'Hell's Kitchen' premiere: Whoa.
Guest blogger John-John Williams IV returns with his thoughts on last night's premiere of the new season of Hell's Kitchen on Fox. Take it away, John-John!
I’ve watched Hell’s Kitchen for the past three or four seasons—give or take – and I have never witnessed the type of antics I saw on last night’s season premiere. You would think that you’ve seen it all when a reality television show hits season six. But last night’s show included all types of firsts in the series.
Die-hard fans please correct me if I’m wrong, but has a contestant ever challenged Chef Gordon Ramsay to a fist-fight in the parking lot? Has Ramsay ever thrown someone off the show during the season premiere in the middle of dinner service? What about offering the winner of this season to be the head chef of a restaurant in Canada? And how about bringing back a contestant from a past season to compete in another one?
Trust me, this two-hour season premiere definitely piqued my interest. I will eagerly be watching the rest of the season.
First off, I don’t think that this year’s 16 contestants are all that impressive. They make stupid mistakes in the kitchen. (How many times was a piece of halibut, a scallop, shrimp, or chicken severely undercooked throughout the two disastrous dinner services?) The hopefuls have major attitude. And they are not afraid -- or respectful enough — not to get into near fights with others. (This includes Ramsay and his staff.)
Things started off normally enough. The contestants arrived at Hell’s Kitchen. They were greeted with a series of video messages from former contestants Bonnie from season 3, Aaron from season 4, and Colleen from last season. The three alumni tell the newcomers: make sure they turn on the heat before cooking; taste their food before they serve it; and don’t cry in the kitchen. It soon becomes apparent that each one of these rules will be broken repeatedly throughout the course of the season.
Anyhoo, the contestants are immediately asked to flex their culinary muscles when they are challenged to cook their signature dish. Each contestant has 45 minutes to wow Ramsay.
Some contestants -- Tek, Tennille, Tony, and Van — get Ramsay’s approval. While others — Suzanne, Melinda, Lovely, and Louie — irk Ramsay more than anything. Ramsay spits out Louie’s biscuits and gravy.
This season, Ramsay immediately splits up the contestants by gender and forms two teams. He turns the signature dish activity into a challenge, and the men’s team wins. As a reward they are to eat dinner at Ramsay's London West Hollywood restaurant. The women have to clean the entire dirty-pot-and-dish-filled kitchen as punishment. After the women finish cleaning the kitchen they spend the rest of the night studying recipes and the menu for dinner service in Hell’s Kitchen. The guys continue their celebrating by drinking champagne and swimming in the hot tub.
All the partying really doesn’t affect the guys the next day because everyone is horrible during the dinner service.
The women repeatedly mess up on appetizers. The men – specifically Louie-- have problems cooking meat. Melinda gets yelled at by Ramsay after he discovers that she has thrown away perfectly good pasta. Lovely leaves the kitchen because she feels sick and is absent for about 45 minutes while she consumes several bottles of water. (Oh brother!!!) Meanwhile, Amanda freezes salmon by accident, which enrages Ramsay. Louie further irks Ramsay by ruining like a gazillion lamb chops. Ramsay has enough of Louie and kicks him off the show! (There’s one of the firsts I was talking about.) Louie mouths off at the confessional camera. (Blah, blah, blah.) Meanwhile, a disgusted Ramsay closes down the kitchen early.
He then asks Robert – a contestant from last season who left the show early for medical reasons -- to join the show. Robert gladly accepts.
Ramsay then goes off on the contestants. He announces that the women are the losing team. As a result they must chose two members of their team for eviction. They chose Melinda and Amanda, who insists that Lovely should really be the one up on the chopping block. It doesn’t matter in the end. Ramsay sends Melinda home packing. (She really needed to go. She always looked confused. And she didn’t do anything correct as far as I could see.) Ramsay then assigns Robert to the women’s team. The women rejoice because they think that Robert will be their savior.
Sure, Robert gives the women some tips. But those tips don’t help when the women’s team loses the next day’s shrimp cleaning challenge. As punishment, the women have to clean a legion of shrimp for the night’s dinner service. The men’s team goes to lunch with Ramsay, and later enjoys a yacht ride. During the lunch, Joseph starts mouthing off at Ramsay again. He informs everyone that he doesn’t really care about eating lunch with Ramsay. He wants to compete in the kitchen. (During the signature dish challenge, Joseph had demanded that Ramsay gives him a fork. He also lips off to Ramsay a little bit.)
Fast-forward to the night’s dinner service. Both teams are disastrous — again!
Van and Tennille are chosen to make scampi tableside during the dinner service.
Tony messes up repeatedly. First he shows that he can’t cut grapefruit. He also screws up by cooking scallops ahead of time. He’s on his way out! Robert screws up risotto, and Ramsay yells at him.
Van starts arguing with Ramsay’s head waiter, Jean-Philippe. The two get into a shoving match when Jean-Philippe attempts to chastise Van for running in the restaurant. Ramsay steps in and mediates.
Meanwhile, Tennille struggles on scampi appetizers and brings her team to a halt. Sabrina tries to serve raw chicken, which angers Ramsay. Tony moves on to messing up halibut. Kevin takes over for him, and incorrectly cooks the fish as well. In the women’s kitchen, Lovely messes up cooking sea bass.
Ramsay has enough. He tells everyone to stop cooking and start serving shrimp cocktail since this is a cold dish that they cannot incorrectly cook. After the shrimp cocktail is served, Ramsay shuts down the kitchen early — again!
Ramsay informs the contestants that neither team has won the challenge, so both teams need to nominate two contestants for eviction.
The women chose Lovely and Tennille. A fight almost breaks out between Van and Jim, after Jim suggests that Van be put up for eviction because of his scuffle with Jean-Philippe. Van gets really irate with Jim and basically challenges him to a fight. (What a hot head!) But this is nothing compared to what happens during the eviction.
We never find out who is evicted this episode because Joseph begins mouthing off at Ramsay — again! This time, Joseph refuses to name the reason why Tony and ??? have been nominated for eviction. He gives some stupid explanation about his teammates being men, so they don’t need to explain why they were nominated. Oh yeah, Ramsay calls Joseph “stupid” repeatedly, which gets Joseph to start cursing at Ramsay. He then starts lashing out at the other contestants who are trying to calm him down.
The episode ends with Joseph ripping off his chef’s coat, and charging Ramsay, challenging him to a fist-fight in the parking lot. (Whoa!) The audience is left wondering which contestant or contestants will be kicked off the show; and whether or not Ramsay and Joseph throw down.
I can’t wait for next week’s episode!
Comments
This season may have the worst cooks ever. It would have been funny if Ramsey eliminated everyone and bought in 16 new chefs. This will definately be a good season to watch.
Posted by: jason | July 22, 2009 1:15 PM
The show was a piece of junk. It is true that Ramsay already has a filthy mouth but between him and these weird cooks he got from who knows where, the whole show was a bleep fest besides clearly being scripted to the max. It is definitely not anything to be taken seriously as far as culinary competition nor is it decent prime time family fare. I'm way past done with this show.
Posted by: David Lewis | July 22, 2009 3:37 PM
My "scripted" alarm bells when off with this one. Everything happened too perfectly. Kicking Louie off with Robert waiting in the wings. The flamboyantly aggressive confrontations.
My prediction - Joseph will be there for awhile. Even after lobbing epithets at a thin-skinned Ramsey. The producers eat that conflict up because audiences do. And they'll justify keeping him by having Ramsey proclaim that he likes the soldier's fire and ambition.
I'll continue to watch, but I'm really torn by the ratcheted sensationalism and overt scripting.
Posted by: M.M.McDermott | July 22, 2009 4:11 PM
I think James was deliberately scripted to infuse the show with explosive drama. I bet it's all faked.
Van is a drunk. He's sloppy through the services and is also confrontational. He's the stupid version of James. Also another scripted character.
Posted by: bozo | July 22, 2009 4:31 PM
I'm tired of every challenge coming down to the last point. Last season it seemed like every challenged hinged by a point and this season started off with the same. Talk about scripted for ridiculous suspense.
Posted by: Jay | July 22, 2009 5:00 PM
Hey Dave Lewis, I think most of these non-chefs are on parole! What a brigade of psychopaths. Chefs? More like mobsters & incompetents. They make the Sopranos look like fine, upstanding family folk. I'm guilty of falling for the obvious intended "reality hype". I hope Ramsey dots Joey out! This season really looks like Hell's Kitchen.
Posted by: ScarGotz | July 22, 2009 5:17 PM
It's obvious the show is scripted by can't writers come up with plausible confrontation? Since when did the waiter ever show any sort of emotion. Before that episode, all I remember of him is being a lackey and the idiot who walked into a glass door.
Continuing on this theme of ridiculus storylines, what kind of human being loses his mind and starts yelling I ain't no bitch meaning that he is one over being asked a simple question repeatedly of why the two chefs were put up for expulsion. Then oin top of that he goes to chef and challenges him to a fight over that? It's retarded. So was the ridiculous preview on next week where they make it out that either Ramsay destroys him or Joseph becomes a crazed arsen and burns the place down.
Posted by: arnold | July 22, 2009 7:05 PM
I don't agree with any of you. This may be scripted, I have no idea, frankly I don't care. If I wasn't watching for the drama I could watch Rachel Ray cook a meal on the food network! This show is is entertainment, the ratings were starting to falter.. so maybe they did bring in some scripted stuff... imo it makes the show that much more likely to be watched.
Maybe the rest of you are watching for culinary knowlege (though I can't figure out what you would learn) but I am watching for entertainment... and the season starter definitely has me entertained and waiting for more!
Posted by: erthgoddss | July 22, 2009 7:22 PM
Horrible show and a waste of time. If you care about food and cooking, Bravo or Food Network are the only places to watch it. Just another reason not to watch television on Fox.
Posted by: Steve | July 22, 2009 7:55 PM
Wow, this show is great. If you wanna learn how to cook a meal in 30 minutes or less you can change the channel with that invention they call the remote, great little thing. No one is forcing you to watch. This show is great entertainment after and coming home from a long days work, its just what I need. Again, this show is great.
Posted by: J | July 22, 2009 8:56 PM
I can assure allo of you that hell's kitchen is not scripted because in season three my cousin on there and he said all the fighting and cursing was very much real. Believe it or not i don't care.
Posted by: darealshaq033 | July 22, 2009 10:14 PM
I would have to disagree with you Steve, I get so bored with watching Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay trying to outdo each other on Food Network that I like a little spice to go with my cooking show. Although a little over the top at times, Gordon Ramsey has proved himself several times over with several television shows in the UK and USA. Also, I thought it was ironic that Ramsey was getting a little taste of his own medicine on his own show. As much as he tries to sharpen the culinary skills of his chefs, he dishes out some major disrespect.
Posted by: Jordan | July 23, 2009 12:17 AM
I concur the show was horrible! Joseph, the ex-Marine/drama queen, seemed confused as to what show he was on...his b*+*4 personality belongs on Jerry Springer! I think he was trying way too hard to stand out on the show...leave the drama to TNT there Nancy "Joseph"!
Posted by: Mary | July 23, 2009 2:38 AM
I think that Melinda was an actor. No one who acts as spaced out as she did would have made it through the auditioning. I also have my doubts about Louie. I think all along they wanted to bring Robert back but wanted to do it in a dramatic way. Also the end of the show with Joseph, that had to be totally scripted. So I think this season at least the first episode is taking its viewers on a ride. Hopefully once they remove the actors we will have a real show to watch.
Posted by: Paul | July 23, 2009 12:04 PM
I think it's the perfect example of the American attitude toward everything. They can't wrap their tiny minds around the fact that if they want the knowledge Ramsay has to offer then they need to show respect in return. There is nothing they don't know every thing about and that's sad.
This show needs to return to the way it was the first year. If lovely can make it on the show then anyone can. There are to many fillers on the show. People that they know ahead of time don't have a chance. The chippy hardassed Marine should know about morale but he talks to others like that? Give me a break. He was paid to act like that. The Red neck Texan blowing up in front of customers? Come on people, you know you would never go back to that place. I still tape the show so I can fast forward through the 10 minutes of commercials (every 6 minutes) but it has really lost something this year.
I wonder how many people have noticed how politically correct it is too. Let's see white man wins then it's white woman, then it's man of color , then gay woman (I think), then white man....bet you anything this seasons winner is not white or a male.
Posted by: Greg, Ontario | July 23, 2009 6:19 PM
ok it was so obvious both the fight scenes were scripted terrible acting
Posted by: mike | July 23, 2009 6:46 PM
This show is catering to the pathetic younger generation who only care about fighting and being rude.
This show has completely sold out.
Posted by: Mike | July 23, 2009 7:16 PM
Van is the best one on this show. He has karisma and don't put up with no one's crap. He is already a successful chef at The French Room of the Adolphus Hotel. I hope he wins. he keeps the show on it's toes. I found him charming and aggressive. Great for t.v.
Posted by: HK60009 | July 25, 2009 11:21 PM
I've watched this show since it's beginning. It's something to look forward to after the humdrum of nothingness on tv. Sitcoms suck, game shows, well you know. Gordon Ramsey rules!
Posted by: csjim37 | July 26, 2009 3:42 PM
(quote)"I think it's the perfect example of the American attitude toward everything. They can't wrap their tiny minds around the fact that if they want the knowledge Ramsay has to offer then they need to show respect in return. There is nothing they don't know every thing about and that's sad."Greg,Ontario. Greg..please..your not seriously going to compare the entire population of the U.S. to a couple of boneheads on a reality show??? REALLY?!?
Posted by: Roy | July 27, 2009 10:25 AM
This show is definitely scripted, and I'm sorry, because the show used to be somewhat about cooking and that was plenty of drama and excitement! Now I'm looking in vain for real cooking information and just waiting for the drama to finish... I miss kitchen nightmares!
Posted by: joseph | July 27, 2009 11:20 AM
Watch Ramsey on the BBC on "The F Word." Way better television.
Posted by: GBA1 | July 28, 2009 10:51 AM
joseph wrote: Now I'm looking in vain for real cooking information and just waiting for the drama to finish... I miss kitchen nightmares!
It IS after all called HELL's kitchen! I also miss KN but it'll be back.
Posted by: csjim37 | August 1, 2009 9:14 AM
Baltimoresun, great stuff. Really enjoyed reading this one, please keep up the good news.
Posted by: Island Hoods | August 13, 2009 11:58 PM