Hell's Kitchen: Ben & Autumn Out, Holli & Jay Final Two

Well. It is lovebirds, Holli Ugalde and Jay Santos battling it out in the finale of Hell's Kitchen to see who gets to move to London to be the head chef in a new Gordon Ramsay restaurant in the Savoy Hotel.

Some of the past "winners" of Hell's Kitchen do not stay very long in the dream job that is touted all season long as being a big prize.

The first season winner, Michael Wray, accepted Ramsay's offer to work with him in London, but he returned to Los Angeles after just a few days in England.

Last season's winner, Dave Levey, did not last long at the Araxi Restaurant in Whistler, British Columbia, before returning to America.

It was a little surprising after last night's mostly successful dinner service that Ramsay booted both Benjamin Knack and Autumn Lewis, leaving the aforementioned lovebirds as the final two.

Ramsay was very complimentary to Ben and Autumn as he booted them. It was rather surprising Autumn lasted as long as she did. Could she really be as annoyingly a non-stop chatterer as she was edited to appear to be?

I guess next week's Hell's Kitchen finale will be interesting. Holli is only 24, Blue Jay is 32. I don't know if experience and age is going to trump beauty in this case.

I'm guessing Holli for the win.

Hell's Kitchen: Ed & Jason Sent Home While Holli & Jay Romance

Ed Battaglia got sent home in the first hour of Tuesday's night's Hell's Kitchen. Ed got overwhelmed by seafood.

Prior to Ed having seafood woes, Ben Knack won the reward challenge by making the most attractive and tasty dish, which earned him a much needed makeover and being on the cover of a magazine, the name of which I don't remember.

Ben did look marginally better with a new haircut and his eyebrows plucked. Unfortunately the makeover did not include a personality adjustment.

In the second hour Holli won the reward by making the highest valued dish from $10 bucks of ingredients, with the dish value judged by 3, apparently, well known restaurateurs.

Holli's reward was going to a restaurant with Jean Phillipe, with $1,000 to spend at a cooking supply store. Holli also got to take along one other chef.

Holli chose Jay. Also known as Blue Jay. Due to his disturbing blue hair.

Holli Ugalde is a very attractive 24 year old. With a tramp stamp on her back, losing major beauty points with me. Jay Santos is 33. Almost 10 years older than Holli. Holli is quite good-looking. Jay, is well, not quite good-looking. And a bit of a chunk.

During lunch, with Jean-Phillipe, there was some double-entendre-ing going on. Flirting between Holli and Jay. At one point Jean-Phillipe inquired about getting a room for the lovebirds.

Later, back at Hell's Kitchen, in the dorm, Holli and Jay get in the hot tub. It was getting quite, well, uh, adult, when Autumn showed up and, well, ruined the mood. I think this is when I saw Holli's tramp stamp. It seemed a very appropriate stamp at the time.

The previews for next week seem to indicate there will be some romance drama regarding Holli and Jay which sends Gordon Ramsay into one of his furies. That should be amusing and entertaining.

I forgot to mention. Jason Ellis was the second boot of the night. He did seem to be at a point where he had reached the limit of his talent. I liked Jason, he grew on me. Ramsay was quite nice to him after booting him, very encouraging. And Jason was quite articulate and good-natured about reaching the end of his Hell's Kitchen road.

Hell's Kitchen: No Segway for Fat Robert

I find Hell's Kitchen very amusing. I'd like to have temper outbursts like Gordon Ramsay. He is so good at it. This week a lady didn't like her appetizer, confronted Ramsay, to which he called her a dog and shooed her away. The lady seemed to have liked getting the Ramsay Treatment.

To win this week's reward each team member had to make a dish using King Crab. Then each team had to pick which member's was best and then serve it to Chef Ramsay.

The Red Team picked Andrea's awful looking dish that had crab legs, in the shell, arranged on the plate. The Blue Team picked Ben. Despite Danny's tasting better. Ben went on and on and on describing his King Crab dish. Ramsay hated both of them. Rejecting the first two, Danny and Paula brought up their dishes.

Ramsay liked both, but liked Danny's best. So the boy's were off to a day of fun at the Santa Monica beach, with Ramsay, while the other team cleaned toilets and crabs.

Ben is so annoying. He is one of those people, like me, who is not nearly as funny or bright as he thinks he is. Over and over again he blunders and yet keeps acting like he is Top Chef.

At the beach, Ramsay greeted the boys on a Segway. All the boys, but Robert, got to play on Segways. Apparently, if you weigh over 600 pounds, a Segway can not haul you around. So, Robert got a bike. I was amazed he was able to ride a bike.

At the Dinner Service, Ramsay let the teams pick their menu. Both teams picked similar menus. Both Ben and Carol insisted on cooking spud dishes which both claimed they were expert at. Ben over and over again repeated a French term for his spud dish, fondant, that annoyed Robert and Danny, due to them having no idea what Ben was talking about. Turns out, neither did Ben.

Both spud dishes were a disaster. Carol's scallops were raw and Ramsay had no idea what Ben's spud dish was. When told it was a fondant Ramsay pretty much profanely said HUH?

Ben got accused, by Ramsay, of sabotaging Robert by badly cutting the beef Robert was trying to cook. It seems more obvious that Ben was just being incompetent. He seems too stupid to sabotage.

In the end, the Red Team, all girls, but one, won. Ramsay told Danny to go upstairs and pick one from his team to go home. After a lot of angst, Danny picked Ben.

But, then Ramsay called out both Ben and Robert. And then sent Carol home. Always with the unexpected twists on Hell's Kitchen.

Of the remaining cooks it is obvious there are only 2 who can possibly be the winner, that being either Paula or Danny. The rest are messes, real messes.

Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

I enjoy Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen. Thursdays on FOX. But not quite as much as Bravo's Top Chef. The Chef's on Top Chef are mostly all high caliber. On Hell's Kitchen a lot of the supposed chefs seemed to have been picked for entertainment value.

Gordon Ramsay has another show on FOX that is now in its second season, that being Kitchen Nightmares. The Kitchen Nightmares are so nightmarish that I'm now a bit queasy about restaurant eating.

I look for signs of danger. One thing I've learned from Kitchen Nightmares is if you can spot signs of neglect totally visible, like broken signs, dying plants, walls in need of paint, signs of a roof leak, structural damage, messy restrooms, well, if the restaurant cares so little about what the customer can see the chances are the hidden stuff, like the kitchen, is a disgusting, unsanitary, dangerous mess.

A restaurant in trouble contacts Kitchen Nightmares. If they are deemed worthy of helping, Chef Ramsay shows up, orders a few things off the menu, gags, inspects the kitchen, is appalled, watches a dinner service, is even more appalled. He then figures out what needs to be fixed, has a talk with the problem people, gets mad a lot, spewing a lot of bleeped profanity.

Sometimes what Ramsay finds in the kitchen is so shockingly bad that he shuts down the restaurant, telling people to stop eating, that the food is dangerous. The last time I saw him do this he put up "crime scene" tape to block off the kitchen. That was amusing.

After a lot of drama, overnight, Ramsay's team transforms the restaurant and comes up with a new menu. The next morning the restaurant owners and crew are in shock at the changes. Usually they are happy. They learn the new menu. A Ramsey-planned event, like a Farmer's Market, whips up enthusiasm so people will want to try out the new and improved restaurant.

The dinner service in the new and improved restaurant starts off rough. And then it all comes together, usually, and we get a happy ending, usually. Most times the owners are very grateful. Every once in awhile they are clueless ungrateful jerks.

It's a very entertaining and sometimes sort of educational show. Kitchen Nightmares is one of Durango TV's favorites.