The Final Winnowing…
Okay, Petrozza is a lock, IMHO, for the final, but which blonde goes with him? I’m guessing Christina, but I wouldn’t put more than a quarter on it.
Tonight the contestants have to play GR: read the orders, inspect the food, scream at the other two contestants. Last time Scott and Marianne (? GR’s assistants) filled in on the cooking and GR ordered them to deliberately sabotage one of their offerings for each of the contestants. If these contestants were smart enough to research the previous seasons, they’d better pay special attention each time S or M deliver a dish.
I was flummoxed to see Christine/a get the redemptive edit last week. She won the challenge and looked pretty good, despite searing Ramsay’s hand twice with the saute pans. I thought she was toast before that and Jen would be the top three.
SBS is right - Petrozza is a shoo-in. I don’t think Corey has gotten enough of a good gal edit to get to the final. Hard to say…
Petrozza Petrozza Petrozza
Christine over Cory? One would think that handed the key to Petrozza, but stranger things have happened. As for the Kristina pick, it would seem Ramsey is looking more for a manager than a chef. That was Christina’s sole saving grace this episode cause she was a basket case at her station.
Well, to be fair, Christina won the individual challenge this week – and the last three before it. Which means she has an analytical sense of taste AND good instincts on what dishes other people will like. Probably those abilities are a great deal more valuable to an executive chef than being able to turn out salmon reliably.
Not that it matters, Petrozza will win in the end.
What I’m mainly wondering about is who is going to get stuck with Jenn (“I’m not resentful” – hah!) on their team.
I think that’s it exactly, since Ramsay made a point of saying his decision was based on everything they had done up to that point. I was kind of glad to see Corey go, especially after her strategic move early on to try to get rid of Jen and Christina.
I can’t understand how these people have any taste when they smoke so much.
My first thought on seeing that was, “Jen, your job is to sit in the corner and shut up. We’ll do the dinner service.” I’m sure it wouldn’t fly but it’d be tempting.
Theres a culinary school in downtown Pittsburgh and you always see a line of students outside smoking away. Not sure what it would be like to try to go through culinary school as a non-smoker.
I am very happy with the final two. I am not so happy that stupid big-mouth Jen is back for the finale but I am not really that surprised. It should be an interesting finale. Petrozza all the way!
I really thought Christina would be leaving after making so many mistakes with the seafood…she ruined a lot more food than Corey, who’s only sin was to sauce before tasting…she only had to toss one portion of food as a result.
I started watching this early on, but abandoned it because of too much tension, didn’t want to see it. But, got a copy of Tony Bourdain’s book at a thriftshop, and got enamored of the rough world of professional kitchens. I’ve done some of that work, and yep, it’s tough, fast paced, and brutal. Cigarettes are the least of substances used to survive it…
On that note, a restaurant ciggy break is an acknowledged Time out, so people get used to doing that to break tension. Rare is the person I’ve seen that says,“Hey. I’m going outside for five minutes to get my shit together now”, sans cig. Should be allowed, though.
Last night, on HK, Jen just had to go after she obviously voted twice for Christina against the rules. That turned the others against her. And, in her last minute reasoning of why she should stay, she made no mention of teamwork, just all about her. Christina messed up twice with the hot pot handles, and bad cooking at the seafood station, but she flew better than Corey in managing upfront, and paid attention to the challenge of duplicating GR’s signature dish. The others were paying more attention to their families, forgetting to be aware of the next challenge.
I’m back on with watching this TV, and hope it makes people realize what the Hell goes on between the kitchen and plate served. It really is an intense drama, a lot not so pretty.
As a lifelong non-smoker, working in an office of non-smokers, it never occurred to me that smoking was a means to formalize “I’m on break, dammit!” but it makes sense.
Over at the California Culinary Academy, I see so many students out on the sidewalk puffing away, it’s as if the school registrar hands new students a list of the required textbooks and supplies, and cigarettes are on that list, probably with a note to avoid menthol as it annoys your classmates if they’re out and want to bum a smoke.
Even more amusing is that time a couple of years ago when the health inspector dinged the school for so many cigaratte butts on the ground outside a doorway, that they were being blown or kicked into the building.
I’ve never been so undewhelmed by a group of finalists in any competition ever. Does anyone really feel like going to a restaurant headed by either of these two? Maybe it’s just the accumulation of insults hurled at these contestants by Ramsey over time that’s done it, but I don’t think I’d be excited to go to this restaurant if someone else was paying.
I’d go to just about any restaurant run by any random contestant from “Top Chef” well before I’d voluntarily go one run by either of the two “donkeys”. I didn’t feel the same way about the finalists in previous versions of this show.
Ramsey’s insults are parlayed and over the top, but that’s the hook of the drama with this show. And, really, from my experience in good restaurants, it’s hyperbole, but the basic atmosphere is true. To get great food out in a successful restaurant is akin to a mustereing an army to make it all happen: the in charge Chef has to have iron balls. I’ve worked for two acknowledged women Chefs, and they suffer from the reputation as “bitches”, when they are just doing what it takes to get it done.
It really is hard ass work. Read Tony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” for insight. It rings absolutely true for me. It was an opening up of how rough that biz is, and “Hell’s Kitchen” is a direct result of that opening up the trade secrets.
I have to agree. Watching the previous seasons and just going by what I know of the world, neither Petrozza or Christina seems to hae what it takes. Petrozza could be a decent second in command–sort of the “keep everyone’s morale up” guy–but not the lead.
Through the beginning of the season, Ramsay seemed to really be disappointed by Ben. I think that he thought he was the only one in the group who had the leadership potential, but didn’t like to use it or didn’t have the other cooking skills or something. It was never really clear.
Wasn’t Ben the one that quit cooking? Became an electrician or something? If so, Ramsey may just feel someone who quit cooking doesn’t have the dedication or fire or whatever to run a kitchen through the inevitable trials and rough spots that come up.
Dunno. He’s certainly had people on the show, before, who weren’t currently working in a kitchen. So I don’t see why he’d be more annoyed at Ben as opposed to any of them.
There have been some who hadn’t worked in a restaurant-style kitchen – a housewife, a nanny, a caterer, students, and so forth – but they could be thought of as ‘not having yet made it’ to the professional level. (The others were currently working as line chefs, executive chefs, whatever.)
I think that it may seem different to him. It’s one thing not have reached the ‘heights’ of being a professional restaurant chef, it’s something else to have ‘been there’ and then turned your back on it for whatever reasons. Someone from the first group may have the talent and turn out to be suited to the lifestyle while the latter has experienced what it’s like and already decided it wasn’t for him. Maybe Ramsey would see that as being a ‘quitter’ and not wanting to pick someone who might toss it all in again.
I dunno, just a thought.
Anyone honestly think that GR would have a 25 year old culinary student as his executive chaef?