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Hell's Kitchen 9

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apskip:
HK9, Ep. 11

Ramsay was really upset about the backward progress of this group of chefs. He challenged them to wake up and sent them to New York City to see the BLK Steakhouse, with executive chef Crooks leading a tour, and tour 7 ethnic restaurants there.

On return to Hell’s Kitchen, there was an expanded and reconfigured slot machine slot machine to determine ingredients and ethnic origin of cooking for each of the 7 remaining chefs. Here is an approximation of what those were:

Natalie - pork kumquats corn potatoes green beans Jamaican
Jennifer – salmon orange noodles asparagus Greek
Will – scallops mango asparagus Italian
Elizabeth - NY Strip Steak corn Mexican
Tommy - chicken carrots potatoes kale Indian
Elise – tuna grapefruit kumquats beans Chinese
Paul - polenta grapefruit kale eggplant French

I have to question the validity of the random nature of the “slot machine” as the probability is that there would be about 2 duplicates of cuisine in a normal situation. This is the gospel according to Ramsay in which probabilities are turned upside down. The chefs had to create, cook and plate in 45 minutes. The Ramsay set up the order of the presentation for a game called “King of the Hill.” Each chef if better than the existing occupant would take over an elevated seat. The team with the last person there would win. So this was the order of displacement:
Tommy
Elizabeth
Natalie – did not win against Elizabeth due to dish being too spicy
Paul
Elise
Will
Jennifer

So the Red team won. What they won was an afternoon at Venice Beach zorbing inside plastic see-through zorb balls that are popular in New England. I have not seen them used on level ground before, but the Red team seemed to be having a lot of fun with the assistance of Maitre D’ James.

Elizabeth appeared to be not mentally there for the dinner service. She made a number of stupid mistakes on fish that indicated that she had “lost it”. Elise made some similar mistakes on allowing rare beef Wellington. Natalie was on a different planet that dinner service. She was back on fish again and started with scallops cooked on only one side. Tommy had soggy onion rings. Elise had a raw sea bass. Ramsay had had enough. He decided to ban Elise and Elizabeth from the kitchen. That left Jennifer to work alone with sous chef Andi and Ramsay to get the Red orders out. She did admirably well.

Ramsay stated that neither team had won. He asked each team to nominate one member they wanted to get rid of to improve performance. Red nominated Elise. Blue nominated Natalie. Ramsay indicated that Natalie had made too many mistakes and eliminated her.
 

apskip:
I would first like to clarify what to expect in remaining episodes. Tonight a repeat of last week 7 chefs compete will be followed by a new episode of 6 chefs compete. That will be followed in succeeding weeks by 5, 4 and 3 chefs. Since the finale is supposed to be on Sept. 19, there will have to either be a minimum of 2 double episodes or a later finale date.

I think it is worth taking another look at the top competitors. Jennifer has clearly emerged as the Red team leader. Elise has demonstrated a great palate but lacks the ability to lead the Red team. Elizabeth is still there, but I am not sure why since she has done a lot to distinguish herself negatively but little positively. Tommy has been surviving on borrowed time and his number is about to be up. Paul has not distinguished himself, but has not made many major mistakes either.

So, the finale should be Jennifer versus Will. Either Elizabeth or Tommy could be out next and the other is likely to be in the following episode. Then we will lose either Paul or Elise. If there is a two person finale (which I do not predict), then the other of those two will be eliminated. 

apskip:
HK9, Ep. 12
The challenge is for each team to coordinate cooking times so the dishes come out together at 30 minutes. Jennifer and Tommy start at 30 minutes to go, Paul and Elizabeth at 20 minutes and Will and Elise at 10 minutes. The dishes were:

Jennifer (10 minutes) – rack of lamb w/ brown sauce                                                  Red 1
Tommy (10 minutes) – lamb w/ quail eggs                                                                 Blue 0                 
Paul (20 minutes) – pan-roasted sea bass w/ asparagus                                              Red 0         
Elizabeth (20 minutes) - monkfish, couscous, asparagus                                              Blue 1               
Will (30 minutes) – lemon seared Santa Barbara prawns w/ greens                              Blue 1       
Elise (30 minutes) – spicy calamari w/ tomato-pepper sauce on garlic bread                 Red 0                                 

This challenge was won by the Blue team. They enjoyed a reward of taking a limo to Ted Baker of London boutique on rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills where they got bought fancy duds, Tommy something in size 0 for his girlfriend. The Red team was punished with reorganizing and cleaning the dining room.

Ramsay has closed Hell’s Kitchen to the public so it could serve a VIP Charity dinner. The Red team would cook for a table of 12 key supporters of the American Humane Society and the Blue team for a table of 12 key supporters of the American Heart Association. The 6 course menus for both were the same, but teams had to divvy up the responsibilities with one primary chef on each course, 2 courses with primary responsibilities for each chef and one or two chefs helping the primary chef with sides. Those primary responsibilities were:

Elizabeth – scallops, chicken
Elise – risotto, lamb Wellington
Jennifer – lobster capellini, tarte tatin
Tommy – risotto, lamb Wellington
Paul – lobster capellini, chicken
Will – scallops, tarte tatin

Tommy started by having too much water in a side salad from not draining it before dressing it. Jennifer claimed that Elsie had sabotaged her lobster capellini by having uneven amounts of lobster on each plate.  Elizabeth wanted to test her broiled chicken, but Ramsay told her it was perfect right then and needed to be served without delay. She could not because the squash side was not ready. Elise questioned the advice of Jennifer about the lack of salt in potatoes. Ramsay criticized Tommy’s risotto for each of 3 huge pans having a different taste and demanded that it be blended into one even larger pan.  Elise claimed sabotage. Jennifer had the tarte tatin and some of it was undercooked. Jennifer claimed that one pan was cooked by Elise and she was certain that it happened there. More sabotage?

The Blue team performed well and without any major dissension. Blue easily won this dinner service and they earned the black jackets hat go with the consolidated team.

Ramsay had a great opportunity to play with the heads of the Red team members and he took full advantage of it. Ramsay asked the usual “Why should you stay?” to each of the 3 Red team members. Elise’s belief that she was a great leader sharply contrasted with Jennifer’s and Elizabeth’s that she sabotaged them and was always the first to throw them under the bus and then back up multiple times to finish the job. Then he told Jennifer to take off her red jacket…and put on a black one. For Elizabeth he told her to leave. For Elise, who had totally whined and cried, he told her to put on a black jacket. We have one or two weeks more of her drama queen act to put up with.

apskip:
My understanding that there will be a 2 hour finale on Sept. 19 is correct. That will be accomplished starting from 3 chefs left.

On Saturday Sept. 24 at 10pm, FOX will start weekly rebroadcasts of HK9.

apskip:
I will complete a complete recap of HK9, episode 13, but I want to recognize now that no chef was eliminated tonight. That makes it virtually certain that there will be 2 eliminees next week, as HK9 needs to have 3 chefs for the finale Sept. 19.

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