So here we are, the first part of the Hell's Kitchen finale. I have to be honest, I am kind of surprised by the finalists. Who would have thought the last two would be the guy who made Chef Ramsay a hen in a pumpkin and the relatively inexperienced (only 3 years out of culinary school) Christina? But each chef actually managed to impress over the course of the season. Christina won a handful of challenges and Petrozza proved to to be very skillful at his stations.

Thankfully Chef Ramsay decided to keep the finale the same as the past seasons and had each finalist design their own restaurant from the menu to the decor. This is always a great way to end the season.

Right off the bat Petrozza has a tough time with his menu while Christina has a very good idea about what she wanted her restaurant to be. Petrozza thinks that flowers everywhere will be a great idea (blech!) while Christina wants a sleeker feel. She has a very strong feeling about how she wants everything to look, right down to the wait staff.  It is very clear Christina knows what she wants and Petrozza is having a tough time.

Well here we are at the last three. I have to admit I thought from the beginning Corey and Christina would be here, but I was a little shocked to see Petrozza. I honestly thought Bobby was going to be in the final three, but that might have just been because he was so cocky. I'm just glad Matt is long gone.

The day after elimination Chef Ramsay cooked his signature dish for the remaining chefs. But before he could do that, Chef Ramsay brought out the chefs' families to say hello. Petrozza's dad, by the way, looked exactly like him sans goatee.

It was all a front though (of course), because after the chefs' families left, Chef Ramsay had each chef try to recreate his dish  based on taste alone. Christina caught onto the twist though and was evaluating each bite while her mom offered suggestions.

Both Petrozza and Christina picked venison over buffalo as the meat in the dish, which was correct, however Petrozza missed the puree entirely, giving Christina the win. She missed the cream (even though her mom said it like ten times) but nailed the white bean puree. If Petrozza had put any sort of puree on there he would have won. Christina was awarded yet another dinner with Chef Ramsay, as well as a tour of the city on a double decker bus with her family. Awww.

Well here we are, dow to the final four. And after Bobby being kicked off last week, who knows what is in store. The only thing we know for sure after the first few minutes of this episode? Nobody wants Jen around.

At the start of this week's show, Chef Gordon Ramsay tells the chefs that they have one hour to prepare eighty portions of a lunch special for what he calls the most demanding customers alive. Ramsay tells the chefs that these demanding customers will be voting for the best dish. After a furious hour of cooking, Ramsay brings in the guests for lunch - eighty pregnant women. Oy vey.

While each chef started serving their dishes, Corey had trouble getting her dish finished and out to the pregnant (and agitated) customers, which hurt her a lot. Corey got the least amount of votes, followed by Jen. The ladies loved Petrozza's and Christina's dishes, however Christina took the win with a mere 2 votes. She was awarded a trip to Rodeo Drive to go shopping at a high end boutique. The losers were given the punishment of shining silverware.

Can we just talk about how weird it was to have Ramsay in the boutique asking Christina to let her hair down? He was practically making her model for him. I mean that's technically her boss. Creeeppppyyy...

After the chefs discussed how happy they were that Matt was gone, and that they wanted Jen to be the next chef to go, the following day the remaining five chefs appeared in front of Chef Ramsay to watch him demonstrate the new special - Lobster Spaghetti. He then told the chefs their challenge is to teach a group of students how to make the special. But the students are no ordinary cooks, they happen to be beautiful (and typical) pampered LA housewives. Oh yeah the chefs can't actually cook anything, only teach.

After the housewives completed their cooking, Chef Ramsay tried each of their dishes. Petrozza had issues with his pasta, mostly because he was too busy flirting with his student. Jen and Bobby also didn't do so hot, but that was mostly because their housewives had never held a knife. In the end however Christina was the best teacher and provided the best dish. Christina was told she would be having a special lunch with Ramsay. Oh, and the housewives all got their very own Gordon Ramsay stainless steal cookware. Please - like they are ever going to use that.

Christina was brought to her special lunch, cooked by Chef Mark Peel and Ben Ford, two amazing chefs. Christina was given the opportunity to cook with these chefs and take in as many of their culinary pointers.

At dinner service Ramsay told the crew that they will have a full house that night and one table with a party of 12. That's 12 appetizers, 12 entrees and 12 desserts at once. Remember there are only 5 of them.

To start off this week's episode, Chef Ramsay woke up the chefs bright and early and brought them to the roof of the building which will become the location for his new restaurant (the one where one of these chefs will be the executive chef). Ramsay then gave them all black jackets and formed them into one team. No more red or blue!

Chef Ramsay gives them a quick tour of the new space for the new restaurant and then brings them back to Hell's Kitchen. There Ramsay gives each chef a different protein to cook for an individual dish in 45 minutes. After each chef cooked their dish, Ramsay gave each one a try and was actually quite impressed. Jen and Christina were called forward as the best two. After some deliberation (and a commercial break to set the mood) Ramsay chose Jen as the winner for her thinly sliced, but delicious, rib eye.

Jen won a trip to Las Vegas to cruise the strip and enjoy a dinner with last year's winner Rock. Not a bad little prize. Ramsay also told her to pick someone to bring on the trip and in a surprise twist, Jen chose Corey despite their differences.

Everyone else's punishment was to unload the trucks. If you remember last year, Bonnie made a major mistake unloading the trucks (she forgot an ingredient). Luckily she was cute so Ramsay never yelled at her for it. I wonder if Christina will be so lucky.

After last week, Gordon Ramsay points out that the chefs are still struggling with their timing in the kitchen. For the first challenge this week, Ramsay has the chefs cook three items off the menu, however, he informs them that only one chef can be in the kitchen at a time. Each chef has six minutes to cook before passing the baton off to the next chef where they must continue where the previous chef left off.

After the relay race, the blue team left their scallops raw, while the red team's John dory presentation was dreadful. In the end though, the blue team forgot their sauce for the chicken dish, giving them the loss. The red team is rewarded with a trip to the beach, while the blue team is punished with fixing up the kitchen. Let's just say I was not looking forward to seeing Matt in a bathing suit.

The next day at service Ramsay tells the chefs they would not be cooking the regular menu. Both teams would have one hour to create their own menu to serve that night at dinner service. This is usually the episode where the competition really gets good.

This week we start off with the girls' team deciding who to send to the blue team (remember last week?). Corey tries to persuade Jen to go by using a little reverse psychology. Apparently it worked because Jen decides the red team is too safe and she wants to make herself known on the blue team. Yeah I don't really get her strategy either but, hey, good luck to her.

Ramsay then tells the chefs for their first challenge they have to use leftovers to make 4 dishes using 20 ingredients. The red team quickly comes up with a menu while the blue team takes up ten valuable minutes deciding what to do. Meanwhile, Matt makes a mistake and ends up cutting the tip of his finger off (literally!). If you ask me, the red team seems cursed.

After Matt is ran off to the medic, Ramsay comes back and asks a very reasonable question - what happened to the fingertip? The girls start searching and can't seem to find it. Let's just pray its not in the pancetta Matt was cutting. I think Ramsay put it the best - "This just turned into a 21 ingredient challenge."

After his finger gets wrapped up, Matt hops back on the line like a trooper. Hey, he still has nine left.

Chef Ramsay starts the morning off with some homemade food for the chefts. He produces three dishes: chicken parmesan, sausage ravioli and beef stew. He tells the chefs there is one ingredient missing in each and asks what the missing ingredient is. The trick is - there was no meat in any dish, it was all soy. None of the chefs are able to spot the difference, angering Ramsay.

After the taste test, the chefs are lined up to do another taste test, expect this one is blind (and soundproof). The chefs are asked to taste a variety of foods while wearing a blindfold and headphones. The women seem to do much better than the men. It is kind of surprising that Bobby (an executive chef) can't identify a truffle when he tastes one. The last two up are rivals Ben and Matt (he is on the red team now remember?). Who said Hell's Kitchen can't do poetic justice?

The First Mini Challenge

After it was decided that no one was sent home last week, the chefs went back to their rooms to relax - and talk smack. Bobby and Ben form a semi-alliance and talk about how lazy Matt is. All the women seem to dislike Christina, but I think it's just jealousy.

The next day Chef Ramsay takes the chefs to a farmers market and informs them they will be cooking for a sweet sixteen party (oh boy). He tells the teams they have to make a tasting menu to serve to Ramsay so he can decide what will be added to the full time menu that night for the honored guest. They are given fifteen minutes to shop before they head back to prep for the main event (wait a minute - am I writing a Top Chef blog or a Hell's Kitchen blog?).

Back at the kitchen the chefs have 45 minutes to make two appetizers and one entree for the tasting menu. Throughout prep Matt complains he has no voice and doesn't agree with his team's menu. When it comes time to present the dishes to Chef Ramsay, he asks if any of the team members have been to a sweet sixteen party recently. Matt informs the chef he has, but was not allowed to influence his team's menu, which is unbelievable to Ramsay.

Ramsay, of course, has the sweet sixteen girl, Melissa, and her mother come out to try the dishes. Between the chicken and the shrimp appetizer and the buffalo wings, the princess chooses the men's wings. Her next choice is the women's fish and exotic rice. For her third dish, it was between a fillet minion and a skirt steak. After some serious thought (and possibly her mom's two cents) she decides to go with the men's dish, giving the men the win.

As the men go out for their reward, the women are given the task of decorating Hell's Kitchen -- luckily with the help of a "sparkelicious" decorator. And of course no party planing is complete without the mother stopping in to tell the chefs they are doing it wrong. Meanwhile the men went to a local go-kart track to release some stress.

 

This week, Vanessa is back, but from last week's injury, she is unable to do much. She says she will need plastic surgery. I have a feeling this will be a problem this episode. Poor girl.

In the morning, Chef Ramsay shows the chefs his white truffle onion pizza - worth $200. The chefs are challenged with providing their very own high end pizza. Man I'm getting hungry.

After all the chefs each make a pizza, they try each other's to pick one to perfect and present to Chef Ramsay. The women choose Jen's pizza rather quickly, while the men have a little more of a problem. They debate between pizzas and Ben calls out Louross' pizza for being similar to a pizza you would get at Pizza Shack. Ouch. Finally the men (well actually just Ben and Bobby) decide to serve Ben's pizza.

Immediately after last week's elimination, Chef Ramsay continues to spew insults as the chefs head back to the dorms. The chefs think they can relax and head to bed, but Ramsay doesn't let them. He sends them back to the kitchen to clean it. Corey (who is still on bad terms with everyone since she tried to eliminate two strong team members a couple of weeks ago) leaves early before all of the cleaning is done. Clearly she's not winning any points with her teammates.

The next day Chef Ramsay informs the teams that Hell's Kitchen will be opening up for a special family dinner service with a new menu. He then shows them how to make fresh pasta for the new menu, which just so happens to be the teams' first challenge. They have twenty minutes to make the most pieces of perfect pasta they can. After Chef Ramsay inspects the pasta, he weighs it. The women beat the men by over a pound of pasta, sending the men into the kitchen for prep work. The women, on the other hand, get to spend their day at the amusement park.

At the beginning of service Chef Ramsay tells the teams that whichever team completes the dinner service first automatically wins. Should be some incentive to finally finish a service!

This week's episode of Hell's Kitchen started where last week's left off; various members of the girls team still mad at Corey for trying to send them home. After a night of trash talking and complaining, the teams are awakened by Chef Ramsay to catch loose chickens in their dorms. Once they finally catch their animals, Chef Ramsay shows them how to break down a chicken (not the live ones thankfully) and give them the challenge of breaking down a chicken in under 2 minutes into 8 pieces.

The ladies do a great job with most of the chefs getting all eight pieces passed by the chef. With the men up, the ridiculous women-hating chef Jason rips apart his chicken after claiming it's a no brainer that the men would win. This fiasco, accompanied by Craig's below-par cuts, guarantee the men's loss. Their punishment is to pick peppers in the scorching heat while the women visit the Saddle Ranch restaurant on the sunset strip.

As the women walk into the restaurant, they are greeted by a familiar face. Everyone's favorite past contestant, Aaron (the one who fell asleep standing up), is there riding the mechanical bull! After he says his hellos, he leaves the girls to ride the bull, while Ramsay watches (in kind of a creepy way if you ask me).

Welcome to this weeks recap of Hell's Kitchen!

As we start this week's episode, we get the feeling that the teams don't seem to like each other very much. Jason says he will not lose to girls again and the girls say it was nice to cut some of the dead weight (i.e. Dominic). Can't wait until these teams join up and we see some real fun!

The next morning the chefs are pulled out of their beds at 5:45 a.m. to dig through the trash and really take a look at all of the amazing food they tossed at the previous night's dinner service. It amounted to thousands of dollars of waste, according to Chef Ramsay. Not a smart way to run a kitchen.

Back in the kitchen (after a shower), Chef Ramsay shows both teams how to fillet and cut up a rather large halibut. For the challenge, each team has twenty minutes to follow Ramsay's example and make the most perfect six ounce portions of the fish as possible.

After twenty minutes of slicing and dicing, both teams come out with 41 sliced portions of fish (coincidence?). A tie for the first time in Hell's Kitchen history. The tie breaker: each team needs to pick a member to go to the front and pick a piece that they believe is closest to six ounces. The team's portion who comes closest to six ounces wins the challenge. And let me tell you if you missed it, it was very, very tense... (Kidding, but don't you love how they manage to make halibut weighing so suspenseful?)

by Andrew Sousa