As always the show picks up right after the elimination. Van, who almost went home, rants on and on about his near miss and how much he hates being on the chopping block. As if there were contestants who really enjoyed being singled out as the second worst player on the show. By the way, he has quite the, um, large, interesting tattoo across his chest. They only show it reflected in the mirror while he brushes his teeth. Maybe it looks better not in reverse? Not that it's relevant but just thought I'd mention it. The next morning things look a little brighter: there are presents for everyone. They have finally received the black jackets. For any newbies, that means the remaining six players are one team, and all challenges will now be won and lost as individuals.
They arrive in the kitchen and Chef is making them one of his signature dishes for them to taste. Dave says he can die happy now that Gordon Ramsey has made him filet and truffles for breakfast. Chef tells them its time for the game, “Taste It, Now Make It.” He pairs them up for this one, so it’s less individual challenge and more of a mini-team challenge. The teams are Van and Ariel, Kevin and Tennille (which sounds enough like Captain and Tennille that it makes me giggle), and Dave and Suzanne. Scott brings out a different signature dish. The twosomes pounce on the dish like wolves and then scurry off to recreate the dish. I know wolves don’t exactly scurry but they are my metaphors and I’ll mix them as I wish.
They all guess the fish: turbot. Pronounced alternately as TUR-bot and tur-BEAUX. They also all deduce the garnish is calamari. Two teams guess the puree is made of parsnip, one thinks celery root. (Later we find out it’s white onion so that part is a draw.) The last part of the challenge is figuring out what citrus is in the sauce. Each team chooses a different fruit; star fruit, passion fruit and grapefruit. Van drops his fish but gets a replacement done in time. The winning team comes down to who chose the passion fruit as the sauce ingredient, and that would be Dave and Suzanne.
Dave and Suzanne ride in a limo with Chef Ramsey. They get a personal tour of The London West Hollywood, and then he leaves them with Christine, winner of HK from Season 4. The first question out of Suzanne’s mouth: “Were you, like, the know-it-all on your season?” Christine answers yes. This means Suzanne will now increase the bossiness, I predict, because she’ll think it will guarantee her a win. Dave just eats quietly looking like he’d prefer to be breaking his other arm than listen to this conversation. Suzanne says she wants to learn from Christine’s experiences but when Dave tries to ask her his own questions Suzanne keeps interrupting.
Meanwhile, everyone left behind to do prep work bitches that they have to redecorate the dining room. All in all, it seems like this is far from the worst punishment they have had. It certainly hasn't induced vomiting like some of the other challenges. In fact, it looks fun and I would probably volunteer to do something like that. When Dave and Suzanne get back Dave jumps in to help because he thinks this will help diminish the target on his back for winning the challenge. He tells them he’s glad to be back in the kitchen (and I tend to believe him in this case) and offers to help in any way that they need him. They flat out ignore him. They thought he was Superman 24 hrs ago and now they are acting like jealous teenage girls. How classy.
It’s couples night in the restaurant and they are featuring tableside preparation of a salad for two appetizer, and a porterhouse steak for two entree. Kevin is chosen to handle that. He needs to coordinate with Suzanne in the kitchen on many of the tables. She screws up, because this wouldn’t be Hell’s Kitchen if she didn’t. Kevin has to restart some salads and stretch others out by way of talking about the salad in way more detail than is necessary. Suzanne says, “I messed up the entire flow of the kitchen, but I can’t imagine you have to be so perfect to win this thing.”
Van, who I am shocked to discover is a ‘fish cook’ in his real life, fires the sea bass too early because he’s hyper-determined to do it correctly. And so this screw up is more ironic then the others. Meanwhile as he leans over the pan his sweat drips on the food. Tennille takes the lead in the kitchen and is rocking the service. Chef heaps praise on the communication level they are achieving thanks to her and even more on her lamb. Van completely freezes up remembering orders and brings Chef more raw fish. Chef takes him to a back room and threatens to throw him out next time it happens. Ramsey returns to find a pan full of burnt lettuce sitting on the stove and this makes him finally snap. He takes Scott and marches out. Its at this point I realize that there’s no Heather. I guess with only one team her hours have been cut. I predict we won’t see her until the final two chefs get to run their own kitchens.
Some of the chefs step up and take over in Chef’s absence, calling out orders and plating food. Well, not all of them. Kevin starts too but has to go back to the dining room to handle tableside service. He asks Suzanne to take over. She balks and makes Van do it. She thinks this might be a secret test. Her logic is that she doesn’t want to screw up the test so she just doesn’t take it. Suzanne fails to realize that the point of this show is to find someone who can be a leader in the kitchen, not someone who can pass the buck. At least, not until you're off-air.
Chef marches back into the kitchen and promptly ejects Ariel, Suzanne and Van. This leaves Kevin, Tennille and Dave to finish up alone. After the three of them do a hell of a job finishing service, Chef tells Tennille that was the best he’s ever seen anyone cook meat. She gloats, deservedly so. If he said that to me I’d get it tattooed somewhere prominent. The remaining three get the task of picking two out of the three booted contestants for elimination.
Suzanne gets nominated immediately, naturally. Dave tries to use a “who does Chef want to see up there” mind trick. He claims that Chef would want Ariel nominated over Van because he expects more from her. Plus Dave later admits in an interview that Van would be easier to beat in the long run.
Chef hears their reasoning for their decision with a look of wonder on his face. He puts Tennille on the spot and asks her directly if this is something she agrees with. She quickly backpedals and says she really wanted Van nominated. Chef calls all three players up to plead their cases. Ariel admits she screwed up and wants to stay. Suzanne claims she has an excellent palate and was just nervous. Van says he’s sick of being up there and starts to get psycho and something about how he doesn’t look good and he doesn’t cook good. I have no idea if the two are related or if it’s just general information. Whatever he means he is starting to look a little psychotic. I’m wondering if the casting directors for this season chose contestants based on ability to cook or ability to create drama. They have had more than their share of crazy behavior this season and yet, even as far in as the merge they are lucky to complete a service at all, much less with all members present.
He calls out Ariel’s name and as she walks to Chef Suzanne gives a smirk I’d really love to see wiped off her face. I nominate Tennille since if a guy does it they’ll get all arrested and I don’t think Ariel could take her down. Anyway, it’s not really Ariel because Chef pulls that bit where just as she starts walking up he tells her to get back in line. And it’s not Suzanne either, unfortunately, so the eliminated player is Van.
As they part Chef tells Van that he can cook, but he needs to keep cool and let his food do the talking. Then Chef says in the voice over that he wasn’t Van-tastic. Which, coincidentally, neither was that pun.
In an interview they show over the credits, Tennille very emotionally screams “no one thought I could do this. This is for anyone who was ever told they couldn’t do something” She’s probably talking about being competitive but I like to think she’s referring to monopolizing the interview segments of a reality tv show.
On a side note, I saw an interview on our local Fox channel with Andy Husbands, the contestant kicked off two episodes ago. He answered the usual questions in the usual way, like “Chef Ramsey really cares, and he ramps up the intensity for the cameras,” nothing too earth shattering. But he did give out two blind items that have me scrambling with speculation. He says that in addition to all the injuries this season, one of the female contestants suffers from lupus. Which is amazing because that disease can be really debilitating. Considering some of the really physical things they have to do means competing must have been twice as difficult for her than for everyone else, broken hands, ankles and all. Also, apparently Jim, eliminated in episode 6, is “in a relationship” with one of the female contestants. I’m guessing Melinda just because she lives geographically closer than any of the others, but I’m curious if any one noticed any sparks a-flying earlier in the season? Leave your guesses in the comments.
Your reviews of this show are fantastic as always Cayley. I have yet to DVR this show, keep forgetting but you bring it to such life. It's like I am watching it view. Plus you add your great sense of humor to it. Can't wait to actually watch the show now that you have me getting an interest in it, and comapre notes. Keep it up.
Meant watching it with you, sorry for typos had some one at the door. Plus it wouldn't be me writing this without typos LOL
Your reviews of this show are fantastic as always Cayley. I have yet to DVR this show, keep forgetting but you bring it to such life. It’s like I am watching it view. Plus you add your great sense of humor to it. Can’t wait to actually watch the show now that you have me getting an interest in it, and comapre notes. Keep it up.
Meant watching it with you, sorry for typos had some one at the door. Plus it wouldn’t be me writing this without typos LOL
Jim is romantically involved with Tek, as alluded to in their interviews.
Jim is romantically involved with Tek, as alluded to in their interviews.
omg if it is melinda i totally called that. i was watching it and i was like "jim and melinda would be a cute couple" and voila! i hope thats tru!i also think ariel and van would be cute. in the last two episodes it seems like van admires her :) also did anyone notice how dave and ariel look like they could bhe long lost twins in their promo pics. THEY HAVE THE SAME EXACT HAIR AND EYES.
omg if it is melinda i totally called that. i was watching it and i was like “jim and melinda would be a cute couple” and voila! i hope thats tru!i also think ariel and van would be cute. in the last two episodes it seems like van admires her :) also did anyone notice how dave and ariel look like they could bhe long lost twins in their promo pics. THEY HAVE THE SAME EXACT HAIR AND EYES.