emmalish

Heh, I was just coming here to post what a train wreck this show is! Totally agree that Ji seemed to be the only contestant with any talent. Of course, it all comes down to editing. She shone in that ep, but I have to wonder how she would have been portrayed if she'd never hurt her ankle and had stuck around. We'd probably be hating on her too. I just caught up on the last ep last night. Okay, I agree Charlie was a mess in the dining room, but was he THAT bad in the kitchen? Seems to me the decision to send him home was more about drama than about who was the better chef. I couldn't believe it when Seth tried to hide the meat he wasted. And wasn't he nominated the first week too? As for the women, Lacey and Colleen have no business competing to be a head chef of anything. (Is the prize still a head chef position?) What kills me most about Lacey is how combative she is with the other contestants if anyone dare says she's not pulling her weight or isn't as skilled as someone else, and yet she can always be counted on to whine "I can't doooooo thiiiiiis...." in every ep. Ugh. Going back to last week, I felt so bad for Robert (the big guy) when he wasn't allowed to fly over to the island with the other guys. But it was just salt in the wound to tell him to go ahead and take the ferry over and meet them there, and then have him turn right back around and head back without actually getting to participate in the challenge reward. GR is a dick.

Ummm, would I be able to grab Celeste's bread bowl as well? I reeeeally want one...

Every time I've had salmon in a restaurant, it's been cooked all the way through – still moist, but as far as I can tell it's not raw on the inside. I know the judges said he overcooked the salmon, but did they actually say it should be rare in the middle? or did he dry the hell out of it? The only fish I've had that was rare in the middle is tuna.

Oh YUM. Shelby that looks great. Beautiful photo too.

Not at Capers? That's where I've seen them in the past. ← I've also seen them at IGA Marketplace.

I'm so disappointed. As the judges said, Jamie (and Hosea with his dish too) knew exactly what her mistake was, but there wasn't time to re-do it. Whereas Leah didn't have a clue how to create her dish. This decision doesn't make sense to me. Otherwise, great ep. I loved Ripert's interaction with the contestants during the quickfire (although I had to turn away during the eel segment). And this was a great elimination challenge. I love that the judges recognize how difficult something like this is to do (except for Toby of course). I even had some appreciation for Carla this episode – she actually does have some solid skills. Too bad she's flaky and inconsistent. I still think she should have been gone already, but I'm also glad she finally had a chance to show what she's capable of with this challenge.

That's a peeve of mine too. There are a couple of people I know who always do this whenever a group of people gets together for a meal. They may ask a couple people in their immediate vicinity for their opinions, but not the entire table. I usually don't even realize it's happening until after I see the waiter walk away from the table without taking anyone else's orders. I don't understand how anyone can have the balls to do that.

Thanks Dorie. It's a NordicWare pan, currently exclusive to Williams-Sonoma. According to the website, it's only available through the catalogue or online, but I found it in-store in a Canadian WS. clickity

Thanks! Isn't it a gorgeous pan? I really didn't need another bundt pan, but I'd never seen one like this and I loved it so I just had to get it, right?

This weekend I made the classic brownies and the coconut lemon bundt cake (had to try out my new bundt pan!). I've made a few of the different brownie recipes, and I've been happy with them all, but this one is quickly becoming my favourite. It has such a dense chocolatey flavour – what's not to love? I used Valrhona unsweetened and Valrhona Araguani for the bittersweet. I've made this bundt cake once before as well. I love the combination of coconut and lemon (and this time I added the rum as well). Last time I made it I had a friend over and was distracted and forgot to add the lemon juice. It was still good, but the lemon flavour is more pronounced this time. I do find it a bit sweet, even though I used unsweetened coconut. And it makes a pretty runny batter, so I wasn't able to spread it up the sides of the bundt pan – as a result it ended up with a domed bottom. The coconut milk I had was a bit on the runny side which probably contributed to that.

There are a lot of hated celebrities that I've never had the chance to see on Food Network Canada. I'm dying to see Sandra Lee to find out for myself if all the horror stories are true. I just caught the Neelys for the first time. Oh urgh. How. Annoying. I can't decide which of them is worse, but the two of them in combination makes me want to smack them both. I can't decide how I feel about Michael Smith's Chef at Home or Laura Calder's French Food at Home. I enjoy both shows for the ideas and techniques, but... well, Michael always comes across as condescending – I feel like he thinks he's explaining things to a really slow child. And Laura is just too too precious.

I don't understand how any chef serious about their career and reputation would want to appear on this show. Yes, amazing grand prize, but they all always come across as untalented hacks with no skill in the kitchen, unable to even complete a dinner service without almost killing someone.

Whoops! You started that paragraph talking about Jamie and I missed where you switched to Leah. My bad... In that case, I totally agree with you. I can't think of any other reason why she's still there.

I think she's still there because she's been performing pretty consistently well. Not as outstanding as Stefan, but the girl has talent. Also, I don't think she's het – wasn't she a member of the rainbow brigade or whatever they were calling themselves?

It's a dangerous one to know about. Too many goodies!

He's since been invited to help select food for Virgin.

If you can't find it locally and have a bit of time, Golda's Kitchen is a Canadian online store and they have a good selection of cake pans, including a Wilton train cake pan and a stand-up Wilton train cake pan. I've ordered from them a few times, and I usually get things in about a week.

I made the salted butter caramel sauce the other day. I've been having it with ice cream, pie, brownies, you name it. Yesterday I thought, hmmmm, I bet it would be great with some sliced granny smith apple! SOOOOO good! I'm addicted. Is it wrong that this is basically my supper tonight?

Sorry, I wasn't too clear in my post. The 1995 is just as cheap as the other versions if you look at pricing in the UK. It's only when you try to find it in North America that the pricing is insane. clicky for Amazon UK

I just rewatched and you're totally right. Especially when Fabio is saying "I understand" and Conant is saying "Do you understand? I don't know if you understand." Also caught that Fabio was lying through his teeth when he said the venison was cooked perfectly when he plated it and that it continued to cook with the hot cabbage on the plate (which sounded like bull anyway). During the elimination challenge they cut to an interview with Fabio and he said that when he plated he saw that the venison was "too cooked". Heh. Also, did I totally miss something this ep? I'm sure in the previews from last week there was a scene where one of the all-stars called Fabio "Fabian" or something like that, but I didn't catch it during the ep tonight. Anyone else? Or did I imagine that preview?

I agree – too many chefs, not enough focus on the food. I'm sad to see Jeff go. I really didn't like him the first few eps – but he's grown on me. I feel really badly for him now. I would've felt awful about Fabio leaving too tho. Tough call. I'm glad Stefan didn't get booted off because of this one challenge. It didn't sound like his dish was bad, just not as good as Andrea's (ha! sucker!). He's amazingly talented, but it was good to see him knocked down a peg. And what a comeback from Carla! She still annoys me. My picks are Stefan, Hosea and Jamie for final 3. Of course now I've doomed them all. Carla and Leah need to go soon. And then Fabio. He just isn't consistent enough to win this thing.

It looks like it's published in the UK, so I'm guessing the 1995 edition probably wasn't imported (for whatever reason) – it's ridiculously outpriced on amazon.ca and abebooks (US locations only) too, but amazon.co.uk has it for only £25. Nowhere, however, can I find a picture of this book.

I don't know the etiquette, but I don't like slurping noodles (at least not in public). I'll usually grab a small bunch of noodles, pull them up out of the mass and then let them settle in a bundle on top, then grab that bundle and pop it in my mouth. Sometimes there are a few stragglers that I can't get – I'll usually bite those off.

Do you have a cat?

I don't think they knew the camera was there. It looked to me like the camera was stationed somewhere down a hall and was peeking around a corner and zooming in on them. And yeah, they were probably drunk. I was almost shouting at the tv – "Noooooo! you're going to HATE yourself for this!!" And yes, another reason for the cringing was that I don't want to see "Real World" type antics on my "Top Chef".