S12.E07: Restaurant Wars

[The Solution]

I thought Gregory was smart for taking the role he did in his team. This is still an individual competition, after all. If I remember correctly, the people who choose teams for Restaurant Wars in the past have usually just won a Quickfire Challenge or something like that and are usually among the leaders in the group. That didn't happen this time. Two of the weakest chefs remaining got to choose the teams. When Gregory saw who his team was, he had to have realized that there's no way he was going to win with that and wisely chose to focus on making a good dish and standing away from the impending explosion.

 

It was obvious who was going to win from the start. No team could survive the trifecta of Katie, Kerriann and Katsuji. I still think Kerriann should have left hand in hand with Aaron the first time they had Clash of the Douchebags. Not at all sorry to see her leave now.

[Julia]

I think it's supposed to be a floor manager job with a dash of maitre d'hotel. Sort of the kitchen's voice on the floor and the diners' voice in the kitchen? It's a big job, but my experience is that if they delegate properly to the wait staff front of house has plenty of time to talk to the kitchen and put out fires.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Julia

[meep.meep]

I always hate Restaurant Wars. It seems to set the contestants against their own teammates most of the time.

Doug's idea of serving each table family style was genius. They couldn't do fancy tweezer plating, but they didn't get into the weeds with sending out individual plates. And if Kerianne's servers couldn't even figure out which table was which, only having to plunk down one bowl for the entire table wouldn't have taxed their grey cells too much.

Katsura came off as a douche but his fellow contestants seem to like him. He had the best line of the episode - Couldn't we just serve it all to go?

[elzin]

See, I don't agree that she was singled out for things that were out of her control.  She had total control over training the servers and creating a system for FOH, and she failed at that.  She also had total control over making a dish that would have been easier to serve given the constraint she had as being FOH, and she failed at that.  It seems to me that the judges rightly knifed her for the bad decisions she made, not because she was unjustly singled out.

 

That's what I was having trouble with with our limited knowledge.  Was she in total control of training? Did the servers go rogue? Was her dish ok and her team screwed her over?  I mean, I'm not saying she didn't deserve it, especially if she did truly just not have it together, but it's hard with what little we got to see if it was fair to lay those things at her feet.

[carrps]

In a really nice restaurant, there often is someone besides just a pretty-girl-receptionist type in stupid stilletos. When I had my best dinner EVAH at Providence, the FOH guy did an awesome job. He was pleasant without being unctuous. He helped us with some of the choices we had with the chef's menu and explained different dishes. Servers brought the dishes, but he was the point of contact and constantly (without hovering) watching to make sure things were going well and were timed properly. Other than the cheese course woman, who spent a lot of time with us, he was the real facilitator of the evening.

 

Wow, Katsuji really had his Sgt. Schultz impression down. "I know nothing! I know nothing!" He really annoyed me. And I'm getting the feeling that the majority of his dishes so far this season taste very much alike. I'm waiting for him to impress me. In a good way, that is.

 

Liked the little interstitial with Adam talking to the table who said they could "smell the Yankee" on him. He handled that very well.

 

KeriAnn was definitely out of time. Although I could have seen Katie going, too. But, as someone upthread said, Katie's done a few dishes that have really wowed the judges. Has KeriAnn done that even once? Her dessert sounded gross. I can't imagine this was something she'd done before, because ... day old crepes? Margarine-like mousse?

 

Mei's foie gras and plum toast looked sooooo good to me. I thought Adam's clams seemed a little pedestrian. Although they apparently were tasty. I also want Doug's pork and beans and Mei's brussell sprouts. Yummm.

 

Oh! Was anyone else faked out when they showed them sprinkling the powdered sugar on the cobbler biscuits??? It was right after they were gagging over the saltiness in Melissa's scallops, and both my sister and I thought they were showing them salting the scallops. That really would have been enough for Tom to notice the saltiness!

[Rambler]

Keriann volunteered to be front of the house so I definitely think she had her dish planned out well in advance. She was so overconfident in her dish that she never bothered checking it before the judges came in. If only she cared about what the other diners thought of her dish, she might have noticed there was a problem earlier.  It was weird that the other chefs didn’t tell her there was a problem with her mousse, but it seems they had zero confidence in her ability to fix it so they decided to do it themselves.

 

From past episodes I thought it was SOP to prepare a tasting for the servers so they know what they are serving. Stupid of them not to do it this time as they could have discovered the problem with the dessert beforehand and it didn’t seem like they were pressed for time.

 

It was nice to see Stephanie again as she was my favorite contestant last year. She would say the funniest things, but in a low key, deadpan sort of way so I was kind of surprised that Chase decided to use her in their commercials, but good for her.

[Pepper Mostly]

 

It seems to me that with good waiters, you don't need someone in the dining room making sure everything is going smoothly.  Is this something that chefs are actually going to need to be able to do?

 

My son just graduated from the culinary arts program at Johnson and Wales, and he had to take Essentials of Dining Room, 1 and 2! All front of the house training, including food service, beverage service and hosting. A holistic approach, so that budding chefs can understand the complete restaurant machine. So the FOH role isn't so much just chatting and seating people, but organizing and training servers, managing the flow of the floor, keeping the tables turning properly, and putting out any fires with alacrity and grace. Kerriann was terrible at it. She had no idea what was happening and she let her lack of composure show.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Pepper Mostly

[Rammchick]

It seems to me that KeriAnn's dish would've bombed either way.  If they served it cold, it was an unappealing, congealed mess.  If they heated it up as they did, it was simply a warm, congealed mess.  So no win there.  It was a poorly conceived dish that was out of place with the rest of the menu, and whoever above said it was right -- it was the one dish that ended up changing the whole theme to "global".  If Katie had been stronger, she would've pushed her to create something closer to the theme.  It could've even been crepes -- lord knows there's a lot of French food in Vietnam, for obvious reasons -- but with an Asian-inspired pastry cream, to tie it all together.  I was actually more surprised that no one tried to find her when they discovered the dessert wasn't going to work. 

 

And OK, we get it, Doug is short.  But enough with all the condescending head rubs and so on, please.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Rammchick

[Squirrely]

I thought Gregory was smart for taking the role he did in his team. This is still an individual competition, after all. If I remember correctly, the people who choose teams for Restaurant Wars in the past have usually just won a Quickfire Challenge or something like that and are usually among the leaders in the group. That didn't happen this time. Two of the weakest chefs remaining got to choose the teams. When Gregory saw who his team was, he had to have realized that there's no way he was going to win with that and wisely chose to focus on making a good dish and standing away from the impending explosion.

It was obvious who was going to win from the start. No team could survive the trifecta of Katie, Kerriann and Katsuji. I still think Kerriann should have left hand in hand with Aaron the first time they had Clash of the Douchebags. Not at all sorry to see her leave now.

You saved me a lot of typing! I thought Gregory was smart to take the line chef role, when faced with those three. It could have very well been a suicide mission to step up as EC on that team.

[LoganTheHuge]

re: confusion over Mei's joke about women being better line cooks. I thought what happened is: Mei and Doug both wanted to be EC. Mei "let" Doug be EC because she'd be needed in the kitchen since "women are better line cooks" (a joke to make up for the fact that Doug won out as EC over her). YMMV.

 

And yes, Mei and Melissa WERE better line cooks than Katsuji and Gregory. The M&M team rocked it.

 

Adam is so annoying but that annoying quality helped him be a good FOH. It's always the annoying ones like him and Fabio who do that job well. Poor KerriAnn was in way over her head. I didn't think she volunteered to be FOH. I thought Katsuji volunteered her and she agreed. However, she did not do a good job. It seemed like her servers WERE bad but she didn't establish the table numbers from the beginning. I thought that's why the servers had a different idea of what was table #1 and table #13. So it seemed like she made the situation worse.

 

KerriAnn's dish and poor FOH service made her a good PYKAG but Katie should have gone, IMO, for being an awful EC. Not only did she not establish a good theme, she should have nixed KerriAnn's dish and she should have told KerriAnn they were going to futz with it. She also didn't appear to be doing a good job of expediting the way that Dougie was and her leadership skills were nonexistent.

 

And on that note, I have a major crush on Doug. Yes, Katsuji, we all know he's short but he can still get it, and always over you. Katsuji showed his true colors this episode. This is a competition BUT this particular contest was a team one, and he showed why he's not going to win the competition. He should have made an effort to make his team better to save them, and himself, from the chopping block. Same for Gregory. I'm okay with either of them going now. 

 

I hope top 3 is Doug, Mei and Melissa (Melissa purely because I find her inoffensive; I would have wanted Gregory up there but he's gone downhill for me).

[Bastet]

(a joke to make up for the fact that Doug won out as EC over her)

 

If that's how Doug came to be EC, they left some footage out that I’d have liked to see.  Mei was asked if she wanted to do it, and she repeated the question without answering it.  So did she, at some point, throw her hat in the ring as well and the team decided to go with Doug, or did Doug become EC by default?  Inquiring minds want to know.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

That's what I was having trouble with with our limited knowledge.  Was she in total control of training? Did the servers go rogue? Was her dish ok and her team screwed her over?  I mean, I'm not saying she didn't deserve it, especially if she did truly just not have it together, but it's hard with what little we got to see if it was fair to lay those things at her feet.

 

We can only judge by what we see and hear.  It is generally the case that during Restaurant Wars, the FOH is understood to be the one in charge of training the servers.  We saw that Adam took that role over without a problem.  We didn't see Keri Ann do anything to devise a system or train the servers, and in fact, we saw that Katie did have to go speak with one of the servers to get a handle on what was going on with the tickets.  Now, I also think that Katie should have exerted a lot more control at the beginning, insisting that Keri Ann develop a system, but Keri Ann seemed to abdicate that role entirely.

 

With regard to her dessert, we saw that Katsuji could not manipulate her "mousse."  I mean, if her dish was "okay," then it would have been okay, regardless of whether or not Katsuji had to heat up the crepes.

 

In short, I see no reason to doubt what I could see last night - that Keri Ann was bad at FOH and made a bad dessert.  We were given enough information to make that conclusion.  I see no reason to believe she was sabotage or that her knifing was unfair.

[Totale]

I just don't see why the show can't find competent servers and just let the chefs cook and bring out food.  It seems to me that with good waiters, you don't need someone in the dining room making sure everything is going smoothly.  Is this something that chefs are actually going to need to be able to do?

 

For practical purposes they have to have union cards to appear on TV, and while LA is probably dripping with SAG-card-carrying competent waitstaff I suspect they are thinner  on the ground in Boston.

 

You saved me a lot of typing! I thought Gregory was smart to take the line chef role, when faced with those three. It could have very well been a suicide mission to step up as EC on that team.

 

I haven't watched every season so maybe someone who's more of a TC historian than I can say, but has anyone ever been sent home from the Wars who was not tasked as either Exec or Front of House?  I don't remember seeing that in the seasons I've seen, and I think the RW competition puts big targets on the backs of those two and the others can skate.

[backgroundnoise]

It's interesting the Katie does popup restaurants.  Isn't that basically what RW are, albeit in a limited time frame?  One would think she'd have experience in being an EC in that situation. 

[ChelseaNH]

I read the post-show interview with Gail Simmons, and she made the point that KeriAnne should have shown her team how to assemble her dessert.  Which would have let them discover the problems that much sooner, and get her input on how to address them.

 

It's all very well and good to say Katie should have been a stronger EC, but let's face it: Katsuji simply refuses to be managed.  Gregory is the only one who had a shot, and his visit to the bottom last week cost him his swagger.

[RealityGal]

And on that note, I have a major crush on Doug. Yes, Katsuji, we all know he's short but he can still get it, and always over you. 

 

I am starting to agree with you there.  Something about a man who is competent, masterful and commanding in the kitchen, because that is the only thing that can explain my inexplicable and shameful urges towards Tom C.  And of course, there are those feelings I get whenever Eric Ripert makes an appearance.

 

And by the way Katsuji, I'm not sure who you see in the mirror, but you are more Spuds Mackenzie than Shaq so you can miss me with the condescension based on height.

[TiffanyNichelle]

And don't forget Adam also had to leave his servers in the middle of their sit down to deal with the lost clams. He was able to communicate what he needed them to do and still had time to clean 150 more clams and get them set up for dinner. Meanwhile KeriAnn's total dish was prepared the night before and her servers were still lost during the service.

[LoganTheHuge]

 

And of course, there are those feelings I get whenever Eric Ripert makes an appearance.

 

Eric Ripert is gorgeous! You should wear that lust with pride! There's also something sexy about Tom C. I worked with his wife once years ago and she was lovely, so I'm assuming he is as well. I'm not much of a fan of his on the show but I don't hold it against him.

 

 

Mei was asked if she wanted to do it, and she repeated the question without answering it.  So did she, at some point, throw her hat in the ring as well and the team decided to go with Doug, or did Doug become EC by default?

 

Yes, they should have clarified that. I *thought* that's why she made that joke about being a line cook (because she lost to Doug) but again, that's my interpretation of what the editing monkeys didn't show us.

 

 

It's all very well and good to say Katie should have been a stronger EC, but let's face it: Katsuji simply refuses to be managed.

 

He's shown himself to be terrible at team competitions so I was very surprised Katie chose him for her team (rather than let him go last). That's why I think Katie has poor leadership skills - I thought she should have recognized Katsuji's weakness as a team player, even if he's a better cook than, say, KeriAnn or maybe Adam. 

[Nutjob]

Count me in as tired of all the short jokes and condescension lobbed at Doug by the other cheftestants. My hubby is short... shorter than me, even... and guess what? It doesn't mean a thing!

 

 

I read the post-show interview with Gail Simmons, and she made the point that KeriAnne should have shown her team how to assemble her dessert.  Which would have let them discover the problems that much sooner, and get her input on how to address them.

Exactly right. In seasons past, the FOH has always shown the other team members how to assemble and plate their dish. KeriAnn made a huge error by blowing that off, and IMO it would have been hard to consult her on it during service because she was already in the weeds and doing a terrible job. I cut Katie a little slack there.

[Julia]

Eric Ripert is very pretty, but my judge lust objects are Govind Armstrong, John Besh and Ming Tsai.

I don't get the short thing. I'm 6'3" (which wasn't that common when I was a kid), my kid's godmother is barely 5', and I seriously would not want her mad at me. But then, I've never been real clear about how much shorter than me short is.

I did think it was interesting that all the cracks about Doug's height came from someone much closer to his height than, say, Gregory's or Adam's. Both of whom, funnily enough, really respect Doug.

Edited December 4, 2014 by Julia

[Rambler]

I haven't watched every season so maybe someone who's more of a TC historian than I can say, but has anyone ever been sent home from the Wars who was not tasked as either Exec or Front of House?  I don't remember seeing that in the seasons I've seen, and I think the RW competition puts big targets on the backs of those two and the others can skate.

 

 

The only time I can think of that happening is during the Texas season, Ty-Lor was eliminated while Paul was EC and Edward was FOH.

 

[AriAu]

This episode shows how much things have changed over the years. These guys all knew that once they got to 8 people, it was time for Restaurant Wars. I think they had all thought through how to deal with the concept and what would give them the best chance to be safe and get past this event. There is no doubt that Mei and Gregory were just trying to survive rather than taking the lead like they should have since they were the most qualified for the EC roles.

 

Doug's idea of serving each table family style was genius. They couldn't do fancy tweezer plating, but they didn't get into the weeds with sending out individual plates. And if Kerianne's servers couldn't even figure out which table was which, only having to plunk down one bowl for the entire table wouldn't have taxed their grey cells too much.

 

Doug showed had clearly thought it through before he got there and played it perfectly.

And yes, it was time for Keri Anne to go home-she did not appear to be a strong cheftestant or chef.

[PepperMonkey]

I had no problem with Kerianne leaving: she wasn't going to win and they're getting down to the best of the best, mostly. Melissa should probably go soon and I'm hoping Katsuji will go either before or after her. Don't get me wrong, I think he's funny and I don't think he means to be SUCH a dick, but he is and therefore, the dick has to go. Also, he's somewhat erratic with his cooking skills.

Gregory had an off week last week and he did lose some of his swagger. I kinda don't blame him for laying low this week... he's only human. Besides I want him around for the finale.

 

This is probably unpopular, but Adam can go anytime now, too. He did do a nice job as FoH but he wears me out. If I had to work with him, I'm assuming I'd have an alcohol problem. It's making me want to have a tequila shot just watching him on my teevee.

I thought Mei was "kidding" also. But I don't think Doug was discounting her because she's a woman; I think he knows how good she is. He wanted to be EC really badly also so someone was going to lose. Mei had the grace to give in and not make a huge deal out of it. She's one of my favourites.

Doug's my ultimate fave. I like his cooking and I like him as a person, at least what I've seen of him on the show. I'm tired of them making fun of his size too. That is why some smaller guys have the Napolean complex: they've had to listen to that shit all their lives. He handles it gracefully.

[Lura]

I won't miss Kerriann but I thought Katie should have been eliminated. She was clearly over her head running the kitchen.

 

I disagree.  I feel that Katie has been remarkably successful all along, and she has gained in strength and in confidence as the show has progressed.  Keriann, to me, has been a middle-of-the-roader ever since the show began.  Both women were given (or took on) daunting tasks, but Katie was remarkable.  She took on more roles at once to keep that kitchen going.  She cooked, expedited, helped others cook, kept good track of the orders coming in and going out, worked with the waiters when things became confused, and managed through all of this to keep her head about her.  I was impressed by how quickly and decisively she made decisions.  Katie made what, to me, was one small mistake in not consulting Keriann on the dessert, but the communication between kitchen and front of the house has been notoriously difficult in most of the shows.  I thought that Katie did an impressive job.

 

Keriann seemed lost a good percentage of the time.  There's no doubt that she  tried, but I felt that she had underestimated just how difficult the front job can be.  It's so much more than getting dressed up, greeting people, and seating them.  Somehow, and don't ask me how, she had to be available to the kitchen staff as well.  She prepared her dessert ahead of time and left the kitchen to cope with the problem that arose.   It was a fairly small mistake as I saw it, but those small mistakes can send you home at this stage.  For me, the judges made the right decision.

[MangoFed]

So a little more than halfway through, who do you think will win the fan favourite? Seems like Dougie is the early favourite, right?

[Mooncake76]

I have no problem with Gregory taking a backseat to protect himself, but I hate hypocrisy, so I am annoyed that he gave a brazen smack down at judge's table a few weeks ago to the team that didn't somehow force Aaron to change his dish, but then did absolutely nothing except watch his team go up in flames.  He might have felt like it wasn't his place in this situation because he wasn't EC, but what happened to stepping up to make sure your team puts out their best effort?  

 

I wasn't a fan of either Katie or Keriann and I think they're two of the weaker contestants left, so I was fine with either one going.  

 

I'm glad some of you mentioned Mei's line about "everyone knows that women make better line cooks" because it bothered me when she said that.  She always struck me as a strong woman so I didn't know what to think.  But given everything that was brought up here, with her repeating the question about being EC but not shown answering it (weird editing), and her "everyone knows" part of the comment, it now seems obviously sarcastic.  I think my sarcasm detector is broken.

 

It was interesting that Melissa picked Doug instead of Gregory first.  I wonder if she knew that Katie would pick up Gregory, which then meant she could get Mei, and then have two top contenders instead of the standout top contender.  Or I'm giving her too much credit.  In any case, Doug, Mei, and Adam have worked well together before (and had spontaneously picked each other in a previous challenge) so I was pretty sure their team would work pretty smoothly.  It wasn't really a surprise that their team won.      

[LilyoftheValley]

Anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant will know that things are always such a confusing mess in the beginning.  The FOH person has to run a really tight ship and the expo person has to be totally on top of things in order to pull something off in just one day.  It seemed that there was no communication between orange team and the servers.  You can get out of the weeds if you just talk to your staff and work out what the problem is.  Okay, one thing that stood out to me was that a table said that had gotten that fish starter three times.  Um, wtf?  Any decent server would not just fling the dish on the menu and walk off.  It should have been worked out right away.  

[stanleyk]

I think Mei was being sarcastic. I did a double-take at first, but I think she was saying that to explain why she was passed over for EC—because that's what other people think of women chefs.

 

I agree that Mei was being sarcastic, but I don't really get it - she was asked and she didn't answer.  I mean, who knows what would have happened between her and Doug had she said, "yes, I want to be executive chef" but since she didn't answer, she forfeits the right, IMO, to make an argument that she was overlooked due to sexism (even though I strongly believe that there is plenty of sexism within the restaurant industry).

 

re: confusion over Mei's joke about women being better line cooks. I thought what happened is: Mei and Doug both wanted to be EC. Mei "let" Doug be EC because she'd be needed in the kitchen since "women are better line cooks" (a joke to make up for the fact that Doug won out as EC over her). YMMV.

Yes, they should have clarified that. I *thought* that's why she made that joke about being a line cook (because she lost to Doug) but again, that's my interpretation of what the editing monkeys didn't show us.

 

I don't think Mei's line was sarcastic and I don't think it was about being "passed over" for EC, though I do think it was a joke; I took it in the context of the usual dick-swinging in a professional kitchen, where line cooks are renowned for being badasses under pressure, and what she was saying is that women make better line cooks than men...not that women make better line cooks than they make executive chefs. Adam le Douche was a prime example of the misogynistic attitude that big-balled men make the best professional cooks, and I think that's the context in which Mei was speaking: she was laying claim to being a bad-ass line cook, so more bad-ass than the men. 

 

It seems to me that KeriAnn's dish would've bombed either way.  If they served it cold, it was an unappealing, congealed mess.  If they heated it up as they did, it was simply a warm, congealed mess.  So no win there.

 

Kerri Ann's dish look terrible either way, and more than that it looked TIRED as hell. Crepes with banana mousse and pistachio? Boring. And day-old crepes with hardened banana mousse. Boring and blech. It was arguable between her and Katie, but I won't cry a tear over Kerri Ann.

 

This is probably unpopular, but Adam can go anytime now, too. He did do a nice job as FoH but he wears me out. If I had to work with him, I'm assuming I'd have an alcohol problem. It's making me want to have a tequila shot just watching him on my teevee.

And count me in the tired-of-Adam pile (or welcome! I've been here for a while!). I guess some people like that kind of energy in a FOH role, but it would make me never go to a restaurant again. I don't like chatty servers or managers, and especially not frenetic ones who are more interested in talking about themselves than in making sure you're having a good experience. The bumper showing him talking non-stop at guests gave me hives.

Edited December 5, 2014 by stanleyk

[rozen]

I thought Gregory was smart for taking the role he did in his team. This is still an individual competition, after all. If I remember correctly, the people who choose teams for Restaurant Wars in the past have usually just won a Quickfire Challenge or something like that and are usually among the leaders in the group. That didn't happen this time. Two of the weakest chefs remaining got to choose the teams. When Gregory saw who his team was, he had to have realized that there's no way he was going to win with that and wisely chose to focus on making a good dish and standing away from the impending explosion.

 

It was obvious who was going to win from the start. No team could survive the trifecta of Katie, Kerriann and Katsuji. I still think Kerriann should have left hand in hand with Aaron the first time they had Clash of the Douchebags. Not at all sorry to see her leave now.

 

Preach. Two weak chefs, one good chef, and one decent chef with a massive attitude problem? That team was death incarnate. There's nothing he could have done except make crappy dishes expedite quicker, which would not have saved them. And it would have come at the cost of the quality of his dishes. This is good (imo), because maybe he'll stop acting like the smartest kid in the class. He was starting to veer into being unwatchable in his cocksureness. 

 

Keriann as FOH and Katie as EC was the worst combination possible. Keriann is breezy California momma who will never openly admit anything's wrong, and Katie is pure midwestern passive aggression. They were both not only indirect, but did not speak each other's language. Katie marching up to the floor to clarify with a server and Keriann was the equivalent of Adam blowing into the kitchen and going "What *bleep* is going on down here? Get it the *bleep* together *bleep bleep*." But all Keriann heard was Katie airing her incompetence, so she rolled her eyes and teetered away. 

 

I think Gregory recommended warming up the mousse, not the crepe, which I think was the better move. Warming up the crepe just destroyed what little structural integrity it had left. The whole thing looked disgusting, maybe it was a hit on a cruise ship where the only option was eat it or starve.

 

I don't really think it's fair to say the servers were bad. Adam's servers were banging everything out just fine, without having to run to him for clarification. Magellan's servers were getting conflicting info from Keriann, Katie, and the guests. They were doomed from the start. I fall a little more on Katie's side because she at least had a system, was trying to get the servers organized, and told Keriann that things were going to shit. If the EC has to come out on the floor that means stuff is bad. Keriann should have immediately had a group huddle with all the servers to sort things out, not just try to fake it through. It's not like the food was coming out promptly anyway. 

 

Edit: I feel like in past RWs, they have actually brought out the dishes for the servers to taste ahead of time. Would have been a smart move, maybe they could have collectively figured out a way to bail out those crepes.

Edited December 5, 2014 by rozen

[Mooncake76]

I don't think Mei's line was sarcastic and I don't think it was about being "passed over" for EC, though I do think it was a joke; I took it in the context of the usual dick-swinging in a professional kitchen, where line cooks are renowned for being badasses under pressure, and what she was saying is that women make better line cooks than men...not that women make better line cooks than they make executive chefs. Adam le Douche was a prime example of the misogynistic attitude that big-balled men make the best professional cooks, and I think that's the context in which Mei was speaking: she was laying claim to being a bad-ass line cook, so more bad-ass than the men. 

 

I guess that's something that didn't occur to me.  I rewatched that part (I have no life) and what she said was, "I actually want to step into that role as executive chef, but we all know women are better line cooks."  From the way it was phrased and without the knowledge about the badass reputation of line cooks, it seem to me like she's saying that she, a woman, would be better as a line cook than an EC even though she would prefer to be EC.  I couldn't square that with how she has conducted herself so far, which is a strong woman and fierce competitor.  In any case, whether sarcasm or joke, how they ended up settling on Doug as EC would have been nice to see.  

[eleanorofaquitaine]

Preach. Two weak chefs, one good chef, and one decent chef with a massive attitude problem? That team was death incarnate. There's nothing he could have done except make crappy dishes expedite quicker, which would not have saved them. And it would have come at the cost of the quality of his dishes. This is good (imo), because maybe he'll stop acting like the smartest kid in the class. He was starting to veer into being unwatchable in his cocksureness. 

 

 

I don't mean to keep harping on this but I really do not agree that Katie is a weak cook.  I think that she is basically just like Katsuji - a decent but inconsistent cook.  So in my view, the team was really one good cook, two decent but inconsistent cooks, and one weak cook.  Had there been a stronger leader - like Gregory claimed he was in the earlier episode where he called out Adam for not stepping up as a leader - I think that team could have done a much better job than they did.  I am not sure they could have won but they could have at least competed.

 

Now, it is on Katie for being a pretty weak leader.  But I separate her leadership abilities from her ability to cook, and IMO she has shown she is a decent chef.

[JTMacc99]

The gray team were a joy to watch.

That sums it up perfectly for me. It was definitely the most interesting thing for me about this episode, given the long history of barely functioning teams on this show.

 

It totally shifted my rooting interests as well, which had been Gregory... a few other people... dead chefs walking.  After this episode, Gregory is joined by everybody but Melissa (who still has too many bad dishes in her ledger for me to elevate even from the dead chef walking group) from the gray team.  And honestly, Gregory did a pretty good job moving backwards to join them in my eyes by simply blending into the background this time.  Was it good gamesmanship? Hell yes. Was it want I want to see? Not really.

Edited December 5, 2014 by JTMacc99

[The Solution]

I think Gregory recommended warming up the mousse, not the crepe, which I think was the better move. Warming up the crepe just destroyed what little structural integrity it had left. The whole thing looked disgusting, maybe it was a hit on a cruise ship where the only option was eat it or starve.

 

Oh no, you di'int! HAHAHA! Awesome shade.

[Julia]

Our local russian market sells cold blintzes, which are basically buckwheat crepes, in packages and they're designed to be reheated in butter. It actually works pretty well, and they don't fall apart. I'm guessing either the crepes weren't made very well or Katsuji did a sloppy job heating them up. 

[biakbiak]

I took it in the context of the usual dick-swinging in a professional kitchen, where line cooks are renowned for being badasses under pressure, and what she was saying is that women make better line cooks than men...not that women make better line cooks than they make executive chefs

 

That is exactly how I took her comment, that the women would rock out the dishes. Who knows with how it was edited but I have a hard time believing given her personality that Mei didn't also put her name in for executive chef. 

 

I think Keriann deserved to go. She didn't control the servers and they didn't seem to have a good handle on solving problems and communicating with the kitchen. And her dish was just absolutely poorly conceived. There were any number of desserts she could have made ahead of time that would have worked, something like Melissa's cobbler would have been perfect because I cannot imagine that even if they executed the dish exactly to KeriAnn's specifications that it would have been good, I mean day old cold crepes sounds like the most unappetizing thing. So the combination of poorly conceiving a dish, not checking in on how it was being prepared at the beginning, and not managing the front of house she should have gone home.

[LuciaMia]

 

When Katsuji showed his ass talking

Katsuji really was a one-man bitch fest.  Has he always been so nasty in previous episodes or the editors decided to showcase all his comments this time?

Love Restaurant Wars, but it's funny how the requirements change season to season. One time they're have to do everything: Buy and prepare the menu, decorate the space and instruct the servers. Another season they're given an existing resturant space and access to it's pantry.  Another time it's a pop-up restaurant somewhere outdoors.

As soon as the one team announced their around-the-world 'theme' I knew they'd be the losers. No louder way to announce that they couldn't be bothered coming up with a unifiying idea.

[Bella]

I agree that Keriann was the right choice to leave. I couldn't figure out where she was or what she was doing most of the time. She didn't seem to have taken charge of anything, really.

 

Katie was a close second, and I would have approved had the judges decided to eliminate both of them for being equally bad. But at least she was visible and engaged in an activity. Where was Keriann? She seemed to be absent a lot. Granted, that was editing, but had she been in one place solving one problem, we probably would have seen that, and there might have been a different judges table discussion ("you neglected Problem A while focusing too much on Problem B"). I honestly don't know what she was doing.

[twilightzone]

I thought Gregory was smart for taking the role he did in his team. This is still an individual competition, after all. If I remember correctly, the people who choose teams for Restaurant Wars in the past have usually just won a Quickfire Challenge or something like that and are usually among the leaders in the group. That didn't happen this time. Two of the weakest chefs remaining got to choose the teams. When Gregory saw who his team was, he had to have realized that there's no way he was going to win with that and wisely chose to focus on making a good dish and standing away from the impending explosion.

 

It was obvious who was going to win from the start. No team could survive the trifecta of Katie, Kerriann and Katsuji. I still think Kerriann should have left hand in hand with Aaron the first time they had Clash of the Douchebags. Not at all sorry to see her leave now.

 

Sorry, but Gregory was actually a big let down here.  He basically sat back and did nothing to try to help his team to mitigate some of the problems.  True, it was an uphill battle.  But he was also the guy who got on his soapbox in front of the judges about how team members should jump in and help one another.

[Julia]

The funny thing is, I thought Gregory and Mei made the same decision, as frontrunners, not to take the job that put a target on their backs. I understand Gregory a little better. Out of his three team members, three have uneven records, two have limited line experience, one appears to really enjoy riling people up, and, not to put too fine a point on it, one chose Katsuji when there were other chefs available. There's just no way that was gonna end well.

[Bastet]

I'm trying to remember who Katie's other choices were when she picked Katsuji.  Melissa picked Doug, then Katie chose Gregory.  Melissa's second choice was Mei, and then that must be when Katie picked Katsuji, because Keriann was last.  So, basically, she passed on Adam.  Which, if Katsuji were just an inconsistent chef rather than being inconsistent with his food AND difficult to manage, might be logical -- avoid Adam's frenetic energy and hope Katsuji is having a night when he puts out something really great instead of a night when he puts out a muddled mess of 27 different ingredients.  But with Katsuji being problematic on all fronts, Adam starts to look better -- especially if you figure you can stick him in the front of the house and not have to deal with him in the kitchen.

[Bella]

I wonder if Katie thought Adam would try to run over her. I certainly would have expected that. However, I still would have taken him over Katsuji.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

I'm trying to remember who Katie's other choices were when she picked Katsuji.  Melissa picked Doug, then Katie chose Gregory.  Melissa's second choice was Mei, and then that must be when Katie picked Katsuji, because Keriann was last.  So, basically, she passed on Adam.  Which, if Katsuji were just an inconsistent chef rather than being inconsistent with his food AND difficult to manage, might be logical -- avoid Adam's frenetic energy and hope Katsuji is having a night when he puts out something really great instead of a night when he puts out a muddled mess of 27 different ingredients.  But with Katsuji being problematic on all fronts, Adam starts to look better -- especially if you figure you can stick him in the front of the house and not have to deal with him in the kitchen.

 

I suspect that the face that Katsuji presents in person isn't the one we are seeing with the THs, etc.  So I think he comes off as a jokester, etc., but maybe not particularly difficult to handle in a team environment, and certainly not someone who seems so uninterested in doing anything in a team atmosphere.  In other words, I don't think any of them have any inkling of how unpleasant he is coming off away from that group.  Also, to be fair to Katie, Katsuji did just win an Elimination Challenge, so I could see why - in a choice between Katsuji and Adam - he would come out slightly ahead. 

[biakbiak]

However, I still would have taken him over Katsuji.

 

I agree. Especially because he was an ass to her when they were on the same team during the Revolutionary War challenge, shushing her when she was cheering for her another teammate.

 

It's especially weird because they hadn't even determined who would be the EC. While Adam might have looked out for himself on past team challenges, I would still rather have him on my team than Katsuji.

[carrps]

 There is no doubt that Mei and Gregory were just trying to survive rather than taking the lead like they should have since they were the most qualified for the EC roles.

 

Mei is not an EC. So, while she's a good cook, she hasn't had the EC experience.

[MangoFed]

And remember, the trio of Mei, Doug and Adam made good food in the menu planning challenge, but struggled in terms of actually writing and conceiving the menu (basically, an EC/owner's role). None of them were an ideal fit for the role, but Doug certainly rose to the occasion.

[DoctorWhovian]

Katsuji talks a lot of smack for someone who has been on the bottom more than they've ever had a good dish. He was almost let go the first three or so episodes, and here he is acting like he's so hot. Get him off the show.

 

He's definitely this season's Lisa. Or Heather.

Edited December 6, 2014 by DoctorWhovian

[Lura]

*Sigh*  I am weary.  I am sick, tired and weary of Adam Harvey.  Yes, he performed admirably in this recent episode, but he whipped out his paper pad and pen so fast to take control as if he were the team leader that he turned me off.   Subsequently, when he felt compelled to list his accomplishments and the noted chefs under whom he has worked, he came off as one of the most boorish contestants in recent memory. It wasn't the first time.  Either his voice carries easily, or he talks more loudly than the others, but his pronouncements drown out most all of the others' attempts to speak.  He makes the rest of the world suffer from his diarrhea of the mouth.  When he waved his flag at the Revolutionary War site with such vigor and screaming, I wished he would slip and land on his backside, but then he would have loved the extra camera time.  We have seen glimpses of Adam's niceness, but they are overshadowed by his boorish behavior.  Adam was fortunate to have Aaron to deflect some of his obnoxiousness, but now it's all him, and we can see it far more clearly.  I hope that a miracle happens and Adam changes his ways overnight, but if not, I hope he'll pack his voice and go.

Edited December 6, 2014 by Lura

[candall]

I'd love a report from one of the "regular" diners who attended.  WTF was that weird cavernous warehouse with the wall down the middle?  It looked and SOUNDED like they were serving a pancake breakfast down at the Elks Lodge.  The judges were leaning in, trying to hear each other and the whole "décor" element seemed to come down to four piggybanks and the carved deer trophy.  Quite a change from the time they had Sommelier Snoots choosing wine for every course and blathering the diners' ears off.

 

Annoying:  Adam(?) repeatedly clutching Doug to his chest like a toddler with his puppy.

 

Annoying:  editing out the scenes of Padma licking her knife.  I missed several games of solitaire watching for that so I could drink my shot.

.

[eleanorofaquitaine]

I'd love a report from one of the "regular" diners who attended.  WTF was that weird cavernous warehouse with the wall down the middle?  It looked and SOUNDED like they were serving a pancake breakfast down at the Elks Lodge.  The judges were leaning in, trying to hear each other and the whole "décor" element seemed to come down to four piggybanks and the carved deer trophy.  Quite a change from the time they had Sommelier Snoots choosing wine for every course and blathering the diners' ears off.

 

I wasn't there, but I am familiar with the hotel they held Restaurant Wars in (it's called the Revere Hotel - it used to be a Radisson), and it is has some large, cavernous, dark spaces.  I don't love it as an event space because of that but it is a centrally located space near Boston's Theater District, so it is a pretty popular venue.

[nitrofishblue]

I finally got to watch this episode. All I can say is that Gregory and Katsuji went to the bottom after their "outstanding" performance. It was like they both threw the girls under the bus by not working with them as a TEAM. Katsuji just kept saying he knew nothing. He went out of his way to do nothing as did Gregory. I sure hope that neither of them make it to the finals.