Hell's Kitchen: 4.9.09

After Carol's surprise (though not undeserved) ouster last week, will Andrea be any better without her adversary?

The next morning, Ramsey asked Paula who was the weakest cook on the red team, and she chose Andrea. Ramsey asked Danny who was the weakest on the blue team, and he chose Ben. Ramsey asked them both to step forward. After they defended themselves, he had them both take off their jackets. They thought they were going home. Instead, Ramsey also had everyone else take off their jackets, and gave them black jackets. It's individual time!

For the challenge, the winner will go on a culinary tour of San Francisco. Everyone has the same 14 ingredients, and they have to create a dish using all of the ingredients. The ingredients are red wine, penne, mushrooms, rosemary, and chicken, among other things. I saw lemons on the cutting boards, too, and red pepper.

Andrea - Rosemary skewered chicken kebabs and pasta. Ramsey said it was a lot better than it looks, but wanted more chicken.

Giovanni - Pasta Primadoro, with a stuffed chicken. Ramsey really liked it.

Paula - Melange of mushrooms, tomatoes, capers, with chicken and pasta.

Robert - Chicken Cacciatore with fried capers. Ramsey thought it was a bit dry.

Danny - Oven roasted chicken. Ramsey liked it a lot.

Ben - Something wordy, because he couldn't explain the dish in short words. Ramsey said it was delicious flavor-wise. He looked like he wanted to muzzle him, though.

In the end, it was between Danny and Ben, and Ben pulled out a win. He had 30 seconds to choose someone to go with him, and he picked Robert. Danny was pisssssssed. Robert was feeling a little guilty. Ben said that he picked Robert because of his evolution as a chef during the competition.

It's delivery day in Hell's Kitchen, and they have to prep and fetch deliveries. Ugh. I feel badly for them.

At least Robert isn't too big for the private jet. Ben's ego might just be. Their experience in San Francisco was amazing. Eating at the chef's table in a kitchen! How sweet.

Giovanni dropped lots of boxes of glass bottles - wine? Couldn't tell. Not good. Then, he slacked off and wasn't doing his job picking up boxes, snacking. What? Danny told the truck to go before everything was off the truck, and the mistake was discovered and they ran after the truck ... only to discover that there was nothing missing. Giovanni got pissy, and Paula got pissy. It was not pretty.

When Ben and Robert came back from their fantastic reward, Ben again had to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk about what they had done. For heaven's sake. Shut up.

The dinner menu (served all from one kitchen) will also feature Ben's winning chicken dish from the challenge. Ramsey urged them to act as good teammates, and have the best service ever. Ramsey delivered orders at light speed. Robert was the first to have something mess up. His scallops were overcooked. Andrea then put potatoes in a cold pan to try to get ahead of the coming rush, then she got yelled at again because she threw them out.

Paula's appetizers are going out well. Giovanni's first attempt at Ben's Chicken had bloody drumsticks. Not good. Andrea was not communicating, and wasn't listening to orders. She's on garnish, which is a station where you really have to be on top of things. After a recap of what was up, she again couldn't repeat the orders, and Ramsey booted her out of the kitchen. She went to chat with Jean-Phillippe, who urged her to fight back, or she was gone for sure. After the pep talk, she returned to the kitchen and knew what was going out.

Oops, Robert put bacon in with Dorey, and it goes with the scallops, and Ramsey said "what if someone's allergic to bacon? You could send someone to the hospital." And REALLY OOPS, Giovanni sent a very badly butched chicken drumstick up to the pass, and Giovanni did some yelling back, which is not a good idea. Ramsey put Ben on the station for the chicken. Then, Ben cut the chicken to put it back in the pan, and Ramsey railed at him for letting all the goodness out.

There was some more spectacularly bad teamwork, and Giovanni, Andrea, and Robert got hollered at, and they all duly promised to do their best. Then, Giovanni burned Robert with a hot pan that he had put in the fridge. He was blistering badly. Everything continued to go downhill, and Ramsey shut down the kitchen, and he called the service a nightmare.

Andrea, Robert, and Giovanni were called out as the lows. Paula was deemed the best, and was told to pick "two idiots" up for elimination. Robert got really upset at Giovanni for the sizzle plate in the cooler, and I don't blame him. Paula's got a hard decision to make, because any of the three mentioned above could go home and I wouldn't miss them much. She chose Giovanni, saying he's just going downhill. The second nominee is Andrea, for her struggles with communication. Ramsey wanted to include his third choice, Robert, in the mix. I wonder why he even asked Paula for nominees.

In the end, it was Giovanni going home. I agree with Paula, that he just went downhill completely. Andrea went to get back in line, and Ramsey told her not to feel too comfortable.

At 2:15 AM, the chefs are awakened and summoned to the dining room. He said he was just thinking about how dreadful they all were, and couldn't handle how bad they were. Ramsey decided to shut down Hell's Kitchen. They will have to prove themselves worthy. And an ambulance! Ought to be good.