It is if you are a raging egomaniac that lacks basic self-awareness.

Pshaw. Hate on Philip all you want, but I bet John Tesar doesn't have a 40 foot picture of himself on the side of his restaurant though, does he?

I will say that while I didn't agree with his decision, giving up his immunity for a bad dish did give me more respect for Jamie.

I disagree with the sentiment that John screwed anyone over. John proposed a strategy for the challenge - give the guy with the immunity the worst ingredients because he can't get sent home - and the other two agreed with him. They could have easily argued to act differently. It ended up being a poor strategy, but I…

Another thing that annoys me about the gimmicky challenges - they frequently don't make the problems for the teams equal. If you are going to saddle a team with crappy ingredients for being the third team to reach a specific chest at random, then you need to make one of the three ingredient in each chest absolute…

Okay, one more comment (gawd I hated so much about this episode). Emily is so pathetic that she decided to insert some drama at judges table and tried to throw Tesar under the bus (it was a strategic decision to saddle Jamie with the crap, not a malicious one) and asserted she didn't agree with it. Fine emily, then…

I don't think the ingredients were actally in the bags. I think the bags were props and the food was back in the kitchen.

Emily staying was dispiriting because she has made a lot of bad food and, frankly, she hasn't provided much drama either. Sure, she has been a petulant, whiny teenager who abdicates any ownership of her failures, but it's not dramatic, but annoying.

"Look, I’m sure Emily is an amazing chef."
Has anything she has done up to this point demonstrated much skill? The judges liked her chicken wings (which she has made two or three times now) and her shrimp and cuke salad on the first challenge. Her radish dish also beat Sam's. Other than that she has made unappetizing,…

"…elimination quickfire VERY late last season, like when they were down to 5 or 6 chefs"

Can I just say, this is an awesome story, and I absolutely love the story of Chef Peacock's and Miss Lewis' friendship.

My daughter had a moment like this during dinner a few years ago when she was 4 - "Daddy, why are you smoking a duck? Ducks are cute animals!"
"Well honey, we eat many animals. Chicken, pork, duck are all animals and raised to be eaten."
"Okay…Is it going to be tasty after you smoke it?"
"Very."
"Well, I guess that's okay…

Also, given the way Jamie killed the vegetable dishes he cooked at the beginning of the competition, I'm not surprised that his kids doesn't want to eat his veggies.

Miss Edna would have been acceptable.

Is it making you wanting to slap him and tell him almost 40-year olds shouldn't wear trucker caps backwards?

Some of those quickfire options were so much easier (veg lasagna? Is that a challenge?) than others (sloppy joe and chicken fried steak are pretty difficult since I've never seen an alternative recipe for those two). The quickfire was really dull this episode.

"Had any of you heard of her? Or cooked one of her recipes?"
Yes. I've got one of her cookbooks with Scott Peacock (a chef and her caretaker for the last years of her life). I use it pretty frequently, and they are great recipes.

Doubt it, Dr. Oz actually performed medicine so I think that will disqualify him. I am thinking it will be more along the likes of Doc Brown because he has to be pretty smart to build a time machine out of a Delorean and he could probably make something worthwhile with health. Either him or the guy who makes those…

A child vegetarian who eats only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and macaroni and cheese, but no vegetables, is my kind of vegetarian.

As I wrote below, the Tesar/Katsuji storyline is uninteresting and dull. The show is really testing my patience focusing on Katsuji unsuccessfully attempting to bait Tesar into a meltdown and simultaneously showing Tesar asking for or pulling Katsuji in for awkward, unrequited kisses. Its tiresome, and as you say,…