By Arthur Perkins
 
Another dull evening in Hell's Kitchen. As usual this episode started with a recap of the prior one. The focus was on potatoes, the Gratin Dauphinois from Carol and the Pommes fondant from Ben. Both were a disaster and because of that Carol was selected to go home in spite of the dinner service victory by the red team. According to FAX previews, there will be a huge surprise. My prediction is that at the end of tonight's service two chefs will lose their jackets. Most of the time, that happens to someone on the meat station. Let's see how I did.
 
We start with Ramsay directing the two leading performers of each team, Paula and Danny, to nominate the worst performer on their team. Paula says Andrea (who is not surprised) and Danny says Ben (who is pissed that Robert was not nominated). So Ramsay calls those two forward and with his showmanship  tells them that he's really sorry but he needs to do this. They will take off their  respective jackets... and put on the new black jackets identifying the merged team that now exists for the Final 6. Ben says that it is surprise twist #947 of the competition by Ramsay to throw them off their game.
 
Ramsay presents an individual challenge to find out which chef is best at creating a dish, in this case one using all 14 ingredients that are provided. It is designed to test how chefs use simple ingredients creatively. The major ones shown are Red Wine, Mushrooms, Chicken, and Asparagus. Several minor ones were Onions, Tomatoes, Rosemary and Penne Pasta. The chefs have 30 minutes to create that dish. Ben has the winning dish Chicken Leg and Breast to beat Danny's roast chicken w/ salad and bruschetta. Andrea has rosemary skewered chicken kabobs with penne.  Giovanni past pomodoro w/ stuffed chicken. Paula melange of mushrooms, tomatoes, capers, with baked chicken. Robert has chicken cacciatore but he fried the chicken. Ramsay says that Ben was the only chef to use the drumstick, which is difficult.
 
Ben is really pumped up by his victory, which gives him a culinary day in San Francisco with Ramsay. Plus he can take one other chef with him. Since he feels Danny screwed him he selects Robert. They fly on a private jet and have a private trolley ride all over to see several major sights. The main reason is to eat at the One Market Restaurant. Ben is still pumped on his return and angers his fellow chefs with a long recital of the trip details. They accuse him of rubbing it in (I think they are right; that's what Ben was doing).
 
The losers got to do Delivery Day, unloading heavy cases of all the food and beverage items that are trucked to the door. They have to be promptly dealt with and Giovanni is lagging  because he is sore and tired and wants to have a snack. That gets him no sympathy whatever from anyone. Andrea does a count of 34 lobster and compares it to 36 on the invoice and tells Giovanni to stop the truck. However, as he does just that she discovers her own counting error and that they really do have 36 lobster. A suggestion is made to count and compare to invoice as they are unloaded from the truck to spare Giovanni the extra workload of moving fast, which he as a 37 year old feels too old to do. He manages to break two cases with bottles of alcohol when he was trying to be a hero carrying the 2 boxes. In addition, the losers get to prep the evening's service!
 
Ramsay tells the assembled chef on the return of the two from San Francisco that Ben's chicken dish is on the menu for that evening. Ben says that Giovanni is on the critical meat station, Andrea is on the Garnish station, Robert is on Fish and Paula is on Appetizers. Ramsay gives them a warning that the main criterion for determining performance in that evening's service will be as phenomenal teammates. We'll see.
 
Robert starts off the evening with overcooked, rubbery scallops due to overheating the pan. Paula gets kudos for a delicious caesar salad and risotto. Giovanni's chicken is poorly done, so he is in trouble from near the beginning. Ramsay notes that Andrea appears to be in a fog, so he asks her "what's going?", shorthand for what dishes are in process. The Garnish station person must know this to do their job properly. Andrea has no clue, so she is sent outside and Jean-Pierre comes to give her a pep talk. It succeeds and she comes back into the kitchen with renewed enthusiasm. The others were asked the same question and now Andrea has to answer it correctly and does. I note that Ramsay can read the order directly off the order slip, so he has no need for memory of what's it contains but it's harder for the chefs (but still a very necessary skill). Robert burns a D'ory. Giovanni is criticized in a negative way by Ramsay and he responds with some lip, never a good idea. Ramsay tells him to get it right or take his jacket off. Ben is asked to help Giovanni cook his chicken special correctly. He cuts into the chicken, releasing vital juices and Ramsay is apoplectic. The Voiceover states that in 2 hours only 5 tables have received their entrees. It is not a good night in Hell's Kitchen. Ramsay mentions to Andrea, Robert and Giovanni that they are all in big trouble. They all performed poorly as individuals, but how did that relate to the bad teamwork that was supposed to be the determinant?
 
Robert went into the refrigerator for some valid reason and he happens to touch a pan there (it turns out that Giovanni left it there to cool). It's about 500 degrees and he gets a second degree burn but returns quickly to Hell's Kitchen after treatment by the medic. Giovanni is apologetic but he knows that he is in big trouble on the elimination decision. Dinner service ends with a rating of disaster and nightmare by Ramsay. He again gives bad ratings to Andrea, Robert and Giovanni. He tells Paula as the person performing the best to nominate 2 of those 3 for potential elimination. Paula carefully considers it and gets it right, Giovanni for below-average performance and Andrea for poor communications. Robert knows he is not off the hook, however, and Ramsay wants to consider him too. Ramsay picks Giovanni to take off his jacket permanently for "all the right reasons." Nobody else gets eliminated, so my prediction was wrong. However, my prediction on the meat station was right on.

Danny and Paula continue to be the favored two. In which future episode are they going to get the Meat Station? Ben's star is rising and he did well on the Meat Station, but I don't see him getting to their level of performance. There were no Beef Wellington disasters on this episode and it was on the menu because we saw it being prepped. The posturing of all the chefs is pretty sickening and it is rising to even higher levels.
 
Ramsay calls the teams back into the kitchen around 220am. He tells them that he is shutting down Hell's Kitchen. What does that mean? Obviously FOX wants you to tune in next week to find out.

(Photo courtesy of FOX)

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