Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Well first of all I was excited to eat at Bobby Flays place so I had high expectations but that shouldn't a affect my review. I ate at the Lake Grove restaurant. I ordered a blue burger medium rare, a dark chocolate shake and onion rings. The burger was actually raw! and the bottom half of the roll was not usable because it was saturated and I was unable to pick it up. I sent the burger back and this time I got one that was well done. They can't seem to get the cooking process right. Even that bottom half of the roll was wet. The shake was nothing more than ice cream stirred up to be soft, it was too thick to drink, and surprisingly for that price ($5.00) it was pretty small. The onion ring order was also small for the price and not so great, not crunchy or that tasty, rather bland. I have to say for the value, the whole meal was definitely not worth the price and the atmosphere was very cold and uninviting. I will definitely not be visiting this place again and I will not recommend this place to anyone either. I can honestly say that burger king is better than this place. Sorry Bobby, I think you better visit this location and straighten out your good name.

Eli's comment about Star Wars shows what an imbecile he is. The only important thing she's ever done? Uh, jackass...ever hear of The Professional? Tool...

Ummmmm, when that chick made that comment about pebbles boyfriend being bam bam and being "big and strong" and "carrying her around by the hair" I melted like putty I am in love with her.

What drove me nuts was that they criticized a couple of people for not having any protein or heft to their dishes, when even Kevin's (which, by the way, looked absolutely delicious) didn't contain anything other than vegetables. No protein, no starch. I love vegetarian food, but these were all side dishes.

Were there additional constraints that got edited out or something? I feel confused and unsatisfied, like when I haven't eaten enough at lunch.

Not a big Mike Isabella fan but that he went home before Robin is insane. I am sure that Robin is a lovely person in real life but she is so far out of her element here that it's frustrating to watch.

I think one of Mike's biggest mistakes was to keep referring to his leeks as "protein". I totally understand what he was trying to do but he should have changed direction the minute he realized that his leeks were not working.

I cannot believe that only one chef used grains. .. polenta, farro, couscous, etc. would have been wonderful to see. I think they just had one sharp focus and when that changed, they all just lost it.

Really disappointed with what every one made. . .seemed like amateur hour. Except for Kevin. . except that his plate was brown on brown with dark green.

It's interesting that we're talking about this. Portman just wrote an essay for the Huffington Post in which she says this batshit crazy thing:

"I say that Foer's ethical charge against animal eating is brave because not only is it unpopular, it has also been characterized as unmanly, inconsiderate, and juvenile. But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just 'This is tasty, and that's why I do it.' He posits that consideration, as promoted by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if it's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it)."

Until now I was getting very sick of hearing Anthony Bourdain's seemingly constant tirade against vegetarians, but basically equating meat eaters to rapists is ridiculous and I'll take Bourdain's shit talking any day.

You can read the rest here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natalie-portman/jonathan-safran-foers-iea_b_334407.html

I was kind of shocked at the lack of protein on most of the dishes the chefs produced...just Eli's little dab of lentils, and a few garbanzo beans on Robin's plates (and not even all of them!) Over on Bravo's web site, Gail's blog says that the chefs were *encouraged* to use things like eggs, beans, grains, etc. and she was puzzled why most of them did not. It was as though the chefs were all so thrown by the challenge that they just had vegetable tunnel vision.

@Hawk Krall--I agree with your opinion on Top Chef Frozen Dinners. But here it is for you, courtesy of Schwan's.

felt like deja vu last night. guess i was remembering the zooey episode now that i see your comments, but for a second i was like, 'isn't this supposed to be new?' i was so confused. kevin for the win, altho i did feel really bad that brian's tv dinner didn't win. he was crestfallen.

@ KarynMC : Yea. She just recently became a vegan.

I'll take my steak medium rare, closer to rare than medium. Thanks.

Natalie said she likes being adventurous while eating....maybe that means putting butter on some of her foods.

The other possibility is that it was simply a butter substitute, but Jenn is just used to saying butter instead.

Yes, there was corn in the banana polenta (forgot that).

But why use butter, but no cheese, or cream, or milk, or rice, or pasta?

My guess is she is a sorta vegan (except butter), and sorta low carb (except potatoes and corn). The tempura coating might be cornstarch, which would go along with the no grains, only corn or potatoes.