This challenge was just so brilliant. It gave the chefs room to show off their best, and it also brought all of us into a celebration of food as an integral part of our stories. The focus was on the food and the people, rather than on fabricated and obnoxious squabbles.

I was the baby in She's Having A Baby
No joke.
I peed on Kevin Bacon when he changed my diaper during the shoot.

Speaking of two great tastes, how is it that we've had two Streep/Adams movies (though they have no scenes together in this one) and neither of them has even approached being good.

Again, Bronsonman, you're working with a curious definition of "close-minded." If one were to dismiss the value of a culture's cuisine entirely based on its use of meat, or (in an extreme example) entirely dismiss the value of the culture itself, that would be close-minded. Not eating the dishes that include meat is…

What troubles me, a little, is when people go vegan - and this rare, by the way - for vague health reasons, mostly to do with losing weight and preventing heart-attack. It is a very difficult diet, and if you don't know what you're doing, you are going to cut out a lot of what your body needs. Also, unless you're…

OK, I'd like to respond to some of these comments because they seem unfair to me.

I don't understand. Is it impossible for you to believe that she might not enjoy asking people to bend over backwards for her?

Agreed, Bunky-bunk. People are getting way caught up (for reasons beyond me) on their personal distaste for veganism. This was an excellent challenge that resulted in at least three really tasty looking dishes and one spectacular failure.

Anyone get a chance to see the Broadway show?
I heard it was pretty excellent, too. I personally agree with the general sentiment here that the tv movie is a worthy companion to the old doc. I'm curious to hear from anyone who has seen all three variations.

I completely agree, Andy. Though I am far from an excellent or liberated dancer, I feel like almost 90% of music is an invitation to move. You move and you enjoy the music with your whole body instead of just your ears. The less inhibited you are, the more fun you have moving to the music (and part of that is, of…

I'm really glad you brought up TAXI DRIVER, Mike, because, on reflection, I do think it is an example of a sequence that pulls of both of those feats. I think it also makes a great test case because of the way it compares with the rest of Scorsese's career.

You know, I sometimes wonder if in America we place too much emphasis on a nebulous idea of "originality." Hayao Miyazaki, when asked about people borrowing from his films said (I'll paraphrase very roughly, since I am too lazy to go find the quotation): I borrow from everything. Artists are always taking from other…

Framing violence
Mike, I'd be interested in reading what you have to say (and all of you other readers as well) about the tendency on display here to push acts of violence towards abstraction. Lee is certainly far from alone in aestheticizing (I guess that's still technically a made-up word, but I've seen it used…

Agreed, but they were still way better than the Bravo "stars" who judged the Quickfire. Those guys were pounding on my face-punch reflex.

I also wanted the Swede. He reminded me of my friend Christoffer, from Sweden, and I appreciated his punctuality, since nearly every other chef in the history tries to make me sweat as it comes down to plating time.