Hell's Kitchen: 9.1.09

Andy vows to stay off the chopping block.  The women, though they won last time, are completely fed up with Suzanne.

The challenge the morning after elimination is the Blind Taste Test.  I love this one. Tenille sits out.  Suzanne is sure she'll rock it, as is Andy.

Ariel and Van are up first.  Ariel got whipped cream cheese, but missed venison, but her guess of roast beef was much better than Van's tuna guess.  They both thought that pecans were walnuts.  Both of them got leeks. 


Dave and Suzanne both get turkey, but both miss zucchini, and both miss quince (which is used in Hell's kitchen).  Dave thought that egg yolk was squash, but Suzanne got it.

Kevin and Sabrina are up next.  They both go fancier on lettuce than iceberg, and get it wrong, but they both get grapefruit.  Both of them miss oregano.  Kevin (a seafood guy) thought that clams were spinach, and Sabrina thought it was ahi tuna.  Wrong, and wrong.

Andy and Amanda are last.  First up is lychee.  Andy got it right, saying it had a Gerwertrameiner note.  Wow.  Amanda thought it was pineapple.  He thought that avocado was boiled coconut, oddly enough.  Amanda got that one right.  Ahi tuna was up next, and Andy guessed salmon.  That clinched it for the women, and their was much rejoicing on the red side of the kitchen.

The women get to go to a "seriously amazing culinary experience," by limo.  The men will be preparing the palate cleansing sorbet for the next service by hand, polishing glassware, and unloading.  They are making blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry sorbet, and the berries came mixed, so they had to separate them all. Van was getting seeds out of pomagranites and looks like he was covered in blood.

The women are dining at Opaque, a restaurant where they dine in the dark.  Amanda groped Ramsey by "mistake".  The men are dining on lovely looking meals, which Chef Scott threw in a blender first.  Duck Confit smoothie?  No thank you.  Suzanne asked some culinary questions of Ramsey and pissed everyone off.

Prepping for service, the women were getting all catty about Suzanne, and they thought she didn't know, but it was kind of blatant.  I feel badly for her.

Ariel will be doing sorbet service for the women.  The men are down a person so they have to juggle.

Tenille's on appetizers for the women, and Andy is on for garnish the men and feeling the pressure.  Tenille thought that Suzanne's first batch of scallops were too dark, and told her to refire.  Suzanne refused, and ended up getting good marks from Ramsey for color on the scallops.  Over for the men, the risotto was going out well.

Ariel and Kevin serve the first batches of sorbet.  Van took over for Kevin on appetizers and messed up the risotto.  His second batch was sent, but was not enjoyed by diners, and Kevin heard about it. 

Amanda was floundering on garnish for the women, but ended up getting it out.  Andy on garnish in the men's kitchen was lost and not calling tickets like he needed to.  Ramsey gave them a talking to, and they managed to pull it together a little.  Suzanne and Sabrina were on fish and meat and weren't playing nice together to get things out on time.  Suzanne rushed Sabrina's meat and it was sent back to the kitchen because the lamb was raw.  I give that fault to Suzanne, but Ramsey kicked Sabrina out of the kitchen for it.  She has to eat the undercooked lamb before she can get back.  Ramsey put Tenille on the meat section, and she was more firm with Suzanne, who tried to rush the meat out again.  Sabrina finished her undercooked meal and went back to the kitchen.

For the men?  Andy is short on mashed potatoes.  He had barely enough for the orders up.  Suzanne again had timing issues in the women's kitchen.  Everyone agreed on 1 minute, her included, and everyone brought their food up, except for her, who then said she needed another minute, and ended up needing more than that, and killed the table.  They all had to start the table over.  She then blamed her station being a mess.  Over for the men, Andy ran out of potatoes.  Dave tried to save the day by making some more mashed potatoes, and Ramsey sent Andy out to explain to the table.

Suzanne asked Amanda to help her with the fish, and then it wasn't good, and Suzanne was the first to throw blame around.  Ramsey told her that she is still responsible for checking the fish.  And the mashed potatoes?  One-handed Dave made them beautifully, and Andy felt persecuted.   The women finally finished up their service, too.

Ramsey told the teams that they are equally weak, but chose the men as the winner, and chose Dave as the strongest one.  He chose Tenille as best of the worst, and called it her best service by a mile.  She was responsible for the choice of who to put up for elimination.  I know at least one person (Suzanne) who will be there.  She had the decency to tell Suzanne that she is going up, and they had a discussion about how bad she is at working as a team.  It's all about her, and everyone else be damned. 

When it came down to it, Suzanne did go up, along with Sabrina, because she hasn't stepped it up.  Ramsey called Amanda down, too. I wonder if the producers told him to keep Suzanne for drama reasons, but in the end, it was Amanda gone.  I didn't think she was going to win, so I won't miss her, but Suzanne really made me angry tonight.  I do think that the others are kind of unkind to her. but she was really not working as a team player, and that's a skill you need in the kitchen.

Do you think the right person was sent packing?