HK6, ep. 6
This episode starts with the Low Calorie Quickfire Challenge. Cheftestants are given some education on how many calories a given portion is and must keep the total for an appetizer, entree and dessert to less than 700 calories. If you were told that the prize was volleyball on Venice Beach, would that help you guess which team will win it? I found no way to guess who did win it, as beach volleyball is of interest to both men and women. There is 45 minutes to plan, cook and plate the dishes chosen. It was difficult for both teams to develop an acceptable menu. The Red team was having a tough time and ended up at 694 calories, just under the limit. The blue took even longer; after an initial attempt was 1051 no-dessert calories, they reduced it to 597 calories, 103 under the limit, by reducing the portions of pork and soba noodles. This would in theory give the women the edge since more calories is related in most people's minds to more flavor. There was a nutritionist for each team to verify the calorie count. Both teams broke into sub-teams of 2 to get the job done, so there was considerable room for sniping when one team member did not agree with the other but decided to swallow their criticism (except for the confessional).
Tennille opened the presentation with a scallop with mango chutney dish. She went against Kevin with a grilled seafood salad (including shrimp) and mango. Ramsay gave them 1 point each for good dishes.
Ariel presented the Red team entree cottage cheese and musrhoom stuffed pork chops. Jim countered with a dry pork cutlet, soba noodles and broccoli. The judging was 1 point to Red.
Dessert started with the Red team dish of fresh fruit bowl with lemon riccotta cheese cream by Sabrina and Amanda. Dave and Andy countered with an egg white crepe filled with fruit compote with vanilla and yoghurt cream. Red won 1 point for a total of 3.
The Red team demolished Blue and won the prize, which was an afternoon at Venice Beach with volleyball lessons from Olympic team member Annette Davis. The Blue special assignment was to clean the kitchen and then to peddle a 6-way party bike up a big hill to get a bag of onions and a bag of potatoes. The latter was a serious health challenge for Robert, who is not in the best of shape. On return, he was evaluated by the Medic (who is apparently at all shows) and sent to the local hospital emergency room. He is not going to be cooking for the evening's service, so that makes the teams 5 vs. 5. Could this have been staged to give the women an even chance? It's FOX and producer Arthur Smith, so of course it could but my best guess is that it was real. The real question was "why do this party bike exercise at all?" What was the point? Was the "teamwork value" worth it?
Ramsay asked who is going to step up and emerge tonight? The answer is everybody thinks they can do it. Dinner service starts with the formal opening of Hell's Kitchen. Andy has a problem with not listening to Ramsay carefully on order presentation (he says Ramsay deliberately talks too fast and I think he is right). Ariel does scallops that Ramway calls "broiled mush" so he directs her to redo them by proper searing. Jim puts too much pepper in the risotto. He says Ramsay likes too little, but when Jim redoes the dish it is too bland like baby food and also rejected. Jim says he likes the taste of baby food. Eventually Andy's inability to get the risotto right is affecting the reputation of Hell's Kitchen with the table that oreedered it, so Ramsay directs souf chef Scott to get it done, which happens almost instantly. Tennille on Garnish puts 12 portions of spinach to cook all at once. Ramsay tells her to stop it and cook them to order as always done in Hell's Kitchen. Tennille's mashed potatoes are insufficient portions, not what Ramsay wants. Tennille criticizes him and this starts a desultory exchange where Ramsay tells her to leave the kitchen (but only temporarily so he can "chat with her") and her telling him to "Shut Up" and "**** You". This ends in a stalemate with Tennille back at her station so Ramsay couldn't have felt that strongly about it. Sabrina somehow loses a chicken, which gives Ramsay the opportunity to utter the famous line "where's the chicken?" Andy has to redo halibut. Sabrina's undercooked pork is returned so she must start over. Andy has pork that is overdone, then undercooked. He acknolwedges to the Blue team that he is "in the weeds" meaning in jeopardy for potential elimination.
Ramsay has had enough. He shuts the dinner service down and declares that neither team wins as this service was a disaster. Both have to nominate one individual. Blue considers Andy and Jim but thinks an end-run with Robert is worth a try. Van proposes that but Ramsay puts the kibosh on that immediaetly. He states that Robert must be able to cook at the next dinner service (which in the real world was 24 hours, not a week) or he is out. So Andy is nominated for inability to handle the pressure. Ramsay asks Andy about that and he says that he is still learning the system and needs more time. He claims Ramsay he makes him nervous (with his intimidation tactics). Tennille and Sabrina were considered but Sabrina is the nominee for the potential impact of serving undercooked pork.
Ramsay makes the decision to eliminate neither Sabrina nor Andy, as he fires Jim. Ramsay says that he can teach people to cook but not to have heart. Jim's low-key approach to life clearly bothered him: "All the time I thought Jim was sleep walking; the real problem was he had no passion". I have news for him. Dave's tendencies to slow things down are just as negative for a kitchen team.
