Hell's Kitchen: 9.22.09

After the shocker of moving Suzanne to the Blue team, Kevin let her know that they are not happy with her there, and that they don't like her, and she needs to play for the team.  She vows to do better.  We'll see.

Upon entering the kitchen, Chef Scott is there and Ramsey appears via screen.  He's in Whistler, where the winner's restaurant will be.  He brought them into the Araxi, which is the restaurant they will be working at.  They are being flown 15 local ingredients from the region of Whistler, since that is something the restaurant is known for.

They have to cook 3 entrees using the 15 ingredients, without repeating ingredients more than once.  They have about 2 1/2 hours, until Ramsey and two special guests get back from Whistler.

Sabrina is being categorically ignored, as are Suzanne's.  Only problem is... everyone on the women's team thought the meat was lamb, except for Sabrina, who spotted it as venison, but she didn't tell them they were wrong because they hadn't been including her.  They treated it like lamb, so we'll see how that went for them. (And is Sabrina right?)

Ramsey is back with his guests, Sasha Cohen and Johnny Mosley (Olympians).

The men's first entree is caramelized salmon with pan seared leg of lamb.  The women's first entree is grilled salmon, melted leeks and grilled shrimp.  The men (and Suzanne) take the votes from the Olympians.

Tenille presented her magnificent "lamb," and Ramsey called her on it.  He was astounded to hear that she had no idea what meat she had cooked.  She figured it out and Ariel tried to cover her ass and said of course they knew it was venison, and they just mispoke.
Dave presented a rack of venison with a cranberry sauce, and beets I think.  It was kind of a bloody looking sauce.  Even though they had no idea it was venison, the red team brought home both of those votes.

Sabrina presented lamb with mushroom sauce and jerusalem artichokes.  Van had grilled shrimp and braised kale, and ginger sunchoke puree.  Sabrina had to tell him what the rest of his dish was because he forgot what kale was.  Johnny gave his point to Blue, and Sasha also gave hers to Blue, so the men (and Suzanne) won.

The women have to go to a local farm, milking cows and cleaning the pig pen.  They have to wear farmer clothes, straw hat included.

The men (and Suzanne) get to go eat with Mark Peele, and Ramsey picked them up Whistler beanies, picking on Dave and saying he could use a new one.  At Mark Peele's restaurant, he showed them how to do something simple excellently, and made them the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever.

The women did not have fun at the farm.  Ariel got attacked by a pig at the fair as a child, so she has porcinaphobi.  Cleaning out the pens, Tenille was puking all over the place.  Pleasant.

The next day, Ramsey ripped up his menu.  Each team will create new menus, with 3 appetizers, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts.  Each person needs to have an impact on the menu.

A sample of the Blue Team's menu:
 Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with whipped marscapone, caramelized halibut with fennel and plum salad, seared diver scallops with caviar and lemongrass sauce.  Ramsey is impressed.

The Red team has, among other things:
Braised pork ravioli, seared sesame crusted ahi tuna, and blackened halibut with seafood risotto.  Sabrina let Ramsey know that she is not excited about Tenille's dishes. Tenille got pissy at her.  Ramsey said it isn't the most creative menu, but they could do it well.   They didn't take any of Sabrina's ideas.

The diners could pick what menu to order from, and the orders were pouring in for the Blue team.  The red finally got an order.  They have to coordinate between the kitchens to make sure appetizers go out to the tables at the same times. Tenille had no idea how to cook swiss chard and was having problems.  Van put too many scallops up to the pass, and couldn't do simple math.  Other problems were to be had on both sides.  Pork was practically frozen in places, and ravioli was cold.  Van's scallops were badly seared.  Ariel sent out three plates of cold ravioli.  NOT good.  She was blase about it, and Ramsey was not impressed.

Dave, meanwhile, listed a really heavy pan and his hand was shooting pain - said he couldn't move it without pain.  NOT good.  He decided to muscle through the pain and went back.  He amazes me.

Sabrina, meanwhile, brought the kitchen to a standstill while trying to cook meat for the entree.  Van spilled some sauce near Ramsey and didn't wipe it down, and then got into a fight with Ramsey.  Tenille found time to sweep the floor leisurely during service.  Ramsey didn't seem excited about that.  Van, meanwhile, sent up raw halibut.  Isn't that guy a seafood chef?  He sent it up again... and again it was raw... and it squirted in poor Dave's eye. Ramsey said it was about 4 minutes off from being ready, and that's not a minor problem.

Can the women do any better with Halibut?  Nope.  Sabrina sent up a fish that was raw on one side.

He called up Van and Sabrina and shut down the kitchens.  Dreadful.

He told them that no one won.  Both teams screwed up.  He wants one name from each team for elimination.  Kevin and Van want to put Suzanne up on the block.  Dave wouldn't go against them.  Kevin sees the reason to put Van up, too.  On the women's side, Sabrina is gunning for Tenille, and Tenille is gunning for Sabrina.

In the end, it was Sabrina and Van, but Dave let it be known that he thinks that Suzanne is the weakest chef on the team.  Ramsey let it be known that he can't work with Van much longer, but Sabrina is gone.  I think that was the right decision.

******

It's a double episode because of missing last week!!

After grumping about having been on the chopping block, Van helped open the Final 6 present - black jackets!  It's every chef for themselves.

Down in the kitchen, Ramsey was busy cooking.  He made a dish for them, a fillet of beef with truffles.

Their challenge (predictably) was to make a dish based on seeing it and tasting it.  They were going to be working in pairs.  Van was paired with Ariel, Tenille was with Kevin, Suzanne was with Dave.  Chef Scott brought out a different dish - comprised of fish, garnish, sauce, and puree.

All three teams picked turbot for the fish, and calimari for the garnish.  Ariel and Van chose celery root for the puree, while the other teams chose parsnip (even though Tenille didn't know what it was).  The key ingredient in the sauce was trickier.  Ariel and Van picked starfruit, Kevin and Tenille picked grapefruit, and Dave and Suzanne picked passionfruit.  Everyone got to cooking, and Van dropped his on the floor.  He re-fired it and they got it plated - but was it done?

Everyone got turbot right - but the puree was white onion.  Oops.  Tenille and Kevin forgot to put the garnish on their dish.  Oops again.  In the end, the fruit for the sauce was passionfruit, and Dave and Suzanne got it right.  They get to go to Ramsey's restaurant and Christina (former winner) will cook for them.

The losers will be prepping for Couple's Night at Hell's Kitchen, including doing something special in the dining room with JP, full of roses and champagne.

As Dave and Suzanne went off for their reward, Van made a childish "Dave and Suzanne sitting in a tree" comment.  I really am over him.

Tenille whined about doing the punishment.  She's got a bad attitude, I swear.

At the reward, Suzanne wouldn't shut up (as usual).  When they got back to the kitchen, Dave tried to chip in and help, but no one would offer him anything to do.  He took the initiative to find things for himself.  Ramsey let them know that they would be serving some food table side - a chopped salad and a porterhouse steak for two.

Time for service!

Immediately, Kevin got to the tableside app, while Suzanne messed up on timing and he had to redo it.  They finally got it together.  Van was sweating in the food (yuck) and couldn't get the fish up right.  Amazingly, Tenille took charge of the kitchen, and produced perfectly cooked lamb.

Then Van, sweat and all, sent up a raw piece of fish.  Ramsey huddled in the corner and them brought Van in back and told him he needs to work it out and fix his mistakes... and returned to a pan full of burning lettuce courtesy of Ariel.  He was disgusted and took Chef Scott out of the kitchen in disgust.  With them gone, Tenille tried to take charge of the kitchen, and Ariel was incapable of getting it together.  Dave hopped in and helped her out.  When it was all done, they were left to plate on their own.. Kevin seemed to know what he was doing in the plating, but he had to go do a Table side.  Suzanne was left at the pass and refused to plate, because she thought it might be a test, and she thought it was better to do nothing at all than to try and get it wrong.  Van plated instead, and it seemed fine.

Van was not doing the best job cooking, though.. Ramsey threw Van, Suzanne, and Ariel out of the kitchen, leaving Dave, Kevin, and Tennille to finish service.  Van totally went nuts.  The remaining chefs busted it out and did a great job.  Ramsey told them that none of them are going home, but they have to nominate two of the booted chefs to put up.

Tennille let Suzanne know that she was pissed that she wouldn't plate.  Dave wants to put Ariel up for the lettuce (but admitted that he wants to keep Van with them, because he is easier to beat).  In the end, Suzanne and Ariel went up.  Tenille let it be known that she thought that Van should be up, too.  In the end, Ramsey pulled all three up.

Ariel told Ramsey that she had a bad night, but knows that she can do better.  Suzanne thinks her good palate should save her.  Van is getting sick and tired of being up on the block, and he lost his cool and yelled at Ramsey, lessening the chances of getting rid of Suzanne, the dead weight.  He put Ariel back in line, and Van went home.

Hopefully, Suzanne will be gone next week.