"Wickedly Perfect": Mildly Foodish Reality show

[SKinCA]

I would like to insert a ringer team of eGulleters in there. Can you imagine what they could've done with 2500 bucks?  And 36 hours? They could rule the world!!

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The "what will they do in so little time?" aspect freaked me out completely as well.

And if I had $2500 to spend? - well, dip me in batter and call me tempura! - I'd be a happy little camper.

[Jaymes]

I hope they do an episode where the teams have to do a dinner party on 6 hours notice, with a total budget of $100. That's my world.

[Chef Metcalf]

I need this sort of comic relief.

Wish it were airing in Canada.

cm

[peppyre]

I need this sort of comic relief.

Wish it were airing in Canada.

cm

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cm, my dear, it actually i s airing in Canada. That's the reason my neighbor was over the night of the upstairs fire Of course we missed the whole bloody show except for the first 10 minutes. It's on channel 15, Thursday at 8pm. Look for it next week.

[Chef Metcalf]

Thanks Pepprye! I looked and I couldn't find it anywhere.

I'll set the VCR up.

I need lots of things to do when it's this cold and nasty out.

[ruthcooks]

The concept of finding a new guru is one thing...throwing people into committees where some people spend most of their time in oneupmanship is another. I think the judges ought to have six guns and shoot the overbearing idiots. But then, who would shoot the judges?

A better way of finding the style guru would be to place each one of the competitors IN CHARGE for one show. Being Martha is about being queen, not worker bee.

This show is all about appealing to the reality show fans, and little else. Back to watching CSI.

[Jaymes]

A better way of finding the style guru would be to place each one of the competitors IN CHARGE for one show.  Being Martha is about being queen, not worker bee.

On the other hand, Martha was not appointed to be IN CHARGE. She emerged. Through ability, drive and ambition. Say what you want about her, she's a natural born leader.

I think that the one episode I saw was a hoot. As long as it's that funny, and entertaining, I'll watch.

[Jensen]

I think that the one episode I saw was a hoot.  As long as it's that funny, and entertaining, I'll watch.

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You've convinced me that it's worth looking at. And I don't do reality TV!

[Mabelline]

Yep, and this week not only do they have to go camping, they'll be evening up the teams, and warned the judges are going to get nastier. I'm in, but then I look at accidents.

[jhlurie]

Apparently the show has been moved from Thursdays at 8PM to Saturdays at 8PM. Tonight is the first night on this new schedule.

I guess it wasn't quite getting "Survivor" ratings in that Thursday slot.

[Jaymes]

Well, it went from mildly amusing, providing at least a few laughs, to deathly boring.

And they've voted out the two best cooks -- the pastry cook and the Asian chef.

The last episode was so dreary it was a chore just to get through. A real yawner.

Bring back the mimes.

[viva]

Ah, I'm glad I forgot about it and watched The Apprentice instead! The Asian chef was the only one that seemed tolerable.

[jhlurie]

I actually broke down a little and watched last night while eating dinner. I hadn't really bothered since the first episode, but the one last night was mildly foodish--they ran an Inn.

One contestant made the world's worst Chicken Pot Pie and got totally "Flayed". The ingredients were all wrong due to what was available--for example she had to use Vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, zucchini as one of her vegetables, and I'm pretty sure what was totally the wrong kind of potato for a pot pie. But Flay and company didn't care. They just hated the mushy crust and low flavor profile.

The worst was this woman who they seemed to show as a total "A" personality type, who refused the help of her team when forced to make Poached Eggs for Bobby Flay. Let's just say she did it about as badly as you could. A team member told her over and over to use some vinegar to help hold the egg together, but she refused. She fell apart so totally in front of Flay when he grimaced at the result that he started coddling her to get her to stop crying. Then, in a move that was supposed to make her feel better but actually made the woman feel worse, he took her back into the Inn kitchen to teach her how to do it the right way. The first thing he asks? "Where's the bottle of vinegar?"

Most of the rest of the episode was pretty stupid. They had to make wreaths out of fruit, for example. I could feel my brain going dead watching that part. The woman with the Egg disaster also made a flavorless bowl of badly heated chicken soup. There was some deal with a guy and his grandma's Cinammon buns, but they revealed so little of how he actually made them I couldn't get into it, even though Flay & Co. loved them.

[andiesenji]

I don't understand what these people are trying to be.

If they are supposed to be preparing meals for patrons, why aren't they shopping for the ingredients they need for the dishes they are going to prepare. It is ridiculous to ask someone to prepare a particular dish when none of the available ingredients are correct for that dish.

I happened to have it on last night because I didn't want the miss the beginning of the following show.

From what I saw, none of these people really know the basics of cooking for a family, much less cooking for patrons. And no one monitored the dining room to see if the guests needed anything. A huge mistake, in my opinion.

As far as I could see, a couple of the people were more concerned with how the table was set, (one polishing fingerprints off of a plate with a cloth) than with the food that went onto it. And the same one looked like she had wandered in from the gym instead of being dressed as a professional.

This was supposed to be a B & B and they were serving brunch.

I wouldn't stay in a place where the owner or server was dressed like that.

Edited February 6, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[SKinCA]

For people who are supposed to be things like "event planners" etc., they don't seemed to know about making things ahead.

If I had to do brunch for Flay, etc. I'd probably opt out of eggs prepared to order (too much potential for screwing up unless you've done it a million times!) and do a make ahead baked French Toast. Or a Frittata. You don't really need a recipe, you throw it in the fridge overnight and bake it off in the morning. Hard to screw up, really.

I do think that part of their challenge is to work with the ingredients they are given. And the real cook (Mycheal, the "Asian chick", as everyone seems to want to call her) is gone.

They also seem to suffer from the "more is better" syndrome. Witness the dizzying array of appetizers offered when the guests arrived. Candace B. even commented on it.

These people are fairly clueless. At least the dumped the weepy chick. Her self-pity jag was beginning to annoy me.

[Jaymes]

And the real cook (Mycheal, the "Asian chick", as everyone seems to want to call her)

Um, actually, I think that everyone's been calling her the "Asian chef," not "chick."

[SKinCA]

And the real cook (Mycheal, the "Asian chick", as everyone seems to want to call her)

Um, actually, I think that everyone's been calling her the "Asian chef," not "chick."

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Awk! My bad. You are absolutely right. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I must now retire to meditate on why my subconcious dubbed in "chick" for "chef".

Apologies all.

[viva]

One of the teams did make a french toast dish that was make-ahead. And served it without syrup (because "there was enough" in the dish already). Whereupon Flay went into the kitchen to ask for it, then snagged another bite of the other team's cinnamon rolls as he left with the syrup. I'm not a big fan of Flay, but that was pretty funny.