Episode 8: "Common Threads" Options

[shyjanne]

It would take a WHOLE lot for me to leave nothing.
Not me, unless there are circumstances beyond their control, I don't leave anything. I also send food back if it is cold or incorrectly prepared. (I have a thing about my eggs.)
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 Christan for 5 minutes lol
He was EVERYTHING for 5 minutes. I had one of those in my past. My husband would kill me if he knew I still have thoughhts about him.
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. I remain friends with most of my ex's. But since I now live out in the boonies, I don't seem em much

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

Manager was at Damon's. And have you ever seen a female version of the guys on Deliverence? Need I say more LOL

[Kristlkrost]

Manager was at Damon's. And have you ever seen a female version of the guys on Deliverence? Need I say more LOL

LMBUMOFF!!!!!

I don't care....Does she have a 401k????

[Kristlkrost]

Oh and Shy....No green ...No red...please

The green and purple......ahhhhhhh

My inner gay man is very offended

Plus I couldn't read it ...That's the ticket.

[shyjanne]

LMBUMOFF!!!!!

I don't care....Does she have a 401k????

Don't know, can't get past the teeth! Back to the show...how long do you think it will be before we have a new thread for Epi #9. ANY wagers out there?

[shyjanne]

Oh and Shy....No green ...No red...please

The green and purple......ahhhhhhh

My inner gay man is very offended

Plus I couldn't read it ...That's the ticket.

I thought we agreed on green! Well my favorite color is purple, but you have that, my second fav is yellow, but that doesn't show up. I agree about the red, and well black is just so ordinary, what do you suggest?Is this burgandy? I like this one.

[Mluv]

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.

I am also from the Old Fashion town which seems nowadays a very looooong time ago and far away; but I have learned that even a 15 percent takes care of them bringing your order for you, from the kitchen to your table I believe in "rewarding" you for WHAT you have done and if I see it fit, I will reward you accordingly, I do that out of respect.

The biggest tip was no tip at all and one penny meant that there is no price on the service that you have redered.

Then again, time and beliefs (cultural for that matter) have changed in some places and you respect whatever their actual cultural beliefs are.
I do reward my students accordingly. Some might deserve a lot more than others. They pay for their actions, is no doubt about that.

[Mluv]

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

Hi KK!
How's going?

[johnw]

HI JOHN

GONNA TOSS A FEW WHISPS OF DUST ON THE CARCASS

NAH THE BAG BOY DIDN'T KNOW

NOT THIER JOB TO WATCH THE REGISTER

AND NAH OTTO DIDN'T GET HOSED

HE WAS THE ONE WHO EXCLAIMED "WE DIDN'T PAY FOR THE LYCHEES"

AFTER THEY CLOSE THE LIFTGATE

NOW REALLY TILL THAT POINT

THE WHOLE THING WAS NOTICED BY ONLY ONE

OTHER PERSON

THE CAMERAMAN

AND MARISSA AS WELL AS SOME OF THE OTHERS

DIDN'T KNOW TILL INSIDE THE VAN

TO WHICH THIS CONTROVERSY GAINS LIFE..

NOW

WHEN THE ISSUE CAME INTO VIEW BY TOM

FINGERS POINTED TO OTTO

SHRUG

SUCH IS LIFE

IT CAN BE SPECULATED FOR ETERNITY

WETHER OTTO COULD HAVE DONE THE RIGHT THING

AT THE MARKET.........

BUT IT PLAYED OUT DIFFERENTLY

HE DID THE CRIME.......PAYED THE FINE

AND MAY I NOTE THIS IS ALL FROM MEMORY

DIDN'T NEED TO GO RESEARCH PAST HISTORY

AS IT REALLY ISN'T WORTH IT

AS THE CONTESTANTS WEREN'T THAT GREAT THAT SEASON EITHER

AND HAVE PROB GOTTEN ALONG WITH THIER LIVES

WHY PEEPS DIGRESS

ONE WILL NEVER KNOW

LIKE I SAID BEFORE

RIGHT NOW IT ISN'T ABOUT THE FOOD

IT'S ABOUT THE PEEPS

AND THE DRAMATICS PROVIDED FOR US

TAKE CARE OVER THERE

ALOHA

HAVE FUN

I apologize for trying to post from memory which is not what it used to be, if it ever was. So I went and dug out of storage a tape I made of the lychee episode two seasons ago.

First, Elia, Marissa, Marcel and Otto were part of a team - Team Korea.
During the shopping Otto had a store employee put the case of lychees on the bottom of Elia's shopping cart. When the team is at the checkout register, Elia and Marissa are unloading the cart so the cashier can tally up the groceries. In the background, Marcel has a second cart and Otto is taking up the rear - it appears that he has no cart. Marcel is the one with the money and he steps forward to pay for the team's groceries. In the next scene Otto is seen pushing Elia's cart of bagged groceries (with the lychee's still on the bottom of the cart) out of the store. Just before he closes the door to the SUV he mentions the lychees being free. As the SUV leaves the store Marissa's voice is heard moralizing over the lychees.

The part that I mentioned about Marissa wanting to return the lychee's and production stopping her was from another forum when lycheegate was a hot topic.

But again, I still can't figure how Otto took the rap for the lychee's when he was at the rear of the line at the cash register and why didn't either Elia and Marissa place the lychee's on the checkout counter since it was those two who were unloading the cart? Secondly, since it was Marcel who had the money and paid the cashier, obviously he didn't itemize the receipt because if he had I would have hoped that he would have noted the lychees were not listed.

[SimonBao]

Well... it's hours away from Wedding Wars, and I already just so do not like this episode.

And FYI, it is supposed to be a supersized episode. Don't know, maybe it's 75 or 90 minutes long.

According to Cohen, "Tonight is one big, bad, badass episode of "Top Chef" - so much so that we had to Supersize it! The Quickfire is the classic mis en place relay race, followed by one of the toughest challenges in "Top Chef" history as the chefs stay up for 36 hours straight to cater a wedding.

Well, sounds dumb to me.

Who would hire any chef or team of chefs to cater a wedding, if they do not in fact specialize in catering? If they have not catered lots of weddings before?

Honestly, that's as far from real life as having the chefs do upscale BBQ on the slopes of Mt. Everest.

And making them stay up for 36 hours?

Oh yeah. Clever.

This season hasn't clicked for me yet and the clicking seems increasingly unlikely.

[chucole]

Well... it's hours away from Wedding Wars, and I already just so do not like this episode.

And FYI, it is supposed to be a supersized episode. Don't know, maybe it's 75 or 90 minutes long.

According to Cohen, "Tonight is one big, bad, badass episode of "Top Chef" - so much so that we had to Supersize it! The Quickfire is the classic mis en place relay race, followed by one of the toughest challenges in "Top Chef" history as the chefs stay up for 36 hours straight to cater a wedding.

Well, sounds dumb to me.

Who would hire any chef or team of chefs to cater a wedding, if they do not in fact specialize in catering? If they have not catered lots of weddings before?

Honestly, that's as far from real life as having the chefs do upscale BBQ on the slopes of Mt. Everest.

And making them stay up for 36 hours?

Oh yeah. Clever.

This season hasn't clicked for me yet and the clicking seems increasingly unlikely.

That is my biggest complaint about this season. It seems they're always catering. They are chefs, not caterers. Where are the individual challenges? Few and far between.

[SecondTry]

Well... it's hours away from Wedding Wars, and I already just so do not like this episode.

And FYI, it is supposed to be a supersized episode. Don't know, maybe it's 75 or 90 minutes long.

Thanks for letting us know. I'll have to pick up a fresh tape after work, because I'm not sure there's enough room on my existing one for an extended episode.

[SimonBao]

That is my biggest complaint about this season. It seems they're always catering. They are chefs, not caterers. Where are the individual challenges? Few and far between.

Chucole, I really have a sense that this season, to a large extent, the TC producers are really just phoning it in. Apart from the disappointing cooking that we've seen, the challenges just haven't been what they could be. Last week's "Common Threads" a pretty obvious example of that.

[notevayas]

Good Photo...


Set your recorders now, everyone. Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi will be appearing on Friday's Oprah for the show's first ever Sandwich Showdown!

Honestly, what's better than the combo of Padma and sandwiches? Padma and Harold Dieterle and sandwiches! Yup -- he'll be on too.

Check out a preview HERE.

[chucole]

Good Photo...


Set your recorders now, everyone. Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi will be appearing on Friday's Oprah for the show's first ever Sandwich Showdown!

Honestly, what's better than the combo of Padma and sandwiches? Padma and Harold Dieterle and sandwiches! Yup -- he'll be on too.

Check out a preview HERE.

My sons 8 yr old friend thinks that Padma is "Smokin' Hot".

[partsgirl]

Good Photo...


Set your recorders now, everyone. Top Chef's Padma Lakshmi will be appearing on Friday's Oprah for the show's first ever Sandwich Showdown!

Honestly, what's better than the combo of Padma and sandwiches? Padma and Harold Dieterle and sandwiches! Yup -- he'll be on too.

Check out a preview HERE.

A Padma-Dieterle ceviché sammich....

[WhataJoke]

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 calls Mark's sloppy. I guess that makes Stephanies super duper sloppy then.
Gail absolutely left it out. In her other blogs she mentions the other dishes and how they tasted. She goes into great detain as to how bad the stuffed mushroom was or How Marks chowder tasted. In this blog we get Nada. They can't ever possibly justify their decision if they mention how bad Stephanies food tasted so they just pretend it never happened.

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.

Why should we believe it when the guy can't even remember who the top three on the episode were?

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

Tom Calls it "offputting" Padma calls it "disgusting" and says she "detested" it. I don't see how 30 minutes of them trying to figure out how to send Mark home and save Stephanie for a female top chef angle or simple past performance, will convince anyone that the right decision is made. It's more likely that well get 30 minutes that completely indictes the way the show is run.

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).

The grips could be waiting for 3 days to eat and not want a taste of Stephanie's disaster. I'm not surprised that Lee Anne said that Mark's food was probably fair/average.
Nor am I surprised that she was not allowed to say how bad Stephanies was. The Guest's comments on the show and the blog are completely at odds with themselves so I really don't know where his head is.

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.

Uh and what do you know for a fact about this show? Lee Anne's blog spells it out: She made an apple dessert. Of course the kids will like that. Mark probably could have made a great curry and apple dessert would have carried the day with the kids so it's a not a relevant point of comparison.
Not to mention the fact that they said family of four and it turned out to be 4 kids was deliberately misleading and Mark says his recipie would have changed accordingly.

Uh how is deliberately misleading people irrelevant. Saying "it was the childrens least favorite" implys that all the children ate it which was not the case and makes it a very dubious way to support Mark's elimination.

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.

Steamrolled by Tom is more like it. Especially considering he bragged about being head judge and getting his way on the Chow interview.
And it's good that you point out Padma's penchant for the herb. If a pothead with the munchies wont eat something it's pretty bad.

Unproven allegation that is not a fact. Dismissed.

Proven fact! Here is the link!
Impossible to feed a family of four with $10 at Whole Food$
LMAO Readmitted as undeniable.

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).

Your minimum effort/maximizing $10 point is rendered invalid by the proven pantry shenanigans. Second episode in a row that rewards cheaters and penalized people who followed the "rules".
Cucumbers are about as empty as canned diced tomatoes right? Mark's dish probably provides more vitamins than Stephaine's now that I think about it.

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

And yet you still can't disprove it.

[WhataJoke]

My sons 8 yr old friend thinks that Padma is "Smokin' Pot".

Fixed it!

[partsgirl]

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.

LOL! She married Salman Rushdie and then went through one crazy messy divorce. I'd say she's got some strong opinions... just not sure of the political aspect

[partsgirl]

Well... it's hours away from Wedding Wars, and I already just so do not like this episode.

And FYI, it is supposed to be a supersized episode. Don't know, maybe it's 75 or 90 minutes long.

According to Cohen, "Tonight is one big, bad, badass episode of "Top Chef" - so much so that we had to Supersize it! The Quickfire is the classic mis en place relay race, followed by one of the toughest challenges in "Top Chef" history as the chefs stay up for 36 hours straight to cater a wedding.

Well, sounds dumb to me.

Who would hire any chef or team of chefs to cater a wedding, if they do not in fact specialize in catering? If they have not catered lots of weddings before?

Honestly, that's as far from real life as having the chefs do upscale BBQ on the slopes of Mt. Everest.

And making them stay up for 36 hours?

Oh yeah. Clever.

This season hasn't clicked for me yet and the clicking seems increasingly unlikely.

Too true, Simon. Food in a pressure cooker gets tender... Chefs in one get kinda tough and hard to swallow.
If that was my event they catered after no sleep for 36 hours I'd be more than a little irritated. There is no way you can be at the peak of perfomance when you're sleep deprived.
Those folks don't specialize in catering except if you factor in previous challenges. At that point you might not want to draw attention to past cluster clucks.
We'll watch because we can't help ourselves but for me I think it will be in horror.

[WhataJoke]

That is my biggest complaint about this season. It seems they're always catering. They are chefs, not caterers. Where are the individual challenges? Few and far between.

Hey Chucole.
They probably did all the team challenges so they could pick and chose more carefully who they eliminated. And they also force interpersonal byplay which leads to conflict and conflcit leads to ratings. Speaking of which it's sweeps month right now. These are the ratings that will be used to see how much shows are commanding for Ad revenue. Top Chef has clearly built up Wedding Wars to be a big event. Is it going to be a big deal if all the chefs do a good job and make great food? Nope. Is it going ot be a big deal if they chefs go off on each other and potentially ruin a wedding. Oh yeah. Wedding Wars will be the reality TV equivilent to people rubbernecking at a highway accident. Everyone will want to see the mess. Ratings bonanza for Bravo.