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!

I loved that Brian got called on the carpet for not following the challenge despite his immunity.

And there's the problem with the cholesterol challenge (like Jess says, especially without a nutritionist or someone on hand.) No way he knew it was high cholesterol when he bought it. He was thinking seafood-lighter-score! Someone told him, and he had to change his line to try to justify why it was there. Kind of BS if you ask me.

Well, not adding fat would keep the cholesterol level at base.

What fat do you add to meatloaf anyway, besides maybe an egg for a binder?

I can't remember what Micah had to choose from but Sarah had a number of dishes that she could choose.

It was that or the fried chicken for Micah. Which she apparently should have chosen if the meatloaf was so mystifying.

Sort of. The sauce is creamier, and usually includes sherry. Plus mushrooms and green peppers. It's another way to use leftover chicken, essentially, and it is YUM.

Yup. And I've frequently seen it with puff pastry.

Again, though. If you don't know what it is - look at it. Smell it. All you'd have to do is come up with some healthier version of a creamy sauce. Add more veggies. Maybe do something like whosit did with the flax seed chip instead the usual pastry options. Not hard.

I got the idea with both of them, frankly, that scorn over what they were making interfered with their ability to do it right.

I got the idea with both of them, frankly, that scorn over what they were making interfered with their ability to do it right.

This is something else the judges have been pretty consistent about frowning upon -- showing scorn, of either food or customers.

And again, I think that's fair. To be a chef at all, let alone a "Top Chef," you should have an open mind to both your food and your customers. Scorning either should get you called on the carpet in this show, if not tossed outright.

I'm not saying you should have standards, of course, just that turning your nose up (especially at customers) is seriously bad form.