‘Hell’s Kitchen’: A farewell, and hello to the Final 4

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Does anyone else remember when Robert first walked into ‘Hell’s Kitchen’? Didn’t he claim that he’d put his wedding on hold so he could try his chance at winning a job at one of Chef Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants?

If my memory turns out to be right, his fiancee is probably going to be pretty unhappy with his performance this week. And I’m not talking about the chest pains and heart ailment that forced him to ultimately bow out of the competition. I’m talking about the way he kept trying to paw the ‘Borgata babes,’ as he put it. Sheesh. It was like he’d never seen a half-dressed woman before.

Good-bye Robert, and here’s hoping that you are soon on the mend (and that you can shed some of those 400 lbs. that are not helping your health.) Maybe ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ will invite you back. Dunno if you really had a shot at going the distance, but you did earn your way into the Top 5, and you stood up to Chef Ramsay and earned his respect. You were also a pretty nice guy. And you were always good for a laugh. (‘You ain’t a man until you use a loofah, straight up.’)

But on to the Final 4. How in the world did Andrea get in there? And Ben? The two of them just implode at dinner service. If only they cooked as good as they talk. (To hear the two of them brag about their cooking prowess, you’d think Chef Ramsay was auditioning to work for them.)

‘I was totally mind-boggled,’ Ben said at one point, referring to his inexpicable decision to place lettuce in his hot saucepan as Chef Ramsay looked on.

While Ben and the rest of the survivors were irritated that Andrea won the challenge that gave her immunity, Ben was eating those words later, because she ended up unwittingly saving him. Andrea was the worst chef in the kitchen tonight, but Chef Ramsay said he had to honor her immunity. Given that, it would have been the honorable thing to give the boot to Ben, when Andrea was clearly the one who should have been going home.

So who is going to go home first? Andrea or Ben? There’s no chance they could win this thing, right?

-- Rene Lynch

(Photo of Chef Ramsay and Ben courtesy Fox)