Hello Food Friends. The last episode before the finale has usually served two purposes: First, to showcase the place we are visiting a bit more, and more importantly, to whittle down the competition to the last two contestants for the 1-on-1 finale. As you all know by now, we only accomplished one of those things. Before we start to talk about the upcoming finale, some Random Thoughts on the penultimate episode:
- THANKFULLY, we have Padma back and no Graham for the Durian Quickfire. Speaking of Padma, I got some fun feedback from last week's post. A sampling:
- On outfits:
- Diana (29th): I am also at ~50% hate Padma's outfits. But I love her so much that it doesn't matter. It's like she is all "I am drop dead gorgeous let's see what kind of insanity I can get away with."
- Katie (11th): Kentucky brings out the worst in her.
- Dave (21st): I get the Padma is fake argument ... But I still love her and that dress prob second best of the season to the great gatsby episode.
- On hairstyles:
- Dave: I’m focusing on neck down like an asshole.
- Mike (t-15th): She has hair?
- I've never had durian but every food show that has ever been in this part of the world references it or does something with it. It can't be that bad, can it? It must be bad because my uncles have never even offered it to us as a prank whenever we are in the Philippines.
- This might be a reach, but with his sunglasses on, the guest judge Abe Conlon looks like (and even sounds like) he'd be Kylo Ren's cooler cousin that is also the executive chef of Starkiller Base (4.5 star rating on Stormtrooper Yelp).
- We took care of the "Family Reunion" tradition in this episode, with a couple of fun wrinkles. One of those wrinkles is that they took the family shopping with them. Here are just some of the things that would happen if I was a contestant and my mom came shopping with me:
- We'd get into a shouting match at some point.
- We'd be approximately 3x over-budget because of all the "just in case" things she'd want to buy.
- We'd easily go over the time limit.
- She'd forget what the point of the trip was and start buying stuff for Mini Commish.
- She'd berate at least one grocery employee and/or insult the product quality or selection.
- She'd text my dad to come help load/unload into the car.
- She'd lose/forget the cart, just like Kelsey's mom.
- Speaking of Kelsey's mom, I'll just leave this here...
- At first, I was mad that all family members wouldn't get to eat all the food, then we found out what they were doing. The chefs sitting down to eat was nice. But having to self-critique? Not so nice.
- For the Jewish TCFL-ers out there, is the soda water thing common knowledge? Tom knew. Was it weird that Sara didn't know that trick?
- Speaking of Tom, check out our field trip to Tom's newest restaurant, Small Batch, on Long Island, NY.
We came to the end of the episode with three chefs left. Initially, I felt surprised that Sara is among the final three. But should I/we be? She's won two out of the last three Elimination Challenges. Could she really win this thing? Can she break the "hometown chef" curse while simultaneously creating the "Reverse Lisa Rita" curse?
What is actually surprising is how Eric is faltering. Since we've arrived at Macau, Kelsey has an Elimination win, Sara has an Elimination win, and Eric has been in the bottom both times. Michelle won both Quickfires. Did he peak too early? Has the weight of carrying West African food finally cracked him? Since Kristen Kish's win in Season 10, we've alternated female and male winners. With Joe Flamm's win last season, can Eric buck that trend?
Like Eric, Kelsey did not have a good penultimate episode. She was also in the bottom of both the Quickfire and Elimination challenges. While not unprecedented, it is rare that she is this close to the Finale while having only five TCFL points to her name. Kelsey was the guest on Hugh Acheson's podcast this week. Obviously, they couldn't/didn't spoil anything regarding the Finale, but it's worth a listen. Also, if you are a fan of Kelsey, her career track is similar to Vivian Howard's. Vivan's show, A Chef's Life just wrapped after five season and is worth checking out.
Going into the Finale, there are still plenty of points to be had. Remember that the chefs who make it to the Finale Challenge get 20 points each then the winner gets an additional 30 points. The only thing we know for sure at this point is if Sara wins, Cathy will be the new TCFL Champion. Other than that, things are still up in the air. With that, I hope you all enjoy the Finale and look out for the Season Recap and Championship announcement this weekend!
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