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Interesting Idea for "Chopped"

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Interesting Idea for "Chopped"
Posted by GP-9_Man11786 on Saturday, January 24, 2015 8:23 AM

Lately, my wife and I have been watching "Chopped" on the Food Network. For those of you not familier with the show, it pits for Chefs against each other. They each prepare a three-course meal for the judges and one is eliminated after each round. One episode featured four New York City fire fighters instead professional chefs.

My question is, would an episode pitting four Amtrak or Via Rail dining car chefs against each other make for a good episode?

Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.

www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com 

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, January 24, 2015 8:59 AM

Now THAT would be something to see!  Great idea!

By the way, love your avatar!  I haven't seen the "Black Spy" in years!

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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, January 24, 2015 9:21 AM

I think it would be fun to pit Amtrak chefs against Via Rail chefs!

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Posted by Wizlish on Saturday, January 24, 2015 2:12 PM

GP-9_Man11786
My question is, would an episode pitting four Amtrak or Via Rail dining car chefs against each other make for a good episode?

Yes, and it would involve a panel of judges, each of whom proposes a particular dish from a list.  The contestants are each locked into their own Plexiglas box about 6x6x20, into which hot air is blown, and which contains all the cooking equipment and supplies they are to use, and required to produce all the dishes for the judges within the allotted time of the segment.  For fun, the boxes are suspended on powered mounts and arbitrarily jolted and rocked at critical moments.

Now, what would we call it?  "Railroaded Cuisine"?

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Posted by usmc1401 on Saturday, January 24, 2015 4:18 PM

Could a third team be from Pullman Rail.

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Posted by Firelock76 on Saturday, January 24, 2015 4:24 PM

Hey usmc 1401, how about a "Chopped" featuring the "Grill Sergeants" versus a Marine chow hall crew?  You and I can root for the home team!  OOOH-RAH!

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Saturday, January 24, 2015 4:50 PM

Firelock76
Now THAT would be something to see!  Great idea!

By the way, love your avatar!  I haven't seen the "Black Spy" in years! 

"+1" to this and Wizlish above. 

Better yet, get either 4 cars from Amtrak or old-style dining cars from the AAPRCO group, put them on a short line to get the real motion effects (Napa Valley Wine Train, anyone ?) and have a separate contestant and film crew in each one.  Passengers can also taste and judge !

- Paul North.  

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by MP173 on Saturday, January 24, 2015 6:50 PM

My wife and I absolutely love watching Chopped.  In fact after a good meal, my comment to her is "you would NOT be chopped".  She is creative in the kitchen while I am pretty straight forward comfort food.  Both of us pretty much cook from scratch tho.

Last year a military cook made it to the finals of the amatuer competition.  They have brought in school cooks, firemen, and high school students.  It is a very entertaining show.

Ed

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Sunday, January 25, 2015 10:10 AM

Link to the show: http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/chopped.html 

Now this is the weird part (cue "The Twilight Zone" theme music):  When I went there, one of the advertisements on the middle side was for "Railroad Track Layouts", which linked to:

http://modelrailroadlayoutsandscenery.com/railroad_layouts_14.html?gclid=CNbMqtzDr8MCFWFp7AodZT8AIw 

and/ or

http://modelrailroadlayoutsandscenery.com/railroad_layouts_14.html?gclid=CL6VrpTEr8MCFdgHgQodiwsA2A 

How did they know about my (long-past and somewhat lukewarm) interest in that ?!?

- Paul North.

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by Wizlish on Sunday, January 25, 2015 10:26 AM

Paul_D_North_Jr
Paul_D_North_Jr wrote the following post 9 minutes ago: Link to the show: http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/chopped.html Now this is the weird part (cue "The Twilight Zone" theme music): When I went there, one of the advertisements on the middle side was for "Railroad Track Layouts", which linked to: http://modelrailroadlayoutsandscenery.com/railroad_layouts_14.html?gclid=CNbMqtzDr8MCFWFp7AodZT8AIw and/ or http://modelrailroadlayoutsandscenery.com/railroad_layouts_14.html?gclid=CL6VrpTEr8MCFdgHgQodiwsA2A How did they know about my (long-past and somewhat lukewarm) interest in that ?!?

I suspect you might want not to know some of the 'likely' answers to that post.

For over two decades now, very smart people have been working to build data stores and engines that can cross-relate individual preferences and interests to make targeted advertis ... umm, content available in the 'connected environment.'  I don't find it at all unlikely that someone (perhaps Kalmbach) has a record of pages visited that shows your interest in track arrangements, and "via a commodius vicus of recirculation" that has been linked to your browsing at the Food Network site.

Those involved in this wild will to build a more imperfect world would be overjoyed to see how well their systems are working -- not only have they established a link, they've found one important enough that you've commented in public on it.  (Thereby perhaps establishing yet more grist for the AI engines that are refining the algorithms concerned?)

Wouldn't Philip K. Dick have a field day with this?

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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, January 25, 2015 1:58 PM

If you would prefer not to view the ads that have been targeted to you!

https://adblockplus.org/

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Sunday, January 25, 2015 2:26 PM

Yeah, I did think of that, but: It's been at least a month since I last visited that kind of site - and even then, not very much - and have spent much more time and visits on many other types of rail-related sites.  So that part of the software is pretty dysfunctional - presenting a site that I've not been interested in recently, have no current interest in, and am unlikely to buy anything from ?  There are many others out there which would be better bait for my $.

- Paul North. 

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
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Posted by zugmann on Sunday, January 25, 2015 3:40 PM

I love targeted ads.

I was proud the day all my youtube ads were in japanese.

 

 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, January 25, 2015 6:14 PM

zugmann

I love targeted ads.

I was proud the day all my youtube ads were in japanese.

 

 

 

Laugh

     I liked the time that an ad appeared on the right hand side of the screen that said "Find communities of idiots in North Dakota".  I'm not even from North Dakota! Stick out tongue

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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