Hell's Kitchen Season Premiere Recap: The Return of Robert!

Hey all so I'm now going to start blogging a third show- Hell's Kitchen. I watched the end of season 3 and all of seasons 4 and 5, and while I used to love the show I have grown tired of the incompetent chefs on the show, especially since I have recently discovered Top Chef, where the contestants actually know how to cook. Luckily from what I've read this season starts out with a lot of disasters, but overall the talent level is higher than usual (according to Chef Ramsay himself). I also heard that Season 2 winner Heather will be a sous chef this season and that several contestants will confront Gordon and one will almost threaten him. It should be an interesting season to say the least.

After an intro I skip so that I won't be spoiled as to what happens this season, we cut to JP standing impatiently outside the restaurant waiting for the bus of contestants. He even speaks in French (that is French, right?). JP is tired of being yelled at by customers and Chef Ramsay, so he gives the contestants a little warning before they enter. And we get another shot of JP running into the glass door! Ha! So he decides to give them some tips- courtesy of past contestants on a screen inside the restaurant.

First up is Bonnie, season 3 runner-up, who I remember being very pretty and having a great palette. She reminds them to always keep the stove on! This is awesome! Supposedly someone makes that mistake tonight though, and I'm guessing it will be Tennille, who said in the confessional, "Who cooks with no heat?".

Next up is Colleen from last season. Uh, should she really be giving advice??? We see the clip of her giving Chef risotto with sugar instead of salt- I would totally do that by the way, and current contestant Amanda also jokes she would do something like that. I like her already. Anyway Coleen's tip is to taste food before you serve it. Joseph is already claiming he doesn't need the clips, saying this is like being taught to tie his shoes. Which of course means he will make these mistakes later on.

Next is Aaron from season 3, who I only know because he collapsed in the kitchen during the season and had to quit the show. He also cried in front of chef the first week, which causes current contestant Van to call him a sissy. Well I can already tell the guys are just as obnoxious as Chef Ramsay said they would be. Too bad he's a jerk though because he's really cute. Of course he tells the chefs that there is no crying in Hell's Kitchen. This actually is good advice.

Aw that's it for the clips- those were fun! And I wanted them to bring back Matt.. Oh well.

Chef Ramsay then shows up on the huge screen, then in person, right away for them to cook signature dishes.

I always loved the theme song on this show. This season the contestants are in a carnival-like atmosphere.This year's contestants are Sabrina, Melinda, Van (obnoxious cute one), Joseph (who claimed he doesn't need any help on this show), Ariel (who has an evil-sounding laugh), Lovely, Jim, Andy, Tek (who looks A LOT like Ji from last season), Tennille, Louie (who already looks like a hothead), Kevin, Amanda, and Tony (who is shown as a half man, half donkey- awesome!), Suzanne, and Dave. I especially love the part where Tek throws a ball at pictures of JP and sous chef Scott.

Sabrina wants to be the sexiest winner ever (and if she does win, she would be). Kevin already has won several awards as a chef. I'm pegging him as an early favorite.

Before tasting the dishes, Chef Ramsay announces this year's prize. The winner will get to be a head chef at Araxi Restaurant, in Whistler, British Columbia, including being there for the Winter 2010 Olympics.

For the first time ever these signature dishes will serve as the first challenge for the teams. As usual, it's the red women's team versus the blue men's team.

First up is Suzanne's risotto versus Dave's ostrich. Chef calls the risotto undercooked before tasting it. Why would you make a risotto on this show unless it is perfect? Then again it seems Suzanne thinks her risotto is perfect. But both Chef and Dave agree that the risotto is chalky, crunch, and undercooked. Dave greatly respects Chef Ramsay and Dave fears criticism from Gordon would mentally damage him. Chef loves the ostrich, but calls the brussells sprouts undercooked. Surprisingly neither gets a point for their team- I would have though the ostrich alone would have been enough for the men to get the point but I guess not.

Next is Tek's shrimp versus Louie's sausage gravy over biscuits. Tek has been cooking for 10 years but has no current job. Chef enjoys the dish, especially the prawns. Tek even pats herself on the back in the confessionals afterwards. She seems like one of the early favorites to win, and appears to be a nice, honest person as well. Louie is a diner owner who claims he sells five gallons of his gravy dish a week. Chef immediately spits it out, and says it tastes like gunk. Louie is not amused. I think he is the one who is supposed to threaten Chef later. Anyway the ladies obviously get the first point of the challenge.

The third round is Tennille's lamb chop versus former marine Joseph's veal chop and vegetables. Joseph also fails with his brussels sprouts, so much so that Chef asks Joseph to taste one. But Joseph refuses to eat it without a fork. Geez it's just one brussels sprout- I don't think it would kill him to eat one with his hands. He does start out calmly asking for a fork, but then gets defensive when he claims he's "not an animal". Overreacting much? Chef meanwhile enjoys Tennille's dish and gives the ladies the point. So it seems so far like the ladies are the dominant group this season. Tennille then says in the confessional that she'll take autographs later. So she's like this year's Jen I guess- good cook, bad attitude.

Next up is Amanda's French toast versus Tony's mussels . Amanda goes back to get a glass of tequila for each of them, saying it goes well with the dish. Chef Ramsay, however, is not amused, saying French toast only takes three minutes to cook so she should have done more with her 45 minutes of time. I do think he was a bit too hard on her without even tasting the dish but at the same time French toast isn't the type of dish you make when trying to create a good first impression. I do like her kooky attitude though. Tony admits he has never been to culinary school and that he only needs to cook from the heart to do well. Okay... Cooking from the heart is great and all (ask Carla from Top Chef), but culinary school helps too. The dish looks disgusting, though Chef says he has potential and gives the men the point. He probably won't win, but he'll be around a while since Chef usually likes people with little experience but great potential.

After this is Melinda's lobster versus Jim's ahi tuna. Melinda claims the dish is rich and succulent, but she forgets the lobster, which is kind of a key ingredient. Turns out she didn't forget it, but she ruined it while cooking. Chef immediately discards the dish. Chef asks Jim to take off his coat, and Jim admits in the confessional Chef does intimidate him. Chef calls the tuna delicious, and the score is tied at 2.

Next is Kevin's steak with coffee over it versus Ariel's duck. Chef dislikes the coffee on the steak and calls the duck undercooked, so neither get the point. So much for my theory of Kevin being an early favorite. Lovely and Andy are also shut out, though we don't see what either of their dishes are.

So of course it comes down to the last dishes- Sabrina for the women and Van for the men. Sabrina cooks a pork tenderloin that Chef immediately spits out for being too spicy. Sabrina claims in the confessional that the dish reflects her because she is too spicy. I don't even know what to say about that. Van is a muscular country boy from Texas with a great palette (so he claims) who cooks some foie gras that Chef calls intriguing. The men win the challenge, and Van is stoked.

Now of course this means nothing since last year a bunch of the signature dishes were good but overall the contestants stunk, but so far it seems the obnoxious ones can cook (with the exceptions of Joseph and Louie). I'm already rooting for Tek, which of course means she'll get hurt/eliminated early like my favorite Ji did last year.

The ladies must clean up the kitchens as a punishment. Louie says it is right up their ally since they are better at cleaning anyway. So he's cocky AND sexist, which of course means he'll be around for a while just for the drama. Meanwhile the men will get take out from one of Chef's restaurants.

As I mentioned before, Heather from season 2 is back this season as a sous chef. I'm not sure if that's a step up or down from her prior gig.

The men celebrate, the women clean and complain. For dinner they get bologna sandwiches, contrasted with the men's succulent meat dishes.

All the contestants are given recipe guides on their beds to study for the dinner service. The women see them after they are done cleaning and then hit the books immediately. The guys spend all night drinking and partying, not studying, but that seems unfair since they may not realize they have homework waiting for them upstairs. A few of them might have studied instead if they had known.

And of course the men are all hung over the next morning and a little slow getting ready for service, while the women are working like machines. So it seems like the reward for the men was also a curse, which again appears a bit unfair.

Immediately the women are off to a bad start, as Lovely cooked something in advance that is supposed to be made to order. Chef is not amused. I know little about cooking though I'm guessing most items on the menu are made to order, not in advance, and I'm guessing by Chef's reaction that this is common sense in the cooking world. Suzanne immediately takes charge in remedying the situation, though based on her signature dish she'll probably just make it worse.

The new dining room this season is gorgeous, and there are new dishes on the menu as well. The guys apparently have not watched this show before because Chef calls out and order to them and they are silent in response. That's a big no-no. Tony then can't remember the order- another big no-no.

Tek then surprisingly undercooks the scallops, which gets Lovely (whose name does not match her personality apparently) upset because now her pasta must be redone. I understand why that is frustrating though. Jim then only serves four scallops instead of six, and Chef makes him count to six out loud!

The customers are annoyed having to wait for food of course, though I always wonder why this is the case. If you come to Hell's Kitchen while the show is being filmed you have to expect the food to be late/subpar because of the untrained contestants in the kitchen. I know the diners supposedly get paid to come to the restaurant but still they should come there with low expectations.

But tonight there is a special diner coming to eat- Robert!!!!! He's the contestant from last season who had to quit because of his heart disease. I loved him in the beginning then found him annoying as the season went on, but I'm surprised how happy I am to see him on the other side of the restaurant. And it turns out he is not just coming back to eat, but also to get another chance to compete. I just hope he does the same thing with Ji too... Apparently the contestants do not yet know this though. Interesting....

The men's second attempt at appetizers, done by Jim and Kevin, go smoothly. The red team though is still struggling to do the first order, mainly because of Tek's poor scallops. So much for my theory of her being a favorite. The men have moved on to entrees. So I guess the men are strong this season as well. Louie though puts a lamb in the oven without seasoning or searing, which apparently is bad. Searing apparently locks in all the flavors of the meat, so not doing this is a big mistake. The rest of the team does rally to help him though, which is a good sign.

The women are still working on their FIRST order. This time Chef notices the pasta is undercooked, even though the women all seem to think it is okay. Melinda then takes that as permission to throw out the huge pan of pasta, even though all it needed was a few more minutes on the stove. As Sabrina points out, she has a very "deer in the headlights" look to her. Chef yells at her but she still keeps that goofy look on her face.

Louie then moves over to cook the spinach even though he is on the meat station, not the garnish. As Chef points out, when he can't even cook a lamb he really shouldn't be helping out on other stations. Joseph offers to do the lamb, but Chef tells him to essentially shut up, that it is Chef's kitchen and they must follow his rules. I'm surprised Chef wasn't impressed by how Joseph wanted to take charge of the situation- I thought he liked that kind of thing.

In the red kitchen Lovely starts feeling sick and walks out of the kitchen. She starts sitting down and drinking water, determined to get back in the kitchen. It's hard to judge her without knowing how sick she is really feeling. Meanwhile her teammates continue to struggle, this time making a salmon that Chef calls a "bison's penis". Plus the salmon is frozen because Amanda accidentally put it in the freezer and not the refrigerator. Well it's not using sugar instead of salt but it's pretty close. She is kind of a ditz but I still like how reminds me of myself in the kitchen (then again, I'm not claiming to be a chef).

Lovely returns and the team gets back to work, as Louie again tries with the lamb. But this time it is ripped oddly. In fact he has a whole tray of lamb that looks like it has almost been ripped off the bone. I personally don't care if my meat looks like that as long as it tastes good but Chef clearly has higher standards. He kicks Louie out of the kitchen- hopefully for good, but I doubt it. Chef does tell him to pack his bags though, so he may be actually leaving. Which, of course, opens up a spot on the show for Robert. What a coincidence (not)! Louie has a few choice words for the camera on his way out the door of course.

Chef then decides he has finally had enough and tells both kitchens to shut down. Now he decides to talk to Robert about coming back. I guess Robert doesn't even know he is being invited on the show- either that or Robert is a good actor. Robert says yes in a heartbeat (sorry for the poor choice of words there). Aw his wife is crying too- she seems really sweet. I still don't get why he didn't bring Ji back though since she essentially had the same thing happen to her.

After service he calls out Amanda for freezing the salmon, and Melinda for overall being horrible. I think Amanda deserves another shot- she made one mistake, while Melinda and Lovely made more.

The women did in fact set a record for futility by not serving a single entree that night. They are clearly the losing team (especially because he already sent home one guy) and now must decide which three to put up for elimination. I'd say Melinda for sure, and then either Lovely for quitting or Amanda for the fish issue.

Suzanne accuses Melinda of not wanting to be here. I don't know if that's the case, I just think she can't cook. She is immediately nominated to be put on the chopping block. Lovely is the team's second choice, though Tek calls out Amanda for being a ditz. But she claims that was her only mistake, so she shouldn't go home, and I completely agree. The team then seems to stall on which two of those three to put up for elimination, but of course they eventually decide.

The first nominee is Melinda, not surprisingly. The second one (after a commercial break, of course) is Amanda. So of course the team does not listen to me. After throwing out all that pasta and overall doing horribly on appetizers Melinda by far deserves to go home over Amanda, but of course that means Chef will send home Amanda. Amanda says Lovely should be in the bottom two instead of her, but surprisingly Chef only asks Amanda and Melinda to step forward. I thought he would put Lovely in the bottom as well, though even she was not as bad as Melinda it seems.

Melinda claims she loves to cook- but of course that doesn't mean she can cook. Amanda says she never got a chance to show her potential. And the person going home is.... Melinda. Phew that was close. I'm already getting tired of seeing her puckerface every two seconds, and I agree Amanda has potential. Anyway Melinda invites Chef to taste a four course meal from her to see how good of a cook she is. Hopefully she'll remember all the ingredients this time!

Then in a final twist to end the first half of the premiere Chef decides to put Robert on the women's team. Aw I thought he was going to bring Ji back to fill the void but I guess not.

Chef calls Melinda "lost in space" and claims he sent her back to whatever planet she is from. Ha!

Supposedly this is the most shocking Hell's Kitchen ever- of course they say that every week.

As part two starts the men are upset to have lost Robert to the red team. He tells the women how to cook the dishes on the menu, and they call him a savior.

The next challenge involves attention to detail while cleaning shrimp. They must dehead the shrimp, remove the shell, and remove the private parts. Joseph of course calls this "entry-level" stuff. Chef picks Lovely to sit out the challenge to even the teams. The chefs have ten minutes to clean as many shrimp as possible. And boy do they have a lot of shrimp to work with. First Chef has a bin brought it, but then more shrimp starts dropping from the ceiling into the icebin. Well Chef certainly has a flare for dramatics.

Tennille has worked out a quick shrimp-cleaning system while Jim struggles working with shrimp that just had large "last suppers" so to speak. Lovely tries to cheer the red team on but is so half-assed that she is more of a distraction. Joseph sees the women/Robert looking lost on is confident the men have won, but Suzanne is just as confident the women/Robert will win.

Sabrina has seven shrimp cleaned to Chef's standards. Amanda adds an impressive nine to rebound from her near-elimination. Tex adds seven, and Ariel adds six to bring their total to 29. Tennille and her "system" though only had one out of eight shrimp correct, as she forgot to cut out the "sack" in most of them. Robert jokes in the confessional that she should have been able to see the private parts with her glasses. These are the kind of comments from him that annoyed me last year but for some reason this year they seem funny. Suzanne then adds ten shrimp to put the women on the right track. Robert though has only four shrimp to add to the total, chalking it up to his fingers that are as large as the shrimp. Ha! Still they finish with an impressive (I think) total of 44 shrimp.

Now it's time for the men. Andy has seven out of eight, and fish cook Van adds nine to bring the total to 16. Tony adds nine more to bring the total up to 25. Joseph only has five however, but the men still seem to be in good shape. Which, of course, means they will lose. Dave too has a poor showing with only four, but Kevin also has a nice rebound with nine out of nine shrimp. So the score is 44-43 with only Jim left for the guys. Why do I have a feeling he's going to blow it by not having any correctly cleaned shrimp? But right away he has one good shrimp, making it a tie score. His next two, however have sacks, so it is down to the final shrimp. After a commercial, we find out the last shrimp is acceptable, so the men win their second challenge in a row.

Chef calls out Tennille for her poor performance, and she cries in the confessional. What happened to "There's no crying in Hell's Kitchen". For their punishment the red team must prepare the shrimp and lemons for the shrimp cocktails to be served during dinner. The men meanwhile are going out for a seafood lunch in Newport Beach, including dessert on a yacht.

While the red teams prepares the lemons, Tek says she knows them better than people she's slept with. Ha. Ariel of course blames Tennille for the loss, though I'm surprised Robert isn't getting more of the blame. Then again he is supposed to be their "savior" so I guess they are cutting him some slack. Tennille then starts acting like a dictator to make up for her poor showing in the challenge, which of course earns her no friends on her team. She seems like this year's "contestant you love to hate".

At the reward Chef tells the contestants that being yelled at in the kitchen is the only way to get better. Joseph though is not buying what Chef is selling, claiming he came here to win, not to have lunch. Dave calls him "a little hotheaded" in confessional and I think that's being kind. I bet Joseph is the one who will call out Chef in the elimination at the end of this episode. Meanwhile the yacht arrives, with JP as the first mate in tight white pants and a striped scarf! On the yacht the men talk about how great it was talking with Chef about food. Except for Joseph of course, who just sits there shaking his head. Oh yeah he's definitely going to call out Chef later.

Back in the kitchen, Suzanne calls out Tennille once again for not knowing how to clean shrimp, and Tennille calls her "not a good person". This will be a rivalry to watch, though I doubt either of them will last too long on the show.

The men come back all cocky, which fires up Tek (and hopefully the rest of her team) to do well at the next service.

Robert steps up as a leader during the prep for dinner service. He helps them come together after their earlier fighting.

Meanwhile in the blue kitchen Tony is cutting grapefruit when Kevin comes over to show him how to do it properly. Chef then criticizes Tony's cutting, first for it not being done over a bowl, then for the shape the fruit was cut in. It's hard to tell if it was actually Kevin's way of cutting being criticized, though Tony seems to think it was. However Tony does not tell Chef it was Kevin's fault, instead taking the blame himself. I guess he believes in taking one for the team, which is a good attitude to have, but at the same time why take the blame for something someone else did?

Chef then announces that they will be serving scampi tableside during the service. He picks Van to do it for the men, with his charming good looks and big personality. I guess Chef hasn't seen the obnoxious side of him yet. Surprisingly he chooses Tennille to do it for the women so she can make up for her poor challenge performance. I thought he would choose Robert because of his personality but I guess he is needed more in the kitchen. Tennille though looks like she would rather have a cavity filled then serve tableside- this could get ugly.

Before the doors open we see Tony is still cutting grapefruit on the table rather than over a bowl, which gets Chef all riled up again. Now he is behind on the sauce, and Chef almost kicks him out of the kitchen, but surprisingly keeps his cool. I guess he remembers the potential Tony showed in his signature dish.

The tableside servers must coordinate with the contestants doing appetizers so that all the food arrives at the same time. For Van that means working with Tony and Jim, while Tennille must work with Robert and, of course, her new enemy Suzanne. This is going to end very badly.

Tennille tries to charm her customers by saying she is supposed to look like Whoopi Goldberg (which she does). Though she's not sure whether to put on a sex appeal act or not- I would steer clear of that if I were her.

In the blue kitchen Chef calls an order of scallops, and Tony is so excited to be cooking fish that he fires it up right away without communicating with the rest of the team. So the scallops are done but nothing else is ready. Whoops. Tony tries to think positive to deal with the situation.

Lovely then makes the mistake Bonnie warned of by not turning on the stove. She blames Tek for the mistake, but as Tek points out, you should be responsible for making sure your own stove is on.

In the blue kitchen Van starts the scampi but then Chef discovers Tony's scallops were no good. Tony has to break the news to Van, who needless to say is not happy. He even yells at Tony in front of the customers. That's probably not a good idea but he doesn't seem to get much flack for it.

Kevin helps Tony with the scallops, and the appetizers finally go out. Kevin does seem to talk smack a lot, but he seems less obnoxious than the others.

Meanwhile Robert strives for perfection in the red kitchen, but he ends up burning the food. He chalks it up to being overanxious on the big stage, like "trying to bust on the first night of the prom"- Ha! He also sets the stove on fire, and Chef is wondering why he brought Robert back.

JP tries to give Van advice for the tableside service, but Van just tells him to go away. The two must be put into a back room, where Chef tells them to keep their cool. Van still won't listen to JP's advice, and then proceeds to start cooking at a red team table. Well that's what you get for not listening to JP. JP tells Chef there is a language barrier between him and Van since Van is from Texas! I love JP.

Tennille serves a pregnant woman undercooked shrimp, while Van drops a pan full full of shrimp in front of customers. He runs back to get a pan and JP yells at him for running in the restaurant. Van continues to ignore him, so JP confronts him and the two get into a bit of an altercation. Chef takes the two aside before it gets too heated. JP says Van is not respecting the dining room. Chef tells them to work together and warns Van to listen to JP. The two walk back into the dining room, with JP letting "lady" Van go first. Finally someone to put Van in his place and see through that Southern charm!

Meanwhile Tennille is still backed up at the tables, which makes her team and Chef angry.

The men are working on entrees, but Andy has discovered his chicken is raw after cutting it. So he puts it back in the pan, but Chef yells at him for putting cut chicken on a stove like chicken nuggets. I don't see the big deal but then again I'm not a chef. Joseph points out Andy has a meat thermometer on his sleeve so he should have checked the chicken before cutting it. True, but I still don't see why cooking cut chicken is bad- it's still the same meat, just a different shape.

In the red kitchen Sabrina too has undercooked the chicken, slowing up the kitchen. Suzanne tries to take charge and tell everyone what is going on, but Sabrina yells back that she should stay in her own station. So I guess it's not just Tennille that hates Suzanne. I would have a bit more respect for Suzanne if she hadn't messed up the risotto in her signature dish. That makes her seem like all talk. Sabrina refuses to believe that Suzanne is right about the chicken and serves it to Chef anyway. Of course it is raw (even I could tell that), and he yells at Sabrina and throws it on the floor.

Tony is trying to impress with his fish, but falls behind with his halibut and then forgets to season it. Kevin takes initiative and starts cooking at the fish station. I'm surprised Tony lets him do that but it does seem like Kevin knows what he is doing.

Lovely then serves Chef some raw sea bass, but Lovely insists the fish is not raw. She even says in the confessional that he is old and must get his eyes checked! Wow. Then she gives it back to him and it is black.

In the blue kitchen Kevin serves raw fish, which causes everyone to try cooking in the fish station at once. This of course leads to chaos and no food coming out. In the red kitchen Sabrina has burnt the chicken and doesn't even realize it. So then Chef does something he's never done before. Aaand of course it goes to commercial before we find out what that is.

His idea is to serve just shrimp cocktails- since they aren't cooked, the contestants can't mess them up, right? That's his big plan he's never done before? Not that exciting in my opinion.

Both kitchens do well with the shrimp cocktails, but Chef thinks there is no point in cooking any food so he has the kitchens shut down.

Chef calls the night worse than the first night, which is probably true, though at least the red team got appetizers out this time. This night though had more people make mistakes than on the first night, when it was just a select few who were bad. He declares both teams losers and asks each to put up two people for elimination. I would definitely send up Tony for the men for his incompetence along with Van for his cockiness. For the red team I would choose Tennille for sure and then probably Sabrina for messing up the chicken or Lovely for messing up the fish.

Tennille claims she did a great job in the dining room, though as Robert points out, she served raw shrimp. Tony mans up and agrees to go up for elimination. The other men want to nominate Andy, who apparently made more mistakes with the chicken than just cooking it after it was cut. A lot of his food got sent back as well. But unlike Tony he refuses to admit his mistakes, claiming his is more qualified than the other contestants and thus should not be put up for elimination. The red team is debating putting up Lovely as well, though she claims her mistakes were not as bad as Tennille's, which is true. Yet I do think the fact the women was pregnant is not as big a deal as the rest of the team is making it out to be, as Tennille did not know the lady was pregnant until afterwards. She should not get that much extra criticism just because the women was pregnant. Of course she should get plenty of criticism just for serving raw shrimp to anyone.
The women also discuss sending up Sabrina, who calls out Suzanne for saying the chicken was raw. But as Suzanne points out, the chicken WAS raw. Suzanne is a know-it-all and takes charge when she shouldn't, but she was trying to help out her teammate by saying the chicken was not cooked. Sabrina was the one who didn't listen. The men consider putting Van up for elimination because of his attitude, and then, almost proving their point, he yells at them and threatens Jim, who made the suggestion. As Jim points out, Van is a powder keg who can't control his emotions. He even walks out on the deliberations. Well now if he's put up for elimination it's his own fault for not defending himself more.

Only five minutes left- is there time for an elimination?

The red team's nominees are Tennille and Lovely. I guess that makes sense since Lovely has a worse attitude than Sabrina and has made more mistakes overall. Chef asks Joseph to announce the blue team's nominees, but he says they can speak for themselves. Wow I've never seen someone who stands up to Chef as much as this guy does. Anyway their nominees are Tony and Andy. I'm actually surprised they didn't go with Van after what he did during deliberations. But the real drama is just starting, as Joseph just says their names without explaining why he nominated them. Chef asks him to say the names again, this time explaining why there were nominated. But Joseph refuses to do so, just repeating that they know why they are there. Wow. If I were Chef I might eliminate him right here. Instead he asks again to know who the nominees are and why, but Joseph just continues mouthing off, saying "I'm not no bitch" (which, surprisingly, does not get censored). The red team tries to tell him to show respect but he keeps cursing and mouthing off, even taking off his jacket, going face to face with Chef, and asking to see him outside. And then of course the episode ends.

Next week looks really good. Joseph calls Gordon a bitch, and then things really will get interesting. Plus there's a huge fire in the kitchen and someone goes to the hospital (it looks like a blue team member but I couldn't see who).

Anyway that's all for tonight's two hour spectacular. It's hard to pick favorites this early, but easy to pick those I'm not rooting for. I hope Joseph, Van, Tony, Lovely, Tennille, and Suzanne go soon, but based on tonight's show only Lovely and Tennille have really shown incompetence. I am rooting for Tek and Robert, and Jim is growing on me. I started out liking Kevin but it's hard to tell if his take-charge attitude in the kitchen is a sign of poor attitude or just a desire to win.

So thoughts on tonight's show? What do you think will happen with Joseph and Chef's standoff? Any early favorites (or non-favorites)? Post your comments below.