The musical chairs quickfire drove me batty, because it was SO CLOSE to being awesome and interesting. All they had to do was award whatever prize they awarded to ALL the chefs who worked on the winning dish (probably would mean it was just money split X ways, rather than immunity).
As it was, there was zero incentive to actually try when they were starting out, etc.
(As you can maybe tell, I adore the tag team challenge and I wish they did it way more often… it’s so interesting to see chefs show up and assess what’s going on and try to figure out where to take it.)
Huh, looks like I wasn’t the poster of this comment. That’s weird. (Because I mean, seriously, that thing is intentionally groomed that way, and it weirds me the fuck out.)
Hardly. They show the current winner of LCK in the promos all the time. It’s actually caused me to NOT watch LCK because what’s the point, I know who’s winning because they can’t quit showing him/her during TC.
They chose the wrong title for this episode. Instead of “Jazz Hands”, it should have been titled “Life Ain’t Fair.”
I didn’t like the musical chairs design of the Quickfire round, especially since it was one that granted immunity to the winner. With four rounds, Head-rag Sara put in more than 50% effort on the winning dish, including conceptualizing it, and bringing it back after another chef had worked on it. Brian came in, looked at it and said “Sweet!” and then coasted in to victory on it. Justin, on the other hand, walked into a crap dish on the fourth round, threw out the crap and tried to put out something else quickly, and then the judges gave him the stink-eye and asked “What were you thinking?” Brian, to his credit, graciously acknowledge that he benefitted greatly from the work of others.
Then they went to a potluck — and made dishes that weren’t so pot-lucky. I’m delighted that Stephanie came out with the win* but artichokes fried a la minute is NOT a pot luck dish. (Nor were any of the meticulously plated dishes.) By definition, at a pot luck, you have to prepare your dish off site, and then bring it to your location to serve. (Maybe you’ll have a warming try to serve.) Your dishes are normally in a casserole dish or some other dish for guests to serve themselves buffet style.
The biggest definer of this as the “Life Ain’t Fair” episode was Stephanie’s prize for winning. Her prize? There wasn’t one! Congratulations, Stephanie! You’re a winner. That’s what really bugs me about this show. One week, a winner gets $10,000, and the next week the winner gets a weeks stay at a spa and winery. Hell, Stephanie didn’t even get an autographed copy of Emeril Lagasse’s latest book. Congratulations, Stephanie!
I personally think she’s owed a prize for her commentary. She cracked me up with her comment about Nick’s use of performance enhancing drugs when he came back and was a work horse in the kitchen the day after taking off for strep throat. (And wouldn’t you like to be the roomie that got to bunk with a guy who had strep throat? Yes indeed, Life Ain’t Fair!)
Loved the quickfire. Dr. John is one hep cat, and he loves a hot sauce with some hip tang. I bet that guy has an interesting life story (looks on Wikipedia, “During the 1950s, he sold narcotics, ran a whorehouse, and even opened a business offering abortions (illegal at the time)”) Yup. And the winner’s hot sauce was ‘verily slick.’
The bourcherie looked like a great party, an alligator even crashed the party! The chef who left didn’t do poorly, other people just did better.
I loved the bourcherie, not a fan of the quickfire. I was okay with the hot sauce challenge. Not so much with Dr. John. He was incomprehensible, both in terms of understanding his words and then once you knew the words, understanding what he meant.
I think a challenge that simple calls for a judge who is an expert.
I think the judges made the right decision last night. I’m not a chef and I haven’t been on the show, but I’ve watched it and even I know you have to explain to judges’ table about each dish in detail. And if Padma snipes at you for doing something wrong, don’t do it again. And again.
I knew who what packing their knives, and it didn’t bother me. The guy from NO , that was the Exec chef was a total jerk in the kitchen and in front of the judges.
It was so clear she didn’t want to be there anymore. I never saw someone running FOH being so blase about everything. On a greater note, she’s been pretty blase about the competition these last few weeks.
I’ve never seen such a lopsided Kitchen Wars. A restaurant with great service and good food, and a restaurant with terrible service and bad food. Not sorry to see Sarah go.
RW was disappointing this season. One really bad team and the other team was ok. Not really great but good enough to win.
I liked this weeks favorite home dish challenge. There were some strong emotions and I could tell many of the chefs are homesick. Great comfort food and I’m glad the judges didn’t get too picky about it. Bad biscuits will send someone home every time. A very easy decision this week.
I’m really enjoying watching Tom is Last Chance Kitchen. He’s so much more involved in the cooking. Watching the chefs and even tasting a few things as they cook. I get the impression he’s judging on both cooking skills and taste. He’s right there seeing how the food is being made and can easily see how bad technique screws up the dish.
It seems like the standard of food was really high this week. How can I get a gig as a Top Chef judge? But undercooked biscuits… well he deserved to be sent home.
Sad to see him go, he had a good attitude. The guy with the beard can go anytime. I can’t remember his name, but I don’t like him much. I wish I could taste all that food!
Yeah, the thing is, even though she had immunity from elimination, the judges will remember her performance and that will impact their future judging. No matter that it’s supposed to be judging on what they put in front of them that day, you know it makes a difference. I think if you have immunity you need to use it as an opportunity to really stretch your limits. If you fail, you’re not out and the judges recognize that you really went for it.
They are really shafting Nick tonight. There has been many times over the past ten seasons when a weak member of a team had immunity. They’ve never suggested the guy with immunity should fall on his sword and resign. To suggest something like this after ten seasons is pure bullshit and unfair.
Not to mention that birds nest dish was the French expert’s vision. Nick was just doing what the expert wanted. Just like the other team did the super traditional dishes their expert wanted.