S22.E01: The Dream Begins

[jewel21]

Quote

The theme of Season 22 of Hell's Kitchen is "The American Dream" and eighteen diverse contestants have come from all over America to follow their dream to work for Chef Gordon Ramsay. In the season premiere episode, contestants will set out to impress Chef Ramsay in the Signature Dish Challenge after being divided into two teams. After meeting some inspirational American icons including boxer Oscar De La Hoya and country music superstar Martina McBride, the winning team will be rewarded with a private dinner party with Chef Ramsay, while the loosing team is left behind to clean up the filthy kitchens.

Airdate: 09/28/2023

[patty1h]

Been watching HK for years but this theme of American Dream seems to be more about where you come from and not about cooking skills.  If the show becomes about digging up little cute stories about growing up poor, how Grandma taught you how to cook in her one-room shack and you want to make a better life for your 13 children, I'm gonna be annoyed.  I got enough of that when I used to watch The Next Food Network Star.  They loved that shit - dredge up a folksy tale about every dish you ever cooked and how you owe it to your mom, aunt or grandmother.

I don't recall the amount of bragging and "they better watch out for me!" in past seasons that I heard in the first half hour.  Enough of that.   When will they ever stop pitting men against women?

[chicagofan]

Here we go again.

Still sorting out the red team, but no one stood out as annoying to me - yet. I'm sure that will change. As a woman I tend to root for the red team, especially when the men go all sexist on the women.

Already have 3 guys on my list. Topping it is Jason - just how many Jasons/Jays/Js have been on this show? Thought Ramsay was either going to shut him up or fall asleep as he was reciting his resume. And then the complaining talking head when his dish only got a 3. I get his point about "Talk and Work", but give it a rest. He might be a case of someone who's not as good as he thinks he is - I always root against them.

Number 2 on my list is Tad. No, just no. And number 3 is Brad. While I like him for ragging on Jason, there's just a vibe I'm getting from him that I don't like.

Has Dahmere (I think it was him) never seen Hell's Kitchen or any other Gordon Ramsay show? Never, ever do you use pasta from a box - it's the kiss of death.

[Msample]

I fast forwarded thru all the tear jerking sob story shit. Between that, commercials, and the first 30 seconds after each commercial being the same footage as the last 30 seconds before the commercial( same for any GR show ) , you can watch the entire ep in like 20 mins.

 

Quidditch dork won’t last long. Nor should he. That plate he served was easily the most disgusting looking one. 

[LennieBriscoe]

Irish Boyo has stunning eyes to go with his perfect dish! Boastful Guy is ready for a full comeuppance. Dreads Dude serves Gordon the forbidden pasta from a box, FGS! Quidditch---Really, Weird Kid? 

Of the women, I recall only the burned and jettisoned salmon skin. Oh, and the Vegan "Scallops" by a non-Vegan chef for another non-Vegan chef. 

Ramsey Executive Christina is from about 15 miles from me. Glad to have watched her first steps to success! 

ETA: If you watch the final 5 seconds of the Preview and see Chef Ramsey slap "something" onto the head of his Maitre-d', I think you can figure out what exactly is in the Mystery Boxes! 

Edited September 29, 2023 by LennieBriscoe

[milkyaqua]

I'll probably forget this is on so won't faithfully watch but I just know they're going to wear out the whole American Dream nonsense before long and actually, I think they already have.

As for the chefs, if Jason has worked under so many accomplished chefs, why is he even on this show and behaving like an @ss?  Mr. Quiddich can leave any time and guy cooking pasta from the box won't make that mistake again or at least put salt in your darn water.  I'm over that one one female personal chef whose reaction to GR's critique was to giggle like a school girl.  And miss burned salmon skin, okay you're new to cooking (why are you here?) and the hot stove threw you...I don't know what to say about that...  I did love GR telling miss vegan scallop chef that he's not a vegan, hah!

Edited September 29, 2023 by milkyaqua

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

18 hours ago, patty1h said:

When will they ever stop pitting men against women?

In the early part of the season, we're being asked to keep track of a lot of people we've never heard of before. Men in Blue vs Women in Red is an easy-to-remember dynamic that doesn't require any additional mental effort from the viewers.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Sir RaiderDuck OMS

[Pepper the Cat]

I think the girl that burnt her salmon skin has potential.

She realized it was burnt and got rid of it.

She realized the reason for burning was an unfamiliar stove and pan, and said she knows  now what to watch for. To me, she is learning .

[DoctorK]

I recorded the show last night and just watched, bearing in mind all of the useful info from the posters above.

The first ten minutes was pure useless fluff, promoting the show, as if GR shows don’t already have enough padding. There are too many contestants at this point for me to really get any strong feelings about any of the contestants, but I do have a few impressions that may stick in my mind.

Tad: It isn’t a character fault but I hope at some point he can afford to get his teeth fixed up. I don’t like his half-assed pony tail while cooking that still leaves a lot of loose hair hanging over the food.

Jonathan: He has a potty mouth and got a lot of bleeps (GR also got in a couple himself). That grates on my nerves; strong language when in pain, under stress or angry I understand but dropping it in casually in front of a general audience comes across as illiteracy (doesn’t know any actual adjectives) or lacking minimal class.

Brad: Dancing around and singing in a falsetto voice while working in close quarters with others under stress is annoying. Towards the end of the show, he threatened to attack Jason who told him to shut up and cook. Honestly, I enjoyed that little exchange but I don’t think Brad should try to take on Jason in a fight. (Not that I found Jason looking good either, and he may piss people off as much as Brad).

Ryan: I didn’t understand most of what he said; I will need to turn on closed captioning if I want to listen to him.

I fast forwarded all the way through the winning team’s dinner with GR in some mansion. If I had listened to it, I would probably have heard a few things to annoy me, but I couldn’t stomach the great wonderful award.

Nobody sent home was a disappointment, the faster they trim down the number of contestants, the more likely I am to follow the show.

As always, YMMV.

[Tango64]

That guy reciting the loooong list of places and top chefs he’d worked with made me think, “Hmm, why so many and why did you end up on a tv game show after all that?”And then his dish wasn’t great. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 9/28/2023 at 8:01 PM, patty1h said:

I don't recall the amount of bragging and "they better watch out for me!" in past seasons that I heard in the first half hour.  Enough of that.   When will they ever stop pitting men against women?

A few seasons back they did a 40-somethings vs 20somethings season where the two teams were co-ed. The 40-somethings were generally terrible and got booted until GR had enough and reverted to men vs. women. 

12 hours ago, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

In the early part of the season, we're being asked to keep track of a lot of people we've never heard of before. Men in Blue vs Women in Red is an easy-to-remember dynamic that doesn't require any additional mental effort from the viewers.

I think the biggest factor isn't ease of memory -- that's what all the talking heads, chyrons and such are for. 

The biggest factor is that the producers can more easily prompt the contestants to be sexist jerks and play off stereotypes in a way that is still acceptable. 

They could just as easily make teams of white people vs. people of color. But if people said anything akin to the usual gender-based stereotypes about race, the show would probably not survive for long.

[Yeah No]

Well I had an all HK day yesterday.  It started with lunch at the new HK restaurant at Foxwoods casino in CT and ended with watching this first episode on our DVR.  I FINALLY got to taste the scallops, risotto, Wellington and sticky toffee pudding.  To make a long story short, I never liked the idea of splitting the scallops and I liked it even less after eating it.  No reason to cut a perfectly wonderful scallop into a thin disc, and after eating it I think that takes away from the texture and overall taste.   Although it wasn't a bad dish, it just could have been better, IMO.  The risotto was spot-on, especially in texture (and we all know how much that matters to Gordon), with just enough saffron, but we felt that the lobster wasn't really the star there even though it was perched on top.  It needed something, either acid or butter or both.  And in New England that is a must.

The Wellington was flawless, but there was not enough demi-glace or potatoes.  And those weird carrot/radish discs were totally unnecessary.

The sticky toffee pudding was rather good, but to us it was a sugar bomb to the 10th power.  And IMO the cake was a little too spongy for my taste.  I've had sticky toffee pudding in Ireland and that was better, although this was still very good.

As for the show:

I'm not worried about the "American Dream" BS.  At this point I think I'll be able to tune it out like extraneous chatter.  Although the previews show some more theatrics with that, I figure it's just a few minutes of comic relief every week.  At least I hope so.

6 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

A few seasons back they did a 40-somethings vs 20somethings season where the two teams were co-ed. The 40-somethings were generally terrible and got booted until GR had enough and reverted to men vs. women. 

That was last season, and I don't think it worked very well because of what you say above.  Even with everyone wearing the same color jacket it was still hard to keep track of who was on what team.  And of course there is always some switching going on into the season when the teams inevitably become more imbalanced.  When he went back to the men vs. women teams somehow it seemed right and I'm not going to examine it too closely to find a problem with it.  I would not be so accepting of it, however, if the teams were segregated by race.  Men vs. women might feel sexist, but at least in fact it often proves that the women are just as good as the men (or can be better), while IMO no matter how you look at it, competing races is just, well, racist from start to finish.  As it is, I personally did not love a season pitting older vs. younger contestants either because in the end it felt ageist to me, in no small part because the older chefs chosen were not that good and didn't represent their age bracket very well.

[chicagofan]

1 hour ago, Yeah No said:

As it is, I personally did not love a season pitting older vs. younger contestants either because in the end it felt ageist to me, in no small part because the older chefs chosen were not that good and didn't represent their age bracket very well.

I'm thinking that the reason that the older chefs weren't as good is that a talented chef in their 40s would already be established in their career and wouldn't need a show like Hell's Kitchen. A younger (20s) chef maybe not so much. 

And as others have mentioned, it makes me wonder about 35 year old Jason. With his resume and experience (he's listed as an Executive Chef) why is he on a reality show and not working as an Executive Chef somewhere or working in a restaurant of his own?

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Well I had an all HK day yesterday.  It started with lunch at the new HK restaurant at Foxwoods casino in CT and ended with watching this first episode on our DVR.  I FINALLY got to taste the scallops, risotto, Wellington and sticky toffee pudding.  To make a long story short, I never liked the idea of splitting the scallops and I liked it even less after eating it.  No reason to cut a perfectly wonderful scallop into a thin disc, and after eating it I think that takes away from the texture and overall taste.   Although it wasn't a bad dish, it just could have been better, IMO.  The risotto was spot-on, especially in texture (and we all know how much that matters to Gordon), with just enough saffron, but we felt that the lobster wasn't really the star there even though it was perched on top.  It needed something, either acid or butter or both.  And in New England that is a must.

The Wellington was flawless, but there was not enough demi-glace or potatoes.  And those weird carrot/radish discs were totally unnecessary.

The sticky toffee pudding was rather good, but to us it was a sugar bomb to the 10th power.  And IMO the cake was a little too spongy for my taste.  I've had sticky toffee pudding in Ireland and that was better, although this was still very good.

I just got back from Vegas where one of the highlights was going to HK. I had the prix fixe menu with the wine pairings: scallops, beef wellington and sticky toffee pudding. Loved every part of it, except I didn't like the port they paired with the dessert, and the bartender was kind enough to pour me something else instead. $200 bill and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[candall]

WOW, did you see how close that competition was as they came down to the last dishes?!  And then the two teams TIED and they had to arrange a tie-breaker!!!!  [End severe sarcasm]

 

I've seen this show 900 times and the numbers have been sooooo close about 900 times.  But while my eyebrows were sky-high and my eyes were rolling, it did occur to me that Gordon does a fairly decent job of not making the judging too, too obvious in order to achieve that.

 

P.S.  Did they just sweep that beautiful too-sweet lobster into the garbage?  You are on my list for the waste, sir.

[Yeah No]

On 9/30/2023 at 11:10 AM, chicagofan said:

I'm thinking that the reason that the older chefs weren't as good is that a talented chef in their 40s would already be established in their career and wouldn't need a show like Hell's Kitchen. A younger (20s) chef maybe not so much. 

And as others have mentioned, it makes me wonder about 35 year old Jason. With his resume and experience (he's listed as an Executive Chef) why is he on a reality show and not working as an Executive Chef somewhere or working in a restaurant of his own?

Yup, those were my very same thoughts.

On 9/30/2023 at 12:52 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I just got back from Vegas where one of the highlights was going to HK. I had the prix fixe menu with the wine pairings: scallops, beef wellington and sticky toffee pudding. Loved every part of it, except I didn't like the port they paired with the dessert, and the bartender was kind enough to pour me something else instead. $200 bill and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I had the same, except without the wine pairings.  We ordered a cabernet that was so good we went right out and bought it at our local liquor store! 

Here's a photo of the Wellington:

Edited October 2, 2023 by Yeah No

[candall]

I'm disappointed that I'm not able to view the Wellington shot you posted, and jealous of both of you ordering from the HK menu.

 

But I have a Wellington question.  I'm almost sure that Beef Wellington used to have pate de fois gras instead of mushroom duxelles.  I understand that we don't torture geese in that particular way anymore, but is there never, say, a chicken liver element?  I thought the flaky pastry/rich liver/tenderloin combination was the traditional point.

[GHScorpiosRule]

Purely on a shallow note, but I’m loving Ryan just for his Oirish brogue alone! 
 

WOT???

[Drogo]

24 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Purely on a shallow note, but I’m loving Ryan just for his Oirish brogue alone! 
 

WOT???

He’s getting a pretty choice edit so you may be enjoying that delicious brogue for a while yet. 

[Yeah No]

9 hours ago, candall said:

I'm disappointed that I'm not able to view the Wellington shot you posted, and jealous of both of you ordering from the HK menu.

 

But I have a Wellington question.  I'm almost sure that Beef Wellington used to have pate de fois gras instead of mushroom duxelles.  I understand that we don't torture geese in that particular way anymore, but is there never, say, a chicken liver element?  I thought the flaky pastry/rich liver/tenderloin combination was the traditional point.

Sorry about the photo, it looked like it came through when I posted it but not when I came back.  I've (hopefully) corrected it in my post above.

When I used to make Beef Wellington most recipes called for both the mushroom duxelle and chicken liver pate.  Gordon doesn't use the pate but does put a layer of thinly sliced prosciutto and dijon mustard.  I kind of liked the flavor the mustard gave it.  If I make it again (which now that I've had his version I probably will), I'll use the mustard, but I don't think I would forego the pate in favor of the prosciutto.  I used to use the Truffle Mousse pate from Trader Joe's.  They still make it.

[candall]

10 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Sorry about the photo, it looked like it came through when I posted it but not when I came back.  I've (hopefully) corrected it in my post above.

When I used to make Beef Wellington most recipes called for both the mushroom duxelle and chicken liver pate.  Gordon doesn't use the pate but does put a layer of thinly sliced prosciutto and dijon mustard.  I kind of liked the flavor the mustard gave it.  If I make it again (which now that I've had his version I probably will), I'll use the mustard, but I don't think I would forego the pate in favor of the prosciutto.  I used to use the Truffle Mousse pate from Trader Joe's.  They still make it.

 

That looks FANTASTIC.

 

Thanks for the welly talk.  More going on under that flaky crust than I realized.  : )

[Hanahope]

My daughter hooked me on this show at the end of summer and I've been working my way through the early seasons.  I have to say, it was quite a jump in development from very early seasons to S22 and how things have changed.  it almost seems more "game show" now that in the early seasons.  at least it appears the quality of the contestants have improved and Gordon is no longer spitting out and completely destroying most of the signature dishes.  

 

[oliviabenson]

Ryan is absolutely yummy looking and his accent (fans herself)

Jason has a terrible attitude and thinks very highly of himself. Guess he is staying for a while!

[candall]

On 10/2/2023 at 12:53 AM, Yeah No said:

[...] I used to use the Truffle Mousse pate from Trader Joe's.  They still make it.

gasp

 

The closest Trader Joe's is about three hours.

 

Leaving now.

 

 

[chicagofan]

Too bad you don't live by me - my nearest Trader Joe's is 3 blocks away.

[oliviabenson]

Mine is 1 hour by a NYC subway each way