It probably helps that most of this season’s chefs are ones I liked when they were on the show before. The only contestant I’m really not rooting for off the bat is Marcel Vigneron, who is a strong chef in his own rite but was obviously brought back for his arrogance and ability to stir up drama.
The Season 4 chefs (Dale, Spike, Antonia and Blais) won the quickfire, which was a big deal because all four of them received immunity. With almost 1/4 of the contestants getting immunity, there was less room for error from the others.
Whoever comes up with the challenges for the show, I have to tip my hat to you; having the All-Stars remake and improve the dish that sent them home was inspired. Some of them had some really terrible dishes to recreate and I’m sure Dale in particular was thankful for that immunity when remaking those butterscotch scallops. Halfway through the episode, I was sure Season 1’s Stephen Aspirino was going home. Even in Season 1, Stephen was a front-of-the-house guy and not really a chef. I honestly don’t know why he was asked to come back when there are plenty of better chefs from the show.
This season, Anthony Bourdain is taking Eric Ripert’s place on the judge’s table. I had to laugh — I saw Bourdain and Ripert speak in Indianapolis back in September and Bourdain teased him about being a full-time judge on the show. Bourdain at least knew he was going to be on this season full-time by then, so that must have been a major inside joke between the two of them. There was some drama in the second half of the episode when Fabio accused Bourdain of making fun of him (all the judge said was that the guy’s gumbo sucked). He was furious and showed it, so I’m wondering if we’re going to see more conflict from him this time around.
Stephen was in the bottom for his crappy trio of appetizers, but barely through to the next episode, which was disappointing. Still, I don’t see Stephen lasting much longer.
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Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Dec 02, 2010 @ 17:10 EST5EDT
And Padma was in a good mood! How long before the sourpuss returns?
Pretty much expecting Richard and Angelo in the final three. Both were heavy favorites through their entire seasons and muffed the final challenge, and both seem to be continuing their winning ways with the first elimination challenge (though Richard went a few seconds over on prep and someone took notice). Sucks to see Elia go so quickly, but they really shouldn’t judge the chefs on their past performances prior to this season, so I don’t see how they had much choice if she didn’t put out good food. I feel bad for her, though.
I think that every reality show should be forced to have an “All-Stars” season. Up next, I want to see Amazing Race All-Stars and Hell’s Kitchen All-Stars.
Ha, “Hell’s Kitchen All-stars” or “Hell’s Kitchen: who we could get to be in the same room with Gordon Ramsay again.”