Hell’s Kitchen Season 2 Show 7

There are five participants left in the series - the cream, so to speak, of the dozen who started in show 1. Red team lost yet again, and they’re now down to two people: backstabber Sara and capable but arrogant Virginia. Blue team hasn’t lost since Heather helped get rid of Tom, a chef and former stock trader.

Chef Ramsay hasn’t mellowed out much, and I can’t wait to see who lost it. TV commercial trailers suggest that it might be a customer who flipped an entire plate of food into the kitchen. I would, too, if I ever went to a restaurant and heard Ramsay screaming at staff. Let’s see what he has in store for this episode.

First off, he’s merged the two teams into a single team: Black. It’ll be interesting. Virginia certainly could not have coped with working with just Sara. This way, she’ll be less likely to cry.

Ramsay’s first challenge is a sort of “black box test” for each person, except that they all have the same ten ingredients. They have 20 minutes to produce a dish. But some of the ingredients take 20 minutes to cook.

Sara was first to discover this when she tried to make lentils. That’s the first thing I would have ignored.

Chef liked prison boy Garrett’s dish, but it had too much saffron. Heather got a compliment, minus a comment that the spinach still had dirt. Virginia got a straight up compliment, and hoped she would cook like that in her final service. Sara got insulted on presentation, but chef liked her flavours. Keith got a heads up on the colour of his veal - delicious is the verdict. Wow, Ramsay must have been on a happy pill.

But the competition is only between Virginia and Keith. Keith wins, and he’s allowed to choose someone to go with him. Guess what? It’s Virginia. The two of them get to go to Vegas and see the site of the prize restaurant. The losers get to fumigate the restaurant for bugs.

I’m starting to wonder if Heather has lost her chance. I’m starting to lean towards Keith now, if only because of his height. Sociologists have proven that tall men tend to get more respect, especially in a job environment. As far as being a line cook goes, most people I’ve worked with agreed that a lot of executive chefs tend to hire men mainly because a lot of prep and line work requires strength and height. Poor Heather is the shortest of the lot.

Whoa. It’s confession time. Garrett admits to having been put in an “youth anger” program when Heather tells him that he makes her uncomfortable when he’s angry.

Well, service is on and Chef Ramsay is ripping into everyone. He tells them to calm down and start again, but he’s the only one agitated. Now, though, Garrett and Virginia feels under pressure and they start having problems. He knows how to pinpoint weakness.

Nevertheless, Keith helps out and they team gets out 83 of 100 entries. But one customer isn’t happy and asks Ramsay a few questions. He actually is polite and tells her just please wait 30 seconds. Then he implies something about not being able to serve food because of her exposed breasts being in the way. The customer flips out and flips the plate over in the serving tray, then the serving tray to the floor, and walks off. Voiceover: Ramsay saying “security, please”.

I’ve watched a lot of Chef Ramsay and that’s just not like him to be outright chauvinist. Here you start to see where the show might actually be scripted to a degree. (Earlier this year, I pointed to a website that claimed all of the customers were actually paid, and published the text of the want-ad.)

Whew, it’s draining listening to Chef Ramsay’s yelling. A bachelorette party of 12 just walked in and Ramsay blew a gasket yelling at Sara about the number of scallops she’s serving for the appetizers. I just don’t understand how expects a team to be efficient if he’s constantly insulting them. My own experience and that of others I’ve observed proves that firmness with line cooks is important, but insulting them just screws everything up. (In case you misunderstand, it wasn’t me doing the insulting.)

Still, despite all the insanity, the team pulled off the entire 3-hour service with few mishaps. No doubt Chef Ramsay will take that as proof that insulting people makes them work better. The restaurant industry is one of the few places that your boss can act like an asshole and get away with it. Can you imagine going in to, say, a computer programming job and hearing your boss say, “You code like a moron! Pull it together you fat, sweating slob.” How long would you stay in that job? Not long, right? So why do we line cooks put up with it? I really couldn’t tell you. I eventually couldn’t stand it; the behaviour is nearly industry-wide, especially in restaurants that have a male owner.

So, who is the loser going to be tonight? My vote is Garrett. I’d rather it be Sara, but if she really is a hired actor like I suggested in previous episodes, then Ramsay needs for her to stay. On the other hand, he just insulted Sara and then told Heather she is the most inconsistent person (which has been true).

It’s Keith that gets to do the elimination tonight, and he’s already saying Heather should stay “because she works very, very hard.” He’s having a hard time deciding who to nominate, though. I’m guessing he’ll say Sara and Garrett.

His first nominee is Virginia. Very strange. His second nominee is… Garrett. Ramsay says, “I thought he was your mate?” Keith’s response: “Yeah, but I had to choose who had the worst food, regardless of who my friends are.” So who is Chef Ramsay going to pick?

Ouch. It’s, Virginia. No, it’s Virginia… staying. Garrett is going, mainly because Chef intimidated him into serving raw chicken.

So, four people left, and Chef Ramsay tells them to start working as a team. It says something that there are three women left and only one guy. Next week, my prediction is that Ramsay will get rid of Sara. Last season, when the Canadian TV commercial actor had filled his purpose, Ramsay got rid of him. Sara’s purpose is done.