Hell’s Kitchen Recap: Final Four

Recaps

By BlueCanary | Wednesday, August 29, 2012 | 10:38 am | 14 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in: Hell's Kitchen, Recaps

Greetings, and welcome to what will be my last Hell’s Kitchen recap of this fine season. It’s been a crazy one, and I thank you all for following me throughout its zany run. After watching our big old cuddly Clemenza disappear last week in a haze of sweat and marinara, we are down to the Final Four: Barbie, Christina, Dana, and Justin. Gordon isn’t exactly thrilled with them after the disaster that was Italian Night, but he did send them a big surprise, which I’m sure we’ve all be waiting with bated breath to be revealed.

Reveal time: It’s their families! Christina’s mom and girlfriend, Dana’s parents, Barbie’s partner and kids, and Justin’s parents storm the dorm, and there’s hugging and tears and love galore. Christina practically follows her lady out to the car, and everyone calms down and seems much happier. Since this was immeditaly following elimination, I have to wonder if Clemenza’s family had been waiting in the wings, ready to pounce, and they had to shuffle them back on a plane once he was eliminated? Who knows. At least no one got inappropriately handsy, like Tommy did last season with his barely legal ladyfriend.

The next day, Gordon takes the Final Four to that really expensive gourmet grocery store and hands them $15 each. That’ll just about cover the tax on a radish. Their challenge is to make the $15 stretch as far as they can on a few choice, high-quality ingredients. Then they’ll return to the kitchen, where they’ll create the highest profit dish possible with that $15 of stuff. They dash off, and immediately Dana blows $10 on a 5 oz. cut of halibut. Hope you have a plan for that, hon. Barbie hits the pork counter, Justin is going for veggies and shrimp, and Christina gets swordfish. They all stay under budget except Justin, because men are no good at domestic tasks like shopping and basic arithmetic. Nah, just kidding. It’s only Justin that sucks at that. He has to put some stuff back, but that doesn’t take long, and soon they’re back in Hell’s Kitchen and cooking away.

Some not so happily, it seems.

Gordon brings in David Lefevre, the shockingly adorable Hugh Garvey, and Christian Phillipo. They’re there to taste the dishes and price them based on what they’d be willing to pay for them in high-end restaurants such as their own.

Justin is up first. He’s turned his colossal shrimp, white beans, jalepeno, mango, and corn into chili shrimp with a roasted salsa. They like it and it’s cooked well, but say it’s lacking that citrus burst so essential to a salsa. They price it at an average of $28.33, which Justin thinks is low. He always gets so frustrated when he falls short. It’s hilarious.

Barbie was able to find a cheapo pork chop, which she’s beefing (porking?) up with garlic sausage, parsnips, potatoes, sweet onion, cabbage, mustard. She knows how to budget shop for sure, but she’s worried that her pork isn’t going to price very high compared to all the seafood. She made pork and sauerkraut, and they all say the sausage was an unnecessary addition to the dish, yet price it way over Justin’s hoity toity shrimp at $33. He’s visibly pissed.

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BlueCanary is as unorthodox a blend of optimistic and bitter, laid-back and anxious, motivated and straight up lazy tas one is likely to meet outside an unspecified institution. She spent the past decade holding a variety of job titles, including reporter, tech writer, production manager, and administrative assistant (the go-to job in this economy for folks who just HAD to get that English degree). She is currently living under the tiny yet powerful thumb of an awesome, pint-sized little dude, who wets himself and can't form full sentences (read: stay at home mom). Another tyrannical little thumb is gestating in her womb. She is a regular on The Neutral Corner podcast and blogs at www.mamamuzzle.com. 

Blue's as-yet-unpublished YA novel, The Nature of Echoes, is currently a Quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. If you'd like to check it out, a free excerpt is available to download at http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Echoes-ABNA-Entry-ebook/dp/B00B9N3XFQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363378599&sr=1-1&keywords=eva+gibson+abna.

14 Comments

  1. 1
    PopePhilly PopePhilly
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 11:16 am

    I’m sad that our tagteaming of Gordon is almost over. :(

    I will just be angry if Dana ends up in the finale. I don’t know if my ears can handle her anymore.

  2. 2
    Mummy Butterfly
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 11:46 am

    Am I the only one that thought all the “stonewalling” was a bunch of edited horsepoop? Dana just seems like she would have gotten MUCH more upset if everyone REALLY wasn’t speaking to her. (I mean, no one expects Barbie to speak to her… But Christina…of course.)

    I will be peachy-pissed-off if it’s not Justin/Christina in the finale, and I’m HOPING they bring Barbie back for the finale to cook. Whoever gets her in their kitchen is SMART. I think she would work hard for Justin or Christina, and based on her attitude as she left, that just shows me she would have been an awesome boss to work under.

    I really think they held on to Dana through the “to be continued” to try and stretch out the drama, but for ME I would have felt much more emotionally invested if the final 3 were Justin/Christina/Barbie. Dana just makes me cringe.

  3. 3
    featherhead
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    I thought it was funny as hell when Barbie was up to the pass and she started yelling out the orders to the diners instead of to the Brigade. Boy Zorro has been quiet lately, it’s been kinda nice!

  4. 4
    Leto
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    I’ll miss Barbie next episode, I would have soooo loved a Christina/barbie Finale.
    And Justin is worse than a little girl when he gets punishments. Yes, garbage stinks, go get a mask. Yes, ironing is boring, get over it. He annoys me more than Dana, but she’s the only one who didn’t spot the sabotage, she shouldn’t be in the finale.

    Just one episode to go, I’ll miss you guys :(

  5. 5
    Sharon
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    I want a Dana/Christina finale. Just because it would force some drama. But, when I saw the crazy crack heads walking off that plane at the end of Mondays episode, I knew Hell’s Kitchen would not let me down and I will get my drama fix on the finale.

    Reality Wanted does exit interviews with all the contestants that are posted the day after they are eliminated.
    One of the questions they are all asked is, “Where are you cooking now?” Every chef has told where they are cooking now EXCEPT for…

    TIFFANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She answered that question saying that she “couldn’t say” where she is working and cooking now. What!!???!!!???????
    I guess it is because if you are at a rehab, halfway house, or prison they really don’t want you telling anyone you are cooking to pay your room and board.

  6. 6
    chaosbutterfly
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 6:07 pm

    ^ Maybe she couldn’t say because she isn’t cooking anywhere at the moment.
    Who would keep her nasty ass after seeing the stuff she was doing in Hell’s Kitchen? If she could re-use filthy pans and lick the knives for the wellingtons in front of Gordon Ramsay and a whole host of cameras, who knows what she would do in a regular kitchen when no one is watching her?
    Or maybe she really is in jail or a halfway house or rehab LOL.

    I never saw Barbie getting to the finale, especially after that last service with Clemenza, but I’m bummed that she didn’t at least finish ahead of Dana.
    Ahh I hate Dana.

  7. 7
    VunterSlaush VunterSlaush
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 6:21 pm

    I may have a reason why Dana yells during all of her THs.

    If she gets eliminated, her backup plan is to be the next Samuel Jackson beer spokesperson.

  8. 8
    Sharon
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    @chaos butterfly
    Tiffany said she is cooking some place in Vermont. And, she says she has been ther for 3+ years. But, I guess the owner is of the same mindset as you and I… “You can work here, but, don’t tell anyone! Tee hee!!!!”

  9. 9
    sagittariuskim sagittariuskim
    Posted August 29, 2012 at 11:37 pm

    I guess I’m rooting for Christina now. Out of the other two I really don’t care who makes it. Justin annoys me as much as Dana now.

  10. 10
    Pikey578
    Posted August 30, 2012 at 1:06 am

    I am so sad that Dana outlasted Barbie! I would have loved to see Barbie go further. Her classy exit spoke volumes about her. I found out that Barbie’s been through a hell of a lot. She lost her father at 14, taught herself to cook to help out the family and worked banquet serving on the side. She’s a widow – her husband, who had come back from Iraq, was shot and killed in front of their kids. So she has those 2 kids with her husband PLUS his 2 kids from a previous relationship, and she is raising them on the farm with her partner. As I said, she is a class act who has gone through a lot in her life. I would have loved to have seen her get a break… Now I really don’t care who wins (so long as it isn’t Dana).

  11. 11
    nashuaf
    Posted August 30, 2012 at 6:25 am

    When they do the “how expensive” challenge, I wish the judges wrote down their prices and then shared them. When the first says “$30″, might the next one think “well I only thought $24 but I don’t want to look like a dick” and says “$28.50″?

    Besides, pricing is a bit of a crapshoot. It’s not like there’s some official pricing guide they all follow.

  12. 12
    timgunnssister timgunnssister
    Posted August 30, 2012 at 9:57 am

    I’m so sad now. I loathe Dana and am not on Team Justin.

    Christina is okay but the most consistent chef, to me, is Barbie. And if IRC, Ramsey DID ask them to pick someone to be up for leaving and they pretty clearly all picked Dana. So, either he didn’t ask them, he didn’t care or the final 2 was decided on the first day of shooting.

    I’m going with the last guess.

    I miss Barbie and her faces!

  13. 13
    Josh Darius
    Posted September 1, 2012 at 9:49 pm

    Leto, may we drink blood wine together, this season is the worst!

  14. 14
    Sunshine
    Posted September 6, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    Barbie’s faces were some of the best thing on the show this season.

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