Hell's Kitchen Season 5 Full Of Surprises

Hell's Kitchen constestants rush into the kitchen with their egos swelling. Ben, who continuously declares that he is the best cook on the team, takes charge of the Blue Team. He doesn’t hesitate to begin his dish and immediately drops two crabs into boiling water. Meanwhile on the Red Team, Andrea, as usual, is running the show. Ben and Andrea both have very strong personalities and use this to their advantage. Their dishes were chosen for the Chef to taste even though all members of the team did not agree. Carol warned Andrea about putting the shell of the crab on the plate but Andrea did not care. They cannot put their differences aside and work together as a team and this has caused many problems for them individually and as a team.

Paula and Giovanni are also on the Red Team but don’t seem to have the confidence or should I say cockiness that Andrea, or even Carol, possesses. Paula’s dish would have been the better choice but the team allowed Andrea to overrule. The Blue Team has similar problems, which are caused by Ben’s overconfidence. Danny’s dish should have been up for tasting but Ben decided before he even cooked his dish that his would be better. Like the Red Team, Danny and Robert allowed the person with the biggest mouth make the decision for the team.

When it came down to it neither dishes were up to par and Chef Ramsey surprised everyone by asking Paula and Danny to bring up their dishes.

The Chef must be watching everything that goes on in the kitchen even when the editing makes it seem like he is not there. How did he know to call Danny instead of Robert or Paula instead one of the others? If he isn’t watching then he sees something in these two contestants even though they seem to be sitting in the sidelines.

The Blue Team won the challenge with Danny’s Madeira Glazed Crab and their reward was a day with Chef Ramsey in Santa Monica. The punishment for the losing team was to scrub the dormitories and the kitchen and to prepare the crabs for the next evening’s service.

After punishments and rewards were completed the teams were asked to come up with a unique menu for the next dinner service. Ben took the leadership role again and it was obvious that this would only lead to trouble. His suggestions were very different than the menu Danny and Robert had in mind and some of these dishes weren’t even familiar to them. By the time dinner service was over, I’m sure they had their regrets. The red team seemed to be on the same page for the most part but the real test would be at service.

Unfortunately they had trouble from the get go. Although their appetizers went out quickly there were complaints about Giovanni’s bland Beef Carpaccio. The same diner brought back her dish twice. This diner approached the Chef and rudely complained about the dish. The Chef’s reply? He called her a dog. Now that's interesting. We’ll get to that later.

Over in the blue kitchen Ben was busy oversalting his soup, which caused much aggravation and yelling from the Chef. This continued throughout the evening, screw ups from the red team followed by screw-ups by the blue team. Carol’s au gratin potatoes were raw and Robert’s fillet mignon were all different sizes. Carol suggested that Andrea wasn’t firing up the potatoes early enough and the Chef discovered that Ben was the one who portioned Robert’s tenderloin.

Was Ben sabotaging Robert? Chef Ramsey seemed to think so. He also seemed to have a different idea of what his potato dish called Pommes Fondant actually is and was not happy with what Ben put out. After many inconsistencies in both kitchens Chef decided to shut down the kitchen. The customers rated the dinners and the Red Team got the better reviews but it wasn’t a win to be celebrated. Dinner service was a mess for everyone. Chef asked Danny to chose someone to be eliminated from the Blue Team. Ben was clearly his choice considering all the mistakes that he made that evening. However, Chef wanted both Ben and Robert to tell him why they thought they should stay. I thought Ben was gone for sure but like I said this episode was full of surprises. The person leaving Hell’s Kitchen was Carol. I was in shock! It wasn’t even a thought in my mind that someone from the Red Team would be leaving.

I don’t agree with Chef Ramsey’s decision. I think that Andrea should have been sent home purely for her inability to work as a team. If she would have put aside her differences with Carol and listened to her suggestion about the crab shells, the team may have been able to win the challenge. She needs to learn a little humility before running her own kitchen.

My other issue with the show tonight was the ridiculous acting that was thrown in. I’ve ignored the bad acting done by the Maitre d’, Jean-Phillip since I began watching this show and I’ve put up with Chef Ramsey spitting out food and calling the contestants cows, but a customer who gets yelled and cursed at by the Chef? It just can’t be real and I don’t buy it. How much of this “reality show” is reality and how much of it is rehearsed?

By Michele Brigante