Hell's Kitchen 7/23/12--"7 Chefs Compete" summary

Previously on “Hell’s Kitchen”: dinner service was not that exciting, people were terrible, the usual things. Barbie took forever on prep and then sat back and let everyone fail and was smug about it. Clemenza had trouble keeping track of how many orders of things he needed. The whole men’s team (and Robyn) got kicked out, but Tiffany finally went home. Ramsey was pissed because the teams made their own menus and still couldn’t execute because everyone appears to suck this season. (click for more)

Barbie gloats. Shut up Barbie. Kimmie is crying again, but she does that all the time so, whatevs. She’s apparently forced to confide in Robyn, who is fine with it because she doesn’t have to deal with that team anymore anyway.
   
Ramsey greets everyone with a giant map of the US with random foods stuck on the proper spots. Like, cheese in Wisconsin. Hee. Ramsey starts talking about regional cuisine, but then the challenge is just on Southern cuisine. Kimmie is pleased, because as you will recall, she is from the South. Behind the giant map is a big gospel choir in black robes, complete with one diva in white with a giant hat. That was fun. Everyone has to reinvent “a classic Southern dish”. Kimmie is freaking out. Now everyone in the choir has a fan with their name on it. Some people have entrees, some have side dishes. Barbie chooses to go up against Clemenza, and they end up with catfish and collard greens. For no reason, whatever choir member is chosen sings the ingredient. Brian takes on Kimmie because he thinks she’s the best. Pork chops and grits. Kimmie declares no one’s had grits like hers. Yup. Christina and Justin, fried chicken and mac and cheese. Dana vs. Robyn, meatloaf and sweet potato.
   
30 minutes to cook. Dana isn’t sure how she’s going to reinvent meatloaf. Justin has never made fried chicken. He is pounding with a frying pan. It looks like Christina took the skin off her chicken. But the skin is the best part of fried chicken! Brian says he doesn’t know how to make grits, but he also claims to be unable to read the box. Kimmie’s grits look OK, but the pot they’re in looks like it’s boiled over several times. Robyn has nutmeg and cinnamon and salt, I hope in her sweet potatoes and not the meatloaf.
   
Guest judge is Tanya Steel, who is the editor of Epicurious. Barbie and Clemenza are up first. Barbie did “Latin” catfish. It looks good and is tasty. Clemenza made a catfish po boy. Both of them made bacon collard greens, but Clemenza undercooked his fish so the women get a point. Kimmie and Brian come up next. Kimmie says a bunch of trash talk. She serves an oregano panko-crusted pork chop and the grits have cream, bacon, Monterey Jack and Swiss cheeses. Ramsey says it looks dull, but it tastes good. Brian has “Southern rubbed” pork chop with buttermilk brown sugar grits. They both rub it in that it looks pretty, but sadly the pork chop is raw. Much as I would like Kimmie to get shot down, she wins the point. Christina and Justin. Christina’s fried chicken has gravy and there is a fried kale chip on top of the mac and cheese. The batter is falling off the chicken and is soggy, so Justin and his chicken and lobster mac and cheese get the point. Last battle: meatloaf. Robyn has an open-faced meatloaf sandwich with sweet potato puree. The spices go over well, but apparently she didn’t mix the salt in enough. Dana wrapped her meatloaf in bacon. They say it’s “posh”, but there is too much lamb? In the end, Dana wins so the women finally win something. Out of those four, Dana’s dish is declared the best, and she’ll get her recipe on Epicurious. The prize for the team is the photo shoot prize, followed by lunch at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Losers have to prep both kitchens, and the whole menu is “fine dining Southern cuisine” so it’s all brand new, plus baking bread and hand churning butter. Heh.
   
Watching the Blue team churn butter is hilarious. In a terribly mean twist, the photoshoot is in the dining room. Kimmie brags that she’s a “natural” beauty and doesn’t usually wear makeup or fix her hair or whatever. Oh, producers, you put that in just to be mean. I’m not going to take the bait on that one. Ramsey cracks jokes about Charlie’s Angels and stuff. The girls have a nice lunch, until Dana says her sweet potatoes were bangin’ and Barbie can’t just let it slide. She rolls her eyes and says “That’s really nice” all fake. Then she stares at Dana all creepy. Barbie claims Dana is full of herself and she’s just letting everyone know, or something. The men make rolls, as Clemenza eats some.
   
Dana says as long as Barbie can “check her bitch ass at the door“, they’ll have a great service. Ramsey reminds all of them they should not be making stupid mistakes. Then he hollers at Kimmie that she is key to the women doing well, as she prides herself on this style of cooking. No pressure or anything. I think what Ramsey is really saying is “You run your mouth a lot, so you’d better back it up”.
   
Dana interviews about how easy crab cakes are, and then in a twist for this show, she brings up nice crab cakes. The women seem to have it together so far. Brian says something about showing the oysters who is Big Daddy or something, but he brings up rubbery oysters for a first attempt. Not a twist, the second attempt is perfect. Women are already done with their appetizers. Kimmie is confident, and they all seem to be communicating, but Kimmie’s burned all the fish. Barbie gets cocky about it in confessional. Brian is trying to do well, but he’s also burned the fish. Ramsey makes him eat it, which is not a good sign, but then when he asks Brian how it tastes, instead of saying it tastes burnt, Brian says “It tastes like fish, Chef.” Oo. Wrong answer. Ramsey kicks him out, but he goes out the front. He knows he should have kept his mouth shut. The maitre d’ (I refuse to learn his name, JP forever!) stops him and tells him to go back and fight. I guess Brian was just going to keep walking and go home? He runs back in, but Ramsey is like, what are you doing here? Brian manages this time to say the fish was burnt, and promises it won’t happen again. Oh, like that wasn’t carefully arranged. Blue team is now behind. Kimmie seems to have burned her fish again, and she slaps the spatula down in anger. And splashes herself with grease. She says she’s burned really bad on one side of her face, but you can’t see it. Brian claims he doesn’t make the same mistake twice, and he doesn’t, but Robyn has now turned in raw chicken. Ramsey yells at Brian too for no reason. Justin jumps in and starts bossing everyone around.
   
Barbie blames Kimmie for screwing up and making everyone behind, but she promises in confessional that she’s going to be on point. This, of course, is right before the clip of her bringing up unseasoned kale. She has no explanation. Christina takes over some of the garnish station. The men’s team is not answering Ramsey, but then they seem to be ready to go. And then Robyn’s chicken is raw again. She’s pissed. Ramsey kicks the whole team out, which seems unfair. Robyn begs him to only kick her out, but he says “don’t tell me what to do” and they’re all out. Clemenza tells Robyn she was all over the place and making him crazy. Kimmie brings up catfish that is somehow both raw and burnt, so the women are all kicked out too. I would bet Ramsey and his two sous chefs can get dinner out faster than all 8 of those guys.
   
Kimmie claimed this is the first service she fucked up. Yeah. Clemenza comforts her. Chef Scott comes upstairs, to yell at them and tell them to go downstairs. Ramsey stops them in the back hallway and says he can’t take any more. Now he only wants one person from each team to be up for elimination, which, why did we narrow it down?
   
Robyn knows she served raw chicken, but then she says she didn’t get kicked out of the kitchen. I guess we’re not counting that time ALL OF THEM got kicked out. Anyway, she wants to nominate Brian. Christina wants to vote for Kimmie, but Kimmie’s argument seems to be “I splashed hot oil on myself and I didn’t leave, so don’t vote for me”. Kimmie wants to get rid of Barbie, which I can get behind also. Then we get a confessional from Barbie where she said “I am not leaving tonight, I am sure of that” so I hope that is some good foreshadowing. Dana points out that she wants to vote Barbie because Kimmie is a much better team player, but doing so makes a tie.
   
The women put up Kimmie, because of the fish station. The men put up Robyn, who couldn’t focus, plus raw chicken. She looks surprised, which is weird. Robyn says she’s not ready to go, and Kimmie just lost control of the fish. Kimmie also says she’s better than Robyn (to be fair, Ramsey asked her). Robyn thinks she’s better than Kimmie, and she’s letting her head get the best of her. Ramsey tells her it’s a competition, not therapy. Heh. Robyn! Back in line! Woah. Ramsey tells Kimmie she’s not ready for his restaurant. Kimmie of course feels Barbie should be going home instead. Ramsey is pissed. Robyn says some reality-show cliché about only trusting herself. Barbie is cocky.
   
Next time: Christina and Dana shut out Barbie, Robyn says her team sabotaged her but none of them will admit it. Something is shocking.