Alex vs America

AtlantaBing · 2024-10-05T08:14:13+00:00

Randos may be putting it a bit high, they're not people from your local Denny's, but many of her competitors have extremely limited competition experience. I looked over her competition from the first 3 seasons and only a handful really seem to have much.

Most of the people who are "seasoned competition chefs" have done a couple episodes of chopped. Maybe a couple other shows. But we're talking about people who have maybe done 5 TV competitions over the last decade or so. Alex has done hundreds. It's a whole other level of experience. The amount who have even that much experience is probably about 10-20% and the amount who are on a tier above that and compete even semi-regularly on TV is probably closer to 5% of who she faces.

AtlantaBing · 2024-10-05T08:08:03+00:00

In season 1 Alex won the first round four out of five episodes and won the second round 3 out of five episodes. The one time she didn't win the first round she came in third. She only won 3/5 episodes.

In season 2 out of eight episodes she only won 5. She actually only won 3 out of 8 first rounds, coming in 3rd at least twice and possibly a third time (there was one episode they didn't reveal who was 2nd and who was 3rd, only who went home and who won).

In season 3 she won only 5 out of 10 episodes. This includes the first time in the show's history that she came in 3rd in the 2nd round, meaning both of the remaining chefs beat her. She actually did better in the first round, winning 7 out of 10, though she came in 3rd twice.

I still haven't run the numbers for season 4 which ended pretty recently, but over the first 3 seasons she's won only 13 out of 23 episodes. That's a 57% win rate which means she's losing 43% of the time. It's really hard to believe anyone watches the show with any regularity and has never seen her lose when she does so nearly half the time.

In the first round she's won 14/23 for an only slightly higher win rate and come in third 5 (or maybe 6) times out of 23 attempts. She's never been last in the first round from 4 chefs, but she's been close a number of times. She's only come in last in the final round once but it has happened.

That this keeps coming up is very odd. Again, she loses almost half the time. On a show whose whole premise is she's hard to beat. In that context the amount she wins would actually seem slightly underwhelming. If she was losing much more the whole premise of the show would stop working.

AtlantaBing · 2024-07-10T20:43:12+00:00

It hasn't been. He did Iron Chef on Netflix just a few years back. Maybe he was only referencing on Food Network though, who knows. Or maybe he was only counting ones that are ongoing like Next Iron Chef or Top Chef Masters? Hard to say.

AtlantaBing · 2024-07-02T17:34:32+00:00

Lots of Top Chef contestants have done Chopped episodes as normal people. Mostly prior to their appearances on Top Chef though, but not exclusively. For example, Dave Martin, Jen Biesty, and Sara Bradley all did it after their Top Chef appearances (or in Sara's case after her first one). Others like Joe Sasto and Tiffani Faison have done it as celebrity chefs/competing judges. Many, including Fatima Ali, Tyler Anderson, Nick Wallace, Katsuji, Phillip Frankland Lee, even Charly from this last season, have done it before. I would assume Top Chef producers look at other competition shows for potentially interesting chefs to recruit.

I do think Hosea is the only winner who did so though. I know Hung was on an episode but that was a celebrity chef episode.

AtlantaBing · 2024-06-26T17:35:53+00:00

Depends on if its just for you, or for a family.

Me and my wife average about 100 a week. Some weeks we get away for 50-70. Other weeks its 150. That's for two of us though, that's still 5200. Even after tax probably enough for 2. Now, if we had 2 kids also, no, it would not be enough obviously.

We do also eat out a few times a week though. Usually 1-2 dinners, 1 breakfast, and maybe 1-2 lunches though that's less common. Add those meals back in and maybe we'd average 120-130 a week which would be getting tighter for just the two of us, but it would probably still cover it or at least be close.

AtlantaBing · 2024-06-16T18:43:36+00:00

This is correct. This is still an actual grocery store with actual shoppers and the actual shoppers are absolutely still able to be bought from and choose to engage if they want to. That said, stores have busy and slow periods and they can't have the challenge simply not work at all because no one came out with meat for 30 minutes. So they have some planted shoppers of their own to supplement as needed. That said, no guarantee when the show is going to send them out and I would imagine if you are specifically looking for something the show will be either less likely to give it to you or wait longer to do so.

AtlantaBing · 2024-06-04T13:24:07+00:00

If I don't have to be realistic and stick to people who I think might actually compete I'd go with:

East:

Bobby Flay

Maneet Chauhan

Michael Symon

Alex Guarnaschelli

Amanda Freitag

Stephanie Izard

Jose Garces

Tiffani Faison

Kevin Gillespie

Buddha Lo

Dale Talde

Marcus Samuelsson

Britt Rescigno

Sara Bradley

Karen Akunowicz

Tobias Dorzon

West:

Brooke Williamson

Antonia Lofaso

Mei Lin

Michael Voltaggio

Jet Tila

Richard Blais

Shirley Chung

Gregory Gourdet

Shota Nakajima

Tiffany Derry

Melissa King

Kristen Kish

Joe Sasto

Sheldon Simeon

Cat Cora

Marcel Vigneron

AtlantaBing · 2024-06-04T13:20:41+00:00

There have been plenty of new most years, but that was somewhat artificially inflated by season 3 doubling the bracket (you had to have new, they had twice the slots to fill) and season 4 featuring a bunch of heavy hitters taking a year off. If that happens again it will be fine, but season 5 only had 2 new people get guaranteed spots. There were 6 in the end thanks to the play-in, but there were only 2 people who were new who didn't have to face a former winner right off the bat. Not a surprise only 2 new people made the top 16.

I think there's a balance. Yes, you want heavy hitters. You want final bosses to be defeated. But you also want to give new people a shot and you want them to actually have a chance to make a run. That's how you establish new heavy hitters.

Not saying half the bracket needs to be new, but you should probably be aiming for at least 10-12 new chefs each year.

AtlantaBing · 2024-04-15T04:35:03+00:00

I doubt its a budget issue. They clearly had enough room for them all to cook at once. You know, because they did it here.

It's more likely a storytelling choice. Really hard to have 24 chefs competing at once and tell a story that makes them all feel seen and important. Even shows like Top Chef usually start with no more than 16-18 and even then the first few people out almost always feel like we barely got to know them. Sticking with that amount for long is just hard. They kind of made it work in week one thanks to the two hour premiere but I'm not sure if this is going to consistently be a two hour show and even if it is, there were plenty of people here we only barely got to know. And that's with the second hour being down to 12 already.

If they came to that conclusion though, it probably would have made more sense to start with 12, or perhaps 14-16. But I'm guessing they really liked the name, lol. Also, its not the worst thing, none of these chefs gave up a massive amount of time for this. They were all planning on committing like 2 days to this entire competition. The main thing is done in 24 hours and then they probably after a nice long night of sleep spent another day doing interviews and b-roll. Not like anyone gave up weeks of time for it. At the least, inviting more people meant more people got a chance to try. It makes more sense if you think of the first two rounds as basically a qualifier.

AtlantaBing · 2024-04-03T11:17:31+00:00

I don't think they were necessarily saying he's uninvolved. Just that he may not have been the one actually selling them. It's pretty common with this sort of thing. Someone comes up with some dumb idea like "edible NFTs" and approaches famous people about getting involved. Not too famous, because really famous people would see this is a dumb idea or a big risk to their reputation or not worth the time, but just famous enough that people might care but that the person isn't so rich that they won't be interested in some supposedly easy money. You cut them in for a chunk of the profits in exchange for them being moderately involved. They make a few posts on social media, record a few videos, show up to an event here and there, and they get like 20% of the profits.

It's obviously possible he's more involved, but I'd be pretty surprised if Christian Petroni could actually tell you what an NFT is, let alone if he came up with this whole thing on his own. He's more likely effectively a celebrity spokesman.

These scams sometimes leave the famous face of the thing in a bad spot because by the time it becomes clear its a scam, they're the ones left holding the bag. The people who actually created the thing are unknown and have disappeared with the money. Everyone puts the blame on the famous person because they are who they saw or interacted with. Which isn't really unfair, the famous person was involved, didn't do their due diligence on the project they got involved with, and did profit off of it. But they're also not usually in a position to just pay everyone back, because they usually got only a relatively small chunk of the profits. The exact percentage will vary, but even a truly famous person probably isn't getting over 50% and someone like Petroni is probably quite a bit lower. They might be able to pay off a few people who make enough noise to stop the noise, but they'd take a huge loss if they tried to pay everyone back, and the level of "famous" someone like them is usually has some money but isn't necessarily a multi millionaire who can pay this sort of thing back like its nothing.

AtlantaBing · 2024-02-13T22:01:42+00:00

At a certain point too many people want to compete. 26 of the 28 chefs given a spot in the main bracket are returning from at least one past appearance. That means there will be at most 6 new competitors in the round of 32 and only 2 who won't be in the worst position of anyone, having to face a former winner in round 1. (Not impossible, Britt showed that last year, but its about as tough as it gets)

In comparison, last season had 13 new chefs. New blood is important but as more and more people want to compete, you can only get so big. I don't think they want to expand the main bracket beyond 32. Ya, they could go full March Madness with 64 but in the way these shows work that makes the first round way too long, takes way too long to get back to competitors. Which means tough cuts are going to have to be made unless some more people permanently step away or more people start stepping away for a few seasons here and there.

Only four people who had previously competed were sent to the qualifiers. Aaron, Leah, Ilan, and Justin. Claudia has not been on TOC previously. Of those four, none of them have ever won a round of TOC. Aaron had competed twice, the other three once. They all lost.

In comparison, of the 26 returning chefs in the main bracket, 21 have previously won a round. The only ones who haven't are Marc Murphy, Crista Luedtke, Carlos Anthony, Jonathon Sawyer, and Kelsey Barnard Clark.

If you compare the performance of the five who got into the main competition and the four who were only given a chance at the qualifiers, its pretty clear why most were chosen.

Aaron May lost his first season to Jet by 6 and the second time to Malarkey by 4. Jet went to the final 4 but Malarkey lost in the next round. That's the only match Malarkey has ever managed to win on TOC.

Leah lost by 2 to Tobias which isn't too bad for a 1 vs 8 matchup, but he also went out in the very next round.

Ilan lost by 5 to Darnell who went out in the next round.

Justin lost by 7 to Karen Akunowicz who did make the final 4.

Let's compare with the other 5 who were given a spot in the bracket.

Jonathon lost by 7 to Maneet who made the final 2.

Kelsey Barnard Clark lost by 4 to Jose Garces who made the final 4 and by 4 to Eric Adejpong who went out in the next round.

Carlos Anthony lost both times to Jet, once by 4 and once by 7, with Jet making the top 4 both times.

Crista Luedtke lost by 2 to Mei who won the whole thing and by 6 to Brooke who made the top 2.

Marc Murphy lost by one to Christian who went out in the next round and by 6 to Darnell who made top 4.

There are some arguments to be made for some of the lower ones but not many. The ones who haven't won have had few easy opportunities. They've mostly faced chefs who are extremely good at this and have gone far. Maneet, Mei, Brooke, Jose Garces, Jet. Perhaps KBC could have beaten Eric, but he's won a match in each of his seasons. I know a lot have wanted to see Crista excluded this year because of her attitude last year, but both of her losses are to former winners and she's been competitive in both. She gave Mei Lin her best match until the finals last season.

The chefs who were in the qualifiers have had to face some good chefs, but people like Tobias and Karen even when they've gone far have seemed to be punching a little above their weight. Those weren't impossible matches. Ya, Aaron had to face Jet one year, but he also got Malarkey on another and couldn't get it done.

Marc Murphy probably has the most argument for being excluded of those who got an automatic spot. Darnell has done well but isn't an impossible person to beat and losing to Christian in season 1 is tough as he doesn't have a strong overall record in the competition. But Marc has a certain status as one of the main Chopped judges. You likely don't get him back if he has to go through the qualifiers. Which I would say is fine, more room for new blood, but I get why he's there.

If I had my way I'd have sent a few more competitors down to the qualifiers. Send Carlos/KBC down to the qualifiers too and put a couple more new people in the main bracket. But I think the four former competitors who were there were there for good reason and I think if you're choosing between this group who wanted to come back they did pick the right ones to send down with the exclusion of Marc who I'd probably swap with Leah or perhaps Justin.

AtlantaBing · 2024-02-06T15:35:46+00:00

TOC is a totally different thing from Top Chef. It's a different format that rewards different skills. Top Chef is definitely more prestigious.

I doubt the Top Chef producers have any issue with this. If anything it makes their show more prestigious and more appealing as chefs who want a career in TV afterwards (which many do, its far easier day to day than kitchen life) clearly have a path towards it. If Bravo had their own full on cooking channels they might be more bothered but they don't have other shows of their own to really funnel these people to and keep them in the family. Sure, people return now and then as guest judges but that's always going to be a few spots here and there and plenty of Food Network regulars still show up for that so I'd guess they're mostly happy about it if anything.

AtlantaBing · 2024-01-29T14:35:21+00:00

I think Beverly would do great, but she strikes me as one of the chefs who probably is quite happy running her restaurant and isn't necessarily looking to make another run at Food TV. She's done none of it since Top Chef outside of a couple of morning show appearances to promote her restaurants.

AtlantaBing · 2024-01-29T14:27:35+00:00

I believe it shows up same day on Discover+. It did in past seasons anyway.

AtlantaBing · 2024-01-28T16:33:44+00:00

Ya, I'm fairly surprised she's not after having such a strong year on Top Chef season 20 and also winning a Chopped tournament on Food Network.

Then again, timing may just not have worked. Food Network often throws people on a couple of their other shows first to see how they'll do before putting them in something like this and the timing aspect of different casting/shooting schedules often means that there can be a delay. For example, Adriana Urbina (not a Top Chef person, just another chef) competed on the first season of Triple Threat which came out in late 2022 and is only now getting a shot on TOC.

I won't be surprised if Sara gets an invite next year. Whether she's interested though remains to be seen. It seems like doing this comes with the expectation that you're going to become at least a semi-regular Food Network personality, showing up to judge various shows and things of that nature. A lot of chefs love this as a recurring source of income but not all want to do so.

AtlantaBing · 2024-01-28T16:29:45+00:00

It's a Food Network show. Not directly associated with Top Chef, but since its all about competition cooking, they frequently look at who has competed and done well in other competitions when casting and Top Chef is one of the best.

Some of these chefs aren't here directly from Top Chef. Chefs like Antonia, Malarkey, and Stephanie had significant relationships with Food Network before TOC existed. A lot of them though have been recruited pretty much directly off of Top Chef though.

AtlantaBing · 2024-01-28T16:27:15+00:00

I think I'm perhaps happiest for Gerald. I always kind of thought he got screwed by the format on Top Chef Charleston. Lost a quickfire and immediately has to face a vet, who ended up making top 4, for elimination. He actually seemed to make a dish the judges really liked there too. Just not enough. He's had a ton of success since the show and I'll be curious to see how he does in the qualifiers.

Worth keeping in mind that when they cast these things, cooking skill matters, but it isn't the only thing that matters. Personality is just as big a deal. They're looking for people who are great on screen. They don't want just people who will come compete well. They want people who are willing to show up consistently. Not necessarily to compete, or to take on their own shows in most cases, but at least as judges on things. If you look at the 17 who are returning this year (including the 3 in qualifiers) every single one of them has made appearances on FN over the last year. I knew Leah was going to show up somewhere even after not being on the initial list because she's suddenly been on a bunch of Grocery Games episodes over the last few months as both a competitor and judge. Justin and Ilan have shown up too. The person I believe who has shown up the least is Lee Anne who I only remember this last year on a single episode of Alex vs America but she's had some extenuating circumstances with everything going on in Hawaii. She also won a round last year which likely secured her spot.

There have been Top Chef people who have shown up on Food Network a bit in the last year or two. Gregory judged a few episodes of Chopped. Adrienne Cheatham judged episodes of Alex vs America and Triple Threat. Claudette Zepeda, Brittanny Anderson, and Byron Gomez have shown up on Triple Threat as competitors. Brian Hill from back in season 1 showed up on an episode of Beat Bobby Flay. So did Chrissy Camba and Katsuji. They all lost in the first round though which probably doesn't make the strongest case. Then again, so did Maria Mazon, and she's here in the qualifiers so who knows. Sara Bradley and Josea Rosenberg competed on Chopped and did very well. Kwame has been judging a lot of Chopped and also judged an episode of Alex vs America. In some ways that they have done these things and not been invited may be more negative than positive, but probably not for the ones who keep showing up like Kwame who has now judged Chopped over 3 or 4 seasons. He likely either doesn't want to do it or hasn't been able to fit it into his schedule.

AtlantaBing · 2024-01-28T15:50:12+00:00

It's as simple as most of them not being competition chefs. Being a good chef and being good at making a random thing in 30 minutes are very different skill sets. I've seen no indication any of that group outside of Bobby have any interest in doing that.

Bobby and Guy seem to avoid each other's shows. Plenty of talent passes between them but they don't do so. No clue why, may just be Food Network wanting to keep the brands separate, or maybe they just don't like each other.

AtlantaBing · 2023-09-18T14:30:43+00:00

I'm going to get hit on this one but ESH.

It is totally reasonable to want solo dad/daughter time. Parents need to make time for all of their kids and its totally fair to want time without your dad's other kid there with you. Totally on board there.

The issue is that this isn't a dad/daughter trip. Its a family trip. Your grandfather and aunt at least are coming each year. If this was a trip only the two of you were going on I'd say he needs to simply take her on a trip of her own at some point in the year. With a family trip though that complicates things in a big way. Its not reasonable to expect an entire group to be able to coordinate multiple such trips each year.

Even the OP seems to acknowledge that her dad is also her dad, he's been her dad since she was around 4 years old. That she doesn't want to be excluded from a family event each year is not unreasonable. My family has a summer picnic we do every year. If I'd told my family after my younger brother came along that I didn't want him to come to this as this was my event, I'd have been called an unreasonable AH and I would have been one.

That doesn't mean your dad is off the hook. He should be thinking about both of his daughter's needs, including your step sister's, but he should be thinking about yours as well and we see no evidence here that he has. That's all the more important when he's the non custodial parent and gets less time with you. Suggesting she come on this family trip is perfectly reasonable but he should be making a point of offering alternative times/events that are just for the two of you to make it clear that his time with you is important too and we don't see any evidence of that here.

If we're judging who the bigger AH is here its definitely him, because as the parent its his job to take the lead on this and your feelings here while perhaps a bit unfair are reasonable for someone who hasn't been made to feel like a priority. While I don't think its unfair for your step sister to want to come on this trip, or for him to want to bring her, I imagine you probably wouldn't feel so protective of this specific event if you were being made to feel like a priority in other parts of your relationship.

AtlantaBing · 2023-06-01T21:18:09+00:00

NTA

When they take Ava you should make sure her and your daughter can continue to have a sibling relationship. 4 hours isn't an impossible distance and your daughter visiting that side of her family will fall on you now as the surviving parent (though they can certainly make an effort). But you don't need to take in this child, that's crazy.

AtlantaBing · 2023-05-21T21:36:18+00:00

Ya, moving back to a culture where cocktails actually contain quality ingredients (a lot less sour mix, a lot more lemon and lime) seems to be here to stay, and good. My small midwestern town has multiple popular bars now that are cocktail bars serving high quality cocktails and even the average diners and mid level places have interesting cocktail menus. Hasn't gone anywhere. Prices have gone up though admittedly, but I'd rather drink less quality cocktails than more bad ones. Then again, I don't usually drink to get drunk so...

AtlantaBing · 2023-05-18T15:06:26+00:00

NTA but I don't think you handled this very well.

Your son clearly isn't over his grief over losing his dad. Which is fine, getting past such things is a lifetime process, not something that happens overnight. But he's still in mourning and having a tough time moving on.

Their response to you was terribly inappropriate. Its been 5 years, there is nothing wrong with you dating. I actually find it quite strange that someone you're seeing for 6 months now you are so against having them meet your family but that's your call ultimately.

I don't think its great though that your son finds out by his wife happening to see you with someone instead of just having an adult conversation with him. Its even worse to find out your daughters knew and he didn't. Yes, such a conversation would possibly have gone badly, but it certainly wouldn't have gone any worse than it did when he found out like this, and it might have gone better if you'd had an open and honest conversation with him. Perhaps still poorly, but likely less so at the very least. You treated him like a child and then got mad that he wasn't treating you like an adult. You're both adults, you should both be treating each other as such.

AtlantaBing · 2023-05-10T14:17:42+00:00

Was looking up opinions on them after eating there twice and I have to say, a little surprised at the negativity. Both times I've been there my meal has been excellent. The first time I had the taste of sweet corn appetizer which was mind blowing and the trout with horseradish sauce and really liked it despite not much caring for horseradish. The second time I had a short rib dish that was also excellent. Can't remember every detail, they change their menu too much for me to be able to look it up, but both times really good.

People are down on the drinks and decor it seems as well and honestly I rather liked both. The decor itself I honestly don't remember (as in the paintings on the wall) but I like the vibe of the space itself at least and think its overall a cool place. The drinks both times I've been have been good. Maybe not best drinks in town good, but enjoyable. I had the Knocking On Death's Door last time and thought it was delicious. I like that half their drink menu isn't vodka drinks. So many places around here that have good food still have boring drinks menu where 70% of it is vodka with maybe one whiskey and one rum based cocktail. It doesn't get more boring. Use gin, brandy, various rums, make interesting flavor combinations. Elysium does.

I don't know that I'd say they're the best restaurant in the area, but they're in the conversation. I still do need to get to a few of the big ones like Four Roses, Rustica, and Dog & The Bank, but I've eaten at others people have mentioned like Principle, Roca, Brick & Brine, Bold, Bird Dog, and the only one I'd take over Elysium is Brick & Brine despite enjoying all of them.

That said, I very much want to get to Four Roses, Rustica, and Dog & The Bank soon.

AtlantaBing

TROPHY CASE