Season 4 Episode 6

The sixth episode of Season 4 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on May 6, 2008. On that episode happened the very first Sweet 16 party in Hell’s Kitchen, Jean-Philippe encountered somebody he did not wish to see any longer, and one chef turned the birthday girl into a vegetarian.

Intro

While going back to the dorms, Christina congratulated Louross for having survived elimination, and Louross and Ben were holding each other, with Ben padding Louross on the shoulders. However, Louross said that Ben calling him the weakest link was high school crap. Corey was feeling stressed out because Christina was put on the chopping block one more time, and thought she would continue to be there. Shayna did not feel Christina was condescending, but Corey insisted that she was since day one. After Petrozza noticed that Christina got herself a glass of wine, she said she deserved it as she was put on the chopping block more than anybody else. Then, Christina declared she was a complete package in the way that she was looking great in high heels, she could read a book and she could cook. After, Corey confirmed that Christina would be on the chopping block again.

On the blue side, Ben and Bobby talked about how Matt was lazy, saying that he always focuses on the things he was doing right when there was a zillion other things he was not doing right. On the patio, Matt talked to Louross about how Ben thinks he was the best cook but was hiding behind Bobby, and that both of them would backstab Petrozza after getting rid of himself and Louross. Then, Matt declared he was tired to be on that team as he was tired of losing.

Team Challenge

The next morning, while Bobby acknowledged the morale of the blue team was a little low, the contestants drove over to the Farmers Market, where Ramsay explained the Sweet 16 Planning Challenge. Each team would have 25 minutes and $100 to shop for their ingredients, divided in one appetizer and two entrées. After, they would get back in Hell’s Kitchen and have 45 minutes to cook those dishes to be presented for the birthday girl. During the shopping part, Matt made a suggestion of a sushi pizza on a tortilla, but was denied by his team as they thought it would be disgusting. Bobby hoped that Matt would shut his mouth because if he was having those weird ideas at this point in the competition, something would not be right with his brain. On the red team, the women were having a clear idea about what they would like, with Rosann, who had a 16-year-old daughter at the time, understanding that girls, at this age, could be very picky and would not try something they do not recognize. On the blue team, they continued ignoring Matt’s suggestion, infuriating him, especially when he suggested to go to the little supermarket not far away a lot of times to his teammates. On the red team, Corey made one last suggestion of buying a pomegranate, which the team agreed. At the end, both teams finished their shopping in time, inside their budgets, and drove back to Hell’s Kitchen.

Back in Hell’s Kitchen, the 45 minute delay began and Ben took command of the blue team by dedicating tasks to his teammates. On the red team, it was Corey who took vocal command, and was not afraid to tell Shayna she had to go faster because her ass could be put on the chopping block. In the blue team, Ben told Matt how to properly slice an asparagus, but Matt totally lost confidence in what his team was making, and said he would no longer suggest anything as he was tired to waste his breath. With 10 minutes to go, both teams became vocal, and on the blue team, Matt was tired of everybody telling him what to do, and even considered quitting the competition. Everybody plated their dishes and placed them underneath the domes in time.

Before the judging, Ramsay asked both teams if they used the time wisely and if they thought about the plating also, which they answered they did. When he asked if anybody celebrated a Sweet 16 birthday party recently, Matt raised his hands, and when Ramsay asked him if he had any inputs on his team’s menu, he answered he did not. Ramsay was stunned, and his teammates were as well, wondering what he was talking about. After that, the teams lined up in the dining room, and Ramsay introduced Melissa, the birthday girl, and her mother. When he saw that, Petrozza started to be worried as it was not a professional’s opinion anymore. When Ramsay asked Melissa what she did not like, her mother said she had simple tastes. After that, Ramsay called the appetizers down, and Shayna described her team’s Tuscan shrimp scampi appetizer, and Bobby presented his team’s stuffed chicken wing appetizer. During the tasting, Melissa revealed she never tasted shrimp before, which shocked Rosann and Jen. Rosann declared she could not believe a California girl would not taste shrimp by the time they were 16-year-old. Melissa found the shrimps crunchy, disappointing Rosann. After tasting both dishes, Melissa gave a point to the blue team’s chicken wings, giving them the lead 1-0. For the first round of entrées, Jen served a Caribbean halibut with a mango and avocado salsa, and Ben presented a sweet potato mash with sautéed asparagus and shrimps. After tasting both dishes, where the mother said the fish was dry and the rice undercooked for the women and Melissa saying she did not like asparagus at all for the men, Melissa gave a point to the red team, tying the score at 1 each. The tiebreaker round of entrées featured Petrozza against Corey. For the red team, Corey served a grilled steak with homemade French fries and pomegranate sauce, and for the blue team, Petrozza served a “Sassy Surf n Turf”, which was a grilled filet mignon. After tasting both dishes and after a very tense deliberation, Melissa finally chose the blue team’s entrée, giving them the challenge win 2-1. While the men were celebrating by hugging and giving high-fives to each other, Jen remarked that Melissa would go for the red team but her mom negatively influenced her decision, which the rest of the red team agreed. Jen stated her mother was so annoying as she never let her daughter answer by herself.

Reward

Ramsay did not announce the reward straight away, only saying the blue team would feel like teenagers again, and asked them to get changed. Arrived at Malibu Speed Zone for a go-kart activity, all the men were enjoying their race, with Petrozza saying he took some good bumps, and in the end, Bobby won the race. Later, they went to Kerry Simon’s restaurant to taste some homemade candies, with a fine-dining touch on them. Matt and Louross really enjoyed that moment as it was special.

Punishment

The red team was punished by decorating the dining room ahead of the Sweet 16 party, along with Francisco the Party Planner and Melissa’s mother. When Francisco entered the room, Jen noted his bright orange suit and knew he would get under her skin at one point. When he started giving instructions, Christina started mimicking him, and everybody else was laughing at his bizarre metaphors. Christina was already disliking him. Later, Melissa’s mother arrived and said she was not liking what they already made, making comments about everything, going from the plates to the napkins. Jen called her the Wicked Witch of the West Coast, and Shayna made a suggestion on how to fold the napkins, which annoyed Corey, who said she was acting as the Party Planner’s assistant and that she should go back to party planning. The mother agreed on Shayna’s suggestion, but Corey said it looked stupid.

Before Service

When the blue team came back from their reward, Louross and Corey started flirting with each other, with both of them saying they loved the other. When Corey stripped to jump in the hot tub, Louross followed her, and she thought he was attracted to him, and that it was just what she wanted as she would do anything to win the competition. However, no romance was building up as Louross was not interested and Corey said she was much more taller than him, and that she already had a boyfriend.

The next morning, both teams got in their respective kitchens, ready to prep. On the menu, there was the three challenge-winning dishes, including the stuffed chicken wings and beef tenderloin from the blue team, and the halibut with mango salsa from the red team. In the blue kitchen, Ben deemed the mango salsa to be elementary and easy to do, and declared he was doing this when he was 17-years-old. Shayna came in the blue kitchen to tell Ben how to properly cook the salsa, but both of them got more on each other’s nerves than anything else. Ben started mimicking her, and Shayna called him a “fucker”. When she came back in the red kitchen to prep her own salsa, Shayna took all her time to do it, annoying Corey, who said it takes 5 minutes to make a salsa, and Jen, who said they have much more things to do.

A few minutes before the doors would open, Ramsay made both teams lining up, and reminded the contestants that even though they were hosting a Sweet 16 birthday party, the standards were the same. He also reminded that Melissa would turn 16 only once. After that, Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to let the teenagers in.

Dinner Service

After Jean-Philippe opened the doors, guests started to come in, taking pictures, and Jean-Philippe joked with Francisco about his non-matching blue sky outfit and being “sparklelicious”. Melissa’s mother commented on how her daughter was on fire and that she was loving it, gifts were handed and the first orders were taken. In the blue kitchen, the men were confident, with Bobby and Louross giving each other a triple low-five, and in the red kitchen, the women, especially Corey, were worried about Shayna. Meanwhile, Francisco announced the birthday girl, and Melissa came down the stairs, wearing a shiny red dress. Everybody in the room applauded, with Ramsay jokingly saying to not trip down the stairs, and saying to Melissa that she was looking great.

The first order came in the red kitchen, and Ramsay declared it was Melissa’s table. Christina sent her first risotto to the pass, but the mushrooms were missing. Ramsay asked her to put the pan on the stove and add more mushrooms in it. In the blue kitchen, the first chickens wings sent to the pass were dry and missing the sauce. Ben scrambled to look for the sauce, while Bobby wanted to take charge, saying he did not want to lose another service, even if he had to cook all the food by himself. Ben brought the sauce, and the chicken wings were sent to the customers, who were satisfied. When he saw that, Ben had a little celebration with Louross. In the red kitchen, Christina’s second attempt at Melissa’s risotto had a lot of mushrooms, but was missing the parmesan and chives. Although Christina said it was really frustrating, she managed to bounce back, and her second attempt was accepted. In the dining room, Melissa was satisfied with her risotto.

45 minutes into service, almost every customer received their appetizers. When the red team moved on to entrées, Rosann, who recalled her own daughter being 16 in a couple of years, wanted to give Melissa the best birthday party as possible, and sent Melissa’s order of beef, which was accepted. In the blue kitchen, everybody was ready to send the mother’s entrée to the pass, but Matt said the fish was still in the oven. That infuriated Bobby, who said to Matt that he had to be quicker. Ramsay told Matt to speed up, and Ben asked Matt for a time, leading Petrozza to say that Matt was hanging by a thread. Finally, Matt sent the halibut for the mother, which was accepted. However, on another hand, Melissa stopped eating because her beef was not cooked right. She asked for a refire, but when Jean-Philippe told Ramsay that it was Melissa’s dish herself, he became disappointed and asked Rosann to refire another one quickly by putting it in the oven. Rosann declared she was feeling terrible because of that mistake, but when the mother’s fish came back, Ramsay was furious and schooled Matt for it. Hearing Ramsay in the dining room, Francisco told everybody to keep on having fun and said to Melissa that she was looking gorgeous. Matt acknowledged that because it was one of the hosts’ food it was embarrassing, but said that even if it was not one of the hosts, it would still be embarrassing. After that, Ramsay told Matt to wake up, which he answered he was. When Ramsay came back in the red kitchen, he asked if Melissa’s beef was on, and Rosann answered it was not, which discouraged him, at the point that he pushed her aside and cooked the beef himself. Rosann was embarrassed of messing up like that, and Melissa, because of Ramsay himself, finally received her properly cooked steak, which satisfied her. In the blue kitchen, Matt’s second attempt at the mother’s fish was raw, which infuriated Bobby, to the point that he pushed Matt from his station, acknowledging it was going down in flames, and cooked the halibut himself, which infuriated Matt, who kept trying to come back without success, saying Bobby was a control freak. Finally, Bobby sent the mother’s halibut to the pass, and it was accepted by Ramsay, who gave his apologies while sending the order.

Back in the red kitchen, Ramsay asked for Shayna’s garnishes, which she answered it was coming. Ramsay told her how slow she was, and Corey said she was slow during prep and during service. Sous Chef Gloria told Shayna she had three orders of beef to cover, and Ramsay told Shayna that he was not slowing down for her. In the blue kitchen, Bobby took Matt’s station over, much to Ramsay dismay, who told Matt there was a difference between teamwork and running the section. He schooled Matt and told him to lead his station by himself. Matt became furious and threw Bobby under the bus.

More than an hour and a half into service, entrées were coming out of both kitchens, and Melissa and some of her guests were enjoying the chocolate fountain in the middle of the dining room. When Jean-Philippe noticed that Francisco was also enjoying that fountain, he pulled him to the side, asked him to focus on his job and stop doing it, otherwise he would be kicked out of the restaurant. When Jean-Philippe left, Francisco came back to the fountain to eat one more piece of banana secretly.

Two hours into service, both teams were sending out desserts. While they were eager to finish their tickets, in the blue kitchen, there was a power struggle as the team was constantly telling to Matt how to properly plate his desserts. Despite that, both teams finished their tickets, celebrated, and when Melissa and her mom came to the hot plate, Ramsay announced Melissa there was another surprise waiting for her outside. Jean-Philippe led her outside and introduced The Pink Spiders, Melissa’s favorite band, where they performed “Seventeen Candles”.

Post-Mortem

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay announced he would refer to the customer comment cards, written by all the 16-year-old girls in the dining room that night, to decide the winning team. The blue team got a 98% come back rating from the customers, which they were really proud about, and the red team got a 99% come back rating. The red team celebrated but Ramsay announced he could not pick a losing on a difference of 1%, and named both teams joint-winners. Matt thanked him for his generosity, but Ramsay brought him down to earth hilariously, and asked for one nominee from each team for elimination.

While being dismissed, Matt already gave up, knowing he would be the one chosen from his team, and was already packing his bags. While he was going back to his room to pack his bags, the blue team mocked him and laughed at him, with Bobby saying his face seemed like he was crapping his pants while standing there. So, because of that, the blue team quickly agreed on Matt. In the red team, Shayna, because she was too slow, and Rosann, for being the worst performer, were considered.

Elimination

Ben announced Matt as the blue team’s nominee, a decision which Ramsay agreed immediately considering he served overcooked fish to the birthday girl’s mother. Ramsay also stated that something worse than that would be serving undercooked meat to the birthday girl herself, directly referring to Rosann, expecting she would be nominated, but Christina announced that Shayna was the red team’s nominee. After Ramsay asked Christina who she would nominate personally, she answered Rosann, which Ramsay said it was making sense. Ramsay called Matt, Shayna, and Rosann down, and when Matt pleaded his case, he angrily threw Ben, for hiding behind Bobby, and Bobby, for taking his station over during service, under the bus, but Ramsay recalled his own stature, saying that he was weighing 250 pounds and that Louross’ balls were bigger than his. After that, Matt requested to be transferred to the red team as he did not have a voice in the blue kitchen any longer, saying he had no shame of working with women in a kitchen. After hearing that, Ramsay sent him back in line, and eliminated Shayna for being too slow, but praised her big heart and being a solid cook.

Team Switch

After Shayna left, Ramsay told Rosann she turned a 16-year-old girl into a vegetarian, sent her back in line, before announcing that for the next service, they would go back to fine-dining. Ramsay concluded by accepting Matt’s request and transferring him to the red team, much to their dismay and the blue team’s relief.

Ramsay’s comment: “Shayna has a big heart, but at times I felt her heart wasn’t here, it was back home, with her new born baby. She made far too many simple mistakes, and that’s why she’s going back to something she’s good at: changing diapers.”

My Opinion

Both team were rubbish at tonight service with both team mess up on an important night. With the red team mess up the mam dinner and the blue team mess up the daughter dinner. I agree with the blue team nominee but not the red team. I thought that Rosann was going to go.

My comment: Shayna was too slow at service so I hurry her up to leave hell kitchen.