Does anyone feel the show, more than ever, manipulated the winner in season 10?
I’m glad a Bostonian won, but it smacked of the “let’s take one of the strongest contestants out, let him or her compete behind-the-scenes for weeks, and come back in at the last minute” trope that a lot of these reality contest shows seem to go for now.
Finally caught the episode yesterday. Looked like a pretty decent level of cooking with proteins that, for the most part, they had never used before. But yes, it is very early yet.
I’ve long since de-committed season 10 from my memory. This is all just total ephemera to me. I might as well be watching Chopped or something.
Cool; We will be there in very late December for 2+ weeks!
Cheers!
Marshall ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I was surprised by how many of the chefs had said they had never worked with Alligator or Turtle. You would think that knowing you were going to NOLA you would have familiarized yourself with the proteins of the area.
So far so good though.
The chef who got voted off. Who cools down a stock by pouring ice in it? That was just dumb.
But Gene…
I cool down my wine with ice cubes all the time. Is there a better way?
I love how they asked him if he had thought to reduce the stock the next day.
The lack of strategy on this show makes me scratch my head. You would think with so much at stake that people would at least study some things, familiarize themselves with the most common downfall (especially in Restaurant Wars), regional dishes, etc…
Haha. True.
Two very difficult challenges last night. Some folks lucked out big time with their assignments. Patricia needs to go home soon – she does not seem to be cut out for this kind of competition. She’s crying in almost every interview. I’m still kind of baffled that Carlos wanted to be on the show.
My wife and I were split on whether these “recreate a dish” challenges are good or not. Personally, I like them, as it shows an ability to observe and integrate what others do into your own thing, which is pretty difficult. Can’t say there were any surprises this time, but that guy has been angling to go home for three weeks. The field looks pretty deep though, so pretty soon these eliminations are going to start to hurt.
I am blown away at how good Paul Prudhomme looks compared to 20 years ago when he had to cook sitting on a stool he was so fat.
At least they did not make them re-create the turtle soup from Commanders.
Try before you die places in NOLA - mostly historical places. Weird that Root is on this list but not Clancys. I have never been to Stella but have really wanted to go.
I was struck by this as well. IIRC he was using a scooter to get around at that point.
I guess it’s not easy to make Vietnamese food. I remember researching how to make Pho once and quickly gave up. My rationale was that it costs $7 to buy great Pho at a restaurant, it will cost way more in time and effort. It also probably won’t be as good.
I really thought Travis should have been sent home because it was his conception for the dish. Even if it was better executed it still wouldn’t have been a good dish.
The hubris of many of the contestants is overwhelming sometimes. I’m sure some of this has to do with editing but it looked like Shirley was the only one asking questions of the people during their tours. Surprise, surprise – she had the best dish!
The funniest line in the show was when Tom said their dishes made him want to go out and have real Vietnamese food! ![[dance-clap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/835ce082e2fa9c96c4b7f96406bf6e9a0db882ff.gif "[dance-clap.gif]"){kind=small}
I was a little disappointed that Padma and Gail used their lone sexual innuendo joke for the season so early.
I am liking the way this season is shaping up and I really liked the challenge last night.
I think the right person went home; twice cooked shrimp is unthinkable.
Playing devil’s advocate for Travis using Tomatoes:
My initial thought is that the judges’ experience with vietnamese food are the typical popular dishes like pho, rolls, the various rice and noodle plates, the shaking beef or what not. Even in a smaller country like vietnam there are some regional dishes that don’t make it restaurants in the US, or maybe the dishes are very homey dishes that rarely served in restaurants. For example, you’ll almost never see a savory steamed egg “custard” or steamed pork patty in a Chinese restaurant, but I’d wager many Cantonese-Chinese kids grew up eating dishes like that at home.
So Tom bashes Travis that tomatoes have no place in Vietnamese cooking, but Tom could very well be wrong. I’m not Vietnamese, I don’t know the answer.
digression,
One of my pet peeves is when these reality TV cooks say they can easily cook Chinese food because they professionally serve Asian food and know the flavor profiles. Maybe they can, but a really knowledgeable cook wouldn’t even say something ignorant like that.
There’s no doubt the Vietnamese use tomato. But if I’m trying to win a Vietnamese cooking competition in the US, I’m not going to make a dish centered around the tomato, that’s for darn sure.
Along those lines, from Hugh Acheson’s blog:
Is it just me or is it strange that Shirley tells us she will feel bad going home today, “especially cause I am Chinese.” I don’t think it would be heresy for me, as a kid from Ottawa, to go home on a Oaxacan cooking challenge, why should she feel the cultural need to represent an entire continent which comprises hundreds of cuisines? Weird.
I think the right person went home. I think the judges really showed their ignorance about Vietnamese food. Toms comment about Paris and Micky dees was absurd.
Eddie Huang comes off pretty douchy but I see alot of comments about him on food blogs that he is always that way.
I agree with Hugh: that was a weird comment from Shirley
Overall, it’s shaping up to be a good season
I will be in NOLA for a week in December!
I liked both challenges last night. The first one reminded me of Ready, Set, Cook! which was an old game show on the Food Network where the chefs would get random ingredients brought by someone in the crowd. I was glad to see Michael go – he always seemed so full of himself and with no good reason. I misunderstood the challenge as I thought that both chefs on the eliminated team would go home so I was really worried about Nina. Would have been a shame for her to leave so early. Brian and Bene both making salads was super lame.
The oysters that Janine made on LCK looked incredible!
Agreed on all of the above. You are one week behind on LCK. She did oysters last week. There is another episode since.
What the hell was going on with the criticism of Nina for not tasting Michael’s food? What was she supposed to do? Takeover the dish and cook it as well as her own? Tell him he was an idiot for cooking such crap? What?