Category: Television

Hell’s Kitchen: Corey, Petrozza and Christina Battle It Out

If you missed Hell’s Kitchen last night, here’s the episode. My comments are after the video.

SPOILERS AHEAD

When it came down to the final service, every one of them screwed up in some way. Corey didn’t handle the hot plate, Petrozza didn’t catch some sabotage from Chef Scott, and Christina fell apart at her station.

Of the three, Petrozza screwed up less than the other two, so I was sure he’d make it in to the finals. I did think that Ramsay made the right decision in picking Christina, simply because she won so many challenges.

That’s one of the good differences between a show like this and a show like Top Chef. In Top Chef, you can win several challenges in a row, but if you don’t cook well one week, you’re out. A lot of that game is “screw up less than your opponents that week”, which is why some chefs that won cooking challenges left before others. Ramsay took Cristina’s previous performance into account when he made that decision, and I think it was a good choice.

Now, it’ll be interesting to see what happens next week. Sure looks as though both Petrozza and Christina really screwed up service, and Gordon Ramsay will be left with a similar choice to what he did this week.

Now, if they had chefs of the caliber of Top Chef doing Hell’s Kitchen… That would be interesting.

Many People Upset By The Netflix Policy Change

As I’ve mentioned before, they’re changing the multi-queue policy at Netflix in September, and a lot of people are upset about it.

David Pogue as a posting about it, and he hasn’t gotten a reasonable answer about why the change is happening either.

There are a couple of reasons I can think of that they might be doing this. One is to cut costs. I find this a bit hard to swallow, unless they really have a screwy system (which I doubt).

The other is that they might be making a big push to go from DVDs to more Internet based downloads. They did recently release a device to make watching Netflix movies easier. I could only see them making this change if they made a very big push to make their products download only.

Doesn’t seem to be the reason they would just kill off the secondary queues though. If they were going to a purely download based service, there wouldn’t be a need for the other queues, but there also wouldn’t be a need to tell us they’re killing them either.

I guess we’ll wait to see what happens. I’m thinking of cutting down my Netflix subscription because of it though.

Netflix policy change

NetFlix is changing their rental queue policy:

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I have to say, I’m pretty disappointed by this change. Having separate queues make it easy to split up movies so that you can get movies for the kids on one queue, and movies for the parents on the second queue. Now you can’t do that. Not sure why they’re doing that, but I bet I’m not the only unhappy person about this.

LOST: Who will be in charge now?


Spoilers ahead! Don’t read this if you haven’t seen the Lost Season 4 finale!

Something’s been bothering me since the season ended.

The show has established that the island won’t let people die before it’s done with them. Michael couldn’t commit suicide when it tried because it had another job for him. At the very end of Michael’s life, the island sent a message, “You can go now, Michael”, and boom the boat exploded. I still have questions about whether Michael actually DID want to go right then and there, but that’s another topic.

Then we have Widmore and Ben, who appear not to be able to kill each other. I think we can agree it’s the island keeping each of them safe too, rather than some pact the two have. I think it’s interesting that Ben is very willing to personally put himself into harm’s way. He has the kind of confidence that tells me he knows he can’t be killed. Now, that’s not to say he won’t get hurt from time to time. Look at everything that’s happened to him: Beat up, shot with an arrow, beat up some more – you get the idea. It’s just that he has the island on his side.

Anyway, having the island on your side is a pretty good thing, at least while it likes you.

So, I have to ask, why didn’t think work for John Locke? He’s the new “chosen” leader of The Others, right? What in the heck happened? The island gets a leader and the leader dies? Wasn’t there a “You can’t die” part of John’s contract with the island too?

Perhaps there was, at the beginning. Falling out of favor with the island can lead to big problems. Just look at Ben and his tumor. Why did he end up getting that? Did he fall out of favor with the island? What could he have done to fall out of favor? Maybe it’s because of the way he’d been treating people. Or maybe the island decided that a new leader would better serve the “mission”: John Locke.

It’s not unlikely that John suffered the same fate as Ben. Everything was working just fine at first, but something happened (to be revealed in Season 5, most likely) that made John fall out of favor with the island; by the time we see Locke in the coffin, could the new leader have already been chosen? Let’s look at that in a minute…
Another possibility is that in order to allow John Locke to serve the island, he had to die. If he really were in tune with the island as it appeared, dying would just be a transition to a new (and perhaps more important) job for the island. The Others sure seem to be able to pop up in the strangest places at the right time. Maybe Locke will be able to do this as well, and this will be part of his new mission.

Combine these two ideas (a new leader has been chosen, and Locke had to die to serve the island), and we might be on to something. Who would be the best advocate for the island? Someone that came to the island and just blindly accepted everything that was happening, or someone that was skeptical at first, but then grew to realize how important the island was?

Someone that was blindly faithful to the island would be too vulnerable to outside influences which made it appear that the island wanted things a certain way.

I think you’d really need someone who didn’t believe what was happening at first, but finally came to believe in the island after the evidence was laid out. That leader would always keep a skeptical eye on things, and probably think more clearly in situations that required it.

I think it’s pretty clear that the island really wants Jack back there to run things. Locke was just too willing to accept what he thought the island was telling him, and I think that’ll end up being the reason he dies. Not because he didn’t listen, but because he did – just to the wrong people.

The Next Food Network Star: You… In a Jar


You… In a Jar

Bobby Flay talks to the chefs about their culinary point of view through a … potato. Thirty minutes to “express yourself through the potato”. The chefs make everything from fries to pizza to bacon wrapped potatoes. That was the first part of the challenge; the second part was to make an on-camera presentation for one minute, in front of the judges.

Adam’s cheese fries went over well.

Kesley’s potato gratin was bad, and the judges thought she was phony.

Jeffrey took home fries and added “sophisticated soul”, but didn’t connect well on camera. Nobody was really sure what was so “sophisticated soul” about the meal either.

Nipa made something I couldn’t even pronounce, but had a great story to go with her food.

Adam made bacon wrapped potatoes, and they looked great. Bobby loved the potato, and wanted to add it to his menu in Atlantic city.

Shane made leek and potato soup, and did a good presentation. The soup didn’t do well (“like library paste”).

Jennifer made a mashed potato grilled pizza; her presentation was scattered, and the dish was declared “weird”.

Lisa’s presentation was only 15 seconds, and she was very upset that she left so much dead air time (they didn’t critique her food on camera).

They jump right into the second challenge, was is to create a their on food product in a jar, and present it to 50 food buyers – plus one special guest. They have thirty minutes to shop for their ingredients. Nipa ended up grabbing ALL the cayenne pepper, much to Adam’s chagrin, since that was the secret ingredient in his dressing.

They have one hour to prepare their products. Here’s what they made:

Lisa: Basil balsamic orange marmalade (served on brie)

Kelsey: All in 1 sauce (served in Sloppy Joes)

Jennifer: 3 Cheese Cream Sauce (served on noodles)

Jeffrey: Seasoned Salt (served with Fried Catfish)

Shane: Cherri-gac steak sauce (served on Flank steak)

Adam: Barbecue Rub (served on smoked chicken)

Nipa: Sweet & Spicy peanut seasoning (served on peanuts)

Adam: Apple cider vinaigrette (served on mesclun salad)

Lisa worked like crazy, and Adam wasn’t happy with not having cayenne pepper.

The next day, they have 30 minutes to prepare for the buyers and the special guest.

Adam’s dressing went over well. Nipa didn’t impress the buyers. Shane was tripped up when one of the buyers asked “What’s your materials cost” (I don’t think that was all that fair of a question). Lisa was able to handle the buyers better, because she’s done this sort of thing before. Jeffrey was confident, but the buyers weren’t impressed. Nipa had the same problem: They buyers thought they could easily make each of their products at home – and maybe even better. Jennifer was very nervous, and admitted that.

The special guest was Martha Stewart. Kelsey and Lisa just about jumped out of their skins. Lisa’s marmalade seemed to go over well. Kelsey said she wanted to crawl under a rock.

Adam, for some reason, wanted to sing for Martha. No idea why. It was a little goofy, but people clapped.

In the judging room, the top in Martha’s presentation were Lisa, Adam, and Aaron.

At the meeting with the contestants and judges, they went over both of challenges. Here’s what the judges said about each challenge:

Shane’s soup didn’t go over well. Bob liked Shane’s sauce, but he said he didn’t see “passion”.

Adam’s cheese fries were enjoyed. Bobby told Adam that they’d have to see whether singing to Martha was the right decision.

Jennifer was told that mashed potatoes on grilled pizza didn’t go over well. The cheese sauce was tasty. The judges told her that she has to be positive and to not to be negative.

Bobby told Lisa that “presentation-wise you were out of the blocks: Smokin’” – but ended her presentation too early. The buyers liked her marmalade. Lisa cried went she talked about meeting Martha.

Nipa was reminded that she left the room during the last judges table. The potato challenge was good, but her energy level was low. The buyers didn’t like her product because it was too simple.

Aaron’s bacon wrapped potatoes went over very well, but he didn’t share anything personal. The second challenge went over well with Martha and the buyers.

Jeffrey’s home fries weren’t memorable, and the presentation didn’t go well. “I didn’t get Jeffrey, and I wanted to get Jeffrey” was the comment from Bob. The jar product didn’t go over well.

Kelsey’s gratin didn’t go over well. The jarred product was a hit with the judges, but not with Martha. They remind her that her presentations aren’t going over very well. They think it’s coming off as insincere.

The finalist that did the best job on the potato challenge was Adam, and he was safe.

The buyers thought that Lisa had the best jar product. Martha thought that Aaron had the best. Lisa and Aaron were both safe.

They narrow down the finalists to: Jeffrey and Jennifer. They eliminate Jeffrey.

Lost: Naveen Andrews Interview


Digital Spy has a new interview with Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid on LOST. In it he discusses, among other things, what he thought was wrong with season 3, and how season 4 became better:

We all know what the executive producers, Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse], were going through because they had this burden of an endless show. I don’t think it’s what Damon wanted in the first place. He always used to say to me ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we were a bit like the Sex Pistols and did just one season of great television and then bang, that’s it?’ Sort of smash and grab. Obviously you can’t do that on primetime network TV but he wanted a limit to the show. He managed to do a deal where he was able to achieve that. Now that we have an ending to aim towards, I think it’s inevitable the quality will get better.

Read the whole interview

Stephanie Izard – Winner of Season 4 of Top Chef


I haven’t written a lot about Top Chef this season, but I probably should have. This cooking competition has the sort of contestants that should be on “Hell’s Kitchen”. Any one of the chefs on Top Chef could run circles around the Hell’s Kitchen chefs.

The competition came down to Richard, Stephanie, and Lisa. Richard and Stephanie each won the same number of challenges, and I think both desired to win. They’re both quite good.

The chefs all worked over two days, the first day with famous chefs, and the second day alone. They had to prepare food for nine diners.

The diners had issues with each of the courses, until the third course, when they nearly unanimously loved Stephanie’s dish. The last course had mixed reviews.

In the end, they said that each of the chefs did very well, and that judges table would have some tough decisions.

At judges table, the panelists explained what they thought of each of the dishes. It was hard to determine how everything went, since it appeared to be pretty evenly split.

The judges asked how each of them thought they did. Stephanie said that she thought she second guessed herself on the dessert. Lisa was very confident. Richard thought he didn’t perform up to his own standards, and in his words “choked”, because he over-thought his dishes.

The judges were surprised at Richard’s response. In discussing the dishes, it seemed that Lisa and Stephanie were pretty even. They decided that Richard’s pork belly dish must have been what he was thinking of when Richard said he choked.

In the end, the winner was Stephanie. She really did a great job throughout the season. I was disappointed that Richard felt that he didn’t do his best. He’s really quite talented, and it would have been better if he felt he did well on his dishes.

Congratulations to Stephanie! She was fun to watch throughout the season, and her food was full of surprises until the end.