Well, it’s been a while since I was able to sit down and watch the show and I missed a few episodes. So I’m gonna pick up with last week’s episode. The teams are merged now and there are 6 chefs left, Holli, Jason, Ben, Ed, Autumn and Jay. The first challenge was cool; each chef had to make a dish to be photographed for a magazine. Jay was so confident in his dish; I was hoping he wouldn’t win. When his was chosen at the 5th dish out of six I laughed out loud! In your face! Ben eventually won the challenge and got a much needed haircut and wardrobe upgrade. Of all the chefs left, he was the one that need it the most! During dinner service, the chef’s had to prepare Ben’s winning dish – it had a lot of little components and the Halibut was difficult to get right. Ed struggled the whole night on the fish station. Elimination was between Ed and Autumn, Ed was sent home. During the closing moments of the episode Jason told us that he wasn’t going anywhere and that he was planning on moving his family to London. That was great! My brother, my wife and I laughed so hard at that. He’s great!
The second episode found the remaining 5 chefs shopping in Owens Market, looking for fresh ingredients in order to make a dish that cost $10 or less. 3 critics judged their dishes and decided how much they were willing to pay for each dish. When Jason was shown buying frozen ravioli, I immediately thought back to almost every Kitchen Nightmares episode – RAMSAY HATES FROZEN FOODS. How did Jason think he was going to pull that off? Some of the prices these critics came up with were outrageous. $30 for Jay’s dish? There wasn’t much to it. One critic said she’d be thrilled to pay $29 for one of the dishes. I wouldn’t be thrilled! Holli eventually won the challenge and decided to take Jay along with her on a $1000 shopping spree in a kitchen supply store
Dinner service was fun to watch, the chefs had to rotate stations after a certain amount of time. This was designed to increase their ability to communicate with each other. 
Ben still had issues listening to Chef Ramsay and talking with his team. When it came time for elimination, it was between Ben and Jason – Ramsay sent Jason home. I guess his family won’t be moving to London as he had hoped! The funniest moment happened when Chef Ramsay left the kitchen for a few minutes. Ben took it upon himself to call out the next order. Scott (Ramsay’s Sous Chef) didn’t like that at all and got in Ben’s face. He put Ben in his place alright! Don’t cross Scott!!
6 Chefs Remain – Ben’s Arrogance Gets Him into Hot Water
Minute to Win It
A few days ago, my wife and I had the pleasure of catching part of an episode of Minute to Win it: Couples. There was a couple playing for $500,000.
Photo courtesy of www.rogerstvsales.ca
The couple we saw, Aaron and Kim, was a little too much I think. They were both wearing purple…CHEESY! They seemed like nice people but I’m sure that the producers made them ham it up for the cameras. Prior to performing a challenge, they were allowed to talk it over to see who would attempt the challenge at hand. Well, let me tell you, they talked it over, almost like nobody else was even there. They seemed like newlyweds the way they kept kissing each other over and over. I’m sure part of that was scripted, but it was a little over the top.
One of the challenges that we watched was called the nutstacker. 10 metal nuts are strung on a chopstick and a contestant needs to use the chopstick to stack 10 nuts on top of each while balancing the stack on a tray that is held in their other hand.
Aaron's first attempt at the Nutstacker
My wife and I got a kick out of making fun of some of the things that were said. At one point we saw Guy turn to the camera and announce that it was for the $500,000 prize. It was just an inopportune time to do that. Aaron was trying to complete the challenge – the last thing he needs is to be reminded what’s at stake.
It seems like an interesting show, and I’d like to watch more of it if I get the chance. Some of the challenges look like fun. I may just want to set a few up at home and see how well I do! Sorry honey!! :-)
Scott is gone…or is he?
Hell’s Kitchen celebrated a 50th wedding anniversary as Ben tried to get the red team back on track. The girls were happy to see Scott go and are excited to have Ben on their team. Obviously, Ramsay sees something in Ben. I thought it would be fun to watch him turn the Red Team around. His attitude prior to working with the Red Team wasn’t the best. You would think he would want to pump the girls up going into dinner service. However, shortly into dinner service I realized that Ben is just like Scott. He’s in all of the girls’ faces and doesn’t spend much time actually cooking. The women don’t fully see it yet; they finally won during dinner service so they’re flying high. Unfortunately, Salvatore was sent home.
During the second hour, we get the feeling that Ben really can’t stand Siobahn. He seems to be singling her out and trying to intimidate her. During the sandwich challenge,
I was glad to see her stand up to Ben and not back down. When the Red Team ended up losing, I was happy. Good that’s what Ben deserves. I think it was great that Chef Ramsay gave Siobahn the chance to have her sandwich judged. The best part was that Chef Ramsay liked it! Take that Ben!! The Blue Team spent a little too much time enjoying their win. They had a little trouble waking up the next morning and were a little hung over going into dinner service. You’d think these guys would be smarter than that, wouldn’t you? One of these guys could actually end up running Chef Ramsay’s restaurant. Is that how an executive chef behaves? At the end of the episode, Fran and Siobahn were put up for elimination – Siobahn was sent home.
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Photo courtesy of tv.spreadit.org