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« MEL31602's Blog
HK Live Blog: "I've Never Seen My Face 20 Feet Long"
Hey everyone we're down to the final two on Hell's Kitchen. It's sweet Petrozza versus youthful Christina. Rumors have supposedly leaked the outcome of the winner, but I am not sure the rumors are true so it's still anyone's game.
First is the recap of the season. We see Bobby's "black Gordon Ramsay" comment, and the horrid signature dishes of Week 1 (and Chef throwing up again- that clip never gets old!). I forgot Bobby was in the bottom two so early on. And I forgot about the disasters that were Craig, Dominic, Jason and Sharon. And we get more of Jen being obnoxious and Matt being stupid (and cutting off his finger). Ah good memories, and a good reminder of how far we've come this season.
Apparently Christina has been up for elimination several times already, while Petrozza has never been. This may be to Petrozza's advantage tonight.
Wow that was a long season review. But now on to tonight's competition. Chef announces that they each will get half the restaurant to run for their final task. To illustrate this he has two giant white screens, one with Petrozza on it and the other with Christina on it. Christina confesses to the camera, "I've never seen my face 20 feet long" Ha. Petrozza is overcome with emotion already.
In the morning they will meet with designers to create the restaurants of their dreams. They also get to decide the menu and run the kitchen. Christina has tons of ideas for her menu, but Petrozza, who admittedly makes menus all the time as a caterer, has difficulties concentrating. Could the pressure be getting to him already? Even the next morning he can't come up with anything. Christina of course has her whole menu planned out already, which makes Petrozza nervous, for good reason.
We learn tonight that both of the finalists smoke- doesn't that hurt their palettes? Just a thought.
Each finalist gets a designer to help them. But he wants to know the contestants' menus to help him come up with a good design. Uh oh. He makes stuff up off the top of his head, and it does sound good. Christina is more definitive in her plans- she hates the carpet and the booths. Petrozza, meanwhile, wants to keep the booths, so the two restaurants will look drastically different. And Petrozza wants flowers... aw such a softie!
And talk about detail. The contestants even get to choose what the wait staff will wear in their restaurant. And each contestant is totally opposite. Christina hates all the options and wants a black-on-black outfit. JP reluctantly agrees. Petrozza meanwhile opts for a green chef's jacket on the staff, which Christina hates. I kind of agree with Christina's assessment that the wait staff should not wear chef's jackets, although black-on-black does seem kind of stiff and boring. I doubt this competition will be won or lost based on what the wait staff wear, though.
And now for the menus. Petrozza has some ideas (finally). Sweet bread, Chilean sea bass, sounds good. Then he mentions a roast duck. Based on the reaction of the sous chef and the scary music in the background, I'm guessing it's a tough dish to pull off. But he sticks with it on his menu. Christina has a more detailed menu with steak and monkfish. Both sous chefs seem impressed with the contestant's menus.
Now the contestants must go to Chef's office upstairs. I bet here Chef will say the line from the previews that he might have the wrong finalists. But it likely won't be as big of a deal as the commercials made it out to be. Indeed this is the scene from the previews, and after a commercial break Chef says he now knows he has the right finalists after seeing the work they've done so far. So again the powers that be at Fox imply something in a commercial that does not occur. I'm beginning to consider ignoring the previews all together from now on.
Chef then takes the two to NYC to see another one of his restaurants (how many does he have- seriously!). Meanwhile the designers work on the new restaurants. And of course they get a private jet! Petrozza is thrilled- he's never been on one before.
Chef talks with the finalists on the trip, and we get a flashbacks to some of their rougher moments on the show, starting with Petrozza's infamous hen in a pumpkin dish. Who'd have thought when we saw that that he would be a finalist! We also see how far Christina has come, as we are reminded how she almost left because some (aka Corey) thought her to be smart rather than a good cook. Then there's when Petrozza almost quit when he couldn't remember the menu. I'm sure now he's glad he stuck it out. And we see more of Petrozza being messy, yet effective. Lastly we hear that Christina broke a record with a combined nine challenge wins as a team or individual. "I thought it was ten" she laughs. Careful Christina, you sound a bit cocky. But Petrozza's not intimidated. Good for him.
They land in NYC and are awed by the sights. They get out of a giant limo in Times Square. Chef surprises them with a billboard with their names on it. That is really cool! Then he gives them a five night stay in Dubai near one of his restaurants, where they'll get to observe him cook. Like Christina I have no clue where Dubai is but it sounds like a great prize!
Back in the limo they go, and this time the stop is the London version of the restaurant they'll be running in LA. They meet the head chef there, Joshua (so Chef actually has restaurants without HK winners as employees haha). Then they get executive chef outfits (odd since according to rumors the winner does not get this job but a slightly lower one) and are told to cook their signature dish in the kitchen. Please Petrozza, no more hen in a pumpkin!
Luckily for us Petrozza makes a filet mignon with carmelized onion risotto, while Christina opts for a NY strip steak with sweet corn succotash. They both sound good although I have no clue what succotash is! Christina seems confident after winning nine challenges to date, but can Petrozza pull off what would be his biggest win so far?
Both dishes come out looking good too. And the Chef introduces the judges- executive chefs from all his restaurants around the world. The first contestant to get three votes wins.
Mark Sargeant from Gordon Ramsay's at Claridge's (real creative name, haha) is the first to taste the dishes. He likes the flavor but is turned off by Petrozza's cute but odd "paintbrush" formed out of an onion leak. I kind of agree that the idea is a bit too cutsey for fine dining. He also likes Christina's dish, but finds it a bit bland. He picks Petrozza's dish as the winner!
Next is Angela Hartnett from Cielo in Boca Raton. She likes Petrozza's dish as well but finds it a bit too sweet for her taste. She also finds Christina's a bit dry. Wow these chefs are tough! She too votes for Petrozza! One more vote and he wins!
Stuart Gillies from Boxwood Cafe in London is up next. I have a feeling the next two judges will pick Christina's dish to make it a close vote in the end. He likes the presentation of Petrozza's dish but thinks the flavor is too one-sided and not diverse enough. Christina's, meanwhile, is good but he dislikes the red peppers. It seems he likes Christina's dish better, however, and he indeed votes for it. 2-1 Petrozza.
A young looking man named Simone Zanoni from Gordon Ramsay Au Trianon Versailles (don't ask me to pronounce that!) is the fourth judge. He is disappointed that risotto is used as a main dish when it is usually a side dish. I think I agree with Petrozza that side dishes can be good in main courses as well, although part of that is just me wanting to see him win a challenge for once. Simone then likes the combo of flavors in Christina's dish, tying it up at 2.
So now Josh from NYC is the deciding vote. He thinks Petrozza's dish is nice but needs a bit more seasoning. Meanwhile Christina's has "perfect seasoning". Great, Christina is going to win again. We then find out Josh will oversee the restaurant in LA that the winner will run, so they will have a boss after all. Both seem to impress their possible future boss with their dishes, but only one can win the challenge.
After the obligatory commercial break, we get Josh's decision. And the winner is....Petrozza!!! Yeah the big man wins a challenge!!! He's excited, as am I. And he gets a very good reward strategically, getting first dibs on the former contestants for his team in the finale. Not as good as the fancy rewards Christina got the last few weeks, but it will definitely give him an advantage. Christina said last week she wants Corey on her team, so if I were Petrozza I might choose Corey just to weaken Christina's team chemistry a tad.
Christina is getting cocky again, saying to the camera it doesn't matter if Petrozza gets to choose first since her menu is better anyway. I still like her but as the episode goes on she becomes more and more annoying.
And now another surprise for the finalists. Whoopi Goldberg comes by to wish them good luck. They both are understandably starstruck as she wishes them good luck. That was a bit random but still cool for the finalists to meet her.
As they contestants return they get to see the progress on their restaurants so far. Petrozza seems to like his design so far (I especially like the shiny wood furniture, although I don't know if that was there before). Christina, though is appalled to see the white windows and striped wallpaper. The windows aren't that bad in my opinion but the stripes are ugly.
We then see Petrozza's wallpaper and it's not great in my opinion but it's better than Christina's stripes. Then the designer tells the two that the fireplace on Petrozza's side is too big and is going to stick out in the middle of the dining room. So the designer asks if he can push back the walls a bit so that Christina's side of the restaurant is a bit indented. She reluctantly agrees, as she is too upset about the ugly wallpaper on her side to care about the indentation. She claims she had no idea the paper would be striped even though she said she like the stripes the best. So it's her fault this happened, so she has to either accept it or she if she can change it.
She decides to have it changed, painting over the wallpaper so it is a mix of different shades of brown.
After an (attempted) good night sleep, the two prepare for their last day at HK. The phone rings and they are told to go downstairs immediately. And now it's time to pick teams. Petrozza and Ben seem tight, so they'll likely end up on the same team. Ben did seem strong before collapsing the few weeks before his elimination, so it might be a good pick. The former contestants look good out of their chef outfits. Only some, not all, of the contestant are brought back. The finalists get their pick from Corey, Jen, Bobby, Ben, Louross, and Matt. A very male dominated field, which could help Petrozza, who worked with all of them at some point.
Petrozza picks first. Like I said before I would pick Corey to hurt Christina's team, but as long as he doesn't pick Matt or Jen he should be okay. He doesn't pick Corey, but takes a solid selection in Bobby. Christina then of course takes Corey. Next Petrozza takes Ben. Another good choice, as Ben and Bobby seem to work well together. Christina takes Louross, leaving Petrozza the task of choosing between Matt and Jen. Tough call for him. I guess in that scenario I'd take Jen because at least she's proven she can cook, but he seems to dislike her so who knows. Christina though says she can work with Matt but not Jen so she hopes Petrozza picks the last remaining female. Petrozza also has trouble with the choice, and that's how the episode ends.
So next week is the big finale. Thoughts on who will win? Any favorites based on the little we saw tonight of the menus and style of the restaurants? And will next week's episode live up to the "most exciting finale ever" trademark it was given in the previews? It looked to me like both doors led into the winning restaurant, but maybe it's always like that. Post your thoughts below.
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Jul 1, 2008 10:28 PM
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Morning Mel,
I think Christina will win. It's just a hunch. They also seem to telegraph these things in the editing for this show and they made sure we saw Christina working hard and laboring while Petrozza was eating chips and sleeping. But maybe they're trying to throw us off. I'm not sure but I like both people so I'd be okay either way.
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Jul 2, 2008 8:39 AM
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Hiya Mel,
Good read! I'm with Vickie....Christina has this wrapped up. Can anyone tell me if the final challenge winner takes the whole thing, because I believe they always lose. But I could be wrong.
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Jul 2, 2008 10:33 AM
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Morning Vickie (or should I say afternoon?). Yeah that whole thing about Christina doing work while Petrozza ate didn't look promising for him, although you may be right about the editing. I like them both too although Christina's arrogance was getting a little annoying.
Hey dancergirl! I'm not sure about the challenge thing since I've only been watching since the end of last season and I don't remember who won the final challenge then. But if you're right it could be bad news for Petrozza...
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Jul 2, 2008 3:28 PM
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