by  Arthur Perkins
 
We have Ben, Andrea, Danny and Paula still cooking in Hell's Kitchen. This episode opens as usual with a summary of the key events from the prior episode. Robert had to withdraw due to pericarditis. Ben was lost on the Garnish station. After getting immunity in the service from winning the challenge, Andrea on the fish station performed far worse than anyone else. Ramsay could have sent Ben home, but he believed that Andrea was the one who should be going and if that was impossible then fairness demanded that he let Ben stay too. It is crystal clear who the worst performers of HK5 are and who the anointed two for the upcoming finale will end up being. Danny says that Andrea performed poorly and deserved to go home. Paula says Andrea is a fighter. I would agree as far as verbal interaction goes, but I haven't seen much of that in her cooking. In any event, we can expect that tonight's episode will end with the elimination of Ben or Andrea because it isn't going to be Danny or Paula.
 
This episode starts with a challenge from Ramsay. He has prepared a beef, a fish stew and a duck dish for them to enjoy (ha!). 3 of the 4 choose fish stew are their favorite. So they must recreate that fish stew by guessing its ingredients from tasting it and cooking them into a carbon copy of his fish stew. This is a worthy challenge since his recipes are complex for maximum flavor, one of the secrets of Ramsay's success in my opinion. They have 30 minutes to do it. So Danny chooses to use red snapper as his fish while the others use halibut, although Ben was almost with him. Andrea uses bay scallops and the others seas scallops. Paula uses water and the others fish stock. Danny and Paula use white wine while Andrea uses sambucca and Ben's alcohol is not mentioned. Those are the key differences in the recipes they use. Andrea is trying to see what others are doing, but Ramsay cautions her that this is an individual challenge and she must not try to observe her competitors.
 
The Ramsay tasting judgments are pretty bland:
Andrea - quite nice
Ben - nice flavor
Paula - delicious flavors
Danny - nice rustic flavor
 
Now he judges the match of their ingredients with his. Ben is told he used way too much saffron (which is quite expensive although that wasn't mentioned). Andrea was told that her choice of bay scallops was bad because of the more robust flavor of seas scallops (Note that may be true but I love bay scallops and would always pick them over seas scallops, which I really like). That leaves the expected Paula vs. Danny contest. Paula is told that her choice of water was a mistake; she should have used fish stock like Danny did. So that's it, with Danny the victor and Paula's final rating "very good and delicious".
 
Danny is given a pair of goggles but he doesn't know for sure what that means. His reward is to go to a small airport and ride in a vintage open cockpit plane (circa 1925). It did all the maneuvers that you might expect, including loop de loop and barrel roll. He called it the best reward ever. I would not agree with with that, but it's a very good one. The others had to polish glassware and silver, clean the entire carpet of the dining room, and as always prep for dinner service that evening.
 
On return, Ramsay has a surprise for them. I was guessing that it's their families (they are about due and there have been multiple references by chefs to missing their families in the last two weeks). It's a set of the Gordon Ramsay Royal Doulton signature line of cookware. Now that is a really first-class present. They return to to kitchen and service beings. Ramsay is expecting a perfect service. Will he get it? He says that he is wiping the slate clean. That is total rubbish, as he has to give consideration to the prior superior performance of Paula and Danny vs. the very good performance of Ban and Andrea with occasional major lapses.
 
Ben starts the evening off with repeating the order wrong. Ramsay tells him to wake up and this does not happen again. Paula is on the Fish station and her first scallops are pronounced perfect. Ben does an excellent risotto to open up on Appetizers. Andrea is on the critical Meat Station. If she can handle it without problems, it is a major achievement; if she can't then she's dead meat. Ben puts spaghetti into water that was not boiling. Andrea is told she in not communicating enough. Ben produced a risotto with no salt, no seasoning and no parmesan cheese. Paula seems to be slowing down under the extra pressure. Ramsay asks for a plain salad. Ben has one with croutons on it and asks if he wants tuna on it. Ramsay is very pointed in his response that plain salad in English has a distinct meaning, which Ben apparently doesn't know, delivered by Ramsay in his usual over-the-top style.
 
A diversion now occurs. A diner wants to propose marriage to his girlfriend with the dessert. Ramsay tells all to not screw this up. As it actually happens everything goes off perfectly and she accepts that offer. The acting was a bit thick, as it didn't look real to me. Danny is on the Garnish station and Andrea says that he hates Garnish. Andrea is "rocking" with meat coming out on time and perfect. Then she slightly burns two Wellingtons. Ramsay says she should serve them. Ben forgot to drop pasta as requested by Ramsay to get ahead. He is faced with a 7 minute delay to get pasta ready. Andrea is missing two Beef Wellingtons that are needed, but the solution Ramsay has for that is to close the kitchen. The bottom line as the kitchen closes is that both Ben and Andrea had their problems and Danny and Paula were rock solid. This is no surprise to anyone who watched prior episodes. Will it be Ben or will it be Andrea eliminated? Either one has earned it, so it depends on who Ramsay values more for the long term (in spite of what he said about the clean slate).
 
Ramsay gives a port-mortem on this dinner service. He says that he expected 100% performance and that in a fine dining restaurant, "it's how you finish", meaning presumably that you finish a service that is perfect consistently or you cannot call yourself "fine dining". He sends the group to agree on one worst performer for elimination. What a surprise that Danny and Ben pick Andrea and Andrea and Paula pick Ben! That is as I expected and since this exercise is totally useless, it leaves Ramsay where he always is with the necessity of making the decision. He picks Ben to leave and Andrea to stay, but if anything is certain it is that Andrea will be eliminated at the end of the next service. She has been consistently lower in performance than Paula and Danny throughout. I have to say that a choice of either Andrea or Ben could have been made. Ben made just enough errors to be in contention for leaving. I think his prior performance being more roller coaster style than Andrea's was a key factor in this decision.
 
Next week's preview shows Ramsay making a comment about the "Best of the Rest" and the chefs make a reference to having some top U.S. chefs in to cook for. We'll see who they feel is in that category. will they rival the ones who show up on Top Chef? I also think that they will see the remaining chefs' families as the show opens next episode. Since my "Ji will return prediction" has not come true, I could be off on this one too.

(Photo courtesy of FOX)

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