Jul 31 2010
Hell’s Kitchen: Week 8
It was a very interesting week on Hell’s Kitchen, indeed. Not only did we get to see the final four compete, but this week also included some impromptu cooking lessons for bachelors, a visit from the family, a shocking elimination round from Gordon Ramsay, and of course, more of Holli and Jay’s incessant flirtation.
This week’s episode started with Chef Ramsay deciding that any great chef must be a great teacher. True enough, I suppose, when you consider that chefs need to be able to pass on their expertise and knowledge along to every other cook on the line. To demonstrate the lesson, Chef brought in four bachelors who I’m pretty sure had never even seen a stove before, let alone try to cook on one. The lesson started first with Chef Ramsay demonstrating to the cooks how to prepare roasted monkfish, including skinning it. The cooks then needed to teach their bachelors how to prepare it in exactly the same way. Holli taught her student in the way she knew best – by a series of playful shoulder slaps, giggling, and even more flirtation. Jay looked on, secretly seething, while he tried to teach his bachelor but took for granted that his bachelor already had basic cooking skills – which he didn’t. Autumn did fairly well teaching her bachelor but failed miserably when Bachelor couldn’t slice the monkfish properly and Autumn left two-thirds of it off the plate. An omission that you can bet your bottom dollar wasn’t missed by Chef Ramsay. And Ben. Well, seeing as how Ben thinks that he’s God’s gift to cooking, and the fact that he’s a cooking school instructor, Ben did very, very badly. And then his bachelor sold him down the river when Chef Ramsay asked him what kind of teacher Ben was.
Jay ended up winning the competition, and that’s probably because the entire competition is going to come down to the two lovebirds – Jay and Holli. And of course, after being given the choice of someone to bring with him, he picked his girly-friend. Their reward was pretty pitiful as they soared hundreds of feet above Earth, looking down at Los Angeles and Hell’s Kitchen, where the other cooks were serving their punishment. There was no big showdown of Chef Ramsay coming down hard on the relationship between Jay and Holli, like it seemed there was going to be in last week’s previews. In fact, the only thing that Chef said at all about the two was when he jokingly asked if they found a house together while they were overlooking LA in the blimp. To which Holli replied, “No, I don’t want to live in LA. Let’s look in London.” Which of course, Chef Ramsay ate up.
Next up was dinner service. And that other thing that Chef Ramsay said in last week’s previews about doing something that he’s never done before? Well, it turns out that was only letting the cooks choose their own stations for service. Ben chose meat, which turned out to be a disaster for him, Autumn chose garnish, where she effectively screwed up Holli, who was on the fish station, and Jay was on appetizers. The service started off horribly with every cook having huge problems on their chosen station. But, after Jay took charge and pulled things together a little bit in the kitchen, the service started to continue along swimmingly – and it continued to do so until the last dessert was served.
Because Jay showed leadership and got the kitchen back in shape when it was clearly headed for disaster, he was chosen to put up two nominees for elimination. He chose Autumn right off the bat, and then seemed to show a struggle when deciding whether to put up Ben or Mrs. Jay. Please. He acted like it was a really hard choice for him, but I never really thought that he was ever going to put up Holli. He didn’t. Of course, he put up Autumn, who he’s been annoyed with since the very beginning, and Ben. And it seemed like it was Autumn’s time too, after Chef Ramsay told her to step forward while tears were streaming down her face. But, in good ol’ Chef Ramsay fashion, he yelled, “Back in line!” and she got back in line, crying harder than ever. Then, he told Ben to step forward. I was clapping my hands in glee that Ben’s time in Hell’s Kitchen had finally come to an end. But then, Gordo once again shouted, “Back in line!” And hooray! It’s another week’s stay for the final four contestants in Hell’s Kitchen.
And, just to celebrate, Gordon brought in the cook’s families. Holli’s four year old son was brought in, and smothered with kisses, while Autumn chatted at length to her boyfriend and best friend about how all the other cooks are jealous of her. Meanwhile, Ben hung out with his wife and daughter while Jay told his parents about how Hell’s Kitchen was the hardest thing, but the best thing, that he’s ever done.
And that’s where Hell’s Kitchen left us this week. I’ll guess we’ll have to wait a few more days to see who makes it into the final three in Hell’s Kitchen. But I’m betting that Autumn will not be among them.
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