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Hell's Kitchen Episode 2 Recap: Bye, Bye, Brendan

On the second night, Hell’s Kitchen started with a grilling challenge. Each team was divided into pairs and asked to cook four pieces of meat to different levels of doneness: one each at medium-rare, medium, medium-well, and well-done. In the end, it came down to Will who needed a perfect four for four in order to score the victory for the men’s team. Will was working alone because the men’s team had an odd number of members after losing Steven on the prior episode. Will came through with the perfect score.
The women’s team was left to clean the grills used in the challenge and for lunch they were fed pureed beef. The meat cooked in the challenge was thrown in the blender and then served in a glass for lunch. Later they took delivery of a full side of beef to be completely broken down.
The winning team, meanwhile, took a private jet to Palm Springs where they had a luxurious lunch with Gordon Ramsay who offered them advice on winning hell’s Kitchen.
As most of the women prepared for the next day’s challenge, Carrie and Brendan, two people I have listed as having no chance to win Hell’s Kitchen, spent the night flirting and then hooking up, as they say in today’s vernacular, to burn calories in the bedroom.
The next day the teams returned for a full service in Hell’s Kitchen. Carrie needed help with the Caesar salads, and Brendan got caught lying to Chef Ramsay. He cooked a sea bass before being asked, and then when it was time to cook the sea bass, instead of starting with a new one, he reheated the old one. Of course, eagle eyed Ramsay spotted something fishy with the sea bass and asked Brendan whether he had started a new fish or simply reheated the old one.  Brendan told Chef Ramsay that he had started a new one, but could not find the old one when Ramsay demanded to see it. Whoops.
As the men continued to make errors, Ramsay sent the men upstairs and asked the Women to finish the men’s service. Tempers flared among the men, with Will (who I had picked to win, in part because of the leadership skills he had demonstrated on the prior episode) the most vocal of them all.
During the service, Chino showed me enough that I can now firmly move him into the category of those who have no chance to win.
The men decided that Brendan and Chino should be up for elimination. Brendan reminded Chef Ramsay that his strength is his character, after earlier lying to the Chef, mind you. Chino told Chef Ramsay that he was fighting to improve and get better after his humbling performance.
In the end, Brendan’s character was enough to get him sent home from Hell’s Kitchen. Good call, Chef. With the men down by several members, Chef Ramsay asked for a volunteer from the Women to switch to the men’s team. The men interrupted to say they did not want any help… We’ll see how that works out.
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