Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sparkle-licious
By Monty Ashley | Season 4 | Episode 6 | Aired on 05.06.2008
Then suddenly time is up! Back to the kitchen! Start cooking! Matt can't peel the sweet potatoes because he has no peeler, but Ben instructs him to just use his chef's knife. Bobby asserts that he's got the hot wings covered, and Ben makes sure that Louross is set to switch tasks with Petrozza after he's done slicing meat. Ben is acting like someone in charge here. Good for him.
On the red team, there's an amusing sequence where Corey is peeling potatoes and keeping up a running patter about how all tasks should be done in five minutes and let's go, and so on, intercut with shots of Shayna just standing there not doing anything. Then Shayna starts going. That was unproductive. Meanwhile, Ben is micromanaging Matt, insisting that he peel the asparagus a different way.
Matt interviews, with his scowliest scowl yet: "I really have no faith or confidence in any [bleep] that we're doing right now. I'm not even gonna say anything or suggest anything. I'm tired of wasting my [bleep] breath." Sheesh.
There is shouting and clapping and furious plating. Matt sulks in an interview about how he wants to quit. Everyone finishes at exactly the last second, as they always do, which makes me suspicious. Matt interviews again about how he just wants to take off his jacket (my eyes!) and quit.
Chef Ramsay asks if anyone's been at a Sweet Sixteen birthday party recently, and Matt raises his hand. I guess he might not be lying. Chef Ramsay asks him if that has an influence across the menu, and Matt straight-up tells him "No." The men are appalled at his disloyalty. At least, I think they are. Mostly they just say "Oh my god" and "[bleep]." Ramsay is thrown a bit too, because this is normally the part of the proceedings where everyone's full of misplaced confidence.
The tasting will be done by Melissa (who I assume is the birthday girl in question) and her mother. The red team's appetizer is a Tuscan shrimp scampi (called "The Super Sweet Sixteen Shrimp Scampi" because you should never ignore the power of alliteration), and it's up against Bobby's stuffed chicken wings. It turns out that Melissa has never tasted shrimp before, and Rosann is theatrically shocked in an interview. Melissa thinks the shrimp was "crunchy" and it looks to me like she may have stealthily spat it out into her napkin. She likes the look of the chicken, and declares it the winner. Matt raises his arms in triumph, which is a little bit hypocritical. 1-0 to the men.