Season 3 Final

Continue from Season 3 Episode 10

The eleventh episode of Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on August 13, 2007. On that episode, Rock and Bonnie led their teams for one more battle of the sexes, the final dinner service occurred, and one of them is declared the winner of Hell’s Kitchen.

Before service

The episode began where the last one left off, with Ramsay dismissing the chefs back upstairs so Rock and Bonnie could brief their teams on what was happening. With only 10 hours until service began, Bonnie revealed to her team that she picked them because they had always beaten the men, much to their happiness, though Julia was still rooting for Rock to win. Meanwhile, Rock made his team catch up fast on the menu and where he was placing them for service, which was based on their strengths and weaknesses. While Vinnie was willing to be led by Rock, he was a little concerned about the menu as he had not made it before, and Brad knew that they had to cram a lot of stuff in if they were to help Rock succeed. Meanwhile, Bonnie took a more relaxed approach to make her team catch up and surprised Melissa when she admitted that she never cooked most of her menu items before. Bonnie herself was concerned about that, and admitted she was nervous herself.

Eight hours before service began, the construction crew was still working on the restaurants. In the meantime, Rock and Bonnie brought both teams downstairs to begin prep for the final service. In the blue kitchen, Rock got his team motivated and focused, but admitted that his challenge for that night was to get them to listen to him. Meanwhile, Bonnie and Julia got into an argument as the latter thought the former was treating her like an idiot, but Bonnie hoped that Julia would put her problems aside for that night.

Three hours before service, Jon Janavs pulled Bonnie aside to inform her that they ran out of the initial wallpaper for her restaurant and had to use another kind. Bonnie was upset by that news and soon noticed that there were bubbles on the walls, though Jon promised to try and remove them. Meanwhile, Josh sent over a piece of spaghetti to Rock which was too soft for him, and Rock admitted he was going to have to pay close attention to Josh for that night. Rock took Josh aside and gave him a pep talk, where he told him that he could be a good cook but needed to trust himself. In the red kitchen, Melissa sent over the prawns to Bonnie, but they turned out to be overcooked, and Bonnie told her to not brown them too much.

One hour before service, both finalists’ restaurants were behind schedule. However, Rock and Bonnie were ready to show Ramsay some of their featured dishes from their respective menus. For Bonnie’s menu, it featured a herbed breaded goat cheese appetizer, an egg fettuccine with sautéed prawns entrée, and an assortment of chocolate truffles dessert. Ramsay tasted the dishes but noted that the prawns were overcooked, something Bonnie blamed Melissa for, and said that the truffle dish looked too small. For Rock’s menu, it featured a crispy chicken breast with crab cakes over jasmine rice appetizer, one of his a pan-roasted ribeye entrée, and a vanilla bean milkshake with double chocolate chunk cookies dessert. Ramsay noted that the rice had too much garlic in it, and suggested that Rock serve the milkshake in a martini glass. By the end, Ramsay noted that both menus were different, with Bonnie’s being more light and balanced, while Rock’s was more rich and heavy.

30 minutes before opening, Rock’s construction workers were rushing to get his restaurant finished, while Bonnie’s restaurant was finished and ready for Ramsay to tour. Ramsay liked how it did not look intimidating and was relaxing, almost like a neighborhood restaurant. Rock’s restaurant was finally ready for Ramsay to look at, and it was praised for looking elegant and smart. With 5 minutes left, Ramsay called Rock and Bonnie over for one last meeting. He reminded them that their service would test on how well they would run their own restaurant, and after that, he gave them head chef’s jackets. After they got changed, they rallied their respective teams one last time and Ramsay ordered Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner service

Bonnie’s “Neighborhood Hideaway” and Rock’s “Homestyle Bistro” would go head to head, as the customers’ feedback would be part of deciding the winner. Rock got the first ticket from Jean-Philippe and called the order out with authority, though he admitted that it felt weird doing it. Bonnie got her first order and called out with authority as well. Both teams got their first appetizers out together and both received positive reviews from the customers. When Bonnie called out the next order, she noticed that none of her team responded and felt that they were not respecting her enough as a leader. She asked Julia for a time on the cauliflower soup, but Julia refused to answer as she just wanted the dinner service to be over. In the blue kitchen, Josh served crab cakes, but they were burnt. Josh stated that he needed one minute to refire them, but argued with Rock’s order to get them up by 30 seconds. In the red kitchen, Bonnie tried to push Jen to get more vocal even though she was already doing so, and ignored Julia’s warning that she did not have the okra ready. When Bonnie was still not listening, Ramsay warned her that she was losing momentum. Despite those problems, Bonnie’s team was able to get their appetizers out, but Rock’s appetizers were at a standstill. Josh was caught cooking six crab cakes not on order, forcing Ramsay to warn Rock about it.

An hour and a half into service, Bonnie has succeeded in getting all her appetizers out, and the team moved onto entrées. However, Melissa told Bonnie that they had only four orders of her fettuccine pasta left, which angered Bonnie as Melissa never told her before service began. Bonnie was forced to tell Jean-Philippe that they would have to change the dish to a normal pasta dish and admitted to Ramsay that she did not know how many portions they started with, causing him to ask how she could be underprepared. In the blue kitchen, Rock noticed that Josh burned another crab cake and reminded him that only one order of appetizers had left the kitchen in the last 30 minutes. Ramsay pulled Rock to the back room and warned him that Josh was sinking his service and ordered him to make a decision. After Josh burned another order of crab cakes, Rock had enough and had Josh and Vinnie switch stations, a decision which Ramsay approved. Vinnie, despite having concern for not knowing how to prepare the fish entrées, managed to get acceptable snapper out and the food was finally leaving Rock’s kitchen. In the red kitchen, despite communication being back up, Bonnie was still pissed off when Melissa warned her that there was only one order of prawns left. Things soon got worse when two of Bonnie’s pasta dishes were sent back for being cold and undercooked. Bonnie revealed that not only were there no prawns left, they had no other seafood ready as a replacement. Fortunately, Jean-Philippe told her that the customers were okay with just the pasta, but Bonnie soon realized her voice was not being heard again, and Julia rudely retorted that she was only doing her job of cooking Bonnie’s food.

Three hours into service, Rock’s team finally found a good rhythm. Rock himself was cooking some of the dishes, and they were almost caught up on their entrées, with Rock’s leadership continuing to be strong. Meanwhile, Bonnie’s team were getting desserts prepared, but Julia ignored Bonnie’s orders to wrap up the goat cheese and told Jen to do it. That angered Bonnie, and it led to an argument between both of them, which led to Bonnie believing Julia was really bitter about the situation as a dismayed Ramsay watched on and reminded her to run her kitchen. Despite that, both teams managed to get their desserts out with no problems.

After service ended, Rock admitted that he now knew how Ramsay felt during almost every service, and was frustrated on how Josh performed terribly. Bonnie and Julia made up, and the finalists congratulated their respective teams for service. Rock’s family came over to the hot plate, and he happily greeted them because of some help from Vinnie.

Post-Mortem

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay noted that final service being tough. He asked Rock what he would do differently, and Rock’s answer was to win the last challenge and his first pick would have been Jen as he thought she was the strongest chef throughout the competition. That answer shocked, but honored Jen while adding on that he would not have had Josh on his team due to his poor performance that night, which pissed Josh off. Bonnie’s answer was to double check on everything as being short on the prawns might have hurt her chances. However, Ramsay praised the final two as it was the strongest he had seen them perform and that they completed the service. Ramsay admitted that his decision would be hard as both of them never gave up, and both of them displayed great leadership qualities. After that, he told the finalists to get back up to the dorms and wait for his decision. Rock and Bonnie said goodbye to their teams before heading back upstairs.

Back in the dorms, Rock and Bonnie hugged each other for a job well done while admitting that they both had a rough night and could have done better. Back in his office, Ramsay reviewed the comment cards from both restaurants and reflected on what he saw from both Rock and Bonnie at the pass. As the two were waiting, Rock admitted that Bonnie probably won.

Winner Announced

Later that night, Rock and Bonnie made their way to Ramsay’s office. Ramsay praised Bonnie as she surprised him the most with her assertiveness, and called Rock “rock solid” for his strength in the kitchen. He told the finalists that he read every comment card, made observations of their performances, and that this was a tough decision. He had both of them stand in front of one door each, and revealed that only the winner’s door would open. After they nervously waited for Ramsay’s countdown, both turned their door handles, but only Rock’s door opened.

Rock became the winner of Hell’s Kitchen, and won his own restaurant at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa, in Las Vegas, therefore making Bonnie the runner-up. Bonnie took her defeat graciously, even telling Rock she was very happy for him and still expressed hope that the right opportunity would come to her eventually.

Ramsay’s comment: “Rock deserved to win Hell’s Kitchen because he’s a very confident cook and he has become a really good leader. He can motivate staff, he can create, all those qualities are not easy to find in one chef. Rock holds all of them.”

My opinion

Rock deserves to win hell kitchen as he was the beater chef tonight and the other weeks in hell kitchen, but Bonnie did deserve second place.