The interesting and exciting season of Hell’s Kitchen finally came to an end with the win of Dave Levey on October 13,2009. In this seventh season we got to see contestants of both the teams, The Blue Team and The Red Team struggling hard for the title of ‘Head chef’ at Araxi Resturant, in Whistler, British Columbia. Dave Levey the winner was infamous for never appreciating any one’s work. An example of this was his comment on Tennille that, “she cooks food well for a child but she’s not good enough for the Araxi”, after she won a difficult task. But as the quote says, ‘may the best one win’ and that’s what the spirit of game was. Finally Dave Levey proved his mettle in spite of having one arm hurt.

The other sizzling news is also about the winner of Hell’s Kitchen, but surprisingly it’s about the winner of the previous season. Yes you guessed it right. It’s about Jennifer Ellison. This charming 26 year old, who’s six month pregnant has finally married her partner Rob Ticker in a secret marriage ceremony at Paris, the city of love. So sad, we didn’t get to have a glimpse of their intimate moment. Even her family and friends didn’t get a chance to attend it. We wish the couple a happy married life.

Hey guys I know you will also miss the host of this show, like me. Ramsay Gordon’s wits and hosting skills have taken the show to a new level. This is the reason that people will still get to see more seasons of the show, two of them being already considered. As announced during episode 13 of season six, the seventh season that will air in 2010 has already begun casting. Let’s hope the new season begins more excitement and necessarily more cooking skills with it. What I’m going to do in this transition time between two seasons is sharpen my cooking skills by practicing all I have learnt from the show Hell’s Kitchen..

If you wish to become a better cook then you don’t need to go to a cooking school, just click here and you can download Hell’s kitchen episodes. You can also watch Hell’s Kitchen episodes online.

Hell’s Kitchen, the FOX reality series that pits aspiring chefs against each other under the searing scrutiny of Chef Gordon Ramsay, showcases Whistler, British Columbia during a special two-hour episode on Tuesday, Sept. 22 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT).

Earlier this year, Hell’s Kitchen announced that the grand prize for this season is a Head Chef position at Araxi - providing the winner with the opportunity to work under Executive Chef James Walt as Whistler welcomes the world during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Chef Ramsay paid a secret visit to Whistler earlier this year to film a teaser featuring Araxi and the British Columbia mountain resort. In the Sept. 22 episode, Chef Ramsay shows the chefs how high the stakes are via a satellite tour of the award-winning restaurant and Whistler. On the same show, the chefs must use 15 local ingredients flown in from Whistler to create three entrees. Guest judges for the challenge include Olympians Sasha Cohen and Jonny Moseley.

On Monay’s episode of Hell’s Kitchen, the 10 remaining chefs either earn a high-rolling reward in Vegas or end up prepping the kitchens - again - for that night’s service. Hell’s Kitchen host Chef Gordon Ramsay has the teams rolling the dice to determine which ingredients they will need to combine to create a tasty dish. One team dares to take a risky ingredient but end up winning big time with a night out on Sin City, while the losing team stay in the kitchens.

Meanwhile on the service, things get pretty tough as Chef Ramsay invites chefs from his restaurants to sit at the first-ever Hell’s Kitchen chefs’ tables. One team continues to make the same mistakes over and over again, while another has to deal with an annoyingly bossy teammate - good vibes to those who can guess who this is. At the end of the episode, one chef will be sent home.

On the last episode of the Fox cooking show, the girls outshone the boys during the 700 calorie challenge, thanks to their tasty entree and dessert (although their three-course meal had around 100 more calories than the boys’). As punishment, the boys had to buy all the ingredients of the Red Team’s winning menu as well as prepping up both kitchens, while the girls got to spend a day at Venice Beach with Olympian volleyball players.

Come dinner service, Robert was rushed to the ER after he started to get dizzy, and Tennille was called a cow. Not to take that sitting down, she snapped back at Chef Ramsay and was consequently sent out of Hell’s Kitchen. Nevertheless, the girls still won, and Jim got the boot because he seemed like he was sleepwalking all the time.

Hell’s Kitchen 3 winner Rock Harper writes on Reality Wanted that he thinks former US Marine Joseph will be the next to be eliminated following his shocking and, some say, unwarranted display of rage toward Hell’s Kitchen host Gordon Ramsay on the show’s Tuesday premiere. Yet other than his temper and apparent lack of knowledge on how the show goes, Chef Rock pins the blame on the New York native’s talent, or lack thereof.

Let’s see; he can’t cook, he’s a sexist, he hasn’t been to any of his anger management classes since the conviction, he can’t cook, he has tons of Marines pissed at him, he threatened Chef G and he can’t cook! As much as we would love to see a brawl, it ain’t gonna happen… He’s gone, very soon.”

Rock adds that perhaps advancing on Hell’s Kitchen is the least on Joseph’s agenda, after he took off his jacket and practically challenged Ramsay on a physical brawl. “The guy is obviously hoping for a lawsuit or some show of his own, and no one on the set will allow that.”

If anything, however, Chef Rock says this season’s two-hour kick off was the best Hell’s Kitchen
start ever, or at least “as good as could be without” him.

As for the other chefs, Rock thinks that Milwaukee sous chef Suzanne did the best job, despite undercooking the risotto. “No one ever cooks the most famous dish from the show and she did, that’s just smart… She made up for it with her beating everyone on the shrimp challenge and strong showings in the kitchen during service.”

If you watch
Hell’s Kitchen, you already know that Christina Machamer overcame exceptional odds to win of the fourth season of the notorious show, becoming the executive sous chef at at the London West Hollywood Hotel. Check in each week as Christina “dishes up” her insights on Hell’s Kitchen’s fifth season, her notorious new boss, and life after reality TV stardom.

By Christina Machamer

Competition soared again this week, as the final four competed in the “cook my dish” challenge. This is a favorite of both myself and chef Ramsay. During my own season, Chef invited the families of the final three to Los Angeles for lunch. You don’t have to be a contestant on Hell’s Kitchen
to know that there is “no such thing as a free lunch.” So while my counterparts relaxed and caught up with their loved ones, my family and I were alert for the challenge. We debated the ingredients as we enjoyed our dish, and in the end I should have listened to my mom. Then again, there are many times in my life where that has been true. In the end, mom’s advice was not needed, and my parents and I were whisked off to enjoy Gordon’s guided tour of Los Angeles on what else? A double-decker bus.

This year’s challenge started out much differently, with several dishes being presented. All of the contestants agreed that they enjoyed the fish stew the most, and as I waited to hear whether or not it was made with actual fish (another throwback to season four), the competition was announced. Each of our final four cheftestants was given 30 minutes to recreate the dish. Now, cooking any of Gordon’s dishes can be quite complicated when you HAVE all of the ingredients. This challenge is much different. Instead of one or two fish to choose from, Hell’s Kitchen is stocked with no less than 10. Now, agreed, snapper and halibut are two very distinctive fish, but imagine what we were faced with. The protein for my challenge was definitely red meat, but it also had a slight iron flavor that led me to wild game more so than beef. I knew that we had lamb in the kitchen, as that was the basis for our Wellingtons. “Great,” I thought, “The hard part is over. The protein is lamb loin, good, now I can focus on the rest.” Once we got into the challenge, I realized that the kitchen had been stocked with lamb tenderloin, lamb loin, bison tenderloin, bison loin, venison tenderloin, and even elk! What was once an easy call just got a lot more difficult.

Then there was the problem with the starch. (The vegetables of diced carrot, celery, parsnip, and pancetta were easy, and all contestants guessed them correctly.) I was positive that we were given a white bean puree, but beans have to be soaked over night before they can be used. There were some that were dried on the shelf, but I knew that would never work. The beans I was to use had to be in one of the fridges. I looked all over, and I couldn’t find them. I started to second guess myself and went back to taste the dish. It was white beans, so it was back to the fridges again. (I think I spent more time gathering the right ingredients than I did cooking them.) Then I spotted the containers of white beans on the very top shelf, shoved into a corner. There wasn’t just one kind of bean there were two. Now, to tell by taste that these were pureed white beans, and not pureed black, or black eyed, or calypso beans, I thought, was quite a feat. So I tasted both beans raw, one large and one small. Both tasted the same, neither good. So I cooked both, and tasted again. It took all of this to narrow down what I already knew was white bean to flageolet beans, the smaller of the two white beans. So when I say that even having all of the ingredients makes this challenge tough, not having all of the ingredients makes it even more so. Gordon even says, “This is what separates the chefs from the cooks.”

It was this last element that forced my win. Corey had the wrong protein, (I think she chose the bison), and parsnip puree, but had correctly picked up on the raspberry vinegar in the sauce. Petrozza and I were both wrong on the sauce, but we both chose correctly with the venison loin. Petrozza however had not used a puree, which clenched my win.

In this most recent challenge, only Danny selected the correct protein. Though he and his closest competitor, Paula, also from Florida, were the closest, it was the “redneck” chef who clinched the win. This challenge is a big one for Chef Ramsay, as it, along with the ability to teach others, is the most important skill in his restaurant. Being consistent is what separates a good restaurant from a great one. You have to be able to taste for that level of consistency. Everyday one must go through one’s product and make sure that the flavor and the quality are the same as the last. The true test of a chef is to be able to go out, have a great meal, recreate that meal and enhance it to their own style. This is what we do everyday. Nothing we cook is new… not really. It is the same basic, twisted and recreated. That is the measure of a chef. So until next week… eat well, cook consistently, and be well.

A graduate of Johnson & Wales, Scott Leibfried has worked at restaurants in Boston, Long Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and in L.A. including the Four Seasons Beverly Hills and executive chef of the Napa Valley Grille.

Scottish by birth, Gordon was brought up in England after his parents moved south to Stratford-upon-Avon. His first career break came whilst playing football for Oxford United where he was spotted by a Glasgow Rangers scout in a F.A. youth club match. After completing trials he was signed by the Scottish champions at the age of 15. Three years later he had given up professional football and gone back to college to complete an HND course in hotel management.

Gordon moved to London where he joined Marco Pierre White in the early days of Harvey’s in Wandsworth. After a couple of years Gordon moved to Le Gavroche to work alongside Albert Roux. This was followed by three years of working in France in the kitchens of Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon. Here he was able to enhance his expertise in classic French cooking.

In October 1993, Gordon became chef of the newly opened Aubergine where he won many accolades including two Michelin stars within three years of opening.

Gordon’s first book, Passion for Flavour, published by Conran Octopus, was published in October 1996. His second book, Passion for Seafood, was published in May 1999. A Chef for all Seasons was published by Quadrille in September 2000 followed by Just Desserts in September 2001 and Secrets in 2003.

In 1998 at the age of 31, Gordon set up his first wholly owned restaurant, Gordon Ramsay, on the former site of La Tante Claire in Chelsea.

A year later he opened Pétrus with his protégé Marcus Wareing as Chef Patron, in St. James’s. Within seven months it had won a Michelin star.

In June 2000 Gordon won The Chef of the Year Award at the Cateys. His restaurant Gordon Ramsay was voted the Top Restaurant in the U.K. with a score of 28 in the 2001 London Zagat Survey and was also named as the best Fine Dining Restaurant in the 2001 Harden’s Guide. These ratings continued in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

On 19th January 2001 Restaurant
Gordon Ramsay gained its third Michelin star in the Michelin Red Guide Great Britain & Ireland.

In October 2001 Gordon opened Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s which gained a Michelin star in 2003.

Gordon has extensive consultancy agreements with a number of blue chip companies including Singapore Airlines, Booker Cash and Carry Limited and Aramark Limited.

At the beginning of October 2002 Gordon Ramsay Holdings Limited took over the whole of the food and beverage operation at The Connaught Hotel with Angela Hartnett at the helm. Her restaurant MENU won its first Michelin star in January 2004.

In 2003 Gordon Ramsay Holdings re-launched The Savoy Grill with Marcus Wareing. The restaurant achieved its first Michelin star in 2004. This was followed with the opening of Boxwood Café at The Berkeley. At the same time the Michelin starred Pétrus came from St. James’s to join Boxwood Café at The Berkeley.

May 2004 saw Gordon Ramsay star in the Channel 4 series Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, a series of four one-hour programmes, later to be awarded a BAFTA. The programme was launched simultaneously with Gordon’s recipe book Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Heaven published by the Penguin Group. Shortly after this, Gordon was given two weeks to direct a group of celebrities towards Michelin standard cooking in the ITV series Hell’s Kitchen.

2005 confirmed Gordon as one of the UK’s major television talents. A second series of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares was followed by the very successful US version of Hell’s Kitchen for Fox TV. November brought the debut of Channel 4’s The F-Word, a high-octane food show with cooking, topical VT’s, food campaigns and celebrity guests. All the action was set against the backdrop of a full working kitchen and over the course of the show Gordon and his brigade prepared a three-course menu for diners.

May 2005 saw Gordon release his sixth book, Gordon Ramsay Makes it Easy published by Quadrille. This includes a DVD with recipe demonstrations, a new concept in cookery book publishing. Gordon also launched his eighth restaurant, maze, in London’s Grosvenor Square with Jason Atherton. Winning instant acclaim and a host of awards, showcasing a flexible grazing menu focusing on French Cuisine with Asian influences in an informal and relaxed environment.

In July 2005 Gordon opened his first restaurant in Japan at The Conrad Tokyo, the city’s newest luxury hotel with Andrew Cook leading the kitchen brigade.

The year was rounded off with Gordon’s award of an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list.

In 2006, a third series of Kitchen Nightmares appeared on Channel 4. A second series of the US Hell’s Kitchen was shown in the USA and ranked number 1 in its period among key demographics. In the UK a second series of Channel 4’s The F-Word was screened in June, which received fantastic ratings, 3.9 million viewers, and 17.3% of the total share. Alongside The F-Word ran a TV publication by Quadrille: Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch and Other Recipes from the F-Word. In May, a range of Gordon Ramsay tableware became available in partnership with Royal Doulton. The second phase launched in October, focusing on oven to tableware.

In September 2006, Gordon’s eponymous restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay (68 Royal Hospital Road) reopened following a major refurbishment in excess of £1 million. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay retained its number one position as the country’s top gastronomic experience as rated in the 2007 Hardens Guide, as well as gaining the highest ratings for service and food.

In October 2006 Gordon’s autobiography, Humble Pie was published by Harper Collins. The book, which details an honest account of his life in and out of the kitchen, has topped many of the best seller charts and is currently leading the charts in its recently paperback format.

In November Gordon made his stateside debut with the opening of Gordon Ramsay at The London. The restaurant, located at 151 West 54th in The London NYC Hotel (formerly the Rihga Royal), is part of the LXR Luxury Resorts collection. The hotel has undergone a $50 million refurbishment by designer David Collins. Formal dining, with seating for 45, takes cues from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, whereas The London Bar offers more casual dining and bar experience for up to 70 guests alongside a further 45 seats for guests to drink in the bar. Modeled on the small-plates concept of Gordon Ramsay’s latest British restaurant, Maze, The London Bar offers a daily changing menu of market specials alongside a variety of tasting dishes. Josh Emett, previously Head Chef at The Savoy Grill in London is the resident Chef de Cuisine.

2007 has been an equally eventful year kickstarted by the award of one Michelin star to La Noisette in Knightsbridge and a second star for Pétrus in the Michelin Guide 2007. In March Gordon opened his first pub, The Narrow in London’s Limehouse (44 Narrow Street, London E14 8DP). Located in a Grade II-listed building on the banks of the Thames, The Narrow serves classic British dishes in a relaxed environment. Gordon’s second pub, The Warrington will open in Maida Vale (93 Warrington Crescent, London W9 1EH) later this Autumn following a major restoration and renovation.

In October Quadrille published Gordon Ramsay, 3 Star Chef; a beautifully produced coffee table book containing 50 of Gordon’s signature dishes from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. October was also the month that saw the publication of Gordon’s follow up to Humble Pie. Titled Playing with Fire, published by HarperCollins, the book gives insight into the success of the chef and his company Gordon Ramsay Holdings.

The fifth international restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt opened in October at the Ritz Carlton Hotel Powerscourt, Ireland. October was also the month that Gordon’s second pub, The Devonshire opened in Chiswick. This is to be followed by the launch of The Warrington in Maida Vale in January 2008 following a major restoration and renovation.

In November Gordon will open Maze Prague at the Hilton Old Town in Prague. Further international openings are planned for 2008 in Los Angeles, Paris and Amsterdam. 2008 will also be the year that Gordon opens a restaurant at the newly built Richard Rogers designed Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. The restaurant, known as Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food, will open in March 2008