So as the show is beginning, Dave and I contemplate how much the winners of Food Network Star make. Bet it's not $250,000 a year off the bat! Since Dave has been watching MasterChef, he noticed that Ramsay has been recycling challenges between the two shows. So far, we have the most respect for Will, but we'll see what the next episodes bring.
At the end of the last episode, Ramsay called for a volunteer from the red team to join the blue team. None of the girls wanted to leave, and the blue team thought they were doing fine as they were (despite getting shut down for both dinner services). The girls discuss drama, and Elisa doesn't understand why people see her as causing drama. It's not that you cause major drama, Elise, it's that this season doesn't have someone like a Penny or Raj, so your drama looks bigger. One of the the blonde girls (Elizabeth, the less-ditzy one) goes to the blue team. She thinks she's gonna come out of this smelling like roses, and Dave comments that if she doesn't, she'll end up as rose fertilizer. We do after all have 2 in the role of "cute ditzy blonde to be eliminated early." Will makes a comment about having liked the team feeling that had been there before. It's hard to tell from his comment if he needs to broaden his meaning of "team" or if he's better at hiding the misogynistic tendencies than some of the "men" that have been on this show. I think it's the former, judging by what I've seen so far. I hope so.
Yet another early wake-up call, this time from clowns. It's a good thing this is a reality show and not a fraternity, because they're breaking a million hazing laws here! This morning's challenge is to feed a bunch of hungry kids and then their mothers. I am a little disturbed at the official Hell's Kitchen high chairs. They're using naan as the outside of both quesadillas and paninis...I never would have thought of using naan for either one, but I want to try it now. Elise actually makes a good point for once, telling Carrie not to keep moving back and forth in her way. The blue team (I can't say the guys' team anymore!) wins by a matter of seconds and the red team gets to clean up and assemble the playground for the kids-allowed dinner service. I swear, the only reason Ramsay does kids' nights at HK is because, unlike in his real restaurants, he has a losing team to do the cleanup afterwards. While the red team is working and bickering, the blue team is grilling Elizabeth about what the red team has been doing to be so successful, and Elizabeth shows her loyalty to her new team by leaking the state secrets. Their reward is to go to Medieval Times, and they get to actually practice swordfighting. As the red team assembles the playground equipment, they get a literal team-building exercise. Too bad they don't build their team as well as they do the equipment. Instead, they follow my rule that, from age 4 to 104, a group of all or mostly girls will be catty. The boys are acting like 5-year-olds as they come back from Medieval Times, but in a cute and endearing way, playing with their souvenirs.
For tonight's dinner service, in addition to having kids around, the contestants have the added complications of serving a welcoming margherita pizza and having one person from each team taking orders in the dining room. You know, Ramsay, you could have stopped at a welcoming margarita and the parents would be happy. Let's see if Gina and Chino can write in English more effectively than Salvador could. Gina is able to step over that bar, but yet again Chino is Epic Fail. Krupa has a strategy to avoid drama: silence. Unfortunately, Krupa, among girls, silence creates drama too. The blue team overcooks chicken tenders to the point where Ramsay says they look like a baby's flip flop. Better that than the appetizer in Love Actually that looks like a dead baby's finger. Scott's not pulling any punches with the blue team; he's got a mouth on him! Elise starts trying to take Chef's role of expediting, and we have the first Ramsay-contestant showdown this season. Amanda's all mixed up, to the point of forgetting entrees...that's dangerous. Natalie's slow on the fish station, but at least she's not rushing and sending things up raw. The diners are antsy, and Dave tells the waiters to slip them all some more wine. Thank you, Britney Spears, remind me not to put you in charge of getting the kids to sleep. I just hope the moms have Cheerios in their purses. One of the kids says, "Shut it down," and Dave and I crack up. The red team is told to shut it down for the first time, thus making Chino safe for a week. Aw, darn. I guess that makes him the winner for this week of Hell's Dining Room.
As expected, the red team starts bickering, and Elise yells at one of them asking if she takes meds for a mental illness. Dave can identify 3-4 of the women to put up there. Elise goes up in my book, for contributing to the stigma surrounding mental illness if nothing else. But I'm going to get off my soapbox now. In the end, Chef Ramsay makes his own nominations and sends Amanda home. We had difficulty calling it, since there were several worthy contenders for the plane ticket, but Dave picked Amanda based on how much Ramsay wants contestants to fight to stay.
Onward, onward, onward we go.
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