TV-Hell's Kitchen Review Episode aired 4/22/08 and Top Chef Episode aired 4/23/08

It's time for Cooking Reality and on Hell's Kitchen we've got Family night and Chef Ramsey mad at one contender for no discernible reason.

In Top Chef-it's yellow, turned-on asparagus and a Polish sausage dish with no polish sausage.

A review of the episodes aired on this cooking show the week of 4/25/08.

Pic of the Day

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Pics of Top 15 Contenders in Hell's Kitchen 08

The Pasta Challenge and Hell’s Kitchen Family Night

If ever there were a restaurant less suitable for children it has to be Gordon Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen. For while the menu of Chef Gordon Ramsey’s famous eatery of TV fame is vague to even the most dedicated viewer of the reality series with the same name as the restaurant, I do know that Risotto is one popular dish served and I don’t know a child in my surround that likes Risotto.

But not to fear for Chef Ramsey not only altered the menu to include such family favorites as hamburgers and chicken, he brought in a small circus type of affair for this gala event.

Thus the contenders to win a top chef position at Ramsey’s restaurant to open in California were charged with not only offering up a full service on Hell’s Kitchen family night but also, in some cases, had to clean up the pony poop.

The show began with a pasta challenge. The chef contenders were to make their own pasta, in blue and red teams as is the norm…blue being male and red being female, and in a short period of time would be judged by which team produced the most pasta acceptable to Chef Ramsey.

Each team first designated their strongest team member. The red team appointed Jennifer with that honor and the blue team chose contender Ben.

When all was over but the shouting and a few contenders stood with pasta draped over their extended arms, the female team won the pasta challenge.



After the pasta challenge and after the female team enjoyed a day at an amusement park, Family Night at Hell’s Kitchen premiered, so to speak, and the service completed.

As always, there was chaos, yelling, cussing, contenders shouting “Yes, Chef”. Again, as always, some contender made a big cooking boo-boo and this time it was Matt, who served up raw chicken wings to the little children.

Well seriously, any so-called cook who can’t even cook chicken thoroughly should be fired right on the spot so far as I am concerned and yet, Chef Ramsey goes after the blue team’s designated leader, Ben, and I was not at all sure why.





The blue team, the males, lost the challenge of Hell’s Kitchen Family night. Bobby, the self-proclaimed black Chef Ramsey was appointed by Ramsey with the task of nominating two of his teammates for elimination. Bobby chose, rightfully, Matt of the raw chicken and contender Craig, who managed to serve no purpose on this episode save get in everyone’s way the whole night.

Then, oddly, Chef Ramsey nominates another fellow for elimination, blue team leader Ben.

It was never at all clear to me why Chef Ramsey had a bug up his ass about Ben. I heard vague references to leadership issues and hey, Ben was the leader of the blue team and this team DID lose the challenge. But if Ramsey’s going to start eliminating contenders on the basis of their leadership style then ALL of the contenders should be on the block. So far as I recall, this was the first time this year that Ramsey had team leaders appointed.

It’s not all firm and official, this team leader thing, as it is in, say, Trump’s Apprentice series.

Further, I think Ben did an okay job as his team leader, even volunteering to do an unknown job which turned out to be shoveling horse poop. Yes, Ben’s team lost the Family Night challenge but again, it isn’t as if appointing a hastily assigned leader is part of this reality show’s modus operandi.

At any rate, despite Ramsey’s odd chastisement of Ben, Craig, he with the two left thumbs, was sent packing.

I still say the contender who can’t even cook chicken should have been shown the door.

But what do I know about running a restaurant? Except I know that the food should be properly cooked.

Heh.

Contenders, 2008 "Hell's Kitchen"
======================
Vanessa, 31,Line Cook-
RosAnn, 33,Receptionist/Former cook-
Craig, 30,Sous Chef-Sent Home 4/22/08
Bobby, 37, Executive Chef-
Louross, 24,Hotel cook-
Dominic,43,Stay at Home Dad-Sent Home 4/1/08
Jen, 24,Line Cook-
Corey,25,Private Chef-
Jason,29,Sous Chef-Sent Home 4/15/08
Shayna ,28,Owner, catering company-
Matt35,Sous Chef-
Petrozza,47,Catering Director-
Sharon, 31,Room Service Chef-Sent Home 4/8/08
Ben, 29, Electricia/former chef-
Christina, 25,culinary student-



Top Chef Creates Food from Laughter

Click to View All Top Chef Chicago 08 Contenders

It began with a dessert challenge. Each Top Chef Chicago contender had to create a splendid dessert for the judges, including the guest judge from an area restaurant-QUICKFIRE.

I suppose that these finalists in the Top Chef Chicago 2008 series have their own desserts that they make readily and with much practice. If I were to be given that same challenge, a not unreasonable possibility for even a humble home chef, frankly I don’t know what I’d make. I assume that the Top Chef kitchen has all manner of ingredients at the ready so it isn’t like I’d be hampered by lack of ingredients, often the case with us humble home chefs.

I do have a few desserts that turn out quite well. Well hey, chocolate chip cookies is something I dish up often and they are beloved by all who eat. Kaitlyn will eat the dough with great relish and she also helps me make the cookies from time to time.

But chocolate chip cookies is hardly gourmet and the stuff of Top Chefs.

The desserts as prepared by the would-be Top Chefs were, as I expected, much more elaborate than my chocolate chip cookies. The winner of this challenge would be the only one to have that recipe in a Top Chef cookbook.



Contender Richard had quite the night on this episode of Top Chef Chicago 2008. He not only won this dessert challenge, he also, along with his teammate Dale, won the big challenge of the night.

The contenders went to a Second City comedy show. As viewers learned, Second City is the wellspring of many famous comedians as well as many more up and comers. Steve Carrell, the 40 year old virgin, is one such Second City graduate.

At some point during the comedy show, a chart was brought onstage and the audience was asked for colors, emotions and a food. A table of these items was created on the chart, resulting in a strange list such as:

Yellow Love Vanilla
Magenta Drunk Polish Sausage
Orange Turned-on Asparagus
Purple Depressed Bacon
Green Perplexed Tofu

Some of those emotions are weird, yes. Is “turned-on” really an emotion and is “vanilla” really a foodstuff?

Whatever the case, the remaining contenders, ten at the episodic date of this review, were split into teams of two each and given one item from the above list. Spike and Andrew had the yellow,love,vanilla list; Antonia and Lisa had the magenta,drunk,polish sausage; Stephanie and Jennifer had orange,turned-on asparagus; Mark and Nikki had purple, depressed bacon; Dale and Richard had green,perplexed tofu.



The dishes as concocted based on this odd challenge were, well creative, as the kind would say. Or horrible as the truthful might assert.

The submissions considered as the worst of the offerings included Antonia and Lisa’s “magenta, drunk, polish sausage” challenge. This was mostly because this female duo did NOT have one milligram of polish sausage in their submission, how dumb is this?

Antonia and Lisa argued that a bunch of drunks in a comedy audience shouldn’t be dictating the sorts of food they cook for the challenge but hey, as the judges shrugged, THAT WAS THE CHALLENGE!

Duh. So to willy-nilly ignore the rules of the challenge, no matter how dumb it might seem, is not the way to win the hearts and minds of the judges.

Stephanie and Jennifer was the second team nominated as the worst of the worst for their entrée “orange, turned-on asparagus”. Well hey, that was a weird combination of foods too but Stephanie and Jennifer came up with something they called “ménage a trois” which was supposed to have a sexy inference re the word “turned-on” of their challenge. The dish included lots of oranges, a stale bread of some kind, and yes, they did at least include asparagus in their dish.

However, the judges deemed Stephanie and Jennifer’s dish the worst and the judges sent Jennifer home based on her role in the cooking disaster.



The two teams who submitted the judge’s favorite dishes were Dale and Richard and Andrew and Spike.

Spike and Andrew created some sort of soup type of affair accented with vanilla crème fraiche. Their words were “yellow,love,vanilla”. The soup was created with squash which gave it a mellow yellow color.

Dale and Richard really did create quite the dish although I didn’t taste that tofu and I’d have to so test because the judges declared the tofu was delicious and I have never tasted delicious tofu.

Richard and Dale were charged with creating a dish based on the three words “Green, perplexed, tofu”. In a stroke of genius Richard came up with the idea of soaking tofu in beef fat and like I said, the judges thought the tofu really tasted like steak!

Again, I’m skeptical but hey, I’m no judge in Top Chef Chicago 2008 and I suppose they know what steak tastes like and what tofu tastes like and one tasting like the other stretches my credibility.

Whatever the case, Richard and Dale’s Steak Tofu won the prize of the Second City challenge, with Dale and Richard winning $2,500 worth of kitchenware as a prize.

Actually I thought the challenge was a bit dumb but a few of those contenders used their noggin to come up with dishes that met the criteria of the challenge and featured their own special dish as well. Spike was quite confident in his squash soup and Richard knew that soak anything in beef fat and it will end up tasting like steak.

Top 12 Contenders Top Chef Chicago 2008
====================
Nikki Cascone, 35-
Mark Simmons, 29-Sent Home 4/16/08
Staphanie Izard, 31-Chef/Chicago-
Dale Talde, 29, Sous Chef/Buddakan-
Richard Blais, 35, Chef/Trail-Blais-
Spike Mendelsohn, 27-
Antonia, 31, Executive Chef/Foxtail-
Zoi Antonitsas,30, Chef/Consultant-Sent home 4/9/08
Jennifer Biesty, 35, Exec. Chef/Coco500-Sent Home 4/23/08
Ryan Scott, 28, Chef/Mgr/Café Myth-
Lisa Fernandes, 27, Sous Chef-NY-
Andrew Dambrosi, 30, Sous Chef, Le Cirque-

Prior Links to Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef Chicago 2008 Episodes
===================
Premiere Episode
Episode aired 4/8/08
Episode aired 4/15/08
Hell’s Kitchen Family Night, Top Chef and Second City

TV-Hell's Kitchen Review Episode aired 4/15/08 and Top Chef Episode aired 4/16/08

Chef Ramsey cusses on in "Hell's Kitchen" as the contenders continue messing up.

The girl's team finally wins one and a fellow who tried desperately to quit finally is fired by Chef Ramsey.

While over at Bravo TV the Top Chef Chicago hosts a Chicago Bears' tailgate party. The would-be Top Chefs prepare tailgate meals that, in some cases, make no sense.

With a visit from the original Chicago Bear and Refrigerator Perry. All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

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Chickens and Crybabies

Pics of Top 15 Contenders in Hell's Kitchen 08

I continue to watch the Hell’s Kitchen 2008 reality series but it’s boring. Below I cover the ongoing Top Chef Chicago reality series and as a concept, both in terms of food preparation and competition, the Top Chef series is way more informative and intriguing.

With Hell’s Kitchen, it’s the same food every week, the same restaurant, the same scene, the same Chef Ramsey cussing at the contender chefs, the same contenders sobbing from their failures or Ramsey’s tirades, the same restaurant closing due to poor performance in the kitchen, the same restaurant customers getting angry at delayed meals, the same old, the same old.

Sure at the beginning of the show Ramsey usually devises some kind of contest involving food. One of the teams will win and as a prize there’s usually some photo-op event with Chef Ramsey. The losing team will be given some disgusting task, also a photo-op. Nothing much in terms of cooking or food preparation is offered.

I lament about this every week, yes I know. Hell’s Kitchen has a tremendous lead-in from American Idol. Without this I doubt this reality series would get any sort of audience.

Since I am covering the Top Chef cooking reality series I will continue to review Chef Ramsey’s boring little show but I shall continue to hope that the show’s creators will get a clue and make this show more about cooking and food preparation than Ramsey’s stupid temper. Or maybe that American Idol lead-in will disappear and Hell’s Kitchen viewership will go down to almost nothing at which time the world shall know I was right.

Heh.

In the HK episode aired on 4/15/08, the teams were challenged with cutting up a whole chicken. Hey, I remember when chickens had to be cut up into various parts for frying, when a chicken was purchased whole and cut up at home. It didn’t take long for the industry to come up with “cut up chicken” right in the package and life in kitchens across the fruited plains became much better.

My mother showed me how to cut up such a whole chicken but I never had to do one myself as this is America and such things are done by somebody else with us paying for the labor. Thus I am surprised that professional cooks must still cut up whole chickens down to its component parts but I suppose it’s part of a Chef’s job. A whole chicken breaks down into eight parts, as I learned in this episode: 2 breasts, 2 wings, 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs. Well I always knew these parts came from a chicken but I’d never much thought about it.

At any rate, the female team won the chicken-cutting challenge. The girls got treated to an afternoon at a Texas roadhouse where last year’s crybaby contender, Aaron worked!

Hell’s Kitchen opened up that night as usual. See the paragraph above where I describe the every week sequence of events and know that’s how this episode occurred, according to the stock footage repeated so many times in the past.



Chef Ramsey was so angry at that evening’s restaurant service that he refused to name a winning team.

It was during the kitchen dramatics of that evening that contender Jason begin his sobbing routine. Crying, you see, is part of everyday life in the kitchen of, heh, Hell’s Kitchen. Last year’s sobbing contender Aaron smiled and said he no longer cries, now that he’s away from the constantly cussing Ramsey. Jason sobbed this episode over his inability to remember the dessert menu for God’s sakes. Female contender Vanessa cried because she burned the meat.

Jason was so distraught that he volunteered to quit right on the spot. At this time, for some odd reason, Chef Ramsey decided to show a little heart. He refused Jason’s resignation and the restaurant service continued on until shut down.

Petrozza from the guy’s team was charged with nominating a fellow for elimination. Christina from the female team was charged with the same task, only she was to nominate a female for elimination. Petrozza nominated who else but the sobbing Jason? Christina nominated the sobbing Vanessa of the burned meat.

Crying, it would seem, does not impress the other chefs.

So even though Chef Ramsey refused Jason’s original resignation, it was at the elimination segment that Ramsey FIRED Jason.

I tell you, the whole thing doesn’t make any sense at times.



Contenders, 2008 "Hell's Kitchen"
======================
Vanessa, 31,Line Cook-
RosAnn, 33,Receptionist/Former cook-
Craig, 30,Sous Chef-
Bobby,37, Executive Chef-
Louross, 24,Hotel cook-
Dominic,43,Stay at Home Dad-Sent Home 4/1/08
Jen, 24,Line Cook-
Corey,25,Private Chef-
Jason,29,Sous Chef-Sent Home 4/15/08
Shayna,28,Owner, catering company-
Matt35,Sous Chef-
Petrozza,47,Catering Director-
Sharon, 31,Room Service Chef-Sent Home 4/8/08
Ben, 29, Electricia/former chef-
Christina, 25,culinary student-



Tailgating with the Chicago Bears

Click to View All Top Chef Chicago 08 Contenders

This reality cooking series, featured on Bravo on Wednesday nights at 10 pm, is technically called “Top Chef Chicago”. I must suppose that all cities can have a Top Chef so the city designation is needed. I do know that all of the events on this series take place in Chicago and I know pretty much nothing about that city.

Except I DO know Refrigerator Perry, a football player on the Chicago Bears in the nineties and no less a personage showed up to test the Top Chef contenders’ tailgate offerings. The Chicago Bear mascot himself showed up in fact and this was a most interesting episode in that the Chefs were charged with concocting a dish for a morning of tailgating at the Cub stadium and tailgate food is generally very American. Tailgate cooks will go to great lengths to serve up tempting and delicious food under less than perfect cooking circumstances.

This series always begins with a little cooking or food related challenge. The winner of this small challenge is exempt from elimination on the bigger challenge. I imagine this setup is a way of filling up time as the larger challenge might not take up a whole hour’s time. It does add to viewer enjoyment of the show as I see it. I’d think foodies and cooks watch this type of show and such as food and cooking stuff holds this category of viewer’s interest.

On the episode originally aired on Wednesday 4/16/08, the challenge was to create a food that would be perfect for serving with that All American drink, beer. My first thought was something with shrimp.

The most notable dish as prepped by one of the contenders was a dish by Dale which involved, I’m not making this up, pretzel crumbs sprinkle over meat.





So Jennifer won the beer challenge and was exempt from elimination for the next big challenge, which was the Chicago Bear tailgate party.

The Top Chef producers did a good job of covering this event. It began with the contenders in a kitchen, prepping their food and packing it all, of course, in Glad containers for transport to the stadium. Each contender had $350 to spend on food, 2 hours to prep the food, enough to serve 80 people. The fans themselves would rate the food and decide the winners. The judges, naturally, would also taste the food and comment extensively on same.

In no surprise at all, Refrigerator Perry, who now looks like a big Mac truck, liked the steak and ribs over all the offerings.





The top three choices for this challenge were Antonia, Dale and Stephanie. Dale saved himself from the humility of the pretzel crumb crust by being chosen as having presented the best dish at the Cubs tailgate party.

The bottom three as chosen by the fans were Nikki, Ryan and Mark. Nikki’s big crime as the judges grumbled was her failure to make her own sausage. Well there you go. I have no idea how to make sausage but I must suppose that those who would be famous chefs must know such things. You’d have thought Nikki served twinkies at her tailgate stations such was the disdain over her store-purchased sausages. Frankly I don’t think the Chicago Cubs fans tasting those sausages, grilled onions and peppers cared whether Nikki made the sausage herself but the fact that Nikki ran out of the essential side stuff of peppers and onions when serving the judges was a big no-no.

Mark, an Australian, served some sort of chowder but more than anything Mark was accused of being excessively dirty during his cooking sessions, even caught in the act of “double dipping”…ie tasting something off of a spoon that he later put back INTO his cooking food. That’s just nasty.

It was Ryan who came up with some sort of poached pear dessert covered by crème fraiche that lost the competition and was subsequently sent home by the judges.

Whatever was Ryan thinking? Poached pear and crème fraiche for a tailgate party? Throughout the whole show Ryan kept preaching during those little talking vignettes how impossibly clever he was with his fine dessert, how different, how the fans will rain praise upon him for providing them such a classy choice.

Ryan also served something called a “bread” salad now go on. Salads should not be made out of bread but hey, Ryan spent so much time patting himself on the back that he could barely get his hands down long enough to get his knives packed up and go home.

Top 12 Contenders Top Chef Chicago 2008
====================
Nikki Cascone, 35-
Mark Simmons, 29-
Staphanie Izard, 31-Chef/Chicago-
Dale Talde, 29, Sous Chef/Buddakan-
Richard Blais, 35, Chef/Trail-Blais-
Spike Mendelsohn, 27-
Antonia, 31, Executive Chef/Foxtail-
Zoi Antonitsas,30, Chef/Consultant-Sent home 4/9/08
Jennifer Biesty, 35, Exec. Chef/Coco500-
Ryan Scott, 28, Chef/Mgr/Café Myth-Sent Home 4/16/08
Lisa Fernandes, 27, Sous Chef-NY-
Andrew Dambrosi, 30, Sous Chef, Le Cirque-


Prior Links to Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef Chicago 2008 Episodes
===================
Premiere Episode
Episode aired 4/8/08
Episode aired 4/15/08

TV-Review "Miss USA 2008", "Hell's Kitchen 2008 aired 4/8/08, and "Top Chef" 08 aired 4/9/08

Reviews of two cooking show contests now ongoing-Fox's "Hell's Kitchen" and Bravo's "Top Chef". Both shows feature would-be chefs but the tasks, judging and prizes are as different as night and day.
The Top Chef features air,earth,fire and water entrees while Hell's Kitchen is same old, same old with the Chef wearing too much makeup sent home.

Plus a review of this past week's Miss USA pageant, the audacity of one contestant, the winners and runners-up and the judges whose pics will scare the hell out of you.

All with pictures you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

Pic of the Day

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Miss USA 2008 Review-The Judges Were the Most Interesting

HERE is a review of the 2007 Miss USA contest on this Blog.

And HERE is a review of the 2007 Miss Universe contest on this Blog. It was at this Miss Universe contest when the current Miss USA, Rachel Smith, took her humiliating fall. It’s all documented, with a pic, on the Blog post.

Now, a yuk from a beauty contest winner from year’s past.



Finally, a pic listing of the first four runner-ups for Miss USA, in order from winner to 4th runner up, below.











Now some of mine own fine verbal wisdom.

First, NO TALENT CONTEST?

Well sure being pretty is not the same thing as having talent and for sure it’s not the same thing as having actual brains.

Although, in fact, the top contenders were asked the infamous “question” which required thoughtful and insightful answers that would wow the judges that one female could possess so much beauty and yet still be so blindingly smart.

I was so expecting a talent contest that I didn’t make many notes as I watched in anticipation of the sarcastic critiques that would leave my mind as the contenders baton-twirled or croaked out a song to show us their talent.

Heh.

But I have a few notes.

First, there were plenty of sponsors of this beauty contest and I don’t suppose there’s anything wrong with that. We had a fur company and a designer to the fabulous as a sponsor, companies that will likely never get my business. But hey, I felt wealthy as I sat and listened to their pitches to me, a chubby middle-aged woman in curlers, munching on potato chips out in TV la-la land.

My first annoying note is Miss Pennsylvania’s insistences that just ONE letter, a letter right smack dab in the damn MIDDLE of her name, be capitalized. Her name is LauRen. Note that capital “R”. So what does she tell folks when she has to provide her name…”It’s L a u, capital R, e n”? How full of youself do you have to be to go through this all of your life, plus irritating the hell out of people in a hurry that YOU are so important you need a letter in the middle of your name capitalized? I’d have eliminated the woman just for that idiocy but alas, Miss Pennsylvania came in as 4th runner up. Then who knows, maybe this kook would have won save for her silly self and that capital R?

Miss Missouri wore a nice gown in the evening gown competition except she was covered up with absolutely no skin showing. Which was fine with me, don’t misunderstand. Her gown even had long sleeves. It was just so different for a beauty contest where skin and its constant revelation is so important.

Speaking of showing skin, I yawned at the swimsuit competition although hey, I’m not a fellow. I know the guys like to watch this sort of thing but I must wonder, doesn’t the parading of all those gorgeous bodies in swimsuits tend to numb whatever senses would be so aroused at the sight of just a few? Isn’t it kind of like a kid who suddenly discovers you really CAN have too much candy? But ah, that’s just me. By me every one of those contenders looked great in a swim suit, a sight that I have never presented in public in my entire overweight life and something I’d like to do just one time before I die.



As for the question and answer session, that one small part of a beauty contest that allows us to get to know the contender, to ascertain if she has boobs as well as brains, well I thought all five of the top group did okay. At least there were no awful gaffes like that quote in the pic above.

Miss Pennsylvania said that YES she thought beauty products for elementary school girls were fine things. Heh. Well I suppose a beauty contest entrant would think second grade a perfect time to learn the art of the eyebrow pencil. This from the broad who insists you capitalize a letter in the middle of her name you peon with a first name composed of all lower case letters.

Miss Texas, who won the thing by the way, said NO that there should not be a draft in response to a question as to whether all young people should be forced to spend a year in the country’s military. Which was a damn dopey question anyway, meant to elicit controversy as I see it. We have a voluntary army which works just fine and Miss Texas accurately labeled the question for what it was…a Bring Back the Draft question.

Miss Oklahoma thought fast with her question about what famous person she would help better themselves if she had a choice. Of course Miss OK said Britney Spears, the response that practically answers itself. I must ask one of those fine and impressive judges who asked the questions what on earth that was all about. For if one of those ladies could help anyone, why does it have to be a FAMOUS person for God’s sake?

Miss New Jersey responded correctly that children should not be denied ALL access to TV and the Internet during their childhood, what a dumb question that was. The question asserted that some parents do this very thing and I’d like to know, besides the Amish, WHO and WHERE. Miss NJ said, wisely, that these things offer so much in terms of learning and so long as parents monitored what their kids watched and where the surfed it serves no purpose to deny children these things. Translation…PARENTS SHOULD DO THEIR DAMN JOB AND WATCH WHAT THEIR KIDS ARE DOING!

Miss Mississippi responded to the query that yes, beauty contests did help her grow as a person, another dumb stock question, as hey, I’M HERE AREN’T I?

Heh, well I liked it.

I chose Miss Mississippi to win the Miss USA but the title went to Miss Texas. Which is also fine with me as I had no dog in the race. Miss Delaware was thrown over the bow early in the show.

Finally, come on guys. How about those judges? We had Joey Fantone, a guy whose claim to fame is entrant on “Dancing With the Stars” and quiz show host, a goofball from Saturday night life, the fine and personable ex-wife of Paul McCartney, Heather Mills, a couple of football players, goodness knows football players are experts on female beauty and a few flaming homosexuals, perhaps the most qualified of the lot.

If anything gave me giggles about the whole show it was those judges. Below, if you don’t believe, a pic montage of judges that should leave you ending this review with a smile.





Hell’s Kitchen Episode of 4/7/08-Halibut and Too Much Makeup”

Pics of Top 15 Contenders in Hell’s Kitchen 08

First, some food facts in honor of the two reviews below.

Fungi Trivia

The Death Cap, Amanita phalloides is responsible for 90% of deaths caused by fungus poisoning world-wide.
***
Yeasts, used in making beer and bread, are a form of fungus.
***
African termites actually cultivate a species of fungus, Termitomyces.
***
Mucor is the name given to a group of mold fungi, which grow on the surface of decaying fruit, bread, horse manure, and other organic matter.
***
Penicillin is made growing the appropriate species of mold on nutrients; the active compound is then extracted from the culture fluid and purified.
***
Most fungal species are saprophytes: they feed on remains of dead organisms or their by-products. Most forest soil has too much acid for bacteria to grow well, and so the fungi are the main decay producers.

There’s been plenty of hints that contender Sharon would soon be thrown over the bow in the 2008 “Hell’s Kitchen” contest. The very first week Gordon Ramsey made a snarky comment about how she wore too much makeup. In this episode being reviewed, Sharon was told to hang up her apron and go put on more makeup, an attempt at clever by the ever-cursing Ramsey.



Ramsey began this episode by calling all the contenders early in the morn to go through the trash receptacles and cull out the kitchen garbage and toss it into a windowed cylinder that they may see, visually and up close, the extent of their prior night’s food waste.

Which was icky to watch but a rather interesting thing in terms of learning. Nature abhors waste and frankly I’d have had all those scraps in my compost pile making a fine dirt for my gardens but that’s just me.

Then Ramsey had the contenders filet a halibut and goodness I had no idea that a halibut was such a big fish! Sure I’ve had plenty of halibut in my life but it’s always been shaped like a little square, breaded and fried, served usually with two slices of bread.

Those chefs do need to know how to filet such a fish I must suppose and when all was said and done, the girl’s team failed the challenge. The guys got a special trip on a luxury yacht and shared a meal with Gordon Ramsey while the girls had to stay back and make fish stock for the evening meal service.





Finally Hell’s Kitchen opened up for the nightly service and, as always, Gordon cussed and fussed, chef contenders failed, cried and complained. The girl’s team lost again and contender Corey was charged with choosing two co-contenders for his consideration for elimination.

Only Corey didn’t pick the contender who most screwed up that night, which would have been, by me, Roseann, who helped with maitre d’ chores and held back a slew of orders until the customers walked out from tire of the wait.

Corey chose two co-contenders who she thought were the most challenge to HER, Christina and Jen. Ramsey ignored those two choices and sent home Sharon of the too much makeup instead.

Now, judging from upcoming scene snippets, Corey will be in a constant state of rancor with the two she wrongly nominated for elimination.

Contenders, 2008 “Hell’s Kitchen”
======================
Vanessa, 31,Line Cook-
RosAnn, 33,Receptionist/Former cook-
Craig, 30,Sous Chef-
Bobby, 37, Executive Chef-
Louross, 24,Hotel cook-
Dominic,43,Stay at Home Dad-Sent Home 4/1/08
Jen, 24,Line Cook-
Corey,25,Private Chef-
Jason,29,Sous Chef-
Shayna ,28,Owner, catering company-
Matt35,Sous Chef-
Petrozza,47,Catering Director-
Sharon, 31,Room Service Chef-Sent Home 4/8/08
Ben, 29, Electricia/former chef-
Christina, 25,culinary student-

Prior Links to Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef Chicago 2008 Episodes
===================
Premiere Episode
Episode aired 4/8/08



Top Chef 2008-Meals on Wheels-We’re Not Making This Up



So okay, the meals the would-be Top Chefs prepared won’t be part of the actual food delivered to home-bound recipients from this famous and noble charity. It did seem a bit, eh, audacious to have as a challenge the preparation of exotic and fancy food for a charity event that would raise money for the Meals-on-Wheels program. I’m sure that aged Mrs. Parker has never received grilled duck breast served on a platter of boiled radicchio with a side of fine white wine in her home.

The episode aired on Wednesday (this cooking contest airs on Wednesday nights on Bravo network) 4/9/08, began with a blind taste challenge. Contenders are blindfolded then given a variety of various and sundry food items to test. They are to then indicate which of the offerings provides the best taste in terms of quality. Some examples included chocolate, sake wine, cheeses, and soy sauces.

I should think that would-be chefs should pass this test easily but a few of them did really bad, including the chocolate test. Man I can tell the difference between good and bad chocolate and you could blindfold me all night and day.

Contender Antonia won this challenge and damn, the woman won a trip to Italy!



The bigger challenge was for the contenders to split up into teams of three each. Each team was given a theme to present as the FIRST course for the Meals-on-Wheels charity event. The themes were air, fire, earth and water.

Thus the team with the “water” theme made some sort of fish and so on.

This was an interesting challenge to watch, at least from this foodie viewer’s perspective. The teams had to somehow work together in terms of honing in on a food and presentation as well as working together to get it prepared and plated in the time allowed.

In fact, this series is way more intriguing than Hell’s Kitchen because how many times can you watch Hell’s Kitchen open, Ramsey cuss, chef’s cry, and angry customers walking out before it all looks the same?

Top Chef, like the Food Network star challenge, does provide intriguing different cooking challenges every week and this air,earth,fire,water challenge held this viewer’s interest.

The fire team won with their presentation of a bacon wrapped shrimp and hey, of all the foods prepared and entered, this looked the only one I would eat.

Contender Jen’s “special friend”, Zoi, was sent home that night.



Winners of this contest will win $100,000, a trip to the French Alps and a feature in “Food and Wine” magazine, which already advertises this cooking series extensively.

Top 12 Contenders Top Chef Chicago 2008
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Nikki Cascone, 35-
Mark Simmons, 29-
Staphanie Izard, 31-Chef/Chicago-
Dale Talde, 29, Sous Chef/Buddakan-
Richard Blais, 35, Chef/Trail-Blais-
Spike Mendelsohn, 27-
Antonia, 31, Executive Chef/Foxtail-
Zoi Antonitsas,30, Chef/Consultant-Sent home 4/9/08
Jennifer Biesty, 35, Exec. Chef/Coco500-
Ryan Scott, 28, Chef/Mgr/Café Myth-
Lisa Fernandes, 27, Sous Chef-NY-
Andrew Dambrosi, 30, Sous Chef, Le Cirque-

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