Food critics visit 'Hell's Kitchen'

The four remaining Hell's Kitchen contestants were instructed to pull out all the stops to impress a group of food critics last night.

Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard, Giles Coren of the Times and Amanda Afiya from The Caterer were all asked to give their impressions of the food being served at the restaurant.

Maitre D' Nick said: "This is a very important table for everyone concerned tonight."

The starters and main courses all received high praise from the critics, but the desserts, which were prepared by Brian Dowling, did not impress the trio.

Fay tried an Eton mess dessert and gave it just a four out of ten, explaining: "It's alright. I think it would work better with strawberries."

Giles ordered crème brulee and gave it only one out of ten. "I can't think how it could have been worse," he said. "The sugar is much too thick and stuck to your teeth and the vanilla sunk to the bottom - like an ashtray."

Amanda gave her lemon meringue pie three points, branding it "too citrussy".

Hell's Kitchen airs tonight at 9.35pm on ITV1.