gordon ramsay

It was a tough week on 'Hell's Kitchen' (Tue., 8PM ET on FOX) for several women. For the next challenge both teams were cooking for a high school reunion. To get some guidance, Paul and Elizabeth were invited to sit in on a committee meeting, but apparently Elizabeth's mind was elsewhere.

Maybe she was wondering if Elise could really improve her attitude in the kitchen and with the other contestants. Or maybe she was concerned about something she saw on the wall. One thing's for certain. She wasn't listening.

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Elizabeth completely missed the Hawaiian theme, and served bacon to a non-meat eating committee member. All of this sent the blue team and Natalie to a booze-soaked yacht trip for winning. And Natalie was soaking up more than rays and alcohol; she was loving the attention she got from the guys.

Once again, the remaining contestants on 'MasterChef' (Mon., 9PM ET on FOX) faced a team challenge that saw them feeding the toughest of all possible food critics: children. This time around, they had to concoct a meal of burgers and fries without using either beef or potatoes.

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It was a close result between Christine's team and their chicken patty/corn nuggets and Christian's team with their turkey burger/apple slices meal. But Christine's team won, sending Christian, Derrick, Jennifer and Adrien to face elimination.

The contestants got a fun break from the competition on 'Hell's Kitchen' (Mon., 8PM ET on FOX) when Ben Roche and Homaro Cantu came over from Moto Restaurant in Chicago to show them some of their fun fusions of science with the culinary arts.

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After the demonstration of liquefying an orange with sound waves and freezing ice cream in 45 seconds with liquid nitrogen, the contestants had to get down to business. Science is fun and Ramsay wanted to see what they could do with the barest of minimums. So prepare a meat dish with water and fire only.

A plot to help certain contestants while hindering others by the winner of the mystery box challenge backfired in a big way on 'MasterChef' (Tue., 9PM ET on FOX).

And while Joe Bastianich has been largely the bad guy on this show, Gordon Ramsay let out a little of his 'Hell's Kitchen' persona on what he dubbed the worst sauce he's ever tasted.

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The box challenge led to some intriguing choices, and while the judges did decide to sample Ben's banana and scallops concoction, they were most impressed with Adrien's dish. That gave him some power in the next challenge, which featured pork as a main ingredient.

After a disappointing dinner service on Monday night's episode of 'Hell's Kitchen' (Tue., 8PM ET on FOX), the teams tried to rebound when cooking for Olympians. Unfortunately, the adage that there's nowhere to go but up didn't apply.

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Elise stopped arguing and hating on Carrie when she undercooked the fish herself. At least she had the integrity to take her lumps. Monterray, however, failed to follow directions and wound up with sous-chef Scott Leibfried in his face.

Gordon Ramsay isn't about making people happy and giving them what they want. And that's exactly what happened in the surprising elimination on this week's 'Hell's Kitchen' (Tue., 8PM ET on FOX).

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First, after the red team decided -- and she volunteered -- to send Carrie over to the men's team since she and Elise simply cannot get along, Ramsay came along with an idea of his own. Natalie should join the men instead, and the rest of the women had to get over it and make it work.

Natalie came through as a leader for the blue team during the opening challenge, while the women wouldn't let Carrie take over, despite her repeated efforts. Even after their loss, they continue to pile on while they cleaned up and the blue team went off to relax.

Giuseppe and Tracy were the team leaders going into Tuesday night's installment of 'MasterChef' (Tue., 9PM ET on FOX). They faced a daunting challenge as well, as the judges for this next phase of the competition would be the usual judges' mothers.

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Tracy made the bold decision to serve fish -- even though Gordon Ramsay's mother admitted she doesn't like fish -- and it paid off. Meanwhile, Giuseppe's team came up just short, though it looked like things were pretty tight throughout.

In the Pressure Test, the dish was Eggs Benedict and suddenly the former team leader found himself floundering. He wound up in the bottom two alongside Derrick. Giuseppe's undercooked dish faced off against Derrick's sloppy and dry-looking Eggs Benedict.

Who says you can't find love in Hell? For a while, we thought we might have stumbled onto the wrong reality show, but it was indeed 'Hell's Kitchen' (Tue., 8PM ET on FOX) we were watching. You wouldn't have thought they were in the midst of one of the most intense culinary reality shows on all of television to watch Carrie and Brendan, though.

While most of the contestants were cramming and preparing for the dinner service the following night, these two were giggling and flirting like they were on a school field trip. This, after a brutal loss to the men led to the women literally drinking meat for lunch and then cut the meat delivery that night into portions.

It was a night of decadence and disaster on 'MasterChef' (Mon., 9PM ET on FOX). As the Top 11 competed in the box challenge, they discovered a second box with the judges; one that revealed four pound lobsters. Later, the winner of the lobster challenge chose truffles, and boldly chose to compete in the second challenge as well.

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Christian had perhaps the hardest time in the opening challenge, because he felt he deserved to be one of the three finalists. As only the finalists' dishes are actually sampled, Christian must have felt passionately enough about it to disrespect the competition by tasting his own dish.

Leave the kinder, gentler Gordon Ramsay to those wussies on 'MasterChef!' If you're serious about cooking, and you can take the abuse, welcome to the Season 9 premiere of 'Hell's Kitchen' (Mon., 8PM ET on FOX).

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This must have been the most brutal opening week in 'HK' history, as it was enough to send one contestant to the hospital, and yet still someone was eliminated!

To his credit, Jason Zepaltas certainly had the will to stay in the competition, but his body just wasn't having it. He started feeling dizzy in the kitchen, leaving his teammates concerned. After an hour of struggled breathing, the medics were called in and he wound up getting oxygen.

Graham Elliot is a world renowned chef and judge on Fox's 'MasterChef' who'll be guest blogging for AOL TV from time to time this season. Here are his thoughts on this week's episode ...

Here we go yo, here we go yo, so what's so what's so what's the scenario?!

Well this week's scenario was cooking "a la bling" cuisine. The contestants' reactions to challenges are always fun for us, but particularly so when they realize they're cooking with ingredients that are rare and expensive.

When we opened the supersized Mystery Box with the giant lobsters, it was a classic reaction to witness. Our culinary and art departments had researched and collaborated to make sure that tank and water were all set up right for the lobsters.

When it came time to get down and start cooking, Christian was getting in his own way again. While working in an aggressive manner with the equipment, a piece of plastic broke off from a processor and got into his food. It all went downhill from there -- things were falling and he spilled fish stock on his pasta, thus ruining it. It's beautiful to see calmness and grace in the kitchen, and a horror when anger rears its ugly head.

For the record, i feel Joe was right to put him in his place when we were critiquing Jennifer's baked lobster (which was great by the way).

Graham Elliot is a world renowned chef and judge on Fox's 'MasterChef' who'll be guest blogging for AOL TV from time to time this season. Here are his thoughts on this week's episode ...

It's great to get out of the kitchen in the field challenges and see the competitors cooking in professional kitchens and for the public -- not just the judges. But when Gordon handed over his kitchen to the cooks AND they had to cater a party for the Hollywood clientele -- I knew it would be a tough ride.

As the cooks get to know each other better, the team picking gets more interesting. They take into consideration friendships, talent, and the ability to follow their lead. Ben ended up with Charlie's Angels and Christian chose more of a variety.

As team leaders, Christian and Ben had very different styles. Christian is decisive and made his own menu and assigned courses while Ben was all about teamwork and feedback. I can't say there is a proven formula for winning. It really comes down to execution. Does the food taste good?

Gordon Ramsay may have the reputation in America of being this hard-nosed drill sergeant who tears down contestants on game shows, but judge Joe Bastianich is certainly giving him a run for his money on 'MasterChef' (Tue., 9PM ET on FOX). That said, though, we can't blame it for losing his cool at a contestant this week.

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In the elimination challenge, Adrien Nieto once again presented a dish that looked like it had been plated by a child bringing a dinner-in-bed to Mommy on her birthday. With the side dishes in bowls, the presentation was cluttered and unappealing and not even close to how it was supposed to look.

Last night, Tracy and Esther were sitting pretty as winners on 'MasterChef' (Tue., 8PM ET on FOX), but winner quickly turned into team leader as the contestants stumbled upon a beach-side challenge.

As team captains, Tracy and Esther were tasked with choosing their teams for the challenge of making sausage sandwiches for a group of 100 bikers.

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When mealtime came, Tracy's Blue Team was serving up their sandwiches, while Esther's Red Team wasn't ready yet. By the time the challenge was over, the Blue Team had cemented their victory and the Red Team was facing another Pressure Test.

With the Top 16 determined, the stakes were bigger than ever on this week's 'MasterChef' (Tue., 9PM ET on FOX). And so was the number of people the contestants had to cook for. Split into two teams, they were tasked with preparing a five-course meal for 350 people at a Los Angeles cafeteria.

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The losing team in this challenge would face off in a pressure test that would see one of them going home. To make things even more dramatic, the teams were tied going into the dessert round, where the Red Team beat the Blue Team with a fresh fruit dish.