‘The Chopping Block’: Any other volunteers?
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How tough must it be when folks are falling all over themselves to get the heck out of chef Marco Pierre White’s kitchens?
For the second week in a row, a contestant on NBC’s ‘The Chopping Block’ bowed out of the race for $250,000 and a shot at opening his own restaurant. ‘I agree,’ Chad said of the criticism leveled against him after two disasterous opening night services that included: plating lukewarm chicken, farmed salmon -- the nerve! -- missing water glasses, a wobbly table, an un-PC menu choice of Chilean sea bass....
But it appears the worst crime of all might have been serving what is, apparently, the ‘joke’ of all appetizers: shrimp cocktail. (Note to self: Stop serving shrimp cocktail. Or, perhaps, keep serving shrimp cocktails. Ironically.)
Chad said he regretted that he was taking down his friend and partner, Mikey, with him even as he all but conceded defeat and allowed himself to be relegated to a ‘backup’ role in the kitchen tonight, and also acknowledged: ‘I wasn’t the strongest person....’
It was Chad’s passivity that sent MPW over the edge: ‘Fight for what you want in life! Fight for it! ... You cannot give a restaurant to a man who is prepared to lay down.’
Did you catch MPW’s parting shot? There was no ‘Please take your knives and go,’ or ‘You’ve been chopped!’ or ‘Give me your jacket and get out of Hell’s Kitchen.’
It was simple, ‘Please leave.’
But what else should we expect from a chef who summed up his philosophy thusly: ‘Why not just buy great produce and serve it simply? ... All complication does is create confusion. Confusion [leads] to inconsistency. Inconsistency creates failure.’
Memo to Angela: The eye-rolling and stomping around wondering why no one listens to you only serves to prove the point.
-- Rene Lynch
