S20.E05: Stirring the Pot

[jewel21]

Quote

After a big shakeup during the last elimination, both teams must work together to decipher recipes written in emojis. Later, one team has its best dinner service performance yet, while the other team struggles to find its groove.

Airdate: 06/28/2021

[xcrayon2215x]

I thought Morgana would go further but tonight was really bad. Sam didn't come across as bad as I expected, Victoria was a lot better tonight. The blue team actually won a service, they did really good tonight.

 

I think Antonio being in the dining room probably helped a little, I do not see Payton lasting much longer. The chefs forget the orders a lot more than with the regular seasons.

[Chyromaniac]

1 hour ago, xcrayon2215x said:

 

I thought Morgana would go further but tonight was really bad. Sam didn't come across as bad as I expected, Victoria was a lot better tonight. The blue team actually won a service, they did really good tonight.

 

 

Sam reminds me too much of a weaselly Dave Franco character for me to root for him- but I think he has more kitchen sense than several of these kids.  With Payton, it’s like he had some weird mental block where he kept switching Wellingtons for strips, and Vice Versa.  While I don’t think he “doesn’t know the menu,” I also don’t buy that switching teams was such a huge change.  Like, it’s literally the same menu, same roles, same process... apart from being mirror flipped, it’s the same kitchen, dude.  Still, I think Morgana was the right choice to go- it’s unfortunately not enough to just be a good cook, you need to project confidence as well.

As for the new Blue, I think it helped that they got three girls coming over together- but it was still good to see them working well together.  I still think they have some dead weight to shed, but I feel like their core group could go far.

[preeya]

49 minutes ago, Chyromaniac said:

it’s unfortunately not enough to just be a good cook, you need to project confidence as well.

To work for GR you must show the ability to lead. 

[mamadrama]

My favorite part of the episode was trying to figure out the recipes. I wish they'd have shown a shot of the recipe next to the 2 dishes. 

[mertensia]

If it's fish and chips, how are they supposed to know of Gordon added spices or not?

Morgana was the right choice to go. 

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, mertensia said:

If it's fish and chips, how are they supposed to know of Gordon added spices or not?

Morgana was the right choice to go. 

I'm still trying to figure out the emoji for creme fraiche.

[KeithJ]

Has there ever been a challenge where one team just blew the other team out of the water?  Every single challenge seems to always come down to the last dish.

Edited June 29, 2021 by KeithJ

[Darian]

Steven's been a favorite since the first episode, but I like him more each week. He takes things in stride, acts like an adult, and seems like a talented chef. His cool as ice reaction to the maid's aprons made me even more of a fan.  He's unflappable. I hope he wins, but if he doesn't I'm still going to look for what he does in the future. 

And Keanu's bull ride was hilarious. She was hilarious. 

[Eolivet]

I think Payton was half "doesn't know the menu" and half "used to mediocre being good enough." I'm guessing he was allowed to skate more on the blue team where there were so many legitimate disaster cooks or he received more help. While Morgana was the right choice to go, they're clearly using the boys as tools to get rid of the cannon fodder on the red team. The red team was unstoppable, but break them up, and it seems evident there were a few people carrying the rest.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Eolivet

[preeya]

1 hour ago, KeithJ said:

Has there ever been a challenge where one team just blew the other team out of the water?  Every single challenge seems to always come down to the last dish.

Very few.

[fishcakes]

Brynn is the annoying kid who reminds teacher that she forgot to assign homework. Gordon says to the entire team, "tell Payton this is the garnish for the strip not the Wellington," and while everyone else either mumbles or just stands there, Brynn yells out, "PAYTON, THIS IS THE GARNISH FOR THE STRIP NOT THE WELLINGTON." And she took a little too much tattletale satisfaction out of later telling Gordon that Payton doesn't know the menu. Payton knows the menu; he just doesn't pay attention to what's been ordered.

Funniest line of the night goes to voiceover guy claiming that Hell's Kitchen dinner reservations are the most coveted in all of Las Vegas. Ha ha, see, but no.

[Tango64]

4 hours ago, fishcakes said:

Funniest line of the night goes to voiceover guy claiming that Hell's Kitchen dinner reservations are the most coveted in all of Las Vegas. Ha ha, see, but no.

I'd go for the entertainment value, but I'd bring a sandwich.

[AZChristian]

1 hour ago, Tango64 said:

I'd go for the entertainment value, but I'd bring a sandwich.

The restaurant itself (when they're not filming the show) is delightful.  Hoping to be served during an episode of the show is a risk I sure wouldn't take.

[tinkerbell]

Maybe the restaurant reservations are coveted because people want a chance to be on TV.  

Speaking of which, it always annoys me when Ramsey makes such a big deal about making the food perfectly for a CELEBRITY.  Like it s HUGE deal to serve improperly prepared food to a famous person's table - what about to a normal guest?  It makes me wonder about going to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.  I guess I'd like to think that the same standards apply to the non-famous as to the famous.

[AZChristian]

1 hour ago, tinkerbell said:

It makes me wonder about going to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.  I guess I'd like to think that the same standards apply to the non-famous as to the famous.

I've been to four of them.  Except for not liking the ambiance of the London Steakhouse at the Paris Hotel, everything has been top notch.

Example:  I usually don't put ketchup on my fries.  When I went to the GR Pub and Grill at Caesar's Palace, the server told me they make the ketchup fresh - in house - every morning.  I was almost licking it out of the bowl . . . it was THAT good.

And I've never been able to go to a fast food restaurant again since eating a burger at BurGR in Las Vegas.  

[preeya]

2 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

Speaking of which, it always annoys me when Ramsey makes such a big deal about making the food perfectly for a CELEBRITY. 

The perks of being Rich & Famous.

ETA: I suspect GR's personality does not fit well with being "customer oriented."

[mamadrama]

At one point during judging Ramsay said that this was a challenge about "following directions", or following a recipe, but I was under the impression that it was about communication. The people who added shit to their dishes seemed genuinely confused that they weren't allowed to change it. The one fish 'n chips guy even told Blue Hair Sous that he was adding stuff and BHS was like, *shrug* "Okay." 

I would not have gotten Philly cheeseteak from the one recipe. My 14yo son and I argued for 5 minutes over the knife and loaf of 🍞. I told him it was breadcrumbs for meatballs, but he was convinced that, with the ground beef and tomatoes, that it was meatLOAF. 

[Yeah No]

46 minutes ago, mamadrama said:

At one point during judging Ramsay said that this was a challenge about "following directions", or following a recipe, but I was under the impression that it was about communication. The people who added shit to their dishes seemed genuinely confused that they weren't allowed to change it. The one fish 'n chips guy even told Blue Hair Sous that he was adding stuff and BHS was like, *shrug* "Okay." 

I agree.  It wasn't clear to me that his directions specified that they must follow what they were told to the letter.  Usually when they mess up the audience knows it because we witnessed the instructions and they were made clear to us.  But unless I missed something big, that particular point was not specified to them, so it felt like BS.

Also, it looked to me like the chefs on the receiving end were penalized for being given incorrect information by their partner, which isn't fair because how could they be judged on how well they followed the directions if they were given the wrong directions?

Also, I call BS on Ramsay being so mortally offended that someone should add mayo to his tartar sauce.  His fish and chips recipe with the creme fraiche tartar sauce is easily found online.  In addition to creme fraiche it also includes guess what?  You guessed it - mayonnaise.

[Chicago Redshirt]

7 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

Maybe the restaurant reservations are coveted because people want a chance to be on TV.  

Speaking of which, it always annoys me when Ramsey makes such a big deal about making the food perfectly for a CELEBRITY.  Like it s HUGE deal to serve improperly prepared food to a famous person's table - what about to a normal guest?  It makes me wonder about going to a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.  I guess I'd like to think that the same standards apply to the non-famous as to the famous.

I read him as thinking all guests are important, but if you can't be arsed to do things right for a celebrity, then you done messed up.

From a pragmatic point of view, a review from a Penn and Teller or a Mike Tyson is probably way more influential than average joe. 

And from an in-game perspective, the cooks should know that everything that gets sent to the chef's table has a higher-than-normal likelihood of being covered. So all the more reason to not screw it up. 

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

11 hours ago, tinkerbell said:

Maybe the restaurant reservations are coveted because people want a chance to be on TV.  

 

13 hours ago, AZChristian said:

The restaurant itself (when they're not filming the show) is delightful.  Hoping to be served during an episode of the show is a risk I sure wouldn't take.

FYI: While there is a Hell's Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Palace (and the food is excellent), they don't film the show there. They film the show at a makeshift TV studio a few blocks off the Strip. The building contains the "restaurant" we see on the show and the living spaces for the chefs. The actual HK restaurant is very different from its TV counterpart. 

 

21 hours ago, Darian said:

Steven's been a favorite since the first episode, but I like him more each week. He takes things in stride, acts like an adult, and seems like a talented chef. His cool as ice reaction to the maid's aprons made me even more of a fan.  He's unflappable. I hope he wins, but if he doesn't I'm still going to look for what he does in the future. 

Steven could legitimately be on a regular HK season. He's that good, IMHO.

[preeya]

8 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Also, I call BS on Ramsay being so mortally offended that someone should add mayo to his tartar sauce.  His fish and chips recipe with the creme fraiche tartar sauce is easily found online.  In addition to creme fraiche it also includes guess what?  You guessed it - mayonnaise.

Sometimes Gordon's pomposity gets in the way of practicality; and other times he's just an overbearing ass.

[Yeah No]

16 hours ago, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

FYI: While there is a Hell's Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Palace (and the food is excellent), they don't film the show there. They film the show at a makeshift TV studio a few blocks off the Strip. The building contains the "restaurant" we see on the show and the living spaces for the chefs. The actual HK restaurant is very different from its TV counterpart. 

Yup, the "restaurant" we see on the show is actually just a set they only use while filming the show.  The original set was in LA.  Last season was the first one set in LV.  I sometimes marvel at how much like the LA set this one looks.  They recreated it pretty closely.

Also, an actual "Hell's Kitchen" restaurant wasn't even a thing until 2018.  I think a lot of fans were probably under the impression that one existed and wanted to go there so Ramsay finally decided to open a restaurant with that name, and in what better place than Las Vegas, where he has other restaurants?  And at what better place than Caesar's Palace?

I hope to be able to go there one day!  I've been to Las Vegas but not in over a decade.

[seacliffsal]

After thinking about this for a while (I have admitted many, many times that I think about the shows I watch way too much) I came to the realization that it wasn't that the chefs tried to put their spin on Gordon's recipes so much (but why would anyone do that?) as much as by saying "I put my own spin on it" indicated that they did not follow the recipe and that they may have only communicated what the dish was instead of all of the steps and ingredients of the dish.  It would be taking short-cuts (trying to outplay the task/challenge) instead of completing the tasks as instructed by Gordon.  Gordon doesn't want a head/executive chef who doesn't follow his directions and recipes.  Just like he doesn't want a head/executive chef who doesn't work well with others (which Sam basically alluded to in the episode).  Gordon wants someone who will ensure that his restaurants function at the highest levels (after all, he mentioned that he has 14 Michelin stars) while effectively leading and working with the staff.  He does seem to hire/promote those who exhibit these characteristics even if they did not win their seasons.

So, this "thought I would ramp it up" excuse that a few of the contestants used undermined the whole challenge of following the communication/directions from other contestants.  Also, what 20-22 year old contestant think they can create a better dish than Gordon?  Oh, never mind, we saw the answer to that during the episode...

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

18 hours ago, Yeah No said:

The original set was in LA.  Last season was the first one set in LV.  I sometimes marvel at how much like the LA set this one looks.  They recreated it pretty closely.

Meanwhile, my wife and I were watching Masterchef: Legends last night and she commented that the Masterchef set is probably the old LA Hell's Kitchen set: they're about the same size, have a separate area in the back, and have the upstairs rooms as well. In addition, the Hell's Kitchen soundstage would already have the gas and heavy-duty electric hookups the Masterchef contestants would need.

[Ciarrai]

On 7/1/2021 at 2:48 PM, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

Meanwhile, my wife and I were watching Masterchef: Legends last night and she commented that the Masterchef set is probably the old LA Hell's Kitchen set: they're about the same size, have a separate area in the back, and have the upstairs rooms as well. In addition, the Hell's Kitchen soundstage would already have the gas and heavy-duty electric hookups the Masterchef contestants would need.

That would make sense, except that Masterchef has been around since 2010 and the set looks pretty much the same since then. Hells Kitchen has only been in Vegas for two seasons now.

[Yeah No]

23 hours ago, Ciarrai said:

That would make sense, except that Masterchef has been around since 2010 and the set looks pretty much the same since then. Hells Kitchen has only been in Vegas for two seasons now.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing.  I'm wondering if MasterChef is still being filmed in the same location for all that time or if it too has moved and they have just done such a good job of replicating it that we never noticed.  When I watched MasterChef Canada I felt like it looked an awful lot like the US set although it did differ in little ways that I finally picked out after a few weeks of watching.

[tinkerbell]

On 6/29/2021 at 11:13 PM, mamadrama said:

one point during judging Ramsay said that this was a challenge about "following directions", or following a recipe, but I was under the impression that it was about communication. The people who added shit to their dishes seemed genuinely confused that they weren't allowed to change it. The one fish 'n chips guy even told Blue Hair Sous that he was adding stuff and BHS was like, *shrug* "Okay." 

Yeah, in the challenge about communication, it seems Ramsey didn't communicate very well.

The emoji directions were tough, and some of the people just got to the point that they knew what dish the were supposed to make, and didn't make the other person go through the whole instructions.