<p>Looks like this is Brooke’s to lose–Kristen is very talented, but a little young and inexperienced. She’s fine on her own in a limited environment, like LCK, but I foresee problems in the finale when she has to again manage a full meal with a staff of sous chefs. She should have waited a few more years.</p>
<p>wow, I had to dig to find this thread. round one over. I feel they skipped too much, not showing how the gals chose their teams.</p>
<p>Am I the only one watching? I’m asleep by this time every night, but I just have to watch and root for my gal Kristen. her adoption story, and never seeing her homeland, reminds me of the worm’s s/o.</p>
<p>We just watched. Wish they said more about picking teams. Did they ever talk about Kristen’s adoption ?</p>
<p>Kristen was adopted from Korea, same as the worm’s s/o. There was a big wave for a few years. Some parents got lucky, with healthy babies. I know my son’s s/o has tried to learn something about her birth parents, to no avail.</p>
<p>Yayyyyyy! But I would have been happy either way.,</p>
<p>Kristen was my original fave on the show, and I was sad when she left, but I respected that she took responsibility. After she left, Brooke was my favorite. then, when they had to compete, I think I was hoping for Brooke, just since… we ended up “getting to know” her a bit better. (interesting how drama free both of these young ladies were!)</p>
<p>I liked hearing what the old winners have done since they won. They seem to be a hardworking bunch.</p>
<p>I didn’t like this format for the final challenge. I think they should leave iron chef to iron chef, but there ya have it. Not a bad show, except for that horrifying Josie character.</p>
<p>I, too would have been happier either way. The format didn’t really work. It felt too much like a game show, though it was nice to see the former winners. Overall, this was one of the better seasons. It wasn’t obvious from the beginning who the winner would be, unlike last season.</p>
<p>What really didn’t work is you could look at the clock and see they didn’t have enough time to present 5 courses. That meant you knew the winner as soon as Kristen took 2.</p>
<p>I would have liked to see Brooke cook against Kristen all season. Brooke was more consistent than the 2 guys. I didn’t like that each course was judged separately. Wonder what would have happened if some of the ears hadn’t been overcooked.</p>
<p>I would have preferred that they present all 5 courses and then reveal who won each course. If they had to do it course by course, they should have discussed and announced the winner of the course. I didn’t like the “polling the judges” individually. It has to have been hard to be the one who announced the final vote.</p>
<p>Lergmom, exactly. You could see by the clock that there was no time for a dessert course. How dumb do the producers think we are?!! I also wanted more Time spent on how they picked teams. I was thrilled for Kristen. It seemed that Brooke really saw Kristen as a big threat - which she was. It appeared that Kristen was a little meek in the kitchen during the finale.</p>
<p>Best LOL of the night - Stefan yelling to Kristen , “I’ve decided on blue- for the baby’s room”. Haha - a little ode to the crush he seemed to have on her.</p>
<p>I hope Kristen has an insightful and satisfying trip back to Korea .</p>
<p>I’m ready for another season!</p>
<p>Weird tidbit: absolutely no mention of Kristin on the Boston Chowhound board. Nor really elsewhere. And yet Barbara Lynch is a fixture and Kristin not only loves her but insists she’ll be staying at Stir for a while. Stir is a weird thing that’s becoming more common: a chef (and crew) cooks for 10 people at a table and no one else. I don’t know how often Kristin cooks there or what she does on the days others are doing that. </p>
<p>BTW, I suspect Kristin had another advantage, that she’d cooked so many times directly for and under the gaze of Tom Colicchio. That is good for a chef and she certainly learned more about how he likes food presented. Her dishes are more fine dining in style.</p>