Hell's Kitchen: 5/6/08

Wow, Christina sure thinks a lot of herself, huh? The cattiness comes out in the men a lot, complaining about Matt and Bobby, and Louross.

Time for their Challenge, which is at Farmer's Market. Ramsey announces that they are throwing a Sweet 16 party, and each team has 25 minutes and $100 to shop for one appetizer, and two entrees. For kids. Matt's suggestion is a sushi pizza on a tortilla. Yuck. And, wait, huh? Talk about fusion.

The women decide to go for a theme with things based on different glamorous cities. I like that idea. The men have no real plan, except for Matt being totally ignored, and them not working at all as a team. Back at the kitchen, they have 45 minutes to cook.

Matt cannot find a peeler, and Ben tells him to peel with his chef knife. Nice. Matt cannot prep asparagus properly. Matt is being picked on, Matt is feeling put upon.

The women seem to be working together well. We'll see how their dishes come out.

Before everything is tasted, Ramsey asks them if anyone has been to a Sweet 16 recently, and Matt raises his hand. He asks if that was taken into consideration when planning the menu, and Matt pouts "No." Then it's a break, for dramatic effect. Matt never (to my hearing) said anything about that in the planning.

The women start with Super Sweet 16 Shrimp Scampi, which the 16 year old girl poo-pooed, and the men's stuffed chicken wing wins hands down.

The women have a Carribean Halibut with rice and avocado. The men have shrimp and asparagus. Neither really have a good reception, but she chooses the Carribean.

The women (Corey) made Grilled flank steak, fries with pomegranite sauce, and the 16 year old is weirded out by the pomegranite seeds. The men's surf & turf wins it, which Petrozza made.

The men win the challenge, and the women have to decorate the place for a Sweet 16, with the help of an annoying party planner. Jen calls him an "Orange Flame." He says that they will make the room "Sparkilicious." Wow. While the women have a hard time with him, I cannot imagine the men trying to work with him. And I also think the guys had a better time at the Go Karts than the women would have. I mean, I like Go Karts, they are fun, but my husband goes absolutely nuts for it.

The Evil Mom shows up with her thin lipped disapproval. The colors are all wrong, and the lack of napkin rings is just all wrong. Shaina fixes it up a little, and others are annoyed with her.

Afterwards, Corey and Louross flirt, and Corey, claiming she will do anything to win, strips to her bikini. Perfect.

Shaina is really proud of her salsa. Super proud of her salsa. And she tells everyone about how complicated it is and how hard it is to make. This annoys pretty much everyone.

Enter spoiled Sweet 16, and the cooking can begin.

Christina had problems getting the birthday girl's appetizer out to her. Then, the other appetizers are moving out well. The birthday girl gets her entree, and it was not cooked properly, and she had to send it back. Oooooops.

Matt could not get the Mother's dish out to her, and was picked on and picked on and picked on by the other men, and then it gets sent back, too, because the fish was dry. The men don't seem to want to work together, though; they seem to want to show Matt up, and play up his incompetence.

After another failed attempt by Rosann in making a Medium Well steak, Ramsey stepped in and cooked it himself! That has never happened before.

And Matt send out fish that wasn't dry, but... it wasn't cooked! Yipes! Bobby stepped in and made the fish.

Shaina is seeming slow and confused in the kitchen, and Ramsey doesn't like to see Matt completely off the kitchen. Helping is one thing, but taking over? Not ok. Matt got back in, with assistance.

The dessert got out from both sides, and the service was again completed.

Ramsey had one more surprise for the Spoiled 16 year old... a private concert by her favorite band, who I have never heard of before, and I missed the name.

The 16 year olds filled out comment cards, and 98% of the men's customers, and 99% of the women's customers said they would come back. Nice. Ramsey says there are no losers. Matt says "Thank you for your generosity, Chef." Ramsey scoffs at this and tells each team to choose a person to put up for ouster. It's a no brainer for the men, as Matt goes off (looking like he's going to cry) to pack his bags, and for the women, it's between Rosann and Shaina.

Ramsey fully agrees with the decision to nominate Matt, and when the women nominate Shaina, he wants to have Rosann o' the raw steak up there too. Matt complains and whines and cries about being ignored, and says that he wants to go work with the women. The women collectively hold their breaths wishing for this to be ignored. Ramsey decides to keep Matt (oh. my. god. I guess he's really good tv). Shaina is gone. She's too slow to be in Hell's Kitchen.

And the women are NOT happy when Ramsey sends Matt over to the women. I feel for them. It's going to be messy.

(Can I just say I am stunned by how many of these people smoke? That's so not good for your palate. Just stunned. I know the kitchen is stressful, but wouldn't you think they would come up with some less damaging way to vent the stress?)