Wot no Hell's Kitchen 7/9/07?

Loved Ramsay calling Melissa a “gremlin.” Her canker sore made a reappearance this week. Shit, why not put a band-aid on that thing? She has no business wearing her hair down, ever.

Rock has emotional issues. Dude, mediate, calm down. Please. You’re about to join the ranks of Reality TV Angry Black Men.

“It looks like regurgitated dog shit!” Great line from Ramsay.

Melissa so deserved the boot, I almost cried tears of joy when she got the steeltoe. Nice reprieve for Brad and Josh. I felt bad for Josh, he really wants to do well. Brad has been solid up until now.

I dunno–maybe because everybody said that Melissa was doomed all episode, it was sort of anticlimatic when she left.

Those mashed potaoes looked digusting. I thought it was pudding he was pouring out of that bowl. I made something like that when right out of college and living alone. I figured I would save some time by blending instead of mashing.

Nope. Library paste tastes better.

I was only surprised at it’s abruptness.

GR: “Was it a difficult decision?”
Blue Team: “Yes, Chef.”
GR: “Oh, **** off. Melissa, step forward.”

He caught me off guard by booting her so quickly and then calling Josh and Brad both up afterward. Good drama, that.

I was also surprised that Julia and Rock both lost their composure in this episode. Rock obviously went further off the plank than Julia, but I thought Julia was made of sterner stuff.

Rock really lost it. I’m surprised he didn’t throw a punch at someone. And for what reason? The punishment didn’t seem all that bad to me - rubber gloves and you should be okay. And it can’t hurt to realize the mass of trach that’s generated by a restaurant could be sorted at the time of disposable, and wine bottles and plastics, for example, could be separated easily and recycled.

Speaking of punishments - a couple weeks ago the men lost and had to eat foods they normally wouldn’t, like pigs feet and organ meats. While these aren’t traditional american fare, they are eaten in other parts of the world, and some are considered delicacies. Was it that they just boiled everything, or were the guys being small-minded and provincial. I’d be surprised that a culinary school graduate wouldn’t’ve tried sweetbreads, brains, kidneys, pigs feet, etc. (I can’t remember exactly what they served).

StG

That ain’t no canker sore on Melissa’s chin. It’s the biggest zit anyone has ever tried to pop, failed, then caked on make-up to cover it up.

She’d have been better not trying to pop it and letting it live peacfully on her chin.

“Cut your hair you f***ing donkey! You look like cousin IT out there with your hair down!”

I just figured the scriptwriters decided it was Rock’s turn to freak out.

I liked Bonnie’s sympathy for the lobsters. Poor little ugly things!

Julia was awfully pretty with some eye makeup on.

I don’t think Julia really lost it. Just emoted a bit. Rock, on the other hand, showed his true colors. You don’t explode to that extent unless that sort of violence is simmering. I’m glad Ramsay rubbed it in by calling him to the photo shoot to pick up some more garbage. I wouldn’t trust Rock anymore if I were a contestant. It’s fortunate he didn’t hurt somebody.

And all that anger did was help them lose yet another service. He had his anger in check by that time but he didn’t seem to even care at that point. We didn’t see him doing much in the way of leading or even communicating. Do the words drama queen mean anything to you Rock? Wile E is getting pretty tired of Rock, Wile E hopes Rock goes home soon.

I didn’t think they’d really kick a second person off because then they’d be ahead an elimination again, but I guess I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Josh go. I see in the previews Ramsay tells him he can’t cook. I have to agree. He probably does fine where he works with dishes he’s familiar with but how can you work in a kitchen and not know how to make mashed potatoes?

I think it’s a good thing the women won the challenge because I did not want to see them try to pretty up Melissa’s thing on her chin or any of the guys.

SO and I were walking the dogs while Rock had his fit :frowning: Nevertheless, I still think he’s the strongest male contender. I only caught the last half hour.

Yeah, it was anticlimatic re GR ousting Melissa. I’d figured her days were numbered once she was moved to the men’s team.

I can’t blame Julia for her momentary tears. Sometimes the stress just gets to you moreso than you realize. To her credit, the tears were brief. I’ve also noticed that GR doesn’t yell at her the way he yells at everyone else. I’d like to think he’s secretly rooting for her. She may not have fine-dining experience, but she does know her way around a kitchen.

I honestly thought GR was also going to oust both Josh and Brad when he called up both of them :eek:

Actually, I thought GR was going to pull out another surprise and tell them that they were staying, but Rock was out. I know that much of the drama comes from the editing, but Rock’s meltdown and one-on-ones with the camera showed way too much barely controlled anger and attitude.

I don’t think it was the trash or having to separate anything out. You’re fine with rubber gloves and safety eyewear (you don’t want to have a glass bottle drop and break close to your face), and you just wade in. No, I think Rock was just frustrated.

Over all the episodes so far, Rock does fairly well in the challenges. He may not always score a point, but he’s demonstrated that he’s definitely a contender. He’s also been a good sport when the Blue Team loses, which seems to be often: he’s eaten the organ meats, he’s done the KP, and so on. He may not like these tasks, but them’s the rules of the game, so he pitches in.

So last night, the Blue Team loses a challenge–again–and Rock must perform some awful task–again–and Ramsay rubs his nose in it by bringing him to the photo studio to pick up trash. He sees the women sipping champagne, and he must be thinking tht if it wasn’t for his Blue Team members screwing up–again-- he’d be sipping champagne and preparing for photos too.

I’d probably be looking at Rock somewhat scornfully if he lost it over a task as simple as sorting a pile of trash in the parking lot. But I’m not about to when he’s called to the photo shoot simply to pick up more trash, and then told to get lost. Heck, I feel a little sorry for the guy–why Rock? Is Ramsay testing him somehow? Seeing how far he can be pushed before he snaps? Why not Melissa, who was on very thin ice, and who might be expected to blow a gasket if she saw that her former Red teammates got the makeup and the dresses and the champagne while she was lugging trash? Why not Josh, who might have told Ramsay off somehow? No, it was normally calm and good-humored Rock who was called to pick up the trash. I really am wondering if it was just Ramsay’s way of seeing how far Rock could be pushed.

Rock lost his shit before his visit to the photo shoot. He was actually throwing things in the kitchen. My guess is that the producers informed Ramsay of it, and Ramsay said, “Oh yeah? Well send the son of a bitch over here, and I’ll give him something to rant about.”

Doesn’t anyone wonder what Ramsey would be like if put in Rock’s shoes in this situation? I can’t even imagine how he’d react to being forced to pick trash and be verbally abused every day.

I think Ramsey wouldn’t make it through day one of his own show without hurting someone or just up and quitting.

I don’t see much difference between the two - if anything, Rock is more stable.

Rock was already flipping out (unless the show was shown out of order). There’s no doubt that the producers instructed Ramsey to summon him specifically because they had already observed the breakdown.

I’m still sympathetic to Rock. I think Rock wasn’t upset about sorting garbage. He was upset because he suddenly realized that the contest was rigged for the greatest drama, not for the best chef. He just figured out that he probably had a better shot at fulfilling his dreams by the conventional career path, and at less cost to his dignity. This was probably more about being “rewarded” with having Melissa on the team last episode than it was about garbage.

My mistake then. Can I use the excuse that I was too busy looking for the product placements in the pile of trash? :slight_smile:

I think you’ve nailed it. Unless there was something about the taste of the blue team’s dishes that Ramsey didn’t verbalize, the blue team performed better to the point of the challenge than the red team. One of the points of the challenge was to be innovative and (IMHO) lobster bisque and lobster risotto seem pretty standard. I got the impression the red team won more because the producers decided that the ladies doing the makeovers and photo shoot made better television. I think Rock figured that out.

Oh, I don’t know about that. Those three guys in a makeover session would have been comedy gold. Rock’s violence didn’t seem manufactured to me. If it was, he missed his calling. He should be in Hollywood.

To a great extent, this show is an extremely exaggerated version of a kitchen apprenticeship (obviously excluding the daily competitions and the prizes [del]and punishments[/del]. Working your way up in a commercial kitchen is a constant hazing ritual. Ramsey is the success he is because he has already survived some of what he’s putting these people through.

GR is not some hot-headed asshole. He is an excellent chef with exacting standards, a good mind for business, and (perhaps especially) a consummate showman. I couldn’t handle working for him but I would accept a meal in one of his restaurants in a second.

One of my favorite quotes from the show was from Rock: “I wouldn’t make any of the chefs working under me sort through garbage!” My reaction? You are not a chef working under Ramsey, you are a game-show contestant. This is all about the drama. When Rock flipped out, it was guaranteed that Ramsey would call him out for additional humiliation. And Rock came out all right, holding his tongue at that moment and going all Zen in the afternoon.

I suspect that the contest was rigged for the women to win because Ramsey isn’t going to be photographed by InTouch surrounded by Josh and Brad. If it wasn’t actually rigged then that particular prize had been held in reserve for a week in which the women won a competition.

Mea Culpa: I predicted (in week two, and again in week three) that Melissa would be a finalist. She really fell apart the last few weeks. Rock looks to be close to a lock for one of the spots, if he doesn’t punch a producer out :wink: and Jen seems to have a good shot at the other spot (though, like Ramsey, I have a soft spot for Julia; If she doesn’t win I would love to see GR give her a scholarship to a good culinary academy).

I agree, and that would explain why Rock was so pissed. The more I think about it, the more I sympathize with his point. Did INStyle or US Weekly, whichever rag it was, really want the decidedly unsexy blue team on the cover, or would the red team be more appealing? Pretty obvious. None of the guys look especially fit. Bonnie looked great, and Julia and the other chick cleaned up nicely.

Still, it would have done him good to bite his tongue and perhaps have avoided the extra humiliation of being sent to the shoot to clean trash. That was pretty fucked up, but what would have been even better is if they had told him to clean up, then go to the photo shoot, and then pick up the garbage. His head would have probably exploded then!