Last night on Hell’s Kitchen, the show opened with the Red Team at each other’s throats yet again. Right after Chef Ramsey eliminated Amanda in the last show, Elise and Krupa went after each other, pointing the finger and blaming each other’s attitude for the quick demise of the team. If you’ve been watching this show at all, you know that Elise’s Napoleonic attitude is a main contributor as to why this team continues to fail.
Then following morning, both teams had to chase chickens and put them in a pen. The more chickens they caught, the more ingredients they could select for the chicken dishes they would have to create. Of course, there were jokes about choking chickens, and at the end of the competition the Blue Team had 11 and the Red Team had 9. Each team had to use their ingredients to create four chicken dishes: grilled, sautéed, roasted and fried.
Carrie and Gina had to make fried chicken, which Carrie took out of the fryer too soon. It was RAW. Of course, Elise opened her trap and offered her opinion on Carrie, saying that every time there is a problem, the common denominator is Carrie. Well, thank you very much Sherlock.
The men went against the women in a taste test. The judges were the editors from People Magazine and Entertainment Weekly. As each team brought up their dishes and explained what they were, each team got a point or got slammed appropriately. Of course it came down to the last dish which the red team won with Elise and Elizabeth’s dish. This was the first challenge that the Red Team has won.
For their reward, the women got to go go-carting. For their punishment, the Blue Team had to use all the chicken to make various chicken dishes, including broth from scratch.
On the track, Elise, Carrie, and Jamie were racing. Elise didn’t care what happened, as long as Carrie didn’t come in ahead of her. She would do whatever she had to make sure Carrie lost, including running her into the side-bumpers or jumping on her cart a la Tom Cruise in Knight and Day if she had to. Nothing was beneath her at this point. She was a driven woman. Obsessed is actually more like it.
Back in the Blue kitchen, once again the Blue Team showed why they are absolutely kicking ass in this competition so far. Even though they lost the last challenge, rather than bitching and sniping at each other, like others we know would certainly be doing, they chose to use their time in the kitchen more constructively. They practiced their timing and pretended that they were putting on a dinner service. It worked well for most of them, except for Chino, who couldn’t seem to get the hang of role playing. He kept asking for more time, even though they were just pretending to be cooking. I’m getting the impression that he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Back in the Red kitchen, while prepping for dinner service, Elise opened her mouth once to many time times to the wrong person and Chef Andi almost buried a meat cleaver in her head. She told her that she was very disrespectful and she needs to watch who she’s talking to. This made Carrie’s day.
When Maître de James-not-Jean-Philippe opened Hell’s Kitchen for the dinner service, each kitchen had special guests. The Red kitchen had Olympic volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Jen Kessey and the Blue kitchen had Olympic Gold medalists Mark Spitz and Janet Evans.
In the Blue kitchen, Monterray, (you may remember we renamed him TC for “Time Challenged” a couple of shows back), had a problem getting out sea bass. He and Chef Scott got into a nice screaming match with each other where TC actually appeared to be ready to walk out of the kitchen. And I’m not sure I would have blamed him. After that fiasco, Chino told Natalie that he needed a minute when he really needed three minutes. They had a brief discussion on the merits of asking for the amount of time you really need. I think he’s the one who should be called “Time Challenged”. Or maybe TC2.
In the Red kitchen, Elise messed up her sea bass and while Ramsey yelled at her, she gave him a “What? Who? Me??” look. He told her that she needs to take responsibility for her actions. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. People like her rarely do. They are far too busy blaming others.
After the Blue Team sent raw lamb to the pass, Ramsey called the whole team up to the pass and showed them all the undercooked meat. He then apologized to Janet Evans and Mark Spitz for the embarrassment and proceeded to shut down the kitchen.
In the Red kitchen, he had some hope still. Until someone sent undercooked sea bass to the pass. That was the final straw. He called them all up to the front of the kitchen and shut them down too. Really. How much can one man be expected to take?
After the service, Chef Ramsey announced that neither team won and both teams had to nominate two people for him to choose from to send packing.
On the Blue Team, TC2 was a pretty unanimous choice, by everyone except for TC2, who tried to turn it around onto Natalie. What a joke that was, since she is the key that makes that team so strong and the main reason that they have won nearly every challenge. The team’s second nomination was TC1, who had a pretty major attitude problem that really hampered the team’s service.
On the Red Team, you can guess who was nominated, but I’ll tell you anyway. Carrie. But not before there was a knockdown, drag out fight between her and Elise that almost came to blows where they were screaming at each other to shut up. Jennifer called her the team’s bottom player. They also chose Elise because the arguments between Carrie and Elise are part of the team’s problem. Really? Ya think??
Elise made the mistake of asking Chef Ramsey to ask each of the girls who they would rather see go, her or Carrie. Of the five girls, including Natalie on the Blue Team who only worked with her a few days, only Elizabeth said she wanted to see Carrie go. I guess Elise found out where she stood amongst her peers.
But Ramsey decided to send TC2 home. He was way over his head from the very beginning and got worse every service. The team will gain by subtraction without him. Just as the Red Team would gain by subtraction if Ramsey would stop thinking about ratings for just a moment and let Elise go. She is dragging down that team like an anchor. Even Carrie would probably do at least a little better without Little Napoleona there, screaming orders at everyone. Maybe he’ll come to his senses next week.
