Hell's Kitchen Season 22 Episode 1

Three competitors used lobster. One of them inserted it into macaroni and cheese and earned a very strong 4 (points were only lost for a plain presentation). Another horrified Gordon Ramsay by adding precious lobster to boxed pasta. The third competitor made lobster the star of the dish (with citrus and chili) and was critiqued for lack of balance - Gordon Ramsay said "the overall effect is too sweet". 

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Lobster is naturally sweet. The chef serving up this dish argued that he had deliberately added a hint of honey - clearly it wasn't a good idea. Also, we can't know what blend of chili this competitor used, but it would likely have worked better to use Cayenne instead of Chili and use less of it. Cayenne has a real kick, but complements sweet things.

 

Finally, salted butter and garlic are great accompaniments to the sweet Maine Lobster.

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One competitor got severely marked down for using boxed linguine. A second chef won top marks for making it from fresh.

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It takes 5 minutes to put the ingredients together and then another ten minutes to knead it to a silky dough. Then there's a required rest of at least 30 minutes. We hear Chef Dahmere say "45 minutes is not a long time" so presumably, that's how long they get for the signature dish. I have no idea how Chef Sammi managed to rest her pasta, shape it, cook it and serve it in the allotted time. I'm going to make her dish in my test kitchen today and report back to you.

 

Since I'm testing the making of linguine, I'm also going to write you a report on 'best flour'. When I was a young chef, decades ago, the best practice was to use 00 flour, or semolina flour, but I think that 2023 All-Purpose flour might be perfect. 

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Update - the post on pasta flour is here.

In the debut episode of Hell's Kitchen, Gordon awards 4 points to Chef Donya who makes "Elevated Catfish with Grits" as her signature dish. He brushes the grits off with the following comment "Grits need a little help".

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What might that mean? What, typically, can go wrong with grits?

• It's pretty important to choose the best grits for the dish. There are several different kinds. See my analysis here. 

• Grits absorb flavor. You can dilute them with any liquid (stock, wine, water, cream) and it's important to choose the best. Unless I'm avoiding richness, I personally use 80% water and 20% cream.

• It's easy to get the grits ready a little early and from the moment they're ready, they deteriorate. Personally, I remove mine from the heat and only at the very last minute do I add the cream and stir well.

•  Be careful not to over-salt grits. Taste at the last minute and adjust if necessary. 

Gnocchi was selected by one chef and two others chose Spätzle (Spaetzle) as an important component of their dish. Both are small and melt-in-the-mouth but gnocchi is made from potato while spätzle is a pasta, made from flour. 

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While Chef Claudia only got two points for her Spatzle dish (she was penalized for over-cooking the meat), her two fellow-competitors, Chefs  Johnathon and Brad did extraordinarily well with their dishes.

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Spatzle (means "little sparrows") are tiny irregular bumps of pasta. They are springy and doughy and endlessly forgiving. They support almost all sauces, and can be cooked in advance and reheated either in water or browned in butter. It's really hard to go wrong. 

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Gnocchi, by contrast, is prone to mistakes:

• You can add too much flour

• You can choose potatoes that are too waxy

• You can overcook them

• You can overcook your potatoes and make wet gnocchi

• You can decide to omit the egg, which makes it more fragile

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Only one of the 18 opening chefs in Hell's Kitchen Season 22 offered a vegan dish for a signature. This was Chef Sandra who served up "Vegan Scallops" carved from oyster mushrooms.

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Sandra was commended for the creativity and the idea, but sadly her mushroom stalks were undercooked and not palatable.

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Research says that in 2023, 6% of Americans consider themselves to be vegetarian, with another 3% presenting as vegan. It is virtually unheard of, in the United States, to find a restaurant without at least one vegetarian option and these are increasingly creative and tasty.

 

Personally, I've never really understood the drive to 'fake' meat or fish dishes from vegetables. Many, perhaps most, vegetarians have turned away from meat because they don't like thinking about the process of killing and processing flesh-based foods. In some ways,  it is defeating that goal to serve up a 'pretend' scallop.

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With the range of vegetables, herbs and spices on the market today, and the quality of the produce, there is a world of opportunity for high-quality vegan dishes. 

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After only two weeks of Hell's Kitchen Season 22, it's already clear that the theme of "it's RAW" is going to abound yet again. So let's talk about how to know when meat is cooked. 

 

Steak

If you have a meat thermometer, then: 

• Rare 140°F

• Medium Rare 150°F

• Medium 160°F

• Well Done 170°F

if you prefer the finger test, then here's how to tell. Take your left hand and pinch your thumb and index finger together. Now prod the muscle at the base of your thumb with the index finger of your right hand. What you feel equates to RARE. It should be springy and a little soft. Now pinch your left thumb and left middle finger, feel the muscle below the thumb and what you feel is MEDIUM RARE (a little less springy). Your ring finger works for MEDIUM and your little finger for WELL DONE.  Don't expect to be perfect first time, but with a little practice this is really reliable. 

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Chicken 

Meat Thermometer - 165°F for white meat

Without a thermometer, you should use two gauges. First, has the chicken shrunk? If not, it's almost certainly undercooked. If it is smaller, then pierce the thickest part with a tiny puncture and see if the juices are clear - they need to be. 

We've all sat and watched reality cooking shows and seen the growth of purees. They so often show up as little dots, or as a spoonful that is 'skated' over the plate.

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Those little polka dots are very often met with the criticism "there wasn't enough of that", 

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Also, when those swirls of puree end up underneath meat, pastry or fish, the chef hears "I wouldn't have done that - you just spoiled that lovely sear".

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The words of praise that we all want to hear about our purees are "silky smooth" and "perfectly balanced".

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To make a perfectly smooth puree you almost always need a chinois. 

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A puree that is 'perfectly balanced' is usually the right combination of bitter, salty, sweet and sour.  It feels ironic to say that the one thing you'll most likely have in your pantry that really celebrates that balance is ... Heinz Tomato Ketchup. It's true, though. When you've made a puree and wonder if it's well balanced, it's a useful trick to alternate tastes of your puree and Ketchup. If you end up knowing that your puree is too sweet, or too salty, then you'll have put ketchup to very good use. 

I don't often come across a food that is completely new to me, but I confess that when Chef Raneisha added Tasso Pork to her shrimp and grits, I felt the need to find out more.

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Tasso Ham is a Cajun dish that typically uses the pork shoulder, making it a very affordable cut. It can be purchased ready-cured. The one I like most is here. This is a quality, environmentally conscious product.

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While Tasso Ham can be put in a sandwich and eaten with no extra treatment at all, it is more often used, especially in Bayou cooking, re-heated and added to soups, rice or grits. 

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It is easy to dry out this Tasso ham if you're not alert. It's fairly lean so keeping it moist with butter while re-heating is a good idea. 

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From the smallest (Littleneck Clams) to the largest (geoduck, pronounced gooey-duck), clams are renowned for their "briny bite and bouncy chew".

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The name "clam" is derivative of 'clamp' and lets you know how to buy them ... i.e. only when they are clamped shut. When you touch them, they'll most likely open, but you shouldn't worry about those that stay closed in boiling water nearly as much as you should worry about those that are open on the slab at the fishmongers. Don't buy those until they close when you touch them. Also, don't buy those with broken shells.

 

The fishmonger will have purged them (of grit) but it doesn't do any harm to take them home and sit them in a bowl of salted water for an hour to bring out any remaining grit.

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Cook these clams in a boiling liquid (soup, sauce, broth) until they open - it should only take a handful of minutes. Remember that they are salty, so if you want to season them, think sour, bitter or sweet. 

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Lime, chives, gochujang, harissa, cream, garlic, butter, parsley. 

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Linguine "ai vongole" is one of the most enduringly popular dishes in the world.