by Arthur Perkins 

You are about to experience probably the finest episode in the entire history of Hell's Kitchen. This episode has got it all. Let's get to it.
 
We start with the usual review of last week's episode. The tension between Carol and Andrea is highlighted, just in case you missed it last week. Ramsay calls J lazy. Andrea screwed up several beef Wellingtons. Colleen had multiple problems culminating in a dessert that had frozen pear on it.
 
Ramsay announces that Hell's Kitchen will do a bar mitzvah celebration for the first time. The menu will be hamburger, beef brisket, and chicken soup. In walk the mother and grandmother of the celebrant. They say a little about what he likes. Ramsay says he wants a gourmet approach to hamburger, beef brisket and chicken soup and each team has 45 minutes to develop a menu containing them with new twists and cook it. The challenge will be judged by the bar mitzvah boy Max himself. There is some controversy on the Red team Burger because Carol was not listening to her colleagues' feedback on the choice of cheese and on cooking it medium-well vs. medium. The dishes are:
Blue traditional Chicken Noodle Soup with vegetables, fresh pasta and rice balls vs. Red Spring Chicken Soup with vegetables, pasta and pea shoots                                                                                                                                                                          the simpler men's soup wins
Blue (Ben) Beef Brisket fairly plain vs. Red (LA) Beef Brisket braised with Cherry Barbecue sauce       the higher flavor women's brisket wins due to the BBQ sauce
Blue Kobe Beef burger homemade sundried tomato mayonnaise again fairly straight up Red Hamburger Kobe beef, veal, and lamb with fries plus blue cheese and sauteed onions and Portobello mushrooms. apple aioli the men win because he didn't like the Women's cheese.
 
The Men win the Challenge and get an afternoon of pampering at a salon, which they all enjoy. The women get one of the easier tasks, to set up the dining room for the bar mitzvah. Someone decided that boys that age like to shoot baskets and play that game with the flippers, so a mini basketball halfcourt is set up. Jean-Pierre is frustrated when the mother tells him that she has hired a party planner, the inescapable Francisco from past seasons. He always is in conflict with Jean-Pierre. The actor playing Francisco goes way over the top and it's a hoot to see him in action.
 
The guests are as many family and friends who can fit around the perimeter of the basketball court, maybe about 40. Ramsay announces that this service will include each of the winning dishes from the Challenge. So it's time for the Carol vs. Andrea show to start. Andrea is on the Appetizers station and for the second week in a row she appears brain-dead. J is on the Appetizers station for Blue and he is having a problem that quickly resolves. Francisco is having a great time shooting baskets, but Jean-Pierre comes over and tells him that the basket are reserved for the young guests and that he is to stay away from it.  Coi is on the Meat station, frequently the one that sinks the careers of Hell's Kitchen chef. She forgot to put burgers on and says that this happens a lot to her and it's no big deal. Ramsay thinks it's a big deal and he rants and raves. She then undercooks the hamburgers so they have to be done over. Throughout the evening there is sniping between Carol and Andrea. The Red team is ordered by Ramsay to take time out to carry the Horah with chair Lifts. Ben is sad that he is not asked to be part of the Horah festivities since he is Jewish.
 
Ramsay has a surprise for the mitzvah boy and is it ever something. 7 of the Harlem Globetrooters come out on the court and do one of their brief routines. They give Max a Globetrotters uniform. That set somebody back a good $10,000. That is probably less than Francisco got for his acting fees. Francisco brings out a huge decorated cake and manages to deliberately obliterate it as he bumps into Jean-Pierre. The chefs are forced to do desserts on no notice but it all worked out.
 
Dinner service is over and Ramsay says both teams did well in completing it. He decides to award the win to the team which tried harder consistently throughout the night. That is the Blue team. Then we come to the dilemma of the night. Andrea was clearly the worst and deserved to go home in my opinion. The next worst was undoubtedly Coi. Ramsay tells Andrea she made a significant turnaround by the end of the evening and she gets to select the nominees (which we know make absolutely no difference to him; they're just another opportunity for  Ramsay's sadism to have chefs twisting in the wind on the gallows). Andrea comes back and says she can't decide. Ramsay tells her she has to, so she picks Coi (no surprise) and LA (huh?). LA had no part in anything negative tonight so this was a poor choice. Her other choices were herself, Carol and Paula and Carol and Paula both performed well so it would have been laughable to nominate them. Basically, Andrea was avoiding nominating herself by nominating LA. Ramsay of course saw right through that. He polled the women's team for who should be eliminated. coi, Carol and LA all said Andrea. Paula says Coi. Andrea can be assumed to have said  Ramsay picks Coi to leave, stating that anyone who can't cook burgers does not belong in Hell's Kitchen.
 
Now, here's what I think really happened. Ramsay knew that Andrea was the proper person for elimination, but I suspect that the producers intervened. They have this big conflict going on between Carol and Andrea and it makes excellent television. They will milk this for several more episodes, probably until Carol and Andrea are the last team from the Red team remaining. Although Coi did not deserve elimination she was the only available sacrificial lamb.