Hell’s Kitchen Coverage: Down to the Wire

The guests are just flying at high speeds to get into “Hell’s Kitchen.” Not because of the contestants, but because the one and only Stan Lee is there to give his take on what Ramsay is calling the “Fantastic Five.”

When the chefs came down that day they saw the dining room filled with random garbage. Such garbage items were a stove, cabinets and some barrels. Turns out these were the “drums” for a band called “Street Drum Corps who came out and started to drum on them. This was meant to show how someone can take undesirable things and make them treasure. Which meant the day’s challenge was to make a dish using leftovers. Ah, leftovers. Some things taste good as a leftover, others deserve to be trashed.

Some of the ingredients even did look like leftovers. The vegetables looked like they were in the fridge a bit too long and some of the meat didn’t look too fresh.

While everyone else was cooking, Rochelle was still trying to decide what to cook. She got the duck buck nothing else. Also, once again Joy undercooked a chicken. This time it looked really underdone.

To help judge the day’s challenge was the food editor for “Better Homes and Gardens Magazine” Laurie Buckle. Also, the winning dish was going to be featured in the magazine. The worst and weirdest dish was Jason’s “seafood lover’s delight.” It had five types of fish in it and the judges said it tasted like leftovers. The winning dish was Scott’s duck breast and pork tenderloin.

His prize was to have his picture taken for the magazine and fly in a fighter jet. He also had to choose who would come with him. He chose Jason despite Melanie saying it was “respectful” to pick the runner-up.

Jason said all he needed was a diaper and a barf bag and he was ready to go. He needed that because he was screaming the entire time he was in the jet. The producers also decided it was appropriate to play “Flight of the Valkyries” during that scene.

While the men were having fun, the lades had to prepare pumpkin and acorn squash for the night’s dinner service. That included cutting, gutting and toasting the seeds. They even were nice enough to put them on a pile of hay to give that fall harvest feel. The producers were having a field day with the corny jokes this episode, huh?

Also, Rochelle cut part of her thumb off cutting a pumpkin. Joy completely freaked out at the sight of the cut off part of Rochelle’s finger. Of course, she had to go to the hospital. She did male it back in time for service so that was good.

Despite that drama, dinner service had to go on. This service had one of the biggest chef’s table VIPs in “Hell’s Kitchen” history: comic book legend Stan Lee.

Dinner service started with Scott telling Joy to drop five orders of scallops. Ramsay had to remind him this was not a fast food place. He would then drop some of the risotto rice on the stove, burning them. Ramsay had to tell him people in the dining room could smell it.

Melanie didn’t do well ether. She put too much cappellini and not enough crab. She would then put Lee’s table’s cappellini on fire. Twice. She also forgot to cilantro in one of them.

The biggest meltdown came from Joy. She forgot to put mussels in a sauce and had to steam a few. Then she put up halibut before its garnish was ready. When Ramsay confronted her about it she walked out. Pity, she seemed like the most likely to win.

Ramsay said nobody was going home that night, but next time two chefs are going. With that, this show is finally down to the wire. With Joy’s shocking departure it’s now anybody’s game. It would be a huge shock if Rochelle wins. She seemed like a typical dumb blonde throughout the entire season. Her winning will be something else.