Last night’s Hell’s Kitchen was a full meal if I ever saw one. Let’s indulge:
Appetizer #1: An uncharacteristically affectionate Gordon Ramsay. Right after choosing to dismiss Tek instead of Amanda, Sir Gordon consoled a teary-eyed Amanda, telling her, “I’m counting on you, and I am concerned. Bounce back quickly, please. Good luck.” And it felt genuine! As I mentioned last week, I’m itching for an episode where Ramsay “plays nice” the entire time. It’d be an interesting psychological study to see how the chefs would react to Ramsay’s opposite twin, whom we shall name Chef Yasmar.
Appetizer #2: Men can’t count calories. Ramsay asked each team to craft a three-dish meal that would total less than 700 calories. Robert, bless his heart (figuratively, and as we learn later on, literally), laughed at the challenge and exclaimed, “I take 700-calorie bites!” The women easily won, thanks to the leadership of Sabrina, who works in a health club & spa and was therefore quite comfortable with the challenge. The red team’s prize was a Venice Beach volleyball lesson from Olympian Annett Davis. When the gals returned home, they discovered they’d each received a complimentary Vita-Mix blender. Couldn’t be product placement, could it? Take it away, Sabrina: “They’re the crème de la crème of blenders!” As for the blue team’s punishment…
Appetizer #3: When reality TV is frustrating. For losing the team challenge, the men had to prepare both kitchens for dinner service. Sous Chef Scott informed the men that they had to pick up some produce at a local store. Oh, and they would ride a bizarre seven-person bicycle up a steep hill to get there. Why? Solely because it looks funny. The problem was that Robert — who, we can admit, is not in the best shape – was forced to ride the bike as well. This was a particularly cruel and irresponsible decision by the show’s producers. And what did this silly punishment have to do with anything? Once the exhausting bike ride was over, Robert started feeling dizzy, and the chef was whisked off to the hospital and didn’t return for the remainder of the episode. So one contestant’s life was potentially at risk thanks to a bogus task (that is, assuming everything wasn’t staged).
Entrée #1: The fight heard round the kitchen. The Ramsay/Tennille showdown did not disappoint. This was juicy, albeit lowbrow, television. Ramsay called Tennille “crap” for not making enough mashed potatoes, and without missing a beat, Tennille replied, “You’re crap!” Cue the dramatic drums! Ramsay kicked Tennille out of the kitchen, and then chased her down. They screamed and cursed as a river of tears streamed down Tennille’s face. Ramsay finally ordered her back into the kitchen, and as she returned, she bellowed, “Get OFF my station PLEASE!” While obviously not the best chef on the show, Tennille is quickly becoming the most fun to watch.
Entrée #2: You can’t be introverted on reality TV. I like Jim precisely because he doesn’t conform to the requirements of reality television, which mandate loud and obnoxious personalities. But Jim just calmly does his thing and occasionally provides a witty remark. Case in point: Ramsay told Jim that his risotto tasted like baby food. Jim’s response: “Baby food tastes gooooood.” Although, I must give credit to Ramsay for supplying the night’s sharpest line, which was also about Jim’s risotto: “It’s bland! It’s an insult to a f—ing grain of rice.”
Entrée #3: The mystery of the disappearing chicken. We never did find out where that bird went. Any ideas, PopWatchers? Make me laugh… I’ll mention my favorite comment in next week’s recap.
Dessert: Look, Gordon’s being spontaneous! After further calamities (e.g. Sabrina sent out raw pork and undercooked lamb, and Andy was incapable of properly cooking his halibut), Chef Ramsay shut both of the kitchens down. He declared both teams losers, meaning each team would have to select one person to eliminate. The red team debated between Tennille and Sabrina, opting for the latter, while the blue team toyed with the idea of nominating Robert since he technically missed the dinner service. Not cool, guys. I don’t even really like Robert, but you shouldn’t put someone on the chopping block when he can’t be there to defend himself. Before asking Van for the blue team’s alternative pick, Ramsay revealed that if Robert isn’t back for next week’s service, he’ll be off the show. Van then gave up Andy for elimination. Ramsay considered the choice between Sabrina and Andy, and then opted for someone who is “lacking the passion and doesn’t care enough to continue working in Hell’s Kitchen.” That person: Jim.
Post-dinner indigestion: Not Jim! Ramsay told Jim, “I can teach a chef how to cook, but I can’t give you a heart.” How can he single out Jim for lacking passion when Dave — who makes Keanu Reeves look like Ty Pennington — is still in the room? So Jim messed up his risotto a few times. Big whoop. He didn’t serve dangerously undercooked meat like Sabrina. He didn’t curse out the show’s host like Tennille. And he didn’t appear to be reading from a teleprompter like Dave (this is a detail I would have never caught before the advent of HDTV). So, hold your head high, Jim. The reality TV world is not for you, which simply means you’re a decent guy.
PopWatchers, are you sad to see Jim go? Was Ramsay correct in sending him home? And are you as stuffed as I am from that gargantuan feast of sizzling drama?
Comments (1-15) of 62 Add your comment
If concentrating on cooking, demonstrating consideration for teammates, and producing-for the most part-good food get you kicked out of Hell’s Kitchen, then I’d sure as He11 wouldn’t want to eat at a restaurant where someone without those qualities worked. Jim just didn’t make interesting reality TV, but his asides were brilliant.
I don’t necessarily think that Jim deserved to go home last night but there was no way he could win the competition because he lacked passion. Can you imagine him running a pass? A leader who doesn’t care is hardly a leader.
So far I’m liking Sabrina, Ariel or Kevin to win this thing. I’d include Robert but I have a feeling he won’t make it to the end.
ompleteley agree with you dude… I also think that sending home was a message to the rest to get their act together…. What do you think of the nest week? supposedly some “favorite” goes home?
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that it will be Robert going home due to medical reasons just like last season. HK has a nasty tendency to try and drum up drama between episodes and then let you down during the episode.
The most infuriating thing about the elimination is that Andy’s temperament is just as ill-suited for this show (he complained about Ramsay talking too fast and admitted to being intimidated by him) AND he was bad last night, but Jim still went home.
So to summarize, Andy has the same temperament as Jim (only he’s not funny) has been just as bad a cook(actually worse) than Jim for a longer time, and was on the chopping block last night after throwing a guy in the hospital under the bus (I believe nominating Robert was his idea). Yet this person gets to stay.
Maybe the chicken got advanced word of how the elimination was going to go down and walked off the set.
I watched Robert in the last season and I found him to be an okay guy who has some issues to get past. He knows his stuff and he doesn’t take alot of guff from people. I hope he gets a chance cos it would be beneficial to him in the long run to succeed at this.
Robert is a mean-spirited jerk.
I was so sad for Jim. He wasn’t the best, but he was certainly better than Andy. And I’m so tired of Tennille, she’s a temperamental loudmouth and thinks far too much of herself.
I realize that you’re new to recapping the show, so everything’s new to you. But don’t you think you should have watched the first season on DVD and read the recaps for the other seasons? None of what surprised you is new–not Ramsay getting the warm fuzzies (he does this a lot more frequently than you’d think), not him eliminating someone not up on the block, not the product placement. None of it. The only mildly surprising part of last night was him allowing Tennile back into the kitchen after her outburst.
Jim is better than all of them because he refused to bring himself down to all their low class levels.
I guess by “passion” they mean going ape bananas, yelling, screaming, making scenes, insulting your co-workers, and walking out.
I would believe the producers of the show said Jim is boring he has to go.
Jim if you ever read this, you did nothing wrong in how you conducted yourself. I applaud you.
The problem wasn’t that Jim was to boring for reality tv, the problem was he has zero passion. There is no way that man could ever run a kitchen, people would walk all over him.
The mystery of the disappearing chicken, no mystery, Sabrina never cooked it and tried to cover her A**!
We need a new reviewer, Please go watch the previous seasons episodes!
The episode was DESIGNED to send Robert to the hospital. If the men had won the challenge, the EMTs would have picked Robert up from the beach instead of the restaurant. I think Robert’s a beaglehole, and apparently the HK producers thing he’s something even worse, since they obviously want him dead.
Let me be the first to pick Dave to go the distance, just because it would be so inspirational for a fetal-alcohol syndrome baby to win it all.
You owe me a keyboard cleanup, that was seriously funny!
Garbanzo beans just shot up my nose when I read this, but thanks for the laugh anyway…
P.S. Dave sounds like Norm MacDonald.
lol you are so funny! I can’t stop laughing.
I’d like Robert more if he’d stop referring to the women as bitches every chance he gets. His attitude towards them is nothing short of neanderthal. There’s nothing wrong with the men not wanting to get beaten by the women, but every now and then I see a flash of him thinking the women are lesser than the him, and not just within the confines of the competition.
No one forced Robert to get on that bike. He’s a grown man who is aware of his health issues, and surely must have some awareness of his own physical limitations. He made the choice that being on the show was worth taking the risk. Now he’s paying for it. Assuming it wasn’t a put on for ratings, that is.
I totally agree. Robert is a misogynist. This was really obvious with Lacey, when he kept calling her fat – like it’s okay for a man to be fat, but not a woman…And he is always yelling at the camera. You aren’t funny, dude.
Thank you for finally pointing out Robert’s obvious anger towards women. He may have some talent as a chef but as a man, he’s pathetic.
Personally, I found the bicycle punishment cruel — especially after last season kept Robert out of certain activities because of his weight/health. There was NO way that Robert was going to do that and feel fine afterwards… which makes me think that either he does come back (and gets the brass ring) or he drops out and it’s a freebie for whoever sucks most next week. But I’m not hopeful for the latter, though: look carefully and the scenes for next week are chosen to not show Robert in the kitchen at all.
Actually Robert is there in one scene in the kitchen so he will at least make it to the end of the episode next without dieing. The flat line sound was a bit over the top though in the preview.
The flat line sound at the end was just so ridiculous! Even for Hell’s Kitchen. Even for Hell’s Kitchen on Fox.
I feel sorry for Jim. If emotion = passion = leadership, then we should just crown Tennille champion and be done with it. I’d like to think most of us have witnessed good leadership that didn’t involve rule by fear. It works for Ramsey … and makes for entertaining television … but that’s not the only leadership style out there.
But look … if it was about cooking, Sabrina would have gone for serving raw food. If it was about leadership, Tennille wouldn’t have even been let back in the kitchen. For a real cooking competition, watch Top Chef. Hell’s Kitchen is about entertainment value … which is why I really don’t get surprised by eliminations anymore.
And yes, Robert’s punishment was criminal. And cruel. That’s about as bad as making a diabetic take place in a cake-eating contest. Could he have said no? Yeah, you try saying no to Chef Ramsey. The reality is, though, that this was just a matter of time. Big guy needs serious intervention, and bypass surgery. Now wouldn’t THAT be a wonderful comeback: Robert winning the show a few years down the road at a svelte 200 pounds?
The PartyBike would have been a fun punishment except for the serious health threat it posed to Robert – it was medically irresponsible, and it’s on the producer’s heads.
As for the missing chicken… I think it was sucked into Tenille’s big mouth and nobody noticed.
Why does everyone want to know where the chicken is? The chicken know where the chicken is! If you want to know where the chicken is, ask the chicken, because the chicken’s not a b****! You got a problem with this? Let’s take it outside! BAWK!!
I can’t believe no one else commented on how frickin’ funny this is!!!
I’ll bet she forgot to fire up the chicken and then made that as an excuse to get started