Is That You Screaming or Just Releasing Air?

Is That You Screaming or Just Releasing Air? by Roxanne McDonald

Cooking the live lobsters was one thing, but the outcome of the cookoff challenge a whole nother thing.

I was going to go into the ongoing debate about what is involved in cooking live lobsters—how one side says that we are dropping living creatures into boiling water, and it takes

minutes for them to die, suffering in the meantime; the other side saying the scream is just air releasing, that lobsters die instantly in such hot water, etc..

But Bonnie’s reticence to “take responsibility for killing” is eclipsed by Rock’s [I think justified] angry response to the outcome of the morning’s cooking challenge:

That is, I’m thinking Rock’s response was 1) justified, but 2) actually less intense than it should have been and displaced in terms of logistics….

Okay: The challenge is a creative one, says Chef R., for to be a success as a chef, you have to be a success with your ingredients, he explains. Unveiling the lobster tank, he describes the challenge: Josh will sit out, each of the two teams will have three chefs, one from each team doing 1) salad; 2) app; or 3) entrée…using the lobster.

1st, Salad

Bonnie has made a grilled lobster salad with baked apples that Chef R. says is nice. Melissa has made citrus herb salad with poached lobster to which Ramsay responds he likes the freshness of the citrus fruit but is slightly disappointed with the lobster, which is not cooked properly.

So Bonnie takes the first round.

2nd, Appetizer

Julia has done a lobster risotto, which Ramsay calls nice but boring. Rock has done a buttermilk-fried lobster tail which Ramsay says is cooked perfectly.

So Rock takes the second round.

3rd, Entrée

Jen has done a lobster bisque that Chef R. says is not too chewy but nice and soft. Brad has done a lobster bisque with chantilly [? See, mistake, and Brad is white.]

The two make for a tough final decision, Ramsay says, and he is sorry there has to be a loser.

Okay, now, here is how this is not about race…, but is about gender. I think that keeping in mind the reward is an In Touch Weekly photo shoot with the winning chefs and

Gordon, he could very well have chosen the ones he would look sexier with ? He chooses the red team to win, giving the blue team, as punishment, the most unglamorous job of going through all the restaurant’s trash to retrieve the recyclables.

Rock is PISSED. But is he pissed for ALL the right reasons? “I grew up in the ghetto, in the hood,” he says, “and I aint never been in no trash.” He is right to get indignant, right to feel put upon as a chef now doing dump duty.

But what he might also consider a reason to get pissed is how the challenge reward was for a photo shoot, and how, if my memory holds, here, Ramsay chooses the girls for the photo shoot—every season.

I don’t have the time nor do I have the inclination to go back and research, but I’m thinking that this is gender bias of the human sort. Ramsay likely subconsciously chose the girls to hang with, ship champagne with, and get glam shots with for the In Touch Weekly cover.

He got to the final dish and was stumped, as he found both equally good, equally appealing and tasty, equally well cooked. Subjectivity inevitably entered the deal.

That’s the theme of many a reality TV talent competition, so who’s to say? Not even we mongrel critics can do any better than see what we do from our own points of view.

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