Last night on Hell’s Kitchen, we had the pleasure of a double episode. The first show started with the chefs sitting in the dorm, still reeling after the last show and the awful dinner service they went through. They sounded like 5-year olds, screaming at each other and pointing the finger at each other trying to decide who was really at fault at the poor dinner service. Jason showed his true colors and threw the biggest fit, storming off in anger.
Once again, Ramsay decided to try to go back to basics. This time he opened Hell’s Kitchen up for a lunch menu. Simple burgers, chicken, and salads. The idea was to get the teams to just work together. Something they are still clearly having a major problem with.
The customers: The USC Marching Band and cheerleaders. And they came into the restaurant with horns a blazin’ and cheerleaders bouncing their pom-poms.
The team to finish their service first wins this challenge. It was pretty close toward the end, with each team having only three burgers left to cook at the end. The Blue team was screaming, cheering their cooks on. The Red team was screaming, cheering their cooks on. Ramsay was bellowing, “Fries!” over and over. The excitement was palpable. OK, not really. But it was good TV, and they weren’t trying to rip each other’s throats out for a change.
And, the Red team finally won a challenge.
Their prize: a day in the spa, at the Malibu Beach Inn. The men’s penalty: having to clean up a bunch of debris and trash from a partially dried up river bed. Our penalty (I’m still trying to figure out what we lost to deserve a penalty): we got to see the delightful, enormous, full-back tattoo of one of the female chefs (?), and as an added bonus, we also got to hear Fran explain to her roommate that she’s wearing a MILF shirt. Yeah, maybe not so much.
In the dinner service, after Fran burned her hand on some hot water, Ramsay selected Holli and Salvatore to assist Jean Philippe as assistant maitre de’s. Salvatore showed yet more incompetence when he told Jean Philippe that he couldn’t write English. At this point, I’m really not sure why he’s even here.
And neither did he, apparently. After having a steak sent back that wasn’t cooked correctly, because Salvatore didn’t have it on the ticket, Ramsay made it a point to let the kitchen know that they had it perfect and it was Salvatore’s fault, he said he had enough and stormed off. Jean Philippe went and got him, talking him into staying and fighting back. Salvatore said he’d stay, but he’d put himself up for nomination if his team lost.
Bringing the chefs back who storm off and calming them down seems to be Jean Philippe’s main function so far this season. Andrew last week, Salvatore this week. He may have a new career ahead of him as a mental health therapist if this silly maitre’ de thing doesn’t work out.
All these people storming off makes me wonder, haven’t these people ever seen this show? Don’t they know how Gordon Ramsay talks to people? Or maybe they just thought they were special and he wouldn’t talk to them that way. Donkeys.
In the Blue kitchen, after a short time where Jason and Scott almost came to blows because Scott kept interfering with Jason’s station (note to Siobhan: this is how you handle this. You don’t whine about it to Chef Ramsay like you did last week), they overcame it and started getting entrée’s out quickly.
Back in the Red kitchen, Fran’s burnt hand was getting worse and was becoming a real issue, but she insisted on pushing through it, not unlike Dave last season, gamely pushing through his myriad of injuries.
Ramsay insisted on seeing her hand and told her to go see the medic. She was not a happy camper, but she was back in the kitchen in no time, finishing up the service with her team.
Ramsay declared the Blue team was the winning team. So the Red team had to go the dorm room and pick two chefs (?) for him to select one to send home. This gave us yet another opportunity to watch them all bitch at each other and talk about how bad they think each one is and whose fault it was that the dinner service tanked
Did you ever notice that every one of them smoke? And I don’t just mean on this season, I mean on every season. Have you ever seen a group of people that smoke more than these wannabe cooks, besides maybe musicians? I know I’ve gotten off-topic here, but I really wanted to mention that.
They selected Fran because she had so many things returned and just couldn’t get it together. They also selected Jaime, because she burned both the mashed potatoes and the carrots. Oh the horror.
For her defense, Jaime said she was a team player. For Fran’s defense, she said she belongs there, that’s why she stayed even after she burned her hand. After Chef Ramsay told Fran that he didn’t think he could teach an old dog new tricks, he said that he thought Fran could fight back and he booted Jaime.
On the second episode of Hell’s Kitchen, the show opened with Chef Ramsay giving Salvatore a little pep talk, telling him to fight back and that he wasn’t giving up on him yet. Then Salvotore talked to Scott who told him to tell Ramsay “Yes, I’ll ….” When he yells at him. Great advice.
The chefs went back downstairs and played the dice game. This is where they roll a giant die and whatever letter comes up, they have to create a meal out of.
The men came up with Halibut, Bacon, Endives, Salsify (not quite sure what that is), Crab, and Peas. The women came up with Beets, Shallots, Duck, Turnips, Mango, and Ham. Couldn’t wait to see what crazy concoction they would come up with using those main ingredients. Seemed like the guys had this one in the bag right from the get-go. Never a good sign, really.
It was actually very close. The men won, but only because the women’s duck fat was too raw. A little better cooked and they woulda had them. Shocking, really, with those bizarre ingredients.
This time their victory gave them a skydiving trip. Everyone was psyched except Jason. He said, “What do I look like, a bird?” The punishment for the women was to clean up the entranceway, including the carpet, polishing the woodwork, etc… plus prepping both kitchens for dinner service. Jason was relieved to find out that they really weren’t jumping out of a plane, but it was simulated skydiving in a SkyFly wind tunnel.
At the dinner service, it was a clinic in crustaceans for Siabhon, who was trying to figure out the difference between crab and lobster and which one went into the risotto. In the Blue kitchen, Chef Ramsay called Salvatore’s name so often it was starting to sound like roll call at Philly’s Italian Market.
Even guest patron, actress Debi Mazor commented that poor Salvatore looked like he was about to have an anureism.
Salvatore finally received a compliment, with Ramsay telling him that his salmon was cooked perfectly. That should buy him some time.
In the Red kitchen, Autumn dropped her salmon in the fire while plating it, but Ramsay was more upset with the fact that she was using a set of tongs to move them instead of a spatula. What the hell was she thinking?
In the Blue kitchen, Scott, who professes to be near perfect, screwed up two entrees in a row. Clearly he’s off his game if he can’t even cook a rare Beef Wellington without a problem. But his next few were back to being perfect again. Actually, I’m getting a little tired of hearing how great this guy is, from him. Surely a sign of how not so great he really is.
After dinner service, Chef Ramsay told them that he was amazed at how good they were. In particular, Salvatore and Nilka, who was spectacular on meats for the Red team. On that note, he wanted them to each pick one person from each of their teams for him to select from to send home.
For the Red team, Nilka sat down with the women and they hashed out every single mistake they each made, all of them blowing smoke like chimneys.
On the Blue team, Salvatore sat with Scott and told him that his mistakes were big. This doesn’t bode well for Scott.
Back in front of Ramsay, Nilka told Ramsay that she chose Autumn because she has a lot of book knowledge but isn’t living up to her potential. Salvatore said that he chose Scott because he just didn’t cook well. Ramsay looked as pained as Scott.
Ramsay said that Autumn was soulless and not passionate about food. He accused of showing no feelings at all when she dropped the fish. He said Scott didn’t cook at all in this service. Scott said that he was the strongest leader he had. Ramsay told him that he wasn’t as strong as he thought was and he talked like a politician.
Ramsay made them both take their jackets off, giving the feeling to all that he was going to send them both home. But he pulled a fast one and instead of sending either of them home, he gave them both another chance, making them switch teams instead.
My bet is that Scott will be just as much of a blowhard on the women’s team and Autumn will be just as much as a space-case. Both will be quickly dispatched as neither new team will take kindly to their antics. Both teams have enough of their own old problems to still deal with to have to worry about new ones.
