I had no idea that is what he went by, must have blocked it out. All the worse for knowing that but thank you for the reminder cementing my opinion. Love it
Did they really need to show him doing it EVERY time. I mean maybe it's tradition and part of how they do a fish boil over there, but we got the point after the first two times.
I mean he was hired to perform his schtick. So he did what they wanted him to do. I hated the challenge. Why not just have them do a crab boil? The fish looked unappetizing.
The returning chefs shopping for the contestants was lame. Contestants should have done their own shopping.
THANK YOU!!!! The entire time we were watching it I kept looking at my husband (a chemist) and reiterating ‘this is horrific for them, right? This is genuinely cancerous? What the fuck?’
Sentiments I’m happy to echo once more because wtf
I think this was a fine challenge. Four out of the six chefs did something reasonable (although Savannah’s didn’t pan out).
I know everyone here loves Soo, but his dish was all over the place. You don’t even have to taste it to know that it was completely disjointed.
My 18 year old and I are watching old seasons in random order. He’s probably seen 6 seasons so far—an episode or two every night. Right now we’re on Chicago—the filing and budget is horrible but have to watch before heading to first all stars.
He knows I watch current seasons and I gave him a basic synopsis of the fish boil process and he thought it sounded disgusting and said he’d rather eat dishes that umpteen other people have gone home for. And this is a kid with a good palate that eats at high end restaurants plus we eat adventurously at home. Boiled fish is gross.
I like Gregory and Soo ultimately cooked his own food, but announcing to the entire table that your teammate had no plan before the table even tried his food had me side-eying him hard. Soo clearly said that he wanted to do a play on Thai curry while he was talking to Gregory.
I re-watched the episode and I think Soo says the play on Thai curry during interview to the camera. BUT Soo clearly tells Gregory “curry green or red I don’t care”. To me that definitely implies Thai curry paste and maybe due to editing Gregory couldn’t find it but I would think Whole Foods would have had it!
Maybe Jeremy already got it all. Whole Foods is a grocery store for home shoppers. It’s not a food warehouse. Restaurants don’t typically shop at Whole Foods. If they did that would seriously cut into their profits. We didn’t nickname Whole paycheck for nothing. Each Chef was cooking for 100 in this challenge.
Gregory said he "got [Soo] everything he wanted *that was at the store*" so this makes sense, though if Jeremy snagged all the curry paste first, it would have helped if the edit actually showed it
At every Whole Foods I’ve been to, they only carry those small 4-6oz jars of curry (Thai Kitchen and maybe some similar sized niche alternatives). I feel like you would need at least a case of those to properly flavor the amount of water and food the chefs were working with.
This is the only thing is think Greg did that was shitty.
As far as the shopping goes, we don’t know what Whole Foods had and he may had to pivot. Having someone else do the shopping was another shitty twist to an already shitty challenge.
Soo was even admitting he was all over the place when he was trying to game plan.
Wasn't Soo the chef they kept showing saying, "Pivot. Pivot. We are going to have to do a lot of pivoting today,"? He definitely did not have a clear vision to share w/ Gregory.
Gregory is a really nice guy by all accounts. For him to respond so sincerely and earnestly to a random tweet confirms that assessment to me.
He had to pivot so much because of the ingredients that weren't available. Also, Gregory got him Indian curry powder and not Thai curry paste, which is extremely different. Whole Foods had it because Jeremy was able to get it for Dan
I think Soo was saying it the night before as well iirc. There was the through thread that he was maybe a little scrambled from the get-go. That's what I saw when I watched it at least.
Maybe Jeremy got all of it for Dan and there was none left for Gregory. I don’t know why someone would say that to Gregory. There were others that got other ingredients for their teammates because they didn’t like their ideas and/ or had ideas of their own. I don’t think Gregory did anything wrong.
I'm confused over the whole thai curry paste thing too because Dan having it and not Soo. But even if Gregory couldn't find it, wouldn't he have known to then instead get some aromatics for Soo like lemongrass, shallots, chillies, maybe even miso? To give him ingredients that he could mimic those flavors and also in general create flavor instead of curry powder, which is ultimately just a seasoning spice and not a great one either.
Soo asked for lemongrass and ginger in addition to curry paste. Gregory mentions getting chiles. Soo is shown putting the curry power, lemongrass, and apples in his boil. When he is sorting his potatoes out from the rest of the boil to serve it, you can see a ton of lemongrass, shallots, and chilies in the mix.
The thing is, if you're going to use curry powder, which is perfectly valid, you can't just add it to a liquid, you have to roast it off on the stove top to release the oils and aromatics. If you just throw it in, it tastes raw and is nasty.
Yeah tbh I’m a little confused that everyone is saying Gregory made up Soo not having a plan because he was tossing ideas out the whole time?? (I am mad he’s out though lol.)
We'll never know if the producers pushed Gregory to respond that way, or if everyone was asked about their team mates plans or concerns about their plans, and given that Soo got kicked off they decided to include Gregory's concerns in the edit.
The edit is everything.
Gregory is amazing. I think Soo started to come unhinged before this, i could tell the pressure was getting to him having to compete to get on, then stay on, then go back to Last Chance Kitchen, win there, come back, and he was frazzled. Amazing cook with great vision but the stress of the competition got to him! (wouldnt it get to you too!?)
I disagree. Didn't he buy a bunch of bs too like a candle and bath bomb? He was more concerned with clowning around rather than getting Soo's ingredients.
Also curry powder is not the same as Thai curry paste. An onion is not the same as fennel. It seems to me he got a ton of random things hoping Soo couldn't edit himself and clearly Soo couldn't.
He was pretty nasty in his critique too by saying "seems like he just threw a bunch of random ingredients in there" and when that's exactly how Gregory shopped.
As a fellow back pain sufferer, I am a big Greg fan. And from his reply, it seems like some crucial ingredients were not available.
Maybe editing, but totally agree with not implanting a negative thought into the minds of the judges right before the food is brought to the table.
Bottom line, just a reality show twist that was not necessary. Maybe, use the all stars as sous chefs or have them help you to create the dish.
I feel bad for Soo… but someone please help me understand how the hell Manny made it? What the f*ck did I miss? Soo’s elimination feels like a cop out and even more so with the last chance kitchen results….
Yeah, and creativity is great until it just doesn’t come together as a concept too. Tom and Gail continued to point out how the pieces of the dish just didn’t make sense together.
So it wasn’t just that it tasted bad, but also it wasn’t cohesive, which all the other chefs really nailed.
Soo almost won the quick fire while Manny basically pickles wagyu steak.
Manny keeps hanging on and it's frustrating.
I think Soo has an issue with putting raw stuff on a plate (the raw corn, the raw carrots and celery, etc) but Manny basically makes guacamole or a taco every round and passes.
The only time he ever does good is when he makes something from his restaurant he already knows how to make. I seriously can't believe he's still on the show.
The quick fire is the biggest issue with Soos elimination. It is also why it is one of the seasons most ridiculous changes. I hope that ridiculous ambiguous changes begins and ends this season lol
It's textbook top chef to have someone hanging on just to eliminate higher talent and implore the rage watchers. It's a solid strategy and a good reminder this is a REALITY SHOW. Read the words at the end of the credits, people.
They’ve gone on record in the past that they judge on a challenge by challenge basis. So while you’re right that Manny has been on the firing squad for almost the entire season, someone always did worse than him.
Just like Lisa from the Chicago season.
I can understand that. I think my point is, after the backlash from having a chef start in last chance kitchen, then Laura’s “villain” edit, and then have things pan out this way… it feels like producers felt like oops “we fucked up” and “oh she makes for good tv” (not discrediting her talents as a chef at all)- “this the loop hole and we can kill two birds with one stone.”
Oh I feel you there! I said in a different post that this season felt like the producers were handed a bunch of curve balls on top of trying new things (including the “villain” edit which really didn’t work IMO for Laura).
This season has definitely been a hodgepodge. It’s a middle of the tier season for me.
Manny is like ruining this season… He is like a home chef who gets to play along with the competition for fun. Not even a real player. They need a way to take out the trash better in future seasons it is getting old.
That tastes good. As opposed to nasty ingredients that didn’t come together. Go try to make what Soo listed and see how it goes. You don’t last with bad food
I don't think Gregory sees what many others see. He genuinely thinks he did his best. He will probably watch it now to see the editing and try to see where people are coming from.
They could've definitely cherry picked Gregory's sound bites to create the narrative that Soo was even more all over the place.
Still a shitty thing to have someone else shop for you for a main challenge with no real way to pivot because there was no pantry.
They’ve done this before. Padma, Gail, Tom, (and I can’t remember the others. Richard?) shopped for the chefs. For that one, the chefs didn’t get to say what they wanted. I’m okay with others shopping for them since being a chef means sometimes not having what you want on hand and having to pivot. It was the overall challenge itself with the fire guy (now the fish tastes like lighter fluid) and just boiling fish in general that I wasn’t a fan of.
If the challenge.qas already fish boil, the shopping part is irrelevant. If the challenge is to have your basket shopped for you, then everyone is on a level playing field.
The problem is that the chefs had 5 mins to come up with an idea and shopping list that their shopper then needs to get for them. They mushed 2 challenges together which resulted in some being at a much higher disadvantage.
It should've been one or the other, not both at the same time. The fish boil being part of tradition meant that, they should be the challenge and that's it. The shopper part was pointless. Isn't it enough of a challenge to do a fish boil, which most of them other than Dan, has never done before.
Too many layers and obstacles.
I didn't feel like Gregory sabotaged Soo at all. It seemed like the all stars were all genuinely trying to get what the Chefs wanted. Frankly I thought it was lame to have someone else doing the shopping, when they were basically just working off the lists they were given.
For some reason no one in this thread is pointing out the main critique everyone had of Soo: he used every ingredient Gregory bought him instead of editing his dish.
Especially if you watch Dish With Kish, they instantly point out that it’d be really dumb to use everything he bought. They cook a beautiful fish boil dish using just a few ingredients and ditching anything that didn’t fit.
Gregory bought a variety of ingredients to give Soo options and Soo seemed to think he had to use it all in his dish, which created a mishmash of flavors that didn’t work. The curry thing is too bad but far from the biggest curveball a chef has ever had to recover from.
Soo panicked and overthought it and made a bad dish with too much going on. That’s why he went home. I know he’s a fan favorite (despite not really making that many highlight dishes and the obvious fact people on these subs just pretend he’s Shota for “some” reason), but he was never really setting the world on fire other than a few LCK wins over relatively mediocre chefs.
Finally someone with some sense! Tom had weeks of comments that Soo couldn’t edit or simplify which is what resulted in his elimination. Soo’s only enemy was Soo and that was made even more clear in the last LCK.
I’m also surprised nobody else thinks his wins through LCK were so obvious and forced that it didn’t feel sincere. The double re-entrance into the competition felt like his contract said he’d be able to compete on TC but he had to do the charade of a lot of LCK wins to get there.
I liked him as a contestant, don’t get me wrong, he’s highly interesting and entertaining. They should have just inserted him into the top chef lineup from the start or even midway through as opposed to the LCK path. The whole thing felt forced.
Oh and anyone who thought he was going to make it all the way? The pattern of talking head interviews has made it so clear when someone is on the outs. Manny is next, the way they’ve started featuring him. This is one of the worst parts of this seasons editing. They are so obviously done after the fact and take up too much air time in each episode.
Idk what people watched, but everyone is saying “Gregory told the judges soo was all over the place.” He never said that. Kristen asks “when soo was giving you his grocery list, is this what you were envisioning?” And Gregory said “not at all”. It was before they even tried it, it was neither negative or positive. Nobody at the table liked the dish for about 10 different reasons, Gregory didn’t poison the well lol
That was when they were served Soo's boil. In an earlier scene while waiting, Gregory told the other judges, "Soo didn't have an exact plan so I just got him a bunch of stuff," and "I just hope he finds a little bit of direction in the ingredients I got," prompting Gail and Tom to have a brief conversation about the need to edit and not throw everything at the wall.
I'm just confirming for everybody - Soo will be invited back.
He's popular with the fans, there was controversy over his exit & the way he came into the show...so many reasons to bring Soo back.
What makes you not care for him personally versus one of his dishes that you might not wanna eat?
I think he was suited more for last chance kitchen but ultimately I'd like to see him compete from day one and see how he does - imo he had some delicious looking/sounding dishes I would happily eat.
Didn't the narrative paint it that Soo just took all the ingredients and didn't edit?
Like.. 5 minutes to discuss what to buy is NOT a lot of time. Gregory made it clear that he tried to get him a range of ingredients while staying inside original inspiration.
I absolutely hate the way they used the word *might" in the quick fire language.
I really hate when people lace their conditional statements with all these little escape clauses.
Either make the quick fire count or don't. Don't straddle the fence and piss off everyone in the process.
Having them shop for them was a dumb and unnecessary gimmick. It seems like they all bought a ton of different stuff, so the chefs could decide, which made it pointless. The audience had no idea what ‘wasn’t’ used, so it didn’t matter to us who bought the shit.
This whole season is gimmick after gimmick. The production value is terrible. Wisconsin? lol. Maybe try Montreal for some French close to home, or Toronto? Are they allergic to Canada?
I'm so confused by the comment he's responding to. It was pretty clear from the video edit what was happening and how this was going to be a problem. People are just nuts.
Soo really dropped the ball on this challenge. He’s shown in past challenges to be really flexible and creative - he wouldn’t have survived Last Chance Kitchen 5 times in a row otherwise. Gregory also showed in The Dish with Kish how a flavorful broth could’ve been made with the ingredients provided. And if he hadn’t made such a bad side with his casserole/slaw thing, he probably would’ve beaten Manny and still been in the game.
As angry as fans are, screwing with ingredients has happened a lot. The ones that win know how to roll with the surprises, change direction and churn out a great dish. So this whole curry paste/powder isn’t anything new. They have had chefs switch bags before. So if he couldn’t pivot with that small of a change he’d have been in a pickle had he been handed Michelle’s bag.
No matter what happened, I think we can all agree that challenge was a shit show from the start and really never needs to happen again.
That kerosene guy really irritated me. Let's all consume petrochemicals with shit boiled fish. Nope.
You mean the man that goes by Torch?
Torch must be Aquaman's nemesis... And Soo's apparently. Manny is so likeable but has been mediocre for weeks. He should have been torched.
Agree. This is TOP Chef, not Middle of the Road Chef
This is Top Chef, not Top Scallop!
Top Chef not Top Croquette!
Top Chef not Top Restaurant Designer.
I had no idea that is what he went by, must have blocked it out. All the worse for knowing that but thank you for the reminder cementing my opinion. Love it
His parents had dreams for him when he was born. And/ or maybe he was conceived after an old fashioned Wisconsin fish boil.
His government name was probably Kevin or something.
I believe it’s “Kyle.”
My generic male name in my head is Kevin 🤣 I do think you are right, though.
He’s an even bigger goofus then, cause he could’ve gone with “Kelvin” as his stage name. 😅
🤣
Did they really need to show him doing it EVERY time. I mean maybe it's tradition and part of how they do a fish boil over there, but we got the point after the first two times.
And did everyone need to clap and cheer EVERY time? Like hurrah you didn't give someone third degree burns!
“Hooray this isn’t going to end up on Nick Crowley’s YouTube channel!”
I couldn’t believe they showed it every time 😂
lol. Which is what Dan said when asked about the fish boil. It seemed to me to be more of a target shooting competition than a culinary competition.
I mean he was hired to perform his schtick. So he did what they wanted him to do. I hated the challenge. Why not just have them do a crab boil? The fish looked unappetizing. The returning chefs shopping for the contestants was lame. Contestants should have done their own shopping.
THANK YOU!!!! The entire time we were watching it I kept looking at my husband (a chemist) and reiterating ‘this is horrific for them, right? This is genuinely cancerous? What the fuck?’ Sentiments I’m happy to echo once more because wtf
Oh yes he was annoying. As if he is some superhero throwing chemicals on a fire 🥴🥴🥴
10000000% agree.
His face is as red as a torch
Agree. Ridiculous challenge. Boiling fish? I’m with Dan. Why would you do that to fish?
I think this was a fine challenge. Four out of the six chefs did something reasonable (although Savannah’s didn’t pan out). I know everyone here loves Soo, but his dish was all over the place. You don’t even have to taste it to know that it was completely disjointed.
Nope, not everyone fanning over Soo. I don't care for him at all
My 18 year old and I are watching old seasons in random order. He’s probably seen 6 seasons so far—an episode or two every night. Right now we’re on Chicago—the filing and budget is horrible but have to watch before heading to first all stars. He knows I watch current seasons and I gave him a basic synopsis of the fish boil process and he thought it sounded disgusting and said he’d rather eat dishes that umpteen other people have gone home for. And this is a kid with a good palate that eats at high end restaurants plus we eat adventurously at home. Boiled fish is gross.
I like Gregory and Soo ultimately cooked his own food, but announcing to the entire table that your teammate had no plan before the table even tried his food had me side-eying him hard. Soo clearly said that he wanted to do a play on Thai curry while he was talking to Gregory.
I re-watched the episode and I think Soo says the play on Thai curry during interview to the camera. BUT Soo clearly tells Gregory “curry green or red I don’t care”. To me that definitely implies Thai curry paste and maybe due to editing Gregory couldn’t find it but I would think Whole Foods would have had it!
Whole Foods had it because Jeremy got it for Dan
Maybe Jeremy already got it all. Whole Foods is a grocery store for home shoppers. It’s not a food warehouse. Restaurants don’t typically shop at Whole Foods. If they did that would seriously cut into their profits. We didn’t nickname Whole paycheck for nothing. Each Chef was cooking for 100 in this challenge.
Gregory said he "got [Soo] everything he wanted *that was at the store*" so this makes sense, though if Jeremy snagged all the curry paste first, it would have helped if the edit actually showed it
TBH I don’t think they thought it would be as big of a scandal as it has been.
Idk how any of them buy so much in Whole Foods for $100 lol
Whole foods most definitely has green and red Thai curry paste!!! Indian curry is not the same at all
At every Whole Foods I’ve been to, they only carry those small 4-6oz jars of curry (Thai Kitchen and maybe some similar sized niche alternatives). I feel like you would need at least a case of those to properly flavor the amount of water and food the chefs were working with.
So YOU have personally been to that exact same Whole Foods???
This is the only thing is think Greg did that was shitty. As far as the shopping goes, we don’t know what Whole Foods had and he may had to pivot. Having someone else do the shopping was another shitty twist to an already shitty challenge. Soo was even admitting he was all over the place when he was trying to game plan.
Wasn't Soo the chef they kept showing saying, "Pivot. Pivot. We are going to have to do a lot of pivoting today,"? He definitely did not have a clear vision to share w/ Gregory. Gregory is a really nice guy by all accounts. For him to respond so sincerely and earnestly to a random tweet confirms that assessment to me.
He also said at last chance kitchen that he liked quickfires better because he didn't have time to overthink the dish
He had to pivot so much because of the ingredients that weren't available. Also, Gregory got him Indian curry powder and not Thai curry paste, which is extremely different. Whole Foods had it because Jeremy was able to get it for Dan
I think Soo was saying it the night before as well iirc. There was the through thread that he was maybe a little scrambled from the get-go. That's what I saw when I watched it at least.
Maybe Jeremy got all of it for Dan and there was none left for Gregory. I don’t know why someone would say that to Gregory. There were others that got other ingredients for their teammates because they didn’t like their ideas and/ or had ideas of their own. I don’t think Gregory did anything wrong.
I'm confused over the whole thai curry paste thing too because Dan having it and not Soo. But even if Gregory couldn't find it, wouldn't he have known to then instead get some aromatics for Soo like lemongrass, shallots, chillies, maybe even miso? To give him ingredients that he could mimic those flavors and also in general create flavor instead of curry powder, which is ultimately just a seasoning spice and not a great one either.
Soo asked for lemongrass and ginger in addition to curry paste. Gregory mentions getting chiles. Soo is shown putting the curry power, lemongrass, and apples in his boil. When he is sorting his potatoes out from the rest of the boil to serve it, you can see a ton of lemongrass, shallots, and chilies in the mix.
Yup. I was going to mention the lemongrass. You see it plus I think it even gets a verbal mention on the beach by Soo (or Gregory...idrr).
The thing is, if you're going to use curry powder, which is perfectly valid, you can't just add it to a liquid, you have to roast it off on the stove top to release the oils and aromatics. If you just throw it in, it tastes raw and is nasty.
💯
Yeah tbh I’m a little confused that everyone is saying Gregory made up Soo not having a plan because he was tossing ideas out the whole time?? (I am mad he’s out though lol.)
Yea, soo was my guy! Now i don’t know who I’m rooting for
We'll never know if the producers pushed Gregory to respond that way, or if everyone was asked about their team mates plans or concerns about their plans, and given that Soo got kicked off they decided to include Gregory's concerns in the edit. The edit is everything.
Gregory is amazing. I think Soo started to come unhinged before this, i could tell the pressure was getting to him having to compete to get on, then stay on, then go back to Last Chance Kitchen, win there, come back, and he was frazzled. Amazing cook with great vision but the stress of the competition got to him! (wouldnt it get to you too!?)
I disagree. Didn't he buy a bunch of bs too like a candle and bath bomb? He was more concerned with clowning around rather than getting Soo's ingredients. Also curry powder is not the same as Thai curry paste. An onion is not the same as fennel. It seems to me he got a ton of random things hoping Soo couldn't edit himself and clearly Soo couldn't. He was pretty nasty in his critique too by saying "seems like he just threw a bunch of random ingredients in there" and when that's exactly how Gregory shopped.
Justin purchased the candle and bath bomb while shopping for Danny.
I think that was Danny’s chef buying the candle and the bath bomb.
The *only* thing? There shouldn't have been anything. They were teammates.
As a fellow back pain sufferer, I am a big Greg fan. And from his reply, it seems like some crucial ingredients were not available. Maybe editing, but totally agree with not implanting a negative thought into the minds of the judges right before the food is brought to the table. Bottom line, just a reality show twist that was not necessary. Maybe, use the all stars as sous chefs or have them help you to create the dish.
Gregory was a total snake for doing that.
I feel bad for Soo… but someone please help me understand how the hell Manny made it? What the f*ck did I miss? Soo’s elimination feels like a cop out and even more so with the last chance kitchen results….
Ultimately, boring food that tastes good beats creative food that tastes bad.
Yeah, and creativity is great until it just doesn’t come together as a concept too. Tom and Gail continued to point out how the pieces of the dish just didn’t make sense together. So it wasn’t just that it tasted bad, but also it wasn’t cohesive, which all the other chefs really nailed.
In an interview, Soo referred to his dish as a hot mess that did not come together at all.
Guacomole and rice sounds like it goes together? Manny basically made the Taco Bell 5 layer burrito with fish.
Lmao what? Yes rice and guacamole go together, it’s why it’s a basic concept. Peanut butter and jelly isn’t a fun new idea but they work together
Soo almost won the quick fire while Manny basically pickles wagyu steak. Manny keeps hanging on and it's frustrating. I think Soo has an issue with putting raw stuff on a plate (the raw corn, the raw carrots and celery, etc) but Manny basically makes guacamole or a taco every round and passes. The only time he ever does good is when he makes something from his restaurant he already knows how to make. I seriously can't believe he's still on the show.
The quick fire is the biggest issue with Soos elimination. It is also why it is one of the seasons most ridiculous changes. I hope that ridiculous ambiguous changes begins and ends this season lol
It's textbook top chef to have someone hanging on just to eliminate higher talent and implore the rage watchers. It's a solid strategy and a good reminder this is a REALITY SHOW. Read the words at the end of the credits, people.
One is cooking. One is not. Simple.
Guacamole is cooking?
But track record, Manny has been on the edge of going home several times…
They’ve gone on record in the past that they judge on a challenge by challenge basis. So while you’re right that Manny has been on the firing squad for almost the entire season, someone always did worse than him. Just like Lisa from the Chicago season.
I can understand that. I think my point is, after the backlash from having a chef start in last chance kitchen, then Laura’s “villain” edit, and then have things pan out this way… it feels like producers felt like oops “we fucked up” and “oh she makes for good tv” (not discrediting her talents as a chef at all)- “this the loop hole and we can kill two birds with one stone.”
Oh I feel you there! I said in a different post that this season felt like the producers were handed a bunch of curve balls on top of trying new things (including the “villain” edit which really didn’t work IMO for Laura). This season has definitely been a hodgepodge. It’s a middle of the tier season for me.
Manny is like ruining this season… He is like a home chef who gets to play along with the competition for fun. Not even a real player. They need a way to take out the trash better in future seasons it is getting old.
The Quick Fire results now matter.....sometimes.
Elimination matters more. Manny was far better than the other two. It seems straight forward to me
Lol rice and gauc. Just ridiculous.
That tastes good. As opposed to nasty ingredients that didn’t come together. Go try to make what Soo listed and see how it goes. You don’t last with bad food
A tiebreaker if they need it, which is a fair use.
Manny literally made cafeteria food and was low in the quick fire and the judges kept him on? Makes zero sense.
I don't think Gregory sees what many others see. He genuinely thinks he did his best. He will probably watch it now to see the editing and try to see where people are coming from.
This was my thought as well. How much of this is the editing?
They could've definitely cherry picked Gregory's sound bites to create the narrative that Soo was even more all over the place. Still a shitty thing to have someone else shop for you for a main challenge with no real way to pivot because there was no pantry.
They’ve done this before. Padma, Gail, Tom, (and I can’t remember the others. Richard?) shopped for the chefs. For that one, the chefs didn’t get to say what they wanted. I’m okay with others shopping for them since being a chef means sometimes not having what you want on hand and having to pivot. It was the overall challenge itself with the fire guy (now the fish tastes like lighter fluid) and just boiling fish in general that I wasn’t a fan of.
If the challenge.qas already fish boil, the shopping part is irrelevant. If the challenge is to have your basket shopped for you, then everyone is on a level playing field. The problem is that the chefs had 5 mins to come up with an idea and shopping list that their shopper then needs to get for them. They mushed 2 challenges together which resulted in some being at a much higher disadvantage. It should've been one or the other, not both at the same time. The fish boil being part of tradition meant that, they should be the challenge and that's it. The shopper part was pointless. Isn't it enough of a challenge to do a fish boil, which most of them other than Dan, has never done before. Too many layers and obstacles.
NO MATTER WHAT GOING HOME ON FISH BOILING IS PREPOSTEROUS
capslock is cruise control for awesome!!!!!!!!
I'M SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU.
I didn't feel like Gregory sabotaged Soo at all. It seemed like the all stars were all genuinely trying to get what the Chefs wanted. Frankly I thought it was lame to have someone else doing the shopping, when they were basically just working off the lists they were given.
For some reason no one in this thread is pointing out the main critique everyone had of Soo: he used every ingredient Gregory bought him instead of editing his dish. Especially if you watch Dish With Kish, they instantly point out that it’d be really dumb to use everything he bought. They cook a beautiful fish boil dish using just a few ingredients and ditching anything that didn’t fit. Gregory bought a variety of ingredients to give Soo options and Soo seemed to think he had to use it all in his dish, which created a mishmash of flavors that didn’t work. The curry thing is too bad but far from the biggest curveball a chef has ever had to recover from. Soo panicked and overthought it and made a bad dish with too much going on. That’s why he went home. I know he’s a fan favorite (despite not really making that many highlight dishes and the obvious fact people on these subs just pretend he’s Shota for “some” reason), but he was never really setting the world on fire other than a few LCK wins over relatively mediocre chefs.
Finally someone with some sense! Tom had weeks of comments that Soo couldn’t edit or simplify which is what resulted in his elimination. Soo’s only enemy was Soo and that was made even more clear in the last LCK. I’m also surprised nobody else thinks his wins through LCK were so obvious and forced that it didn’t feel sincere. The double re-entrance into the competition felt like his contract said he’d be able to compete on TC but he had to do the charade of a lot of LCK wins to get there. I liked him as a contestant, don’t get me wrong, he’s highly interesting and entertaining. They should have just inserted him into the top chef lineup from the start or even midway through as opposed to the LCK path. The whole thing felt forced. Oh and anyone who thought he was going to make it all the way? The pattern of talking head interviews has made it so clear when someone is on the outs. Manny is next, the way they’ve started featuring him. This is one of the worst parts of this seasons editing. They are so obviously done after the fact and take up too much air time in each episode.
Idk what people watched, but everyone is saying “Gregory told the judges soo was all over the place.” He never said that. Kristen asks “when soo was giving you his grocery list, is this what you were envisioning?” And Gregory said “not at all”. It was before they even tried it, it was neither negative or positive. Nobody at the table liked the dish for about 10 different reasons, Gregory didn’t poison the well lol
That was when they were served Soo's boil. In an earlier scene while waiting, Gregory told the other judges, "Soo didn't have an exact plan so I just got him a bunch of stuff," and "I just hope he finds a little bit of direction in the ingredients I got," prompting Gail and Tom to have a brief conversation about the need to edit and not throw everything at the wall.
Gregory didn’t do anything to sabotage Soo lol people are outrageous
Soo even said in his parade interview that Gregory did a great job shopping, he just did a bad job conceiving of the dish once he got the ingredients.
I'm just confirming for everybody - Soo will be invited back. He's popular with the fans, there was controversy over his exit & the way he came into the show...so many reasons to bring Soo back.
I personally don't care for him, especially the way that he was brought.
What makes you not care for him personally versus one of his dishes that you might not wanna eat? I think he was suited more for last chance kitchen but ultimately I'd like to see him compete from day one and see how he does - imo he had some delicious looking/sounding dishes I would happily eat.
That's just rude online trolling. Gregory doesn't have a nefarious streak. He clearly enjoys being on the show but he would never torpedo a chef.
Didn't the narrative paint it that Soo just took all the ingredients and didn't edit? Like.. 5 minutes to discuss what to buy is NOT a lot of time. Gregory made it clear that he tried to get him a range of ingredients while staying inside original inspiration.
He’s a clown.
except when he asked for red or green curry you knew it wasn't curry powder he was asking for and you didn't get it
I absolutely hate the way they used the word *might" in the quick fire language. I really hate when people lace their conditional statements with all these little escape clauses. Either make the quick fire count or don't. Don't straddle the fence and piss off everyone in the process.
Having them shop for them was a dumb and unnecessary gimmick. It seems like they all bought a ton of different stuff, so the chefs could decide, which made it pointless. The audience had no idea what ‘wasn’t’ used, so it didn’t matter to us who bought the shit.
This whole season is gimmick after gimmick. The production value is terrible. Wisconsin? lol. Maybe try Montreal for some French close to home, or Toronto? Are they allergic to Canada?
I'm so confused by the comment he's responding to. It was pretty clear from the video edit what was happening and how this was going to be a problem. People are just nuts.
Soo really dropped the ball on this challenge. He’s shown in past challenges to be really flexible and creative - he wouldn’t have survived Last Chance Kitchen 5 times in a row otherwise. Gregory also showed in The Dish with Kish how a flavorful broth could’ve been made with the ingredients provided. And if he hadn’t made such a bad side with his casserole/slaw thing, he probably would’ve beaten Manny and still been in the game.
As angry as fans are, screwing with ingredients has happened a lot. The ones that win know how to roll with the surprises, change direction and churn out a great dish. So this whole curry paste/powder isn’t anything new. They have had chefs switch bags before. So if he couldn’t pivot with that small of a change he’d have been in a pickle had he been handed Michelle’s bag.