Season 2 Episode 2

The second episode of Season 2 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on June 12, 2006. On that episode, there was a smelly group punishment to begin the day, the first emotional departure, and a surprise elimination.

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

Intro

After Polly’s elimination, the women were more ashamed and embarrassed about their dinner service loss. Virginia even stated she thought she was going home. On their side, the men were totally confident and enjoying their win. Garrett and Gabe talked about chopping off the red team before chopping off each other as men.

Team Challenge

The next morning, after only two hours of sleep, the contestants were woken up by Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann playing cowbells. They were told to get outside immediately. Ramsay reminded that the previous night service was embarrassing, and Virginia that she was lucky to be there after being nominated. He also told Larry to start showing passion. The contestants then had to get in the dumpsters and collect all the trash from the last dinner service. That task was given as a lesson about waste. During the task, Giacomo commented it was nothing for him as he lost his retainer five or six times in the school trash can. After that, Ramsay told the contestants to get clean and meet him in the blue kitchen, where Ramsay introduced the Steak Challenge.

Each contestant had 10 minutes to cut as many acceptable 10 ounces sirloin steaks as possible. After a quick demo, Ramsay asked Keith to sit out to even the teams at 5 members each, which pissed him off because he would have loved to take part in the challenge. However, he was allowed to help his teammates, as he tried to do with Giacomo.

For the red team, Sara produced three acceptable steaks, while Heather produced only two. Ramsay told her he expected more. Rachel scored three more, and Virginia scored two, along with Maribel. The red team finished with a total of 12 points, a performance that Ramsay found unsatisfying as a lot of meat was wasted. For the blue team, Gabe gave a great performance as he scored three points despite never having done this before, and was proud of himself. Garrett only scored one point, and Giacomo scored two, making the blue team’s total at 6, with two people still to go. When it was Larry’s turn, none of his steaks were acceptable, making him the worst performer overall. Tom was the last man to show his meat, and gave the best overall performance by scoring five points for his team. But it was not enough as the final score was 12-11 for the red team. Tom’s performance was praised by Ramsay.

Reward

The red team was rewarded with a helicopter ride to The Saddle Peak Lodge to have lunch with Ramsay. During the reward, the women found Ramsay very nice and friendly, and Virginia stated she can not wait to know him on a different level.

Punishment

The blue team was punished by cutting all the steaks for the next dinner service, which included a steak special. During the punishment, Keith was angry at Larry’s performance and considered him as a weak link. On his side, Larry was so ashamed he did not even want to look his teammates in the eyes, and did the punishment apart from them.

Larry exit

When the red team got back from their reward, Gabe made a joke about how the red team are one man down and missing somebody, supposing he would like to transfer to their team. Heather answered by saying she would think about it in the jacuzzi. The whole red team, except Rachel, jumped in the hot tub, and were later joined by Larry who said women were his downfall.

When everybody got to sleep, Larry was feeling ill, sweating and tingling. He called a medic on the phone, and he was rushed to the hospital. The next morning, everybody was wondering where he was, as nobody saw him. Then, the phone rang and Sara answered. Larry was on the other hand of the phone, and told her to get everybody near the phone to listen to him. He told he was at the hospital because the stress of the competition shut his body down. He concluded by declaring he would not return to Hell’s Kitchen, and telling everybody to stay strong and be a unit. Heather stated she was sad to see him go because of an illness, and would rather see him leave because of something else. Gabe wished him to get better. Ramsay gave no comment on Larry’s departure.

Before service

Because of Larry’s departure, the teams were now even at 5 members each. During prep, Sara was happy about his departure as she felt she was now one step closer to her dream. When the teams were lined up, Ramsay assigned Sara and Keith as waiters for their respective teams. He jokingly told Keith to probably lose some weight while running up the stairs.

Dinner service

When the doors of the restaurant opened, Keith was already sweaty after walking up stairs, and his customers noticed it. Sara delivered her first ticket very quickly. In the blue kitchen, Keith delivered his first ticket 20 minutes after the opening, and it was not accepted by Ramsay because no temperatures were written. Also, Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to get a towel for him as he was sweating a lot. In the red kitchen, Virginia sent a first monkfish dish. It was rejected because of the vinaigrette. Ramsay broke the plate to the floor at the women’s feet, and asked them to start again. In the blue kitchen, Keith took 30 minutes to bring his first ticket to his team. Ramsay reminded him it was his team and warned him to not sabotage it. When Ramsay called the first ticket, Tom asked him to repeat the order, which Ramsay refused, and was told to read the ticket himself. Gabe got in a heated argument with Ramsay when he asked if quail was needed and no quail has been called. Ramsay schooled him on his rudeness. 45 minutes into service, no food left either kitchen. In the red kitchen, Maribel received help from Heather on appetizers, and in the blue kitchen, everybody took Gabe’s station over him. Ramsay schooled Gabe on that laid-back behavior, but despite that, he managed to send acceptable appetizers out.

An hour into service, appetizers fly out of both kitchens. When the red team got ready to plate their entrées, Heather suffered a second-degree burn to the hand, and Ramsay helped her by getting her hand under cold water. Then, he asked Jean-Philippe to get some ice. Despite her injury, Heather continued to be a team player by telling Maribel and Sous Chef Mary-Ann what was going on her station. She was then told to see a medic by Ramsay and left the service by ambulance. After her departure, the red kitchen became chaotic, and after Maribel dropped some spaghetti to the floor, Ramsay told her to get a restaurant with only one table in it, because with more, she would be fucked. In the blue kitchen, Tom on meat, and Giacomo on garnish, had communication problems. Giacomo did not know what was going with the duck as sides, which discouraged Ramsay. When a customer went to the kitchen, Ramsay told him he was working with mop heads for the first time in his life. After witnessing a communication problem in the red kitchen, Ramsay allowed Sara’s request to come back in the kitchen to finish service. She was put on the meat station. In the blue kitchen, Tom declared he was ready to walk with one duck and one chicken, but Giacomo’s garnishes were not ready. Ramsay schooled Giacomo after he discovered fried cabbage, saying he should become a hairdresser as he was “bouncing around with women’s hair”.

Three hours into service, many tables have walked out, despite Keith trying his best to buy his team some time. The red team rallied to try and finish service as they saw some hope. Many entrées left the red kitchen. Sara was complimented for serving nice Wellingtons. However, Virginia sent unacceptable tortellinis and when Ramsay asked her if she would serve it in her restaurant, she answered she would. He could not believe her answer and asked her another time, where she answered she would make some more. After that, Ramsay asked both teams to take a look in the dining room, which was almost empty because too many customers left. Ramsay shut down the restaurant.

Post-mortem

Heather came back just in time for the announcement of the winning team. Ramsay praised her dedication and teamwork when he reminded the delegation of her station to Maribel while standing in pain over the cold water. He also reminded Virginia she can not buy standards, and questioned Gabe about his multi-tasking abilities. Ramsay declared the blue team losers as they served no entrées, and praised the red team’s improvement. He also named Garrett “Best of the Worst” for being the only one on his team who did not have a bad service, and asked him to nominate two of his teammates for elimination.

Elimination

During Garrett’s deliberation, Giacomo was annoyed by Tom’s way of making himself look good.

Garrett eventually chose Giacomo as his first nominee, and Tom as his second. After Tom was sent back in line when he convinced Ramsay he would never let a major malfunction like that happen again and that he would take charge, Ramsay called Gabe forward, and eliminated him for his lack of passion, and the fact he allowed his teammates to run his station for him. Before getting out, Ramsay told Giacomo to get a grip fast.

Ramsay’s comment: “It’s absolutely crucial in Hell’s Kitchen to have finesse and passion. It was pretty obvious that Gabe had no passion.”

Gabe received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence, but Larry did not.

My opinion

Both blue and red dinner service was rubbish tonight so couldn’t decide to pick for the team which lost. So Gordon pick the blue team. So my nominated was Giacomo and Tom. But Gabe didn’t do much as well.

My comment: Giacomo was a shit chef but after tonight performance he be a good hair dresser.

Gordon choose Gabe.