'Hell's Kitchen' recap: What does Barret have on Chef Ramsay?

By Rene Lynch

May 8, 2013 12 AM PT

“Hell’s Kitchen” and Chef Gordon Ramsay must have some pretty big secrets to hide -- and Barret knows all about them.

That’s the only explanation, right? For why Barret gets to stay another week while Amanda, the tuna destroyer, goes home? No one is defending Amanda, mind you. She definitely botched the extra-special dinner service for a smiley 15-year-old’s quinceanera -- and then blamed Nedra for many of her culinary woes.

But Barret is like a cat with nine lives, and everyone knows that cats don’t belong in the kitchen! When he’s not burning something, he’s under-cooking the pasta or leaving -- was that a wooden skewer? -- stuck in the grilled shrimp.

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His worst offense, though, is simply not listening to the customer. As in, the teenager who specifically said she does not like spicy food. But Barret, see, he knows better, and he knows that Spanish people like hot sauce (his words, not mine) so why not add lots of hot sauce to those deep-fried mac ‘n’ cheese balls. Had he gone easier on the spice he could have helped the blue team win the challenge to come up with an appealing party menu.

Instead, the men lost.

Again.

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The only good news for the blue team was the fact that the dinner service was -- say it with me! -- disappointing. Never one to miss an opportunity for a zinger, Ramsay said the special occasion turned out to be “special all right. Especially painful.”

He refused to declare a winner, and forced both teams to nominate two players for elimination.

But still. How did Barret live to cook another day?

Random aside: Disappointed Ramsay didn’t rip into that party planner when she upbraided him for not having all the appetizers out?

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