Best line of the night has got to be Keith saying "there no shame in thinkin' that was good food, hot dogs is slammin'!"
Giving the chefs crap food in fancy serving dishes and presentation to trick them to think they're getting a gourmet tasting was sweet. They fell for it hook line and sinker. While the first viewer reaction is 'well, you knew they would fall for it,' I have to say that amongst these pro chefs, you could also kinda think the opposite. Shouldn't one or two of them have tasted the cheese soufflé made of straight Cheese Whiz and recognized it from eating Whiz on a Ritz while watching a ball game? I can see getting fooled by the catfish egg 'caviar' simply because they might not have had that much opportunity to eat catfish eggs OR caviar, but some of the others, hot dog paste and other common foods, would have had a better chance of being recognized if there wasn't such fear of Ramsay. No one even considered insulting the food, in fear that Ramsay prepared it and insulting it would be grounds for getting cut, even if at some later time. Chefs are sensitive to their food, even Gordon Ramsey. Instead they all tried to show off, talking about how they understood the intensity and uniqueness of the flavors of, well, dog food.
The taste contest was cool. Interesting how reality TV can create drama with simplicity sometimes, taking contests down a notch rather than up. Like watching physical challenges from scrawny starving Survivor contestants, or clueless blondes play poker on Beauty and the Geek. This blind taste test to see if chefs can ID simple foods like scrambled eggs, chicken, and spinach, along with tougher stuff like urchin, braised short rib, or pear chutney was a great idea. EIR and Gig want to try it, but we don't trust each other enough to get blindfolded and shove food in each other's mouths.
As for Keith, I think at this point he's got to pass Heather as the odds on favorite. Heather is showing some cracks. When you think about the top two from last season, as a viewer I could see either of them running a gourmet restaurant kitchen. This season? Heather might be able to, but only with another solid decade of grinding in kitchens. Other than that it’s only Keith. I have to assume Ramsey sees them as the likely final two, and that's why he gave Keith the pep talk. Keith can run a kitchen but the bottom line is, he's a shlub. What do you do if you're Ramsey? You're seriously going to give a multi million dollar restaurant to one of these chefs, and you're forced to choose between someone who has some taste and skill but is far too green to command a kitchen, and someone who can run a kitchen, but is just a jeans fallin' down shlub who can't come up with an impressive menu, or even be a respected leader. EIR thinks the pep talk from Ramsey was real. He wants Keith to become a better candidate so he can have someone who he respects win the damn thing. On the other hand the pep talk to Rachel was just lip service to move the show along.
Speaking of which, the moment where Rachel botched the Beef dish and tried to make it look medium by putting pink sauce on it was a disaster beyond just what was seen. If she wants a career beyond this show, and she is apparently a pro chef, she could be sunk. Who would hire someone who's main objective at ANY time is tricking the head chef into sending bad food into the dining room? That's like selling bad brown chop chuck under the new pink stuff in a Shop Rite family pack.
Everything Is Rigged also has to believe these shows all have their riggings, in this case, EIR thinks Ramsey is getting to see the kitchen service clips between filming. Why else did he turn around so directly on Virginia? It is because he saw that she was lied to by Sara, and realized that he wrongly blamed her. Her mentioning that the kitchen had two additional oysters just didn't merit the praise he heaped on. It was a makeup call, so to speak. Very likely the same thing with Rachel. EIR gets the feeling someone revealed to him that she was dabbing pink sauce on to cover her tracks, and after she specifically said she wouldn't let him down only two minutes before. He knew the beef was overdone, but he didn't know there was a sabotage attempt. He'd have looked the fool had he booted anyone else, and they can't have that.
ONTO THE HANDICAPPING
EIR says, yeah, I know Keith and Heather are the faves now, but I still don't think Heather's gonna win, even though she's an obscene fave 1-5 before tonight (bet 5 to win 1). Money on Garrett at 25-1 is still the most fun, because he's in the final 6 now. He's stronger than Maribel (even though the odds disagree), who absolutely can't win. He's probably on par with Virginia and Sara, each in very different ways. In fact, even though he's a long shot, it would be possible for Garrett to go all the way, whereas even though its more likely for Virginia to last longer, she absolutely can't win. I can't help but still think a couple of bucks on Sara isn't such a terrible long shot either, just cause she's such a cold blooded reality player, lying and backstabbing. There's actually a way to the finish line for her too, even if it’s a long shot. That way would be if she lies and cheats her way to the top 2 or 3 and then cranks out 2 or 3 great competitions and snags it. Nearly impossible, but at least the possibility exists. She has as good a chance to come up with a good menu as anyone if she gets that far, and we don't know how her kitchen skills are, because the only time we see her, she's purposely sandbagging her own team to get them eliminated. Who knows, maybe she's a whiz when she wants to be!
EIR's official opinion though, albeit with heavy heart, is that Heather is #2 and your Hell's Kitchen Winner is: Keith. All he's got to do is figure out that its his for the taking if he pulls up his pants and acts like a man as per Ramsey's pep talk. I think he will.
