Brandi’s Blog

And so began the final episode of Hell’s Kitchen and the final installment of my weekly recaps. In a somewhat anticlimactic finish, tempers raged, seafood was under/over cooked, tears fell freely, and a winner was selected. Things began where we left them last week with the return of the battle of the sexes. Bonnie is relaxed with her approach to leading the ladies and Rock goes in strong and fierce assigning the boys their stations, explaining the menu, and stating what he needs from each guy. To find out what happened next and who opened the door to their very own restaurant,
The finalists and their posses arrive at the kitchen ready to prep and practice the menus. Throughout the day, Bonnie and Rock receive updates on their re-designs of Hell’s Kitchen. Bonnie’s half is simplistic and classic and reminds Ramsay of a neighborhood hideaway. Rock’s half is comfortable and elegant and Ramsay describes it as a homestyle bistro. With an hour till service, the finalists present a tasting of their menus to Chef Ramsay. He approves of the majority of their dishes, but asks both Bonnie and Rock to change up elements of the desserts. After one last pep talk and a present from Ramsay - real master chefs coats, Jean Phillipe opens Hell’s Kitchen.

(more…)

Episode Overview:  Bonnie Muirhead and Rock Harper, the final two chefs on Season Three of Hell’s Kitchen face off in the first part of a two part finale.  There are serious questions about both chefs’ abilities.  Will Rock be able to control his temper - or at least productively harness it like Chef Gordon Ramsay - and successfully lead his team?  Will Bonnie’s strong palate and creativity be enough to make up for her lack of experience in a restaurant kitchen and her aversion to killing shellfish?  But perhaps the most important question of all: how are on earth are they going to stretch this out over two episodes?

(more…)

Episode 9

• Original Airdate: July 30, 2007
• Challenge: Chef Ramsay started the challenge by bringing in his mother and having her present her own mac ‘n cheese (comfort food) and then producing his own in a more elegant version. He then told each chef to randomly select one of the 5 covered dishes and change it to a gourmet dish. Rock’s turned out to be spaghetti, Bonnie’s was Franks and Beans, and Jen’s ended up being Fried Chicken. Bonnie carried on for several minutes about not knowing what Franks and Beans even was. After having 1 hour to complete their dishes Chef Ramsay brought in their mothers to judge. All three contestants were in tears at this surprise. Their mothers were sat with their backs to the chefs so that they did not know who made which dish which made the judging unbiased. Jen won the challenge after all three mothers chose her stuffed fried chicken breasts as the best dish.
• Reward/Punishment: Jen got to go out with her mother, Chef Ramsey and his mum for lunch. Ramsey then dropped her off at a kitchen supply warehouse and gave her $1000 to go “hog wild”. On a deleted scene, Jen said that she spent $300 buying Bonnie and Rock Kasumi steak knives. Jen felt like she really gained an edge in the competition by having this alone time with Chef. Rock and Bonnie had to work together to clean the dormitories where Bonnie complained the whole time. Rock noted that Bonnie knew surprisingly little about cleaning for being a professional Nanny. Bonnie admitted that she is really only a “Nanny” in that she sometimes watches her clients’ kids while performing as their personal chef.
• Dinner Service: Before dinner service, Chef Ramsay had each contestant practice their angriest dressing down to his face. Bonnie noted how satisfying it was to have the rare opportunity to curse at Ramsay for a change. Jen struggled being serious but including many “fucks” to get her point across. Rock also struggled with coming across effectively. During service, Chef made each contestant work the pass, calling out orders and putting the finishing touches on dishes before handing them off to the servers. Chef tested each contestant on their leadership, time management, and quality control. He had sous-chefs Scott and MaryAnn deliberately sabotage dishes to see if the contestants would catch the mistakes. While Jen missed a spaghetti dish that went out without any crab she was also the first chef to the pass giving the other two a chance to pick up on Ramsay’s plan. Rock was slow to pass dishes to servers and Bonnie became flustered when calling out orders. Nevertheless, Chef Ramsay did not criticize the contestants as harshly as he had in the past and they completed the service effectively.
• Elimination: Chef said that their service was the best ever in Hell’s Kitchen and he would have a very difficult decision. All three went back to the dorm and Jen questioned Bonnie’s motive for wanting to stay asking her if this is really what she wanted. Jen didn’t feel as though this was a serious dream for Bonnie. All were called before Chef Ramsay and after hearing their reasons to stay, Chef decided to eliminate Jen. Chef congratulated her and sent her out. After the elimination, Chef Ramsay surprised Rock and Bonnie with a visit from Rock’s wife and Bonnie’s parents, and a tarp rolls down from above, symbolically splitting the restaurant into two sections for the next show.

Episode 8

• Original Airdate: July 23, 2007
• Reward: At the beginning of the episode, Chef Ramsay congratulated the chefs with champagne and then told them to go upstairs and put on their black jackets, as they were all now one team.
• Challenge: Each chef, individually had to prepare 100 portions of a dish for “trendsetters” (with meals planned at least one week in advance). They later learned the “trendsetters” was a high school class at Alhambra High School in Alhambra, California. Julia won the challenge with 51 percent of the votes, and her prize was to visit the Green Valley Ranch. She was allowed to pick one chef to go with her and eventually chose Jen. They got a chance to see the GVR, and also went to the Red Rock Resort to meet Heather, the winner of season 2. The losers had to clean the dining room (Josh’s difficulty in handling the carpet shampoo machine was a source of amusement).
• Evening Service: The kitchens united to serve all 100 tables in the restaurant. Josh got off to a bad start by pre-making too many risottos. Julia also struggled with forgetting things on the garnish station. Josh then pre-cooked spaghetti twice, and Chef Ramsay just about had it. When he did get risottos out, every single one was returned. Chef had enough and simply kicked Josh off the show. As service continued, Jen and Bonnie performed strongly, but Rock’s temper once again got the best of him, as he and Jen quarreled repeatedly (to which Rock later admitted privately that he was at fault). Julia had more troubles on garnish, but recovered. In the end, the 4 chefs were able to successfully complete the dinner service.
• Early Elimination: Josh was eliminated during mid-service due to his consistent inability to serve a successful appetizer, and repeated dumb mistakes at the beginning of service, which brought Chef Ramsay to the end of his patience.
• Elimination: Chef made it clear that even though Josh was eliminated, one other chef would still be sent home tonight. Bonnie was declared the best of the service, and had to choose two for elimination. She chose Rock and Julia. The choice wasn’t easy (Chef Ramsay was visibly troubled by the dilemma of picking between a very driven and talented chef and a chef that had grown and exhibited great potential) and at the end Chef Ramsay eliminated Julia. However, he said he will personally send Julia to culinary arts school, and invite her to come back after school, something he never did on the show ever before.

Challenge
This week’s challenge was the Left Overs Test. Each team had 30 minutes to create 3 dishes, one appetizers and 2 main dishes, from a tray of left overs. Chef Ramsay said this was a test he gave to everyone who worked for him. The blue team moved out quickly but red team could not figure out what to do even half way through the challenge.

(more…)

In last nights episode, the girls ruled and the boys drooled, and Melissa — having finally achieved the dream of becoming her own category — was such a nonfactor, it was almost possible to overlook the constantly mutating soul patch on her chin and count the minutes until she could be sent home. Which she was. Farewell, Meldawg. Your life seems fraught with peril. Try not to get your hair stuck in a car door.Anyway, so much for ”the sex barrier” being broken, as Josh so delicately put it at the beginning of tonight’s episode. With Melissa switched over to the blue team (who, for the remainder of this TV Watch will be referred to as the MMMBoys), the women were permitted to retain the balls they discovered at the end of last week’s show: Bonnie called a team meeting, making sure to clarify for Mel, ”Not you, bitch,” then called our resident cavegirl a ”pipsqueak.” It’s hard for me to argue with the use of the excellent word ”pipsqueak,” yet there was something — dare I say? — incongruous about Bonnie the Weepy Nanny dropping it as an insult on someone else. Although it should be said that Bonnie has now made it through at least one entire episode without crying, and for that, I commend her.

(more…)

Last week it was Vinnie’s last meal following his poor performance in Hell’s Kitchen. This week the Blue team is ready to step up their game considering they keep losing week after week. The Red team is having a few personal relationship issues of their own, but will it finally be enough to cause a loss?

(more…)

Episode four started out great for the women, but ended bad for both teams.  With the women winning yet another challenge, this one based on how good their palates are, the men had to prep both kitchens for the night, as well as endure a gut-wrenching meal of unsavory but highly flavored foods like Tongue, Beef Liver, and Tripe.

(more…)

Well Episode three concluded of Hell’s Kitchen last night and needless to say it’s looking bad. There are four contestants gone now. Four you say? Well here is how…

(more…)

The loud, confident, arrogant, and most assuredly vulgar Chef Gordon Ramsay is back in the third installment of Fox’s Hells Kitchen. A new set of chefs wanting to aspire to own their own restaurant. A new set of trials by the blazing inferno in hells kitchen. This weeks episode has set the pace for what should be an amazingly fun and also scary season…

(more…)