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Biff Tannen

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On 6/12/2021 at 5:13 AM, Knoxtnhorn said:

Watched it last night.  I cheered when Maria was gone.  Then I screamed in anguish when I thought Jamie was going to scheme her back in.  Pretty much agree with what everyone has stated in the past few posts.  Especially this...

This somewhat new phenomenon where people blame their shortcomings/losses on their own feelings or lack of confidence is really annoying.  It's also self-serving.  If I was trying out for a team and lost, I would just assume the others were better than me not that I was lacking the confidence to be as good as them. 

Self serving is a good way to describe all of them, but especially Jaime and Maria.  Chota to a lesser extent, but homeboy got the chops.  Gabe and Dawn are really great chefs.  Maria is clearly out of her league and I think Tom keeps certain people around more because of story line than talent.

In all walks of life, a lot of people feign lack of confidence because they want others to say "oh no mija, you got it going on."  Nope, close the talent gap.

Edited by closetohumping
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I think if confidence gets waylaid by quirky then it’s Sara. From the first episode. It was apparent she had great creativity and skills but confidence was a factor in her dishes that weren’t as well received or that got her sent to LCK and ultimately allowed Byron to bento box her. Last week should have been a double elimination. The talent gap comments are correct as it pertains to Maria and Jamie. They both knew they were DMW in that whole competition. To just throw a side on their dish that sucked showed me they both had sort of given up. “I’m not on Gabe and Dawn’s level so I’m just not going to go out swinging.” It do

Judges panel was like no Jamie you can’t give Maria your spot. Suck it up and get it eliminated next week OR go out swinging and one of the favorites will fuck up. Maria just felt like she was done. Maybe that’s confidence BUT to not just go out swinging with your best possible take on the family care package I don’t understand. Even the awesome ones can fuck up. Make your best dish. Don’t give up. Jeez.

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11 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

I think if confidence gets waylaid by quirky then it’s Sara. From the first episode. It was apparent she had great creativity and skills but confidence was a factor in her dishes that weren’t as well received or that got her sent to LCK and ultimately allowed Byron to bento box her. Last week should have been a double elimination. The talent gap comments are correct as it pertains to Maria and Jamie. They both knew they were DMW in that whole competition. To just throw a side on their dish that sucked showed me they both had sort of given up. “I’m not on Gabe and Dawn’s level so I’m just not going to go out swinging.” It do

Judges panel was like no Jamie you can’t give Maria your spot. Suck it up and get it eliminated next week OR go out swinging and one of the favorites will fuck up. Maria just felt like she was done. Maybe that’s confidence BUT to not just go out swinging with your best possible take on the family care package I don’t understand. Even the awesome ones can fuck up. Make your best dish. Don’t give up. Jeez.

Push comes to shove I doubt Jamie would've given it to her.  I'd bet a lot of money that they actually had it worked out beforehand.  If Jamie had been cut, Maria would've done the same.  Being on a show like this isn't just about winning, it's about getting famous.  Jamie has made some decent dishes, but her last dish looked like a tv dinner salisbury steak and rice or some shit.  She messed up rice.  Sorry, I just feel like Jamie's fake, I know I've said that a lot. 

 

That may have been Maria's best effort.  She wasn't throwing the match, that was her best.

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Having some time to reflect on it, I think Sara's green tea rice element in the bento box must have been truly awful.  I obviously cannot prove this, but I think Tom had every intention of passing her through Last Chance Kitchen - why else were they caught so flat footed on that quickfire meant for 6?  By putting Brooke in, they altered the competition so much that they could not confer a reward for winning the quickfire.  I think they fully expected 6 and had to pivot.  I think - especially at this late stage - Tom would only put a LCK contestant back in the game if he thought they were capable of winning the whole thing.  Otherwise, what is the point?  I think Tom knew Byron had reached his ceiling and, while better than Maria and Jamie, was still a cut below Shota, Gabe, Dawn, (and Sara).  I think it was set up for Sara to get back in, but her tea rice thing was so terrible that Tom felt the integrity of the competition would be compromised if he passed her through.  I think if Sara was arguably close to Byron, it could be fudged.  But if Byron made no obvious flaws and Sara's rice was terrible (especially if the eliminated chefs taste the food off camera), Tom had no choice.  

Sara was never going to win because of the exact quality that reared its head with the tea rice - quirky and eclectic is refreshing and has a high ceiling, so long as it works.  It is a high wire act, and when it fails it tends to fail spectacularly.  She was bound to have a high profile fail.  It's just a bummer it had to happen before the final 4.

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1 hour ago, someguy said:

Having some time to reflect on it, I think Sara's green tea rice element in the bento box must have been truly awful.  I obviously cannot prove this, but I think Tom had every intention of passing her through Last Chance Kitchen - why else were they caught so flat footed on that quickfire meant for 6?  By putting Brooke in, they altered the competition so much that they could not confer a reward for winning the quickfire.  I think they fully expected 6 and had to pivot.  I think - especially at this late stage - Tom would only put a LCK contestant back in the game if he thought they were capable of winning the whole thing.  Otherwise, what is the point?  I think Tom knew Byron had reached his ceiling and, while better than Maria and Jamie, was still a cut below Shota, Gabe, Dawn, (and Sara).  I think it was set up for Sara to get back in, but her tea rice thing was so terrible that Tom felt the integrity of the competition would be compromised if he passed her through.  I think if Sara was arguably close to Byron, it could be fudged.  But if Byron made no obvious flaws and Sara's rice was terrible (especially if the eliminated chefs taste the food off camera), Tom had no choice

This is spot on IMO. Kind of shitty for Byron (especially after the gauntlet they put him through) but there is no reason to put him right back into the game just to be eliminated immediately again. Sara or Sasha could have made a run if they got back in but still probably not won. 

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19 hours ago, someguy said:

Having some time to reflect on it, I think Sara's green tea rice element in the bento box must have been truly awful.  I obviously cannot prove this, but I think Tom had every intention of passing her through Last Chance Kitchen - why else were they caught so flat footed on that quickfire meant for 6?  By putting Brooke in, they altered the competition so much that they could not confer a reward for winning the quickfire.  I think they fully expected 6 and had to pivot.  I think - especially at this late stage - Tom would only put a LCK contestant back in the game if he thought they were capable of winning the whole thing.  Otherwise, what is the point?  I think Tom knew Byron had reached his ceiling and, while better than Maria and Jamie, was still a cut below Shota, Gabe, Dawn, (and Sara).  I think it was set up for Sara to get back in, but her tea rice thing was so terrible that Tom felt the integrity of the competition would be compromised if he passed her through.  I think if Sara was arguably close to Byron, it could be fudged.  But if Byron made no obvious flaws and Sara's rice was terrible (especially if the eliminated chefs taste the food off camera), Tom had no choice.  

Sara was never going to win because of the exact quality that reared its head with the tea rice - quirky and eclectic is refreshing and has a high ceiling, so long as it works.  It is a high wire act, and when it fails it tends to fail spectacularly.  She was bound to have a high profile fail.  It's just a bummer it had to happen before the final 4.

This is perfectly plausible.  The only thing I would add is that there have been many occasions where judging has rewarded taking chances over execution.  It doesn't always happen that way, but there is certainly a precedent for it.  In the bento box challenge, I was really surprised that Byron played it completely straight, and that there were no negative comments about that.  They were specifically asked to give their take on a bento box, which to me says, "be creative."  When it came to judging, that seemed to be completely dismissed.  Obviously, the food still needs to be good, so Sara's rice must indeed have been awful.    

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14 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Seemingly. I still don’t buy the sexual harassment stuff. He seems way to nice and normal. 

The world we live in makes it really hard to have an opinion about this.  No one wants to falsely accuse anyone.  No one wants to stand behind a harasser.  In the perfect world in my head, truth always prevails, and appropriate punishment is always applied where applicable.  

Since I don't know what the truth is in this case, and don't have enough information to have an informed opinion, I'm trying to completely ignore this issue for the sake of being able to enjoy this season of Top Chef.  I have found Gabe likeable on the show, and do find myself pulling for him.  That said, I was a Lance Armstrong fan for a long time too, so my perspective certainly isn't carved in stone.  

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42 minutes ago, idigTexas said:

The world we live in makes it really hard to have an opinion about this.  No one wants to falsely accuse anyone.  No one wants to stand behind a harasser.  In the perfect world in my head, truth always prevails, and appropriate punishment is always applied where applicable.  

Since I don't know what the truth is in this case, and don't have enough information to have an informed opinion, I'm trying to completely ignore this issue for the sake of being able to enjoy this season of Top Chef.  I have found Gabe likeable on the show, and do find myself pulling for him.  That said, I was a Lance Armstrong fan for a long time too, so my perspective certainly isn't carved in stone.  

For sure. I have just seen nothing other than hearsay about why he was fired, so I’m hesitant to go down that path. The truth may come out eventually. 

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On 6/15/2021 at 10:14 AM, idigTexas said:

The world we live in makes it really hard to have an opinion about this.  No one wants to falsely accuse anyone.  No one wants to stand behind a harasser.  In the perfect world in my head, truth always prevails, and appropriate punishment is always applied where applicable.  

Since I don't know what the truth is in this case, and don't have enough information to have an informed opinion, I'm trying to completely ignore this issue for the sake of being able to enjoy this season of Top Chef.  I have found Gabe likeable on the show, and do find myself pulling for him.  That said, I was a Lance Armstrong fan for a long time too, so my perspective certainly isn't carved in stone.  

Unfortunately, I have to disagree here.  There have been a lot of false accusations.

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6 hours ago, closetohumping said:

Unfortunately, I have to disagree here.  There have been a lot of false accusations.

I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with.  I think you misunderstood my "no one wants to falsely accuse anyone."  I was not referring to alleged victims.  I was referring to uninformed people who blindly back one side or the other in these types of situations. 

To rephrase, sometimes accusers lie, and sometimes the guilty claim innocence.  Since I don't know the truth of the situation, I'm choosing to not take a side and ignore the issue, at least for the time being, so I can enjoy the show for the rest of the season.    

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2 hours ago, idigTexas said:

I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with.  I think you misunderstood my "no one wants to falsely accuse anyone."  I was not referring to alleged victims.  I was referring to uninformed people who blindly back one side or the other in these types of situations. 

To rephrase, sometimes accusers lie, and sometimes the guilty claim innocence.  Since I don't know the truth of the situation, I'm choosing to not take a side and ignore the issue, at least for the time being, so I can enjoy the show for the rest of the season.    

Yea if you look at my following post I said there are a lot of incidents that go unreported.   Agree with dropping it on this thread 

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29 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

It's certainly not up to par with the last several.  I still think Colorado was amazing.

Yeah this season lacks talent.  I think Gabe and Chota can possibly hang with some of the other seasons.  The rest, eh. BTW, Tom believes Austin's very own Paul Qui is the most talented chef he's come across:

 

https://www.gossipcop.com/the-best-top-chef-winners/188136/

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11 hours ago, Nicole44 said:

After tonite I can truly say (was a little torn before) which chef I would like to see win. 
 

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Shota. But I really couldn’t say who will be in the final two. But I would like to see Shota in the final two. 

 

it's definitely going to be shota and gabe in the final two.  dawn is next to go.  she's made it through by the skin of her teeth way too many times.

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23 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

I tad disappointed that they didn’t make the cheftestants search for DB Cooper. On their way to the coast…have them skydive with their meal in Tupperware and see how it holds up on landing. 

Even better...cook the meals, have them judged, then skydive. The contestant without the functioning parachute had the worst dish.  

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Damn. I thought Dawn was going to have a conniption on Jamie when one of her plates was missing an ingredient.  I like Dawn, but she kind of reminds me of the teacher in school that everyone placates because they're worried she going to go nuts on them.  She just always seems this close to snapping.

For Shota to do so well with a cuisine that doesn't do cheese... pretty impressive.

 

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3 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

Damn. I thought Dawn was going to have a conniption on Jamie when one of her plates was missing an ingredient.  I like Dawn, but she kind of reminds me of the teacher in school that everyone placates because they're worried she going to go nuts on them.  She just always seems this close to snapping.

For Shota to do so well with a cuisine that doesn't do cheese... pretty impressive.

 

That was a strange moment. Jamie helped Shota and Dawn plate. Not sure if she also helped Gabe. She most certainly wasn’t at fault. I think that’s why they showed the replay where Dawn is handing the plate to the server after Dawn told the Judges that she checked each one. They made a point with that little slowmo clip. 
 

I’d like to see Shota win. As Tom said, the cheese challenge was hard enough all on its own. But to have someone incorporate it into Japanese cuisine. You could have a 100 chefs be given that same challenge and not one would make what Shota made, per Tom. Honestly, the elimination challenge should have played more to Gabe and Dawn. Their strengths. 

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8 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

That was a strange moment. Jamie helped Shota and Dawn plate. Not sure if she also helped Gabe. She most certainly wasn’t at fault. I think that’s why they showed the replay where Dawn is handing the plate to the server after Dawn told the Judges that she checked each one. They made a point with that little slowmo clip. 
 

That actually would have made it funnier.  Dawn freaks out, then sees she was actually at fault.

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That was not an unexpected or undesired outcome, but I am tired of seeing Dawn get a pass for incomplete plates.  She is clearly a good chef and has apparently been making some great dishes, but she has had issues with time management the entire season. 

I always cringe when someone says that another chef helped them plate (aside from 50+ serving challenges where having a single plater could impact the temperature/quality).  It emphasizes that they suck at time management, and comes off like they are trying to blame someone else for their mistake. 

While I would accept Dawn winning, barring an obvious "judges got it wrong" scenario, I would prefer Gabe or Shota.

 

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My other question is about the whole temperature of the whey for Dawn’s sous vide. I mean the whole thing about using those is so that you can consistently control the temperature so that you can do other tasks. Like she kept saying she had to babysit her ribeyes? Why? Bullshit drama? Or Dawn bullshit? Because that makes no fucking sense. Why would she have to sit there and watch her steaks? Defective sous vide? I have one (it’s in storage) and you can easily control all that shit. I’m not a chef. Probably a dumb point but it’s always about time management with Dawn and she seemed to kind of throw Jamie under the bus for her mistake. Yet, she could have been working on her own plates while her steaks were in the sous vide. It’s just odd. Either the show wanted drama or Dawn is seriously not ready to win this despite her delicious food. Or she has other issues. 

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32 minutes ago, Nicole44 said:

My other question is about the whole temperature of the whey for Dawn’s sous vide. I mean the whole thing about using those is so that you can consistently control the temperature so that you can do other tasks. Like she kept saying she had to babysit her ribeyes? Why? Bullshit drama? Or Dawn bullshit? Because that makes no fucking sense. Why would she have to sit there and watch her steaks? Defective sous vide? I have one (it’s in storage) and you can easily control all that shit. I’m not a chef. Probably a dumb point but it’s always about time management with Dawn and she seemed to kind of throw Jamie under the bus for her mistake. Yet, she could have been working on her own plates while her steaks were in the sous vide. It’s just odd. Either the show wanted drama or Dawn is seriously not ready to win this despite her delicious food. Or she has other issues. 

Good points about the sous vide.  I recall her claiming that the water was initially too hot, and she was adding ice to it.  Unless it had been preheated for general use as a courtesy to the chefs, why was the water too hot?

Also, regarding overall of lower quality of this season, remember that they filmed it during the pandemic.  This has had many impacts on the show, including the chefs not being allowed to do their own shopping.  I'm surprised that they were allowed to get out and about as much as they were.  Having a set of judges on hand whose health could be monitored was something that made production easier.  I haven't minded that part myself, but I don't expect it to be a regular thing unless we continue to have similar global health crises.

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If a component is left off any plate, every judge should have to remove that component so the dish can be fairly judged without it. If Dawn still had a better dish than Jaime without that component, fine, but it’s bullshit to get credit for something she failed at.

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8 hours ago, DanRydell said:

If a component is left off any plate, every judge should have to remove that component so the dish can be fairly judged without it. If Dawn still had a better dish than Jaime without that component, fine, but it’s bullshit to get credit for something she failed at.

I love this idea.  It would work for many things but not all.  Sauces and such would be difficult to fully remove and not taste, depending on how they are plated.

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I love this idea.  It would work for many things but not all.  Sauces and such would be difficult to fully remove and not taste, depending on how they are plated.

Yeah, sauces wouldn’t work. And it’d be tough for a judge to mentally judge a dish sans sauce after having tasted it with the sauce, although they should still make an effort to IMO.
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My big question after the Cheese 5 Ways elimination challenge is: Did Bravo manufacture a tad of drama with Dawn’s sous vide? (Let the viewer think maybe Jamie had a shot at final three—which no.) 

I know Dawn is shitty with time management BUT she also has had issues with plating on more than one occasion. I just wonder about her throwing Jamie under the bus in front of the judges for missing a component, when Bravo made it pretty clear that Dawn was at fault in the slowmo clip of her handing the plate to the server. 
 

There should have been no reason for her to watch her ribeyes. It was something she had done a couple of times before having mentioned that she always sous vide her steaks in whey. No reason the whey/water should have been too hot where she had to stand there and watch them. I figure she did that on purpose to get a ton of help with plating. Or she just can’t function in an environment where she doesn’t have multiple assistants. The truth is…if her food is that good I’d go to her restaurant. Definitely. 

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My other question is about the whole temperature of the whey for Dawn’s sous vide. I mean the whole thing about using those is so that you can consistently control the temperature so that you can do other tasks. Like she kept saying she had to babysit her ribeyes? Why? Bullshit drama? Or Dawn bullshit? Because that makes no fucking sense. Why would she have to sit there and watch her steaks? Defective sous vide? I have one (it’s in storage) and you can easily control all that shit. I’m not a chef. Probably a dumb point but it’s always about time management with Dawn and she seemed to kind of throw Jamie under the bus for her mistake. Yet, she could have been working on her own plates while her steaks were in the sous vide. It’s just odd. Either the show wanted drama or Dawn is seriously not ready to win this despite her delicious food. Or she has other issues. 
I said the same to my wife. That's the best part of sous vide. No babysitting unless either the unit is defective or she did something dumb.
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4 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

I said the same to my wife. That's the best part of sous vide. No babysitting unless either the unit is defective or she did something dumb.

The latter. She can't even get all the food on everyone's plate each week. 

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I still think she wins it all. TC is gonna be woke. They are keeping her around for a reason. Shota had the misfortune of this being filmed before all the Asian hate crime stuff made the news. 

Bravo was catching a lot of shit before this season for its lack of diversity.

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I have faith in Tom. I was disappointed to not see Sara make it out of LCK. But as many of y’all have pointed out, her green tea rice must have just been awful in her bento box. It’s I think building up to a crescendo with Gabe based on the preview from next week (bc I watch satellite) he apparently misses putting a tortilla on a dish and is all despondent. “That’s a $250,000 mistake!” If I had to guess it would be Shota v. Dawn. And the whole Dawn continuously missing things on her plate comes to a head. My best guess. Dawn can hide under cover when she makes the final two bc she will have plenty of people to help her craft her dishes. I’m guessing this is the way it goes down. 

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4 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Nah, the editors ain't dumb, that shit about Gabe was designed to do exactly what you thought. 

Or is it? I have to admit that all of the final three show brilliance at different times. But it seems like to me on any given day, Gabe sometimes gets edged out by whichever one has a hotter hand. 
 

I don’t pretend to know the claims against Gabe vs sexual harassment but if it is true he certainly has hidden it well during the show. 
 

I understand the whole not having many minority chef winners plus the added pressure of the fact they knew this would possibly air right before the Olympics. 
 

I keep going back to the Judges table from this week. Where more than one Judge said Dawn’s food hits all the ahhhs where Gabes hits all the technical marks. I guess we will see. I did laugh at Judge Dale’s fbomb about Dawn forgetting yet another component on a Judge’s plate. That cracked me. The rest of the panel is like, “ yeh we don’t care.” 

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On 6/19/2021 at 7:03 PM, Nicole44 said:

Or is it? I have to admit that all of the final three show brilliance at different times. But it seems like to me on any given day, Gabe sometimes gets edged out by whichever one has a hotter hand. 
 

I don’t pretend to know the claims against Gabe vs sexual harassment but if it is true he certainly has hidden it well during the show. 
 

I understand the whole not having many minority chef winners plus the added pressure of the fact they knew this would possibly air right before the Olympics. 
 

I keep going back to the Judges table from this week. Where more than one Judge said Dawn’s food hits all the ahhhs where Gabes hits all the technical marks. I guess we will see. I did laugh at Judge Dale’s fbomb about Dawn forgetting yet another component on a Judge’s plate. That cracked me. The rest of the panel is like, “ yeh we don’t care.” 

I just caught up. Dale fucking hates Dawn and it’s hilarious. Also, as far as diversity, the final three are an Asian-American, Mexican-American, and an African-American female. Can’t go wrong. 

I’m definitely rooting for Gabe. Two Austin Top Chefs would be nice. I think Shota might take it though. He does really unique stuff and he does it well. 
 

 

Edited by Biff Tannen
Not the preferred nomenclature
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On 6/19/2021 at 6:48 PM, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Nah, the editors ain't dumb, that shit about Gabe was designed to do exactly what you thought. 

Yeah, the person who they show screwing up in the previews either doesn't do it in the actual episode or it's a non-issue.  It does feel like they want Dawn to win.  She always gets the benefit of the doubt.

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I am pretty confident she is going to make it to the final.  I don't think Tom will pick her if she doesn't at least tie or beat Shota or Gabe, but they want her in the final in the hopes she'll have a good day and win it.  She is obviously talented, but I can't think of another Top Chef winner who was as inconsistent as she is. 

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