Talk about tonight's episode right here!

I hate it when GR manipulates the outcome of the game by "overruling" the decision made by the team captains (an assignment he gave them.) To me this is like Jeff Probst saying (after someone has been voted off) "no, I really want YOU to go instead." I REALLY wanted Melissa gone! I was bitterly disappointed about that, even though I thought Bonnie was worthless last night. How on earth does she think she can run a restaurant when she was crying and saying that she only has to fix meals for 4 people and if she is late it doesn't matter because they "know" her???

I found Bonnie's breakdown particularly humorous when thinking back to her criticisms of Julia last week...

Best moment:
when one customer, thinking they'd get a little "air-time" by going to talk to the chef... was completely ignored by Ramsey until Ramsey told the guy to get the "giraffe" out of his way or something like that. I'm sure that's not the attention she was hoping for. HA! Loved that. :D

Ramsay is not ready to let Melissa leave. I honestly think she and Rock are his top picks for winning this. He has over ruled nominations before and will probably do it again. . We still haven't seen him evict two at once yet this year.

I believe the woman approaching Gordon was staged. It was too pat.

Have any of the rest of you seen the article about Ramsay being such a nice guy on his British shows and a horror on the American versions? He said American's expect the nasty so he gives it to them.

Never fear you Bonnie dislikers ... I can't imagine anyone else will go before her, or I will eat a pizza all by myself LOL

I know... I just don't like it. :oooo

Have you seen Kitchen Nightmares? If that is him being "nice" I would hate to see him in a really bad mood.

Monday nights are my husband's Hell--he hates GR so much he can't be in the same room when HK is on. If he walks through he's always mumbling something like "I'd punch him if he was in my face like that..." :giggle:

I haven't seen that show but hear that it will be coming to America this fall. As for whether or not Ramsay is ever nice ... was just reporting what I read. Personally I find it hard to believe all that swearing and yelling and stuff is just acting .. .but then I remember Charles Barkley the bad boy of basektball who was actually very nice and very into charity and doing for others .. .he didn't want anyone to know about that side of him, so I keep an open mind about Ramsay .... sort of.

Nothing in week 4 has convinced me that anyone can cook. I was very disappointed that Julia was told the scallops were overcooked. While I admit that I am farther away than whoever criticized her, they did not look overdone to me and I question whether they were. In addition, what is up with the chicken breasts? It appears that it is a simple whole chicken breast which is sliced lengthwise after it is cooked in a pan. Now anyone who cooks knows that a chicken breast will dry out in a pan if cooked whole like that, especially when cooked without a braising liquid like chicken stock. If I were serving them, I would brown them in a pan and then treat them to an oven for 12-15 minutes with some stock. However that wasn't the real issue: these women couldn't figure out whether something was overdone or raw. What we are looking at is NOT rocket science; it's seasoning, olive oil browning and finishing. Each one will take exactly (being uniform in size for a restaurant) the same amount of time! Scallops on the other hand take 2-3 minutes to cook completely, assuming one has enough sense to turn them. Once again, this is not exactly haute cuisine!! They have done the same menu, more or less, three times before!! For Beef Wellington, you cook them so many minutes for rare, another three for medium and then another three for well done... what is the friggin problem??
As for characters, Bonnie finally recognizes her limitations: she can't cook with time constraints. I further suspect that her personality depends upon personal interaction with the customer, something which just doesn't fly in a restaurant.
On the men's side, even though Vinnie was lost in space, I agree with Rock's assessment because it was Josh who was causing the food returns, unless I misread what was going on. How in the heck do you oversalt fish? These guys must have learned their culinary skills at Burger King.
The standouts are few: those who are adaptable are the stars: Julia responded to criticism by fixing things without getting rattled. Rock ordered the service very well. Although I think Jen and Melissa have promise, they certainly haven't shown me anything except how to bitch. Vinnie was a bad penny, someone who thought of this as an individual effort rather than a chorus. I suppose he could cook, but he didn't work well with others and I think it likely that he sabotaged the little guy.

Bentley, Josh is no Einstein it appears in the kitchen but I had to agree with Ramsay's choice to send Vinnie home. Did you see the over cooked Wellington he was hiding at his station? He tried to hide them but Ramsay found the stash. I can't remember off hand how many their were but it was at least six and maybe more.

As for timing the Wellington Bonnie admitted that being flustered caused her to forget the times. From what I saw she doesn't belong in a restaurant kitchen. She should go back to being a nanny.

Now for Julia. If I am not mistaken nobody told Julia the scallops were overcooked, she made that decision her self and then told Melissa and Ramsay. I have never made scallops so I take your word for how they are done. If that is the case then this is just one more example that Julia is out of her element, as is anyone else who can't cook such a simple thing as scallops.

Once again there was problems with the risotto. At least in the men's kitchen. Personally at this point in time I think there is only one person who has shown they have what it takes (at least the potential) and that is Rock.

Melissa thinks to highly of herself. Jen wouldn't be able to stand up for herself or discipline those working under her. Julia is really out of her element. She might do well working in a nice restaurant but she still has too much to learn to run one.

On the men's side Rock is the only one who is even semi reliable. Brad and Josh both make stupid mistakes that they should not be making this far into the competition.

It would appear all of these people are more interested in having the spotlight on them then showing anyone they know what they are doing. Again I will say Rock is the exception to this. From my viewpoint the biggest mistake he has made ... well two actually, is serving Ramsay frozen Gnocci and nominating Josh instead of Vinnie.

If by some miracle Josh ever steps up and wins the ability to make a nomination, if he nominates Rock out of revenge I believe Ramsay will veto that nomination just as he did the two last night. To be honest I believe on more than one occasion Josh has tried to sabotoge the mens kitchen just as I believe Melissa has tried to do the same to Julia.

If these people can't stand and win on their own merit none deserve the prize.

I really think GR should be the one who makes the decision as to who goes. Let's dispense with the pretense of having the "team captains" nominate two for him to choose from. I wish he would just pick them out of everyone who is left on the team.

I think all three of them went out of their way to tell her she had overcooked them. She simply accepted what they said, and continued cooking. Those three "ladies" probably spend most of their time watching Julia to make a mistake so they can tell her so...
And Melissa bitching at Julia after was disgusting...if someone kept asking me how long for the scallops, after I had already said "2 minutes" I'd start a countdown for the moron. Julia kept her cool though.

Yes. I do have a favourite! :lol:

Can't STAND Melissa!

I think that's what Ramsey was talking about when he said Melissa was just trying to make herself look better than everybody else--she kept asking Julia about the time to draw attention to Julia's mistake. (I thought it was hilarious when Ramsey mocked her by pretending to fix his face and adjust his breasts.)

For those of you who are interested in Opaque Restaurant... it really DOES exist!

Opaque

I looked at the Opaque menu. It seems to me like their big draw is that you're eating in the dark. The menu itself is pedestrian and unimaginative. I'd rather have interesting food in the light. (Or close my eyes on my own.)