Every single season - hell, every single episode - the dramatic announcer of Hell's Kitchen tells us that "this will be the most explosive episode of Hell's Kitchen ever!" or "for the first time on Hell's Kitchen..." But this season, all of those proclamations might actually be true.
Of course, that's not necessarily a good thing, because it could easily turn into The Real World or Big Brother and be more about the confrontations and the personality conflicts than the actual cooking and choosing of a chef. I mean, in the first two episodes alone there are more confrontations and yelling and accusations and fisticuffs - yes, fisticuffs - than in whole seasons of other cooking reality shows.
The grand prize this year is $250,000 and the head chef position at the Araxi Restaurant in Whistler, British Columbia, where the 2010 Winter Olympics will be held. Who knows if that will actually happen (some past season winners didn't get the head chef position, probably because in the end, Chef Ramsay didn't think they could handle it).
This year's crop of cooks is a wild combo. You have your slackers, you have your hotheads (a few, actually), many morons, and one woman with Nancy Pelosi eyes. You also get not one but two former contestants who come back to the show, but I won't spoil the way that they come back. The first episode ends in a cliffhanger so wild and WTF that you'll definitely tune in the following week to see what Ramsay does. It's like a Friday episode of a soap opera, only you'll have to wait seven days instead of three.
Basically, if you like all of the ingredients (no pun intended) of what you've seen in past seasons of Hell's Kitchen, you'll like this one too. It's all of those seasons with the pedal put to the metal.
The two-hour season premiere airs next Tuesday at 8 on FOX.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-15-2009 @ 12:09PM
Joe said...
Wow, didn't this show just go off the air? Isn't it time for Top Chef? Not that Master's crap, the real thing.
Seriously though I like this show a lot, but I always feel it's kind of like "Isle if the Misfit Chef's."
http://www.joeonthetube.com
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7-15-2009 @ 2:24PM
collin said...
Maybe this is a good time to remind any potential viewers about the differences between Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef.
Top Chef is about rewarding creativity and artistry. Chefs are critiqued on their work in an environment not typical of most restaurants.
Hell's Kitchen is about perfection (meeting Gordon Ramsay's standards, that is) and consistency in a high-pressured restaurant environment. Being able to turn out the perfect Gordon Ramsay Risotto over and over, for example, ultimately determines whether you stay or leave.
Of course, I'm generalizing both shows with those statements but they are very different from each other. Most people are turned off by Hell's Kitchen at first because of the pressure that Gordon Ramsay inflicts on the contestants. But Ramsay points out that any professional chef should be expected to deliver good dishes consistently at any restaurant.
It's an interesting way to see how people work under pressure, and how they adapt to unforeseen obstacles that are thrown their way.
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7-16-2009 @ 1:00AM
Owloo said...
my guess about the former 2 are
Ji-Hyun Cha season 5 left due to injury
Julia Williams season 3 sent her to a cooking school
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7-16-2009 @ 9:26PM
Jon said...
Where is Kitchen Nightmares ? i thought it goes back and forth
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7-22-2009 @ 7:03AM
Susan J said...
Why on earth did they bring this poor excuse for a human back? I don't care if Robert is the best chef in the world, his behavior towards the women employees of the Borgata was slimy. He behaved like a total pig. Part of running a restaurant has to be the management skills and that includes respecting people. If he had won, the women in the staff would have quit before having him slobbering over them. I can't believe his fiance was so desparate for a husband that she went through with the wedding - maybe she didn't see the episode first? The finalists of last season were two people that didn't spend time bad-mouthing and cursing - they came in, did their job and went the distance. If you have skill, you don't need to be putting others down to make yourself look good - something Robert will never comprehend.
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