Back-to-back Suffering in Hell’s Kitchen

Back-to-back Suffering in Hell’s Kitchen by Roxanne McDonald

The idea to put two episodes of Hell’s Kitchen back to back—one from the previous week, followed by the newest episode—is brilliant…if you can stand the heat of such volatile behavior, gestures, comments, and attitudes.

But if you instead don’t follow so many episodes, if you don’t keep up, or if you missed the July 24th episode(s) of Hell’s Kitchen, oh then let me re-cap for you.

Rachel’s gone, Maribel’s next to go. At 6:30 in the morning, the remaining chef-contenders are roused to engage in a prepare-a-meal-for-Chef challenge, the winner of which will get to enjoy the greatest luxury reward of all, thus far: the opportunity to fly to the Vegas restaurant being built for the winner of Hell’s Kitchen. Each of chefs are not part of a team for this competition, but on their own, making one of three courses out of ten possible ingredients. They have one hour to woo their Master.

Chef Ramsey first considers a roasted veal and vegetable appetizer made by Garret, which Chef says is “cooked perfectly” but which he also says has too much saffron. Heather’s sautéed prawns on spinach is “very, very nice”, but the spinach is crunchy…dirty (as it is hella hard, even in Hell’s Kitchen, to thoroughly clean your own fresh spinach…has to be done leaf by leaf [and with one hour to prep, cook, and present, I imagine Heather skimped on the cleaning time]).

Chef R. then considers Virginia’s spinach with beet tops dish with poached prawns and truffles. Chef Ramsey finds the dish “delicious, vibrant….”

Sarah’s grilled veal with prawn sauce has a “boring” presentation, though the flavor works well.

And finally, Chef tries Keith’s spinach-stuffed veal chops: they have the “most amazing color,” Ramsey says, which “makes you wanna dive in there and eat it.”

While it is a tough and labored call,

Chef R. finally chooses Keith, whom he prompts to choose one other to accompany him and Ramsey to Vegas. Here we wonder if Keith will stay with his closest “alliance”, his “mate” Garrett, or if he will choose the one who was sitting on his lap at the start of the show (Heather) as the voiceovers revealed the “loyalty” Keith says he has…. He chooses Virginia, rationalizing (later, when confronted) that she was the “second best” in the cook-off.

This of course wounds the side-kick, Garrett, who is trailing behind the impressive performances of Keith (whom many viewers think is going to win that Vegas restaurant). As Keith, Virginia, and Chef Ramsey go off in the limo, and as the losers stay behind lumping product that had been delivered out back, besides most of them bitching and vociferous, sore losers, AGAIN, Garrett flips the limo the bird, which Ramsey does not take as an honorary salute but instead chastises Garrett for later….

Garrett has been slamming and muttering and implying threats (as well as saying to the diary cam that he hopes the plane crashes); Heather to the camera says there “had better not be knives” back at the dorm; and when Keith’s victorious and now returning party walks in, Garret sits at a bar/high counter, finger the knives in the block. But the ex-con with the big culinary dreams has confided in Heather that he’ll “never lay another hand on another human being again,” so when he confronts Keith in their smoking/patio area he is direct and pissed but not even for TV is he violent.

Dinner that night is, as usual, eventful,

this time with not only Sarah being remediated about what a “NON-STICK PAN” is for…NOT STICKING! and a busty customer confronting Chef R at the pass bar, being told to remove her big breasts, and flipping over other prepared and ready-to-be-served entrees—but Garret serves up some undercooked (RAW) chicken, which “could have killed somebody”.

Garret is again back-doored, when that night Keith is elected to nominate possible elimination candidates, and he chooses Garret for his earlier incompetence. The poor prisoner does elicit sympathy: he did his time, he learned a craft (cooking in the mess hall of the joint), and yet…he had a chip too big on his shoulder, one that might have fallen into the food the way Tom’s sweat used to….

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