Hell's Kitchen 9/4/12--"2 Chefs Compete pt. 1" summary

Previously on “Hell’s Kitchen”: Dana won the first challenge, which is the “make a dish for cheap that someone would charge outrageous prices for” challenge. It didn’t seem to help her run the fish station though. Christina and Justin were more successful, and Barbie was mostly fine. Then suddenly Ramsey eliminated Barbie, and then we were left with a “To Be Continued” to see which other one goes home.

The first chef in the final is Christina. Nice. The other chef will be Justin. Obviously. Ramsey tells Dana she has a great palate and can also keep her jacket. She brags about how amazing her dishes are and something about David Beckham. Christina and Justin have to think of their menu, three courses: four different appetizers, four entrees, three desserts.

            

Back in the dorms they plan menus, apparently at 1:30 in the morning. Artsy photos of both of them when they were younger. Justin’s are from a restaurant while Christina’s are from home.  In the morning Ramsey calls them up to his office so he can sit them on the couch and tell them Andi and Scott aren’t there. Aww. Just kidding, they’re waiting in Vegas. Ramsey wants them to have a day of pampering and meet with Scott and Andi, but poolside.

           

On the jet, Christina claims to have been “in drama”, even though the drama never actually involved her. Ramsey gives them both new jackets…? Why? Justin mainly talks about how hard he worked. Vegas involves massages and meetings with sous chefs. Justin feels awkward in his robe, as Scott is fully dressed. Scott drily agrees that it is awkward. Andi and Scott do actually give some helpful advice. Afterwards Ramsey shows up to take them to see their parents, who are for some reason also poolside. Everyone is proud of everyone.

            

 Ramsey has promised them a “show”, which Christina claims to be suspicious of. But it turns out they have tickets to Penn and Teller, which is pretty cool. Justin is still suspicious. Penn saws Teller in half, and then explains the trick, and shows that Ramsey is providing the legs. Ramsey takes over the stage and says he’d like to turn the spotlight on the finalists. Luckily they have the camera on those two so you can see Justin figure it out far before Christina and look absolutely terrified. Hee. Time for the final challenge. Justin curses a lot, I’m not sure why because he’s been filming A TELEVISION SHOW. They have to cook five dishes: salad, seafood appetizer, ribeye, filet, and fish entrée. Odd number, of course, because that way you can have a tie and have things come down to the last judge. Everyone in the theater is watching on monitors. Exciting.

             

Francois Payard? Seriously? Ramsey got him on this show? Justin serves charred heirloom tomatoes, feta cheese, compressed watermelon, and vinegar. Christina: grilled asparagus, fried egg, baby arugula. Justin gets this point. Michel Richard, who is another French chef, like, how does Ramsey have this pull? Christina: shrimp ceviche with coconut milk and ginger and jalapeno. It sounds good. Michel hates cilantro. Ha. He actually kneels and crosses himself, which is hysterical. Justin: “Ecuadorian-style” ceviche (the shrimp is poached) and some citrus. He likes them both but in the end Justin wins this point too. Julian Serrano comes out to judge the fish course. Christina: pan-seared halibut with purple potato puree and grilled spinach. Everyone is saying nice things so it’s not exciting. Justin: Dover sole mignuere (?) and wild asparagus. The fish is a little overcooked so Christina gets the point. Stuart Gilles, who is supposedly going to “oversee” the opening of this restaurant the winner is going to “run”. Christina is serving “pork loin ribeye”. It’s good, and so is Justin’s ribeye that he’s served with sides like onion rings. Stuart goes with Christina, OF COURSE, because otherwise there wouldn’t be a tie. The final judge is Wolfgang Puck. Justin is serving his filet with butter-poached lobster and glazed carrots. Christina: pan-roasted filet with haricot verts and gorgonzola mashed potatoes. Wolfgang goes with Christina, which she celebrates. Justin vows to win.

                         

Christina and Justin run to the jet, but before they can get on Ramsey stops them and says that first they need to do one more thing: choose your brigade. Which brigade is made up of eliminated contestants, sadly. I had blocked this out of my memory. Like, obviously the eliminated contestants come back, they do it every season. Just…this season I had successfully managed to forget I would have to deal with these people again. Robyn is not particularly pleased to have to deal with these two. Christina gets to pick first, and she picks Dana. Justin picks Barbie for her “meat skills”. Christina takes Patrick for his leadership abilities, which is funny. Justin picks Brian, who needs to button a couple more buttons on his shirt. Christina’s next pick is Kimmie (sigh). Royce? Justin picks Royce? Ugh. Christina gets the last pick, technically, because whoever she doesn’t pick is the person Justin gets stuck with. And the last two people are Robyn and Clemenza. Christina takes Robyn, without really explaining why.

             

Both finalists talk to their team about menus. Dana yells about something. Christina is making scallops and risotto, combined in one dish. Dana also yells about how much work this menu seems to be, I guess because she’s lazy. All of Christina’s team is looking at her like she’s crazy. Justin doesn’t think his team is listening. Clemenza yawns. Justin bitches at everyone about how they need to support him, and Clemenza takes offense. They have a stupid argument about how Clemenza should want to help Justin win for Clemenza, and then Clemenza says he’s done and walks out. Probably.

            

 Next time: we see if Clemenza comes back and if Christina can overcome Dana’s failure and I guess Justin also has problems. Finally we get a winner and the season is over.