(S04E05) "I'm not weak!" - Vanessa
I'm always intrigued when contestants get injured on reality competition shows. I can understand why some players opt to leave (I'm thinking of that guy who got burned on Survivor a couple of seasons ago and had to leave), but some players seem to take it as an excuse to leave because they want to leave anyway. A piece of advice: if you get injured on a reality show and it's not so bad that you can't stay, you should stay. Just think of the less work you'll have to do. And if you screw up in a challenge or something, they'll go easy on you because, hey, you're injured!
I thought of that after tonight's twist ending to Hell's Kitchen.
But before we get to that, we have this week's challenge, and this is the type of challenge I can get into: making pizza! Ramsay wants to put a gourmet pizza on the menu (but not one topped with truffles, because they cost approximately $9000 each). He gives the teams 45 minutes to come up with a gourmet pizza. The winning pizza goes on the menu that night.
Each team makes a few pizzas. Actually, the ladies make around five and the men, still confused, angry, and not very communicative, only manage two. Louross is ticked that Ben insults his pizza, saying it tastes like something from Pizza Shack, and the guys decide that Ben's pizza (duck, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and a cream sauce) is the one that should go up against the ladies. The ladies pick Jen's pizza (herb crust, prosciutto, sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh basil - "a little bit of Italy, a little bit of France").
Chef Ramsay actually has a hard time deciding which is best, because both taste good. He decides that the ladies win (yet again) because Ben's mushrooms were all dirty and gritty. Actually, I think Domino's is now running a Dirty and Gritty special.
While the women go out to a nice restaurant in Santa Barbara (Roseann thinks the helicopter ride is the best thing that has ever happened to her), the men have to make the pizza dough for that evening. Matt is irritated that no one is communicating with each other, and everyone is irritated at Matt because he wants to communicate. Petrozza's exact words: "Matt's a ding-a-ling."
In Ramsay's office, Vanessa tells him that because of her hand injury, she's thinking about leaving the show. Ramsay tells her that this is a great opportunity and that she shouldn't quit. When they go to a commercial I thought to myself, oh, this is just a stalling tactic by the editors. They'll come back after the break and she'll decide to stay...but she quits the show! I don't get this at all. She's in pain, but it's not an emergency at this point. If anything, since she's injured, she'd probably get a lot of sympathy during service and not be put up for elimination. But she decides to leave the show, and walks out the door after saying goodbye to the team. Turns out her earlier quote wasn't that accurate.
For the night's service, Ramsay announces that for the first time in Hell's Kitchen, they're going to have pizza delivery! I really doubt that the winner of this season's show is going to have to deal with delivering pizzas in a funky little van at London L.A., but it gives us a chance to see Ben get lost in the streets of Los Angeles (he doesn't know the city at all). But this segment is disappointing. We only see him on one delivery and then he's back in the kitchen and it's never mentioned again. What's up with that?
Tonight's service is rather interesting. Sure, there are screw ups (meat being undercooked, desserts late, Rosann and Louross not doing too well), they actually complete the service for the first time this season! Ramsay is so impressed that he says that there isn't a losing team tonight! I'm not sure if this is a good thing though. I mean, if there was a losing team then one team would be completely safe for the night. But this way, each team has to pick one player for elimination. Seems to me that Ramsay rewarded the good service by making each player pick someone for elimination (more on that later).
Back in the apartment, Roseann is sure she's going. But the more the women talk, the more they want to get rid of Christina, even though Roseann was the worst of the night. As for the men, it's pretty clear that Louross is the person who will be put up for elimination. Some lean towards Matt, but it's going to be Louross. So the two up for elimination are Louross and Christina. Christina is shocked.
But here's the twist: Ramsay takes things into his own hands. Sure, he agrees Louross bungled big time tonight, but he's completely shocked that Christina was picked instead of Roseann. He knows they did it for strategic reasons and not because she was the worst. So who does he decides has to leave? It's Vanessa, the person who already left the building. That's Ramsay's reward for the good service tonight.
So for the second time this season, Ramsay takes the decision out of the hands of the teams, which means that Christina now knows that the team is ganging up on her. Meanwhile, Matt knows that even though he wasn't chosen, he isn't well-liked either.
Louross Quote of the Night: "That's the most ghetto-ist thing ever!" - about Petrozza's ingenious meat slicing trick to make well done meat look medium-rare.
Runner Up Quote of the Night: "No need to walk around like a whiny ass punk bitch - with a mohawk!" - Ben, about Louross' sniffling and moping.
Next week: the most shocking Hell's Kitchen ever! (Aren't they all advertised that way?)
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-30-2008 @ 3:36AM
Malren said...
If her hand is burned enough to need a plastic surgeon, she can't work a line. Especially one that is going to get faster and more difficult. And it WILL be hurting - and badly - very soon.
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4-30-2008 @ 6:28AM
eugene said...
I get that the crack about sticking with the show while injured is supposed to be a joke but third degree burns are not fun... and trying to do delicate tasks while your skin is regrowing is also not fun... preparing food while dealing with an open and possibly oozing wound is also not fun.
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4-30-2008 @ 7:14AM
Geoff said...
I don't think it is actually Day 5 by the way. The pizza challenge + reward took one whole day, they showed the ladies coming back to the dorm after 1:00am. Then service the next day. Since it is episode 5, I'm guessing it is probably Day 10.
Good recap though. I also think Vanessa wussed out.
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4-30-2008 @ 8:23AM
Riley Freeman said...
the ending was predictable. why eliminate 2 ? and u eliminate one more person then one less week of ratings. fox is not about to do that
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4-30-2008 @ 9:25AM
h8rain said...
Any guessing on the surprise for next week?
My vote is Julia (the Waffle House cook from last season) is coming back to join the competition. He said he was going to pay for her to go to school, so why not reap some benefits from it.
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4-30-2008 @ 10:01AM
rick cokely said...
That was my thought too! But the line about "You don't know what you just inherited" makes me think it might be someone that they don't want. Who knows. I would like to see Julia again, she was actually pretty good, and Chef Ramsey wasn't too pleased with having to kick her off. Of all the contestants honestly I think she had the most raw talent. A year of refinement and some schooling might give her the chance to win... and I think it would be great TV.
Oh, and it'll give Jen a run for her money.
4-30-2008 @ 9:26AM
Sarah said...
your reviews are getting good! i agree with you on Vanessa; i don't think her burn was that serious, and she could have used it as an excuse to stick to the garnish station or something. believe me, if she had a third degree burn, they would have ASKED her to leave.
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4-30-2008 @ 10:24AM
CCK said...
The one thing that bothered me about this show was the fake footage inserted into the show like it was happening then. There were two spots where they clearly refilmed something with a chroma key and put it in there. Gordon doing the countdown for the contest was very obvious, and then the meeting in his 'office' wasn't quite as obvious, but you could tell if you look closely. I know that a lot of 'reality' shows are fudged a bit, but it usually isn't as obvious as this.
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4-30-2008 @ 11:00AM
Danielle said...
It def looks like a female will be joining the team next week. Good idea on Julia...would make sense, but the shadows of her at the door looked like she had long hair...but I could be mistaken.
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4-30-2008 @ 1:09PM
Kitty said...
I would love it to be Julia! Maybe he said they didn't know what they were in for because he thinks the guys will fight harder now? Pfft, they weren't fighting all that hard prior to this new arrival. I thought Julia was great, but it would be an unfair advantage, no? She's already been through Hell's Kitchen and she didn't get the restaurant, sure I'd love the see her again, but joining this late in the season I wouldn't think would be fair to the other contestants.
I totally think that Rosann should have gone home. Christina is a good cook! And Matt should have been put up over Louross. I like Louross, he adds personality to an otherwise drab men's team.
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4-30-2008 @ 1:35PM
Keith said...
I agree your reviews are interesting. But you've missed the point about the injury. Vanessa sustained an oil burn, not a simple injury of touching a hot pan. She also said, and no one challenged her, that the burn required a plastic surgeon's evaluation. A patient isn't referred to a specialist for 1st and 2nd degree burns.
Also, pain management of burns almost always requires Schedule 2 pain med's. So here we have a contestant trying to do delicate work with a severely burned hand while on strong med's (likely but not verified). So you imply she was looking for a way off the show? Come on...think about it...objectively.
I still think Roseann should have been eliminated.
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4-30-2008 @ 2:38PM
Mohaski said...
Once again, I'm forced to ask - where do they find these people? They all claim to have prior culinary experience, and week after week almost all of them make the most fundamental of errors. I'm sorry, but working the fryers at Burger King doesn't count.
And I gotta agree with Petrozza - Matt's a dingaling, and one of the worst cooks of the bunch.
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4-30-2008 @ 5:31PM
jayr2345 said...
Who else saw that ending coming. i knew that ramsey would not eliminate anyone after vanessa quit, they almost never do on these shows. It would be cool if the person was Julia, I really liked her. Maybe that whole you dont know what you inherited means that with this new person they may switch up the teams.
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5-03-2008 @ 1:48PM
lee2jackie said...
Did anyone notice the credits at the end? They said in Memory of someone. Did not catch the name, only that they were born in 69. Who was is? production person? or maybe a former wannabe?
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5-06-2008 @ 4:35PM
Keith said...
Fundamental errors?!! Hey...lack of effective communication is King of the Show here. Then there are these ego-centric troops that are supposed to be "team-oriented" which flies in the face of the competitive nature of the show. Afterall, it's not a team that will win at the end...it's a single person. And...if you research the contestants...you'll find that Vanessa has been cooking for the last 16 years in a 4-star restaurant in Bozeman, MT. She's held several leadership positions in her career but she realizes there are limits to what you can get a group of people to do. Rosann is a walking nightmare...firing the kitchen and leaving a trap for a team mate goes beyond the norm. Watch the segment AGAIN and you'll notice that Vanessa tried to keep another one of Rosann's mistakes from firing the kitchen. Her only mistake was that she misjudged the amount of hot oil Rosann left in the pan. Too bad...because I believe she would have been in the final three. She has the inherent skills and drive...she cares about what she produces. As loud as Jan can be....she also produces good work along with Christina....which I believe should be the final three.
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