Episode Report Card Daniel: B- | 11 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Today Ramsay Settled All Family Business, So Don't Tell Him You're Innocent, Barret
By Daniel | Season 11 | Episode 7 | Aired on 04.23.2013
Susan's duck breast with citrus quinoa goes up against Anthony's seared duck with jasmine rice. His dish is too crispy, and Red gets the point. Zach's lamb and roasted potatoes beats Mary's pecan-crusted lamb with couscous because hers is raw, apparently. Mary squeaks out an apology for almost killing the chef, and Zach yells, "Mary Mary quite contrary, GET IT TOGETHER WOMAN." That's not how I remember it going.
Amanda goes up against Barret. She's got seared pork with an onion ragout and cheesy gratin. Her pork is overcooked. Barret's got pan-seared pork that is glistening enough that Shook apparently doesn't even bother to try before awarding Blue the point.
Ja'Nel has made goat with a wild mushroom ragout, earning praise from both judges. So Michael's got to come up big. He's made ribs with couscous. Shook tries it, and says it's something he'd feed his dog in the backyard, it's so tough. Not a surprise, since the subplot of Dan being annoyed at Michael being chosen over him has been a thing. And naturally, Ramsay wants to taste Dan's goat dish, and he brings it over, and of course Shook says he would have picked this dish over the ribs. It's starting to look like Blue team might have to consider that Dan can be a massive tool and know how to cook.
Red's reward is a day at the Aquarium of the Pacific, where they'll feed penguins and swim with the fishes. Anthony in particular seems bummed at missing out. Ramsay tells Blue that for tomorrow night's service -- Family Night -- and they've got to put together a petting zoo. He takes great glee in telling Blue that they have to take much care in making sure the animals are as comfortable as possible.
Zach's not done with the nursery rhymes, complaining about being from Philly but now he's the farmer in the dell. "Hi-ho the derry-o, the farmer in the fuckin' dell," he says. Meanwhile, Nedra is terrified of a penguin. Yeah, they're killers, all right.
Blue make ratatouille for pigs, and Red get on the snorkels and swim with the fishes. Even the alpaca won't show Dan any respect, and eventually he stomps off, outraged beyond belief that he has to share in the punishment for a competition that he wasn't a part of, and one that they would have won had he been a part of it. "Fuck you and your fucking mother!" Dan yells at us during an interview. What did we do? His strategy now is to let the Blue team fail and just taking care of himself. I have to admit that I'm fascinated by how Dan will behave now, given that apparently up until this point he thinks he's been operating from a team-first perspective.