Season 3 Episode 4

The fourth episode of Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on June 25, 2007. On that episode, the annual Blind Taste test occurred, a disastrous dinner service, and a shocking move by Ramsay at elimination.

Intro

Back in the dorms, morale was very low as Jen still felt guilty over her “trash pasta” incident, but Bonnie managed to comfort her. Vinnie railed on Jen’s decision and stated that he would have kicked her out if she did that in his kitchen, much to Bonnie’s annoyance. Bonnie admitted that the long nights was getting taxing, and believed they were in actual Hell.

Team challenge

The next morning, both teams came downstairs to the kitchen and met with Ramsay, who reminded Jen of her “trash pasta” incident last night, along with Vinnie’s raw egg. Then, Ramsay revealed that one of the biggest factors behind a great chef was the taste, and said that none of them had yet pushed their palates. Because of that, Ramsay introduced the annual Blind Taste Challenge.

The first pair up was Brad against Julia. Ramsay had three different ingredients prepared for them, and both wore blindfolds and headphones with music playing. The first ingredient was American cheese, which Julia got correct, but Brad mistook it for cheddar cheese. The next ingredient was fried chicken, and both answered correctly. The last one was boiled carrots, but neither answered correctly, making the score 2-1 for the red team. Ramsay noted that Brad, a Sous Chef, lost to Julia, a Waffle House Chef. The second pair up was Rock against Melissa. Their first ingredient was boiled egg yolks which Rock answered correctly, but Melissa thought it was a potato. Both correctly scored on the potato, but neither could correctly guess venison, making the score a 3 point tie. The third pair up was Bonnie against Josh, though Bonnie informed Ramsay that she could hear him before they started tasting. Neither scored on the lobster, but Bonnie was able to correctly guess bok choy and pear while Josh failed on the two. The score was 5-3 for the red team after three rounds, and Ramsay remarked he could not believe a sous chef lost to a nanny, but told Bonnie that she did well. The final pair was Jen against Vinnie. With the red team having a huge lead, Ramsay warned the blue team that if Vinnie got the first ingredient wrong, the challenge would end. Sure enough, Vinnie mistook tuna for pancetta, ending the challenge, and the red team was declared the winners.

This marked the first time a team lost three challenges in a row since starting the competition.

Reward

The red team went on a special lunch excursion with Ramsay by eating in the dark.

Punishment

The blue team was forced to prep both kitchens for that night’s service. In addition, because they lost the Blind Taste Challenge, Ramsay had them eat a platter of offal which included; cow tongue, stomach lining, cow liver, and kidneys. Vinnie accused Bonnie of cheating since she was able to hear Ramsay earlier, but Bonnie argued against it and told the red team that any sympathy she might have had for the men were gone. While eating the offal, Rock almost came close to puking, and Brad was concerned about the domino effect it could come to.

Before service

As the men were prepping both kitchens, the women returned to the dorms and relaxed for a bit. The men showed exhaustion due to the lack of sleep and pushed themselves to finish prep in both kitchens.

As both teams were lined up, Ramsay revealed that for this service, he would have the customer comment cards decide which team would be the winner. Once everyone was ready, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner service

Josh, on appetizers, sent up his first risottos, but Ramsay found that he did not cook them properly and told him to get a grip. In the red kitchen, Melissa told Julia that she needed two more minutes on her appetizers, though Julia found out that her scallops were overcooked. Despite telling Melissa about the problem, Melissa ignored both Julia and Bonnie’s pleas and still called for times. While Ramsay praised Julia for her honesty, he criticized Melissa’s poor teamwork skills, and threatened to kick her out. Melissa then chewed out Julia since Ramsay expected more from her due to her skills. Josh was caught not doing anything on his station, causing Ramsay to order Rock to take over his station.

45 minutes into service, and because of Rock’s efforts, the blue diners were getting their appetizers. Moving on to entrées, Vinnie prepped his Wellingtons but told Ramsay that he needed 15 more minutes as he overcooked his initial ones. That shocked Ramsay and criticized Vinnie’s performance. In the red kitchen, Bonnie worked on her meat, but Melissa butted in and found that Bonnie’s chicken was still raw. Ramsay then discovered that Bonnie sliced the chicken in half and placed back in the pan. After Bonnie gave an unconvincing answer, Ramsay derided Bonnie’s performance so far as she has given him nothing but “dumb blonde” answers, and declared that the chicken was now dry. Then, Ramsay got angrier when Bonnie mistakenly lied about a refire and ordered the red team to work together. Despite the problems in the red kitchen, they managed to serve 14 tables of their entrées while the blue team only managed to get 6. One of the blue team’s tables got impatient on the long wait, and a diner went up to the hot plate herself despite Jean-Philippe pleading her not to. Ramsay called her a “giraffe”, and pushed her away.

Vinnie did not communicate back to Ramsay as expected but managed to bring his order of Wellingtons up. However, Sous Chef Scott revealed to Ramsay that Vinnie flash grilled them in the oven, and it was still rare. That caused Ramsay to deride Vinnie for not caring for the customers, and when Vinnie tried to send another one, it had raw pastry still on. It was then revealed that Vinnie had to bin 6 Wellingtons and a chicken, much to Ramsay’s dismay. In the red kitchen, Bonnie needed 3 more minutes for her Wellingtons to rest and admitted that she had no idea what she was doing. Melissa and Julia checked on them and they turn out to be raw, causing more confusion for Bonnie. Ramsay then complained about there being three cooks at the meat station and that none of Bonnie’s Wellingtons being ready. Bonnie herself got frustrated by the lack of communication with Melissa.

The blue team started to catch up to the red team as they had served 21 entrées, while 28 went out for the red team. However, one of their fish orders was sent back for being too salty, and one of Josh’s crab spaghetti orders was sent back for being raw. Almost reaching his breaking point, Ramsay brought both teams together and reminded them that the customers held their fate that night. He got them back to work, but warned them that if one more dish was brought back to the kitchen he would shut down the restaurant. Bonnie continued to struggle on the meat station, and Ramsay continued to criticize her performance. Jean-Philippe came back with a cold chicken, and that happened to be the final straw for Ramsay as he closed down both kitchens.

While clearing down, Bonnie broke down and believed that she did not deserve to be in the competition any longer. Meanwhile, Rock told his team that they need to stop panicking on entrées, and any momentum they had at the start should continue.

Post-Mortem

Gathering both teams up, Ramsay told them that he looked through the comment cards, and while the majority of the customers liked the food, over 65% stated they would not return to Hell’s Kitchen due to the fact the food took too long to go out. Because of that, Ramsay declared that there was no winning team. Ramsay turned to Rock, praised his solid performance, and named him “Best of the Worst” for the blue team. Turning to the red team, Ramsay made it clear to Melissa that her pathetic performance in service meant that she would not be “Best of the Worst”, and further criticized Bonnie’s poor performance. Instead, Jen was named “Best of the Worst” since, while her performance was not outstanding, it was not terrible. Both of them were asked to name one person from their team for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Rock had already decided on who he would send up, while Jen struggled with her decision. However, Vinnie reminded Jen that she could not let her emotions override her decision.

Elimination

Ramsay asked Rock and Jen who their nominations were. Rock nominated Josh as he believed that he was no longer an asset to the blue team, while Jen nominated Melissa based on her poor performance in service. However, Ramsay criticized both of their choices, decided to overrule them with his own choices, and called Bonnie and Vinnie down instead. After much deliberation, Ramsay eliminated Vinnie for his poor performances and not taking responsibility for his mistakes. During his exit interview, Vinnie admitted that he could not do what Ramsay does due to the latter’s experience, and while he wanted to redo a couple of things, he knew he did not deserve a second chance.

Ramsay’s comment: “Vinnie talks the talk but he doesn’t walk the walk. The bottom line with Vinnie is, he’s a crap cook.”

My opinion

Gordon was right to over rule the nominated, Bonnie and Vinnie was the worst chef tonight.

My comment: Vinnie spend more time stick his head under the oven when he serve a wellington.