I thought it was really interesting that both Shirley and Nina seemed to be rooting for Nicholas to make it over Carlos. He seems like such an ass, but there was a lot of shade throwing about Carlos' cooking. I was disappointed.

I love the Shirley/Emeril love fest that broke out this season. He was crying when she won. So cute!

Shirley going on about Carlos only doing Mexican = @@.

Right? Like she and Nina don't use their background and culture to influence their cooking? Get over yourself, lady.

Still, I was very happy that they both made the finale and I'm all in for a Nina win.

Just because: [link]

Brenda, awesome!!

I hope Carlos comes back from Last Chance Kitchen and beats Nick's ass. At least Padma agrees with me - she seemed genuinely angry at Nick for his lack of salt and genuinely sad about telling Carlos to pack his knives.

Brenda, that's amazing. I would love to go to his restaurant and eat that seafood tamale. It looked delicious.

I'm pretty sure they are just keeping Nick around because he brings the drama. Feh.

I'm really afraid they keep putting him through because subconsciously he looks more like a top chef. I can't decide if I'd prefer producer drama shenanigans or internalized racism/sexism....

I can't decide if I'd prefer producer drama shenanigans or internalized racism/sexism....

Unfortunately, I suspect producer shenanigans are at least partially driven by internalized racism.

True, true.

So, I interpreted Shirley's comments to mean that Carlos' cooking is a bit narrow in flavor profiles and techniques.

I also feel that her comments have a lot to do with how long Carlos has been cooking. He is one of the newcomers, no? I don't know if he has been cooking professionally longer than Shirley though. So I was wondering if it was a time/status thing?

I knew Carlos was done as soon as he won the car.