Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Flashbacky!
By Monty Ashley | Season 4 | Episode 14 | Aired on 07.01.2008
The chefs meet individually with the designer, whose name is John. He asks Petrozza what the menu is, on the theory that the decor should reflect the food in some way. Petrozza is caught in the headlights, and starts to fumfer about how "It is relatively rich. It is sweetbreads, forest mushrooms." In her meeting, Christina has ideas: simple, but elegant. Warm colors. Rich chocolate. She hates the current kitchen's carpet and booths, which she describes as "ugly". Why would they manufacture deliberate ugliness, unless they wanted her to look ugly? I think it's a conspiracy.
We are shown contrasting shots of Christina asking for specific things and disliking flowers, and Petrozza waving his hands, speaking in generalities, and liking flowers. Flowers all over the place. The table covered in flowers. Flowers everywhere!
Next, Jean-Philippe trots out the wait-staff in various outfits. Christina likes none of them, and would prefer a black suit with a black T-shirt underneath. She stresses that she wants "nothing vibrant", which seems to disturb JP. Petrozza loves the idea of the wait-staff in a yellow chef's jacket because it will "bridge the gap" between the kitchen and the front of the house. Christina hates the idea extravagantly. It appears that JP likes Petrozza more than Christina now.
Now it's time to settle on the menus. Petrozza meets with Scott and starts to enthuse about how much he loves sweetbreads and Chilean sea bass. We see his notebook, and he appears to be drawing a picture of the dish he wants. It kind of looks like a frog. Christina, on the other hand, has a carefully written list of dishes. What do you call those? Oh, right: A menu. And her consultation with Gloria appears to consist of Christina telling Gloria what the menu will be. This is a different strategy from Petrozza, who is now describing how great roast duck is. Scott tries to get him back on track by asking him, "You talking about roasting a whole duck?" I hope he puts it in a pumpkin! Petrozza's answer is fairly impressionistic: "Yeah. It's like, ginger, sesame."
"Suddenly", Jean-Philippe tells Christina and Petrozza to meet Chef Ramsay in his office, urgently. He tells them that he has serious concerns, and Petrozza interviews that he must not like the menu. The menu that you just now finished making? The one he hasn't even seen yet? No, he's just screwing with them. He claims to be wondering if he's got the right finalists, and then says that he's sure he does. That was pointless. Anyway, he's going to fly them to New York to see one of his restaurants. This seems like an odd thing to do 32 hours before the Final Dinner Service that will Determine a Champion, but I guess they have to get everyone out of the set -- sorry, "dining room" -- so it can be remodeled.