Episode 8: "Common Threads" Options

[teleburst]

Yup!

But the to go...cheapens....nah... I think not.
You have been working fine dining far too long young man. ..My snooty aunt will not even take home a to go doggy box....Not even the swan foil work of art.
I take everyting that ain't nailed down.

I was taught it is a sin to waste food and I do really think that...Even the bread they will
throw away.......I take it home.

No no, I didn't mean doggie bags. I meant takeout food. The presentation is never very good, there's the travel time and reheating issue, etc.

I felt that way at Chang's as well even though Chinese is a traditional to-go worthy food (Chang's only having a passing similarity to Chinese food) <chuckle>.

[WhataJoke]

Oh really? At what point did you see production rushing them into the cars and saying, "off we go!!! You guys are in BIIIIIG trouble now!!! I'm going to tell Tommy"

No, but seriously, do you know something I don't know based on some kind of blog or something?

Because as I saw it, Marissa narked on Otto to Tom. (Not the production staff.) To me, she was just as much at fault... because she knew they weren't paid for & left the premises.

Then she waited for an opportune time to bring it up to Elia & to Tom. (In order to make it appear that Otto was the only one who knew that they weren't paid for, when she knew it almost as soon as he did.)

Perhaps it was blown up for TV's sake... but you cannot deny that both Marissa & Otto knew that those lychees weren't paid for. Which makes them both shoplifters.

Had it been an innocent mistake, and that nobody actually knew that the lychees weren't paid for.... I would agree with you. But they DID know that they weren't paid for.

YO [expletive deleted]!
In Marrisa's chow interview she mentions that they knew about it right outside of the store and production people on site told them that they would have to consult with a senior producer or some such nonsense.

Translation: We are going to plead dumb and not let you bring the stuff back to the store until we get the maximum drama value from it.

And this is Marissa that said this not Otto, she was the accuser. And if you watch the episode again you see the back of one of the Highlanders driving away with Otto doing a voice over saying "hey i think we got a free case of lychees" or something to that effect. So it's pretty clear its just more Bravo editting shenanigans.

[WhataJoke]

ALL the chefs knew the lychees weren't paid for, even the store employee who helped load groceries into the SUV. Does that make all of them shoplifters as you imply because they knew about it? So why was Otto made to take the rap as being a shoplifter? That cart you refer to was Elia's, not Otto's. It's hard to believe that she didn't know about the case of lychee's which were quite visible when all of her other groceries were being tallied and bagged by the cashier.

As far as going back and paying for the lychees, that is exactly what Marissa wanted to do when Otto made his announcement about the free lychees. For some reason, production put the kibosh on Marissa's suggestion about paying for the lychees. The next thing we know, Marissa is whispering in Colicchio's ear about Otto and the lychees. As WAJ said, Otto got hosed - probably by production.

Pretty much right on except for the whispering part. I don't think it was Marissa's idea to tell Tom. I bet the whole team wanted to take care of it way before that. But Tom was brought in for maximum drama effect. By the time Judges table rolled around Marissa knew her only chance to stay was Otto getting the boot.

[SimonBao]

Ok if the quickfire is mis en place who is the strongest?? I guess it depends on how the teams shake out---could it be boys against the girls?? Richard and Dale looked the strongest as far as knife skills go in the veg plate QF and Lisa sucked. I think Nikki was weak during that challenge too! I sure hope Steph rebounds from the last 2 weeks.

Before anyone predicts who will be strongest at mise en place, may I remind everyone of Casey and her knives? LOL Who would have predicted that or seen it coming? Or that Hung, as talented as he is, would do things with knives that make one worry about his early childhood?

But, I'll go with Rady and say Richard and Dale seem strongest on the skills drilled into culinary institute grads. With Nikki bringing up the rear. Not that she isn't probably a lovely woman, just.....

[Kristlkrost]

Before anyone predicts who will be strongest at mise en place, may I remind everyone of Casey and her knives? LOL Who would have predicted that or seen it coming? Or that Hung, as talented as he is, would do things with knives that make one worry about his early childhood?

But, I'll go with Rady and say Richard and Dale seem strongest on the skills drilled into culinary institute grads. With Nikki bringing up the rear. Not that she isn't probably a lovely woman, just.....

My bets are all on Dale but Andew may really surprise us.

Well now that I typed that.....yeah...lol
He knows knives probably.

SECURITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Radyms13]

Before anyone predicts who will be strongest at mise en place, may I remind everyone of Casey and her knives? LOL Who would have predicted that or seen it coming? Or that Hung, as talented as he is, would do things with knives that make one worry about his early childhood?

But, I'll go with Rady and say Richard and Dale seem strongest on the skills drilled into culinary institute grads. With Nikki bringing up the rear. Not that she isn't probably a lovely woman, just.....

Casey was unbelievabley bad!!! And that was only with an onion!!!

I think tonite artichokes are included in the challenge, should be interesting.

[partsgirl]

In sales.

Ah. Thanks. I kept counting zeros because they run together on me. Wasn't sure what it meant.

[WhataJoke]

It wasn't "easily" the worst dish. They were both bad.

I note that nowhere do you mention the children, who clearly didn't like the curry AT ALL, regardless of Mark's delusions that both they and Tom "dug" it. And they liked the curry the least. Therefore, it can be argued that it was "easily" the worst dish.

This is exactly the reason why you have to take other factors into consideration. If I had been a judge, I'm pretty sure I would have found the curry disgusting based only on the flavor profile (although I'm baffled as to why Padma didn't mention it - probably the ole editing bugaboo). I'm also glad that all of the judges' feelings were taken into account, not just one's. And wasn't it you who's insisted that bland is a horrible sin and makes a dish deserve to send a CT packing? See, that's the reason you can't have a cut and dried criterion for "worst food". There are a gaggle of sins that can be considered. And Mark's dish was called out by Tom saying that the curry "wasn't appealing on so many different levels". If you can interpret "offputting" the way you do, I'd argue that saying that phrase is a nice way of saying "disgusting". It was also "sloppy". And Gail said, "Compared to what everyone (my emphasis) else made tonight, Mark's dish was so lacking" (her emphasis).

Had the kids liked it, Mark probably wouldn't have gone home (see the "Make the target audience happy or else" corollary). Had Mark not been a perennial underperformer, he probably wouldn't have gone home (see the "Stephanie" corollary). Had he not made a bad dish, he probably wouldn't have gone home (see the "Don't make it to JT" corollary). Had he not understood what you should do to make a truly nutritious vegetarian dish, he probably wouldn't have gone home (see the "Meet the challenge head on" corollary). Had he not been somewhat delusional, he probably wouldn't have gone home (not sure what corollary this is, but let's officially call it the "Mark" corollary from now on). Since he met none of those conditions, he went home. Not that difficult.

Did Gail even mention Stephaine's dish or how it tasted? Nope. That's pretty telling. I usually like Gail but how she can call Mark's food sloppy when Stephanie produced This! I'm sorry but it looks like barf. Excuse me. Barf on a bed of overcooked cous cous.

Tom's blog never makes on referense to the taste and actually has to throw production under the bus in order to justify the offing.

"In retrospect, I think the episode was cut in a way that made it seem we took the greatest issue with Stephanie's dish when in actuality, we debated long and hard about them all, and Mark's emerged as the least favorite of the bunch."

Yes Tom please tell us how Padma saying she destested it and it was disgusting was editting? Mayb they can cut that out along with you calling it "offputting" and mentioning that the Cous Cous was overcooked. Please.

Lee Anne said his Curry was not great but not bad either. And again she made no mention of Stephanie's dish aside from calling it bizzare.

Bringing up the kids as a means to judge the food is a sham because:
A. They never gave the food to all the children.
B. Stephaine made a dessert. Which furthers the likelyhood that she in actuallity spent far more than $10 to produce peanutbutter tomato and chicken slurry with overcooked cous cous.

Why Padma doesn't have a blog this week? Is she too busy being pretty? It's probably because she could never justify keeping a meal she found disgusting and Tom has already had to try and evoke the "editting" fairies as an excuse once.

Add in the fact that the $10 paramiters of the challenge were not only unrealistic but violated by other competitiors, of which Mark's degree seemed to be the least, and it's no wonder why he got dinged for his dish being lacking.

So what were left with is the "judging is arbitrary based on production" corollary.

This post has been edited by WhataJoke: May 7, 2008 - 10:14 AM

[Kristlkrost]

No no, I didn't mean doggie bags. I meant takeout food. The presentation is never very good, there's the travel time and reheating issue, etc.

I felt that way at Chang's as well even though Chinese is a traditional to-go worthy food (Chang's only having a passing similarity to Chinese food) <chuckle>.

Oh yeah.... I told ya' we got a Chang's here recently and it is terrible....What the hell are they passing that food for????

I would never want to work fine dining again.
WAY too many tip outs and you can't have any fun.

I can make what you make at an IHOP almost on graveyards and let the pretense stay at fancy schamncy's whilst they pour the wine swizzle spit and go on about the oaky nutty fruity and bask in the glow of how important they are.

Not all rich peeps are like that of
course......but many are.

Do you have a wine steward or sommelier??
One more person to tip out to if


EDIT: No..I can more than what you make..lol

Bartenders and drunks TIP!!!


This post has been edited by Kristlkrost: May 7, 2008 - 10:46 AM

[teleburst]

Did Gail even mention Stephaine's dish or how it tasted? Nope. That's pretty telling. I usually like Gail but how she can call Mark's food sloppy when Stephanie produced This! I'm sorry but it looks like barf. Excuse me. Barf on a bed of overcooked cous cous.

It was Tom who called Mark's dish sloppy. And how can you say it was telling that it wasn't shown having her comment on Stephanie's food? Maybe she didn't find it as objectionable as you (or Padma) did? In fact, she did call it out as a dish that showed that she didn't really know how to cook that type of food.And she was shown definitely agreeing with Tom on the peanut butter/tomato thing.

Tom's blog never makes on referense to the taste and actually has to throw production under the bus in order to justify the offing.

"In retrospect, I think the episode was cut in a way that made it seem we took the greatest issue with Stephanie's dish when in actuality, we debated long and hard about them all, and Mark's emerged as the least favorite of the bunch."

And maybe, just maybe, he's telling the truth. Since you think he's a liar, and this reinforces that, you'll never believe it though.

Yes Tom please tell us how Padma saying she destested it and it was disgusting was editting? Mayb they can cut that out along with you calling it "offputting" and mentioning that the Cous Cous was overcooked. Please.

Funny how production might favor a cute soundbite as opposed to 30 minutes of debating which dish was worse.

Lee Anne said his Curry was not great but not bad either. And again she made no mention of Stephanie's dish aside from calling it bizzare.

Yes, the conspiracy is deeply entwined. Even the grips are involved. Frankly, I'm surprised that she would say that, just as you were surprised that the guest judge would say that Stephanie's and Mark's dishes both tasted good (certainly not what he said on the show).

Bringing up the kids as a means to judge the food is a sham because:
A. They never gave the food to all the children.
B. Stephaine made a dessert. Which furthers the likelyhood that she in actuallity spent far more than $10 to produce peanutbutter tomato and chicken slurry with overcooked cous cous.

But you don't know that for a fact. And maybe the fact that she did offer something tasty worked in her favor and balanced out the "badness" of the dish. Maybe if Mark had done that as well, he wouldn't be gone. And who knows how his side dish tasted. Sounded pretty underwhelming to me.

A. is irrelevant.

Why Padma doesn't have a blog this week? Is she too busy being pretty? It's probably because she could never justify keeping a meal she found disgusting and Tom has already had to try and evoke the "editting" fairies as an excuse once.

It's possible. It's possible that she didn't feel like she stood up for opinion enough. It's possible that she feels steamrolled by the other three judges. Or, she might just be toking on a big fattie.

Add in the fact that the $10 paramiters of the challenge were not only unrealistic but violated by other competitiors,

Unproven allegation that is not a fact. Dismissed.

of which Mark's degree seemed to be the least, and it's no wonder why he got dinged for his dish being lacking.

It was a minimum effort that deserved to be dinged. It showed no balance, a wacky flavor profile, an offering of a super-sweet dish to children, looked grim, had no imagination, was ill-conceived for the challenge, and certainly didn't seem to maximize the $10 at all. And, normally when you add a green vegetable to add nutrition, you don't add something as empty as cucumbers (something that Gail pointed out).

So what were left with is the "judging is arbitrary based on production" corollary.

Well, you're left with that, but you're always left with that.

[teleburst]

Oh yeah.... I told ya' we got a Chang's here recently and it is terrible....What the hell are they passing that food for????

I would never want to work fine dining again.
WAY too many tip outs and you can't have any fun.

I can make what you make at an IHOP almost on graveyards and let the pretense stay at fancy schamncy's whilst they pour the wine swizzle spit and go on about the oaky nutty fruity and bask in the glow of how important they are.

Not all rich peeps are like that of
course......but many are.

Sounds like reverse snobbery to me...

[Kristlkrost]

Sounds like reverse snobbery to me...

Umm I'll get back to ya.

Not at all....I've been there Tele..I know...As a server and in my own life...Succsessful rich peeps think they are entitled just as some poor peeps do.
On the whole and in general.

You know I am right

[shyjanne]

Shy...I even tip the guys who help bring my food to the car at Publix...They offer that service and we are not supposed to but I can't help it
I'm a tippah'.

Is Publix a grocery store? We only have Kroger and Walmart Supercenter here. After I had carpal tunnel surgery the boys would help me out with the groceries and I would tip them. BTW the surgery didnn't work, still hurts when I'm on the puter to much.
Also the manager is a woman. You don't swing both ways do ya? LOL

[Mluv]

Umm I'll get back to ya.

Not at all....I've been there Tele..I know...As a server and in my own life...Succsessful rich peeps think they are entitled just as some poor peeps do.
On the whole and in general.

You know I am right

Hi all,
When it comes to tipping, I always make sure to give the waitress/er at least 15%, even if the service was really bad.
In my profession, it is polite to reply with something after service has been rendered.

[shyjanne]

Sounds like reverse snobbery to me...

Gosh, I respect all the servers out there. I tried it in my early years, and lasted about a day and 1/2 before I was fired. I was awful. Got good tips though cause they guys must have thought I was cute. (Either that or they felt sorry for me.)

[Kristlkrost]

Is Publix a grocery store? We only have Kroger and Walmart Supercenter here. After I had carpal tunnel surgery the boys would help me out with the groceries and I would tip them. BTW the surgery didnn't work, still hurts when I'm on the puter to much.
Also the manager is a woman. You don't swing both ways do ya? LOL

LOL!!

Only on Tues. and Saturdays
Padma turned me.

Is she cute???????

[Kristlkrost]

Hi all,
When it comes to tipping, I always make sure to give the waitress/er at least 15%, even if the service was really bad.
In my profession, it is polite to reply with something after service has been rendered.

If the service is bad 15% and that means that you did not even SAY I am sorry I am so busy or something.
I can forgive a server anything if they are nice
about it......and I have.

RUDE and bad.....very little.

If they are too stupid to figure out that being gracious will make them money than they better go to work somewhere else.....I attribute it to poor training and management...You keep up on that stuff....You are on top of that.

YES .....you can teach someone manners.

Believe it or not IHOP has one of the BEST training programs around...It's accredited and fantastic.
We implemented those techniques at our places...But many of the IHOPS I go to you would
never know it.

Hiya Mluv...Good to see you out and about

[shyjanne]

LOL!!

Only on Tues. and Saturdays
Padma turned me.

Is she cute???????

I think she is beautiful! Am I allowed to say that? Iread somewhere that she doesn't vote, is that true? She does have some strong opinions.

[shyjanne]

Hi all,
When it comes to tipping, I always make sure to give the waitress/er at least 15%, even if the service was really bad.
In my profession, it is polite to reply with something after service has been rendered.

If you give them a tip for doing a bad job, what is their incentive to do a good job? Reminds me of schools only giving pass or fail grades so nobody feels bad. Call me old fashion, but work hard, be rewarded. Don't and be left no tip. (although one waitress cried the whole time we were at a resteraunt. A family member had died and she didn't have the money to go home. On a $5.oo tab, I gave her a $20.00 tip) Another waitress told me what was wrong, so I don't think it was a scam.

[Kristlkrost]

If you give them a tip for doing a bad job, what is their incentive to do a good job? Reminds me of schools only giving pass or fail grades so nobody feels bad. Call me old fashion, but work hard, be rewarded. Don't and be left no tip. (although one waitress cried the whole time we were at a resteraunt. A family member had died and she didn't have the money to go home. On a $5.oo tab, I gave her a $20.00 tip) Another waitress told me what was wrong, so I don't think it was a scam.

Awww...... How sweet of you.
It would take a WHOLE lot for me to leave nothing.

My son wanted me to recently but I couldn't do it.
I left way less than ususal but something.
When I first started working at IHOP it was near the hood.

I had many less than savory peeps come through and I was naive sorta'.
Well not really...but when you see a lady with a baby saying she can't eat...So I gave her some money and my manager/b/f Tony told me...That was great but she is a known crack head.
I was like Oh man...I got scammed.
So he said .......it doesn't matter.

You gave it and what she does with it is not your problem.
You gave it and in God's eyes that
was ok..He was a Christian for 5 minutes lol
He was EVERYTHING for 5 minutes.
That guy was amazing..But we fed many peeps there..Tom ...my other manager and still my very good friend and Tony and I were a team.
We had it going on.

Oh and I meant is the manager cute at Walmart
I know Padma is gawjus!!!!

This post has been edited by Kristlkrost: May 7, 2008 - 12:37 PM