Can’t Take the Heat? Don’t Go in the Kitchen – The Chopping Block’s Khoa and Denise Quit

A few years back, there was a short-lived sitcom based on celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s book, Kitchen Confidential. (Look it up online sometime; I’ll bet you’ll be surprised who was in the cast.) Anyway, the following quote comes from one of the episodes:

Here's the thing about a great restaurant: It's like great theatre. It's our job to dazzle you, amaze you, delight you, while keeping you totally ignorant of the Hiroshima going on backstage.

Case in point: The Chopping Block’s Khoa and Denise.

The first couple to exit NBC’s new reality cooking show starring British super chef Marco Pierre White, cousins Khoa and Denise Nguyen were not actually supposed to be on the chopping block, so to speak. That honor should have gone to their teammates, brothers Zan and Than.

Than was the team’s head chef and had failed miserably; his team lost so abysmally that the food critic judging them declared that their restaurant wouldn’t last a single night in New York City. That’s largely because of Than’s chicken dish, which was so undercooked that the critic didn’t feel it was safe to eat. (If you missed my recap of the whole episode, you can read it here.)

Brother Zan had his own problems – gabbing with customers when he should have been serving them. Chef Angie came out to find him and dressed him down in public, which made Zan furious. Later, as Marco prepared to “sack” one couple, Zan found himself in an argument with Angie – who had made the team’s one successful dish (that we saw). The two brothers, through incompetence and arrogance, had dug themselves a deep hole, and Marco was quite clear that he was about to push them down into it.

That’s when Khoa spoke up: He wanted to quit. He couldn’t take the bickering and hard feelings and controversy – basically, he couldn’t handle the pressure.

This is the same Khoa who told us earlier about how he and Denise have a passion for food and entertaining. Their family wanted them to be doctors or lawyers, but they were meant for the restaurant business. Their bio on the NBC website said they viewed this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Winning The Chopping Block gets you hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money and some very big connections – like Chef Marco Pierre White. Impress this guy and your dreams of owning a restaurant – dreams Khoa and Denise supposedly had going into the show – come a few steps closer to reality.

Throughout the episode, we saw Khoa start to crack. As chaos reigned in the Black Team’s kitchen, Khoa told us about how he couldn’t function well with all the voices and noise coming at him at once. After witnessing the battle royale between Angie and Zan/Than during judgment hour, Khoa apparently decided he’d had enough and threw himself on the sword.

How many aspiring restaurateurs do you think would love the chance to have their food tasted by Marco? How many do you think would crave the $250,000 up for grabs? How many do you think would appreciate the exposure that simply comes with being on TV? Plenty. More than plenty.

Khoa surely beat out other potential contestants for a chance to appear on this show. Many more were probably sitting at home watching, wishing they could be where he was. So what does Khoa do? Does he respect the good fortune that has put him in this position? Does he fight through the adversity and suck it up? Does he do whatever he can to stay alive in the competition?

No. He decides he wants to go home. He quits – wasting the opportunity of so many aspiring culinary talents’ dreams.

Worse, Khoa didn’t appear to be in any real danger. Angie had made herself a target by arguing with Zan, but the brothers were really the obvious choice, and Marco had zeroed in on them. Because of editing and what we don’t see on the screen, that was probably even more apparent to those actually at Marco’s table than to us. I’d imagine Khoa had a pretty good idea he wasn’t going to be sacked that night. Offering to step down when you’re already in the line of fire is one thing – still shame-worthy, but perhaps understandable.

But quitting when you’re ahead? Unacceptable. That’s the kind of thing that definitely makes you a Reality TV Hall of Shame inductee.