Hell's Kitchen Season 22, Episode 2

The first half of the show is about scallops. The brigade of competing chefs have to collect scallops (still live and in the shells) and shuck and clean them, and then turn them into award winning dishes. 

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To learn how to remove scallops from their shelves, please read here.

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We don't get to see exactly what everyone creates with fresh scallops, because each team (red for girls, blue for boys) chooses, amongst themselves, their favorite three recipes. We do hear these items as accompaniments to seared scallops:

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• Rice (Jambalaya)

• Asparagus Puree

• Pork belly

• Pickled cabbage

• Fennel

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The red team from Hell's Kitchen Season 22 put up these three dishes:

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Pan-seared scallops on New Orleans Classic Corn Relish (Chef Melissa - winner)

Raw scallop crudo with orange and grapefruit (Chef Sammi - served in the rounded scallop shell)

Coriander-dusted seared scallops (Chef Leigh - Gordon Ramsay said "I anticipated that the coriander would be too overwhelming, but it worked beautifully).

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The blue team put up these three dishes:

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"Sweet and Heat" Chipotle Cream Sauce with Seared Scallops (Chef Jermaine)

Pan-seared Scallops with Lemongrass and Yuzu Kosho beurre blanc (Chef Ryan - see yuzu kosho below)

Escabeche of Scallop with Orange Juice (Chef Johnathan  - winner)

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Note: An 'escabeche' is a Spanish dish, usually served cold, where fish or seafood is lightly sauteed and then marinated in a pool of acidic salad - Chef Johnathan used orange juice (possibly with other supporting acids) and also purple cauliflower, fennel and carrots)

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Note: Chef Leigh used the term "Coriander". In the United States, this plant is almost always called cilantro which makes me wonder if she was using the seed of the plant rather than the leaf. For some reason, the seed is mostly still referred to as coriander. It was impossible to tell on the show, but I'm guessing that Leigh dry-roasted some whole coriander seed. This seed tastes lemony and while it's mild, dry-roasting intensifies the flavor and it can definitely be overwhelming and a  little sweet. Scallops are already sweet, thus, presumably, the caution from Gordon Ramsay.

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The second half of the show (Hell's Kitchen Season 22) sees the two teams on their first dinner service in Hell's Kitchen. You can see the menu they were supporting here. It's probably enough to say that both teams were sent out of the kitchen for undercooking meat and chicken. The following culinary tips were interesting to me, and I hope they were for you, too.

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Scallops - Chef Christina teaches the teams "always flip the scallops away from you".

Carbonara Sauce - once it curdles it is unrecoverable. Start over.

Learn how to know when steak and chicken are cooked! More on this here. 

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