What a cool episode, what with all the ex-football players. Gale Sayers, “Refrigerator” Perry…
Mr. Snooty with the hard to eat snooty food got axed for good reason. These are hard-core tail-gatin’ football fans you’re feeding here, people!
Running out of peppers and onions before the judges got any was kinda stupid, and I don’t want to eat any of Icky Dirty Chef’s food.
I was sorry to see him go. I liked him.
Agreed. Mr. Kiwi got lucky this week. He’s been either up or down so far - I expect he will stick around for a while, though. He’s got talent but seems to always try to push things a bit. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Luckily for him Mr. San Francisco decided to serve bread pudding and poached peaches to drunken Bear’s fans at a tailgate.
He (Ryan) reminded me of that fake South African woman a season or two back who was ever so smug.
Very disappointed to see Ryan go, since he was my eye candy this season.
I’m very surprised they let that girl get away with running out of peppers and onions and not making her own sausage. I thought she was a gonner for sure.
Not a huge fan of this season so far. Richard is obviously a way better chef than almost all of his competitors, so that’s sort of killing the competition for me.
Hmm…my gut wants to react immediately with “In what universe could Ryan be considered eye candy?” but, different strokes for different folks, I know. 
He and Nikki would both have been fine choices to go, and I did like him less anyway for the turds that come out of his mouth. It’s hard to get my brain around how such a meathead could be so effete and condescending at the same time. And, well, yeah, he did seem like a sports fan to me, though in that stereotypical way that insults regular sports fans, which isn’t too cool.
Australian dude I’d give somewhat of a pass to because he may just be a disorganized person, and the judges weren’t too clear about what the texture problem was. If there was sand in it, I understand better, but just chunkiness would have been fine. For once I really wanted to try, or learn to make, most of the dishes available, in both types of challenges. Yum. It seems like Dale deserved the win, and his happiness was an endearing change for me (and it was cute how The Fridge was all, “Oh yeah, right, thanks. Now feed me.” in response to his adulation). The main thing is, his food looks real good. To be honest, I even wanted to try the pork with pretzels bit. Good for him for being honest about it, though.
For the record, Mark is from New Zealand. Not Australia.
Nikki’s not long for this earth (w/Spike close behind her), and it seems that for the final four, the 3 most likely candidates are Richard, Stephanie, & Dale. The fourth’s a bit of a toss-up, but will almost certainly go to a woman (either Lisa or Antonia?). I like Mark a lot, but he seems like he’s strictly 2nd tier, along with Andrew & Jen (though God help me, I hope the “I’m doing it for Zoi” <sniffle> business stops ASAP).
Can’t really say I’m rooting for or against anybody, but I am looking forward to more individual dishes from here on out.
For the record, here’s a tally of the winners so far:
TOTAL (QF/Elim)
2: Dale (1/1), Richard (1/1), Stephanie (0/2)
1: Andrew (0/1), Antonia (1/0), Jen (1/0), Lisa (0/1), Mark (1/0)
In two of the previous three seasons, the person who won the first elimination challenge won the whole enchilada. I hope that happens this year. (For Stephanie.)
I’m so happy it was Ryan! I think Mark can cook, he just hasn’t gotten it together or something, yet. It seems like he’s been on bad teams or made odd choices (like the more difficult charcoal grilling), but it does not seem like he’s a crap cook like Ryan or Nikki. Nikki’s living on borrowed time, for sure.
Antonia so surprised me with her win on the palate challenge last week, that now I’m starting to think I underrated her. I also think I underrated Andrew because his personality is so obnoxious, and he seemed so clueless in the first episode. But it seems like he can cook too.
I’m still rooting for Stephanie.
I am continuously surprised by the lack of basic culinary skills of many of this year’s chefs. From what was previewed this week, A bunch of them panic because they lack the skills to make a basic desert. :eek:
I guess it was time for Ryan to go but I was suprised that Nikki didn’t get the boot. She has seemed rather clueless on several occasions. Anyone remember the macaroni and cheese debacle? But, Ryan was done in by his snobbish attitude about the entire idea of a tail gate party. For me Richard seems to be the person who would be most likely to create some effete high brow dish and yet he was smart enough to adapt his skills to work for the given situation. Ryan couldn’t, or more likely wouldn’t, adapt.
Finally, I don’t know how many people are familiar with guest judge Paul Kahan, but was it just me or did he look a bit worn out at judges table? Serious dark circles under his eyes. I’ve met him several times and he didn’t look so good during that part. Could that be bad makeup or what? Whatever the case, he is a great chef. Blackbird is wonderful and Avec is one of my fave restaurants in town.
Nikki’s skated through? For some reason she really bothers me. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but she is so out of her depth and so full of excuses. She can’t get much further, can she?
I got the sense that besides being ill suited for the challenge Ryan’s food wasn’t particularly innovative. I can’t see him going too much further either, but is that a greater sin than not having enough of your food for the judges to taste?
I always like reading LeeAnn’s blog and this week is no exception.
And my wife swears the grills they were using are the exact same type we have in our backyard, but I really don’t think ours is that big. :dubious: (plus, our knobs are on the side and they have twice as many all on the front)
I’m so glad that Ryan got booted. He was arrogant and obnoxious. You feel that it is beneath you to cook for a tailgate party at a football game? Fuck off.
Oh, and for the record, you did not win a single quickfire or elimination challenge.
It is time for Nikki or Spike to go home next. Nikki seems like a nice enough person but how do you not have enough food left over for the judges to taste? Hatboy has annoyed from the start, has he cooked anything that made it to the winners table?
Mr. twitchy still gets a pass because he has won an elimination challenge. I don’t know what to think about Antonia.
Jennifer, ok we get that your lover got booted. Please no more tears.
I’m disliking Lisa more and more, she comes across as a real bitchy person and that is taking into account the heavy editing.
Mark? what the hell mate? Tasting your food and then using the same spoon to stir your dish…ugh.
Stephanie was at the winners table with her quickfire dish and in the elimination challenge.
Richard and Dale are both worthy opponents and I feel that Dale deserved the win last night.
I think it is pretty obvious that Stephanie, Richard and Dale are a cut above the other contestants.
Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick!
All she did was grill up some Johnsonville brats and throw some peppers and onion in an aluminum roaster. 90% of the tailgaters could have done the same damn thing.
The Aussie was a freakin’ mess and guess what - briquettes are not charcoal.
I honestly don’t see how with those two acting like Laurel & Hardy that Ryan got voted out. He made a grilled chicken salad. Maybe not traditional tailgate fair but coomon enough that any healthy eater may give it a go.
It was real funny to see Dale go all ghetto jive hands angry. I’d laugh in his face.
Dick. Guess that means he’ll be a runner up.
Thanks for posting that, I just read all the blogs for this season. It’s nice to hear a little of the behind the scenes stuff. Also, Leeann was my favorite in season 1 so I think it’s great she’s still working with the show.
Oh wait, that was last episode… Regardless.
This show is schizo and so biased to TV spin that its legitimacy is totally questionable as a fair competition… Go upscale, but don’t… was the latest elimination’s message.
I thought one immediate red flag for trouble was when one of the chefs picked ribs. I’m automatically thinking, how can you possible do ribs in the time they had to work with and have them be even close to something worth eating…Still not sure how they pulled it off unless they carved them into riblets prior to going on the grill.
Good riddance to Ryan, hope the hat is next but I fear they’ll be keeping him around for a while yet just so we’ll all tune in each week to “watch the train wreck”
Oh, come on now! Nikki is a far, far worse chef than the hat! She just looks lost most of the time; at least Spike is good at something.