Hell's Kitchen 6-18 (Spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

Okay, since Mr Bus Guy’s thread is not about this specific episode I am starting a thread to talk about it.
If you haven’t watched it, there will be spoilers.

So Aaron’s off the show and has a “serious illness” I am curious about what was going on, he was really sounding hoarse before he collapsed.

I loved how Julia really shined in both the breakfast and the dinner service. I was annoyed how the snooty bitches decided to put Julia up for elimination because she’s not familiar with the “product”. She seems to be able to handle herself pretty good anyway. Julia has character and integrity, unfortunately that means she probably won’t last in this show. I haven’t liked Joanna at all but I liked how she actually stood up for Julia when she was one of the ones criticizing her in earlier episodes for being a f-ing Waffle House cook. And props to Jen for having a little decency and putting herself up for elimination when she realized Julia shouldn’t be on the block.

I think the right person was eliminated though. Jen’s errors were bad but Joanna’s was worse.

None of the guys really impress me. They seem to be all talk.
Didn’t we have another contestant drop out from illness last season? I believe they still eliminated someone that episode, as they did this episode. I can’t remember if they just finished early, ran a filler episode or had an episode where they didn’t eliminate someone. What do you suppose they’ll do, if anything, to make up for two contestants being out in one show?

2

I wonder if Joanna has a poor sense of taste and smell. Her food was always too salty and then she couldn’t smell the bad crab.

I agree that the right person got axed. A person can learn to not pick food out of the garbage but you can’t learn how to smell.

3

The way everyone was recoiling from it, it must have been pretty bad but she didn’t really react at all.

Next week should be interesting, they get the palate test. Of course we won’t get to see how Joanna would do with it. It will be interesting to see if the smokiest of the smokers do well.

4

If the teaser clip was an honest representation, I can’t wait for Melissa to confuse egg yolk with potato.

I am definitely a texture eater and I can’t fathom confusing the two.

Was it just me that thought the girls were arranged in the room made it look like Melissa, Bonnie and Jen were holding court and it was up to Julia and Joanna to plead to the court? I loved that Joanna so vehemently said that Julia could run a restaurant. I think that was probably one of the few honest statements about Julia by the contestants so far. If the others got honest with themselves they would be crackin’ the books instead of drinking in the hot tub.

Julia has show much class and true humility that it boggles my mind. There is so much false bravado and preening it is a joy to see her go in there, cook, take her hits and keep cooking.

I’m sticking to my theory that the biggest problem Aaron has is Aaron. Oh, and Vinnie, Shut the fuck up. (Thanks Rock, say it a few more times)

5

Julia stepped up tonight; not just running the breakfast kitchen, but standing up to Jen and not letting her serve garbage (Jen did everything but say “it was above the rim!”).

I also gotta give credit to Jen for standing up at the end, and putting herself on the line.

Bonnie looks like the weakest person left on the red side, at least based on the cut (which [del]probably[/del] certainly doesn’t tell the whole story).

It’s hard to say who’s the weakest or the strongest on the blue team, since all the damn macho posturing gets in the way.

6

I think this week makes like three services in a row where Julia the waffle cook has shown up the cooking school snobs in the kitchen. Granted, the breakfast challenge was a gimme for her but she also managed to shine in the dinner service (not to mention running the men’s team for a while) and GR has been pretty clearly impressed and complimentary. I think that’s what really bugged the other women. They can see that Ramsay likes her and that she’s showing them up. The waffle house thing was just an excuse to get rid of someone who is starting to emerge as a front runner. Fortunately, Ramsay saw right through that as well.

I was gobsmacked when I saw Jen try to serve that spaghetti out of the garbage. That would be a “turn in your apron, we’ll mail you your paycheck, don’t let the door hit you in the ass” level offense in any kitchen I’ve ever worked in. Serving he rancid crab is just about as bad (not to mention more life-threatening), but at least was not intentional.

I think that if they hadn’t already lost Aaron, Ramsay probably would have fired both Jen and Joanne but losing three players in a week was probably too much. I think his decision (if he wasn’t allowed to fire both of them) was a good one just because Joanne’s mistake put the customers at more physical risk and because she’s shown a degree of incompetence at every task.

Props to Jen for showing a conscience and not allowing somebody else to take a fall she knew she deserved herself. Kudos to julia for being on the ball enough to ask Jen where she got the spaghetti and then emphatically refusing to serve it, choosing to risk the wrath of Ramsay for being late rather than literally serve a customer garbage. Kudos to Joanne for sticking up for Julia.

I hope Julia can continue to hang in there and doesn’t get overwhelmed by her relative lack of knowledge of the “products.” She has demonstrated some ability to run a line and I have no doubt she could learn any technique or recipe cold if given the chance.

7

I thought it was a good result this week. I’m liking Waffle House Julia more and more. And I’m bothered by Melissa, who I had liked and seems to be a favorite, trying to shank her when they were choosing the nominees. Julia owned the breakfast challenge (and held her own or more at dinner), so to nominate her this week seems petty in the extreme. At the very least, she is a steady, competent assistant, so it makes sense to keep her on in the early stages of the competition where support is essential. If you’re having trouble getting dishes from the preset menu out the door, having a gastronome there is a lot less useful than a wingman who will cover your six.

The woman who should have come in for more anger was the one who ruined the Wellingtons (I forgot who it was), which torpedoed the whole dinner service. Had that not happened, the women might have been able to have come back and win the evening.

To the extent that there seems to be “strategic” decision making, it bothers me. I see this as a skills-based competition, where the idea is to best demonstrate your cooking/restaurant management skills, rather than merely defeat the other competitors. The idea is to show Gordon Ramsay you are the best, not just to be the last survivor. And when GR is the one that judges you, including judging you on your teamwork (and I imagine the selections an individual makes when he or she gets to select the nominees), it seems a really bad idea to shaft the stronger competitors who will make your team stronger.

I see Jen as showing integrity by stepping up and admitting her mistake with the pasta in the judging. Admittedly, taking the pasta from the trash was unacceptable (and Julia properly shut her down, hard – a leadership point to her), it seems like a stupid lapse in judgment under intense pressure. The pasta thing would have come up sooner or later (probably sooner), and her taking responsibility probably diffused the likely future explosion.

Joanna, on the other hand, was consistently weak or worse, and had a bad attitude, besides. She needed to go.

On the guys side, on the other hand, I was pleased to see Aaron out, but more for his sake than everybody else’s. He clearly was breaking down. I don’t know whether it was dehydration, lack of eating, a low-grade bug, or some stress-induced breakdown, but going out on a medical was at least a honorable way to exit. I think that Aaron’s absence also brought the guys together a bit, letting them take the service on their shoulders, rather than focusing on Aaron as the problem.

Of the guys, I like Rock the best, or at least I think he has the best conception of the group dynamics and isn’t an asshole. I think he’ll pop up as a natural leader once some of the other egos get squashed. If he can actually cook, he’ll go far.

8

Yeah, I’m really glad [del]Sanjaya[/del] Aaron is gone. It wasn’t even funny anymore.

I’m rooting for Julia to win, and the next person I’d like to see go is Melissa, for her snobbery. Jen also bothers me, because she seems to touch her face a lot.

The guys aren’t impressing me much. Rock is good…then there’s two other guys who look like each other, and then there’s someone else. yawn

9

I definitely agree that Julia was put up for elimination because of her competence rather than her ignorance. I think they are seeing her as a threat, and wanting to get rid of her using any excuse they can think of. I was so glad when Gordon Ramsay told her to get back in line.
I really hope Julia wins. I like her a lot.

10

In the future, they ought to have all the contestants go through a full physical before appearing, just to avoid another Aaron.

11

I think it was Jen who overcooked the Wellingtons? They seem to really screw with people every season. If I was going to be on the show, I’d make sure I had Wellingtons down.

Anyway, I agree that it was a good elimination. I can’t even imagine what rancid crab smells like. I smell my eggs after I break them to make sure they’re not off. But that’s because I’m a little paranoid in the kitchen.

The guys are just forgettable. I also wonder what was going on with Aaron.

12

Bad.

Very. Very. Bad.

Enough to make me nauseous. It’s kinda hard to miss unless you have no sense of smell at all. It should’ve been obvious to Joanna that it was off. But then I’m a bit paranoid myself, if I’m at all unsure about something in the bin it goes. I’d rather err on the side of caution than make us sick (though I try not to let food get to that point in the first place as I hate to waste it).

That was kind of a let down with Aaron, I was hoping for some bleedling like was implied (okay, not too much, I don’t want to see anyone really hurt). He definitely has some health issues, which were only compounded by the stress of the show and not eating. They probably should do a screening program, but I have no doubt that they ask about health problems etc in the application.

Re previews for next week. How can you mix up egg yolk and potato? Egg yolk has a distinctive taste to me on it’s own (one I dislike) and in no way resembles potato in taste or texture.

13

Do they cook the same menu every opening? Scallops, risotto, spaghetti for appetizers and the wellington and fish for entree. I’m guessing the creme brulee (that Julia didn’t know what it was?) is dessert?

One would think after doing the same menu more than a couple of times they would catch on to how things need to be done. I know changing stations screws with the dynamics and they’re all trying to get their shit together, but c’mon. If you know that last night the wellingtons cooked perfect in X minutes, you do it that way again.

My favs so far are Julia and Rock. The red haired chick bugs - she seems way too shrewish, but maybe that’s just her voice. I do think the women are threatened by Julia. I would rather work for her with her management skills than for someone like Screecho who knows the product (10 years to learn spices?) but couldn’t direct her team out of a paper sack.

I’m not sad Aaron is gone. Poor guy. I think he was intimidated bythe rest of the men and rather than facing it head on he wussed out.

14

Was it Brad last week who put Eddie and Josh on the line? Whoever it was, this whole episode I kept thinking he personally is responsible for his team losing, if they do. He absolutely crippled his team by putting two competent chefs (compared to Aaron) on the block for “strategy.” They played a man down because he wasn’t thinking of the team, he was thinking of himself. Have they ever watched the show?

I was hoping they’d bring Eddie back after Aaron left.

15

The teaser last week had Ramsay saying to someone, “Don’t die on me.” Is that what he said last night when Aaron collapsed, or is there going to be another medical emergency?

16

Reality show producers are starting to push the envelope too far in the search for drama queen contestants. Drama can make for good TV, but when you have contestants having a nervous breakdown before the show even starts (Survivor), crying and fainting (HK), or being physically incapable of even competing (Amazing Race), it just makes for bad TV.

Although I hate to admit it, I even watched Real World Denver (hey, I’m from here) and the resident drama queen faked an injury to avoid having to complete an Outward Bound camp. Instead of the real drama of a sorority girl climbing mountains and having to shit in the woods, we saw her getting drunk by herself in the house. Boring. I gave up on the show at that point, which was very easy to do.

17

Of the women, Julia impresses me more and more. No, she may not know what creme brulee is, or what to order for a five-star restaurant, but she obviously knows her way around a kitchen and has basic cooking skills down pat. Watch her as she cooks; she’s done whatever she’s doing a thousand times before, and the confidence she has in her skills and herself shows. Choosing her for elimination–after the great job she did with breakfast and keeping the spaghetti trash out of the service–was mean and petty. The other women remind me of petulant cheerleaders who just cannot believe that the unpopular girl is getting attention from the BMOC (Chef Ramsay in this case), and want to get rid of her for that reason and no other.

And Aaron’s medical problems have eliminated him. I hope we get updates on his condition in future episodes–I’m wondering just what it was that was the problem. But it would also be fun, assuming his medical problems don’t get in the way, to see Aaron come back at the end as a guest (for example) in the restaurant. At any rate, a reappearance would give the audience some closure on Aaron, similar to bringing the eliminated chefs back one last time, as has happened in the last two seasons.

The men? C’mon, guys, pull together. Teamwork works. Rock gets this idea, but the others seem to be each trying to emerge as a superstar, while only paying lip service to the concept of teamwork. And Vinnie…control that temper. You managed last night, but only barely, and I get the feeling that if you’re pushed too far as might happen with a number of challenges and services left to go, you’re going to lose it big time. Calm down and do your job.

18

It wasn’t this week, and when it does happen, it won’t be an actual medical emergency. I’m sure it’ll be in the context of Ramsey berating someone who is “dying” only in the sense of “sucking in the kitchen”.

19

Yeah, Jen overcooked the Wellington’s as well as trying to serve trashed spaghetti. Ramsay knew about the Wellington’s and (supposedly) just learned about the pasta at the elimination. I think Jen’s two errors could have gotten her kicked but she got credit for admitting she was wrong and putting herself up for elimination when her team went for someone who didn’t deserve elimination. Ramsay seems to really hate when people make excuses or try to cover up a mistake so I’d say the fact that Jen owned up to it and Joanna seemed to show no remorse or regret over the bad crab and her attitude throughout the show so far is what tipped the scales against her … well, in addition to the potential poisoning of customers.
As for Julia. I seem to recall hearing her say she was going to study a few times now. So I think she is trying to learn and she seems like she’s capable and smart enough to learn as she goes. I believe she said she had never made creme brulee, not that she didn’t know what is was. So I think she knows more than they give her credit for. Melissa said it took her 10 years to learn all this stuff, I think she’s a slow learner.

20

Joanna grated, but there’s no way on God’s green earth I would ever let someone who had the temerity to SERVE FUCKING FOOD FROM THE TRASH to ever grace my kitchen. :mad: :eek: :mad: :eek:

I realize that I might occasionally get unlucky with seafood at a restaurant… that’s why they have that disclaimer on the menu, right? But I’ve never seen a disclaimer reading “Customers may occasionally receive food from the trash bin.” I’m amazed that Ramsay was so mellow about it. More importantly, why was the crab rancid? Didn’t it come from the same batch that the Blue team’s did?

I think a restaurant can bounce back from getting people sick. Happens all the time. But I’m pretty sure that a restaurant that serves food from the trash is gonna get boarded up. I can’t even understand the logic behind such a move. Spaghetti takes me 6 minutes to prep - surely a cook could figure out how to prep it just as fast, if not faster?

Rock is a jackass. He tried to play strategy way too early in the game. The guy who was nominated last week, and Eddie seem to be solid chefs. Aaron and Vinnie, for instance, seem to be way out of their depth. The “strategy” cost the Blue team, big time. Luckily rancid crab and serving food out of the trash was just a hair worse. He was my early favorite on the men’s side but now he’s just pissed me off.

Julia is a favorite. Ramsay always likes the home and semi-pro cooks, especially if they’re women. Just when I thought the women weren’t half as bitchy as they were last year, they pull this crap on Julia. Of course they’ve made her bulletproof now, the idiots. Ramsay praised her several times and rejected their nomination. Only thing she can do negative now is self-destruct.

I’m always irked by the constant smoking by the chefs. This has been covered before, but I would suspect someone who smokes a lot to have a significantly diminished palate. Yet still it seems that every season most if not all of the chefs puff like chimneys.

Aaron is a 50 year-old wuss. What was the point, exactly?