Hell’s Kitchen 6, Finale, Part 1: Sabotage?

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

As you recall last week, Ramsay finally booted Tennille, much to my relief. Tennille seemed to be a decent cook and she definitely got better as the season went on, but she was a horrible personality. She never missed an opportunity to blame problems on other people and other things. She always held herself blameless and spent much of her life telling people just how great she was. I could tell early on that Ramsay would never want a chef like that to represent him in one of his restaurants.

Anyway, the remaining chefs retire to the dorms after making the final three and visiting with their families for a little while. The chefs feel energized and ready to hit the finals with gusto.

After a restless night, dawn dawns and Chef Ramsay meets the chefs in the dining room. He tells them that the Araxi restaurant is an international destination for many world travelers and will certainly be that during the 2010 Olympics. He tells them that they will need to create various international dishes.

He assigns them random types to create. Ariel gets Chinese food, Dave gets Indian food, and Kevin gets Mexican food. Kevin is thrilled. He just needs to refry some beans and toss salsa on it and he’s done. He’s stoked.

The other two are not so sure of what they can cook. Dave is even confused as to what is sacred in India and what is not. In any case, time flies by and soon they are ready to present their finished dishes to Ramsay.

But Ramsay is not going to judge the dishes alone; he is bringing in cuisine experts for each of the countries. Ariel is up first. She is serving a marinated duck breast over noodles. Unfortunately she is tongue tied and can barely describe the dish properly.

They taste it and give the dish poor marks. The sauce is too watery and too sweet.

Kevin is next. He has made an orange and cumin marinated pork tenderloin with mole sauce. But oops! He forgot to actually put the sauce on the pork. Luckily the dish is tasty without the sauce. Only the Mexican chef doesn’t like it. But that’s not really good.

Dave is last. I think the show’s producers designed it that way since they knew that Dave knew nothing about Indian food. His dish is bean puree with seared pork tenderloin. The Indian judge notes that pork is not a common dish in India because most Muslims follow religious law that forbids them to eat it. He suggests that chicken or seafood would have been a wiser choice.

Luckily, despite the questionable choice of meat, the chefs love the Indian dish. Even the Indian chef loves it. In fact, the final vote is three for Dave and none for either of the other chefs.

His reward is that the three expert chefs will prepare their special meals for him at the chef’s table for lunch. Plus he gets a complete set of cookware just like they’ve been using in the kitchen.

Lunch arrives and Dave is thrilled to watch the chefs cook the meals. Dave’s loved ones step out from behind a curtain to join Dave. A great time is had by all.

The losers have to polish up all the silverware and iron the tablecloths and then prep all the food for tonight. They crane their necks to see if they can pick up a few hints from the chefs in the next room.

Time flies by and soon it is time for dinner service. Chef Ramsay gathers them around and tells them what he always tells the final three. Each of them will get a turn at the hot plate and make the final decisions as to whether the food is prepared properly and is ready to go.

As we know, Chef Ramsay will ask sous chefs Heather and Scott to screw up some food to see if the other chefs can uncover the deception.

All too soon, J.P flings open the doors to Hell’s Kitchen and the beautiful people of California arrive in their limos and Indian elephants and are quickly seated and handed menus.

The orders pour in and the chefs begin cooking. Things go quite smoothly for quite a while. Ramsay decides that it is time to let one of the chefs take a turn running the kitchen. Kevin is up first.

He is off to a strong start. But just when things are going well, Chef Scott purposely substitutes halibut for a piece of sea bass and brings it to the pass.

Kevin catches the mistake and returns it to Chef Scott. Scott fakes surprise and wonders out loud how that happened! He’s no actor.

The rest of his turn goes well except for Ariel slowing everyone down. Then she serves overcooked lamb. She cooks some more. Then she serves more lamb that he doesn’t like. It seems to be chopped badly or something. I can’t quite figure out what is really wrong except that Kevin feels the need to pick on the weakest player.

Dave is next up on the hot plate. He takes immediate charge and barks out orders. Sous chefs Heather and Scott take exception to Dave’s sudden aggressiveness and Scott tells him to back off. Dave wisely turns down the aggression a bit and focuses on Kevin and Ariel. When angry, he swears like Ramsay and kicks the garbage cans like Ramsay. I think he’s trying too hard.

But the technique is paying off as food is flying out of the kitchen faster than ever. But his test is coming up. Chef Scott substitutes spinach puree in the risotto instead of asparagus puree.

Dave fails to tell the difference and Chef Ramsay chews him out for it. Scott tests him again by sending up tuna that has been rolled in herbs rather than seared and sprinkled with sesame seeds.