Don't hide things.

Also known as your lesson from HK #505, where we visited the cuisine and culture of Japan, a new dish found its way into Ramsay's heart, and another idiot was (deservedly) sent packing.

We start with a visit to an Asian supermarket in Lipstick City, as Scott Ferrall, of Sirius-XM Howard 101 fame, calls it, for the obligatory "Cook Something Good and Cheap" challenge! The challenge was to cook something "Asian Fusion" (whatever that is) with 25 minutes to shop and $100 to spend. Not much for something that has to impress the editor of a food website. They then had an hour to cook it. So far, the challenges have been extremely competitive and this challenge was no exception, with Ramsay and Tanya Steel (the editor in question) choosing 2 red dishes vs. 1 blue dish. In addition, Carol's dish, some tuna sushi thing, was recommended by Ramsay as one of the best things he's ever tasted on HK, going so far as to put it on the menu for the next night's service. So for a 2nd straight reward, the girls got to have a Japanese fun day! But we'll get back to that later.

Let's talk about the main theme: the rebirth of Lacey, who, as you remember, got moved to the blue boys in #504. Throughout the challenge, the boys did not acknowledge her at all, preferably wanting her gone. But after the challenge and through the punishment, which was to make fortune cookies and origami, Lacey started to gain respect by teaching the guys how to make origami. Ok, so it took a non-food thing for the guys to respect Lacey, but she eventually became one of the few pluses of the next night's service. Keep that in mind.

Back to the red girls, who got a hilarious treat: wrestling in large sumo suits. The funny part was who demonstrated the suits at first: Ramsey and Jean Phillipe, who makes a rare appearance in a reward. Then they all dog-piled on each other and that made me happy. Of course, they made themselves happy by getting drunk on sake.

But all the happiness would end with the next night's service, which featured one table of note: a table of sumo wrestlers. They order everything on the menu, continuing Fox's proud tradition of stereotyping Asians (Family Guy, American Dad, Banzai, etc.).

Anyways, it was a total disaster of a service yet again. Giovanni and LA put out good appetizers and that was key as you'll find out. Lacey, continuing her renaissance, developed into a leader this service, trying to use her words to keep things moving in the blue kitchen. Call it motivation to beat Red if you want, but Lacey definitely was a comeback player this episode and maybe Ramsay sees potential in her yet.

Pretty much everyone else screwed up, though. J undercooked his beef wellingtons with the wrong fan setting, but in my mind, that wasn't the biggest error. Both Robert and Andrea were wasting/hiding food, which is a BIG NO-NO in Chef Ramsay's kitchen. Robert, in particular, was derided by the use of the name "Bobby" by Ramsay, which made Robert ignore him. You can imagine the downward spiral from there. After the service, Robert and Ramsey met privately, and Robert explained that he and his dad, named Bobby, didn't have a good relationship, thereby explaining the irritation over "Bobby". Surprisingly, Ramsay understood and said he would respect Robert's wishes.

So for the 2nd straight episode, we had a double knockout on the kitchen. But at least we had a Best of Worst for the first time this season: Giovanni and LA for their respective teams. They nominated J and Andrea, respectively, which I think were the type of choices that should've been made last week. I think both nominees have potential to go all the way but both needed swift kicks in the ass by Ramsay.

And that's exactly what happened, as Ramsay asserted his power for the first time this season and kicked out Colleen (YAY!) instead, keeping J and Andrea in the game, and in my mind deservedly so.

Btw, Fox is a bit full of shit for starting Hell's Kitchen at 9:05 due to American Midol overrun. I'm sure 65-70% of the Hell's Kitchen audience couldn't care less who was in American Idol, and I'm sure DVR users are probably pissed this morning. At least the episodes are on-demand.