Hell's Kitchen: Ramsay Sends Trevor & Jillian Home With Russell & Nona the Final Two

The current iteration of Hell's Kitchen has been the oddest I remember watching. Not one of the chefs really stood out as the competent ringer destined to make it to the end.

I don't remember seeing so many major cooking woes previous to this season of Hell's Kitchen.

I thought Jillian had it wrapped up to make it to the Final 2. Particularly after she won the fusion cooking challenge at the start of the episode.

It is rather telling, regarding how bad the chefs were, this time on Hell's Kitchen, that someone as incompetent as Trevor made it to the Final 4.

When Trevor became the first of the Final Four kicked out of Hell's Kitchen by Chef Ramsay, Gordon then proceeded to heap praise on Trevor. This made no sense to me, after what we'd just watched.

And then the first picked to be on of the Final 2 was Russell. In other seasons of Hell's Kitchen Russell would have been long gone. Or so it seems to me.

The biggest surprise of the night was Ramsay sending Jillian home, making it a Final 2 between Russell and Nona.

From the previews it appears that there will be a lot of yelling and swearing during the Finale. That's a surprise.

Hell's Kitchen Season 8: Episode 12: Gail Takes Her Jacket Off & Gets Out of Hell's Kitchen

This current iteration of Hell's Kitchen is being the oddest since this series started. In all previous seasons of HK there have been a few competent chefs.

On this season it's like the chef criteria that got you cast was the degree of potential entertainment value, not potential chef value.

How else do you explain casting a nutcase like Raj?

Or Trevor. Who has somehow managed to make it to the Final Four, along with Russell, Jillian and Nona.

Gail Novenario was a total basket case in this week's dinner service, which got her kicked out of the kitchen and then out of Hell's Kitchen. Gail had gotten off to such a good start on the episode, winning a challenge by making the most popular lunch cart special, which got her a makeover and new wardrobe. In the end, Gail seemed happier about the makeover than sad about getting the boot.

Paris Hilton and a group of Marines were among the people in Hell's Kitchen for whom Gail had trouble cooking.

Trevor really can not seem to cook anything correctly. And yet he is still there, spouting delusions and burning beef. Trevor was up for elimination, along with Gail. I thought Trevor would be the one to go, as he seems much worse than the terrible Gail.

Jillian had seemed fairly competent, til the most recent episode where we learned that, apparently, she had never cooked a fish product before, requiring Russell to come to the rescue over and over again.

And then there is Nona. She seems to have gotten more and more competent as the show has progressed.

But, of the 4 remaining, the only one who seems even remotely believable as possibly being able to run a kitchen like the one in that fancy LA Market place, is Russell. And he has not been without some doozy mistakes.

I'm thinking that maybe what is going to happen is Chef Ramsay decides none of them are worthy of winning.

Hell's Kitchen: Holli Wins Executive Chef at the Savoy in London

It was a fast paced Hell's Kitchen finale hour with Holli Ugalde's door opening, rather than Jay Santos', making Holli the winner of Hell's Kitchen.

And might I add, the best-looking Hell's Kitchen winner ever.

The finale episode started with Holli and Jay all alone in the dorm, after Ben and Autumn were sent home. Jay was thinking he might get lucky.

The next morning, after not getting lucky, Jay and Holli work on their menus for their final Hell's Kitchen dinner services. Sous Chef Andi tells the pair that Chef Ramsay has something nice planned for them, so go get dressed up. A limo then takes Holli and Jay to Ramsay's London West Hollywood restaurant, where he leads them to the roof to look down on a crowd cheering for them.

Ramsay tells the pair their final challenge is to to cook 5 dishes in one hour, to be judged by 5 of Ramsay's executive chefs. After an hour of frenetic cooking the dishes are placed in front of the judges, one by one. In the end Jay wins, after a 2 to 2 tie.

When Holli and Jay make it back to Hell's Kitchen they find 6 bootees, Fran, Autumn, Siobhan, Jason, Benjamin and Nilka. After being informed the 6 are moving back to the dorm, Jay verbalizes his disappointment, because he was hoping to sleep with Holli that night.

Because Jay won the challenge he got first choice of helper. He picked Ben, then Jason and Fran. Holli picked Autumn, Nilka and was stuck, by default, with the incompetent, Siobhan.

The next morning as the teams prepare for dinner service, Siobhan's slowness quickly became an issue. On Jay's Blue Team Ben is working and talking at hyperspeed.

Holli and Jay get called to Gordon Ramsay's office where he gives them executive chef jackets and tells them he is sending them on vacation to Australia. And then wishes them good luck.

Hell's Kitchen opens with Jay's Blue Team off to a good start, while Holli's Red Team has a problem due to Siobhan's turtle paced production of amuse-bouches, which were not up to Holli's standards. Then Jay's Team hit a snag when Fran burned a pan of scallops. Then back on the Red Team Siobhan forgot a vegetable, which caused Autumn to take over for her.

Then Jason undercooked some meat for Jay, but eventually got on track. Holli's Team was finally on track. And then Nilka ruined some venison.

A couple hours in, the cooking is going swimmingly, only 3 tickets left. Both teams complete dinner service, with Jay's Team finishing first. Chef Ramsay complimented both. We also heard from Holli and Jay's family members, who were among the diners, including Holli's cute little boy.

Ramsay tells Holli and Jay he'll read through the customer comment cards and ponder his decision. After he is done pondering Chef Ramsay puts Holli and Jay in front of doors. The door that opens, opens the door to being the executive chef at the Savoy in London. The knobs are twisted, Holli's door opens, family and friends cheer, champagne bottles are opened, with Holli and Jay complimenting each other during the celebration.

I don't know when the next Hell's Kitchen will start up. But I'm sure it will. It's a Top 20 hit, #14 in last week's Nielsen Ratings.

Fran & Nilka Take Off Their Jackets & Leave Hell's Kitchen

That is Chef Gordon Ramsay giving an encouraging hug to the cook he had just kicked out of Hell's Kitchen, Nilka Hendricks.

Nilka was in way over her head in the weeds in her last dinner service in Hell's Kitchen. Nilka was on the seafood station and could not seem to cook anything right.

It was one raw scallop too many that had Chef Ramsay ordering her out, and I think Ben to take her place.

But, Nilka would not go easily. She left, then came back, begging to get to keep cooking, with Ramsay demanding she take her jacket off and leave. Ramsay told the other cooks to get Nilka out of there.

Eventually Nilka left, tearfully. After she was gone everything went swimmingly in Hell's Kitchen. I felt sorry for Nilka. She was likable and funny.

Ramsay liked Nilka too. In a Hell's Kitchen first, he was there to give Nilka words of encouragement as she left to get in a taxi.

Gordon Ramsay is one of my favorite TV personalities. I always liked really strict teachers who knew what they were teaching and kept the other kids in line and learning. And when you knew that teacher outside the classroom you found out they were nice, pleasant people.

Over and over again we see Ramsay being very intense, violent at times. Basically a very stern taskmaster running a cooking boot camp.

And then over and over again we see the nice guy side of Gordon Ramsay, like his goodbye to Nilka.

The hour previous Fran did not get a fond personal farewell from Gordon Ramsay. Fran was a real puzzle. This woman actually is employed as a cook somewhere? I think maybe she was cast due to her interesting face and hangdog demeanor, not her cooking skills. But, she really was not all that great comic fodder.

The episode that saw Nilka leave also saw Holli suddenly seem to be the chef to beat. Holli sure does seem to be the best looking chef to ever cook on Hell's Kitchen. Her attraction to the strange caviar guy was a bit odd, though.

Next week's previews make it appear that some fresh incoming is arriving to compete with the Final 6. And next week's dinner service appears to be a total Hell's Kitchen meltdown.

Hell's Kitchen: Season 7, Episode 4, Scott & Autumn on Chopping Block

I like Hell's Kitchen. I find Chef Gordan Ramsay very amusing.

On Tuesday night, when Barack Obama spoke to the nation for the first time from the Oval Office, he pushed off the start of Hell's Kitchen.

This caused me to lose the ending of the 2nd episode of the night. Ramsay had told both Scott and Autumn to take off their jackets. Usually this indicates they are to be sent home. But my recording had stopped.

I was to learn later, the pair switched jackets. And teams. So, now both get to share their brands of overbearing know-it-all-ness with the other team, Autumn Lewis with the boys, Scott with the girls.

Scott Hawley is quite a piece of work. I think he annoys the editors in the same way he annoys everyone else. He is given his own sarcastic heroic theme music. Scott took the Italian boy, Salvatore Coppola (no relation to Francis Ford) under his wing. Salvatore had some cooking woes and Scott was only too happy to bless Salvatore with his mentoring ways.

But, Scott was due for a serious comeuppance. And so, after Salvatore had a meltdown in the first episode of the night, Ramsay bucked him up, as did Scott, with Salvatore cooking to Ramsay's satisfication on the 2nd episode of the night. With Scott screwing up something as simple as spuds and then not being able to cook beef to the right temperature.

In the end, Ramsay praised Salvatore and told him he had to pick one of his team for elimination. Of course, Scott thought he was safe, what with his helpful mentoring and with the two being friends. But, Salvatore threw Scott under the bus, which is really where Scott needed to be.

The bootee in the first hour was Jamie Bisoulis. She was pretty incompetent. But I found her amusing. Her best line last night was "Chef Ramsay was all over my ass. And not in a good way."

The girls won the first reward of the night. This saw them playing soccer against Ramsay and his family on a Malibu beach. I hit the fast forward button.

Jason Ellis had a panic attack on the 2nd episode when the boys won the reward and Ramsay told them they'd be sky diving. Turned out to be a sky diving simulation, so Jason had a heart attack for no good reason.

Another amusing moment came courtesy Maria Torrisi. In the 1st episode we'd seen her laughing inappropriately. She seems to have stifled that bad habit. She can put some pretty weird expressions on her face. But something about her is appealling to me. Last night Ramsay made some remark that referenced her "pretty face." This had Maria all atwitter, saying no one had ever called her pretty before. I can not type a replication of how funny it was.

The old lady of the teams, Fran Klier, boiled one of her hands in water. But opted to continue on, cooking badly, til she got so far in over her head that the girls tried to intervene. And then Ramsay sent her to the medic. Fran was up for the boot, along with Jamie, in the 1st episode. I think it should have been Fran to be sent home.

It will be interesting to see how well Scott works with the girls. There is one cute on, Holli Ugalde. I don't remember if we've had a romance on Hell's Kitchen before. I think it's about time.

So far, I can't tell if any of these people is a good chef. Ramsay seems a bit perplexed by that conundrum, as well.

Tuesday Night TV: Cookalong Live, NCIS, Charlie Brown Christmas

Tuesday night has several shows that may draw my viewing eyes. Or recorder button.

Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live
Fox 9/8c
I don't know if this is a new show or a special event or if it is really live. The concept of the show is for the Hell's Kitchen hellion to show viewers, in a step by step way, how to prepare a 3 course meal. Tonight's menu is angel-hair pasta with shrimp, sauteed spuds and peas with Steak Diane, tomatoes and chili peppers with tiramisu for dessert. I may watch because I have no idea what Steak Diane is.

NCIS
8/7c CBS
Pa Walton, Ralph Waite guest stars as Jackson, the father of Gibbs. On a holiday visit dad's odd behavior worries Gibbs. And then to add to that worry another mystery pops up when the enlisted son of a ex-army colonel, now preacher, is discovered dead.

Funniest Commercials of the Year: 2009
10/9c TBS
The annual tribute to the world's best, craziest and funniest commercials. Hosted by Kevin Nealon.

Charlie Brown Christmas
8/7c ABC
This Charlie Brown annual event is considered by many to be the best holiday special. Personally I'd go with It's a Wonderful Life. But watching Linus search for the true meaning of Christmas never gets old.