@massmith - Yes, you are correct, I am male. Although I fail to see how that makes a difference. Personally, I think I could have worded "More men and less women are cooking than ever." a little better. I could have said "More men and fewer women..."

To elaborate a bit on that, I think all of this is a great thing. It makes men and women much more independent. It also shows that our country is progressing socially.

Cheers.

@Godsgal: Thank you for your suggestion. Here's one for you. Spell and grammar check your posts before commenting.

Who are you talking to? One of my bosses once said "it's not the problem you deal with, it's how you handle it." Debbie is *horrific* at handling problems
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I'd never want to work with her. Ever. Would you?

If you think Debbie can be part of your money-making family then you are clearly mistaken. She has proved over and over that she can not work with anyone nor herself for that matter.

My point, in case you missed it, was that life is full of challenges and surprises. It's how one handles them that matters in the end. And her end in this competition is a welcome sight to my weary eyes.

@ruok9c HAHA! Exactly! The economy has nothing to do with Melissa's cooking abilities.

Personally, I thought Debbie would have been eliminated before Jamaica. I really can't see why this happened other than Jamaica loosing her cool and saying something stupid out of stress that FN opted not to show on TV. Was this the case?

A great Food Network Star will want to inspire me to cook. The three that have consistently done this have been Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri. That said, if you remove the challenge, there is no question in my mind that Jeff Saad will become an addition to these three. So far, I have witnessed that he has an uncanny ability make flavors work together.

That said, Melissa d'Arabian is amazing in that she's survived this long. She has talent enough to sustain and occasionally impress. And sure, maybe she'll be a good "product" toward the Mother at Home cooking audience. I have two problems with this:

1) We don't live in the 1950s. More men and less women are cooking than ever. And when it comes down to it, if I want to make what she's making, it can be done with a little practice and a good pastry book.

2) If she has so much confidence in her "best" dishes, why isn't she showing us how to prepare them or going nuts about them? In this last episode, she didn't show us how to make her knock-out pastry. Although, I loved her ratatouille knowledge.

Jeff showed us how to create a perfect scallop, which knocked the socks off the judges. That's called confidence in what one prepares. Over and over, I don't see that confidence in Melissa. Which puts me off a bit in wanting to attempt her recipes.

This is difficult for me because I'm sure I'm coming across a little biased. Even if I had very high expectations for Jamaica. It's about making me want to print the recipe, hit the Whole Foods shop, fire-up the kitchen, and make a recipe that is going to become a new standard in my recipe file.

And since this is my first post, I'm so glad Katie Cavuto is gone. I'm from Philadelphia, and in no way does this woman's cooking come close to what Philadelphia has to offer in flavors and history. It was pure pain watching her compete. I could think of 10 local chefs off the top of my head that could cook circles around her. If you want to represent Philadelphia, you better be ready to cook like a Philadelphian.