Hell’s Kitchen Coverage: Pizza Time?

Do you like your pizza raw or extra crispy, madam?

Sorry, there is no such thing as a perfect pizza in “Hell’s Kitchen.”

In this episode Ramsay told the chefs that a good chef needs technique. To show what technique is, he had 8-year-old pizza tossing prodigy Michael Testa showing them how it’s done. Tony Gemignani must be proud because this kid is good.

Obviously, the day’s challenge was to pair up and make gourmet pizzas. Each pizza was graded 1-5 by Ramsay and a guest judge. Some highlights of the cooking were Jason and Chris’s dough was too thin and Joy dropped her pizza. Anyone who has ever dropped a pizza would feel the same pain that Joy felt. Pizza may not be that hard to put together, but it takes a while to do so. Not to mention all the money that’s now on the floor.

Before tasting, the chefs had to choose one pizza to leave out. The Blue chose Chris and Jason’s and the Red chose Bev and Kashia’s. To help Ramsay judge the pizzas was “Hell’s Kitchen’s” favorite guest judge Wolfgang Puck. Exactly how close of friends are Ramsay and Puck?

The two solo chefs, Ralph and Rochelle, did poorly. Ralph got three total and Rochelle got five total. Low scores continued throughout the tasting. The only standout was Anton and Richard’s smoked salmon, hot peppers and balsamic pizza. (seven total) giving the Blue the win (15/12 Blue.)

Now, the Red would’ve tied it if they put up Kashia and Bev’s pizza.(seven) and Ramsay saying this was their best pizza. Because of that the Red had to prep for Italian family night. Meaning they had to prepare ravioli from scratch, shredding cheese and setting up both kitchens.

Meanwhile, the Blue spent the day at the Andaz Hotel on the Sunset Strip. They also had to do yoga. All they did was swoon over the instructor and not doing the poses properly. It’s still pretty funny to watch once you consider how fat these guys are.

Italian family night went about as smoothly as the challenge. Mostly, it was one big pizza disaster.

In the Blue, Chris, Gabriele and Scott completely destroyed the pizzas. They were either burnt, the crust too thick or looked wrong. It got so bad that they ran out of dough. For some clarity, the kitchen had enough dough for 36 pizzas. They only sent out 10. Chris and Scott had to go out into the dining room and apologize to the kids who ordered pizza. Other lowlights were Anton moving a bottle of oil that was melting on the stove, causing all the oil to spill and creating a pyro show. The entire Blue team was frantically trying to put it out when Ramsay put it out himself. Nice going, guys. Ralph rounded out the Blue’s woes with undercooked rib eye and lamb.

In the Red, Rochelle started off with under-cooking scallops. Again with the scallops? Not to mention the Red had a hard time with the pizza as well. Bev kept burning the pizza and Kashia kept making the dough too thin or too thick. They did get all their pizzas out. On top of that, they aced serving Ramsay’s family’s table. That must have been a first on the series.

After service, Ramsay showed the chefs their handy work with the pizzas. Ramsay was right in saying this was a “pizza massacre.” The Blue was the team who had the highest body count so they had to choose two chefs for elimination. They chose Chris and Scott. Ramsay also asked Ralph to come up. Chris got the boot.

Chris was only visible when he made a mistake. Other than that, he had no presence. He will not be missed. Kashia’s attitude is getting a tad annoying. Yes, you made a great pizza but you still make mistakes. She’s almost as bad as Elise from Season nine, and she was a major nightmare.