Good episode, I thought with challenging, er, challenges.
I loved the vending machine QuickFire Challenge. What the hell is wrong with sloppy-assed Mike (is that his name?) ? He truly doesn’t act like he cares at all, and still hasn’t changed his attitude even after the judges have mentioned it at least twice.
My favorite so far is Baddabing Betty. She should have known better than to change the cookie recipe, but I don’t think she was trying to cheat, exactly. Who was using extra olive oil? I didn’t see that happening.
I thought their failure to name a loser was a total cop-out. Why should people get to stay because of allegations of cheating that couldn’t be backed up? That was cowardly of Sam. Either name names or don’t bother with the accusations.
OTOH, Betty clearly did break the rules but her rule breaking was obviously unintentional.
I also felt sorry for the kids in the camp. It’s bad enough the poor kids were send to fat camp. Who the heck would want the rest of the world to know? A few of the cooks made such obnoxious remarks about the kids I wanted to smack them.
I don’t buy for a second that Betty didn’t know she was cheating and I didn’t buy her crybaby act either. She should have been fired on the spot. I can’t stand her. Don’t be fooled by all her unctious, ingratiating smiling. She’s a horrible person. She was really bitchy to Marcel last week too.
I agree that not kicking someone off was a cop-out. Like any other sport or competition, you judge and go on with the info that you have. The judge and referee stay until a decision is made.
I also agree that the diabetic guy was a wuss. I would be supportive of him telling the judges about the sugar and the olive oil if he was to go all the way and name names. I would also think it would be cool for him to stay quiet and take his sour smoothie criticism like a man if he chose that route. The fact that he brought the allegations then mumbled “I am not the guy” (to tell) was being a wuss.
That blonde sugar lady is either stupid or or a cheater. They had a dietician measuring things to the exact calorie for goodness sake. How dumb does she have to be to think that she can just freelance after they spent so much effort to ensure that they were under 500? She admitted she did it to one of the judges- she should have got the boot.
Camp Glucose is not a fat camp. It is a camp for diabetic kids to teach them healthy habits and how to manage their disease.
I don’t particularly like Betty, but that didn’t feel like cheating to me. (Realizing, of course, that it is edited, and the editors obviously really like Betty). And I do wonder what the chefs were supposed to do if recipe was not working - if they failed to serve something, they would be disqualified, but if they used their recipes, they’d be serving crap. So, fixing it, while staying under 500 calories seems to me to be going with the spirit (stay under 500 calories).
It was a pathetic decision on the judges’ part, though.
I agree with the rest - cop out at the judge’s table. The guest judge was practically pulling her hair out at the thought of wading through the BS - but hey, that’s what judges do. Step up to the plate and do your job. WTF, are we going to have instant replay on Top Chef…
Last season we had Steven (Stephen?) using ingredients that were no allowed with no hand slap other than it being questioned.
so
Betty vs Marcel plus now it’s also Betty vs Mia
trying to remember
Has Betty been at the winner’s table every episode so far?
I agree that not naming names was wussy. He brought it up. He said the “C” word (cheating). To think the judges wouldn’t question him on that assertion was naive at best.
If I were at the judge’s table this would be my ruling: You come here with accusations of cheating. You offer absolutely no proof but your own word. You refuse to tell me who was cheating so we can question it further. The very fact that you ONLY bring these accusations to me at the literal last moment - as you’re seriously threatened with going home - means I’m disinclined to believe both your sincerity for a fair contest or your true belief in actual rules violations. As such, I’m ignoring this altogether. NOW…let’s talk about your dishes.
See, maybe they just edited it out for the sake of time, and if so I’m incorrect. But you notice that the cheating accusation served one key purpose: the judges stopped asking about the losing dishes. Of course they couldn’t kick anyone off! They had absolutely no clue who did what wrong.
My thought is that any allegations of cheating should have to be made before the judging. Just as they called out Otto before the tasting on the stolen lychee. To wait to make unsubstantiated accusations afterthe competition is over and you’re at the judge’s table should be totally discounted.
In Project Runway when Laura had suspicions about Jeffrey’s work, she told Tim Gunn right away, and was upfront in telling Jeffrey what her problem was. I think this is another case for having a Tim Gunn-like position on Top Chef - someone the competitors feel comfortable going to if they have an issue.
And I do think Betty should’ve known better, even though they stayed within the same calorie criteria. There was a reason why they had to submit the finished recipe to the nutritionists.
And may I say that I wondered why some of those kids were at fat camp. There were several who didn’t look fat to me. And that one boy’s question, “If we have the pizza, can we still have the smoothie?” was sad. I don’t think most kids need to eat that much less, they need to move that much more. I thought children were supposed to consume something like 3000 calories a day.
Who’s the enforcer judge dude? Tom? I’m starting not to like that guy. What’s his deal, I tune in to watch Padma be hot not to watch him play respect mah authoritah. If I was cooking something and he came up and said, “Well, do you think yours will be good? Those people over there have chocolate fudge cake,” I’d be all like “Why don’t you go over there and eat some then, ya pudge.”
And I don’t trust Betty either, she’s got stealth bitch written on her forehead.
That was another problem with the episode. They didn’t make it clear that the camp was a camp to help kids with diabetes. That makes some of the remarks by the chefs about the kids even more nasty.
Yet other problem with this episode is that the judges asked one of the contestants why he didn’t revamp his dessert recipe with a little yoghurt when it wasn’t working. So are the recipes set in stone or not?
I think the judges were asking why they didn’t add some yogurt when they were working out the recipe on the first day, not after the recipes were set. Betty was the only one to claim she didn’t know the rules and I don’t believe her.
Besides, since when is not knowing the rules an excuse to cheat in anything. Can Terrell Owens stiff arm a defensive back and then say he didn’t know offensive pass interference was agaoinst the rules?
I’m not buying it either. Betty screwed up royally and knew it. She should have been packing her knives. Her cookies didn’t work out so she adds sugar? There should have more alternatives to that.
I think you have a very good idea St Germain. They really need someone in an advisory role for the show. They have shown Tom going back and checking up on them, but there should be someone who could do this on a more regular basis. I would love to see Alton Brown do it.
I really don’t believe Betty cheated on purpose. I think she really did misunderstand the instructions. What I don’t understand is why her teammates didn’t call her on it when they saw her adding sugar and why the judges complained about not having proof when the proof was right there in the hours of film the cameramen had just shot during the Challenge. If I remember correctly, didn’t Tim/the producers on PR go back over footage at one point to clarify something? Or am I thinking of another show.
I know that on MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge, the producers went back and analyzed footage when one teammate was accused of slapping another one. Same situation with the Real World when one of the Seattle cast slapped another one.
Hmm…I think I watch too much reality tv.
At any rate, even though I like Betty I think the judges should have gone over the footage, saw for themselves what actually happened and she should have gotten the boot for cheating, intentional or not. Cheating is cheating.
I don’t dislike Betty, but I would have been okay with her being sent home.
I don’t like Michael, Marcel, or Josie. Why does Josie shout all the time? Why was she claiming to be soooo sure no one on her team was using olive oil? Just a lot of blowhards. I don’t know if I like anyone.
Again, she annoys me. But what should she have done given that her recipe did not work? What’s the correct course of action there? And what do you say in front of the judges when you’re called on it?
The two choices we saw last night were:
a) make the change (cookies)
b) go ahead with food you know tastes bad, say “we know the flavor and texture were horrid, but that was the recipe. Sucks to be us.” while on the chopping block (smoothies)
The other obvious idea would be not serve anything at all - but we know that leads to disqualification.
So, what should the people who had a bad initial recipe have done?
It was really lame that a member of the winning team admitted to breaking the rules and then there was no repercussion. She admitted it! How does not sending someone home address that?
It would have been better to say her team doesn’t win. Then, maybe you pick another winner or just call the whole thing a draw. But you can’t just let her team keep the win after she admits cheating!
Plus, why all the talk about not naming names? Mia named Betty right quick, Betty fessed up, and still nothing happened to her.
And besides, I think Betty totally knew what she was doing. How hard is it to understand “the recipe is locked after the dietician approves it, no changes on the second day”? Made complete sense to me. She knew she was breaking the rule.
(And “Camp Glucose?” Sounds like an admirable undertaking, but geez what a name. Do other kids go to “Camp Excess Bile” and “Camp Lymphatic Fluid”?)
Or should Top Chef had anticipated that there might be problems (as there are, sometimes in cooking and often times in reality programming) and gotten a nutritionist in there for day two as well?
The glib answer is “Fix the initial recipe the first day.” It seems like it was obvious early that there was a problem.
In reality, though, I think they should have had the latitude to make such changes as needed, so long as it would still pass nutritional muster. That latitude wasn’t in the rules, which is yet another place where the rules on this show are dumb.
