I know! I cannot believe I am still on, at least at the time I couldn’t. What a wild few days that was for me…. here’s my recap, comments, and questions answered….

The Challenge:

When we came down I knew right away that it was a craps table, I love craps and can recognize a table anywhere. I was also pretty sure that the winners would go to Vegas, it only made sense.

Admittedly, we did a really bad job with our food choices: Haddock, apples, figs, pasta, and tomatoes. And I thought the women had done a far better job than we did, hands down. It was hard to come up with a dish for that, Kevin did an awesome job coming up with something.

When you saw us trying our dish and saying ‘yum’ I think we were really trying to BS ourselves into believing we had done something good.

When I saw the women’s dish I thought for sure we were going to loose, though Chef kept saying the garlic was too strong. I didn’t get to try it but I really think their dish was better. What I think, doesn’t matter here, and we end up winning.

It was a fun experience to head to Vegas but I would have rather gone to any Hotel and just chilled. It was nice to get out of HK; I just wish we had had more time to relax…

SERVICE.

I figured Robert would come back; it only made sense that he’d be back to torment us (me some more), it’s the HK way. He was beat, he had gone thru a lot of stress tests and you could see it in his eyes. I was glad he was not hurt, but not too happy to see him.

It’s funny, he is commenting that he has ‘no friends’ there and ‘everyone was against him’, It’s probably just the show, but he seems to have no self-reflection, and it’s always someone else’s fault.

I was assigned dessert station which is really easy and pretty much helped out where I could, yes even Robert, who was getting killed, I could tell he was struggling, I tried to help him but probably not as well as I could have, but then why should I?

Van did a good job except for that parchment. When we make the green olive brioche butter we roll it out onto parchment paper and cover with plastic wrap, I think he thought it was removed, obviously it wasn’t. It was a real bummer for him, he’s a good cook- but in HK how you normally cook is not what happens.

After the kitchen was shut down I remember commenting ‘finally an episode where I am not in the sh*t’, of course that was about to change…. Both Van and Robert were each trying to get me up there instead of them. I tried to talk to Robert about it but he had a lack of words or better yet could only say the same thing over and over. I never understand how people can’t try to talk about what they are feeling or thinking, but he was tired and cranky, maybe his diaper was full.

I was surprised as anyone when I was called up there….. and up I go. Van did a good job ‘pleading’ to stay and back in line he went. Me, I was amazed at Robert’s anger, he was going nuts and it was bonkers. It’s strange how he attacks me but cannot take any blame, I was trying to ignore it, mainly because I don’t respect him and his opinion doesn’t matter to me, never will.

When Chef called my name and I started to take my jacket off I could feel it all washing off of me, I was happy to be leaving this wacked out place and then ‘back in line’ and I’m thinking ‘sh*t, gotta go and fight some more, ok, here I come…”, none the less, I was very happy to have beat out Biggins: Maybe third time will be the charm. doubtfully.

Your questions:

What do you get eat at HK? Can you cook for yourself?

We get to write our shopping list out and they get it for us. We don’t have much time to eat or we are simply beat so it’s a lot of crappy food and Red Bull.

Are the few who are left really cooking for everyone at the restaurant?

Yup, the kitchen really only needs four cooks, once starters are done then they can work rounds and do dessert.

How much contact did you have, if any, with the outside world while on the show. Were you able to chat with loved ones, check email, talk on the phone etc?

NONE. We had no outside contact, no TV, no newspaper.

How do you think you are being portrayed on HK? Is it an accurate depiction of your personality or is it reality TV and editing?

It is an accurate perception of how I was there. At this point I was out of my mind, I’m usually a little more up beat and joking around.

Do you ever share the recipes that you create? The fish and fig sauce sounds great!

I share my recipes, this one you don’t want.
Discuss J.P. He seems to be a true enigma of the show.
I don’t really know what to say about him . The expert, the scapegoat, the friend all wrapped in one tight pant wearing Belgian.

Were you totally pissed to get called up there by Ramsey, when Dave didn’t even select you? I was kind of ticked about that as a viewer; but then, since you said in your last note that you were kind of ready to go, maybe it wasn’t so bad. I did notice you were halfway out of your coat when he told you to get back in line after saying your name.

It made sense, I hadn’t been doing a good job. I did not like what Robert was saying, but I was trying to ignore it.

Almost full for this week’s Hell’s Kitchen Dinner, make your reservations soon….617.266.4600

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pm and is filed under iChef. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.