The fifteenth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on May 14, 2009. On that episode, Danny and Paula led their teams during the final service, and one of them is declared the winner of Hell’s Kitchen.

Before service

The episode began where the last one left off, with Ramsay dismissing the chefs, so Danny and Paula could brief their teams on what would happen. Danny gave his team a pep talk and reminded them that he was the boss, but only Ben was rooting for Danny to win, as Carol secretly wanted Paula to win, and Giovanni did not want to be back in Hell’s Kitchen. Meanwhile, Paula was more concerned with Lacey because of her poor attitude in the past, and Andrea and LA urged Lacey to at least give some effort that night. Lacey promised that she would try and behave, but was upset as she felt her team did not trust her.

8 hours before service, both teams began prep for the final service. However, LA was still concerned about having Lacey on her team, and secretly hoped that she would walk off the line during service. Paula was also concerned, but decided to trust Lacey on the dessert station and instructed her on how the crème brulée was to be made. Unfortunately, when Paula and Lacey went to check on them later on, Lacey managed to curdle all of them, forcing them to start over. That caused Paula to get angry at Lacey and to wonder if she should keep her for the rest of the night. As that was going on, both teams worked on making the sample dishes for Ramsay to taste. For Paula’s menu, it featured a homemade pasta with eggplant caviar appetizer, a halibut with pearl onions and pancetta entrée, and a banana crème brulée dessert. Ramsay liked the pasta dish, but warned Paula about the danger of the halibut being dry, as the halibut on the sample plate was dry. Ramsay also said Paula’s crème brulée looked more like scrambled eggs due to it being one of the initial batches Lacey wrecked earlier. For Danny’s menu, it featured an arugula salad with crispy duck breast appetizer, an eight ounce pan seared filet with baked potato entrée, and a cinnamon poached pear with mascarpone mousse dessert. Ramsay warned Danny about the cooking of the duck as it needed a little bit more pink on the meat, suggested that the tempura spring onion should be cut in half as the whole tempura looked phallic, and noted that the poached pear was undercooked. By the end, Ramsay noted that while he would usually see a clear difference in the menus from previous seasons, Danny and Paula’s menus were very similar to each other in terms of modern style, contemporary, and appeal.

An hour before service, Ramsay pulled Paula aside so she could show him her restaurant. Paula introduced Ramsay to “Sunergy”, which Ramsay praised for having subtle colors and looking comforting. After, Danny introduced Ramsay to “Velvet Hammer”, which Ben noted that it sounded like a porn video, and Ramsay was a little concerned about the restaurant looking a bit intimidating. With only a couple of minutes left before service, Ramsay brought Danny and Paula to the middle of the hotplate to give them one final pep talk, and reminded them that this was their biggest night and that at the end of it, one of them would be the winner. After that, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner service

Paula’s mother and sister, along with Danny’s father and girlfriend, were in attendance that night. Danny received the first ticket from Jean-Philippe and vocally called out the order, causing his team to immediately communicate with each other. Paula called out her first ticket, but her team did not respond initially, which Ramsay took notice of. Paula went to Lacey’s station to check on her progress, but Ramsay warned Paula that her kitchen would run behind if she did that and told her to be more vocal at the hotplate. Lacey sent up her scallop salad, but Ramsay noticed that Andrea burned the scallops on one side and chewed out Lacey for trying to hide it from Paula. Then, Ramsay told Paula to get a strong standard going. Meanwhile, Ramsay warned Danny that Carol was boiling the lobster, and Danny gave Carol a sizzling pan to cook the lobster on. After, Ramsay pulled Danny and Paula aside and told both of them to get a grip and pick it up. So, Danny became more vocal and continually asked Carol for the lobster.

45 minutes into service, customers from both sides received their appetizers, and gave positive reviews. Moving onto entrées, Andrea sent up her halibut, but it was overcooked, which realized Ramsay’s biggest fear earlier that day. After that, Andrea became flustered and confused, even asking Paula to come down to the fish station and check on the halibut. That shocked LA as she thought Lacey would be the problematic chef in the red kitchen that night, but it was becoming clear that Andrea was the weakest link. Meanwhile, Danny was getting his entrées ready as well, but Ben said he needed three more minutes on his baked potatoes, much to Ramsay’s dismay. Despite that, Ben got the potatoes out to the hotplate on time, allowing Danny to send his first order of entrées out to the dining room. Meanwhile, Paula was still waiting on Andrea’s halibut and became more vocal with her, but Ramsay noticed it took three overcooked halibut to do so.

Meanwhile, Danny continued to push out entrées to his customers, but he found out that the sauce for the monkfish Giovanni sent up was too salty. So, he asked Giovanni for a time on the refire, but Giovanni was unresponsive as he still did not care about who would win that night. Meanwhile, Paula was pushing out entrées to the dining room, but Lacey got confused on orders for the garnishes and accused Paula of creating a menu too complicated for her to follow. So, Ramsay told Lacey to speed up, but Lacey’s poor attitude led to her giving up, and Paula sent LA over to help Lacey. Then, everyone called for Lacey on the spinach, much to her annoyance, and she said she had enough of getting yelled at. Back in the blue kitchen, Danny’s team started to work together, and Danny continued to push his team to get entrées out.

Two hours into dinner service, Paula finally found a rhythm for her team and was calling out orders louder. With most of the entrées out to the dining room, it became a race to see which kitchen would finish first. Both Danny and Paula managed to get their teams rallying the entrées, but Danny managed to get all of his dishes out first and felt really good about doing so. However, Paula did not care if Danny finished first as she wanted to finish her final service on a high note. Paula managed to complete all of her tables, and the customers wrote down their opinions on the comment cards. As they were clearing down, Paula and Danny’s loved ones came up to the pass and congratulated them for a job well done.

Post-mortem

Ramsay had both teams lining up, and congratulated them for the best final service he had ever seen, and even jokingly asked them why they could not have been that good earlier in the season. However, only one of them would be the winner, and Ramsay announced that the winner of Hell’s Kitchen was living in Florida. But, everyone knew that Ramsay was joking as both finalists were living in Florida. Then, Ramsay admitted that it was going to be a tough decision, and told Danny and Paula to head back to the dorms and wait for his decision. Danny and Paula said goodbye to their teams before heading back upstairs.

While Danny and Paula were relaxing back in the dorms, Lacey, LA, Ben, and Carol were discussing what happened in service from their respective teams while they were cleaning up the kitchens. Danny and Paula were proud of what they accomplished in the competition as they patiently waited for Ramsay’s decision. Back in his office, Ramsay reviewed the comment cards from both restaurants, as well as his own observations.

Winner Announced

Both Danny and Paula headed downstairs to Ramsay’s office, each of them being confident that they were the winner. Ramsay said he was proud of both of them, praising Danny’s growth in the competition and Paula’s excellent performances. After that, Ramsay told them that no matter the decision was, both of them had promising careers in that industry. Then, both finalists stood in front of one door each, knowing that only the winner’s door would open. After they nervously waited for Ramsay’s countdown, both of them turned their door handles, but only Danny’s door opened.

Danny was declared the winner of Hell’s Kitchen, and won his own restaurant at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, therefore making Paula the runner-up. Paula took her loss graciously, congratulating Danny for winning while admitting that she was going to have a lot of opportunities in the future due to her ranking in second place on the show. Danny teared up, knowing that his deceased mother was not able to see him win, but knew that she was looking down on him from heaven, proud of his accomplishment. In the middle of the celebration, Ramsay introduced Danny to the four previous winners of Hell’s Kitchen, including Season 1 Michael, Season 2 Heather, Season 3 Rock, and Season 4 Christina. Then, Ramsay revealed that he would start a new Hell’s Kitchen tradition and introduced the Hell’s Kitchen “Wall of Fame”, which featured the portraits of the Hell’s Kitchen winners. After that, Danny hung his portrait on the wall, next to the previous winners’ portraits.

Ramsay’s comment: “Danny won Hell’s Kitchen because in a very short period of time, he grew more than any other chef I’ve ever seen. He now has the talent, the maturity, to become a great head chef. Borgata Resort should consider themselves lucky. I know I would.”

My Opinion

 

 

The fourteenth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on May 7, 2009. On that episode, Danny and Paula worked on their restaurants, competed in their final challenge, and reunited with their former teammates.

Intro

The episode began with a recap of the previous thirteen episodes, mentioning what happened, and who got eliminated when. During that recap, Lacey, Giovanni, and Andrea received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence for the first time since their respective eliminations.

The episode continued where the previous one ended, with Ramsay revealing that Danny and Paula’s biggest test would begin at the moment, as two giant screens dropped next to Ramsay. He explained that the two finalists would be creating their own restaurants inside Hell’s Kitchen, with Paula cooking out of the red kitchen, and Danny cooking out of the blue. Before dismissing the finalists, Ramsay urged them to think about what their visions were for their restaurants.

Danny and Paula made it back to the dorms to find champagne and notepads waiting for them. They toasted their victory and decided to take Hell’s Kitchen off their minds for that night and drink. By 1:43 am, both were drunk as Danny admitted that he was surprised that he made it this far despite being the youngest chef of that season.

New restaurant design

The next morning, Danny and Paula woke up feeling terrible, but decided to get to work. While Paula already had her ideas down despite last night, Danny did not have anything down, and felt like an idiot. They went downstairs and met Hell’s Kitchen architect Jon Janavs to discuss their restaurant ideas. Danny’s idea of having a wooden fish in his restaurant was rejected as Janavs did not want it looking like Bob’s Bait Shop. Danny also thought about using either “Velvet Hammer”, his old college nickname, or “Susan Marie”, his late mother’s name, as his restaurant name. Meanwhile, Paula wanted to have real candles in her restaurant and decided to use “Sunergy” as her restaurant name.

As construction began, Danny and Paula met Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria, respectively, to discuss their menu items. Paula wanted her menu to be simple so she could focus on her staff, while Danny had a little more ambitious menu.

Atlantic City trip

After discussing their menu items with their Sous Chefs, Ramsay came by to greet the finalists. Then, he told them that the next 24 hours were going to be important, and that he was taking them on a trip to Atlantic City. However, Ramsay noted that he could not leave their restaurant constructions unsupervised, so he invited some special advisers to help out. Those advisers turned out to be Paula’s mother and sister, and Danny’s father and girlfriend. Happy by that, both of them greeted their love ones and gave them an update on what was happening with their restaurants. After five minutes of updating them, they headed back to the dorms to pack for their trip, while their loved ones got to work. The finalists and Ramsay made their way to the private jet, and flew to Atlantic City. During the ride, Ramsay recalled Danny’s grilled banana signature dish, Paula’s TV reward, and the fact that both of them had been up against each other for a long time during the competition.

Back in Hell’s Kitchen, Janavs told Paula’s loved ones that there was some concern for using real candles due to it being a fire hazard, which meant they had to use fake battery candles instead. Meanwhile, Danny’s girlfriend gave her own input in what his restaurant should have, which conflicted with Janavs’ original design idea.

Later that night, Danny and Paula arrived back at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, and entered their master suite. After settling in, Ramsay provided them with laptops and web cams to communicate with their loved ones on how their progress was going. Danny’s loved ones told him that they had to make some compromises with their designs, which Danny was okay with, but Paula was disappointed when she heard that her restaurant had some of her original ideas removed.

Final challenge

The next morning, Danny and Paula met Michael Facenda again, who informed them about a meeting that they need to attend. When they came down with Facenda, they saw all 500 staff members of the resort and Ramsay down in the casino area. Ramsay introduced them to Larry Mullin, the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Borgata, and showed him their menus. Mullin found that their menu items sounded great, and Ramsay revealed that for their final challenge, they would have to cook three of their menu items in 45 minutes. Before sending them off, Ramsay had Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria give them their new head chef jackets.

After changing into their new jackets, Danny and Paula began cooking on their sample dishes. After the time limit, they had their dishes cooked and plated. Then, Ramsay revealed that he invited some of the Borgata’s Executive Chefs to taste their dishes. The first one up was Michael Shulson of Izakaya. Paula’s wild mushroom salad with arugula and cherry mustard vinaigrette tasted nice despite being over dressed, and while Danny’s Caribbean jerked lobster tail with lime chili salsa was praised for its creativity, Shulson could not taste any lobster in the dish. So, he chose Paula’s dish, giving her the lead 1-0. After, Ramsay introduced the next judge, Geoffrey Zakarian of The Water Club. Paula’s Chilean cilantro broth with mussels, clams, and shrimp was praised for its cook, but Danny’s baby arugula salad with crispy skin duck breast and ginger vinaigrette gave him the point, tying the score at 1. For the final round, Ramsay welcomed back Larry Mullin. Paula’s roasted black sea bass with parsnip puree and kale was deemed good, but Danny’s pan seared filet of beef with twice baked potato and tempura fries was also praised. After a tough decision, Mullin chose Danny’s dish as the winner, and Danny won the challenge 2-1.

Team select

After the challenge, Danny and Paula made it back to Hell’s Kitchen and saw how the progress of their restaurants was going. Both of them were happy with their progress, though Danny was nervous on what the final product would look like the next day. After saying goodbye to their loved ones, the two finalists rested up ahead for the following day.

The next day, Danny and Paula got dressed and went downstairs to meet Ramsay, who revealed there was one more challenge for them to face. In front of them were six domes, which Ramsay said were their key ingredients for their final service. After Ramsay and both Sous Chefs lifted them up, it was revealed that those domes were containing the heads of Lacey, LA, Carol, Giovanni, Ben, and Andrea, much to the finalists’ shock, but they were relieved that their former teammates were still alive.

Then, Ramsay brought back everyone to the kitchen. He recalled the time Andrea burned tuna during the eleventh dinner service, LA looking asleep during the eighth service, Ben being targeted by Ramsay for his poor performance on meat during the seventh service, Lacey being eliminated in the middle of the eighth service, Carol losing an order of chicken during the ninth dinner service, and Giovanni’s infamous “dickface” argument in the tenth service. Because Danny won the last challenge, he was rewarded with the first pick for his team. Danny picked Ben since the two of them worked well together despite their differences, while Paula picked Andrea since they had gotten close during the competition. After that, Danny picked Giovanni, while Paula chose LA as her second choice, shocking Carol as she thought she would be the second choice. With Lacey and Carol left, Danny immediately chose Carol as his final pick, leaving Lacey as Paula’s final pick. When the teams were selected, Ramsay dismissed everybody back to the dorms, and the episode ended in a cliffhanger.

 

The eleventh episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on April 16, 2009. On that episode happened a trip to Atlantic City to visit the prize hotel, one chef is forced to withdraw because of their health, and another chef proved they did not deserve immunity during that night’s service.

Intro

Continuing from the previous episode, Ramsay announced he was shutting down Hell’s Kitchen, much to the shock and disappointment of the final five. However, he continued by revealing that they would be leaving for Atlantic City to visit the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for a few days, as he was hoping they would see what was at stake, much to the relief and excitement of the chefs.

Trip to Borgata

The next morning, the final five left Hell’s Kitchen and drove down to the airport, where a private jet was waiting for them. Later that night, they arrived at Atlantic City, and made their way to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, where they met Michael Facenda, the Director of Marketing. The following day, the chefs were given a tour of the hotel by Facenda, who reminded them of the grand prize one of them would win, even showing the construction site of what their restaurant would be, sparking inspiration to all of them. For the rest of the day, the chefs relaxed at the hotel.

Later that evening, the chefs went to the SeaBlue restaurant for dinner. They met VP Food and Beverage Nicholas Kurban, and Executive Chef Ron Ross, and got a chance to speak with them. A few minutes in, Robert excused himself from the table and left, which Andrea took notice of. What the other chefs did not know was that Robert was not feeling well and was having chest pain. The local paramedic came to check on him, and she recommended him to leave for the hospital, as the other chefs expressed concern for his well-being. Later that night, Robert called Ben and informed he was at the hospital, with Ben relaying the news to the other chefs. At 11:35 pm, the remaining four chefs returned to Hell’s Kitchen, but were still concerned about Robert’s status, with Danny and Ben fearing he would be forced to leave the competition.

Robert’s exit

A couple of days later, the four chefs met Ramsay, who was aware about what happened at the Borgata. However, Ramsay revealed that Robert was back at Hell’s Kitchen, much to their relief, and asked Robert how he was doing. Unfortunately, Robert revealed he was diagnosed with pericarditis, a condition that would eventually lead to heart disease, and based on the doctor’s orders, he would not be able to come back in the competition. Everybody was heartbroken by the news, and Robert said goodbye to the other chefs, hugging each of them. Before leaving, Ramsay told Robert that he has been a fantastic competitor and had the potential to win the competition. After that, Robert gave Ramsay his jacket and left as the remaining chefs gave him a standing ovation. Robert received a retrospective montage of his run during his exit interview.

Individual challenge

After Robert’s exit, Ramsay told the final four that it was back to business now. For their next challenge, each chef would create a new signature dish that would be their highlight at the Borgata, and the winner of that challenge would receive immunity at the next elimination.

The chefs had 45 minutes to cook their dish, and had access to any ingredients they wanted to use. Each chef managed to complete their dishes and plate them in time. Danny was up first, and while his pan seared scallops with citrus basil champagne sauce and ginger did not look creative, it was praised for its flavor and perfectly cooked scallops. Andrea’s green tea crusted tuna with black sesame rice cake was praised for its build up and managed to have all of her parts work well together. Paula’s smoked salmon ceviche was deemed delicious and had great seasoning. Finally, Ben’s pan roasted tiger prawns with mango scented turnips and basil crushed Yukon gold potatoes was stated to look prettier than Ben, according to Ramsay, but was criticized for only using the prawn tails instead of the whole prawn. Afterwards, Ramsay ruled out Ben, and out of the remaining three chefs, he announced that Andrea was the winner.

Reward

Andrea won immunity for that night’s service. Back in the dorms, Ben and Danny vented how Andrea won despite the fact her dish was not cooked, and looked like she would have been the next to go until then. Both Danny and Ben realized that they, along with Paula, would have to do their best in that night’s service in order to survive.

Before service

Later on that day, the four remaining chefs got to work on prepping for that night’s service. With only three minutes left until the doors opened, Ramsay had all of them lined up and expressed excitement for that night as he had the best four at the moment, while reminding Andrea to prove why she deserved her immunity. After reminding them how the Borgata trip motivated them, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner service

Immediately, the four chefs were vocal with each other, and Andrea and Danny sent over their appetizers out successfully. However, Jean-Philippe soon came back with a plate of raw scallops, and Ramsay noticed that Andrea did not turn her flat tops on full, while telling her to speed up. Andrea’s next attempt came out overcooked, which slowed the momentum down.

30 minutes into service, despite Andrea’s problems, the four chefs were moving onto entrées. However, Ben could not remember what was recently called out and needed Paula’s help. Then, Ben proved to be unresponsive and sent up cold carrot purée, but managed to heat it up quickly. Despite that, Ramsay lectured Ben on his attitude and threatened him with elimination if he would send up anymore cold food. Paula asked Andrea for a time to send her Wellingtons, but Andrea revealed she needed four minutes on her salmon. Ramsay told Paula to send her Wellingtons despite Andrea’s slow performance, and Paula sent up beautifully cooked Wellingtons to the pass.

An hour and a half into dinner service, because of Paula’s strong performance, the final four sent out almost half of their entrées to the dining room. However, Ben forgot another order, which caused an annoyed Ramsay to remind him what was next. Then, Ramsay noticed that Ben’s station was in disarray, and told him he was so full of shit he did not even know he was shit, while chewing him out for giving excuses. Ramsay kicked Ben out of the kitchen, but Ben decided to pull himself together and fight back. Ramsay reluctantly allowed Ben back in, but ordered him to wake up. Meanwhile, Jean-Philippe sent back a raw salmon to the kitchen, but Ramsay was more upset that Andrea was not communicating properly. Ben managed to fight back after his slow start, but Andrea continued to struggle, causing Ramsay to order Danny to help her out. Danny was irritated for helping Andrea out since she was immune, and Andrea sent up two raw John Dories to the pass, causing Ramsay to accuse her of trying to sabotage everybody else due to being safe. Andrea argued she was not, but she also burned her tuna, much to her own dismay. Despite Andrea’s problems, the team was able to send out their last ticket, but Danny knew that service was really rough.

Post-mortem

The four chefs were lined up, and Ramsay called that night’s service embarrassing, criticizing them for having no teamwork or any fight, and ordered them to think of two people for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Ben told Andrea that if she was not immune, she would definitely be up for elimination due to her poor performance, which Danny agreed. However, it was a tough choice on who would be up there as Ben knew he had a poor night, but Danny and Paula were solid on their stations. Ben struggled to nominate a second person for elimination.

Elimination

Andrea announced that Ben was the first nominee, and Paula was the second. Ramsay was shocked about Paula’s nomination, and when he asked why, Andrea claimed it was her lack of communication. Ramsay called Ben and Paula down, but before Paula could finish her plea, Ramsay sent her back in line and called Andrea down, as she was the worst performer, along with being the reason Ben had a bad night. After listening to Ben and Andrea’s pleas, Ramsay decided to eliminate neither of them, as Andrea was immune and he could not eliminate Ben in good conscience because his performance, while not great, was not as bad as Andrea’s. However, Ramsay did warn Andrea that if she was not immune, she would have definitely been eliminated. Afterwards, he dismissed the final four back to the dorms, and Robert received the burning picture sequence.

Ramsay gave no comment on Robert’s departure.

My Opinion

 

The ninth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on April 2, 2009. On that episode, the teams create their own menus, and when Ramsay accuse one chef of sabotaging their team, it leads to one of the most shocking eliminations in Hell’s Kitchen history.

Intro

Back in the dorms, Andrea confronted Carol for throwing her under the bus on the chopping block, but it led to another argument between the two of them. It annoyed Giovanni, who told the two women that they had to work their problems out, but Andrea said that it was impossible, since they would never get along. Paula voiced her concern that their arguing was killing the red team’s teamwork, and warned both Andrea and Carol that they might be back up for elimination if it would continue.

Team challenge

The next morning, both teams came down in the dining room to meet Ramsay, who explained that one of his favorite things to do was taking a protein and elevating it to a stunning dish. Despite some of the chefs thinking they would be working with chicken, Ramsay revealed that for their next challenge, they would be taking a red king crab, and turning it into a stunning dish. Each chef would create their own crab dish, and both teams would have to agree on what dish they would want to present, with Ramsay adding on that this challenge was one that they did not want to lose.

With both teams having 45 minutes, they got to work on their dishes. Ben had a clear idea of what he would be making, while Paula had no idea where the chinois was, and asked Ramsay if he could look for one, only to get chewed out by him for asking. With ten minutes left, the blue team had most of their dishes finished, and tasted all of them to decide whose dish would go up. Despite Carol’s concern of Andrea’s dish having the crab shells on the plate, Andrea was confident on her dish, even though Carol thought Paula’s dish looked the best. Robert like Ben’s dish the most, and Danny reluctantly agreed to it, even though he thought his dish was better. Paula and Andrea’s dishes were singled out as the best on the red team, but Andrea persuaded her team to have her dish up.

Once the time was up, Andrea and Ben sent up their dishes to Ramsay. Andrea presented her king crab legs crusted with macadamia nuts, asparagus and pear infused butter, but Ramsay criticized the presentation because of the shells on the plate, and also told that it had a bland taste. Ben’s dish was a crab in sriracha butter, but his very long explanation of it annoyed everybody. Ramsay was not impressed by the minimalist presentation, and while the crab tasted better than Andrea’s, it did not meet the wow factor Ramsay was hoping for. Ramsay was disappointed by the dishes he received, and ordered Danny and Paula to bring their dishes up. Paula’s crab with hazel coconut broth wowed Ramsay by its presentation, and it was deemed delicious, while Danny’s poached crab in a Madeira berblance with sautéed celery and fennel was also deemed delicious. Ramsay was happy that both of their dishes hit the mark that he was looking for, and even asked why they were not chosen first place. In the end, Ramsay gave Danny’s dish the win for the blue team after a very tough decision.

Reward

The blue team won a day at the Santa Monica State Beach with Ramsay for lunch and a Segway ride. Before leaving, Robert decided to leave his boxer shorts for the red team to clean up as part of their punishment. At the beach, they met Ramsay riding a Segway, but Robert had to ride a bicycle due to the weight limit on the Segways. At lunch, Ramsay told the blue team that each of them had a chance to become the winner of that season, and they toasted to their victory.

Punishment

The red team had to clean both the dorms and kitchens, and prep all the king crab for the next night’s dinner service. During the punishment, the red team got mad at the returning blue team for rubbing their loss at them, and they took their anger out on the crabs they were cleaning.

Creating new menus

The next morning, both teams were ready to prep for that night’s service. However, Ramsay had other plans and revealed the news that for that service, he would let both teams create their own menus. They were required to have 3 appetizers, 3 entrées, and 3 desserts on their menus that would also feature a crab special. Ramsay sent the chefs back upstairs to discuss about their menus.

Surprisingly, both of the team’s menus were very similar, but with a few key differences. For the blue team, Ben pushed for some high-class items for their menu liked poached halibut and “pomme fondants”, though neither Danny or Robert were thrilled with the idea.

Before service

With both of the team’s menus finished, they went downstairs to begin prep for that night’s service. Carol was getting her own potato dish, gratin dauphinoises, cooked before service, and planned on cooking them again for orders, much to Andrea’s concern. In the blue kitchen, Robert and Ben got into an argument over Robert’s speed while prepping. Once everyone was ready, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner service

Orders came in for both teams and they all got to work immediately. Giovanni managed to get the red team off to a fast start with his beef carpaccio appetizers, but they were immediately sent back for being flavorless. Then, Ramsay lectured Giovanni to slice the beef on a seasoned plate for flavor. Ben’s soup appetizer was very salty as he overreduced it, and Ramsay forced the three men to taste it. With Ben’s mistakes slowing the blue kitchen down, some of their customers were forced to watch the red diners at the same table getting their appetizers. However, the same red diner who complained about her bland appetizer before said that it was still under seasoned again. She went to the hot plate to confront Ramsay about it, but Ramsay chewed her out for whistling at him, and he called the woman a dog.

One hour into service, both teams have sent up all their appetizers to the dining room. Carol brought her gratin dauphinoises up to the pass, but Ramsay saw that they were raw and hard, and forced the red team to taste them. Carol revealed that she thought she had to cook them in the oven first before the orders came, but Ramsay told her that gratin dauphinoise needed to be cooked before service would begin. When Ramsay accused Carol of trying to sabotage Andrea, Carol argued that she was not, but that made Ramsay even angrier. Soon after, Carol revealed that it may take ten more minutes for the gratin dauphinoises to cook properly, which caused Ramsay to angrily tell the customers that they would get their dishes in about ten minutes, and chewed out Carol for screwing over the customers. Then, Carol revealed that she cooked them in boiling cream for an hour during prep, and Ramsay called her useless. Meanwhile, Ben was getting his pomme fondants cooked, but Ramsay was confused by their appearance as pomme fondants were usually cooked in butter, not blanched. Sous Chef Scott confirmed to Ramsay that Ben’s potatoes did not look like a traditional pomme fondant. Then, Ramsay chewed out Ben for his mistake, and the blue team were forced to do them over again. Meanwhile, Carol poured more cream on her gratin dauphinoises in order to save them, but Ramsay tossed the entire pan in the trash bin, accusing her of giving up. Then, Ramsay angrily told the red team to think of an alternative side, with Giovanni suggesting fingerling potatoes.

An hour and a half into dinner service, none of the kitchens have served their entrées due to their respective potato problems. Robert miscalculated one of his halibut orders due to working at both the fish and meat stations, and needed three more minutes, which angered Ramsay as that meant Robert was dragging the blue kitchen down, and Ramsay ordered him to not give up. Looking for some redemption, Carol sent up her steak to the pass, but it came out rare, which crippled her team even more. Meanwhile, Ramsay looked at Robert’s filets and noticed that they were not the same size. Ben took the blame for poorly cutting them, which caused Ramsay to accuse him of trying to sabotage Robert. Ramsay was further discouraged when he saw Ben’s poorly cut portions in the fridge.

Two hours into dinner service, both teams were getting their entrées into the dining room. While getting their desserts ready, Robert and Ben got into an argument for Robert’s slow momentum, which caused Ramsay to once again accuse Ben of trying to sabotage Robert. Soon after, Jean-Philippe brought back one of Carol’s steaks that was mid-rare instead of medium. That was the final straw for Ramsay who decided to shut down both kitchens.

Post-mortem

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay was angry because despite giving both teams the responsibility of creating their own menus, neither of them could execute it properly. After, Ramsay revealed he took a look at the customer comment cards, and while the blue team’s entrées got a 39% above average rating, the red team’s entrées got a 54% above average rating. Because of that, the red team were declared the winners, but Ramsay told them that it was not a victory worth celebrating over. Danny was named “Best of the Worst” for the blue team, and was tasked to nominate one person for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Carol was surprised that the red team won despite her potato fiasco, but Andrea thought they should have lost due to Carol’s poor performance. Meanwhile, Ben pleaded his case to Danny on why he should stay, while Robert argued his case to stay. That put Danny in a tough spot on who to nominate, even thinking that both of them should be up for elimination.

Elimination

Danny announced that Ben was his nominee for elimination. While Ramsay agreed with Danny’s decision, he also called down Robert as well. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay revealed that the person that would be going home was the one who sabotaged their team and gave up afterwards. That led Ramsay to eliminate Carol from the winning team as she was responsible for the gratin dauphinoises being undercooked in the first place, and making no attempt to fight back afterwards. This marked the first time in Hell’s Kitchen history that Ramsay eliminated someone from the winning team.

Ramsay’s comment: “Carol knew she was out of her depth in Hell’s Kitchen. I just put her out of her misery.”

My Opinion

Both service were rubbish for both team tonight. Carol, Benjamin and Robert have a bad service even though it was their our menu. Blue team were loser so I would nominated Benjamin. I was not surprised that Carol went home.

My comment: Carol mess up with the prep of the potatoes so that why she went home.

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.