Last night on Hell’s Kitchen, instead of the show starting off with the chefs bickering backbiting, we got something a little different. This time Hell’s Kitchen started off with the chefs in “relax mode”, getting pretty plastered with each other. It was interesting watching them loosen up with each other and laugh a little instead of constantly bitch at each other. Sadly for Krupa, she loosened up a just little too much and woke up with a pretty good hangover. You play, you pay.
The next morning Chef Ramsey had them all assemble together in the kitchen. He had several different ingredients together and had the chefs? smell them all and tell them what they would use them to make. They all came up with different things. He then brought in two specialists from another restaurant and asked them, and they both told him, “Beer.”
Apparently there are several dishes that can be concocted using beer as a base, and Chef Ramsey wanted to see how the aspiring chefs? use it. With Krupa’s mild hangover, this wasn’t working out very well for her right off the bat. She clearly wasn’t into the idea of “hair of the dog”.
Fortunately, they decided to drop Krupa’s dish because it was under seasoned and just didn’t look very appetizing.
Carrie won the first round against Paul, and her receiving any compliment at all from Ramsey seemed to piss Elise off.
After each of the chefs? brought up their dishes, it was tied 2-2. It came down to Jamie against Tommy, and they both had duck prepared slightly differently. Once again, Blue Team came through with the victory. Their reward was going to the racetrack and enjoying some serious track time.
Meanwhile the Red Team once again had to clean up the kitchen. And to make it worse, it was delivery day at Hell’s Kitchen. This meant they had to stop everything they were doing every time a truck rolled up to empty it. And it always looked heavy. Of course, Elise had problems lifting and moving products, particularly the 20 lb bags of ice and the very large kegs of beer. Her non-stop bitching and whining was starting to grow quite weary o her team.
And of course, when they were done, they had to have the required bitch session where they all screamed at each other for a little while. I think this is what they do to promote love and harmony amongst their team. As we’ve seen in the past, the Blue Team has their method: you know, figuring out where they went wrong and the best ways to make it better. And we see over and over again the Red Team has their method: seeing who can scream the loudest and get the most people on their side while pointing the finger at someone else. Hey, whatever works.
And strangely enough, it really seemed to work for them. Elise finally agreed to stop bitching and moaning and take responsibility (yeah, that only went so far), and as dinner service started, they were an actual team for a while.
Maître’ de James-not-Jean-Philippe opened up Hell’s Kitchen for dinner service and the customers came in to a nice treat of Hell’s Kitchen Beer Night. This included beer at every table, with venison and mussel appetizers.
It didn’t take long for the Red Team to start having problems. Elise had problems with her salad. It wasn’t drained and it was too soggy.
In the Blue kitchen, Natalie was having problems with her scallops and had dozens of them lined up, not cooked properly. It was really good of Jonathon to help Gordon count them, though.
The Red Kitchen wasn’t doing much better. Jaime and Krupa brought cold venison up to the pass. Ironically, the exact same thing happened in the Blue kitchen. But there Jonathon totally threw Tommy under the bus and told Ramsey that Tommy rolled them in the Wellington pastry. First he screwed over Natalie, now Tommy. He’s turned into a real team player, hasn’t he?
However, in all fairness, the second time it happened, he did stand up and say that it was his fault and it wouldn’t happen again. At the same time, Natalie presented a raw sea bass. You know how Ramsey feels about raw fish. “It’s Raawwwrr!!!!” He got pissed enough that he tossed them both. Jonathon retaliated a little. He stormed off, saying that he’s had enough of this crap and for Ramsey to kiss his ass. What? Kiss his ass??
Ramsey chased after him. He told him that he expects more of him, etc… I expected more of Ramsey after that. The old goat has softened up a little. At least when going one-on-one with someone. He should have tore him a new one but instead he gave him a pep talk and sent him on his way.
The rest of the service went off without a hitch. Once again, neither team won the service and Ramsey demanded both teams to select two chefs? for him to choose one for elimination.
After a brief discussion, the blue team selected Natalie because of the scallop fiasco, and Jonathon because he just couldn’t recover from the Venison Wellington situation. I thought they should have chose Jonathon because he harpooned two of his own teammates, but that’s just me. The Red Team selected Krupa, because of the problems she had on the meat station, and Jaime for her raw sea bass. A pretty weak reason, in my opinion. She’s done well up until then. Carrie told him that her nominee was Elise.
Standing in front of Ramsey, Jamie told him that she was a strong line chef and had a lot of fight left in her. Krupa told him that she wasn’t done, but he asked her how long he has to wait. Jonathon had some confusing, nonsensical speech about when Ramsey told him to f**k off he wished he looked him in the eye and told him no. I had no idea what he was talking about and it appeared that Gordon didn’t either. Natalie told him that she is better than what he saw. He told her he wasn’t so sure, but to be honest, I totally agree with her. She’s been one of the best (along with Will) on the Blue Team.
Finally, he did the right thing and sent Krupa home. She was in over her head. If you remember last week, she created what she thought was venison stew, using filet mignon. Yeah, she’s ready to run a major kitchen in New York City. OK.
But, to add to the excitement, Ramsey said he wasn’t done yet. We’ll find out on tonight’s show (8 PM on Fox) what else he has up his sleeve.
