The third episode of Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on June 18, 2007. On that episode, a breakfast service challenge has one team on top, one chef’s poor health finally caught up to him and was forced to leave, and a disastrous service has Ramsay question one chef if they cared about the diners.

Intro

Back in the dorms, Josh was not happy with Rock about being up for elimination and felt that Rock was trying to get rid of him. Rock talked to Josh, and reminded him that they were not leaders yet, though was annoyed with Josh’s attitude. Aaron’s condition was not getting better, and he still wondered about his place in the competition.

The red team was happy about their victory, and Julia hoped they would keep winning since as the underdog, she wanted to learn more and eventually win the competition.

Team challenge

At 5:58 AM the next morning, a group of navy officers and army soldiers woke the teams up and ordered them to get dressed. Aaron was once again cramping though Rock and Brad helped him getting ready. Bonnie herself was not happy as she was in the shower when it was going on, and had to quickly get dressed and meet with her team.

With both teams down in the kitchen, Ramsay remarked that he was still disappointed in the teams, since none of them had exhibit consistency and teamwork yet. To fix that, he opened Hell’s Kitchen for breakfast for the first time, exciting Julia as she cooked breakfast food for a living. For the Army and Navy Service Challenge, both teams would serve both those units with different breakfast items. The blue team cooked for the navy, while the red team cooked for the army. The team that would finish their tables first would win.

Sous Chef Mary-Ann urged Julia to step up as a leader. Julia took the role seriously and delegated her teammates to different stations and food items. However, the blue team was severely disorganized as Aaron’s omelet pan caught fire and threw two burnt orders in the trash. In the red kitchen, the women were getting food out in quick succession with 20 tables already served in 17 minutes. The navy had not received their food yet, and Aaron’s poor performance on omelette was slowing momentum, causing Brad to name Aaron the blue team’s weakest link in a confession. Josh and Brad took over Aaron’s station, and the blue team finally sent food out to the dining room. The red team continued to send food out fast, but one of Joanna’s order of hash browns was sent back for being raw. Joanna’s problem caused a domino effect as momentum halted with a raw and salty hash brown, and Ramsay told her that he has had it with her attitude and inconsistency.

In the blue kitchen, Brad’s omelets turned out cold, and Ramsay asked Brad if he was “consistently shit”. Along with Aaron’s own problems, communication in the blue team went down. In the red kitchen, the women completed their final orders and were the winners. Ramsay praised Julia for her performance and told her to go over to the blue kitchen and help them getting sorted out. With Julia’s help, the blue team managed to serve all their tables, although Brad, Josh, and Vinnie were upset that the blue team could not get their act together. Ramsay was especially upset by the fact that none of them had step up as the leader, despite asking for one, though none of them answered.

Reward

The red team went on a helicopter ride and had lunch with Ramsay on the USS Midway.

Punishment

The blue team was forced to do KP duty, which included prepping a thousand pounds of potatoes and onions. With that being their second challenge loss in a row, the men were upset by it. Unfortunately, more problems arose for them as before peeling, Aaron collapsed, much to the concern of his team. They called for medical help, and Aaron was sent to the hospital in an ambulance. The remaining four continued their punishment, but Rock was still annoyed with Josh trying to take the leadership role as Rock thought that Josh had no skills for it.

Before service

The women returned from their reward and relaxed as the blue team finished their punishment. The blue team decided to discuss who should be the leader of the team. After a lengthy discussion, Brad was named the leader, though Rock knew that Josh changed his vote out of spite for being nominated by him.

The next morning, the blue team headed down to the kitchen with renewed energy as they had a leader now, though Rock just wanted to see how Brad would handle that position for that night. In the red kitchen, the women began prep as well, though the team’s confidence in Julia began to falter when she admitted to Mary-Ann that she did not know how to make crème brulée.

Aaron Exit

Meanwhile, Ramsay called a hospitalized Aaron, and told him that he spoke with the doctors, and because of his health problems, he could not return to Hell’s Kitchen. However, Ramsay praised Aaron efforts to try and come back and wished him well. Immediately after hanging up, Aaron expressed disappointment in being forced to leave like that, and received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence.

Ramsay informed both teams the bad news, but the blue team still expressed the hope that they could do it despite being a man down. Ramsay then informed the blue team that as the second part of their punishment, they would have to take in deliveries of water during service. With both teams ready, Ramsay had Jean-Philippe open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner service

The first order for the blue kitchen came in, but Ramsay criticized Rock for cooking risotto the same way as an omelet, and chewed him out for his unintentional winking due to the sweat in his eyes. In the red kitchen, Joanna cooked her risottos, but it was too salty. Rock managed to redeem his mistakes with a good risotto, and dishes were coming out of the blue kitchen. Jean-Philippe told Ramsay that they were running low on water, and Ramsay sent Josh out to help, though Josh was still exhausted from the previous punishment. In the red kitchen, Ramsay found out that Bonnie’s scallops were raw, but he was even angrier at Bonnie’s dumb question about it. With Josh returning, the blue team managed to send more food out with Ramsay praising how much the blue team’s dynamic has changed. In the red kitchen, on their third attempt at the first ticket, Ramsay smelled something foul and found out that the crab Joanna was using had gone rancid. After berating Joanna for using it for the customers as it would have killed someone, Ramsay kicked Joanna off appetizers, and sent Julia to replace her.

One hour into dinner service, and none of the red team’s orders have gone out, while the blue team has sent out nearly half of their tables. Vinnie, however, started getting slow on scallops, and Ramsay noticed a raw egg on the dish, smashing it on Vinnie’s chest. This caused Ramsay to declare he was not trusting Vinnie anymore, though Vinnie restrained himself from lashing out. The red team finally got food out, thanks to Julia and Jen. When Jen tossed out cooked spaghetti not needed, Ramsay asks for some on the next ticket. In a panic, she grabbed some tossed pasta from the trash, but Julia convinced her not to serve it, though it stalled the red team. Brad and Josh worked on their entrées, but when Josh said he was not ready with his turbot, Ramsay accused him of trying to sabotage Brad.

Two hours into dinner service, and the red team had finally served all their appetizers. In the blue kitchen, they were still working on their first ticket of entrées. Ramsay caught Brad doing something, and it was revealed that Brad was trying to scrap the burnt parts of the Wellingtons off. That pissed off Ramsay as he threatened to ram the meat up Brad’s ass if he would try to serve them, and angrily yelled if the blue team could get their entrées together. Problems in the red kitchen continued as all of Jen’s Wellingtons were all overcooked due to the slow start on appetizers, frustrating Ramsay as they still had 17 on order. As impatient customers were leaving, Ramsay reached his breaking point, ripped the tickets up, and shut down the restaurant.

Post-Mortem

Ramsay admitted that by that point, he was shattered and physically drained by the constant mistakes. He turned to the blue team and reminded them that they had not completed one service yet, criticized Brad’s performance and poor leadership skills that service, but praised Rock’s performance saying it was his best one yet. For the red team, he informed them that 95% of their customers have not been served an entrée, and was still furious about Joanna’s crab incident, along with Bonnie’s poor performance. There was no winner that service, but the red team were deemed the worst of the two for all of them making embarrassing mistakes. He then told them to come to a group consensus for two nominees.

As the blue team celebrated their victory, the red team gathered for discussion. Joanna believed that she was up for elimination, something Bonnie agreed with. Julia was disappointed with Jen trying to recycle trashed pasta, but Jen tried to deflect her mistakes. Bonnie and Melissa brought up Julia’s name since her inexperience with the fine-dining food made them believe she could not win. After much discussion, the women agreed with Joanna and Julia, though Jen still felt guilty over her actions.

Elimination

At elimination, Joanna announced herself as the red team’s first nominee, and Julia as the second. After that announcement, Jen interjected and said that she was the second nominee by explaining the “trashed pasta” incident. Ramsay was disappointed by the fact that there were three nominees, but asked all three of them to step forward. After discussing with Julia, Ramsay sent her back in line. After discussing with both Jen and Joanna, Ramsay eliminated the latter for her poor performances and the fact that she refused to admit her mistakes. During her exit interview, Joanna refused to let her elimination stop her and felt she grew stronger being here, before declaring that she would obtain her ultimate goal of opening her own restaurant.

Ramsay’s comment: “Not only did Joanna serve rancid crab that could’ve seriously made a customer ill, she completely gave up, screwed her team, and if you can’t handle one individual section, you got no chance of running a business.”

My opinion

The two easy nominated ever in hell kitchen so far, I don’t know why was Julia up where. Jen and Joanna make the worst mistakes ever in the kitchen.

My comment: Joanna was the right people to go. She mess up easily but could have kill someone.

RIP Aaron