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"Puerto Rico episode"
Fishercat 4168 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Jerry Springer Show Guest"
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06-05-08, 00:04 AM (EST)
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1. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
LAST EDITED ON 06-05-08 AT 04:07 AM (EST)OK, time to be the only person on Earth not related to or dating Lisa who supports her. First, I absolutely see where Lisa is coming from on the congratulations view point and I think Richard's analogy is rather off. Last week, the Big Three knew they were through based on the order called in and were very happy for one another. Perfectly understandable. They were congratulating and celebrating with Antonia, who got the "bronze medal" in the challenge. Now, Antonia's eliminated, they don't even congratulate with Lisa? I understand (and she does) that they don't like her much and they don't have that camarederie. We saw the early confessional where one of them said that everyone knew they'd be final three. The simple fact is that this is the goal every chef there from Nimma to Steph wanted to get to: the finale. The final challenge. Not "not be last", but to win. A congratulations wasn't a really odd request for the situation. To ask for it, well, that's Lisa. She has a pessimistic, snarky, and often unlikeable personality. But it's not like she asked for a hug and dance party. As for Richard's analogy, it's a crappy one for a few reasons. First of all, to be blunt, it doesn't matter if he wins the challenge or not. Top Chef is judged from dish to dish. If it wasn't, Antonia would still be here, possibly Dale over Spike/Lisa. These are, to continue the Olympic theme, Olympic qualifying time trials. They race to see which people qualify for the Olympic teams. Consider each challenge to be a qualifier race to whittle down the hopefuls. The final challenge, it could be said, IS the medal race. This was simply the last qualifying race. Secondly, as I said before, being the silver/bronze medal winner hasn't prevented a congratulations before. Team celebrations anyone? Hugs and Handpounds for massive group wins or duo victories? Considering the type of competition Top Chef is and has to be (individual, not cumulative), being second to last is the same as being first, you know, without the car. Of course, it tends to be that the best chef over the season wins the season...but that's usually because the best chef does best in the final challenge. I know Lisa's not part of the cool kid crowd, but I didn't think that congratulating her on making Final 3 was exactly an absurd thought. As for the show itself, I think the judges made the right decision even though Lisa being sent home would have been fine. Final 4 is no point to undercook peas, and if she had nothing else to throw her over the top, sending her home may not have been a bad decision. When the level is this high, cooking mistakes simply can't be made unless a really horrible concept (ala Butterscotch Scallops) comes out...and it didn't. One more point, I have ragged on the Top Chef judges horribly in the past...but I think they are being extremely fair this year and making the tough decisions that need to be made. They've really stepped up their game and I appreciate the honesty. It would have been so much easier to keep Antonia or Dale around on their elimination weeks instead of Lisa, but if they felt that their dishes were the worst (and considering Anthony Bourdain's complete contempt for the butterscotch scallops as seen in the blog, it may have been broccolini level), they had no problem sending the more popular ones home. ETA: I'm reading elsewhere the word "demand" flying about in terms of Lisa's last statement. I didn't see it that way and that's where my defense was coming from: that it was a note being made rather than a demand. I would not support asking for congratulations.
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dabo 25344 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold"
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06-05-08, 00:18 AM (EST)
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2. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
But Lisa spent the time between judges tables convincing herself and the others she was the one being eliminated, it was really just petty to hold it over Stephanie and Richard's heads while they were still stunned that Antonia was eliminated.
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Fishercat 4168 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Jerry Springer Show Guest"
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06-05-08, 00:51 AM (EST)
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3. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
It wasn't a huge jump for Lisa to believe she was going home unless she knows completely that past performance means little. Let's face it, four straight negative Judges Tables, seven straight if you count Wedding Wars (I don't, she made a damn good cake). Last win or good JT was for the Miso Bacon way back in Episode 5. Antonia was on a streak where she had a win, three positive JT's, and a neutral performance. She knew she was #4 coming in and she saw the JT as her execution chamber. The surprise on her face when Antonia was gone was proof of that.I just don't see it as out of line in thinking that your two competitors would congratulate you on a really big achievement. It's pretty clear from Richard's confessional that it wasn't the shock of Antonia's boot, rather his dislike of Lisa, which led to the lack of acknowledgment. We really have no idea how long those three had been sitting there before Lisa said that, and there's no way we can truly fairly judge. But unless it was only a minute or two after Antonia left, I don't think she was holding it over their heads, I saw it as more of a...disappointment, if anything.
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dabo 25344 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold"
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06-05-08, 01:46 AM (EST)
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4. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
Agree, except for the time/editing assumption. My point, while Lisa had time to digest that she'd not been eliminated, Stephanie and Richard really hadn't (as far as we know) and still were in that transitional phase. Another moment or two they might have congratulated Lisa on their own. We'll never know. She had gotten a congratulation at judges table for making it to final three, that was in her head not theirs, they weren't there for that.
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aquariaqueen 2616 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Survivor-themed Cruise Spokesperson"
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06-05-08, 09:41 AM (EST)
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7. "Survey Says" 91%" |
Come on, when people are stunned that their "friend" got ousted, They are more consumed with their feelings before congratulating someone who grates on their nerves.91%, guess she isn't fan favorite....I've never seen such a drastic number.
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aquariaqueen 2616 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Survivor-themed Cruise Spokesperson"
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06-05-08, 01:47 PM (EST)
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10. "RE: Stephanie's great moment" |
I did like that she paired them rather well.She did compose herself well considering the amount of pressure on all of them this late in the competition. If she would have cooked that pork to well done, it would have been safe, but kudos for keeping a somewhat level head and coming up with something different and evidently quite tasty. That's a sign of a Top Chef in my book. And I loved your "sabotage" remark if it happened to Lisa...you are so right!!!! “I love Jesus but I drink a little”. Gladys Hardy
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dabo 25344 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold"
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06-05-08, 11:37 PM (EST)
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14. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
I read Tom's blog earlier and it made me sad. He spent almost all of his time this week defending the show, defending the judging, and so on. He said almost nothing about the episode itself. It is sad that he felt compelled to do that, and I missed his normal insights into the episode itself.Points of interest, condensing it all down, he and the other judges really spend very little time with the competitors, they don't know how the episodes will be edited, they have no idea which competitors will be faves and which will be villains. And it would be impossible in the judging to take cumulative performance into account, particularly for the guest judges who don't have that cumulative experience. Fair enough. In respect to Antonia's undercooked pidgeon peas, he notes that by choosing to serve all the dishes on one plate those wretched beans brought down all her servings, nothing on her plate really stood out. As well, long lines for seconds formed at Staphanie's table, at Richard's table; even Lisa's table had a smaller seconds line; Antonia's table had no secondtakers. Having tried and failed to salvage bad beans, I understand. If they don't soak long enough or in enough water there's almost no way to salvage bad beans. Not in the limited time of that challenge anyway. She should have thrown them out. Spoiler follows in hidden text, highlight to read: Tom refers to Lisa as the sort of chef who manages to skate through Top Chef by managing to perform well at times but mainly by not making major mistakes when other better chefs do make major mistakes.
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cipher5150 166 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Blistex Spokesperson"
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06-06-08, 01:06 PM (EST)
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16. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
Not to nitpick but I still have a bit of a problem with Tom’s statement that Antonia’s table didn’t have people lining up for seconds, well actually, two problems. First, how can you distinguish between who is getting their first helping rather than a second helping? Maybe more people started at Antonia’s table so later in the evening many of them were still just getting to Richard and Stephanie’s tables and it gave the appearance of them being more popular (even though I'm sure they were - I mean, you can't go wrong with ribs or satay at an outdoor reception!). But my major problem with it is that I would expect that, since they all had three dishes, that you would get one item and come back two more times for the others…except Antonia put them all on one plate so people only had to come to her table once to try all three dishes. So logically, she only had a third as many visits to her table as the others.He said that the lack of people visiting Antonia’s table (for seconds) had a direct impact on who they decided to send home but I think that that on its own could be flawed logic. I've ceratinly been to many receptions were people congregated in one area, after making the rounds, and simply ate from the closet buffet. I hope that there was some other guest information that was utilized like comment cards or even just a query of favorite dish/chef. Or I hope it was painfully obvious that none of the quests were interested in seconds of Antonia's dishes. On another note, has anyone had tostones? I thought plaintains were sweet but these appeared to be savory dishes - or is it that the unripe plaintains are used for savory and the ripe are for sweet dishes? Sounds yummy!
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dabo 25344 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold"
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06-08-08, 05:55 PM (EST)
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20. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
I kind of have to wonder, as well, how bad those beans really could have been. Oh, when will they get around to inventing taste-o-television? She should have known by sampling if the beans needed to cook longer or be thrown out, it's beans not rocket surgery. Or pidgeon peas rather.
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momof4inVA 120 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Blistex Spokesperson"
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06-10-08, 00:50 AM (EST)
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21. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
I hate to say it but Lisa may win. I don't like her much but I didn't like the last two picks either. Antonia may get fan favorite. We all think we know who's best but we can't taste the food. I really don't like Lisa so I'm hoping for stephanie or the guy(can't remember his name) but Lisa is as rough as the previous chefs that won.
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aquariaqueen 2616 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Survivor-themed Cruise Spokesperson"
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06-10-08, 09:21 AM (EST)
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22. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
Richard is the name that escaped you.I swear, if Lisa wins....I'm through, done, finished with Top Chef. “I love Jesus but I drink a little”. Gladys Hardy
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aquariaqueen 2616 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Survivor-themed Cruise Spokesperson"
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06-11-08, 10:17 AM (EST)
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24. "RE: Puerto Rico episode" |
Hmmm....had to check out Lisa's comments to see if the word "sabotage" was in it.Also interesting about the pork and her being Jewish. “I love Jesus but I drink a little”. Gladys Hardy
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