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We Burn Once Again!

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It seems like forever since this season started. That annoying World Series seemed to postpone everything;). But we are back with the second half of Hell’s Kitchen. So let’s jump right into the snark!

The girls were very relived when Gordon Ramsay put Trevor back on the boys’ team. He is so annoying, I am a little shocked he didn’t just get tossed out too! It looks like we are heading into a room service challenge. Every show I have seen this challenge on never has it worked out well for the chefs;). Apparently it is a bit more of a palate test. Only 1 of the 4 dishes were actual 5 star food. Everyone had to pick there favorite. Then they did the blind taste test. Always a winner!

The one I always feel bad for is telling the different types of fish apart. Ouch! Gail thought black truffles were watercress. I haven’t had white asparagus but apparently it taste like bok choi. Both Sabrina and Rob thought that filet mignon was chicken. What the heck? Then they got worse! They didn’t get 1, either of them. The girls won! Nona had the best palate with 3 out of 4!

Their reward was to go to Restaurant 14 with a shopping spree first. The boys punishment was to sort all the trash for recycling. The girls liked their activity, the boys hated theirs;). The boys are not happy to have Trevor back and they are doing the big freeze out. If anyone is going to look bad, they will make sure he does.

Jumping into service, both teams actually started well! Then Rob stumbled onto a challenge, scallops. Gordon Ramsay ended up coming over and making the order for him. I was surprised that Sabrina got away taking control but they seemed to do well. Back on the boys’ side, Rob once again had a problem. This time it was halibut. Ramsay gave Rob 5 minutes to wake up or get tossed. Then the girls’ team seemed to lose their lead due to Nona not managing the meat station. Then she wanted fight with Ramsay about if the pan was hot enough. So he tossed her and told Sabrina to run the meat station. Then Vinnie messed up spinach and gnocchi so he was tossed out. Then Russell put up raw chicken and got tossed to. So it was just Rob and Trevor left in the boys’ kitchen. The girls were cruising along pretty well while Rob got tossed for raw halibut. The sad part was even after Ramsay told him to get out he still didn’t know that the halibut was raw. Then Trevor put out the rest of the boys’ food.

Sabrina and Gillian got nods from Ramsay. The losing team was the blue team with Trevor picking out 2 to put up. Ramsay called Nona aside and gave her a talking to about arguing with him. But he gave her kudos for her palate. I think that Trevor should put up Rob and Vinnie. But Russell is a jerk and is a definite possibility. Trevor put up Rob and Russell. Trevor said that Russell was supposed to be driving the team but all he did was yell. Ramsay tossed Rob.

So who is next to go?

Food

And the Kitchen Burns On

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Come on, its Hell’s Kitchen. So I went for the easy imagery;). So we are a couple of episodes in and we are starting to see faults and personalities. So will the Blue team beat the snot out of Raj? Will the Red team have more great services? We shall see!

At 3 in the morning up come the Paramedics. The paramedics check them all out and then the chefs are sent downstairs. So each kitchen had to cook breakfast for 50 EMTs. Before any plates could go out the chefs had to send out fruit salads for the tables. The girls automatically had multiple people on the fruit salad while it took the guys awhile to get the hint. The girls were flying but Boris was burning the egg white omelets. Emily let the bacon burn so Sabrina and Melissa had to cook bacon on the fly. Then Raj screwed up the eggs and when Ramsay called him on it he started talking back. And we know how much Ramsay loves that. Needless to say, there was some cussing that happened. I forsee the girls finishing the guy’s food. The Red team was on their last table before the blue team got a table out. Then the girls went over to the boys side and pushed out their food.

The girls got to go to Santa Monica for the day and go to trapeze school. The guys got to polish stemware and clean kitchens for a punishment. Raj was useless and it wasn’t a surprise. Trev has lost it with Raj and they were going toe to toe. Boris stepped in to calm Raj down.

So as we go to prep, we find that Sabrina doesn’t want to prep and isn’t very helpful about it. They had to make culinary cocktails. Sabrina and Trev are in charge of those. And then service starts. 18 minutes into service and the first apps are coming out on the red team. But they quickly got sent back because it was to salty thanks to Emily.  Raj was changing Ramsay’s recipe with the salmon and Melissa was over cooking fish. Then Raj sends up raw fish. Vinnie ended up cooking Raj’s salmons. If the guys lose, then Raj has to go! Then Gail is torching meat and very chilled about it.  But then Raj bulked cooked the sole and Ramsay wouldn’t serve it. But then they ran out of the sole. So Raj had to go tell the customers but he didn’t want to go out because he was all messy. But he still had to go. While Raj was out the Blue kitchen started flying!

Ramsay couldn’t pick a winner. So he looked at the comment cards and the girls lost by 1%. So the girls had to put up 2. Emily seemed to be over whelming first choice. Then the second spot came down to Sabrina and Melissa. Sabrina was who was settled on due to her lack of prep. In her defense, Sabrina basically told off her team. But in the end, Raj got tossed! Woohoo!!! I was afraid that they were drag out the Raj drama for weeks.

See you soon for episode #4 of the season!

Food

New Hell’s Kitchen! Night 1 Part 2

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And we are back for the second episode in the premiere night of the new Hell’s Kitchen!

Of course they did the early morning wake up. We got Iron Chef Morimoto!!! They had to duplicate a couple of his sushi piece that he demonstrated for them. Morimoto brought knives and the winning team got to keep theirs. They were doing it in pairs. The guys once again one. The guys got to go to San Francisco for a wine tasting while the women has to prep for sushi to be served at service.

Of course Sabrina and Nona had to take rice delivery together and Sabrina is talking smack. Then they got one of Ramsay’s special dinners. And Sabrina puked a lot.

Then we get to service night. 1 chef from each team had to be an assistant maitre de, Jillian and Vinny. Jillian came up quickly with a ticket and Vinny had issues. It took him over 30 minutes! How hard is it to take an order? Hey! Ramsay liked Gail’s rissotto! Always nice when that actually happens.  There were issues with the Blue team getting out sushi. Only part of one table got any apps by the time that Red was going on to entrees. But Red was having beef issues. Then Vinny was telling his tables that if they ordered sides that it would take a lot longer because he didn’t think Raj couldn’t get the sides out. Ramsay had a fit and tossed him!!!

Emily admitted that she can’t cook meat when they were still waiting for her beef. Boris has decided that he is the Blue team captain and was getting in the middle of everything. 2 hours in and the Blue team still hasn’t finished their apps. Melissa was messing up garnish so Ramsay sent her to switch with Jillian. Curtis continues to screw up the sushi so he was tossed. Then Ramsay saw Raj’s prepped pot of garnished and Ramsay tossed him our too. Then Ramsay tossed the rest of the Blue team out after they messed up walnuts on a dish.

Back in the dorms the boys were ready to throw down. And when Raj called them kids, it all came lose. The girls finished their dinner service. So of course the Blue team lost. And they said they were put up Raj and Curtis. But then some of them were talking about how bad Boris was. So when Ramsay asked who was up. First was Raj and Raj said that they lied. Then they put up Boris because he thought was superman and was pushing people off their stations. So Ramsay called them up and added Vinny to the mix.

When Ramsay asked why he should stay… Raj said he was a slow learner but almost had it down. After talking to everyone Ramsay decided to send Curtis home.

So, lots of personalities in this season. I think that means it can be really interesting or really ridiculous and only time will tell.

Food

New Hell’s Kitchen! Night 1 Part 1

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I can’t believe that there is already a new season of Hell’s Kitchen! They are really crowding them in but that is fine with me! The new intro was interesting. Very “in a city, in a town” style and probably the same voice guy;). If the intro is any indicator, we are in for a lot of fighting and yelling.

No JP!!!! Not cool! But they are got whisked away to LA Market, which is the prize restaurant. Before Signature Dish time. What were some of these women thinking? Emily was busting out! Ramsay made her cover up! But at least her food was good. Ramsay jumped right in on everyone. Sabrina was yawning while Ramsay was doing the judging (not of her) and he seemed to come a bit unglued. The gumbo was so bad that he made everyone try it, after it made him throw up. Of course there were lots of disappointments and it was only 1 point apart as we got to the last 2. Tired Sabrina actually impressed him. Raj, who you know has just too much personality, had the weirdest seafood pancake. But Antonia’s dish (the gumbo) was deemed the worst dish so the girls lost the tie.

The punishment was to wash up for both kitchens. The boys got champagne, caviar and massages. Raj drinks a little much and starts doing karate. Once again, I think he is going to have too much personality.

The next day starts off and Antonia is sick. Her head was hurting and she passed out. She came to and was rushed to the hospital.

We found out that in addition to it being the chefs 1st service, it is also James’. This time there was a new thing. They are starting with mini pizzas as a pre-ap and each team is having a chef take that order. The first appetizers actually cam on the red team right! Now on the blue team, Trev drowned a salad. I am not sure how Melissa could have raw pizza. While Ramsay was correcting the Red team, Boris was mocking him and Ramsay caught him. It wasn’t pretty, I hope he can cook.

It took over an hour before a tables worth of apps went out on the Blue team. Sabrina on the Red team decided to get her meat done before anything else was done for the table. When she took it up Ramsay was pissed.  Boris and Raj couldn’t get the pizzas made for the Blue team while Lisa was sending up raw fish. 2 hours in, no entrees and people are leaving. And at that point it was over.

Each team was to nominate 2. On the Blue team they put Raj and Trevor. Over on the Red Team they had a bit more of an argument as to who to put up. Lisa was a gimme that everyone seemed to agree on. Sabrina want to put up Nona after her fried chicken signature dish. Nona wanted to put up Sabrina for not being a team player. They ended up nominating Lisa and Sabrina. Antonia was not going to be returning to Hell’s Kitchen.

It came out that Raj has been cooking longer than Ramsay. Sabrina was fighting for her life. So she said Lisa was old, Nona thought fried chicken was fine dining and snores and so much more.

Lisa ended up going home. But Sabrina has made permanent enemies.

(Next time, more snark with less documentation;)

Food

A Roll of the Dice

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So here we are for the 2nd of the 2 episodes of Hell’s Kitchen for this week! Will Salvatore finally be driven out? Will Fran be the next woman out the door?

Aww, Ramsay took Salvatore aside and said that he hasn’t given up on him. That Sal has to bounce back when Ramsay says something to him. Scott and Salvatore got up early and Scott was helping him.
Next challenge! Each chef will roll a die to get a letter for an ingredient. Scott asked Ramsay to blow on the dice, he said no but not that nice;). When they roll a letter they come up with the ingredient within 10 seceonds. So the blue team had halibut, endive, salsify, crab, peas, and bacon. The red team had beets, shallots, mango, ham, turnips, and duck. The red team bombed out! No one would let Salvatore help. Both teams’ dishes turned out well. The winners were the men because there was raw fat on the red team’s duck.
The punishment was cleaning the entrance hall and prepping both kitchens for service that night. The guys got to go sky diving. Jason was not happy about going sky diving. But it was actually a wind tunnel. Of course JP did white glove inspections in the entrance hall before the girls could prep the kitchens. The girls apologized to the guys as they walked in about prep. We will see how bad a job they did in prepping and nothing makes Ramsay hotter than a sabotaged prep. Maria started crying during prep because things were being done well and things may not get done. This is not a good sign. I have a feeling there is a mid-service breakdown in her future.
So we are going to have the return of the Chef’s Tables. The red team will have Kevin Frasier and his wife. The blue team will have Debi Mazar and her chef husband. It was also a star studded night in the dining room.
Then service starts. Scott is trying to “help” Jason and was driving everyone nuts. Jason starts the blue team off well with appetizers. Siobahn messed up the first appetizers by putting lobster into the pasta instead of crab. Then Salvatore gave Ramsay raw fish. Siobahn gave Ramsay lobster again and come to find out, the containers were mislabeled. Overall the appetizers on both teams seemed to finally go well. Then Salvatore and Nilka both start off entrees well. Then Ramsay took Autumn to task for using tongs on the fish and tearing it up. Then Scott messed up the beef. Nilka was having a great day on the meat station. Scott on the other hand was bombing hard. The shocking thing is that both sides seemed to have no problems with their Chef’s Tables. Eventually it seemed that Scott pulled it out a bit.
They completed service within 2 1/2 hours so that was a much better job than anything we have seen this season. There wasn’t a winning and losing team. Instead he had Nilka and Salvatore each pick 1 person to put up. Nilka has to decide between Siobahn and Autumn. I really think that the guys had more real issues so I think who ever goes up may go home. But Ramsay did say that he didn’t think Autumn respected the ingredients and that is a huge thing with him. Salvatore was struggling because he was feeling that Scott really messed up. But he doesn’t want to put his only friend up.
In the end Nilka chose Autumn. Salvatore chose Scott. I felt bad for the guy because this is the chef who helped out Salvatore but he did screw up big time. Ramsay called Autumn the appendix of the red team and he called her soulless. Apparently she left a phd program to cook. Scott said he was to busy helping everyone else. Ramsay said he talks like a politician and isn’t as good as he thinks he is. Ramsay put Autumn in the blue team and Scott in the red team.
It will be interesting to see how the dynamics change on the teams. Will Autumn drag down the blue team or will Scott drag down the red?

Food

College Food

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We are back for a double episode of Hell’s Kitchen this week! Does this mean 2 or 4 will get tossed? This season has already had a lot of scheming and drama so nothing would surprise me. But I am only going to do 1 hour at a time because they are actually 2 episodes.

So we start off with Jason losing it because he felt thrown under the bus. We will see how badly that effects the blue team’s service. Then we find out that Hell’s Kitchen is serving lunch. They are serving burgers, fries, etc. It is to get them to communicate because they only have 30 minutes to prep and who ever finishes serving their side first wins. They were feeding the USC marching band and cheerleaders. The red team starts off strong getting their salads out with 2 of them working together. But Jamie started having a problem with burgers. Then the blue started catching up but then Ramsay found raw burger. Of course we end up with both teams having 10 left. Down to the last minute and both teams were down to fries but the women won!
So the girls were going to the Malibu Beach Inn while the guys were helping Heal the Bay. They were cleaning up the LA River. The guys expected more of a river instead of the cement they found. Apparently they don’t remember it from all the movies or tv. When the girls get to the beach they are challenged to a soccer game by Ramsay and his whole family. The Ramsay’s skunked them;)!
Fran burnt her hand and chose not to tell anyone how bad it was because she wanted to be in the service. 1 person from each team will be assistant maitre de’s. It is Holly and Salvatore. Salvatore comes in with his first ticket and Ramsay gives it back because he can’t read it. Apparently Salvatore can’t write in English so JP is helping him. But the girls got a ticket earlier but Maria had problems with her risottos. Milka helped her out her first few to get her on track. Scott wanted to keep Ed off his station but he messed up the first appetizers. Then Jason was having problems on the garnish.
The blue team got back an entree because the customer wanted done and it wasn’t on the ticket. Ramsay was reaming Salvatore and Salvatore said he couldn’t take it. JP convinced him to stick it out. Then Holly had to bring back something but the kitchen had actually screwed it up. Then Fran was really inconsistent with the meat and wasn’t getting it out. But at least she asked for help. Once again the blue team was waiting on garnish. Scott tried to come over and help Jason and Jason wasn’t handling it well. Jamie on the red team was also struggling on the garnish station. Siobhan came to help but then that caused problems on her fish station. While the women were struggling, the blue team seemed to be doing a lot better.
Fran was still messing up but also having a lot of pain. She told Autumn but didn’t want to see anyone so then had to try and keep everyone quiet so she didn’t have to go off and see the medic. But Ramsay demanded to see her hand and sent her to the medic. The medic wrapped her up and she went back in. She says that if she gets thrown under the bus over it, that would be wrong. But I think Fran told everyone at the end so she had an excuse. Because she was bad as far as the food was concerned.
In the end the guys pulled it out due to Benjamin’s good meat so they won. The red team had to come up with 2. Of course Fran was the first but then it was between Jamie and Maria. Part of Jamie’s problem is that no mater what she says that she has it. They ended up nominating both Fran and Jamie.
Ramsay ended up cutting Jaime because he believed the Fran could fight back.

Food

And How It Will Burn

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So we are back for Hell’s Kitchen! The first episode of this season was quite dramatic with Ramsay tossing a bunch of people out during service. It leads me to wonder if those people are doomed and if so, why not just toss them now (other than it making the series run shorter;). Well, let us see if the drama continues!

Autumn is really trying to assert herself as the leader of the women. But I think the women are going to buck against it. Of course they wake all the chefs up at 5am. It is time for their challenge. They will compete in pairs and have to make 4 different egg dishes: poached, sunny side up, soft boiled, and scrambled. They only had 5 minutes. Siobhan on the red team is by herself. So Autumn decides that they are all going to help her. I don’t think Ramsay is going to be cool with that. So when they went up to evaluate Ramsay asked her how long she boiled the egg. When Ramsay found out that her teammates did some of her eggs, he was hot! Something we have found out is that Ramsay is really picky with the scrambled eggs;). The men won the challenge by 1.
So the guys got to take a helicopter tour of LA. The women had to clean, gut, and filleted tuna for the next night’s service. We have now seen that Siobhan is a crier! The girls decided to take the tuna out of the box and to carry it that way. It was very interesting to watch because a tuna is not a little fish. Then there were disagreements as to skinning the fish before or after cutting sections of meat. When the women are doing the prep, they are fighting and pushing around Siobhan. It appears that she just doesn’t have the confidence or knowledge that some of the others have. Then during the pre-service meeting Sal couldn’t tell Ramsay the desserts. So Ramsay tossed him out with a menu.
Service didn’t even actually start before the problems did. Autumn over seasoned her boiling water but said she was sure that someone else added salt too. Since they had to reboil water it set the girls back a bit. But Mikey messed up his first risotto by under cooking it. Then Autumn was seasoning Siobhan’s risotto while Siobhan was cooking it. Fran was having issues finding where she was supposed to be in the dining room. It took Mikey 45 minutes to get out his first risotto just to have it sent back for being undercooked. Hopefully the girls might win this on because they were starting to put out entrees while Mikey was still fighting with the boys’ appetizers. The girls had issues talking and Andrew was talking a lot on the boys team but it was to the food. Then he decided to fight with Ramsay. So Ramsay took him into the dining room and yelled at him. JP told him to go back into the kitchen but Andrew said he was done and left.
But both teams finished service. But there wasn’t a winning team. So they both had to come up with 1 person to put up for elimination. Jason and Mikey wanted to put up Sal. Jason was also mentioned. It seems no one remembered that Mikey really messed up. Over on the red team they discussed Autumn because the salting issue. Nilka was also discussed because she was in the weeds at the garnish station.
In the end the red team put up Autumn because of the salting and not being a team player. Ramsay seemed shocked when the blue team put up Jason. When Ramsay called them up Autumn said they wanted to get rid of her for personal reasons. When he asked the red team if Autumn was the worst cook they all said no. Someone said that Jamie was the worst chef. She said she should stay because of her heart and hard work. Jason says he pushes through and wants to work for Ramsay. In the end Ramsay kicked out Mikey because he was the worst in 2 services.

Food

Hell’s Kitchen is Back!!!

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I am so excited that Hell’s Kitchen is back! I am also excited that Master Chef is coming to the US with Gordon! But I will blog more about that another time! Let’s check out last night’s premiere! (Don’t be disappointed if you get more snark than fact at this point;)

Right off, the clips on what is coming up this season… I think I already know who the “stay at home” British mom is. I think she is also the girl he is kissing;).
So Ramsay “guarantees” a complete first service. 1) What does that mean? Do they get money if he is wrong;)? 2) I think he just can’t shut it down when he sick of them like her usually does. That is what ends service.
So signature dish time is always interesting. Sometimes they are the standard but the big issues and personalities usually jump out here. So Holly didn’t think she would have to come in and cook right off? That is the only reason I can imagine her in those 4 inch heels in the kitchen, the heels that caused her to wipe out.
He starts off with Tanya’s dish (sorry, we aren’t supposed to know that yet;) and loves it! Then he kisses her… And reveals that it is his wife. So they are doing a men vs women signature dish face off as the first challenge. Our pizza chef from Naples served pasta he didn’t make but the next guy who came up made his own pasta. Holly made halibut in a banana leaf and it was gross. Jamie served a Chicken Kiev with the toothpick still in it! Scott is already doing the big talking but Ramsay didn’t like his dish. Mikey came in with a Hell’s Kitchen tattoo. Luckily Ramsay liked his dish. Jason made grits and Ramsay said he was one of the few who could make them right. Andrew seemed a bit creepy talking about raising and butchering his own animals and eating them raw. It would have been fine if he said something about high quality meat can go into a tar tar but the way he talked… ick! Then men won the first challenge.
The prize this year is to be the head chef at Ramsay’s restaurant in the Savoy hotel in London. I hope this group is better than last years then.
Everyone heads to the dorms to start studying their menus. Then the fire alarms goes off. They are all being called for a video lesson. Then they go study and another alarm, which is because there is another video. It goes that way all night. Then the girls get woke up because their punishment is to cook the boys breakfast in bed.
Then service starts. Stacey starts off wrong with the scallops. The boys start off with problems. Salvatore burned shallots twice in a roll. Fran messed up the potatoes and then didn’t answer Ramsay’s questions. Benjamin was tasting and cooking with the same spoon. Things were not going well… I have to say out of it all, I feel for Maria. She got called on something being wrong and walked off and was laughing. I can so relate to that. I smile and laugh when I am nervous. The more tense some times the worse I get. But that got Maria, I think Jamie and Fran tossed for service (or at least that is what he told them). That got Milka pulled back in from table side salad service so she can cook.
Scott was trying to take over on the blue team. Mikey thought his own halibut wasn’t done but he took it up because Scott told him too. Ramsay happened to agree with Mikey and expressed that one quite loudly. I am not sure what Benjamin thought he was doing… he had stock in the pan but no rice for risotto. Salvatore was starting food in a cold pan. Then Ramsay tossed Benjamin and Salvatore out. When Stacey couldn’t tell him how long a dish would take, he tossed her out. Then Mikey served him raw halibut again and got tossed.
To combat the fact that there were only 4 red and 5 blue left, Ramsay joined both teams together. Ed had an opportunity to some off as a super star because he ran the meat station. So Ed ended up pretty much running the show. Then they were able to finish the service.
The women (red) team was considered the loosing team. So the girls had to go pick 2 to up for elimination. The girls bickered a bit but in the end they nominated Fran and Stacey. I think those were both solid choices. I find it interesting that Fran said she was a Kosher chef so she is learning about the shell fish. Ramsay ended up eliminating was Stacey. I think that was the right call. She struggled with every aspect of the fish station and wouldn’t let others really help her.
This was a good start to what is sure to be an intense season!

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Let the War Begin!

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We are now jumping into the Champion’s Round on Top Chef Master! We are going the awesome route because it is Wedding Wars! That is always an awesome challenge to begin with. Bring in great chefs, it will be great.

The Quickfire splits them off into 2 teams. We have the tag team cook off. They will make 1 dish, each cook for 10 minutes and (the kicker) they are blindfolded while they wait. The winning team will split $10,000 between them.

Red Team is Marcus Samuelson, Tony Mantuano Susur Lee, Carmen Gonzalez
Blue Team: Rick Moonen, Jonathan Waxman, Susan Feineger, Jody Adams

I was shocked that both teams seemed to be pretty similar in the end. I don’t know if the proteins were limited or not. They both created a seafood stew but the red team had a piece of fish on the side. Jay was the judge. The blue team ended up winning.

No one seemed happy when they found out that the elimination challenge was going to be wedding wars. They get 12 hours between 2 day to prep for 150 guests. Both teams have to make a wedding cake. The groom is a steak and potatoes guy. And the bride likes French and Asian. The blue team chose the bride so the red team was cooking for the groom. The groom is Jewish so no pork. The bride doesn’t like shell fish or lamb. Her favorite dessert is Bananas Foster while the groom wants carrot cake. Jodie decides to make lamb even though it isn’t the bride’s favorite.

They get 6 hours to prep the night before. I think the blue team is going the safe route doing fish, chicken, and lamb. Of course Rick is doing the fish. The blue team is doing 2 desserts so they can also do the bride’s favorite, Bananas Foster (which Jodie has never made before but is responsible for). The red team is making shrimp, pasta and beef as their main dishes. Susur is making his first carrot cake. Carmen is the time cop for the red team. The blue teams wedding cake is kind of scary looking while Susur on the red team has this pretty creation.

The blue team’s appetizers went over pretty well. But many thought Jonathan’s potato cake was too big. The red teams also went well. Then we went to the chaos of the main dishes. The red team’s lamb and chicken went over very well. But Rick’s fish was over cooked and his sauce was too sweet. The blue team’s potatoes and shrimp went over well. But the pasta was over done. Marcus’s meat was a little hit and miss. Then we get to dessert. Susan’s cake for the blue was ugly;). Susur made a beautiful croque en bush. So not only was the blue team’s cake ugly, apparently dry. But their Bananas Foster were great. The red team’s (Susur’s) desserts were all a big hit.

The blue team was slammed for the bad cake. But the red team got hit for being light on entrees. The blue team’s entrees saved them because they won! Jodie was the individual winner. So then we get to see the groom’s team on the block. Marcus got hit for mushy meat. Carmen got hit for only doing an appetizer and a corn salad. But Carmen didn’t think her flavors would have pleased the groom. Tony got hit for over cooking the pasta. They didn’t really like Susur’s carrot cake but his dessert table over all was good. The bottom 2 ended up being Marcus and Carmen. In the end Carmen went home. It wasn’t that her food was bad, just not enough dishes.

So Carmen is out, who will be out next week?

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The Final Champs

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We are getting the final 2 chefs to move on! This week we have Jodie Adams, Rick Tramonto (whom I believe was on Top Chef when they were in Chicago), Maria Hines, Debbie Gold and Susur Lee.

We are kicking into the quickfire with the legendary fruit plate challenge. The winner automatically moves on to the winner’s round. I think with Susur Asian background that he will have the knife skills to impress. Jodie seemed to go well. Debbie’s was looked at as simple. I never am quite sure what they want in a fruit plate. Rick’s plate looked pretty but basically just fruit presented plain. Susur seemed to get slammed for not having a focus. He only got 2 1/2 stars. Jodie won with 4 starts so she went straight to the champion’s round. She still got to compete in the elimination challenge to earn money for her charity.
Their elimination challenge was to modernize the family meal. They are going to server it to the cast and crew Modern Family. They get 4 hours in their kitchen to prep before they have to go to the lot. I did not realize that Rick Tramonto is Gale Gand’s ex-husband. Hmm. He is making something with sausage. Debbie is modernizing the pork chops and applesauce with pork belly. Maria is doing a salmon dish. Susur is still fuming over his loss. He is doing a curry chicken and a vegetarian dish. Jodie made a braised chicken thigh.
Maria’s salmon seems to have gone over very well. Susur’s dish goes over well but… it is a bit exotic. Rick’s truffled escarole soup sounds really good. It seems to be the most traditional but not very modern. Jodie’s wasn’t a huge crowd pleaser. It was heavy and muddled. Debbie’s looked pretty but an apple butter with slaw is a bit sweet.
Rick got called on his dish. That the truffle oil didn’t make it modern. Susur said he had toned down the heat. Which everyone else seemed to be shocked at. Debbie succeeded in making it modern but it was too sweet. Maria’s dish seemed to be good. But Jodie admitted her dish was a little salty.
In the end Susur won! But Maria got really close!