Season 1 Episode 7

The seventh episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on July 11, 2005. On that episode, there was a big celebration before the challenge as the game changed in a significant way and a meltdowns by two people at dinner service.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

Following Andrew’s elimination, Ralph did not feel safe as it was a close call for him. Jessica told him he deserved to be there. After that, he talked with Michael who would have preferred him being eliminated instead of Andrew because he was his biggest threat at this stage of the game. After that Elsie declared to Jessica that she was home sick. She did not want to be there anymore even wanting to go back home with her sons and hanging with her sisters.

Black Jacket Celebration

Because there were five contestants left Ramsay merged them into one team called the black team. Ralph was the first to receive his black jacket, followed by Elsie, Michael and Jessica. When Ramsay gave Jimmy his black jacket, he jokingly said that he would give it to him only if he would promise to keep the plates clean, without anymore “Dirty Bowl Jimmy”. Jimmy answered there would be no more and Ramsay finished by congratulating everybody by telling them he was proud of them. When they got back to the dorms to change, the contestants celebrated by congratulating each other. Moments later they came back to the dining room for the first individual challenge in the history of Hell’s Kitchen.

Individual Challenge

Ramsay explained the Tableside Fruit Flambé Challenge, where each contestant had 5 minutes to recreate Ramsay’s fruit flambé dessert. When the countdown began, Elsie and Jessica forgot their carts so they had to go back and get them before getting their ingredients. Elsie was confused as she did not know what she was doing and told Ramsay she never did that before. Jimmy was careless and ran into his liqueur bottle a couple of times which made Ramsay laugh and Michael dropped and splattered his mango. When Ramsay commented Michael’s plate, he praised the taste, but compared it to Jimmy’s because it was dirty, which insulted Michael. Ralph’s plate was good but he forgot to dust his fruits and put sugar on them. Jessica was caught having bananas with raw sugar. Ramsay praised Elsie for her presentation and colour on the caramel. Finally, when Ramsay tasted Jimmy’s dish, he asked him if he did that before, which Jimmy replied he did not and took three bites instead of just one, saying it was very good. After deliberation over Elsie and Jimmy, Ramsay chose Jimmy as the winner of the challenge.

Reward

Because he won the challenge, Jimmy went on a helicopter tour of Los Angeles and was greeted by Jean-Philippe and two waiters on top of a building, where they were holding wine and caviar. He also picked Michael to go on the reward with him. Jimmy also had the opportunity to choose one of his fellow teammates to prepare Caesar salads and fruit flambés tableside during the following service.

Punishment

Jessica, Ralph and Elsie had to clean the entire dining room ahead of the next dinner service. During the punishment they trash-talked on Jimmy saying he picked Michael because he was an ass-kisser.

Before service

When the three chefs who were punished got back in the dorms, Elsie explained what she thought of the situation. She felt that Jimmy picked Michael because he owed him something after not being nominated two weeks before but continued by explaining that what Jimmy was not realizing is that Michael got rid of Chris, who was his biggest threat. When Jimmy and Michael told them the reward, it made Ralph and Elsie envious, to the point where Elsie did not want Jimmy to touch her anymore and flipped the bird in his back.

The next morning, everybody was quiet because of the animosity between them. During prep they were helped by the Sous Chefs. Jimmy chose Elsie to go in the dining room and serve the Caesar salads and fruit flambés table-side, as she finished second in the challenge. Ramsay also announced that Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann would be taking the night off for the first time in the history of the show.

Dinner service

Ralph and Michael got the newly formed black team off to a good start by sending many appetizers out. In the dining room, Elsie forgot her salad bowl in the kitchen, so she quickly came back to get it. When she sent her first salad, it was well received by the customers. A lot of meat orders came in and very few fish orders. Therefore, Jessica had her biggest task but when a fire erupted in one of her pans, she blew on it trying to get it away without any success.

45 minutes into service, Ralph was asked by Ramsay to join him at the pass to plate the food. Moments later power went out in the restaurant. Elsie could not see what she was doing but Michael did not bother as he was too focused on his cooking. Fortunately, the power was restored a few seconds later, at the great relief of the customers, who applauded. After that, Jimmy mistakenly threw his cooked lobster away without realising in an attempt to keep the fish station clean. Ramsay asked him where the lobster was, and Jimmy answered he did not know. As it was lost, they had to start the table again. In the dining room, Elsie got a request to cut the lettuce thinner by a customer. When Jean-Philippe told her the problem, she compared the customer to a baby, remembering cutting the meat for her kids.

An hour and a half into service, Jessica realised she ran out of filet mignons. She started panicking, claiming that Sous Chef Scott, who took the night off, misplaced them. When she explained the situation to Ramsay, she started arguing with him and giving attitude like if she was not caring anymore. When she asked for help, Michael ran to the back store to get some filets. When he returned to the kitchen, he helped Jessica on her station, who was clearly asking for some. In the dining room, Elsie was about to begin her fruit flambés but ran out of pans. So she went to the kitchen to grab some and as she did, Jessica asked her to get some pans for the meat station by the way. Elsie refused saying she was busy. On her first try Elsie failed to light up the alcohol, so she gave customers fruit flambés, not flambéed.

An hour later Ralph was praised by Ramsay on his work at the plating station. When Jimmy messed up the risotto by pouring fish stock in it, Ramsay lost it and schooled him on his attitude. Then Ramsay asked Ralph to help Jimmy on his station. In the dining room Elsie bounced back from her first flambé and started to deliver great fruit flambés to most of the customers which were all satisfied. After a heated argument between Jimmy and Ramsay where Jimmy shouted at Ramsay because he did not put the halibut in the pan as supposed to, Ramsay decided to shut down the kitchen while telling Jimmy and Jessica that both of them let him down during that service.

Post-mortem

Ramsay told the remaining contestants that he was disappointed because the beginning of the service was impressive but then collapsed. Despite, he was impressed by Ralph’s great work after being pushed around a lot during the last couple of weeks and named him “Best of the Worst”. Ralph was told to nominate two of his teammates for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Elsie pulled Ralph aside and told him to nominate her as she was tired of being in the competition and was not as fast as the rest of the chefs. Michael was not happy to hear Elsie say that and Jimmy hoped he would not be eliminated that night. Later Jessica and Michael talked about her friendship with Ralph with the concern that Ralph might put her up for elimination despite Jessica not doing so last time. Ralph knew he has gotten close to Jessica since their time on the blue team but also knew he had to change up his gameplay now that they were competing individually.

Elimination

Ralph named Jimmy as his first nominee and Jessica as his second. After reminding him he was flying high 24 hours before. Ramsay eliminated Jimmy as he failed to bounce back from his mistakes and lost his temper. But before he left Ramsay congratulated him on how far he got in the competition and told him to keep his head up high. Jimmy received a retrospective montage of his run during his exit interview.

Ramsay’s comment: “Each and everyone of these contestants now have to start emerging as individual talent. This is where we really start to find out who can handle the heat and who can’t. Clearly tonight, Jimmy couldn’t.”

My opinion

My nominated was Jessica and Jimmy and Jimmy to leaving hell kitchen. Ralph nominated was the same as mine.

My comment: Jimmy was on top 24 hours ago but after tonight service he was not on top so he left.

Gordon choose Jimmy