Jenn is the only one without a dating profile. It's like she knew she'd get a bunch of creepy guys saying salacious things about her on message boards and didn't want to encourage us.

Not entirely unique. Babylon 5 did a lot with flash-forwards that seemed like one thing but meant something else entirely when seen in context. Personally, I'd rather see that happen with only one or two of the them; you lose the sense of looming dread if you're eagerly anticipating the twist.

The strategy is to explain what you were aiming at and display that you understand exactly how you failed to achieve it. That gives them hope that you'll improve your execution next time and start to realize those big ideas.

But Jen hasn't been cutthroat. CB would have run the Air Force kitchen in a way to sabotage her toughest competition. Jen did her best to help everyone succeed. I'm with Valiumland on the attractiveness of that, but her flat affect in the confessional booth is starting to creep me out.

The particular dish he failed to make helped him make the switch. The texture would have been closer to a flan than a typical half-set ice cream.

Ash's failed ice cream
He got pretty lucky. I've made sweet potato ice cream before and found that the starch in the potatoes gives the custard a richer texture at refrigerator temperatures, but it gets gritty when it freezes. If the churn had worked properly Ash would have been in the bottom three instead of the top.

The innovation of braised bacon specifically. But, otherwise, yeah. I've cooked Chinese bacon in a similar way and it's pretty good. And since Tom had never thought of it before, he was impressed.

The lack of time to brine would be the big issue with roast chicken. Better to do a steak with a quick salt cure to get the flavor in and tenderize in just 15 minutes or so.

And she'll remain perfectly cute and charming while doing it, too. It's the contrast of her cut-throat competence in the kitchen and goofy lop-sided smile when getting a compliment from a judge that I'm enjoying.

Sounds like a poor man's Full Metal Challenge
FMC did the same thing in 2002 with the teams driving home-built crosses between monster trucks and Robot-Wars-style killer robots. Plus it had Cathy Rogers. Can't see how this show can come close.

She picked it out of a hat. It looks like, to go with the Vegas theme, they'll be injecting extra randomness into the proceedings this season.

Cube steak would be a good dish to illustrate a piercing vice. Or anything on a skewer, really.

Yeah, natto's not real friendly to the Western palate. The texture's goopy, lumpy and sticky and the flavor's pretty funky. I've tried it a few times, but I'm still not cosmopolitan enough to enjoy it. Seitan, on the other hand, is just a faux-meat that approximates the texture but hasn't got much flavor. It's not…

Overcomplication is a legit vice if you're talking about your recipes, not your personality. Then again, I wouldn't tell the judges that and then offer them an example.

I was disappointed that we didn't get the top quality vs. cheap crap version of the taste test. That would have been a test of the refinement of the chefs' palates rather than their basic sensory perception.

I started in sync with these write-ups (and they've been great, Steve), but rapidly lost patience and started going through a half dozen episodes each week. I found the third season finale to be a fine place to stop. I've got the fourth season all ready to go and I'm not sure I'm going to start again. What's a good…

I particularly enjoy the episodes where Michael's got two full-blown ops going at the same time. It breaks up the formula and gives everyone more to do. Add movement forward in Michael and Fiona's impasse over getting his job back and I'd give it the +.

My guess is that Mazar auditioned for Thorne's role and ended up as Barry's girlfriend as a consolation prize. Could turn out better for her in the long run; if Barry continues to become part of the core group, it could be a recurring role.

From the preview it looks like next week's challenge will be about adapting your cuisine to massive arbitrary restrictions. Given Art's experience dealing with Oprah, it's his to lose.

This AV Club got me re-watching the show on my brand new hi-def tv and the lighting's been driving me nuts. The only way to get rid of all the deep shadows everyone's lurking in is to make everything overly bright and washed-out. I thought it was because I don't understand all the new settings I've got to fiddle with,…