The first challenge of the night was a psyche out by Chef Ramsay. Both Nona and Russell were loaded onto a helicopter and flown into downtown LA to meet Chef Ramsay. On the top of a building where chopper landed he told the two they would be free falling off the side. Russell began to look for a quick exit and told Chef Ramsay that he was having issues with this challenge (“I need toilet paper... I just ****** my pants!”). Nona, on the other hand, had to be pulled back from the building’s edge as she prepared to do whatever was asked of her. This blind ambition may have sealed the deal for her Hell's Kitchen win.
The real challenge was to make a four course meal in 30 minutes for some of the world reknowned chefs on hand. They each had to make a soup, salad, pasta, fish entree and meat entree.
(Scroll down to watch the entire episode on video now!)
As always, it was a tied competition down to the final plate. Nona won the soup and pasta dishes. Russell won the salad and fish entree dishes. The final meat entrees were judged by the winner’s new boss at LA Market (Kerry Simon). Russell’s dish won, giving him first choice of teammates later.
When Nona and Russell returned to the Hell’s Kitchen dorms they were greeted by the former contestants. Thankfully Raj was left off the return list. Sadly Sabrina was not.
Teams were chosen:
Russell: Jillian, Vinny, Sabrina and Rob
Nona: Gail, Melissa, Trev and Boris
Looked like Russell had the stronger team, but then again everything was pointing at a Russell win. I was not buying it for a minute. Russell is a horrible leader and an even worse communicator. Nona does not look the part, but she appears to be a sponge ready to learn.
Vinny had issues with Russell right from the start and Russell knew it, but chose him anyway. He even called Vinny out (who was looking totally un-enthused as teams were picked). Vinny said he would work, but it was obvious he had no intentions of giving Russell any respect. When Sabrina started slipping on the meat station, Russell relied heavily on Vinny to bring the kitchen back by switching him to that station.
Nona started to have issues with Trev on his salads and instead of screaming she demonstrated exactly what she wanted from him. No more troubles from Trev. I was impressed and so was Ramsay.
Boris was the thorn in Nona’s side tonight. He fell apart on the fish station, but Nona caught every error. After bringing the kitchen to a near standstill, Boris finally got things back together and served the food as ordered.
On the last ticket Rob ran out of tomato water for his ravioli and did not tell Russell until it was too late. The two men nearly came to blows as they chest butted each other. Russell was showing his lack of control and arrogance worse than ever. He obviously does not know you need both position power and personal power to manage.
Even though he had to come in and settle them down once, Nona’s kitchen appeared to be more cohesive tonight. It was pretty obvious who the winner of this motley crew should be... if you had to choose one, that is. There is just no way Russell could come into a new kitchen acting like that and expect people to cook for him.
So, were you surprised that Nona won Hell’s Kitchen season 8? Were you a Russell fan? Tell me what you thought of the season finale!
Watch the entire Hell's Kitchen season 8 finale here!
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HaHa good for Nona, good lord right until the last he spoke that jackass Russel blamed everyone but himself for losing the competition. His attitude stinks and working for that idiot would be a nightmare. If he does land a head chef position somewhere and let us pray that never happens, I am most sure someone will close that mouth for him and expose him for the punk he is.
ReplyDeleteYea Nona !!! was pulling for her from the very beginning. Russell was too arrogant and constantly put others down. definitely was not a team player or a leader of any kind.
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