I thought that, too. It's weird that they decided to make them go head to head.

I don't know about that - it seemed to me more that as the day wore on the crowd was more and more focused on getting the racer.

Agree. The paint throwers organized themselves into two columns and pretty much forced the later arrivals to run between them, pelting them pretty hard. (I wonder if that stuff stings if it's throw hard enough.) The first person through was barely noticed by the paint-throwing crowd.

TC: First they were paired up then they were told they would be going head to head. But, they knew they were competing against each other when they went shopping.

This will be my last TC on tv. I cancelled my cable and it should be gone tomorrow. I'll have to live through you guys and what I can find on the net.

I was really annoyed by the many chefs who said "I've never had X" or "I've never worked with Y". I would think that a professional chef would be familiar with other cuisines.

Seriously, even if you haven't cooked Italian very often, you've eaten it, haven't you?

I was really annoyed by the many chefs who said "I've never had X" or "I've never worked with Y". I would think that a professional chef would be familiar with other cuisines.

True, but that doesn't mean you're familiar with all of them. Russian cuisine's not exactly widespread, and Middle Eastern food's just catching on. No one can be expected to be familiar with everything. That being said ...

Seriously, even if you haven't cooked Italian very often, you've eaten it, haven't you?

Italian and Chinese food are fairly ubiquitous, even if both cuisines are often butchered by American interpretations. (Or, reasons why Victor refuses to eat at Olive Garden.) They're hardly alien.

On the whole, though, the Hawaiian guy was the one who nailed it in my book, because he wandered into a cuisine he wasn't familiar with (Indian) and began making associations and figuring out what things do. Which takes good instincts. I suspect a lot of those who got lost easy will be gone soon.

I loved that: "You didn't make what you thought you were making; however, you made a stellar something else!"

Yes, unbeknownst to him, he made a classic Indian dish.

Kudos!

Russian cuisine's not exactly widespread, and Middle Eastern food's just catching on.

Come on! That lady's from NJ not some isolated hinterland. Middle Eastern food has been easily available for years and years now. And, even if you aren't familiar you can make assumptions.

You've got to have some basic knowledge. If I could figure out basically what kinds of foods to do trained chefs should be able to.

The thing that they showed the Hawaiian guy doing that I thought helped him a lot was tasting some of the prepared foods at the store to serve as a reference for his dish. He should have just called his sauce "yogurt sauce" or something rather than invoke the cuisine of a different country.

Come on! That lady's from NJ not some isolated hinterland. Middle Eastern food has been easily available for years and years now. And, even if you aren't familiar you can make assumptions.

Oh, no arguments. I thought Tom was going to tear her apart for the "I can just read about in books" comment.