To take your last paragraph first, I am sure I am not the only Dining Buzz member who hopes you will indeed visit the place and report back. At the minimum, I would like to know who is really running this restaurant. (It's well known that Ramsey is not risking his investment on a kid.)

And that's the real problem. When it came to the design meetings, Danny showed his lack of maturity. Mount fish on the wall? Are you serious? He may know something about cooking but he knows nothing about restaurants, let alone the concept of fine dining.

I agree with you that the teams seemed unbalanced. Could Paula have pulled ith out with Danny's crew?

[Edited to add] I would recommend this article from the Daytona Beach News-Journal particularly this gem:

He can always come back after a year.

Thank you.

Yes, if the story of him opening a metro-area restaurant are true (and I'm sure we'll hear about it on Grub Street), I'd love to at least pay it a visit.

I certainly hope he gets his health in order. That overweight puts him at risk for some bad things.

I will definitely have to swing over to take a look when I'm there. That's the monumental task Danny will have to face, cooking under the same roof with renowned chefs like Bobby Flay, Wolfgang Puck, Michael Schulson. My wife and I went to Schulson's Izakaya just recently and it was one of the best meals I've EVER had at a restaurant.

FYI, the next season of Hell's Kitchen is supposed to air in July.

http://la.eater.com/archives/2008/07..._christina.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Machamer

If history is any indicator of what may happen to Danny, more than likely he will not be the executive chef. Season 4 winner Christina's prize was to work at The London West Hollywood as an executive sous chef, and rightfully so, having just graduated from culinary school. I wouldn't be surprised if Danny follows suit at The Borgata (although if I'm correct, he was an executive chef prior to his win?).

Yes he was executive chef of his own place.

http://www.hotelsmag.com/articleXml/LN976129069.html

Fornelletto is the new Italian restaurant at The Borgata. The executive chef will be Stephen Kalt. The article doesn't state Danny anywhere on it but unless The Borgata is opening up another restaurant that has not been mentioned yet...

So when it comes down to it, the real prize is the money, and not the title.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/i..._from_the.html

'The winner of the show gets a $250,000 contract to run a new restaurant at the Borgata, already home to fine dining establishments from Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck. They'll work under New York chef Stephen Kalt, cooking up regional Italian dishes in a contemporary environment; the restaurant will be called Fornelletto.'

seems the show was a bit deceptive in this, they said there it will be their own restaurant.....

for $250K I'm pretty sure they can get over their egotistic selves and be fine with being dishwasher if necessary

I can agree with this statement.

1- Rock
2- Heather
3- Danny
4- Michael
5- Christina

It's almost time for a new season of Hell's Kitchen! The winner of the competition gets a "head chef" position at Araxi Restaurant, in Whistler, British Columbia.

What tricks will FOX and Gordon Ramsay pull out of the bag this time?

Special competition: cooking a meal for Madoff.

FIRST EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD































The HIGHS: Robert! I like how Ramsay gave him a second shot at the prize. Although the sihlouette when they announced the "surprise" was a free giveaway. I also like the switch that Ramsay made with the dish tasting, turning it into a faceoff and it's individual challenge. The restaurant was remodeled, however I didn't really see it.

The LOWS: There is way too much to say about how bad this show has "corrupted." Melinda. WOW. That's just sad. Even her first dish tasting was pretty sad. The women as a team were beyond bad. Lovely is looking like a reincarnation of Lacey. In fact I don't recall one team ever performing so badly as they did in the past seasons. The beginning part with the video sequences was lame. Also, didn't like the new opening sequence. Oh and one last question, was Louie just a hired actor?

I'll reserve comment about the second episode until next week but it looks like a blatant effort by Fox to trump up ratings.

No question about pumping up ratings: ambulances, physical confrontation, my, my, who wouldn't watch that nonsense, lol?