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.

Yes. And I agree with lisah that tasting the prepared foods was really smart. Did he say he had never cooked Indian food (which is what I heard), or that he had never had it (which is what Padma says later)?

I could have made something from every cuisine, and I'm just a home cook. I'm not saying that it would have been stellar, but I had an idea or a place to go for every cuisine- a starting point to think about, I would not have been flying blind as some of these chefs seemed to be.

This. Although, that may be because I lived in NY for so long. Chinese and Russian would have been the hardest for me I think.

I loved the quickfire, although I knew immediately that the Europeans would win.

Other questions:
Did Radihka say she was first-generation Indian? I'm going to assume she meant American.

What was the water flowing by the Brooklyn Bridge? Is that some new fountain?

Finally, Jean-Georges!

I could have made something from every cuisine, and I'm just a home cook. I'm not saying that it would have been stellar, but I had an idea or a place to go for every cuisine- a starting point to think about, I would not have been flying blind as some of these chefs seemed to be.

Exactly!

I think Chinese would have been hard just because there are so many options.

We are all trying to figure out if the girl from Baltimore (Jill) was wearing a Nancy Reagan t-shirt ironically or not. Either way, I like her so far. She seems to have a good sense of humour.

Want. To. See. Ep!!

(But I'm w/ Vortex, Megan, and Lisah on this - I'm not a professionally trained chef, and I've made Russian and Chinese food at home before.)

Well, and it's not like they had to come up with these different styles using stuff from the pantry - they had the opportunity to see what was in the store, what the ingredients, spices, what the smells were - and a lot of those stores seemed to have a deli counter or something similar - more of them could have done what the one kid did.

TC Where are they now article.

What was the water flowing by the Brooklyn Bridge? Is that some new fountain?

I didn't notice, but it must have been the (now gone) "waterfalls" they had up in the river. Art.

It seemed like the middle-of-the-pack people did have a starting idea, and made it work fine. I'm thinkig of the smoked fish on the latke -- she thought of four or five things that scream "Russian" and made a plate with them.

Also, how Tara is that one woman??

So they're in Hoboken, right? Were the Atlas apartments taken?

The Chinatown dishes were pathetic - you can get that salad at the Cheesecake Factory for fuck's sake!

I was really surprised that the "Little India" team was shopping in Manhattan instead of Jackson Heights. (And I thought the Chinatown team should have gone to Flushing and the Little Italy team to the Bronx, but I'm kind of an outer borough snob that way.)

And I have to say, based on all the food competition TV I've watched, culinary school seems like a colossal waste of time.

Yeah, the locations they had were weird -- I'm sure it was for ease of shopping/filming.

I thought they were in LIC, but could be wrong.

One of the India people said they were in downtown Manhattan at one point. I know because my reaction was, wait, did they mean 6th Street = Little India?

Also, I had no idea what or where Ozone park was. Or that Jamaica, Queens was actually a Jamaican neighborhood.