ironchef
Executive Chef
So what were your feelings on Trey leaving? I was disappointed, I thought he was very good, except maybe not in this challenge. His smoked potatoes and bread pudding must have been bad. He had more than his share of tasks for that team. Maybe they should have divided the responsibilities evenly in order to assure a better outcome.
Tre unfortunately took too many tasks upon himself and this contributed to his getting eliminated. It didn't help that their team dynamic was horrible. CJ just cannot cut it in a real kitchen environment. There's a reason why he's a personal chef and not a restaurant chef and this episode showed it. Casey is just horribly slow, even though she is talented and has a good palate. I don't think I could cut onions slower than her if I tried. I think if they had switched around Brian and CJ they would've put out better food and they would've had a better chance of winning as Brian is clearly faster and better in the kitchen than CJ. Tre also admittedly was too relaxed and overconfident. You know, I really think that the whole team thought that the other team would self-destruct due to internal conflict from Howie, and all they had to do was show up and put out a decent product. In the end, it was Tre's responsibility to make sure that the food was top notch and he didn't do that. I only remember the scallop as being good. Everything else (the pudding, filet, lobster, monkfish) all had problems. That's a lot of dishes right there.
Team Quatre really stepped it up, both in the quickfire and the elimination. Holy crap is Hung fast. And so is Sara M. which I didn't see before. She mowed through those onions. Sara M. really impressed me by her work in the kitchen in this past episode as the executive chef. I didn't really care for her up until this point but this past episode made me look at her in a whole new light. She made sure that all of the dishes that went out were good (and they were, there were no complaints by the judges about any dish at all as far as I can remember) and she made sure that food was cooked over if it wasn't done to her liking. I mean she was checking over everything, unlike Tre, and it showed. Like I said, wow. I was very impressed. She was exactly how an executive chef should be. I was also impressed by Dale's ability to run the front, AND put out a dish in the back. Brian only did the front for the other team. I had to laugh when Dale told Stephen from season 1 to cut down on spending too much time talking to the guests at the table. Stephen's reaction to that was priceless.
Howie was able to swallow his pride (somewhat). It was funny when Sara told him twice to cook the lamb more (which was raw, not rare). I thought it was even more funny that Howie needed a thermometer to tell the doneness of the lamb. As a professional chef, that is a sure signal of "hack". For a homecook? That's fine. But for someone with that much restaurant experience, that's kinda sad. I mean, I can tell the doneness of almost any meat just by feel, and so can most professional cooks/chefs with comparable experience.
They definitely (and even Sara acknowledged it) had an advantage with Hung in their kitchen. The guy is unbelievably fast and I'm sure he was helping to prep and cook every single dish that came out of that kitchen because he was able to do so, unlike many of his fellow competitors. I mean, I consider myself pretty fast but holy **** is Hung quick.
Funniest quote of the night:
Dale (to Hung): "Sara and Joey are on table 7."
Hung: "Who's Sara and Joey?"
Dale: "You know, from the show (or something like that)"
Hung (without breaking concentration in what he's doing): "Oh, nice."
Alright with only 7 left and with Tre gone, my adjusted top three: Hung, Brian, Dale. Hung is still the favorite to take it all.
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