Tag Archives: Hell’s Kitchen

Hell’s Kitchen Live Blog: 5/13

The kids are napping and I am cleaning my laptop table (which is covered in papers) so let’s go!

So this week Matt is cooking with the girls and I am very intrigued to see how this turns out. The boys and Matt are fighting over the last elimination. Corrie claims Matt isn’t truly part of their team because he is blue and will always be blue.

For the challenge Ramsay has prepared 3 meals that were all missing the meat and has soy substitutes. Then he asks them all what they are missing. Matt said (to the camera) that he thought maybe the beef stew meat was cat because it was stringy (Not that he has eaten cat). After no one gets it and Ramsay tells them what is up, he announces that there will be a blind taste test. He has prepared trays (he does this every season) and feeds them. They then guess what the foods are. Jen had to sit this one out since the teams are uneven (Ramsay’s choice). Matt and Ben were the last ones to go. Ramsay had something special for them. He made a dish that had 10 ingredients. Matt and Ben would alternate and each ingredient was worth a point. The red team locked it up with Matt. Neither guy got any wrong but Matt just put made it out of reach. The blue team had to clean the dorm from top to bottom. Whereas the porch was turned into a spa for the red team. Also Hell’s Kitchen will be open that night. As added torture Ben had to serve beverages to the Red Team.

Both Matt and the Blue team are looking for some justification and redemption as they head into service. Rosanne messed up her first scallops in the fish station. Bobby and Lou Ross were having communication issues on their scallop appetizers. Jen got yelled at for taking over to much and then she seemed to quit talking to anyone. Then Lou Ross redeemed himself to Ramsay. Then Rosanne messed up yet again. Ben messed up his food and then gave Ramsay excuses as to why the guys weren’t communicating. Christina was getting praised for well cooked meat. At the point that half of the red diners were having their entrees none of the blue diners were. Then Petrozza got yelled out for a dirty kitchen while Matt got complimented for his risotto. The Ben ran out of prepped lamb only 5 entrees into service. Then Rosanne gave Ramsay raw food again and then Ramsay accused Jen of being behind and cocky. Then Ramsay threw a tray of food on Jen’s station. He then raked both Jen and Rosanne over the coals. Then Ben got food back from the customers. Ramsay had it with Ben and Ramsay closed it all down.

Ramsay wasn’t happy with anyone except Matt and the Blue team lost. Each member of the Blue team was to come up with a nominee. Ben starts playing games. He nominated himself and then started a ground campaign to nominate Lou Ross. Then there is talk of everyone getting nominated. The guys start with the nominate every one plan and then Petrozza nominated himself (making 2 against him). He said he couldn’t nominate any of the other guys and Ramsay said he was the most gracious man on the team. Then Ramsay kicked out Ben. I think Ramsay goes into this point knowing who he is going to kick out so he is a bit impervious to the games that are played with nominating. Ramsay then asked for a volunteer to go to the Blue team.

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Hell’s Kitchen 5/6 Live Blog

So here we find ourselves yet again. So strap in and let us go!

For our challenge we find ourselves at the Original Farmer’s Market. The chefs will be cooking for a Sweet 16 party. Each team had 25 minutes and $100 to come up with 2 appetizers and 1 entree. When they get back to the kitchen they had 45 minutes to prepare and serve their food.

Matt suggested a sushi pizza on a tortilla. It was quickly shut down. Back at the kitchen Matt said he would peel the sweet potatoes but he needed a peeler. Ben suggested that he just use his knife (Duh). Matt appears to be getting ready to throw a fit but I am not sure. Matt then says to Ramsay that he was at a 16th party and that it had no influence on their dishes. Petrozza seemed a bit shocked that it wasn’t just Ramsay tasting but the girl and her mom.

The women were talking about how picky 16 year olds were. I wonder if they were actually considering California teens. In California we tend to be a bit more interested in foreign cuisine because it isn’t that foreign. Now I have to take back my previous statement. This girl hadn’t even had shrimp before.

How the judging worked was dishes would go head to head and which ever team had the most dishes chosen would win. The guys’ wing dish won out over the womens’ shrimp dish. Round 2 was the girls’ halibut with rice vs guys’ sweet potato mash with asparagus and shrimp. The girls won round 2. Round 3 was the entrees. The girls had a flank steak with fries and the guys had fillet mignon. The young lady had never seen pomegranate seeds and thought they looked odd and unappetizing. The guys won the 3rd round and there fore the whole challenge.

The girls’ punishment was to decorate for the Sweet 16 party and worse yet had to deal with the party planner. The guys go to go be like teenagers by starting their day at the go cart track. Then the guys got to Kerry Simon’s (one of my favorites from the Food Network) for desserts!

That night, Corrie sets her sights on taking Lou Ross down. By what ever means needed (hot tub anybody?). But there was no romance between them.

Service this time will be for the party. It was the normal menu plus the winning dishes.

Shayna was focusing on her salsa dish completely during prep. The girls were complaining about her. Christina is on the hot appetizer. I wonder if this will spell her final demise because that seems to be the most vulnerable position. And when she forgets the mushrooms in the birthday girl’s dish and then the parmesan it isn’t looking good. But 45 minutes in and almost all the appetizers were at so apparently it wasn’t too bad. Rosanne had to do the birthday girl’s entree again after she had got it. Ramsay ends up getting Rosanne out of the way and made the birthday girl’s food himself. Shayna was taking a long time on garnish and then Corrie said it might be her weight because she can’t move around the kitchen very fast. I am more over weight and I dare Corrie to come into my kitchen and see if my weight prevents me from cooking efficiently (Yes, hit a nerve;).

Matt was holding up the guys’ and their entrees. Then the fish on the birthday girl’s mom dish was over cooked and sent back. Then Matt made it under cooked. When Bobby took over the fish station Matt said, “Your acting like I am doing a bad *** job”. To which Bobby said he was. Ramsay accused Matt of hiding because he let Bobby run it.

Dinner service was completed! Then Ramsay had a surprise for the birthday girl. He had arranged a performance by her favorite bad.

98% of the guys’ customers said they would return and 99% of the girls’ customers said they would return. So there was no loser so both teams had to put up someone. Of course Matt was put up for the guys. The girls had to evaluate and didn’t have such a clear decision. Shayna said Rosanne and Rosanne said Shayna. In the end Matt and Shayna were nominated even though Ramsay said that under cooking the birthday girl’s steak was horrible (Rosanne). So Ramsay called up Rosanne, Shayna and Matt. Matt asked to stay and be put on the girls’ team. Ramsay put Matt back in line. Then he sent Shayna home and put Matt on the girls team. The girls are already not happy. I think next week we may see Matt go over the edge.

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Hell’s Kitchen

This week is going to be another real brief summary. The kids all had big events this week and I got sick. Hopefully next week I can be more detailed;).

The girls won the challenge to make an expensive gourmet pizza with a pizza created by Jen. As a reward the girls got to go to the home of the $90 burger in Santa Barbara. The guys got a 2 part penalty, first was to prep the pizzas and the second was to deliver pizzas. Vanessa’s hand was pretty bad so she chose to leave Hell’s Kitchen. During all this the guys seem to be fighting each other.

During service Matt seemed unable to make the quail eggs properly so Bobby took over. Rosanne seemed to single handedly knock off the entire red team’s mojo until Jen too over.

Both teams actually completed service! So no one lost but they both had to put up a person. The girls put up Christina and the guys put up Lou Ross. But as a reward for completing the service, Vanessa was the only person to leave this week.

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Hell’s Kitchen 4/22: The Summary

This week has been a crazy week without blogging time so here is a brief recap.
Ramsay had everyone clean the kitchen before bed and Corrie ditched out and went to bed. So when Ramsay asked who the strongest was on the women’s team the team backed Jen over Corrie. The women even told Ramsay that part of it was because Corrie ditched out on them. The guys nominated Ben. I think that was a mistake and it should have been Lou Ross.

Then Ramsay says the will open for a special family night with a special menu. So the challenge is to roll out and form pasta. They had 20 minutes. The girls won, 6.57 lbs to 5.48lbs! So the guys got to prep both kitchens. The girls got to go to the Santa Monica pier.

Family service begins and the first team to finish cooking wins. The guys serve raw chicken wings while Vanessa burns herself and had to go to the hospital. The girls won and Bobby was considered the best of the worst. Bobby nominated Craig and Matt for elimination. Ramsay wanted to hear from Ben. But in the end Craig was bounced. I think that was an actual benefit for the guys.

Hell’s Kitchen 4/15 Live Blog

So the chefs wake up to chickens around their apartments. They had to each grab one and bring it down to the kitchen. The chase alone was funny. Ramsay had them thinking they were going to have to butcher the chickens. Instead they returned the chickens to the pens and got to work with chickens that were already butchered.

The challenge was to butcher the chickens into 8 pieces. He had an interesting aspect of going through the wishbone instead of around. Then they 5 minutes to dispatch theirs into 8 pieces. Then Ramsay began counting pieces. The women had a total of 44/48 qualifying pieces. Jason has this “the girl’s surprised me” and then his first piece was trashed and he got 6/8. Then Craig got a measly 2/8. They didn’t even finish counting the men’s since there was no way they could catch up. So the women won! The men have already picked out Craig to go home.

The men got to go pick peppers in the sun and they were mad. Jason doesn’t “do” manual labor and the guys were throwing things at Craig.

The women got to go to the Sunset Strip were they ran into Aaron (the crier) from Season 3. Then they all got to ride the mechanical bull. The girls decided to start targeting the guys one at a time.

When they returned Corrie and some of the other girls invited some of the guys to join her in the hot tub. Ben recognized what a player Corrie was and he thought no one would buy into her. But Jason stripped down and hopped in. He even used, “Whatsup girl, how you doing”. Does that line actually work on anyone? But the girls fed him and pumped him for information. Now all the guys are mad.

As further punishment for losing Bobby had to cook table side whereas Jon Phillip was cooking table side for the girls. Then Ramsay said Jason was on desserts and began quizzing him on what the desserts were. When Jason didn’t know Ramsay sent him back to the dorm to learn them.

And then the cooking began! Christina and Craig were on the hot appetizers. Out the shoot the Blue Team was fighting and looking for flaws in Craig (not that he was doing well). Then Ramsay began yelling at Rosann about her cold appetizer. For the first time I have seen, Ramsay sent out a partial table (from the Blue Team).

Lou Ross goes and gets Jason to get him to try the desserts again with Ramsay. Jason couldn’t pull it out with Ramsay and then said he wanted to go home. Ramsay doesn’t let him off that easy and Jason ends up getting the desserts.

Then Vanessa delivered some raw meat as part of the first entree. After Ramsay yells at her and then she was shook and crying. On the Blue side, Lou Ross wasn’t told they needed veg so it hadn’t gotten done. So an entire entree was held up because the side vegetable wasn’t ready. Then Rosann torched some meat.

Then Jason put the brulee in the oven even though it was done. Isn’t it standard in restaurants to pre-cook the brulee’s and then just “brulee” them before service? (carmalize the sugar) And once again the fish wasn’t right on the Blue Team. It is salmon people! Salmon is quick and easy, I don’t know what the problem is. The salmon broke Ramsay and he shut it down.

There weren’t any winners, each team nominated 1. Christina got to nominate for the Red and Petrozza for the Blue. Petrozza put up Jason dues to cooking skills and communication. Then Christina put up Vanessa due to the meat station fiasco. Once again the chick cried. Who knows if that is the reason she got to stay. I think Ramsay was right in sending Jason home because he did give up before he started at service.

I think Christina increased her integrity stock with Ramsay by not nominating Corrie and we still have Craig to get rid of. I think how long Craig stays is totally dependent on how well the men work in spite of him.

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Hell’s Kitchen 4/8

First off, trim American Idol so the show starts at 9pm people.

How did Jason not know what he was getting into? Did he not watch any of the previous seasons? Which leads me to the next thing. Ramsay’s assistants woke up the chefs up. How is this a surprise? They do this every season. And then some of the women came out in pj’s.

Then we go into the challenge. Chef Ramsay demonstrated how to break down a halibut and then the chefs had to do it. I have to say I love these breaking down food challenges. It is interesting to watch and it also tells you a lot about big talkers. So the portioning fish challenge ended in a tie. So to break the tie each team had to send up one member. This member had to pick out the fillet closest to 6 ounces to win. The girls sent up Corey and the guys sent up Ben. Ben got a 5.9 ounce and Corey got a 4.8 ounce. So Guys win and got to go on a 100-foot super yacht. The girls got to prep all the halibut and make the fish stock.

Side note: Jen always has a problem and thinks that everyone is not competent.

Getting onto service. So Ramsay comes in pre-service and asks Petrozza (on the Guy’s side) what the appetizers are. When he doesn’t know, Ramsay bounces him out until he knows the menu and says the station will remain unmanned until he returns. Craig gets sent out to work the front of the house for the men and Rosanne will be going out for the women. Then Petrozza comes out to try the menu again and fails. Ramsay sends him back to read and he says he is done. He had to be convinced by another guy to try again. Then he got it.

It took 45 minutes for Rosanne to get any orders back for the Girl’s kitchen. The Guys got into a substantial lead. Craig hit a woman in the head with a chair as he was taking it to someone. Rosanne had orders that she brought after the people had been there 2 hours. The kitchen had all the standard issues: slow, not up to standards, etc. So eventually Ramsay shut it all down.

Based on comment cards and entree count the women lost. Corey was named best of the worst. Then she put up Christina for “strategic reasons”. Next up was Jen for “personal reasons”. The guys were laughing through the girls saying why they should stay. Jen listed everything that she did during prep as her reason to stay (and it lasted forever and was edited). The Ramsay kicked off Sharon without giving her a chance to defend herself. He said he appreciated Corey’s strategy but had a conscious and couldn’t keep Sharon.

We will see how nasty the women get, now won’t we;)?

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Hell’s Kitchen – 1st Episode

So I watched the first episode of the 4th season of Hell’s Kitchen. I am a die hard Gordon Ramsay fan so I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for me. In a nutshell, it was ok.

The contestants had 45 minutes to prepare their signature dish (which is the opener every season). There were some standout losers. First up was Craig who wears a tall chefs hat that looks taller than him (which of course, Ramsay made fun of). He made this odd dish of Jerk Seared Chilean Sea Bass with a Rum-Raisin Risotto. I am not a chef but… Fish is a delicate flavor, regardless of type, and that can’t handle that kind of sweetness. Maybe if it were a venison or even prime rib, maybe. Rum and Raisin?? That is really sweet.

But that wasn’t the worst. Ramsay said that this next dish was the most disgusting ever and threw up (but I think he throws up once during this part every season;). So if you have a delicate stomach skip the next little bit;). Matt. the “true culinarian”, came up with a tar tar of venison and a tar tar of scallops. Mix into those 2 separate tar tars were capers, pickles, ketchup and white chocolate. I don’t see how any mix of those flavors could be good.

Once again this season the kitchens will be girls versus boys and this time they started off with captains. Both sides did horribly. There wasn’t any food served for over 45 minutes and Ramsay shut it all down before a single entree was served. Now, I am just a mom but you are in a prepped kitchen. How can no food come out for 45 minutes? I can walk into my kitchen with nothing ready and have dinner done in 45 minutes. If I had a prepped kitchen and recipes made for quick restaurant recipes who knows how speedy I could be.

On the boys’ side Bobby, the “black Gordon Ramsay”, stepped up for leadership saying that he could jump in and help others if needed. Wow, did he over sell. Not only was he a bad leader, he was a bad team member. The guys floundered horribly in just starting appetizers. Not only did Bobby not help, he went to far as to say that he didn’t want to jump in because “you got it over there”. Ramsay de-captained him and appoint Lou Ross as the captain. He did a much better job but the guys didn’t even get out all the appetizers. Dominick kept ruining scallops and Jason at the appetizer station couldn’t get any of it right.

Over to the girls. They did better but not great. Their captain Vanessa wasn’t visible in the beginning of service. Ramsay eventually reassigned captain to Rosanne. Then things went smoother. The girls got out all the appetizers but not a single entree.

Bottom line, boys lost and Lou Ross put up Stay at home Dad Dominick and ex-captain Bobby. I was shocked that Jason, who was in charge of the appetizer station, wasn’t put up. Dominick was sent home so I guess we have to endure Bobby and his ego at least one more week. I think it is the reality show contract to keep the jerks around as long as possible. Otherwise, Ramsay really should have kicked Bobby to the curb.

I will see you all next week as I am sure that the action will heat up!

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