‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Insider: Consistency
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If you watch
Hell’s Kitchen, you already know that Christina Machamer overcame exceptional odds to win of the fourth season of the notorious show, becoming the executive sous chef at at the London West Hollywood Hotel. Check in each week as Christina “dishes up” her insights on Hell’s Kitchen’s fifth season, her notorious new boss, and life after reality TV stardom.
By Christina Machamer
Competition soared again this week, as the final four competed in the “cook my dish” challenge. This is a favorite of both myself and chef Ramsay. During my own season, Chef invited the families of the final three to Los Angeles for lunch. You don’t have to be a contestant on Hell’s Kitchen
to know that there is “no such thing as a free lunch.” So while my counterparts relaxed and caught up with their loved ones, my family and I were alert for the challenge. We debated the ingredients as we enjoyed our dish, and in the end I should have listened to my mom. Then again, there are many times in my life where that has been true. In the end, mom’s advice was not needed, and my parents and I were whisked off to enjoy Gordon’s guided tour of Los Angeles on what else? A double-decker bus.
This year’s challenge started out much differently, with several dishes being presented. All of the contestants agreed that they enjoyed the fish stew the most, and as I waited to hear whether or not it was made with actual fish (another throwback to season four), the competition was announced. Each of our final four cheftestants was given 30 minutes to recreate the dish. Now, cooking any of Gordon’s dishes can be quite complicated when you HAVE all of the ingredients. This challenge is much different. Instead of one or two fish to choose from, Hell’s Kitchen is stocked with no less than 10. Now, agreed, snapper and halibut are two very distinctive fish, but imagine what we were faced with. The protein for my challenge was definitely red meat, but it also had a slight iron flavor that led me to wild game more so than beef. I knew that we had lamb in the kitchen, as that was the basis for our Wellingtons. “Great,” I thought, “The hard part is over. The protein is lamb loin, good, now I can focus on the rest.” Once we got into the challenge, I realized that the kitchen had been stocked with lamb tenderloin, lamb loin, bison tenderloin, bison loin, venison tenderloin, and even elk! What was once an easy call just got a lot more difficult.
Then there was the problem with the starch. (The vegetables of diced carrot, celery, parsnip, and pancetta were easy, and all contestants guessed them correctly.) I was positive that we were given a white bean puree, but beans have to be soaked over night before they can be used. There were some that were dried on the shelf, but I knew that would never work. The beans I was to use had to be in one of the fridges. I looked all over, and I couldn’t find them. I started to second guess myself and went back to taste the dish. It was white beans, so it was back to the fridges again. (I think I spent more time gathering the right ingredients than I did cooking them.) Then I spotted the containers of white beans on the very top shelf, shoved into a corner. There wasn’t just one kind of bean there were two. Now, to tell by taste that these were pureed white beans, and not pureed black, or black eyed, or calypso beans, I thought, was quite a feat. So I tasted both beans raw, one large and one small. Both tasted the same, neither good. So I cooked both, and tasted again. It took all of this to narrow down what I already knew was white bean to flageolet beans, the smaller of the two white beans. So when I say that even having all of the ingredients makes this challenge tough, not having all of the ingredients makes it even more so. Gordon even says, “This is what separates the chefs from the cooks.”
It was this last element that forced my win. Corey had the wrong protein, (I think she chose the bison), and parsnip puree, but had correctly picked up on the raspberry vinegar in the sauce. Petrozza and I were both wrong on the sauce, but we both chose correctly with the venison loin. Petrozza however had not used a puree, which clenched my win.
In this most recent challenge, only Danny selected the correct protein. Though he and his closest competitor, Paula, also from Florida, were the closest, it was the “redneck” chef who clinched the win. This challenge is a big one for Chef Ramsay, as it, along with the ability to teach others, is the most important skill in his restaurant. Being consistent is what separates a good restaurant from a great one. You have to be able to taste for that level of consistency. Everyday one must go through one’s product and make sure that the flavor and the quality are the same as the last. The true test of a chef is to be able to go out, have a great meal, recreate that meal and enhance it to their own style. This is what we do everyday. Nothing we cook is new… not really. It is the same basic, twisted and recreated. That is the measure of a chef. So until next week… eat well, cook consistently, and be well.
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