Hell’s Kitchen 6, Episode 11: Couples’ Night Out

We start this week’s second episode right after this week’s first episode. You can read my review of it right here.

As you recall, Ramsay booted Sabrina after several poor services. She really was the weakest link and it was long past her time to go. But I did object to the way that it happened.

Tennille had been harping on Suzanne for many weeks now, blaming everything on her. But when Suzanne left the team and things did not get any better, instead of looking at her own performance, Tennille just found another scapegoat to blame.

With Sabrina gone, Tennille is almost out of scapegoats. In fact, the team is down to two players and that won’t do at all.

Luckily, whenever the show gets down to six players, Ramsay abandons the team concept and gives all players Black-collared shirts and makes them cook as one team. That’s what I meant in the last review when I said, “Black.”

The chefs don their new uniforms the next morning and meet chef in the kitchen. Ramsay has been busy cooking up a whole lot of dishes. He starts with a filet of beef and passes it down the line for the chefs to taste. We see a nice montage of the chefs having mini orgasms over the food.

I hope they are paying close attention because I think we all know what is coming up next. Remember that Chef Ramsay doesn’t just cook up batches of food for them as rewards.

After they’ve eaten, Ramsay announces that the next challenge is for them to recreate a dish based solely on appearance and taste. He then pairs them up in teams. He first selects Van and Ariel. Tennille gets Kevin and Suzanne gets Dave. Tennille is the only person who seems happy with the pairings.

Ramsay uncovers a dish that looks like grilled fish with bacon and butter sauce. Obviously it won’t be that simple. He gives them 30 minutes and then walks away.

The chefs all descend on the one plate like a pack of wolves and begin tasting. The announcer tells us that the dish has four main parts; the fish, a puree, garnish, and sauce.

All of the teams decide that the fish is turbot. They also decide on calamari as the garnish. They all decide that the puree is parsnip. Tennille tells us that she doesn’t even know what a parsnip is.

Ariel changes her mind and thinks that the puree is celery root. The sauce is the hard part. They all agree that it is some kind of citrus, but no one is really sure what kind. We move on to the tasting without knowing for sure. Ariel and Van use Star Fruit, Kevin and Tennille use Grapefruit, and Dave and Suzanne are using Passion Fruit.

Ramsay tastes them all without comment. He says that they all got the turbot correct. The puree was a white onion, however, and they all missed that. Everyone got the garnish correct, except that Kevin forgot to actually put it on the plate after he fixed it. Points off for that.

And they got the wrong fruit in the sauce as well. The correct fruit was passion fruit and that makes Dave and Suzanne the winning team. Dave’s a hero, I tell ya.

Their prize is to go to Chef Ramsay’s restaurant and have previous winner Christina make them lunch. The rest of the players must prep the kitchen and decorate the dining room for couples’ night.

Tennille complains constantly. She notes, several times, that she is a cook, not a maid.

At the restaurant, Christina gives the chefs some good tips on how to stay in the game. Chef Ramsay doesn’t eat with them.

When they return to Hell’s Kitchen, the other chefs give them the cold shoulder, despite Dave seriously downplaying their adventure. Tennille, as always, has negative things to say.

Dave and Suzanne return to work and things go fairly well until dinner service is ready to begin. J.P flings open the doors to Hell’s Kitchen and the beautiful couples of California arrive in their limos and BMWs and are quickly seated and handed menus.

Tonight the kitchen will be serving romantic table-side meals. One is a chopped salad for two and the other is a porterhouse steak for two. Kevin is assigned to manage the table-side meals.

Suzanne makes the first fumble of the night when she cooks two tortellinis instead of three. Kevin’s salads have to wait until Suzanne gets it right.

Van takes the second strike when he begins to cook an entrée long before the appetizers are served. He has to stop and wait.

But then he makes a critical error when he sweats into the scallops. Ramsay throws a hissy fit. Well, I don’t think people can really control when and how much they sweat.

Surprisingly, Tennille steps up and takes a bit of control in the kitchen. She is barking out orders and the food is getting prepared on time. And she personally cooks a lamb dish that gets praise from Chef Ramsay. In confessional, she is all about how wonderful she is.

Van is, once again, screwing up the fish station. Mostly he is trying to serve raw fish. He is getting tired and he is nearly worn out. Ramsay takes him aside and tells him that if this happens just once more he will be thrown out on the spot.

And while everybody is watching that confrontation, Ariel scorches a pan full of lettuce. It smokes mightily and possibly has ruined the pan. Oops!

Ramsay is livid and he grabs sous chef Scott and takes him outside for a walk to calm down a bit. No one knows if they will ever be back.