Season 4 Episode 2

The second episode of Season 4 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on April 8, 2008. On that episode happened the first team challenge, and a surprise elimination, that nobody saw coming.

Intro

Back to the dorms, Matt was feeling bad about Dominic’s elimination, and Jason thought that he would have been called down. Bobby, knowing he dodged a bullet, was ready to bounce back, and declared that a new Bobby would come out. Jason made yet again a sexist comment, declaring he would not lose to girls, especially little kids.

On the women, Christina’s level of confidence was high, saying her team killed it, and that the men should cut some dead weight.

Team Challenge

After a night with very little sleep, the next morning, the contestants were woken up by the Sous Chefs holding megaphones and telling them to get outside immediately. Arrived outside, Ramsay declared that with all the amount of food wasted on the previous night, any restaurant would have hit bankruptcy. He then told the contestants to get in the garbage bags and get every wasted food in two cylinders, one for each team. While they were going through garbage, Jen was shown almost puking because she was disgusted. Every contestant found that job nasty. After a few minutes, Ramsay told them to get back in line up the stairs, and declared they should be ashamed as they put thousands of dollars in the trash during the last service. After asking to clean up and change, Ramsay was waiting for the contestants in the red kitchen, where he explained the 6-Ounce Halibut Challenge.

After a quick demo and both Sous Chefs bringing one halibut for their respective teams, each team was given 20 minutes to prepare as many 6 ounces portions of halibut as possible. This challenge was designed to test attention to details and teamwork. In the blue team, Petrozza took control of the filet, and Louross was saying some words of advice, such as making love to the fish, and encouraging his team, while Ben gave some tips to Jason. The men finished with more than 8 minutes left. In the women, Christina was telling Sharon to take her time as they had plenty of it. Sharon was feeling nervous as she did not want to cut herself. Jen was annoyed by Sharon’s lack of skills, saying they have to tell her what to do. On the blue side, Ben called that challenge “redemption”.

During the judging, Jen brought the women’s batch to Ramsay. They eventually managed to get 41 of all their pieces accepted. For the men, Craig brought his team’s batch to Ramsay, and Bobby declared he counted 50 pieces in total. When two pieces of halibut were butchered, Bobby immediately thought it was Jason who did it. Despite that, they managed to get 41 of their pieces accepted as well, and the challenge ended in a tie. To break the tie, Ramsay asked each team to name one member from each team to come forward and select a 6-ounce filet, with the closest one to 6 winning the challenge. Ben and Corey were eventually chosen by their respective teams. After both of them picked their filets, they were put on a balance, and Ben’s halibut weighed 5.9 oz, while Corey’s weighed 4.8 oz. Therefore, the men won the challenge. Corey apologized to her teammates while being emotional, and Jen rubbed salt in the wound saying it is not that hard to pick a 6-ounce filet, and questioned her team’s judgement by picking Corey.

Reward

The men spent the day on a 100-foot super yacht, and were transported in Rolls-Royce and Bentleys. While getting ready, Louross entertained his teammates, walking around the dorms with woman’s boots, and boxers underwear. Everybody laughed, and Ben even called him crazy. Arrived at the port, the men were greeted by Ramsay, entered the boat, and were asked to take a seat and enjoy a seafood meal, which Petrozza deemed phenomenal. Moments later, Jean-Philippe brought them some caviar. After that, they enjoyed a champagne glass with Ramsay at the tip of the yacht, and Ben said it was nice speaking to Ramsay outside the kitchen. The team finished by yelling “Whose yacht?” and responding “Blue’s yacht!”, referring to Jen’s antic before they left (see details below).

Punishment

The women were punished by prepping the halibut, making all the fish stock, and maximizing every portion for the next dinner service. When the men got ready to go out, Jen started to smash her clever down with anger, yelling “Whose house?”, and her teammates answering “Our house!”. During the punishment, Jen continued to rub salt in the wound, pointing fingers at Corey and saying she was not deserving to be in the competition anymore. Christina tried to talk some sense out of her saying that it was everybody’s fault, but Jen continued her finger-pointing anyway. Then, Corey declared war to Jen, stating that she does not have to call her out in front of everybody like that.

Before service

The next day, both teams began prep, but in the red kitchen, Sharon showed her lack of knowledge, and Corey had to tell her everything she needed to do, and Christina declaring that the women had a problem with her. In the blue kitchen, Jason showed his high level of confidence because of the team’s high spirit, and made another sexist comment saying he thought that the women, because they did not have a man to lead them, were not knowing what they were doing. Back in the red kitchen, Corey was annoyed by Christina’s way of knowing everything and speaking out loud. After that, Jason continued his sexist comment declaring that a room full of girls was useless, unless they were having a Tupperware party.

When the teams were lined up, Ramsay asked Petrozza what were the five appetizers, but Petrozza struggled to answer correctly. Then, Ramsay kicked him out of the kitchen, and told him to read the menu and not come back until he knows it by heart. After Petrozza left the kitchen, Ramsay reminded that the opening service was horrific, miserable, and told Jean-Philippe never took that much complaints from customers. Therefore, Ramsay assigned Craig and Rosann to be assistant maître d’.

Back to the dorms, Petrozza struggled to study the menu, saying it was 19 years since he was going through a menu other than his. When he came back downstairs, Ramsay got him in the pantry room, and after ejecting Jason from that room, he asked Petrozza to recite the menu, from the desserts up. Petrozza struggled once again to deliver a correct answer, so Ramsay started to lose his patience, and asked him to go back to the dorms and start again. Arrived on the patio, Petrozza lit up a cigarette, and contemplated his fate in the competition, saying he was done. However, moments later, Bobby went to the dorms to comfort him and talk him back in the game. Petrozza suddenly became emotional, and Bobby handed him his apron so he could wipe his eyes. Bobby felt the need to help Petrozza because of his genuine heart. When he came back to the kitchen, Petrozza successfully recited the menu to Ramsay, and when he finished, both of them gave each other a high-five, and Ramsay told him to get to his station, and Jean-Philippe to open the restaurant.

Dinner service

In the dining room, Craig and Rosann were slow to bring their first tickets to Ramsay. When Craig finally hand Ramsay his first ticket, Ramsay mocked him by calling him “Chef Craig”. When Ramsay called the first ticket out, the men were slow to answer, and Ramsay asked them to be louder. Louross quickly became vocal and led his team, who felt motivated. For the women, Rosann was schooled by Ramsay that it has been 37 minutes and she had not gave one ticket yet, and he told her to move her ass. On their first appetizer, the men failed to impress Ramsay with their quail eggs, and Ramsay asked Bobby to start again. Then, Bobby got into an argument with Jason, as both of them were confused as if Bobby told Jason to fire the scallops or not. Ben and Petrozza tried to calm them down. After a few more moments of waiting, Rosann finally brought her first ticket to Ramsay.

45 minutes into service, Bobby’s second attempt at his first appetizer was accepted by Ramsay, and the men sent out many appetizers to the customers, who were satisfied with them. In the red kitchen, only Christina was enjoying the food, and made Shayna taste it, which annoyed Corey. However, it did not stop her to send an acceptable risotto to the pass, impressing Ramsay and herself. In the blue kitchen, they sent all their appetizers and moved on to entrées. However, Jason was schooled by Ramsay, who could tell, from the hot plate, that his halibut was raw. He made Jason, Matt and Sous Chef Scott touch it. After telling Jason he was trying to help him, Petrozza delivered his first beef entrée, but it was way undercooked, infuriating Ramsay, who made almost all of the team to touch it. When Ramsay asked Petrozza what it was requested, Petrozza answered that it was requested medium.

In the dining room, when Craig lift a high-chair to transport it to one end of the room to the other, he hit a female customer behind the head with the chair. Jean-Philippe became furious, and asked Craig to go apologize to her, which he did very timidly. In the red kitchen, Ramsay told Sharon she had cooked meat against raw meat, and that she had to be gentle with her food. Christina became angry at her because if Sharon was screwing up on meat, she would screw up herself on fish. Then, Ramsay told the two of them to communicate as they were looking like Barbie twins. He also compared Sharon as being the female version of Hannibal Lecter when she was sticking her tongue out of her mouth. He told her to stick it back in her mouth and concentrate. In the blue kitchen, Petrozza struggled to cut his Wellingtons, which led Ramsay to do it for him, and when he did, he told Petrozza that it was beautifully cooked. Petrozza really enjoyed that compliment as he was almost 20 years not cooking on the line. Many entrées came out of the blue kitchen.

Two hours into service, Rosann gave Ramsay a ticket that she wrote one hour before. A furious Ramsay became confused on her explanation, and told her that she fucked everything she touched so far. In the blue kitchen, when Petrozza failed to keep up with the correct orders of beef, a furious Ramsay told him to communicate with Jason so they could have the entire ticket together. Bobby told both of them to communicate as well, and Ben gave a pep talk to his team, acknowledging a lot of communication problems were going on. In the red kitchen, Sharon failed to keep up with the orders as well, as she forgot a beef. Ramsay schooled her on her behavior, and told her if she communicated with Christina, which she answered she did not. A minor fire erupted on Matt’s station, and Ramsay told him to not set the place on fire as nobody could win the competition if there is nobody in it. Matt told Ramsay he would not let that happen again. Moments later, Jean-Philippe sent a raw halibut back in the kitchen, and Jason refused to take responsibility for it, saying it was not his. This was the final straw for Ramsay and he shut down the restaurant.

Post-Mortem

When the teams were lined up, Ramsay made a summary of the service with one word, which was meltdown. He declared the women the losers after looking at the customer comment cards. He told the men sent half of their entrées, which was not great, but still better than the women. Ramsay also named Corey “Best of the Worst” for finally waking up and giving a good performance on appetizers, and asked her to nominate two of her teammates for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Corey declared she was enjoying that title, and Jen pointed fingers at Sharon, who she nicknamed Barbie, for being a constant poor performer. Rosann was nervous saying she could be up for elimination, and Christina ruled out Vanessa and Shayna when discussing who could be nominated by Corey. On her side, Corey went speaking with Ben and Bobby, and when Ben asked her if she would take out the best, which she answered that she was the best.

Elimination

Corey named Christina as her first nominee, which she claimed was for strategic reasons, and Jen as her second, which she claimed was for personal reasons. While pleading her case, Christina started crying, which made the men’s team laugh, especially Jason. On her turn, Jen gave a very long speech, and Ramsay had to stop her, telling her to breathe. Before he announced his decision, he declared that the prize was very important, and that he would not let somebody who he does not believe in running it. After declaring there was someone in that room he did not believe in, he revealed that person to be Sharon, and eliminated her, in an epic turn of events, for two consecutive poor performances. During her exit interview, Sharon felt that Ramsay did not like her from the start, but believed he had the wrong image of her and would not give up on her dream.

After Sharon left, Ramsay told Corey that even though he appreciated the strategy, he has a conscience, and that in good conscience, he could not keep Sharon.

Ramsay’s comment: “Sharon clearly showed great attention to details. Unfortunately it wasn’t for her cooking, it was for her makeup.”

My opinion

Both team were shit on Service tonight. Craig and Rosann were waiters tonight and they were shit for example Craig hit one female customer on the back of her head with a chair he was lifting up, Rosanna give a ticket one hour later to Ramsey. Matt started a fire in his pan which made Ramsey shut both kitchen down. My nomination would have been Sharon and Rosann to go up but if the men team lost I would have been Jason and Petrozza to go up.

My Comment: Sharon was too busy with her make up than her cooking in Hell Kitchen. So I went her packing.