Hell's Kitchen, Episodes 9 and 10

I always love it when they do the taste challenge. This time, however... wow, I don't think I've ever seen the teams do this badly. 4 out of 16 versus 3 out of 16? And you people really want to make food your career?

I just can't remember a series of Hell's Kitchen where it got to this late in the game and there were no contestants who really seemed serious about this. Sure, there are people here who want to win, but they're too caught up in how great they think they are to really take seriously. As is usually the case everywhere in life, those who brag the most produce the least and don't contribute as well as they think they do.

The challenge where both teams had to make their own menu really highlighted the shortcomings of both teams. On the Red Team, it's Benjamin. His extremely high opinion of himself is disgusting, especially since it seems to demand that he take it out on people he deems lesser, like Siobhan last week and Fran this week. I'm still not convinced that Fran deserved to be sent home; I would've really liked to have gotten Benjamin out of there to see if Fran, Nilka, and Holli could've done better without him there riding over them and taking control (badly at that).

The Blue Team's weakness is similar, except it's not just one of them, it's all of them. Jay, Ed, and Jason are all trying to outdo each other, but they can't still do that and work as a team. And when they do try to work as a team, they think small. The menu that night was the Blue Team offering the bare basics and the Red Team getting far too fancy. Benjamin may have been right that the other members of his team couldn't cook the kind of fine dining he wanted to make. I think the obvious question, then, is why did he try to make them? If he could see past his own ego, he could've seen that it would serve him better to craft a menu tailored to everyone's strengths as a cook instead.

It was really, really hard watching Nilka crash and burn like that. When Chef tells you to go, you're gone. Watching her beg like that was unfortunate. It was nice of Gordon to tell her goodbye personally... maybe she could come back? Seriously, when is Hell's Kitchen going to do some kind of all-star edition and bring back old contestants?

So now we're down to the final six, and I'm not really pulling for anyone except Holli. Yes, wag all you want about that--and yes, I think she's hot (and thanks, guys, for the shot of her eating a banana)--but she's the only one right now who doesn't seem to have a giant attitude problem or a massive ego, so she's about the only one I can root for.

And her desserts are apparently delicious.