Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: D- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Take One Down, Pass It Around
By Monty Ashley | Season 7 | Episode 13 | Aired on 07.27.2010
Half hour to go until service. Benjamin and Autumn are prepping as Holli and Jay stroll in. There appears to be some tension, although most of it comes in the form of Benjamin interviewing about how he thinks Holli has been lucky to get this far. He's got a pretty big mouth for someone who's been thrown out of the kitchen. Gordon Ramsay comes in and claims that he's expecting the night to go perfectly. Really? That seems optimistic. And he's also going to do something he's never done before in Hell's Kitchen, which happens with monotonous regularity. This time, the never-before-done gimmick is to let the chefs decide who will be on which station. Incidentally, the four real stations are Appetizer, Garnish, Fish, and Meat. Whenever there are more than four chefs in a kitchen on this show, people are either doubling up on stations or being stuck on things like "Dessert".
Okay, it's negotiation time! It is not particularly contentious, as Holli volunteers for fish, then Autumn takes garnish, Jay takes appetizers, and Ben takes meat. There were pauses before each of those, so it looks like everyone's okay with the choices. Of course, at this point in the season, everyone should be at least competent on all of the stations. Jay is confident in everyone's station. And we go!
The first table comes in and everyone forgets to shout "Yes, chef!" This prompts a rant about communication and energy and all that. Ignoring the stations, Autumn grabs a pan of John Dory off of Holli's station and brings it up to the pass. One of the pieces is raw. Chef Ramsay demands to know who decided they were ready, and Autumn says nothing. When the question gets repeated, Holli tells him it was Autumn. Jay's first risotto is insufficiently seasoned, and when he gets it back he oversalts it. But this time he catches it himself and tells Chef Ramsay that the replacement risotto will take a few minutes. Chef Ramsay appreciates being told this, since normally people on this show just bring lousy food up to the pass and rely on him to tell them if it's not good enough.
Holli has some correctly cooked scallops. She points out in an interview that in normal kitchens, people don't yell compliments at you. Jay's got some good risotto. Things go well for a bit until Holli has some undercooked John Dory. Ben is gleeful about her problems. During the refire, Chef Ramsay shouts at her for a bit. Jay brings up some potatoes that are not currently needed, and Chef Ramsay accuses him of being disorganized. He explains to us that he got ahead of himself by one ticket.