Hell’s Kitchen Coverage: Lets Go to Wine Country

The “Hell’s Kitchen” chefs are rounding up barn animals and casing more destruction in a new episode. They’re also doing this in front of some very harsh judges.

The chefs once again had an outdoor challenge. Today, they had to split into pairs and grab one of three farm animals: lamb, pig and calf. They had to put them in a pen and then choose a starch to cook with that animal’s chop. Santos showed skill when he picked up a pig and put him in the pen just like a real pig farmer. Steve confused a goat for a lamb. Yes, they’re technically the same animal, but one has horns and the other doesn’t. Also, the head is a little different and goats don’t have wool.

At tasting, each team had to choose one person’s dish to bring up per ingredient. The Red chose La Tasha (veal,) Roe (pork) and Sade (lamb). The Blue chose Fernando (veal,) Sterling (pork) and (lamb.)

Ramsay had two guest judges for the tasting. They were co-owners of “Animal” John Shook and Vinnie Dotolo. Each dish was graded from one to five stars from each judge with a max total of 15 stars. The team with the most stars won. The average across the board was nine and ten. When it was Roe’s turn to win it for the Red it was Blue 28 and Red 21. Roe’s dish was a nightmare, gaining only four points and giving the Blue the win. This is one of the rare times a chef got a four.

The Blue’s reward was a trip to Santa Barbara wine country where Marino showed them the proper way to taste wine. Fernando had a better idea of tasting wine. That was to grab an entire bottle and chug it. That right there actually is the best way top taste wine.

The Red on the other hand spent the day cleaning and cutting bones for bone marrow and prepping both kitchens. They had a tone of trouble with the bones. They tried to cut them (with a regular saw, by the way) and they kept dropping them. Maybe not using the butcher’s bone saw machine was part of the punishment? Or maybe “Hell’s Kitchen” doesn’t have one. Anyway, they were cutting them wrong by not securing them properly.

Dinner service this episode was back to disaster mode. What exacerbated things was the fact that there were members of the “Dine LA” Board of Directors in the dining room such as Yuta Tsunoda (Chaya Brasserie) and Jimmy Shaw (Loteria Grill.) Also, at the chefs tables were Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix (Red) and LA Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell (Blue.)

In the Red Sade decided to take the lead and constantly yell and bark orders. Obviously, this annoyed the other members. After making a perfect risotto Roe made one and a half portions and Katie made scallops that were burned on one side. Roe once again messed up a risotto and she and Katie were kicked out. Ashley would follow them with undercooked scallops.

In the Blue Ramsay once again decided to show a chef (Steve) how to properly cook and plate scallops. Steve completely ignored Ramsay and took them out wrong. Ramsay had to remind him how to do it. Later, Santos brought up one lamb instead of two. How does anyone at this point in “Hell’s Kitchen” mishear how many dishes they should make? Ramsay had to bring Santos and Steve in the pantry to have a talk with them. That didn’t help as both were kicked out later.

Both teams had to choose two people for elimination. The Red didn’t even do that properly as they chose four people because they were split. Ramsay, almost blowing his top, told them to do it again. They chose Katie and Roe. The Blue actually had a decision with Steve and Sterling. Katie may have been eliminated, Ramsay said he was not done and “To Be Continued.”

Seeing the Blue win two in a row was pretty fun. It shows that there can be a good Blue Team. As for who is getting eliminated next episode, the preview makes it look like Sterling. That makes little sense as Sterling may have started weak but he’s gotten better. Roe is done. She’s crashing and burning hard.