by Gina Scarpa

Tonight, on Hell’s Kitchen, it’s down to the final five chefs: Suzanne, Ariel, Tennille, Dave, and Kevin.  Making it to the finale won’t be easy – Chef Ramsay will make sure of that!  Things kick off with an individual challenge, a first for the chefs this season.  They were given 45 minutes to create a dish that tastes as good as it looks.  On hand to judge was the editorial staff of Bon Appetit magazine.  The staff only scores the chefs on the presentation of their dish and the top two dishes will be tasted by Chef Ramsay and Bon Appetit’s editor-in-chief in order to determine a winner.

Tennille’s fish comes out looking pretty rough towards the end so she just covers it up with some mushrooms and hopes no one will notice.  We learn that Dave is absolutely horrible in front of a crowd and can’t articulate himself at all in front of the staff.  That does not bode well for him in this competition.  It ends up being a tie – Kevin’s Caribbean Sea Bass and Ariel’s Prosciutto and Sage Wrapped John Dory.  Since Ramsay feels that they were both equally excellent, they both win.  For their prize, Ariel and Kevin join the judges for lunch in Santa Monica, participated in a photo shoot for Bon Appetit, and had their dishes featured on that evening’s menu.  Quite a prize!

Though Tennille was a star in last week’s dinner service, the same cannot be said for tonight.  Ramsay ripped her a new one for overcooking the risotto, but Kevin overcooked it during prep so they had to start completely from scratch.  While Tennille overcooked her food, Ariel undercooked hers – fish and lamb.  Does anyone else feel unnerved that these chefs are constantly getting yelled at for undercooked meat and fish?  I’d like to eat in Hell’s Kitchen, but not if there’s a chance I’m going to die of food poisoning!

Ariel and Suzanne land in the bottom this week and Chef Ramsay asks both why they should stay.  Suzanne says she focused on perfection but Ramsay fires back that she accomplished nothing.  Ariel argues that she’s a better chef than Suzanne and admits her mistakes, promising to fix them if she is allowed to stay.  In the end, she makes a better case for herself and Suzanne is sent home.

Hell’s Kitchen airs Tuesday nights at 8pm ET on FOX.

(Image courtesy of FOX)

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