Tonight’s finale of Hell’s Kitchen will be like none other in the show’s seven season history. Jay Santos, 32 will go up against Holli Ugalde, 24 in what promises to be an explosive and interesting finale. It was only a couple of weeks ago that the two appeared destined to be romantically involved (that hot tub scene was pretty hot), and perhaps even were, off-camera. We really don’t know for sure.
At any rate, without question they are the two most qualified of the original 16 contestants that started the show several weeks ago. There were a couple of others who showed some promise along the way, like Benjamin Knack, but his ego got the better of him and he was eliminated last week.
One of the interesting aspects of tonight’s show, as other past finales, will be how fired chefs react to coming back and being on the finalists’ teams. Sometimes they can be petulant, sometimes they can be vindictive, and sometimes they can actually be helpful. In all honesty, I can’t see how Fran or Nilka can possibly be helpful. They’re both loads on anyone’s team. And I pity whoever gets Benjamin, because I can’t see him being anything but spiteful and go out of his way to sabotage whoever’s team he’s on.
Unless she has a complete meltdown, or her team falls apart around her (some of this is about how proficient they are at running a kitchen brigade), I think Holli can win this. They are pretty even in the talent department, but with Holli being only 24, she has plenty of time to get even better.
The winner gets a $250,000 a year gig as head chef at London’s Savoy Grille.
