Separating the Chefs from the Donkeys

Separating the Chefs from the Donkeys by Roxanne McDonald

Installment seven identifies the donkeys and the darlings, and redeems Chef Ramsay with some good old-fashioned male bonding.

For a minute, anyway.

I know I suggested that the female favoritism was inevitable when it came to the photo shoot as a reward for winning a challenge, but I now reserve the right to either change my mind or shift focus to how Chef Ramsay gave the boys a

fighting chance:

Team Challenge

Ramsay tells the teams they have 30 minutes to turn leftovers into something fabulous.

The girls take too much time deciding what to make. The boys are on a rail.

APPETIZER

For the Red Team, Bonnie offers tomato soup…, I mean “Rustic Chicken Stew”.
For the Blue Team, Brad offers Curried Bass and Crustacean Tomato Pasta. [Okay, true, there is no subscript identifying what each chef announces, but I swear I am not making this up.]

Chef R gives each team a point.

ENTRÉE #1

For the Red Team, Jen offers steak and eggs, minus the fancy title.
For the Blue Team, Josh offers pea tendril-stuffed chicken legs.

Chef R. is appalled Jen took thirty minutes for steak and eggs (when she took way more with her team trying to decide, when she was part of the problem vetoing every idea, and when she would prefer to blame it on Bonnie).

Chef R. also expresses displeasure with Josh’s dish, tasting it and issuing an “ooph”: the food is too acidic. [Gotta remember grandma’s vinegar and sugar secrets for cutting that bitter, Josh.]

No points for you, Rams tells both B and J.

ENTRÉE #2

For the Red Team, Julia offers deep-fried sea bass and “chips”. [Oh, Julia, not another fried fare: you know Rams is watching like a cougar on his ledge.]

For the Blue Team, Rock offers pan-seared bass and ribeye, a.k.a. Surf ‘n Turf.

Ramsay says Julia’s is nice, but just plain ol’ fish n chips. He tells Rock his is nice, very nice, delicious, and gives the Blue Team the winning point.

As punishment for the girls: dull cleaning as dull as their dishes.

As a reward for the boys: the opportunity to get revenge…, or at least try, at a paintball session with the three guys against the one Gordon the Great.

Guess who wins the paint to the death game? Yep. Chef Rams.

All good, though, as I so astutely interpreted it, the game was more a chance to blow off that steam, get some self-esteem, and even get a paternal pat on the back, handshake, and smile…. A chance for Ramsay to redeem his choosing the girls for the glamour moments by bonding with the boys over some good old simulated murder.

Rock is glad it is figurative revenge.

Back in the belly of the beast that is Hell’s Kitchen, the girls are cleaning—yucky—and screwing up incoming deliveries. Now, all you have to do is check the stack of boxes against the bill of laden, but evidently that is too much for our

resident brain, Bonnie, who screws up everything from analogies to artichokes, typically, and follows in character by failing to check the new order—which has the wrong fish, not fillets but flounder or some whole fish with eyeballs and all [turbot skeletons only used for or good for fish stock], the wrong butter for the dining room, etc. [leading me to surmise, if I may, that the delivery was for another restaurant and H’sK delivery went there].
The boys return, victorious despite being defeated in fantasy play, and walk so right past the girls. JP suggests it would be nice, wouldn’t it, if they helped. They agree that it WOULD be, but if you remember, they vowed they would be just as pissy when it was their turn to be so, so no, they don’t get all nice.

The evening service is announced by Chef R. as a [yet another] “first” for Hell’s Kitchen: the teams will each decide on, prep, and serve their own creations, and each team will have one side of the menu. The diners then choose from one side or the other.

And the proceeds entail[you know the template]…
Julia not knowing what Ahi tuna is,
Julia being denigrated for not knowing what Ahi tuna is,
Brad getting cocky,
Brad denigrating Josh,
Rock and Josh in an altercation over macaroni and cheese “cassoulet”,
Julia and Bonnie dickering over entrée,
Jen and Bonnie dickering over the dickering,
Chef Ramsay overriding the decision, anyway, giving Julia some voice/influence in the dinner,
The Blue Team getting all kick-their-asses cocky,
Bonnie getting snubbed by Jen when she asks her for help,
Jen getting reprimanded by Marianne when she snubs Bonnie,
Service with Chef Ramsey ramming his donkey comments at them all,
Brad’s turn to wreck, of all things, the lamb,
The girls being uncooperative,
The boys being unhelpful,
Ramsay slamming into a trash bin for emphasis.
More yelling,

And final results:

Chef Ramsay assessing the Red Team as unenduring, the Blue Team as incompetent.
Julia being named most remarkable and the one who will be doing the nominating [she chooses Bonnie], while the boys, who were all equally donkeyific, have to decide together [they name Brad].

Brad is told to give over the chef’s jacket, as Ramsay was watching for a leader to emerge and Brad was “just a cook”.

And as Chef Ramsay retrieves the jacket, you can see a hole in the back where the donkey tail hung.

SirLinksAlot Hell’s Kitchen links

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