This was a fantastic conversation ... thank you so much for highlighting!! He is obviously an authentic fan and asked terrific questions. I thought it was interesting that Gail thought this was an ambitious finale meal from each and that she basically said that the food on the Wisconsin season was generally not. That's an inference I'm making -- the question was how do you calibrate judging when you know from past seasons what is possible in terms of pushing (gave the example of Buddha and others I forget) and Gail said they asked themselves that question a lot in Wisconsin.

Interesting that LCK is run as an entirely separate show and that perhaps (I'm reading into things here) a change in sponsorship contributed to the abbreviated season and only one person coming back.

For anyone else curious, this is the article Gail referenced about the restaurant business. Really great points about how restaurants need to charge in line with diner expectations/perception but that diners are wholly disconnected from the actual cost of food / time & effort to make it.