Hell’s Kitchen Season Finale Recap: Mildly Entertaining

The season finale of “Hell’s Kitchen” is finally here, and what a perfect way to bookend a semi-entertaining season.

This episode started and continued to be like every other “Hell’s Kitchen” season finale. First, Ariel and Kristin were sent to the “Millennium Biltmore Hotel” in Los Angeles where they stayed in a presidential suite. It was here that they were reunited with their families and then were told to work on their menus.

This predictable episode continued with them meeting with former “Hell’s Kitchen” winner and owner of “BLT Steak” in Los Angeles, Paul. They finally got to the usual challenge when Ramsay took them on a helicopter and onto the “USS Iowa.” You have to give “Hell’s Kitchen” producers this much, having the final challenge on a World War II ship was a different and fun idea. The energy of the crowd was intense, too.

The final challenge was to make one hot and cold appetizer and one chicken, fish and beef entrée. Like every year, each dish was judged by a star chef. Each dish was scored on a scale of 1-10. The first dish (cold appetizer) was judged by Clifford Crook of “Esquared Hospitality” which owns “BLT Steak.’ Ariel got 8 and Kristin got 9.

Next was the hot appetizer, judged by the executive chef of ‘The Florentine,” Chris Macchia. Ariel got 9 and Kristin got an 8.

At the fish entrée (another executive chef of “Esquared Hospitality Manuel Trevino,) Ariel got a 9 and Kristin got an 8.

Executive chef of “BLT Bar and Grill, NY David Crane judged the chicken entrée. Ariel got an 8 and Kristin got a 9.

The final dish (beef entrée) was judged by the president of “Esquared Hospitality” (wow!) Keith Treyball. Ariel got a 7.5 and Kristin got an 8, with the final score being Ariel 41.5, Kristin 42. Despite the weird scoring (a fraction is a first on this show,) both chefs did remarkably.

Of course, directly after this, each chef had to choose who would be on their team. Ariel chose Jackie, Manda, Dannie and Jared. Kristin chose Ashley, Frank, Joe and Chad.

The final dinner service to decide this season’s winner was a wild one which made up for the rest of the episode.

In Ariel’s kitchen, not one minute in and Manda couldn’t get the number of lobster salads right. That’s just sad. At entrees, Dannie brought up undercooked pork chops. Jackie, complaining that the sea bass were different sizes, decided to cut them to make them even. For some reason, a customer brought back a raw pork chop cooked by Dannie. How that got through is a mystery. That same pork chop was then turned into an overcooked one. Dannie would then walk out and never return.

Frank started things off in Kristin’s kitchen by undercooking a duck salad. This was also for Kristin’s parents. Later, Joe over seasoned sea bass garnish. After a while, Kristin’s brigade started to ignore her. This is not something any chef wants in the finale. Chad later made a raw salmon.

That was the most entertaining finale dinner service “Hell’s Kitchen” had. Yes, the mess ups were unneeded, but they were entertaining. Anyway, Ariel and Kristin did the usual hand on the door handle and whoever’s door opens wins. This year that winner was Ariel.

Ariel deserved this victory. She was the absolute best chef this year bar none. She was also the second chef to win “Hell’s Kitchen” with an injury. She did practically everything right and was one hell of a chef. The overall quality of the season was entertaining but not memorable. There were some outstanding moments, but more boring moments and decisions that were head-scratch worthy. Overall, a few episodes are worth re-watching.