Masterchef (US) - General Discussion

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, leighdear said:

I'm on board with something about Lexy I just don't buy with the poor-girl-cooks-rich thing.  If you don't have money, you sure can't waste it by experimenting.  I think Joe nailed it with she grew up with plenty of money and learned to cook without having to pinch pennies, so it's now her "hook".  

I think this is accurate.

She talks about learning to cook from her mother and her aunt growing up in middle class Zion, IL. 

When she auditioned for the show she was 24 years old, lived in middle class Kenosha, WI, her husband was in the military and her kids were 2 and 3.

Maybe the $40 per week budget is while her husband is deployed and her kids are still eating nothing but finger foods. 

[iwantcookies]

So I don’t believe that Lexi spends $40 a week on groceries for 4 people. Unless she goes to a food pantry on top of that. It’s just not possible. 
 

 

Tay is annoyingly loud 

Miles was forgettable sorry kid 

[preeya]

How many times did pompous Joe say "Grana Padano?"

[iwantcookies]

19 minutes ago, preeya said:

How many times did pompous Joe say "Grana Padano?"

Too many !

[Chyromaniac]

1 minute ago, preeya said:

How many times did pompous Joe say "Grana Padano?"

Look, I’m not going to argue that Joe doesn’t come off as full of himself - but that is the actual, legitimate name for that ingredient.  If that’s what he’s using, I don’t get what else he’s supposed to say.  For the record, I heard it maybe once during the demo- I don’t recall if it came up again, unless someone else used that specific cheese during the challenge.

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 hours ago, iwantcookies said:

Cuba has no pasta according to Alejandro 

I just can’t believe that 

In fairness to him,, he said that growing up in Cuba, he didn't have pasta until he was 16. Which doesn't mean that there's not pasta at all. Just that wherever he was, he didn't happen to have it. By way of analogy, I am sure a lot of Americans haven't had even some basic things like Japanese or even Chinese certainly by 16 for reason of cultural preference, price, availability, etc. 

I'm guessing that traditional Cuban food is going to have rice as its main starch rather than noodles. But Googling "Cuban pasta" seems to come up with some recipes, so what do I know?

[mlp]

3 hours ago, leighdear said:

Anne has that Real-Housewife-Instagram-Influencer-wannabe look and vibe.

Anne is the only one of the contestants that I actually dislike.  She's attractive with great bone structure and definitely knows it.  She absolutely think she's the cat's meow and and "deserves" to win.  She's flippant and overly familiar when she talks to the judges.  

[iwantcookies]

Kelsey/Lexi/Autumn are given the winner edit IMO

Why is Lexi on the show if she claims not to know how to cook steak etc? 
 

 

Edited July 16, 2021 by iwantcookies

[leighdear]

12 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

Look, I’m not going to argue that Joe doesn’t come off as full of himself - but that is the actual, legitimate name for that ingredient.  If that’s what he’s using, I don’t get what else he’s supposed to say.  For the record, I heard it maybe once during the demo- I don’t recall if it came up again, unless someone else used that specific cheese during the challenge.

The only other time I heard him say it was when he was asking Lexy if she was putting some between her layers of Lasagna.  And a perfectly legit question.  

Maybe they didn't have regular Parm in the kitchen and he was educating the viewers on what they were using instead.  It's not actually a typically well-known hard grating cheese to ordinary cooks used to the green cans of Kraft. 

[theatremouse]

On 7/15/2021 at 3:58 AM, Such A Flirt said:

At first I couldn't even recall who Miles was, but then it occurred to me that I'd been calling him Baxter this whole time.

Because he looks kind of like Christy's-ex-husband-Baxter on Mom?

[iwantcookies]

1 hour ago, theatremouse said:

Because he looks kind of like Christy's-ex-husband-Baxter on Mom?

OMG yes!!!!!

[Eolivet]

On 7/15/2021 at 6:06 PM, leighdear said:

Anne has that Real-Housewife-Instagram-Influencer-wannabe look and vibe.  The hair, the attitude, and when she said the phrase "Party in your mouth" I wanted to punch her in her mouth party.  I ABHOR that phrase.  Really, really ABHOR.  I hate she was in the top. 

Didn't she say she was a "small town girl from Kalamazoo, Michigan," which last I checked, had 76,000 people? If I didn't know she was full of it before, I knew then.

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 7/15/2021 at 9:54 PM, iwantcookies said:

Kelsey/Lexi/Autumn are given the winner edit IMO

Why is Lexi on the show if she claims not to know how to cook steak etc? 
 

 

In fairness to Lexy, she said she has never cooked a NY Strip steak because she has a $40/week budget. Again, I doubt both her alleged budget and that she hasn't ever cooked steak. But whatever her actual budget is, I could see that since you could probably buy 2-3 pounds of ground beef for the same price as a pound of NY Strip, and since you could more easily stretch that ground beef, you would rarely buy steak,  Having never done it  is slightly different from not knowing how.

By the terms of the show being about home cooks aspiring to be gourmet chefs, there presumably are going to be challenges where the cooks are going to be venturing into unfamiliar territory. 

BTW, this article says that Lexy is actually from Kenosha, WI, which is about an hour away from Chicago. So that is her being full of lies.

And her husband is in the military, so I'd speculate that he's gone a lot/getting fed on the government dime. It briefly says that she makes her budget by buying in bulk, stretching things like chicken into multiple meals and using things like rice and pasta that are cheap.

https://madison.com/news/state-and-regional/watch-now-kenosha-woman-competing-on-foxs-masterchef-legends/article_84bd0f27-a820-556d-b64d-fef105ecc0bf.html

 

[seacliffsal]

As to Lexi's budget-she probably shops at the PX which has everything at really good prices.  Additionally, if her children are in day care or pre-school, they probably eat there so she's not making those meals.  Also, she may have meant that she has $40/week per person and the producers keep cutting out the "per person" part.  Nevertheless, I thought her lasagne would land her in the bottom, not the top.  It looked SO unappetizing to me.

I want Anne, Kelsey, and Lexi (because I don't buy her poor pitiful story) to go home, so this was one of my least favorite top three, no we mean top four.

I am enjoying the lack of outrageous competitions and the focus on showing the contestants throughout the cooking process.  Oh, and the way that Gordon got the lobster meat out of the shell?  Amazing!

[iwantcookies]

The prize they win is a dinner for 2. Does that include hotel/airfare? Because who will fly out just for dinner when they have to pay for airfare/hotel???

It would have been better to offer a gift card or $.

[theatremouse]

20 hours ago, Eolivet said:

Didn't she say she was a "small town girl from Kalamazoo, Michigan," which last I checked, had 76,000 people? If I didn't know she was full of it before, I knew then.

I think it's a matter of perspective. To me, if the entire population can fit in six different NFL stadiums, then I'm cool with someone calling that a small town. Is it more properly a small city? Yup. But "small city girl" isn't idiomatic.

[Chyromaniac]

On 7/17/2021 at 7:37 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

Lexy is actually from Kenosha, WI, which is about an hour away from Chicago. So that is her being full of lies.

As someone who also grew up in the “Chicagoland Area”™️, “where are you from?” is kind of a no win question, especially if it’s coming from a non-Chicagoan.  The response is always either:

”I’m from (Suburb X).” “Where is that?” “It’s near Chicago.”  Or...

”I’m from Chicago.”  “Oh, what part?” “(Suburb X).”

I always go with the former- but I’m from Schaumburg, a place there’s at least a decent chance people have heard of (praise be to Woodfield).  But the reality is that the Chicago metro is huge (3rd or 4th largest nationally, depending on which stats you use), and encompasses so many towns (from Kenosha to Gary, IN and everything in between), that for many residents it is easier to just say the city than try to explain precisely where you’re from.  Unless the person asking really knows the area, the answer isn’t going to make much difference anyway (like, I had to map search Lexy’s hometown of Zion, because I couldn’t remember which one that was).  I honestly don’t know if this is just a Chicago thing, or if people from other big metros are the same way.

TL/DR: Yes, Kenosha is part of the metro, and no Lexy saying she is from “Chicago” doesn’t make her a liar - at least not any more than it does for countless other people.

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, Chyromaniac said:

As someone who also grew up in the “Chicagoland Area”™️, “where are you from?” is kind of a no win question, especially if it’s coming from a non-Chicagoan.  The response is always either:

”I’m from (Suburb X).” “Where is that?” “It’s near Chicago.”  Or...

”I’m from Chicago.”  “Oh, what part?” “(Suburb X).”

I always go with the former- but I’m from Schaumburg, a place there’s at least a decent chance people have heard of (praise be to Woodfield).  But the reality is that the Chicago metro is huge (3rd or 4th largest nationally, depending on which stats you use), and encompasses so many towns (from Kenosha to Gary, IN and everything in between), that for many residents it is easier to just say the city than try to explain precisely where you’re from.  Unless the person asking really knows the area, the answer isn’t going to make much difference anyway (like, I had to map search Lexy’s hometown of Zion, because I couldn’t remember which one that was).  I honestly don’t know if this is just a Chicago thing, or if people from other big metros are the same way.

TL/DR: Yes, Kenosha is part of the metro, and no Lexy saying she is from “Chicago” doesn’t make her a liar - at least not any more than it does for countless other people.

I understand the impulse to say you're from Chicago when you're really from a suburb of it, but I think that when you're actually in another state than Illinois, and when you're closer to Milwaukee, it's not a fair shorthand.

[Chyromaniac]

5 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I understand the impulse to say you're from Chicago when you're really from a suburb of it, but I think that when you're actually in another state than Illinois, and when you're closer to Milwaukee, it's not a fair shorthand.

Believe me, when I was a kid I thought of SE Wisconsin as vacation land- aka my “rich” friends’ lake houses and Bristol Ren Faire in the summer.  That’s why I looked it up- and, to my surprise, Kenosha is described as statistically being part of the overall metro - 

“As surrounding counties saw an increase in their population densities and the number of their residents employed within Cook County, they met Census criteria to be added to the MSA. The Chicago MSA, now defined as the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the third largest MSA by population in the United States.”

Still, we’re talking about someone who grew up in Zion, which certainly fits the traditional “collar counties” definition of Chicagoland.  If she wants to say she’s “from Chicago“- wherever she lives now- that’s not a big deal to me.  The thing this week was about swimming in the ocean vs swimming in a lake.  It was a good joke- and being from up there she probably does know more about that than most of the cast.  Shoot- I believe someone said it probably “looks like the ocean,” when on a good day you can see the other side.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Chyromaniac

[DougJones]

Joe from the last episode on Miles’ (?) dish:

”terrible job with X,Y,Z but even worse, you served it to us and that is the most disrespectful thing ever so throw your apron in the shredder and play in traffic “

ive always tried to toast nuts but sometimes I can’t tell if burned them or not. It’s probably a little harder to have that extra sense as a home cook 

[illdoc]

12 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

As someone who also grew up in the “Chicagoland Area”™️, “where are you from?” is kind of a no win question, especially if it’s coming from a non-Chicagoan.  The response is always either:

”I’m from (Suburb X).” “Where is that?” “It’s near Chicago.”  Or...

”I’m from Chicago.”  “Oh, what part?” “(Suburb X).

I went to college in DeKalb (it's a twin-city to Sycamore, where Cindy Crawford is from). I learned early that when someone said "I'm from Chicago" (as quite a number of the students did) and I said "me too" and they said "what part" I would say "the city" (meaning actually from Chicago, not a suburb). Then they would answer "I'm from Suburb X". I understand if you are, say, in Wisconsin, you can say "I'm from Chicago" when you are really from a suburb as "shorthand", but when you in a place where a lot of people are from Chicagoland, then you can say "I'm from Suburb X" and if someone asks "where's that", then you can say "it's near (larger suburb)" or "downstate" or whatever. 

[Madding crowd]

I grew up in Milwaukee and now live in Chicago. I know many people who live in Kenosha and not one of them would say they live in Illinois. TV shows frequently tell people where to say they are from and it doesn’t always match reality. 

[Mrs. Hanson]

Help!  Our streaming stopped three minutes before the end.  Who got booted?

I, too, do not believe Lexi feeds four people at $40 a week.

[EllaWycliffe]

It was Tay, who forgot a component, even though Joseph made a shitshow of a plate. 

[mertensia]

I am so glad Suu won. She seems nice. 

Why do they keep making people with seafood allergies make seafood?

[alegtostandon]

On 7/18/2021 at 10:44 PM, Chyromaniac said:

As someone who also grew up in the “Chicagoland Area”™️, “where are you from?” is kind of a no win question, especially if it’s coming from a non-Chicagoan.  The response is always either:

”I’m from (Suburb X).” “Where is that?” “It’s near Chicago.”  Or...

”I’m from Chicago.”  “Oh, what part?” “(Suburb X).”

I always go with the former- but I’m from Schaumburg, a place there’s at least a decent chance people have heard of (praise be to Woodfield).  But the reality is that the Chicago metro is huge (3rd or 4th largest nationally, depending on which stats you use), and encompasses so many towns (from Kenosha to Gary, IN and everything in between), that for many residents it is easier to just say the city than try to explain precisely where you’re from.  Unless the person asking really knows the area, the answer isn’t going to make much difference anyway (like, I had to map search Lexy’s hometown of Zion, because I couldn’t remember which one that was).  I honestly don’t know if this is just a Chicago thing, or if people from other big metros are the same way.

TL/DR: Yes, Kenosha is part of the metro, and no Lexy saying she is from “Chicago” doesn’t make her a liar - at least not any more than it does for countless other people.

Chyromaniac, I'm from Deerfield, Woodfield was the closest mall to us. But, I agree, I always say I'm from Chicago. We use to claim Sara Lee Bakery in Deerfield, but most have never heard of it. I defend saying I'm "from Chicago" since I was born there. 

Oh! I cried when Ty was sent home! Especially when Joseph said "it should have been me."

[preeya]

Is Alejandro allergic to shellfish? I wouldn't have known except he told us ad infinitum.

[mertensia]

49 minutes ago, preeya said:

Is Alejandro allergic to shellfish? I wouldn't have known except he told us ad infinitum.

I presumed he kept saying that so his family knew what to sue the show over if he croaked.

[jewel21]

I'm sad Tay got booted on a technicality, especially when his food was good. But at least he gets to leave MasterChef knowing his dish was good and not because it sucked so there's that at least. Like he said, he could leave with his head held high. 

[Such A Flirt]

Was that just a huge fake set-up? I mean, they went out of their way to get a camera shot from inside the bloody fridge! Did they just happen to conveniently have that footage after Tay forgot his butter?

And Kelsey, urgh. She actually referred to Chef Waxman as Jonathan in her talking head.

[AZChristian]

2 hours ago, Such A Flirt said:

Was that just a huge fake set-up? I mean, they went out of their way to get a camera shot from inside the bloody fridge! Did they just happen to conveniently have that footage after Tay forgot his butter?

As soon as they showed that, I figured that butter wasn't going to make it on the plate.  They wouldn't show someone putting something in the fridge for no reason.

And to show him actually commenting about it before he headed to the fridge seemed very odd.  

It turned into an episode of "Chopped" with the constant reminders to "make sure you use ALL the ingredients" . . . except in "Chopped," it's safer to forget an ingredient than to put a badly cooked mess on the plate.

Just this week on "Hell's Kitchen," one of the chefs forgot an ingredient, but was kept over someone who badly burned a pork chop.  The chef who burned the chop had been a favorite, but her "sin" outweighed the other chef's forgetting something.

[joanne3482]

12 hours ago, Mrs. Hanson said:

I, too, do not believe Lexi feeds four people at $40 a week.

I can believe she feeds the family on $40 per week. In the first episode when she talked about it she admitted that because her kids are so little they don't eat much. IIRC they're both under age 5. That age barely eats anything.  I can remember my bestie breaking up like 1/2 a grilled cheese sandwich and a few grapes for one of her kids and thinking that wasn't enough food and the kid didn't even finish that.  Now I don't believe she buys all her groceries for $40/week. I'm sure that doesn't account for laundry detergent and shampoo and non-food items. But $40 per week, especially if she can shop at the PX, is not impossible. 

[preeya]

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

Just this week on "Hell's Kitchen," one of the chefs forgot an ingredient, but was kept over someone who badly burned a pork chop.  The chef who burned the chop had been a favorite, but her "sin" outweighed the other chef's forgetting something.

Someone on the HK forum made this comment regarding the above, and I agree with it:

"Yes, but, in a restaurant, it's much easier and quicker to fix a missing side than a burnt main dish."

[GHScorpiosRule]

I'm just thrilled, THRILLED! I tell you, that annoying Kelsey didn't make the top three last night! She's so annoying. Every single legend guest chef is her "favorite chef" and who she "follows" and has "read all their books!" Cuz, ya know, she wants to open her own resteeeraunt in Indianapolis.🙄

Su and Autumn are my favorites. So I'm glad that Su won the challenge.

Next week is street food. Too bad no one will try and make some Indian street food, which is very delish. Unfortunately, one of the chutneys that is a must, tamarind, would take too long to make, so that cancels it out. Oh well. Because bhel puri and sev puri are mouth wateringly good!

And I hate that FOX wastes time in showing previouslies, and what's going to happen on the current show--like, don't spoil it. Just get to the show! I don't need to see the drama of what will happen.

[preeya]

3 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Su and Autumn are my favorites. So I'm glad that Su won the challenge.

Both are very impressive. Right now Autumn looks like the favorite, but I was on board with Suu from the start. 

[preeya]

Just read this statement: "The bottom three dishes belong to Alejandro, Tay, and Joseph. Joseph was initially called out for having the worst dish, but Tay was disqualified from the competition instead for missing one of the five required ingredients in his dish."

Based on the way it's worded, if they are saying Tay was disqualified, IMO, both Joseph and Tay should have been sent packing.

[bluepiano]

6 hours ago, joanne3482 said:

But $40 per week, especially if she can shop at the PX, is not impossible. 

I say that is impossible if she feeds them any kind of meat, whose cost, even for low end cuts, has gone through the roof in the past year. Even chicken is several dollars a pound now. (My father was retired military and we used to shop at a PX. Yes, less expensive that the supermarket, but they're not giving food away).

I think her story is a sympathy ploy. (Though it wouldn't surprise me if the show's producers are behind it.) People in the military don't get rich, but their salaries enable you to live at more than subsistence level. It reminds me of Melissa D'Arabian when she was on Next Food Network Star, who also had a sob story about her dire financial situation, which was later proven to be total BS. 

In other news, why does Autumn from Boston have what sounds to me like a very strong "New Yawk" accent? I hear way more Brooklyn than New England every time she speaks. 

I felt bad for Tay. I was actually surprised that they stuck to the letter of the challenge's rules, rather than send home the cook of a really bad dish. Joseph dodged a bullet for sure.

Edited July 22, 2021 by bluepiano

[Grrarrggh]

3 hours ago, preeya said:

Just read this statement: "The bottom three dishes belong to Alejandro, Tay, and Joseph. Joseph was initially called out for having the worst dish, but Tay was disqualified from the competition instead for missing one of the five required ingredients in his dish."

Based on the way it's worded, if they are saying Tay was disqualified, IMO, both Joseph and Tay should have been sent packing.

The producers can't do that. They already had to start with fifteen people instead of twenty. Then they had one drop out for illness. If they kicked off two in a single episode they'd have to  sttttrrrrreeeeettttccchhhh the episodes to be even more boring than they are now. 

[Grrarrggh]

This was back in 2017 but it might give a better idea on $40 a month for 4 www.frugalfarmwife.com/article/our-40-weekly-grocery-budget-for-a-family-of-four/

[preeya]

Dontcha think the $40.00 per week budget has been beaten into the ground. Who cares what she spends on food, its got nothing to do with this show.

[Chicago Redshirt]

I was no fan of Tay's kind of grating voice, but was a little sad that he went out on a technicality. I also noticed that he toned himself down quite a bit both in his actual performance and the talking heads to not have HIS VOICE AT 11 THE ENTIRE TIME HE WAS SPEAKING.

It was also good that God's gift to the culinary world, aka Kelsey, just was in the middle of the pack somewhere.

[bluepiano]

On 7/17/2021 at 4:04 PM, iwantcookies said:

The prize they win is a dinner for 2. Does that include hotel/airfare? Because who will fly out just for dinner when they have to pay for airfare/hotel???

It would have been better to offer a gift card or $.

I believe it was actually dinner for 4, but I had the same thought. They've been giving dinners at the "legend's" restaurant as a prize, but unless you happen to live in the area, who could afford it?  If the show isn't springing for airfare/hotel it's a meaningless prize. And if they were springing, I would think they'd mention it. ("The most amazing trip to New York).

 

On 7/15/2021 at 7:30 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I'm guessing that traditional Cuban food is going to have rice as its main starch rather than noodles. But Googling "Cuban pasta" seems to come up with some recipes, so what do I know?

I've spent time in South Florida and have eaten at a lot of traditional Cuban restaurants and don't ever remember seeing pasta on the menu. As you said, rice is the main starch, but they also use potatoes or even cassava. As for "Cuban pasta," no reason you can't incorporate Cuban flavors into a pasta dish, as cooking is about being inventive, but it is not authentic Cuban food.

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by bluepiano

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 minute ago, bluepiano said:

I believe it was actually dinner for 4, but I had the same thought. They've been giving dinners at the "legend's" restaurant as a prize, but unless you happen to live in the area, who can afford it. Unless they show is springing for airfare/hotel it's a meaningless prize. And if they were springing, I would think they'd mention that. ("The most amazing trip to New York).

 

I've spent time in South Florida and have eaten at a lot of traditional Cuban restaurants and don't ever remember seeing pasta on the menu. As you said, rice is the main starch, but they also use potatoes or even cassava. As for "Cuban pasta," no reason you can't incorporate Cuban flavors into a pasta dish, as food is about being inventive, but it is not authentic Cuban food.

 

The dinner at Jonathan Waxman's place was a dinner for four. At least some, if not all, the previous ones were dinners for two. I wonder why Chef Waxman was willing to splurge (or the others were stingy, depending on your perspective.)

Fair enough on the pasta. I know that there is a dish "rasta pasta" or jerk chicken alfredo which mixes jerk spices with chicken alfredo that is pretty tasty but has nothing to do with authentic Jamaican food.

[bluepiano]

20 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

The dinner at Jonathan Waxman's place was a dinner for four. At least some, if not all, the previous ones were dinners for two. I wonder why Chef Waxman was willing to splurge (or the others were stingy, depending on your perspective.)

Fair enough on the pasta. I know that there is a dish "rasta pasta" or jerk chicken alfredo which mixes jerk spices with chicken alfredo that is pretty tasty but has nothing to do with authentic Jamaican food.

Yes, dinner for four was generous. But again, if you have to pay for your own transportation and New York hotel room (crazy expensive) that will be the most expensive "free" dinner ever. 

I've also had some very good  jerk pasta dishes! 

 

[DoctorK]

I can get used to Ramsey's unusual pronunciations (but Pas-Tah instead of the usual Pah-Sta still grates) but when he was getting ready to call Suu down for her dish, he really complimented her for"esculating" her dish (yep, I reran it three times, listening carefully). I have only heard this before on court shows from sub literate litigants trying to sound erudite. Then again, on one of the cooking shows with three judges/chefs (maybe it was MC?), throughout the show one chef always said "espresso" correctly, one always called it "expresso", and the third one flip-flopped back and forth. Yes, I am a bit OCD.

Edited July 22, 2021 by DoctorK

[Colorado David]

22 minutes ago, DoctorK said:

I can get used to Ramsey's unusual pronunciations (but Pas-Tah instead of the usual Pah-Sta still grates) but when he was getting ready to call Suu down for her dish, he really complimented her for"esculating" her dish (yep, I reran it three times, listening carefully). I have only heard this before on court shows from sub literate litigants trying to sound erudite. Then again, on one of the cooking shows with three judges/chefs (maybe it was MC?), throughout the show one chef always said "espresso" correctly, one always called it "expresso", and the third one flip-flopped back and forth. Yes, I am a bit OCD.

Right there with you, Doc. Pronunciation was always stressed in our house growing up.  Mascarpone drives me crazy, it seems 50/50 on cooking show contestants saying it correctly. And don't get me started on "all intensive purposes".

Back to the main topic tho...when GR asked Tay to go grab his butter, I thought maybe they were give him a chance to stay after a fierce grilling over NEVER FORGET YOUR INGREDIENTS. But sadly, no.

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 hours ago, preeya said:

Dontcha think the $40.00 per week budget has been beaten into the ground. Who cares what she spends on food, its got nothing to do with this show.

It doesn't have much to do with her actual performance, but given the producers/judges seem to pretty frequently beat the "she feeds a family of four on $40/week" drum and she has used her budget cooking as an explanation for why she hasn't cooked with X ingredient a couple times now and likely will continue to do so, I don't think you can say it's got nothing to do with the show.

Edited July 22, 2021 by Chicago Redshirt

[preeya]

2 hours ago, DoctorK said:

I can get used to Ramsey's unusual pronunciations (but Pas-Tah instead of the usual Pah-Sta still grates)

We use this as an inside joke in my home, as we always refer to the dish as PASTAH, preceded by incredible or stunning, as a silly homage to GR.

[MartyQui]

8 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Cuz, ya know, she wants to open her own resteeeraunt in Indianapolis.🙄

To elevate the food scene.  I’ve been to Indianapolis, they have some pretty good restaurants.

Gordon pronounces pasta the way every English person I know pronounces it…

[fishcakes]

They were unnecessarily harsh with Joseph. They could have criticized the dish without lecturing him about how it wasn't California cuisine. His dish was apparently terrible, but a pasta dish is closer to California cuisine than chowder, and they praised Autumn for doing something unexpected instead of criticizing her for not doing what they asked. The worst was Joe holding up Joseph's plate -- after four people had been eating off it --  talking about how bad it looked, and then throwing it back on the counter. That said, Joseph did seem to have the worst dish (and that's even compared to Alejandro's, which also looked bad), and probably should have gone home instead of Tay, if they were going to judge on that one dish alone. If they were judging overall performance, then probably Alejandro should have gone. Joseph and Tay are mostly middle-pack, but both have been top 3. Alejandro is consistently at the bottom.

3 hours ago, DoctorK said:

I can get used to Ramsey's unusual pronunciations (but Pas-Tah instead of the usual Pah-Sta still grates)

Pass-ta doesn't bother me, but tack-ohs for tacos always makes me laugh.