By Arthur Perkins

First, my research on this show has led me to the understanding that Gordon Ramsay's utilization of the term "London Los Angeles" is not accurate forhis new restaurant where the winner of this competition will become the Executive Chef. The real name is London Hollywood West restaurant. Also, the sous-chef supporting the Men is Scott(as is past seasons) and supporting the Women is Gloria(brand new to Hell's Kitchen).

This episode started with the chefs being wakened early to go outside and view a garbage truck unloading the contents from what was thrown out the prior evening. Ramsay made the excellent point that wasting thousands of dollars of food affects restaurant economics as well as being unconscionable. He implored the chefs to learn this lesson well.

The next task was the Halibut Challenge. Three huge halibut were brought in. The first one was for Ramsay to demonstrate how to fillet it properly and then how to cut 6 ounce portions from it. The other two were for the Men's and Women's teams, respectively. They had 20 minutes to fillet their fish and get as many 6 ounce portions (55 being optimal) in 20 minutes. This task was demonstrating attention to detail, teamwork, and focus on quality. The men took only 12 minutes of the 20 and had 55 portions on their tray. The women just got done as time expired. However, the Women appeared to have higher quality as a high percentage of their portions were accepted by Ramsay. The Men appeared to be in trouble as many of their early portions were rejected (with Bobby blaming Jason for that). At the final count, both Men and Women had 41 good portions, so there was a tie to be broken. Ramsay had the method for that, which was each team to select one individual to choose one portion to come as close to 6.0 ounces as possible. Ben stepped up for the Men and selected a 5.9 ounce portion that was nearly unbeatable. Corey thought she had done perfect portions and stepped up for the Women. However, hers weighed in at 4.8 ounces and the Women lost the Challenge. The Men got to ride in Rolls Royces and Bentleys to a yacht Club where Gordon joined them on a 100 foot yacht. The Women got to prepare fish and to make fish stock while the Men relaxed.


The next evening the teams gather in Hell's Kitchen. Petrozza got the menu quiz from Ramsay and failed on appetizers(but also would have failed on any other part of it). He has sent out of the kitchen, leaving his station unmanned while he was away, to learn the menu, which he finally does to Ramsay's satisfaction on his third try. He claimed that he was "done" after his 2nd failure, but Bobby came up to help and motivate him. Due to the problemsfrom the previous service, Maitre D' Philippe has requested that one from each team be exposed directly to the customer interface parts of the job. Craig is selected by Gordon for the Men and Rosann for the Women.

The Man have their problems with appetizers, but they mange to get all 48 apps out. The Women are way behind. Jason is having quality problems and

Petrozza missed a few as well(beef too rare). Craig tries to move a chair, but he hits a customer with it while in transit. Sharon and Christina are having quality problems. Entrees leave the Women's and Men's kitchens just before 8pm. Roseann was hoarding customer orders because she did not have any confidence in the ability of the Women's kitchen (who she was paired with) to handle them. Petrozza and Jason were blamed for lack of communications and coordination.


However, Ramsay correctly assigns blame for the larger screwups to the Women's team. He tells Corey that he admires her risotto and so she gets to nominate two of her teammates for consideration of elimination. She uses the process to try to settle grudges where individuals are not treating her with proper respect. She nominates Christina and Jen for "personal reasons." This is a highly risky strategy that could backfire on Corey. Ramsay notes her nominations and the thinking behind them and then ignores Corey's nominations. He has his own candidate and that is Sharon because he has major questions about her willingness to work as a chef. He views Sharon as capable of great attention to detail, but that is limited to her makeup. He eliminates Sharon, leaving Corey to be concerned about how Jen and Christina will be retaliating against her.

I liked what I saw from Bobby especially, who met the unfulfilled promise from the first week of providing both direction and support for his teammates.