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Hell's Kitchen 9
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HK9, Ep. 6
It’s time for the first high school reunion ever in Hell’s Kitchen. The Culver City Class of 1991was willing to be put on camera. Ramsay arranged for the reunion committee to come and talk to representatives of the Blue team (Paul) and Red team (Elizabeth) about what foods they wanted. That committee of spoke of their desire for a Hawaiian theme, including pork and scallops and one of them is a pescatarian who does not eat meat. Paul and Elizabeth were on the hook for listening carefully and communicating well back to their teams who were planning a tasting menu of 1 appetizer, 1 meat entrée and a seafood entrée. Ramsay told each team that the reunion committee would be the judges for this challenge. There would be one point each for head-to-head competition on each item and the winners would automatically be on the final menu for the evening. Elizabeth’s communication to the Red team made the committee requests to be for an Asian theme, not a Hawaiian one; Paul got it right for the Blue team.
Here were the dishes and results:
Natalie – ahi tuna and ohno on crostini B 1
Carrie – ahi tuna tartare w/ wonton and guacamole on top R 0
Monterray – roasted poprk loin w/ mango pineapple chutney B 1
Krupa – nut-crusted pork loin w/ lentils, bok choy R 0
Will – banana leaf wrapped steamed opa w/ coconut sauce B 1
Elise – BBQ seared scallops w/ BBQ sauce, guavo chipotle, bacon lardon (against the pescatarian restriction which Elizabeth had failed to communicate. R 0
So Blue made a clean sweep of the results (not so strangely, not controlled by Ramsay) and all 3 of their offerings were to be featured on the menu (which meant that the Red had to also learn how to cook them). Blue also won a yacht trip with a fine lunch and doubtless lots of alcohol. The Red team was left behind to clean, to move furniture in setup for the reunion and to make flower leis. As always after one of their challenge losses, they were pissed and looking for whom to blame. They did not look any further than Elizabeth, who was the culprit.
Dinner service opened and Paul’s first Fish station appetizer was both cold and raw inside. However, he got it right on his second try. Red was having difficulty with appetizers and Ramsay chided them with “Who will lead them to victory?” Elise stepped up and not surprisingly said that she had the skills and desire to do this. She did a good job in the leadership role, being careful to not let her mouth run too much. Red got good pot stickers out. Monterray on Garnish made a mistake by putting broccolini into a cold pan. Ramsay admonished him for not using a hot pan because a cold one allows too much oil to attach and for then throwing the broccolini out. Carrie added old rice into her new rice and Ramsay caught her doing so. Paul was having a terrible day on the Fish station, so Ramsay asked Jonathon and Monterray to take over that station. Jonathan managed to make himself scarce, effectively leaving Monterray on his own (which is typically the case on any station so it should have been on big deal). However, Monterray got 3 consecutive fish dishes undercooked for the reunion committee. Ramsay was irate and shut the Blue kitchen down. I thought this a bit harsh; just change the individual on the Fish station until you got it right; why not make Jonathon really do it? The Red team finished out the evening and won it.
Jonathon and Monterray were jawing about who was responsible for this debacle. The Blue team had 3 potential nominees for the worst: Monterray, Jonathan, Paul. They put up Monterray and Paul, which was no contest with two useless chefs vs. one good one who had a bad night. Ramsay rightly thought Jonathan was missing from that group, so he called him up. Paul admitted that he had a terrible night but promised to do better. Monterray talked about his more lengthy experience. Jonathon said he was a better chef (which is not close to true) Ramsay had no trouble in making that decision. I felt that Paul should be retained and that Jonathon should be eliminated. Ramsay kept Paul and Jonathon and eliminated Monterray. His parting comment was that Monterray’s experience meant nothing if he could not perform in Hell’s Kitchen.
So who were the real winners and losers in this episode, those in what I believe to be the top echelon? Natalie and Will continue to shine for the Blue team and Jonathan should not still be there. Elizabeth has sunk pretty low as a result of failure to communicate, Krupa just does not have the required skills and Carrie’s personality is hurting her due to desire to work on her own. Elise has pulled herself back into the top echelon to join Jamie.
franxaverian:
Ramsay kept Paulo and Jonathon and eliminated Jonathon Monterray. His parting comment was that Monterray’s experience meant nothing if he could not perform in Hell’s Kitchen.
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Hell’s Kitchen 9, Ep. 7
The chefs are shown a variety of fruit, grains and oils spread out on a table. Ramsay asked them what could bring all those diverse flavors together. Here are numerous good answers to that question, but his was beer. He invited two beer sommeliers to come out and judge the next challenge. It was to cook in 45 minutes any items on that table with beer to make a memorable dish. The Red team with one more member than Blue had to pick one dish (Krupa’s rabbit was elected due to being tough) to sit out and then each team has to rate its dishes from #5 up to #1. This allowed the teams to calibrate how their dishes were relative to own team other dishes rather than having Ramsay do it for them, so I applaud what he was allowing them to do. The dishes presented were:
1. Carrie vs. Paul – filet marinated in stout w/ raspberries ; mussels Red 1 Blue 0
2. Elise vs. Jonathan – salmon cooked in Belgian white beer; chicken in raspberry lambic beer w/ the pineapples he loves Red 1 Blue 0
3. Jennifer vs. Natalie – beef and vegetable stew; chocolate stout filet Red 0 Blue 1
4. Elizabeth vs. Will – amber mussels and clams ; lambic-infused venison loin Red 0 Blue 1
5. Jamie vs. Tommy –duck Belgian light beer w/ shallots, garlic with glaze of raspberry beer reduction ; duck in raspberry beer w/ potatoes Red 0 Blue 1
It’s another win for Blue. This could be predicted when you learn what the reward was, to drive Indy cars over 200 mph around a real test track. The punishment for the Red team was unloading 20 trucks for delivery day and cleaning the kitchen. They were not happy campers at the end of that. Dissension was enhanced by Elise acting as a princess because she claimed she was too small to handle heavy bags of ice and beer barrels. Her teammates were having none of that.
It was a special Beer Night in Hell’s Kitchen. There were 2 special dishes put on the menu exclusively for Beer Night, based on Belgian ale steamed mussels and stout spiced venison. Special towers with beer were placed on each table. Elise tried to convince her team that she would be a team player for the first time.
HK opened and Elise had the first challenge, lobster spaghetti which satisfied Ramsay. Paul did a good risotto. However, the focus was mostly on Natalie, who had been a star performer previously. It became evident that the reason was because she had never been asked to cook fish before. She did not have the skills to do so. She screwed up plate after plate of scallops until there were 30 individual scallops unsuitable for serving, most rubbery. It took Will to take her aside and show her how to do it properly. Another underperformer in the Blue kitchen was Jonathon, the blowhard who wanted to throw someone else under the bus to compensate for his own incompetence. He had the balls to blame Tommy for not making the dough for Beef Wellingtons properly, when it was Jonathan’s responsibility to do it and to check anything anyone else prepared for him. His teammates were furious at this behavior. Another incompetent chef was Krupa, who just could not cope with the Red meat station. Elise had water-logged salads and attempted to blame it on Carrie, but Ramsay was having none of that and pointed out that it was Elise’s responsibility. Ramsay decided that he had had enough of Natalie and Jonathan’s mistakes and banned them. Jonathan was irate (although he had certainly earned that) and Natalie was just apologetic. Paul, Tommy and Will were left to finish the dinner service and so did the entire Red team.
However, Ramsay was equally mad at both teams (and Red had an excess member that he had to think about). He declared both teams the loser and asked for the usual 2 nominations from each in those situations. Blue had no trouble with this, picking Natalie and Jonathon. Red had no trouble picking Krupa, but then it got tough. Some wanted to nominate Elise, others to nominate Jamie (who had done little wrong that I can remember) and Jamie was the nominee. It hardly mattered because Krupa was such an obvious target. I was sure it would not be Natalie because of her past performance and I thought it could be Jonathan going home. When Ramsay asked for the nominees, Carrie expressed her own belief that it should have been Elise and not Jamie as the #2 nominee and I agree with her. Krupa got eliminated, which was fair, but now I have to watch Jonathon for at least one more episode.
TexasLady:
Thanks apskip for your recaps and franxaverian for your input as well. Sorry I haven't been keeping up with Hell's Kitchen.
I'm so over Elise. I'm surprised that Ramsay hasn't yelled at her for doing his job. Elise does seem to have a talent for cooking and I think she could run a kitchen but she is lazy and certainly not a team player. I suspect her downfall is coming soon when Ramsay fixates on her as only he can. :hellkitchen
I'm not super impressed with anyone so far. I thought Natalie was stepping up but she got frazzled last night, not a good sign.
franxaverian:
Jamie had a rough night with the raw sea bass. But again, every HK cooks seems to have a hard time in fish station. If you excel in fish station then you must be one of the best ones in HK. Please oh please send Elise/Jonathon home quickly....hoping for double elimination :lol:
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