Hell’s Kitchen 6, Episode 10: Cooking for the Halibut

We start this week’s episode right where last week’s episode ended. You can read my review of that episode right here.

As you recall, Ramsay booted Andy after several poor services. No one really thought he was going to go very far in this game anyway. Then, after the eviction, Ramsay threw the teams a curve ball when he switched Suzanne from the red to the blue team. That breaks up the bickering duo of her and Tennille.

But this complicates the balance of the teams. This show is known for its balance and the team with one extra player almost always loses. The blue team now has that one extra player.

But the problem is that none of the blue chefs can really go home. The red team still has the two worst chefs (Tennille and Sabrina) so they should rightly lose. Suzanne is also teetering on the edge of eviction, but Ramsay never evicts someone the week after he forcibly puts them on another team. And the three men in the game are the best chefs remaining, especially everyone’s hero Dave.

But wait. I just remembered something that will solve this little dilemma. It makes me smile. Let me just say the word, “Black,” and leave it at that. Do you know what I just remembered?

Anyway, the players retreat to the dorms and the men make it very clear to Suzanne that she is not welcome on the blue team. Suzanne shrugs off the snub and shoots back that the men just need to give her a fair chance and she will prove herself worthy.

On the red team, Tennille suddenly decides that they are in serious trouble with just three players to the blue team’s four, especially when she is perfect and everybody else is awful.

The next morning dawns and the chefs gather in the dining room. Instead of Chef Ramsay, they are greeted by Chef Scott. The men know that this means trouble. Chef Scott greets the teams and then a view screen lowers behind him and we see a blurry picture of Chef Ramsay. He is calling them from Whistler, British Columbia, the home of the Araxi restaurant that the winner of this season will run. It looks cold.

Ramsay tells the chefs that the key to this restaurant’s success is their use of local ingredients from the Whistler area. So he has flown a batch of these ingredients to Hollywood for the players to use to create three entrées. The catch is that there are fifteen ingredients and each one cannot be used more than once.

He wishes the chefs luck and they are off to create their dishes. Tennille decides the best strategy is to split them into three groups of exactly five. Further, Tennille and Ariel immediately ignore any suggestions or offers of help from Sabrina because she has been nominated several times. Good teamwork, ladies!

Suzanne is having the same problem in the blue kitchen. She is the outsider and the men are ignoring her suggestions. This is, of course, to be expected since she was foisted on their team. But, as we know, the men are all about team spirit and they eventually bring Suzanne into the fold and assign her some of the important parts of the dish creation.

In the red kitchen, the ladies can’t even decide what ingredients they are working with. Tennille calls the meat “lamb” while Sabrina secretly knows that it is venison. But Sabrina, being a woman, isn’t a team player either and decides to say nothing and let Tennille and Ariel stumble. Oh ladies, I am so disappointed.

Anyway, with just minutes to spare, the teams finish their dishes just as Chef Ramsay returns from Canada. Yeah, like he just got off the plane. I don’t believe it. More likely the segment shown to the players was filmed many months ago when there was actually snow on the ground.

Ramsay has brought a couple of special judges with him. They are Sasha Cohen, silver medal winning Olympic figure skater, and Johnny Mosley, gold medalist. I guess they couldn’t get anyone really famous.

Still, they are pretty darn good athletes and I guess that qualifies them to judge the deliciousness of the teams’ dishes. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

First up, Kevin presents caramelized salmon with seared leg of lamb. Ariel presents grilled salmon with shrimp. Without tasting it, Ramsay tells the athletes that the red team’s sauce might be too rich. They cower in fear and both declare the blue team the winner. The score is 2-0.

Time for the second dishes to be served. Tennille calls hers a wonderful lamb. Sabrina giggles with glee as Ramsay reacts in shock and asks Tennille to repeat what she thinks it is. She stumbles with uncertainty and finally declares that it is venison. Ramsay asks if the ladies actually knew that it was venison and Tennille lies through her clenched teeth and says that she knew it all along, and was just confused at the last minute. Yeah, right. Ramsay has seen all the tapes and knows that you are lying to him, Tennille.

The blue team correctly identifies their dish as venison in a cranberry sauce. The athletes taste the meals and Ramsay says the word “red” loudly to them several times and, sure enough, they both select the red team’s dish. Amazingly, the score is all tied up with just one dish to go. Who would have ever thought that the score would be this close?