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« Hell's Kitchen
Episode Recap: The Final Three
As tonight's ever-important episode got underway, all of the chefs were remarking about how it felt a weight had been lifted, now that Jen was gone. Oddly enough, I felt the same way even sitting at home. Overall, tonight's episode was nice, positive change from the week's of the past, with each of the cooks performing well (most of the time). There may be hope yet!
The chefs are greeted by Chef Ramsay the following morning, when they learn that they will be eating a signature breakfast dish prepared by Gordon himself. As an added bonus, the chefs get to dine with their loved ones — Petrozza with his father and girlfriend, Christina with her parents and Corey with her mother and boyfriend — which gives each of the cooks a little boost. (Or in Petrozza's case, a few tears.) But of course, there is always a twist & mdash; the chefs had to then prepare the same dish Gordon served as part of the first challenge. While Corey and Petrozza spent most of the time reconnecting with family, Christina smartly analyzed the food, expecting just such a task.
Giving the chefs one serving of the dish to use as a reference, each of the three chefs set off to prepare the dish. The first decision was selecting the right beef. Christina chose a venison strip loin, while Petrozza and Corey chose buffalo tenderloin. Petrozza, however quickly changed his mind after tasting the meat, and served the venison as well. The second major component of the dish was a puree. Christina chose to make a white bean puree while Corey prepared a potato and parsnip puree. (Petrozza didn't make a puree at all.) Finally, each chef made a red wine reduction for the sauce, but only Corey used the secret ingredient — a raspberry framboise that made the sauce slightly sweet.
When time came to serve, each of the chefs had severe mistakes. Corey's choice of meat was incorrect, Petrozza left off the puree completely, and Christina used an aioli as a binding agent, which Gordon said was completely wrong. On the plus side, Petrozza and Christina used the right cuts of meat, and Corey, in addition to the perfect sauce, also used cream as a binding agent. However, Corey was quickly eliminated because of the meat choice. Between Christina and Petrozza's dishes, Gordon chose Christina (three wins in a row, now) despite the aioli. To add salt to Petrozza's wounds, Gordon told him if there had been any puree on the plate, he would have won. Even so, Christina spent the afternoon with Gordon (and her family) seeing the sites of Los Angeles in a private double-decker bus and eating at L.A. hot spots while Petrozza and Christina crushed ice by hand and polished the glasses. (Corey pretended the ice was Jen. Ha!)
In tonight's dinner service, the chef's each took a turn running the "hot plate" as well as cooking on their station. The best part of the night for me was watching Gordon give each of the chefs "assertiveness" training. While I am of the mind that you don't have to be a raging maniac to run a kitchen, I still enjoy Gordon's methods, and found it quite funny to see the chefs try to measure up. Petrozza got pretty nasty, and seemed the most convincing. Corey was completely lost, and Christina, who showed improvement by the end, reminded Gordon of a cheerleader he couldn't take seriously. How would they fare at service?
Once food started flowing out of the kitchen, Petrozza was the first to take on working the pass. Gordon cleverly had sous chefs Gloria and Scott set up sabotages to test the chefs as well. Although Petrozza did pretty well, he missed one of the sabotages, which featured a risotto without peas. However, he recovered and ran the kitchen pretty well, despite Christina who crashed and burned in the fish station. First she overcooked her salmon and scallops, and then served raw salmon that Petrozza rejected at the pass. Gordon even asked her if she was trying to sabotage Petrozza at one point. All in all, Gordon seemed pleased with Petrozza's efforts.
Next up, Corey took on the pass. She made an early mistake not catching the fact that a table of six only had five entrees on the ticket, which quickly earned her a scolding. She quickly became timid as she did earlier during training, but somehow began to pull things together. That is until Scott served lamb wellington with the wrong sauce. Corey did catch the mistake, but not until she had already poured the sauce over the meat, which Gordon deemed "game over" and kicked her off the hot plate saying it was "not good enough."
Trying to redeem her "crap" performance on her station, Christina took control when working the pass. Though her attitude got under sous chef Scott's skin and Corey said her "squeally" voice was annoying, Christina moved food out of the kitchen. She also was the only chef not fooled by Gordon's sabotage, catching Gloria's substitution of basil in the mashed potatoes instead of mint, which earned Gordon's approval.
Overall, it was a strong dinner service, and Gordon seemed pleased. At least he's probably not sweating the fact that he is hiring one of these folks. He asked each chef to nominate one person for elimination, which all of the chefs found difficult after becoming close. Even Christina admitted that she and Corey (who had their share of run-ins in the early going) had begun to get along and work well in the kitchen. At nomination time, Christina nominated Corey and vice versa, while Petrozza nominated Christina as well, based on her inexperience. It was a nice moment when Gordon told the chefs how much he had grown to like them and hated this part of the show.
Ultimately, Gordon sent Petrozza to the final without question (my money is still on him to win), leaving him to decide between Christina, who stepped up as a leader despite poor cooking, and Corey, who cooked well but lost control of the kitchen to the point that Gordon "would be scared to leave her alone in the kitchen". Saying his decision was based on everything that happened this season (including a lot of Christina wins), Corey was sent home. Gordon gave her a heartfelt goodbye speech and she handled her exit with grace after doing "bloody well." I have to say, for all her sneakiness and faux-sexiness early on, she was (usually) a pretty solid cook.
So now, the showdown begins? Do you think Petrozza's experience will win out? Or will Gordon's golden girl keep her winning streak alive until the end? Tell us who you think will win and what you're looking forward to (sadly, I'm eager to see Matt's goofiness and just how "not bitter" Jen is) in next week's episode. Comment away and check back next week for the final showdown!
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Jun 25, 2008 12:20 AM
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*** SPOILER ALERT ***
So the London West Hollywood 'soft launched' and someone at the event noticed this season's HK winner already started in the LWH kitchen (and not in September). BTW, reviews of the LWH thus far have been 'lackluster' at best... big surprise, eh?
Anyway, the spoiler...
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... is that Christina won HK! She was awarded a Sous Chef position at the LWH though, not the Executive Chef. GR decided to bring in an outside Exec Chef instead. I guess neither of the HK finalists were ready after all! What a disappointment.
Here's the source. You can take it for what it's worth:
"HK Winner Gossip, Gordo in August"
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
http://la.eater.com/archives/2008/06/24/ramsaywire_hk_winner_gossip_gordo_in_august.php
(click the link in the spoiler section and read)
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Jun 25, 2008 2:50 AM
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I wouldn't be surprised if that story is false. She may be the winner, but they probably aren't foolish enough to let the cat out of the bag.
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Jun 25, 2008 3:01 AM
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During the previews for next week's episode, you can kinda see it, what Gordan is going to do.
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Jun 25, 2008 4:01 AM
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achyfakey,
Thanks for spoiling the spoiler.
I scrolled past the spoiler post which, correctly, left a lot of blank space at the end only to read your post where you identify the gender of the winner.
Good job, (self-censored.)
As for this episode, I'm amazed that Petrozza, who nearly quit early on and is very messy, has pulled it together to make the finals. If I had to guess, I'd think that his experience would win out and Ramsay would choose someone with his experience over someone still in culinary school.
However, Christina has been part of many winning groups, and won several individual rewards yet Petrozza, to the best of my recollection, has not only never won anything but was never on a team that won.
It'll be interesting to see who wins, and if the spoiler (as spoiled by achyfakey) is accurate.
Thanks again, achyfakey.
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Jun 25, 2008 6:59 AM
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Maybe I dreamed it, but at the end of last week's promo for this week's episode, was n't there a shot of Christina crying while Petrozza said she'd be lying all along? Or did I miss something?
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Jun 25, 2008 10:01 AM
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Spatztc - I thought I saw that too: where both Petrozza and Corey call Christina a liar, and Christina's bawling. What was that from? (I was flipping between HK, the College World Series and I Love the Millennium on VH1.
When this season is over, I won't miss Christina's chirpy screech. When Corey pointed it out, I couldn't help but find her voice every time she said "Yes, Chef" to GR or was trying to be GR running the hot plate to be the MOST annoying sound on tv. I thought GR for sure would send up a hot-handle pan for payback for burning his hand before.
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Jun 25, 2008 11:02 AM
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If I remember correctly the preview clip showed both Petrozza and Corey accusing Christina of lying. Since that scene was not shown on last night's episode I too was wondering about it. Is it somehow going to be worked into the final episode or did it meet the cutting room floor?
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Jun 25, 2008 11:05 AM
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Hmm, I thought Petrozza and Corey were calling Jen a liar, since Jen will be back next episode.
*** COMMENT ABOUT THE SPOILER ***
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Petrozza's a great guy and, given his heart and personality, I hope I'm wrong about the spoiler and he wins it.
Christina, on the other hand has a great deal of talent and knowledge, but not the experience nor guts needed to be an executive chef.
The story about Ramsay making neither finalist the LWH's Executive Chef seems to jibe with the sneak preview bit where GR says he may have picked the wrong finalists... and it seems to fit Christina's profile of 'lots of talent, but needs more time and experience to develop as a chef.'
The only part that doesn't quite make sense is, after the show finished taping (about a year ago?) Christina went back to culinary school at CIA to finish up. I figure if she actually won the contest, she wouldn't even bother going back to school -- Christina said she learned more in 8 hours at Hells Kitchen than she did all year at CIA -- unless the HK producers made her go back to school to keep up the facade while the show ran...
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Jun 25, 2008 12:05 PM
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I hope, "Petrozza" wins. I believe that he'll make an good chef.. Christina has alot to learn.. Can't wait for the next show to watch next week.. calimarlo
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Jun 25, 2008 2:51 PM
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I love how people are trying to backpeddle and think HK needs some type of explanation as to why the winner (whoever it is - I don't believe the spoilers) will NOT be an Executive Chef in one of GR's kitchens. None of the winners of the this show have EVER held that position, though each season they make that claim all along. I still don't understand why GR looks right at the camera and repeats that lie week after week and season after season.
This show is the equivalent of cheese in an aerosol can. It's pure fluff with nothing redeemable about it - yet we all still consume it, for some reason. It's not even original anymore. I love how they play up the Sous Chef "sabotage" angle or GR's "training" the wanna-bes how to properly yell and insult their staff - like we haven't seen the exact same thing played out in three previous seasons.
As a chef myself, I came into this series with tons of respect for Gordon Ramsey and all he had accomplished. Each day I lose more and more of that respect for allowing himself and his image to become nothing more than a cartoon character for tasteless entertainment. If anyone ever served FOOD in one of his restaurants that was so phony, so contrived, and so unoriginal as this show - he would blow a gasket. Why can't "his standards" that he likes to brag about so much not apply to his own TV show?
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Jun 25, 2008 11:34 PM
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I have also worked in fine dining restaurants in my past and married a high end Exec Chef. There just isn't a way a person on this show could hold that role. If he does pick Christina - I think it's because he sees potential in her further down the line. The chefs in "hot popular" restaurants work long, long, long hard hours and she's probably better suited for the experience.
School for her? Absolutely, she should have still finished her degree. Just because she has a position doesn't mean she wouldn't complete the education. I really like Petrozza but my guess was that he hires her for PREP COOK.
That Jen is a scary looking one - can no one fix that woman's hair??? lol
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Jun 26, 2008 6:56 PM
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I looked at the link on spoiler alert and a person posted this and said not true that winner is not working there -
"B.S.
I work there and there is no HK participant present."
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Jun 26, 2008 7:00 PM
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I didn't read any responses yet...
I want Christina to win. I like her the best. Petrozza is too filthy of a cook to win.
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Jun 27, 2008 1:56 PM
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