"The Teams Prepare Lobster Dishes"
Let's first just take a moment to celebrate Melissa's elimination, shall we? As far as I'm concerned, it's long overdue. And from the very beginning of tonight's episode when she claimed to her new teammates, "I'll never sabotage you," I was hoping her coat would be the one hooked tonight. I think
Chef Ramsay, in retrospect, knew she was a goner last week; he just wanted to keep her around to give the boys hell. And it worked! Her risotto came out mushy, she overdid the last of the monkfish and I always fear that that hair of hers is going to end up in some poor diner's food. And on the girls' side, the truth comes out about Jen. It seems the self-proclaimed pastry chef from Philadelphia has a rather impressive résumé she's been keeping to herself. One has to wonder if she'll still be employable upon her return home after her five-star employers witness her plucking food out of the garbage on national television.
I loved tonight's challenge: lobster. Lobster is my all-time favorite dish and I think it's safe to say I would order pretty much anything involving it, including the dishes that weren't to Chef Ramsay's liking tonight. But I have to say, Bonnie's grilled-lobster salad, which
did make it into the dining room, sure looked delish. It certainly gave Rock a run for his money! Rock has been one of my favorite competitors so far, but tonight he showed a new side of himself. I mean, I understand recycling isn't anyone's favorite task, but there have been far-worse punishments in Hell's Kitchen as far as I'm concerned. I did, however, feel bad for him when Chef Ramsay invited him to the
In Touch photo shoot... to collect the trash. That will teach him not to talk back to Chef Ramsay! And while I'm on the subject of the photo shoot, my favorite moment of the night was when Jen told Chef Ramsay his hair made him look as if he got stuck in a wind tunnel. Watch your mouth, Jen! This is the same man who holds your fate in his hands.
Inside the kitchen it was also exhilarating to hear Chef Ramsay call Melissa a "gremlin." The insults he comes up with just get better and better. And while we're talking insults, Bonnie called Julia's experience "limited." And I was just starting to like Bonnie. I don't know if it was the human girly side she expressed when she admitted that killing lobsters makes her cry, or the pity I felt watching her set fire to her station, but something inside me warmed up to Bonnie. Until she messed with my girl Julia! Who is she to call Julia "inexperienced"? Isn't this the same girl who admitted she's only comfortable cooking for four when a room of about 50 diners are in Hell's Kitchen each night?
And when all the drama was said and done, a nanny, a short-order cook and a pastry chef beat out two sous-chefs, an executive chef and a line cook. That, folks, is what I love about
Hell's Kitchen. Only on Chef Ramsay's turf is a Waffle House cook on an even (and sometimes higher) keel as an executive chef. And just when things started heating up in the eliminations round, poof! Melissa is gone. This should make things interesting for next week now that we're getting down to the final six.
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