The latest Hell's Kitchen had Chef Gordon Ramsay spraying the five finalists in champagne to celebrate the fact they made it thus far, and sending them back to the dorm to don their new chef’s jackets.
Gordon Ramsay - - London, England © Photorazzi
No longer divided by blue and red team or by sex, the final five of Julia, Jen, Josh, Rock and Bonnie now must stand on their own merits.
This week’s chef challenge was pitched by Ramsay to the five as a test by “trendsetters.” The contestants are blindfolded and speed off in the black Hell’s SUV en route to Alhambra High School, south of Pasadena, California, where they must win the kids with their lunch menu offerings. The winner will get to accompany Chef to Vegas for a luxury getaway.
The five are led blindfolded into the cafeteria, unmasked and the brainstorming ensues, with Josh turning in grilled salmon with a pineapple salsa; Jen wants this win badly and whips up a baked chicken fettuccine; Rock mixes up a Kobe meatloaf burger on a ciabatta roll; Julia does grilled cheese and chicken with a side of onion rings and Bonnie concocts fried goat cheese medallions on baby greens.
After a frantic hour of making 100 portions of each of their dish, the kids file in, and the selling begins with Rock and Bonnie hawking their wares with lots of enthusiasm. The reveal has the tally of the kids votes, Ramsay announces the winner with 51% of the vote.
No surprise right? Grilled cheeses rule for kids still. Julia is over the moon, and Chef lets her choose one fellow contestant to go too; she picks Vegas virgin Jen.
The remaining three must iron and clean the upholstery, the task seems to overwhelm Josh who is hectored by Jean Philippe the Maitre D’ on how to plug the machine in.
Then they prep the night’s dinner service, which has Bonnie chucking a pan full of Monkfish into the bin because it smelled like... fish. The attending supervising sous Chef assigned to babysit them is apoplectic. Bonnie cries again, over fish.
A private plane ride with Ramsay to Vegas delights Jen and Julia to no end. It gets better when the two girls get to see the prize up close and personal, the Green Valley Resort, and enjoy a luxe spa day.
The two are not too sure of the bidets in their bathrooms, but they were bowled over by the “Gangsta” excesses their rooms had, such as a pool table and full kitchen.
The girls also met with Season two winner, Heather, who gives them some words of advice.
The brief respite ends, and it is back to Hell's Kitchen. The five must now work together to pull off a full dinner service.
Josh tries to get a jump start, he was making risotto and pasta, and for some reason he was precooking all the spaghetti despite Ramsay reading him the riot act that no self-respecting chef precooks pasta. Josh then undercooked the risotto and all hell broke loose. "Get your shirt off you useless piece of %#@!" Ramsay screamed at Josh chucking him out of the kitchen and off the show.
For the first time we see Julia struggle. She is assigned the garnish station and she appears to be stuck in slow motion and not aware of the rhythm of the kitchen. Ramsay picks up on it but the Josh drama supersedes his annoyance with Julia.
Now the dinner service is being turned out by four, and no surprises that mouthy Rock chips away at the girls, and Jen especially. She has had a cud full of him and they start sniping each other. Ramsay has to bang things and scream at them and still, bitter pill Rock has to have the last word over nothing with Jen.
A dismayed Ramsay congratulated Bonnie on her best service ever, and gives her the “pick two” task to eliminate.
- courtesy FOX
Bonnie knows that Rock will be one of the two, but agonizes over which of her fellow women chefs to add to the short list.
She selects Rock and Julia. Chef Ramsay is visibly upset, and knows his decision won’t make anyone happy. “I'm really sorry,” he tells Julia. But she isn’t just dismissed like the others, Ramsay believes in her talent so much that he will pay and send her to a proper culinary school. He liked her moxie, and knows she just needs some classic epicurean training and additional experience.
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