TAR 32, Recap Leg 1, 10/15/20

Welcome to Leg 1 of The Amazing Race 32! It’s been a long time since we’ve been together; in fact, this season taped in 2018, so Phil has to come on and remind us that this iteration of the Race happened pre-COVID. Anyway, the Amazing Camera moves around, and eventually land at the Hollywood Bowl in LA. The teams enter and line up in their rainbow of colorful shirts on the stage, the Starting Line for The Amazing Race 32. Phil then grills the 11 teams and makes them make snap judgements of each other. (Toyouke: “Look at Phil, encouraging everyone to stereotype their opponents.”) (click for more)

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TAR 32, Recap Leg 0, 10/7/20

Welcome back to the Amazing Race! It’s season number thirty-two. Which taped in 2018. We waited TWO YEARS for this. Now, to be fair, probably a wise more airing this in the middle of a pandemic, since we’re all wishing we could travel places right now, and some of us have a huge case of wanderlust. Also, it is to be noted that this is the first season in a while without a gimmick. (Toyouke: “Phil says in the intro video that we're back to letting "ordinary" people run the race. Right before he points out there are TWO teams made up of professional athletes and a team of Olympic athletes. Also the gay couple, both members have already been on reality TV.”) Oh, and I brought Toyouke along for the snark. Aren’t you lucky? (Toyouke: “Also, everyone is claiming they love trying new food when they travel so they'd better have a gross eating challenge to call them on it.”) We’ve read the bios, and watched the videos and read the bios, so let’s get to this shall we? (Toyouke: “Why are the individual team bios on Instagram? I refuse to get an Instagram account and this is obnoxious.”) The eleven teams for TAR32 are: (click for more)

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Top Chef:All Stars 6/18/20--"Finito!" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the final four contestants went to Parma,to explore both parmigiano reggiano and prosciutto de Parma. Then they had to make two courses, using those ingredients. Melissa won, again, because I think she is the one to beat. She made XO sauce with the prosciutto and the judges love her fusions. Stephanie cooked the prosciutto in both her dishes, which she wasn't technically supposed to do, but it turned out delicious so she is also in. Bryan was told his cooking didn't have any heart or soul, which I think really upset him. But his cooking was deemed better than Kevin's, and Kevin was eliminated. (click for more)

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Top Chef:All Stars 6/11/20--"Parma" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: we pretended the chefs went straight to Italy, even though they were in LA in the summer and it's clearly cold when they're in Italy. The Quickfire was to make aperitivos, which are supposed to be one-handed snacks to have with beer. Stephanie was the only person to make a hand-held item but apparently that was not important and Kevin won. Then everyone had to make dishes to be served with white truffles. This was tricky, because you have to showcase the truffles, which shouldn't be cooked. Melissa won, for making congee and staying true to herself. The bottom chefs all made OK dishes, but didn't showcase the truffle. So since they all failed in the same way, the judges said the judging was difficult. Stephanie served very bitter radicchio, and she knew it was bad but served it anyway. Gregory threw out his back, and made a stew he knew he could execute, but didn't go with white truffles. So even though the judges said his dish was perfectly fine, and Stephanie's dish was bad, Gregory was eliminated. I personally think if they all failed the challenge in the same way, then the person with the worst dish should go home, and from what we saw that was Stephanie. (click for more)

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Top Chef:All Stars 6/4/20--"Lucca" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: Kevin returned, and the Quickfire was to make two courses of “airline food”, which means it has to fit in the dish (so you could put it in an oven on an airplane) and also it can't be seasonal. Melissa won, so she got to pick out the dish she wanted to make for the Elimination challenge. Everyone went to Michael's Santa Monica, which is a very famous “California cuisine” restaurant. I had never heard of Michael McCarty but everyone else has. The chefs had to reimagine a classic dish from this restaurant, with most of them being 30 years old or older. Melissa won, again, but I would argue that since she picked a dish from last year's menu, updating it was extremely easy. But I'm not mad about her being in the finale. Malarkey had a snafu with serving (which was entirely not his fault), but it really threw him off. He seemed to be quitting, but then everyone told him not to, and then he was eliminated anyway. (click for more)

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Top Chef:All Stars 5/28/20--"Michael's Santa Monica" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: the Quickfire was a blind taste test to get ingredients for dessert. The more things you guessed correctly, the more possible ingredients, and the more time you had. Melissa won with olive oil cake. Then everyone had to make a kaiseki progressive meal for Olympic athletes. Kaiseki is usually very traditional, we're talking tea ceremony traditional. But this was less traditional. I mean everyone I think tried to make something Japanese but keep to the idea of delicate flavors and presentation. Stephanie won for making panna cotta, presented in lemon rinds. Karen was eliminated (for the second time) for not cooking her duck properly, and not cutting the slices properly either. (click for more)

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Top Chef:All Stars 5/21/20--"Colossal Coliseum Kaiseki" summary

Previously on “Top Chef”: everyone had to go up to a fancy campground to cook brunch for a mom's group. So rich white ladies (they were mostly white, don't act like you didn't see that) pay to get away from their kids for a long weekend. The contestants had to first do a Quickfire with baked beans, which Lee Anne won. Then brunch, but they had to get up early to do prep, instead of the day before. Maximum drama. In the end no one made eggs because everyone who was going to messed up. Bryan won, for making his Bryan fancy food out of whatever was left in the pantry. Lee Anne made two bad dishes, and was finally sent home. There was a tiny bit of drama, where she blamed Bryan for having the oven on steam so her clafoutis got ruined, but he had the oven first and she never checked. So it's not like she set the oven and someone changed it. (click for more)

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