It wasn’t just that the fridge door was ajar - that still would have kept food chilled. They used a meat thermometer and the pork was sixtysome degrees - there had to be some deliberate sabotage.
There was also some really hot food put right into the fridge, which is a bad idea. We don’t really know how long it was in the fridge and how wide open the door was.
I really doubt the producers would do anything because it reads as “GE makes fridges that break easily.”
Somehow the chefs seem to think it is a good idea to fight the judges at judges table. After 200 people didn’t like your dish and three well qualified chefs tell you your dish was bad, standing up for your dish is stupid. It makes them seem like they are arrogant jerks with bad palates. If they are in the bottom three, they should talk about trying for greatness but having a bad day, or not managing time wisely. I am amazed that the chefs seem to think antagonizing the judges is a good strategy.
It really is a balancing act, because if you just go ahead and say it wasn’t a good dish, they’re gonna ask why you even served it.
There wasn’t much time for the fridge to cool down with so much hot food, I think. Someone said they finished prep at 2:00 or 3:00 - if they had to get up and go right to the location to set up, it makes sense that the food would be luke-warm.
StG
Also, the fridges are probably emptied before each challenge, so there was nothing cold in there to regulate the temperature.
I actually think that the judges were too harsh on the deviled eggs. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t do some sort of amazing deviled egg and win the challenge. I’ve never brought devilled eggs to an event where they didn’t get gobbled up within the first half hour or so - people love 'em. Some sort of uber-fancy deviled egg would be something I’d really like to see someone do.
Which brings up an interesting scenario.
What if somebody actually did not serve their dish because it was SO bad, or at least they thought not worth serving?
I seem to recall a few quickfires where they did that. And a few catering type challenges where some components were not served. But never the whole dish for the main competition.
It would be interesting to see the judges actually walk the talk and actually NOT boot someone off for not serving anything. But I doubt that would fly.
Earlier in the show I wondered if they would opt not to send someone home due to the “holidays” and the fact that everyone pitched in to help Radika and Hosea and their own dishes may have suffered. Had they sent someone home I think it would have been Eugene. Jamie’s food may have been bad but Eugene’s was also bad and he was arrogant about it which always seems to be the kiss of death. I think Jamie deserves to be a finalist so I hope she can stay out of the bottom from now on because her perceived attitude may not do well for her. Although it never hurt Lisa from last season. Although I don’t think Jamie is giving attitude as much as she seems to close off when she’s criticized perhaps as a defense mechanism.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way. Seeing those made me instantly want a deviled egg. Coldickio was really being a…well, dick this episode.
I love deviled eggs, but it was a safe and uninspired choice. You are not going to win Top Chef by making something you can get at any picnic or potluck dinner, and Arianne’s “spin” on the toppings wasn’t at all exotic. I commend her for cooking food that tastes good, but creatively she’s out of her league.
I don’t think the refrigerator problem was deliberate sabotage, but I do think that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes that lead to the decision not to eliminate anyone. The extra meat appeared pretty conveniently. The duck legs appear to have actually come from the ducks, but what about the pork loin? They usually have a pretty strict budget and it seemed strange to me that they had enough leftover food to feed all 300 people. I think probably the producers helped with some extra ingredients, and possibly granted some additional time for those dishes to be put together, even with all the help from the other contestants. Because the original conditions of the challenge hadn’t been met, and people got varying amounts of help, they decided that it wouldn’t be fair to eliminate anyone. Then of course they edited the show to remove all of that, and just make it look they did the non-elimination out of the goodness of their hearts. At least that’s my take.
According to LeAnne’s blog at the Bravo web site you nailed most of the points.
The producers made the decision not to eliminate anyone as soon as the broken refrigerator was discovered but did not tell the contestants.
There was leftover duck legs, the producers did go out and get pork loin (and cheese for Melissa) and they let the chefs use time that otherwise wouldn’t have been available to them.
That said I also disagree with Tom. If you really take him at his word (we eliminate the chef who gives us the worst dish each week) then the correct strategy isn’t to be bold, it’s not to suck the worst, so play it safe. And I’d say Lisa last year was a fine indicator that that will get you through to finals.
Also thought this challenge was way too cutesie. I’d have to agree with Fabio that getting stuck with cooking something blue and something ladies dancing back to back sucks.
Yeah, this was probably not my favorite episodes for a number of reasons. Jamie is beginning to grate, mainly because she looks like she’s going to shit on the floor anytime she is not praised. Now she’s got it in her head that not winning the challenge is a major dis. I wonder how she liked being in the bottom three instead?
I think billfish678 got it right. They were parking piping hot food in the fridges, and they were stuffed to the gills. I think the fridges wouldn’t have had time to cool, and certainly, being packed so full, one might expect a door to be possible pushed open from the inside.
It was pretty obvious after Radhika’s disaster that everyone’s chipping in would be rewarded in some way, and I said to myself, “Looks like they’re going to do a mulligan,” as soon as that scene came on.
That said, Eugene has minutes left on this show. He always has great ideas but his food has consistently sucked. He also gets super shirty every time he has to go in front of the judges. He’s shaping up to be the Bad Attitude candidate on the show.
I thought it was hilarious when someone (Stefan? The Scandinavian guy?) mentioned that Jamie always does scallops and said, “It’s supposed to be Top Chef, not Top Scallop.” That was awesome!
My least favorites at the moment are Jamie and Eugene. I started out hating Fabio but I actually think he is learning on the show… and I think he knows how to laugh at himself.
I agree that Arianne’s spin wasn’t good enough. That said, I don’t agree that deviled eggs is tpo safe and uninspired to win. Beef tenderloin is a fairly ho-hum ingredient, but it wins all the time. Pork Loin? The same. How about that salad Arianne won with on the Today show? Not all that inspired IMO. There’s dozens of examples of every day food made great by Top Chef contestants over the past 5 seasons.
I’d still love to see some really inspired deviled eggs.