My opinion isn't based on what she said in the beginning. It comes from the actions we have seen on every episode.
There is usually some Emily related issue week after week.

True indeed.

In every season of Top Chef, there is an episode where the show clearly veers off into keeping the disruptive chef (for potential ratings) over a qualified one. Tonight was this season's.
Emily deserved to go home and has for WEEKS, not only beacuse her dish was bad but because she entered judges table determined to…

He is very unaware of a LOT of things, funny thing is, he thinks he is usually in the know.

No, she has been on the bottom just about every elimination, I think she is still there as drama potential, not her cooking skills at this moment in this competition.

Good point about his job, I never took that into consideration.

True, my moth dropped when I saw his spouse was a woman.

ITA, in this case I think it had more to do with his lack of knowledge and awareness of cultural history in this country.

I did eventually watch season 3 it was much, much, much better than season two.
No regrets on having watched it.

At his core he really is an ass.
Based on someone's comment lower on the thread, I am watching Top Chef Mexico and he is contestant on that. He is less abrasive (probably because he doesn't have whom to feed off) and different editing but he is still unpleasant in his confessional comments.

Never knew of this version, thanks for the tip. It will be my New Year's binge watch.

I wondered about that too.

I think what may not translate in other arenas is his affinity to put 30 items in a dish that are expected to meld within 30 minutes.

What you say is true, but I suspect Sheldon wouldn't drop out on his own. In that regards, I think it's Sheldon's responsibility to put his back first.
I had to learn to do that.

Great observation.

Didn't know that.

I am not a professional chef either and may be wrong in doing it the way I do.
That's what I was taught years ago; that salting them early on makes them take longer to cook. If your system works well, I would stick with it.
On my end, I never slow cook them and wouldn't know.

Won't win the overall competition but you are probably right about a rookie in the top four.

I don't know if it is the same for all foods but it definitely is true for beans. Wait to salt until the are cooked.

Agree, Katsuji did not deserve any credit. It was all John's doing.