'Hell's Kitchen' recap: Watch out for the salmon shrapnel

Is this the season of delusion?

I felt like I was in an alternate universe watching Rikki Tikki Tavi Raj (he got a little DeNiro there, didn't he?) yaking it up like he was the best chef in the joint, and Sabrina with her ghetto hood-rat routine. Good stuff.
 
If we've learned anything in nearly 100 episodes of "Hell's Kitchen," it's that each team needs to designate a whipping boy and girl, probably as a defense mechanism for dealing with the sheer stress of never knowing when you are going to be struck by salmon shrapnel.

On the men's side, now that Raj and Louis are gone, it's Trev. (Maybe it's just me, but I noticed so little of Louis that I thought "Who is that guy?" when he was eliminated.) For the women's team, it's shaping up to be -- Sabrina? I actually hope she sticks around a bit longer. She gets on my nerves in a good way with all that defensive posturing and eybrow pinching. I love how she blamed Gail for causing the women to lose the ravioli challenge when she ALSO lost a point for having busted up raviolis. Again with the delusion.

Chef Gordon Ramsay may be the dark overlord of "Hell's Kitchen," but he's also the king of spitting sarcasm, starting with sending emergency paramedics to wake up the contestants and check them out to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with them to explain why dinner service has been so pathetic so far. He found out that, nope, they're all in good health -- just incompetent in the kitchen.

And his "Gail, your pan's a bit hot" line -- while throwing the charred piece of meat over his shoulder into the sink where her skillet was still on fire -- was vintage.

Two "What the?" moments of the night:

-- Boris deciding in the middle of dinner service that it would be a good time to go do dishes.

-- Sabrina in that garish outfit as they headed to the Santa Monica Pier. Maybe it would be OL for night (not really), but in the harsh sunlight she looked like a street walker. And she should know there is only one TV personality that can pull off the flower-behind-the-ear get up. And that's the inimitable Miss Niecy Nash.

And finally: Hey, looks like Vinny can cook!

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter.com / renelynch

Photo: Chef Gordon Ramsay gives thes the business to Nona. Credit: Fox

Comments

[Camay]

What I thought was hilarious; Trev prided himself on being the only person who could get through to Raj since he was the only one on the team that didn't yell him to date. A few short minutes later...Trev loses his patience and gets into several screaming matches with Raj. One final straw makes Raj break and comes within millimeters of Trev's face. Boris comes to save the day....don't know exactly what he would have done if things had exculated to a more violent scenario...I agree this is the most delusional season of Hell's kitchen by far and thank the lord Raj is finally out of the kitchen!

[B]

I'm not watching this season because if anyone can tell this Hells Kitchen seems staged with characters from central casting. what a shame, I really like this show but the people seem to confrontational and overly dramatic. I knew it when on the first episode when Ramsey got rid of the older lady who cooked to slow, and kept the fat overly exaggerated guy and that blond girl with the braces whos overly annoying. I wonder if any other people have noticed this or is it just me and my friends.

[mk]

Uhm, this is definitely the "drama" season. Crazy stuff like letting the obviously delusional Raj stay past the first episode? Come on, who would apply to compete on Hell's Kitchen and hardly be able to cook or think? And Sebrina the mouthy Kitchen Witch? She is sabotaging her team. Reality show! Staged! Also, they all swear too much; soo many bleeps that you miss half of what they are saying. I used to like this show 'cause I like cooking and the competition. But with all the screaming, swearing, backstabbing, name-calling I'm done with it!! I'll stick with Master Chef, which is much more civilized and those contestants can cook!

[mk]

Uhm, this is definitely the "drama" season. Crazy stuff like letting the obviously delusional Raj stay past the first episode? Come on, who would apply to compete on Hell's Kitchen and hardly be able to cook or think? And Sebrina the mouthy Kitchen Witch? She is sabotaging her team. Reality show! Staged! Also, they all swear too much; soo many bleeps that you miss half of what they are saying. I used to like this show 'cause I like cooking and competition. But with all the screaming, swearing, backstabbing, name-calling, and insanity I'm done with it!! I'll stick with Master Chef, which is much more civilized (including Chef Ramsay) and those contestants can cook!

[Tee]

Yea, well...where do I start???

First of all I hate that HK is on for 2 hours every week...it's has lost some of the impact for me because of this. Overkill. 9pm for an HOUR was great. I don't know about some of the cast here, they're just odd and seem out of their norm in the kitchen.

Is Sabrina for real??? Her cameos aren't even entertaining. She may be able to cook, if she would just shut up.

Raj is out there too, and way over the top. He's like the slow, pathetic kid in grade school who didn't quite make the mentally disabled category, so the regular kids and teachers were forced to deal with him. We all knew of the annoying one who everyone had to stop and wait for because he was constantly in his own little world, as if one or more of his parents dogged him out at home and he had severe insecurities because of it. Not sure how he made the cast. Not cool HK.

And what is with the drawn on or tattooed eyebrows on Jillian??? Pretty girl, but nothing is better than natural. She's clown like.

Vinny needs to wash and cut that nasty mane of his. Yuck. I would never eat from his kitchen. Repulsive. And I think he has genuine talent...

I'd like to see more of Boris' body.