Tournament of Champions II: Why no respect for Elizabeth Falkner?

On Sunday, the foodie world found out exactly who would be taking the final open spot in the Tournament of Champions II bracket. Tiffani Faison won the East Coast play-in round to take the No. 8 seed in the east bracket. She joins Nyesha Arrington who won the West Coast play-in.

One of the chefs who won’t be advancing is Elizabeth Falkner, who lost to Faison after defeating Bobby “The Butcher” Marcotte in the first round. As most foodies remember, Falkner was part of the Tournament of Champions last season, going in as the No. 5 seed and losing in the first round to Amanda Freitag.

Which has us asking a question. Why did Falkner have to go through the play-in rounds in the first place?

She competed last season and came in highly seeded, losing to the chef that eventually won the East Coast bracket. There is no question that she can cook and has been nominated for a James Beard Award as well as a truckload of other awards.

Why did Elizabeth Falkner have to go through the Tournament of Champions play-in?

In addition, there are two other chefs, namely Michael Voltaggio and Marc Murphy, who were also eliminated in the first round of last season, and yet, somehow, they got a pass into the main bracket, no questions asked.

So why no love or respect for Elizabeth Falkner?

The best we can come up with is that it has to do with name recognition and who the Food Network viewers are most familiar with.

Marc Murphy is a food legend and one of the most recognizable names on the network thanks to Chopped. Voltaggio has won Top Chef and has slowly increased his visibility on food television, appearing several times on Guy’s Grocery Games.

Falkner, on the other hand, is not a regular part of Food Network’s shows, as a judge or contestant. She is still a chef first and foremost, a food celebrity second. Which would explain why the main bracket also includes several chefs who are new to the competition but didn’t have to go through the play-in.

Of course, it can be argued that if Falkner had better luck with the Randomizer and the judges liked her offering better, this would all be a moot point. She would be in the main bracket instead of watching from home.

Next week the first battles begin as Tournament of Champions II moves on to the main bracket. Get ready.

What do you think Guilty Eats Nation? Do you think Chef Falkner got a raw deal or do you think fair’s fair in Tournament of Champions? Leave a comment and let us know or join the conversation on our Twitter page.