How great was the season premiere of Hell’s Kitchen? (If you didn’t catch it, it’s now online.) Gordon Ramsay must’ve said “Oh, my God” more times than a Valley girl with Tourette’s. The whole show was like that time you tried to cook as a kid, and your parents caught you playing with the stove and went apeshit. It had to give you a new appreciation for the level at which Top Chef’s cheftestants operate (somewhere above basic competence) and even a new appreciation for that show’s contrived plot twists (after the 50th time, it’s not all that compelling to watch Gordo wag a piece of protein in someone’s face and scream, “Raw! Raw! Raw!” like a demonic cheerleader), but whatever, you had to love Gordo pulling discarded pasta out of a trash bin and yelling, “Look! Look! What the [bleep] is this?!?” and then later rummaging through some botched lamb chops and squealing, “Look! … At! … This! … Look! Look! LOOK! What the [bleep] is this?!?” Gordo also did a fine job of building up Robert Hesse just so he could knock him down. And the ending? Priceless. We’re not sure how many episodes we’ll end up watching this season (none of the donkeys contestants have grown on us yet), but we’re definitely watching the next one. Grub Street Boston has more.
