As Bobby Flay said, you can learn how to be at ease on camera. When Bobby was on Lifetime in the 90's and Giada was in the early days of Everyday Italian, they both came off as stiff and not polished. They got better over time. Obviously the FN isn't concerned about cooking chops. It's all about being over the top personalities for them. BTW, I cannot stand Giada and her constant bitchface that she is sporting this season.

I'm surprised Sweet Baby James continues to watch.

Thing is, they need to be on camera. It's a food show, and we viewers can't taste their product, relying instead on the judges to tell us what's good. If they look good and get a show, their recipes can always be ghost-written (not saying that's what Food Network does, but they could).

I would watch that show.

Not by choice. The little lady demands it.


I prefer the PBS cooking shows with true chefs(Pepin, Simply Ming, Lidia, etc).

I just want to have a threesome with Emma and Nicole. Can we make that a show?

We'll DANG...not a huge fan of "butcher babe"

Giada was channeling Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct tonight. I kept waiting for her to cross her legs. That is what I got out of tonight's episode.

This is Lenny's to lose. He has a good pov and he is entertaining to watch. Even if he didn't win, I would watch a show he is on. Luca coming back and being good was sort of surprising. I loved Lenny's comments about rosetta stone.

Sorry but I do not like Lenny's fake cowboy persona. If he gets a show I won't watch. He might be able to cook but I couldn't bring myself to watch him unless he gets rid of that cowboy costume.

I watched an episode this weekend and i find them all really horrible. The Cowboy especially.

usually not surprised by this show but was very surprised Sarah wasn't sent packing in this last episode

fake persona or not, Lenny is still the most entertaining to watch and seems to have the best culinary skills of whoever is remaining.

If they're not fake to begin with the Food Network machine will certainly take care of that if they win. At least Lenny has his shtick down at the get go. I used to enjoy the show but now it just depresses me as the actual ability to cook seems to have become less and less of a requirement.

Cooking has always been a secondary concern on this show, but now it seems a distant 3rd or 4th beyond personalilty, niche/schtick, personal stories. I do think they will weed out truly bad cooking, but at this point ability to cook well is nearly irrelevant.

It was good to see butcher babe turned party girl near the bottom ("Whaaaat?" "Dang!" "Woop woop") . I thought she was interesting early on but now she seems to be trying too hard and has morphed into the annual "I'm the party guy/girl" contestant.

And agree with Deftones - Lenny seems a bit fake (wasn't he trying to figure out the taste of various peppers a couple of weeks ago - how does a guy with his background not know that?), but he is the most entertaining. I also like Emma, but I don't think she has a big enough personality to win a competition like this.

In the previews for this week, it was interesting how they edited Alton's "That's not serrano ham" and "I don't trust you" comments together to make them sound like they were at the same time and aimed at the same contestant. I was concerned when Nicole was the one with the ham, but she got off fairly easy.

Still not a fan of Lenny's schtick but have to give him credit for doing good food this week.

Ha, that makes sense then. No question the old school shows were more about cooking than personality.

That's where I saw him from. He one his episode of GGG if I remember correctly.

Can't believe its been two years and they still can't find anything for Justin to do except host one special for the network and then do one episode of GGG himself.

Holy shit. The Loreal/Emma/Lenny presentation might've been the most unintentionally hilarious things on this show ever.

Apparently Alton Brown is an insufferable asshole, a miserable prick, and a militant born again christian racist homophobe.


He sounds like a swell guy...

http://cleanplatter.wordpress.com/20...sillusionment/

I don't think that was a "special", I'm sure it was a "busted pilot", and they finally dumped it for a one-time showing on a Saturday night, as I recall. They also have him doing written recaps of this season's "Star" on the website; the one I read was quite good.

That was horrible. All three seemed to be in a daze. The judges' reactions were great.

That article is over three years old. That being said I started to fall off the bandwagon when the "real" Alton began to emerge during his travel shows -- he was often rude to the locals and seemed mean-spirited in general.

As for the show I'll miss Emma but it didn't seem like she knew how to actually cook. And I want a Loreal action figure that can utter all the nonsense she was spewing in her presentation -- that was a hoot.

Restaurant Wars Lite!

That team was way too cocky. These kinds of shows usually take people like that down a peg.

Emma is no big loss. Actually, that whole team could have left and I'd have been fine. Actually, the only one I like is Nicole.

Sarah is such a little ****. Can't believe she is still there

I figured, -probably like most everyone else, -that this was her week to go. I knew eventually that either Emily or Nicole would have to go shortly, since they're sort of similar types.

It made for an interesting episode, though, with such a spectacular flame-out with what would seem like the favored team in that contest.

I watched the "Star Salvation" episodes over the last few weeks, and it seemed to me that they gave Luca pretty much of a pass all the way through; I definitely think they want him to make the finale.

IMO this dullest season so far. Cannot believe that annoying "Texas" blonde is still there. I wouldn't watch any of these people's shows.

I never watch any of these people's shows anyway. But I think this is pretty much Lenny's to lose. He's got a good POV, he's entertaining and he has some kitchen skills. The only other one I think could be a darkhorse contender is Nicole. She's got the look and a good POV too.