I admit that I thought Jen’s reason for staying in HK was pretty compelling. I’m surprised that Fox didn’t keep Jen on for the drama. She wasn’t even that evil this week! (Was it confirmed that she wrote Christina’s name down twice? I wouldn’t put it past Corey to do it and pin it on Jen.)
My money’s on Petrozza to take it, given Ramsay’s grudging acknowledgment that the man can cook despite being a slob.
Petrozza has run his own catering business if I recall correctly. Really none of them have ever seemed to jump up as a strong leader, but Ramsay will still probably opt for experience.
She has admitted in an interview that she did write Christina’s name twice. If she’s not smart enough to figure out that that little trick wouldn’t go undetected in a group of four, I sure as hell wouldn’t want her in charge of ordering food for a restaurant.
I missed everything past the Christina challenge portion. What’s this name-writing thing about?
It was yet another elimination where the team had to pick who went up rather than having the strongest chef of the night pick. So each person was supposed to write down two different names, and the two contestants with the most votes would go up for elimination.
Corey was counting the votes and counted three votes for Christina. She realized there was a problem since she hadn’t voted for Christina, and Christina hadn’t voted for herself. That meant either Jen or Petrozza had put Christina’s name down twice, and of the two, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s the one who has repeatedly tried to cheat in the past.
And elaborating on what I said upthread, Corey was counting the ballots after the little “did you vote for yourself, Christina?” exchange (with Jen either doing a bad job of actually being innocent, or looking like she was trying to hide what she’d done), and said, “So that’s Christina and Jen.” Then (IIRC) Jen leaves and she, Christina, and Petrozza are together, discussing who they really want to put up against Jen, since almost certainly Jen cheated in her balloting.
Another issue is Christina had an uneven service that evening, including twice putting down a pan next to Ramsay (who was doing some garnishing/plating work at the front) that had a red-hot handle. He burned the same hand both times and was furious with her for not warning him. So if she went up against Jen, there was a good chance Ramsay might argue that Christina was unsafe in the kitchen and thus not a good worker.
Petrozza offers to go against her - he had some sloppy moments and a screwup or two, but by the end Ramsay praised him highly. Corey sent out a raw piece of salmon during the night but otherwise was pretty steady. Christina made the announcements for their team, nominating first Jen, then Corey. Corey defended herself by saying she was distracted by trying to help others get their entrees out - which she did, but it was a definite slam on Jen who stuck to one pan of risotto at one point when the others were asking her to cook up a couple eggs for a dish that needed to go out ASAP. Corey had stepped in on that one IIRC.
Has Jen been like that all season? If so, how did she last so long? I would have had difficulty not locking her in a freezer overnight.
She used to be much worse.
Of course, it really doesn’t matter at this point who the chefs put up. Ramsey will make his choice, even if it’s pulling from the others. He knows who he wants going home.
I’m really, really glad to see the last of Jen. Someone who truly believes she doesn’t have a fault and the only reason she’s ever up for elimination is that the others view her as serious competition. No, Jen. They just all find you a repellant bitch. And her idea that after being a pain through the entire competition, but now it’s time to put on a nice face and the others will somehow magically fall under her spell and consider her worth keeping is just ludicrious. Her ego must be immense.
StG
Some of Jen’s winning qualities we’ve seen throughout the season:
[ul]
[li] Poor loser – During the Jen montage at the end of this past episode, there was one scene where Jen was repeatedly slamming a cleaver down with a wild grin on her face. She was doing that to try and splatter the winning team with food as they were on their way to enjoy their reward.[/li][li] Poor winner – When she was on the winning team, she still tended to taunt the losing team.[/li][li] She’s incapable of acknowledging her mistakes. It’s always someone else’s fault. Always. (And if I were more like Jen, I wouldn’t admit that I’m pretty much stealing this from StG’s post above mine.)[/li][li] She’s repeatedly tried to cheat – During a competition where each chef was partnered with a rich housewife who had to do all the physical cooking under the chef’s instruction, Gordon had to yell at her several times because she kept doing the cooking herself. In a challenge where each team had to use each ingredient from a list exactly once, she heavily encouraged a teammate to lie about the ingredients in the dish he prepared in order to make it appear that they satisfied the requirements. She got extremely bitchy with him when they were disqualified due to his honesty.[/li][/ul]
As for why she managed to stay so long, I think it boils down to two things. One is that, despite her horrible attitude, she seemed to regularly avoid major screw-ups while cooking. Some of her worst nights seemed to have been when her team won, thus keeping her safe from elimination. Even so, her teammates have wanted to get rid of her for a long time. If there was an anti-congeniality award, she would’ve earned it long ago.
The other reason why she stayed is a little more cynical in nature. Part of the job of the show is to provide entertainment, and so it certainly helps to have a good villain. Since everything is ultimately at the discretion of Gordon and the producers of the show, it isn’t going to compromise things by keeping around a contestant who no longer has a shot at winning but who provides for good television. You see a similar effect on the Apprentice which has a nearly identical setup.
Also, I’m still disappointed that we lost Ben and Louross. Both of them showed promise and talent early on, but it seemed like they were sunk by repeated screw-ups in the kitchen. I really wish one or both had gotten their acts together.
Anyway, I can’t say I’m unhappy with Petrozza as a serious contender. We’ve seen him go out of his way to bail out a teammate (when Louross had messed up the meat dish, and they were able to shave off a tiny outer layer rather than recooking it from scratch). He had one or two breakdown moments early on in the show, but he’s been drama-free since then, and he’s completely avoided inter-personal drama. As we saw tonight, Gordon’s happy with how Petrozza’s dishes come out. Petrozza just needs to work on keeping his area clean.
I also think that the final challenges are going to be biased in Petrozza’s favor. They’re getting to the point where they’re going to have to show that they can actually run a kitchen, and Petrozza’s background is as a catering director.
My girlfriend pointed out several instances after where he was high fiving, clapping and doing other things with his “injured” hand. I think he wasn’t that hurt. Still a mistake on Christina’s part though.
Ramsay’s a chef. While it was a mistake, he’s grabbed so many hot items over the years that he probably barely notices. It’s an occupational hazard. Playing it up, it makes for good Fox reality drama.
Not to mention continuity is not a priority for the editors of the show…