What would a Hell’s Kitchen finale be without a party? Exactly! We had a few guests over to help us celebrate the conclusion of one of our favorite shows. My father, both of my brothers, my sister-in-law and Goddaughter all came over for the festivities. We had a blast enjoying the show and watching baby Lucie soak up the attention.
Right from the out-set, Jay and Holli were expecting a huge surprise from Ramsay now that they were the final two. He flew them out to the Savoy hotel where he did surprise them with a huge reception on the roof deck. The fun and games didn’t last long though; both chefs had to prepare 5 dishes in an hour which would be judged by 5 of Chef Ramsay’s executive chefs. Of course, like any other challenge we 
watch, it was tied right down to the final vote. Amazing how that works, huh? Jay got the last vote and won the challenge, so he got to choose first when it came time to assemble his team. Ben and Autumn were picked first and second, and poor Siobahn was chosen last.
My sister-in-law was a little disappointed that Ed wasn’t back for the finale. He was a pretty good cook and we would have loved to have seen him again. Either way, dinner service went as well as they normally do once it’s down to the final two. I was surprised that we didn’t see too many problems in either kitchen. Usually, there’s a cook or two who is bitter over not being one of the finalists and they hold back in the kitchen just for spite. I think both Holli and Jay ran they kitchens well and either one would make a fine head chef at the Savoy.
As we were watching the show, my brother made the observation that things seemed to be happening too quickly. When I thought about it, he was right. We didn’t see Holli or Jay work on the design of their restaurants and we heard something about a trip to Australia, but never saw it on-air. It was strange to have the finale compressed into only an hour when we’re used to seeing two hour finales. I enjoyed the show, but feel a little let down. It felt like they were pushing for this season to be over so that Master Chef could have the spotlight. I think that was a mistake, Hell’s Kitchen has quite a following; it’s a shame to think that the producers may have edited the finale to make room for Master Chef.
Once dinner service was completed and the comment cards were tabulated, the dramatic conclusion
was finally revealed. Holli’s door was the one that opened – she’s the winner of Hell’s Kitchen! It must have been an exciting moment for her. Seeing her with Dylan at the end was great; he had a lot of funny things to say now that his mother had won.
Congratulations Holli and good Luck in London!
Hell’s Kitchen Finale – Who Will be the Head Chef at the Savoy Hotel?
4 Chefs Compete – Which Two Will Chef Ramsay Eliminate?
Chef Ramsay started this episode out by having the remaining chefs enjoy a wonderful meal. Then once it was gone, they had 45 minutes to re-create it. Right off the bat, Autumn is knocking pots and pans all over the place; she must have been in a huge hurry to prepare her meal! During the challenge it was cool to see how their interpretations differed. In the end Jay chose the wrong meat and that cost him the victory – Holli won the challenge. Her reward was a relaxing day on a yacht with her son, Dylan and his father, Phil. Back in Hell’s Kitchen, Autumn talked constantly while working with Ben and Jay; she was really annoying the guys. Once Ben found out what the reward was, he immediately got pissed off and lifted a huge box of supplies alone. The next day his back was killing him and he couldn’t help prep the kitchen. He stayed in the dorm and took a little nap, spent time in the hot tub and eventually got a chiropractic adjustment. He claimed to be finished and went to tell Ramsay that he was done. Surprisingly, he decided to stay and work the dinner service. Autumn, Holli and Jay were really upset; Ben didn’t do any of the prep work, and was able to bounce around the kitchen as if his back didn’t even hurt. Either he was lying about his back being hurt to avoid prep, or that chiropractor worked some magic.
Dinner service was fun to watch, each chef got the opportunity to run the pass and call out orders. I think they all did pretty well. Jay set the standard and caught both errors that Sous Chef Scott threw at him. I thought it was funny when Autumn missed one of Scott’s errors and then kept pushing stuff back for one reason or another. That must have been annoying to the other chefs. Jean-Philippe even threw in an error when he brought up a ticket for Holli to call out. That was pretty tricky; it had never been done before in Hell’s Kitchen and I’m sure that any of the other chefs would have missed that one. I think it was a little unfair to her. But I guess a head chef has to be aware of things like that.
When it came time for elimination, Autumn and Ben were asked to leave Hell’s Kitchen. I think those were the right choices, Holli and Jay have done well throughout the competition and really deserve to be in the final 2. It will be interesting to see how well they do in the finale. I can’t wait to see which chefs they choose to run their kitchen. Based on some of the previews we saw, it looks like both teams may have issues during dinner service.
Hell’s Kitchen – The Final Four
When this episode began, Ben claimed to be the only chef that could compete with Jay. This guy is unbelievable; yeah it’s good to be confident in your skills, but based on his performances recently he should tone it down a bit. The challenge this week was for the chefs to teach someone without any cooking knowledge how to prepare a meal. Chef Ramsay would then decide who did the best job. Right away Jay figured that Ben would be his toughest competition; Ben’s a culinary instructor and has a leg up on the other chefs. 
Ben’s student asked a lot of questions but Ben never really taught him how to cook. Jay and his student, Rick won the challenge. Jay chose Holli as his companion and they both got to ride in the Goodyear Blimp as Autumn and Ben cleaned the entire restaurant.
Prior to dinner service Chef Ramsay gave the chefs the choice as to which station they’d like to work on. Holli jumped at the chance to work the fish station – a tough station to work when Ramsay is running the kitchen. Once again, Ben clammed up and would refuse to talk to his team. Ramsay yelled at him, “Time’s running out for you.” The team bounced back and worked well to finish the service. Jay was chosen to pick 2 for elimination. It was an interesting choice by Chef Ramsay. Jay was conflicted as who to choose for his second nomination, Ben or Holli. I didn’t envy him – that’s a tough decision to make. I noticed after dinner service that Ben talks a good game, but he doesn’t talk in the kitchen – that’s too bad, I think that hurts his chances.
For elimination, Jay nominated Autumn and Ben. Chef Ramsay asked for their points of view as he normally does, but this time he chose not to send anyone home. Instead, each chef had family members come to visit them for a while. That was a nice surprise! However, downside to all this is that after next week, 2 chefs will be eliminated. Now’s the time to really step it up!
Master Chef: The Premier
After all of the hype and all of the commercials we’ve seen about this show – it’s finally here. The Premier episode gave us a sense of what this show is all about. A field of 30 amateur cooks will be taken from all across America and their cooking skills will be put to the test. The winner will receive $250,000 and have a cookbook published. The amateur cooks have will have 1 hour to cook their meal and have it judged by Graham Elliot, Joe Bastianich and of course, Gordon Ramsay.
Watching some of the contestants was pretty entertaining. There were a few funny people and some interesting meals were prepared. The judging aspect is set up similar to that of American Idol; the three judges vote either yes or no as to whether or not the contestants get to move on. Right away we saw that Chef Ramsay is going to be a very tough judge. The first few contestants didn’t really impress him; he took time out from judging to tell the remaining contestants that he wasn’t pleased with what he saw.
Photo courtesy of www.nola.com
I think the first episode was OK, but not great. I’m sure the first few episodes will be entertaining to watch – that’s where you see all of the really interesting contestants (similar to American Idol). I’m not sure how well it will do after the initial buzz wears off. We’ve seen this formula before with American Idol; will the cooking aspect make it any more interesting? Only time will tell.
As we were watching the show, my brother pointed out that the commercials were ridiculous. He’s right; there were an awful lot of commercials during the show. I hope that doesn’t continue. Overall, I think the show was slow-moving. There really wasn’t much action – we didn’t get see the contestants preparing their food and things seemed to happen so slowly. I’m not sure if this will hold my interest long enough to keep blogging about it. I guess we will all have to find out together.