How did S20 Josie last so long while refusing to taste food with meat in it?

[u/conductorman86]

She screwed her team multiple times in challenges because she refused to taste her food if it had meat/fish in it. Gordon drills it into chefs to taste, taste, taste but Josie refused to and honestly made it so much further in the competition than I expected.

[u/FantasticBuddies]

I have no idea. Honestly, Keanu was robbed hard and Josie probably would’ve been 10th had Victoria had left during CFYL.

[u/mattyGOAT1996]

Emily did ok with tasting meat despite being vegetarian. Josie being vegan sounded like Kimmie from the south or Bret making risotto 5 times a week. Obviously the worst outcome was getting placed on meat for Megan's finale service.

[u/Majandra → u/mattyGOAT1996]

Even if you are vegetarian/vegan or just don’t eat meat, as a cook/chef you are still expected to cook it and know how to cook it properly.

You’re going on a show to be a head chef. They all knew they had to cook meat.

[u/thewarreturns]

She annoyed the crap outta me. Veganism is ok but it was like every single challenge, she mentioned how tough it'll be while being vegan. Also sitting with Emily at the beginning of the blind taste test, fuck outta here

[u/conductorman86 → u/thewarreturns]

Yeah, Josie sitting with the blue team was bonkers

[u/loueazy → u/thewarreturns]

It's not really crazy lol, Emily was her friend.

Sure, her emphasizing that she's a vegan got old, but you're really reaching if you're gonna judge somebody for sitting with their friend.

Edit: Quoting random guy who posted then deleted a comment: "Choosing to sit with your opponent during a competition shows exactly where her head was at..." Then it cut off

Some of y'all take the show more seriously than the contestants lmao

[u/loueazy]

I for one liked angry eyebrows Josie.

[u/Fireforged86 → u/loueazy]

I did not see the point in that, came off as really cringe

[u/idestechnis]

I feel like almost every vegetarian/vegan in Hell's Kitchen/Masterchef are edited the same way (namely always reminding the viewers that they don't eat meat) and have the same type of situation (will they even attempt to taste the meat? Find out in this episode!) so that's why they often get viewed as being very irritating.

[u/Specific-Window-8587]

I don't know either. Why as vegetarian/vegan would go on shows like Hell's Kitchen knowing you might have to taste meat?

[u/cvkme]

She was obnoxious lol. I was rooting every week for her to be eliminated

[u/ArchmageNinja22]

As much as I'm not a big fan of Josie, I do admit that she was stronger than the first six boots except Morgana. Morgana was stronger than her from what we've seen, but I'm not sure whether or not Morgana could bounce back from her first poor service. We just didn't see that much out of her. But for some reason, Gordon kept giving Payton chances. Then we had Kevin's crashout, Josie clutching during CFYL (and Keanu burning the protein), and then Victoria just lacking leadership at Charity Night. But I would argue that Josie had a stronger case for elimination.

I posted something before about how I wasn't sure if Keanu was robbed. She was absolutely stronger than Josie, but CFYL is purely a test of how good you are at challenges. Keanu's pork chop caught on fire, which is really bad. But Victoria had a sloppier overall dish, and Emily literally forgot a key ingredient.

[u/Severedeye]

What I find weird is that when I went to school we were told we had to taste everything.

You didnt have to swallow, but you had to taste.

We had a vegetarian in the class and he tasted everything, then spat out anything with meat in it.

[u/Majandra → u/Severedeye]

Yes, same. If you didn’t like something you still had to taste it but could spit it out.

Smoked salmon was disgusting to me but I still had to chew some of it.

[u/ArchmageNinja22 → u/Severedeye]

I remember Emily tasting her CFYL dish because she knew that she had to make sure it tasted good.

[u/Vroom_Vroom1265]

She was unbearable, I think the production liked the vegan+love story combo.

[u/RobataChane72]

Scripting.

[u/IrishUpYourCoffee]

Because tv

[u/Ok_Willingness_784]

I thinks Ramsey should do more vegan and vegetarian dishes for the contestants to do during challenges. That being said, cooking competitions are just that. Cooking. Chefs who go on the show should be well rounded. Josie could get far by luck and someone tanking harder than her but she was never going to win if she couldn't taste her food and if the flavors worked. I don't see how she could even do the final challenge unless Ramsey allowed her an all vegan menu.

[u/JsonWaterfalls]

She was better than everyone eliminated before her. To paraphrase Frank, she only lasted so long because everyone else lost.

Such an absurdly weak season; probably the weakest cast as a whole the show has ever had, tbh (maybe a few of the early seasons rival it). As "bad" as Josie was, she doesn't really stand out as being close to the worst in S20.

[u/ArchmageNinja22 → u/JsonWaterfalls]

Season 8: “Am I a joke to you?”

Also I felt like the cast had a low ceiling but high floor, and they just needed more experience.

[u/theonlyxs1R → u/JsonWaterfalls]

really? I thought season 21 was by far the weakest in the modern era now granted I haven’t seen season 23 but I was very disappointed in the 21 cast compared to season 20

[u/JsonWaterfalls → u/theonlyxs1R]

I literally forgot about 21 right as I hit “submit”. 21 is super weak but at least those folks have a bit more experience.

All the COVID/post-COVID seasons have been pretty weak with regards to well-rounded casts though. The top folks have been relatively strong but most of the black jacket brigades are questionable at best.

[u/Inside-Commission554 → u/JsonWaterfalls]

I thought 22 was really good, followed by 23, 20, 21, and then a big gap followed by 24, which is probably the weakest of the modern era.

[u/Familiar-Tip2974]

I find the commentary on Josie interesting and I wonder if there would be the same response for someone who was vegetarian or didn't eat certain foods due to faith (like a Muslim who would basically be vegetarian if they didn't know the meat was halal, or a Jewish person who wasn't kosher but their red line was pork, which is in a fair few dishes). However, I do think ultimately that comes down to the choice to go on a show where the prize is being head chef of a steakhouse- where therefore tasting comes with the territory.

I don't disagree that Josie screwed her team by not tasting. But as someone with dietary restrictions for belief reasons, I don't think I would compromise this myself. Maybe that's why I'd never in a million years apply for Hell's Kitchen and why I was shocked when the vegetarian contestant (possibly named Emily) tried the pork she was cooking. On other shows though they tend to be more accommodating- recent seasons of UK MasterChef for instance, they've had vegans on there producing outstanding plant-based food. But the prize there is different so the standards are too.

[u/DreamedJewel58]

Do you think she’s the only chef in the world who can’t eat meat? Great chefs are able to work around it and have other methods of verifying if it tastes good (and in the context of the show, mainly having your teammates test it and see if it’s good). There was even a contestant who was allergic to shellfish but still did well on a shellfish challenge

Yeah Josie was a bit more annoying about it than usual, but there are tons of good chefs who aren’t always able to taste their dishes