Shola, Gabe and Dawn are the cream of the crop, for sure. Sarah is quirky and talented but hard to see her be consistently good enough to return and win.
I think the challenge of producing in pandemic prompted some creativity that’s been welcome. Some of the routines had become tired.
Writing/following recipe challenge was awesome. I liked the drive-in challenge even though I thought it was going to be awful when I saw the previews.
Problems with the winner… something about harassment.
Yeahhhh - had an affair with an employee then seemed to retaliate against her in the aftermath and got fired for it. High-end fine dining restaurants do not casually fire head chefs. Which means he really pretty blatantly crossed the line. Beyond that there also accusations of long-standing harassing patterns of behavior in the Austin restaurant community posted anonymously on Reddit. They for sure should be taken with a grain of salt but sure don’t look good as circumstantial evidence.
That’s disappointing, about Gabe.
I’ve only just finished watching - I had access issues. The one thing I noticed is that out of the 15 chefs that competed, only 3 were white. The remaining 12 were Asian, Hispanic or Black. 2 of the 3 white contestants were out in the first 3 episodes. with the other Anglo out in episode 5. Their running theme was diversity. It sure gives the appearance of stacking the deck for a minority winner. Not that a minority winner is bad, but it sort of smacks of production interference in the outcome. I understand that high-class dining is a realm of white men, and that should change, but is stacking the deck the way to go about it?
Yes, I expect to be crucified for this post.
StG
What do you mean by “stacking the deck”? That white people didn’t have a fair chance to win for their race because they didn’t let enough white people on this season?
Tom Colicchio has been pretty consistent in insisting the producers have zero say in who gets to stay. The only time they have stepped in (according to Colicchio at least) is when Colicchio wanted to disqualify everyone involved in the Marcel hazing incident in the second season and give the championship directly to Marcel. Instead they only allowed him to toss the guy who directly assaulted Marcel.
He has also said the judges see none of the background stuff until after the season airs, so all judging is strictly by the food. I for one tend to believe him. Heck one of the white chefs this season used to work for Colicchio, but that didn’t save him.
As to whether they are attempting to add diverse chefs to the mix, I think they’re pretty upfront that they are and I tend to applaud that notion. They also very self-consciously try to balance the gender ratio and I’m in favor of that as well. It’s not like they have any shortage of skilled chefs to choose from - these folks almost all come in with substantial pedigrees. And personally I’m not really interested in just iterations on European cuisine. After all, I’m as fond of Thai food as I am Italian.
Pretty much. The few white people they entered into the competition were gone at the very beginning. Did they plan to eliminate those competitors early? I’m not saying a white person needs to win - they don’t always on this show, and it should be about the food they produce. Historically, 5 Asians have previously won. I’m saying by the look of the cast and they early auffing of those who aren’t minorities, it appears TC was planning for a minority to win. If you’re going to predetermine that, you’ve already corrupted the judging process.
StG
So the white people who were cut were cut because they were white, you suspect?
In seasons when there were mostly white contestants, do you also accuse the producers of “planning for a white person to win” with a corrupted process?
Yes, that’s pretty much exactly what I suspect. The producers had a rough outline of an ideal candidate in mind, and accepted chefs and rigged games to get to that outcome.
StG