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Meh.

I watched this after a pretty [censored] night (trip report will follow) but I thought this was lame.

Ilan did the same stuff he always does, which is stuff he didn't make up. Marcel kinda [censored] himself/got [censored]. I haven't read the blogs yet, so that should be interesting.

I think the person who came out the worst was still Elia, she just looks more and more like an idiot and a brat every time she's on TV.

Betty, btw, is still horrible and useless in the kitchen.

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I think it's clear what Elia is. She's The Talent, like Jimmy on "That Thing You Do". Almost with traces of Aspberger's but not quite. She's just very intense about what she does and doesn't understand people or other perspectives. Usually people like this are dudes. It doesn't make her a bad person though. I like people like that (when they're not driving me nuts), because they have an endearing quality that if they think something is right, they do it.

I think the Betty "screwup" was very very minor. It was just presentation, they would have found a way to do it. He raised his voice because he needed immediate reaction.

Watching this show I have no idea what makes a good chef. I have no idea what constitutes novel and not. I read the blogs. Do ingredients change everything? It seems like we're saying Ilan cooked the same old stuff, with different ingredients. Is that enough? When you're cooking the "best meal of your life" for bigshots, I don't see a problem with working 75-80% with stuff you know, and making minor tweaks. Taking risks has it's downside, as Marcel showed.

Obviously Sam could have done the best of both worlds.