just thought i'd ask what every one thinks. i know JC said that he couldn't run his kitchen without her, but, was he getting confused with a good cook or a hard worker...because from what i've seen kellie is the latter. not a bad thing in the big scheme of things but, not imo deserving of the grand prize.
if you look at the facts... she has never won any of the food competitions, never had any great feedback about her dishes...in fact she seems to spend way too much time clearing up compared to cooking.
also, i have a feeling the voting public are getting her confused with kathy "cheeky chappie" burke.... someone needs to buy the girl a pearly queen outfit not a restaurant.

Good points Nelly

But I disagree with some of them.

I think to run a sucessful kitchen, being a hard worker is more important to success than great food, although good food is a necessity.

Also in her defence she has only improved her existing recipe's ( recently) not shown if she can now invent better new ones.

Good food is a matter of taste so some may love her food others not.

I want Kellie to win but i am a firm supporter of the red kitchen

No, good food and hard work are both required. If you just work hard but make food like Kellie's special last night the critics would ruin your career overnight.

i thought that the contestants wanted to be "hands on chef/owners"..... which, imo eliminates kellie. she quite simply shows zilch flair for cooking at the high standard required by a restaurant.

I shouldn't think either Terry or Kelly are going to be opening a cordon bleu restaurant though are they? What is Terry's signature dish, Rockefeller something or other, not exactly classy is it?

At the start of the series the contestants had to say which sort of restaurant they would like to run, both of the finalists I seem to remember wanted down to earth family type establishments. Haven't they both been working in those sort of restaurants already? Surely they will stick with what they are used to and not try to compete with top chefs after just two weeks' of training. I can't really imagine a cordon bleu restaurant in Kellie's home town, Strood in Kent

Aye, you can just see the new menus being printed now can’t you?

The Chef’s Special Choice:

Terry’s Famous Geordie Rockerfella
A freshly prepared dish using only the finest deep sea crustaceans lovingly prepared and served on a classic bed of creamed pommes de terre enhanced with an exotic range of herbs and spices.


Or as his current menu says:

Kingprawns and Smash

mmmmmm - my mouth's watering already

Didn't Sam say last night that Terry already had a restaurant aswell as his own catering business?

I'm not sure if he owns a restaurant, but it has been reported he works in the kitchen of his own catering firm

How the hell can you tell if shes either - you see a totally edited snippet of her each night - you have no clue whatso ever about her food or whether shes a hard worker - ITS ALL Edited - its just a TV programme. Get real...

So the food critics were edited to say her dish was disgusting and she was edited into 4th place.

I'm with Nelly-j, I don't think Kelly is a good cook she just goes through the motions parrot fashion trying to please JC.

Compare her to Jennifer Ellison who worked just as hard if not more so yet learned to cook to a great standard. Jennifer had no cooking skills whatsoever whilst Kelly claims she has. Wish they'd teach her some hygiene.

didn't gary rhodes say that he hadn't rated kelly, but after an hour in his kitchen he viewed her as a real threat to terry.

j-c doesn't see terry threatening kellie at all and really he has been the more honest of the two chefs.

anyway, i think her cooking skills are ideal for what she wants to do - she's not aiming for cordon bleu is she?

myself , i don't see JC as the more honest chef. some nights he wouldn't even show kellie what was written on the results card as it contained poor comments from the munchers and also the critics. he's been the same with all his team ... telling them that their food is wonderful, but, in reality it was poor. then , when too many dishes were returned or there were too many complaints he blows a fuse ... completely over -reacting.
the night he said to kellie ...thanks god you are still here, i couldn't run this kitchen without you....she and the others took that to mean she was the best cook....i have a feeling he meant it literally, 'cos she is without a doubt a grafter.

p.s. am i the only one to notice how she plays up to the cameras ? the "slap my thigh, crafty cockney act " vanishes when mark durden smith's bit is over and the result cards are handed out. i'm not particularly fond of terry, but, i have yet to notice any playing up. with him, it's a case of what you see is what you get.... quite refreshing in a reality show.

I don't know if she's a good cook, but she seems like a hard worker. However, she was bound to stand out compared to the rest of the blue team (arguementative - Aby and Stein; happless - Henry; slow - Gary). I wonder whether she'd have been the 'stand out' contestant if she had been in the red team?

I don't agree with that at all. Kelly has been Kelly all the way through the show, on the live feed she is no different. I don't find Terry refreshing at all, all he seems to do is bitch about the blue team or his other team members, I've not heard Kelly bitch about anyone else at all, she just gets on with it. Terry must feel very unconfident if he has to keep pointing out others short comings instead of concentrating on his own strengths.

but, gets on with what???? for some reason we get very little feed of her cooking....and loads of her "getting on with it". how can we make a balanced judgement if we never get to see her cook. tbh all i know about the cooking in the blue kitchen is that gary was slow but a good cook , kellie works really hard clearing up and helping the others and JC can spin sugar/chocolate and make flowers out of veg.

I agree .... she'd make an excellent KP but that's about it. Don't forget, her "signature dish" came last and it did sound pretty revolting tbh.

In my opinion, both Terry & Kellie are being themselves in the show and the differences you see are caused by the different personalities of the finalists.

Kellie is one of those rare breed of people who believes that when they go to work, they should work. She appears to do try as hard as she can to get the job done to the best of her abilities, but if she can spare the time to have a laugh, so much the better. Kellie seems to also accept that sh*t happens, and when it does the best thing to do is to get over it and move on.

Terry, by his own admission, is unconfident in his own abilities. From the start, he said that his approach to work in the kitchen was to concentrate on getting things right and he hates it when others mess around. Whilst he admits to liking a laugh, he can’t bear it when people getting things wrong.

As for the question on how Kellie would have progressed if she was in the Red Kitchen, well its just speculation, but GR does seem to run a more strict ship than JC, so there would have been less opportunity for Kellie to have a laugh. However, against the other Red Kitchen contestants:

Caroline – she was always going to be one of the first to go. She was slow and often showed little respect for the Chef. I had forgotten just how up herself she was, but last night was another chance to be sadly reminded.

Aaron – I had no strong feelings about him either way, and I guess, if others thought the same, that could be why he failed to gain sufficient votes to remain.

Simon – like him or hate him, this professional wannabe was clearly in it for publicity. I’m surprised he stayed as long as he did on the show, but he was never going to win. Kellie would always have won against this guy.

Sam – a good attempt, but her two-faced, backstabbing approach was always going to be her ultimate downfall. A difficult call, but I think the public would have preferred the open and honest Kellie who opts to forgive, forget and move on rather than Sam

Terry – an impossible one to call, but I guess tonight we’ll find out!

No reference to cooking skills!!!
Guess they are of no consequence when it comes to picking a winner for their own restaurant/greasy spoon.

Au contraire! I think they are very important, but the viewers can only decide based on what information they are shown. Unfortunately the shows producers have decided not to show us much of their cooking abilities in this series

Maybe none of them are particulary good this year.

e.g. Simon admits he was useless. He said if he had won, he would have employed a chef to do the cooking and would have himself entertained the guests front of house

Aaron was claimed to have been quite good initially by GR, but was proven to be a one trick pony when he messed up after changing stations

Terry couldn't even serve up a B&B pudding last night - GR had to come to his rescue

Kellie was voted to have had the worst speciality dish by the food critics
Last edited by dawson : 02-05-2005 at 16:02

Kelly doesn't come across to me as the happy, clappy , larger-than-life character she likes to portray, (although I'm sure she really is loud and annoying) she comes across as mentally challenged, precisely as she told J.C. only she called herself thick.

Terry on the other hand appears to be a genuinely nice bloke. He is rather naive and lacks confidence not only in his own abilities but a north/south divide hence his wonderment at how far he has come.

I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the result of the competition was decided ages ago. How appropriate that Gary Rhodes should win the battle for the diners approval and J.C. would save face by having the winner from his kitchen, sharing the spoils as they say.

Kelly does not deserve to win on her cooking skills, she hasn't cooked anything of note and been outranked by those who've been voted off - even Anton was better.

Silly competition anyway - bring back Ramsey and our half-baked celebrities.

Funny how opinions differ. I don't like Terry, I don't find him naive, I find him rather arrogant although he definitely has a chip (or french fry!) on his shoulder. I know whose restaurant I would rather eat in and it would be Kelly's, I'd be scared to complain in Terry's when he used Smash

BTW Gary Rhodes starting his cooking career as a pub cook in the Medway Towns in Kent, exactly the same as Kelly.

The bookies now have Terry as red hot favourite to win, his odds have been shortening all day, whereas Kelly's are continuing to drift

Come on, Terry just used the Smash once because he was flapping about the time although I agree, it took some nerve to serve that up to such a cookery icon.
Having said that his signature dish is a great hit now made with real potatoes. I'd love to get the recipe.

I couldn't eat anything Kellie cooked, her nails are dirty and she's forever got her fingers in her mouth or in her hair then prodding food, but maybe I'm just fussy.

Erm, food poisoning versus instant potatoes, instant potato versus food poisoning...No, too close to call!

I don't like Terry at all, he continually bitches about the rest of them. He has all the way through, grassed everyone up for any mistake they've made. Strangely enough, he's not quite as forthcoming re his own mistakes. He's a sly one.

I like Terry. I find his occasional bitching quite amusing. I'd rather eat the food he makes than Kellie, her dish got slated.