MasterChef Recap: Prawn Stars

34 Comments

1. 1
   Andyourlittledogtoo
   Posted August 1, 2012 at 11:07 pm

   Excellent recap. Thank you.

   This episode was very unsatisfying to me. I think it is very weird that they keep giving them live seafood to work with, two of which could be dangerous, when they know they have a legally blind contestant this season. I think the producers keep hoping she’ll lose a finger or get poisoned or something. It’s disturbing. One might be a reasonable challenge, but three? Somebody somewhere is making book whether she survives this competition alive and with all her digits intact.

   Sometimes I feel like they are all told what roles they are supposed to be playing and they don’t have the chops to pull it off. (see what I did there?) Anyway, Becky is supposed to be excited little girl who is anxious to be teacher’s pet and WH is supposed to be underdog amazed to be there and you captured the ‘oh my gosh!’ expression very well. She reminds me of Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies. Becky reminds me of Gretchen from PR last season (if Gretchen had been a nine year old girl) in her completely obnoxious assessments of who ‘deserves to be a masterchef’ and who ‘isn’t masterchef material’. She is such a little snot.

   I want more cooking and more interesting challenges! Do you think they can hear me scream?

2. 2
   atcmurph
   Posted August 1, 2012 at 11:26 pm

   I think I remember Josh saying the profiteroles looked like “baby poop.”

   I wish Becky hadn’t forked over the rice. I’m way over BR. I mean, really, if you’re making rice pudding and you forget the rice…GTFO. And his whole demeanor just rubs me the wrong way. I guarantee when he gets ejected he will not go gracefully.

   Thanks for the always fantastic recaps!

3. 3
   Chris Velazquez
   Posted August 2, 2012 at 12:22 am

   Man, such hostility towards Monti. Que carajo ha hecho ella? That’s spanish for “what the fuck did she do?”, cause I don’t understand the hostility. If she was a jerkass, sure, but she’s arguably one of the nicest contestants. She’s also kinda funny in a way, which I appreciate, I need the chortles. I’m still baffled by how she’s the most un-Puertorican looking Puertorican I have ever seen, though…

   I do agree, too many seafood challenges so far, it’s getting stale. Daredevil did mke me chuckle when she mentioned it being a disadvantage, considering the first time she was given a live ingredient, she had the ebst damn dish out of 14 people. But I agree there needs to be more variety, like that cupcake challenge from season 1 that I also enjoyed a lot. There have been several dessert ones this time too, but at least they keep adding twists to them, like this one.

   Bacon would not be difficult, sure, but corn and beets would not be that hard either. They both got an inherent sweetness to them, and beets have the highest sugar content of any vegetable, though it needs to be boiled or roasted first to coax it out (thank you, Sweet Genius, for teaching me more baking stuff). I wonder if they’d have an ice cream machine here, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any. That being said, your cornbread bread pudding does sound like a great idea for a dessert, and I will also try using the word “amazeballs” one of these days.

   I personally would’ve given the rice to BR too, namely for the reasons that I was raised that way and that I know I could bang a kickass dessert and not worry one bit about him (I suck as a cook but am pretty damn good at baking). Josh’s attitude has gotten more smug, and I don’t know whether to be surprised or not that he’s the only one who wouldn’t have forked over the rice. On the one hand, it makes sense, since he’s kind of a douche at times, but on the other hand, one would think his ego would want to give BR the rice just to prove Josh can kick BR’s ass in a dessert. Then again, after two good desserts, he went and banged out that creme brulee that looked like something that someone fished out of an outhouse after a big heaping of corn on the cob and mashed potatoes with extra gravy, so…

4. 4
   Ehyeh
   Posted August 2, 2012 at 1:06 am

   @Chris Velazquez

   honestly i wasn’t even that impressed with Josh’s “winning” dessert in the wildcard round. it looked like loose bowel swimming on a pool of blood. you compare that dish to what Stacey put out which is considerably more complicated and both looked good and tasted good, it was a big question mark for me how she didn’t make it over Josh or Ryan in the top two. it’s like it’s been already decided even before they made the dishes to have Josh and Ryan duke it out.

5. 5
   sarcasatire
   Posted August 2, 2012 at 2:28 am

   I also thought Josh said Felix’s dish looked like baby poop. In fact, it reminded me of those fake dog poop molds that a kid could order to freak out their friends. Except, not brown enough. If baby poop looked like that, I’d suggest more iron.

   @Dangerously, I cracked up at your grammar lesson. Made me recall this video which explains the your/you’re conundrum in a hilarious hip-hop vid. Hello Goyte, it’s me, Sarcas!

6. 6
   chaosbutterfly
   Posted August 2, 2012 at 4:42 am

   I also thought that Josh said baby nipples. I remember laughing so damn hard, because it didn’t make any sense. And then Teddy said that it looks like joke poop, which made more sense to me.

   Anyway, this episode was a gross miscarriage of justice.
   I don’t even like Felix like that, but she’s way more competent than BR. But maybe something was up with her…when Gordon came by, she seemed so stand-offish and I feel like she’s normally not like that. But you know, maybe the producers just have a hard-on for BR. I usually watch this show on demand, and one of the commercials has BR doing this food-network style demonstration for how to roast peppers and take the skin off, and none of the other contestants had one. I always wait to see someone else, but it’s always BR all the time. It’s the oddest thing.

   And I did miss Josh’s facial expressions.
   So funny.

7. 7
   MummyButterfly
   Posted August 2, 2012 at 6:42 am

   @Chris V – Most (“most”) of the peeps here who don’t love Monti can’t stand her attitude about how she “HAS TO WIN THIS SHOW FOR HER SON”. Not her cooking as much as this idea she seems to have that other people can do without winning, but this show is the only thing that can save her and her son from eternal doom of poorness. It’s annoying.

   As for Becky and the Rice – she was screwed either way. If she didn’t hand over the rice, it would have been portrayed as “that B-tch, we KNEW SHE wouldn’t give him any”. If she did – “that B-tch, she just thinks she is SO MUCH BETTER than he is, it won’t matter.” I wouldn’t be surprised if they had Daredevil’s “assistant” slip the rice in Becky’s basket and whisper “you MIGHT need a backup” in the pantry…

   I am glad Josh is still here, he (and Daredevil) were my ponies, and I am with him on the “I wouldn’t have handed the rice over, sorry you sucked in the pantry…”

8. 8
   Dangerously
   Posted August 2, 2012 at 9:56 am

   @ChrisV – If I recall correctly, you had a similar disagreement with my opinion of Suzy Singh last season. I think the best I can say is that we clearly are bothered by different personality traits/flaws There is probably no one on this entire show who can’t be hated by someone (ok, maybe DareDevil)…so it just comes down to which traits you can tolerate and which make you grind your teeth. We obviously have different lists. Also, there’s the stuff that MB listed above. And, honestly, she doesn’t seem like that nice of a person. I would definitely not hand her a knife and then turn my back.

   @MB – I was thinking the same thing, actually, regarding Beckster. And I still think that at least half of those contestants were lying their balls off about how they would’ve given up the rice. Especially to that shithead. Unless…they were all of the same mindset as Becky, and basically did it because it might help get a stronger competitor eliminated…which doesn’t make any of them any better as people than Josh.

9. 9
   Leto
   Posted August 2, 2012 at 10:38 am

   First, I was crushed to see Felix go. But as Ben Starr said on his blog, Masterchef likes its parity, and there was no way one of the guys would be eliminated this week.

   BUT, more importantly: Dangerously, I so love your cylon jokes ^^.

10. 10
    Ehyeh
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 12:00 pm

    @Dangerously

    Honestly judging from how these contestants interact on twitter and what some of the eliminated contestants have said about their experiences on the show (including from the past seasons), I would believe that most of these contestants were telling the truth about willing to share the rice IF they had it. Most of these guys were “close” and have all bonded despite what the editing and their talking heads might tell us. They are competitive but not ruthlessly competitive. Not giving the rice (if you have it) is not the same as “I’m going to screw these guys” with my advantage in the mystery box challenge which is producer(judge)-motivated. The former affects the contestants on a more personal level as opposed to the latter which is just playing with what the producers/judges are directly telling them to do.

    Other things that we didn’t see much from the show:

    -You may be wondering about Monti and David’s relationship. Those two didn’t suddenly become chummy in this episode nor they were enemies and hated each other to begin with during that team challenge episode that got Anna eliminated. Those two were already close like bradah and sistah way back in the auditions.

    -Felix AND Monti did not want to give Josh the immunity (the episode where he got eliminated) because he was serving many RAW steaks to the cowboys (contrary to what the editing had us believe that he “saved” Becky’s station when he took over). At least these were Felix and Monti’s claims on twitter which Josh (and the other contestants) did not challenge.

    -Christine curses like a sailor. Even she admits it herself on her twitter and facebook. As a joke she gets routinely pranked by the guys (Scott and Frank) by having one of the production crew (whose job is to inform the contestants what to prepare for the next day) send her messages to her iPhone laced with profanities (which Christine uses herself). From the contestants, only Christine is allowed to have an iPhone (although she’s prohibited from making outside calls) as a tool that would read out loud the messages that she receives from the production crew as well as the recipes taught to them in their classes.

    -Referring to above, all of the contestants take classes on basic/intermediate skills (kitchen tools, baking techniques and recipes, etc.) regularly. But the lessons taught to these contestants aren’t necessarily useful on the episode that they tape the next day. Sometimes these lessons only get useful at the very later part of the season while there are also some that don’t get used at all.

11. 11
    unwise
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 12:02 pm

    I would miss BR but only for one reason. The nickname he was given made me laugh harder than anything all season. Whenever I see Beautiful Rhinoceros written out I crack up all over again. So I would miss that.

12. 12
    Chris Velazquez
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    @Ehyeh, you’re right, I forgot Josh’s dessert that looked like dog shit and blood. That still should not have been chosen over Stacey’s kickass homemade pasta and ricotta and Mike’s awesome looking flan, but like I’ve said before, the judges seem to have a hard-on for him.

    @MummyButterfly, honestly, I don’t blame her for saying that stuff. Whether she’s doing good or not at home, I don’t know, but the prize money for winning this competition would be a damn good bonus for just about everybody there. I’d say the same thing myself, cause I got bills to pay.

    @Dangerously, I do remember our disagreements over Suzy last time, but I did change my mind about her. Normally, she was overly smug and obnoxious, but I did not hate her for it and it made me chuckle. When she started trash-talking contestants, then I changed my tune and got to hate her too. Smug I can handle, but smug and condescending? Fuck no. That’s the reason I’ve hated on Christian, Max, Too Tall Josh, FE and AAliens this season. Monti may be an oddball, but at least she’s self-aware enough to admit fuck-ups she commits and is supportive of others, plus she doesn’t do much of the trash-talking. Except for FE, but almost everybody’s trash-talked him, for good reason. It’s different when one deserves to be trash-talked.

13. 13
    vallegirl
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    I HATE DAREDEVIL.

    Not really, but someone had to say it.

    I’m still baffled by how she’s the most un-Puertorican looking Puertorican I have ever seen, though…

    It’s a jibaro thing. My father looked like Ricky Ricardo but his brothers looked Swedish. Both had ruddy complexions with blond hair and either blue or green eyes. It happens.

    As for Josh being the only one who said he wouldn’t give BR the rice, I figured it was just an athlete’s mentality. If you’re opponent is unprepared to compete you don’t give him the tools to become prepared. It’s not the same as helping someone in need. You use whatever advantages you have to beat your opponent so if your opponent’s screwed himself, it’s foolish to help him out.

    The others don’t have that “sporting” mentality so they just saw Dave in need and since Becky was in a position to help him, she did. Neither response is “honorable” it’s just two different mindsets.

14. 14
    Dangerously
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 2:24 pm

    I think what bugs me the most about the whole BR and the (lack of) rice situation…is that he’s actually even allowed to ask them for it. Especially given the advantage he had. But it’s really not fair to anyone for him to ask for rice. This is a contest for $250,000. That’s a gorram lot of money. There should just be a rule against it. Because, since there’s not, of COURSE he’s gonna beg everyone for rice, and of COURSE someone is going to feel like the have to give him rice if they have it.

    I like the point about Josh being an athlete. Something tells me if a tennis player forgot his racquet(s) at Wimbledon, his opponent wouldn’t be all like “here, have one of my extras.” For these pretty normal-ass people, this is pretty much their Wimbledon.

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    Ehyeh
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    @Dangerously
    “This is a contest for $250,000. That’s a gorram lot of money. ”

    Very true. But you’d be surprised though that sometimes contestants forget this and that the title sounds more appealing to them than just the cash. It’s a pride thing, they want to beat the best people or the people at their best.

    The “I’m not making any friends” and “I have to purposefully screw people to get myself on top” mentality has become a long-time cliche in reality tv shows that it’s refreshing to see when contestants take the opposite route.

    I agree that Josh had a sporting mindset compared to the others. I just don’t know if I could agree with the Wimbledon sport analogy that makes his mindset better than the others’ mindset. Unlike Wimbledon where there’s a long preparation (and virtually impossible for a tennis player to forget his racquet), the contestants in Masterchef are only armed with their knowledge, they don’t bring their own kitchen tools into the competition, they are just suddenly thrown into many different situations and challenges. That’s a significant difference.

    It may sound like a goody-two shoes thing but I can see why there are people who take the high-road mindset. Like I said before it’s a pride thing. Since we’re talking about sports, let’s take for example the current Olympics incident in badminton where the Chinese players got booed and disgraced for intentionally throwing the game so that they can get the easier seed/opponent. It’s a reasonable strategy and it isn’t illegal in the current rules but the people did not appreciate what they did. You’d have to wonder if winning is all worth it if they don’t feel like they’ve earned the respect of the people watching their games. Again it sounds goody-two shoes but I can see the merit of such mindset.

16. 16
    vallegirl
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 4:56 pm

    That’s an apples to oranges thing. They manipulated the situation to their benefit. It’s “unsportsmanlike.” And in tennis, if its obvious that a player throws a set because they’re in a losing position, they generally get booed. Just ask Guillermo Coria who may or may not have thrown a set in the French Open final. And Justine Henin still hasn’t lived down quitting in the middle of the Australian Open claiming that her tummy hurt. Amelie Mauresmo was beating her like a drum and her ego couldn’t handle it so she quit.

    But not to help someone, either in the kitchen or on the court, isn’t unsportsmanlike. It’s just competition. As long as they’re not actively hampering their opponents it’s all fair. In this instance, Dave was given several advantages already up to and including not having to scramble to get ingredients from the pantry and he STILL forgot the most important one. None of the other six had those advantages so he was starting out ahead of them and Josh had already lost to him once.

    What if his rice pudding had been delicious and Becky’s dessert wasn’t? What if she’d been in the bottom and he hadn’t? In a way giving him the ingredient and saying she didn’t expect it to matter, anyway, was far more smug and arrogant than what Josh did. At least Josh respected Dave enough to think of him as competition that you don’t help do better. Becky just dismissed him and gave him the rice.

    I’m sure in real life, Josh is probably friendly and helpful with others. But in competition everyone’s equal when they enter the kitchen and if someone puts himself at a disadvantage, like Dave did, no one should feel like they need to help him.

17. 17
    Ehyeh
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    @vallegirl
    “But in competition everyone’s equal when they enter the kitchen and if someone puts himself at a disadvantage, like Dave did, no one should feel like they need to help him.”

    Yeah I agree. I don’t think it’s wrong for Josh to say that he wouldn’t give rice to David however I would also say that I don’t think it’s wrong or stupid for Becky, Frank and the others to say that they’re willing to give the rice to David. They have different mindsets to how they approach this competition, none of which is wrong unless it is against the rules.

18. 18
    Josh Darius
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    Long time reader, first time commentator, great stuff! The poor lady with the rich frames (maybe she found them on a bus?) reminds me so much of the blonde chick from season 1 I think, they could be sisters. This seasons cast is weaker, and Josh was brought back when they realized they dumped Token. No way that blood /crap and then that corn vomit beats anything. Also I kinda feel bad for BR, hes like that kid that gets picked on in HS. And the point of this message that I first wanted to say was that getting an advantage should never in any way, shape, or form be a negative. His dish doesn’t have to be any better because he had an advantage, he earned that by winning the box comp, once the cooking starts they should all be equal, that is Logical IMHO.

19. 19
    roger
    Posted August 2, 2012 at 10:21 pm

    ze acid!…it BUUUUUURNS! my eyez…ze googlez, ZEY DO NOTHINGGGGGGG!

    ehyah: a very good buffalo bills football player, thurman munson, lost his helmet during the pre-game excitement of a super bowl and even tho he found it after a short period of time was not a factor in the game (redskins-37 buffalo-24). missing rice…missing helmet…missing racket???? its all a racket. where are my GOGGLEZ????

    were they saying BOO! or BOO…URNS?

20. 20
    vallegirl
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 12:35 am

    FYI – You’re thinking of Thurman Thomas. Thurman Munson was the Yankee catcher who died in a plane crash.

21. 21
    roger
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 8:16 am

    thanks; quite so

22. 22
    LAC
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 9:46 am

    Josh Darius – watch the fucking “Token” remark, m’kay?

23. 23
    roger
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    i hate it when i mix-up thurmans

24. 24
    Yeknom
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    I wouldn’t have given BR the rice. He had 5 minutes in the pantry, how could he have forgotten the RICE for rice pudding?? I wouldn’t expect anyone to give me rice if I screwed myself that way. I think the thing that gets me is that he didn’t even attempt to think of another idea. He was relying on one of the other contestants to fix his f**k up. What if no one had rice…what was he going to do then?

25. 25
    sheesh
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 3:09 pm

    @valle…daaammmnnn. Is there anything you don’t know? I say this with respect (thumps chest with fist).

    I am pissed that BR didn’t suck it up and didn’t say “Baby nipple poop. No rice, ok what can I do with what I have?”
    That is how you compete.

    I really enjoy your recaps Dangerously.

26. 26
    Dangerously
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    I’m sticking with “baby nipples.” If nothing else it’s funnier…

    Always glad to know that at least some of you get some joy from reading these. It’s kinda the whole reason I do them. I mean…they’re fun, too….but mostly it’s that I know how much a good chuckle can brighten my day, and thus I try to pay it forward. Sappy, I know…but if it weren’t for you guys reading (and enhancing) these…I sure wouldn’t enjoy writing them.

    And lastly….I didn’t even read “Thurman Munson” the first time…just knew it was values story about Thurman Thomas. I was super confused when I read the correction early the next day….

27. 27
    emptymailbox
    Posted August 3, 2012 at 5:12 pm

    The whole rice thing is just silly. It’s happened a few times on Top Chef, and it’s silly there, too. This is supposed to be a cooking competition, not a “remember all of your ingredients when you’re grabbing things in a hurry” competition. As such, I’d rather beat somebody because I cooked better food than they did — not because I was simply shrewd enough to hoard an ingredient I wasn’t using.

    “They’re different mindsets and one isn’t necessarily better than the other” is complete tosh. I agree that they’re different mindsets, but one is vastly superior to the other. Eking out a win by outsmarting or putting your opponents at a disadvantage proves absolutely nothing, because this is a cooking competition, not a game of strategy or tactical warfare.

    If you want the money, and that’s all you care about, great. Just don’t expect anybody to respect you as a chef if you aren’t willing to let your actual skill as a chef do the talking.

    As a general rule, I’d rather see a challenge with an open, completely stocked pantry than one where contestants have to scramble to grab their crap, anyhow. Pointless limitations only serve to cause drama like this incident; they certainly don’t improve the quality of the competition.

28. 28
    Leto
    Posted August 4, 2012 at 2:55 am

    Being a chef isn’t just knowing how to cook. The ability to improvise, being reactive and creative are almost more important.

    I agree that people trying to fuck up their competition doesn’t deserve respect. However in that case I think David has fucked himself without the help of anybody. As much as I hate the mindset, don’t expect anybody to respect you as a competitor if you can’t pull yourself together and remember to take your MAIN ingredient, especially when you have time in the pantry alone.

    And about limited time in the pantry, I think it puts everyone on an equal footing (well maybe not Christine, who can’t run into the pantry, but it never seemed to disavantage her), and I see nothing against it. They are supposed to be reactive people, to think fast.

29. 29
    vallegirl
    Posted August 4, 2012 at 8:50 am

    @sheesh – It was just a perfect storm of sports I know a LOT about. I’ve been following Yankee baseball (Bills football, not so much, but I did remember Thomas’ boneheaded mistake) and professional tennis since I was little so the name “Thurman Munson” jumped out at me and I don’t think I missed a major or semi major tennis tournament since 1990.

30. 30
    emptymailbox
    Posted August 4, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    @Leto:

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you on those points. My comment was a reaction to the whole “I would/wouldn’t have given him rice” thing. Sure, BR wasted his advantage and by no means deserved to have anybody give him rice — but there’s no reason not to share unless you actually intended to use the rice, or you’re simply being petty.

    He lost what little respect I had for him when he screwed up with his selections in the pantry, and maybe he would have won some back if he had made the decision to make do with what he did grab and come up with a new recipe on the fly. Still, let’s not pretend that swallowing your pride and having the courage to ask somebody else for help doesn’t count as reacting or improvising.

31. 31
    Josh Darius
    Posted August 8, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    LAC, just a South Park fan…..anyways after watching the episode how blind is Christine? Sure seems she gets lots of help from her “assistant”. Legally blind in CA I will google, not that I have anything against her but something seems a little fishy out of the box sometimes.

32. 32
    Chris Velazquez
    Posted August 11, 2012 at 1:25 pm

    @Josh Darius, as far as I know, Christine is not fully 100% blind, and she was not born blind to begin with, it’s a disease that has been making her go blind, and she is legally blind now. From what I hear, she needs the right amount of light to “see” something, and even then it’s just a dim blurr.

    Her assistant Cindy does help her a lot, but it’s been both shown and established that Cindy is there only to guide her around, hand her the stuff Christine asks for, and tell her stuff like what color something is. Cindy’s not allowed to help in any way with the prep and cooking process. I find this to be fair to her, it helps her get over the setback of being blind without having an unfair advantage over the others.

33. 33
    Josh Darius
    Posted August 17, 2012 at 3:28 am

    Thx Chris, didn’t want to root against Christine, Christine or Lasagna Boy would be worthy winners, Becky too but I hope not. Even Ray Ban would be Ok, seems like this season has a lot of likeable characters when I think about it

34. 34
    tvgasmlostmyusername
    Posted September 30, 2012 at 8:19 am

    Been watching this on dvr which I recorded long ago. Hope someone reads this but in regards to Gordon’s nam comment.

    He traveled to Vietnam on a show of his called Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escapes.

    Season one had him traveling around India experiencing the sights and cuisine and cooking it. There were Indian cuisines that are unheard of in the US and the UK and even to the majority of Indians. He also met a real cannibal in a part of India considered very dangerous with the population of that area astonished to meet a white person.

    Season two had him toil around Southeast Asia with the Vietnam episode having him experiences various live cuisines and in regards to the soup he was on a cramped rowboat for several hours making traditional soup and selling it to the crews of fishing boats.