Because I've had several PMs about the show and my recaps, (such as they are!!!) I'll post a recap of Episode 3. There appears to be some discussion about airing the final six episodes at another time or putting them up as videos. One way or another, NBC should allow the winning team to be announced.
Episode 3
Crimson Team: 3 couples remain
Black Team: 3 couples remain
The challenge for the chefs this week, enter "The Wild" by going to the park with Steve Brill and find wild foods to use in a dish they must prepare for Marco. Brill shows them cattail, wild strawberries, field garlic and sheep sorrel. They are all given samples of the various herbs to eat including the garlic. (Shouldn't they be washed first?)
With their wild herbs, the chefs return to the kitchen to watch Marco prepare a soup with the herbs from the park. The challenge for the chefs, using rabbit, duck, squab, fresh water perch or carp, prepare a dish for Marco in one hour.
The Black team working as a team, serve Grilled Squab with vegetables and a Mushroom Duxelles. They feel confident that they have won.
The Crimson team led by Lisa chooses the carp but halfway through the prep she find it needs deboning and they don’t have the tools to clean the fish properly and she doesn’t want Chef Marco to choke on a bone so they switch to the perch to prepare Perch Provencal with grilled vegetables. Marco declares that the Crimson team is all over the place. He gives them no credit for changing the protein so he wouldn’t encounter bones.
The Black team wins, he prefers their dish and their reward is the services of a top New York Maître Di and Marco tells them to make the most of his services, learn from him. Neither team will have a reservation book, no bar tender, no bus boys.
Back in their own restaurant kitchens they find the same ingredients that they had to choose from for the challenge. Marco tells them to get inspiration from the park.
The chefs prepare their menu; the Black team wants to make Angie’s crab cakes their signature dish however that thought is shot down by Marco. It’s NOT from the wild; they didn’t catch them in the park. (I made that last part up.) Their menu consists of rabbit, duck, squab and carp. Dean will be the chef for this challenge. .
The Crimson team decides to serve brine roasted duck, rabbit, pigeon and quail. Kelsey will be the head chef. Michael says the protein is all birds. (hee!)
Both teams suffer Marco’s withering criticism and must redo their menus. The Crimson team cannot use the spinach, no bacon, no pigs running through the park. Marco literally rips their menu to shreds.
Black team, there are no melon trees in the park, no melon. Rip, rip. Marco asks Angie why she didn’t volunteer to be chef; he doesn’t take to her answer about doing it next time. He points out there might not be a next time. The Black team decides to make a mushroom soup since their menu has to be changed due to Marco ripping it into pieces as well.
More drama on the Crimson team caused by Panya with the other servers, she says she’s not there to make friends; she’s there to run the restaurant. (Team?? We’re a team?? Yes, but I’m running it.) She says she will not allow Vanessa to ruin her chances.
The Black team gets their assistance from the Maître Di. He tells them to remember three things. Welcome, comfort and control. (All righty then!)
Dinner service begins and chaos reigns, Kelsey is learning to be head chef and expediter; she’s never done this before. The Black team serves squab with runny red liquid in the center and a customer returns it. The server is told by Dean that it is supposed to be served medium rare and he’d be upset if he had squab served well. (It would be way too rare for me!)
Panya on the Crimson team quickly gets in the weeds and takes her frustration out on her fellow servers. Everything wrong is their fault, including a dirty tablecloth that Vanessa can't change because they are out of clean linen. (I would have refolded it or flipped it but what do I know...)
What neither team knows is there is no single food critic, all the diners are the critics, and they will score the restaurant using Zagat ratings.
In the Black team kitchen, Dean drops a knife and tries to catch it badly cutting his hand. He’s whisked off to the hospital for stitches. (Shouldn't you just let it fall? But to be fair, I'd probably try to catch it myself.)
The Zagat’s, Tim and Nina Zagat arrive in to give the teams the customer comments and ratings. They used a 30 point system. Décor, food, service are rated by points. The customer reviews are read. Incredibly long wait, it was an outrage. Comments ranged from “Food unadventurous,” “Nothing to write home about.” “We had to ask for new table cloths.”
Black team: “Everything decent, but not great.” “Cute waiter.” “My squab was so raw it was still flying.”
Crimson team: using a 30 pt scale, Food: 11. Décor: 7, Service: 7. Overall rating was 8. Black team: Food: 11, décor: 9, Service was 11. The over all rating was 11.
Marco says the Black team won but he wouldn’t congratulate them.
After a long and tedious session of griping about the lack of service and lack of coming together as a team with Panya pointing the finger at Vanessa, her fellow servers tell Marco that she is the one who is disrespectful. Finally Marco interrupts them and says their differences are the cause of their failure. He tells Panya that she’s had the floor, he wants to hear from Michael but she keeps interrupting, she points at her fellow team members as the failures.
Marco says, Panya I listen to the people around me and they tell me that you are a disruptive force and one thing I will never tolerate no matter how hard they work is a disruptive force in a restaurant. Michael and Panya, go home. Thank you for your hard work and showing respect. He says they were very nice people but they could not adapt to their environment and allowed their personality to get in the way and that’s why they are gone.
He tells the remaining four, they are the 2 couples left on the red team and they will have to work harder than ever.
***
So here we are. Three episodes, six unaired. No winner revealed, the show hit the chopping block. If it returns in some form or fashion I'll at least watch the last episode to give it a proper burial finish