Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Lettuce-Burning Incident
By Monty Ashley | Season 6 | Episode 10 | Aired on 09.22.2009
Dave and Suzanne rejoin the rest of the chefs at the end of prep and no one will talk to them. Dave claims to get motivation from being in a black jacket, because he no longer needs to be a team player. I'm sure that attitude will work out great in a kitchen! Maybe it's just that Dave's usual attitude looks a lot like being sulky.
Chef Ramsay rounds everyone up in the kitchen and claims that Couples Night will involve "the most amazing tableside menu", which will include a salad for two and a porterhouse for two. Kevin's in the dining room. The first orders come in. Off we go!
Suzanne is on hot appetizers and Kevin is doing the tableside salads, and they have to hit the table at the same time. Unfortunately, Kevin goes out before they discover that Suzanne didn't make enough portions. Kevin stalls as long as he can at the table, waxing rhapsodic (that's a thing you can do to fill time. Look it up!) about how fresh the vegetables are, but eventually he has to give up. Suzanne finally makes the right amount and that first table is done. The next table has fish involved, and Suzanne appears to be doing a good job making sure she knows when Van starts the scallops. But! Van also starts the sea bass, which is that table's entree! They haven't even had their appetizers yet! Oh, calamity! And now Van is hunched over his pan and we see a drop of sweat drop gracefully off his nose, presumably to land in the pan of scallops below. Chef Ramsay notices this as well, and things do not go well for Van. His excuse is that it's hot, and I'm sure it is, but that doesn't really get Chef Ramsay off his back. Van despairs in an interview.
We're on entrees and appetizers. There's a special note: "Please be careful, lamb medium". Tennille is on meat, and she's the center of the communication, getting Van to focus and making sure that Ariel is on time with her. And her lamb is deemed "perfectly cooked". Although Tennille intershouts (shouterviews? Shoutfessionals?) that as soon as something goes wrong, she knows that Chef Ramsay will be right back on top of her.
Van puts up some raw fish, which means that everyone has to stop and feel it. Chef Ramsay is despairing and goes to sit down in a corner where Van can't hurt him anymore. Then he gives Van one of his "pep talks" that just boils down to a bunch of threats. When Chef Ramsay returns to the kitchen, he discovers a pan where Ariel appears to be burning some lettuce. Lettuce? Ariel tells us (not Ramsay, because he's in no mood to listen to people) that she set the pan down and didn't realize the burner was on. Finally, Chef Ramsay and Sous Chef Scott walk out through the dining room, cursing up a storm in an exceedingly staged and preplanned way. The music is excited by how dramatic this move is.
While Chef Ramsay's gone, Tennille does a good job of trying to rally everyone together and keep pushing food out. Ariel, however, wants to take a minute or so to calm down and does not work well with Tennille demanding a specific time. Tennille is charging forward and not pausing. As Tennille explains in an, um, explainterview, "Tension runs real high in a kitchen. You can snap, you can curse. Just have my [bleep] at the window all the time." I believe that is Chef Ramsay's philosophy to a T.
Now the chefs are doing the plating themselves, because Chef Ramsay and Sous Chef Scott have gone off for a pout. And Sous Chef Heather barely even exists. Kevin's doing a good job supervising the plating, but as soon as he goes back out to the dining room to do the salads, Suzanne drops the ball. She just says she doesn't know how to do it and tells Van to do it. She explains to us that she thinks this is a trap and it's "better just not to do anything at all". Oh, nice philosophy. She refuses to put it out because she doesn't know if it's right. Van has no such problem. Out goes the food. Enjoy! Unfortunately, Van immediately screws the kitchen by not answering when everyone wants to know if the next ticket will be ready in two minutes.
Chef Ramsay and Scott come back to the kitchen and tells everyone to stop. Kevin is pulled back in from the dining room. Chef Ramsay tells them how he's never done that before, and I am reminded how much he loves talking about how something is the first time EVAH! in Hell's Kitchen. He tells Suzanne, Van, and Ariel to [bleep] off. Tennille, Dave, and Kevin will be finishing the service on their own. Van is furious, because he is a man, you see, and feels like he has been treated like a little girl and a bitch. Work out your psychosexual issues on your own time, man. I'm just here for the cooking show. After ranting at Suzanne and Ariel for a bit about how much he dislikes being shouted at, he stomps down the hall. He adds that he is losing it, and that he is done.
Last table! Is it good? It is! And as they shove the desserts out, Chef Ramsay pulls Tennille aside to tell her "That's the best I've ever seen anybody cook meat." Daaaaaaamn! She holds herself together and just says "Thank you, chef" to his face, but there's a certain amount of gloating in private. As well there might be!
After the service, Tennille, Dave, and Kevin are lined up in the kitchen. None of them will be going home, and they are told to come up with two names out of the three that were thrown out. Up in the dorms, Tennille and Kevin confront Suzanne with her refusal to plate. And Van had a bad night and Ariel had a problem with lettuce. Dave thinks he should strategically put up Ariel even though he feels that Suzanne and Van are the weakest. Now it becomes a discussion of who Ramsay wants to see. They appear to decide on Suzanne and Ariel.
Down in the dining room, Dave nominates Suzanne for refusing to help push food out and Ariel for The Lettuce-Burning Incident. Chef Ramsay interrogates Tennille about whether those are the weakest two chefs, and she can tell which way the wind is blowing, so she says that Suzanne and Van should be up. So Chef Ramsay has all three of them step forward. Ariel, why should you stay? "I want so badly to stay here." Suzanne? "I have a great palate." Van? "I hate this. I hate it!" Going home? Not Ariel. Van. Go home, Van!