starseed1981

Has this entire season already been taped?

Sweet Baby James

Like Tom or not, he is the head judge for this show and Rocco was the guest. That does not mean that every guest judge has to kiss Tom's ass and I have absolutely no problem with anyone expressing a different opinion to Tom's(Tom actually pissed me off several times last year with his blatant favoritism). I just thought Rocco went about it in a disrespectful manner. If I was Tom, I would have told Rocco to go fuck himself when he asked Tom "where do truffles come from?" in such a condescending tone.

starseed1981

Yeah, if I was Tom I would've just went for the jugular and said, "so how does it feel to have every resturant you start fail"? That would've made for good TV.

Pharoh

I was going to comment about how sorry I was to see Joey go in such a silly non-illustrative challenge, but Bourdain's Blog regarding the episode does a far better job, including speaking to the very sleazy and distateful feeling left from DiSpirito's presence.

slappypete

I saw it completely differently. I didn't think Rocco was disrespectful, I think he was genuinly surprised when Tom said he didn't see anything mediterranian about the meal, and claimed truffles aren't used in the cuisine. There was no way he could have corrected Tom without it coming off like he was showing that he knows more than Tom, because in this instance he DID know more than Tom. No matter what he said he was going to show up the head judge, but it needed to be done since the head judge was wrong.

Tom is good for the show, he has a strong personality that is better for TV than people that are afraid to express an opinion (Padma), but he isn't perfect. If a guest judge knows Tom is saying something untrue, especially if it could lead to somebody losing a reward or getting eliminated, they have a responsibility to speak up. Tom seems to have a bulldog personality similar to Howie, unless you have the confidence to stand up to him and put him in his place when he's wrong he'll just steamroll you.

starseed1981

Toms presence is definitley good for the show. As a resturanteur he is far more successful than most celebrity chefs; so his opinion does gather merit.

cornyt

Wait, has this always been on NBC? I turned on the TV randomly and there it was. Has this whole season been on NBC and will it continue?

Sweet Baby James

No. NBC owns Bravo. They did this only one time last season. You'll have to keep watching Wednesday nights on Bravo.

cornyt

That sucks, but thanks for the info. Back to the gym to watch this.

Spicollidriver1

I didn't really have a problem with what rocco said, but i would of liked to Tom to come back with at lease my reality tv show is still on the air how did yours do.

sailor_moon

Hey, thanks for that link. I always enjoy reading Bourdain's thoughts.

GreenVulture

EPISODE 07 - "Guilty Pleasures"
August 8, 2007

LivingINClip

Once again, I'm not sure if I agree with the judges. I mean, yeah Sara didn't do a lot, but Howie is almost always in the bottom and he is the direct reason for almost every single team failure. It seems as though early on in the season Hung was going to be the guy for everyone to hate, but every episode Howie gets worse and worse.

Thrush

If its at all close as to who is going home. I'm sure the producers much rather keep Howie around just because he causes so much drama which is good for the show.

lordzeppelin

WAAHHH I'm on Howie's team. What a bunch of bullshit. Like people don't have to work with someone they don't like in real life. And I really don't think Howie was the reason for the downfall during that challenge - it was everyone else sitting back. Sara was the least useful there, and if I'm not mistaken, both Howie and CJ said something about "we gotta get the burgers going faster" or something to that effect during the service. Perhaps it was a voice over, I dunno. But really, keeping up with orders is how a normal kitchen works, and if Sara couldn't do it, then get rid of her, and do it now. She hasn't done jack shit during the competition thus far anyways. I like how she said "I didn't get to show what I can really do in the kitchen." Oh really? You've had ample opportunity to show something, and I'm not sure what you actually showed, except some cleavage tonight...

On a side note...whoever is editing the show is just about useless. Either they're shooting really bad footage, and the best is still bad, or somebody is not familiar with the words 'pacing' and 'relevance'. They showed the same shot of Howie flaming the berries three times. The editing down of the judges deliberation meetings is just horrible, they show little actual deliberation, and go to air with some disjointed almost irrelevant comments. Surely they have a little more time to edit with a bit more discretion and skill than this.

beesonosu

Anyone else notice that Padma's eyes were watering the majority of the episode? Kind of sickly-looking, kind of sexy.

My favorite right now is Howie - he may not be the best cook (or maybe he is?) but I'll be damned if he doesn't have a real chef's mentality.

I'd love to see him join Gordon in Hell!!!!

starseed1981

It's interesting this year. I think the guys with the worst attitudes, Hung & Howie (who I'm rooting for btw), are far and away the most well rounded chefs IMO. As long as they don't throw more team challenges at them I could honestly see them going into the finals.

And is it just more or is CJ just absolutley worthless?

lordzeppelin

I don't know that CJ is useless, but it seems like he doesn't have that killer instinct to take things to a higher level. It looks like he's god, but he just doesn't have that extra bit to reach for that would make him great, you know? Like a good hockey player that doesn't take it up a notch in the playoffs - he still plays well, just can't go much further.

GreenVulture

I've been browsing other forums and it seems almost all of them absolutely hate Howie, with some of them wishing he had been eliminated. Which totally confuses me; yeah, he was a bit of a jerk, but some of his criticisms were valid--Sarah was going a lot slower than everyone else, she was a whiny little crybaby (in contrast, Casey was also clearly unhappy at being all dressed up and then cooking, but she sucked it up and made a dish that all the judges seemed to like), hell, she lost the top to the blender and also managed to to screwup something simple like a milkshake. Yeah, Howie needs to learn how to work within a team and to listen to what others have to say, but I honestly didn't see anything wrong with how he behaved this week. I only person I felt bad for was CJ--thankfully he lucked out and got Casey instead of non-Asian Sarah, but that really is one of the worst teams you could get stuck with.

And can I also say how much I look forward to ice cream challenges, since you get to see at least two people, in their desperation to create something new and exciting, make perhaps the worst ice cream in mankind? Hung's cauliflower ice cream was rivaled only by perhaps Marcel's (I think) bacon and avocado masterpiece from S2.

Maybe it's some kind of stoner glaze.

matta

She hasn't been blogging for nearly a month because of a serious illness. I'm not sure how far in advance the show is shot, but even if it's done before the first episode airs, that might have been the start of the illness.

GreenVulture

I think it's less illness and more going through divorce proceedings.

starseed1981

Yeah, I do understand the dislike for Howie (even though I'm rooting for him) but I don't agree with it. Yes he is a pain to work with in a group. But if the show really is about culinary excellence and overall cooking talent he really does shine. If I were an investor I'd back Howie alot faster than anybody else on this show. Everybody that has a problem with him, CJ & Sarah for example, doesn't have the talent to run there own resturant or even a kitchen. Also, did anybody know that Sarah was recently fired from her position in real life?

LivingINClip

If Howie is good then, then why is he almost always in the bottom at the end of the show? Every week he is on the chopping block.

matta

That's what I originally thought, but there was a comment about people mailing her "get well" cards from all across the world. Even if she's just using "illness" as an excuse, it seems like a pretty bad move if people are concerned enough to mail her cards.

A better excuse might be that she's on a safari and doesn't have internet access.

matta

Usually it's because of interpersonal issues (he was part of a team and the team failed to execute because he didn't get along with his partner").

If a kitchen is really like you see it on Hell's Kitchen, it seems like "teamwork" isn't a requirement to be an executive chef.