And what he said earlier - that the biggest surprise was how poorly Richard did, makes me think that had Richard been on form - Stephanie wouldn't have won.

Well, maybe, but that's the game -- being able to perform that night.

Nigel spends too much time talking about how beautiful the girls are, seriously

::nods::

And his teeth bug me. They have to be dentures. I'm afraid they're going to pop right out of his mouth one day, shoot through my TV screen and bite me on the face. Scary teeth, dude, quit smiling so wide!

From the Metromix interview with Stephanie:

So … where are you going?

I'm working on doing another restaurant in Chicago.

Can you tell us more?

I'm trying to look for spaces right now. I'm definitely going a different route than the Bucktown neighborhood—maybe something a little closer to the downtown area. We're getting a lot of great new restaurants in the city right now, but I think we need a great new restaurant that's a little more affordable, [where] people can go have a great meal and don't have to spend $100 a person. I'm just really excited to start working on it.

Nigel spends too much time talking about how beautiful the girls are, seriously.

He's totally a dirty old man. If you are blond, have a good body in skimpy clothes and are halfway decent in dancing, you will get to Vegas.

Susie, QED, who would be so much more attractive with her natural hair color and about 95% less eye makeup.

He's totally a dirty old man. If you are blond, have a good body in skimpy clothes and are halfway decent in dancing, you will get to Vegas.

This, except I don't think he cares about hair color. There are too many crappy/skanky contemporary dancers on the show. And then annoyance #2 is the fake heteronormativity he forces on the men. Blerg.

Still, last night was very good.

I am also very pleased that they actually required them to make dessert.

I would have preferred it if they had been forbidden to make dessert. That way the judges could have eaten 4 courses that showed off their best efforts and nobody would have been able to play the "But I took a risk and made dessert!" card. Requiring a dessert did even the playing field, but it also forced all three of them to essentially waste one course out of the four.

He’ll probably do sous-vide pureed peas, and apple-juice “caviar.”

LOVE

"I cook simple food and I keep minimal ingredients instead of overthinking things,"

That comment annoyed the crap out of me. You cook Thai and Vietnamese food! Those are not "minimal ingredient" cuisines! Argh.

This, except I don't think he cares about hair color.

har. true, but I think that he prefers blondes. I mean, how else did Cat Deely get this gig?

Well, forced to make a dessert or being forbidden from making one - either of those is better than leaving it up in the air and then questioning the judgement of people who do either.

I kind of like Cat Deeley. It is possible I am a sucker for her accent, though. Also, I find watching her tower over the dancers endlessly amusing. She's listed at 5'9, and assuming she's wearing 3 inch heels most of the time, there are a lot of tiny tiny dancers on this show.