Headscratchers / Cutthroat Kitchen

• Why, in the after-show to "Melts in Your Pot," did Alton and Jet talk as if Josh and Jessica were going to start dating, when Jessica made it abundantly clear that she did not like Josh at all, and specifically said "Chef Josh just needs to back off. I don't think he's cute. I don't think his antics are cute. He just needs to leave me alone."?
  • Maybe Alton hadn't seen Jessica's confession-cam footage where she said that at the time.
  • Confirmed. The filming structure does not allow Alton to see any confession-cam footage until post-production.
• Why, in "Panini, Meeny, Miny, Moe," did Alton keep referring to "jelly cookies"? Is there really anyone who didn't know that those were hamantaschen?
  • Viewers Are Morons. Besides, this isn't the type of show where you can really educate people on ingredients.
  • Hamana-wha? (Read: YES, there people who have no clue what "ha-man-ta-sch-en" is. Like this Troper.)
    • They are delicious, delicious cookies invented by Jewish people for Purim, sort of like triangular thumbprint cookies with raised sides for more jelly. If you have a Jewish friend who offers you some, waste no time in accepting!
• Why did they air their 2014 Halloween episode, "SaBOOOtage," on October 5? Wouldn't it have made more sense to air it a little closer to the 31st?
  • So "Food Network" can air it a lot during October.
  • Alternatively, it could be because of Superstar Sabotage starting that Wednesday. Or because their month-long Halloween competition series, "Halloween Wars", had started airing on October 5 also.
• In "Anything But a Cake Walk" (S4E3), when Enzo misunderstood the challenge to make biscuits and gravy, just what was something as irrelevant as a brisket doing in the pantry in the first place?
  • Well, there are several types of gravy, including chunky gravy. It's not out of the question to make a meaty gravy. Alternatively, the crew *just* had to know they would have a contestant who would mistake "biscuits" for "briskets" and probably anticipated this.
  • He grabbed a pork belly rather than your usual chunk of beef that would go into brisket, and pork is THE meat used in country-style gravy. Most often it's pork sausage, but it was definitely possible that at least one chef would want to use pork belly in their dish.
  • And there's always a bunch of random ingredients in the pantry. One of the other contestants in that very round grabbed a pineapple.
• Why do so many chefs explain why they stopped bidding by saying that it was clear that the chef who won the auction was "not going to back down" or "not going to stop"? That's terrible reasoning. If you are convinced that the other chef will keep bidding no matter what, then you should keep bidding to make the other chef pay as much as possible. Why stop and let the other chef have that sabotage at a lower cost than he would have paid?
  • As Alton has pointed out in behind the scenes videos, you should try to avoid getting into overly extensive bidding wars for two reasons. The first, is because if you just made someone pay a quarter or more of their remaining cash, chances are they'll dump the sabotage right onto you as revenge. The second reason, if you're thinking about getting into a bidding war with them, they can be willing to play that game as much as you, and waiting to make you eat a $10,000+ cost for a sabotage that might not be that terrible.
    • A perfect example of this is in the second round of the first heat of the Superstar Sabotage involving Jeff Mauro and Michael Psilakis. Psilakis forgot the chicken for Kung Pao Chicken, and Mauro sought to basically extort him for the chance to earn chicken back - taking the bidding to $16,000. Deciding it wasn't worth the cost (which would have left him completely defenseless in Round 3) he decides to take the chance. The result: Mauro inadvertently buys the sabotage, and gives it to Aarti Sequeira, who dumps him with a sabotage he can't overcome, sending him home. Chef Michael is able to sell Kung Pao Mushrooms to Antonia Lofaso and moves on to the final round.
• Why do so many Chefs decide that they want to "even the score" by sabotaging a chef who either previously sabotaged them, or doesn't yet have a sabotage? When only one chef is eliminated each round, an "even score" is the very last thing you want. On the contrary, you want the "score" to be as lopsided as possible, just not against you. If Player A sabotages Player B on the first sabotage, Players A, C, and D should *all* want to give the next two sabotages to Player B as well, insuring that Player B is eliminated from the round, and they are not..
  • Vengeance is a very human thing. And 'level the playing field' is another. Not totally sound tactical thinking, but human.
• How come Alton always says that sabotages in the final round may or may not happen? They always happen, sabotages are the point of the show!
• Is there any thought given to whether a judge might have a food intolerance or allergy to items used in that episode?
  • Yes. For example, Simon Majumdar is allergic to coffee and oysters, so the dishes he is asked to judge do not contain either of these. In fact, in "Here's Looking at You, Squid", the challenge is "coffee cake" and Alton specifies to the chefs, one of who is an Italian chef that is clearly not familiar with the dish, that it contains no coffee, in case he is misled by the name. The contestants are also likely informed of the judges' allergies and intolerances before filming as well, and the pantry probably has those items taken out just in case.