A couple nice twists in the elimination challenge (no machines, change of venue), though rooting it in the Improv motif was a little contrived. And if there was any doubt that Richard and Dale are forces to contend with, last night should’ve eliminated any doubt (though Stephanie lost her golden touch this time around).
So Jen is packing her knives for Zoi! It was cute that the lesbian tried to explain the phallic presentation of their dish, but I certainly wouldn’t have minded seeing the oh-so-smug Lisa get the boot. Downing tequila shots in front of your guests, while ignoring most of the terms of the challenge (no pork sausage and the “purple drunken” was marginal at best) is not a winning combination. Antonia I don’t mind so much, but I liked her lesson in humility by losing the dessert round and having Spike see his soup idea vindicated.
Again, this challenge was largely boys vs. girls (with the one mixed pairing lying safely in the middle–a nice reprieve for the two who have been on the chopping block a little too often for comfort recently).
I was sooooo glad to see Jen leave. I think it may have to do with my burnout over Big Brother and that whole notion of “I’m fighting for someone else now” crap.
I don’t mind seeing Jen go, but they really need to get rid of that bitch Lisa. Lord almighty, she grates.
I hate anything and everything having to do with improv, but I thought the challenge was decent. I thought it was bullshit not telling them about the no machines and change of venue things, though. Those could have been challenges in themselves.
I’ll be really surprised if Richard doesn’t win this whole thing. He’s just kicking everyone else’s ass.
I liked the episode and thought the right person went home. I was kind of surprised at that no mention was made at the judge’s table (from what we saw) about how skillfully they made the soup without the machines.
Can you imagine what pisspoor mood she would’ve been in if she had been saddled with the tofu dish, or been forced to make the soup without the benefit of the machines? I’m fairly certain she wouldn’t have ended up in the top ranks. By all appearances, she seems fairly talented, but one curveball will easily upturn her apple cart. Final four?
Richard
Dale
Stephanie
Andrew (unlike Spike, he seems to be learning from Richard and doesn’t have all the hang-ups some of the more formidable women competitors are showing).
I thought the judges set a TERRIBLE precedent by not eliminating Antonia or Lisa - they completely ignored the challenge! No polish sausage, no drunken, the tiniest token bit of magenta (one of them even said something during the presentation like “we didn’t want much purple”). From this point on, why would any chef adhere to a challenge and do something risky with a tough component (like say, tofu) when they could just ignore it all and make a dish that is more likely to taste good?
Very very very bad move (in my opinion).
I really don’t get the judges going on about the cheese being out of place in Jen and Stephanie’s dish - it was ORANGE, one of their key components was ORANGE (I can’t speak to the taste of their dish, but the cheese wasn’t an add-on or meaningless conceptually).
The dessert quickfire looked amazing - banana scallops - squeee!
Tom (whom I hate) kept saying that. And I wanted someone to tell him “it’s orange-the-color, you moron. Not orange-the-fruit.” But from his comments, he couldn’t seem to figure that out. The cheese was totally in place. But that no one thought the bread worked was a different problem.
From what I can tell, he does really interesting things with food (even if he is in desparate need of a decent haircut/style). And everyone likes the way the food tastes. But whatever he did with chocolate on the plate looked like a giant slug sitting there.
It was not appetizing.
It’s not like precedent matters. This isn’t the Supreme Court. Someone next week could say “they ignored the challenge so I can” and they could get eliminated for it.
I’m gradually starting to warm up to Richard, but I would have been okay with him from the start if he didn’t look like such a colossal douchebag.
He really does seem to be a pretty decent guy - he’s upbeat, smart, very talented, and while he does trash-talk a bit, he’s not nasty or bitter like some of the other contestants are.
It would be easier to see this if everything about him, visually, didn’t scream “TOOL.”
The thing is, I don’t think they were required to use that ingredient. They were just supposed to uyse that ingredient as an inspiration. That may be nitpicking, but I don’t recall they were ever told they had to use that ingredient.
Anyway, they have let people skate before on the rules.
Thanks. I’m old fashioned where it comes to hats and don’t think that men should wear hats in doors. Especially when it’s worn with a “look at how cool I can be” vibe. But that’s just me.
I guess in the end they decided based on taste rather than following the rules but I really expected Antonia to go.
I’m always wondering how much influence the producers have in who stays and who goes. I know they have a say, I’m just not sure if their opinion weighs in louder than the judges at the table.
I think he got it. He knew why the cheese was there (it’s orange); it just didn’t work in the dish itself.
And Team No-Pork skated by simply because their meal wasn’t bad, while Team-Orange’s was. But simply ignoring the terms of the challenge will not get you anywhere in the long run–you essentially have to reduce your strategy to: (a) hoping someone presents a worse dish every time, and (b) that you can sustain any longevity by sticking to the middle of the pack. This may save you one week, but will doom you if it becomes a pattern.
In his blog, Chef Tom has claimed that the producers pretty much let the judges do what they want, and the “decisions made in cosultation with the producers” disclaimer was more of a “just in case they need to use it” thing.
He said the only time they actually overruled him was when he wanted to kick off all the other contestants after the Marcel head-shaving incident.
It seems that Richard is a ringer. Wikipedia says that he’s been a contestant on Iron Chef America already.
I like Mark the Kiwi. He’s got a great attitude and does really well when he keeps things simple. He does have a tendency to overdo things, though. Last week when he was up for elimination (because he used charcoal insead of gas - overdone), the judges didn’t really pan his food, they just told him to clean up his act. It was more advice than criticism. Previews show that he might have an issue with Tom next week.
I thought it was silly to say that ignoring the main premise of the challenge was a “technicality.” Sheeesh. I mean, last week they killed Ryan for not making traditional tail-gating food (thus ignoring the conditions of the challenge.) I don’t think they strive for consistency in the least in their judging from week to week.
And the cheese wasn’t orange like a cheddar, it was white-ish, was it not?
I concur with those who think Lisa and Antonia should have been disqualified for ignoring the terms of the challenge. At least Team Asparagus tried to meet the terms. Their attitude bugged me too. They were so snobbish and dismissive of not only of Polish sausage, but of the Second City crowd who suggested it (“I’m not going to cook that just because a bunch of drunks in a bar…etc. etc.”). They acted like it was so beneath them. That could have been a fun, easy challenge. Make some kind of homemade Polish sausage, cook it in beer and top with a purple sauerkraut. If they had made it taste good, the judges would have liked it, and they couldn’t have gotten dinged for doing something that simple since that was the ingredient they were given.
I’v kind of waffed on Richard a little. At first I thought he seemed like a douche, and I hate the stupid faux hawk (which makes him look exactly like Jen), but he does seem to have real chops and seems pretty generous as a partner. He doesn’t appear to be a control freak, is willing to go with other people’s ideas and is willing to compliment them. He and dale seemed to work particularly well together and did a good job meeting a vague criterion (“perplexed”).
Andrew has seemed a little less twitchy the last couple of weeks, but he still seems like he could flip out at any second.