Last night it came down to the final 3 - Corey, Christina & Petrozza. 

They were all soo happy at the beginning of the show cause Jen was gone.  I agree - whoo hoo!

Chef Ramsey cooked breakfast for the final 3 as a celebration for them making it so far.  Oh yeah - and their families were invited!  I always love it on these reality-contest shows when the loved one's get to come.  The contestants are always soo happy to see them - like it's been years!  Lol!  Corey's mom & boyfriend, Christina's parents, and Petrozza's dad & girlfriend came. 

I had a feeling that it couldnt be just a simple breakfast - and I was right!  The catch was, that after they were done eating and thier guests had left, their challenge was going to be to recreate the dish that Chef had just cooked for them.  I thought that they all might have guessed that something like that might happen - but to my suprize, Christina was the only one who suspected anything.  She paid close attention to every aspect of the dish as she was eating it.  I was kinda proud of her.  As soon as their families were gone, Chef broke the news of the twist & gave them 25 minutes to recreate his dish based on memory and a sample plate that they could taste, smell and look at for help.  Christina really impressed me during the challenge, and I thought that she had done the best.  I thought Petrozza had done the worst.   Corey did better than I thought she was going to do, but guessed the wrong meat. She DID guess a tricky key ingredient in the sauce, which really impressed Chef Ramsey.   Petrozza got the meat right, but didnt add any puree to his version of the dish.  (Duh - dumb mistake! It was RIGHT there on the sample plate in front of him!)  Christina got the meat wrong - but got nearly everything else right & ultimatly won the challenge.  Again.  She really impressed me.  She seems to have a really keen palette.  The punishment for the losers was to clean the glasses and chop ice for the bar - BY HAND!  Wow.  Chopping up those blocks of ice looked really hard - but as they said, at least Petrozza & Corey got to get some frustration out.  Lol.  Then Jean Phillipe came over to check on their progress & inspect the glasses.  Apparently Petrozza is just as messy cleaning glasses as he is on his station.  JP had to tell him to re-do all the glasses he had done because they were spotty.  Lol! 

 Christina's prize was to go on a double decker bus tour of LA with Chef Ramsey & her family, and then to a 3 course meal at a top restaurant.  Christina was really funny on the bus.  She acted like she had never seen a city before - like an amazed little kid.  Lol. 

This was their last diner service before the final challenge - so they had better be on top of their games.  Chef told them that their special task that night was going to be each of them getting a turn at running the kitchen themselves - a very important thing to prove to Chef that they can do.  Before service started, Ramsey offered each chef some assertiveness training, which was hilaroius to watch.  They all looked terrified to fake-yell at Chef Ramsey for practice!  Lol!  It was funny watching Petrozza shouting for once,  Christina acted more like a  "cheerleader", and as for Corey - I just didnt buy her try at assertiveness at all. 

Chef Ramsey's sous chef''s Scott and Gloria were helping in the kitchen tonight to fill in the gaps that the eliminated chefs once held.  They were also there to pull tricky little quality tests arranged by Ramsey to try & trip up the chef's at the pass. 

Petrozza was the first to try and run the kitchen.  I thought he did OK, except he failed Scott's test.  He didnt notice that there were no peas in the risotto.  Bad, Pertozza!  Lol.

Next was Corey.  She had been doing really well at the meat station, but SUCKED at the window.  She couldnt even read off the first order right!  Again she tried to be assertive, but again - I didnt buy it.  She caught the fact that the sauce for the wellington was the wrong sauce - but didnt actually taste it & figure it out untill AFTER she had allready poured it on to the meat.  Too late.  Test failed.  Another dumb mistake. 

Last up was Christina.  Opposite of Corey, she was doing HORRIBLY at the fish station, but did really well at the pass.  She looked terrified at first, but got into a groove rather quickly.  (Except for the fact that she was annoying the other chef's with her "annoying voice."  Lol!)  Gloria's test for her was putting the wrong seasoning in the mashed potato's - and she caught it!  Good for Christina!  She was the only one to pass her quality test.  All in all - I thought she did the best, and Chef commented that the dinner service itself went really well.

After service, Chef told them to go in the back and each nominate one fellow chef for elinination.  Before they went out to tell Chef their nominee's, they all commented to each other that no matter what they had to say about each other to Ramsey, that none of it was personnal.  Yeah, right.  How could it not be?  It's a competition.  Every one for themselves!  

Corey nominated Christina, who then nominated Corey.  Petrozza nominated Christina - so that was 2 votes for her.   At that point I was pretty sure that the final 2 were going to be Corey and...one of the other two. Lol!   Based on the votes - maybe Petrozza.    But oh ****!  Corey got eliminated & it's Petrozza and Christina as the last 2 standing!  Wow!  And he picked Petrozza as one of the final 2 FIRST!  I was surprised. 

So now it's Petrozza & Christina to the big show next week.  The finale looks like it's gonna be really good - lots of twists and suprises!  Based on the scenes from next week that they showed - it looks really awesome.  Cant wait! 

I  have one problem though - who do I root for?  I STILL dont know!   Christina is a good chef, but she's still so young & needs to finish culinary school.  After she's done with school I think she's gonna be a GREAT chef - but how does that help Chef Ramsey now?  Petrozza is a good chef & definatly has alot more experience than Christina - but is he a better chef than Christina?  I'm not sure.  Christina has WAY more potential than Petrozza, but again - Chef Ramsey needs a great Chef NOW for his new restaurant.  I dont know.  Christina really impressed me in this episode, though.  Mmmm - I still cant decide.  D*mn.  What about you guys?  What do you think & who are you rooting for to win this season's HK?  I need some feedback! 

Till next week, fellow HK fans....

P.S.  Oh yeah - almost forgot!  Two more quick things:

1)  What's up with the rubber band-looking thing that Petrozza always wears on his hand?  Is it like, a good luck charm or something?  Anyone? 

and 2)  Is it me, or is that a HORRIBLE likeness of Chef Ramsey that they show on the downloadable HK game?  Lol!