Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B- | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Kitchenpocalypse!
By Monty Ashley | Season 6 | Episode 5 | Aired on 08.11.2009
Time for dinner service! The special event for Staff Sgt. Otis James will involve the blue team's winning items, and it looks like Jim is purposely concealing part of the recipe. This impression is reinforced when he interviews that "the Blue team will do whatever it takes to win." All the women know what the score is, and they're worried about it. Although they're still mysteriously confident, considering that they don't think they know the recipes.
Oh, by the way, it's a surprise party, so Staff Sgt. Otis James will be shocked and delighted. Well, he looks pretty pleased, but I don't know if I'd describe him as blown away. Gordon babbles away about how honored he is, and then introduces Staff Sgt. Otis James's mother. Everyone is impressed. Enough stalling. On with the cooking! The men get the table for the guest of honor, and I don't think I've noticed cheeseburgers being on the menu on previous episodes. I'm going to assume they added those because there are a lot of kids in the house. Anyway, the blue team is going well, which prompts Andy to talk about how zen he feels/
On the red side, there's some drama about Sabrina's mushrooms. Her excuse: "Oopsy-doopsy!" Wow. Suddenly, I hate her! Chef Ramsay is furious because he sent out the non-mushroom appetizers for that table already. When the acceptable mushrooms make it out, the customer is a little sarcastic.
We jump forward! The blue team has done all of their appetizers already, so now Jim and his steaks are the center of attention. Sous chef Scott warns Jim to keep track of how many steaks he's got, because they're more popular that they'd thought. Jim's got nine steaks all on the grill at once. Kevin offers to back him up, "because I'm the [bleep] man!" Also because Kevin is on desserts, which means he doesn't have much to do right now. When Chef Ramsay asks how long five New York strips will be, Jim doesn't answer him and Kevin is right there to answer. Chef Ramsay is briefly distracted by something Van's doing, and Jim has the sense to ask Kevin to quickly tell him what order is next. Unfortunately for Jim, Gordon just skips him and tells Kevin to tell Jim what's going on.
The red team is done with their appetizers, and Tek is on the grill. The order comes in and it looks fairly typical for the night: five New York strips, one chicken. All anyone wants tonight is the steaks and the cheeseburgers. Tennille leans over Tek's shoulder to tell her to arrange the steaks better to make some room, and once Chef Ramsay rejects some steaks for being raw, Tennille is all up in Tek's grill (ha!) for messing with her station. Ariel is of the opinion that the grill is just for marking the steaks, and they should actually be cooked in the 500-degree oven. Chef Ramsay shouts a bit about how he can't serve steaks that are blackened to the same table as the properly cooked steaks. I like the theory that it's okay to have steaks that look a little wrong, as long as that's the only kind that a table sees. Anyway, all the women are starting to mutter dark imprecations as they cast sidelong glances at Tek.