Last night marked the fifth season of Hell’s Kitchen. This year the stakes are even higher than the previous ones because everyone knows Ramsay’s standards and how he wants things to run. There should be NO EXCUSES.
Season five started off with the signature dish tasting by Ramsay from each one of the contestants. Last year he threw up and spit out more of the food than he ever did before. This year he only spit out two dishes, a vast improvement from last year. Ramsay raved this was the best signature dish tasting ever. With that tasting, the stakes grew and so did Ramsay’s expectations for season five.
This year in the mix of personalities, the egos are still pretty high. There is a mix of gay and lesbian, Asian, African-American and even a good ol’ boy. Each one has some experience in the field, but the one I expect to take a firm leadership role and set an example for their team is Colleen. She is a teacher of her own culinary school so how bad can she be? Amazingly, she had one of the two signature dishes that Ramsay spit out. He actually said it was the worst he ever tasted. Colleen got offended and actually mentioned to Ramsay that “she also teaches manners in her school.” When he asked her to repeat the statement, she clammed up fast. Ramsay also found out that Colleen never was a trained cook. This could greatly damage her school’s credibility and accreditation.
The start of Hell’s Kitchen service went pretty smooth, despite a breakdown from Lacey who said she quit after only ten minutes into the prep for the night, but returned just before service started. It was not looking good for the women’s team; even though they are the team to beat and last year’s winner was Cristina from the ladies team.
After about 30 minutes into the service a generator blew, then another and another, till Hell’s Kitchen went completely dark. Giovaini and Carol were servers for the night because each team had too many people. Carol, to avoid her customers leaving and getting upset at the blackout, served small amounts of wine them. Giovaini froze and waited for things to resume. It wasn’t long before the power was back and things were running smoothly… but not for the kitchen.
Lacy didn’t have her stove on, Colleen decided to revamp Ramsay’s recipe which was a possible death sentence. The men were not any better, fighting like they did last year. Wil completely broke down the garnish station while the rest of the men were serving undercooked and burnt food, making Ramsay look like he was going to have a stroke.
The teams didn’t even get to half the entrees before guests started walking out. Ramsay closed the kitchen and the dreams of one contestant. Since both teams were atrocious, Ramsay let the patrons decide. The vote was on how well the servers performed on the floor. Carol got a 83% approval rating by her customers, while Giovaini received less exemplary marks with 91% saying he was horrible. The ladies won the first night of Hell’s Kitchen.
In the end, the men nominated Seth and Wil. Wil actually nominated himself. Ramsay listened to both men plea their case, and finally sent Wil packing. Ramsay’s reasoning was that Wil didn’t have any faith in himself, or his ability. That is the key to being a great chef.
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