Chef Ramsay and Hell’s Kitchen Season 8

Chef Gordon Ramsey Hell's Kitchen - CertifiedFoodies.com

Renowned Chef Gordon Ramsay‘s cooking reality TV series Hell’s Kitchen is on its eighth (8th) season and it seems that the show is getting worse everytime. And that’s a compliment.

Even though Hell’s Kitchen is full of Chef Ramsay’s cursing and yelling, I enjoy it because of the food and cooking. When I started watching this series, I gotten familiar with some fine dining dishes that I haven’t heard of or might not even be interested in if they weren’t cooked in the show. One of them is risotto, which I’m planning on preparing myself at home.

For Season 8 of Hell’s Kitchen, there was this introduction in the first episode where they showed a couple of the aspiring chefs in their own elements, inside their restaurants. For the first time, I believed that the contestants are actual chefs in an established restaurant. They never did that in the past seasons so I’m glad they included an introduction for the new chefs.

  LA Market in Los Angeles, Hell's Kitchen Season 8 - CertifiedFoodies.com
LA Market in downtown Los Angeles – WInner will be head chef here.

 

There are 16 chefs vying for the title of head chef. This time, the winner will be the head chef of the multi-million dollar restaurant L.A. Market in LA Live complex in downtown Los Angeles. That’s a biggy because the salary of the head chef is at $250,000! Wow, right!? Plus, the winner will be the official spokesperson of Rosemount Estate Winery. A lot is at stake, really.

Sabrina Brimhall - Hell's Kitchen Season 8 - CertifiedFoodies.com
Sabrina Brimhall – craziest female chef this season.

 

I’ve only watched the first episode, but I can already see how crazier this season is, especially because of the chefs competing this time. Take for instance Sabrina. She’s a li’l slow, and I don’t understand why she chose to wear high heels on the first day when it’s already expected they’ll be cooking their signature dishes. Then, she goes and yawns rather loudly and didn’t even know that Chef Ramsay was being sarcastic towards her. LOLz.

  Raj Brandston - Hell's Kitchen Season 8 - CertifiedFoodies.com
Raj Brandon – was it all the stress or he’s a bit cuckoo or something?

Then, there’s Raj. I had high hopes for this guy when I first saw him during the intro. But, he’s a li’l cuckoo, if you know what I mean. In a cute way though. I guess it’s because of all the stress and the nerves of being in Hell’s Kitchen. In fact, one of the women already was out of the season even before the service started. Antonia, she passed out and was shaking all over. Ahhh.. the things stress can do to you.

  Jillian Flathers - Hell's Kitchen Season 8 - CertifiedFoodies.com
Jillian Flathers – so far, the only sane member of the women’s team.

 

So far, the only chef I’m rooting for is Jillian. I don’t like that she likes Sabrina, but Jillian seems to be the only sane woman out there. A lot of the chefs already made careless, and most of the time, stupid mistakes like Trev overdressing the salad (Sheesh! Even I don’t commit such a thing!), Boris mimicking Chef Ramsay (Did you see that? What’s wrong with him?! LOL), and then, there’s Antonia who didn’t even taste her food before she served it to Chef Ramsay.

  Hell's Kitchen Season 7 - CertifiedFoodies.com
  A scene from last season of Hell’s Kitchen.

 

Watching the show the first time a couple of seasons ago scared me a li’l. Why? Imagine this – chefs arguing while there are a lot of sharp objects and knives around them, hot ovens, pots and pans. I guess they went through psychological screening or something to prepare them for everything they’re going to endure during their running on the show.

I also wonder why there are still people who are dining in Hell’s Kitchen. Did they pay to dine in there or were they invited? I mean, I love Chef Ramsay so I’m guessing that’s one of the reasons why they still come to Hell’s Kitchen. I just can’t imagine enjoying a meal while I’m hearing cursing, a lot of yelling and food being thrown out in the kitchen. Can you stand that?! Hehehe.

Hell’s Kitchen is not really for everybody. But, to tell you the truth, I learned a thing or two while watching this series from Chef Gordon Ramsay himself like how to properly cook pasta so it won’t be too saggy (I love it really soft vs al dente), how to devein shrimps (I normally just take the shell out hehehe), and a lot more.

Steak Diane Recipe : Inspired by Gordon Ramsay

Steak Diane - based on Gordon Ramsey's recipe - CertifiedFoodies.com

I’ve always wanted to eat at a fine dining restaurant but it’s too expensive for me. Whenever I see people on TV eating at fine dining restaurants, they all seemed too satisfied and happy with the food they were served. Not sure if I’ll ever be willing to spend at least Php 2,000 (about $44) for a single meal, with very liltle serving. I’d rather spend that much money on other things. BUT, I still want to try out some fine dining food.

So, a few days ago, we had our very first Steak day. For lunch, I decided to make Steak Diane, one of Chef Gordon Ramsay’s main courses in Hell’s Kitchen, just to experience a little taste of fine dining at home. 😀

I saw this recipe in one of the episodes from Hell’s Kitchen and I was a bit excited about making it myself. I, then, watched a video from Youtube where Chef Gordon made Steak Diane for his show The F Word. He really made it look like it’s so easy to cook.

That’s what I like about him and his videos: simple to follow as long as you know how to cook. Some of you who prefer following recipes with measurements, you might not enjoy his videos since he won’t show you any measurements for his ingredients. But, if you already know the basics and you know how to estimate the seasonings to your liking, you will love the way he makes his cooking videos – short and fast.

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