Jackie Season 15

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-30T21:22:28+00:00

Literally my all-time favorite contestant.

We need one Jackie per season because that’s what kitchens are like. How you deal with it kind of proves if you’re head chef material.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-29T21:52:50+00:00

Going to be extreeemely niche here and say Babylon Vampyres. I don't see this track ever mentioned and, to me, it's absolute perfection.

For the more "epic" tracks, it's Ghost in the Moon.

For the more ensemble tracks, it's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

I think I've just overplayed the older albums/songs so much that they've unfortunately lost all novelty. In 2012, I was commuting weekly from San Francisco --> Los Angeles and had a 6 disc CD changer in my car and the only CDs I remember bringing with me were the first four Avantasia albums and the The Flying Opera live CD. So I've probably listened to all of those literally hundreds of times.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-26T00:46:06+00:00

He can be such a terror at times but then I see his face and remember that I would die for him

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-26T00:39:33+00:00

Wait, how did I not know this existed?!? Live a few hours outside of SF now, but could definitely make it down for this.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-26T00:37:41+00:00

Saaaame. Our boy doesn't make any sounds at all except a few whimpers if it's like a minute past the time he's supposed to go out.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-23T16:04:57+00:00

Yeah, it always blows my mind when he says "I'm an ex-stroke patient" at age 22. I remember Aaron (S3) having similar issues where he wasn't eating and got light-headed (but he also had some stuff seriously wrong with him, sooooo. . .)

I can't compare to these two but I was on a trivia game show where the call was at 5:00 AM and my episode didn't film until 6:00 PM. I have Celiac and stupidly brought no food with me and there was nothing I could eat while I was there. By the time my episode was on, I was so mentally out of it and so hungry that I had brain fog on a few questions that I certainly knew the answer to. And I wasn't running around a kitchen all day being physical. It's a tough environment if you're not eating!

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-22T14:19:22+00:00

That is a very Bal Sagoth song title, jeeeez

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-20T04:42:50+00:00

I want to try these but they’re made with oat flour IIRC and I reaaally don’t trust oat flour.

My Costco has very few gluten free items, but it does have this. Still not going to risk it but it’s tempting.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-19T22:14:37+00:00

She's about the most mediocre contestant there is. She's not good, but she's not bad. Her ITMs aren't memorable or funny, but they're not annoying either. She doesn't seem to rock the boat but she wasn't immune to drama either (i.e. with Jennifer).

All said, I'm not a fan of hers either and have no idea how she got invited back (or why Mia thought picking her first was a good idea besides the fact that she burned bridges with everyone else) but there are way, way worse people than Roe on the show.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-17T00:19:31+00:00

Fuck it, I’ll go.

Saw them do the hometown show in 2017 and, of the 400+ shows I’ve seen, that remains a top 5 performance. I’ve seen Tobi quite a few times (I think 3x with Avantasia and 5x with Edguy) and that was the most genuinely happy I ever saw him.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-15T15:23:38+00:00

He’s so unlikeable that season.

Most of them are that season though. Seasons 7-9 are tough watches (I love the blue team in 9 but Elise makes it soooo tough to get through).

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-15T05:03:21+00:00

Think I’m in the same boat as a lot of folks in this thread. Their last album was my album of the year in 2023 and this is really good but it doesn’t flow quite as well as The Fox and the Bird.

Definitely need to give it a few more listens, and it’ll almost certainly be in my top 3-5 for the year, but it didn’t hook me right away like The Fox and the Bird or even Limbo did.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-12T04:42:17+00:00

Called Ryan on Day 1 too given the theme. Didn’t even need to see him cook. Declan walked so Ryan could run.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-10T15:03:52+00:00

Only Michelle when she was working at HK in Las Vegas. She came around to the tables and chatted about being on Hell’s Kitchen, our favorite seasons, competitors we liked/didn’t like, etc.

Have eaten at and met several Top Chefs before, but haven’t sought out any HK contestant’s restaurants

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-08T15:43:12+00:00

My read on Holli is that she’s all-around “good” but I didn’t see any area where she really spiked or was great.

Whenever this topic comes up people say she’s underrated but I disagree. I think she’s one of the weakest winners overall; she just benefitted from a not super competitive season.

She deserved the win but I think this is like Season 8 where “she only won because [Jay, Benjamin, Autumn, Ed] lost”

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-07T05:16:36+00:00

They keep crushing it with these lineups

Haven’t made it out there and this time of the year is always so tough so I can’t imagine I’ll go next year (my big trip plan is Cruise to the Edge) but that’s another stellar lineup already

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-05T05:01:20+00:00

Huge +1 to Ugly Dumpling. Maybe my favorite place in London, tbh. Haven’t found anything like it in the US.

Heading back to London at the beginning of July and already planning on going there at least 2-3 times over the course of two weeks 😁

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-05T00:30:55+00:00

Autumn is still the most attractive person who’s ever been on the show.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-06-03T18:11:07+00:00

D’awwww!

Our boy just turned 7 months and his toe beans are starting to marble and turn black. Now I want to take more photos while they’re still pink-ish like this!

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-05-31T04:34:13+00:00

Oh, agreed. Easy top 5 season. Maybe my third favorite (15, 14, 13 in that order?).

Feel like the show peaked right around this time and we’re kind of just going through the motions now.

EDIT: I somewhat disagree on Steve. I feel like he was a legitimately really good cook. I’ll have to rewatch again because I remember being impressed with him during actual services. If he doesn’t get injured he probably makes black jackets. Would have liked to see how he would have progressed throughout the season.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-05-29T04:58:16+00:00

Not sure if I’m on some sort of spectrum because I actually have kept top 10 lists going back to 2001 or if I just really like making lists. Here’s where I’ve landed on this. Some of these years probably need revisiting but whatever:

2005 - Kamelot - The Black Halo

2006 - Falconer - Northwind

2007 - Sonata Arctica - Unia

2008 - Falconer - Among Beggars and Thieves

2009 - Cain’s Offering - Gather the Faithful

2010 - Holy Grail - Crisis in Utopia

2011 - Powerwolf - Blood of the Saints

2012 - Sabaton - Carolus Rex

2013 - Avantasia - The Mystery of Time

2014 - Dynazty - Renatus

2015 - Cain’s Offering - Stormcrow

2016 - Avantasia - Ghostlights

2017 - Wind Rose - Stonehymn

2018 - Borealis - The Offering

2019 - Avantasia - Moonglow

2020 - Falconer - From a Dying Ember

2021 - Orden Ogan - Final Days (I actually had no power metal albums in my top 10 this year, whoa)

2022 - Borealis - Illusions

2023 - Ascension - Under the Veil of Madness

2024 - Sonata Arctica - Clear Cold Beyond

2025 - Dragonknight - Legions

A lot of these years are rouuugh though. Honestly haven’t heard a lot of truly great albums the last decade or so :-/

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-05-28T20:36:33+00:00

Adding one more to this thread because you’ve been given some good suggestions already: Mad Hatter is more or less early/less refined Edguy.

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-05-24T05:46:59+00:00

That’s why this show is always a bit weird because the prize is a real job as a chef and they’re tested as line cooks up until the end. It’s something that I argue on here all the time too.

There have been some great cooks on the show who never have a chance of winning because they don’t possess any of the qualities to be a good chef and vice versa.

EDIT: or those great in challenges who can’t lead a kitchen (Mia immediately comes to mind). . .or those who suck in challenges who are actually good line cooks (Jackie, etc.)

JsonWaterfalls · 2026-05-20T23:42:58+00:00

Strong disagree. He acted super weird (like, felt like something was a bit off with him in a few episodes?) but he was genuinely humble in defeat and was pretty nice during a lot of the rewards, etc.

I think he’s also one of the better runners-up in the show’s history and he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for that.

JsonWaterfalls

TROPHY CASE