Not so very long ago, I was in a nice restaurant and I picked what I thought was a Brazil nut off the side of my plate and popped the whole thing in my mouth. I soon discovered it was a giant garlic clove but didn’t want to spit it out. Thought I was going to die! 
Actually I was kind of surprised that Robert was sent home because of his perceived dramatic value, which was starting to get pretty old. It seems pretty obvious to me that he was coached to ham it up, especially when he went off on Andy.
As other posters have mentioned, this isn’t a contest so much as a partially scripted show with amateur actors. Yeah, Top Chef Masters is starting to look better and better.
I am picking Kevin as this years winner. He is the only one I have seen that has not had a kitchen meltdown or any major screwups, he can step up as a leader, and is the only one whose personality does not make me all stabby.
what was Van’s issue with removing the plastic from the fish? wouldn’t that kinda be an elementary first step in the prep? Especially to have it happen twice. and why did it past the pass? shouldn’t that be something that the sous chef or Ramsay should have caught?
From what I could tell, the plastic was under the crust, so it wasn’t obvious at a glance.
I think Dave should be on the short list, too. Ramsay has complimented him several times for doing more with one hand than most of the rest are doing with two.
I was distracted for a while – who was it that got chewed out for continuing to work on his pasta when Ramsay had called them over for one his lectures?
The final three will definately be Dave, Kevin and Ariel.
Regarding Van, I am very confused. One week I think he’s going to win the whole shebang, the next week he’s leaving fucking plastic in two different pieces of fish. So he’s my wildcard pick. Possible to win it all I think, but also possible to really screw up and get himself sent home. The aforementioned three people will definately be high finishers.
EDIT: I think it was Kevin that didn’t listen to Ramsay to stop what they were doing and listen to him.
It’s gotta be a chef thing. I’ve had a few dishes in different restaurants with too much raw garlic (and I LIKE garlic). The same amount of garlic would have been perfect if they had roasted it.
I think Van might have the cooking chops to go all the way in Hell’s Kitchen, but his temper is going to be his downfall. He will go off at the wrong time or to the wrong person eventually (which is not JP I guess, poor Belgie).
Thanx to tivo, I missed Ramsay parting comment about Big Boy. Why did he let him go?
Via Wikipedia: “Robert’s closing plea was quite entertaining. But I’m not looking for a performer, I’m looking for a Head Chef. And Robert’s not that guy.”
He also made some comment, IIRC, about how many chances Robert had, and he didn’t measure up.
Yeah, it seemed like his main issue was that Robert hadn’t been performing up to the level that he had been when he got taken out of the game last season. If he couldn’t come back and kick ass, he wasn’t the guy that Ramsay wants, let alone coming back and resting on his laurels.
I’ve seen Ramsay complain about dishes having too much garlic on Kitchen Nightmares. It wasn’t at all surprising that he hated it in that dish.
Not that adding sugar would have helped all that much, mind you! I think the posters above are right on about roasting it.
I thought it was funny how during the guys’ reward in Vegas, they’re all dressed up in button-down shirts, slacks, and a blazer, except Dave who’s in a camouflage t-shirt and trucker hat.
Who knew that haddock, fig, apple and tomato would produce a tasty dish?
Everyone on the show and here seems to be shocked that it could happen twice. If the problem was he didn’t expect the way they were stored to include plastic wrap (apparently not the way they did it at his old restaurant) if it was going to happen on one fish it was bound to happen on more than one. It seems to me that both fish were sent out at roughly the same time and the second one just came back after the yelling about the first one.
Of course if he somehow managed to prepare another fish with plastic wrap after the first one then he is just an idiot.
Anyone else surprised to see Amanda this far in and doing well? I don’t think she’ll win it, but when her signature dish in the first episode was French toast and a shot of tequila (and she drank the shot herself when Chef Ramsay refused to drink it) I figured she was just an airhead who was going to be booted quickly.
Dan, that was my assumption too, that he’d gotten caught on two that had gone out at the same time or at least the second had gone out before the first one had been discovered to have plastic. My question is - did he manage to serve others that somehow had no plastic, or were those the only two that went out before he problem was discovered, or what? (Or maybe putting plastic on some was a bit of “sabotage” by the show’s staff to see if he’s paying attention.)
But Van was front and center when Chef Scott was showing them how to prepare the dish and Scott specifically mentioned that they had to make sure the wrapping was all removed. Van just got ahead of himself and started missing steps.
Bleh, I missed that; must have been websurfing at the time. Never mind my thoughts on it then, you’re right.
It was easy to miss as it happened while Robert was making his “grand return” 
Speaking of Robert, I am glad he is gone. The guys seem to work much better without him, even with Andy as dead weight. The crash is their morale when Robert returned was palpable and I knew they were going to lose then.
I’m not watching this, but I watched much of last season.
Yesterday I was setting up my technophobic mother-in-law to watch the latest episode on Hulu. I really thought I clicked on the wrong link when I saw Robert going to the emergency room during the “previously on” segment.
Dude’s on the wrong reality competition show.