Olympic Medalists Sasha Cohen and Jonny Moseley Guest on a Two Hour Hell’s Kitchen

Olympic Gold Medal-Winners Sasha Cohen and Jonny Moseley Appear as Guest JudgesGordon surprises the chefs with a glimpse into what could become their new home when he gives them a tour via satellite of The Araxi in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The chefs must then use 15 local ingredients that were flown in from Whistler to create three unique dishes. Guest judges for this challenge include Olympic gold medal-winning ice skater Sasha Cohen and skier Jonny Moseley. The winning team gets to dine with Mark Peel, owner and executive chef of Los Angeles eatery Campanile, while the losers must work on a local farm. Later in the episode, the remaining contestants join together to form one team, and Chef Ramsay pairs up the chefs for the “Taste It, Make It” challenge, in which they are asked to recreate a dish served in Gordon’s restaurants. The winners of the challenge take a special behind-the-scenes tour of the restaurant at The London West Hollywood and eat lunch with HELL’S KITCHEN Season Four winner Christina Machamer. Upon returning from their outing, the pair is given the cold shoulder by the remaining contestants, and once dinner service starts up, things go horribly wrong, and for the first time in six seasons, Gordon walks out of the kitchen! Don’t miss an all-new episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Tuesday, Sept. 22 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Don’t Miss the Season Finale of Hell’s Kitchen

The final two chefs start designing and planning their restaurants by working with an architect to create their own spaces for the final dinner service. Chef Ramsay then surprises the finalists with another trip to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, NJ. Upon arrival, they are thrown into a challenge in which they must impress the Borgata’s Chief Operating Officer with their potential restaurant menus. The pressure is on as their dreams are one step closer to becoming reality on HELL’S KITCHEN airing tonight (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

It’s the Taste It, Now Make It Challenge on Hell’s Kitchen

From Fox:

After Chef Ramsay prepares three delicious dishes for the remaining chefs to enjoy, he announces the “taste it, now make it” challenge. In this challenge, the chefs must recreate the dishes they just ate. The winner receives an afternoon with Gordon while the losers are forced to clean up HELL’S KITCHEN by hand. A surprise proposal is planned during the dessert course of the dinner service, so the pressure is on to ensure Chef Ramsay doesn’t shut the kitchen down before he pops the question! HELL’S KITCHEN airs Thursday, April 23 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (HK-512) (TV-14 L)

Fox has pranks for April Fool’s Day

…and it all starts with the network going dark between the hours of 8:00 and 10:00 tonight. April Fool! Woo hoo, I really had you all going for a minute, huh? No? Okay.

Here’s what Fox is planning:

FOX honors April Fool’s Day by pulling a few pranks on some of our very own television talent. Among the shenanigans are a culinary gag on fiery HELL’S KITCHEN chef Gordon Ramsay, a noisy interruption on the set of HOUSE, an unexpected visitor startles DOLLHOUSE’s Eliza Dushku, the cast of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES does an interview they won’t forget and David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel of BONES freak out their castmates.

Tune in tonight to catch the foolishness throughout the evening during commercial breaks in LIE TO ME (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) and AMERICAN IDOL (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

Chopping Block Premier

Chopping Block
Wednesday 8pm, NBC

There’s something about the American heritage that makes us love to be brow beaten by the British. It’s as if we can’t get away from colonial subjugation—we defer to their judgment, taste, and rules, as much as we try and pretend that such advice is foppish.

Marco Pierre White of NBC’s Chopping Block follows the long tradition of British expert to relocate stateside and show us uncultured Yanks a thing or two. In the vein of Gordon Ramsey or Toby Young, he’s snarky, dramatic, and obsessed with food. He also has an amazing pedigree as the youngest chef ever to win 3 Michelin stars.

Chopping Block borrows pretty heavily from the other two British-influenced foodie shows (Hell’s Kitchen and Top Chef). That borrowing is more than laziness—it can’t be helped. White, who incidentally taught Gordon Ramsey, is the host of the UK version of Hell’s Kitchen. And everything from  White’s reputation as an enfant terrible to his hair to  NBC’s horrible, horrible opening HK-esque montage reinforced this connection. As for Top Chef, well, any cooking program based on elimination is going to draw comparison’s to Top Chef no matter what it does.

The set up of Chopping Block is as follows: 10 couples are competing for a chance to own their own restaurant. Remember Top Chef’s reoccurring segment Restaurant Wars? Chopping Block is a whole series of Restaurant Wars: 2 teams of 5 couples each build a restaurant and a menu in 24 hours, then compete. The losing team fights for a while, and White then votes off one group.

What makes the Chopping Block so delicious is White. Say the name ‘Marco Pierre White’ to yourself. It brings up images of Italian pomp, French pretension, and British everyman. White is all of those things and more: his clothing is all floppy white cuffs and black suit coats with a shock of 19th-century-composer hair. His commentary is languid and lazy, a purring snark he delivers in suspenders from a deep armchair (with much chin stroking and finger pointing for emphasis). And his kitchen manner is brusque, demanding, and sympathetic—as if he cares about food SO MUCH he’s on the point of tears discussing it.

All this seems very harsh, but the truth of the matter is, White is a delight to watch, and the clipping pace of his show is just as addicting as the shows from which it draws inspiration. The contestants aren’t so dumb and talentless as they are on Fox’s Hells Kitchen, nor are they as gossipy and catty as they are on Top Chef. The resulting show feels like—dare I say it?—adult entertainment. You know, entertainment which treats its audience as adults, not like overgrown toddlers. If only the viewer would be invited to judge cooking techniques or managerial skills—then the show would really sing. As it is, it doesn’t involve the audience, nor teach the audience the secrets of the restaurant business. But it’s still a simple, addictive pleasure, and in this day and age, why not enjoy it?

The chefs take a trip to a meat locker tonight on Hell’s Kitchen

…and you can be sure that they will be cursed out some point in their field trip. From Fox:

Chef Ramsay wants to make sure the chefs know their beef, so he sends them on a field trip to a meat locker to learn various cuts of beef. Upon returning to HELL’S KITCHEN, the teams are asked to put their newfound knowledge to the test. That night, HELL’S KITCHEN is turned into a steak house and the teams race to impress Chef Ramsay on HELL’S KITCHEN airing Thursday at 9 PM on Fox.