I think it's pretty clear they want Richard and his hairdo to make the finals, as sort of the Anti-Marcel.

I laughed my ass off when his whizbang gadget smoker failed. I think he is a little too reliant on gadetry. I also think, despite his protests to the contrary, that Daniel Bouloud did favor him in his decision making.

I like movies, and I like to cook. I am no chef, but I can guarantee that I could cook a better movie-themed meal than these guys came up with.

My friend Kacy (who I "watch" the show with and snark along with throughout) said if he had to pick a movie as a culinary inspiration, he'd try Alive.

I chose Tampopo.

The contestants this season are by far the weakest batch of any season. I'm getting really sick of hearing the excuse, "I'm not into knowing how to do the basics. That's not my style." It's so arrogant and pretentious to say that, as though you are so great and revolutionary that you don't have to bother learning years of tried and true practices. That excuse sounds absolutely ridiculous in any other field:

A ballet dancer: "Pointe work isn't really something I've bothered to learn. It's not my style. I'm more into paving a new road with my dancing."

A musician: "Scales aren't my thing. I'm much more about creating something different that hasn't been seen before."

A painter: "Well, I never bothered to learn colour theory, actually. I think that the confines of traditional technique cramp my individuality."

Of course you wind up with chefs who can't make mayo, pizza crusts, don't bother to taste their own food, don't think ahead, and can't improvise, because they were caught up in trying to be the next amazing thing and didn't bother to learn the basics.

Mandroid2.0 wrote:I'm getting really sick of hearing the excuse, "I'm not into knowing how to do the basics. That's not my style."

I am too, but I also feel sympathetic towards those (not necessarily on the show) who really love to cook, but can't afford culinary school. So they get a crappy job as a dishwasher and work up (or however one does it in restaurants) to the line.

Maybe that's not realistic.

I know lots of photographers who have some gaps in their knowledge of technical stuff (myself included) but produce excellent work nontheless.

I think purposefully not learning basic skills is lame, but if you are passionate about stuff, and get caught up in experimenting and doing, you might not pick up all the finer points of knife skills and such.

All of the contestants except for Zoi, Mark, and Eric have gone to culinary institutes.

Mandroid2.0 wrote:All of the contestants except for Zoi, Mark, and Eric have gone to culinary institutes.

Well then those who went to C-school and don't know how to julienne or whatever should get their money back and enroll in Peter Kump's Knife 101 class.

In the scope of this show, this lack of skills sucks, but in real life, plenty of people do great work who are missing parts of a skillset.

Just sayin'.

burun wrote:I think it's pretty clear they want Richard and his hairdo to make the finals, as sort of the Anti-Marcel.

I laughed my ass off when his whizbang gadget smoker failed. I think he is a little too reliant on gadetry. I also think, despite his protests to the contrary, that Daniel Bouloud did favor him in his decision making.

Either that or Richard just knew more than the others about what to do to impress Bouloud. Either way, semi-unfair advantage, but he still had to deliver.

How about that Ryan (or was it Spike) when he said "Yeah, I worked him for a bout a month and decided it wasn't my bag." Who thinks he could have cut it in that dude's kitchen? That's rich.

Earth to Fauxhawk dude:

Stop with the fucking sous-vide already. You do it every week and it's a gimmick.

I'm surprised Chicken Picatta dumbass is still on the show.

What was with the yelling cry-fest at the end? Looked like some Bravo scripted forced reality show outtakes to me. Dale is a dick.

I have no feelings about Fauxhawk, except that it is good to see him cry.

Like Hung and Marcel before him, it seems that this week was Richard's week to be in the bottom group solely as a dramatic moment for the show (which wasn't very dramatic). they obviously like him and think he's one of (if not the) most talented chefs there. i, on the other hand, still can't stand him.

i can't stand any of them, really.

that girl from chicago, stephanie, has either won or been on the winning team in all but one elimination challenge. i think that says a lot for her skill. somehow, spike is still on the show even though he's been in last place 2 out of 5 times, and the 2nd-to-last place the remaining three times. worse than any of the others who have been kicked off thus far. fuck him and his stupid hats.

Richard doesn't bother me all that much, though I agree that his sous-vide reliance is laughable.

Hung annoyed the fuck out of me. There is a circle of Hell that I reserve for Hung and his ilk.

Zoi needed to go, but I disagree with her leaving before Spike, Nikki, or Ryan.

That flare-up about the Italian vacation awarded to Lisa by Ming? What the hell was that?!? I appreciated that bacon prep. Ming did too, and I liked how she steered her team into the non-Dale waters. Shut the fuck up, Dale. I liked you until this week but you have suddenly disrobed as a giant self-absorbed prick.



Next week: I predict that Nikki or Ryan packs his or her knives and leaves.