Anyone watch the season premeire last night? What do you think?
I don’t know how they thought they could have gotten away with serving the store-made angel food cake, with what looked to be a few dollops of jam on top, especially with the Ace of Cakes guy in attendance. Whoever made the decision was lucky not to get canned.
I’m really surprised that (that gal who was their team leader) didn’t go for that decision, especially after her team members ratted her out for not buying their ingredients.
Debbie Lee. Yeah, she really should have gone home. She completely mismanaged her team, threw everyone else under the bus to focus on her crab cakes (and then only managed to get the mayo correct - there were several comments about the cakes themselves being uninspired), then tried to share the buck on the cake decision.
I love how after Bob’s little speech on integrity (after she lied about the budget and getting everything), she promptly lied again (the angel food being a “group” decision - in the store she specifically referred to it as “an executive decision”). Once again, they let their potential interest in her demo appeal override their judgement.
With a start like that though, she’ll not be long for the show.
Edited to add: Based on last season and the first episode of this season, I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that any success the Food Network has is in spite of Bob and Suzie and not due to them.
Yeah, I thought Debbie should have gone home. She didn’t prepare for the WF trip, certainly screwed Jeffrey and the other woman out of their needed ingredients, hijacked others for her dish, and showed uninspired leadership with the dessert.
Seriously, how did she survive? Is it because she’s Asian and FN has no Asian chefs at the moment? Her culinary POV does sound interesting but I surmised she practiced that little bit for weeks.
I like Jeffrey at the moment. Has a real cool look about him, made a kick ass dish despite having nothing he asked for, and still got props from the judges.
And Zakalwe, I agree with your assessment about Bob and Suzie.
To be fair, Bob and Suzie are coming at this from an entirely different angle than food. They have to. It’s Flay’s job to make sure the contestants can actually cook.
That said, I predict the Korean bitch is gone by July.
Yeah, but I don’t get the impression that he’ll make a very interesting show host unless they’re planning to head back to gasp actual cooking shows.
My guess would be the housewife at this point, but really, who the heck knows.
Agreed. Although I don’t know that they actually have a consistent angle. Frankly, I think their angle is to make to this show interesting and be damned with any future potential. Guy was a once in a lifetime find and whether they find an actual workable host is completely secondary to Star’s ratings…
Yeah, that’s why I don’t watch the channel anymore, save the occasional Alton Brown spot. The wife likes Ina’s show (but she irks me something fierce). I don’t think a housewife hook is going to work - remember that lady who had the show two seasons ago? Of course you don’t; nobody watched it.
Debbie is a dead woman walking. We saw how she fucked over her teammates, whether she meant to do it or not. And she was called out for - gasp! - lacking integrity! (Was that a reference to the dude that lied about his resume? Actually, there was that guy plus the Latino dude who was on the second season as well who lied about being in Iraq. Seems that this is an issue for FN…)
Robert Irvine may have lied on his resume, but he is one hell of a cook and has a very interesting show. I’d love to meet the guy some time.
He’s also back on for a new season of Dinner Impossible; I know at least a few episodes have aired already. Last I heard, the allegations of him lying were exaggerated in the degree, and it was more of a “stretched the truth” kind of thing, but I could be wrong.
I don’t have a guess on anyone right now. I’m also kind of hoping for Jeffrey to really do well, but who knows what’ll happen.
I haven’t seen it, but subscribing for when I can catch it on rerun.
Most of these series start out badly, but when we get down to the final four or so, we have some serious contenders.
Does anyone know what the Sunday episode was called? I’ve set my DVR to pick up the rest of the episodes, and am now looking for Sunday’s episode as a repeat.
ETA: nevermind, I just found it : Press Party for Food Network’s 16th Birthday
I think when Debbie said that the Angel Food cake was a team effort, she was trying not to throw someone under the bus. I know personally as a manager, when one my team fraks something up and I have to go explain it, I will ramble on about “team effort” and take the heat myself.
Of course I then go back to the cube farm and spread the joy around 
Looks like they have some interesting contenders this year, at least a couple of whom have the chance of a six-show contract for a cooking show at 7:30 am in most markets. I like the potentially gay guy, Janika, Jeffrey and possibly Debbie for the final four. I despise the bug-eyed nutritionist with the fire of a thousand suns. And I’m glad they got rid of Barbi in the first one,
And a plea for fighting my ignorance; Jeffrey looks like someone. Both Mrs Scruff and I have been sitting for a couple of days trying to figure out which famous person he looks like. Any suggestions?
Yeah, herself. She couldn’t find prepackaged biscuit dough for the dessert that (whoever) wanted, so she decided to buy angel food cakes and pour something on top.
Debbie would have reinforced her position if she’d manned up and taken responsibility for her decision. But no, she had to pick the Way of the Weasel. When are people going to learn that “Oops. My fault. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Blame me.” is a stronger position than finger-pointing and evasion.
Edited to add (now I am at work and not on the bus): Michael Proietti is ththe potentially gay guy and Katie Cavuto is the bug-eyed harpy nutritionist.
And I agree with the intervening two comments
I’m a junkie for these shows. Did anyone see the new show Top Chef Masters starts this Wednesday? It’s gonna be a best of the best I think…
The guy that won last year, Aaron McCargo, has a pretty good show - Big Daddy’s House. He uses his kids a little, which I like.
I don’t have a favorite yet. Just gonna wait and see.
(Bolded for emphasis.)
Potentially? Only in a universe where the sexual orientation of Liberace, Harvey Fierstein and Nathan Lane is still in question.