Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT What Happened to the Sabotage?
By Monty Ashley | Season 5 | Episode 4 | Aired on 02.26.2009
Customers file in at 6:05 pm. By the way, I apparently missed Olympic skater Lloyd Eisler and his wife Original Buffy Kristy Swanson in the crowd last week. Neat! The men get off to a rough start because Giovanni, who is supposed to be cooking pasta, hasn't got his water boiling yet. On the red team, Chef Ramsay catches Coi cooking spaghetti before it's been ordered and yells at her a bit. Coi and Giovanni are both repentant. Seth's scallops are uncooked, but he just gives a goofy smile and eats them when Chef Ramsay tells him to.
Andrea comes over to the men's side and asks for the tomato-butter sauce. Chef Ramsay is first angry that she's on the wrong side, and then furious when Ben admits that the prep wasn't finished. On the red side, Coi has some spaghetti which is dry, underseasoned, and undercooked. More yelling. There's still no food going out. The customers complain to the servers about how slow the food is, but come on. You can see the cameras; you know the score.
Ben brings some tomato-butter sauce over to the women's side, but it is not up to scratch (I know this will shock you, but apparently it tastes like [bleep]). Ben interviews that he took a gamble and didn't taste it. Back in the kitchen, Ben asks Danny, of all people, to make the sauce for him. Danny is committed to getting it done. Andrea is seen ordering people around and getting things done.
Danny sends over some sauce that is deemed acceptable. Gordon tells Ben that the previous attempt was [bleep] disgusting. Danny deadpans in an interview, "I just seem to rock everything I touch." Ah. The old Midas curse. Well, not "Midas." I guess. Medusa?
One of the men's Caesar salads gets sent back for having something in it. A lettuce stem? Is that a thing? It's something that doesn't go in a Caesar salad, anyway. J interviews, "J feels like a jackass." Good! Oh, and the voiceover says it's the butt of the lettuce. Heh heh. "Butt."
The men have served most of their appetizers and move on to entrees. Ben, you're up! Bring the lamb! No, they are all too thin. Robert interviews that it looked like a piece of carpaccio on a bone. Meanwhile, LA is getting vexed with Colleen's habit of popping cooked food back in the oven to "keep it warm." Also, LA does not like Colleen bugging her.
Now, Danny's on garnishes. Chef Ramsay shouts for them, and I learn that "mashed potato" counts as a garnish. That's good, because I had been wondering how much work "throwing some parsley on it" could possibly be. Danny's a little slow and commits the cardinal sin of not answering when Chef Ramsay asks how long it will be. All Ramsay wants is a lot of communication. Okay, now back to the red team. LA tells Colleen that the Beef Wellingtons are "Well. Medium Well...Medium." Colleen brings the Wellingtons up to the pass and identifies them as "Well, Medium Well, Two Mediums." Chef Ramsay stops her. He wanted three, but she brought four. They were supposed to be Medium, Medium Well, and Well Done. She identifies the Medium, the Medium Well, and the Well Done one, and then gets beaten down about the extra one.