Category: Kitchen Nightmares (Page 4 of 6)

Last night on “Hell’s Kitchen,” it was the first-ever “family night.” That meant a dinner service featuring foods that kids like….burgers, chicken wings, onion rings, spaghetti. And since Chef Ramsay likes everything to be fresh, the aspiring chefs had to make homemade pasta, starting with the challenge of the day. The women were able to make more pasta in the time allowed, and once again the guys were slowed by their weak link, Craig.

As a reward, the ladies spent the day at an amusement park while the guys prepped for that night’s dinner service. When sous chef Scott asked for a volunteer to help him with something outside, Ben stepped up, then realized that the help was with shoveling horse crap. (The horses were for the kids to ride during “family night”).

Everything was fine with the dinner service until Matt undercooked a chicken wing…some poor kid was smart enough to realize his chicken was raw in the middle and stopped eating it, but Ramsay doesn’t take these things too lightly and got in Matt’s face. The guys started to move quickly then, and Ben got them huddled up and patted everyone on the back. Ramsay didn’t like this because there were still about a half-dozen orders to fill, while the ladies only had two remaining despite losing Vanessa for the night after she burned her hand with hot oil.

So the ladies won again, and the men again pointed to Craig as someone who couldn’t get his orders of spaghetti out in time. Ramsay praised Jen for doing a great job, and also Bobby who was the “best of the worst.” Bobby was asked to nominate two for elimination and he chose Craig and Matt. Ramsay then had the last word as he does sometimes, asking Ben to also step forward.

Here is my thought about Ben…he’s considered by the guys to be their most talented cook and I think Ramsay likes him, and therefore is pushing him harder. No way was he going to get sent home. And so, the one going home last night was Craig. Remember in the season premiere, Craig wearing that ridiculous chef’s hat that was as big as his body? Now he can wear that on the plane ride home.

It’s always difficult to guage who the favorites are in the “Hell’s Kitchen” competition, but the picture should become slightly clearer in the coming weeks as more of the lesser talent is eliminated. See you all next Wednesday….

Last night on “Hell’s Kitchen,” Gordon Ramsay was at his boisterous self, getting in contestants’ faces and ultimately showing that he has no tolerance for “quitters.”

Last week, Corey had played with fire by nominating Christina and Jen for elimination for “personal reasons,” and Ramsay ignored that and fired Sharon instead. So this week, Christina and Jen were not too nice to Corey.

The show started with chickens running around the dorms, and then Ramsay was about to chop one of their heads off, but stopped short. Whew, the folks at PETA were ready to hit “dial” and probably still did, even though Ramsay was joking with the contestants. But he did have them cut chickens up as their challenge of the day, and the ladies pretty much beat the guys’ collective ass. Craig was slow and ineffective, and the other guys didn’t appreciate it. Meanwhile, Jason kept up with his annoying sexist remarks throughout the whole show.

As punishment for losing the challenge, the guys Continue reading »

There is pretty much never a dull moment on FOX’s “Hell’s Kitchen.” Gordon Ramsay is a reality show star, because he spews profanity and makes people do what he tells them to. He is also clearly the one in charge and he proved it again in last night’s episode.

First, the sous chefs got their bullhorns out and woke everyone up at 5:45 am. Brutal. Then Ramsay made them all pull last night’s trash out of the back of a garbage truck and put it into a cylinder. Blech. But they were still all in their pajamas, adding to the drama. But he wanted them to realize how much food they were wasting, and it seemed to make an impact.

Then they had their first challenge, in which the two teams had to fillet a halibut and make perfect 6 ounce serving portions. The men finished in about half the time the women did, but were careless in the process, because they wound up tied with 41 perfect portions each. So the tiebreaker was that they had to pick one representative from each team to choose a fillet that they believed to be exactly 6 ounces. The guys chose Ben, who clocked one in at 5.9 oz. Corey represented the ladies and was fairly confident, but hers was only 4.8. So the guys won and got to go on a fishing yacht with Ramsay for the day, and eat a lobster lunch. Meanwhile, the ladies had to prep for the dinner service by cleaning fish and making fish stock.

In those clips where the contestants are interviewed, Jason repeatedly came off as sexist..and I’m not sure if it’s an act, but it’s really getting annoying, and I’m a guy!

Ramsay then asked Petrozza to recite the menu’s appetizers and he could only name one. The dude clearly has a mental block with this, and almost snapped…but then he had a miraculous recovery, aided by Bobby, who encouraged Petrozza to get back in the kitchen and get with the program. Finally he recited the menu correctly for Ramsay.

Craig and Roseann were chosen as Maitre’D assistants to Jean Phillippe for the night, and both of them did a miserable job. Roseann was holding orders back so as not to bombard the kitchen all at once, which infuriated Ramsay. Craig, meanwhile, was carrying a chair and accidentally hit some female customer in the head. Yikes.

In the end, the dinner service was a mess…the guys were bickering and the girls were bickering more.
After shutting down the kitchen early, Ramsay declared the ladies losers based on customer comments alone. He asked Corey, the best of the worst, to nominate two teammates for elimination. Instead of the obvious choice of Sharon, who was completely lost in the kitchen, Corey picked Jen and Christina, both of whom made the mistake of belittling Corey. But instead of giving in to Corey’s choices, Ramsay put down his foot and showed that he is boss. He chose Sharon because he said he just didn’t believe in her.

So here are two lessons for you……1) be careful about calling out your teammates, because now Christina and Jen will be gunning for Corey. And 2) Ramsay is not stupid, and is going to show why he is the boss every time, even if you try to play this show like the game that it is.

Next week there will be more cursing and more fire and more bickering. That’s why it’s “Hell’s Kitchen” and that’s why we watch it. See you then!

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 Continue reading »