Hell's Kitchen 4 Episode 9
By Arthur Perkins
 
Tonight's challenge was a team relay race with 3 entrees to be cooked by each team. First, the Blue team had to decide which team member would be dropped for the challenge to make it 3 blue vs. 3 red team members. Each participant in the relay then had 6 minutes on their station followed by 15 seconds of transition with the next chef on their team. It was Petrozza vs. Matt, then Bobby vs. Christina and finally Corey vs. Jen. The dishes were chicken, John Dory fish, and scallops. Each had a different cooking and presented different problems. Matt felt that the best contribution he could make besides setting up all the ingredients was to poach the chicken. Next Christina took over for the red team and she made a critical error in taking the chicken out too soon. Jen and Corey both finished all dishes, but did not get everything necessary on the plate for the chicken dish.
 
Judging by Ramsay of scallops was based on Jen leaving them raw in the center. RED 1 BLUE 0
Next as the John Dory. the Red Team's offering looked so awful that Ramsay stated he would only taste the Blue dish (but didn't). Of course for maximum suspense the challenge can never be decided before the end. You know the Blue team will win this part no matter what. RED 1 BLUE 1
The final dish is the chicken, with both tasting very good. Jen left the sauce off the plate (the second time she had done that). Corey left the bay leaf off. Which was the greater sin? No contest. Blue loses. RED 2 BLUE 1
 
The Red Team wins and gets to go in a vintage convertible to the beach and surf with Jay Z----. Ramsay is present and he throws Jean-Philippe into the surf with his clothes on after Jean-Philippe had passed out the towels. This was a feeble attempt at humor. The Blue team got more cleaning duties as "the maintenance crew", starting with the outdoor sign and on to the red carpet.
 
The dinner service will be based 100% on menus that each team develops for 3 appetizers, 3 entrees and 3 desserts. The Red Team does an effective job of planning their menu. Jen railroads the Blue team menu with great disgust from the other team members. Ramsay doesn't accept it (he terms the proposed halibut wrapped in zucchini and squash dish "ghastly" and the whole menu "hideous") and forces the Blue Team to take another crack at it. They do better on their second try with balanced input. Bobby was smirking because he had essentially let Jen hang herself. The partial Red Team menu is Heirloom tomato Soup w/spicy Jumbo Prawns, Mixed Green Salad w/Granny Smith apples and fresh Pappardelle pasta with shaved truffle sauce for appetizers, lobster, New York strip steak w/tomato pompom butter and pork for entrees, and strawberry shortcake with chocolate shooter on the side and crème brulee for dessert. The partial Blue Team menu is crab and shrimp cocktail in a martini glass (huh?), salad with macerated strawberries, feta cheese and toasted brioche for appetizers, salmon, halibut and filet mignon for entrees, and a trifle, chocolate souffle w/ crème anglaise  and pineapple upside down cake for dessert. Both teams have play-it-safe menus going for average tastes. All those FOX lot extras who show up every week as diners in Hell's Kitchen are not getting anything particularly special, but the teams should be able to execute their menus. I should add that the diners chose the Blue menu over the Red by 56 to 47, an outcome that Ramsay called essentially even but I do not.
 
Dinner service starts and Matt has made the pappardelle too salty. Ramsay claims that this is due to Matt sweating into the food. I find that explanation a bit implausible. A better one is that Matt overseasoned it. soon after, a diner sent pappardelle back for being too al dente, undercooked. Matt is soon accused by Ramsay of being a big baby. He was demoted to do vegetables, but he ran into trouble with undercooking Brussels sprouts. Matt was moping under the criticism and Corey and Christina seized control of their kitchen and booted him, meaning that now he had no role in the Kitchen except cleaning stuff. In the Blue kitchen, the only person free of large errors was Bobby. Louross had a raw steak. A table walked out over 2 hours into dinner, which put Louross in the dog house because even though it's just actors they seldom do something like walking out which was undoubtedly orchestrated by Ramsay. Petrozza got reprimanded for not washing the lettuce going into a salad. Ramsay later called him "a dirty pig". Jen was doing her usual control tricks, but Ramsay wasn't buying it. The voiceover called it the War Between Jen and her Teammates. Near the end of dinner he ordered her to shut down. I am sure one reason for this was to present the Blue team from finishing first since Blue has an extra team member right then. Ramsay calls out Matt for having no control over himself and giving up. Next comes the decision on who to fire. By having one more team members, the Blue team was ripe of the loss so it would get evened out. Ramsay indeed chose Blue as the losers. He ordered Petrozza, the one honest man of the entire remaining chefs, to decided which 2 team members would be nominated for potential elimination. I saw that as a no-brainer, Louross first and Jen second. Petrozza saw it the same. Ramsay asked him who he would fire and he said Louross, which was the right decision. Ramsay agreed and fired Louross, calling him "short on cooking talent." He told the teams he was not done yet and asked Matt and Jen to step forward. He ordered them to take off their jackets. If they had been eliminated it would be an unprecedented 3 in one night, leaving 3 of the best 4. However, he ordered them back to their original teams after claiming that the earlier switches were not working as intended. This was undoubtedly because if there are two less chefs competing it will close down the telecasts of Hell's Kitchen 4 two weeks earlier and he would not have wanted that! So Matt is stuck being the odd man out with Bobby and Petrozza. he has unwarranted optimism about how far he can go in the competition. He will not make the Final 4; if he does there is no justice and Ramsay is quite a fair judge of cooking talent. Jen is going to be the odd woman out with Corey and Christina having bonded and willing to let Jen hang herself, which will probably happen. It is nice to see the resurrection of Christina and shocking to see how far Jen has sunk so quickly.

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