Season 3 Episode 5

The fifth episode of Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on July 2, 2007. On that episode, a wedding service was held, one chef’s poor leadership caused their team to alienate them, and for the first time ever, Ramsay decided to not eliminate anybody.

Intro

On their way back upstairs, Rock asked Josh if he made the wrong decision by not nominating Vinnie initially, to which an angry Josh agreed with. Rock tried to explain to Josh that his problem was that he was rushing through things, but Josh saw it differently, much to Rock’s annoyance. Now that the blue team had only three members left, all of them agreed to start getting their act together and finally win something.

Bonnie confronted the red team for ignoring her after she was up for elimination, but Melissa reminded her that they were in a competition. That caused Bonnie to believe that she may not have what it takes to be there.

Team challenge

The next morning, Sous Chef Scott called the two teams and ordered them to go outside and get in the SUVs. Arriving at the Bristol Farms grocery store, Ramsay revealed that for the first time ever, Hell’s Kitchen will be catering a wedding reception. Both teams had to create an appetizer, a fish entrée, and a meat entrée, and had a $100 budget to shop for their ingredients. With a time limit of 30 minutes, both teams raced to get their ingredients. Melissa took the lead for the red team and suggested they use duck as their main dish, though the rest of them were a little concerned about it. By the end of the time limit, both teams made it to the check out in time, but the blue team was over budget which forced them to remove some of their items.

Once back in Hell’s Kitchen, the two teams had one hour to cook their dishes. In the red kitchen, Julia was going to sear the duck breast, but Melissa butted in and told her to do something else while also insulting Bonnie by telling Julia not to listen to her. In the blue kitchen, the three men communicated well and dealt with their own dishes. Melissa put Julia’s duck breast back in the oven so it would stay warm, but this caused more bickering, and an open ear Rock hoped that the bickering between “Hell’s Bitches” would be their downfall. With only two minutes left, the men tried to use what little they had for their dishes, and Melissa and Julia found out that the duck breast was overcooked, even though Melissa refused to take responsibility for it. With time running out, both teams plated their dishes.

After cooking, Ramsay asked if everyone used their time wisely, but the red team stated they did not, much to Ramsay’s shock. Bonnie explained that there was too much arguing going on, and Julia blamed Melissa for her dictatorship. Melissa argued that she was not trying to do everything at once, but Ramsay reminded her that he never put her in charge and the challenge was supposed to be a team effort. Ramsay then revealed that he would not be judging alone, as he invited the bride and groom, Carlota and Cyrus, to help him. This horrified Melissa, who told Ramsay that the red team should not serve their food to the couple, but Ramsay told her he was not going to let her attitude spoil the couple’s wedding.

The first round of appetizers was presented by Brad for the blue team, and Melissa for the red team. The blue team made a crab salad dish with thyme and grapefruit aioli, while the red team made a puff pastry with brie cheese and strawberry. While the couple liked both dishes, they went with the blue team as they felt the red team’s dish was more of a dessert, giving the blue team a 1-0 lead. The next round featured the fish entrées presented by Josh for the blue team and Julia for the red team. The blue team made an herbed convene sea bass with a vegetable broth, while the red team made a sea bass with collard greens and bacon. The couple preferred the red team’s dish as they felt the blue team’s broth tasted a bit foul, tying it at 1. In the final round, Rock was ready to present the blue team’s meat entrée, but Melissa tried to stop Jen from presenting their dish. However, Ramsay told Melissa that he was getting pissed off by her attitude, and ordered the red team to send up their meat dish. As the red team feared, Ramsay was extremely embarrassed when he saw the overcooked duck breast with no sides and made it publicly clear to Jen. Rock presented the blue team’s meat entrée which was a pan seared dry aged ribeye with a wild mushroom cream sauce. Since the duck breast was too rubbery to cut through, the red team’s dish was disqualified and the blue team won the challenge 2-1. That excited Josh since not only had the blue team finally won a challenge, but they were getting ready to see the red team get reamed out.

After the couple left, Ramsay let loose and told the red team, once again referring to them as “Hell’s Bitches”, that he had never been more embarrassed inside Hell’s Kitchen in his entire life and they should all be ashamed for their joke of a performance.

Reward

The men were sent to the Exhale Spa for a day of pampering. As this was their first reward since being in Hell’s Kitchen, the men were excited by it. The spa treatment managed to relax the men, and it made the three closer as they toast to an eventual victory.

Punishment

The red team was forced to decorate the dining room for the next night’s service, based on the instructions of Francisco the Party Planner. Bonnie, Jen, and Julia all agreed that the duck fiasco was all Melissa’s fault and were getting tired of her disrespectful attitude. Melissa deflected their criticisms, and her arguments made Bonnie even angrier as she was almost ready to strangle her with some chiffon. When it came to decorating the dining room, Melissa continued to dictate the red team, though the other women ignored her. Her attitude eventually annoyed the women, and Bonnie asked her what happened to her since they began the season.

Before service

The next morning, both teams began to prep for service with that night’s menu featuring the winning dishes from both teams. Melissa asked Rock for the potato dish recipe, but her overcomplicated questions frustrated him. Meanwhile, the wedding ceremony took place, and Carlota and Cyrus got married. With only an hour until service began, Ramsay found out that Melissa cooked Rock’s potatoes incorrectly, and were all black. While Melissa tried to argue that Rock told her a different way, Ramsay retorted that he had no time for her excuses as they had little time before the wedding reception. Melissa’s second batch of potatoes turned out black as well, and as the wedding guests were arriving, Ramsay chewed her out. Jean-Philippe introduced the newly married couple and Ramsay put Jen in charge of the potatoes, and she got to work redoing them.

Dinner service

Since the blue team won the challenge, they had the honor of cooking for the bride and groom’s table. The couple’s order came in, but Josh’s lack of communication got Ramsay frustrated. Sous Chef Scott informed Josh that his risotto was not ready, so Ramsay had Brad help Josh to move quicker. That caused a hold on the red team’s first order, but Bonnie delivered her first order of scallops even though Ramsay told her not to. After some initial problems, the blue team was finally able to send the bride and groom’s appetizers. The red team managed to put their differences aside and to serve their appetizers, and Ramsay took note of Julia’s performance as she was tasting a lot more since they began the competition. Francisco told Jean-Philippe that the parents have not been served yet, and was sent over to Ramsay since Jean-Philippe did not want to deal with him. Sure enough, Ramsay pushed Francisco away from the hot plate.

One hour into dinner service, and all of the appetizers had made it to the tables for the first time ever. Rock was especially proud that the blue team was finally coming together. Entrées began, and the red team got their first order. However, Melissa stalled them with her ribeye garnish, and even though she said she needed four minutes, she still sent it up, much to her teammate’s confusion. Then, Ramsay asked Melissa what she was trying to do, and told her that she shut off completely. Despite that, the red team was getting entrées out, and Ramsay praised Jen’s leadership. In the blue kitchen, Josh sent up the fish sauce, but it was stone cold, forcing him to quickly heat it up again. While the entrées were stalled up, the diners were distracted by the speeches for the newlyweds.

In the red kitchen, Ramsay asked for the sabayon, but Melissa realized that she accidentally put it in the dish water, and it spilled into it. Melissa went over to the blue kitchen to get some more, but Ramsay caught her. After pulling Melissa back to the red kitchen, he ordered her to make some more and accused her of trying to sabotage the blue team. Despite these problems, the red team recovered, and the entire dining room was served for the first time that season. Near the end of the reception, Ramsay gave Carlota and Cyrus a honeymoon gift at the Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa.

Post-Mortem

Ramsay noted that even though both teams started off slow, they did eventually get a good pacing. Then, Ramsay announced that the blue team were the winners for finishing 3 minutes ahead of the red team. Ramsay singled out Jen as the “Best of the Worst” for the red team due to her strong performance, and asked her to come up with two nominees for elimination.

As the blue team was celebrating their victory, Melissa pleaded to Jen on her case to stay, followed by Julia. Jen knew that she would nominate Melissa, but her difficulty was between Bonnie and Julia. Bonnie feared that if she was up with Melissa, she would be sent home.

Team switched

At elimination, Jen announced that Melissa was her first nominee and Bonnie was her second. Both pleaded their case with Melissa claiming she has tried to carry the red team, while Bonnie stated that she has only started to realize her potential. After much consideration, Ramsay called up Melissa’s name and told her to take off her jacket, but shocked everyone when he announced that she would now be on the blue team. He told Melissa that a new environment might fix her downward spiral, but warned her that she was on her last chance. He then told Bonnie to get back in line, and dismissed everyone. This marked the first time in the show’s history that no one was eliminated, and someone was reassigned to another team without evening the numbers. At the end of the episode, when Ramsay was about to hang up Melissa’s red jacket, he stopped midway and retracted.

Ramsay’s comment: “I’ve never seen anyone go from being a strong chef to being such a terrible chef so quickly. And that’s why tonight I’m giving Melissa one more chance. Her only hope now is that she fits in better with the boys than she did with the girls.”

My opinion

Well this is going to be short but Melissa deserves to be up on the chopping board tonight.

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