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Season 3, Episode 3Friday, August 15 2008 |
Everyone wonders if Aaron will make it through a challenge, let alone the season. Can such a sickly chef really head up a 5 star restaurant? Will any of these chefs actually pull it together?
to the Men In Service
Gordon Ramsay has his hands full with this cast. No one can step up to the plate. You wonder how any of these chefs even made it into the cast. Everyone is fighitng for control, and none of them seem to be able to consistently follow through. Last week, Gordon kicked Eddie out, after he made repeated mistakes in the kitchen, leading to another failed service. The teams have yet to complete a service.
After Eddie takes off, the troupes head back to the dorms. Rock had nominated not only Eddie, but also Josh. This nomination really shocked Josh. Now, he feels like Rock is out to get him. Rock was trying to send a message. Rock thinks that when Josh tried to lead, he ends up looking like an idiot.
When the ladies go back, Julia admits that she knows that she has a lot to learn, and as all the other girls head back to bed, she hits the books to study.
But their rest is short, and they are awoken by Revelry Roll Call. Gordon tells them that they are not ready for dinner yet, because they have yet to complete a full dinner. So, he decides to open for breakfast. This should be good for Julia, who as a short order cook at a diner, knows breakfast. But she started to lose it when the real troupes marched in. Men and women of the Army and Navy are seated for breakfast, and the race is on. The challenge is complete when one of the teams finishes their full breakfast service.
The ladies put Julia in charge, for obvious reasons. The girls get to work, and have their kitchen hopping like a good diner, and they begin to work well together. And in under 20 minutes, they serve 20 dishes to the Army. But the Blue Team, cooking for the Navy, is set behind by Aaron who burns an omelet. he is forced to switch to someone else. Josh and Brad have to step in to pick up his pieces.
But, the girls are not completely in the clear, as Joanna's hash browns are undercooked. They are sent back in, and this apparently flusters Joanna and she completely loses her cool, and suddenly seems to have lost her way around the kitchen. Even her replacement hash browns are undercooked. When Chef Ramsay calls her team to feel the raw potatoes, she cops a bit of an attitude. This, of course, sets Gordon off, and he threatens to kick her, and her attitude which is as "raw" and "salty" as her potatoes, right out of Hell's Kitchen. Her team looks at her with wonder - will she pull herself together?
Thirty minutes in, even with the hash brown setback, they are still doing better than the guys. And they finish in good time. With many compliments to Julia as an extraordinary leader, he sends her to the blue side to get them back together. She received many thanks from Gordon, and won her team not only the challenge, but further respect from Chef. Gordon can't see a leader on the blue side, however. As punishment they have to peel potatoes and onions for the military base. While they peel 1000 pounds of produce, the girls go off to change for their special day with the military. "The helicopter is waiting."
They blue team has a lot to do, and is relying on all of them to step it up so they can complete this tiresome, long, tedious, and monstrous task. But Aaron is already looking weak and unstable. And before a single potato is peeled, he hits the floor. He fainted again. They call in an ambulance to take him away to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the ladies are up on a military helicopter with Gordon. They are taken to the USS Midway, the longest aircraft carrier in US history. While the ladies tour the huge ship, toasting their success with Gordon. The reward is the special time with Gordon. During these interactions, the girls get the special opportunity to really learn from Gordon under calm, non competitive circumstances.
When the girls get home, the ladies hit the hot tub, and the guys debate who the leader should be. They vote essentially between Brad and Rock. Josh chooses Brad, making him the democratically chosen leader.
The next day, Brad takes charge. His team is a man down. Gordon has to call Aaron and give him the bad news that he can't let him back into Hell's Kitchen. He apparently has a serious medical condition, and cannot continue under doctor's orders.
When they open Hell's Kitchen, Brad is ready to lead, although Rock feels like he wasn't a good choice. On the red side, Joanna is on the Appetizer side, and hopes that she can use t his time to prove herself. But her first App out, is salty and "crap" according to chef. Rock gets his compliments for his risotto, however, for the blue side.
Jean Philippe comes to Gordon to tell him that he ran out of water. As part of the blue's punishment from earlier, they also have to take turns fetching water from the delivery truck when the dining room needs it.
Josh is first up to get the water, and trips and falls, dropping the water right on the front steps of Hell's Kitchen. And when he returns, his team has started to get it back together. They are communicating and working together. Josh is even complacent with Rock.
On the red side, Joanna is still having issues with the first appetizer. She's not alone; Bonnie's scallops were raw. But even worse than raw scallops is rancid crab meat. Gordon finds that Joanna has just prepared a crab appetizer with spoiled crab meat. "You'll kill someone!" he yells at her, kicking off the appetizer station. Julia swings in. She may not be as experienced in a fine kitchen, but she probably knows the difference between raw and cooked, and fresh and spoiled.
Even though the blue team was doing OK, they also served up some raw scallops. Gordon might want to consider it as a new item on the menu. Things are still slow on the red side, as Julia and Jen try to keep up with the appetizers. In the heat of the moment, Jen tossed some extra spaghetti, not realizing that they needed some up next. When she realizes her mistake, she pulls the spaghetti out of the trash, as it was right on top, washes it off, and prepares to boil is quickly to kill any germs. But this is unacceptable to Julia, and she stops her and puts her reputation on the line to cook a fresh batch.
But on both sides, the appetizer slow down was too much for their entrees to handle. By the time they get to entrees, the blue wellingtons are burned, and the Red's, under Jen's cooking, were overcooked. As they realize that their most popular dish is lost on both sides, http://www.realitybug.com/hellskitchen/cast/127-Jean-Phillipecomes up to inform Gordon that customers are leaving from both sides.
Gordon once again closes Hell's Kitchen. Exhausted by their horrible abilities, Gordon is having a hard time choosing a loser. Brad, as a leader, couldn't lead and let Vinnie burn the wellingtons. But on the red side, Joanna pushed him too far with her attitude and inabilities at the appetizer station. He also calls out Bonnie, saying that he can't trust her anymore, after two consecutive services where she presented him with raw scallops. He chooses the Red Team as the losing team, and they return to the dorms to decide among themselves who the nominees for elimination should be.
Joanna immediately speaks up and says that she understands that she should be up for elimination that night. She also felt that Jen should be the other nominee. Julia agreed that Jen might need to be up, after the "spaghetti incident". Jen then revealed that she had taken some spaghetti out of the trash and almost reused it. The rest of the team is shocked and agrees that that might make her worthy of the nomination. However, Bonnie and Melissa voice their concerns that Julia doesn't know the product of fine dining well enough to run a restaurant. "If I gave you a Michelin Star restaurant, what would you purchase?" Melissa asks Julia. Joanna defends Julia, saying that she could run a Michelin star restaurant.
and Gets the Boot
When they file in, Gordon asks Joanna who the nominees are. Showing more maturity than she has the entire series, she admits that she is the first nominee. She then says that "they" nominated Julia, leaving herself clearly out of the decision that she does not agree with. But when Gordon confirms this, Jen speaks up, saying that she is the nominee. Her guilt over the trashed spaghetti has caught up with her.
When Gordon questions this, Jen admits to him what she has done. Julia defends herself, claiming that she is not out of her league. Gordon agrees with her, and sends her back to the line. Gordon ponders letting them both go. Even though Jen took pasta out of the trash, she had a mind to kill the bacteria, at least. But she did nearly serve crab that was so bad that it could have killed someone had it gone out.
Jen feels like she has learned from this, and Julia contends that she has what it takes. Gordon feels confident in his decision, since Joanna was incapable of running a single station.
But the remaining ladies have far to go to prove that any of them are capable of running a restaurant. Then again, the guys shouldn't celebrate yet. They won by a fraction of success, as they made many of the same mistakes as the lades, including raw scallops and burnt wellington. They were essentially one trashy, spoiled spaghetti dish away from losing.
