Every season, “Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox seems to up the ante when it comes to brash contestants who like to get in each others’ faces and who sometimes get in Chef Gordon Ramsay’s face. And somehow, despite the fact that they found 16 contestants among 10,000 applicants, they always manage to draw about 50% from the New York tri-state area. Seriously, if you watched last night’s episode, the New YAWK accents are quite dominant.

The show opened with the 16 hopefuls meeting new maitre’ D James. What, where the heck is Jean Phillippe??? Then they were blindfolded and sent to the new location of where they might be working if they win this season–LA Market. Ramsay was there to greet them and then sent them back to Hell’s Kitchen to prepare their signature dishes for him, in 45 minutes time.

The guys won, but not before some funny moments–like when Emily had her boobs basically sticking out of her dress, and Ramsay said to “cover your puppies.” Ha! He then caught Sabrina yawning and almost threw her out. Antonia made some dish that looked like poop and according to Ramsay and everyone else that Ramsay made taste it, tasted like poop as well. The ladies had to clean up the kitchen and the guys got to have a lunch that included champagne, caviar and neck massages. Raj, who is one of those rambunctious New Yorkers, started doing karate kicks after he had a few cocktails. Awesome.

During dinner service, Antonia had bad migraines but was shaking so bad when the medics arrived that they took her to the hospital. That was scary, and I’m kind of annoyed that the producers showed all that. Anyway, Antonia won’t be back this season, so despite her poop dish, we hope she is okay.

For the dinner service, Raj and Emily were taking orders for the mini-pizza appetizers, and Raj did not know what he was doing at all. Trev was dressing the salads like he was dressing himself up for winter. Melissa made raw meat. Boris started mimicking Ramsay saying “RAW!” and Ramsay proceeded to rip ol’ Boris a new one. Classic. Lisa didn’t know how to cook scallops, continually flipping them so as not to get a nice sear. Sabrina was trying to brown nose Ramsay by bringing her food to the pass was done while still waiting for her teammate’s fish and garnishes.

After two hours, no entrees had left the kitchen and people were starting to leave. Ramsay had to shut it down, and said it was the worst opening service ever in Hell’s Kitchen. Do you get the feeling the producers found more amateurish chefs on purpose this time to make for better TV?

Ramsay had each team nominate one person for elimination–blue went with Raj and Trev, and red went with Lisa and Sabrina. But Sabrina was kicking and screaming, throwing Nona under the bus along the way. Ramsay told Sabrina and Trev to get back in line, and he sent Lisa home. Raj and his karate kicks were also safe. Of course they were….why would you send ratings gold like that home so soon?

Episode 2, which was the second hour of the 2-hour premiere (please Fox, don’t make this a 2-hour event every week, but I know you will with baseball playoffs coming up), started with a loud wake up call for the chefs. Then they were brought downstairs where Ramsay introduced his friend, Masaharu Morimoto, an Iron Chef from Food Network. They had to watch Morimoto make two sushi dishes and then re-create them. The guys won this challenge too and got to have a plane fly them to San Francisco (on Southwest….why no private plane, or was this an advertising thing?)…for a wine lunch. You know that that meant…more karate chops! The ladies had to stay back and prep and then eat some “delicacies” that looked disgusting, and I don’t even want to know what they were.

At dinner service, one chef from each team was chosen to be an assistant maitre’ D…Jillian and Vinny. Of course there’s a Vinny, right?
It then took Vinny 30 minutes to get his order in. Gail made good risotto, and Sabrina made good sushi (she appears to be able to cook well but can’t get along with anyone). But many of the chefs failed–Curtis poorly executed sushi, Emily undercooked meat, Boris undercooked scallops, and Vinny told diners not to order sides because Raj could not keep up in the kitchen. He was right, but Ramsay was fuming about the fact that Vinny did this. Eventually, Raj and the rest of them were kicked out of the kitchen, and Raj was trying to karate chop again. The blue team lost, obviously, and Ramsay asked for two consensus chefs for elimination.

They sent up Raj and Boris, but then Ramsay wanted Vinny to also step forward. Then, he threw them all for a loop by eliminating Curtis. You know, I have to admit, I am not positive how this went down because I was FALLING ASLEEP after watching two hours of this show. But I’m sure that Ramsay decided to keep Raj and Vinny and Boris around for ratings. I mean, karate chops and Boris mimicking Ramsay? That’s gold. But Curtis clearly didn’t have the cooking chops needed here.

So this season is going to be mighty interesting. But we’re already down to 13 with Antonia out. Thanks for reading and see you all next week!

Season 7 of “Hell’s Kitchen” is a bit different. Because as we plow on through it, and I do mean plow, there are some things that have made this season unique. Mainly, it’s been unpredictable. Those who we thought were contenders (Ed) and those we thought were non-factors (Autumn) have proved us wrong. Even Ben showed last night his days are likely numbered and he can’t possibly win. And oh yeah, there is a blatant romance budding here between Holli and Jay. Big time. The clips for next week show Ramsay putting his foot down about said romance, so that should be interesting.

Anyway, we’re almost at the finale, and this show kicked off June 1…so Fox is trying to get it over with before Season 8 begins in September. Yes, that’s right. Season 8 is already in the can, too. I wonder how many more are in production, because the show is, despite the twists this season, getting really stale really fast.

So with that, here is our brief recap of last night’s double episode:

They began with a presentation challenge in which their dish had to look great and taste great, and it would be photographed by a professional. Culinary students were the judges on the looks, and the top 2 vied for the win with Gordon Ramsay and Epicurious.com’s Tanya Steel judging the taste. The winners were Ed and Ben, and Ben won the taste test with his fish dish. His prize was a makeover and spa treatment followed by a photo shoot with Epicurious. The five “losers” had to clean the dining room with Jean Phillippe watching over them.

At the dinner service, there was a special guest at the chef’s table…Whoopi Goldberg. Awesome! Anyway, there were some small errors by Jason and Ben–lack of seasoning pasta and not communicating, respectively. But no one failed more than Ed…who could not for the life of him cook fish all the way through. And I mean like 10 or 15 times. Yikes. Meanwhile, Ramsay called Ben out for being a great cook with no leadership skills. Ouch! And then he kicked Ben and Ed out, and left Holli, Jason, Autumn and Jay to finish service, which they did without a hitch.

Ramsay told the remaining chefs to choose two consensus chefs for elimination, not based on last night, but overall. Ben nominated Autumn, as he does every week. Autumn was a consensus pick, though, because she has landed on the chopping block numerous times. Meanwhile, the other was Ed, and his performance last night was enough to prove to Ramsay he didn’t have what it took. So Ed was sent packing.

In episode 2, Ramsay took the final 5 to a high end fresh market, where he gave them $10 to spend as they wished to create a dish with. They would be judged by Ramsay and three renowned culinary experts including a chef, magazine editor and Ramsay’s GM at one of his restaurants. Those judges would decide how much they would pay for the dishes in a restaurant.

Jay’s lamb chop went over well and averaged $28.66. Jason, however, used frozen ravioli for some stupid reason. I mean, does he not watch Ramsay on TV? He’s always preaching fresh ingredients! They liked his dish enough but it priced out at $16.00. Ben’s lamb loin came out at $25. Autumn made a veal chop and did really well, pricing out at $27.33. Finally it was Holli, who made a weird ahi tuna dish with 5 spice, parsnip puree and kumquat sauce. Say what? However, they loved it and thought the portion size alone garnered a high price–which came out to $29.66 and gave Holli the win over Jay.

Her prize was to hang out poolside for lunch at the Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills, and then have a $1K shopping spree at a restaurant supply store. Ramsay said JP would be going along with Holli but that she could also choose another chef to go…and she chose Jay…surprise surprise. Their flirting kept escalating. Meanwhile, the others had to do laundry, and Jason and Ben were annoyed by the motor that was Autumn’s mouth.

When they returned, Jay and Holli wound up in the hot tub and started, well, messing around…until Autumn showed up to break up the party! Jay had previously announced that he had two goals on this show….to win, and to sleep with Holli.

At dinner service, Ramsay made them switch stations constantly to help provoke communication and keep the flow moving in the kitchen. Everyone was struggling, but no one more so than Ben, who clearly can’t communicate with everyone else. Finally, sous chef Scott led Ben have it when Ben tried to take over Scott’s position at the pass. Dude! And I mean Scott got in Ben’s face like never before, Ramsay-style. It was awesome.

Ramsay told the chefs to come up with two for elimination, and once again Ben chose Autumn, but Autumn had seen enough of that crap and nominated Ben. Ben it was, against Jason. And Ramsay declared that Jason wasn’t enough of a leader and sent him home.

So there you have it…we’ve got Autumn, who Ramsay said is improving tons….the lovebirds Holli and Jay, and the struggling Ben.
Next week’s episode, as I said, shows Ramsay giving Holli and Jay and ultimatum…basically, end your love affair or leave the competition. I can’t imagine either of them wants to give up this dream after getting this far. And I think they will face off against each other in the finale. It’s TV too good for the producers not to let happen at this point! So my apologies to Autumn and Ben, but I’m sure that you’ve been sent home next.

What do you all think? Let me know in the space below and see you next week!