I watched it after the World Series. It was…odd. It was good to see some of the old chefs again, but it had a very wierd atmosphere. Almost all of them seemed to have huge chips on their shoulders. Ilan is just an asshole, Casey can seem to be nice, but her issue with Carla at last season’s finale is still weighing on her. BTW, that whole issue is as unresolved now as it was then. No insight there, other than Carla doesn’t give a crap and Casey loses sleep over it.
Fabio had a non-sequitor moment of anger in the middle of the show for no apparent reason. Stephan doesn’t give a shit about anything. The chefs seemed to work better together without the competition or time constraints, but it was hard to tell whose food was great and who’s wasn’t without judges.
They spent a lot of money to bring in everyone and take over a nice restaurant just to let them cook a meal for each other while pounding wines. All in all, it was strange. Who was the guy who was going to parlay his appearance on the show to open a taco truck?
I watched about five minutes until I realized it wasn’t going to be a real episode, got bored with it and changed the channel. I saw enough to see that Ilan is still as big an asshole as he ever was.
Stephanie is opening a new restaurant early next year, right? No surprise that she had better things to do than attend.
I was flipping between this and another channel, but I did catch the bit of “never before seen footage” from season 5 where Marcel was being a dick to Toby Young. The more I see of him, the more I understand why Marcel was so openly despised by every single member of the Season 2 cast. (Even Elia, his one friend, turned on him in the end).
The whole thing felt a little awkward. Especially the whole “Fabio going around and asking scripted questions” part. I wish there were more deleted scenes, like all the stew room stuff.
Not enough Richard either. Although his little confession about how he’s always trying to figure out what’s going to happen next was hilarious.
That was Ilan. But I don’t think he was serious.
They did a pretty good job of showing how all the jerks (Hung, Stefan, Tiffani) aren’t really that bad and how they’ve grown after seeing their behavior. Marcel… not so much.
I talked about it in another thread but I was lucky enough to get a couple of tickets to one of her Wandering Goat dinners leading up to her restaurant’s opening. Dinner is tonight at the home of a well-known Chicago chef (not Rick Bayless). Can’t say much else about it until after the event, but I plan on posting a full recap tomorrow morning about the whole experience. Should be fun!
Here is a Chicago Tribune articleabout the last Wandering Goat dinner, in September. That one was family style w/ about 100 people. Tonight’s dinner is going to be more of a cocktail party with only 40-50 people.