Hell’s Kitchen Season 15 Episode One Recap: A Lackluster Beginning

Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay has found another batch of chefs to compete in his unforgiving culinary boot camp “Hell’s Kitchen.” In its 15th season, this season, like previous ones, promises to have a lot of surprises and “you won’t believe what happens” moments. The first episode starts out strong but then loses steam.

This episode started with a long preview of what’s to come this season. The preview pretty much spoils a lot of things that’ll happen, which is disappointing.

This episode had the chefs arrive at “Hell’s Kitchen” 5:15 AM. We also see that Marino is once again the Matre D’ this season instead of Jean-Philippe. Ramsay was there to greet the chefs, but he did leave them a giant slot machine. Of course, this was a specially made slot machine that when pulled spelled “meet me in Las Vegas.”

That’s right, this season started with the chefs headed to Las Vegas. They even got the biggest greeting to “Hell’s Kitchen” ever. The mayor of Las Vegas Carolyn G. Goodman greeted them as well as “Hell’s Kitchen” winners Scott and Christina who were in a big parade for “Hell’s Kitchen.” The producers really spared no expense for this episode, huh?

The chefs arrived at “Bally’s Hotel” where Gordon Ramsay was waiting to greet them. It was here that he announced this year’s winner would be the head chef of “BLT Steak” in “Bally’s Hotel.” It was here that the signature dish challenge and the intro started. This year’s intro is the chefs climbing a mountain. It is pretty underwhelming with the worst looking CGI yeti.

For this challenge, Ramsay rated each dish on a scale of 1-5. The team with the most points wins. It started off with the men averaging three points and the women averaging two then it went back and forth. The worst dish was Kevin’s chicken Caesar pizza because the dough and dressing were pre-made, a no-no in Ramsay’s eyes.

In the end, the Blue won 24-22. While the Blue spent the day at “Drai’s Nightclub” the Red had to prep for the “Sterling Buffet.” Very little of interest happened up until dinner service.

One of the worst things this season has been a preview of dinner service. It felt out of place and unneeded.

At dinner service, it was the Blue Team that had a terrible service. After serving a presentable scallop dish, Alan became a complete mess. He moved onto entrees before all apps were served. He confused “order” for “fire.” How any professional chef can confuse those words is a mystery. He then overcooked a scallop dish and Mark burned his pizza. The Blue Team got so backed up on apps that Jared and Eddie, who were working tableside, had to help out. Mark, now making risotto, cooked one that was bland and undercooked. After Mark and Alan made rubber lobster, one of their tables walked out, causing Ramsay to kick the entire team out.

The Red Team did much better, but not without some hitches. Vanessa started by making a pizza that burnt on the bottom. She would then bring up a squash that was cold in the middle. It took the entire Red Team to bail her out which is amazing. They did manage to complete dinner service.

The Blue Team nominated Mark and Kevin with Mark getting eliminated.

This first episode had a lot going for it at the beginning but became less interesting as it went on. This season may have blown its load early with that huge parade at the beginning. It is only the first episode after all, so there is plenty of room for surprises.