Apparently Ilan is opening something out west. I think.

I gather that the producers were hoping that keeping the contestants in kind of a lousy apartment during the competition would amp up the pressure. I don't think that they expected what they got. (Also, wasn't there some sort of unprecedented heat wave that year?)

Over at TWOP many posters in the Jeff thread have mentioned that they keep expecting him to speak in an Australian accent.

Jeff does look like Chase! I'm surprised that didn't occur to me.

The way we were introduced to him with the whole bit about how he checks with his sous chef to see how he looks rubbed us the wrong way.

That bothered me, too. But I liked the way he stood up for his team during the Foos/Thanksgiving Challenge, and the way he helped the others during Gayle's shower. I think he has a lot of pride in the food, whether he's winning or losing, and that strikes me as very professional. Also, he didn't gloat when his sorbet turned out to be a favorite and essentially made Stefan very wrong. He sort of grew on me.

I just turned on Survivor for the first time this season, and man, is that a crazy looking final four, or what? How is that guy fully dressed, bow tie and all?? Actually, tey all seem pretty well dressed, for Survivor.

Jeff looks so much like the guy who plays Chase on House that I'm having a really hard time taking him seriously. Nothing at all to do with his performance as a chef, ALL about the hair.

This! it drove me crazy in the episodes I was able to see.

I want to know where Sugar got lipstick for the "saying goodbye to fallen comrades" thing.

I thought it was leftover tribal war paint supplies. Red was Bob's color.

Yay Bob! Boo delay! Going to bed!

I don't think Eugene has the sophistication to make it through Restaurant Wars, to be honest

You may be right there. I think that Eugene has a shitload of raw talent, he needs some guidance and seasoning to be really great.

And he already gets defensive, to his detriment. The thing that Stephan was critiquing about his meal turned out to be exactly what the judges were baffled by. If he hadn't shouted so much and had given it some thought instead, he might have walked away from that differently. There's standing by your work, and then there's developing that professional critical eye that lets you evaluate and improve on your work. It's something I try to teach in music that's very difficult.

But I hope he gets that guidance and seasoning, because there's something about him that I really like.

What do you guys think about Hosea? I think he may be in the mix, too.

ugh, I wanted to like him but I'm still pissed about him using canned crab in that one challenge when his original bad choice (crab that wasn't local to the east coast AT ALL) fell through.

Jeff I don't like after he was super condescending and frankly, I think, pretty sexist on the Today show challenge.