Hell's KitchenEpisode 2
Original Air Date: April 8, 2008
Kara - TwoCents Reviewer
This week on, as they say, the continuation of Hell's Kitchen, the sort of chefs get a 5am wake up call from Scott and Gloria, who is still not Mary Ann. They drag them outside where Gordon makes the chefs sort through the trash and put all the food they wasted from the night before into huge cylinders. It's basically an exercise in wow, you all wasted thousands of dollars of expensive food and the producers can't punch you, so instead they'll make you dig through a big bunch of rancid food. Yeah, I'd prefer the punch in the face.
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Hell's Kitchen
ReplyDeleteEpisode 2
Original Air Date: April 4, 2008
Kara - TwoCents Reviewer
This week on, as they say, the continuation of Hell's Kitchen, the sort of chefs get a 5am wake up call from Scott and Gloria, who is still not Mary Ann. They drag them outside where Gordon makes the chefs sort through the trash and put all the food they wasted from the night before into huge cylinders. It's basically an exercise in wow, you all wasted thousands of dollars of expensive food and the producers can't punch you, so instead they'll make you dig through a big bunch of rancid food. Yeah, I'd prefer the punch in the face.
From there, the chefs showered and then were faced with a halibut challenge, which would be the biggest fish I've ever seen. It's a traditional challenge in Hell's Kitchen history, where Gordon shows them how to cut some tricky fish perfectly and then they have twenty minutes to do it all wrong. Louross on the men's team decides to tell his team to make love to the fish. Um, please don't. The men finish with eight minutes to spare but of course the challenge is about quality, not speed. The women work all the way until the last moment. Gordon judges the individual pieces and out of 53 possible 6 ounce pieces, the women get 41 decent cuts and they think they've got this one in the bag. Of course, so do we, as the men's team isn't the best with quality and there's that whole questionable making love to the fish business. Somehow the men get 41 decent cuts as well, despite some truly butchered pieces.
The tiebreaker is that one teammate from each team must choose a cut of halibut and whoever gets closest to 6 ounces wins. It's Corey v. Ben and Ben chooses first, picking a 5.9 ounce cut. Bobby, the self professed four star general of cooking says there "Ain't no way in hell" the women will pick a perfect cut. A statement like that always sets off the Famous Last Words alarm in my head. I was convinced Corey would pick a perfect piece just based on what Bobby said but not only does Corey not pick a perfect 6 ounce piece, she chooses one that's only 4.8 ounces. Yikes. Naturally, Jen runs her mouth about how easy it is to pick a 6 ounce cut and bitches about how she knew the cut Corey chose was way too small. Good for you, Jen. We're all so proud of you and your supposed fish weight skills. As a reward, the men get to go on a hundred foot yacht and the women have to stay and prep all the food for that night's service. Jen tries to splash the men with fish guts on their way out because she's just that classy.
The men have fun, the women have some issues (mostly Sharon) and then it's time once again for service. Jason says the women don't know what they're doing because they don't have a man over there which begs the question, did someone forget to tell him the men lost miserably last week? In that same vein, just like last week, Petrozza, dear Hen in a Pumpkin, can't remember all of the appetizers and Gordon kicks him out until he learns them all. As punishment for the hell J.P. was put through last week, Gordon chooses Craig and Rosann to be placed in front of house to take orders and to experience how hard it is to deal with angry customers. Gordon finds Petrozza and quizzes him again and Petrozza still doesn't know all the dishes. He declares himself done but not to Gordon Ramsay, of course. Surprisingly, Bobby comes to his rescue and tries to snap Petrozza out of it. Finally, with a little help from Gordon who flapped his arms like a chicken, Petrozza got the menu right.
Service goes decently until it's time for the entrees. Jason tries to serve raw halibut and doesn't immediately own up to the fact that it's raw, which is a fine tactic, if you really want to have Gordon yell at you. Petrozza also tries to serve raw beef but he's not as unapologetic about it as Jason. The award for Boy, That Could Have Ended Up A Lot Worse Than It Did goes to Craig, who while carrying a chair over his head hits a woman in the head with a leg of the chair. J.P. is horrified but the woman was okay with it, despite it appearing to be a really nasty hit. Sharon receives the award for That's a Bit Gross, Dear for her inability to keep her tongue in her mouth while in the kitchen. It's not like it's sort of peeking out. No, her tongue looks like it desperately wants to remember what her chin tastes like. Unpleasant. Gordon says she looks like a female Hannibal Lecter.
Finally, after raw halibut comes back to the kitchen, Gordon gathers everyone around and shuts Hell's Kitchen down. The women lose due to the response from the comment cards and Corey wins Best of the Worst. She promptly declares herself the best, to which I want to say, "Yes, Corey. Of the WORST." She nominates Christina for strategic reasons as for some reason it's strategy to nominate someone you think treats you like a dumb blonde. That's personal, not so much strategy. For personal reasons, Corey nominates Jen who apparently distracts her from doing her job. Christina starts to cry as she defends herself, promising not to be condescending anymore and the men laugh at her. They're so sweet. Jen rambles on and on about how much she does and how good she is, so much so that it requires time-lapsing and it still feels like forever. Gordon makes a little speech about how he can't give the job to someone he doesn't believe in, so he sends Sharon home. Good. I really didn't want to have to look at that tongue for another episode.
Next week, someone nearly burns down the kitchen yet again and the women decide to be skanky to distract and defeat the men. My reaction to that was pretty much the same as the preview clip of Gordon, who repeatedly bangs his head against a counter in the kitchen. I'm with you, Gordon.