HK9, finale part 1
This episode opened with a review of what happened during the season, then a focus on the 4 remaining chef. The relatives of each one were brought out as motivation ($25,000 isn’t enough according to this theory):
Paul’s brother
Elise’s husband, son and mother
Will’s wife
Tommy’s mother and 19 year old girlfriend
Ramsay then used his most difficult challenge, Taste It and then Make It. That requires the chefs to make a dish with no knowledge of ingredients or recipe to use their 5 senses and figure out what ingredients were involved and how to cook it in 35 minutes. The approaches taken were:
Elise – halibut, prosciutto, mushrooms, kale, cream
Will – monkfish, prosciutto, mushrooms, kale, cream
Paul – cod, prosciutto, mushrooms, kale, cream
Tommy - monkfish, Serrano ham, mushrooms, kale, cream
Tommy was eliminated because Serrano ham was not right. Elise and Will were eliminated because it cod was correct and not monkfish. Paul won the opportunity with his brother to visit Dodger’s Stadium, including meeting legendary manager Tommy Lasorda, current manager Don Mattingly and a few players. Paul and his brother got great seats and watched as rookie Dodger pitcher Gordon Ramsay took a post-soccer turn at a new athletic career. He side-armed a pitch with excellent velocity and reached the catcher. Then he bought hot dogs and beer for Paul, his brother and himself. A good time was had by all.
Then it’s back to business at dinner service with the chefs taking a turn running the pass with the usual sabotaging going on. Paul was given his turn first and he had nothing but lack of communication and poor performance out of Tommy. Paul maintained persistent pressure on Tommy to get his act together and it did not impact the flow of dishes leaving the kitchen. Paulo was sabotaged by Scott and he did not taste the shrimp in pasta that Scott sent him instead of lobster. Tommy was next at the pass and he was sabotaged by Maitre D’ James into calling out a nonsensical order, which he failed. Tommy showed uneven leadership of his kitchen. Next was Elise and she passed the sabotage test by catching Scott substituting parsnip puree for potato mash, but failed to notice a squeeze bottle with an incorrect sauce. She was very peremptory in her demands on her kitchen staff. Last was Will, who caught Scott’s attempt to give him some version of lamb that was not correct. Then Elise devised a number of unofficial tests in her attempt to undermine Will. She put pasta in spinach and black peppercorns in sweet potato. Will did not do an exemplary job of running the kitchen, as his staff was not communicating with him in silent protest of his leadership style.
It was time for Ramsay to make and announce his decisions on who were going on and who were not. He first eliminated Tommy because “he was not ready to run BLT Steak.” Then he eliminated Elise, who was teary and upset. Ramsay told her to take her chef’s jacket, which is high praise indeed because he almost never does that. Montages of the Hell’s Kitchen career of Tommy and Elise were shown.