“The judges aren’t really liking my plating … and I don’t really care.”
Geez … does nothing get to that guy?
Down to the very last, Christian continued to pull asshattery out his backside and whine and complain to whoever would listen … in this case, the camera itself. Throughout the season I’ve given him props for being bold and confident, but he’s never (yes, I used “never”) reigned it in … even when he’s been wrong. And that’s classless. “Humility” isn’t a word in his personal dictionary.
If you think the above statement was “in your face” and arrogant, it’s nothing compare to his final comment of the evening directed at Gordon Ramsay: “You arrogant (bleep)” he happily called the judge as he hugged him farewell after losing the Top 3 competition.
“You have the right to call me that when you’ve won three Michelin stars,” Gordon shot back.
But leading up to that exchange, there were of course a couple challenges for the contestants. The more interesting of the two (the first being a rather boring chicken challenge) was the elimination test featuring three of Joe Bastianch’s favorite ingredients: Veal, mushrooms and octopus. Adrien — having won the chicken challenge — chose his ingredient first and was not about to let Christian snag the cephalopod, something he knew the Gloucesterite would revel in. Christian picked the veal and left Jennifer the mushrooms, a faux pas on Christian’s part not knowing Jen could work her way around tasty molds.
The kick of this challenge (outside the little sparring with Jennifer when he snarkily asked her for flour and her not giving it up) was Christian’s presentation of his veal dish. I was practically on the floor when Joe replated the dish sans the veal’s bone. Presenting a dish on a bed of mashed potatoes, hunk of meat with bone still in, is unappealing, unattractive and messy to boot. Why didn’t Christian know this? I’ll go so far to state that even I know better. What a motorhead.
Jennifer’s mushroom ravioli and egg in the elimination test was so impressive I’m of the mind it was this very thing that pushed her over the line for the eventual win, despite her obvious disappointment in the dessert department during the final showdown with Adrien.
She came up with some spectacular dishes during the season with really only one epic failure … the dish Joe ended up reprimanding her about that was so unpresentable he tossed in the garbage.
Her overall innovation, quick thinking and passion got her as far as it did, translating — for some — into a convincing win at the end of season 2 on MasterChef.
And, with that win, it didn’t hurt she got the opportunity to stick a skewer in Christian’s side and twist, either. That had to be the icing on the cake right there.
Notes:
Quotes:
Clacked by Michael Noble 
on Aug 17, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Crow away Michael, I was giddy as well over her win.
I liked Adrien right up to the final two, but as Colin MacLeod used to say in Highlander, “In the end there can be only one!” and she chopped off his head nicely! :-)
I’m curious, how do they film the Confessional/Aside they use through the program (and others like this).
I’m guessing they can’t make and announcement (like here’s the secret ingredient), stop production and have everybody go into a little booth and do their 15 seconds to camera, and then start back up again and react to it.
This has been really bothering me watching shows like this. “I really hope it’s not beef!” and then it’s beef. They have to film it after so they already damn well knew it was beef when they shot the bit. Oh well, that’s just been driving me nuts.
I totally agree with everything stated above. I haven’t watched Master Chef from the beginning–I came in about 4 weeks ago–but have always felt Christian was a total asshat. Makes you wonder how he treats his kids.
I’m glad Jenner won, and I would love to get a hold of her egg ravioli recipe! :D
The recipe will likely be in her book.
Are they doing a book deal this season? I haven’t heard it mentioned at all, and my guess is that Whitney’s didn’t sell well so the publishers didn’t sponsor again.
Also, I think they gave it to Jennifer b/c they wanted technique to win out over flavor. The judges said that the short ribs basically cooked themselves in the pressure cooker, but it took real skill to braise the quail, sear the scallops, etc.
Last thing — I think Gordon called Christan an “arrogant whatever” and CHristian said something back to Gordon and that’s when Gordon said the thing about the Michelin stars.
Congrats to Jennifer. It would have been OK if Adrien had won. I’m just glad it wasn’t Suzy or Asshat Christian.