photo: fox
Top 6 Compete
Original Air Date: Aug 8, 2011
JD – Sr. Staff Writer
jd@thetwocentscorp.com
We’re down to only six cooks: Adrien, Jennifer, Christian, Suzy, Tracy, and Ben. All of them have strong points and weak points. Ben has a talent for being a little odd (in a good way, usually), while Christian takes the prize in kissing one’s own behind. Flexible, that one. Suzy was the runner up there, but at least she seems to be listening to criticism and learning from it. Jennifer and Adrien are just good, and have proven to be very resilient.
But someone has to go home, right? No fun.
This week Gordon threw the chefs into a real kitchen, cooking for one of the most prestigious restaurants in Los Angeles, then gave them a rather fishy pressure test. Who failed to deliver the goods? Read on…
Patina Challenge:
The group challenge this week takes place at Patina restaurant in Los Angeles, a Michelin star winning restaurant. They aren’t eating there, though; they are in charge of running the restaurant for the night. Tracy and Suzy won the last challenge, so they get to pick their teams. Tracy headed up the Blue Team with Adrien and Jennifer, while Suzy picked Ben and Christian to be on the Red Team.
Oh, and Christian was the last one picked, which was all kinds of awesome. Suzy thinks so too, but not for the same reason. She’s convinced Tracy picked the worst cooks. Um, hi, Adrien is a great cook, and Jennifer has won more Mystery Box challenges than anyone. On top of that, Suzy’s team has the two biggest egos in herself and Christian. Suzy’s insane if she believes that her team is more solid.
Anyway, the two teams have to cook two of Patina’s appetizers (hamachi and risotto) and entrees (scallops and beef, two ways) up to Patina’s standards. At least they got a demonstration from the Patina chefs before they were out on their own.
Right away, Christian is insulting his team and talking about how he’s going to have to carry them. Then when Gordon is ready to start calling out orders, no one is in the Red Team’s kitchen. Suzy and Ben get chewed out over it, of course, but where was Christian? On the other side of the kitchen, the Blue Team is ready to go.
Suddenly it’s like we’re in Hell’s Kitchen. Gordon is barking orders, and cooks are scrambling and flustered. The Blue Team starts knocking their appetizers out perfectly, while the Red Team starts falling apart. Ben can’t keep up with his station because Suzy gave him too much to do, and Christian’s risotto isn’t ready. Suzy switches Ben from scallops and beef to hamachi, but by then the diners on the Red Team’s side are already threatening to walk out.
The Blue Team hits a bump in the road when Gordon finds a hair on one of the plates (which everyone thinks is Adrien’s), then the beef is overcooked. It made my mouth dry just seeing it on the screen. But they settle back in, and eventually the Red Team gets into a groove too. Actually, they were looking better than the real chefs on this season’s Hell’s Kitchen by the end. The response in the dining room is mixed, though, including the reviews from Patina’s owner and head chef.
Who won the challenge? The Red Team.
Huh? I guess their food must have scored lower, because judging from what we saw, I was sure the Blue Team would win. My disappointment aside, it was Tracy, Jennifer and Adrien that got sent to the pressure test.
Salmon Challenge:
The judges had a doozy up their sleeves with this one. They presented the chefs each with a whole salmon, which the chefs had to scale, filet, and cut into ten perfect portions, one of which they had to cook perfectly. Yikes. Gordon gives them all a demonstration, while Suzy oohs and ahhs as she watches from above, and then they’re off.
Jennifer looks right at home, and Adrien isn’t too far off, but Tracy is timid, making little scrapes across the fish. When she finally starts to cut into her fish, she winds up sawing through it in a not so gentle way. Meanwhile, Adrien is still scaling, even after Tracy and Jennifer are well into fileting.
Tracy leaves a huge portion of the fish on the tail, which she can’t get off, but her portioning is good. Adrien finally cuts his fish, and while his portions aren’t as good as the other two cooks, he at least gets his filet in the pan before Tracy. They all make it to the judges’ table on time, though, and then comes the hard part.
Jennifer’s filets looked great, even if Joe did find a rogue scale. Adrien mangled a couple of his filets, and then scored his fish too deeply, which dried it out. Tracy’s portions are also inconsistent. Add the missing tail pieces, and the fact that her fish was more rare than Jennifer’s, and things aren’t looking good for Tracy.
Who went home? Tracy.
Man, the look on her face when they called her forward was heartbreaking, and when they gave her the verdict, I started crying with her. She may not have stood out as much as the other chefs throughout the competition (mostly because she wasn’t involved in all the drama and ego), and between the three in the challenge, she was the weakest, but she was still very good.
She did get sent home with a prize, though. She got a one year MasterChef cooking course, and an offer to work for one of the chefs after she completed it. That was pretty cool, and it left me feeling a whole lot better about her leaving.
What did you guys think of this episode? Give me your Two Cents!
If you’d like to follow JD’s TV stories from TTC and beyond, you can follow her on Twitter at @JDeckerTV.
TheTwoCents 
I didn’t really know who Tracy was. Like you said, she stayed out of the drama and didn’t seem to have an ego, so that means less camera time unfortunately. She must have been a decent cook to make it this far. Good luck to her in the future!