Hell’s Kitchen Recap: Almost Over

This week t final four show off why they’re here in a penultimate episode of “Hell’s Kitchen.”

After a night of the usual “Why was I nominated?” bru ha ha, Ramsay gave them that morning’s challenge. They had to split into two teams and complete a puzzle. The first to finish wins. This was obviously another one of Ramsay’s fake challenges and he then told the chefs the real challenge. It was the ever popular (and usual) taste it now make it challenge. The point was for the chefs to taste a dish and recreate it to the T. The chefs who recreated it the most accurate wins.

The first hurdle was for the chefs to figure out what the meat was. Cyndi and Ja’Nel went with venison; Mary went with bison and then changed it to lamb and Jon went with beef. They all thought the puree was butternut squash and the vegetable was also mixed. Ja’Nel and Mary went with parsnip, Cyndi went with turnip and Jon with celery root.

At the judging Ramsay said the meat was venison. Ramsay was surprised that Mary got wrong since she is a butcher. They all got the puree wrong (it was carrot.) Cyndi won the challenge by guessing turnip correctly. Her reward was a $1,000 shopping spree at “Sur La Table” and lunch with Ramsay at his new restaurant “The Fat Cow.”

The other chefs had to move furniture onto a truck for moving day. As usual, the dorms were a mess. There was somebody’s thong in the corner and an egg salad sandwich was under a bed. Ja’Nel even said “it smells like farts.” Jon was showing off his strength by bringing down mattresses on his own. Mary and Ja’Nel, not being very strong, struggled with them. They also had to prep for dinner service.

The last dinner service before the big one had the chefs getting a shot at the pass. Since this is “Hell’s Kitchen,” it did not go smoothly. Not to mention Ramsay saying he’ll eliminate two chefs that night. Sous Chef Andi was there to sabotage orders in order to test the chef’s skills.

Cyndi went up first. Nobody answered her when she called out orders. She also failed the quality test when Andi put crab instead of lobster in the risotto.

At Ja’Nel’s turn once again nobody answered. Cyndi also under seasoned two pans of risotto when she made a few perfect ones before. Ramsay even spoke to her about that. She caught Andi’s sabotage of putting up cod instead of halibut.

At Jon’s turn he completely forgot that they can’t special order Wellingtons when a diner asks for no pork in hers. Ramsay even had to remind him and Jon had to tell Jean-Philippe to tell the diner. Ja’Nel also undercooked a lamb and Mary made a garnish that was too salty. Jon failed his quality control test when he didn’t notice that the scallops were replaced by butterfish.

Mary was like a drill sergeant at the pass. Her high voice may have helped, too. Jon made rubber scallops and Cyndi brought up cold risotto. Mary did catch Andi’s attempt to pass off lamb Wellington as beef Wellington.

After dinner service Ramsay did not ask for nominations. He did ask for all the chefs to say why they should go on. Like every year, Ramsay announced one chef who would leave first and then show the final two on a screen. Cyndi was the first to be eliminated and the first chef to be going onto the final was Mary.

The “To Be Continued” sign greeted the viewer after that.

All this considered, this season’s finale may be a bit disappointing. Based on the preview, it looks like it’ll be Mary and Ja’Nel. Neither of which are that impressive, with Mary being the only halfway decent chef between the two women. At least this season is almost over.