Hell's Kitchen: 4.30.09

At the end of last week, they were about to get surprises.

It's family and friends! Danny got his girlfriend, and that made him really happy. There were many tears and more hugs.

After their reunion, they met with Ramsey, who had them select a dish to impress 100 lunch guests, and 90 minutes to cook. Mystery guests. Who are they? They are too cook small tasting portions, upscale lunch plates.

Everyone seemed calm and collected, except Andrea, who was talking to herself and mumbling and running behind.

Who are the customers? Chefs from across LA, from fine-dining restaurants. About 20 executive chefs stood and introduced themselves. Everyone was just a little nervous, as the James Beard Awards, etc etc etc were announced... Ramsey said "Los Angeles must be starving, because you are all here."

Andrea - Chicken roulade with proscuitto, microbasil, and garlic.
Paula - Oil poached sturgeon, with crispy potato and creme fraiche, salad, and caviar.
Danny - Halibut with ginger mint peach salsa, spiced basmati rice

Who will win? The guests chose their favorites and their least favorites.

76% percent thought that Danny's dish was the worst. Ouch. That's sad. I like him.

Over 76% chose Paula as the winner.

She won a full Hollywood treatment, and a surprise for the next day.

The losers had to clean the entire restaurant and setting the dining room for the next night's service, and then they had to do laundry day - ironing, bleaching, folding, starching, steaming... wincing.

Paula got a limo ride with Jean-Phillipe and the editors would have us think that sparks flew. It was cute. Her spa treatment looked sweet, and she came back to Hell's Kitchen looking fantastic.

Back in the dining room, it was Danny doing most of the complaining. That's different.

Paula got into a limo with Ramsey in the morning for the second half of her surprise, and it's to a Live Morning show, Good Day, LA.

Andrea and Danny? They had to mop, vacuum, steam clean, etc everything. Including the plasma tvs. Where they saw Paula on Live TV. She did a pretty good job, too.

Down to the nitty gritty of prepping for service... Ramsey told them, 4 minutes before the kitchen opened, that they are going to be taking turns running the pass. This is always a fun part of the season.

Ramsey started off running the pass, and the first appetizers went out well. Paula then came up to run the pass. She had some problems at first, very flustered. Ramsey called her a mouse without a voice, and she had to face the quality control sabotages... and missed that one of Ramsey's chefs gave her squash instead of carrot. And then Chef Scott sent up soup that was spinach instead of watercress, and she caught that one. She got into running the pass, and did a good job.

Danny is up to run the pass next. Jean-Phillipe sabotaged the first ticket under Ramsey's orders. There was a missing appetizer and no time written on the ticket. Oops. He missed it. Danny had problems, with cracking voice and not showing enough confidence. He did spot a problem with Andrea's scallops. A programmed Quality Control was also failed, when he failed to notice that potatoes were raw with skins on. He did pick up his stride getting into it, and did a decent job.

Andrea's turn. She had no troubles being loud. Will she catch Chef Scott's sabotage in using the wrong kind of fish in the Dorey? Nope. She then got very critical and loud about everything. Yelling about seasoning, and being kind of ridiculous, and I'm not sure if she was being over critical. Chef Scott was swearing at her under his breath, and she just kept talking. Andrea said that Scott's excuses made her realize why Ramsey is such a crazy man. Scott wanted to murder her, though.

Ramsey went back to the pass, and Scott was happier that way.

It ended up being their best service. I was actually impressed. No one seemed to seriously mess up. Tough decision. He asked them what was different about him, and Paula guessed his hair (no) and Andrea guess a spot on his jacket (what?) and then she discovered the different thing was a smile on his face, for a fantastic service.

Still, someone's going home.

They have to go back to the Dorm and each person has to decide (for themselves) who should NOT be in the finals.

Andrea decided that Danny should be going home, based on his performance on the pass. He thinks Andrea should be going home, saying she just talked and talked, and was nit-picky. She claimed to just be applying her standards. Because her standards have been so high the whole season, and she's never sent anything subpar to the pass... oh, right.

And when it came to talking to Ramsey, Paula voted for Andrea.

Paula is in the final 2, according to Ramsey.

In the end, no matter how loud she was at the pass, Andrea is going home. I am glad. Paula and Danny have been much more even thoughout the season, and I think they both deserve to be in the finals. Andrea had so many mishaps it's almost embarrassing.

This ought to be a good finale.