Author: Mike Farley (Page 82 of 117)

Last night the final two on “Hell’s Kitchen,” Petrozza and Christina, got a glimpse of what life may be like for them if they win, and become an executive chef at Gordon Ramsay’s new Hollywood restaurant. And one thing became clear–both of them, as nice as they appear on the outside, have a burning desire to win this thing. How could they not after coming this far?

They started out by recapping the first thirteen weeks of the season. Yikes, has it been going on this long? There were contestants eliminated that I barely remembered, and both Christina and Petrozza had been close to leaving at various points in the show. They also went back to that first show of the season, when they had to cook a signature dish, and Petrozza’s was “hen in a pumpkin.” How hilarious, and how amazing that he’s come this far.

The two chefs were told they had to create their own menu, as for the finale Continue reading »

Last night’s “Hell’s Kitchen” featured the remaining three chefs–Corey, Christina and Petrozza–battling to reach the final showdown. To kick things off, their families were invited in to have lunch with them as Ramsay cooked for them himself. What a treat, right? Well, Christina was the only one who was smart enough to realize she should pay attention. So she analyzed the dish, which was a venison dish with white bean puree and some kind of wine sauce. The challenge, of course, was for them to re-create the dish using ingredients in the kitchen, in 45 minutes.

Not surprisingly, Christina won the challenge, though Petrozza and Corey put in quite an effort. Christina’s reward was to spend more time with her family and Ramsay as they dined at a few of the hot spots in Los Angeles. Corey and Petrozza, meanwhile, had to scrub glassed behind the bar.

For the dinner service, each contestant was asked to take turns “at the pass,” meaning they had to bark orders the way Ramsay does each night to everyone else in the kitchen. None of the three were particularly convincing doing this, but were not horrible, either. As always for this challenge, Ramsay had the sous chefs mess up a few of the dishes to see if the chefs would catch the mistakes. Only Christina did.

And while each contestant did a fairly good job last night, they each made their share of mistakes. Ramsay knows it gets tough at this point to send someone home, but he had to ask each one to nominate someone else for elimination. Corey chose Christina, Christina chose Corey, and Petrozza chose Christina. Ramsey announced the Petrozza was the first to reach the finals, and then he chose Christina as his challenger, sending Corey home.

I think Ramsay may already have it in his mind that Christina will be the executive chef at his new restaurant. But Petrozza is a fighter and he’s really hung in there. Not to mention he must really know something about running a kitchen.

So there you have it….next week we have the battle for the championship–the 47-year-old kitchen veteran against the 25-year-old up-and-comer. Should be interesting, but either one will be a good choice for Chef Ramsay. See you all next Wednesday!