"Mm, soft and chewy... it must be a potato chip."
I would like to begin by apologizing for the tardiness of this week's Hell's Kitchen recap. I would also like to tell you that the reason for the tardiness is that I have been preoccupied learning how to cook a perfect Beef Wellington, but that just wouldn't be true. In reality my day job has been kicking my butt this week and I simply didn't get a chance to relish our latest kitchen shenanigans with Chef Ramsay until the end of the week. Thank you to all reading this for not losing faith in me. Next week I should be back on track. This week, as promised, the chefs have a blindfolded tasting competition and Bonnie cries a lot. Without further ado, let's examine just what went down in Hell's Kitchen!
We start this episode by joining the chefs regrouping after Joanna's elimination last week. Jen is still very shaken up by her dumpster diving experience and as she tears up Bonnie hugs her and tells her there is no crying in the kitchen. This coming from the person who has cried more than everyone except Aaron. Vinnie joins in, telling Jen he would have thrown her out of his kitchen and now when he looks at her he sees the girl who took food out of the trash. Excuse me, Vinnie? Isn't that stain on your jacket from Chef Ramsay smashing an egg on your incompetent chest? Quiet down.
"I don't ever make mistakes. I'm Vinnie."
Bonnie says that people have no idea what they're going through. They are running on no sleep and it is three in the morning. "We're in hell! ...hell, ...hell," Thank you, Fox Post Production team, for pressing the echo button on Bonnie when she announced that the Hell's Kitchen contestants are in hell.
The next morning Chef Ramsay gathers the chefs to begin a new day of torment and he starts by reminding Jen to stay out of the bins and asking Vinnie if he had nightmares of himself, Chef Ramsay and a box of quail eggs. He tells everyone that their palates are lacking and that today they will be having a tasting challenge. Herr Narrator explains that each chef will be blindfolded and asked to identify three different foods by tasting them. It's Red against Blue and the team with the most correct answers wins. They did something like this on the first season of Top Chef and I never realized that taste depends so much on sight. Apparently it's extremely difficult to identify food when you can't see it. Weird. First up are Brad and Julia. They are both blindfolded and fit with headphones blaring music so that Chef Ramsay can announce to everyone else what is going into their mouths.
Taste Buds 101
To make sure the headphones are serving their purpose, Chef Ramsay calls Brad a sack of bleep and looks for a reaction. Satisfied that they can't hear, he announces American cheese and sticks a square into both mouths. Julia gets it, but Brad thinks it's cheddar. They both get fried chicken right, but when fed a boiled carrot, Brad thinks it's papaya and Julia thinks it's a radish. The score is Women - 2, Men - 1. Chef Ramsay tells Brad he's just been beaten by a Waffle House chef. Take that!
Next up are Painfully Beautiful Melissa and Rock. They start with hard boiled egg yolk, which Rock identifies but Melissa thinks is a potato. Boiled potato is actually the next item and they each get it. Venison, however, stumps them both.
It's neck and neck at 3 all. Next up are Josh the sous chef and Bonnie the nanny. Bonnie can hear through her blaring music and so her headphones need to be adjusted. They taste lobster that Bonnie thinks is langoustine and Josh thinks is a scallop. Chef Ramsay is disgusted. Next is bok choy, which I couldn't identify in a million years, even with all five senses in tact. Bonnie confessionals that ever since she was little she liked to sample weird things and loved putting them in her mouth. We'll leave that alone because the innuendo is just too obvious. She recognizes the bok choy. Josh thinks it's a radish. Next is a piece of pear and Oral Bonnie gets it, but Josh thinks it's a mango. Chef Ramsay chastises Josh for losing to a nanny.
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Comments (5)
How are they hanging out in the apartment at 3AM complaining about no sleep? Um, go to bed, then!
So to the tasting… These are professional foodies, right? It’s not like Ramsay was asking them to pick out the wild American shrimp versus the foreign farm-raised shrimp, right? Or identify that they’re actually eating a cicada. Seriously, they were eating potatoes, carrots and egg yolks. Is it really that hard?
As for the “nasty plate”, I’ve eaten tongue (Mom liked it, and with enough horseradish, it wasn’t awful, other than the texture of the bumpy taste buds) and tripe (ugh). I’m impressed they kept all of that down. And I totally agree that the domino thing would have happened, and been BAD!
The nominations were idiotic. I’m just surprised Ramsay didn’t give both Vinnie and Bonnie the boot. They both deserved it.
Oh, and Honey, pancetta is basically bacon that hasn’t been smoked. So it’s not really jerky-like ;-)
1 of 5 | Posted by ChicagoGal
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Posted on June 30, 2007 8:23 PM
He tells Vinnie that this much error would have closed a restaurant and then he utters some very risqué profanity.
Heh. The line of the night- F*ck me senseless!
And I couldn't decide which was the better pantomime; the boob-adjustment or the Chicken Dance ("What chicken?"), so they tie for best Ramsay performance of the night.
In fact, I think this was probably my favourite ep of the season thus far (though ep #1 was a gem). There was just enough yelling and cursing by Gordon, and just enough stupidity by the donkeys.
As much as it pains me to defend Bonnie, Chef Ramsay did NOT say "bok choy stem", he simply identified it as "bok choy". So Vinnie's claim that she heard what it was and repeated exactly what Chef said is as bullshit as his ability to cook a Wellington. Ass.
2 of 5 | Posted by coolbyrne
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Posted on July 1, 2007 3:56 PM
AAAAAHHHHHHH
honey you seem to be coming around to the charms of our dear chef ramsay....... i thought it might take longer than this but I am glad you are on board.
I really think they could have found better cooks to be in this kitchen.....
but the show is perfect and a great start to the week.. i love Monday nights!
3 of 5 | Posted by GIFFORDSAZ
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Posted on July 2, 2007 9:42 AM
honey, this is my first season watching hell's kitchen as well. thank you for taking the time to look up what some of these foods are. i've heard of most of them, but wasn't really sure what the dishes were comprised of. i feel that you and i are on the same wavelength with a lot of your comments. seriously, when the bimbo said that she thought chef ramsay had a nice speaking voice in the dark, i didn't know whether or not to vomit or throw my remote at my tv. did she honestly think that a man with that kind of personality would be won over by a ditzy comment like that? ugh. she makes me ashamed to be a woman.
also, thrilled to see vinnie go. he was a pompus ass.
4 of 5 | Posted by BlueEyedAngel
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Posted on July 2, 2007 11:25 AM
The guys lost the tasting challenge and went upstairs to smoke - hmmmm.... wonder if those cigarettes have anything to do with their inability to taste food?
And to reward people who for the most part struggled with picking out flavors in the dark ----they get to go eat in the dark. They could be serving them anything since no one (but Bonnie) would really know the difference. But it did make me wonder if the wait staff has to wear night vision goggles. And it sucks for those waiters and waitresses who tend to get more in tips for being cute. Then again - those with sexy voices would clean up. Well, that is if the patrons could find their wallets in the dark.
Having watched this show for three seasons now, I have learned that each season they cook Risotto and Beef Wellington. If I was going to sign up to be on this show I would make damn sure that I knew how to make those dishes in my sleep. I can't believe how much these people struggle with the same dishes each episode.
As for Bonnie flirting with my beloved Gordon, the women flirt with him every season. They also flirt with him on all his other shows and on those shows you see he shamelessly flirts back (tsk tsk married man). I get the sense that this show just doesn't show how cute he is in his down time because it goes against the "Hell's Kitchen" theme.
Nice job Honey - I am really enjoying your recaps. :)
5 of 5 | Posted by TinkerbellAPixie
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Posted on July 7, 2007 8:22 AM