'Hell's Kitchen': Robert shoots the moon

Gordon Ramsay has always been a man who knows what, and who, he wants. He may allow people on Hell's Kitchen to feel as though they're playing him, but I'm pretty convinced that he always steers the ship so that his picks get removed. Sometimes, it's not even subtle steering.

The challenge tonight was an Asian fusion one and required the chefs to not only buy stuff but then actually cook three different dishes with their purchases. The men (with Lacey) did a great job. The may not have thought through the dishes before they bought ingredients, but the women's stopping and talking about everything meant that they had to listen to Andrea. That woman just can't seem to close her mouth. The show highlighted it somewhat last week, but her mouth seems to have only grown in speed and volume since. At least she can cook. It was her dish that broke the one to one tie.

I really don't mind that Andrea won, but I did want to shoot myself after Lacey lost. She started up her whining and moaning and complaining as soon as the men's were defeated. She told everyone who would listen that she was going to be going home after the dinner service. Lacey's defeatist attitude is unbelievable. Even her new team hated her instantly.

And then it happened, she fixed it. She got lucky really -- as part of their punishment, the men's side had to do some origami and Lacey seemed to have a knack for it. The rest of the team was completely flabbergasted, but Lacey managed to teach them how to fold the paper and complete the task. She was instantly a new favorite on the team, and she was able to carry that success over to dinner service.

Andrea was not. She had issues with the beef wellington during dinner and, rather than copping to her mistakes, hid the burned wellington's on a shelf under her station (and though not mentioned there was some lamb there too), she got caught. She got yelled at. She deserved it. At least she didn't go down like Robert. Robert refused to answer Ramsay about the status of some food and got caught tossing stuff in the bin and generally being rude. Ramsay took him outside to have a few words with him (after those words, Robert mooned the camera, and suggested Ramsay ought to kiss his behind). Robert and Ramsay would have another private talk later in the episode about Robert not liking being referred to as "Bobby" as Bobby was his dad's name and his dad wasn't a pleasant man. There, Ramsay acknowledged Robert's wishes and promised to use his full name in the future. Apparently Gordon Ramsay does have a soul.

Okay, he deserved to get momentarily booted from the kitchen for his attitude, but it did bring up an interesting question, something you may be able to answer for me. Robert shouldn't have had to throw that much away, but he did, he cooked it badly and Ramsay would never have accepted it. So, why was Ramsay upset that it went into the bin? It seemed like he would rather Robert had brought it up to him, didn't it? I get the upset over wasted food, but that didn't seem to be the thrust of Ramsay's distress. Was Ramsay just upset that he missed the opportunity to yell about badly cooked food?

Both teams had a poor night tonight. J was a disaster, Colleen served some raw pastry and pear, and we've already discussed Andrea and Robert. By the end, even though the women finished their entrees, Ramsay shutdown the kitchen. Kind of weird if you ask me. Okay, Colleen couldn't hack the desserts, but surely things couldn't have been so horrific if the women made it that far, right?

Even so, both teams were declared losers and Giovanni and LA were left to choose one person from each side for the chopping block. LA nominated Andrea and Giovanni nominated J. Ramsay, as we all know, has hated Colleen from day one. He has mocked her more than anyone else this season, and he apparently didn't want to see either J or Andrea go home tonight. He pretended for a second like he was going to get rid of Robert, but after his private chat with the big guy he couldn't eliminate him this evening. He tossed Colleen instead.

I applaud Ramsay's move. He knew he'd never select Colleen, there was absolutely no reason to keep her. The same could be said for Lacey and some other people, but Colleen was the worst offender and needed to go.

Bits and pieces:

• The quote of the night, from Robert when talking about how good he is with fusion food -- "I'll make a gourmet meal out of Cap'n Crunch and BLEEPing filet mignon."
• In another little bit of fun, at their reward tonight the women got to see Ramsay and Jean-Philippe throw on sumo wrestling outfits and go at it. I expected more ferocity out of the angry Belgian.
  

The TV and Film Guy's Reviews - we throw nothing in the bin.

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