Last night on Hell’s Kitchen, the first episode of Fox’s double episode ended with Chef Gordon Ramsey eliminating Carrie and telling Elise to remove her jacket also. The second episode began with Ramsey telling the rest of the chefs to take off their jackets as well. He told them that they just were not ready, not inspired, to be the next head chefs of BLT Steak New York. So he wanted to take them to New York City to BLT Steak where one of them would become the next Head Chef, because if that didn’t inspire them, nothing would.
So, off they went for a whirlwind restaurant tour of New York City, tasting various ethnic cuisines, culminating at BLT where they got a tour of the restaurant.
This led to their next challenge. See how creative they can be with ethnic cuisines. To add to the fun, they had to pull the handle on a big slot machine and whatever 4 ingredients came up on the wheels were what they had to use, and their ethnic cuisine chip popped out at the bottom of the slot machine.
The winner of this challenge was going to be the new leader. The King of the Hill. Sadly, this came to mean absolutely nothing. I was hoping that one of them was going to be an actual leader. And I was hoping it was going to be either Jennifer or Will. All they got was to sit in a nice chair for a minute. Tommy earned the honor first with his Indian dish. But he was quickly dethroned by Elisabeth. Paul then unseated her, but was quickly removed by Elise’s Chinese dish. Will removed her next with his dish, but Jennifer’s Greek salmon unseated Will and won the challenge for the Red Team.
Is there anyone who would be at all surprised if it’s these two in the finals in a few weeks?
The Red Team is on a roll, winning several in a row now. For their victory, the they spent the day at the beach. There, they did something called Zorbing. That’s getting in a giant translucent ball and getting rolled around. It was a great opportunity for Elizabeth and Jennifer to do some serious damage to Elsie, but they did not take advantage of it. Very, very disappointing. They clearly were not thinking this through. For their punishment, the Blue Team had to clean and prep both kitchens for dinner service.
As dinner service opened, the Blue Team started screwing up right off the bat. Natalie sent up her first set of scallops raw. But her second set was near perfect.
The Red kitchen was running slow, but fairly smooth with only three chefs cooking. Much harder to get in each other’s way with only three of them.
In the Blue kitchen, Tommy kept sending up soggy garnishes and slowing down the service. Natalie continued to have problems with the bass. In fact, maitre d’ James-not-Jean-Philippe has come in to tell Ramsey that every single diner on their side of the restaurant has complained that the bass is overcooked.
In the Red Kitchen, Elizabeth had a mini meltdown. After brining dried out bass to the pass she begins to apologize profusely to Ramsey. She apologized so many times that he felt compelled to take her aside to ask her what her problem was. He told her to get her head in it.
Upon seeing the Wellingtons scored wrong and falling apart, he called Elise over to tell her that all the Beef Wellingtons that she scored were falling apart and to score them differently. Instead of just saying OK, she took the low road and told him that she didn’t do it, but that Tommy did it. So, Ramsey wanted to hear her tell Tommy that he scored the Wellingtons wrong. And off to the Blue kitchen they went to confront Tommy. It’s not bad enough that Elise brings down her team on a regular basis, now she’s going to start bringing down the other team too. Tommy told her she was crazy and that he didn’t do it. Will pointed out that if he scored them like that, why wouldn’t he score theirs the same way?
Ramsey saw right through her lie and asked her who she was going to blame next? Carrie? Krupa? He totally nailed her. As Elizabeth started having problems getting her bass to cook properly, Ramsey yelled at her to stop blaming the fish. Of course, she was also holding Elise up on her New York strip, which Elise had to keep putting back in the warmer, thus drying it out, which she blamed Elizabeth for. Funny how the Red Team just won’t take responsibility for their actions.
It was only a few more minutes until both Elizabeth with her undercooked bass and Elise with her overcooked New York strip were both kicked out of the kitchen leaving Jennifer alone with Chef Ramsey to complete dinner service. On her way out, Elise kicked over a trash can, which Ramsey made her come back and pick up.
Again, neither team won and both teams had to nominate someone for him to send home. The Blue Team rallied around Natalie as she broke down in tears. Once again, a true team. The Red Team continued to bicker, now without Carrie. Hmm. Seems the common denominator is still you know who.
The Blue Team selected Natalie because of all of the problems she had cooking fish. The Red Team nominated Elise because of her refusal to take responsibility for her actions. Ramsey told Elise that he could not believe that she did not take responsibility for the Beef Wellingtons and that she blamed Tommy. Elise told him that opportunities like this don’t come where she’s from and she’s thankful to be here.
He sent home Natalie. He told her she is just not ready to run the BLT Steak House. Like any of the others are??? OK, so why is he not getting rid of Elise? What does this chick have to do to get removed from this show? Better people have been sent home for far less than what she has done.
I have to say, I just don’t get it. I know the producers like drama, but she is over the top ridiculous. He has had numerous chances to send her home and he hasn’t taken advantage of them. I hope he does, before she does serious damage. Or someone really hurts her.
