Author Topic: Hell's Kitchen Season 7  (Read 42840 times)

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Offline TexasLady

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Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« on: April 29, 2010, 08:08:08 PM »
Starting June 1, Tuesday, at 8pm, a new season of Hell's Kitchen  :wohoo:



Fox Sets New Premiere Date for 'Hell's Kitchen' Season 7
Monday, April 19, 2010

In a schedule tussle that pushed So You Think You Can Dance to different days, Fox has moved the date of the season 7 premiere of Hell's Kitchen from the original schedule of Thursday, June 10.

The Gordon Ramsay-led series will instead kick off on June 1, Tuesday, at 8pm, paired with the last two episodes of Glee. Two-hour installments will then follow until July 27, when another culinary-themed series MasterChef premieres and Hell's Kitchen goes back to one-hour shows.

Starting July 27, Tuesdays are food and Gordon Ramsay nights on Fox as MasterChef is also produced by the ill-tempered Brit. The series gives amateur cooks a chance to work with professionals, including Ramsay, as they compete for the MasterChef title.

Source: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/hells-kitchen/fox-sets-new-premiere-date-for-35996.aspx
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Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2010, 03:25:22 PM »
Wow, that is very interesting. That means there will be 9 hours of Hell's Kitchen 7 in June and another 7 hours in July. At a total of 16 hours, this almost certainly means that the episodes will be longer than 1 hour, as they are unlikely to have a minimum of 16 one-hour episodes.


Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2010, 06:09:31 PM »
It is interesting! When they put up the cast and bio's, I'll post them.  :tup:
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Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2010, 01:16:06 PM »
The supervision:
Gordon Ramsay
Sous chef Scott Liebfried
New Sous chef Andi van Willigan,  currently the executive chef at the Monterey Restaurant in Long Beach, NY

The Blue Team cast is:
Executive Chef Scott Hawley from New York, NY
Pizzeria Chef Salvatore Coppola from Laurel Springs, New Jersey
Line Cook Mikey Termini from Kihei, Hawaii
Executive Chef Jay Santos from Medford, Massachusetts
Personal Chef Jason Ellis from Suwanee, Georgia
High School Cooking Teacher Ed Battaglia from Edgewater Park, New Jersey
Culinary Instructor Benjamin Knack from Malden, Massachusetts
Farmer Andrew Forester from Wake Forest, North Carolina

The Red Team cast is:
Personal Chef Autumn Lewis from North Hollywood, California
Catering Chef Fran Klier from Rockville Centre, New York
Banquet Chef Holli Ugalde from San Bernardino, California
Sous-Chef Jamie Bisoulis from Chicago, Illinois
Kitchen Supervisor Maria Torrisi from Scranton, Pennsylvania
Line Cook Nilka Hendricks from West Hempstead, New York
Pub Executive Chef Siobhan Allgood from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Private Chef Stacey Slichta from Studio City, California

The word from FOX is that "Chef Gordon Ramsay welcomes the nation's most talented and trained chefs yet to a seventh course of his unscripted series HELL'S KITCHEN". What rubbish!  The most talented and trained chefs are on Top Chef Masters, some up-and-comers are on Top Chef and only those willing to put up with Ramsay are on Hell's Kitchen. Those are definitely not the "most talented and trained chefs."
« Last Edit: May 12, 2010, 07:22:27 AM by apskip »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2010, 06:12:11 PM »
Thanks for the team information Apskip!  :tup:
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Offline chefholli

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2010, 04:21:38 PM »
I dont know about the other chefs, but Chef Holli is incredibly talented. I have known her a long time and she has the skills of any Top Chef. Make sure and watch her on the show starting June 1st on Fox! Also check out @chefholli on Twitter and chefholli.com for info about the premier party in Palm Springs -> Everyone is invited!!

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2010, 02:08:33 PM »
Welcome to RFF chefholli! We are anxiously waiting for the premiere on June 1st!!

 :hello2: :bigwelcome :hello2:
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Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #7 on: May 12, 2010, 02:12:08 PM »
Cast photos so we can get to know our chefs!    :hellkitchen


[



Images courtesy of Fox Broadcasting.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2010, 10:44:14 PM by TexasLady »
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Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #8 on: May 12, 2010, 03:32:22 PM »
I feel somewhat sorry for the farmer and high school teacher. Do they know how to work a line?
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Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #9 on: May 25, 2010, 01:35:55 PM »
It's down to 1 day before the next season of Hell's Kitchen (#7) starts.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2010, 06:11:20 PM by apskip »


Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #10 on: June 01, 2010, 02:19:56 PM »
Tonight is the night!!!  :hellkitchen


  :wohoo: :jumpy: :wohoo:
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Offline redwings8831

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2010, 07:45:29 PM »
This first dinner service is a disaster. Seven of the 16 chefs have been thrown out so far, but the remaining nine were able to finish it.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2010, 07:50:06 PM by redwings8831 »

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2010, 09:37:35 PM »
You can really see the stronger players already. Wow! What a first service.
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Offline ugot2bekidinmeny

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #13 on: June 02, 2010, 03:00:20 PM »
That was insanity!!   :ascared    get out.. get out.. get out.. LOL one after the other!! :lol:

I tell you what.. he had me for a second when his wife was impersonating a contestant! but then i knew it was her from  watching him on his BBC series "The F Word".

i'm not gonna say who i like so far.. they are all NUTS!!!   :yess:  everyone's going DOWN!! :meow:

zero, zilch, nada, nothing!

Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #14 on: June 02, 2010, 03:05:55 PM »
HK7 Ep.1

This episode really opens when Gordon Ramsay at a press conference guarantees that the first dinner service will be completed by these fine chefs. How can he make such a bold prediction when no first-night dinner service has ever been close to completion in 6 prior seasons? I don’t know, but it sets the bar quite high for this season.

We have been introduced to the 16 new denizens of Hell’s Kitchen. Several of them brag to the camera about how they are the best and will undoubtedly win this competition. Overconfidence and braggadocio may have their place somewhere, but Hell’s Kitchen is not a good place to express them on camera.  One thing we can be sure of is that Ramsay will remove all overconfidence from remaining chefs as the others drop out episode by episode.

Ramsay starts it off fast with a signature dish competition that serves as the first challenge between the Blue team (men) and Red team (women). Teams know from watching past competitions that you never want to lose a challenge, as the losers get some onerous labor and the winners a nice reward that in the midst of the chaos of the kitchen can be a pleasant respite. However, Ramsay has a trick up his sleeve first. Some of the cheftestants have hairdos that express their personal style in a flamboyant way and Salvatore has the world’s thickest Italian-American accent like he’s just off the boat from Sicily, which did happen only 21 years ago. He says that the super-thick accent attracts females, which is why he retains it. Ramsay calls on a mousy woman who claims to be a mother and cookbook author (both quite true). Ramsay tastes her veal dish and proclaims it fabulous, then starts kissing her. It turns out be me Ramsay’s wife in a mask and wig. Maybe she just needed FOX to pay for a vacation away from their kids, who knows. Ramsay used this incident to make the point that it does not matter what your tastes are; all that matters is how tasty the food you cook is.

The actual competition was pretty low-key after that opening. The men scored points from Jason’s grits, Mikey’s brie-stuffed lobster (Ramsay asked him if he fell in a vat of wax to get that much on his hair but he redeemed himself by having a huge Hell’s Kitchen logo tattoo on his chest), Benjamin’s lobster rigatoni and Jay’s seasoned steak. The women scored on Autumn’s heavenly chicken, Siobhan’s ahi tuna wrapped in mint leaves and Stacey’s unidentified dish. The most interesting development was that Salvatore did not make his own bucatini pasta and he was originally from Naples; Ramsay pronounces this as shocking as well as overcooked! The second most interesting was farmer Andrew, who presents steak tartare inspired by raising and butchering his own animals yet liking to eat them raw; Ramsay asks if he is some sort of Hell’s Kitchen Hannibal Lecter. Nilka started off with spicy chicken wings. She used a half bottle of Tabasco sauce, which is several times the maximum appropriate even for nuclear wings. The Blue team won 4 to 3. The punishment and reward are not announced yet. 

Ramsay does state that the winner will be head chef at a Ramsay restaurant in the London Savoy Hotel. What he does not say is that that is about 4th level down in the hierarchy of chefs there. He also does not say that the winner will be receiving a salary of $250,000. Those type of salaries were revving up competition for chefs to be on this show, but it was not real. It was way out of line for chef salaries and effectively was just a one-time bonus for winning past Hell’s Kitchen seasons.

The teams go to their dorms to study and receive the menus, recipe books to study, a set of Henckel knives with a cleaver and a Hell’s Kitchen jacket of the appropriate color. They get one video lesson from Ramsay on how to make lobster risotto:

1.cook rice (no mention that it is arborial rice and has to be slowly stirred for about 25 minutes)
2. add shallots
3. add mascarpone cheese
4. add garlic
5. add lobster stock (no mention on how to make this in advance from lobster shells)
6. add white wine

Throughout the night, the fire alarm goes off to announce a new Ramsay video to study about every 15 minutes until 219am. The second is on Filet of Beef. The third is on Scallops. Sous Chef Andi wakes the women up at 619 am to have them prepare and serve breakfast for the Blue team in bed. The Blue team sleeps until about 8am.

The teams spend the day prepping Hell’s Kitchen for its Grand Reopening with the usual FOX extras as diners filling all tables. Scott the team member takes charge of the Blue team with his mouth, but not with his deeds. The menu includes Lamb Wellington and Lobster Risotto as entrees and Scallops and Capellini as appetizers. Jay and Nilka are assigned to do tableside preparation.

Dinner service opens with Stacey showing difficulty by not seasoning scallops properly with salt or with curry powder. Also, her sautéed scallops were raw in the center. Although Ramsay does not state it, clearly she did not taste her food, a major lesson that Ramsay is teaching to all the competitors if they haven’t learned it previously.  Salvatore burned the capellini add-ins not once but twice in a row. Fran has problems cooking potatoes and is buckling under the pressure of the first night service. How is she going to make it through 15 or so such nights? Autumn, who is on the Garnish station and has spare time on her hands while the dishes are not reaching her, glibly attempts to rally her Red troops by telling them to just reset their minds to begin anew. I think she would have gotten more long-term value by just pitching in and helping her colleagues than by giving them a pious speech. Benjamin is making a sauce for pasta but unthinkingly puts his tasting spoon back into the pot, contaminating it. Ramsay rightly reams him out. Fran then puts crab instead of lobster in with the risotto.

Jaime undercooks something and Fran laughed at this, followed by Maria. I believe they were displaying a nervous laugh and not a ha-ha laugh. Ramsay is so pissed off that he banishes them from the kitchen along with the hapless Jamie. He asked Jean Phillippe to bring Nilka back from tableside service to enable Red to cover their stations.

Scott is on the Garnish station. Mikey presents raw halibut. Benjamin and Salvatore are on the Blue Appetizers station. Benjamin made the mistake of putting the rice for risotto in after the stock. Salvatore was found putting a cold sauce on hot steak. They were both sent to Siberia (the dorms) as punishment. Stacey said she needed 5 minutes for her salmon to cook. Immediately she changed that to 3 minutes, which caused Ramsay to question her and conclude that she does not know how long to cook salmon, a MAJOR mistake. Stacey is the 4th Red team member to get banned from the kitchen. Mikey does the raw halibut trick a second time, so he is banished.  It is 2.5 hours into dinner service. A customer claims that she is glad she ate before coming. That is the ultimate insult!

Ramsay sends the 3 remaining Red team members to join the 4 remaining Blue team members and finish the dinner service. They are told to work hard and double up on stations to get all the food out quickly.  Ramsay stated in very plain English that he will not shut the kitchen down. Is this a sinking ship? I think not, as the wheat (those remaining in the kitchen) and chaff (those sent to the dorms) have been separated. Ed takes control of the temporarily consolidated team and did a fine job of leading it to task completion.

Ramsay did not beat around the bush after all team members are returned for the post-mortem. He judged that the Red team lost, so they had to nominate their 2 worst members for him to consider for elimination. They nominated Fran and Stacey despite Fran’s attempt to sell the idea that Autumn had not helped the others (which I will make a hunch is a theme we will see again in later episodes). Fran defended herself by saying that she was a Jewish chef and she’s learning, asking for the time to do so. Stacey says she is a team player and that she screwed up. Ramsay took Stacey at her word and eliminated her. He stated that it’s a good thing she was a personal chef, as he had no confidence in ability to cook for the public.

Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #15 on: June 07, 2010, 08:07:00 PM »
Here is the latest from the FOX Network on Hell's Kitchen's changing time slot:

Tuesday, June 8
8:00/7:00c - "Hell's Kitchen"

Tuesdays (June 15-July 20)*
8:00/7:00c - "Hell's Kitchen" (Two-Hours)

Tuesdays (July 27-August 10)
8:00/7:00c - "Hell's Kitchen"


Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #16 on: June 10, 2010, 08:34:36 PM »
HK7, ep. 2

This episode begins as usual with a reprise of the major points from the prior episode. Ramsay found the behavior of Fran, Maria and Jaime inappropriate and he banished them from the Red kitchen early in the dinner service. He found Mikey and Andrew just strange. The body count piles up on both sides including Stacey who laughed at a bad time, but those left appear to be pretty competent and they fulfilled Ramsay’s guarantee of a completed dinner service. Stacey was selected by Ramsay as the eliminee.

Autumn attempted to lecture her Red teammates on proper procedures for deciding whether to send food up to the pass or not, which was “when in doubt, don’t.” I am not sure Ramsay would agree with that, as it can be situational depending on how serious the need is. At 456am, a giant alarm clock rings to wake all Hell’s Kitchen chefs up and Scott directs them to the kitchen where Ramsay poses a Challenge. It is Eggs 4 Ways which will be done by teams of 2 except Siobhan is chosen to do it herself. Eggs are cooked softboiled, scrambled, sunnyside up and poached in 5 minutes. Here are the results:

NIlka/Maria – 4 points
Salvatore/Mikey – 2
Siobhan, who accepted Autumn’s off to do two styles of egg for her if she did one for Autumn’s team – 1
Ed/Jay – 3 with the question from Ramsay “does it bounce?” on the 4th one
Fran/Autumn – using only the ones they did by themselves, 1
Scott/Andrew – 3
Jamie/Holli – 4 including the best scrambled eggs of the competition
Jason/Benjamin – 3

Blue team wins 11 to 10 in the usual FOX cliffhanger style. Its reward is a helicopter ride over Los Angeles with Ramsay, including champagne with Jean Phillippe and lunch with both. The red team’s punishment is to unload a huge tuna (they are usually about 300 pounds and this one looked about that heavy), clean, gut and fillet it. Siobhan stated that she was never again going to be the fall guy by accepting the guidance of others on her team when she did not personally agree with it.

On short notice, Ramsay adds tableside-served tuna tartare to the menu for this evening. What did you think they were going to do with the fresh tuna? Fran and Scott are chosen to do the tableside service. That takes some of the pressure off the kitchen and maximizes the probability that they will complete the dinner service about to begin. Hell’s Kitchen is open.
Mikey’s risotto is undercooked, as he did not want it to be mushy and went too far the other way. Autumn is trying to help her teammates too much. They do not buy her advice, in particular Siobhan doesn’t. She is getting advice she does not want and she will not just ignore Autumn in silence. Fran on tableside screws up on which tables are Red tables and was talking to a Blue table by mistake. Jean Phillippe shows her the map of the dining room and tells her to adhere strictly to it. The first appetizer for Red goes out after 43 minutes and soon is returned for being undercooked.  Ramsay tells them to hurry up and replace it. Red finally starts to hit a groove. Ramsay tells them they must coordinate among themselves much better on timing of how things come together. Nilka is on the Garnish station.

Ramsay termed the first Wellington from Salvatore as “perfect.” Jason undercooks chicken by rushing but asks for 2 minutes to finish cooking it correctly. It’s 1.5 hours into the dinner service and there is a steady flow of entrees out of the Red kitchen. Jamie on the Fish station screws up on Salmon. Ramsay indicated that Red is having serious communications problems again.

Andrew started acting literally nuts on the Garnish station. Ramsay ordered him out of the kitchen with:”You’re doing nothing right. You don’t care. You don’t have any respect. You’re a joke.”   Andrew does as ordered, but Jean Phillippe tells him to stick around because Ramsay is known to change his mind and come looking for those he banishes. Andrew’s pride does not allow him to. The voiceover announcer stated that this is the second time in 7 years that a chef from Hell’s Kitchen abandons the kitchen.

Dinner service is completed for both the Red and Blue teams, but Ramsay is dissatisfied enough that neither team is deemed the winner. Both teams must nominate one individual who is the weakest on their team. Red nominates Autumn and Blue Jason. Autumn claimed (rightfully so) that she is not close to the worst and her team is forced by Ramsay to indicate that is true. Autumn says it is a personal issue, not anything related to her competence as a chef that caused her teammates to nominate her. Ramsay forced the issue and had Red nominate someone else, so Jamie is selected. Jason gets his chance to argue that he is not the weakest on his team. Ramsay then makes his decision and eliminates Mikey. He stated that “Mikey was all about appearance. Unfortunately for him it didn’t appear that he could cook.

It’s only the second episode and 3 chefs are gone. I did not find this a very satisfying episode. We continue to get to know the players. Only Ed on the Blue team has emerged as a winner. Nobody on the Red team has stuck out positively. We’ll see what develops.

Offline Pedaler

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2010, 09:34:42 PM »
I agree apskip about the unsatisfying episode.

I still miss Lacey.   :hearts:


 http://www.buddytv.com/articles/hells-kitchen/exclusive-interview-lacey-dang-27423.aspx

Offline KitKat

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #18 on: June 16, 2010, 08:21:31 PM »
I dvr'd last nights hell's kitchen, but apparently the president was on so I didnt get to see who was eliminated in the 2nd half of the show. I know that autumn and scott were put on the chopping block but who went home?
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Offline chill_sd

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #19 on: June 16, 2010, 10:00:53 PM »
I dvr'd last nights hell's kitchen, but apparently the president was on so I didnt get to see who was eliminated in the 2nd half of the show. I know that autumn and scott were put on the chopping block but who went home?

I just got finished watching it at hulu.com (if you have a fast enough connection it's a good way to watch shows).

Anyway, highlight below if you want to see the outcome.

Ramsey sent Scott to the Red team and Autumn to the Blue team.  Since both kitchens had a good service, he decided to give them another chance.


Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #20 on: June 16, 2010, 10:30:48 PM »
Thanks Chill!

I believe he made the decision because Andrew chose to walk out leaving a chef short in the kitchen.

Missing Lacey!  :lol3:
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Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #21 on: June 17, 2010, 08:27:33 AM »
I am not missing Lacey, but i will second the TexasLady's hypothesis about why Ramsay could afford to eliminate nobody. The unexpected departure of Andrew combined with the elimination of Mikey made a week available for no eliminations. I am surprised they used that so quickly to not eliminate anyone, but I did agree with Ramsay's decision that Autumn for her own sanity and opportunity needed to be switched to the Blue team. After that move, then it became necessary to bring someone the other way; it could have been anyone but Scott had already been nominated for elimination by his team so he was a logical choice.

I will have a recap of this episode up sometime today.

Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #22 on: June 19, 2010, 09:33:09 AM »
HK7, ep. 3

As usual, a recap of episode 2 starts this off. Ramsay stated that several chefs failed that night. Autumn pushed around Siobhan in the challenge, which was won by the Blue team probably because of it. Autumn then took over some cooking from Siobhan over her objections. Jaime failed on the Red fish station. Mikey was also a disaster on the Blue fish station.  Jason choked on chicken. Andrew’s inner rage led him to withdraw altogether from HK7 in the middle of dinner service, something that has only happened twice in the history of Hell’s Kitchen. Jaime and Jason were nominated by their teams for their poor performance, but it was Mikey who was eliminated.

Ramsay commented on the bad dinner service performance of both teams, citing lack of teamwork due to lack of camaraderie, silence and no communications the symptoms as critical. He oriented the challenge to build teamwork and demonstrate efficiency. The challenge is a special abbreviated casual lunch menu, with just French fries, burgers, chicken sandwiches and salads to be made in 30 minutes. The first team to finish wins.  Jason decided to be a team player. The customers are 100 members of the University of southern California  Marching Band and cheerleaders, with each team serving half the dining room.  These customers are there because they demonstrate the importance of precision, timing and teamwork.

On the salads, Fran and Autumn made them and served them in large bowls for a table while Jason was responsible solo on the Blue team apparently with individual servings. Nilka showed her team spirit by shouting (is that really spirit or just BS?). Jason performed well and the Blue team is impressed by his contributions to their team. Scott sent up a raw burger, while Maria did well on burgers.  As usual it comes down to one serving for each team and in the chaos the Red team got its first challenge win. Ed said they were faster even though maybe not better. The men are given the opportunity to clean up the Los Angeles River for Heal the Bay in yellow jump suits for part of the day. They are put in an old bus that did not look that bad to me. What do they expect for a punishment? There was debris, trash and plastic bags and they did a fine job of cleaning up. At the end, they agreed that they had achieved something important Jason summarized what they learned from this experience:  “America, stop littering.” Excellent Advice!

The women get the reward of going to the Mailibu Beach Inn in Malibu. They were driven in authentic Woodie station wagons from about 1950. They are invited to the beach by Ramsay and Holli says “Chef Ramsay is cute. He looks like a real person.” Ramsay introduced Team Ramsay: his children Megan, Jack, Holly, Matilda and his wife Tana. They challenged the Read team to a game of soccer (Ramsay had played youth soccer in England but was injured multiple times and had to stop playing). Despite that Team Ramsay easily won 3 to 0. The women then enjoyed a meal and drinks.

Dinner service began. Holli and Salvatore were placed in the job of Assistant Maitre D’s helping Jean Phillippe so they can learn the impact that being front of the house has on their kitchens. Holli’s fist order was “in Japanese.” Salvatore’s was worse and he required help from Jean Phillippe to translate it for the blue team to be able to fill that order. Ramsay said “they’re here for dinner, not breakfast.” Maria’s first appetizer was rejected by Ramsay at the pass for not enough lobster, cheese or seasoning. Nilka helped Maria to get her appetizers better and Ramsay praised that.  Scott in on the Blue Appetizers station, but his first effort on potatoes is abysmal.  Benjamin is praised by Ramsay for his meat being cooked perfectly. Salvatore told a table that “my teammates are putting extra love into the salmon,” but he made a mistake on a chicken order. He claimed that he was quitting but Jean Phillippe talked him out of it. It doesn’t matter because he will not last long in this competition anyway. Holli brought back a steak that was medium rare instead of medium. Fran fought through a burn from hand in the oven and then produced a steak rare that should have been medium. As Autumn stated, Fran was undercooking and overcooking, with no control over which what the outcome would be. Scott tried to help Jason even though Jason knew what he needed to do. Holli is stalling a table with an offer of even more bread (she said just kidding when challenged, but it was obvious that she was just trying to buy time for her team to get it together) after 3 hours of not getting their entrees. Jamie was burning carrots on the Garnish. Siobhan on the fish station attempted to help Jamie by leaving her station. Siobhan then had two raw halibut, which Ramsay regarded as a major mistake. Benjamin fended off Scott’s attempts to help him on Meat and Ramsay loved his results. Fran cooked another steak rare instead of medium. Ramsay said “overcooked undercooked, let’s get it together.” Fran was forced by Ramsay to go and see the medic because of her burned hand, but she told the medic to just wrap it up so she could finish that dinner service.

It is almost 4 hours from opening, so it’s clear that Ramsay’s past policies to shut the kitchen down when major mistakes were made has been replaced by a desire to push through and finish it. Ramsay asked if it had to be so painful. The winning team is Blue because of Benjamin’s excellent work. The Red team has to nominate 2 for potential elimination. Fran was going to be one because of refires and losing composure; the second was Jamie due to her burning mashed potatoes and carrots. Ramsay indicated that Fran may be “an old dog unable to be taught new tricks.” Ramsay said he believed Fran can fight back as promise3d, so Jaime is eliminated. Ramsay said as his parting words on Jamie that she had passion but no creativity or leadership qualities.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2010, 10:55:37 AM by apskip »

Offline apskip

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #23 on: June 19, 2010, 12:26:59 PM »
HK7 ep. 4

The prior episode challenge was to serve lunch to the USC Band and cheerleaders. The women won their first challenge. For the Red team, Nilka screwed up appetizers, Jamie burned garnishes and Fran was terrible on meat. For the Blue team, Benjamin was excellent on meat, Scott tried to help others but was rejected and Salvatore was judged by Ramsay to be hapless and decided to follow Andrew out the door, but Jean Phillippe convinced him to stay by telling him to just fight back. The nominees for elimination by the women were Fran and Jaime. Jaime was Ramsay’s choice to leave as he thought Franc could be taught “new tricks.”

Ramsay told Salvatore that he must bounce and fight back as Ramsay had not given up on him. Ramsay had another challenge, to be under maximum pressure by rolling the dice for ingredients to prepare a meal. Each member rolls the dice and must name one of 6 ingredients that will work well together. The Men choose Halibut, Endive, Salsify, Crab, Peas, Bacon. The women choose Beets, Shallots, Mango, Ham, Turnips, Duck. Autumn told her teammates that they should save the duck fat to be put into the turnips and to not forget to score the ducks. Salvatore wants to help out, but due to his limited experience only Ed wanted his minimal help and was willing to take time to teach him some things. I am really impressed by that and I bet Ramsay was too. This should give Ed a leg up on the others temporarily for his leadership. Autumn wanted to plate the duck early, but Ramsay advised the Nilka they not to. Autumn was on the nerves of her teammates for unwanted advice.

The men presented Pan Roasted Halibut with Salsify Puree, Bacon, Pea and Crab Ragout, salad of Crab and Endive. Ramsay said this dish is quite tasty, endive is clean, peas sweet and everything cooked perfectly. Salsify taste was unsatisfactory due to being fried unnecessarily.

The women presented Mango Glazed Pan-Seared Duck w/ turnips in Duck Fat, Ham, Mangos, Beets. Ramsay said the turnips look boring but should taste delicious. He said that turnips in duck fat was a good idea and NIlka’s duck with too much fat on it was a problem.

Ramsay says that by a fraction the winning dish is the men. The women’s punishment included cleaning the entrance hall of dust, sweeping the hall, washing the carpet and then prepping both kitchens. The blue team is going skydiving. Jason is not willing to do it because “do I look like a bird?” It actually was a wind tube at I Fly that Jason found OK. Jean Phillippe gave the Red team work the white glove test. He said there was dust on the frames. Benjamin rated the skydiving reward as “awesome.”  Sous chef Andi told the women that they were losing their prep technique and needed to improve very fast. Maria was negatively impacted by the stress of the double prep.

Ramsay explained that chef tables in the kitchen were a new feature. Red will have the host of ET Kenneth Frasier and his wife. Blue hosts Debbie Mazar from Entourage and her husband, who is a chef. Ramsay opened Hell’s Kitchen.

Scott attempted to help Jason, who he thinks is the worst chef in the Blue kitchen. Jason resented this and Jay said he would beat Scott up if given the chance. Jason’s cappellini is “cooked perfectly” as a result of Scott’s help. Siobhan had lobster in the cappellini instead of crab. Salvatore cooked raw snapper, not the pink 30 seconds Snapper appetizer requested. Siobhan pulled it from the crab bowl, but it was really lobster so she took heat from Ramsay. Salvatore is told that his snapper is cooked perfectly. Nilka is responsible for the Red team’s first entrees. Autumn is talking incessantly, but Ramsay regards this as positive. It really wasn’t. Anyway, Nilka delivered. Salvatore cooked salmon perfectly. Ed on the Garnish had rock hard potatoes. Autumn on fish sent up salmon that was picked up with food tongs when it should have been a fish spatula used. Scott delivered beef rare when it should have been medium. Kevin Frasier and wife were waiting for their entrees. Nilka cooked great Wellingtons, so Fran said that “she had it all under control.” Scott cooked the Wellingtons raw when it should have been rare. His second try got “perfectly cooked “feedback from Ramsay. Salvatore got nicely cooked halibut and got to deliver it to Mazar and husband and talk Italian with them.  Both teams finish in 2 ¼ hours. It must have been a less than full dining room but still that is exceptionally good performance..

Ramsay is amazed how good they were. He told Salvatore “you can cook” and  Nilka “in fine dining, you cooked the meat great.” Each one is asked to nominate one person each for elimination. NIlka misunderstood that her role was not to decide, just to nominate. Nilka focused on Autumn, but Autumn said that her non-use of a fish spatula was not sufficient to warrant her elimination. Siobhan is worried due to her crab vs. lobster incidents. Ed was not humbled by his mistakes. Scott said that he was trying too much to help others. Salvatore acknowledged that Scott had helped him a lot, so I don’t expect him to be nominating Scott. Nilka chose Autumn because she did not perform to “her full potential.” What utter crap, as it was clearly a personality conflict based on her bossiness that got Autumn in hot water with her teammates, not anything to do with her actual performance. Salvatore nominated Scott in spite of his help. Ramsay said that Autumn was not appreciated by the Red team. Ramsay told her that she is soulless, but she defended herself. Ramsay said that Scott did not cook at all tonight.  Scott promised to mind his on business; I’m sure he won’t be spending his time helping Salvatore.  Ramsay told him to pipe down and be more humble. Ramsay asked both to take their jackets off, but he then pulled switcheroo by sending Autumn to the Blue team and Scott to the Red team. Autumn clearly had to be moved and somebody had to be switched to replace her.  Autumn said that the Red team “will be sorry they let her go.” Scott said “now he will come out to play   Ramsay stated that the best service yet demanded no eliminations, but they need to both better excel or they will be gone. I agree that ir was a good time for him to use the flexibility obtained by the unexpected departure of Andrew since the performance of both teams warranted no eliminations.

Offline TexasLady

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Re: Hell's Kitchen Season 7
« Reply #24 on: June 22, 2010, 01:16:39 PM »
Four episodes, does anyone stand out? Only a few for me. Some are staying under the radar so we don't know how they will react to Ramsay's pressure.  Salvatore redeemed himself by not walking out and Ramsay praised him for doing a good job. (Ramsay can be motivational and uplifting at times, we just don't see it much on Hell's Kitchen.)

Nilke and Autumn, both seem to be able to be leaders in the kitchen, Autumn more so than Nilke but I don't believe either one can win unless they step it up even more.  

I just don't have a good feel for anyone on the Blue Team, I thought Jason would do better but he can't really take the pressure. Anyone see a leader on the men's team?  

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