Hell’s Kitchen returned last night, and the contestants competing this season to run one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants at the Savoy in London include Gargoyles On The Square executive chef Jason Santos and Sel De La Terre chef de cuisine Benjamin Knack. Structurally, not much has changed since the Andy Husbands season: finishing an entire dinner service is still treated as an overcoming-the-odds achievement rather than a baseline expectation and Gordon Ramsay is still trying to make “do me a favor and fuck on out of here” a catchphrase on the level of “pack your knives and go.” So how did our Boston boys fare?
Santos (referred to as Jay on the show) had an uneventful first night on the show, winning a point for the men with his steak during a team challenge, but otherwise keeping fairly quiet. The same could not be said for Knack (who the captions keep mysteriously referring to as a “culinary instructor” and who, on television, looks remarkably like 30 Rock’s Kenneth): things started well when Ramsay praised his fresh-made agnolotti with butter-poached lobster and truffle sauce as “absolutely delicious,” but went rapidly downhill during dinner service.
First, Knack made the mistake of tasting the risotto with his spoon and then going back for seconds without washing the spoon.
Knack followed that triumph by starting another batch of risotto with the stock instead of the rice, earning Ramsay’s ire once again.
In the end, however, it was the women’s team that faced elimination, leaving both Knack and Santos safe for another week.
Previously: Knack Joins Santos in Hell’s Kitchen
Hell’s Kitchen Includes Jason Santos
