S12.E07: 14 Chef's Compete

[ProfCrash]

14 Chef's Compete

 

And none of them can cook a pizza. Well, the ones who can cook a pizza are on different stations. Probably more difficult stations like meat and fish.

 

Seriously? We do pizza on the stone on our grill. It's not that hard. It tastes great but it's not that hard. The guys screwed it up so badly that they ran out of dough. Wow. The women were not that much better. It sure seemed like Joy was the only one who could get the dough to right thickness and she was doing that while working the fish station.

 

So Joy is looking more and more like the stand out for the women. I have no idea who the mens stand out is. Anton maybe? But he is just so annoying and just annoying. So, please let someone else be the stand out.

 

I wish Scott was the one sent home. He is a cocky little bastard.

 

At least the drama level is starting to come down and the people on the main stations seem to be reasonably compotent.

[fishcakes]

I was surprised to see Chris go. He wasn't any good, but Scott and Ralph were worse. Scott seems like a Steve Carell character to me, but it might just be because of his Brick Tamland haircut.

 

Right now, It's looking like it's going to be Joy and Anton for the final two. It's not that they've done anything particularly impressive, but everyone else seems so awful. I had to laugh at Anton going out to the patio to weep with joy just because Wolfgang Puck hated his pizza less than he hated the other pizzas (except for Kashia's and Bev's figgy thing that wasn't even in the running), but I missed most of what he was saying because I was so fixated on the giant ashtray in the middle of the table with what looked like 200 butts in it.

 

Besides which, isn't Wolfgang Puck kind of a hack these days? I know he was highly regarded in the early '90s, but now he has restaurants inside JC Penny stores. I ate at his signature restaurant in Seattle before it closed down and thought the food was just so-so. I also ate at his pizza cafe in San Francisco once, which was notable for serving me a long blond hair with a pizza around it.

[ElleryAnne]

So Joy is looking more and more like the stand out for the women. I have no idea who the mens stand out is. Anton maybe?

 

 

I agree.  What's sad is that on any other show - or even an early season of this show - these two would barely be Top 8 material.  But they seem to be getting the most positive (or at least the least horrible) edit, and it looks like they're semi-competent in the kitchen.  And I think we saw why Joy would have been better at being captain than Melanie a week or two ago.  

 

This episode made me think that Ramsey is just about done with Hell's Kitchen himself, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last season.  They didn't even go to commercial for the "suspenseful" will-they-or-won't-they-beat-the-other-team moment on the pizza challenge. (Not that I mind the shake-up to the formula.) And one of the guest stars is a little boy who can lie on the floor and toss dough.  Talented, yes, but what was the point?  It really feels like Ramsey's heart isn't in it anymore.  There wasn't even much of a build-up about the fact that his family was going to be subjected to some of the red team's food.  And he doesn't seem to be going with the winning teams on their rewards as often (though I wouldn't want to go anywhere with this group, either).   Even his yelling has lost its passion and just sounds more frustrated.  Maybe if he actually chose viable candidates for one of his restaurants instead of a dozen deranged losers with anger management issues, it would help re-awaken his interest in the show.  But I think he's just finished with this show and wants to spend more time on his other six hundred projects.

 

I wonder how big the blue team would have let that fire get before putting it out if Ramsey hadn't interfered?

 

Kashia cannot get off my TV fast enough.  She's becoming my least favorite contestant ever on this show.

[Follies]

Kashia needs to watch how she works her mouth, because one day she's going to pull that truly odious little smirk on the wrong person.  And the young boy wasn't even working with dough; it wasn't stretching at all.  He was just spinning a tortilla around... just a juggling trick.  Joy for the win!

[Happytobehere]

I knew the Kashia pizza would be good because as someone who has eaten in some of the best brick oven pizza places in NY, I knew the crust wasn't burnt. With any crust, a thin one especially, you have to make sure it is cooked enough to support the toppings.

Joy appears to be the only competent person on either team. Knowing this show, she will go for something so minor, it would not be noticeable if anyone else did it.

All of the men are disasters.

I think this show as a whole is done.

[DropTheSoap]

The two most competent-appearing men are Anton, who's annoying, and Jason, who's annoying and has anger issues. I can't see why Ralph and Scott were still around but Chris is gone. I guess for the drama.

 

On the woman's side, Sandra will be out soon. She may even be a semi-okay cook, but the "I'll screw them first" attitude isn't going to get her that much further. Kaisha's annoying eye-rolling and comments are going to put her in a similar position. Some of the others like Bev are just cannon fodder.

 

I'm not sure about folks like Richard, except for the fact that GRRR doesn't seem to like chefs who are about his age or older and look their age.

[Sonja]

I agree.  What's sad is that on any other show - or even an early season of this show - these two would barely be Top 8 material.

Maybe if he actually chose viable candidates for one of his restaurants instead of a dozen deranged losers with anger management issues, it would help re-awaken his interest in the show.

 

The selection this year really is noticeably weaker than in the last seasons. There's no one I could imagine as a head chef of anything other than their own kitchen at home. You know what would be a great twist for the finale of a reality show? Telling the remaining contestants that no one was good enough to actually win the prize.

 

I don't think Ramsay chooses the candidates himself, that is likely done by the production team, but I have been asking myself if they have to send their rap sheets and proof for anger management issues along with their application letters. Or maybe their former co-workers are interviewed and the less they got along with them, the greater their chances at making it into the show.

 

I really like to watch Ramsay cook and I liked the UK version of Kitchen Nightmares, but this show is getting really boring.

[threebluestars]

I'd love it if they cast people who could cook and we could see some actual decent stuff from them. I think it's why I enjoy Masterchef more - it's a lot more fun watching people be competent than it is watching people suck and being expected to believe they're in the running for a chef position. Really?? I just don't buy it anymore.

[Gosling]

I'm around pretty much because everyone sucks at cooking. It's a matter of approaching the show with the proper mindset. If I wanted to watch people cook well, there's no shortage of shows for that. I watch some of those too. I'm around because I know I'm going to see terrible, terrible, hilarious things done to food. It's not even really a cooking show to me. It's slapstick comedy. You don't watch a Three Stooges sketch and honestly expect them to go about their task properly. No, no. You go in expecting to see them fuck up, followed by Moe poking Larry in the eyes and Curly going woowoowoowoowoowoo nyuknyuknyuk. We wouldn't be in Season 12 if services went off without a hitch all the time.

 

The only reason I think Fox even stocks each season with two or three halfway-decent chefs is so that Gordon isn't completely humiliating himself when he parades one of them around as the winner. They love putting the likes of Raj and Louie and Melissa and Dewberry out there, they just don't want to have to present them as The Next Big Thing at the end of the season because everybody else was even worse, so they toss him a Danny or a Dave out of mercy.

[Julia]

I don't think he has anything to do with choosing the contestants. He did a Times Talk a while ago, and in the course of it he made it pretty clear that he thinks most of the people who appear on Hell's Kitchen are a pack of fools. I guess it must be worth it, since all the Fox money kept his restaurants afloat.