The eighth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on March 26, 2009. On that episode, the annual Blind Taste Test occurred, one chef did not make it through dinner service, and one team made a big comeback after a slow start.

Intro

On their way back to the dorms, Giovanni tried to calm Carol down, but she was still angry at Andrea for the pasta incident from the previous service. Meanwhile, LA confronted Lacey, saying that she was only lucky that Ramsay did not care about what happened in the dorms, and questioned Lacey about if she was really serious about being in the competition and becoming a head chef. Lacey argued she was serious, but Robert told her that she should be learning from people with more experience like himself instead of fighting with them like she did with the red team. However, by that point, Lacey felt that everyone has turned on her. She also stated that she did not care about their thoughts, and that the only opinion that mattered to her was Ramsay’s.

Team Challenge

The next morning, both teams met Ramsay in the red kitchen who wanted to work with tartares for that day. He gave both teams a beef tartare and a scallop tartare for them to taste, but in reality, the beef tartare was tuna, while the scallop tartare was sea bass. When neither team could correctly identify both tartares, Ramsay told them the truth and was disappointed that they could not correctly identify the ingredients in each of them. Since Ramsay expected all the chefs to have great palates, he introduced the annual Blind Taste Test for their next challenge. Because the red team had an extra member, LA volunteered to sit out to even both teams at four members each, shocking her team.

Ben and Andrea were the first pair to go head to head, and put on their blindfolds and headphones. Neither of them scored on the filet mignon, but while both of them scored on the fried egg white and beets, Ben got the romaine lettuce while Andrea did not, so the blue team was leading 3-2. Giovanni and Robert were next, but both failed to correctly guess all four of their ingredients, leaving it 3-2 for the blue team. Carol and Lacey were up next, and Carol was able to correctly guess mushrooms and beef liver, while both correctly guessed sweat potatoes, making the score 5-4 for the red team. The final pair up was Danny against Paula, but for that round, Ramsay presented a minestrone soup and told them to guess as many of the ten ingredients as they could. Danny managed to get the first three correctly, but Paula managed to get the last four correctly, which gave the red team the win 8-7.

Reward

The red team was rewarded with a photo shoot for TV Guide in the restaurant, and received makeovers.

Punishment

The blue team had to serve lunch to the red team and prep both kitchens for that night’s dinner service, much to both Robert and Danny’s dismay, as it was the third time the blue team had to do it. Despite knowing they were all down from their loss, Ben told the blue team that they had to get their acts together if they wanted to win the service. When Ben served the red team champagne, a light flash shocked him and caused him to spill them on the table.

Before Service

While prepping for that night’s service, Lacey’s negative attitude angered Ben and Danny, who wanted her gone. With only a couple of minutes left, both teams got to work on finishing their prep. Once everyone was ready, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner Service

Actors Eric McCormick from “Will and Grace”, and Robert Patrick from “Terminator 2”, were in attendance that evening. Paula’s first risottos were mushy and salty, which surprised Ramsay as she never made a mistake like that before. Meanwhile, Robert made too much spaghetti for one table, and Ben was sent to help him out. Because of Ben’s help, Robert was able to send appetizers out to the diners, while Paula sent her refired risotto, which was deemed acceptable.

45 minutes into dinner service and the actors’ orders were being taken, with the blue team getting McCormick’s table and the red team getting Patrick’s table. Fortunately, both teams were able to get their appetizers out to them without problems. Carol’s convection oven was turned down as she did not want the Wellingtons to burn, but Ramsay called her ditzy since that meant the Wellingtons would cook longer than needed. In the meantime, the blue team were working on McCormick’s entrée, but a panicked Lacey whispered to Ben that she had no idea what she was doing on the meat station. Despite Danny and Ben trying to calm her down, she got upset and bluntly told Ramsay that she had no clue when her entrées would be ready. Danny went over to try and help her, but her confusion did not help matters, and then, she revealed to Ramsay that she did not know how to cook meat. Ramsay sent Lacey to the pantry room and ordered her to wake up and get a grip. Ben went over to find Lacey’s well-done Wellington but accidentally burned his finger on the hot pan.

One hour into service, and while Ben and Lacey were struggling on their entrées, Robert continued to push appetizers out for the blue kitchen, even ripping his pants in the process. Back in the red kitchen, Carol’s Wellingtons were cold, but she promised Ramsay that she would try and get it together. Carol did not communicate with Andrea, and as a result, Andrea sent an overcooked John Dory to the pass. Despite Andrea and Carol’s lack of communication, the red team were sending out entrées, which included Robert Patrick’s table.

Automatic Elimination

Wanting to get Eric McCormick’s entrées out, Ramsay sent Ben back to the garnish station, much to Lacey’s dismay. Her poor performance continued as she sent out lamb that had thinly sliced chops to the pass. That was the final straw for Ramsay as he kicked Lacey out of the kitchen claiming that she was not good enough. Lacey went into the pantry room, where Ramsay followed her and told her that she cannot waste any more of his time, therefore making her time in the competition over. Lacey handed Ramsay her jacket and said goodbye to the blue team, but none of the men responded as they were relieved that she was finally gone. Then, Lacey packed her belongings up in the dorms and left through the back loading area. Ramsay gave no comment on Lacey’s elimination.

Two hours into service, the blue team was now down to three chefs and Ramsay urged all of them to not give up. With Danny now on the meat station and Robert on the fish station, the blue team started to push entrées out at a fast pace, with Eric McCormick’s table finally getting their entrées. Meanwhile, Jean-Philippe brought back Carol’s undercooked lamb dishes, much to Ramsay’s frustration. Carol sliced her Wellingtons and hoped they were well-done, but they were undercooked, causing Carol to tell LA to slow down on the garnishes, much to LA’s frustration. Then, LA served cold and bland mashed potatoes, causing Ramsay to order her to wake up. The blue team continued their great momentum and were on their last ticket of that night, while Carol’s problems on the meat station continued as she lost a chicken order, which slowed the red team even further. Eventually, the blue team finished their last ticket with Robert extremely proud that they were able to fight back and serve all their tables, despite being two chefs down. Back in the red kitchen, Ramsay told the five team members that the blue team, who had three chefs, just finished their last table while they were still waiting on Carol’s lamb. After ranting how Andrea, Carol, and LA screwed the red team up, Ramsay decided to switch off the red kitchen.

Post-Mortem

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay confirmed to a relieved blue team that spacey Lacey was gone, while tossing her jacket aside. After, Ramsay named the blue team winners by a mile for the best teamwork he had seen in Hell’s Kitchen, and for getting all their orders out first. After telling LA that she forgot her alarm clock and sleeping blanket, Ramsay named the red team losers for their lack of teamwork, and told them to think of two people for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Carol knew she would be nominated for her poor performance that night, but also said that Andrea should be up as well. However, Andrea argued that Carol and LA should be up for elimination, and Paula agreed with Andrea, although LA believed that Paula’s decision was because she and Andrea had become friends since the beginning. Giovanni believed that LA was weaker than Carol, and LA chose Carol and Andrea as her choices. With three names called and no one agreeing to a consensus, the red team was divided.

Elimination

When Ramsay asked the red team if they came to a consensus, Carol and Paula revealed that they did not as there were multiple opinions, but Ramsay told them to cut the bullshit as he was not in the mood for it. Paula said that LA was the red team’s first nominee and Carol was the second, but she admitted that Andrea’s name was also discussed. An annoyed Ramsay called the three women down to the front. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay called Carol and Andrea’s names, told them to get back in line, before eliminating LA for looking asleep in the last few services and being convinced she was lacking the passion to cook.

Ramsay’s comment: “LA was a real workhorse in the kitchen. I kicked her out of Hell’s Kitchen because she lacked two crucial skills to be a great chef – leadership and creativity.”

LA received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence, but Lacey did not.

My Opinion

The service was not the best. The blue team service was better than the red team when Lacey went out of hell kitchen. The red team was the wrost team tonight. My nominated were Carol and Andrea, I was surprised that La was nominated.

My comment: Lacey was moaning about leaving so tonight she finally left. La might be a chef but she lack leadership

The seventh episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on March 19, 2009. On that episode, a blue chef was reassigned to the red team, one chef threatened to quit the competition, and one chef did not make it through dinner service.

Intro

Back in the dorms, Andrea was still feeling the weight of being “Best of the Worst”, while Carol asked why Andrea did not nominate her. Andrea said she did not want to base her nominations on their argument and that Carol was a little stronger than LA. That comment did not sit well with LA, but Paula agreed with Andrea when the latter said that LA had not shown any passion in the last few services. Then, Carol believed that the red team was now divided into the pair of Andrea and Paula against the pair of LA and herself, and working together was getting harder.

Team Switch

The next morning, both teams went downstairs to see Ramsay, who had some dishes for them to taste. From his restaurant Mais in London, Ramsay had prepared salmon tapas, which were small dishes, but were fresh and vibrant. The chefs tasted the dishes and were very impressed with them. Ramsay then revealed that for their next challenge, they would be making five of their own tapas with leftovers, and the team with the most points would be the winners. Before they began the challenge, Ramsay said he had to even the teams up at five each, as the red team were down two chefs. Ramsay told Lacey that her performances have been getting better since she has been on the blue team so she would stay with them. Instead, Ramsay decided to move Giovanni over to the red team, and gave him a red jacket.

Team Challenge

Both teams had 20 minutes to make their tapas. Giovanni quickly integrated himself into his new team, and told a few of his teammates some of his suggestions, while hoping that the red team would finally get together as a team. Lacey struggled with an idea but Ben gave her a few suggestions on what she could do, though Robert stated he was starting to lose patience with Lacey. Eventually, both teams finished their dishes and plated them.

The first pair up was Danny against Paula. Paula served her peppered steak and eggs with tomatoes and shallots, which was deemed nice by Ramsay. Danny served a grilled filet mignon with a wild mushroom ragu, which was also praised. Ramsay gave a point to both of them, leaving the score tied at 1. Lacey and LA were up next. Lacey’s mushroom bruschetta with balsamic vinegar had undercooked leeks, and LA’s asparagus and ginger soup was also criticized for both looking and tasting like it came from the bottom of a dishwasher. Neither of them scored a point, and the score still remained tied at 1. The next pair was Robert against Carol. Carol’s ginger rubbed salmon with leeks and a ginger soy reduction was dry, and Ramsay stated he never put soy sauce in either tray, and despite Robert’s peppered pasta with pan seared lamb loin looked too big for a tapa dish, the flavours were spot on and Robert scored the point, making the score at 2-1 for the blue team. Andrea and J were up against next. Andrea’s open-faced lobster and asparagus ravioli had a boring presentation, but it had very good flavours, while J’s lobster with fennel and leek broth was too simple. Andrea scored for the red team, leaving the score a tie at 2 each. The final pair up was Giovanni against Ben. Ben’s grilled tuna with fennel prawns sauce was deemed delicious, but Giovanni’s surf and turf with beef and lobster was also deemed very good. After much thinking, Ramsay gave the point to Giovanni, and the red team won the challenge 3-2, but told Ben not to be too upset as that was the most difficult decision yet.

Reward

The red team went to Hollywood parks to see a horse race with Ramsay. Carol congratulated Giovanni for clinching their victory, but Giovanni told the four women that they needed to put their animosity aside, so they could win services. At the horse track, the red team and Ramsay placed their bets, and Andrea’s horse beat out Ramsay’s by a close call.

Punishment

The blue team had to prep both kitchens for that night’s service and polish the tapa plates, so they could use them. While the men were pushing to get both team’s stations ready, Lacey did not do a lot of work while complaining about the amount of work they had to do. When the tapa plates arrived, Lacey continued to annoy her teammates with questions, and Ben was starting to get annoyed with having to babysit her. Lacey’s mistakes during prep finally angered Robert who called her out for her attitude and wanted her gone. Lacey threatened to quit if she would fight with anyone else, but J called her out on her decision, telling that if she wants to go, she could do it. Then, she left the blue kitchen and went to the dorms. While Danny, Robert and J did not care about Lacey’s outburst, Ben, despite losing his patience, came up to the dorms and convinced her to stay since they needed her help, despite Lacey knowing that he said the same thing to her before.

Before Service

Five minutes before service, a positive Giovanni led the red team through the rest of prep. Once everyone was ready, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner Service

Carol sent up her risotto, but it had overcooked rice in it. It got worse when Ramsay saw that all of the red team’s rice was overcooked, and went to the blue kitchen to demand who cooked the rice during their punishment. J took the blame and it was soon revealed that the blue kitchen’s rice was also overcooked. With all the rice overcooked, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe that he had to take the risotto off the menu for that night, while yelling at J for screwing both teams up.

A half hour into service, and both teams were pushing out appetizers despite J’s mistake, but Carol’s pasta dish was sent back for being raw, and she blamed Andrea for that mistake. After finding out Carol did taste the pasta and sent it up despite being raw, Ramsay kicked both Carol and Andrea out of the kitchen into the dining room to eat their mistake. In the blue kitchen, J’s salmon dish was sent up raw, and Ramsay told J that everything he touched so far was screwed, with Robert even getting annoyed by J’s problems. J’s next attempt was burnt and without sauce, and Ramsay took him to the pantry room to give him a wake up call. In the red kitchen, LA was unresponsive when Ramsay asked for the John Dory, and called her a silly cow. That angered LA, but became more responsive as a result.

Automatic Elimination

In the blue kitchen, J sent up his scallops to the pass, but they were overcooked and rubbery. That was the final straw for Ramsay, and asked the entire team to touch them, before eliminating J on-the-spot and asking him to leave immediately. J left his jacket in the pantry room, packed his stuff in the dorms, and left the restaurant by the loading area, for a cab ride.

Two hours into service, and Ramsay told the blue team that they had to pick up the pace after J’s elimination. So, he reassigned Robert to the fish station. The blue team quickly got together on where they were at, but Ramsay warned Ben that he was not rising up. Back in the red kitchen, Giovanni took the leadership role and called out orders and times, which LA was grateful for, and Ramsay was happy that they were sounding like a team finally. In the blue kitchen, Ben was slow on meat and sent up cold Wellingtons to the pass, causing Ramsay to order him to cook them in the convection oven. On the other hand, Paula’s Wellingtons were perfectly cooked, and Ramsay called it the best one they served so far. Ben was still slow on the meat station, and Ramsay told him he personally wanted him gone, much to Ben’s dismay. When Ramsay saw that Ben was putting Wellingtons on a dirty tray, he pulled him to the pantry room, called him a dirty pig and warned him to pick it up or he would be out like J.

Three hours into dinner service, and despite Ben’s meat problems, the blue team pushed out their last entrées, while the red team was clearing down. Despite the blue team finishing, Robert knew that their morale was very low due to their struggles at the beginning. Meanwhile, Carol called out Andrea for the raw pasta incident, and another argument between the two of them erupted, until Paula told them to cut it out.

Post-Mortem

A stressed out Ramsay had both teams lined up, and announced that the blue team was the clear losers. Then, he ordered all of them to think of one person each for elimination. Back in the dorms, Ben apologized to his team for his terrible performance, but Danny was considering getting rid of Ben for his poor performances. Lacey had problems deciding who to send up, but Robert reminded Lacey of her threat to quit during punishment and has had enough of her attitude. This led to an argument where Robert accused her of giving up since the beginning and only cared about matters for her own convenience, which angered Lacey who considered to put Robert up. Robert also told Lacey he would become a crack whore if she would win the competition.

Elimination

Ramsay asked each of the blue chefs who they wanted to see go home and why. Robert wanted Lacey gone as her earlier threat to quit angered him, as it showed she did not care, but Lacey said she wanted Robert gone since she did not get along with him. Danny said he wanted Lacey gone as he has had enough of her attitude, and Ben agreed with Danny as he felt Lacey was not a team player. After hearing their decisions, Ramsay called Lacey and Ben down to the front as Ben had the weakest performance that night, which Ben agreed with. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay, despite wanting Ben’s jacket, sent both of them back in line, and gave them one more chance to improve. Finally, he told the blue team to start working together, and J received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence.

Ramsay’s comment: “I kept Ben and Lacey because J put the kitchen in such a hole that they never stood a chance. They’re very lucky that I sent J packing.”

My Opinion

The blue team were wrost than the red team. Ramsay was right to let J go home. I would nominated Ben and Lacey to go home. I was not surprised that all the blue team nominated Lacey to go home.

My comment: If J took a cooked test he would get a f.

The sixth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on March 12, 2009. On that episode, Hell’s Kitchen catered for a Bar Mitzvah party, a new rivalry was born, and one team tried to usurp the “Best of The Worst”’s nominees.

Intro

Back in the dorms, LA felt bad about Colleen’s elimination, and wondered if she made the wrong decision, but Andrea reassured LA that she made the right choice and said that being up for elimination has humbled her. Meanwhile, J looked at a picture of his son and broke down into tears as Giovanni gave him some reassurance. Then, J promised his son that he would never have another terrible service like the previous one.

Team Challenge

The next morning, both teams made their way downstairs to see Ramsay, who told Lacey that she was starting to shine after the last service, and urged her not to stop. After that, Ramsay revealed that for their next service, they would be catering for a Bar Mitzvah party. That news excited Ben as he was of Jewish faith, and he gave a summary of what a Bar Mitzvah is. Ramsay then added on that they would be going to take their customer’s favourite dishes, and turn them into something special. So, he invited the Bar Mitzvah boy’s mom and grandma, Brenda and Sally, to help them out. Brenda and Sally explained to the teams that three of his favourite dishes were hamburgers, chicken soup, and brisket. Ramsay announced that for their next challenge, each team would have to create gourmet versions of those dishes in 45 minutes.

Both teams quickly delegated who was cooking what, and got to work. In the blue kitchen, Ben was confident on his brisket, and Robert wanted to do the hamburger dish since he knew what was making up a good burger. In the red kitchen, Carol said she wanted to do a blue cheese stuffed burger, but ignored her team’s suggestion of using a milder cheese instead and the cooking of the burger. Both teams were on top of everything and got their dishes cooked and plated in time.

Afterwards, Ramsay revealed he would not be judging these dishes and has invited the Bar Mitzvah boy, Max, for the judging. The chicken soup round took place between Andrea and Giovanni. For the blue team, Giovanni presented a traditional chicken soup with pasta and rice balls, while Andrea presented the red team’s spring chicken soup with spring vegetables and pasta. Max liked both dishes, but chose the blue team’s soup, giving them the first round. On the next round, Ben presented the blue team’s classic brisket, while LA presented the red team’s braised brisket with cherry bbq sauce. As with the last round, Max liked both dishes, but chose the red team’s dish, tying it at 1 each. The final round was the hamburger round, with Robert serving the blue team’s Kobe beef burger, and Carol serving the red team’s blue cheese stuffed burger. Once again, Max liked both dishes, but gave the blue team the win at 2-1, as he felt the red team’s blue cheese was too strong for him, something Ramsay agreed with.

Reward

The blue team went to Skin Haven spa for a day of relaxation. During the reward, Ben told Lacey that she really deserved the reward based on Ramsay’s comments, and Lacey said she was having more fun with the blue team than she ever did with the red team. When the blue team returned back to the dorms later that day, they went back to relaxing.

Punishment

The red team had to decorate the dining room for the next night’s service, based on the instructions of Francisco the Party Planner. Since it was Jean-Philippe’s third time working with Francisco, he sternly told him to not interfere with his job, and introduced the red team to him. During the punishment, Andrea and Carol got on each other’s nerves and revealed that they were faking getting along since the beginning, which annoyed Paula.

Before Service

The next morning, both teams went downstairs to begin prep for service. In addition to the regular menu, the winning dishes from the last challenge would also be featured on that night’s menu. After both teams were finished, Ramsay had both teams lined up, reminded them that this was Max’s special night, and that they had to complete that night’s service no matter what. Francisco opened the doors to let people in, but Jean-Philippe was not impressed with his sports-themed Yakama. As orders were being taken, Francisco introduced Max and service began.

Dinner Service

Andrea sent up her first orders of risotto, but Ramsay wanted more mushrooms in them. Carol offered to help out, but Andrea said she did not want any help, which annoyed Carol. Andrea’s next attempt was accepted, but Ramsay told her to wake up. As the red team’s appetizers were coming out, Jean-Philippe came to the pass and told Ramsay that Brenda had a request for the horah dance. Then, Ramsay told the red team that as part of their second punishment, they had to participate in the horah dance and lift Max up in his chair. This gave the blue team a chance to get ready for their tables, though Ben was a little jealous that he did not participate in the dance. The red team finished the dance and went back into the kitchen, while the blue team were pushing out their own appetizers. J brought up his salads, but he accidentally dressed two salads when one was not supposed to be dressed, causing Ramsay to order him to snap out of his funk.

An hour and a half into service, and all of the appetizers have been served, but Ramsay did not want any entrées out until Max got his entrée served. After Ramsay called out Max’s table to the red team, Coi went in the pantry room to grab the burgers as she forgot about them, much to Ramsay’s frustration. Meanwhile, the younger diners were playing games in the dining room, but Jean-Philippe caught Francisco playing the basketball game instead of doing his job, and reminded him that the games were meant for the children. Coi was getting her burgers ready, but LA found out they were still rare, and told her to put them back on the grill. When Ramsay impatiently asked for the burgers, Coi and Carol sent them up, but Ramsay felt they were cold, and forced the red team to feel them. LA went to help Coi out, and the second attempt on the burgers was deemed acceptable, with Max finally receiving his entrée. With Max’s table being served, the rest of the table could be served now. Danny sent up his burgers, but Ramsay noticed that he got the bottom of his plates dirty, and Danny was lectured to keep his station clean. Meanwhile, Coi brought up her brisket up, but Ramsay asked for more brisket, and told the red team to spread out as there were a lot of people on the meat station, which annoyed Coi. In the blue kitchen, Lacey sent up her brisket, but it was stone cold, and Lacey started to freak out as things were spiralling out of control for her.

Two hours into dinner service, and the red team was struggling with getting their last entrées out. Coi called out that she needed four minutes on her burgers, but the red team and Ramsay argued that it should not take that long. Then, Andrea and Carol got into an argument over the fries, but Sous Chef Gloria stopped them before it would escalate. Back in the dining room, everyone was having a great time and Francisco was bringing the cake over, only to accidentally drop it. That infuriated Jean-Philippe and when Francisco tried to blame Jean-Philippe for turning around and startling him, Jean-Philippe said he had enough with him, and called him ridiculous. In the meantime, both teams got their desserts out in great momentum. Near the end of service, Ramsay revealed to Max that for his Bar Mitzvah, he invited the Harlem Globetrotters for the party. So, Max had a special session with them, and received his own personal Globetrotters jersey at the end.

When the teams were clearing down, Andrea apologized to Carol about their argument, but Carol said she wanted to punch Andrea in the throat, which angered her.

Post-Mortem

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay said he was happy that despite the ups and downs, they made Max and his family happy with that night’s service. Despite that, he was still going to send someone home, and based on the level of determination and performance, he named the blue team the winners. Ramsay then named Andrea “Best of the Worst” for the red team as she bounced back on her earlier mistake that night, and told her to think of two people for elimination.

Back in the dorms, the rest of the red team was not happy about that decision as they felt Andrea was the weakest of the red team. Coi told Carol that if they would be nominated, they had to tell Ramsay the truth about Andrea’s performance that night. Then, Andrea confronted Carol about her threatening to punch her in the throat, but Carol argued she was just joking even though she still stood by her word. Another argument then occurred between the two of them, and Andrea was surprised that the rest of her team did not like the fact she was the “Best of the Worst”.

Elimination

Andrea struggled on deciding on who her nominations were, much to Ramsay’s irritation, but soon announced that Coi was her first nominee and LA was her second. After Ramsay listened to their pleas, Coi told him that she felt Andrea was the worst performer that night, which LA and Carol agreed with, but Paula argued that Coi had the worst performance that night. After hearing all of that, Ramsay eliminated Coi for her poor performance on the meat station.

Ramsay’s comment: “When this competition began, I thought Coi was gonna be a really strong chef. But tonight she was exposed when she couldn’t even cook a bloody burger.”

My Opinion

The dinner service was better than the other service of this season. I thought Carol was going to be nominated with Coi. I dont why La was nominated.

My comment: Coi forgot the chicken and forgot to cook

The fifth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on March 5, 2009. On that episode, one chef tried to bond with their new teammates, Ramsay inexplicitly pressed one chef’s personal button during dinner service, and a shocking elimination no one saw coming.

Intro

Back in the dorms, the red team were ecstatic that Lacey was no longer part of their team, and Lacey tried to integrate herself with the blue team. Ben was still shocked by the news and bluntly told Lacey that they were not looking for another Seth, but Lacey asked for a chance to prove herself. Robert tried to play nice, but he knew Lacey was cancerous for the blue team. Lacey promised that she would not cry on the blue team at all and that she felt the red team was ganging up on her.

Team Challenge

The next morning, the chefs were driven to an Asian supermarket, where they met Ramsay. Ramsay revealed that their next challenge was an Asian Fusion Challenge. Each team would create one poultry, one seafood, and one meat dish that had strong Asian influences, and gave them 25 minutes to shop for whatever they needed, with a $100 budget. Andrea took the lead for the red team but ignored her team’s suggestions, much to Carol and LA’s annoyance, while the blue team grabbed anything they could find, and ignored Lacey’s questions. Both teams made it to the checkout in time and both were within their budgets.

Returning back to Hell’s Kitchen, both teams had one hour to cook their dishes, and both teams had to work in pairs on each dish. In the blue kitchen, the pair of Ben and Lacey had a rough teamwork dynamic as Lacey felt that Ben’s instructions were annoying. The pair of Giovanni and J, on the other hand, was confident in their dish, along with the pair of Danny and Robert. However, almost none of the red team had an idea on their dishes, and wasted nearly the first 20 minutes on their conceptions. Ramsay then ordered them not to make their dishes boring. Back in the blue kitchen, Lacey offered to help her new teammates, but found out she was being ignored and not needed. Both teams managed to finish cooking on time, and plated their dishes.

Before the judging, Ramsay revealed that he invited Epicurious editor-in-chief Tanya Steel to help him out, and also revealed that the winning team’s dishes would be featured on the Epicurious website. The first round was the poultry and featured Carol and Coi’s dish against Danny and Robert’s dish. Carol presented a pomegranate cinnamon glazed chicken breast, but both judges felt that the presentation was boring and that the chicken was dry, even though the flavours were good. Robert presented a pad thai bbq chicken, and both judges praised it for the seasoning and the southern inspiration, which led the blue team to score the first point. The next round was the seafood, and featured Paula and LA’s dish against Ben and Lacey’s dish. Paula presented an ahi tuna tempura, and it was praised for its temperature and cooking. Ben presented pan seared scallops with a sea urchin and caviar berblanc sauce, but it was deemed too salty, and the red team scored, tying the score at 1 each. The next round was the meat one, and featured Andrea and Colleen’s dish against Giovanni and J’s dish. Andrea presented a Kobe beef sashimi brushed with Korean style sauce, and while the beef was delicious, the sauce was overpowered by the spices in it. J stumbled on his dish, but Giovanni revealed it was a beef pizzaiola, which was deemed a good concept but had undercooked rice. After much deliberation, Ramsay and Tanya decided that Andrea and Colleen’s dish would win it, and the red team won the challenge 2-1.

Reward

In addition to having their dishes being featured on the Epicurious website, the red team also went to a karate dojo where they played sumo wrestling. On the ride to their reward, the women were extremely happy that they got rid of Lacey, which meant they would win more challenges. When they got to the dojo, they saw Ramsay and Jean-Philippe sumo wrestle each other, with Ramsay winning. Then, they participated in the wrestling themselves, and after that, they tasted sake at a local bar.

Punishment

The blue team had to make fortune cookies and decorate the entire dining room with origami. Lacey was upset by this as this was her third challenge loss, and told the blue team she wanted to leave. That pissed of Giovanni who told her to stop whining while mentioning that Seth never threatened to leave at all. Then, Coi noticed that the blue team was getting fed up with Lacey like the red team did. Ben gave Lacey a pep talk, urged her to have some more motivation to do well, and told that the blue team needed her. But, Lacey thought he was lying to her. Lacey annoyed her team while making the fortune cookies, but helped them out with the origami folding, which got her in good grace with her new teammates. When an inebriated red team came back, Lacey guaranteed to her new team that one of the red chefs would be leaving after the next service.

Before Service

The next morning, both teams got to work on prep, with the red team still happy that Lacey was out from their team. Eventually, both teams finished their prep, and Ramsay had both teams lined up for a briefing. Ramsay told Paula that her ahi tuna tempura was one of the best dishes he had ever tasted in Hell’s Kitchen, and that it would be featured on that night’s menu. After dismissing both teams to their stations, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner Service

Tanya Steel was in attendance that night. Both teams got their first tickets, and Giovanni and LA managed to get their teams off to a great start with perfect risottos. Thirty minutes into dinner service, and appetizers from both kitchens were going out at a fast pace. A table full of sumo wrestlers soon came in, and all of them ordered the entire menu, forcing Ramsay to split the table between both teams. Lacey became very vocal on the blue team and called out times, which Giovanni believed she really wanted to beat the red team that night.

Fifty minutes into dinner service, and the sumo wrestlers were enjoying their appetizers. However, Andrea was hiding burnt Wellingtons and keeping it from her teammates. J cut his Wellingtons and told Ramsay he needed more time as they were still raw, with Sous Chef Scott revealing that his fan was on low instead of high, and Ramsay chewed J out for his mistake. Then, Ramsay saw that the red team’s convection oven was open, and asked if there were Wellingtons in it. When Coi confirmed there were Wellingtons in the oven, Ramsay chewed out Colleen for leaving the door open as they were getting cold, though she did not remember if she did open the oven earlier. Andrea said she was retrying the Wellingtons, but Ramsay soon found Andrea’s wasted meat stash, and was furious with her. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay asked Robert to pick up the pace by calling him “Bobby”, but that infuriated Robert as “Bobby” was his abusive father’s name, and he did not have a great childhood. Because of that, Robert refused to listen to Ramsay, and threw out a John Dory order with Ramsay soon finding out that he threw out multiple orders. Robert gave a halfhearted explanation on his actions, causing Ramsay to pull him into the pantry room, and ordered him to concentrate while accusing him of giving up. Robert admitted it took a lot of effort not to lash out at Ramsay and, proceeded to moon the confessional camera while telling Ramsay to kiss his ass. In the red kitchen, Andrea said she needed four more minutes on her Wellingtons, and was not communicating properly with Carol on the fish station. This caused a frustrated Ramsay to order Andrea to get it together.

Two hours into dinner service, and both kitchens were at a standstill with no food leaving the kitchens. J’s chicken came out raw and Ramsay reminded him that no entrées have left the blue kitchen in 14 minutes, telling J to get a grip. When J realized he forgot an order of lamb, Ramsay angrily told the blue team to communicate. Back in the red kitchen, Colleen was sending out the desserts, but one of them, from Steel’s table, was sent back for being very raw. Ramsay forced the red team to eat it, and chewed out Colleen for sending out raw desserts. After seeing Jean-Philippe come with more returned food, Ramsay had enough and shut down both kitchens while calling it the worst performance so far.

Post-Mortem

Gathering both teams up, Ramsay asked Robert about his attitude problem during service, but Robert said he would like to talk about it in private. Ramsay noted that both teams fell apart on the meat stations, and declared no winning team. He also named Giovanni and LA “Best of the Worst” for their respective teams because of their great start, and asked them to nominate one teammate for elimination.

Robert revealed his father issues to the red team, and was soon called down by Ramsay to his office. Robert explained to Ramsay that his father, named Bobby, was abusive to him and that he had a rough childhood. Now fully understanding about Robert’s situation, Ramsay apologized for calling him “Bobby”, and promised he would never call him like that ever again.

Back in the dorms, Andrea admitted she had a terrible performance, and LA knew that her choice would be between Andrea for being behind, and Colleen for being terrible in all five services so far. J was concerned about who Giovanni would nominate, and Robert knew it was either himself or J, as Lacey had a strong performance that night.

Elimination

LA revealed that Andrea was her nominee for her poor communication, and Giovanni revealed that J was his nominee for his poor performance on meat, and while he admitted that Robert had a bad night of his own, he was able to rebound quicker than J. Ramsay called Andrea and J down. After listening to their pleas, he ordered both of them to get back in line, told Robert to wake up, and called Colleen down, before eliminating her for her shocking performances during the first five services. Before she left, Ramsay praised her for her tenacity, and after she did, he told the remaining chefs to follow Colleen’s tenacity and fight.

Ramsay’s comment: “There was no place in the kitchen I could put Colleen where she wasn’t a disaster. It’s time for her to go back to where she belongs: teaching, because she certainly can’t cook.”

My Opinion

The beginning of service was the best one yet then it become the wrost one. I agree with the nominated for both team and with Ramsay decision with Coleen to leave.

My comment: Colleen wasn’t good at cooking but she was good at ripping people off.

The fourth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on February 26, 2009. On that episode, a breakfast challenge service took place, a new rivalry was born, and dinner service was a disaster on both ends.

Intro

Back in the dorms, Seth was happy to have survived another elimination, but Giovanni was not, and told him point blank that he did not respect him at all after he tried to put him up for elimination. That led to an argument between the two of them with both pointing out the other one’s flaws.

Later that night, Robert decided to entertain the other chefs with his Ramsay impersonation. His antics cracked everyone up and Andrea thought Robert did a great job of impersonating Ramsay.

Team Challenge

The next morning, both teams lined up in front of Ramsay who asked each team who was their strongest chef. Carol answered that either herself or Andrea were the strongest chefs on the red team, though Paula secretly knew she was the strongest, while Danny named himself as the strongest on the blue team, which confirmed in Ben’s mind that Danny was getting arrogant. Then, Ramsay said that he still felt both teams were lacking teamwork, so to fix that, he was going to open Hell’s Kitchen for breakfast to test their teamwork skills.

With 30 minutes before the doors would open, both teams went back to their kitchens to begin prep for their breakfast service challenge. While the red team delegated station placements, Seth pitched a scrambled egg recipe from Ramsay to the blue team, causing Giovanni to reluctantly put Seth on the egg station. With everyone ready, Ramsay introduced who they would cook for, the Pacific youth football league and cheer team, which excited the red team. The red team would cook for the cheer team while the blue team would cook for the football league, and the first team to serve all their tables would be the winner. The red team was determined to win that challenge as they had not yet won one since the competition started.

The blue team got their first tickets and quickly sent their first orders out. In the red kitchen, Colleen got distracted by the cheering, forcing Paula and Ramsay to get her refocused on her hash browns, and after that, red team got their first tickets. Meanwhile, the blue team already had an early lead by serving 17 of their customers, but Ramsay pulled Robert and J over when they poorly served hash browns on their plates though Robert blamed J for the plating. Despite those problems, the blue team managed to serve half of their customers, while the red team have not served any food yet. Coi burned a pancake which Ramsay compared to a pair of rubber nickers, before binning them and telling Paula to bring back their standards. Back in the blue kitchen, the men were running low on scrambled eggs, and Seth was slowing the momentum down. In the red kitchen, the women managed to catch up on their orders as both kitchens had served 40 of their customers. With only four tickets left on both teams, the chefs picked up the pace to see who would finish first. In the end, the red team finished their last ticket first and won their first challenge. The red team celebrated their victory with the kids, while the blue team were disappointed by their loss, as Robert blamed Seth for slowing them down.

Reward

The red team was rewarded with a Beverly Hills style camping experience. Before leaving, Coi overheard the blue team arguing and told the red team about it, with Andrea hoping that the blue team’s argument would cause them to crumble. The red team had a limo ride to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and they spent the day relaxing by the pool and getting massages.

Punishment

The blue team had to clean up the dining room, both kitchens, and prep them for that night’s service. Back in the dorms, Ben blamed Danny for being slow on the pancakes, but Danny argued that he at least helped him on sending them to the pass. When J reminded Danny that he said he was the best cook on the blue team, Danny still stood by that statement. However, Ben argued he was a better chef, and that Danny could not even cook his cock, causing Giovanni to try and defuse the argument. Ben left for some alone time, while believing that Danny was becoming arrogant. On the patio, he threw a chair in frustration. Danny admitted he was cocky but also did not care if he was.

While cleaning the kitchens, Robert admitted to Danny that he did not like how Ben argued with him, and the two of them agreed to take the chance of getting Ben out. Later, Robert told Giovanni about his plan, which he agreed with.

Before Service

With only two hours left until service began, the blue team got to work on prepping both kitchens as the red team came back from their reward. The women’s mocking of the blue team made Robert and Ben determined to beat them that night. When the red team came downstairs, they found out that the blue team failed to get their stations fully prepped, and were forced to help the men finish. Andrea told Sous Chef Gloria that they were missing their tomato butter sauce, and Gloria came to the blue kitchen to ask where it was. Ben did not make it yet, so he quickly started on a batch.

Eight minutes before service began, Ramsay had both teams lined up and gave them a pep talk on staying bonded as a team. Afterwards, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner Service

The blue team got their first ticket, but Giovanni said that the water was not boiling yet. That frustrated Ramsay who also let Giovanni know that the water was not seasoned, nor having olive oil in it either. In the red kitchen, Coi was caught cooking spaghetti not to order, and managed to frustrate Ramsay even further when she admitted she was trying to get ahead. Seth sent up his first order of scallops, but they were rubbery and Seth was forced by Ramsay to eat them. He declared that he enjoyed eating them as he did not have lunch before service. Andrea came into the blue kitchen asking for the tomato butter sauce, but Ben revealed he did not have it ready. That pissed off Andrea and Ramsay asked Ben if he was trying to sabotage the red kitchen, which Ben argued he was not. Coi’s spaghetti dish was sent up, but it was dry, bland, under seasoned, and undercooked, which left Ramsay getting pissed off even more.

One hour into dinner service, and neither team has sent any food yet. Ben sent over the red team’s tomato butter sauce, but a quick taste from Andrea and Ramsay revealed that the sauce was too salty. Ramsay ordered for more sauce, and Ben had Danny make another batch. In the red kitchen, Andrea took the lead and gave orders to Lacey and Coi on their dishes. It worked, and the red team was finally able to send out more than half of their appetizers. Danny sent up his tomato butter sauce which was deemed acceptable. Ramsay let Ben know about the news and it sparked Danny’s confidence.

One hour and a half into dinner service, the blue team got over half of their appetizers out. Unfortunately, one of J’s Caesar salad dishes had a lettuce butt in it, and Jean-Philippe sent it back to the kitchen. J took responsibility for it, and an angry Ramsay smashed it on the ground while asking J if he was stupid. Despite J’s blunder, the blue team continued to serve their appetizers and have moved on to entrées. Ben brought his lamb down, but it was sliced very thinly with a rip in one chop, with Ramsay stating he would not even serve Ben’s lamb to his own dog. Back in the red kitchen, LA was getting pissed off with Colleen as she was not only putting their meat entrées in the convection oven to keep them warm, but was also continually asking questions. LA sent over the Wellingtons, but they did not have their ends properly cut off, which LA blamed Colleen for. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay asked Danny for the garnishes, but Danny was unresponsive which frustrated Ramsay. When Ramsay threatened to kick Danny out, Danny responded that he needed one more minute. Colleen brought over her Wellingtons, but she accidentally brought four Wellingtons instead of the three ordered, and was accused by Ramsay for taking the competition as a joke.

By that point, the customers were beginning to get impatient. Ramsay called the next ticket order for the blue team, but Seth failed to pay attention and could not repeat the order. Seth was then caught wiping his face with a cloth, and then wiping a pan with that same cloth, causing Ramsay to chew him out. Jean-Philippe was also facing problems as most of the dishes were sent back for being undercooked. After seeing a lot of food sent back to the kitchen, Ramsay finally had enough and gathered both teams while calling them all pathetic. He announced that there was no winning team that night and ordered both teams to nominate two people for elimination before kicking them out of the kitchen. Ben tried to stay in the kitchen, but Ramsay angrily yelled at him to leave.

Post-Mortem

Back in the dorms, Coi apologized to the red team for her poor performance and believed she was to go home. However, LA pointed out that Colleen was starting to push Ramsay to his limits, and Carol stated that Lacey would have screwed them up even worse if she was on appetizers alone that night, which caused Lacey to realize that the red team was trying to find anything wrong with her, in order to send her home.

Meanwhile, the blue team got together to discuss matters. Giovanni picked Seth and Ben as his choices for elimination, but Ben argued that Danny should be up as he was not communicating on the garnish station. Robert thought that Seth, Ben, and J had the weakest performances that night, which Giovanni agreed with has he recalled the salad mishap, but J argued that he should not be up for elimination because of that mistake.

Elimination

Before asking for nominees, Ramsay reminded the salad butt incident from J and said that was how reputations were getting ruined. He also called J a butthead. Danny announced that Seth was the first nominee for the blue team while Ben was the second, though Ramsay thought they should have nominated J instead. Lacey announced that Colleen was the first nominee for the red team and herself was the second, though she admitted Coi had an even worse night than herself. However, Coi admitted that her service that night was her worse performance yet, so Ramsay called the four initial nominees down. After listening to all of their pleas, Ramsay ordered Ben to get back in line, and eliminated Seth for his constant poor performances and stated he could not go any further with him.

Team Switch

After Seth’s elimination, Ramsay revealed that Lacey would be moving to the blue team, much to their dismay and the red team’s relief.

Ramsay’s comment: “Seth showed that he had all the passion in the world, but the bottom line is: he’s a crap cook.”

My Opinion

Both kitchen were rubbish at dinner service tonight. Almost the nominated were right but I will change Lacey for Coi. Seth was the right person to go. Colleen is really close to leaving in my opinion.

My comment: Seth might of thinking he was a brilliant chef but unlucky for him he was not.

The third episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on February 19, 2009. On that episode, Ramsay tested the chefs’ knowledge on beef cuts, a Steakhouse double booked service occurred, and one team committed multiple embarrassing mistakes.

Intro

Back in the dorms, Andrea was very upset that Ji left as she was a better chef than any of them so far despite being injured. Andrea told Lacey that she was only lucky to still be around and that she better start proving herself, but Lacey argued back and said that she just turned on her bitch switch. However, the rest of the red team agreed with Andrea and confronted Lacey if she was actually serious about being here, but Lacey told them all to shut the fuck up.

Team Challenge

The next morning, the Sous Chefs woke up the contestants at 6 am with cowbells, and told them to get dressed and out the front door to the SUVs. Then, the barely awoke chefs were driven to an unknown place. Sous Chef Scott asked if anyone was having a heart condition or a fear of heights, but no one stated they did. After that, Sous Chef Scott tossed over two duffel bags, told them to put on the jackets provided and bring their barf bags. Once inside, it became clear that they were at a meat processing plant. As they walked around, they saw different organs, blood and cattle bodies all around the plant. Sous Chef Scott showed the chefs where each cut of beef was located on the cow’s body. Once he was finished, the Sous Chefs brought the chefs back to Hell’s Kitchen.

When the chefs came back, they found Ramsay in the dining room, along with two fake cows which he named Jellybean for the red team, and Bessie for the blue team. In order to see if they truly understood their meat, Ramsay announced that this would be their next challenge. Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria revealed different cuts of beef on their tables, and Ramsay explained that the Meat and Cow Challenge would be in two parts. The first part had one chef from each team try to correctly identify the eight cuts of meat on the table. When all those cuts were correctly guessed, they would move on to the second part which would be to correctly identify where on their cows the cut from was, and when they think they had it, they would ring the cowbell and Ramsay would let them know what they got right and wrong. The team that would finish first would be the winners, and Ramsay warned both teams that they did not want to lose this challenge.

For the first part, the blue team selected Ben to go up first, which surprised Ramsay since Giovanni was working at a steakhouse, and the red team selected Andrea. Ben finished with only one cut wrong and Andrea finished with two cuts wrong. Giovanni managed to get all the blue team’s cuts correct, and they moved onto the next round with J grabbing the labels and began placing them on the cow. Paula managed to get all of the red team’s cuts correct, and they moved on to the next round as well, with Colleen starting on the cow labeling. J finished with three incorrect placements and Seth went in to try to correct them, while Colleen finished with three wrong as well, and Lacey went in to try and correct them. Seth finished with seven wrong while Lacey finished with six wrong. Robert finished with six wrong and Ben and Paula both went to fix their respective teams’ mistakes. Ben managed to get his cow placements correct first and the blue team won their second challenge in a row.

Reward

The blue team flew in a private jet to Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez, California, where they had a wine tasting and a steak dinner with Ramsay. Before leaving, Robert showed the red team his wedding shoes and revealed that he gave up his wedding, which was supposed to happen the next day, to be in Hell’s Kitchen. The red team joked with Robert about doing a bachelor party for him while telling him he looked nice. At the winery, Ramsay introduced them to the president of Sunstone Winery Bion Rice, who gave them a tour of the place. The blue team enjoyed their steak dinner with Robert stating that this was the best day of his life.

Punishment

The red team had to butcher two large sides of beef. The beef sides proved to be very heavy for them and Lacey was exhausted after carrying just one. While cutting the beef apart, the red team were disgusted by it and Andrea stated she did not want to do any more punishments after that one. At lunch, the Sous Chefs revealed that they would be eating cow offal and gave them barf bags. Their meal proved too much for them as Lacey and Andrea vomited multiple times, but Andrea proclaimed that it was not going to break her. Then, she tearfully told the red team that they had to work together more so they could win challenges, and that she never has never been this humiliated in her life. When the blue team came back from their reward, they mocked the women for their loss and went back upstairs.

Before Service

The next morning, the chefs came downstairs to meet Ramsay, who revealed that because they now knew their beef cuts well, Hell’s Kitchen was opening that night for a Steakhouse special, which excited everyone and sparked confidence in Giovanni since he was working in a steakhouse. Ramsay revealed that they would be doing a double seating, which meant one team would cook for one seating while the other team served the orders and then, they would switch it up for the next seating.

The blue team dove right into their prep work, while Andrea gave her team a pep talk so they would be fired up. It worked and soon both teams have completed prep. As the winners of the last challenge, the blue team chose to cook for the first seating and they wanted to dedicate their service to Robert and his fiancé as that night would have been his wedding day. Ramsay then told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen for steak night.

Dinner Service

First Seating

The blue team had two hours to serve as many people as they could. The red team began their jobs as waitresses, but Colleen forgot her cart of menu items and had to grab it. The red team proved to be slow when writing their tickets, much to the annoyance of both Ramsay and Jean-Philippe, but Paula managed to send the first ticket over in the first twenty minutes, which caused Giovanni to believe they did it on purpose. While working on their first ticket, Charlie did not have his shrimp on for the Caesar salad, and Ramsay also noticed that his cloth caught fire. However, Charlie was oblivious to it, so Sous Chef Scott was sent to put it in the sink. Charlie argued he was doing his best, but Sous Chef Scott told him to rethink his best efforts.

Thirty minutes into dinner service, Ben sent up the desserts to the pass. Ramsay saw it and told the blue team that Ben was trying to bypass the appetizers and go straight into desserts, and demanded to know what was going on. Ramsay berated Ben for wasting six desserts already, and Ben blamed himself for misunderstanding Ramsay when he said “desserts pick up”. Ramsay sent Ben out to lie down, but he quickly came back into the kitchen in seconds. Charlie’s appetizers were finally leaving the kitchen, but Lacey came back with one of her tables’ salad for having anchovies in it. However, Ramsay reminded Lacey that she wrote it on her ticket and called her “Britney Spears” and a “jumped up bitch” when she was almost about to cry. Giovanni was at the meat station and got the steaks out quickly, but the customers soon found out that they were still raw. Carol brought back a raw steak, and Ramsay showed it to both Giovanni and Robert, which pissed Danny off, and Ramsay thanked God for having never visited Giovanni’s steakhouse. More of Giovanni’s steaks were sent back for being raw, and Ramsay angrily told him what was happening.

With only thirty minutes of the blue team’s service left, Jean-Philippe told Lacey that she forgot to send one of her tables’ ticket over. Lacey then whined about never waiting tables before, and Jean-Philippe mocked her whining and sent her over to Ramsay. When Ramsay found out about it, he angrily shewed Lacey away. Giovanni revealed that they only had one filet left and Ramsay ordered Seth to prep another one, but Seth had to ask Charlie for directions, much to J’s dismay. Ramsay soon complained that nothing was coming out and asked Seth where the filet was. Then, Ramsay saw Seth put something in the fridge, and it was all the wasted meat off of the filet tenderloin which was terribly butchered. A furious Ramsay showed the now horrified blue team the filet tenderloin and threw it at Seth, and Giovanni accused Seth of molesting it. When Seth admitted that he never butchered a filet before, Ramsay sarcastically congratulated him and yelled at him when he took it the wrong way.

With only two minutes left, the blue team tried to push out more entrées, but when Giovanni said he was four minutes away on his steaks, Ramsay had enough and decided to close service. Then, he berated Giovanni for his poor performance on the meat station, Charlie for his poor performance on the fish station, and Ben for sending out desserts before appetizers. Robert was extremely upset since he felt he embarrassed himself, his fiancé, and his family that night.

Second Seating

It was now the red team’s turn to cook for two hours and serve as many people as they could. As the blue team was taking orders, Andrea called out the blue team to hurry up but stopped when she remembered there were customers. Charlie came up with the first ticket and the red team got to work on it. Back in the dining room, Charlie asked Ben to check on one of his tables to see if he got their orders taken, which he did as Ben found out soon enough. Colleen forgot two orders of Caesar salad, which caused Ramsay to accuse her of doing it on purpose, though she argued she misheard the order. With no food out yet, the blue team tried to keep the customers entertained. The next order was four Caesar salads, three shrimps and one plain, and Ramsay pulled Colleen aside in order to find out if she understood it. While Colleen was able to correctly recite the order three times, she stumbled on the fourth time, which caused Ramsay to accuse her of not being normal, and annoyed Lacey.

Forty-five minutes into service, the red team was able to get appetizers out despite Colleen’s mistakes. However, J came to the pass with a raw shrimp salad and Ramsay chewed out Coi for it. Back in the dining room, Charlie accidentally caused a mess at one of his tables from accidentally dropping bacon bits on the table, which caused Jean-Philippe to pull him aside and chew him out for his embarrassing performance. Then, Charlie cleaned up the bacon bits on the table while apologizing to the customers.

With only thirty minutes left, Andrea began working on her steaks. The red team was able to pick up the pace and their entrées were coming out. However, Ben and Seth came back with steak orders as they claimed they were undercooked, but Ramsay saw that they were the exact temperature as ordered, causing LA to accuse the blue team of sabotaging them. Seth admitted in a confessional that they were, but only because he believed the red team sabotaged them in the first seating.

With only five minutes left, Ramsay ordered the red team to step up more. Andrea was able to send up more steak entrées to the dining room, but Carol mistook an order of New York Striploin for ribeye. With no New York Striploin ready, Ramsay decided to end the service and ordered them to shut down the kitchen.

Post-Mortem

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay came to them holding the comment cards, which would be part of his decision on picking a winning team, along with their performances in both the kitchen and in the dining room. Charlie and Lacey were considered the worst waiters on their respective teams. After that, Ramsay named the red team winners for serving the most entrées, though LA admitted in a confessional that she hoped they would lose so they could get rid of some dead weight, with the hint of Colleen being that person. The blue team was then instructed to come up with two people for elimination.

As the red team celebrated their victory, the blue team got together to discuss matters. Ben and Giovanni revealed that they would put up Charlie and Seth, but Charlie argued that Giovanni should go up based on his poor performance on the meat station despite working at a steakhouse. Seth agreed with Charlie, but only because he felt Giovanni was stronger than him. Danny and Robert agreed with Seth. Giovanni argued against it and chewed Seth out for targeting him like that. J knew that Seth deserved to go home, but struggled on who would go up with him.

Elimination

J announced that Seth was the first nominee and Charlie was the second. Seth tried to argue against it, but J sternly reminded him that Ramsay asked him for the nominations. Ramsay called down Seth and Charlie, and while Charlie’s plea was straight to the point, Seth made a long speech that annoyed everyone, causing Ramsay to ask him where was the off button. Ramsay eliminated Charlie for his failure to improve in three services, but warned Seth that he was very close to leave Hell’s Kitchen.

Ramsay’s comment: “Charlie is a prep chef, but I’m looking for a head chef. He seemed like a nice guy, but you know where nice guys finish.”

My Opinion

Both service were already but could be better. I not surprised that Lacey and Charlie was the wrost waiter. Seth and Charlie to go up but Giovanni was the not the best as well even though he worked at steakhouse.

My comment: Charlie couldn’t cooked or be a waiter so it was he turn to go.

The second episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on February 5, 2009. On that episode, the chefs competed in their first team challenge, that night’s service came down to the wire, and one chef made an ultimate decision after getting injured, leading to an extremely emotional elimination.

Intro

Back in the dorms, J was not happy that Seth survived elimination and believed he was lacking both skills and desire, compared to Will. Meanwhile, Coi apologized to Lacey for arguing with her before service, but Lacey tried to argue that she lacked the experience her team had. However, LA was still upset that Lacey quit in the middle of prep, and wanted her gone from the red team. While Lacey admitted that she might be the weakest red chef, she did not want to quit.

Team Challenge

The next morning at 5:49 AM, a marching band came in the dorms and played loudly, and the contestants woke up. Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria ordered the chefs to get downstairs, and they were led outside to find Ramsay next to multiple garbage bags. Ramsay called last night’s service way beyond disappointing and that he expected more from them. Then, he showed the chefs the garbage bags full of food that was wasted last night, and they were concerned that they would have to sort through the trash like in previous seasons. However, Ramsay revealed that there was no time for it as they just received two crates of scallops. Wanting them to learn how to respect their products, Ramsay had both teams go to their crates, and gather all the scallops into their colored buckets. While collecting the scallops, Colleen accidentally fell into the her team’s crate, but managed to get herself out.

Once they collected the scallops, both teams brought their buckets back in the red kitchen, and Ramsay revealed that they would be using them for their next challenge, which was the Scallop Cleaning Challenge. He gave a quick demonstration on how to properly clean them, and told the contestants that they would have to clean them to his standards. Because the red team had an extra person, Ramsay told Andrea to sit out so the teams would be even at 7 each. Both teams had 15 minutes to properly clean as many scallops as they could and the team with the most points would be the winner. During the cleaning, Lacey called it the most disgusting thing she has ever done, and everyone else was struggling with opening up their scallops, which shocked Ramsay as it meant almost none of them shucked before.

Once the fifteen minutes were over, the women went up first. Carol got the women off to a good start with all eight of her scallops accepted, but Paula could only get one out of her ten scallops accepted. Coi was able to score six scallops and Colleen scored five out of her six scallops. LA got all eight of her scallops accepted and Ji got four accepted. Lacey was the final woman up, and when Ramsay revealed she sliced one of her scallops three times, she had a shocked expression, which Ramsay mimicked. She could only get three of her six scallops accepted. The women finished with 35 points.

The men were up next. Ben could only get three out of his eleven scallops but Danny got nine out of his ten scallops accepted. Giovanni gave the best overall individual performance by scoring an impressive thirteen out of fifteen scallops and Robert kept it going with five of his scallops accepted. Charlie and Seth were only able to get two and three accepted respectively leaving the score tied at 35. J was the last man up and sent up his six scallops. All but one were rejected, and the men won the challenge 36-35.

Reward

The men went on a helicopter ride to Catalina Island which excited them. Before leaving, Ramsay called Robert over to his office, and unfortunately, the helicopter insurance could not allow anyone over 300 pounds. Since Robert weighed 400 pounds, he had to take a ferry to the island. While Robert was on the ferry, the rest of the men arrived at the Catalina Island and went on a submarine trip. During the trip, Seth revealed he knew a lot about Ramsay such as his birthday being the next day, where he was born, his recent cookbook released, and that he knew Ramsay had four kids and knew their names. Those comments concerned J and Giovanni as it made Seth look like a stalker. By the time Robert made it, the reward was over much to his dismay.

Punishment

The women had to prep a raw bar for the following night’s service. Lacey, dejected by their loss, cried in her bed, despite the worst performer being Paula. Ji tried to comfort her and urged her not to give up, but Lacey still felt that she was not cut out for the competition. When the women got ready for punishment, Lacey did not want to go as she claimed she was not feeling well, which infuriated Carol who chewed her out for her attitude. Sous Chef Gloria had the women shuck more scallops but when she asked where Lacey was, Carol retorted that they were stronger without her. Three hours into their punishment and Lacey was still not present which continued to anger her teammates, primarily Andrea and Carol. Six hours into the punishment, Lacey decided to come downstairs and help, but by that time, the women were disgusted by her attitude and wanted her gone.

Before Service

The next day, Lacey had a new attitude as she wanted to make a new start with prep. During prep, Ji slipped on some oil and sprained her ankle. The medic took a look at it, and with Ji in pain, she doubted if she could do that night’s service. Despite the pain, Ji decided to continue prepping for service despite the concern from LA.

Once both kitchens were ready, Ramsay had both teams lined up. Ramsay reminded them that they were having a raw bar for that night’s service and every customer would be getting a plate as it would give both kitchens a little more time to get the hot appetizers out. Ji informed him about her injury and that she would like to participate in service, which Ramsay allowed. Ramsay decided that Robert and Paula would be managing the raw bar for their respective teams. Once everyone was at their stations, Ramsay had Jean-Philippe open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner Service

While both teams got their first ticket, Robert and Paula were getting their raw bar ready. Jean-Philippe noticed that Robert was sweating, and Robert reminded him that he was 400 pounds. Carol told Ramsay that she burned the garlic for the first risotto and her second one was stuck to the pan, leading Ramsay to ask Carol if she was stupid. As Carol and Andrea tried to refocus, Ramsay went to the blue kitchen to check on Charlie’s risotto, but it was undercooked, with no mascarpone cheese or ham. Then, Ramsay told Ben to help Charlie out, since the latter never made a risotto before. Meanwhile, Robert was sending up the raw appetizers to his tables and was praised by Jean-Philippe for his tableside presence, even explaining the tattoo on his right arm to some customers.

Forty-five minutes into dinner service, the red kitchen were getting appetizers out. However, Ramsay soon noticed that Colleen had already cooked scallops in the pan, and warned her that they were going to turn out overcooked. Ramsay had Lacey come over to show Colleen how to cook them while snarkily telling Colleen that Lacey was not going to charge $300 for it. He also told Ji that her ankle pain was the same as his head. In the blue kitchen, Ben sent up a new risotto, and Ramsay said it was delicious. In the red kitchen, Lacey sent over scallops that were cooked nicely, and Ramsay showed Colleen the difference.

One hour and a half into service, and the blue team was getting their appetizers out. Seth and Charlie brought over their lobster spaghetti, but Ramsay noticed that they forgot the lobster and ordered both of them to wake up. The red team was getting entrées ready, but Ramsay noticed that Colleen forgot the John Dory for the order. Not only that, Colleen’s salmon was both black on the bottom and raw in the middle. Then, Ramsay accused Colleen of not actually being a culinary instructor and that she was robbing people, but Colleen argued that she was a teacher. After two more of her salmon turned out black, Ramsay lost his patience and demoted her to the raw bar while ordering Lacey to get on the fish station and brought Paula back into the kitchen to help Coi on the meat station. Back in the blue kitchen, the men were ready to send out their entrées, and Danny’s lamb was praised for being spot on.

Two and a half hours into service, the blue team was able to get out entrées because of Danny’s performance on the meat station. Back in the red kitchen, Paula checked on Ji to see if she was okay, but Ji told her that she wanted to focus on service which made LA very impressed with Ji’s determination. Giovanni sent up his salmon to the pass, but it turned out to be raw and Ramsay chewed him out for it. Despite that, both teams were continuing to push out food, and were near the end of service. Ramsay gathered both teams and told them that the men had four tables left while the red team had five tables left. That led him to state that the first team to finish their tickets would be the winner. With a boost of determination, both teams pushed their entrées out. Eventually, both teams had only one ticket left each, but Carol stalled the red team when she was not ready, leaving the blue team to send their final table of entrées out and were declared the winners. Immediately after service, Ji limped to the back hall to see the medic again as her foot was swollen. While Ji felt like a burden by that, the rest of the women said she did great and they would not send her home that night.

Post-Mortem

When the teams were lined up, Ramsay praised Ji for her courageous efforts that night and the fact that she did not give up despite the pain. Then, he turned to Colleen and told her that people who cannot cook should just teach, but she disagreed, stating that Ramsay made her nervous. However, Colleen’s arguments annoyed her teammates and Ramsay said that she was giving him a headache every time he looked at her. Ramsay then told the red team to decide on two people for elimination.

While Ji was with the medical staff, the rest of the red team went up to the dorms to discuss matters, with Colleen knowing that she was a definite nominee. Despite Lacey helping Colleen early that night, Carol still felt that Lacey was not fit to run a kitchen due to her not helping out at the previous punishment. However, Lacey argued that Carol should be nominated for her mistakes that service, which Andrea agreed with.

Elimination

Andrea wheeled a now wheelchair confined Ji up to the line for elimination. LA revealed that Colleen was the first nominee and Lacey was the second. After listening to both their pleas, Ramsay was about to announce his decision, but before he could, Ji raised her hand, and announced that despite wanting to be in Hell’s Kitchen, she felt that her injury would be a hindrance to the red team, and volunteered to leave. Andrea tried to interject that even an injured Ji was better than both Colleen and Lacey, but Ji was absolute in her decision. Ramsay decided to honor Ji’s request and told Colleen and Lacey to get back in line. Ramsay soon came up to Ji and while he praised her for her talent, he admitted that it would not be fair to let her continue while she was in a great amount of pain, but allowed Ji to keep her jacket as a symbol of her courage and pride. As Andrea wheeled Ji out, the entire blue team gave Ji a standing ovation and Charlie held the door for her while Ji told the red team to do well. Before dismissing the rest of the chefs, Ramsay told them to pick up on Ji’s courage and use it. Ji received the burning picture sequence at the end of the episode.

Ramsay’s comment: “Ji showed great courage. Unfortunately, her injury got in the way of her dream. She had a chance to win this, but sadly we will never, ever know.”

My Opinion

Both service was already but could do better. Colleen and Lacey were the wrost two chefs in the kitchen. With Colleen to go but Ji went out with a injury. So my comment is the same as Ramsay.

My comment: Ji showed great curage. Unfortunately, her injury got in the way of her dream. She had a chance to win this, but sadly we will never, ever know.”

The first episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on January 29, 2009. On that episode, the sixteen new chefs were introduced, the signature dish challenge occurred, and the opening service became a train wreck.

Intro

The episode began with a recap of the first four seasons, mentioning some notable moments, and recalling the past winners of those seasons. Season 1 winner Michael Wray, Season 2 winner Heather West, Season 3 winner Rock Harper, and Season 4 winner Christina Machamer.

300 chefs arrived at Hell’s Kitchen, and met Jean-Philippe and Ramsay himself. Both of them selected the chefs randomly, and of the 300 chefs, only 16 were chosen to compete in that season.

Signature Dish Challenge

After the selection, the sixteen chefs immediately got to work on their signature dishes, that would be judged by Ramsay. The first dish presented was Carol’s roulade veal with caramelized onions, and it was praised for being delicious. Will made a rabbit two ways, braised and grilled, and while Ramsay liked the taste, it was criticized for its poor presentation. Ji’s dish was a miso sautéed Chilean sea bass, and it was praised for tasting great with Ramsay stating it was almost like she had 15 years’ experience rather than the four years she told him. Robert’s potato and truffle wrapped sea bass was cooked well but had a disgusting sauce. Lacey’s chicken and blackberries were spat out, with Ramsay saying that somebody would come and eat it, but vomit straight after. Danny’s Mahi Gone grilled bananas were criticized for its poor creation and Ramsay suggested to Danny that he must put the idea back up his ass. Giovanni was criticized for his poor rice on his dish, Charlie’s dish was compared to a Ferris wheel and called a joke, LA’s fish and chips were deemed terrible, and J’s dish got an “F”. Colleen’s dish was a smoked chicken enchilada, and she revealed that she was a culinary instructor that charged $300, despite not having been to culinary school. However, Ramsay compared the dish’s appearance to a diaper and said it tasted like crap. Colleen argued that she also taught manners, which led Ramsay to retort “Okay, please Ms. Manners, fuck off back in line”. After that, Andrea’s dish was praised for its flavor, Coi’s dish was perfectly cooked, and Paula’s dish was seasoned beautifully. By that point, it became clear that the women were the team to beat, but there were two dishes left to taste. Seth’s dish was up next. He made a Cinnamon crusted rack of lamb with an aubergine ratatouille. However, Ramsay found the ratatouille too sweet due to the honey used on it and called it the worst dish he ever tasted in his life. When Seth giggled about it, Ramsay threatened to eliminate him immediately. Finally, Ben’s pan-seared pecan duck was the last dish to be judged, and it was praised for looking attractive and nice. Ramsay deemed it the best dish from the men’s team.

Team Names

Ramsay revealed that the winner of that season would become the head chef of a restaurant at the Borgata Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City, which would be next to some of the best-known chef’s restaurants such as Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck, with a salary of $250,000.Then, Ramsay told the chefs that Hell’s Kitchen would open the following night, and based on their signature dishes, they were the best to come into the competition so far. So, he expected that opening night to be the best ever. Then, Ramsay dismissed the chefs and asked them to come up with a dynamic team name. The chefs made it to the dorms, and looked around while getting to know each other. The blue team got together to come up with their team name, and eventually decided on “Blues Brothers”, while the red team struggled on a name.

Before Service

The next morning, the contestants came down to their kitchens and began prep for dinner service. A few minutes in, Lacey’s attitude already started to piss off her teammates when she stated she did not want to be on a station until she knew where everyone else was, and her constant complaints while prepping did not help. Then, she left during the middle of prep and went back up to the dorms, declaring she was quitting, which angered her team even more. In the blue kitchen, Seth showed his lack of experience working in a kitchen, and asked a lot of questions while barely doing anything. That led Giovanni to call him useless and told him to pay attention. Lacey soon decided to come back to the red kitchen, but LA was still disgusted with her decision to leave.

Ten minutes before service began, Ramsay had both teams lined up and asked what their team names were. The red team said “Team Saffron” but Colleen stated she liked “Spice Racks” more, so Ramsay had them change the name to that. The blue team called themselves “Blues Brothers” which Ramsay admitted he liked. Then, Ramsay noticed that sixteen chefs was too much, and asked one person from each team to volunteer for a task. Those people were Giovanni and Carol. They were assigned as waiters for that night’s service, which neither one was excited about. After, Ramsay turned to Charlie and told him to get to the dorms to trim his beard, as he claimed he did not want a complaint about a “6-inch ginger pubic hair in someone’s crème brûlée”.

While Jean-Philippe was briefing Carol and Giovanni on their waiter roles, Coi asked Lacey for some help on the soufflés. But, the two of them argued about Lacey leaving for most of the red team’s prep. Ramsay saw what was happening and Coi told him that the dessert station was fucked up, but Ramsay had to defuse another argument and ordered them to get a grip. Then, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen before another fight occurred.

Dinner Service

Giovanni and Carol began working as waiters, and while Carol had no problems, Giovanni struggled on his role when he could not describe what polenta was. Jean-Philippe reminded Giovanni that he was representing the blue team that night, so he should not panic. Carol sent over her first ticket for her team, but the red team did not respond initially until they were pushed to. Twenty minutes into service and Giovanni finally got the blue team’s first tickets to his team. Robert started loudly repeating the appetizer order in the middle of Ramsay’s call out, and after being forced to call it out, Ramsay threatened to send Robert to a hot boiling bath if he would do it again. The first scallops that Lacey sent to the hot plate were raw, and Ramsay told her that she did not have her gas on. Ben and Robert sent up their first spaghetti order, but it turned out raw as well. Colleen was getting her risotto ready, but Ramsay found out she put mascarpone cheese in it when it was not needed. After that, a power outage occurred in the entire restaurant. Despite the blackout, the ovens were still working, and both teams continued cooking. Ramsay found Danny’s scallops on the hot plate which were overcooked, and later yelled at him when he talked back, even threatening him with elimination.

Soon afterwards, the whole power went off, and Ramsay told Jean-Philippe that they could not cook in the dark, and would have to apologize to the customers for the delay. However, Carol was still serving wine to the customers in order to keep them happy. In the blue kitchen, Robert told Danny to keep his words to himself and never argue with Ramsay again. Twenty minutes later, the power came back. Ramsay gathered both teams up and told them to put their bad start behind. In the red kitchen, Ramsay saw that Colleen was about to make a new pasta dish in a dirty pan. After disbelievingly remarked that she taught cooking for a living, he showed her multiple clean pans that she did not see before. In the blue kitchen, Ben and Robert were finally sending out appetizers, but in the dining room, Giovanni forgot which customers ordered which appetizer, much to Jean-Philippe’s annoyance.

Two hours into dinner service, the blue team began working on entrées. Seth and J were ready with their lamb entrée, but Will burnt the gnocchi garnish, forcing a stall. Colleen was cooking way more spaghetti than needed and was told by Ramsay that fewer spaghetti in the pot would cook faster. Ramsay soon found pasta in the bin and ordered another spaghetti. Seth sent up his lamb, but Sous Chef Scott revealed to Ramsay that he sliced the lamb when it was still raw, seared the chops and they were mangled, causing Ramsay to chew Seth out for his blunder, giving him the nickname of “Forrest”, referring to Forrest Gump.

Two and a half hours into service, and Colleen finally got her spaghetti properly cooked and sent it along with the risotto. However, Ramsay found it was looking odd, tasted and spat it out. Then, he revealed that she used sugar instead of salt, and called it the worst risotto he ever tasted in his entire cooking career. Will continued to struggle on the garnish station, which caused a big stall on entrées. Robert came to help him, but Ramsay noted that Charlie and Robert were on the garnish station, and Will was on “Planet Cuckoo”. Three hours into service, barely any of the entrées have been served, and impatient customers eventually left. After witnessing that, Ramsay decided to switch off both kitchens.

Post-Mortem

When both teams lined up, Ramsay said that their service was embarrassing and stated that both teams were equally weak. In order to pick a winning team, Ramsay went through the comment cards based on the service. Carol had an 88% rating above average from the customers, while Giovanni was told that over 90% of his customers thought his performance was below average. Therefore, the blue team was declared the losers, and Ramsay told the men to agree on two nominees for elimination.

Back in the dorms, the blue team got together to discuss. Danny picked Will as the worst performer of that night, and Will decided to nominate himself. Charlie believed that Seth was the weakest chef that night, but Seth argued he thought he did great, despite Ben and J’s objections. Seth pointed out Giovanni and asked him what went wrong in the dining room, but Giovanni aggressively told him he was not a waiter.

Elimination

Seth announced that Will was the first nominee and he himself was the second. However, J interjected and revealed that Seth was the first nominee, and Will the second. Ben agreed with J and stated that Seth did not really care about what to do, and Robert added on that he would trust Will more that Seth. While he offered to take Will’s place on the chopping block, Robert chose not to, declaring that Will nominated himself, and that he was respecting that decision. Ramsay allowed the initial nominees, and called Seth and Wil up front. After listening to both of their pleas, Ramsay eliminated Will for his poor performance on the garnish station and nominating himself for elimination.

Ramsay’s comment: “I found it quite strange that Will didn’t even have the will to succeed. He clearly didn’t belong in Hell’s Kitchen.”

My Opinion

Both team were shit on tonight service but did well on the significance dish challenge than every season so far. Red team waiter was better than the blue team. Wil and Seth to go up.

My comment: Wil can’t cook and spell his name right.

Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox between January 29 and May 14, 2009. Executive chef Danny Veltri, from Edgewater, Florida, was the winner of that season and became Sous Chef at Italian restaurant Fornelletto, at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, with a salary of $250,000. At age 23, he is, to this date, the youngest winner in the history of the show.

Contestants

16 contestants competed during this season. The teams were divided by gender at the beginning, male contestants in the blue team, and female contestants in the red team. The contestants were (in alphabetical order):

Contestant	Age	Occupation	Hometown
Coi Burruss	22	Cafe Chef	Austin, TX
Ji-Hyun Cha	33	Private Caterer	Palisades Park, NJ
Colleen Cleek	41	Culinary Instructor	Papillion, NE
Lacey D’Angelo	24	Corporate Buffet Cook	Charlotte, NC
Paula DaSilva	28	Executive sous Chef	Coconut Creek, FL
Giovanni Filippone	37	Executive Chef	Destin, FL
Andrea Heinly	30	Line Cook	Reading, PA
Robert Hesse	29	Sous Chef	Quogue, NY
Wil Kocol	26	Quality Control Chef	Elgin, IL
Seth Levine	27	Private Party Chef	New York, NY
Alicia “LA” Limtiaco	22	Line Cook	Las Vegas, NV
Jason “J” Maxwell	32	Food Court Chef	Clifton Park, NY
Charlie McKay	24	Prep Chef	Las Vegas, NV
Carol Scott	30	Sous Chef	Knoxville, TN
Daniel “Danny” Veltri	23	Executive Chef	Edgewater, FL
Benjamin “Ben” Walanka	26	Executive Sous Chef	Chicago, IL

Contestant progress

1. Danny
2. Paula
3. Andrea
4. Ben
5. Robert
6. Giovanni
7. Carol
8. La
9. Lacey
10. J
11. Coi
12. Colleen
13. Seth
14. Charlie
15. Ji
16. Will

Episode

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

Episode 9

Episode 10

Episode 11

Episode 12

Episode 13

Episode 14

Final

Info

The fifteenth episode of Season 4 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on July 8, 2008. On that episode, Christina and Petrozza competed during the final service, and one of them is declared the winner of Hell’s Kitchen.

Team Select

The episode began at the same place where the previous one left off. When Petrozza had to pick either Matt or Jen, he stated that Matt was a lunatic and that Jen could be a bitch. Matt wished to not be picked last, but Petrozza eventually picked Jen. She believed that the reason she was not picked last was because Petrozza knew she was a strong leader and that he would not want to be outshine by her, but stated that he would be anyway. Therefore, Christina picked Matt as her last choice, while thanking God that Petrozza chose Jen because she was not trusting her and did not want her on her team.

Before Service

After the selection was complete, both teams went in the dorms, so Christina and Petrozza could brief them on their respective menus. On the patio, Petrozza was feeling extremely great about his team, with Bobby promising that they would cook their heart out for him as he was having the strongest team. Bobby also added that Petrozza was the nicest man ever, people would love working for him, and he was confident that he would win. Ben stated that Bobby, Petrozza and himself were tight, but he was less sure about Jen as he never worked with her in the kitchen. All of them were confident and ready to have an enjoyable service, except Jen, who was not happy about being there as a returning contestant, believing she was deserving a place in the final two as she was still thinking she was the best chef, even better than the two finalists.

On Christina’s side, it was the same story, with Matt. He declared that Christina was annoying him, getting under his skin, and that he did not have any respect for her, stating that people have to earn their respect instead of waiting for it. However, Christina applied a strategy to motivate him by saying that her risotto idea was inspired by him. That strategy worked as Matt immediately declared that she earned his respect just for that. Christina declared that what she said to him was not true, but that the most important was that he bought it. Then, she dedicated Corey on the hot plate with herself, and Louross on appetizers because of his energy. She also motivated her team by saying that nobody ever had a perfect service, but they would try to get one for that one.

On the other side of the patio, Petrozza declared that his prep list was not done yet and that he was overwhelmed. Jen was furious about that news, saying she did not want to be a prep chef for Petrozza because she was feeling like the people who were playing the violin when the Titanic was going down. She added that he was very disorganized, while telling Petrozza that he should make his list to put on the fridge door.

With 6 hours left, both teams began their prep, and in the dining room, the construction was still behind schedule. John Janavs, the architect of Hell’s Kitchen, pulled Christina aside to take some important decisions about her dining room. He suggested her to make all of the columns chocolate brown, a decision she agreed, while declaring she never worked with a designer before and that the most important was that her work had to be done by the opening. On his side, Petrozza learned that his booths were not there yet, so he jokingly suggested Bobby could land a hand. He declared he was trusting Janavs but did not want to be scrambling at the last minute either. Meanwhile, in the blue kitchen, Jen asked Ramsay if he could write her a letter of recommendation for her future by putting what he thought of her except her big mouth. He was shocked by that request, Christina heard it from the red kitchen and laughed about it with her brigade. Louross asked if she was serious, Christina stated that move from Jen was really classless, and Corey declared that she was officially hating her, while Jen was giggling alone.

In the red kitchen, Matt started to drive his teammates nuts with his bizarre behavior by talking to himself, with Corey saying he was unstable and a little bit psycho. Matt started mimicking Christina when she gave him an order, and started to talk back, before Corey suggested to her that she must make him more serious. Then, Christina declared that if Matt would bring down the whole kitchen with his attitude, he could fuck off whenever he would want. Corey told Matt to get his shit together, but he responded that his shit was together, before Christina took him in his hands and shook him while telling him to calm down. In the blue kitchen, it was the same story for Petrozza, with Jen. He asked her if she was all right, she did not answer, and when Ben asked her how long her risotto would be ready, he called her “sweetheart” in the process, which she did not appreciate by telling her name is Jen, and that her risotto would be ready in a minute and a half. Ben declared that Jen had been in a pissy mood all day long because she wanted to be in the finals, but reminded that she did not and that she had to get over it. When Petrozza asked her if she needed help, she declared he must not trust her to work on the line, leading Petrozza to say that she was being a bitch and doing the thing they were all knowing her for. Petrozza told Jen to stay with him and focus, while adding that he would kick out her if she would give attitude during service. Jen told herself to put her head down and do what she had to do to get the fuck out of there as soon at the service would be over.

One hour before service, Ramsay tasted the sample dishes from Christina and Petrozza’s menus. Both of them prepared 3 appetizers, 3 entrées, and 3 desserts. Christina’s menu included a beef sliders trio appetizer, her signature New York strip with sweet corn succotash and roasted potatoes entrée, and a tropical sundae with roasted pineapple and macadamia nuts. For the slider, Ramsay suggested to have three different proteins for each burger, he also suggested that her New York strip should be sliced in two or three sections, and he enjoyed the sundae dessert. She was happy as she did not like overcomplicated things and would love to have food her kitchen could execute. Petrozza’s menu included a lobster strudel appetizer, his signature filet mignon with onion risotto entrée, and a vanilla soufflé with a whiskey crème anglaise dessert. Ramsay noticed his strudel was overcooked, the risotto of his filet mignon was too stiff, but he praised the soufflé, saying he was very brave to do that. Petrozza took Ramsay’s advices and ran with it, saying he was a phenomenal chef. He added that there was some corrections to make, but that they would fix them. Ramsay commented both menus, saying that Petrozza’s was highly imaginative, which could be dangerous, but added that he would pull it off, it would be very successful. He continued by saying that Christina’s was playing safe for being simple, but added that if she could turn it up a notch, it would be successful as well.

30 minutes before service, Petrozza’s booths finally arrived, and Christina was ready to present her dining room to Ramsay. He found it contemporary, and remarked that the chairs were comfortable, while adding it was vibrant and elegant, which was representative of Los Angeles. On Petrozza’s side, Ramsay said it was rustic and nice, while telling he was comfortable sitting at a table. Petrozza declared his favorite part was the flowers. Ramsay also loved the fireplace, and Petrozza declared that because of Ramsay’s high standards, getting compliments on his restaurant by him was meaning everything.

Minutes before opening, Ramsay declared to Christina and Petrozza that for one of them, their next service would be in his restaurant in Los Angeles. He finished by saying he would watch both of them all night long and wishing them good luck. In his kitchen, Petrozza asked his brigade if they were ready, which Ben answered that night was about him, and in her kitchen, Christina motivated her team one last time. Petrozza declared that service was the most important of his life by 250,000, referring to his new salary if he would win. Christina was fucking ready, saying she would just have to work one more night in order to win. After both finalists gave a final pep talk to their brigade, with Christina revealing 13 tables would be attending in her dining room and that her team would concentrate, focus and cook for one last effort. Louross was ready to go, but when Christina asked Matt how he was feeling because he was quiet, he answered by saying he was focused on the task ahead. She declared she was feeling good about her team, despite Matt being unpredictable. Petrozza said to his team that they all have to perform the service of their lives, with Bobby adding they would man up. Jen responded to Bobby by asking if they would woman up as well, which annoyed Bobby, who said she had a shit poor attitude that he could see on her face and hoped she would not disturb the team too much. Petrozza shook Jen’s hand, wishing her good luck, and Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner Service

Christina and Petrozza’s restaurants went head-to-head that service, and Ramsay would base his decision on the customer comment cards and his own observations. Christina called her first ticket out, and Louross responded back very loudly, being excited to work for her. Christina was excited but nervous because she knew a good start was required, so she gave Louross four minutes for his first appetizer to be ready, and the rest of the team understood. In the blue kitchen, Jen saw that Petrozza’s dining room was filling up, and Petrozza called his first ticket out with his team calling back immediately. Petrozza understood it was do or die for him as the following three hours would decide the fate of his life. Bobby gave three minutes for his strudel to be ready. Seeing that, Ramsay was confident as both kitchens were having a vibrant start and hoped they would keep that momentum all service long. Christina ordered the appetizers immediately, and Louross declared he was walking with the salads at the moment. Corey acknowledged it was her last service in Hell’s Kitchen and was determined to make Christina win that night. Louross brought his salads at the same time Corey brought her sliders to the pass. Ramsay said to Christina that her sliders were looking lovely, and they were served to the dining room. Christina motivated her team saying she loved that start. In the blue kitchen, Petrozza asked Bobby for the appetizers, and Bobby said that despite the menu not being easy, he would cook his ass off. Bobby sent his appetizers, but they were still cold and Petrozza told they would not be able to keep up if they would go down like that. So, he asked Bobby and Jen to put them back in the pan. Petrozza acknowledged it would be his fault if he would let mistakes go by him, so he insisted his team to check everything they were doing. Ramsay commented that he was happy to see Petrozza’s quality control and seeing he was not accepting Bobby’s strudels. He also added that Petrozza had to run his brigade, or it would run him. On his second attempt, Bobby delivered better appetizers, along with Jen, and Petrozza thanked him for that and served them. Bobby proclaimed himself once again as a “Four-Star General”, and said that Petrozza was needing him. Petrozza’s quality control paid off as his customers were satisfied with their appetizers.

In the red kitchen, Christina was feeling the pressure as she was asking for appetizers, but Louross was a little behind, still being on the first order. Ramsay schooled Louross by telling him to speed up, and Louross needed help. Christina was frustrated because her team wanted her to help, but she could not as things would go down if she would. So, she dedicated Matt to help Louross with the salads, which he did. He was trying to help as best as he could by asking a lot of questions to Louross, which annoyed the latter who said he was asking stupid questions. Christina revealed that working with Matt was frustrating as salad was easy. Ramsay told Matt to speed up by remembering him it was not the opening service, and when Christina asked for the salads, Matt sent them to her, but he dropped a salad bowl on his way. Louross was annoyed by his careless behavior, and Christina wondered how she would go through service with Matt, being discouraged and saying he was trying to wonder what he was doing. In the blue kitchen, Petrozza served appetizers to more than half of his customers. When he called the following ticket, Jen revealed they were out of cheese for the salad, discouraging Petrozza, who said it was a nightmare. Jen revealed she got enough for only four orders, but five were needed. She took all responsibility off her, saying it was not her fault and that her station was not prepped properly. Moments later, Bobby revealed he was also running out of strudels, discouraging Ramsay and Petrozza, who said that situation was tearing him apart. Ramsay ordered Petrozza to make a decision quickly, so he asked Bobby what could he bring, which he answered he could bring a risotto. Petrozza accepted that solution, acknowledging they had to bounce back. With that decision, food was getting out of the kitchen once again, and were well received by the customers.

In the red kitchen, Christina began to serve entrées and motivated her team by telling to keep up the good pace. But, Jean-Philippe sent back two dishes for not being hot enough, and when Petrozza saw that, he thought it was good for him and wished her food would keep coming back. Ramsay was disbelieved and asked Christina to correct her problem fast. She asked Corey to refire an order of New York strip on-the-spot, and Corey asked Matt to cook the garnish right away. Corey revealed she started to get frazzled because food was coming back and acknowledged she could have been more organized. Ramsay noticed all the food that was sitting on the hot plate, and Corey vocally led the red team. After, a fire erupted in one of Matt’s pans, and Ramsay told Christina to turn her game up a notch. So, she started to speak louder and asking for entrées quickly, while Corey and Matt brought their food to the plate at the same time, which were accepted by Christina. Ramsay commented on how the red team were fighting back and Christina was becoming more assertive. Because of that, she got her good momentum back, and the customers were once again satisfied with the food. In Petrozza’s dining room, the customers were waiting because he was taking too much time plating his dishes. Ramsay told him to hurry up and ask for help from his brigade, but he said he was reluctant to do it as he did not want to take them off their stations. But moments later, he understood Ramsay was right and asked for help from Ben and Jen, who helped him plate his food. Ben was determined to help Petrozza win, saying he was deserving it. With his brigade’s help, Petrozza was finally getting his food out again, and the customers were extremely satisfied to receive their entrées. In the red kitchen, Matt sent raw fish to the hot plate, and Christina asked him to fix it. Ramsay praised Christina for her quality control, and she motivated Matt at the same time that she had to watch every of his move from that moment on. When Ramsay asked Matt how could he do that to her, he told to shut up and that his fish was tasting good, which was the most important. Ramsay was furious about Matt’s behavior, and Corey was also annoyed by his attitude saying he was mumbling underneath his breath when Ramsay was yelling at him. Ramsay said to Christina that she must not let that go, and then, Louross was also telling Matt to focus on his things instead of being disrespectful. Then, Ramsay called Matt a fuckface and pulled him to the side, telling him to wake up. In the blue kitchen, Petrozza asked for one last onion ring to send the table, but Jen started to give him attitude by saying she knew already, annoying him who said he could not make the table wait only for one onion ring from Jen. When she brought her onion ring to the pass, it was still undercooked, even disbelieving Ramsay himself, and Petrozza asked her for a crispy onion ring. He was so blown away by that mistake, saying she was only frying onion rings and that it should not have been that complicated. Jen continued to give attitude to Petrozza, and Ramsay told him to not let one of those bitches take his dream away from him. Then, Ramsay told Jen she must not be disrespectful, and she answered she was not, but Petrozza stated he could have done a better job than her with only one arm. Ramsay pulled Petrozza aside to say he need to control Jen as she was sabotaging her service, so Petrozza regrouped her and told to just cook the food, which Ramsay thanked him for and called Jen “Miss sabotage”. After that, she angrily sent her second attempt at the onion rings.

Two hours into dinner service, Petrozza served 10 of his 13 tables and Christina served 8 of her 13. Therefore, she was rushing to catch up and asked Matt for the monkfish, which he answered it was coming immediately. However, it was still raw, and Ramsay berated Matt for doing that on a night that important, and Matt started arguing, which Ramsay told him not to do. Christina declared she was screwed by working with him, and told he had to shape up or leave her kitchen. Ramsay reminded Christina to not be ruined by him or he would run the pass for her, by adding that every of her dishes were counting. Then, Christina went over to the meat station and told Matt how to properly cook the monkfish, but Matt started giving attitude by telling to shut her mouth and let him cook. After that, Matt said the fish was not raw, only little parts of it. Christina ordered the monkfish straight away, but Matt started to lose his temper and angrily taking out another pan and telling it would take 6 minutes to refire it. Christina said she would not let him ruin her night, and his second attempt at the monkfish was perfect. Matt had a little celebration, and the team rallied to complete the final service, with Christina motivating Matt by telling he was two risottos away from completing his last Hell’s Kitchen service. Ramsay commented that it was near the end of service, and both kitchens were neck-and-neck. In the blue kitchen, Petrozza started to call out desserts, and Christina followed very shortly after. The customers really enjoyed their desserts, and when they were done, everybody was congratulating each other, even Christina and Petrozza.

Post-Mortem

When the teams were lined up, Ramsay congratulated both finalists for having great services, with more highs than lows. Then, both teams gave a round of applause, and Ramsay reminded there could only be one winner, before reminding the prize job. After that, he asked both finalists to say goodbye to their brigades and went up to the dorms and wait.

Back in the dorms, Christina was not appreciating the wait and asked for the decision to happen, while Petrozza wanted to win very badly. In his office, Ramsay was basing his decision on the customer comment cards and his own observations.

Winner Announced

When Ramsay got ready with his decision, both finalists went to his office. On their way, Petrozza declared he did not want to lose to Christina as she was only a kid, despite acknowledging she was a talented kid, and Christina knew the best cook would win, while hoping it would be her. Arrived in Ramsay’s office, they stood in front of him, and Ramsay declared that making his decision was pure agony as they were both worthy of winning. After declaring he got two strong finalists, he asked Christina and Petrozza to stand in front of a door each. Both of them did, knowing it would only open if they would be the winner. The finalists wished each other good luck, put their hands on the handles, and waited nervously for Ramsay’s countdown to end. Ramsay began his countdown, and when he ended it, both finalists turned their handles, but only Christina’s door opened.

Christina became the winner of Hell’s Kitchen, being awarded an Executive Chef position at the London West Hollywood in Los Angeles, with a salary of $250,000. Petrozza became the runner-up, but took his defeat graciously by congratulating Christina and acknowledging it was a great experience where he met a lot of great people. Christina thanked her brigade, saying she would not be there if it was not from them. During the celebration, everybody was hugging each other, and Ramsay and the Sous Chefs were spraying champagne on everybody.

Ramsay’s comment: “Christina had the least amount of experience coming to Hell’s Kitchen. But I saw something in her that is quite special, she had the best potential across any other chef in Hell’s Kitchen, and in my business, I think long term. I’ve definitely, definitely made the right choice. I feel like I’ve been on a roller coaster for the last three months. Of all the Hell’s Kitchens, this has been the one with the most ups and downs. But, we ended on a high, and right now, it’s time for me to get the fuck out of Hell’s Kitchen!”

My Opinion

A good final tonight with the 2 best chef in hell’s kitchen. I think Petrozza didn’t have a clue to put on his menu but did alright. Matt and Jen were the wrost chef to have in your team.

My comment: A good final, both could have won it but Christian have the edge over Petrozza just.