That didn’t take very long for Hell’s Kitchen to return, and tonight we kick off season 8 with a new cast of 16 contestants.
When the chefs arrive, the doors are locked. JP is not there. Rather, they are greeted by James, another maitre’d with an accent. He tells them to put on some blindfolds and go somewhere else. They are taken to the restaurant where somebody will become a head chef at the end of this season. So pretty much no exotic far off locale. Rather, it’s in LA. Now they can turn around and go back to Hell’s Kitchen, where they will cook their signature dishes in 45 minutes.
Emily is having difficulty keeping her entire body in her shirt. Sabrina complains that she doesn’t get taken seriously. She wishes she were male, older, and/or fatter.
The teams are divided into men vs. women once again.
First order of business is for Ramsay to make Emily cover up her far too large assets.
Emily’s dish is nice and cooked perfectly. She hopes her duck breasts are what he remembers. Russell’s dish is undercooked, but the delivery hits the mark. Both of them score a point.
Nona’s asparagus is thrown away. Then her honey fried chicken gets spit out for being too sweet. Vinny is from Queens, and quite possibly auditioning for a part in a mob movie. Although his dish looks horrible, it tastes quite nice. That’s enough to score the point.
Sabrina yawns as the next two step forward. This causes Ramsay to get bent out of shape. Seriously? After a commercial break, he gives her a chair and moves on. Lame.
Antonia’s gumbo ends up in the trash, prompting the question “Are you crazy?” He makes all the other chefs take a bite. It’ll be hard for Curtis not to top that. Better than the first dish, but still not enough for a point.
Jillian’s eyebrows are tattooed on. A little weird and very noticeable, but easy to maintain at least. Her dish is delicious. Rob’s food is thrown away because it’s clearly not cooked properly. That makes it a 2-2 tie.
Gail and Trev both fail to score a point. Lisa and Lewis face the same fate.
Boris, however, scores a point against Melissa to take the 3-2 lead.
Raj and Sabrina are the final pairing. Sabrina’s dish is beautiful, and the fish is cooked perfectly. Raj creates a dish big enough for the whole family, a seafood and vegetable pancake (a what?). The seafood tastes quite nice, but the dish looks shockingly bad. That makes it a 3-3 tie.
They’re only as good as their weakest link. Antonia’s dish means the ladies have lost. For their punishment, they will have to clean up the mess in the kitchen. Emily doesn’t want to clean… she has people who do that for her. The men go for some champagne, caviar, and massages.
Antonia is feeling ill an hour before the reopening. What, did she eat some of her own gumbo? She mysteriously passes out. When she gets up, she’s unable to say what is wrong with her, just that she doesn’t feel good, so she is hauled away to the hospital.
Emily and Raj will be taking orders. Raj is stumbling over everything.
Boris and Melissa both start off fine on the pizza station. That does not last long, though, before she delivers something raw. Overhearing Ramsay yelling about how it’s raw, Boris does his best Ramsay impression. Awesome.
Jillian’s pasta is very nice. However, Trev is not so lucky on the salad. Who doesn’t know how to make salad?
Lisa’s slow.
Sabrina cooks her food, but she’s apparently not paying attention to the tickets. Believing she has done a good job anyway, she brings it up. She just wants to show off her work, whether the others are done or not.
Raj is a little worried about Ramsay’s karma. With good reason. Anyway, Raj is assigned to help out with pizza, but that’s not good. Boris thinks he’s crazy and starts yelling.
Lisa has finally delivered her fish. Too bad it wasn’t supposed to be sushi.
After more than two hours without any entrees having been delivered, the diners start walking out. Everybody can now get thrown out of the kitchen.
Raj receives a bunch of votes. Salad guy Trev is also nominated. His hope is that the crazy guy goes instead.
Gail nominates Lisa, who realizes it didn’t look like she knew what she was doing. Nona thinks it should be Sabrina, who responds saying that it should be Nona. Jillian calls Sabrina her girl, so she’s not liking Nona right now.
Word from the hospital is that Antonia will not be returning. One additional person will be going as well.
The blue team nominates Raj and Trevor; the red team nominates Lisa and Sabrina.
Who does Sabrina think should go home? Nona. That wasn’t one of the choices, but she’ll say it anyway because Nona is good for nothing and snores.
Sabrina can get back in line, and she can shut it. Trev can as well. The person leaving Hell’s Kitchen is Lisa for being in a little over her head. A fair decision.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 Episode 2, which airs next on Fox.