TV Dinner

Dear Reader,

I forgot to post some thoughts on the finale of Hell’s Kitchen this week. Forgive me! I know you were curious. Last night, I watched Top Chef too so I can offer some thoughts about both. Double Bonus!

Okay, so it went as expected with HK. Who won? Rock did. I felt bad about this of course because Julia turned a bit traitorish on the girl’s side. She was surly and sullen and gave Bonnie quite a bit of attitude. It got to the point where they ignored each other at times. So you knew at that point, she wasn’t going to be great as a head chef. You gots to communicate, girl!

Look at Rock, he had Josh weighing him down big time. Josh keeps maintaining he can cook and he’s a great cook, but I’ve never seen him cook something successfully in the entirety of the show. Maybe he cooks well at home. That’s prolly it. He also cooked a bunch of stuff at the same time AGAIN. When we know that in a fine restaurant, things are cooked “al menu”. I learned this from Hung on Top Chef. That means, made to order. One at a time.

But Rock dealt with it, he switched Josh to a station of just having things be warm(the Warmelier?), which he was able to handle. I think he put Vinny on fish, which seems just as dicey, but he made it work(Hmmm Tim Gunn?).

So what’s the morale of the story? Never give your restaurant to a nanny.

Okay, on to Top Chef. This week, they had Daniel Boulud. He has the uber fancy (and expensive) french restaurant Daniel in NYC, which vies with Jean-Georges as one the best restaurants in the city(as well as chefs!). Everyone’s expecting haute cuise but…

The quickfire was making burgers. I thought that Howie was a bit of an ass kisser in this b/c he went all truffles which I guess is a signature dish of Daniel’s(a $120 truffle burger). So instead, CJ won. I like CJ a lot. He’s a likeable guy and according to Top Chef is the chef the viewing audience would most like to share a midnight snack with. I could see that. I think I’d prolly rather spend it with Casey. But if CJ was there too, to chat it up, I wouldn’t mind.

So no longer does the quickfire winner get immunity. Instead, he gets to pick his team. So he picks the team with the least drama queens. It’s him, Brian, Casey, and Tre. Then you’ve got the team of the fireballs in the other side, with Howie, Hung, Sara, and Dale.

It wasn’t as clearcut though as you’d imagine. So they have to divide up because it’s the Restaurant Challenge. And (Restaurant April)CJ put Tre in as Executive Chef, Ceej takes sous chef, and Brian is front of house. I forget what the fourth position was. Hmmm… Anyway, on the other side(The Garage), Sara nominates herself as Executive Chef, Howie is sous, Dale is front of house. And again, oops can’t remember what Hung is.

So Dale rocks the front of house except he can’t smell and puts some stinky vanilla candles out. But Brian is a mess as front of house on the other side. Both meals come out inconsistent. The Garage is too winter-y and robust. And April overcooks their’s.

In the end, they decided to do a redo no-fairsees next week. Which makes sense to me. This time you’ll really get to see who can get blamed for what. I would have booted Brian. However, he’s never done that before so you have to cut him some slack. But next week, he better be on his game!