Episode Report Card Daniel: B | 2 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT No-Spice Girls
By Daniel | Season 10 | Episode 6 | Aired on 06.19.2012
Dana's in charge of Red's appetizer; they're also doing a lobster thing. She starts getting a little bossy, to Christina's annoyance.
Clemenza and Royce and Guy are working on the fish entrée. He's working on some puttanesca thing, and he praises Royce's broccolini idea. Robyn and Kimmie aren't quite as in sync. Robyn appears to have ignored Meister's specific swordfish suggestion -- always a dumb idea when the client mentions a specific dish -- and is working on sea bass, it seems. Kimmie acknowledges that sometimes she just shuts down and lets others stomp all over her, which is what's happening now. Her choices of seasoning aren't super impressive or trendy: salt and pepper. Hey, remember when it was all trendy to put salt and pepper on things?
Tiffany and Barbie are working on squab with eggplant and fries, although Barbie's miserable working with Tiffany.
In Blue, Clemenza's a little worried about Guy's potatoes. That's concerning to Clemenza and Royce, who, in talking about how simple potatoes are, seems to have forgotten his less-than-perfect success rate with mashed potatoes.
Anyway, Red's dishes are all done, but Clemenza's swordfish barely squeaks in under the wire with Guy's potatoes holding them up.
And Brian and Justin serve up a seasonal bean salad with lobster, vanilla and fennel foam. Brian calls it "sex on plate" but Soltani doesn't think it looks very visually appealing. I don't think it looks that bad, although I'm not sure about the foam. None of the fashionistas look happy about it (surprise! One expresses an opinion and the others all follow), and Ramsay says it looks like regurgitated vomit. Wouldn't that be vomit that was then eaten and then vomited a second time? That's harsh.
Patrick says he's never "done foam" in his life. Good for Patrick! He doesn't like it and he never will. Meister complains that there's no unified design idea and it doesn't look elegant. Oh, and Ché feels like there's a lot of food there for an appetizer, even though it's like three bites.
Having already shit on how it looks, I can't see the fashion mavens liking the taste, which they don't. They call it bland, nothing special, and Soltani reminds them that she emphasized spices and zest. Meister says he didn't get a "wow" from it.
All the chefs look on in horror, realizing that this is the kind of bullshit judging they're going to get. Well, let's turn to Red's appetizer, a chilled mango broth and jumbo lump crab meat. Soltani calls it visually clumsy and she was looking for something more sleek and chic and elegant. Meister at least seems to not be ready to barf upon tasting it, which means Red winds up with a point. Ramsay praises Dana's well-thought-out dish.