Hell’s Kitchen Season 12 Episode 1 Recap: Here We Go Again

The 12th season of “Hell’s Kitchen” is finally here. Time to prime that censor button and hide the scallops-these chefs will overcook all of them. Not to mention they won’t be communicating with each other at all but what else is new for this show?

The show began with the new batch of chefs and their arrival at Hell’s Kitchen. With  a dinner service already in progress, Ramsay shortly told them that he did a soft opening to show the chefs that this was how he wanted every dinner service to be. Good luck with that, Ramsay.

Out of nowhere, the servers jumped on the tables and started dancing to a remixed version of “Fire” by The Ohio Players. Then the “diners” started a choreographed dance. A flash mob to welcome the new chefs? That…is the greatest thing ever in “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Speaking of great, the new intro is done in a noir comic book style where the chefs are fighting each other over a flaming package. Guns, police sirens, comic book sounds and all. Very clever.

Now for the serious stuff. The chefs went into their teams and each chef had to create their signature dish. The dishes were then squared off against the opposite team. The team with the most points wins. The Blue team started strong with a 3-0 lead. That went downhill when Mike made tortellini using frozen tortellini and canned tomatoes. He should’ve known that Ramsay hates frozen and canned foods. That nasty remark he made when Ramsay threw his dish in the trash didn’t help things.

Oh, and Jason from season 9 is back for a second shot. This can go many ways.

In the end, the Red won by one point. Their reward was dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s LA Restaurant. The men had to get Hell’s Kitchen ready for the next dinner service. Mike was having none of it. He halfheartedly vacuumed while everyone else was putting away tables. After that he went upstairs and had an orange.

The first Season 12 dinner service did not disappoint. It was a total nightmare.

For the Red team, the majority of the action came from Sandra, Joy and Nicole. Joy and Nicole could not get any scallops out. They were overcooked, uncooked and rubbery. Everything but cooked properly. Nicole even gave up mid-service. She didn’t walk away, though. Sandra gave up on talking to Joy, which caused them to start arguing. Eventually all three were kicked out. The arguing continued back in the dorms. Ramsay told the Red team to shut it down after Kashia made bouncy rubber scallops.

The Blue team didn’t do any better. Gaurav had problems with the risotto. He first made it soupy, and then it had too much black pepper. He even put his finger in it once. Gabriel made two completely different scallops. One was perfect the other only half seared. Demarco also overcooked a lobster tail twice. Gabriel’s final attempt at scallops caused Ramsay to throw the entire Blue Team out.

In all, nothing came out of that kitchen. According to Ramsay, “this is the worst opening night in Hell’s Kitchen history.” Looking back at other seasons, yes, they were bad, but at least they got food out.

At elimination, the Blue nominated Gaurav and Demarco. The Red nominated Sandra and Nicole. Gaurav was eliminated.

This looks like it’ll be a long and painful season. If the chefs are this bad, there should be plenty of drama in store. Would somebody please think of the poor scallops?