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Hell's Kitchen 8
apskip:
HK8, ep.1- 16 teams Compete
It's a new season of Hell's Kitchen. There is an opening scene with Ramsay as Gulliver being attacked by the chef-Lilliputians who had him tied up. 16 new chefs were ready to be fired from the cannons when shown receiving the letters inviting them to Hell’s Kitchen as competitors. There were 10,000 applicants for those slots. It could be expected to be competitive, combative, frustrating, intense, emotional and draining. The chefs arrived and new Maitre d’ James arranged for them to be blindfolded and driven to what turned out to be the site of the new L.A. Market in the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. Ramsay announced that the salary for the winner is $250,000 and the responsibility also includes being spokesperson for Rosemount Vineyards. The chefs were then returned to Hell’s Kitchen for their first task/test.
The first test was the signature dish competition, with 45 minutes to cook something that the chef regards as the core dish they can do well. The apparent head-to-head competition between a Red team and Blue team dish was not real because each team can earn a point irrespective of what the other team does, but the team competition is real. Sabrina said “whenever I walk into a kitchen people don’t take me seriously.” Perhaps it is because attempting to cook in stiletto heels is a bit ludicrous, Sabrina. IN the middle of the judging of signature dishes, Sabrina was noticed by Ramsay yawning, which he castigated her for before offering her a chair.
Challenge
Emily - Duck Breast, grape/walnut compote vs. Russell grilled calamari 1-1
Nona- Fried chicken w/ asparagus vs. Vinny grilled poached halibut w/ lots of oil 0-1
Antonia- gumbo(he forced all to eat it; she had not tasted it) vs. Curtis pepper chicken 0-0
Jillian- herb/vegetable stuffed chicken w/ herb cream sauce vs. Rob pistachio crusted Carlyle rack of lamb 1-0
Gail vs. Trev 0-0
Lisa vs. Loouis 1-0
Melissa vs. Boris 0-1
Sabrina bachetta fish w/endive, brown butter, blood orange fennel vs. Raj seafood/vegetable pancake 1-0
The totals are Red 3, Blue 3 with only 30% of dishes hitting Ramsay’s acceptable mark.
The tie-breaker was the worst dish, which was “the biggest insult”, Antonia’s gumbo. Blue won this Challenge and got to enjoy masseuses brought in to Hell’s Kitchen plus fine win and caviar. Punishment for the women was to clean both kitchens. Antonia passed out during this and was sent to the hospital, leaving her Red team one short for dinner service.
For dinner service, Emily and Raj were put in the dinning room to serve one of 3 mini-pizzas. Lisa had the pasta station; Melissa was an amuse bouche pizza maker as is Boris. Trev’s first salad was overdressed. Boris and Raj were placed together to work on pizza for the Blue team, but this was the blind leading the blind. Making sushi was the next challenge .After 2 hours, diners were fed up and left the Hell’s Kitchen dining room. Ramsay declared no team the winner, with both teams to nominate 2 individuals for elimination. The blue team nominated Raj and Trev. The Red team nominated Lisa and Sabrina. Ramsay allowed Sabrina to beg for mercy, since Lisa was in her late 40s in age. Lisa was asked to take off her jacket and leave.
HK8, ep. 2- 14 Teams Compete
Most episodes of Hell’s Kitchen open with a recap of the prior week’s episode. The chefs got a view of the L.A. Market restaurant. The signature dish challenge performance was mixed. Antonia had a mysterious illness and left HK for good. Sabrina was slow. Raj was closed. It was the worst opening night in HK history. Nona, Lisa and Sabrina were considered for elimination, with Lisa the one to go.
Both teams are awakened in the wee hours by Japanese drums to get them up and moving to the kitchen. Ramsay brought in Matsuhiro Morimoto, an expert on sushi with a Michelin star to demonstrate to the HK chefs how to do a salmon/cucumber/avocado roll and tuna negeri. Attention to detail is critical. For the tuna negeri they must form the rice and cut the tuna into perfectly even slices, then add wasabi. For the roll, they need to make it inside out by rolling the salmon, peeling the cucumber and rolling it out evenly. When he had done so, the challenge was to make 9 perfect pieces of sushi in 10 minutes. Here are the results:
Red Team
Monica and Gail 0 pieces good out of 8 presented
Nona and Jillian 8 pieces food out of 9
Emily and Sabrina 7 pieces out of 9
TOTAL Red 15
Blue Team
Louis and Rob 4 (they missed several for no wasabi)
Russell and Raj 4 (Raj missed wasabi on 4)
Boris and Vinny 8 of 9 presented
TOTAL Blue 16
Blue won and got to keep their Henckel Myabi Morimoto sushi knives and went to San Francisco by private jet to the Circle 360 Restaurant with Ramsay, including tasting of Rosemount wines (which were getting good product placement by having cases on display). Matt Lane led a wine tasting to educate the palates of all the chefs. This is particularly important since the winner of HK8. Ramsay also provided back in Los Angeles for a stunning sunset dinner at the Water Bar Restaurant. Punishment for the women was prepping all sushi for both kitchens plus unloading all delivery trucks and stowing the incoming material where it belonged. They also were forced to try each of the “delicacies from around the world” which looks dicey but really are delicacies in different cultures. Some of the women barfed in appreciation, but Gail from the Philippines stated that that food is eaten by all there.
Ramsay announced that salmon roll was being added to the Hell’s Kitchen menu. He also stated that Antonia would not be back, as she was medically unable to return to Hell’s Kitchen. Raj is expected by his teammates to be capable of accomplishing absolutely nothing. He nominated Vinny and Jillian to serve pizza amuse bouche in the dining room as Assistant Maitre D’s under James. Hell’s Kitchen was opened and diners arrived. Nothing let the blue kitchen in the first 30 minutes. Red has Emily on the meat station, Nona on the fish station, Jillian on Appetizers and Sabrina on sushi. Gail’s first risotto was “very nice.” Curtis had not figured out how to make sushi, so nothing could go out of the Blue kitchen until he overcame that. Nona cooked a halibut rare instead of medium well done. Vinny had no confidence in Raj’s abilities to get side dishes out, so he recommended to customers that they order meals without side dishes so that would receive them much earlier. James found this out, reported it to Ramsay and Vinny was in deep trouble. Ramsay stated that he was the only individual that would decide what left Hell’s Kitchen and what did not. What Ramsay was really saying was that he had major doubts about Raj’s ability too, but Raj had to be given the opportunity to fail and pay the price for that. The Blue team was struggling with Meat and their team confidence. Boris attempted to “help” Trev on the Fish station, but that went over like a lead balloon. Melissa on the Garnish station was having some problems too. It got bad enough that Ramsay had her swap places with Jillian, who came in from pizza duty to take over the Red Garnish station and quickly solved its problems. Raj now had about 10 different Garnishes out with no apparent orders ready for any of them. This looked like there was going to be a major waste of money as they would have to be trashed to meet Ramsay’s exacting standards. Boris stated that Raj was a “waste of time.” Red completed their dinner service while Blue was a long way from doing that. The men clearly lost and had to nominate 2.
It looked like those 2 were going to be Raj and Curtis, but at the last moment somebody decided that Boris was worse than Curtis for commandeering the scallops from Trev when that was not necessary. All 3 were at risk, but I think the most incompetent member of the blue team in his assigned role was Vinny. He apparently caught a big break on this one, but Ramsay decided to have him in the mix too. Ramsay’s decision was to eliminate Curtis because of incompetence at cooking. That sounded fair to me, but it could have been any of those 4.
ugot2bekidinmeny:
Raj is gonna give me a heart atttack with just his breathing! I have to make sure i dont watch this :hellkitchen show before i go to bed. or i will have nigthmares!!
seems like this is one fiesty group!! :flipper on both sides :lol3:
KitKat:
--- Quote from: ugot2bekidinmeny on September 24, 2010, 08:19:41 PM ---Raj is gonna give me a heart atttack with just his breathing! I have to make sure i dont watch this :hellkitchen show before i go to bed. or i will have nigthmares!!
seems like this is one fiesty group!! :flipper on both sides :lol3:
--- End quote ---
I agree, and it looks as though this is gonna be a good season even without the beautiful Jean Phillipe......(sp?)
TexasLady:
--- Quote from: cocina del infierno on September 11, 2010, 09:10:13 AM ---You're welcome, apskip. I am looking for more information on what may have led to this and will post here if I find any. I'm sure going to miss him!
Chef Scott will be back, as will Chef Andi. Also, one of the contestants hails from a nearby town, Lake Station, Indiana, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for any local press on her. (I don't know her personally.)
--- End quote ---
Welcome to RFF cocina! I MISS Jean Phillipe!
I love Raj! The look of bewilderment and defiance on his face is priceless.
TexasLady:
Thanks for your always excellent recap apskip.
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