Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Chicken Meatball
By Monty Ashley | Season 7 | Episode 7 | Aired on 06.29.2010
Back to the restaurant! The cake is going all right, and 100 tiny boxes of party favors need to be made. The red team strolls past, yapping up a storm, and goes to sleep upstairs.
The next day, we learn that the night's menu will consist of "classic dishes from the couple's wedding reception," plus Benjamin's Trout Almondine. So that tells us that the challenge's version of Steak Diane and Chicken Kiev were not acceptable for service.
During the prep, Benjamin gathers the red team around the menu so they can discuss who's going to be doing what and make sure they have a game plan. Fran interviews that it's such a comfort having Benjamin there, because he's helping so much and he's so good at leading and if you ask me, the rest of the red team might as well just give up now. They appear to have forgotten that this is an individual competition and that admitting that they needed Benjamin is the same thing as saying "Benjamin, and not any of us, should win."
On the blue side, Jay is convinced of his own awesomeness and bragging about how great he is. And then he cuts himself pretty badly, and there's blood everywhere. He goes back to the medic, and he's feeling light-headed. That's no good. Benjamin stops by in the back pantry to check on him, but Jay insists that he's fine.
Chef Ramsay lines everybody up to insists that Sal and Marcy must have a perfect anniversary. And the Steak Diane is going to be served tableside by Nilka and Ed, which I believe means that each team has only four people in the kitchen. JP demonstrates the technique of the fancy flambé, and Ramsay stops by to make fun of his jacket.
People arrive, as do Sal and Marcy. The red team gets the host table and immediately falls behind when Siobhan's salad takes a little too long to get put in a bowl. And with that out of the way, appetizers start moving. There are a lot of crab cakes, which Autumn apparently did well. And there's some irrelevant cake drama, since it's on a table in the center of the dining room and is tilting dangerously whenever anyone walks past. Ed and Jay fix it.
Finally, someone screws up. Benjamin has some crab cakes that are cold in the middle. Chef Ramsay shouts at him about putting more oil in the pan, and his replacement crab cakes are burnt. Shout, shout, shout. The rest of the red team is a little smug in interviews as they talk about how easy crab cakes are and how they would certainly never make the mistake of cooking something poorly like that.