Last night was the premier of Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” one of two Gordon Ramsay shows which is now in its fourth season. As usual, Ramsay has chosen 15 contestants to effectively interview for a job as executive chef at his soon to be opened London LA restaurant in Los Angeles. And also as usual, many of these contestants were probably chosen for their goofy, dysfunctional personalities, so to give this show some flair and ratings.

I’m not going to run down each contestant but I will highlight a few of them who stood out for various reasons.

First of all, the contestants were all picked up in a bus and taken to Hell’s Kitchen headquarters, and in what could be described as an April Fool’s joke, Ramsey was made over with a huge fake nose and long-hair wig, and sat in the bus to observe his applicants. A couple of them spouted off, most notably Craig with the big chef’s hat, and Bobby, who glossed himself “The Black Gordon Ramsay.” Oh boy.

Once the contestants arrived, and restaurant host Jean Phillippe addressed them all, he asked that a few of them do an impression of Ramsay. Most of them were awful, but then the real Ramsay did his own “impression,” and the contestants all started to wonder….prompting Ramsay to rip off the wig and fake nose and start barking at them all.

As they always do in the season premiere, everyone had to cook his/her signature dish for Ramsay. Most of them did not impress their potential boss, but a few stood out. Roseann, who has a thick New York City accent that almost seems fake, impressed him with her mussel soup, and he also loved Vanessa’s fish that was cooked perfectly and had a fresh approach.

What he didn’t like was Matt’s “exotic tartare” which was a weird combination of raw venison, scallops, caviar, white chocolate and capers. Blech!!!! Not surprisingly, Ramsay started barfing into a pail. And Matt looked like he was about to cry. Yep, we’ve got a crier again! Then a dude named Petrozza had this cornish hen that was cooked in a whole pumpkin. When Gordon asked what Petrozza calls this dish, he said “Hen in a Pumpkin”…..ooooh, how original! Then Bobby, the “Black Gordon Ramsay,” showed his laziness by serving deep fried fish, and Ramsay was just not impressed at all.

The teams were then broken up into men (blue) and women (red), and they had to choose captains. The women all chose Vanessa, and the men argued about who would be captain until finally Bobby was appointed. The women were studying the menu the whole time that the guys were bickering, and already had a leg up.

During the first dinner service for this group, everyone was messing up. Fish was being wasted, risotto was too salty or not cooked enough, and chicken was rubbery. And before any entrees could be served, customers started leaving and the kitchen was shut down.

Though both sides struggled and Ramsay could not bring himself to declare a winner, he instead said that the men were worse and that they were the losing team. Then he asked Lou Ross, this scrawny oriental hip-hop dude, to choose two nominees for elimination since he was the “best of the worst.”

Lou Ross chose Bobby, who showed absolutely zero leadership skills during the service, and no backbone whatsoever. This guy is seriously all talk. Then he also chose Dominic, a 43-year-old stay at home dad, who has some background as a chef and wants to revive his career. It didn’t help that Dominic had to throw away 30 scallops because they weren’t cooked properly. In the end, Ramsay chose Dominic because of that, and told Bobby he needs to “wake up.” Bobby of course said that he would do just that, but does anyone believe him?

With this show just underway, it’s hard to give an early prediction of who might contend in the competition, but look for the likes of Bobby, Corey, Craig and Sharon to exit in the next few weeks.
Of course, the ratings factor of this show is all based on how angry Ramsay can get, and he gave us a glimpse of that by throwing Corey’s “rubber chicken” against the wall to watch it bounce (and I think it did!). Buckle your seat belts, and have you fire extinguishers ready….