Masterchef (US) - General Discussion

[mlp]

I decided back in mid-August that Dorian was the chosen one and would win so I started paying more attention to how her dishes were judged.  I think it was when she put a nice but unremarkable little cake into a glass globe and was praised while Subha's carefully thought out and constructed science lab was received with scorn.  She seemed to make consistently good food, nothing really special, but never did a thing with plating so her narrative became "homey" and "comforting" and "you on a plate."  That even got her through the London elimination round when she cooked the same steak as everyone else but just plopped it on a plate next to some lackluster potatoes, a dish the editing allowed us to see for about a split second.  Even Noah made an attempt to serve a "restaurant quality" dish that looked fancy.  By the finale, I'll bet the judges were praying that Nick and Sarah would both screw up in obvious ways.  So Sarah served a good dish, maybe safe but well done and nicely plated.  The biggest criticism seemed to be the yellow plate.  I didn't care for Nick's book but I'm sure Gordon would have gone into raptures if the same dish had been presented by Grant Achatz.  It would have been declared brilliant.  So Dorian's good but not exceptional home cooking, including dessert served on a creepy plate, took the win.  While she cried about everything.  As usual.  

Aaron is a pretentious jerk.  I noticed that he was emulating Gordon by eating with his left hand with the fork upside down.  He never did that on Chopped.  And for his last verbal gaffe of the season, he called someone's course "unchartered" instead of "uncharted."  

The comments on the MC FB page are pretty much the opposite of what most of us have been saying here - dozens and dozens of people praising Dorian and calling Season 10 the best season ever.  

Edited September 20, 2019 by mlp
correct something

[DoctorK]

1 hour ago, WescottF1 said:

From what I've seen on Reddit, Nick said the prop department made the books so they weren't real and were "food safe".

I believe this, no risk of poisoning or choking one of the judges. However, would you expect Nick, dazzled by his own ingenuity and originiality, take this precaution in his own restaurant?

[cameron]

12 minutes ago, mlp said:

I decided back in mid-August that Dorian was the chosen one and would win so I started paying more attention to how her dishes were judged.  I think it was when she put a nice but unremarkable little cake into a glass globe and was praised while Subha's carefully thought out and constructed science lab was received with scorn.  She seemed to make consistently good food, nothing really special, but never did a thing with plating so her narrative became "homey" and "comforting" and "you on a plate."  That even got her through the London elimination round when she cooked the same steak as everyone else but just plopped it on a plate next to some lackluster potatoes, a dish the editing allowed us to see for about a split second.  Even Noah made an attempt to serve a "restaurant quality" dish that looked fancy.  By the finale, I'll bet the judges were praying that Nick and Sarah would both screw up in obvious ways.  So Sarah served a good dish, maybe safe but well done and nicely plated.  The biggest criticism seemed to be the yellow plate.  I didn't care for Nick's book but I'm sure Gordon would have gone into raptures if the same dish had been presented by Grant Achatz.  It would have been declared brilliant.  So Dorian's good but not exceptional home cooking, including dessert served on a creepy plate, took the win.  While she cried about everything.  As usual.  

Aaron is a pretentious jerk.  I noticed that he was emulating Gordon by eating with his left hand with the fork upside down.  He never did that on Chopped.  And for his last verbal gaffe of the season, he called someone's course "unchartered" instead of "uncharted."  

The comments on the MC FB page are pretty much the opposite of what most of us have been saying here - dozens and dozens of people praising Dorian and calling Season 10 the best season ever.  

I actually was a Dorian liker since day one.  Subha deserved any yelling directed his way in that team challenge.  He was a complete dolt.

[TVbitch]

9 minutes ago, mlp said:

The comments on the MC FB page are pretty much the opposite of what most of us have been saying here - dozens and dozens of people praising Dorian and calling Season 10 the best season ever.  

That is why I hide out on TWOP Previously TV Primetimer. I do not understand people buying what is sold to them with this (and other) shows. I enjoy intelligent critique, humorous snark, and a nice helping of bitchiness. 

[adhoc]

I'm just grateful that "discerning, cultured viewers like yourselves" (reference to Frasier's PBS telethon scene, which is worth a gander if you have never seen it; start watching at 1 minute 30 seconds in, thank me later)  suggested Master Chef: The Professionals. Wow, it's as good as The Great British Baking Show. Thanks again!

[adhoc]

"That is why I hide out on Mighty Big TV TWOP Previously TV Primetimer. "

Fixed it.

[cameron]

What I found really interesting was that Micah was upstairs in the gallery.  Wonder if this was filmed before his Go Fund site.

[bluepiano]

40 minutes ago, mlp said:

The comments on the MC FB page are pretty much the opposite of what most of us have been saying here - dozens and dozens of people praising Dorian and calling Season 10 the best season ever.  

The officially sanctioned or sponsored pages for these shows are always for the people who have been drinking the Kool Aid.

[hhawks]

1 hour ago, cameron said:

What I found really interesting was that Micah was upstairs in the gallery.  Wonder if this was filmed before his Go Fund site.

And he even got a few talking head comments, which not all the home cooks got.  I wish him well.

[eel21788]

19 hours ago, Yeah No said:

What bothered me about Dorian is that she was constantly playing the "poor me" card like that entitled her to win.  So what if Sarah played up her military experience as if that makes her a worthy winner?  It was an admirable achievement worthy of her pride.  At least she didn't play the sob story all season about how she came from poor roots, etc.  I only learned about that for the first time in this finale.  Dorian acted like she's had to fight for everything she has, and maybe that's true but I'm sure Sarah could have spun her life that way too if she wanted to, but didn't. 

What bothered me about Sarah was the claim that her military life prepared her for everything she did on the show, eg. "I was in the military, so I know how to lead a team." Then her team loses the challenge, so obviously the military training didn't develop that skill set for her. Dorian, at least, never said, "I grew up a poor black child (paraphrasing Steve Martin in The Jerk), so that is going to lead me to a win." She could present her background without trying to claim it was somehow advantageous for her.

Edited September 21, 2019 by eel21788

[eel21788]

6 hours ago, Lukeysboat said:

And Aaron is American. He’s lived in TX, NY, and LA at least. 

He specifically said, "We don't have beer pong south of the border." He really made it sound as though he never would have had any opportunity to cross paths with a game of beer pong in his whole life. Did he ever go to college?

Edited September 21, 2019 by eel21788

[cooksdelight]

14 minutes ago, eel21788 said:

Did he ever go to college?

No. Nor cooking school, that I could find. He’s written only 2 cookbooks, the last one published in 2011. He’s a partner in a tattoo shop, which explains all the ink. Born in Mexico, he has one son and they live in New Orleans.

[galaxychaser]

Aaron was likable on chopped. Here nope. 

Joe has always been nasty mean. Good luck Nick putting up with him.

[El maestro]

On 9/18/2019 at 5:25 PM, zibnchy said:

I watched my first ever episode of UK Masterchef today and I simply did not understand what was going on! First of all, nobody yelled and nobody threw food. Nobody made condescending and rude comments. Nobody spit anything out or used the F word. Nobody overused the words Awesome, Amazing, Season, and/or 10. And nobody was dressed in overalls. How can we be expected to enjoy ourselves without all that?

In all seriousness the big thing for me was every dish looked and sounded super delicious. And the judges were actually helpful and nice. Time is really spent on cooking and we, the audience, actually get to learn things. And everyone was super British (obviously), which I love.

I don't think I'll watch Gordon's Ego Show tonight. I'll just wait and see what you all say and maybe watch later.

Probably they were waiting to do all the cursing and fighting later, at the pub, after a few beers. That’s quintessentially British behavior for me, as I was born and raised in Continental Europe.

[El maestro]

My spouse said a woman was going to win, because the three former winners were male. I said no, this is not MC Canada.... I was wrong.

At least Dorian didn’t serve her food in foil baking pans or Tupperware dishes.

Her house looked pretty nice, not sure about the story she is telling. But it is tv, so who knows.

2 hours ago, galaxychaser said:

Aaron was likable on chopped. Here nope. 

Joe has always been nasty mean. Good luck Nick putting up with him.

If you can put up with people in an elite college or the military, you can probably survive Joe Bastianich.

[Brookside]

I rewound twice to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but Nick actually said "I came here a simple-minded cook."  Harvard, he done you proud.

[Yeah No]

13 hours ago, eel21788 said:

What bothered me about Sarah was the claim that her military life prepared her for everything she did on the show, eg. "I was in the military, so I know how to lead a team." Then her team loses the challenge, so obviously the military training didn't develop that skill set for her. Dorian, at least, never said, "I grew up a poor black child (paraphrasing Steve Martin in The Jerk), so that is going to lead me to a win." She could present her background without trying to claim it was somehow advantageous for her.

No, but IMO the victim card is what Dorian played to her advantage and IMO that is worse than hawking how your achievements help you face the challenges on the show.  YMMV.  But this show is famous for favoring anyone with a good sob story.  Single mom, disabled, whatever.  Not that these aren't valid challenges, and I do think it's great that these people have overcome something.  But if it gives them an advantage over other people, I'm not on board with that.  This is a show where the food should be the deciding factor. 

And BTW, in my opinion whether they lost or not, Sarah did actually show herself to be able to lead a team.

[mertensia]

17 hours ago, cameron said:

I actually was a Dorian liker since day one.  Subha deserved any yelling directed his way in that team challenge.  He was a complete dolt.

Except he clearly wasn't. Editing says he was but they got a shit ton of food done. If he'd truly been incompetent there would have been tons less.  

it may well be that even at that point they were trying to puff up Dorian. 

[Yeah No]

18 hours ago, preeya said:

I do believe that and it is probably true, but prior to the finale, the majority seemed to be favoring Nick as this year's chosen one.  My opinion is that his fish dish was the product of some made up producer driven bullshit about the fish being under-cooked/raw. (See above for previous discussions).

The majority where?  Here on this board?  I thought the majority here (including me) thought Dorian was the chosen one.

21 hours ago, WendyM said:

This isn't the first time I've noticed that the second-place winner on any of these shows gets the shit end of the stick. Third-placer Nick gets a mentorship, and sure--Sarah got Viking stuff, but so did Dorian. It was fun to see how pissed off Sarah was, too. Finally, a true emotion! Maybe she didn't realize she was on Season 10 and that honor should have been enough of a reward.

Yeah, it really bothered me that they didn't focus on Gordon giving Sarah a hug and telling her she did a great job or offering her even some small acknowledgement of recognition.  It really felt like a snub to me and it's no wonder Sarah looked so pissed off.  I'd be pissed off too if everyone else got slobbered over when they left but I just lost by a hair and get completely ignored. 

[preeya]

9 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

This is a show where the food should be the deciding factor. 

Unfortunately, ratings rule the television world, thus the actual competition suffers for it.

[preeya]

11 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

The majority where?  Here on this board?  I thought the majority here (including me) thought Dorian was the chosen one.

Yes, on this board. I said it seemed (IMO) to be favoring Nick.  In fact the term "chosen one" was generally used when talking about him (Nick).  Also, when he got past the "string incident" I thought that was the clincher for him being the one.

Edited September 21, 2019 by preeya

[Lukeysboat]

14 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

14 hours ago, eel21788 said:

Did he ever go to college?

No. Nor cooking school, that I could find. He’s written only 2 cookbooks, the last one published in 2011. He’s a partner in a tattoo shop, which explains all the ink. Born in Mexico, he has one son and they live in New Orleans.

He did go to college. He graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. And he’s Mexican-American; he was not born in Mexico. 

[zibnchy]

23 hours ago, WendyM said:

I was relieved Dorian didn't put her mother's heart and soul on the plate.

Or her lungs. ("Because she breathed life into us. Also, did I mention we were poor?")

I'm with the Dorian was chosen crowd. She was very conventional and average but she never fully imploded (Subha treatment notwithstanding.) She has a sobby sob story. She will represent the brand well enough.

I think Nick was just Joe's wet dream. Rich, white, Italian, blandly good looking, Harvard boy. Nick is what Joe sees when he looks in the mirror. Nick should run away.

Sarah was there.

I think Gordon likes to think he's a "savior" and picks a project every year. Micah was his Amazing, Awesome, Extraordinary, Season 10 project. That didn't go well and Gordon will probably pull out all the stops next year.

[PBnJay]

16 hours ago, eel21788 said:

He specifically said, "We don't have beer pong south of the border." He really made it sound as though he never would have had any opportunity to cross paths with a game of beer pong in his whole life. Did he ever go to college?

I've never seen beer pong IRL, but I have seen plenty of it on tv and on game shows and even talk shows. So he's REALLY isolated from reality if he heard "beer pong" for the first time here. I liked that appetizer and didn't see why the snark for the "empty" cup. It was no different than putting a wafer next to (or sticking it in) an ice cream or sorbet dessert. It looked like it would have tasted good.

16 hours ago, galaxychaser said:

Joe has always been nasty mean. Good luck Nick putting up with him.

I was wondering how long Nick's euphoria living in Italy with Mentor Joe would last. Is Joe that horrible in real life? He makes Gordon look like a saint. Heck, he makes everyone look like a saint.

Maybe octopus tentacles served with the suckers on is delicious, but I'll never find out. Maybe baked cow eyeballs are delicious too, but again, I'll never know.

LOL that the food is suppose to be about taste, yet the yellow plate ruined that dish. But wait, now food needs to be about presentation, yet Dorian's food tastes great but looks like home food. Make up your mind, show.

Also getting a laugh was Sarah's vegetables tasting LIKE VEGETABLES! Oh, the horror.

Fred looked just like Ed Grimley in his talking head.

I was surprised Joe wasn't wearing museum white gloves while holding that trophy.

[Mu Shu]

This was my first time watching. Did you all know Dorian was poor and her mother actually fried fish In CORNMEAL?? What a whacko food genius! She should have been disqualified for that $12.99 Amazon wig, and the most ham handed (no pun intended) emotional manipulation on a reality show. Her food looked like solid diner food, nothing I’d pay big bucks for. That dessert was a damn mess, and I generally like very sweet desserts with a lot of ingredients. 

That mess on a book looked disgusting. Concept food. I’d rather have Dorian, who is only the second person ever to use cornmeal to fry fish, serve me a lumpen plate of comfort food.

Sarah’s food looked competent but nothing special. 

I remember Gordon Ramsey on the first season of Hell’s Kitchen abusing this poor guy he called Dingleberry. Now he’s the cheerleader? Not buying it. He was a raging asshole who I’m surprised never had hot grease or something similar thrown on him. Awful actor, but it’s fun seeing him get neutered.

[eel21788]

46 minutes ago, Mu Shu said:

This was my first time watching. Did you all know Dorian was poor and her mother actually fried fish In CORNMEAL?? What a whacko food genius! She should have been disqualified for that $12.99 Amazon wig, and the most ham handed (no pun intended) emotional manipulation on a reality show.

Not even close to the worst emotional manipulation on a reality show (Survivor, American Mutant Ninja Warriors). Not even close to the most heavy-handed emotional manipulation on this show (Eboni). Not even close to the most sob-inducing emotional manipulation this season of MasterChef (Micah). Award winners are in parentheses. 

[eel21788]

9 hours ago, PBnJay said:

I've never seen beer pong IRL, but I have seen plenty of it on tv and on game shows and even talk shows. So he's REALLY isolated from reality if he heard "beer pong" for the first time here.

O'Shea's Casino on the Las Vegas strip will set you up with a game of beer pong for $12.

Edited September 22, 2019 by eel21788

[PBnJay]

24 minutes ago, eel21788 said:

O'Shea's Casino on the Las Vegas strip will set you up with a game of beer pong for $12.

Thanks and so noted! I'm there next time in Vegas. Now O'Shea's needs to buy Nick's appetizer to go along with it!

[biakbiak]

On 9/20/2019 at 5:19 PM, cooksdelight said:

No. Nor cooking school, that I could find. He’s written only 2 cookbooks, the last one published in 2011. He’s a partner in a tattoo shop, which explains all the ink. Born in Mexico, he has one son and they live in New Orleans.

He was born in El Paso, grew up in NYC went to a decent private school and went to Johnson and Wales for culinary school. He grew up in the kitchen because his mom is a chef/restaurant owner and cookbook author and spent a summer as a teenager working with Paul Prudhomme because of mom’s connections. 

Edited September 22, 2019 by biakbiak

[cooksdelight]

20 hours ago, Lukeysboat said:

He did go to college. He graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. And he’s Mexican-American; he was not born in Mexico. 

Thank you for the correction. The one article I found about him stated what I did, so they got it wrong, as did I. 🙂

[mlp]

7 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

The one article I found about him stated what I did, so they got it wrong, as did I.

You weren't wrong.  He went to Johnson and Wales for culinary school.  That's not the same thing as being a college graduate.

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, mlp said:

You weren't wrong.  He went to Johnson and Wales for culinary school.  That's not the same thing as being a college graduate.

Doesn't Johnson & Wales grant Bachelor's degrees? Even if they didn't, I would think college-age students in the culinary program would at least have heard of beer pong.

[cooksdelight]

Thanks!

I’m old enough to be Aaron’s momma and I’ve not only heard of beer pong, I’ve participated. Not as a drinker or player, but as the person fixing the snacks. 🙂

[eel21788]

18 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

Thanks!

I’m old enough to be Aaron’s momma and I’ve not only heard of beer pong, I’ve participated. Not as a drinker or player, but as the person fixing the snacks. 🙂

At least you weren't the one who had to fetch the wayward ping pong balls.

[galaxychaser]

Aaron’s twin had no tats and looked like a professor when he was on chopped.

[Eolivet]

On 9/21/2019 at 9:51 AM, preeya said:

In fact the term "chosen one" was generally used when talking about him (Nick).  Also, when he got past the "string incident" I thought that was the clincher for him being the one.

Same here, which is why I believe his fish was actually undercooked. Both Joe and Ramsay seemed to be willing to give him a pass (because 2 of 3 were cooked), but Aaron Sanchez made a great big noisy fuss that it was, in fact, raw, not just underdone. Had they kept Nick at that point, when they'd sent every single person with raw protein home, the fix would've been too massive to ignore.

If Dorian was the chosen one, send Noah into the finale as a goat and cut Nick at F4 (as he left the string on his venison and put two different drinks in the trifle, which seemed to be a huge technical no-no). I still believe the reason they were going to cut someone prior to dessert was to cut Dorian, so Nick's creativity could triumph over Sarah's middle of the road safe chocolate cake.

The weird thing is that once Nick imploded with raw fish (which I do genuinely believe was raw/undercooked to the point of being a massive technical error), they had to keep Dorian to make her the winner. Because she was good enough, she just wasn't the chosen one.

There's no way they included "the winner gets to spend time in each of our restaurants" as a special added bonus if Nick wasn't the chosen one. That was tailor-made for Nick the college student, not Dorian the working mom with a family. Dorian was their plan B, and she's a good, solid plan B (she was my favorite, her food always looked delicious to me). But I don't buy for a second that they didn't have Nick scripted in as the winner until he made it impossible for them to reward him.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Eolivet

[preeya]

29 minutes ago, Eolivet said:

But I don't buy for a second that they didn't have Nick scripted in as the winner until he made it impossible for them to reward him.

I disagree. As I stated above (with screen clips) there is no way in hell that four pieces if fish, approximately of equal size, cooked together in a bamboo steamer, should yield one piece as raw as indicated by Arron.  Someone also mentioned a "blood line" may have been present in that piece which sounds more believable that "under-cooked/raw."  My final opinion was that the fix was in for Dorian (chosen one) to win.

[Eolivet]

Then why wasn't Nick sent home at F4 for leaving a string on his venison and having an inappropriately boozy trifle? Noah was a perfectly acceptable goat to take to the end, and much easier for Dorian to beat than Nick.

And they really wanted Dorian to spend time in all their restaurants? To what end? To me, that's a prize for someone you want to mold in your own image, and that doesn't fit Dorian.

Also, last year's winner, Gerron, also cooked southern food with a home-style flare -- why would they want two of that style of cook in a row? Wouldn't their cookbooks be pretty similar?

20 minutes ago, preeya said:

My final opinion was that the fix was in for Dorian (chosen one) to win.

After Arron says the fish is not cooked properly ("that's underdone, underdone by a lot"), instead of Ramsay going into his trademark "dear, oh dear" or Joe looking like he wants to throw a dish in the garbage, they are very low-key. Joe sits with his arms folded in a defensive position, frowning at Arron (not Nick).

Ramsay then goes back to Joe about it: "Joe, was your fish cooked?" Joe responds, "Perfectly," and Ramsay says, "Mine's cooked," and Arron says, "I got the funky one."

Have we ever seen Ramsay look at a protein, and then say "but wait, are these other ones cooked? Oh, well if you only undercooked the one, I suppose it's not that bad." No, he says it's RAWWWWW and he throws it against the wall.

And if this reason was entirely fabricated out of whole cloth, why not keep Nick until F2 and have him lose to Dorian then? Why cut him at F3? To me, Occam's Razor makes sense on this one -- they didn't want to cut him at F3, but the mistake was so bad, they couldn't overlook it. And that's absolutely reflected in Joe and Ramsay trying to sweep it under the rug.

If Nick is not the chosen one, then they're dancing a jig that he undercooked a protein, not trying to fast-talk their way out of it. Unless he was the chosen one, and this forced them to change their plans. Which is, to me, the most plausible explanation for what happened.

[cooksdelight]

29 minutes ago, Eolivet said:

Wouldn't their cookbooks be pretty similar?

They don’t get cookbooks in the deal anymore, but I agree with all of your assessments of how this turned out. Gordon wanted Nick to win, cute Harvard guy. But, he screwed up to the point he couldn’t be saved. Dorian was the backup, a “safe” winner, I think. Otherwise, as you say, Noah would have been the ideal person for the finale to kick to the curb.

And I’m not trying to take anything away from the folks who made it to the end, but along the way there were other home cooks who were just that .... home cooks. This isn’t Top Chef or Hell’s Kitchen. Gordon has forgotten that. When a blind woman won and wrote a cookbook, this show stopped being what it started out as. 

[preeya]

43 minutes ago, Eolivet said:

If Nick is not the chosen one, then they're dancing a jig that he undercooked a protein, not trying to fast-talk their way out of it. Unless he was the chosen one, and this forced them to change their plans. Which is, to me, the most plausible explanation for what happened.

If that was the case, Nick being the chosen one, I don't think they (the show-runners) would have allowed an undercooked/raw piece of fish to become the focal point of the finale. They could have easily edited it out (if it was real) or instructed Sanchez to STFU and let it go. 

IMHO, if Nick truly was the chosen one, TPTB would have made him the winner, no matter what.

[cooksdelight]

I think the day is very close to coming when someone finally tells all about this show. If a bunch of us TV-watchers posting on a chatboard are catching goofs, we can’t be the only ones.

[Chyromaniac]

I guess it’s possible that the outcome of this show is predetermined - but I don’t see why they would go to the trouble.  I don’t know if this is cynical or naive on my part (maybe both?), but I feel like that would suggest that Gordon (or some other bigwig in production) actually cares who wins this thing - and I just don’t find that likely.

[Yeah No]

3 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

I guess it’s possible that the outcome of this show is predetermined - but I don’t see why they would go to the trouble.  I don’t know if this is cynical or naive on my part (maybe both?), but I feel like that would suggest that Gordon (or some other bigwig in production) actually cares who wins this thing - and I just don’t find that likely.

Unfortunately this is a reality show first and foremost, not a true cooking competition.  Which means the producers can and do influence the outcome for their own "vanity" reasons, or because they think it'll be more popular, hence good for ratings.

In my opinion, that many people sitting on their couches over that many seasons can't possibly be wrong about feeling as though some of the outcome is predetermined or at least heavily slanted in favor of certain people because they fit a certain image or represent a certain segment of the population that production for whatever reason wants to win.  I'd actually find it harder to believe that this all happens without any intervention.

[Jlina]

17 hours ago, Eolivet said:

but Aaron Sanchez made a great big noisy fuss that it was, in fact, raw

Aaron has never and would never, ever (IMO) be allowed to make a fuss unless Gordon approved it.  He even usually looks at Gordon before or as he speaks.  I also thought as just a random home cook that that piece looked like something wrong with the piece of fish.  It was grey as well as red.  

Otoh, they could have edited it out.  It's confusing. I'm certain they have so done they want to win, I just don't see how it'd be Dorian. O.O

Edited September 24, 2019 by Jlina
*someone

[mamadrama]

9 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

I guess it’s possible that the outcome of this show is predetermined - but I don’t see why they would go to the trouble.  I don’t know if this is cynical or naive on my part (maybe both?), but I feel like that would suggest that Gordon (or some other bigwig in production) actually cares who wins this thing - and I just don’t find that likely.

Because their priority is to entertain. Before these shows even go into production, producers are doing surveys, experimenting with control groups, and hiring folks to do in-depth research on audience stats. They then cast the participants based on the outcomes of these things. As @Yeah No said, it's a reality show first and competition second. They may not have the #1 person picked from the beginning, but the whole purpose of the show is to drive viewership. There's no way they're going to chance that outcome to great cooks. For many of us, sitting back and watching the best cooks duke it out to the end would be enough. Unfortunately, that's not what drives the largest viewership-they want drama, big personalities, conflict, etc. Production can't  chance too much of that. In other shows, like Hell's Kitchen, no way is the owner of the restaurant, or Ramsay himself, going to take the chance on an unknown "running" the restaurant. (In actuality, the "winner" usually just gets offered a sous chef position.) They're going to vet the hell out of those contestants from the very beginning and have a pretty good idea of who they want before the first few episodes are even filmed. 

[cooksdelight]

Quote

They're going to vet the hell out of those contestants from the very beginning and have a pretty good idea of who they want before the first few episodes are even filmed. 

Sometimes, however, one slips past the background checks and all the vetting. Look up Lenny McNab, Next Food Network Star who production wished away into the cornfield.

http://www.grubstreet.com/2014/08/lenny-mcnab-controversy.html

Anytime you see people dining on these shows, or a focus group watching and commenting, etc.... they are paid actors. SAG/AFTRA folks. I know that for a fact because a friend was hired to be a diner. Hell’s Kitchen pays around $50 for you to show up and maybe/maybe not get a meal.

Edited September 25, 2019 by cooksdelight

[preeya]

11 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

I guess it’s possible that the outcome of this show is predetermined - but I don’t see why they would go to the trouble. 

For the RATINGS!  Ratings = money and renewals.

[bad things are bad]

6 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Look up Larry McNabb, Next Food Network Star

tiny correction, it's LENNY.

Follow the link if you have a strong stomach

https://www.mediaite.com/food/reports-link-new-food-network-star-lenny-mcnab-to-some-uh-sordid-online-history-1/

[biakbiak]

I don’t know if it was because of the Boston connection or what but Nick got a tour of America’s Test Kitchen and is in their instastories.

[Yeah No]

17 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Anytime you see people dining on these shows, or a focus group watching and commenting, etc.... they are paid actors. SAG/AFTRA folks. I know that for a fact because a friend was hired to be a diner. Hell’s Kitchen pays around $50 for you to show up and maybe/maybe not get a meal.

Two exceptions I can think of are "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Restaurant Impossible", although neither of those are cooking competitions.  The diners on those shows after the renovations were always just regular folks.  I know that because I was on RN once 9 years ago.  The son of a friend of mine worked at the restaurant and we all showed up together along with a crowd of other local people.  I was filmed tasting the food and asked how I liked it.  I appeared on the show, but had to sign ten million forms.  I also had my photo taken with Robert (yuck).  I didn't get paid.  An old boss of mine was a diner on KN also about a decade or so ago.  I recognized him when I watched the episode and wrote to him on Linkedin afterward.  He told me the owner of the restaurant was his neighbor.