I just saw the show where Michael gets axed, and I dont know if it's the most recent or what. Somethings I found wrong with this episode:
The contestants were asked to do too many things: concept, then design the thing, then set it up w/ service, then greet then cook. How are the judges supposed to know who is doing what throughout this endeavor, and it puts such a premium on so many different skill sets there is no way to tell why one group or chef was better than another. It looked like Elia's group was more technically proficient but who knows?
When it came time to the dinner they had all the guests fill out little cards, about the food. But that wasnt what the entire contest was about. There was more too it than that. If any thing the guests should have had to score them on design concept, decor, service, food, creativity, etc. It wasnt about just the food and this leads to problems in scoring it and tyring to figure out why one team came out better or worse.
The outcome seeed too influenced by outside factors. It seemed Michael's group was messed up by the designer who arrived with only two hours to spare and this put a premium on how much time they had for the food. I guess both sides labored under this but if one of designers doesnt perform this messes up one side more than the rest. This is not a fair way to run a contest.
Again, how is the judging supposed to work? It was to be based on carrying out all these functions and yet how are the judges supposed to know who did what job? They bagged Michael for not pulling his load in terms of having money left over etc. But when it came to Marcel, well, his chicken wings were raw, but the tempura made up for it. Hello? They are judging him on taste, but Michael on purchases and food prep. What if they were to judge Marcel on his team play?
If they wanted to find the most egregious mistake maybe they should have blamed Michaels two teammates who didnt get wine. That seemed the most glaring mistake.
But again they are putting the players into a team role, they are giving the team multiple tasks and then the team is influenced by external factors. Then are trying to find one loser in all that. It is complicated to try to figure out what went wrong (other than obviously over ambitious producers) much less who was the on culprit in all this.
Again the producers here were too ambitious, having these guys try too many things. Good creativite show, but lousy execution.