Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Just Like You Said It Would Be
By Monty Ashley | Season 7 | Episode 1 | Aired on 06.01.2010
Ha ha! It's a gimmick, of course. Gordon is on a television screen showing them how to make the dishes. This one is the lobster risotto, and it's got rice, shallot, mascarpone, garlic, lobster stock, and white wine. That looks awesome. Less awesome is the way the contestants keep getting dragged out of bed at 2:00 AM to watch another video.
The women's sous chef this time is named Andi. Because lord knows we have to divide the contestants by sex and the women have to have a sous chef who's one of them. She's introduced waking up the women at 6:17 AM so they can make breakfast to serve to the men in bed. It looks pretty good, frankly.
Prep! Maria is not great with the pasta. Over on the blue side (the blue side is the men, by the way), Scott is talking a lot and telling people what to do. End of prep! JP opens up the dining room and it's on. We're told that Chef Ramsay has "brought back to the menu some of Hell's Kitchen's favorite dishes." That's fascinating! Also inevitable, since the menu does not change all that much from year to year to begin with! I mean, the news that there's a Lamb Wellington and a risotto doesn't exactly stun me, you know?
Oh, there's tableside Caesar salad action. That's Nilka and Ed. We'll see if that matters. Stacey messes up some scallops as she interviews about how great she is. Jamie talks a good game about everyone getting into the groove. Stacey's scallops are rejected for being uncooked and covered with too much curry powder. On the blue side, Salvatore burns a couple of dishes and gets sent down to salads.
Fran brings potatoes up to Chef Ramsay, and they get rejected for a variety of reasons. When he asks how long the replacements will be, she doesn't answer. That's the worst. All he wants is people to talk to him. Chef Ramsay takes exception to the way Fran removes the potatoes from the oil and she explains that she was afraid. Afraid of the oil? No, afraid of him. Autumn takes a position of leadership and tells the team to take a breath.
Benjamin tastes his dish and puts the spoon back in the pan. That's not going to fly, as Chef Ramsay explains at length. Fran is working on some lobster risotto, which does not look right to me. And I don't want to brag, but after three seasons of this show, I'm somewhat of an expert on what risotto is supposed to look like. I still don't know what it tastes like, though. And Fran puts a few handfuls of lobster meat in, which I 'm positive is wrong. Chef Ramsay stops her because she's putting crab meat in the lobster risotto. I object to the meat being in there at all, since it wasn't on that ingredient list in the video.