S12.E16: 7 Chefs Compete

[Tabasco Cat]

Started with 7 chefs and one got cut down mid-episode. Black Jackets all around for those remaining!

Edited June 27, 2014 by Tabasco Cat

[cooksdelight]

I'll transfer my post from there to here....

Well... that was... interesting?

I noticed when Gordon yelled out the first entree orders, Wellingtons was part of it and he said "6 minutes to service!"

What happened to needing 14 minutes to cook the Wellingtons?

What a fricken' train wreck.

[Tabasco Cat]

Something's not right, I know I put E16 and today's date in the topic starter screen but it seems to be a dup of last week's episode.

 

ETA: I flagged the topic myself, hopefully a moderator will fix the title. I don't want to just up and delete it now that it's going.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Tabasco Cat

[cooksdelight]

Hopefully the mod who usually starts these will fix it for you. Thanks so much for looking out for us. :)

[Brattinella]

I'm going to have a stroke one of these days over this stupid show.

[cooksdelight]

When Minnie told Gordon her scallops were gritty, I thought he was going to have a stroke. Those usually come to the kitchen pre-cleaned, don't they?

[BogoGog24]

I sort of figured once Gabriel was gone that that automatically meant the remaining contestants got black jackets. The fake elimination was just a giant waste of time.

[QuelleC]

I was very happy to see Gabriel leave.  I haven't forgotten his repeated inability to count portions.

 

As far as the 14 minute welly, when the salmon was burnt or whatever the problem was that time, GR asked if he had another one.  He said no.  For a second I thought that meant they were out of them - a recurrent problem this season with the ingredients - but they weren't.  So if they are smart, they make a back up or stagger the start times. The wellingtons have to rest after the 14 minutes so I assumed they always have some going.  I think I've heard language to that effect. When one is "overdone" is there another one in the oven, etc.

 

Enough already with Kashia.  I laughed when CR had to ask Andi what she said (about the chicken).  Aside from being incomprehensible, it looks like she throws another tantrum next week. 

 

I couldn't quite understand what Joy said, did she nominate Kashia for elimination?  Scott is such a cocky little shit.  Apparently he can cook but until a couple episodes ago he was hopping around like a bird, telling everyone else what to do, and appearing to do very little actual work himself. I hope he's next even though I'm done with Kashia.

 

Jason must be pretty solid because they don't show much of his cooking.  Was there ever a reason given for nominating him for elimination? 

 

I like seeing more Andi this season.  When did Minnie's accent get so posh?

[cooksdelight]

The wellingtons have to rest after the 14 minutes so I assumed they always have some going.

But when Scott said he had an extra fish going in for a future thing, or whatever it was, Gordon chewed his ass. They can't cook Wellingtons ahead of time, can they, or risk having Gordon telling them to piss off for wasting food?

This entire show is fake in it's entirety, to me anyway.

[beesknees]

I loved it when Chef told Gabriel to leave via the front door of HK. Bwah!  Talk about your walk of shame.  Loved when they cut to the taxi going down the street.  Gabriel was blessed that he made it as far as he did.  He should have been cut a long time ago.  The only thing I'm gonna miss about Gabriel is the way Chef Ramsay called him Gabrielle.

[Brattinella]

So right, cooksdelight, fake fake fake!

[BogoGog24]

Haha but I loved how JP went out to say goodbye to Gabriel. Wish they showed more JP like they did in the early seasons.

 

And I also laughed when Gordon couldn't understand Kashia ha!

[beesknees]

I loved it when JP told Gabriel that he was gonna need that chef's jacket back.  Gabriel looked dumbfounded.

[cooksdelight]

Gabriel thought it was a souvenir, since he exited through the front door. LOL

[QuelleC]

I agree about not wanting to cook fish ahead of time (where's the crispy skin!) but I don't know why else GR would have asked that question.

[Eolivet]

I wish they had cut Jason. He's not going to win. Rochelle is right, he is abrasive. He's competent, but when it gets down to black jackets, competent isn't enough. I don't remember him being close to the top in individual challenges. He's a perfectly fine line cook, but he's not a winner. Plus, this is his second time around. I'd say he's been redeemed enough.

[mlp]

This show is ridiculous.  Among other things, what was the deal with the guy "choking"?  Someone in serious distress doesn't walk off with a glass of wine in his hand while everyone else just sits and watches.  That whole bit made no sense.

 

None of the final 6 are impressive but I can't stand Melanie and like Kashia only slightly better.  I can tolerate the other four although I don't think any of them are going to show up on Top Chef any time soon.

[Tabasco Cat]

It is Jason's 2nd time on the show but the 1st time he never made it past the first episode due to an unspecified medical condition. I thought it was brutal the way Ramsay made Gabriel walk the plank of shame out through the dining room. Even though Gabriel should have been gone a loooong time ago, that wasn't a very classy thing to do by GR. Personally, I would have escorted Gabriel from the premesis the night his team nominated him for elimination but when asked by GR who the nominees were, he chose to name somebody else instead. Buh bye, Gabriel. Ramsay did you wrong the way he sent you packing, but you were overdue for the boot.

 

(P.S. Thank you to the mods who fixed up the topic title and date!)

Edited June 27, 2014 by Tabasco Cat

[Rapunzel]

So we ended up with the totally expected and horribly contrived conclusion to the Crappy Calendar Challenge.  Of course Joy was going to win cooking things she’s never cooked before nor really even eaten. I thought it looked awful on the plate but given what everyone else put up the standards were pretty low. She's one of the best ones left (I still like Rochelle and Scott) so I'm glad she got a black jacket in any case. 

 

The whole choking thing was just really odd. Once again the actual situation was absolutely nothing like they made it out to be in the previews last week. What kind of idiot goes wandering through the dining room away from anyone who could help him if he was choking? And then Dana, while calmly sitting at the table and making no effort to go help him says (with no sense of urgency or concern) "Is he gonna die?". The manufactured drama on this show is getting really pathetic. Ramsey was even more over the top than usual during the service as well - right down to having Gabriel do the walk of shame through the dining room.

 

It's time to give out black jackets and Kashia still has to ask Joy to come over and check her chicken and ask her how long it needed to cook for. How is she still around? I want her to go next though I abhor Melanie and Jason as well. Melanie, who last week proved she cannot make edible mashed potatoes, showed us tonight that she has trouble making edible chicken. Sunday dinner at her house must be awful.

 

The look on Jason's face and that intense stare when he thought he was going home were a little scary but the look in his eyes in his TH after he got his black jacket when he said “Yeah, I do this shit. And I’m good at it.” just freaked me out. He looked crazy and like he could totally lose it someone confronted him about something or if he got sent home.

 

Glad Gabriel is gone - he definitely overstayed his welcome but I think pretty much all of them have.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Rapunzel

[cooksdelight]

What kind of idiot goes wandering through the dining room away from anyone who could help him if he was choking?

He headed to the rest room to throw up. I think what happened is that the food got stuck in his esophagus and that's the only thing you can do at that point. It's happened to me many times as I have a hiatal hernia and if I don't chew my food to the point it can pass easily, it will get hung up. And I think it was a glass of water he took with him. Small sips of water can sometimes help the food go on down.

Dana asking "Is he going to die?" is par or the course for her. LOL

[QuelleC]

I thought it was pretty polite of him not to make a scene, even if it might have been incredibly stupid had he been truly choking and needed emergency help.  He tried to swallow water then left the table to ralph, away from the diners.  There are medics on set for the chefs, didn't someone say something about it?  I'm sure he was aware of the medics and didn't want to be embarrassed on camera.  Even if it was just liquid going down his windpipe it can take a while to recover, I think we've all been there. 

Edited June 27, 2014 by QuelleC

[Jersey Guy 87]

I am amazed Gabriel lasted as long as he did and have no problem with him being thrown out during dinner service and being forced to walk through the dining area.  He overstayed his welcome around episode 2 (interesting fact - on the Fox website his name is Michael Gabriel - was he trying to pull a Cochran and get known by his last name?).  Kashia can go next, followed by Melanie and Jason in some order.  Which would leave Scott and Joy, neither of whom is particularly awesome but they're better than the rest.

 

I actually thought it was an interesting scene when they showed Scott talking to Andi about how to deal with Gordon - she seemed to take him seriously and I thought that was an interesting move on his part.

 

As soon as Gabriel did his walk of shame I knew there was no elimination coming after service, the whole "pick one person from each team" and then making them justify why they should stay was unnecessary filler.  This might be the least inspiring group of black jackets ever.

[cooksdelight]

I actually thought it was an interesting scene when they showed Scott talking to Andi about how to deal with Gordon - she seemed to take him seriously and I thought that was an interesting move on his part.

It told me he cares about doing his best. I'd pick him as a winner over the others any day.

[Julia]

+1. He and Joy seem to be roughly equally talented, from what little we've seen of them actually cooking, but she plays too many games for me to think she'd be a great manager.

[cooksdelight]

I can't forgive Joy for trying to get rid of Rochelle because the woman wants to have a family. And for keeping Kashia around so she can beat her.

[Brattinella]

I can' t EVER forgive her for the public, in the kitchen, double nose picking!  YUCK! 

[Mama No Life]

At this point I'm watching because I look forward to seeing five people eliminated. Rochelle is my favorite but she's been consistently seen as "reliable" and not amazing, so I hold little hope. At this point it's Joy's to lose. I don't get Joy's fear of Kaisha...there is no way GR is going to let Mushmouth run a restaurant of his.

Gabrielle was overdue so I had no problem with his elimination. I was surprised there was going to be an elimination after that so I found the trickery amusing. Well, that's not true...I just find GR amusing. The fact that he was so clearly tickled with his stunt was all I needed. :)

Scott is fake. That's why I don't like him...he's a kiss ass. Just blech.

[Julia]

I don't think Joy fears Kashia. I think Joy knows Kashia's not going to make it anywhere near the end so she figured she'd do her a solid by saying something nice about her on TV.

[QuelleC]

Scott is a horrible fake.

[Kromm]

Fake Camera Shake Alert:  Ramsay takes two chefs (Idiot Scott and Idiot Gabriel) into the back room during dinner service to yell at them.  And of course, there's a conveniently placed camera to observe the door slam, with the sound echoing like a gunshot, and the camera jumping back and forth as if the door slam was SO hard the ground below moved two feet in each direction!

Edited June 27, 2014 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Oh, show.  Nice way to humiliate that fool Gabriel. Out the FRONT door.  In the middle of a service.  With JP sent to nab his jacket from him.  Wow.  STUNNING DRAMA.

 

Heavy Flirt Alert:  If Ramsay wasn't reportedly pretty into his wife, I'd say that he really wanted to stick it into Minnie Driver.  

[xcrayon2215x]

Not surprising that Gabriel was kicked off in the middle of service, what a terrible service that was. I think Joy should win this, with Jason finishing second. Ramsay has had enough of Scott I can tell, think he goes next week.

[Monty]

So Gabriel has to leave through the front door, where a taxi picks him up...and presumably takes him around to the back, so he can get his clothes from the dorms.

[Writing Wrongs]

Haha but I loved how JP went out to say goodbye to Gabriel.

 

I think he just wanted the jacket, which is what made me laugh.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Writing Wrongs

[cooksdelight]

Yeah, those big jackets are probably expensive to make. They can pull the stitching out of his name and fix it up for the next "big boy" to come on board. I hate when Gordon calls large guys that name.

[OnceSane]

 

So we ended up with the totally expected and horribly contrived conclusion to the Crappy Calendar Challenge.  Of course Joy was going to win cooking things she’s never cooked before nor really even eaten.

 

I thought that would happen as well...or Gordon would hate every dish & everyone would have to make a new dish--but no black jackets!  Hell's Kitchen is way too predictable.

 

I don't believe Joy when she says Kashia is her greatest competition, she has to know that Kashia basically sucks donkey balls & wants her around to always have someone worse if Joy screws up a service.

 

Bye, Gabriel!  You only lasted so long because you attempted to be a drama queen & are oh so shitty at cooking everything.

[Donny Ketchum]

Scott is fake. That's why I don't like him...he's a kiss ass. Just blech.

THIS.  I don't like Scott for those reasons at all.  Just a brown-nosing phony.  I don't know why so many here are clinging to him so much.  And he is NOT one of the best.  Otherwise, he wouldn't have been put up for elimination so many damn times!

 

If he reaches the F2, which I hope doesn't happen, it'll only be because Ramsay is seeding him to lose to whomever he chooses to win (a la Heather vs. Virginia, Rock vs. Bonnie, and Christina vs. Petrozza).

[BogoGog24]

I like Scott because I think he's a genuinely nice person. When Kaisha was crying, he went over to ask what was wrong. I don't view him as fake or a kiss-up, just nice.

[mertensia]

Gabriel might have been known as Gabriel instead of Michael because there was already a Mike or Michael.

[fishcakes]

I can't tell if Scott is fake or not. When he was comforting Joy last week and Kashia this week, he seemed like a genuinely good guy, but his conversation with Andi did strike me as somewhat calculated. It reminded me of internships or summer jobs I've had where there might be permanent job offers at the end, but only for one or two out of a larger group, and there were always a couple of people who would try to attach themselves, not to the decision maker, but to the person who has the ear of the decision maker. Lots of asking for advice, particularly about how to handle difficult people, and in general trying to make the ... uh, ear person feel important. I saw this happen more than once, so I assume it's a technique that's common in those How to Land the Job of Your Dreams books, but I've never seen it actually work, maybe because those people were so busy schmoozing that their work was kind of crappy. I have no idea if that's what Scott was trying to do with Andi, but that's what I thought of when he was pulling her aside for advice on how to deal with Ramsay. It seemed fake because Scott has to have noticed that Andi's interactions with Ramsay are completely different from his owing to her already having a real job and also Ramsay not thinking she's a donkey.

 

Emotionally she's a wreck, but I don't think Kashia is that bad in the kitchen. At least I'm not remembering anything horrible she's done. Now that Gabriel is gone, everyone left seems about equal to me, with Joy being maybe slightly better than the rest. I don't really care who wins and I hardly ever remember who the winners are five minutes after the season ends, but based on personality I'd prefer it not be Jason or Melanie.

[Kromm]

Yeah, those big jackets are probably expensive to make. They can pull the stitching out of his name and fix it up for the next "big boy" to come on board. I hate when Gordon calls large guys that name.

They can't be too expensive, if they still do that thing with ejected players where they hang it on the hook but tear a hole through it when they do that.  Or am I only (mis)remembering that from the distant past of the show and imagining they used to do that?  I think they maybe replaced that with the(Hell)fire burning portrait of the player thing.

 

EDIT - Okay, I did mis-remember/imagine it. Even on a Season 2 ep I just saw a bit of on YouTube, the jacket is HUNG on a hook, not torn through it.  And the burning portrait goes back further than I thought--it's there in Season 2 at least.

 

One thing's for sure.  While we only see one jacket given back, there's no way that's all they have.  A kitchen is a dirty place and those jackets will get trashed every night (or even just during a prep session).  I'm sure they have a handful of those jackets--if they're laundered daily I'd still expect at least two spares I think.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Kromm

[Donny Ketchum]

I was wondering.  Are this season's Gabriel and HK3's Josh the only two to ever be eliminated during dinner service?  Or have there been others.

 

Gotta say I was actually surprised and disappointed that there was no regular elimination to go with Gabriel's dinner service elimination.  Back in HK3, Ramsay still eliminated someone after he threw Josh out at F5 (it was the tragic elimination of Julia at the F4).  So I don't see what was wrong with eliminating Scott or Jason at F6 after Gabriel's F7 ouster.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Donny Ketchum

[SherriAnt]

actually thought it was an interesting scene when they showed Scott talking to Andi about how to deal with Gordon - she seemed to take him seriously and I thought that was an interesting move on his part

 

I agree with this, I'm surprised more cheftestants(?) don't ask Andi or the other sous-chef ( I forget his name, sorry) for advice. They've been with all the prior seasons, so they probably would have a lot of insight.

[Kromm]

I agree with this, I'm surprised more cheftestants(?) don't ask Andi or the other sous-chef ( I forget his name, sorry) for advice. They've been with all the prior seasons, so they probably would have a lot of insight.

It's possible others have and it's simply never made the edit.  I mean there have to be a ton of interactions with those sous, but what do we usually see?  Andi standing next to Gordon at the pass, or occasionally Andi giving a motivating "come on" to the team, or Andi's voice on the phone call to summon the cheftestants (and the other sous doesn't even get that much, despite his face now being in the credits).  

[BogoGog24]

I was wondering.  Are this season's Gabriel and HK3's Josh the only two to ever be eliminating during dinner service?  Or have there been others.

 

Gotta say I was actually surprised and disappointed that there was no regular elimination to go with Gabriel's dinner service elimination.  Back in HK3, Ramsay still eliminated someone after he threw Josh out at F5 (it was the tragic elimination of Julia at the F4).  So I don't see what was wrong with eliminating Scott or Jason at F6 after Gabriel's F7 ouster.

I remember Nilka was eliminated during service in Season 7.

[Xantar]

Was that David Anders sitting at the OxFam table?

[Donny Ketchum]

Was that David Anders sitting at the OxFam table?

That did look a lot like him.  If it was, I had no idea he was part of that organization.

I remember Nilka was eliminated during service in Season 7.

I have not seen HK7.  Was it basically for the same reason as Josh and Gabriel?

[Kromm]

Was that David Anders sitting at the OxFam table?

If it was he must have been thinking (after seeing this broadcast) "Look, I know I'm no Minnie Driver, but am I chopped liver, Fox?  You never even MENTIONED me!"

[Intuition]

I agree with whoever said this must be the least inspiring set of black jackets ever on this show.  I never thought most of them would make it through, including Jason and Scott.  Perhaps it's me but I seem to remember Ramsay seeming more complimentary of other sets of finalists on this show in prior seasons.  Kashia may deserve to be there on cooking ability but she is personally a mess.  Scott is one of those no social skills boneheads who is actually sincere but he doesn't seem that way because:

 

a) how could anyone really be that boneheaded?

 

and

 

b) he has to put on an act to overcome his lack of social skills.

 

Ugh.  Anyway, Ramsay's attempt at drah-ma with Gabriel's exit fell flat with me.  It was long overdue and thus anticlimactic.  So what if he has to walk out the front door in the middle of service?  I was over his sorry ass so long ago I barely shrugged.

 

Scott was right about Jason's attitude being not passionate enough.  He's too blasé and his palate sucks.  Again, I wonder how most of these people got black jackets.

 

My faves are Joy and Rachelle.  Several weeks ago I already picked Joy for a possible winner, although her dish this week did look awful.  I have to say I almost thought the judges were being paid off to love it.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Intuition

[Julia]

Well, honestly, if Joy tries to consolidate her position by allying with Kashia, and Kashia tries to consolidate her position by allying with Joy, and both try to consolidate their positions by trying to get rid of Rochelle, and Jason tries to consolidate his position by trashtalking, physical space invasions and using his size to intimidate people, and Scott tries to consolidate his position by being diplomatic and asking for advice from someone who has the job he wants? Go him.

 

Being low-drama and attempting to get what you want by cooperation rather than by physical means or by manipulation and peer pressure is not the natural state of the human race. Anyone who's ever been the class mother in a kindergarten knows that intimately. That doesn't mean that people who have learned better ways of behaving are being phony. It means they're the kind of employees you want in a high-stress situation, being more agreeable than they necessarily want to and not driving away other talented employees. JMO, of course.

Edited June 28, 2014 by Julia