Hell's Kitchen: No Accounting for Taste

The continuation of “Hell’s Kitchen” featured what is probably the most popular challenge on the show – the blind taste test.

Van - who weirdly became our amusingly-crass mouthpiece throughout the challenge - summed it up perfectly: “It looks easy, but it’s not.”

We all like to think we’d be able to easily identify eggs when they’re shoveled into our mouths, or that we’d be able to tell the difference between clams and spinach (this mistake prompted Van to hilariously/randomly call Kevin a “scumbag”). At the very least, I’m sure we all feel fairly confident that none of us would guess “boiled coconut” under any circumstances. (“What the !@#$% us boiled cocunt?” – Van) The fact is, we’d probably all fail spectacularly at this challenge, but watching these supposed professionals falter is pretty funny. (Maybe it’s all the smoking they do.)

Coming into the challenge, Andy had a big target on his back after Robert addressed the 800-lbs gorilla in the room – the fact that Andy has no chance of winning “Hell’s Kitchen” and that everyone knows it. (This is the part where I fail to restrain myself from making a joke about Robert being the 800lbs gorilla. Whatever – Not Bobby acted like a jackass most of the time.)

Of course, we all knew the fate of the men’s team would come down to Andy, who faced off against Amanda in the final head-to-head matchup. (Tennille was forced to sit out). Despite correctly identifying lychee (um, what?!) Andy ended up losing, and the guys were forced to stay behind and make sorbet for the evening’s dinner serive. The men lost by a count of 6-4 and I was afraid that his teammates were going to unfairly scapegoat Andy for the loss, despite the fact that each blue team member (including Andy) got just one ingredient right. It’s not that I have any sort of special affection for Andy (I think he’s an amusing weasel), it’s just that it would not have been fair.

Meanwhile, the women got to further expand their palates by dining in the dark during a lunch date with Chef Ramsay. Unfortunately, Amanda appeared to also expand her hand into Chef Ramsay’s private zone and accidentally copped a feel. Given what happened later in the evening, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mrs. Ramsay got a look at this footage.

The lunch date was also an opportunity for the show to refocus on the “everyone hates Suzanne theme.” Sabrina seemed particularly annoyed that Suzanne (pictured, left) was kissing up to Ramsay during the lunch date. Although I’ve never been a fan of Suzanne’s, I didn’t think this particular incident was that bad – I think it was just edited to look that way.

To me, Suzanne’s behavior during dinner service was far worse.

Both teams had their minor struggles throughout, but seemed to fight through them. The blue kitchen temporarily fell apart once Kevin left the dining room to serve sorbet, solidly reinforcing the fact that he’s going to win this thing. Towards the end of the service, Andy ran out of mashed potatoes and appeared on the verge of a meltdown, until Dave stepped in to save the day and get the blue team a victory.

The red team could’ve definitely used a little more of that team spirit. Sabrina, once again, struggled to thoroughly cook meat and had to literally eat her mistake. It seemed cruel (and it WAS cruel), but I kind of liked Ramsay reinforcing the point to Sabrina once she returned to the kitchen – if Sabrina found the food inedible, how could she possible serve it to a paying customer?

Sabrina also had to battle her teammate Suzanne, who insisted on having her fish ready well before Sabrina’s meat was. So when Ramsay would ask where the meat was, Sabrina appeared to be hopelessly behind, while Suzanne could say things like, “Well, I was ready.” Later, Amanda stepped in to help cook Suzanne’s fish (which Suzanne hadn’t gotten right) and when it wasn’t prepared properly, Suzanne kind of threw Amanda under the bus.

I think Suzanne knows her stuff (or at least she knows more about cooking scallops than Tennille) and is the second best chef on the red team behind Ariel. To be honest, I don’t even think that she’s TRYING to sabotage her teammates. I just think that she’s an incredibly selfish player (which isn’t the worst thing in the world) who invariably rubs her teammates the wrong way. Still, I wish she were a little likable, clever or charismatic if she’s going to be this season’s villain. Instead, she’s bossy, off-putting and, simply put, not terribly fun to watch.

Tennille (who was thrilled to be best of the worst) nominated Suzanne and Sabrina for elimination, with Ramsay wisely adding Amanda on the chopping block. I thought things were going to get a bit out of hand during the elimination when Tennille and Suzanne started arguing, and I was actually shocked to find that Tennille (for the first time this season?) was actually being reasonable and making good points about how Suzanne is a sucky teammate.

Still, Suzanne did not deserve to go home, and Ramsay sent home sweet, likable Amanda instead. According to Ramsay, “sweet and likable” aren’t very good qualities for a head chef, but I’m still going to assume Mrs. Ramsay had a little input into this elimination. The fact that Ramsay told her she has no chance to win a few weeks back may have also had something to do with it.

So what’d you think of this episode? Why does Ramsay ask someone to nominate people for elimination if he’s just going to pick whoever he wants anyway? (Is it to test the chef’s integrity/decision-making abilities?) Did anyone else see Tek working in the background during one of the dinner service shots of Amanda? (If you have this episode recorded, check it out. Maybe my tired eyes are failing me tonight.) Would you have sent Sabrina home instead? Finally, anybody out there ever sampled that delicacy that is boiled coconut?