Hell's Kitchen (US) - Season 05
Season 5 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen began airing on the Fox Network starting on January 29, 2009. The season concluded on May 14, 2009. Gordon Ramsay returned as head chef, as well as sous chefs Scott Leibfried and Gloria Felix and maître d' Jean-Philippe Susilovic.
Hell's Kitchen (US) - Season 05
This season also set a high number of unusual eliminations; with one chef eliminated without nomination, two chefs leaving due to medical issues, and two chefs eliminated during service, in addition to the first time a chef was eliminated despite being on the winning team, which would become more prominent in later seasons.
The first half of each episode consists of a team challenge, in which the winning side gets a reward of some sort of leisure activity, while the losing side has to clean up and prepare both kitchens, as well as some activity that is not so pleasant. Afterwards, the teams compete in executing a dinner service, during which Ramsay can impose additional punishments or kick chefs out of the kitchen. The losing team(s) nominates chefs to be considered for elimination. Ramsay can also nominate chefs, and ultimately sends a chef home. At six chefs left, the teams merge to one, and the chefs compete as individuals.
Three hundred chefs from all over America are welcomed to the new season of Hell's Kitchen, but only 16 chefs were called down and Ramsay tells them to cook him their signature dishes. The winner of this season will become head chef in Fornelletto at the Borgata in Atlantic City.
Signature Dishes: Half of the chefs received positive to average reviews on their dishes. Ramsay was impressed by Carol's roulade de veal, Ji's Chilean sea bass, and Ben's pan-seared Peking duck, and complimented Andrea, Coi, and Paula's dishes for being well-seasoned and cooked perfectly. Wil's rabbit dish and Robert's potato-and-white-truffle-wrapped Chilean sea bass also received praise for taste, but were criticized for presentation and thin sauce respectively. The remaining dishes were received poorly. Ramsay called LA's fish and chips "terrible" and spat out Colleen's smoked chicken enchiladas and Lacey's chicken and blackberry dish (Ramsay also berated Colleen for telling him she taught manners, too, when he spit it out). He also called Danny's grilled bananas "hideous", deemed Charlie's dish a joke by comparing it to a Ferris wheel, graded J's dish an "F", and berated Giovanni for not being able to cook rice. Seth's cinnamon-crusted lamb with aubergine ratatouille was also spat out and received the worst review, and when Seth laughed, Ramsay threatened to eliminate him on the spot.
Pre-Service: The teams were each told to give themselves a name. The men named themselves "Blues Brothers", while the women originally named themselves "Team Saffron", but changed it to "Spice Racks" after being called out by Ramsay. Charlie was instructed to shave prior to service, while the men became irritated with Seth's lack of basic prep skills and slow work. In the red kitchen, Lacey walked out of prep due to feeling overwhelmed and disrespected by the rest of her team, prepared the dessert station poorly, and got into an argument with Coi over it, requiring Ramsay to defuse the situation.
Service: Carol and Giovanni were chosen as waiters. In the blue kitchen, Giovanni struggled as a waiter, forgetting orders on numerous occasions. Ben served raw spaghetti and Robert screamed over Ramsay when a ticket was being announced, but they managed to get the refire accepted and keep appetizers going out at a steady rate. Unfortunately, Danny overcooked scallops and then talked back to Ramsay after the latter scolded him, but Robert managed to calm him down and keep him focused. Seth served raw lamb, then attempted to resear it after slicing it, and Wil burnt gnocchi while falling behind on garnish, needing Robert, Ben, Charlie and Seth's help. A power outage happened during service, causing the kitchens to come to a halt, but Carol used this opportunity to give the customers alcohol. In the red kitchen, Lacey served raw scallops, and Colleen was scolded for patronizing the other chefs with needless instructions. She further angered Ramsay by unnecessarily putting mascarpone into an order of lobster spaghetti, cooking too much spaghetti at once and another order in a dirty pan, and accidentally putting sugar into a risotto instead of salt. After customers began walking out, Ramsay shut both kitchens down. The women won after Carol received an 88% above average customer rating, compared to 90% below average for Giovanni, whom Ramsay declared "the worst waiter in the history of Hell's Kitchen".
Team challenge: The contestants were awakened early in the morning by a marching band, and were greeted outside by Ramsay and two piles of garbage bags containing the discarded food from last night's service. Instead of sorting through the trash, Ramsay ordered the contestants to fish scallops out of two large crates, carry them to the kitchen, and shuck as many scallops as they could in fifteen minutes. Ramsay chose Andrea to sit out in order to even out both teams. The women went first. Carol scored eight, Paula scored only one, Coi scored six and Colleen scored five. The women totaled 35 after LA, Ji, and Lacey scored eight, four and three respectively, the latter of which caused Lacey to become agitated. For the men, Ben scored only three, Danny scored nine and Giovanni scored an impressive 13 of his 15 scallops. Robert scored five, Charlie scored only two and Seth scored three, tying the score at 35. Last up was J. His first five scallops were rejected but his sixth - and last - passed, eking out a victory for the men.
Reward/punishment: The men flew in a helicopter to Catalina Island, but Robert was forced to take a ferry due to his weight. While on a submarine ride, Seth demonstrated a level of knowledge of Gordon's personal life to the point that the guys jokingly believed that Seth was stalking him. When Robert finally arrived, with the long trip causing him to miss out on the day's events, it was time for the group to head back. Meanwhile, the women spent the day prepping a raw bar for the night's service. Lacey retreated to her bunk in tears after being called out by Ramsay for her substandard performance (even though Paula had performed the worst for the women). Ji attempted to talk Lacey out of her funk, but to no avail. After arguing with Carol over her attitude, Lacey claimed illness and remained in bed, not showing up in the kitchen until six hours into the punishment.
Service: Only thirty minutes before the start of service, Ji suffered an ankle injury after slipping on some oil that left her participation in doubt, but after receiving treatment she announced to Ramsay that she would be taking part in the service. Robert and Paula were assigned as raw bar servers; Robert's amiability impressed Jean-Philippe and the customers. Charlie undercooked and under seasoned a risotto and astonished Ramsay when he admitted he had never cooked one before. Ben bailed Charlie out with his replacement, only for Charlie and Seth to serve a spaghetti with no lobster. Ramsay got angry at Giovanni for undercooking salmon, but thanks to Danny on meat, the men kept serving entrées at a steady rate. In the red kitchen, Carol got overwhelmed on appetizers and produced a risotto that stuck to the pan, but, thanks to Andrea taking control of the station, the red team managed to produce acceptable appetizers. Unfortunately, Colleen burned three orders of scallops, so Ramsay asked Lacey to show her how to cook them. Colleen then later burned the outside of a piece of salmon and simultaneously left the inside raw, while also forgetting a John Dory on the same ticket. This led Ramsay to furiously question her credentials as a culinary instructor, and when she burned yet two more orders of salmon, Ramsay demoted her to the raw bar and replaced her on the fish station with Lacey while bringing in Paula to help Coi on meat, after which things picked up. Ji's injury hobbled her throughout service, though she still performed well. To make things interesting near the end, Ramsay gathered both teams and declared that whoever first completed service was the winner. Both sides were neck-and-neck until Carol stalled the women on a dish that everyone else was ready for, allowing the men to emerge victorious.
Elimination: Colleen and Lacey were nominated. In a deleted scene included on the DVD release, the others attempted to persuade Carol to nominate herself in place of Colleen, hoping to ensure Lacey's elimination despite regarding Colleen as their worst cook, but Carol feared being eliminated for costing her team the win. After Colleen and Lacey made their pleas, Ji, whose injury confined her to a wheelchair, announced to Ramsay that she wished to withdraw from the competition. Ramsay honored Ji's request and allowed her to leave, thus reluctantly sparing Colleen and Lacey from elimination. He then lauded Ji personally for her effort and her "phenomenal" performance, while allowing her to keep her jacket as a token of her bravery (this was the first time Ramsay had let a contestant keep their jacket, it became much more common in later seasons). After she bid a tearful goodbye to her teammates, she was wheeled by Andrea out of Hell's Kitchen, with the men giving her a farewell standing ovation for her gritty performance. Despite withdrawing from the competition due to injury, she got her picture burned, unlike Vanessa Gunnell from season 4.
Team challenge: Both teams were awakened at six the next morning by the ringing of cowbells from sous chefs Scott and Gloria, and were taken on a field trip to a meat processing plant, where Scott showed the contestants how the meat was butchered and what parts of the cattle produced specific cuts. Back in the kitchen, the team challenge was to correctly label several cuts of meat, then attach the signs identifying the cuts to the proper locations on color-coded cow statues. J and Colleen got their teams off to good starts with five correct cuts out of eight on their respective statues, but then Seth and Lacey caused major setbacks for their sides, effectively forcing both teams to start over. Ben eventually labeled all of the cuts correctly, giving the men their second consecutive challenge victory. Paula had the distinction of successfully completing both parts of the challenge for the women, but had been beaten to the task by the men both times. 041b061a72