I bet you could do some sort of non-meat variation.

I'm still resolute in my non-meat-eating ways, but the thought of any savory foodstuff in a cream sauce involving sherry, plus mushrooms and green peppers, is playing havoc with that resolve.

You could probably up the mushroom quotient and get a pretty good veggie equivalent.

You might be able to use one of the Quorn products for the chicken. They are surprisingly chicken like for fake meat.

Tim Gunn - v. brief interview.

I would not have called most of those dishes "comfort food." I would have called them American Cafeteria Food. And sponsored by Crestor or not, "low cholesterol" is a stupid challenge, especially if they weren't going to have a nutritionist on staff to define "low" and make the chefs stick to it. Healthy/modern is an achievable goal that makes sense, and that's what they should have done.

I think the problem with Micah's dish wasn't that it wasn't meatloaf, it was that it tasted bad. The judges have always been pretty willing to overlook dishes that didn't quite meet the challenge rules if they've been served good food -- the dishes that get you sent home are the ones that don't taste good. And nobody who knows anything about cooking should be making meatloaf using only ground sirloin.

The judges have always been pretty willing to overlook dishes that didn't quite meet the challenge rules if they've been served good food -- the dishes that get you sent home are the ones that don't taste good.

This.

Actually, I thought for sure Lia would be sent home, after listening to Judges Table. In two seasons, the judges have been very consistent about sending home people who seemed to not do a lot of work in the time given to them -- very specifically salads. Pretty much every time somebody made a salad as their course for a meal have been been sent packing. It seems pretty clear that the judges feel that, in a cooking competition, if you choose to make a dish that consists of throwing greens in a bowl with dressing during an elimination challenge, you have chosen to eliminate yourself.

I think that's fair, too. Maybe someday, they'll get a salad that just blows the doors off the place and completely reinvents salad, but until that day, making a salad is a guaranteed exit.

Edit: Lia at least cooked some food, but I suspect it was a close call between her and Micah.

especially if they weren't going to have a nutritionist on staff to define "low" and make the chefs stick to it.

I don't think I could have handled another Olive Oil Squeeze Bottle Controversy. The scars from last year are still too fresh.

I do always wonder why the person who takes the salad course doesn't ever just grill some freaking shrimp and toss them on top so the judges can't accuse them of not cooking anything.

At the very least!

Also, hi new mama!