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Hell's Kitchen Season 5

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apskip:
Thanks, Pedaler. I think that may be the finest interview ever done with a Hell's Kitchen contestant! Andrea is very straightforward and forthcoming.

apskip:
Who will be the final 2 and who won't is the major issue to be decided. The strong probability is for Danny and Paula sa the Final 2.
 
From the summary of last week's episode the challenge has been labeled "Sample It, Then Duplicate it," a supreme test of the tasting palate skills of teach chef. The surprising winner was Andrea. The loser in a very close service was Ben, who was eliminated. Ramsay tells the final 3 that they will receive a little treat before going back to the dorms. I did not predict the "Chef Ji returns" hypothesis correctly, but his time I am right on. The treat is family members visiting for 10 minutes. Paula has her mother and sister, Andrea has her mother and cousin and Danny has his father and a girlfriend.
 
The next morning opens with Ramsay referring to them as "la crème de la crème." Having seen several seasons of Hell's Kitchen, I would agree. Ramsay said in pre-season publicity that the final 4 was the strongest ever and it looks that way to me. The challenge is to create and cook in 90 minute tasting portions of some dish for 100 special distinguished customers. That turns out to be the executive chefs or owners and other chefs from restaurants with Michelin stars, Mobil stars, Zagat top ratings or a James Beard award from the greater Los Angeles area, a most distinguished group. Their votes decide who wins this challenge with votes for both Best and for Worst. This is a challenge worthy of Top Chef which we don't often see in Hell's Kitchen. Ramsay states that "Los Angeles must be starving. You're all here."
The only competitor really identifying what their plan was is Danny, who says he will combine seafood and fruit.
 
Danny does indeed do so, with Blackened Halibut as his dish, accompanied with ginger mint peach salsa, basmati rice and a sauce of celery, fennel and chili peppers and honey.
Paula has olive oil poached sturgeon with crispy french fries and salad of arugula and radishes with caviar
Andrea has chicken roulade prosciutto micro? on garlic.
 
The tasting occurs and the votes are tabulated. The loser dish is Danny's with 76% of those votes. However, when you see what the prize is you will realize that Danny was not intended to win this competition. Most episodes, I think the "winning team" or in this case individual is selected based on who Gordon Ramsay wants to spend time with, but this time there is at least the façade of 100 great chefs voting. The winner dish with "more than 76%" was Paula. That leaves Andrea in the middle, but she has beaten Danny and that gives her confidence.
 
Paula gets a Hollywood style Makeover with Mark Lichter.  Anyway, Paula gets a new hair style, manicure and pedicure. When done she still looks like the good old Paula we expect to see in the final 2. Jean-Pierre accompanied her to this activity and she gets to ask him questions, two of which reveal that he is single and planning on staying in the U.S. She makes a remark about how restaurant industry people don't have the time to date anyone seriously but they can see each other as part of their work interactions. Is she angling for something? Who knows? The script marches on. Danny notes that Paula has returned refreshed and relaxed. However, this is only half of the reward.
 
The losers group of Danny and Andrea have specific cleaning tasks, starting with the cleaning all the tables and then steaming, ironing and folding every piece of linen. That's a big job and he does not even ask them to do the usual prep for dinner service, which presumably was being done by Scot and Gloria. However, its only part of their tasks, the rest being to use mops, vacuums and steam cleaners to make the dining room and kitchen shine.
 
The rest of Paula's reward is to go to the studios of FOX's "Good Day, LA" TV program, where she is taped in a 6 minute segment with Ramsay. She gets to slice apples, but it is the verbal interaction that is important and she does well at that. When it is on, Andrea and Danny, having been put in a room with a huge TV screen on to the correct channel by some gremlins, get to observe Paula in action and eat their hearts out that it wasn't themselves. Paula says that Ramsay is incredibly talented in his interactions with the camera (which is true and why many viewers watch Hell's Kitchen).
 
It's time for dinner service. Ramsay tells the 3 chefs that they will be assisted (put that in heavy quotes as it is an ironic statement) by Scot and Gloria in the kitchen because the tables are fully booked and they will need the help. "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." since that twosome has a history under the direction of Gordon Ramsay of throwing knuckleballs at the chefs. The chefs will each get a turn at the "pass" where all final assembly is done and Ramsay normally is the tasting authority before anything goes out. Chefs that can identify when something is quite wrong get good marks from Ramsay and ones that fail these tests are likely to be headed for the door.
 
Paula is up first and Gloria sends her a dish with butternut squash puree rather than carrot puree. She fails to recognize this and is off to a bad start. She was also initially very tentative in the orders she gave out to the others. Paula is next tested by Scot. He send her a spinach soup when it should have been watercress soup. Ramsay is pleased that she recognizes that it isn't watercress soup. He lets her go a bit because he likes her and believes she has earned a place in the final two. She settles in and does better.
 
Danny is up. The voiceover mentions the orders for 5 are being transmitted by him to the chefs. Danny calls out only 4 orders. Jean-Pierre has sabotaged him by leaving one off. Danny fails to recognize this and also that a time stamp is missing. Andrea has a scallops mistake which he catches, not clear whether intentional or not but probably not. Then Gloria sabotages potatoes, which are skin still on, rock hard, and uncooked. Danny does not catch this. However, he is given more time and does well for the remainder of it.
 
Andrea is last at the pass. Her style is managing the kitchen is very aggressive and not appreciated by the others, particularly not by Scot, who threatens to "punch her in the month". She is challenged by a halibut sent in place of Dory and fails this test. She gets a second challenge  from Scot with unseasoned Dory sauce and she catches it. He sends her something that needs "45 seconds more". She says that Scot keeps giving her excuses and now she knows why Ramsay is such a  f*cking lunatic. She finds Scot's eggs need to be seasoned. She has passed one of two quality control tests.
 
Since Danny had the most errors (2 of 3 in quality control tests), I think he could be in trouble. Ramsay closes down the kitchen and claims it to be "overall, the best service ever" brought about by good leadership, good teamwork and good individual performances. He asks each chef to go to the dorm and think about which chef they want to see not make the Final 2. When they reconvene, it's no secret that Andrea says Danny and Danny says Andrea. The interesting thing is who Paula will nominate. She nominates Andrea and Ramsay makes the same decision to eliminate Andrea. This is totally expected as the F2 battle between Paula and Danny has been preordained for many weeks. Ramsay dismisses Andrea with the statement that she has done very well and displayed great energy and can hold her head up quite high as a result. What I think is most instructive about the quality of these chefs is that Ramsay trusted them to handle the pass well without going through any stupid role-playing as was done in previous seasons. Also, Ramsay is smiling, indicative of their excellent service performance.
 
So, my Paula vs. Danny prediction from 5 weeks ago is correct. However, I cannot pick a winner at they both have a full range of skills. I have a preference and that is for Paula's quiet confidence over Danny's boisterous braggadocio.
 
There were brief previews for next week. They will start in Hell's Kitchen and something shocking will happen. The return of Chef Ji? I hope so but that is improbable at this point. After that they will fly to Atlantic City.  Remember my prediction that on the final challenge it will be tied and the VP-food and Beverage and Executive Chef at the Borgata will be breaking the tie! I actually thought the final competition would be there, but I have changed my mind as a result of the families already showing up. Ramsay can send them sightseeing in the greater Los Angeles area for a few days, but there is no point in sending them to Atlantic City. That leaves the final service in Hell's Kitchen to determine it just the way Gordon Ramsay wants it to be, with the decision at his sole discretion.

HKfan5:
The surprise of Chef Ji returning would have been a great treat, but family would have been my guess too.
So I saw that they bring back a few chefs for the final, what happened to my favorite...Chef Ji. They need to have a Hell's Kitchen competition for the ones that had to leave due to injury/health. They all left voluntarily, they were never eliminated. Hope we see all of the past 5 seasons injuried contestants come back soon.

apskip:
It's time to make a guess at how the sous chef help for the finale will end up, with Danny or with Paula. The key variable is whether Ji will be one of those sous chefs.

So, if Ji is not available and Danny picks first, here is the way I expect it to go:
Danny picks Ben
Paula picks Andrea
Danny picks Robert
Paula picks Carol
Danny picks Giovanni
Paula picks Coi

If Ji is not available and Paula picks first, then this:
Paula picks Andrea
Danny picks Ben
Paula picks Carol
Danny picks Robert
Paula picks Giovanni
Danny picks ?

If Ji is available and Danny picks first then:
Danny picks Ji
Paula picks Andrea
Danny picks Ben
Paula picks Carol
Danny picks Robert
Paula picks Giovanni

If Ji is available and Paula picks first then:
Paula picks Ji
Danny picks Ben
Paula picks Andrea
Danny picks Robert
Paula picks Carol
Danny picks Giovanni

As you can see, I expect that the core Red team vs. Blue team loyalties will prevail. In this situation you want people you know and who you can rely on. The Danny/Ben/Robert trio was very successful. The Paula/Andrea/Carol trio did well, but not as well as the Blue team.

Pedaler:
apskip, I believe you need to modify your selections.  I think it's fairly clear from Puddin's YouTube (starting at the 56 second mark) who the six helpers in the finale are.

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