Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT More of the Same
By Monty Ashley | Season 4 | Episode 9 | Aired on 05.27.2008
Chicken. The red team's is moist and everything is there except the baby leeks. The blue team's is also moist and missing the sauce. There is a dramatic music sting to fit some commercials in. The red team wins and appears happy. The blue team loses because Chef Ramsay refuses to eat two dishes without sauce, and Petrozza is of the opinion that Jen lost them the challenge. He feels that it's not that hard to pour on some sauce. Jen, unsurprisingly, is of a different opinion: "I feel that I did a great job back there. But it just came down to me missin' out on that sauce. I forgot. Simple as that. I'm not gonna say I'm sorry. I mean, hey. I'm gonna move on." That's a pretty harsh sentiment, although I feel honor-bound to point out that it sounds pretty heavily edited together.
The red team's reward, we're told, is phenomenal. They'll be going to the beach in convertibles. Meanwhile, the blue team will be the maintenance team and doing things like cleaning the carpet. Christina interviews that she hasn't seen the sun in a week, which I don't think matches up to the historical record. At the beach, they are given some surf lessons by a legendary surfer I've never heard of. Back at the kitchen, Louross clowns around in the white maintenance jumpsuity thing, but it does not lighten the mood for long. Bobby and Jen snipe at each other about who's in charge.
The surfing seems to go okay. If I might be pardoned a brief personal aside, I grew up in San Diego, and I never once went surfing. Did you know that surfers are always waking up at dawn to go rush down to the beach? That is not my scene. My hobbies do not involve the word "dawn." End of personal aside. Moving on!
After the usual balloon juice about how it's a "once in a lifetime experience" (which I don't think it is; the waves are there pretty much around the clock), we see some hijinx with Jean-Philippe. I assume he's decided it's more fun to hang out with the winning team than to wave crabs at the losing team, because he's handing out brightly-colored beach towels. Then Gordon picks him up and dumps him in the ocean, which kind of says a lot about Gordon Ramsay.
Before the dinner service, Chef Ramsay brings the chefs together in the dining room. Then he tears up the menu and says that they'll be making up their own menu. Louross is into it! So am I, because I am so sick of typing the word "risotto". I keep wanting to put an extra "s" in there. Anyway, each team needs to do three appetizers, three entrees, and three desserts.