Paul Beats Will On Hell's Kitchen Season 9 Finale to be Executive Chef at BLT Steak in New York City

Paul Niedermann, the guy fellow chef, Jennifer Plumley, had a huge crush on, on Monday night, became the latest winner of Hell's Kitchen.

The final two to last in Hell's Kitchen were Paul and Will Lustberg. Many assumed Will was the favorite to win. But Will had some woes with his final dinner service, while Paul had the good luck to have the Primo Diva, Elise Wims, on her best behavior, helping him win.

In the first hour of the 2 hour Hell's Kitchen finale it was down to the aforementioned Paul, Will and Elise.

And Tommy Stevens.

For weeks I've wondered why Tattooed Tommy had not been booted out of Hell's Kitchen. Tommy seemed to have a lot of competency issues. Apparently he was amusing to Chef Gordon Ramsay. We saw that via outtakes at the end, where Ramsay kept making jokes about Tommy's teenage girlfriend.

In the first hour we met Tommy's girlfriend. And mother. Tommy engaged in way too high a level of public display of affection with his teenage girlfriend. We also met Will's wife and mother. Or was it mother-in-law? Elise was surprised Will's wife was sort of good-looking. I was surprised to learn Elise was married and had reproduced. As for Paul, he has not married or reproduced. His big brother was his loved one in the Loved Ones Show Up Episode.

Paul won the reward challenge in the Loved Ones Show Up Episode. This had Elise in tears, again, as Paul and his big brother took a limo to some VIP treatment with Tommy Lasorda and the Los Angeles Dodgers, at a game where Chef Ramsay tossed out the first pitch at the sparsely attended game.

In the final hour, after Will won a cook-off challenge giving him first pick for his final dinner service team, he inexplicably picked Tommy. Paul then picked Elise. When it was down to 2 remaining, Will picked the incompetent Krupa Patel, leaving Paul with Elise's arch enemy, Carrie Keep.

Will thought he'd sealed Paul's doom by sending Carrie to his team. But, it did not work out that way. Krupa ended up causing Will a world of hurt, while Elise, for once, worked well with others, including Carrie.

In the end, it was Paul's door that opened, giving him the win, with a $250 K salary at BLK Steak in New York City. I hope Paul lasts long enough to collect one year's worth of salary.

For me the best part of the opening episode of the new season of Hell's Kitchen was the opening credits, with Chef Gordon Ramsay playing a pinball machine with the chefs inside the machine getting battered about by Ramsay's balls.

I think that is what is known as a metaphor.

The show started with a bus ride to the LA's Orpheum Theater where the chefs were sent to hair and makeup, then rushed up on stage, behind the curtain, hearing a loud crowd and an announcer announcing them with the curtain lifting to reveal an empty theater, holding only Gordon Ramsay, who then taunted them for thinking a crowded theater was there to see them.

Then it was on to Hell's Kitchen where the 18 chefs had 45 minutes to wow Ramsay with their best dish.

It was the girls against the boys. The boys won. Which had them going out to lunch with last season's winner, Nona, while the girls cleaned up the kitchen mess.

The only chef name that stuck in my memory, besides the guy who got the boot, was Krupa. And I likely have that spelled wrong. Krupa messed up bad with a sick looking Indian dish. And then redeemed herself several times during the dinner service.

We were not even into the dinner service, just doing prep, when one of the men collapsed and had to be sent to the hospital.

Dinner service was pretty much a total disaster for the men. The blue men's team has several really bad cooking duds, mixed in with some serious personality disorders, which, of course, are a Hell's Kitchen staple. The red women's team also had its share of personality disorders.

In the end it was an older guy, named Steven, I think, who was told to give Ramsay his jacket and leave Hell's Kitchen.

I do not know if I am up for another round of Hell's Kitchen. All that yelling it sort of grating. And so many bad cooks in the kitchen this time, or so it seems.

Hell's Kitchen: Ramsay Sends Trevor & Jillian Home With Russell & Nona the Final Two

The current iteration of Hell's Kitchen has been the oddest I remember watching. Not one of the chefs really stood out as the competent ringer destined to make it to the end.

I don't remember seeing so many major cooking woes previous to this season of Hell's Kitchen.

I thought Jillian had it wrapped up to make it to the Final 2. Particularly after she won the fusion cooking challenge at the start of the episode.

It is rather telling, regarding how bad the chefs were, this time on Hell's Kitchen, that someone as incompetent as Trevor made it to the Final 4.

When Trevor became the first of the Final Four kicked out of Hell's Kitchen by Chef Ramsay, Gordon then proceeded to heap praise on Trevor. This made no sense to me, after what we'd just watched.

And then the first picked to be on of the Final 2 was Russell. In other seasons of Hell's Kitchen Russell would have been long gone. Or so it seems to me.

The biggest surprise of the night was Ramsay sending Jillian home, making it a Final 2 between Russell and Nona.

From the previews it appears that there will be a lot of yelling and swearing during the Finale. That's a surprise.

In Hell's Kitchen No One Goes Home While Nona's Son and Russell's Girl Friend Show Up

In last week's Hell's Kitchen previews we saw Nona bawling and sobbing. I assumed due to getting in big trouble while cooking. Instead the bawling was due to seeing her baby boy.

I was a bit surprised that Nona had reproduced.

The episode began with Nona winning a cooking challenge, once more showing her palate was a bit more refined than the other chefs, with Nona able to most closely replicate a dish Chef Ramsay had prepared.

Nona won a set of cookware and a Beverly Hills spa visit. She chose Russell to join her, leaving Jillian and Trevor to do laundry and prep the kitchen.

Before dinner service, Chef Ramsay called Jillian up to his office, where he gave her a pep talk. That seemed a tad odd.

Dinner service started off well. Then Nona messed up Risotto, followed by Russell giving Ramsay raw scallops, which caused Ramsay's first ranting rage of the night.

After that, the chef's were doing well.

Until Trev had a problem on his meat station with his Beef Wellington. Ramsay calmly gave Trev a Beef Wellington lesson, to the astonishment of the others. Trev takes a time-out and then makes another mistake with the Wellingtons, causing Chef Ramsay to kick him out of the kitchen again.

Russell then had some more fish woes, got past them, after yet another lecture from Ramsay. Then almost at the end, Russell and Trevor start fighting and Nona messes up the Risotto again.

Desserts go out. Dinner service is over. Despite the problems, Ramsays says it was a good dinner service, not perfect, but good. And he says he is happy for the first time in a long time. Then he tells the chefs to go up to their dorm and pick 2 who deserve to go home.

Trevor was a unanimous pick. Russell also got picked. He lost his temper at the suggestion he should be up for getting the boot.

Back in front of Ramsay, Trevor informs him that it is he and Russell the team has decided is the worst. Ramsay then calls Russell forward.

And then a door opens with Russell's girlfriend and parental units, followed by the other chef's loved ones. Which in Jillian and Nona's case included reproductions. Sadly, Trevor had no girl friend. But a male friend and his sister showed up. I would have been really surprised had a Trever reproduction walked through the door.

All in all, it still seems impossible that one of these four remaining is going to get a quarter of a million bucks to run a top notch, new restaurant, called LA Market in downtown LA. What a mess that would likely be.

Hell's Kitchen Season 8: Episode 12: Gail Takes Her Jacket Off & Gets Out of Hell's Kitchen

This current iteration of Hell's Kitchen is being the oddest since this series started. In all previous seasons of HK there have been a few competent chefs.

On this season it's like the chef criteria that got you cast was the degree of potential entertainment value, not potential chef value.

How else do you explain casting a nutcase like Raj?

Or Trevor. Who has somehow managed to make it to the Final Four, along with Russell, Jillian and Nona.

Gail Novenario was a total basket case in this week's dinner service, which got her kicked out of the kitchen and then out of Hell's Kitchen. Gail had gotten off to such a good start on the episode, winning a challenge by making the most popular lunch cart special, which got her a makeover and new wardrobe. In the end, Gail seemed happier about the makeover than sad about getting the boot.

Paris Hilton and a group of Marines were among the people in Hell's Kitchen for whom Gail had trouble cooking.

Trevor really can not seem to cook anything correctly. And yet he is still there, spouting delusions and burning beef. Trevor was up for elimination, along with Gail. I thought Trevor would be the one to go, as he seems much worse than the terrible Gail.

Jillian had seemed fairly competent, til the most recent episode where we learned that, apparently, she had never cooked a fish product before, requiring Russell to come to the rescue over and over again.

And then there is Nona. She seems to have gotten more and more competent as the show has progressed.

But, of the 4 remaining, the only one who seems even remotely believable as possibly being able to run a kitchen like the one in that fancy LA Market place, is Russell. And he has not been without some doozy mistakes.

I'm thinking that maybe what is going to happen is Chef Ramsay decides none of them are worthy of winning.

Hell's Kitchen Season 8: Sabrina Leaves Hell's Kitchen

It was down to 6 chefs left, Sabrina, Nona, Jillian, Gail, Russell and Trevor.

Sabrina did not have a good night at the dinner service part of Hell's Kitchen.

But, I thought it was the thoroughly bad Trevor who should have been told to take off his jacket and leave. Or 2 of the other girls, those being Nona or Gail. Even though Nona was not bad this episode, clearly she can't win this thing.

Even if Trevor was not a worse chef than Sabrina, he certainly did not provide as much entertainment fodder as Sabrina.

I don't think Trevor had any of the cooking highs that Sabrina had. And he sure seemed to have lower lows than Sabrina.

The Amuse Bouche competition that led off the episode was amusing. Sabrina went all gaga over one of the chefs doing the judging. The chefs got scored for presentation and taste. Russell scored all perfect 10s for the win. He took 2nd place Gail along for the reward. A visit to the place the winning chef gets to run, The LA Market.

Trev got last place with his Amuse Bouche, even though he thought the judges were going to love his frog legs. That delusion was shattered when one judge remarked it looked as if the frog leg had been run through a blender.

Before dinner service time, Chef Ramsay taunted the chefs with a suitcase full of the $250,000 they get if they win Hell's Kitchen.

Dinner service did not start off well. Sabrina burned her risotto. Gail messed up her scallops. Which seems to be a constant problem. Trev overcooked spaghetti. Then Scott scolded Trevor for yelling at Sabrina, which did not end the Sabrina/Trev bickering.

When Gail screws up the first dish order, Chef Ramsay screamed at the chefs about their lack of teamwork. After that most seemed to start cooking better.

Except for Sabrina, who was now messing up salads by forgetting dressing. With Gail still not getting fish right. And then Russell topped the bad cooking with a raw Beef Wellington.

Chef Ramsay had another of his patented fits, after which the cooking improved.

Until Russell once more undercooked some more beef.

At that point Chef Ramsay had an apoplectic fit and kicked everyone out of the kitchen.

After dinner service was over Ramsay lined up the chefs to hector them some more, told them all to take off their jackets and go up to the dorm and pick two to be eliminated.

A little arguing took place in the dorm. Back downstairs, Sabrina told Ramsay that she and Trevor had been picked for elimination. Arguing to stay in Hell's Kitchen Sabrina insisted she never made the same mistake twice. Sabrina suggested it should be Gail who should go home.

Instead, Ramsay kicked Sabrina out of Hell's Kitchen.

I think Gail would have been a better choice to go too. Or Nona. Or Trevor.

Is this the worst group of chefs yet for Hell's Kitchen? I can't imagine any of them are competent enough to run a big fancy top of the line restaurant like that LA Market place.  Of the remaining 5, it seems there are only 2 who possibly could be the Final Two.

Russell and Jillian. And both have some serious problems

Sabrina would have made for much better TV for the finale

Hell's Kitchen: Season 8: Episodes 9 & 10: Rob & Vinnie Take Off Their Jackets and Leave

That is Vinnie and Trevor in the Hell's Kitchen hot tub, with Russell looking on, in disgust, after catching the hot tubbers talking smack about him.

The first episode started off with the predictable move of  Trevor back to the Blue Boy's Team, to the delight of the girls. And the lack of delight of the boys.

It is easy to mix up what happens when 2 episodes are run, back to back. Having said that, I will make a try at it.

In the Reward Challenge, in the first episode, the Red Team Girls won again, in a palette taste test. They got to go shopping and have a feeding with Chef Ramsay as their reward while the Blue Boys recycled garbage.

The Red Girls won the dinner service in the first episode. The Blue Boys were a disaster. If I remember right, all were sent out of the kitchen. Rob was a particularly bad disaster, seemingly unable to properly cook anything.

So, Rob was told to take off his jacket and get out of Hell's Kitchen, in the first episode.

Episode 10, of Season 8, that being the 2nd hour, started off with the Blue Boys finally winning a reward challenge. It was a tag-team cooking of 3, or was it 4, dishes. The Blue Boys narrowly won.

The Blue Boys reward was to go shopping a Sur la Table, where they had a few thousand dollars to spend. Then a feeding, with Ramsay, at some well-known, multi-Michelin star restaurant I'd not heard of.

Meanwhile the Red Girls prepped and unloaded trucks whenever a buzzer sounded.

The Blue Boys returned to learn for the next dinner service both teams would make up their own menu, with diners picking either the Red or Blue menu.

Much debate ensued as to what to put on the menu, with the girls ignoring Sabrina, despite Sabrina having proven time and again, that she knows what she is doing. While the boys ignored Russell. Who is a jerk and deserved to be ignored. Particularly by Trevor.

That night Trevor and Vinnie decided to get in the hot tub and drink a lot of beer and wine, while smoking cigarettes. Russell got tired of the hot tub noise, went to shut them up, only to hear Trevor and Vinnie talking smack about Russell.

Trevor and Vinnie, particularly Vinnie, were hungover the next day. Leading to Vinnie being a disaster in the kitchen. And his eventually loss of his jacket and a trip home.

Why would anyone choose to get drunk the night before an important task?

Neither team particularly shined during dinner service. Nona had woes on the Red Girl's Team. All the boys had woes, with Vinnie and Russell's woes being the worst, so much so they were sent out of the kitchen, back to the dorm, to join Nona, who had also been kicked out.

Russell, who seems competent,  sent out raw chicken. How could anyone make that mistake? Vinnie's boo-boos were too numerous to remember.

Neither team won. Ramsay had the teams go to the dorm and each decide who they thought should go home. The Red Girl's Team unanimously wanted to get rid of Trevor, who admitted he was no lady's man. The Blue Boy's Team wanted to get rid of Sabrina, maybe not unanimously. I don't remember.

I don't remember anyone picking Vinnie to go. But in the end, that is who lost his jacket.

None of these chefs in this iteration of Hell's Kitchen seems totally competent to run a restaurant. But, what do I know?

Hell's Kitchen: Boris Goes Home While Sabrina Takes Off Her Glasses

That is Sabrina Brimhall you're looking at. She is one of the cooks on the latest iteration of Hell's Kitchen. The other girls on Sabrina's team have long wanted to be rid of her, nominating Sabrina to go home over and over again.

In Wednesday's first episode, the girls put Sabrina up to go again. Along with Nona Sivley. The boys put up the one they always put up, because he is so inept, he being excessively sweaty Boris Poleschuk, along with the borderline obese, Rob McCue.

But, due to the diners giving their dinners a 90% satisfied customer ranking and due to both teams completing their dinner services, Chef Ramsay sent no one home after the first hour.

That was not the case by the end of the second hour. When Boris was finally out of the kitchen.

Digressing back to Sabrina. Time and again Sabrina redeems herself. And then pisses her team off again. And again. The second episode on Wednesday night started with the cooks cooking a meat dish, to be judged by famous judges, who then said how much they'd pay for the dish.

Sabrina's lamb gave the girls (and Trevor) the win. Only Russell of the boys had a dish priced higher than the girl he was up against. Russell's last name is Kook. A cook with the last name of Kook seems sort of funny.

After their win the girls (and Trevor) were then off for some sailboating and salsa dancing. Sabrina left her eyeglasses behind, and sort of like an unattractive librarian with glasses, Sabrina taking hers off really amped up her cuteness.

I forgot to mention, despite the other girls not liking Sabrina, she has become a fan favorite, due to her amusing antics and overall funny uber-bitchiness.

The 2nd hour dinner service was a black tie affair celebrating the 100th Hell's Kitchen dinner service. Four previous winners of Hell's Kitchen were special guests. The only 2 I remembered were recent winner, Holli, and Danny, with the pony tail, who no longer has the pony tail and now looks quite respectable.

From the start Trevor was a mess for the girls, as was Boris for the boys. Ramsay kicked Trevor outside for awhile, which caused the girls to become cooking machines.

Then the boys totally messed up. With the girls completing all their tickets, Ramsay kicked the boys out of the kitchen, while the girls finished up all the boy's tickets.

The boys all decided on putting up Boris for Ramsay to kick out of Hell's Kitchen, but they were tied on the other choice, so Boris, Bob and Vinni Accardi got to plead their case, with Boris' plea not being pleasing enough to Chef Ramsay to keep Boris.

And then Ramsay said he was not finished. He told Trevor to step forward, causing a shocked look of horror to flash on Trevor's face, and then "To Be Continued..." to be flashed on our TV screen.

I think this one is pretty easy to figure out. Ramsay tells Trevor to get back on the boy's team, due to the fact that, with Boris gone, there were only 3 boys left. The girls will go into celebration mode at the news of being rid of Trevor.

Next week's preview showed some shouting and meltdowns. Shocking.

Season 8 of Hell's Kitchen Started Tonight Without Jean-Phillipe

I was surprised to see Hell's Kitchen on the list of recordings tonight when I warmed up my DVR to watch Survivor.

Didn't Holli win Hell's Kitchen something like 2 weeks ago? And it's back on again, already?

I don't mind. I like Hell's Kitchen.

I like the new opening, with Chef Gordon Ramsay being a tied down Gulliver, with the chef's being Lilliputians torturing him.

It's hard to remember names when a Reality TV Show starts up and there are so many characters.

But one really stuck out in the 2 episodes tonight. Raj. I'm sure he's being kept around for comic fodder, because it's fairly obvious he can't cook. And that he is mentally disturbed.

In the first episode the chefs had to make Ramsay their signature dish. One of the women's was so awful it made Ramsay gag. Then he had everyone else taste it. Everyone gagged. Said it tasted like mud. Her dish was a gumbo.

The gumbo cooker was not the first sent home. Instead she collapsed early on in the first dinner service. Or before. It's so hard to remember. Anyway, an ambulance took her away and off the show.

Both the women and men failed the first dinner service. It was a woman with multi-colored hair who got told to leave. The next night the women did real well, the men failed miserably. The boys put up Raj and this Russian guy, let's call him Boris. Ramsay then added this Italian New Yorker guy. But then did not send any of those 3 home, instead he sent home a good ol' southern boy who could not make sushi.

It looks like this is going to be one wild season of Hell's Kitchen. But you can never trust the previews.

I forgot to ask, what happened to Jean-Phillipe? Why is he not on Season 8 of Hell's Kitchen?

Hell's Kitchen: Holli Wins Executive Chef at the Savoy in London

It was a fast paced Hell's Kitchen finale hour with Holli Ugalde's door opening, rather than Jay Santos', making Holli the winner of Hell's Kitchen.

And might I add, the best-looking Hell's Kitchen winner ever.

The finale episode started with Holli and Jay all alone in the dorm, after Ben and Autumn were sent home. Jay was thinking he might get lucky.

The next morning, after not getting lucky, Jay and Holli work on their menus for their final Hell's Kitchen dinner services. Sous Chef Andi tells the pair that Chef Ramsay has something nice planned for them, so go get dressed up. A limo then takes Holli and Jay to Ramsay's London West Hollywood restaurant, where he leads them to the roof to look down on a crowd cheering for them.

Ramsay tells the pair their final challenge is to to cook 5 dishes in one hour, to be judged by 5 of Ramsay's executive chefs. After an hour of frenetic cooking the dishes are placed in front of the judges, one by one. In the end Jay wins, after a 2 to 2 tie.

When Holli and Jay make it back to Hell's Kitchen they find 6 bootees, Fran, Autumn, Siobhan, Jason, Benjamin and Nilka. After being informed the 6 are moving back to the dorm, Jay verbalizes his disappointment, because he was hoping to sleep with Holli that night.

Because Jay won the challenge he got first choice of helper. He picked Ben, then Jason and Fran. Holli picked Autumn, Nilka and was stuck, by default, with the incompetent, Siobhan.

The next morning as the teams prepare for dinner service, Siobhan's slowness quickly became an issue. On Jay's Blue Team Ben is working and talking at hyperspeed.

Holli and Jay get called to Gordon Ramsay's office where he gives them executive chef jackets and tells them he is sending them on vacation to Australia. And then wishes them good luck.

Hell's Kitchen opens with Jay's Blue Team off to a good start, while Holli's Red Team has a problem due to Siobhan's turtle paced production of amuse-bouches, which were not up to Holli's standards. Then Jay's Team hit a snag when Fran burned a pan of scallops. Then back on the Red Team Siobhan forgot a vegetable, which caused Autumn to take over for her.

Then Jason undercooked some meat for Jay, but eventually got on track. Holli's Team was finally on track. And then Nilka ruined some venison.

A couple hours in, the cooking is going swimmingly, only 3 tickets left. Both teams complete dinner service, with Jay's Team finishing first. Chef Ramsay complimented both. We also heard from Holli and Jay's family members, who were among the diners, including Holli's cute little boy.

Ramsay tells Holli and Jay he'll read through the customer comment cards and ponder his decision. After he is done pondering Chef Ramsay puts Holli and Jay in front of doors. The door that opens, opens the door to being the executive chef at the Savoy in London. The knobs are twisted, Holli's door opens, family and friends cheer, champagne bottles are opened, with Holli and Jay complimenting each other during the celebration.

I don't know when the next Hell's Kitchen will start up. But I'm sure it will. It's a Top 20 hit, #14 in last week's Nielsen Ratings.

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.

Fran & Nilka Take Off Their Jackets & Leave Hell's Kitchen

That is Chef Gordon Ramsay giving an encouraging hug to the cook he had just kicked out of Hell's Kitchen, Nilka Hendricks.

Nilka was in way over her head in the weeds in her last dinner service in Hell's Kitchen. Nilka was on the seafood station and could not seem to cook anything right.

It was one raw scallop too many that had Chef Ramsay ordering her out, and I think Ben to take her place.

But, Nilka would not go easily. She left, then came back, begging to get to keep cooking, with Ramsay demanding she take her jacket off and leave. Ramsay told the other cooks to get Nilka out of there.

Eventually Nilka left, tearfully. After she was gone everything went swimmingly in Hell's Kitchen. I felt sorry for Nilka. She was likable and funny.

Ramsay liked Nilka too. In a Hell's Kitchen first, he was there to give Nilka words of encouragement as she left to get in a taxi.

Gordon Ramsay is one of my favorite TV personalities. I always liked really strict teachers who knew what they were teaching and kept the other kids in line and learning. And when you knew that teacher outside the classroom you found out they were nice, pleasant people.

Over and over again we see Ramsay being very intense, violent at times. Basically a very stern taskmaster running a cooking boot camp.

And then over and over again we see the nice guy side of Gordon Ramsay, like his goodbye to Nilka.

The hour previous Fran did not get a fond personal farewell from Gordon Ramsay. Fran was a real puzzle. This woman actually is employed as a cook somewhere? I think maybe she was cast due to her interesting face and hangdog demeanor, not her cooking skills. But, she really was not all that great comic fodder.

The episode that saw Nilka leave also saw Holli suddenly seem to be the chef to beat. Holli sure does seem to be the best looking chef to ever cook on Hell's Kitchen. Her attraction to the strange caviar guy was a bit odd, though.

Next week's previews make it appear that some fresh incoming is arriving to compete with the Final 6. And next week's dinner service appears to be a total Hell's Kitchen meltdown.

Hell's Kitchen: Too Much Smoking

There is too much smoking on Hell's Kitchen. And I'm not referring to Tuesday night's first episode where Hell's Kitchen was a BBQ joint for the first time.

Which is another thing, why are we getting back to back Hell's Kitchen episodes? That is way too much Hell's Kitchen in one sitting for me.

So, I've not watched the 2nd Tuesday episode.

Maria deservedly got sent home on the 1st episode of the night. At one point Ramsay remarked that Maria is really weird. Which seems to be true. But, I found her to be funny.

Scott is continuing his losing ways on the women's team. That boy seems very delusional. Last week he couldn't cook beef, this week it was chicken.

Leather-faced Fran did well on the 1st episode, but the girls (and Scott) lost. Ramsay had Fran pick 2 to go home. Fran picked Maria and Nilka, after Scott successfully manipulated Fran into not naming him.

But, Ramsay was not pleased. He called Scott down and sent Nilka back to safety. Maria tried to plead her case, but it didn't work. As she walked down the hall of shame all I could think was what an enormous rear Maria has.

Now, back to the smoking. What is it with the Hell's Kitchen chefs? All of them seem to smoke. A lot. On Top Chef I've seen some smoking, but not like this. So many of the Hell's Kitchen chefs appear to be unhealthy, overweight, out of shape. You add smoking to that and it's not a good thing.

And does not all that smoking ruin your ability to taste accurately the food you're cooking? I don't get it. Seems like a cigarette would be one of the last things a chef would want in his/her mouth.

I'll likely watch Tuesday night's second episode, tonight. And will likely be freshly appalled by all the smoking.

Hell's Kitchen: Season 7, Episode 4, Scott & Autumn on Chopping Block

I like Hell's Kitchen. I find Chef Gordan Ramsay very amusing.

On Tuesday night, when Barack Obama spoke to the nation for the first time from the Oval Office, he pushed off the start of Hell's Kitchen.

This caused me to lose the ending of the 2nd episode of the night. Ramsay had told both Scott and Autumn to take off their jackets. Usually this indicates they are to be sent home. But my recording had stopped.

I was to learn later, the pair switched jackets. And teams. So, now both get to share their brands of overbearing know-it-all-ness with the other team, Autumn Lewis with the boys, Scott with the girls.

Scott Hawley is quite a piece of work. I think he annoys the editors in the same way he annoys everyone else. He is given his own sarcastic heroic theme music. Scott took the Italian boy, Salvatore Coppola (no relation to Francis Ford) under his wing. Salvatore had some cooking woes and Scott was only too happy to bless Salvatore with his mentoring ways.

But, Scott was due for a serious comeuppance. And so, after Salvatore had a meltdown in the first episode of the night, Ramsay bucked him up, as did Scott, with Salvatore cooking to Ramsay's satisfication on the 2nd episode of the night. With Scott screwing up something as simple as spuds and then not being able to cook beef to the right temperature.

In the end, Ramsay praised Salvatore and told him he had to pick one of his team for elimination. Of course, Scott thought he was safe, what with his helpful mentoring and with the two being friends. But, Salvatore threw Scott under the bus, which is really where Scott needed to be.

The bootee in the first hour was Jamie Bisoulis. She was pretty incompetent. But I found her amusing. Her best line last night was "Chef Ramsay was all over my ass. And not in a good way."

The girls won the first reward of the night. This saw them playing soccer against Ramsay and his family on a Malibu beach. I hit the fast forward button.

Jason Ellis had a panic attack on the 2nd episode when the boys won the reward and Ramsay told them they'd be sky diving. Turned out to be a sky diving simulation, so Jason had a heart attack for no good reason.

Another amusing moment came courtesy Maria Torrisi. In the 1st episode we'd seen her laughing inappropriately. She seems to have stifled that bad habit. She can put some pretty weird expressions on her face. But something about her is appealling to me. Last night Ramsay made some remark that referenced her "pretty face." This had Maria all atwitter, saying no one had ever called her pretty before. I can not type a replication of how funny it was.

The old lady of the teams, Fran Klier, boiled one of her hands in water. But opted to continue on, cooking badly, til she got so far in over her head that the girls tried to intervene. And then Ramsay sent her to the medic. Fran was up for the boot, along with Jamie, in the 1st episode. I think it should have been Fran to be sent home.

It will be interesting to see how well Scott works with the girls. There is one cute on, Holli Ugalde. I don't remember if we've had a romance on Hell's Kitchen before. I think it's about time.

So far, I can't tell if any of these people is a good chef. Ramsay seems a bit perplexed by that conundrum, as well.

Hell's Kitchen: Dave Wins

Due to technical difficulties I did not get around to watching the finale of Hell's Kitchen until last night.

I tried to avoid learning who won, but did not succeed, so I watched the final episode knowing Dave beat Kevin. What I don't know is how did I miss seeing Ariel sent home? Did I miss an episode?

I looked at the Fox Hell's Kitchen website and read the recap of the episode where Ariel was eliminated. When did this air? The Tuesday, October 6 episode is when Tennile was sent home. Between then and Tuesday's October 13 finale I somehow missed an episode.

Dave seemed to have the win in the bag from the start of the finale. Chef Ramsay brought the two remaining chefs to the roof above Hell's Kitchen. Looking down from the roof Dave and Kevin saw a big crowd cheering them. Dave and Kevin then had to prepare a dish to impress some award winning chefs and critics. Dave chooses to cook venison, while Kevin chooses lobster.

Dave won the challenge. I don't recollect Dave winning anything for winning or Kevin being punished for losing.

The next day the boys awoke to plan their menus. Kevin went with a complicated menu that was seafood oriented. Dave went a simpler route that he thought fit in with the Araxi Restaurant and the Whistler resort.

Now I remember what Dave got for winning that challenge. He got first pick of the returned chefs that were to make up their kitchen help. Dave chose Ariel. He also ended up with Big Robert.

Robert was particularly annoying, being a bigger jerk than his previous episodes of being a jerk.

Kevin had the misfortune to pick Amanda. Amanda proceeded to have a lot of trouble cooking seafood, which was supposed to be her forte. Kevin also got Van. Van proved useful, taking over for Amanda so she could mess up on another station.

The show's editors tried to make it look like it was a close competition, but I don't think it was. Dave's team had way fewer problems and was way faster.

So, it was a good ending to see one-armed Dave come through the door and win Hell's Kitchen. Dave did not jump up and down and yell like Danny did when he won the last Hell's Kitchen, but he acted plenty pleased.

Hell's Kitchen is now casting for the next season. I'll think I'll apply.

Hell's Kitchen: Tennile Goes Home

Chef Gordon Ramsay told Tennile to take off her jacket and leave Hell's Kitchen last night, leaving Dave, Kevin and Ariel as the final 3.

The episode started off funny with a Mini Chef Ramsay telling the chefs to make 80 portions in one hour of a stunning vegetarian dish.

The hour was not quite up when Mini Chef lead 80 screaming brats into Hell's Kitchen. The kid's picked Tennile's as the favorite, with her reward being a make over in Beverly Hills, followed by sushi lunch at a place called Nobu.

The other three's punishment was to clean up the mess left by all those kids.

Almost as soon as Hell's Kitchen opens, Tennile cooks scallops badly. Then Dave collapses in pain when he lifts a heavy plate of lamb with his broken arm. He yelps out in pain and stumbles out of the kitchen. Ramsay makes sure Dave is okay and soon Dave is back cooking.

Everything is going well and then Tennile has trouble cooking halibut. Her confidence is shot. Ramsay bucks her up with a pep talk and then Tennile is back sending out good fish.

Dinner service over, Ramsay voices concern over Dave's arm. And then turns to Tennile. The chefs did not have to discuss and nominate who should go home. Ramsay simply told Tennile her time was up. He was very nice about it. And Tennile was very gracious, with tears running down her cheeks. Tennile grew on me week by week.

The remaining 3 go back to the dorms, ready to celebrate, but Dave answers a call from Ramsay who says there is more business to attend to and orders them back to Hell's Kitchen. The 3 line up and brace themselves for something Hellish. Instead Chef Ramsay congratulates them and brings in 2 loved ones for each. Dave's sister and his fiancee, who got a big kiss from Dave. The fiancee looked like she'd be interesting to see more of. Kevin was real happy to see his wife and son. And Ariel hugged her mom and gave her fiancee a kiss.

It would have been interesting to see who Tennile's 2 loved ones would have been.

Hell's Kitchen: Suzanne Finally Sent Home

Sometimes I can't quite tell why someone is so thoroughly disliked by their fellow reality show castmates. In the case of Suzanne, on Hell's Kitchen, I fully got how annoying she was. She had really worn out her welcome and really should have been gone sooner.

The latest episode started with the 5 remaining chefs being told they were to cook their most visually stunning dish. To be judged by fine diners from Bon Appetit, which is the world's most popular culinary magazine.

The Bon Appetit judges picked Ariel's John Dory and Kevin's sea bass as the best looking. Then Chef Ramsay and the magazine's Chief Editor, Barabara Fairchild did a taste test and decided both Ariel's and Kevin's good looking food were winners.

So, Kevin and Ariel got to join Chef Ramsay and Ms. Fairchild for a Bon Appetit photo shoot that featured their winning dishes. Meanwhile the losers, Dave, Tennile and Suzanne got bused off in orange jumpsuits for a day of community service picking up a street adopted by Hell's Kitchen.

Dave re-hurt his arm steam cleaning the red carpet at the Hell's Kitchen entry. But he recovered sufficiently to have appetizers flying out of the kitchen at the start of dinner service. Tennile and Suzanne quickly became problems. With Tennile's problem being bad risotto, which ended up being Kevin's problem, when it was discovered it was he who overcooked the rice.

As the 5 chefs move on to entrees Ariel sends out raw chicken while Suzanne sends out raw fish. Ramsay has a major fit, things seem to be going better. And then Ariel sends out some badly mangled lamb.

Ramsay does the usual rant about being disappointed, then sends the chefs to their dorm to pick 2 for elimination. The obvious picks being Ariel and Suzanne, with Suzanne finally going home after being up for elimination 4 times.

Tennile continues to be funny in her confessionals. I have gotten used to her yelling. Dave talks like he is stoned. It was pretty funny when he got as tongue tied as goofy Van, when Dave tried to describe his dish to the Bon Appetit people.

Too many regular season shows have started up, so Hell's Kitchen is not in the Top 20 of the Nielson Ratings this week.

Hell's Kitchen: Sweaty Tattooed Mad Van Leaves

I really should have my permit to operate a TV remote revoked. A couple days ago I blogged about what I thought was the latest episode of Hell's Kitchen.

When I went to the FOX Hell's Kitchen website, to check on a name, I saw that the re-cap, for what I thought was next week's Hell's Kitchen, was up and ready to be read.

I thought I had myself a real scoop, that this was a mistake, that the erroneous re-cap would soon be taken down.

What I did not know was that on Tuesday FOX ran back to back episodes of Hell's Kitchen, to make up for it being pre-empted the week before.

I learned of my error when I read a viewer express joy at getting both Sabrina and Van off her TV screen in one week.

It is nice to be rid of Van. In the episode that killed him, Van once again had trouble cooking seafood, despite hearing him brag over and over again that cooking seafood is his specialty.

In his final episode part of Van's expertise with seafood included dripping a lot of sweat on to the fish while it cooked. Van's head looked like it was going to explode when Ramsay told him to come to him so Ramsay could yell at Van's sweaty face.

What caused that boy to sweat so much this episode? None of the others seemed to suffer that problem. I thought there was something way off about Van from the day we met him. His odd haircut, the tattoos, the Boomhauer garbled way of talking, the temper, the stammering when trying to describe what he'd cooked. And then in his last episode the innocent viewers were subjected to the sight of Van shirtless. I had to hit the pause button and try and figure out what the big tattoo across his chest spelled. I gave up.

Van cooks in a restaurant in Dallas. I need to find out which one and make sure I don't accidentally go there.

Tennile was the star, along with one-armed Dave, this episode. Tennile's shouted confessionals are both amusing and annoying. Suzanne needs to go next. She seems way in over her head.

Hell's Kitchen: Sabrina Takes Her Jacket Off & Leaves

Sabrina, was this week's Hell's Kitchen bootee. To my eyes it should have been either Van or Ariel who got the boot, due to both sending out cold food, with 3 instances of cold ravioli from Ariel and raw halibut from Van.

In a very strange mistake on the Hell's Kitchen website, they already have the re-cap from next week's Hell's Kitchen episode, up and readable. So, I know who gets sent home next week.

I'll copy the re-cap of next week's Hell's Kitchen below.

This week's episode started off with the Ramsay up at Whistler in British Columbia, telling the 2 teams, via video, to make 3 entrees from local farm produce, using each of 15 ingredients, once. Both teams are confident they have cooked some good stuff. However, the red girl's team thought they'd cooked up a real good lamb dish. However, the meat they'd cooked was lamb.

Olympic veterans Sasha Cohen and Jonny Moseley helped Chef Ramsay do the judging. Tennile was a bit tongue-tied when told that her lamb was deer meat. In the end, the boy's and Suzanne's blue team won the challenge. They got to go to Mark Peel's Campanile Restaurant while the girl's team were taken to a farm to clean pigpens.

For dinner service the teams were told they got to create their own menus from scratch. The diners got to choose from which menu to order. At the start the blue team was getting a lot of orders, with none for the red team.

Van had trouble on his fish station, miscounting scallops, undercooking halibut. Dave had trouble with his broken arm. Tennile weirdly began a sweeping frenzy in the middle of the cooking frenzy. Ariel sent out the aforementioned cold ravioli. Sabrina had trouble with her fish station.

After Ramsay smashed Van's raw halibut, sending fish bits flying, he shut down the kitchen and told both teams to decide who was the worst on their team. Van lobbied for Suzanne to get the ax, but the blue team put up Van. With the red team putting up Sabrina, who then got sent home.

Read no further if you don't want to know what happens next week on Hell's Kitchen....

Season 6, Episode 11: 6 Chefs Compete

We start with Chef Ramsay dismissing the contesting Chefs back to their dorms, including Van, who's disastrous display on the fish station put him in the hot seat of elimination, barely dodging the bullet of Ramsay's dismissal. As the Chefs all walk out through the kitchen and out onto the patio, Van vocalizes his frustration. "I hate that sh*t, man," he says.It means everything in the world for Van to be in Hell's Kitchen and he knows he can cook, but he also knows one more slip-up will put him right back into the spotlight of elimination.

The next morning, the Chefs wake up to six individually wrapped gifts; one for each contestant. Inside, is the black chef's coat. This means that all six will become one team. As everyone wakes up and opens their package, each contestant reflects on what having a black jacket means to them personally and within this competition.

The new team makes their way downstairs into the kitchen where Chef Ramsay is already cooking. He puts together one of his signature dishes and after commending them on earning a black jacket, he encourages everyone to have a taste of the dish.As each takes a bite, Chef Ramsay tells them they will be having the "Taste it, Now Make It" challenge. They will have to re-create a dish using only their senses as reference. Before beginning the challenge, Chef Ramsay pairs them in teams; Van/Ariel, Kevin/Tennille, and Dave/Suzanne.Chef Scott brings out a new signature dish from Ramsay's restaurant in London and the challenge begins. After an intense guessing game and very close judgment, Dave and Suzanne win by using the correct citrus juice in the original dish's sauce. Dave and Suzanne are told they will be going on a reward with Chef Ramsay to his restaurant, The London West Hollywood, where they will be having lunch with Christina, the Season 4 winner of Hell's Kitchen. The rest of the team is punished by having to stay back in Hell's Kitchen and set up the dining room for the night's dinner theme; "couple's night".

Dinner service for the new Black Team starts off rocky. Kevin, who is preparing tableside appetizers, has to rely on Suzanne at the appetizer station to be prompt with her orders, which she is not.Van, on the fish station, begins to have difficulty first, firing orders prematurely, then sweating in the food, and finally, continuing in a downward spiral by sending up uncooked fish.Chef Ramsay becomes furious. When Ariel burns lettuce, Chef Ramsay walks out of Hell's Kitchen, forcing the Chefs to fend for themselves. Tennille gets the kitchen back on track with her communication and Kevin does the same with his leadership at the pass. But when Kevin tells Suzanne to continue plating while he heads out to the dining room, Suzanne refuses to plate and makes Van do it on his own.When Chef Ramsay returns to the kitchen, he immediately kicks Van, Ariel and Suzanne out of the kitchen. The remainder of dinner service is completed by Dave, Kevin and Tennille.

The chefs who completed dinner service (Tennille/Dave/Kevin) are all deemed "Best-of-the-Worst" and are to decide who will be nominated for elimination.They collectively agree that Suzanne and Ariel should face dismissal, being the worst chefs that evening.But once in elimination, Tennille changes her mind and tells Chef Ramsay she believed Van actually had the worst performance. Chef Ramsay calls all of the three chefs down and after weighing everyone's argument, Chef Ramsay ultimately denies Van any more chances to win Hell's Kitchen, taking his chefs coat and ending Van's dream of ever becoming the Head Chef at Araxi Restaurant and Bar in Whistler, British Columbia.