Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dis-missed!
By Monty Ashley | Season 4 | Episode 11 | Aired on 06.10.2008
Bobby's student squeals theatrically at having to kill a lobster. I can understand that. For one thing, not everyone assumes that they'll be killing a living animal just because they're walking into a kitchen. Also, lobsters look like giant bugs, which is icky. In more show-related drama, Jen is caught on camera doing some of the slicing herself. It seems like delegation would be an important skill for a chef.
Everyone finishes at the last second, and most of the students claim it was the first time they'd ever held a knife. I think that's laying it on a little thick. Petrozza's student cooked the lobster well, but the pasta was overcooked and a little thin. Petrozza doesn't care, because his student was "way hot". Christina's student did well, and the pasta was cooked "perfectly". Jen is inserted bragging in an interview about how great she is. Bobby's student did not do well, and Bobby naturally blames her for all of it. Corey's student gets a "well done". Finally, Jen's student's dish is bland and the pasta is all one big lump. Jen disclaims all responsibility in an interview. And I realize she didn't, in fact, cook it herself, but it certainly appears that Jen feels that whatever goes wrong, it's never Jen's fault.
So the two best dishes were Christina's and Corey's. Chef Ramsay heaps praise on both of the dishes and declares Christina the winner. Corey looks a little sour and is not mollified be the extra praise she gets. The punishment for the losers is to clean the grills and other filthy parts of a kitchen. Bobby interviews that he hates having to do that stuff and does not appear to realize that if he'd occasionally win a challenge (which he hasn't done even once), he wouldn't be punished. It's like he doesn't even think of winning as an option anymore. Christina's reward is to eat lunch with Chef Ramsay and two Los Angeles restaurateurs. She interviews that she's excited to pick brains.
Oh, and the housewives get some Gordon Ramsay Brand Cookware. They pretend to be happy.
All of the losing chefs sit around the dorms and bitch about how much better they are than Christina. Jen in particular seems to believe that Christina can barely hold a knife.
Christina meets Chef Ramsay in the blue kitchen. Ben Ford and Mark Peel will be cooking for them, and she'll be hanging out with both of them and Ramsay. Meanwhile, the other chefs are in the red kitchen cleaning things. Christina enjoys learning about what Ford and Peel are doing and the little techniques they use, while Jen sneaks over to that side of the kitchen to eavesdrop. I mean, maybe she was supposed to be over there, but the camerawork certainly makes her appear like an illicit observer. The soundtrack doesn't help either, since it's practically a direct rip-off of the theme to Jaws while Jen circles around the room.