Hell’s Kitchen 2012 Recap: ‘8 Chefs Compete’ 7/23/12

Hell's Kitchen 2012 Recap: '8 Chefs Compete' 7/23/12

Our favorite chef Gordon Ramsay returns to FOX tonight with a new episode of his popular reality show Hell’s Kitchen. On tonight’s show we are down to 8 chefs and with chef Gordon Ramsay at the helm there is always more insanity and drama than one sees on most reality TV. Stay tuned as we live blog the episode with all the up-to-the-minute details and action.

Last week the chefs didn’t learn anything when they all didn’t prep well for dinner service. In the red kitchen, Kimmie screwed up the meat station and almost got her whole team thrown out of the kitchen. Dana and Tiffany also mess up, but the red team manages to fill all their orders.

In the blue kitchen, Robyn was having trouble getting just about anything out of the kitchen while Clemenza and Brian had their own problems, but when chef Ramsay discovers raw fish, he sent the whole team back to the dorm and finished the dinner service with chef Scott.  In the end, both teams were forced to nominate two people each for elimination and Tiffany ended up heading home.

Tonight eight chefs will compete when they have to put a gourmet fine dining spin on traditional southern dishes. Kimmie, who is from Memphis, believes this is her time to be in the spotlight, but the other chefs haven’t got her confidence when they have to prepare dishes like grits, collard greens and fried chicken. One chef will be going home tonight and seven will be one step closer to the win.

We will be live blogging tonight’s episode with all the excitement, so don’t forget to come back to this spot at 8:00 PM EST to spend the evening with us.  While you wait for the recap, hit the comments and let us know what you think about Hell’s Kitchen 2012, so far?  One thing that Chef Ramsay has brought to gourmet cooking is 4-letter words – Enjoy!

RECAP: On tonight’s episode of Hell’s Kitchen the remaining chefs prepare traditional southern cuisine, such as grits, collard greens and fried chicken.

Tonight is a continuation from a very disappointing dinner service, and Kimmie is really upset and crying because her best friend Tiffany went home, and she did not deserve to go. So now Kimmie is out for Barbie and wants her out this week.

The chefs are more anxious than ever to see what Ramsay has in store for them and Ramsay explains that he has had the pleasure to travel across the states and experience all food, they pull the map across, and behind it is a gospel choir singing “Let It Shine.”

Ramsay then asks every chef to re-create a southern dish; the gospel is all holding flags with names and side dishes. Barbie is going against Clemenza, Barbie is cooking catfish, and Clemenza is cooking collard greens. Brian is going against Kimmie, and he is cooking pork chop, Kimmie will be cooking grits. Christina is up with Justin and he chooses mac and cheese, against chicken. Robin and Dana team up together and they choose meatloaf and sweet potato.

The chefs are now all working in the kitchen and have 25 minutes to cook and they are contemplating on how to cook their meals.
Dana isn’t sure how she can re-do a meatloaf, and Christina is not sure if she leaves or takes the skin off.

Tanya Steel is from epicurious.com and she will be judging the challenge, first up is catfish with collard greens, and Barbie nails it out of the park as for Clemenza his catfish could have been cooked more. Tanya chooses Barbie’s dish as the winner. Red 1, Blue 0.

Up next Tanya is judging grits and pork chop, and she loves Kimmie’s dish, and when they cut open Justin’s pork chop its raw, and they can’t eat it, now its Red 2, and Blue 0.

Now it’s mac and cheese and fried chicken, but Christina’s chicken is soggy, so Justin takes it with his mac and cheese, so now its Red 2, Blue 1.

Up now is Meatloaf and mashed potato, but Robin’s mashed potato is too salty and Tanya loves Dana’s puree. Tanya gives the point to red, she says she has to go with her heart, and the red team wins reward.

Tanya then says the recipe that sticks out is Dana’s meatloaf dish. The dish is going to be featured on the website and for the reward, they are going for a photo shoot and to have dinner with Ramsay.

Ramsay tells them to get ready to get pampered, and the blue team tells them to go prep the kitchen for both sides but it is an all new menu and now the blue team as to make butter homemade, and churn butter. Clemenza says the red team cleans up pretty good.
Now all the girls are cleaned up and doing the photo shoot, and he said look at Dana’s smile looks like she has a boyfriend for the first time.
Now the girls are at the four season enjoying lunch, and the girls feel like queens, and Dana says my sweet potatoes were bagging, and Barbie just stares at her.

Now the red team is preparing for dinner service and its moments before the doors open for the dinner service and they are doing a southern cuisine menu.

Ramsay wants Kimmie to inspire her team, and Dana is saying. “come on Kimmie you can do this”, but now Kimmie is feeling the pressure more than any other player, and she has to be ready and on her game, because she knows that Ramsay is going to be watching her.

The menu consists of Crab cake, catfish appetizer and fried chicken. Dana prepares the first crab cakes, and they turn out perfect, so now the red team is on a roll, and they have an excellent start.

Now Ramsay is waiting on the blue kitchen and the oysters are horrible and he makes them touch them and calls them solid bullets.

Bryan drops off the second oysters and they are perfect, so now the blue team as recovered and the red team have completed their appetizers with ease. Kimmie serves the first catfish and the first set of them are burned, Barbie then says that she cannot cook.

Blue team are now on entrees as well and Ramsay says that his catfish is burnt on one side, and the other side has no colour, he makes Bryan take a bite and asks him what it tastes like, he says it taste like fish. Ramsay calls him a smart ass and kicks him out. The guys tell him to get back in and to start working, and Ramsay asks what it tastes like and he says it taste like sh** and it won’t happen again after Ramsay threatens to kick him out.

Ramsay calls Kimmie for two catfish, and she keeps saying that it’s walking up and the catfish makes the grade, and the entrees start making their way out of the kitchen.

Now Ramsay is waiting on Brian for the Catfish again, and now it’s ready, and he brings it forward, but now the chicken is raw.

It’s an hour into dinner service and thanks to Robin, the blue kitchen is at a dead stop, and Clemenza and Brian are fighting and they look like they are falling apart. The women seem to be coming together on entrees and now everyone is on point, Barbie is doing entrees and Ramsay makes him taste the Collard Greens, there are no spices in them.

So now Christina is taking over the mac and cheese, Ramsay is back over on the blue kitchen and Robin is now serving chicken again, it’s raw again. Ramsay is pissed and she she begs him not to kick them out. So now blue kitchen is sent out, the blue kitchen is closed.

The catfish is all ruined and Ramsay could cry because all the catfish is raw and kicks them all out and calls them a disgrace.

Now all the teams are upstairs and Kimmie is upset because this is the third service she has screwed up and that there was so much pressure on her tonight.

Ramsay sends Chef Scott upstairs to get all the chefs and Ramsay is saying that he, Scott and the other chefs will finish the service and for each team to choose one person to go home tonight.

Clemenza is saying it should be up to Robin and Bryan, Bryan thinks Robin should go him since she put raw chicken up twice and that ultimately got them kicked out of the kitchen.

They need to decide who goes home and now the red team says that Kimmie should go home. Kimmie is now trying to throw Barbie under the bus, and Barbie has no words for Kimmie because she is not leaving tonight, Dana is saying that Kimmie is a better team mate, but if she votes for Barbie she will be screwed.

Ramsay is really disappointed and the red’s team nominee is Kimmie and she said they couldn’t move forward because of the fish.
Blue team nominates Robin, because she couldn’t focus on the dish and every time she sent the chicken up raw.

Robin says she isn’t ready to go and wants to be Ramsay’s head chef. Ramsay tells her to get back in line and he tells Kimmie to hand over her jacket because she has a big heart but isn’t ready for this.

The end! Kimmie is finally eliminated.