Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
In this case I always hope not liking them came first … not liking someone because of their lipstick color is a bit silly.
If we are going down that road - can we add all the men with the god aweful tattoo choices to the people we don’t like. Or is this just a female thing?
[quote=“Thimes, post:103, topic:11279”]
In this case I always hope not liking them came first … not liking someone because of their lipstick color is a bit silly
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I never liked her. That’s why the lipstick bothers me as much as it does.
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I certainly hope we can be equal opportunity!
I don’t mind the lipstick colors, she’s sort of a goth Frida Kahlo. Now, who’s got the worst tattoos?
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I’m going to pass on that and try to stick to their cooking and attitudes.
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Just watched Restaurant Wars episode. The correct restaurant won during Restaurant Wars. The look of their restaurant, the food on their plates was cohesive and worked together. The choices for FOH and EC were stellar decisions, and they both made the entire restaurant work perfectly. Tom said at JT “I wouldn’t have known it was your first day if this were a real restaurant.”
As for the other restaurant? Padma said “If I took friends to your restaurant and they asked me what it was about? I wouldn’t be able to tell them.” Gail said it best when she said something like “It looks like they all just did whatever they wanted.” That’s exactly what they did - there was no cohesion whatsoever.
And Claudette is a deluded fool as to how she think she did as EC in RW. Her attitude wasn’t team-like (which was evidenced last week when she threw Tanya under the bus and saying she was truthful and didn’t throw anyone under the bus) and she truly didn’t believe that she did anything wrong during RW. She tried to foist it off on Chris, but when Tom Colicchio pointed out that she’s an EC in her own restaurant, and knows full well that doesn’t mean the role isn’t just an expediter.
Her attitude in LCK was just as astoundingly tone-deaf about herself.
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Ahh! Just a taste! Thanks Lynda. I am in a hotel without Bravo but I couldn’t rest looking at the thread.
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Ah the recap memories. . . . . 
Okay, so I struggle with Claudette. I do think she was a fool to think that on Top Chef, during RW that if you are Exec Chef you’re not going to be held responsible in the same way you’d be held responsible as an EC in real life. No argument there.
But . . . . I also agree with her attitude that it isn’t her job to micromanage everyone (edited to remove the double negative - what was I doing). They are chefs on Top Chef as well. If they think their dish is seasoned correctly - is it really her job to tell them “hey your dish is too salty, change it”? I don’t really think so (in real life yes, in this context no) - and I can guarantee that if she was criticizing everyone’s dish (in the same way the judges complained about essentially every dish) that wouldn’t have gone over well either - and we’d probably be complaining about “who does she think she is”, “she’s so bossy”, “what an ego” . . . .
So I think she’s in a pickle in this situation with no real “win”. The only thing she could have done (and probably should have) was to at least taste each dish and ask “is this seasoned how you want it to be? It seems salty to me.” But having that perspective in the heat of the moment is hard, so I’m just Monday morning quarterbacking (that expression is so out of sync with my being but it works here) and I still think the push back had she done that would have been great.
And totally agree that a concept of “no concept” was just stupid on that team’s part. I fully blame Chris for that part as the team captain.
I still like her and would rather work under someone who isn’t a micromanager, like her, than some of the other assholes that have gone through the show.
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I don’t think it helped that her bone marrow dish was overdone and her ice cream was overchurned/grainy.
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Sure, there may be some ways it is not quite like being an EC in your own restaurant, but remember that not everyone is just making their own dishes. They have the FOH who isn’t in there at all to do plating, they are all chipping in, there are line cooks doing all the cooking. Even if they are all individuals competing, there has to be someone making sure everything is good as it goes out the door. She certainly would have looked much better if, for ex, she had noted that Joe’s chicken pocket dough was tough and addressed it with him. Maybe he would have changed it, maybe he would have said “that’s how I want it”, but then that would come out at Judge’s Table. And yes, there is a bit of “no win” as EC, because some of that might still have been on her, but not as much as if she said “no, I never tasted his dish”.
The reality has always been that EC and FOH are high risk/high reward positions in Restaurant Wars, and everyone should know that. Which is why I thought Kerri and Chris were both smart to manage to be team captains yet to avoid being in either of those roles.
Claudette is obviously talented, but it’s also obvious that she doesn’t play well with others. In any case, after she threw at least 2 people under the bus, I’m glad she’s gone. All the remaining folks are more generally likeable, IMO.
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Excellent summary. She also can’t seem to cook outside of Mexican cuisine. Which is fine, in and of itself, but not helpful on this show. Also, isn’t the job of EC to be sure everything leaving your kitchen is up to snuff?
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Yes! She seemed to be getting along with people and checking in during prep, but once service began, she lost me. Bruce started giving feedback to his other chefs and Claudette says, “no mean people here, only nice people”. But I don’t think Bruce was being mean at all, just direct and and in the interest of the team. He was doing the job, and that’s one reason they won. Nice is great, but nice doesn’t make it happen. And I don’t think niceness is really the motivation, it’s every woman for herself.
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Tom often said, and ECs have gone home after RW because, as EC it his his/her reponsility to taste every dish and make sure it’s done properly.
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And part of the expediter’s job is to taste every dish, and to make sure all the dishes are getting made properly and on time. As all the cheftestants should have remembered from the time on Top Chef Seattle when Tom himself was the expediter. He wasn’t mean but he was very direct in letting the chefs know when something they were doing was wrong and needed correction:
https://www.chowhound.com/post/top-chef-seattle-ep-16-finale-part-1-02-20-13-spoilers-891264
Oh, the days of Linda Whit’s recaps.
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Damn. I forgot how much I used to write. LOL
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I haven’t. Folks meeting up to read it right after, was often better than the show. It takes awhile, but I still check.
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Didn’t see THAT coming. 
NO KIDDING, @shrinkrap. That was painful - I really had hopes. You could tell it bothered several judges as well.
Tom was pretty critical of the remaining chefs. He’s right - this is when they should be pulling out some of the stops, and several still seem like they’re coasting. Carrie, however, is the dark horse no one saw coming. She served “fancy toast” for QC, and wins.
And LCK still has a beastmonster killing it in the challenges as well. I can’t recall - when does the 2nd round LCK winner come back into the competition?
Ahhh been traveling for work so missed it. Sounds like I missed something! DVR!
Like the Spanish Inquisition … no one expected THAT!
Count me as “sad”
And confused as to how LTK will work now.
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