By Arthur Perkins

Each episode of HK5 begins with a summary of the prior episode. We were treated again to Charlie screwing up on appetizers and Seth baldly stating his desire to take out the strongest members of his team, like Giovanni and Ben. His teammates did not buy this approach; I think you have to have a screw loose to propose such a strategy when the BLUE team needs all its talent to beat the RED team. Ramsay used these incidents to stress the importance of teamwork. He asks who is the best on the RED team and Andrea says she is (probably rightly); Danny nominates himself (probably not correct). This puts him in conflict with other BLUE team members. Danny admits that he is cheeky and has a big mouth. Ramsay then presents a challenge that necessitates very good teamwork.
 
In his inimitable style, Ramsay tells both teams that Breakfast service in Hell's Kitchen begins in 30 minutes. At that time in run 50 of the peewee football players of the Pacific Coast Youth Football League and 50 of their midget cheerleaders. They will order and eat the breakfasts. The BLUE team cooks for the boys and the RED team for the girls. Colleen uses this opportunity to say that she can still fit into her cheerleading uniform as she does cheers from her station. Meanwhile, no hash brown potatoes are being cooked, so Ramsay gets on her case.
 
The most ordered dish is scrambled eggs. Seth has volunteered for the egg station but he cannot handle it. Danny says he can do better and he does help with the backlog, but Seth stays on that station. The count of meals out of the kitchen gets to 40 BLUE and 40 RED. Kids do not have the sophistication to return meals like adult diners do. Kids either eat their meal or not, so this helps both teams. The RED team wins. A small boy asks Ramsay if he "is the best chef in the world." Ramsay agrees with that statement!
 
The punishment for losing the challenge is that the men have to clean all the tables in the dining room, then clean everything in the kitchen, then prep the women's kitchen, then prep their own kitchen for the evening's service. There is a lot of grousing but not as much as I remember from the women when they lost the challenges the prior episodes. Ben accuses Danny of claiming performance he hasn't and can't deliver, which upsets Ben. Robert gets in the act by siding with Danny against Ben. Ramsay asks the men if they bonded as a result of their work together. They lie and tell him yes they did bond.
 
Ramsay tells the RED team that they are going camping. When that elicits negative response, he adds that it will be Beverly Hills style at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. They are to change into bikinis and lounge by the pool, no doubt with good food and drink served to them. A male hunk is one of their attendants. When they return and have their chef's jackets on they discover that the tomato butter has not been done by the BLUE team. Ramsay asks if this is deliberate sabotage and orders for it to be done. The oversight was Ben's and he spends much of the first hour of service completing this task. However, he does a poor job of it and Ramsay rejects it. Danny steps in and makes a much better tomato butter. The women believe as they do every year but totally without merit, that they can exploit the disharmony on the BLUE team and get rid of them one by one. I know that will never happen and they should stop wasting energy on this pipe dream.
 
Dinner service starts. Giovanni draws first blood on appetizers. Coi attempts to get ahead on spaghetti but Ramsay directs her to stop and wait until the orders for it come it because they do make-to-order dishes in Hell's Kitchen. Seth does rubber scallops and makes fun of it by saying that he is hungry and needs the calories that the unacceptable ones have after Ramsay forces him to eat them. J's caesar salad had a huge end of the lettuce on the plate, so Ramsay throws that plate on the floor to break it and emphasize his displeasure. Coi has dry, bland, underseasoned, undercooked pasta. She says she does not know why she is cooking so badly.
 
The RED team has half its appetizers out due in Ramsay's judgment to Andrea (who must be one of two on the Appetizers station). The BLUE soon after has delivered half of its appetizers. Ben is on the Meat station but his lamp chops are sliced too thin. Ramsay's wants to teach him a lesson, so he ridicules him in typical Gordon Ramsay style. Colleen is on the Meat station  with LA; La fails to cut the ends off of a Beef Wellington. Danny on Garnish station is responsible for mashed potatoes and falls behind. Colleen brings one too many Beef Wellingtons to Ramsay and gets criticized for not knowing the orders. Ramsay wants to show Seth up so just after he barks out the order flow he asks Seth to repeat it. Seth cannot and looks like a fool (which is fairly accurate). Two RED team appetizers of spaghetti lobster come back, one for no lobster and the other for undercooked spaghetti. Coi is again at fault. Scallops come back to RED as undercooked but no culprit was identified.
 
Ramsay has had enough so he shuts the kitchen down and announces that neither team has won and both have to nominate 2 people. The women go into a political mode. Coi nominated herself as worst (very accurate), but her team actually nominates Colleen and Lacey, both of whom did well in my estimation. The Men correctly nominate Seth and then Ben. they could and should have substituted J for Ben. I believe that Ramsay secretly has positive impressions of both Colleen and Ben, so he does not get rid of either one. He did ask Coi what she thought and she carefully words her response to say that it was her worst performance that evening but she does not repeat her offer to be nominated. Ben when offered the opportunity to defend himself says that he gives it his all. Ramsay tells him he is a lot of wasted motion and has achieved little. Seth says he wants it the most. Ramsay tells Ben to get back into the line and then fires Seth. He comments that Seth has great ambitions but he is a bad cook. Lacey is moved to the BLUE team to even out the numbers. She is happy about this and the other women, particularly Carol, are happy about getting rid of Lacey. I predict that this will come back to bite them. I am certain that Ramsay had different quality assessments of the RED team than Colleen and Lacey still the worst. If the RED team does not get accurate in its nominations for elimination I think they will be making a big mistake in their relationships with Ramsay.
 
The preview of next week indicates that Robert will moon chef Ramsay in the kitchen. That is something that must be seen to be believed. Be there!

(Photo courtesy of FOX)

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