like Abbey her whole 'I'll just make random things and let someone else sort it out' was annoying.

The lamb dish looked amazing!

No white chocolate veloute moment but the star anise misunderstanding came a bit close!

This season isn't as 'must watch' as previous seasons - my favourites keep being sent home (watch out Abbey!!!!).

Plus, if Anoushka makes one more 'layered cake' I will punch my TV!

[snowbryneich]

The favourite least favourite elimination seems an utter swizz to me, yeah some people picked things that they just didn't like or disliked for reasons that actually meant they weren't that hard to cook with but I still think some people thought ahead and were like we're being asked this for a reason - yeah I totally hate lamb. They should have asked for a couple of option and tried to give things of approximate difficulty - I mean tripe/dried fish and cauliflower/ broccoli are not on the same level. 

[TVbitch]

Just finished week 2. Can't believe both of them used immunity pins this early in the game! If they don't think they can outcook 15 other contestants what are they doing there?! 

They judges give more advice than the new mentors. 

During the final phase of the elimination challenge, how is it fair for Gary to taste that curry dish (when the cook failed to taste it themselves, even) and then tell them it sucks, and go to advise that the guy "don't try to fix bitter, you can't" and that he needs to start over! The bitter curry dish could have been the worst if he hadn't redone it. Was failed panacotta woman given equal help?  

[PepperMonkey]

Well, I felt that Abbey did somewhat take responsibility but maybe not enough. And I don't think she even realized how badly she failed the team until Nigella's and judges' comments. When she said "I set them up with everything they need so they don't have to run around", I thought yeah, but did you give them an idea what to DO?? As the second cook said, I wasn't expecting to have to choose the dish.

Tessa is quite impressive and I'm happy that no one is seriously annoying me yet. Tim was more on the back burner today, which was a nice break, and I felt so badly for Larissa at the end of the cook there, she won back some major goodwill from me. Anushka does need to lay off the layer cakes. Has she cooked anything savoury? Can't remember if she has.

It's still too early for me actively to want anyone to go home, but if I had to choose, I would choose Abbey based on her performance in the relay. 

Edited May 12, 2019 by PepperMonkey

[Corgi-ears]

I thought this would be the least safe thing I would see in the episode...

...and then Abbey decided the best use of her 15 mins in the relay was to only do mise en place.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Corgi-ears

[akr]

11 hours ago, PepperMonkey said:

Anushka does need to lay off the layer cakes. Has she cooked anything savoury? Can't remember if she has.

I've been taking notes for some reason, so - yes, she has. Her desert island dish was Armenian dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) with pan juices, flat breads, & dip (my notes don't specify what sort of dip & I don't recall, but I remember she said her son really liked the pan juices). Whatever she was tasked to do on the seafood team challenge, it wasn't dessert. (Well, I suppose she might have helped Christina with her sticky date pudding at some point, but the only thing I remember was her putting stuff on the table, so I'm guessing she did lots of prep or something.) I think she's been shown sitting down with family for dinner as well as dessert, too.

Edited May 13, 2019 by akr

[ppl]

Anushka's layered cake is going to be the new Ben-ice cream tandem this season, isn't it? I have to admit that at least it's different from the usual suspects like parfait, puree, crumb, ice cream, pork belly, sorbet, etc.

I dislike Abbey. I can't believe she had the gall to pat herself on the back with her 15 minute mise-en-place while her team was left flailing to figure out the dish for themselves. That being said, no one tried to add more pistachio into the dish.

Joe really saved the Red team. At least he was being observant. I'm surprised he wasn't praised for that intuitiveness by the judges. Nicole really should have started the handover by telling Walleed that the main ingredient is pistachio and that the dish was an ice cream sandwich. Instead she goes and blabbers on first about components boiling on the stove or in the oven like her teammate knows what the dish already is.

I'm loving the little Derek/judges interactions. It's a welcome relief over the Tim monologue.

[ppl]

3 hours ago, TVbitch said:

During the final phase of the elimination challenge, how is it fair for Gary to taste that curry dish (when the cook failed to taste it themselves, even) and then tell them it sucks, and go to advise that the guy "don't try to fix bitter, you can't" and that he needs to start over! The bitter curry dish could have been the worst if he hadn't redone it. Was failed panacotta woman given equal help?  

Kyle was helped twice. He would have went home had the judges not intervened. Yossra wasn't given help because in the judges' eyes, she's a worse cook than Kyle.

[katisha]

Sometimes it just sucks for some contestants on this show.  Poor Monica.  We barely got to even hear from her until yesterday and of course then it was only because her team featured in that big trainwreck.  And it sucks even more that the person chiefly responsible for that debacle has to go and win dish of the day while she gets booted out.  I had no feelings either way about Abbey before - if anything, I quite liked her - but the relay team thing has somewhat changed my view.  She didn't at any stage say she felt bad for Monica or somewhat responsible for her fate.  I find that hard to relate to because I'd be racked with guilt, but then that's probably because I was raised a Catholic and that stuff never bloody leaves you...haha!

Now, since we can't have a special thread for the betting odds on MC 2019 anymore, I'm going to post the first market I've seen and spoiler it because I know people don't necessarily want to know this information, especially since it's proven to be very accurate.  Here it is.   Oh, and as an extra special precaution, inside the spoiler tag is a link only so you get a chance to not click if you accidentally do the first click!

Spoiler

https://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/entertainment/masterchef?gclid=CjwKCAjwq-TmBRBdEiwAaO1enwLH9iwKMUQbLExFaGqleBecbYJyU58IRkbNGZ5jg9tJw4gekrxHoRoCTk4QAvD_BwE

[misgabi13]

49 minutes ago, katisha said:

Now, since we can't have a special thread for the betting odds on MC 2019 anymore, I'm going to post the first market I've seen and spoiler it because I know people don't necessarily want to know this information, especially since it's proven to be very accurate.  Here it is.   Oh, and as an extra special precaution, inside the spoiler tag is a link only so you get a chance to not click if you accidentally do the first click!

Hi Katisha,  I'm more concerned that I clicked the link and didn't recognise about 2/3 of the names!

I also agree that Abbey seems to be blindly oblivious to her part in the relay fail - yet keen to pat herself on the back for cooking a good chicken.

I would be sad for Monica if we had ever seen her before yesterday!

Personally, and going against the trend here, I quite like Tim - but I think that is because he reminds me so much of my cousin!  He also seems to be able to cook, which is a bit of a bonus!

I really thought the cornflour in the gravy woman would be going home!  Then again her potatoes looked frigging amazing (now I have to cook duck fat roast potatoes for dinner tomorrow!).  

[zibnchy]

So I have a question about carrots. I never ever cook with carrots and I don' think we eat as many here in the US. So my question is about that bit of greens left on the end. Is that an Australia thing? Does it affect the flavor. It just seems so fiddly, several cooks today seemed to spend a LOT of time cleaning them up. So wouldn't it be faster to just cut that end off? Would that be frowned upon?

[limecoke]

Monica.  Monica??  We had no idea she was there and now she’s gone.

I’m in the US and I frequently cook carrots with roast but don’t bother with the green thingy.  I think that’s a restaurant thing and it’s done mostly for appearance on the plate.  

I don’t have feelings one way or another about Abbey but her Nigella-gushing annoyed me greatly.  Really.  Sometimes the cooktestants need to simmer down a little in the presence of the pros.  All the adoration feels a little unseemly.  

[Myriad]

Haven't read the previous posts, so as not to get spoiled.

I'm just beginning episode 10, and seeing these people so over the top by having the quite ordinary Nigella around feels like I smell their own peepee odour coming out of my panties in  waves.

People there, the Beatlemania was in the early 60s and there were way more crazies than your pajamas-wearing screaming lot.

Edited May 14, 2019 by Myriad
Missing word

[retrograde]

I like the elimination test being a mix of following a recipe and each individual's own ideas -- way better than just trying to replicate some weird cake.

Credit to Leah for realising she needs way more experience before opening a restaurant, but I have to say, theater restaurants are hardly known for their great food. 

[seltzer3]

Just caught up.  And there are several contestants I had no idea existed.  Who is Monica?  Who is Simon?  

Simon does impress me.  I'm glad he actually thought of doing something savory with pistachios, otherwise we would have had 4 ice creams.  Waleed should be thanking his lucky stars that the other team did worse.  Its so weird that  in the whole exchange, when Nicole told him they were doing pistachio ice cream sandwiches that he interpreted it to ice cream star anise tart.  I get communication misunderstanding, but its like he wasn't even listening at all.

It kind of sucks for Monica leaving.  Every single time, the person who single handedly butchers the relay team never goes home in the elimination challenge.

[katisha]

So glad the stupid immunity pin challenge is out of the way for the week and the pin DIDN'T get won this time.  Remember the old saying: the more you do it, the less special it becomes.

Meanwhile, I might be tired and grumpy after too many stupid o'clock starts at work these last three or four days, but I swear to God when Derek was talking about his custard dish, the edit monkeys had him going for about five minutes saying the same damn thing!  Essentially he said what he was cooking, how long it takes to cook, why this meant he was worried about it and how it could mean he missed out on a pin.  And then he said that again, in a slightly different way, and then again.  It probably happens all the time but maybe when I'm in a better mood I don't notice. 🙂

On a random note, as someone who visits the scary MC AU FB page, I'm so glad that none of the women have untied-back hair because every season recently there's been a female contestant with hair hanging over the food and it's the subject of a lot of very tedious whinging.  Now if we could just get them to shut up about the overly loud music I'd be a happy camper!

[Rosenrot]

1 hour ago, seltzer3 said:

Waleed should be thanking his lucky stars that the other team did worse.  Its so weird that  in the whole exchange, when Nicole told him they were doing pistachio ice cream sandwiches that he interpreted it to ice cream star anise tart.  I get communication misunderstanding, but its like he wasn't even listening at all.

I don't think he was listening at all. Granted, Nicole was talking quickly, but she did clearly say that pistachios were the featured ingredient and what they were doing with those. Then cut to 30 seconds later, he's like "I have no idea what the featured ingredient is or what our dish is" and then deadpans to the judges that it's star anise. 

Abbey wasn't being fair. Like, AT ALL. Dude! You can't just shift the resposibility of making up the dish to the next person! You're the friggin' team leader! 

[seltzer3]

I always feel bad for the person who comes right after the trainwreck in the relay challenge.

Sandeep.  "Ice Cream star anise tart? Huh?"

Joe managed to bail them out.

[babs1226]

3 hours ago, katisha said:

I swear to God when Derek was talking about his custard dish, the edit monkeys had him going for about five minutes saying the same damn thing!  Essentially he said what he was cooking, how long it takes to cook, why this meant he was worried about it and how it could mean he missed out on a pin.  And then he said that again, in a slightly different way, and then again.  It probably happens all the time but maybe when I'm in a better mood I don't notice. 🙂

In the meantime, Blake didn't even get one talking head.  I have no patience for contestants that choose a dish that they know takes much longer than the time they have, but they do it anyway.  I guess, if you;re going to "gamble" like that, might as well do it when the worst thing that can happen is you don't get to cook for the pin, but to me they are just setting themselves up for failure.

Speaking of which, I bet if Shannon were still mentoring, he would have told Simon to leave the non confit duck leg off the plate.

[akr]

29 minutes ago, babs1226 said:

Speaking of which, I bet if Shannon were still mentoring, he would have told Simon to leave the non confit duck leg off the plate.

I think Poh would have, too. We'll see how Matt fares as a mentor, but Billie didn't really seem to have much to offer beyond encouragement. 

Edited May 14, 2019 by akr

[Corgi-ears]

6 hours ago, babs1226 said:

I have no patience for contestants that choose a dish that they know takes much longer than the time they have, but they do it anyway. 

I think most of the time the real reason for their choices -- "...because I have no other ideas for a dish" -- is implied. 

Does Derek not know how heat works? "My custard is runny, but I'll plop it into the middle of my dough, whack that in the oven, and HOPE THE RUNNY CUSTARD WILL SOLIDIFY INTO A BALL."

In other "do you hear yourself?" moments: Jess, during the ep when she won, saying, "I'm looking at these mint leaves, they're beautiful and fresh...So I'm going to dehydrate them." 

[retrograde]

"Confiting the duck takes a couple of hours. I only have an hour." Ugh.

Yes, Billie was useless and awkward (or at last what we saw of her).

[akr]

2 hours ago, Corgi-ears said:

I think most of the time the real reason for their choices -- "...because I have no other ideas for a dish" -- is implied. 

Does Derek not know how heat works? "My custard is runny, but I'll plop it into the middle of my dough, whack that in the oven, and HOPE THE RUNNY CUSTARD WILL SOLIDIFY INTO A BALL.". 

I think Derek might have made Portuguese egg custard tarts if he hadn't done so twice already.

[xchouchoutex]

Oooh my god i finally found the website and i’ve missed reading your discussions all !!

so first of all i used to like billie back then when she was a contestant but now wow ? What’s going on with her ? She’s acting like they forced her to attend and poor simon he was mentoring his self

There are a lot of contestants that i just noticed they exist . They’re focusing on few over again

[Rosenrot]

Well, shit, Billie wasn't much of help in terms of 'mentoring', was she? She mostly just stood there and smiled awkwardly. Even I could do that. 

Simon's Japanese set custard looked awesomeballs, though. 

On ‎5‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 6:01 PM, TVbitch said:

Can't believe both of them used immunity pins this early in the game! If they don't think they can outcook 15 other contestants what are they doing there?! 

Loki's fate from last season is probably still haunting their minds. 

Edited May 15, 2019 by Rosenrot