Smallscreen Features
'Hell's Kitchen' Recap: Men cannot rally against the women
By April MacIntyre
Apr 30, 2008, 15:33 GMT

Alright Donkeys, this week's "Hell's Kitchen" took us back over last week's dismal service turned out by the men, who are not presenting well this season.

This HK sees both teams struggle to complete a service, and the women slowly are cobbling together an uneasy truce to communicate and execute their assignments.

Do not kid yourself, despite these appearances there is much bitterness and bile bubbling under the women's teams' crust.

The same cannot be said for the men, who wear their mutual disdain boldly on their sleeves and are hamstrung by unfortunate toxic personalities such as egomaniacal and dim Matt, egomaniacal and misplaced machismo Louross, nattering Petrozza who tries too hard to be the nice guy, and egomaniacal and obstinate Ben.

Bobby, the four-star general and self-described Black Gordon Ramsay, seems to be navigating his way in the kitchen and earning the respect of Chef Gordon. Bobby is a competent cook. He also knows when to speak and when to zip it.

The challenge for the two teams is to construct a vibrant and saleable unique pizza, in the fashion of Ramsay's white truffle pizza that fetches over 200 clams in London.

The girls set aside their differences momentarily and they get creatively inspired; they honestly brainstorm, create, rate, compare and then vote for the best, putting up Jen's pizza that had a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar over fresh ingredients that included prosciutto. 

The men devolve into whiny baby Matt complaining that no one speaks to him, which elicits further contempt from his teammates.

In the end, Ben's duck confit pizza with mushrooms nearly made the men winners, but the mushrooms weren't scrubbed properly, and Ramsay gets a mouth full of dirt.

It was a hilarious, "bogus, dude" moment.

The girls all go and gussy up, then are whisked away by helicopter to Santa Barbara for hundred dollar Kobe beef burgers and champagne while the men are left to look at each other and rue the day.

There is side drama building as burned Vanessa moans to chef she hates being dead weight, and she exits the competition.

The service for both teams is completed, there are hiccups in the service on the women's side with veggie station Rosann and Christina - who blows the dessert station, as she begs for help from her teammates.

Matt cocks up the quail eggs, and Bobby must salvage his duties.  Louross cooks the meat wrong and Petrozza does a sly slice and dice on the meat to make it look fresh and new, unbeknownst to the sous chef.  Louross describes it as "ghetto."

So chef tells the teams to select the loser of the night from each camp.  The women do a bait and switch, as first it is agreed Rosann must leave, then the nattering begins and Christina is tossed under the bus.

The men are swayed by Ben whose machismo sensibilities cannot take preening Louross and his bitchy defiant ways.  Matt survives another week.

Vanessa affords them all a buy this week. Chef tells them she is the one leaving, and they luck out and all get a pass.

See you donkeys next week.