Every year, Hell’s Kitchen opens up with a different flair. Last night was no exception as Season 10 opened up with Sous Chef Scott telling this season’s hopefuls that eight years ago, he informed Chef Ramsey that he would go to any length to work for him, even shaving his head. He’s been bald ever since.
Then, to test this season’s contestants’ commitment, Sous Chef Andi brought out the barber chair. But first, she showed her own sense of commitment by showing her own bald pate. Two people immediately were selected to have their heads shaved. One guy, one girl.
Once they were shorn, Ramsey stepped in and stopped the festivities. He told the chefs to get in the kitchen and prepare their signature dishes for him.
We (and them) quickly found out that the two chefs who got shaved were, in fact, friends of Scott’s, and Andi let her blonde hair fly. She was wearing a very convincing skull wig. Joke was on everyone.
During the first men (Blue Team) vs women (Red Team) challenge, while there were several dishes that received no points at all, the Red Team persevered and ultimately won. For the losing team, it was standard punishment of cleaning both kitchens. For the winning team, the reward was a steak barbeque cooked by Season 3 winner Rock and Season 6 winner Dave. This gave the Red Team the opportunity to sit with them for a little while and pick their brains. This is always a good challenge to win because it can never hurt to get some good gauge from past winners, or any past contestants for that matter.
After the barbeque, the Red Team went back to their dorm to study the menu for the big opening. Sadly, when Ramsey asked a little while later for any of the entrees, Brianna, one of the chefs, had trouble naming them.
Once Hell’s Kitchen opened, the Red Team immediately had problems with the scallops. They sent them up raw. This is a consistent problem that this show just cannot get right. I don’t understand, I mean, how friggin’ hard is it to cook a few scallops so they have a nice brown color and put them on a plate.
The Blue Team was no better. While they were able to at least cook the scallops, Chef Tavon completely mutilated them as he sliced them. They looked like they were cut by the “before” shots of the Magic Knife.
And Tavon is our first casualty of the show as Ramsey tossed his ass out of the kitchen.
Back in the Red Kitchen, they have finally started preparing entrees. Including a Beef Wellington that was so raw, the dough was still raw. It took 15 minutes to fire a new one, and this effectively shut the kitchen down for the 15 minutes.
Back in the Blue Kitchen, Royce was on the pasta and couldn’t get any ready on time. He became the next guy tossed. It wasn’t long before Ramsey kicked out the whole Blue Team.
Just a few minutes later, he shut down the Red Kitchen as well.
100 diners, 0 entrees served. That has to be some kind of Hell’s Kitchen record. The Blue Team lost only because the Red Team managed to get some appetizers out. He sent the guys up to the dorm to nominate two people to be selected to go home.
The first nominee was Tavon, because of his total destruction of the scallops, which they never recovered from. Their second nominee was Don, although we never found out why because Ramsey jumped in and told them that not only did they have an awful service, but they also gave crappy nominees. Then he selected Royce.
Royce told him that he was sabotaged by Guy, who was assisting him at his station. Nothing like throwing your new teammate under the bus. And let me tell you, Guy was pissed. But Ramsey wasn’t buying it for a moment. Despite that, he sent Tavon home anyway, with no preamble and no words other than, “Take off your jacket and leave Hell’s Kitchen.” It really was criminal what he did to those poor scallops.
It was the right choice this week. He was way over his head.
