Well when perception meets ‘reality’ in the edit, I’m probably gonna have to side with the judges and John on this one. I always assume earwigs, producer input, viewing of clips, the planning, and actual cook before judging. They probably saw more than us.
Katsuji was 1st choice, picked the team and with Casey took John over Emily. Katsuji passed on all but voluntarily being line on 3 dishes out of 6 total, becoming the de facto executive chef in practice. Now all must line up behind his work load plus their own dish, two of which had to be ready before service. They don’t send folks home for prep work alone, not for someone else’s dishes. They get the credit, not the cook. John was shown doing a lot.
“Cause you know, sometimes being an immigrant your voice gets lost.”
As if…
Prep begins:
John: It’s all about great food, great service, great friends, great execution.
Katsuji: I really don’t know about the friendship part.
Any sincerity for a team spirit was lost in a blink, even platitudes count for the moment at work. Point being professionals put aside personality on the job as a team. He’s relying on everyone to carry him for his ambitious risk. Creating tension guarantees a fail, I saw John pretty much keep his cool, even more than Casey.
It’s not viewer choice on personality, that’s the more other shows like any on FN or MasterChef US where they don’t even really cook their own dish and stuff is recreated for TV. Restaurant wars is harder to fake than quick-fires and eliminations.
Katsuji is consistently messy and was tossing stuff across the kitchen, folks get fired on the spot for that, it messes everyone else up. That was noted and it was him alone. John asked for a broom and swept up and mopped up. Bending over backward to maintain some order and calm. Now it seems he’s the mentally ill one, for anger management that seems to be working, tough unforgiving crowd here.
With constant baiting from Katsuji since the start of the show, openly confessing his dislike, interviews squarely aimed at John, it seems John has it more together than most. As far as I’m concerned John could have opened a can of cat food rather than canned crab and got a pass. None of the food on either team looked that great or was very technical.
Oh yes, the servers grabbing food out of order. Perhaps the producers cued the servers to grab stuff, for drama at the pass. Well anyway Katsuji said in interview, I would be *beeping* screaming right now ___ service. Now again, it’s John’s fault for not screaming. Sure there was chaos, not sure it was John who owned the pass and responsibility. John was the only one to apologize for the day as they left. Katsuji was fun at first, now I’m actually feeling sorry for John. I saw a different show I guess.
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safeweb310
7 years ago
Both are to blame. They created a southern comfort food restaurant serving mexican food. They both shouted and fought through the whole preps and service. Their restaurant was a health dept nightmare. Neither one gave an inch during service as in "Let's start over here, this is unprofessional, etc." No other chefs acted this way. If this was scripted for our enjoyment, the director can skip it next time.
I give no props to Katsugi but John should have been able to pull himself together if only to save face with his peers. He could not = mental illness.
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sandifay62
7 years ago
Plus the fact that he bragged ab out having opened about ii restaurants. If you're going to put yourself out there as an expert, you should show the experience in your actions, he didn't. But no one liked his dish. I think they kept him for drama.
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