Season 4 Episode 3

The third episode of Season 4 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on April 15, 2008. On that episode happened a scary wakening, a sweaty punishment, and a very satisfying elimination of the most hated chef of the season at that moment.

Intro

While going back to the dorms, Jen and Rosann hugged each other, and Jen declared Corey was not getting rid of her that easily. She acknowledged that this early in the game, you do not get rid of the strongest people because there was still challenges and services. Christina was crying going upstairs, but was comforted by Jen, who said she would not get rid of her.

On her side, Corey was talking with the blue team, and Ben gave her a high-five. Then, she declared the real reasons she nominated those two people. She nominated Christina because she was threatened by her intelligence and thought she was making her look stupider than she really is, and she nominated Jen because of her general annoyance. Christina acknowledged Corey was threatened by her intelligence, and confronted her in the bedroom, but Corey did not care shit what her team was thinking of her. The blue team said she played that strategy too early in the game, with Petrozza thinking she was having evil tendencies.

Team Challenge

The next morning, the contestants were awakened by chickens, running around in the dorms. Ramsay told them to get up, grab a chicken, and come down to the dining room. While trying to grab a chicken, Bobby declared he never did that before in his entire life. When they came down in the dining room, Ramsay declared he would like all of them to get up close and personal with their products. Then, Sous Chef Gloria brought a live chicken to Ramsay, and Sous Chef Scott handed him a clever, making the contestants believe they would have to kill their live chickens. Ramsay put the clever on his chicken’s head, started his movement, but planted the knife beside its head, declaring “Not these chickens, you doughnuts!”. All the contestants felt relieved that they did not have to kill live chickens. After telling the contestants that they take their products for granted, Ramsay asked them to put their chickens in the pens, get changed, and get in the red kitchen.

In the red kitchen, dead chickens were hanging on racks, and Ramsay introduced the Chicken Cutting Challenge, which the goal was to make the contestants respect their products. After a demonstration on how to properly cut the chicken into eight pieces, Ramsay gave the contestants 5 minutes to cut their chicken. To even the teams, Louross was forced to sit out. When the challenge began, Jason boasted that the blue team would win the challenge because they were men, and that it was not a dust and housekeeping challenge. With 1 minute left, most of the men were already finished, but Craig was still going, and Matt declared he was slow as molasses and making him feel like the million-dollar man. On her side, Shayna was as slow as Craig, and told herself to concentrate and that she could do it.

Jen was the first woman to get her cuts judged by Ramsay. She got a score of 6 out of 8, and Shayna also did. Vanessa, Rosann, Christina, and Corey all finished with perfect scores of 8, making the final score of 44 for the red team. On the blue team, Jason, who declared his team would win because they were men, could not manage a perfect score himself, scoring 6 out of 8. The following two, Petrozza and Ben, managed a perfect score each, making the men’s total at 22. When it was Craig’s turn, he only managed to get 2 pieces accepted, leading Ramsay to question his experience as a chef. With the score of 44-24 for the women and only two men to go for the men, it became impossible for them to catch up, so the women automatically won the challenge.

Reward

The women were rewarded with a lunch at the Saddle Ranch Chop House, on the Sunset Strip, in Los Angeles. When they arrived there, they accidentally jumped into Aaron, a former contestant from Season 3 and a regular at that restaurant, who was riding the rodeo. That encounter surprised everybody, including Ramsay who was in disbelief. Both of them hugged, and Ramsay mimicked his crying on season 3’s opening night, but Aaron said there was nothing to cry about now. After wishing everybody a good day and leaving, Vanessa said it was nice to meet him, as he was a big teddy bear. After that, the women went on to ride the rodeo. During the lunch, Christina revealed her team’s plan to get rid of the men one-by-one, starting with Ben, Craig and Jason.

Punishment

The men were punished by picking peppers on a 100-acre farm, with farmers clothes and hat on, under the hot temperature of the sun. While getting ready, Ben declared he would throw peppers at Craig, who was lying on his bed knowing he was the one to blame, and Matt, two feet away from him, was throwing things in anger in his closet. He also compared watching Craig during the challenge as watching “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. When they saw the Hell’s Kitchen bus, they thought it would be there bus to go to the farm, but a small, dirty, old, blue school bus was revealed behind the previous one, with Louross describing it as “ganky looking”. During the punishment, Jason declared he was chubby because he liked food and that he was not doing labor jobs like that. Ben also threw peppers at Craig, who did not find it funny. Sous Chef Scott was supervising on the roof of the bus.

Before service

When both teams came back to Hell’s Kitchen, Corey and Christina started to put their plan into action when Corey asked Ben to jump in the hot tub with the women. He categorically refused to, saying that Corey was putting a bad taste in his mouth. However, Jason, who was looking at them, fell in their trap, Christina helped him to take off his clothes, and he jumped in the hot tub with the women. They gave him some food and beer, and asked him what was going on with the blue team, which he answered that most of his teammates were pissed off at Craig for fucking up during the challenge. He also declared that he did not like the way Ben was running his mouth. Ben was furious at Jason as he felt he ratted out the team. The next morning, an argument erupted between Ben and Jason, where Ben told him to stay focused on the competition as they were there to win, and that he had to work very hard during the next service, as Ben did not want to lose.

During prep, Christina and Corey were trying to work as a team and putting their differences aside, with little success. Christina declared that she would get rid of Corey the next opportunity she would get as she did not like her. In the blue kitchen, the pressure was shifted to Jason and Craig, as both of them were deemed the weakest links of the team. Bobby was annoyed by Craig’s way of not doing anything and being completely lost. Jen was confident going into service as her team may have their fare share of problems, but the men were worse.

When the teams were lined up, Ramsay announced that the goal was to have a fully-booked dining room. He also revealed a chicken special on the menu, and that because the men lost the challenge, Bobby would be cooking tableside. Jean-Philippe would be cooking for the women. Ramsay also dedicated Jason to the dessert station by jokingly telling him to not eat any. When Ramsay asked him what were the desserts, Jason failed to correctly answer, so Ramsay ejected him to the dorms, and told him to read the menu. After that, Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner Service

Jean-Philippe was slower than usually to bring the first ticket to Ramsay. When Ramsay called the first ticket in the red kitchen, Christina, being on appetizers, to control of her team really fast. In the blue kitchen, Craig had communication problems with Petrozza, and was asked by Ben and Matt how much time it would take him to make his first risotto. Craig told that he said 2 minutes 30 seconds before, and that they had to do the math. When Ramsay asked him how long, he schooled him on his behavior and told him to communicate. Matt and Craig got into a little argument when Craig told Matt to shut the fuck up. Matt did not appreciate this answer, and compared Craig to Edith’s character in “All In The Family”. In the red kitchen, Rosann brought her first Caesar salads to the pass, but they contained crab garnish. Ramsay schooled her for that mistake, telling her she was not stupid, and that she had some balls, so she had to use them. He also compared the women to the return of “the Bitches from Hell”. While Jason was still studying the menu in the dorms, Petrozza brought his first appetizers to the pass, and they were deemed beautiful by Ramsay. Petrozza enjoyed that compliment, and said that it meant as much to him as a win. When Ben asked Craig for the bacon, the latter declared he did not have it yet, which led Ben to call Craig an idiot and that he could not work his station despite working in the industry for 13 years. So, Ramsay made a painful decision, which was sending an incomplete order, where half of the table would eat, and the other would stare.

An hour and a half into service, and a blue table received only half of their appetizers. In the red kitchen, Christina and Rosann sent four tables of appetizers out. Back on the patio, Louross went to get Jason back, but Jason was about to give up as he did not like the way Ramsay was putting him in the spot like that. Although, Louross convinced him to get down anyway, which he did. When Jason entered the kitchen, Ramsay pulled him aside to make him recite the desserts. He struggled a little bit, even wanting to give up, when Ramsay asked all the team to come around him. Ramsay asked Jason if he would want to go home, which Jason answered that he did, and that he was done. However, Ramsay encouraged him, and Jason went on to successfully recite the desserts, before getting on his station. When Craig finally delivered bacon to the pass, Ramsay sent the rest of the table out. In the red kitchen, Vanessa brought her first entrée of meat to the pass, but it turned out raw. So, she became very emotional, ashamed about her performance, and Ramsay told everybody to get on the meat station. In the blue kitchen, they were ready to move on to entrées, as well as Bobby’s tableside chicken special. When Ramsay called 7 minutes to the window, Bobby understood and went to his station, starting to cook his chicken. However, in the kitchen, Matt failed to communicate with Louross, so Ramsay asked them to. After that, Louross told Matt how to properly communicate with him, and when Matt did, Louross thanked him. When Ben brought his salmon to the pass, he was schooled by Sous Chef Scott, who asked him why he would give it if it was burnt. After, Ramsay schooled Ben also, and asked him if he could cook a salmon. Ben said that he could, but started to give excuses, stating he was used to different cooking techniques than the ones he was using at the moment. Knowing that the entrées from his kitchen might not come out, Bobby took matters into his own hands, suggesting to the customers that he could cut the chicken in six pieces and serve them to each of the customers on small plates. The customers agreed with that idea, which Bobby executed, while Jean-Philippe was staring at him, but the customers were satisfied. One of the women’s tables had S.O.S. written on it, using bread.

In the red kitchen, a minor fire erupted on the meat station, with Rosann and Corey trying to blow it off. Ramsay came to the station, told everybody to stand back, and took off the fire while throwing the pan in the sink, saying “same shit, different day”. In the blue kitchen, Jason started to prepare his first desserts, but did not have a clue what he was doing, stating that women can make desserts. Louross helped him by telling that his crème brulées were ready, which Jason did not believe. When he took his soufflés out of the convection oven, Jason declared they were looking like muffins stuck in a cup. When Ramsay asked him what was happening with the desserts, Jason told him about the problem, and suggested to rub some sugar around the rim, mixed with butter and cocoa powder. When he heard that suggestion, Ramsay was so discouraged that he went to the hot plate, and banged his head on the counter a few times. Moments later, Ben brought raw salmon to the hot plate, infuriating Ramsay, who made the entire team taste it. This was the final straw for Ramsay, and told the men to join the women in their kitchen to have a quick talk. Ramsay told that they went backwards, that Vanessa was all over the place, that Jason was hopeless, and that Ben was not caring. When Ramsay asked Ben for the excuse he was giving, which was different techniques, he angrily threw all the remaining tickets towards him. Ramsay declared both teams losers, told Christina that her efforts on appetizers were good, Petrozza that his mind was clear and had good focus on his appetizers, named both of them “Best of the Worst” for their respective teams, and asked them to nominate one teammate for elimination. Before leaving, Bobby waved hands at his customers, and was chewed by Ramsay for it, who angrily told him to get out.

Post-Mortem

During deliberation, Vanessa was very emotional and ashamed of her performance, and Christina tried to comfort her. Vanessa still felt ashamed, saying this was the only she knew how to do, and did not knew if she was knowing how to do it any longer. Christina also considered Corey to exact some revenge on her, which Petrozza would agree with, and Christina declared she was not the last dumb blonde left. On his side, Petrozza considered Craig, but said if Jason was not there, the team would have performed better. Jason felt he would be nominated, but said he would fight for it if it happens instead of “putting his head down like some bitch”. Corey also thought she could be put up because Christina would payback her.

Elimination

Before asking for the nominations, Ramsay asked if anybody was hungry for the competition, or if they should all quit now. After that, Petrozza named Jason as his nominee, despite the rest of the men wanting to get rid of Craig. On her side, Christina nominated Vanessa, despite her team thinking she would have picked Corey to exact some revenge. After listening to both of their pleas, where Vanessa cried in shame, Ramsay told her she would have one more chance, and eliminated Jason for giving up before service and not showing any energy. During his exit interview, Jason made one last sexist comment, thinking that Vanessa’s crying was the reason why she was kept in the competition over him, and stating that because he is a man, he does not cry. Before dismissing the chefs, Ramsay told Vanessa that if that was her life, she should wake up fast as time was not her friend. Christina explained that she did not put Corey up because to win, she had to keep her friends close and enemies closer.

Ramsay’s comment: “I kept waiting for Jason to show me some energy, to wake up, but he never did. And that’s why I’m putting him to sleep.”

My opinion

Both kitchen were both rubbish tonight, so right decision for both team to be loser. Craig or Jason would be my pick to go up same as Vanessa as well. Jason was right to go.

My comment: Jason gives up at the beginning of the dinner service, so I give up on him at the end.