The mother/chef - Jennifer?

They picked better camera presence over better cooking ability.

Ah. She was sweet, but she was really kind of a disaster.

(Road Tasted with the Neeleys, the new show that is essentially Follow That Food with Sunny whatserface.)

yeah, they are really pushing the Neelys. Which is unfortunate because I find them very annoying.

sumi, you raise good points, but 45 minutes to plan and prep 12 dishes? I still say that's a bad challenge.

Yeah, that's a good point -- I was going to say that the quick version of slow things is the Rachael Ray mission statement, but she only makes one plate. And, of course, has more time to plan out what she's doing, I'm sure!

And, of course, has more time to plan out what she's doing, I'm sure!

She rehearses every step of every show over and over and over to get it to time - I've never made anything of hers the first time in less than 45 minutes, simply because I don't have a full-time staff in my kitchen making sure that all the mise-en-place I need for dinner are right in the front of the fridge when I need them!

they should have somehow plated the three types of poultry together. My feeling was that you get the duck, the chicken and the turkey - cook them separatey but plate them so you can get a bit of all three together. Layer them maybe.

If they'd done a roulade with the same stuffing wrapped in the turkey breast, I bet they'dve had a better reception. It's not just the ingredients - they needed to make at least a nod to the original construction, which is after all the entire point of the thing.

But that's where they run into problems - at 45 minutes, you barely have time for the actual cooking process let alone the construction. I'm betting that with even an hour or 90 minutes they would have seen substantially better dishes.

Plus, there's the "I'm just going to finish up ____ during the break, and we'll be back. [commercial] Okay, during the break, I slaughtered a pig and made sausage, and sliced it up and threw it in the pan with our mushrooms and onions . . ."

I think that a lot of that stuff takes more than 2 minutes.

I haven't watched yet, but I think this is the worst crop of NFNS contestants they've ever had. It's the first season I can remember where I'm not rooting for anyone.

I only watched this one because it was the BA challenge. Nothing I saw made me want to watch more. At least I thought Amy and some of the others last season could teach me something about cooking.

That challenge was crazy and uneven. Beef Wellington was by far the easiest to adapt. The whole point of Coq au vin is that it cooks for a long time. I thought the judges had ridiculous expectations--they seemed to want the exact same dish, not just an interpretation.

Also, who the hell opens a juice jar by smashing it against the stove? Even if she had a hard time opening it, wasn't there a sink right there?

I don't have a full-time staff in my kitchen making sure that all the mise-en-place I need for dinner are right in the front of the fridge when I need them!

Sous Kitchen, I love you sooooo much!

The whole point of Coq au vin is that it cooks for a long time.

Though last year Amy did a quicker version using a chicken and they stomped her for it. Even she didn't do it in 45 minutes, though.

Though last year Amy did a quicker version using a chicken and they stomped her for it. Even she didn't do it in 45 minutes, though.

Don't even get me started on the concept of making coq au vin with a chicken.