Had it with the Food Channel...

[cassiesmom]

I missed it last night :-( What did I miss?

My mom had the whole family over for my dad's birthday, and my dad decided he wanted us all to look at old family slides from about 1965-1975. So much plaid and polyester! My dad enjoyed having the whole family around, especially his grandchildren. They're good about calling or sending him an e-mail to say hello from time to time, which is nice.

[Karen]

I missed it last night :-( What did I miss?

My mom had the whole family over for my dad's birthday, and my dad decided he wanted us all to look at old family slides from about 1965-1975. So much plaid and polyester! My dad enjoyed having the whole family around, especially his grandchildren. They're good about calling or sending him an e-mail to say hello from time to time, which is nice.

They sent two people home, basically the first camera challenge they had to make and demonstrate their signature dish, and they had two minutes. Bob Tuschman gave each contestant some specific aspect of their on-screen presence to work on, and some people did better than others. Vick Vegas, sadly took so much time giving a thorough description that he never demonstrated any cooking, Penny did great food, but even though she tried to be more likeable, didn't pull it off at all, Mary Beth did great on camera, of course, but her food was poorly seasoned, Jyll was told to "surprise" them, but came of as too rehearsed in her "surprising' line, Chris, as usual, had a much, much too complicated dish and ran pout of time, Jeff tried not to be too crazy, and be warm, but just came off as slow and kinda lackluster, Susie was a little scattered in her presentation, but pretty good ... Whitney worked on likeability and was happier and friendlier and talked about making gazpacho for her sorority sisters, and won that one.

When they cooked for Wolfgang Puck ion the dinner party, it was pretty obvious where the flaws were. Jeff did a salad - not a sandwich, for the first course, and presented it well, Mary Beth, reacting to being told her previous dish was underseasoned, put so much cayenne in her butternut squash soup that the judges couldn't taste anything else, everybody else did well, but the worst two were Jyll and Chris. Jyll's "Risotto" was "too stiff" - in other words, it just looked like a pile of rice with stuff in it. As soon as she presented it, too everyone's surprise, Wolfgang Puck said "this is not a risotto," and took her by the arm into the kitchen to show her how to make a real rissotto, and what it should look like in terms of consistency. Bobby Flay was appalled, Jyll was mortified but managed not to dissolve into tears, and the show went on. But Chris, who ended up with dessert (Whitney got to assign courses) apologized three times, said he was not comfortable making dessert, etc., before they even got to try his food.

So it was obvious he was going home. Susie won the evening, and most of them were told they were safe. At the end, it was Mary Beth, Jyll, and Penny standing, and then MB - to her shock was told she was safe, an they sent Penny home, as her food was still great, but she just was never getting any better on camera.

[cassiesmom]

I missed it last night :-( What did I miss?

I forgot to DVR the re-broadcast -- stupid me :-( BUT I can view it directly off their Web site. I am still rooting for Jeff from Chicago and for Vic Vegas.

[cassiesmom]

I felt bad for Vic last night-- he started out so strong and just couldn't sustain the momentum. I'm not surprised about the person who was eliminated.

[Karen]

Yes, Paul and I looked at each other and said "I hope Vic doesn't go home," and Paul accurately predicted who they did send home. For some reason they just never seemed to like her.

[cassiesmom]

I wasn't surprised about last night's elimination. I wonder what Jeff's potatoes fried in suet tasted like -- somehow that doesn't appeal to me.

[cassiesmom]

Oh my goodness, Jeff almost blew it last night on mayonnaise. Bet he'll never use bottled mayo again!

And Penny - holy cow - was she trying to sabotage Mary Beth? Alton Brown called her out on camera.

Edited to add: I would watch all three of their shows... Sandwich King, of course; Mama's Boy- that sounds to me like it would be classic Italian comfort food, and there's just something about Vic that I like; and I know I would learn a lot from watching Susie, plus I like Mexican food. So let's just end it now. Give them all a show. Plus I keep thinking that the year Melissa won, her competitor Jeffrey seemed to have a lock on it; and I'd hate to see the same thing happen to Jeff.

[Karen]

Oh my goodness, Jeff almost blew it last night on mayonnaise. Bet he'll never use bottled mayo again!

And Penny - holy cow - was she trying to sabotage Mary Beth? Alton Brown called her out on camera.

And she wasn't even subtle about it. I mean, how immature is that?

I would not be surprised if the Food Network gave Mary Beth a show of some sort anyway, like they have done with other people with strong camera presence who didn't win!

[cassiesmom]

I'm good with the outcome. I wish they would give each of the top three a show, because I would watch every one of them!

[Karen]

Exactly - I am guessing they will give at least Mary Beth a show of some sort, and maybe find a way to give Susie one, too. I still DVR Arti's show, Melissa D'Arabian's show, and "Big Daddy's" show, and there seems to be plenty of room, as they each only have a couple of months of shows a year, it seems.