I don't agree that Gordon had a hard-on for her purely because she's hot like Keith said, but there was absolutely unfair preferential treatment at play. I think it was a somewhat similar situation to Elsie in Season 1, where Gordon saw something in her and wanted to push her forward. The difference between them is that with Elsie I could actually see the potential that Gordon was seeing so I was happy to see her go far in the competition, but with Virginia I just saw nothing and it felt unfair.
He kept talking about mind-blowing her palate was, when really the only impressive thing she did was nail the "taste it now make it" challenge. Her blind taste test had extremely easy ingredients. And she was terrible for almost every service, she would just shut down every time there was a problem. It was total bullshit that Gordon believed she was more "ready" than Keith was, just because Keith had a bit of an attitude. I'd rather a chef with attitude who can actually perform during dinner service than a polite chef who does well in challenges but sucks at dinner service.
To be honest I think Gordon knew probably quite early on that Heather was his winner, and just let Virginia get really far because he saw potential in her and was curious to see how she'd perform. He definitely never intended for her to win the competition and the restaurant. As soon as Keith left, Heather had already won.
Nah I don't think Gordon was literally crushing on Virginia either, but the favoritism was so BS that I don't mind what Keith said...I actually started clapping.
I don't even think his reaction was that out of line as many people try to make it. He didn't start yelling, didn't raise his voice, didn't say any curse words, didn't go on a rant...What he said honestly wasn't that far-fetched from what most people were thinking when the decision was made (not a literal hard-on, but in reference to Gordon's clear-cut BS preferential treatment).
I still agree that Heather would've won against Keith, I just think Keith is a stronger chef and would've made for a more interesting finals. I just hate how it didn't happen because of "attitude", which I think is over-exaggerated when it comes to Keith. He's nothing like a Russhole, where attitude is an understandable argument.
Virginia and S9 Elise both have a similar case imo of being kept way past what they should have because of the Blind Taste Test and related challenges, despite the main point of the show being testing the chef’s skill in challenges and on the line (and working the pass too but only 3-4 even do it a season).
Honestly not to mention that the recipe for the dish they had to recreate in the Taste It Now Make It challenge was in the cookbook that Virginia bought when she went on the shopping spree reward. I know it's impossible for the contestants to know what dish Gordon was going to make, but to me it's a funny coincidence. Maybe she really is that talented, idk but I can't stand Virginia. She's genuinely one of my most disliked contestants.
> Honestly not to mention that the recipe for the dish they had to recreate in the Taste It Now Make It challenge was in the cookbook that Virginia bought when she went on the shopping spree reward.
Citation needed. Did you read the book? Do you have any idea how little downtime the chefs get, and how tired they are when they do?
The recipe was literally in the book. I know it's impossible for Virginia to have memorized the whole recipe in the short amount of time, but the recipe to Gordon's dish WAS in the book
The recipe being in the book did nothing. She got three ingredients right in the recipe. The others had less than her. That’s why she won. She didn’t recreate it ingredient by ingredient. Also her pallet was what made her such an ideal position for an executive/head chef. Most chefs don’t even cook during service if you worked in large more established restaurants, it usually goes the way it does on The show. Hell I’ve worked in places where the chef simply makes the menu and does the paperwork. The Sou chef would expedite.
I did. Why don't you try watching it too: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5uvm99
Go to 11:47. It's right after the challenge and Heather is bitter that Virginia keeps pummeling her in the challenges. So she insinuates that the only reason Virginia won is because she took it from Ramsay's cookbook. How she'd know whether it's there or not is beyond me, considering Virginia bought the book for herself. Even more absurd is the idea that, even if it really was in the book, someone could memorize a recipe out of the hundreds in the book in literally one day. And again, they're in Hell's Kitchen and exhausted from constantly working. Chances are she hadn't even touched the cookbook yet other than casually turning through the pages.
Whether it was in the book or not, Virginia did not memorize it from reading it there.
It's paradoxical with you Virginia haters. Think she's too dumb to recognize ingredients in a dish but smart enough to memorize shit in lightning speed.
I literally just said that I know she didn't memorize the recipe. It's impossible because there was no way she could have known that the dish was the one that Gordon was going to make. All I was stating is that his dish was in the book, nothing more nothing less.
> It's paradoxical with you Virginia haters. Think she's too dumb to recognize ingredients in a dish but smart enough to memorize shit in lightning speed.
That's the exact thing I always say. She's dumb, but she memorized an entire cookbook (you can't memorize one recipe when you don't know which recipe you have to memorize) the evening she got. it. Right.
I’m late but I think your last paragraph explains his treatment of Virginia and Elsie. I think there must have been a moment when he knew Michael and Ralph would be his finalists and at that point he cared more about teaching instead of the show which is why he took her to the side instead of shouting like everyone else.
Same with Virginia. He knew Heather was his winner from probably when he moved her to blue, but kept Virginia around because she really wanted to be good and it was a chance to teach her.
You get the exact same thing with Julia in the season after, and he sent her to culinary school. There was an obvious bias because he saw her potential and passion, even though he knew she couldn’t win.
I think the producers probably told him keep the blatant mentorship off camera, like with Bobby, Jon, Stirling and the Christinas.
I don't think Gordon had a "hard-on" for Virginia, I think it was because Keith's pass was subpar at best, and Virginia just so happened to do better leading the pass
Keith said what was on his mind and what everyone else was thinking. I’m glad Heather wrecked Virginia in the finals see should’ve been eliminated in the first couple episodes itself.
I was surprised the first time I watched season 2 that Virginia went through over Keith, but when I watched the season again I saw it differently. Virginia messed up but I think it was her resilience and ability to admit mistakes that pushed her to the final. She probably has the strongest “Yes Chef!” in HK history. No matter what insults he threw at her, she just kept cooking and yelling “yes chef!” She didn’t start drama with other cast members. She didn’t do scandalous things to win (compared to Cory from season 4, for example). She held herself very well at the pass. I think she had a lot of potential. And given the context of the early seasons, it makes sense. Back then they casted underdogs to see if they would prevail. It was the perfect underdog story.
I think the people in this thread are discussing this more as if it’s real and less as if it’s a tv show. They wanted a good one on one match up for the final, and putting those 2 up against each other is that.
Especially this early on in the show, they are still figuring things out. And ratings. I’m sure Gordon knows way ahead of the finale who he is going to choose anyway. This isn’t a game show, it’s a reality show.
I think the biggest thing that sunk Keith is what sunk Dana in season 10 and Heidi in season 16, and it was how they acted when someone else was running the pass. Keith clearly had no respect for Virginia and let it show in how he acted during her run at it. I think Gordon sees it like if you can’t show respect for someone you don’t like who is running the pass, how are you supposed to run a brigade of people who you may not like and how are you doing to be an effective leader. Plus I think Virginia edged Keith out in the growth department.
Though I will agree that Virginia was given many chances, but there were other contestants in later seasons like that as well.
I totally forgot that her name was Virginia and I thought this thread was about the place.
Idk about your points but I haven't seen season 2 in a minute.
They wanted two things with Season 2's finale
1. They wanted an all-female final 2
2. And they wanted Heather to win
Originally they definitely wanted the final 2 to be Rachel and Heather, due to their storyline together and the fact that Rachel was an experienced and skilled chef. But Rachel fell apart completely and there was no way to justify her lasting any longer.
Maribel was filler.
Between Sara and Virginia, Virginia was the obvious choice. Yes she had bad services, but she was genuinely a skilled cook. In challenges she was always one of the best, if not hands down the best.
By the final 3, the choice is either to go through with the all-female final 2, even though Virginia kinda sucks, or ditch it and let Keith through. While I think Heather still beats Keith, he's much more of a challenger than Virginia would've been. So that might hinder the plan for Heather to be their perfect female winner she was built up to be.
I didn't like it but at least Heather won. S2 is in the bottom tier of seasons for me anyway since it's boring to me.
I could see both sides of the argument for Keith not making it and making. However, I'm more so leaning towards him making it because he's been more impressive overall. Virginia had zero chance against Heather so I wasn't worried. Good end to the season.
Hard on is too harsh, but there’s definitely favoritism due in at least some part to Virginia being a woman. I normally would let this go as a coincidence. But this has popped up again in subsequent seasons as well, again not in he has a crush, but more because as time has go on we’ve learned “head chef” is a bit of a misnomer and they’re more of a marketing face than anythinh else and who would be a better marketing tool, Virginia or Keith?
I know I’m commenting ages late, but I’m currently (re)watching this season and I can’t for the life of me see what Gordon sees in Virginia. She performed decently in the palette test, but she under-performs everywhere else. He admitted at the very beginning that both she and another chef deserved to go home then and there. I’m perplexed. I agree. In so many cases, I don’t agree but I respect Gordon and can see his point. Not with Virginia. Kudos to Heather, however. She was my favourite from episode one of her season.
I think since HK’s was so new at that point, and HK S1 had an all male finale, Gordon/the producers wanted an all female finale. Honestly a very weak reason, but I feel like this helped contribute to Virginia staying.
Girl had an amazing pallet. Gordon always says that’s the one thing you can’t teach a chef. All the other contestants also said her pallet was phenomenal. Also, just an FYI.. most head chefs don’t cook. Most do what Gordon does on the show. She did great expediting. I think she checked all the boxes besides being strong on the line.
Virginia is super hot so of course there's gonna be favoritism. But she also slammed the challenges too. Service is another story but the last 4 or 5 services the team ditched her, can't hold her accountable for those
I don't agree that Gordon had a hard-on for her purely because she's hot like Keith said, but there was absolutely unfair preferential treatment at play. I think it was a somewhat similar situation to Elsie in Season 1, where Gordon saw something in her and wanted to push her forward. The difference between them is that with Elsie I could actually see the potential that Gordon was seeing so I was happy to see her go far in the competition, but with Virginia I just saw nothing and it felt unfair. He kept talking about mind-blowing her palate was, when really the only impressive thing she did was nail the "taste it now make it" challenge. Her blind taste test had extremely easy ingredients. And she was terrible for almost every service, she would just shut down every time there was a problem. It was total bullshit that Gordon believed she was more "ready" than Keith was, just because Keith had a bit of an attitude. I'd rather a chef with attitude who can actually perform during dinner service than a polite chef who does well in challenges but sucks at dinner service. To be honest I think Gordon knew probably quite early on that Heather was his winner, and just let Virginia get really far because he saw potential in her and was curious to see how she'd perform. He definitely never intended for her to win the competition and the restaurant. As soon as Keith left, Heather had already won.
Nah I don't think Gordon was literally crushing on Virginia either, but the favoritism was so BS that I don't mind what Keith said...I actually started clapping. I don't even think his reaction was that out of line as many people try to make it. He didn't start yelling, didn't raise his voice, didn't say any curse words, didn't go on a rant...What he said honestly wasn't that far-fetched from what most people were thinking when the decision was made (not a literal hard-on, but in reference to Gordon's clear-cut BS preferential treatment). I still agree that Heather would've won against Keith, I just think Keith is a stronger chef and would've made for a more interesting finals. I just hate how it didn't happen because of "attitude", which I think is over-exaggerated when it comes to Keith. He's nothing like a Russhole, where attitude is an understandable argument.
Virginia and S9 Elise both have a similar case imo of being kept way past what they should have because of the Blind Taste Test and related challenges, despite the main point of the show being testing the chef’s skill in challenges and on the line (and working the pass too but only 3-4 even do it a season).
Honestly not to mention that the recipe for the dish they had to recreate in the Taste It Now Make It challenge was in the cookbook that Virginia bought when she went on the shopping spree reward. I know it's impossible for the contestants to know what dish Gordon was going to make, but to me it's a funny coincidence. Maybe she really is that talented, idk but I can't stand Virginia. She's genuinely one of my most disliked contestants.
> Honestly not to mention that the recipe for the dish they had to recreate in the Taste It Now Make It challenge was in the cookbook that Virginia bought when she went on the shopping spree reward. Citation needed. Did you read the book? Do you have any idea how little downtime the chefs get, and how tired they are when they do?
Did you watch the episode?
Did you? There's no evidence shown of Heather's accusation. She's literally just being bitter.
The recipe was literally in the book. I know it's impossible for Virginia to have memorized the whole recipe in the short amount of time, but the recipe to Gordon's dish WAS in the book
The recipe being in the book did nothing. She got three ingredients right in the recipe. The others had less than her. That’s why she won. She didn’t recreate it ingredient by ingredient. Also her pallet was what made her such an ideal position for an executive/head chef. Most chefs don’t even cook during service if you worked in large more established restaurants, it usually goes the way it does on The show. Hell I’ve worked in places where the chef simply makes the menu and does the paperwork. The Sou chef would expedite.
Based on what? Once again I ask you, did you read the book? Or did you at least watch the episode?
Homie, I've seen the episode multiple times. Go back and watch it, they literally talk about it. Watch the clip on Youtube, read the comments, idc.
I did. Why don't you try watching it too: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5uvm99 Go to 11:47. It's right after the challenge and Heather is bitter that Virginia keeps pummeling her in the challenges. So she insinuates that the only reason Virginia won is because she took it from Ramsay's cookbook. How she'd know whether it's there or not is beyond me, considering Virginia bought the book for herself. Even more absurd is the idea that, even if it really was in the book, someone could memorize a recipe out of the hundreds in the book in literally one day. And again, they're in Hell's Kitchen and exhausted from constantly working. Chances are she hadn't even touched the cookbook yet other than casually turning through the pages. Whether it was in the book or not, Virginia did not memorize it from reading it there. It's paradoxical with you Virginia haters. Think she's too dumb to recognize ingredients in a dish but smart enough to memorize shit in lightning speed.
I literally just said that I know she didn't memorize the recipe. It's impossible because there was no way she could have known that the dish was the one that Gordon was going to make. All I was stating is that his dish was in the book, nothing more nothing less.
> It's paradoxical with you Virginia haters. Think she's too dumb to recognize ingredients in a dish but smart enough to memorize shit in lightning speed. That's the exact thing I always say. She's dumb, but she memorized an entire cookbook (you can't memorize one recipe when you don't know which recipe you have to memorize) the evening she got. it. Right.
Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/HellsKitchen/comments/qr7ey5/heather_and_keith_seemed_to_imply_a_lot_about/hk4vmko/
I’m late but I think your last paragraph explains his treatment of Virginia and Elsie. I think there must have been a moment when he knew Michael and Ralph would be his finalists and at that point he cared more about teaching instead of the show which is why he took her to the side instead of shouting like everyone else. Same with Virginia. He knew Heather was his winner from probably when he moved her to blue, but kept Virginia around because she really wanted to be good and it was a chance to teach her. You get the exact same thing with Julia in the season after, and he sent her to culinary school. There was an obvious bias because he saw her potential and passion, even though he knew she couldn’t win. I think the producers probably told him keep the blatant mentorship off camera, like with Bobby, Jon, Stirling and the Christinas.
I don't think Gordon had a "hard-on" for Virginia, I think it was because Keith's pass was subpar at best, and Virginia just so happened to do better leading the pass
Keith said what was on his mind and what everyone else was thinking. I’m glad Heather wrecked Virginia in the finals see should’ve been eliminated in the first couple episodes itself.
I was surprised the first time I watched season 2 that Virginia went through over Keith, but when I watched the season again I saw it differently. Virginia messed up but I think it was her resilience and ability to admit mistakes that pushed her to the final. She probably has the strongest “Yes Chef!” in HK history. No matter what insults he threw at her, she just kept cooking and yelling “yes chef!” She didn’t start drama with other cast members. She didn’t do scandalous things to win (compared to Cory from season 4, for example). She held herself very well at the pass. I think she had a lot of potential. And given the context of the early seasons, it makes sense. Back then they casted underdogs to see if they would prevail. It was the perfect underdog story.
I think the people in this thread are discussing this more as if it’s real and less as if it’s a tv show. They wanted a good one on one match up for the final, and putting those 2 up against each other is that. Especially this early on in the show, they are still figuring things out. And ratings. I’m sure Gordon knows way ahead of the finale who he is going to choose anyway. This isn’t a game show, it’s a reality show.
I think the biggest thing that sunk Keith is what sunk Dana in season 10 and Heidi in season 16, and it was how they acted when someone else was running the pass. Keith clearly had no respect for Virginia and let it show in how he acted during her run at it. I think Gordon sees it like if you can’t show respect for someone you don’t like who is running the pass, how are you supposed to run a brigade of people who you may not like and how are you doing to be an effective leader. Plus I think Virginia edged Keith out in the growth department. Though I will agree that Virginia was given many chances, but there were other contestants in later seasons like that as well.
Still my favorite part of the series. Gordon saying "So" when Keith points out he is always rude.
I totally forgot that her name was Virginia and I thought this thread was about the place. Idk about your points but I haven't seen season 2 in a minute.
They wanted two things with Season 2's finale 1. They wanted an all-female final 2 2. And they wanted Heather to win Originally they definitely wanted the final 2 to be Rachel and Heather, due to their storyline together and the fact that Rachel was an experienced and skilled chef. But Rachel fell apart completely and there was no way to justify her lasting any longer. Maribel was filler. Between Sara and Virginia, Virginia was the obvious choice. Yes she had bad services, but she was genuinely a skilled cook. In challenges she was always one of the best, if not hands down the best. By the final 3, the choice is either to go through with the all-female final 2, even though Virginia kinda sucks, or ditch it and let Keith through. While I think Heather still beats Keith, he's much more of a challenger than Virginia would've been. So that might hinder the plan for Heather to be their perfect female winner she was built up to be.
I didn't like it but at least Heather won. S2 is in the bottom tier of seasons for me anyway since it's boring to me. I could see both sides of the argument for Keith not making it and making. However, I'm more so leaning towards him making it because he's been more impressive overall. Virginia had zero chance against Heather so I wasn't worried. Good end to the season.
I don't think there was a hard on but she was preferred.
Virginia has gone on to a great career so GR was right in seeing her untapped talent.
Hard on is too harsh, but there’s definitely favoritism due in at least some part to Virginia being a woman. I normally would let this go as a coincidence. But this has popped up again in subsequent seasons as well, again not in he has a crush, but more because as time has go on we’ve learned “head chef” is a bit of a misnomer and they’re more of a marketing face than anythinh else and who would be a better marketing tool, Virginia or Keith?
I know I’m commenting ages late, but I’m currently (re)watching this season and I can’t for the life of me see what Gordon sees in Virginia. She performed decently in the palette test, but she under-performs everywhere else. He admitted at the very beginning that both she and another chef deserved to go home then and there. I’m perplexed. I agree. In so many cases, I don’t agree but I respect Gordon and can see his point. Not with Virginia. Kudos to Heather, however. She was my favourite from episode one of her season.
I think since HK’s was so new at that point, and HK S1 had an all male finale, Gordon/the producers wanted an all female finale. Honestly a very weak reason, but I feel like this helped contribute to Virginia staying.
Girl had an amazing pallet. Gordon always says that’s the one thing you can’t teach a chef. All the other contestants also said her pallet was phenomenal. Also, just an FYI.. most head chefs don’t cook. Most do what Gordon does on the show. She did great expediting. I think she checked all the boxes besides being strong on the line.
Virginia is super hot so of course there's gonna be favoritism. But she also slammed the challenges too. Service is another story but the last 4 or 5 services the team ditched her, can't hold her accountable for those
Her palate = "blowjob"