Last night’s “Hell’s Kitchen” gave Chef Ramsey a chance to catch up on eliminations. A few weeks ago, he eliminated no one, and kept on giving certain chefs a second chance. But last night was a first, as he outright fired one chef and eliminated another, getting this thing down to the final three. That can only mean summer’s almost over.
The first part of the show featured a challenge among the remaining five, where they were told they’d each be creating a dish for “trendsetters” but that they wouldn’t know who those trendsetters would be….so, while they all thought they’d be cooking for Hollywood celebs, they were blindfolded and thrown for a loop when they found out it was instead a bunch of high school kids. Surprisingly, some of them made dishes that just can’t possibly appeal to teenagers unless those teenagers were aspiring chefs themselves. Josh made some kind of foo-foo salmon with pineapple sauce and Bonnie made fried goat cheese on greens. Are you kidding me? Julia, meanwhile, made a grilled chicken and cheese sandwich with onion rings and won the challenge with 51% of the vote. Well, duh.
For winning the challenge, Julia got to go to Vegas to check out the Green Valley Resort, where the winner of this thing will be taking over the restaurant. But she was able to choose another contestant to go with her, and chose Jen. That meant Rock, Josh and Bonnie had to clean the restaurant AND prep for the next night’s dinner service.
In Vegas, Julia and Jen were enamored with the “booty-washing” toilet in their hotel room and they also were thrilled to meet Heather, last season’s champ who is now running another of Chef Ramsey’s restaurants in Vegas.
Back at the ranch, Bonnie was reprimanded by the sous chefs for throwing out fish that she thought was going bad but really wasn’t. And at the dinner service, Rock was starting to crack under pressure, over-cooking scallops and bickering with Jen. Josh was just being stupid….he was starting to prepare dishes before they were ordered, which irked Ramsey to no end. After being yelled at, however, Josh made the same mistake twice and Ramsey did something he’s never done on this show before: he fired Josh. Not only that, but he kept yelling at Josh as he was walking out, and threw a pen at him. How dramatic.
Throughout the rest of the dinner service, Ramsey was yelling at Julia who was falling behind a bit, and Rock and Jen continued bickering. Bonnie, meanwhile, did a nice job of holding things together.
The dinner service was completed, but someone had to be eliminated. So Bonnie was selected to nominate two chefs, and she chose Rock and Julia.
Rock has shown he knows how to cook, but can’t control his temper. Julia is a great cook who just doesn’t have a ton of real restaurant experience. So Ramsey sent her home, but before doing so, he did something else he’s never done on this show: he told Julia he was sending her to culinary school, and that after graduating she was welcome back on another season of the show. He has that much confidence in her that with some learned skills, she can absolutely run her own restaurant.
So we’re left now with Bonnie, Rock and Jen. I thought Rock was a lock to win but if he and Jen can’t get along, this could get uglier. At this point, I really have no idea who is going to win. Hell, I didn’t think Heather would win last season. So I guess we’ll all just have to watch and see what happens.
You’re all watching, right?
