Has anyone noticed how Laura, who is supposedly working for both chef’s makes it blatantly obvious who she would like to win?

Even though much of the filming is edited, from what we have seen she has shown time and time again her support for Gary Rhodes.

Examples:

After a diner orders a red menu, her response is “That’s what I like to see, support for the British”

On two occasions she has served the envelopes with the results, she has wished Gary Rhodes good luck and given him a ‘thumbs up’ signal. Jean Christophe has never received such signals of support from this so called maitre d’.

She constantly updates Gary Rhodes on progress and gives him invaluable insight into the front of house. This is so important in the restaurant and her neutral standpoint is necessary for a fair competition; this so far has not been the case.

If she spends more time assisting Gary’s kitchen, this will undoubtedly affect JC’s service. How she decides to put orders into the kitchen also plays a huge part.

So far, what Laura has shown as a maitre d’ is completely unprofessional in my opinion. Although I had no preference of winner, her unprofessional attitude has swayed me towards Jean Christophe.

Has anyone else noticed this?

If she is showing favouritism,which I really haven't noticed,I'm not surprised.

JC was extremely rude to her before walking out of his kitchen.He would discuss nothing with her and it was all left to her to explain away his rudeness to the diners.

I had heard they had some kind of arguement, how serious was it? And was there never an attempt on either side to resolve any issues?

It was the night Stein and Gary walked out.JC was then in a temper and wouldn't answer Laura when she asked him what she was to tell the guests.He told her to come back later,then still ignored her.She said it was the first time in her career that a chef had ignored her.......so yes,it was quite serious. I've no idea whether there was ever an attempt at resolution.

Gary Rhodes doesn't see it that way - he gave her a right rollocking earlier on in the series - said she was spending too much time on the other kitchen. Also told her on one occasion that somethings are best kept unsaid when she criticised something the Red Kitchen were doing wrong.

Maybe the poor girl just can't win?

I wouldn't have called it serious, just a little tense at the time.

JC was struggling to deliver the amount of food since Laura had suddenly given him lots of tickets in a short period of time. JC then informed her he was not going to take any more tickets for the time being. That's when Laura, who was also clearly under pressure too at the time, retorted with what should she tell the guests? From then on he would only say come back later or remained silent.

Maybe Laura's only worked for those Chefs like Gordon Ramsey, but sometimes remaining silent is better than coming out with a load of expletives. As a customer, I know which I would prefer.

I'm sure it was all sorted out when everyone had calmed down

Hard to see how you could say Laura was being unprofessional. In her normal working environment she wouldn't have two competing head chefs to work with. Both chefs seem to have had their ups and downs with her - I suspect that she is caught in a bind here. Not a job I'd like to have to do, and I think she handles it well.

For what it's worth, I also thought she favours the red kitchen and the red team, but that could be in the editing.

I agree that she seems biased towards Gary Rhodes -

She was singing his praises to some diners the other day - saying how beautiful his food was and encouraging them to choose the Red Kitchen menu. She seems much more encouraging towards his side when it comes to giving the envelopes out at the end of the evening too.

However, I don't know that she can be accused of being unprofessional as we don't see what happens when the cameras are not running - and she may be equally as supportive to JC - at least, I hope she is.

You must remember that a key part of Laura’s job is to keep the customers happy.

If Laura knows that she has many orders queued up for the Blue Kitchen, she is wise to try to promote the Red Kitchen otherwise the customers will have to wait to receive their meals. Furthermore, if everyone is ordering from the Blue Kitchen menu, then there is a danger that the later guests may not get a choice – this happened last year when Jean-Phillipe was in charge – some later customers were not happy at being told that the choice of menu was no longer available.

If I understand correctly, there are about 80 covers per night, and neither kitchen is prepared to cater for more than about 54 covers.

Maybe this is why the editing suggests that Laura appears to favour the Red Kitchen?
Remember Night 1 when the Red Kitchen were left twiddling their thumbs for the first hour.

Who cares, quite frankly.

Important:

My post wasnt pointless, i was stating my opinion, which it it doesnt make the slightest bit of difference as the program is pretty dire anyway. Everyone else posts their opinions, so I can too. If you dont like it, ignore it or tell me.

In which case the answer to your question is at least the six other FM's who have posted in this thread

There's more that havent.

Six FM's have posted in this thread that obviously care about the subject

Only one person appears to be posting in this thread that does not care about the subject and thats you


To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would want to post in a thread that they are not interested in - if you're really not interested, why not pick another thread? Theres loads available you know - I'm sure you could find one that interests you

Why shouldn't he state his opinion?

He has the view that he doesn't care and that balances the view. There's three options for people who read this thread, those who think Laura is biased, those who don't and those who couldn't care less.

He's just putting his point forward.

As for me....

I couldn't care less.....

But at least you elucidated, rather than simply chipped-in with monosyllabic responses that contribute nothing fresh to the thread. You have to question the logic of anybody who actively goes out of his way to tell people he doesn't care. If he doesn't care, why the heck's he posting?

Life's too short.

It appears I may have called this completely wrong

Laura has since stated that there is no way she will ever work for JC again

As for Laura being unprofessional, well last night she lost one table's complete order and didn't own up to the chef when she discovered her error.

I had to laugh when I heard she told Kim Woodburn (one half of Kim & Aggie) that she was not going to get any champange she requested as that was reserved for certain celebrities only. Maybe that was true, but not the most diplomatic of ways to refuse a customer's request.

I can't remember Jean-Phillipe being shown making so many mistakes in front of the customers - he seemed to prefer to suffer the wrath of Gordon Ramsay than potentially upset a customer.
Last edited by dawson : 02-05-2005 at 12:09

Thats a bit of an insult isnt it reserving champagne for only certain customers. In which case they should make it clear to people who apply to save embarrassment by both the maitre d and the customers. If its all free there should be no exceptions surely? If I was Laura I would feel very uncomfortable about having to explain something like that, there's not an easy way to say it.

Yep - not only 'seems biased', but admitted that she prefers Gary in the show last nights....