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MaxMouse10 wrote:

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No I like Ariane and her cute headbands! I think she is better than we think...anyone can have a bad first couple of episodes.

I asked a friend who lives in Montclair about her restaurant before the first ep aired (as soon as I saw the cast bio posted). He said it was way overpriced and not very good. Funnier, he mentioned the desserts as particularly bad - long before Padma spit hers out.

I still don't have clear faves this season beyond the obvious Fabio and Stefan. Carla is growing on me. And it does seem that Jamie has some skill.

WRT Jeff not being booted (compared to Tre): they respected Jeff's leadership, but when Tre was booted, Tre was explicitly the "executive chef." If the teams had been asked to name an exec chef, that person would have been responsible for the food going out. Clearly neither team last night had anyone in the exec chef role. At judges table the team made it clear that Jeff was not responsible for the food - each chef was responsible for their own dishes. Jeff was not responsible for whether Daniel's potatoes would make it out or not. Tre was. That's the difference that saved Jeff's neck.

By the way: clear lesson continues - if placed in the danger zone of doing desserts, play it safe. Carla did a cobbler. No fancy twists. Banana s'mores? Nope. Pumpkin mousse barfait? Nope. Hung made a chocolate cake.

Many chefs look upon pastry chefs with disdain because they consider desserts to be formulaic. If a sauce is turning out badly, you can fix it. Adjusting flavors on the fly is considered the art of cooking. If you make a mistake with a cake, you can't fix it later - you can only start over. As a result, particularly when you are inexperienced at desserts and have no time for a do-over, play it safe. I don't think the judges have ever booted someone for a respectable but unimaginative dessert.