I’ve updated the main site, as hopefully you’ve seen, and just added a new survey about one of my favorite topics here, the show Hell’s Kitchen. I enjoy watching it and can sit back and laugh at some of the mistakes, seeing and doing some of them. Other times I am simply appalled at other mistakes… mistakes that just cannot be made in a professional kitchen.

I’m not sure who I like at this point, but Carol has shown some promise and is a favorite in my mind. Giovanni has gotten better of late with a nice team effort on the red team and a winning dish for the red team in the challenge the other night. The others really haven’t shown a lot of promise and there is no other clear favorite that I can pick out.

So, who do you think is going to win Hell’s Kitchen and the head chef position at the Borgata in Atlantic City (somewhere I can actually visit relatively easily for once!)?

Cast your vote here: Survey: Who’s Going to Win Hell’s Kitchen?

I’ve been watching Hell’s Kitchen now since it started 3 seasons ago and I’ve always enjoyed the show. In the first season, the competition was good throughout most of the season. The weak chefs were weeded out early on and towards the end there was good competition. Season 2 and 3 was more of the same, though I thought the talent was a bit better overall.

This season however, I feel that the talent level is considerably lower. I haven’t really been impressed with too many of the chefs throughout. Most of them probably couldn’t cut it in half the restaurants I’ve worked in and yet here they are trying to win Hell’s Kitchen. Not to say that there isn’t talent here at all, but it seems that many of the chefs lack basic skills that you learn early on such as managing your time, your work area and particularly communication.

Throw in the odd mix of personalities and characters such as we’ve had this season (and some of last) and it makes for some interesting TV, but I suspect some of this is planned (of course it is!). I’d rather see more talented chefs compete rather than some of the characters we’ve seen such as Louross and Matt. Unfortunately, one of the better chefs in Vanessa left early due to injury.

So I pose a question: Is Hell’s Kitchen getting desperate for talent? It sure seems like it to me.

I still enjoy this show for what it is, but it definitely lost something this season and I hope it comes back for season 5. At least I can look forward to Kitchen Nightmares coming in September! I’ve always enjoyed Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares on the BBC and enjoy the US show just as much.

For fun, I’ve added the Final Four contestant’s recipes from the Hell’s Kitchen home page:

Corey
Jen
Christina
Petrozza

Enjoy! Feel free to comment and share your thoughts!