I forgot to remind CC! The new season started tonight. There were quite a few special protocols in place to film last fall. They also were greatly impacted by the wildfires, and had to change a lot of their plans for filming in the surrounding area. Based on a few things Padma said, it sounds like they have a higher grade of cheftestants than most seasons - no sous chefs! Maybe we won’t have to go on so many personal journeys.
Don’t click on the link if you don’t want to be spoiled for the first show, but in general discussion here assumes posters have seen the most recent episode.
Watched the first episode last night. I like that some of the former contestants have a role in this season.
You can see some string personalities already being highlighted including the side from Portland who worked for Tom .
Loved that the women team won the first quick fire.
Anyone have local favorites? I haven’t watched the 2nd episode yet but I’m a little partial to the woman from Detroit who specializes in North African cuisine and the guy from Columbus - who landed in the bottom first episode! My daughter and her BF frequent his restaurant there
I would also like to say if you are an Instagram person Padma is a great follow. She does lots of impromptu simple cooking in her home kitchen.
It’s a strong season with some very capable and personable chefs. So far it looks like real cooking challenges vs gimmicks. Hopefully they won’t do feud edits; seeing collaboration is much more enjoyable. Our only home town chef is Richard Blais LOL but Sara grew up in the area so I may root for her.
I have kept up with the show but not with this thread (though I swear I saw the thread bumped up the other day!)
I am thrilled that Shota is in the top 3. He is my fav. I like Gabe as well. Dawn I like, but I feel like she has either been really strong or had holes in her performance. I was surprised that Jamie went instead of her this week.
I started watching because my younger daughter and her partner love it and they are visiting. I am a very good home cook and even I knew fish and cheese wasn’t going to work.
Just had a chance to watch Thursday’s show and was so excited - son and I had just been in Cannon Beach on Tuesday evening on a side trip heading toward Seattle. We had dinner - but not at Wayfarer. We did stay the night at Astoria but didn’t shop the co-op. I was interested to see that their weather was even worse than ours - at least we didn’t need umbrellas!
And the finale will be at Willamette Valley Vineyards! Husband and I had a lovely lunch there on Thursday on our drive back down. And now I know how to pronounce Willamette - not like I thought!
I think the reason they…
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Sent all three chefs to the finale is that no one came back a second time from Last Chance Kitchen. Also I suspect they would have had to kick Dawn off and they didn’t want to do that last summer.
I was surprised that only 2 were supposed to go to the finale - but I think some seasons they’ve had 3 in the finale and some seasons they’ve had 2. Maybe they kept it flexible so if they feel 3 deserve to go, they can.
I think maybe if Gabe or Dawn had been perfect in the last challenge, they would have kicked the other off. And even though Dawn has messed plating up a few times, they really like her food.
Just a consistently good show. I like the camaraderie of the chefs. Shota and Sarah were my fan favorites since the beginning!
I wondered if it was going to be a “3” finale because I felt like they seemed to avoid talking about one getting eliminated. Personally I think it’s unfair to Shoda - who won the challenge pretty much without question - but now still have to compete against 2 others for the title. I think Dawn and Gabe should have to have a separate challenge to go up against Shoda. (not sure how to spell his name!)
Dawn definitely has good food but I think she is “messy” with her planning and execution. I like her but don’t think she is full on “Top Chef” material. But, I want to eat her food!!
Hopefully they’ll give Shota an advantage - like he gets to pick his sous chef first. It’s not the first time there have been three in the finale; sometimes one gets kicked off after the first course or such.
