Tonight we met fifteen men and women who are in a 15 week hands-on job interview for a phenomenal executive chef's position in a new Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, London, in West Hollywood. It comes with a 250k salary. If you were going to offer someone a quarter million dollars, how would you search for candidates?
Here's the list:
Ben, 29, an electrician and former chef from Charlotte, NC
Bobby, 37, an executive chef from Niagara Falls, NY
Craig, 30, a sous chef from Coram, NY
Jason, 29, a sous chef from Las Vegas, NV
Dominic, 43, a stay-at-home dad from Catawba, SC
Louross, 24, a hotel cook from Las Vegas, NV
Matt, 35, a sous chef from Pinehill, NJ
Petrozza, 47, a catering director from Charlotte, NC
Christina, 25, a culinary student from St. Louis, MO
Corey, 25, a private chef from Brooklyn, NY
Jen, 24, a line cook from Chicago, IL
Rosann, 33, a receptionist and former cook from Staten Island, NY
Sharon, 31, a room-service chef from Las Vegas, NV
Shayna, 28, a catering-company owner from Buffalo, NY
Vanessa, 31, a line cook from Bozeman, MT
Riding in on the bus, Ramsay is in disguise with the 15. We listen to some real egos and get a sense of some personalities. After they all arrive at HK, Philippe gives an impression of Ramsay and encourages some of the others to do the same. After that, Philippe introduces Ramsay in disguise. He looked like Dennis Hopper from Easy Rider. What did we learn except that some chefs have an ego? Frankly chefs are sometimes irritating SOB's but that's part of what makes some of them good, at least sometimes. The entire entrance was a bit anticlimactic other than the fact that the makeup was great.
Ramsay then challenges the chefs to make a signature dish for him. Most are positively wretched, even without smelling them. Only Rosann's halibut dish and Vanessa's mussel soup were even remotely like anything someone would actually eat. On the amazingly terrible side, there was a Cornish hen in a pumpkin, surrounded by the greasiest potatoes I had ever seen and the dish that made Ramsey wretch, a raw venison tartare with sea scallops, caviar, capers and white chocolate tartare. The rest of the dishes were either mis-prepared or just disgusting. I confess that at this point, I would have verified that any of these people had actually cooked for people before! I was absolutely sure that someone had given them heavy hallucinogens in order to perform so poorly.
After splitting into men and women, going to the dorms, the women chose a leader, Vanessa, and then studied the 15 item menu. The men took forever to beat down the many egos and then chose Bobby who talked the loudest. He described himself as "the black Gordon Ramsay." Bobby, how did your signature dish go with Ramsay? Oooooookay!! They went to sleep so that they would be rested. When did they think they were going to get time to know what to cook?
The nest day as they are preparing in the kitchen Ramsay stops them and asks one of the men what the entrees are for the evening. None of the men know, but all of the women do. One of the men murmurs that you don't have to know what something is called to be able to cook it. Excuse me?? If you have no idea what the ingredients are, how in the heck do you even get it out of the refrigerator??
Ramsay says that he has a pre-appetizer for this night, something which has a French name "amuse-bouche." I think Ramsay says it reversed. This is intended as a kind pf palate tickler. He chooses Petrozza and Shayna to do the tableside flambé'. Both look like they do credible jobs. It's the only real acceptable food that makes it to the tables.
First, Jason is shown outside sucking on something resembling a cigarette but he smokes it down to the end. Everyone else is working wondering where Jason is. When he comes in, he looks kind of glazed over and proceeds to screw up everything he touches. Bobby the captain manages by telling everyone they can do it, but refuses to jump in and get it done. Dominic turns 30 beautiful sea scallops into rubber. The guys look completely lost, unable to turn out any appetizers at all. Finally Louross is given the captaincy and starts actually leading the kitchen. Unfortunately it is too little and too late.
On the women's side, I have to ask a question first: if anyone has watched the show before, what would it be that Ramsay always has? If you guessed, risotto, you would be right. How is it that no one who was in the kitchen on either side can manage to cook risotto?? It just isn't that hard!!
Vanessa may be able to cook, but she couldn’t manage and was replaced by a New Yawker, Rosann. She did better and managed to get a few appetizers out. Jen appears to be a very good anchor, but she has an attitude problem. I couldn't tell who was doing the actual productive cooking at the end. Sharon appeared to be lost and unable to cook anything, even after several tries much like Jason.
Ultimately people left before the first entree was served and Ramsay shut down the kitchen. Louross has to pick two and they are Dominic and Bobby.
Personally I would have loved to get rid of Bobby's mouth, but Dominic's ability to murder so many scallops was just appalling. Ultimately Dominic, someone who hasn’t worked in a kitchen in ten years, was the one chosen to leave by Ramsay. Maybe Bobby is a better cook than a manager, but I have bad feelings about Jason. The entire show left me wondering whether Wal-Mart had a culinary school and, if so, how many of these “chefs” went to cooking school there.
Things can only get better.