What a strange episode, and one I really did not like.
First, in the elimination challenge, they had to cook a breakfast. (I actually liked the part about adding a breakfast and lunch item, btw.) The winners are immune and the losers have to cook a lunch dish. Again, the losers move on to the final challenge that was dinner. The judges judge, and decide that the best of the worst, the third worst team in the competition, gets week-long trips to Spain and Italy! Huh?
Then, it was a pairs elimination. I hate that. Not that what’s-his-name was going to go far in the competition, but he didn’t deserve to get elinated due to his partner’s error.
Dude: “You need to cook that pasta, we’re running out of time.”
Chick: “Shut up, douchbag, I’ve got it under control.”
Well, I did like the fact that some folks that pretty much sucked so far did REALLY good. It appears the bad folks just need to supervise each other to keep themselves from doing stupid shit.
Bah, good riddance. Nothing I hate more than people who constantly point out how they are being true to them selves.
For a minute I was wondering if they were ditching quickfire immunity altogether for team elimination rounds after Angelo’s dive job last week, but then I heard them say they were dumping 2 people which would have made an immunity awkward. Still interesting to see how immunity is used going forward. I have a gut feeling Colichio is ruminating on Angelo’s BS and becoming less and less happy about it. I hope it bites him in the ass.
I actually liked the change of pace. I agree Arnold got the shaft, but them’s the breaks.
One thing I hate, hate, HATE about this show is the constant giving away of the damn endings. I have to dive for the remote before each commercial break, so I won’t risk seeing some chef basking or pouting before the judges’ table. It’s a competition! I certainly don’t want to know in advance who will be winning or losing.
Knock off the previews guys! I’m still gonna watch!
This season has been really weak. A lot of great chefs, certainly, but nobody I can really get that jazzed about watching.
Separately from that, have you noticed how much they’ve stacked the line-up with minorities this season? I like it as it seems to bring a better variety of cuisines to the table.
I’m getting fed up with the hyped competition between Kenny and Angelo. Kenny has not done that well. He’s not even in the same league as Angelo.
I’m not a fan of Angelo. I consider him a ringer. There’s no one that can compete with him. At least not in fine dining. Cooking for the Hilton? Yeah others will win those.
It’s a shame TC blew their wad last season. They had 4 chefs that could have won any other season. Watching them compete against each other was fantastic. But now there’s no one to give Angelo competition this season. I’d love to see Jenn or Kevin cook against Angelo. At least then we’d have a real competition.
Yeah, that’s what I was wondering: “Yeah, all those of you who were good enough not to have to Cook for your Life in the final stage? No prize for you!”
I loved that Big Mouth Kenny had to go to the final round. With Angelo, he talks a tough game, but he delivers more often than not. But Kenny is all Hat and very little Cattle.
I agree with the overall weakness of the competitors compared to the last couple of seasons, but I thought this week’s elimination challenge was great. It was fun to see something a little different, though it did seem odd that the great prizes went to the best of the worst. In all fairness, Tom’s blog says that all the final dishes were really good and it was hard to send any of them home.
I liked the challenge, although, because there were three separate cooking and judging rounds, they sort of had to rush through the judging process in the first two rounds. When they announced the two winning teams from the breakfast challenge, i couldn’t even remember what those winning teams had cooked, and they never actually named the winning dishes. I had to rewind to remind myself of who cooked what.
I said to my wife, “Those two women are probably pretty happy right now that they didn’t win the breakfast or the lunch round.”
Although, when they announced the winning team, Padma did say, “one team had the best dish of the day.” I’m not sure if they had decided beforehand that Hilton wanted a dinner (rather than a lunch or breakfast) dish for its menu, or if they truly chose what they thought was the best meal of the day.
I felt sorry for Arnold. He was telling Lynne over and over that she needed to get the pasta on, and she kept saying, “It only takes a minute. I don’t want to overcook it.” Funnily enough, though, at judges tables she said that she thought it was undercooked, while he said he thought it was perfect. I guess he was probably just trying to stay positive and hope the judges overlooked it.
I hate pairs eliminations. I think that all of the contestants deserve to be respected enough to be judged on their own talents, and end up being sent home because their partner insists on doing things their own way.
Was anyone else surprised when Colicchio said, “Did she say she used canned beans? She didn’t have enough time too cook them? A bag of beans?” The beans were white beans. How did he expect anyone to cook dried beans in the time allowed for these challenges?
Bravo does that for all their reality shows (Project Runway, Work of Art, Top Chef), and I cannot understand why! I am already watching the show, why would I want to see what will happen later before I see it!? I always have to either mute it or start fast forwarding immediately.
Wow, this group is one of the more selfish I’ve seen. They were incapable of selecting a leader or working together. I kept hoping they’d vote or draw straws. Anything to get a leader.
It’s a shame. They were outdoors with farm fresh ingredients. Beautiful location in a meadow.
I cringe with their selfish attitudes. They need to focus on feeding people a great meal. Like it or not they are a team. Work together for that one day and make the best possible food.
The game will take care of itself. They don’t have to be all about ME. My dish will be the greatest and you can go to h e double toothpicks. That’s not what confident chefs do.
I felt bad for the blue crabs. They gave up their lives right in front of us. For a qf tasting? I doubt if any of that food was actually eaten. Judge takes one bite and that’s it. Sort of sucked being a blue crab that morning, Makes me wish one those crabs had pinched the chefs in the goolies.
Watching last night’s episode got me all mad again at the the eliminate woman saying at the end “That’s what I get for letting a younger chef take the lead”, when Arnold’s sauce won raves, and her pasta is what sent them home. Grrr!
Last night’s dinner was a mess. No cohesion, no teamwork. It was nice to see a “throwaway” dessert added and actually get high praise from the judges! And I loved at the end of th emeal, Eric Ripert showing off his clean plate. He looked very satisfied.
