Wow, two major meltdowns during PYKAG in a row. I sure hope this doesn’t continue. Why do these All Stars feel so damn special and entitled? I’ve seen much more celebrated chefs on TC Masters accept PYKAG gracefully. Word to Elia and Jen. Your sh*t stinks just like everyone else. You need to get over your ego and realize your food wasn’t very good (this time). Yes, under different circumstances I’m sure Jen and Elia make fantastic food.
I must say that I’ve never seen a losing team on TC this pissed off. Every member of that team obviously felt like they got buggered. Even for TC that is pretty unusual for that many people to feel betrayed. I think in this case the challenge did cross that fine line between difficult and impossible. It did seem like everything was set up to force the meat team to fail. Tiffani made a valid point that they needed herbs and acid to properly develop flavors for the meat.
I loved that Casey independently confirmed that Jen’s bacon sucked. Casey said it was like soggy, wet bacon. That’s pretty much what all the judges seemed to think too.
Props to Marcel for already seeing through Angelo’s manipulations and dishonesty. Angelo screwed over several chefs during his season. He totally gave Tiffany bad advice and got her eliminated. Tiffany still thinks the sun shines out this guy’s ass. I bet when Tiffany sees S7 she’ll be ready to hunt Angelo down and stomp his butt. Marcel has already figured out Angelo’s dishonest game after only two episodes. Angelo is a master at acting like your friend, giving advice, help in the kitchen, and so on. Then when you least expect it, the guy will sell you out in an instant. That advice will be totally wrong, or suddenly your dish gets messed up while Angelo is “helping”. This dude is a master game player.
I’m no fan of Marcel. But, I’m looking forward to seeing Angelo and Marcel play this game of kitchen chess. I’m not sure which will come out on top.
I never thought I’d like season one Tiffani. She has totally changed her attitude during All Stars. I hope it continues as the season wears on.
As Marcel said “Don’t fuck with someone else’s mise en place”.
I don’t know what Angelo’s intent was by telling Carla to cut up the plums differently than how Marcel wanted but it is just that type of “helping” that got other chef’s eliminated last season. It was Marcel’s dish conceptually and Angelo took it upon himself to change an element w/o consulting his teammates.
Exactly what you said. I couldn’t agree more and I really hope it stops.
update It was Tamesha and not Tiffany that got played by Angelo in S7. I always seem to get those two ladies mixed up.
I admit a major bias against Angelo. After watching him S7 it’s hard for me to like him. So far, he has been more likable in All Stars. But, he couldn’t have changed his spots in the short time between S7 and All Stars. I think we’ll see the game player side of Angelo before much longer.
I don’t think Angelo tries to sabotage other people’s dishes. At least not consciously. I think he’s a little less cautious and a little less likely to edit when it’s someone else’s dish. I get the feeling that he thinks his suggestions will probably work, but where with his own dishes he might also think “now, during the competition isn’t the time to find out if it tastes good. I’ll wait until I get home.” When he’s advising someone else, he thinks “go for it.” Not unlike when Casey “helped” Carla. Sous vide wasn’t a bad idea it just was not a good one under those circumstances.
As for this episode - I understood that it was going to be carnivore and not omnivore - I wonder how it was explained to them. Mystery ingredients + mystery oven was too much. They should have let them tour the kitchen the night before, not prep, but at least get a chance to see what they were going to be working with. I never liked Jen - she mistook assishness for “strength” during her season and went entirely off the rails during judges’ table. Plus, her food… during the last episode, people didn’t like it either.
I am so over Angelo. What a cocky SOB. Mind your own food and stay out of others. You ain’t all that. Fabio, also…they can dish it, but can’t take grief. Richard and Carla and Hung are my faves.
I think they took Jaimie off the chopping block when they said it made no difference whether she was there or not. Although Tom said it wasn’t the talking back that bothered him, but the bad dish, they pretty much said Jaimie had no hand in the dish and therefore no responsibility while Jen took extreme responsibility for the dish and refused to take even one part of the several criticisms levelled at it.
Didn’t Jen have a similiar meltdown in her season – more upset/sick than angry IIRC?
Oh yeah! A Top Chef thread. I am new to the show with season 7 being the first one I’ve watched in real time. I’m catching up with reruns. I did watch just desserts, but hated all the contestants. Ugh, I hope non whiny pastry chefs will apply for the show next time and redeem their reputations.
I’ve not yet seen the season with Spike and I’ve heard he is/was a real ass, but I like him a lot. Maybe he’s mellowed? Tiffani from season one seems to have chilled out. I was totally amazed by both Fabio and Jen talking to the judges in the manner they did. I know it’s hard to hear negative stuff about your food, but I think they should be a little more respectful. I also think Ed should have won last season and was disappointed that he isn’t in this cast, but I see he is on Iron Chef America as Cat’s sous chef, so maybe it was his choice not to return.
IOW, he encourages his competitors to take risks, based on his suggestions, that he doesn’t have the balls to try during the competition. That’s what it sounds like you’re saying and to me that is a very sneaky and devious form of sabotage.
You realize Hung isn’t in the competition this season, right? (Bolding is mine.)
Jen may be (and I believe she is) a remarkably talented chef, but even during her season I felt she was not well suited to the nature of the competition. In her own kitchen with enough sleep I’d guess she’s phenomenal. I was sorry to see her go.
Something about Angelo claiming the win for himself without any recognition for his collaborators rubbed me the wrong way.
Later Angelo mentioned it was the worst “migraine” he’d ever had. All his symptoms were consistent with migraine, and a unfamiliar doctor might not guess that was going on if there wasn’t the classic pain-on-one-side-of-the-head. The timeframe is also consistent with a migraine resolving itself.
Angelo creeps me the hell out. He’s superficially charming but grandiose, and his casual and skillful manipulation of the players just scream ‘narcissist’.
I think Jen has mental problems. She was on top her season, got into a funk then didn’t really give a damn. She is so good that she still held on a couple weeks after she gave up.
She walked into the elimination looking for a fight and got it. I don’t think she was eliminated for arguing as much as she had no clue what she did wrong.
And I think one of the All-Stars needs to look up “carnivore” in the dictionary.
Tom even said that the T-Rex team would only have access to meat, milk and eggs. Before she even said it I thought “Tiffani’s going to pick T-Rex but the veggie team is going to be a lot better off.”
I thought that too until I realized that the dish was a combined effort of the three of them and they did win the challenge so I think it worked out OK.
But again, am I misunderstanding something or wasn’t that the dish created by Marcel, Richard *and *Angelo? And didn’t they win for it? How can that possibly be “sabotage”?
As someone mentioned above, they really piled it on with obstacle after obstacle (kids, no sleep, unfamiliar kitchen x2) for all the chefs, as one would expect for the all-stars, but the T-Rex team really took everything in stride except for the decimated pantry. What struck me was that some of them were stubborn enough to try applications like sauces (and braising liquids) without even having aromatics to work with. If Jen & Tre had teamed up and done bacon-wrapped shrimp or even a topping of chopped bacon and shrimp on Casey’s salmon, it wouldn’t have been Jen going home this week.
Even after she mouthed off to Tom Colicchio about everything, including her team’s utter failure in terms of service.
When Tiffani came back for that cookoff special a few seasons ago, she was very changed. I think she has matured generally (I read that she now has a partner & child), she also spent a good deal of time traveling after her initial appearance. Compare and contrast her to Marcel, who is just a big PITA and still acts like a smirking little frat boy. Ugh. Why couldn’t the representative of that season have been Sam the Hottie?
That dish won.