Hell's Kitchen 4, Episode 12

By Arthur Perkins
 
This week's competition starts off with a difficult challenge, make 80 portions of something for mystery judges. All the resources of Hell's Kitchen are available and 1 hour is the limit. The menu choices by the chefs are:
 
Jen - calypso grouper, the only "real meal" option offered as the other 3 go for sandwiches
Christina - turkey sandwich with curry
Corey - salmon BLT sandwich
Petrozza - Monte Christo sandwich (ham, turkey, and Swiss cheese between batter-dipped grilled or fried bread)
 
Jen, Christina and Petrozza get theirs plated in time. Corey gets about 10 portions plated. The judges arrive and they turn out to be pregnant mothers-to-be. Somebody, I think Petrozza, says that's good because they will eat anything and like it. Corey runs out of her 10 quickly and goes back to plate more, but it is obvious that she has no chance of getting sufficient votes. I commend Jen for daring to do something difficult here, but she failed to pull it off and finished third. The winner was Christina by 2 votes over Petrozza. The winner's reward is to go shopping with Gordon Ramsay at a posh Beverly Hills boutique that appears to be run by fashion designer Lisa Klein. Christina tries on outfits and shoes. Early in the competition she listed her major assets for the competition. Yes, she does look good in heels, but what does that have to do with cooking? She actually appears to have the least fashion sense or interest among the remaining chefs. The other 3 chefs clean the dining room left a mess after the buffet service for 80. They also polish glasses and polish silverware. They are ready to go when prep time for the evening dinner service starts. Christina is not even back from her shopping spree. They are extremely jealous and attempt to take it out on Christina by not allowing her to help in the prep when she repeatedly asks "What can I do to help?" Ramsay's final advice to the chefs before the service is "Unite as a Team; Emerge as Individuals." One chef failed to internalize that advice.
 
Dinner service starts with Jen on appetizers (she gives good risotto), Christina on vegetables, Corey on fish and Petrozza on meat (almost always the station that takes chefs down). Jen gets a rave from Ramsay for risotto, but so does Corey for scallop appetizers. Jen then screws up two plates of risotto with mushy rice. Corey gets another rave for salmon. Jen is severely criticized by Ramsay for blowing hot and cold, being Ms. Inconsistent (a title she earned from Bobby). Christina then is careless with the placement of the sauce pan handle being over the flame, so Ramsay burns his hand on it. Then it happens a second time and Ramsay demonstrates that water dropped onto the handle will vaporize immediately. Christina needed some help with "dropping eggs" but Jen refused to help since she was stirring a pan of risotto. Corey immediately helped and Jen was rebuked by Ramsay for not being a team player. Corey got another rave for John Dory. Petrozza got one for filet mignon. What is this - Ramsay happy about a dinner service? Corey now is pressured by Ramsay to get a John Dory dish out fast. She knows it is undercooked but she succumbs to the pressure and it is sent out, but soon returns as rejected by the diner for undercooking. Petrozza as always lets the pots and pans pile up because he claims he has no time to both do her station and clean pots and pans at the same time. Ramsay rebukes him for being "a pig" which is about the 6th time that he has done so.
 
When service is over, I have my assessment. It should be Jen leaving, it will not be Petrozza, and Corey and Christina both have a low probability of leaving. Ramsay says it was a wonderful performance and thanks them but reminds them that someone has to be eliminated in spite of that. He asks the group to nominate 2 for elimination. Since we know how this works, that is a pointless exercise but Jen is the easy one to nominate for poor teamwork(actually no teamwork would be more accurate since Christina was hedging on her wording when presenting). The second one was Corey, but that did not really matter as she was not going to get picked. Ramsay saw it the same way that I did, a long overdue elimination for Jen(despite her obvious culinary talent, she is impossible to work with). However, none of her tricks escaped the view of Ramsay and he called her on them.
 
The Final 3 are all good chefs who could win. I have no preference on who does, but I think Petrozza will make it to the Final 2 unless he screws up. The big advantage Petrozza has is that Ramsay is looking for an executive chef who will work under his occasional in-person direction. What is most important in that environment is that when Ramsay is away (most of the time) from Hollywood London West, he will be able to trust Petrozza to give him the straight story.
 

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