Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Hell’s Kitchen Episode Sixteen: An apparent change of heart.

                I’m not sure if Ramsay just really wanted loud guy gone or what, but for the moment at least he seems pretty content with keeping the five chefs that he has (even if one of them is blonde girl).  The whole mess about “only giving out four black jackets this year” was a bunch of baloney.  I started the episode late, about fifteen to twenty minutes in, and they had all been given their black jackets.  I’m not sure if Ramsay just changed his mind or what (I’m assuming there was some kind of challenge associated with it given the amount of time I missed, but if you know for sure, let me know in the comments below!) but when I started watching the episode it was right before the pressure-cooker challenge. 

                The pressure-cooker challenge had the chefs open up a pressure cooker placed in front of them to determine their mystery ingredient.  This was a “humble” ingredient, not one that you would normally find in a fine dining restaurant, and with the help of a pressure cooker the chefs were supposed to turn that ingredient into something that Ramsay and his two guest judges would deem restaurant quality.  Blonde girl had pork belly, but apparently she had no idea how a pressure cooker worked because she kept opening the damn thing and therefore her dish was undercooked.  Mixed up Cyndi had some kind of pork, a roast or butt I think or something of that nature, and her dish turns out to be stunningly bland.  Mr. Mohawk received lamb shanks and while in the process of cooking them in the pressure cooker, burns the meat.  He tries to clean out the pressure-cooker the best he can in order to finish cooking the meat without it tasting burnt, but he simply can’t.  Luckily the chef at the pass for the women’s team (the one that helps Ramsay expedite food while he is running around ready to tear someone a new asshole) gives Mr. Mohawk a second pressure-cooker so he can finish his dish.  This is after she also sets him up with a new station when his gets overrun by the output from the steamer.  Is she pulling for him or trying to help him advance, or would she do this for any chef in that situation?  I think it’s the latter, especially since we haven’t seen any other hint of favoritism, but who knows.  His lamb turns out ok, but a little undercooked because of the time spent out of the pressure cooker while cleaning it.  Skinny black girl gets goat ribs.  I’ve never had goat anything, but with the way the judges rave about this dish, and appropriately award it a 14/15, I may just have to try some.  Squeaky voice gets beef short ribs, which is what everyone probably wanted because of its versatility.  She decides to make a beef stew with it and makes her own homemade pasta to go in it.  Everything is perfect and she rightfully receives a perfect score of 15/15. 

                For her reward, squeaky voice is given a chance to spend time with her family (which is apparently what the time I missed was all about). She gets a private dining experience at a fancy restaurant, just her and her family.  I believe it’s her mother and husband/boyfriend, but I’m not sure, but either way, they live it up for their short time together.  The losers of this challenge have to do some landscaping as well as dumpster diving to separate the garbage into recyclable/non-recyclable piles.  These are dumpsters that have apparently not been emptied since the first dinner service so a lot of that stuff is pretty rank.  In fact, skinny black girl dumps out a bag of garbage to go picking through it and wonders where all the “rice” came from.  That’s not rice, that’s maggots you dummy.  This sends her into a kind of a tailspin as apparently maggots are the one thing she can’t deal with.  Despite skinny black girl’s inability to get over that fear, the chefs finish their task of picking through garbage and head in to the dorms to clean themselves up.  They get a call from Ramsay to come down the stairs right away, which they do even though blonde girl still has her hair in a towel (and apparently gives away just how cool Ramsay keeps Hell’s Kitchen, if you know what I mean).  Ramsay then states that the black team will be working together for the first time the following evening at dinner service, but they won’t be working in a vacuum.  The black team will be going against an all-star staff (according to Ramsay anyway).  Of course they don’t show us who these people are, but based on the reactions of the current chefs, it’s not people you would expect.  And to be continued.

                Last year when Ramsay did this he welcomed back chefs from the past seasons.  Some were very good, others were just okay.  I don’t remember the end result of the head to head, but unless the chefs didn’t watch last year’s season, they wouldn’t be this surprised and this blown away that Ramsay got the old chefs back.  I don’t think the other team is made up of strictly returning chefs, or if it is, it’s made up of past winners.  I don’t think Ramsay was able to wrangle cooking show heavyweights like Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck, etc. either.  At this point, the identity of the opposing chefs is anyone’s guess, but if nothing else it should be interesting.  Not only that, but this week there seems to be a fracture amongst the black team already, which, duh.


See you next week!

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