Hell’s Kitchen Coverage: Outdoors, Again?

It’s a wet and wild episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” as the chefs put their palates to test. It’s mostly wild, though.

As with many episodes this season, the day’s challenge took place outdoors. What is with Ramsay’s infatuation with outdoor challenges this season? This episode’s challenge was another “Hell’s Kitchen” staple: The Taste Test. This season, however, had a catch. The catch was each round two chefs would be sitting on dunk tanks. If a teammate gets three wrong, that chef got dunked. Four wrong and they got dunked again. You are pure evil, Gordon Ramsay. Pure evil.

This had to have been one of the most disastrous taste tests in “Hell’s Kitchen.” Santos, Fernando and Jennifer got zero right; Roe, Sade and La Tasha got one; Sterling got two and Bryant got three. With a 4-4 tie the tie-breaker came down to Bryant and Roe with Roe getting the ingredient (fennel) right. Roe was also the only one who did not get wet.

The Red’s reward was a day at “Santa Monica Pier” and lunch at “The Lobster.” Everyone except Jennifer had a blast on the rollercoaster. Jennifer desperately wanted off even when everyone was chanting “one more time!”

The Blue spent the day cleaning up the dorms. This season’s chefs are surprisingly clean. The other seasons the chefs were throwing up their guts but here they’re fine. This was a nice change of pace. Sade did say she was “three shades lighter” since she has not left “Hell’s Kitchen” in a while.

That dinner service the dining room was closed because of a VIP dinner. Those VIPs were firefighters and their families. Some have even received the “Director’s Award.” The way dinner service went was each team served a table of twelve with five courses each. Each chef was responsible for leading the kitchen on each course as a way for Ramsay to see how well they are as leaders.

Here are the results:

Course one, scallops and risotto (Roe and Fernando): The Red’s scallops were seasoned way ahead of time. Ramsay told them they’d get dry like that. Both teams were short two plates short on risotto.

Course two, seared tuna (Jennifer and Santos): Sterling was once again just standing there doing nothing. Jennifer finally started barking orders at him. Santos took a bit too long describing his dish to the diners.

Course three, salmon (Sade and Sterling): Sterling was a slob. He was chewing when Ramsay told him to introduce his dish and he was taking his apron off when he wasn’t supposed to. Sade overcooked a few salmons. The Blue thought they were out, but Sous Chef James said they did have more.

Course three, New York strip (Bryant and La Tasha): Santos was shredding the meat instead of slicing it properly.

Once again, both teams had to choose two people for elimination. The Red chose Roe and Sterling. The Blue chose Fernando and Santos. Fernando got eliminated.

This was one of the better episodes this week. The chefs really did not mess up as much as in previous episodes. That’s the way it should be at this point in the competition. On the other hand, their palates are absolute garbage. These people seriously are chefs? At least they have some cooking ability.