davidh777

Comeback Kitchen
Sundays 8|7c

New Season Premieres
Sunday, May 22 9|8c

Confirmed contestants:

Rob Burmeister – Staten Island, New York
Erin Campbell – Woodbury, Minnesota
Damiano Carrara – Moorpark, California
Aaron Crumbaugh – Spokane, Washington
Tregaye Fraser – Atlanta, Georgia
Yaku Moton-Spruill – San Francisco, California
Melissa Pfeister – Los Angeles, California
Ana Quincoces – Coral Gables, Florida
Monterey Salka – Nashville, Tennessee
Joy Thompson – Thomasville, North Carolina
Havird Usry – Augusta, Georgia
Jernard Wells – Atlanta, Georgia

Comeback Kitchen contestants:

Penny Davidi (season 7)
Matthew Grunwald (season 11)
Martita Jara (season 8)
Brianna Jenkins (season 6)
Chris Kyler (season 10)
Michele Ragussis (season 8)
Dom Tesoriero (season 11)

DWilson

In their defense, last year's winner, -"Eddie", I believe, -has a second show coming up on the network, a Kid's BBQ comp, because apparently we need more kid competitions.

Abob Teff

I liked Eddie and think it is a shame what they have done with him so far (essentially took his pitch and gave it to Michael Simon, then relegated him to shitty game shows).

I'll admit I was up and about when this was on last night so I didn't pay attention to the whole show, but ... NO! NO! NO! Dom does not have potential. He is blundering idiot who gets Giada wet in the nethers and that is the only damned reason he was there as long as he was. Please, for the love of humanity, get that d-bag out of there. How do you melt-down (as usual), drop a no-no on "TV", and still survive?!

davidh777

I wasn't aware the show was returning until the series bumped up in my Xbox collection because of a new episode (I got one free a few seasons back). Then I got confused by the Comeback Kitchen thing and when the series was actually starting.

I do remember all these contestants, but don't really care about most of them. Penny is a b***h and needs to leave. Dom is likable but completely incompetent on camera. Matthew is obnoxious. I guess Martita would be my favorite, but anyone other than Penny would be fine.

I like how the one person said they hadn't done any camera work since their season. Good luck!

DWilson

I was surprised to see Mathew and Penny Dreadful, since they both have unpleasant personalities. I thought maybe Dom had fixed his problem, but then after a nice start he blew it. It seems most of them haven't fixed the problems with their presentations, though they all did pretty well with their cooking. I agree, at this point it seems Martita has the best shot of winning this leg of the contest.
Of course, Food Network is more in the business of acquiring and utilizing recognizable names in their niche, and they mostly need "Hosts", not chefs.

Deftones

I watch this in the summer with my wife. I don't know why. I never watch the winner's show (when they get one).

lwhy?

I watched the premiere last night and it looks like they mainly cast contestants from Cutthroat Kitchen, Guy's Grocery Games, and the Baking Championship series. There's also a ton of "Southern" chefs this year. I also thought that the number of attractive female contestants is very low this year....

I usually enjoy watching this every summer, but I don't have a great feeling about this season.

cleveburgh

foodnetworkgossip.com gave a summary of these clowns. The only one who hadn't made the FN rounds was Harvid.

Norm de Plume

Anyone watching this? I was saddened to see gentle giant Yaku dumped this week. One of the more likeable people I have seen on a reality show.

Deftones

Joy seems like the one to beat right now. I love the lunch Lady guy. He is funny

DWilson

There is a Second Chance show running on the web. Episode One is Yaku and the first two guys that were cut. Martita used up all her chances, I guess.
Something must have happened while they were filming, and they had to pull a guest judge out of their butts after Jesse Tyler Ferguson finished filming. I hadn't heard of this social media celeb who filmed the last segment of this week's challenge.

I like "Lunch Lady", too, but I don't think he's going to win.

Deftones

yeah, it seemed weird you had Ferguson doing 2 segments, then the other one just felt tacked on.

Sgtsnake

I can't stand watching Tragaye. She is about as ghetto as they come

mugwump

She's whimsical, yo.

DWilson

By the way, for the last couple of years the Food Network has been throwing a lot of show concepts against the wall to see what sticks; they've been doing new "Cutthroat Kitchen" episodes every single week now for two years, but you'll not be seeing "Kitchen Casino" with Bill Rancic again). Now they've got what appears to be their first true disaster: "Celebrity Food Fight". Clearly a knock-off of "Hollywood Game Night" with Jane Lynch, CFF features host Andy Richter leading teams of D-List celebrities (Andy Dick) and their reliable list of Chef/Judges in (lame) food-related party games. They ran three episodes around Christmas and it quietly went away. Then they brought it back two weeks ago in a prime Sunday slot after Food Network Star. The next week they suddenly moved it to Wednesday nights at 10 pm Central (uh oh!). The third week it dropped off the grid entirely and was replaced with re-runs of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives".

davidh777

I've been keeping up with this season and meant to bump the thread after Martita got kicked out, then the thread gets bumped when I wasn't caught up.

Pretty dull so far, and I don't really have any favorites. I kind of like Jernard, I guess.

That was weird. They said goodbye to Ferguson, and I was saying "Wait, isn't there one more group left to compete?" I'd never heard of the new person, but my kid is a big fan of YouTube celebrities and was excited to see her.

DWilson

I saw an item on my "Home Page" regarding "Food Network Star" and a comment Ana made about Tregaye and "her audience" in the most recent episode.

Later in the article this comment was made: ...also the time that Food Network Star Season 10 winner Lenny McNab was busted for his racist, homophobic and misogynist internet history and attacks on actual people. In the end, McNab didn't get his own show....

Obviously, "Cowboy Lenny" is essentially a ghost at the network but I never heard why. Anybody familiar with the story being referred to?

Abob Teff

Ana should have gone a long time ago, but they kept her around to be a "villain". I don't care how good her food was, this is about hosting a show not making me dinner.

I can't believe Damiano is still around - you can barely understand him. (That's coming from a person who usually doesn't have an issue with understanding accents.) I am impressed that the sploosh sympathy hasn't come so overtly from Giada this season.

wirefan

I presume Damiano is around for Giada, who seems to take any criticism of his food as a personal insult and defends him (though he seems like a pretty good cook). But he must have had one heck of a childhood as every dish he makes is from it!

I wonder if Jernard wins this at the end - he seems the most natural and is entertaining. Tregaye seems like their favorite for more than a few weeks now, but she has gotten a bit out of hand with her schtick the last few weeks.

Deftones

Uh, worst pick ever. Jennard was at least entertaining. Interesting that the blonde girl Melissa who was eliminated first wasn't on the final show. I wonder what was going on there.

DWilson

I'm not surprised, -she had pretty much won most of the comps. I'm wouldn't watch a show of hers, -I'm pretty much tired of the "on fleek" thing and some of her other shtick, -but she could very well end up co-hosting something I might watch, much like Eddie Jackson. I doubt she'll get a cooking show, -I don't see her as having a niche, -but she does help give the channel some diversity.

Norm de Plume

I have the last episode PVRed, but won't watch it since Tregaye won. She seems like a nice person, and is obviously a good cook, but hell yes, the ghetto jargon and persona were irritating from day one. Fuck off elsewhere with your "on fleek", and all the other stupid, literacy-bereft slogans you have.
I was dismayed to see Yaku once again get the boot in the penultimate episode, and was hoping either Jernard or Damiano would take the title.

DWilson

I was just reading an article on Yahoo's home page that centered on women that were upset that Damiano didn't win and figured the fix must have been in. I was impressed with Damiano's performance in the pilot, as his accent (for me) was never a problem.
Apparently, I missed an announcement at the end that Tregaye would be a co-host on something called "The Kitchen Sink" coming up in the Fall (probably using her much the way they do Jeff Mauro).

mugwump

There's no way Damiano doesn't end up with a show. His problem is that he's actually a classically trained pastry chef so he'll have to be on the Cooking Channel since the Food Network is now nothing but shtick and gimmick shows.

Abob Teff

We finally caught up on the final two episodes last night.

Deftones -- didn't the fruity blonde pretty much quit? I mentioned this when she wasn't there, but my wife thought I was misremembering.

No surprise Tregaye won, as many weeks she seemed as if she should. I think she was starting to run out of steam over the last few weeks though. She seemed tired, moody, and off her game. If they were awarding the top prize on the whole show's run, I am OK with this choice. However, I don't think she should have even been in the top 3 based on her performance the previous week (especially when Bobby and Giada said it was based on THAT week only).

Jernard seemed like the guy to beat leading up to the end, but his pilot didn't come together that well. The "making of" footage was pretty good, but it just didn't come together. It was just sort of awkward.

Damiano ... What can I say other than he he also should not have made it so far. DWilson said he didn't have any problems with Damiano's accent. I usually do pretty well with foreign accents but I struggled with Damiano often. How can a network seriously consider offering somebody a show when the same network feels compelled to run subtitles for his segments?