The tenth and eleventh episodes of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on August 1st, 2005, as a double feature. On those episodes, Ralph and Michael designed their own restaurants, chose their brigade for the final service, and one of them was declared winner of Hell’s Kitchen.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

The episode began with a recap of the first nine episodes of the season, mentioning what happened, and who got eliminated when.

That episode began at the exact point where the last one left off. Ralph and Michael got some appreciated time with their respective families after Jessica’s elimination. Back in the dorms, both talked on the patio while smoking cigarettes, telling they both dreamed about having their own restaurant.

New restaurant design

The next morning, the phone rang in the dorms and Ralph answered “Bonsoir!”. Ramsay told him to get in the dining room with Michael two minutes later, and when they hung up, Ramsay mocked Ralph’s “bonsoir”. Two minutes later, the finalists had a chat with Ramsay, where he announced the final test. After the chat, Ramsay made them stand up, one on each side of the restaurant, and a huge white blanket came down from the ceiling, which became their final test. Each contestant had to design their dream restaurant, with the help of John Janavs, the architect of Hell’s Kitchen, Jean-Philippe for the service, and the Sous Chefs for their menus. Michael took the red kitchen, and Ralph took the blue kitchen.

After a quick consultation with Janavs and Jean-Philippe, works in both restaurants started immediately. During the process, Janavs talked to Ralph about a problem, which was his wallpaper only came with half of what was needed. So, he reassured Ralph by telling him they would get a shipment from Pennsylvania to the airport that night. After that, Ramsay talked with Janavs and remarked that Michael’s restaurant seemed to have a very contemporary style, and Ralph’s to feel like a bistro-steakhouse. Janavs explained that those were the mood both contestants desired. Ramsay felt nervous, but Janavs reassured him.

Final challenge

Ramsay introduced the final challenge, which was the Final Signature Dish Challenge, by saying that everybody around the world go to restaurants to taste the signature dishes. Each contestant had to prepare the signature dish for their restaurant. Michael made a braised short rib oso buco, and Ralph made a Porto House steak for two people.

Both got on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with Ramsay to get customers taste both dishes. During the challenge, when he saw he was losing, Ralph started to panic and became like a salesman, trying to sell his food and telling that his food was better than Michael’s. One of the customers stated he was liking Michael’s dish more, but was liking Ralph more as a person. Michael won the challenge 12-6.

Restaurant design continuing

When both finalists returned to Hell’s Kitchen, they met John Janavs again, who told them that the works were doing great. Both contestants were satisfied with their new restaurants. Then, they returned to the kitchen to work on their food.

Practice service

The night before the final service, Ramsay made a practice service for Ralph and Michael where they would feed the construction workers of the restaurant, and where both would run the hot plate. On his first ticket, Michael had trouble to be heard by everybody because he was not talking loud enough. Ramsay told him he was not reading the dictionary at bedtime and had to be loud. Michael acknowledged his downfall, and a few minutes later, he turned around and jokingly told his team they were cooking like old people, which made Ramsay laugh because it was not expected.

After Michael’s turn, Ralph took his place. On his first ticket, he already seemed very confident and charismatic, which was praised later by Ramsay. However, he failed to spot Michael’s sabotage, which was crab risottos without crab. He was also calling Jean-Philippe “Jean-Pierre”. Construction workers started to complain, and a risotto came back. Ramsay told Ralph he had to taste everything. Ralph told Michael about his supposed mistake, and Ramsay acknowledged it was a clever move from Michael. After service, Ramsay was not impressed and detected many flaws from both contestants. Michael had to run the team and not the other way around, and Ralph had a poor-quality control.

When both got back to the dorms, Michael got into character by mimicking some Ramsay rants, which made Ralph laugh. After that, Michael went out on the patio and did his nightly ritual of speaking with Ramsay’s face on the billboard, while smoking a cigarette.

Restaurant design finish

After a good night’s sleep, Ralph and Michael got down in the dining room to see the progress of their new restaurants. Ralph was very satisfied and told by Janavs that the wallpaper problem has been solved. On the other hand, Michael had problems of his own because the booths he asked for did not came in time. Also, the beige color of the stairs’ base would not match those booths, so Michael agreed to switch the color from beige to red.

Team selection

When the finalists came back in the kitchen, Ramsay greeted them to their staff, which were returning contestants. Dewberry was the first who entered the room, followed by Wendy, Andrew, Jimmy, Elsie, and finally Jessica. Because Michael won the final challenge, he got to pick first. His first pick was Jessica, which infuriated Ralph because he felt Jessica was his. Jessica was not very happy about that decision either as she would have wanted to be on Ralph’s team. Ralph selected Andrew as his first pick, and Michael picked Jimmy as his second pick. Ralph picked Wendy as his second pick, Michael picked Elsie as his last, and Ralph was left with Dewberry. Dewberry was not angry about being picked last because he expected it.

Before service

During prep, Michael stated he would have preferred professional cooks instead of returning teammates, but had to deal with what he had. On the other side, Ralph made a list of rules to follow for his team. Jean-Philippe came to Ralph’s kitchen, and asked him, who called him “Jean-Pierre” once again, to come to the dining room and meet his dining room staff. He declared the name of his restaurant “Frank & Lulu’s”, referring to his dog’s name, and his friend’s dog’s name. Then, Michael met his staff and named his restaurant “Lola Pop”, referring to his wife’s pet name that he was giving to her. Later, Michael’s booths arrived, to his great relief.

An hour and a half before service, Andrew cut his thumb when peeling an artichoke. He showed his injury to a disgusted Wendy, went to see a medic, and was taken to the hospital. All that time, Andrew stated he did not want to let his team down. When Ralph went to see Ramsay in his office, he declared that being a man down, he would run the pass and the garnish station at the same time. Ramsay was not a fan of that process.

After that, Ramsay changed subject by having a look at Ralph’s restaurant to see the design and the staff. When Ralph introduced his staff to him, Ramsay said the men were looking great, but the women were looking like grannies. For Michael’s dining room, Ramsay liked its setting and vibe, and for the staff, remarked that girls were looking great, but guys were looking like ballerinas. Ramsay joked about it saying that the guys should go get their tutus. A few minutes before the doors open, Andrew made a heroic return, was hugged by Wendy and gave Ralph a high-five, to the latter’s relief. Michael and Ralph were given their head chef jackets, and briefed their teams.

Dinner service

Moments after the doors opened, Michael and Ralph gave each other a big hug. When Michael called his first ticket, his team was not answering immediately, so he had to told them they need to answer. It was a rocky start for him because he was lost and confused, and that made his team switch off completely and cooking as individuals. However, his first appetizers were well-received by the customers. In the blue kitchen, Ralph also got off to a bad start because of Wendy’s confusion on the appetizer station. She did not know how many orders she had to make, so Ralph spent more time on her station than the hot plate. But Ralph, being clever, had a backup plan, which was a tableside salad appetizer.

More than an hour into service, one of Michael’s customers had plastic in her salad. When it came back, Michael threatened Elsie to kill her if she would do it again. After, Jessica, still angry at not being on Ralph’s team, refused Michael’s authority and had a confrontation with Elsie. Michael had to calm the situation down. In the blue kitchen, the customers were enjoying the food, and Ralph started to send out entrées. But, Ralph caught Dewberry putting fish stock in the spaghetti when he was not supposed to, and Dewberry was almost passing out. After Dewberry left the kitchen, Ralph talked with Sous Chef Scott about that problem, worried that he would not make it through dinner service because of his physical state. Jean-Philippe also told Ralph that despite the food being great, the service had to go faster. Andrew got in the back store to check on Dewberry, who was sitting down, and pushed him to go through service. When Dewberry made a heroic return, Ralph held him the list of rules to follow, and Dewberry managed to bounce back after sending a properly cooked sea bass, while jokingly telling he would rather be called Brad Pitt’s wife. That joke made Ramsay, Ralph and Sous Chef Scott laugh.

Three hours into service, Ralph managed to get more than half of his entrées out successfully. When an undercooked steak came back in the red kitchen, Michael told Jimmy to refire one quickly, and that he was not happy about it. Jimmy successfully bounced back and sent an acceptable steak dish. It was at this moment that Michael’s kitchen started to come together as a proper professional kitchen. Both kitchens started to send out desserts, and had a great finish. After all the tables were completed in both dining room, Michael was congratulated by Jessica, who said the menu was easy to execute, and Dewberry was given a big kiss by Ralph.

Post-mortem

After both teams were lined up, Ramsay congratulated both saying it was a great service. When it seemed that Ramsay was ready to announce the winner, he told he was not ready and would study the comment cards from the customers to help him make his decision. Then, Ramsay declared that because Michael wanted a restaurant in Los Angeles, every customer in his restaurant was from Los Angeles, and that because Ralph wanted a New York Steakhouse, every of his customers were from New York.

Michael and Ralph congratulated each other as they made their way back to the dorms while knowing that their fate was in Ramsay’s hands. Ralph believed he might win, given that he was a little stronger than Michael, but Michael felt that he deserved to win, given he was representing the new generation of chefs and that he pushed himself in service. Then, both split off to different rooms, each hoping that they would be the winners, while talking to the photos of their loved ones.

Winner Announced

Moments later, Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann came to the dorms, put blindfolds on Michael and Ralph, and told them to put their hands on their back so they could lead them to Ramsay’s office. Arrived there, Ramsay declared that one of the two restaurants received a 90% of return business, and the other one got 94%. After that, he asked both to stand in front of a door each, and said that only the winner’s door would open. After waiting nervously for Ramsay’s countdown to end, both finalists turned their handles, and only Michael’s door opened.

Michael became the first winner of Hell’s Kitchen, and Ralph the first runner-up. Ralph took his defeat graciously and celebrated with everybody else. While celebrating, Ramsay made an offer to Michael, which was to come to London to train under him and eventually become a world-class chef, an offer which Michael accepted.

Ramsay’s comment: “Ralph was great tonight, but Michael deserved to win because his creativity and standards are simply on a higher level, and I accomplish my goal of turning an unknown into a master chef and that has to be the perfect way to close Hell’s Kitchen, tonight. And I’m fucking out of here!”

My options

My comments: Michael team was better than Ralph because Ralph got the second pick because Michael won the challenge so Ralph got Dewberry and Wendy the first two to go out of all of the chefs who come back.

The ninth episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on July 25, 2005. On that episode, the final three had to make bread while sleepwalking, and saw their families for the first time since their arrival, not knowing their fates were in their hands.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

The final three went back to the dorms, where some champagne bottles wer⁴e waiting for them. They celebrated and congratulated each other on still being there. After a few drinks, Jessica went to bed inebriated, and was followed by Ralph and Michael shortly.

Beard making

At 4 AM, the phone rang in the dorms. Michael picked it up, and Ramsay told him to get his two teammates and himself in the blue kitchen immediately. Ralph and Jessica never believed him and tried to convince him to go to bed, but when Sous Chef Scott went looking for them in the dorms, they rushed to put their jackets on and head downstairs. Ramsay asked the chefs to make bread because the baker was not able to provide the restaurant with bread. Jessica was still a little drunk, so she did not know what was going for a few minutes, yawned and laid on the counter to rest. Ralph and Michael organized the bread making process and ran the ovens. After an hour, Jessica was sent to bed by her teammates because she would be more of a hindrance, and two hours later, she came back to the kitchen ready to help, but, Ralph and Michael were almost done. A few minutes later, they all went back to sleep, and were woken up two hours later by Sous Chef Mary-Ann playing a triangle.

Individual Challenge

Before Ramsay explained the challenge, he asked Jessica how was the bread experience, and Michael at what time they finished. Then, he declared for that night’s dinner service, each of them was going to come up with a unique dish and the customers will determine their lives in Hell’s Kitchen depending on that dish.

Ramsay explained the Perfect Soufflé Challenge. After a quick demonstration, each contestant had 10 minutes to create a unique perfect soufflé dessert. Ramsay declared Jessica’s soufflé as the worst he ever tasted, Ralph’s was enjoyed by Ramsay for the taste, but the latter told him to put more egg whites to lift it better. Finally, Michael’s soufflé needed more sugar. After deliberation, Ramsay declared Ralph the winner.

Reward

Because Ralph won, he got to choose first between beef, chicken, and tuna, for an inspirational dish to be served during the next dinner service. He choose beef, Michael chose tuna, and Jessica was left with chicken.

Before service

While working with the Sous Chefs to create their dish, Michael and Ralph had a good idea, but not Jessica, who asked a lot of help from the Sous Chefs. During prep, the final three felt confident going into service. When they were lined up, Ramsay reminded them that the objective was still to serve a fully booked dining room.

Dinner service

All three remaining chefs were responsible for their own individual dishes, but were also managing a station. Michael on appetizers, Ralph on garnish, and Jessica on desserts. Michael managed to get the kitchen to a strong start by sending many starters out. When Jessica made her first chicken dish, she was a little late on everybody else, so Ramsay sent the other dishes, that were waiting on the hot plate, back because she was not ready. After that, Jean-Philippe went to greet the families of the contestants that were in the dining room. When their orders came in the kitchen, Ramsay only mentioned to the contestants that VIPs were in the dining room, without any further information.

An hour into service, the remaining chefs’ dishes received mixed reviews in the dining room. Later, when orders of desserts came in, Jessica was having a hard time keeping up with the orders because she was concerned about her chicken dish as well. When the individual dishes came to the contestants’ families, Ralph’s beef and Michael’s tuna were well received, but when Ralph’s fiancée tasted Jessica’s chicken, she spat it out. Jessica struggled with the desserts, leading Michael to take her chicken dish over to continue sending out the entrées. A few minutes later, Ralph and Michael had a little communication problem, and Jessica failed to deliver a proper time for her desserts, leading Ramsay to lose his patience. He lost his patience again later when she was giving attitude about her bad timing with the desserts. After she slipped and dropped a plate to the floor, she started panicking and asked for help from her two teammates.

Two and a half hours into service, Jessica sent unacceptable soufflés to the pass, and asked Ramsay if he could help her. Ramsay categorically refused, and Jean-Philippe went speaking to Jessica in the kitchen, before being kicked out of the kitchen by Ramsay. After that, Jean-Philippe went to the contestants’ families to try and buy Jessica some time. When it came down to the last ticket, all three chefs became excited and wanted to finish as quickly as possible. When Ralph served the last main course, he joined Jessica with Michael, and completed the desserts. For the first time ever, a fully-booked dining room was served, and Ralph’s filet mignon was the most popular out of the three, followed by Jessica’s chicken, and Michael’s tuna came last.

Post-Mortem

When the chefs were lined up, Ramsay mentioned that the service was completed and, most important, no food came back. After stating that he was a very proud man, he brought the final three back to earth saying that one of them would go home.

As Jessica was clearing her station down, Michael and Ralph met on the patio, with Michael nervous about his fate as Jessica’s chicken was ordered more than his filet. Despite that, Michael wanted Ralph to go home as he was his biggest competition so far. Later that night, the final three met up in the living room and agreed that their time in Hell’s Kitchen had been tough but fun all at once.

Elimination

Because of the great service, Ramsay gave the final three a surprise. Michael was visited by his wife and in-laws, Jessica saw her girlfriend, her mom and her sister, and finally, Ralph said hello to his fiancée, his mom, and his uncle. After a heartwarming reunion, Ramsay revealed that each family completed a comment card, unaware their decision would influence the chefs’ stay in Hell’s Kitchen. Each family member told the dish they enjoyed the most. Michael got the highest score with 5 votes for his tuna, followed by Ralph’s filet mignon at 3 votes, and Jessica’s chicken only got 1 vote. Therefore, Jessica was eliminated, but received praise from Ramsay who told her she did an amazing job and was proud of her. Then, Ramsay told her to go by the front door with her family, as she deserved to. Jessica received a retrospective montage of her run during her exit interview. After Jessica and her family left, Michael and Ralph became the first ever finalists of Hell’s Kitchen.

Ramsay’s comment: “Now we’re down to the final two. This is it! And the fascinating thing about these two guys is they’re both equally as good as one another, and this is where they have to now separate, put everything they’ve learned from Hell’s Kitchen, and show me what they’re made of. That’s what I’m looking for!”

My opinion

My comment: Ralph and Michael was better than Jessica so Jessica have to go.

The family choose Jessica.

The eighth episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on July 18, 2005. On that episode, there was some backstabbing involved, a total meltdown during service, and for the first time, nobody was safe from elimination.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

After escaping elimination, Jessica felt relieved as she had already packed her bags. As for Elsie, she believed that she became a strong contender to win the prize. Ralph thought the game officially begun for him, and Michael, despite acknowledging that he made good friends, thought his friendships were not worth his desire to win the restaurant. So, from that moment on, the remaining contestants knew that they could not trust anybody but themselves.

Individual Challenge

During the Leftover Challenge, each contestant had 15 minutes to create a dish out of 15 leftovers. That challenge was designed to test the talent and creativity of the chefs. Michael and Jessica were cooking in the blue kitchen, while Elsie and Ralph were cooking in the red kitchen. Jessica made a beef stew, and a dessert of strawberry and raspberry cake, which Ramsay liked the taste, but not the presentation. Michael made a pasta dish with chicken wings, and Ramsay said it was the opposite of Jessica as it was looking good but did not taste good. Ramsay also mentioned the fact that he left the bones on the chicken, which could be dangerous. Ralph made a sauté of chicken drumsticks with thyme sauce, which Ramsay told the presentation was spot on, but the fact that he got raw onions spoiled his dish. Finally, Elsie made a chicken soup, and while he was worried about the color, Ramsay found it delicious. Ramsay eventually declared Elsie the winner, and told her she would be doing something special the next morning. That made Jessica and Ralph jealous, at the point they wanted to taste her soup.

Reward

Elsie was rewarded with an appearance on the morning show “Good Day Live”, in the FOX Studios, where she showed how to cook a risotto. She also had the privilege to choose who would be on which station during the next service.

Punishment

Ralph, Michael, and Jessica had to prep the kitchen ahead for that night’s service. At lunch time, they watched Elsie’s appearance on “Good Day Live”, which infuriated Ralph, who had not got out of Hell’s Kitchen since his arrival. During the punishment, the three of them conspired to leave Elsie aside during service if she would need help, because they were jealous of her success.

Before Service

For the second part of her reward, Elsie chose Jessica to be on the appetizer station, Michael to be on garnish, Ralph to be on meat, and herself to be on fish.

Dinner Service

The first salad that Jessica sent out was called shit by Ramsay, and she was asked to redo it. After an hour and many appetizers coming out, Ramsay made the contestants switch stations for the first time. So, Michael was sent to the appetizers, Jessica on meat, Ralph on fish and Elsie on garnish. Because of the switch, the first dish that Ralph sent to the pass came out. When Elsie got on the garnish station, she struggled to make the penne dish as she never made it before. So, Michael reached over to do the dish for her.

At the second switch, Jessica moved to the fish station, Ralph to the garnish, Michael to the meat, and Elsie to the appetizers. When Jessica got on fish, she was confused and said she needed more time for the lobster to cook. So, Michael had to stop what he was doing because of her, and Ramsay schooled her because of this. The next dishes she brought to the pass were called “Dewberry’s dog’s dinner” by Ramsay, so she had to start once again.

Two hours into dinner service, Elsie found herself in the weeds, and when she asked for some help, her three teammates stuck to their original plan and did not help her. Ramsay, unaware of that going on, shouted at Elsie because she was mixing up the orders. That led him to take her in the blue kitchen for a private pep talk, and he sent her in the bathroom for a short break. In the bathroom, she cried and was furious because she realized the backstab that was being attempted on her. She got back in the kitchen, a few minutes later, ready to fight back. After Jean-Philippe brought a dish which had a piece of wood in it, he walked into the kitchen, and Ramsay shut down the kitchen.

Post-mortem

Ramsay told the final four he was not proud at all, and that the previous service was better. Therefore, nobody was safe from elimination for the first time in the history of the show, and he declared that he would make his own decision shortly.

On the patio, Elsie admitted that she had the worst performance of the night before leaving to be by herself while the remaining three chefs agreed that Elsie was slow on every station she was on. Elsie felt alienated by having nobody around her, and Michael felt that for the first time in the competition, he might be going home, but was determined to do better. With nobody knowing what Ramsay would do, all four of them felt stressed out.

Elimination

After reminding Michael about his average performance, Ramsay called Jessica and Elsie down. He eliminated Elsie for her meltdown during service, but congratulated her for being able to impress him during her time on the show, and told her she touched his heart. After Elsie gave him her jacket, Ramsay told her to keep smiling as she was lighting up a place when she was doing it. Then, Elsie hugged everybody, and was told by everybody how much they were proud of her. Elsie received a retrospective montage of her run during her exit interview.

Ramsay’s comment: “Now that we’re down to the final three, what I am looking for personally is flair, creativity, great imagination, and more importantly, individuality, ’cause it’s now when they really have to start excelling!”

My opinion

My nominated was the same as Gordon even though Elise was backstabbing on today service.

My comment: Elise was on live TV yesterday but after tonight performance she wont be on TV again.

Gordon choose Elise

The seventh episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on July 11, 2005. On that episode, there was a big celebration before the challenge as the game changed in a significant way and a meltdowns by two people at dinner service.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

Following Andrew’s elimination, Ralph did not feel safe as it was a close call for him. Jessica told him he deserved to be there. After that, he talked with Michael who would have preferred him being eliminated instead of Andrew because he was his biggest threat at this stage of the game. After that Elsie declared to Jessica that she was home sick. She did not want to be there anymore even wanting to go back home with her sons and hanging with her sisters.

Black Jacket Celebration

Because there were five contestants left Ramsay merged them into one team called the black team. Ralph was the first to receive his black jacket, followed by Elsie, Michael and Jessica. When Ramsay gave Jimmy his black jacket, he jokingly said that he would give it to him only if he would promise to keep the plates clean, without anymore “Dirty Bowl Jimmy”. Jimmy answered there would be no more and Ramsay finished by congratulating everybody by telling them he was proud of them. When they got back to the dorms to change, the contestants celebrated by congratulating each other. Moments later they came back to the dining room for the first individual challenge in the history of Hell’s Kitchen.

Individual Challenge

Ramsay explained the Tableside Fruit Flambé Challenge, where each contestant had 5 minutes to recreate Ramsay’s fruit flambé dessert. When the countdown began, Elsie and Jessica forgot their carts so they had to go back and get them before getting their ingredients. Elsie was confused as she did not know what she was doing and told Ramsay she never did that before. Jimmy was careless and ran into his liqueur bottle a couple of times which made Ramsay laugh and Michael dropped and splattered his mango. When Ramsay commented Michael’s plate, he praised the taste, but compared it to Jimmy’s because it was dirty, which insulted Michael. Ralph’s plate was good but he forgot to dust his fruits and put sugar on them. Jessica was caught having bananas with raw sugar. Ramsay praised Elsie for her presentation and colour on the caramel. Finally, when Ramsay tasted Jimmy’s dish, he asked him if he did that before, which Jimmy replied he did not and took three bites instead of just one, saying it was very good. After deliberation over Elsie and Jimmy, Ramsay chose Jimmy as the winner of the challenge.

Reward

Because he won the challenge, Jimmy went on a helicopter tour of Los Angeles and was greeted by Jean-Philippe and two waiters on top of a building, where they were holding wine and caviar. He also picked Michael to go on the reward with him. Jimmy also had the opportunity to choose one of his fellow teammates to prepare Caesar salads and fruit flambés tableside during the following service.

Punishment

Jessica, Ralph and Elsie had to clean the entire dining room ahead of the next dinner service. During the punishment they trash-talked on Jimmy saying he picked Michael because he was an ass-kisser.

Before service

When the three chefs who were punished got back in the dorms, Elsie explained what she thought of the situation. She felt that Jimmy picked Michael because he owed him something after not being nominated two weeks before but continued by explaining that what Jimmy was not realizing is that Michael got rid of Chris, who was his biggest threat. When Jimmy and Michael told them the reward, it made Ralph and Elsie envious, to the point where Elsie did not want Jimmy to touch her anymore and flipped the bird in his back.

The next morning, everybody was quiet because of the animosity between them. During prep they were helped by the Sous Chefs. Jimmy chose Elsie to go in the dining room and serve the Caesar salads and fruit flambés table-side, as she finished second in the challenge. Ramsay also announced that Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann would be taking the night off for the first time in the history of the show.

Dinner service

Ralph and Michael got the newly formed black team off to a good start by sending many appetizers out. In the dining room, Elsie forgot her salad bowl in the kitchen, so she quickly came back to get it. When she sent her first salad, it was well received by the customers. A lot of meat orders came in and very few fish orders. Therefore, Jessica had her biggest task but when a fire erupted in one of her pans, she blew on it trying to get it away without any success.

45 minutes into service, Ralph was asked by Ramsay to join him at the pass to plate the food. Moments later power went out in the restaurant. Elsie could not see what she was doing but Michael did not bother as he was too focused on his cooking. Fortunately, the power was restored a few seconds later, at the great relief of the customers, who applauded. After that, Jimmy mistakenly threw his cooked lobster away without realising in an attempt to keep the fish station clean. Ramsay asked him where the lobster was, and Jimmy answered he did not know. As it was lost, they had to start the table again. In the dining room, Elsie got a request to cut the lettuce thinner by a customer. When Jean-Philippe told her the problem, she compared the customer to a baby, remembering cutting the meat for her kids.

An hour and a half into service, Jessica realised she ran out of filet mignons. She started panicking, claiming that Sous Chef Scott, who took the night off, misplaced them. When she explained the situation to Ramsay, she started arguing with him and giving attitude like if she was not caring anymore. When she asked for help, Michael ran to the back store to get some filets. When he returned to the kitchen, he helped Jessica on her station, who was clearly asking for some. In the dining room, Elsie was about to begin her fruit flambés but ran out of pans. So she went to the kitchen to grab some and as she did, Jessica asked her to get some pans for the meat station by the way. Elsie refused saying she was busy. On her first try Elsie failed to light up the alcohol, so she gave customers fruit flambés, not flambéed.

An hour later Ralph was praised by Ramsay on his work at the plating station. When Jimmy messed up the risotto by pouring fish stock in it, Ramsay lost it and schooled him on his attitude. Then Ramsay asked Ralph to help Jimmy on his station. In the dining room Elsie bounced back from her first flambé and started to deliver great fruit flambés to most of the customers which were all satisfied. After a heated argument between Jimmy and Ramsay where Jimmy shouted at Ramsay because he did not put the halibut in the pan as supposed to, Ramsay decided to shut down the kitchen while telling Jimmy and Jessica that both of them let him down during that service.

Post-mortem

Ramsay told the remaining contestants that he was disappointed because the beginning of the service was impressive but then collapsed. Despite, he was impressed by Ralph’s great work after being pushed around a lot during the last couple of weeks and named him “Best of the Worst”. Ralph was told to nominate two of his teammates for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Elsie pulled Ralph aside and told him to nominate her as she was tired of being in the competition and was not as fast as the rest of the chefs. Michael was not happy to hear Elsie say that and Jimmy hoped he would not be eliminated that night. Later Jessica and Michael talked about her friendship with Ralph with the concern that Ralph might put her up for elimination despite Jessica not doing so last time. Ralph knew he has gotten close to Jessica since their time on the blue team but also knew he had to change up his gameplay now that they were competing individually.

Elimination

Ralph named Jimmy as his first nominee and Jessica as his second. After reminding him he was flying high 24 hours before. Ramsay eliminated Jimmy as he failed to bounce back from his mistakes and lost his temper. But before he left Ramsay congratulated him on how far he got in the competition and told him to keep his head up high. Jimmy received a retrospective montage of his run during his exit interview.

Ramsay’s comment: “Each and everyone of these contestants now have to start emerging as individual talent. This is where we really start to find out who can handle the heat and who can’t. Clearly tonight, Jimmy couldn’t.”

My opinion

My nominated was Jessica and Jimmy and Jimmy to leaving hell kitchen. Ralph nominated was the same as mine.

My comment: Jimmy was on top 24 hours ago but after tonight service he was not on top so he left.

Gordon choose Jimmy

The sixth episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on July 11, 2005. On that episode, there was the first ever blind taste test, the first menu created by the teams themselves, and a satisfying elimination of the most egotistical chef occurred.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

Following Chris’ unexpected elimination, Elsie was in shock because she truly believed she was going to be eliminated. However she was comforted by Jessica who told her that if she was still there, it was because she was deserving to. Moments later when everybody was on the patio Ralph was still surprised and amazed by that decision saying he learned a lesson which was that he and Michael had to be more focused if they want to win because anything could happen. Jessica realized her chances of winning were still there because it could happen to Ralph or Michael also.

Team challenge

Before the challenge Ramsay had some words of encouragement for Elsie as he said she deserved to be there. But he had some harsh words for Ralph as he was not happy with his performance on the previous night’s service. With Chris’ elimination he had to understand that it could happen to him. After that Ramsay introduced the first annual Blind Taste Test. Each contestant had to identify four foods correctly with blindfolds and headsets on. Jimmy and Andrew went first. Andrew correctly identified chicken and Jimmy correctly identified radish. So after one round, the score was even at 1. Elsie and Jessica went head-to-head in the next round. After both missed ox tongue by guessing pork, Elsie got scallops but not Jessica. Elsie also guessed Caesar salad dressing and burger correctly getting her team up ahead by 3 with Jessica scoring no point. For the final round Michael and Ralph went against each other in the battle of the professional chefs. Both missed the first food which was veal sweetbreads. But because Ralph missed the spinach which he guessed romaine lettuce the challenge ended as it now became impossible for the blue team to catch the red team up. So the red team won the challenge 4-1. Elsie was praised as she had the best overall performance with 3 correct answers out of 4.

Reward

The red team enjoyed a wine tasting afternoon with Ramsay. Jimmy learned how to sip wine correctly, but laughed every time he tried, making everybody else laugh.

Punishment

The blue team had to wash the entire restaurant’s dishes. During the punishment, the three members of the team snapped, saying it was not right and unfair, and would rather enjoying Ramsay’s company instead of that crap.

As the second part, the blue team’s baby chickens were in the storage room that was locked. Ramsay gave the combination only once to get them.

Creating new menus

After the reward and punishment, the phone rang in the dorms and Jimmy answered. Ramsay told he wanted everybody down with their jackets on. Ramsay announced that for the next service, each team had to come up with a new menu. These menus would go head-to-head and the customers would decide which menu they would choose from. The red team showed great teamwork while creating their menu but in the blue team, Ralph took full control of the menu, annoying Andrew, who had a great idea for a braised salmon. This idea was shut down by Ralph, who said he preferred poached halibut.

Before service

During prep, the red team showed great teamwork again while in the blue kitchen, Ralph was trying to tell Andrew how to poach halibut. Ramsay told the teams that even though it was their menus, it was still his standards and reputation. When the blue team got their baby chickens out of the locked storage room, Sous Chef Scott caught Andrew taping the door so it would not lock again. That led him to give Andrew a piece of his mind and putting the baby chickens back in the storage room.

Dinner service

When the first order came in the red kitchen, Jimmy sent a bacon-wrapped scallop dish to the pass but it was undercooked, so he had to start again. In the blue kitchen, Andrew got the team off to a good start with his salad appetizers. Because of the backup in the red kitchen and appetizers flying out of the blue, some diners at same tables received meals at separate times. After a hair was discovered in one of the blue team’s appetizer, Jessica said it was not hers but Ramsay responded by saying he did not care about who’s hair it was. When Jimmy sent his second scallop appetizer, it was overcooked, prompting Michael to come to his help. With the help of Michael and Jimmy successfully sent out acceptable scallops to the pass. Andrew served perfectly cooked food but on cold plates. Because of that Ramsay asked him to start over. When he did, Ralph told Jessica to lend a helping hand on Andrew. She poured the broth in the halibut plates and when Andrew sent them, they were acceptable. Moments later, however they came back, and Jean-Philippe had to explain to both Andrew and Ralph that the halibuts were overcooked and tasteless.

In the red kitchen, the entrées flew out of the kitchen as Michael cooked the duck breast and filet mignon to perfection and they were well received by the customers. When an order of mussel paella came in the red kitchen, Elsie was excited to cook it as it was her children’s favorite. However the customers did not give great reviews on her dish. When Andrew’s halibut was still undercooked, he told Ramsay he needed six minutes on the hot plate but Ramsay gave him four leading Andrew to declare that it was not chemically possible to cook the fish that fast. When Jimmy tried to bounce back from his first scallop dishes, the new dish he sent was not seasoned enough so Ramsay asked him to season it a little more. Near the end of service some female customers waved at Ralph because they found him cute but when he waved back, Ramsay gave him a piece of his mind saying he was not in a mood for smiling and autographs could be taken care of after service. Moments later Ramsay shut down both kitchens because too many orders came back. Michael and Jimmy had a heated argument after the latter could not deliver a proper scallop dish, where Michael called Jimmy a fatty.

Post-mortem

Ramsay started by congratulating both teams on their improvement because nearly the entire restaurant received food. He praised Michael’s outstanding performance and the fact he came out of Chris’ shadow. After Ramsay told Jimmy his performance was disappointing, Jessica’s performance was consistently average and Ralph that he was not there to flirt. Despite the red team’s menu being less popular, they won the service because their food was of better quality than the blue team’s, citing that the blue team’s halibut returns were the main contributor. After that Ramsay asked the blue team who was responsible for the halibut dish but Ralph did not answer, much to Andrew’s annoyance since it was Ralph’s dish in the first place and Andrew answered for him. Jessica was named “Best of the Worst” because she did not take part in the blue team’s halibut conspiracy and was asked to nominate one of her teammate for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Jessica congratulated the red team for their victory but expressed disappointment in losing. Andrew continued to rant that he did not want the halibut dish on their menu and was angry that Ralph did not own up to it. After listening to Andrew’s rant, Jessica finalized her decision while Michael secretly hoped that Jessica would nominate Ralph as he was the biggest competition so far. Then Jessica met Ralph and reassured him that she would not nominate him, but warned him that she needed to stand on her own feet and not look like an idiot. Meanwhile, Andrew continued to vent his frustrations to Michael and Jimmy at the patio.

Elimination

Jessica named Andrew as her nominee but Ramsay for the first time ever had a nominee of his own. So Ralph joined Andrew on the chopping block. Ramsay eliminated Andrew mid-plea after he failed to stand up for himself and refusing to take responsibility for his mistakes.

Ramsay’s comment: “So we’re down to the final five. These are the best of the best and the cream is slowly rising to the top and they all really have to start emerging as individual talent. Andrew’s gone tonight because he’s out of his depth and I discovered a fake; he can’t cook!”

My opinion

Elimination

Gordon ask Jessica to nomination one person instead of two for tonight.

Jessica have the same elimination as me. Which was Andrew to leave but Gordon also pick Ralph to go up.

My comment: Andrew moaning about the cooked halibut but if he cooked it well he would not got elimination. He wish he could tape his way to the next round.

Gordon choose Andrew

The fifth episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on June 27, 2005. On that episode, there was the first theme night and double booking in Hell’s Kitchen, and an unexpected elimination.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

Following Mary Ellen’s elimination, Jessica was heartbroken back in the dorms and started crying, claiming that it was not right. She was comforted by Elsie and eventually Chris. Meanwhile, Andrew got back in his room for some alone time. He knew he was not safe after being nominated twice in a row. That is when it was revealed that he taped a piece of paper on top of his bed saying “Shut your mouth”. The other contestants were talking about him saying that he could not support the heat of the kitchen for much longer.

Team challenge

Prior to the challenge, when Ramsay asked Ralph who was the strongest link on the blue team, he named himself in that position. He also named Andrew as the weakest, which infuriated the latter, who believed it was crap. When Ramsay asked Chris who was the strongest link on the red team, he considered Michael’s talent and ability, but eventually named himself in that position. Ramsay answered that he was loving the way Chris was putting himself forward on that executive platform, referring to his executive chef position. Chris also named Jimmy as the weakest, who saw that as an additional motivation and claimed that the weakest could go from bottom to top.

With the most successful dinner service behind them, Ramsay threw away the existing menu and declared that for the next service, Hell’s Kitchen would become a pasta restaurant. For the Pasta Making Challenge, after a quick demonstration of Ramsay on how to correctly make pasta and using Chris as a demo, even pouring flour all over his face, each team had 20 minutes to make as much pasta as possible. To even the teams, Chris was forced to sit out. Andrew and Jimmy were holding the pasta on their arms, prompting Ramsay to joke that Jimmy was looking delicious as a blonde. The red team won the challenge, managing to get 2.45 lbs of pasta acceptable, whereas the blue team got 2.41 lbs.

Reward

The red team was awarded a nice tour of gondola with wine and cheese. That was the red team’s third challenge win.

Punishment

The blue team had to make all the remaining pasta for the pasta themed dinner service. All the members were not happy about their loss and argued that their pasta looked better than the red team’s but Ramsay was unsympathetic about it and told the three of them to take their loss with dignity. During the punishment, Ralph was very upset as he still had not get out of the restaurant since the beginning of the competition.

Before service

The night before dinner service, Michael began to apply his strategy by trying to manipulate the other contestants, like Jessica when he tried to get her to say things about how the blue team feels after their loss. However Jessica spotted his plans. When Michael talked with Chris before the latter would get to sleep, he told him he was his friend and that he would love to get to the finals against him. After that, Michael went outside to have a talk with himself and the billboard that was showing Ramsay’s face.

Because the restaurant was hosting a double seating, Ramsay announced that one team would cook and the other team would serve during the first seating and switch at the second because the red team won the challenge, they had to decide if they would cook or serve first. An hour before service, Elsie announced that her team would cook first, so Ramsay asked the blue team to get in the dining room with Jean-Philippe. Jessica was very insecure because she never waited tables before.

Dinner service

First seating

In the red kitchen, the first bowl of soup that Jimmy sent to the plate was dirty, so Ramsay asked him to clean it but was still dirty when he sent it for the second time. After that, Elsie and Chris had to send out the main courses but Elsie was confused and lost. After giving a bad timing, she was corrected by Chris and was given a pep talk by Ramsay who told her that no main courses have gone out as supposed to. Then Chris was schooled by Ramsay for his pretentious behavior when he responded “Oui chef”. Michael, who was on the dessert station did not help his teammates, thinking it would be a hindrance for him to win the prize and focused his attention on his desserts. In the dining room, Jessica gave random entrées to customers because they were tired of the wait, stating that she just wanted to make the customers happy. When the first seating was over, the red team failed to complete the tickets and in the blue team, Ralph received positive reviews from his customers while Andrew received a very hard and negative critic by one of his customers.

Second seating

When Ralph got back in the kitchen for the second seating, his confidence level was high. Little did he know, however, was that Michael was conspiring to give the blue team the hardest work during the service. They talked about getting as much lasagna orders as possible to the blue team because it was the hardest dish to execute. Ralph and Andrew got into a heated argument before the service started because Ralph accused Andrew of not listening to anybody. When the second seating began, orders of lasagna were piling in the blue kitchen. That was when the blue team knew that the other team was trying to sabotage them. Jimmy was nervous being a waiter and struggled to get his orders correctly. He ran up the stairs and some of his customers noticed he was sweating a lot. He was mixing up the orders and sending the wrong order at one table. Moments later, he received tips from Jean-Philippe telling him he had to stop touching himself, because he was touching his hair and his face a lot. In the kitchen because of the orders of lasagna, the blue team was dragging on their tickets and Andrew had trouble communicating. When a customer went to the kitchen for some feedback, Ramsay apologized and told him he could not do much for the moment. After what Ramsay called “dog’s dinners” were brought to the hot plate by Jessica and Andrew, he decided to shut down the kitchens with seventeen tickets to go as the two hour time limit was over.

Post-mortem

Ramsay read the customer comment cards to announce the winning team. The red team got more food out than the blue team. As for the the blue team, they left 42 of their customers without main courses. However, their food was rated as higher quality than the red team’s. The blue team’s service was good while the red team’s service was shocking, despite them having one more team member. Therefore, Ramsay declared the red team losers and after Ramsay reminded Jimmy about his dirty bowls, he named Michael “Best of the Worst” because of his strong performance on desserts. Michael was asked to nominate two of his teammates for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Jimmy pleaded his case to Michael but knew that his dirty plates would probably weigh heavily in Michael’s decision. Meanwhile Jessica and Andrew comforted Elsie who started to wonder if she could keep up with the pressure any longer. Michael admitted to Chris that he was stuck on who to nominate and Chris suggested to put Jimmy and Elsie up for elimination due to their poor performances that night. However Michael knew that he had to nominate people that would get him further in the competition.

Elimination

Michael named Elsie as his first nominee and Chris as his second, saying that Jimmy had a wonderful night and worked hard, which led Ramsay to congratulate Jimmy for being a bullet dodger. Ramsay eliminated Chris for failing to live up to his position as an executive chef. After Chris left, Ramsay had a message for the other contestants, which was the people who were always telling how good they are and self-promote but not deliver the goods was what was pissing him the most. Chris’s elimination served as a straight message to Michael and Ralph, which were the two most experienced chefs in the six remaining contestants. During his exit interview, Chris believed that as an Executive Chef, he deserved to still be around, and felt that Michael took the easy way out.

Ramsay’s comment: “When you come to the kitchen and announce that you’re an executive chef, you expect a little bit more than what I’ve got from Chris. He’s been telling the world that he has that amount of knowledge, than he should have been 10 times better.”

My opinion

I disagree with Michael nominated with Chris and Elise as my nominated was Chris and Jimmy and Jimmy to go.

My comment: Chris went out but Jimmy dodge leaving hell kitchen today after Michael not putting him up to make Chris go.

Gordon choose Chris.

The fourth episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on June 20 2005. On that episode, there was the first challenge win for the blue team, the red team accomplished a first at dinner service and the contestants learned that Ramsay is always watching them.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

following Wendy’s elimination, Jessica was already crying because she lost one of her friends. She was quickly comforted by Mary Ellen. But on the red team’s side, Jeff’s departure was a great relief because they thought he was more of a problem than a solution and they believed that not having him in the way anymore was what helped them to win their first service.

Ralph and Andrew spent time alone discussing the latter’s behavior and ego. Ralph told Andrew that he had to shut his mouth when entering the kitchen under Ramsay.

Team challenge

After the Sous Chefs woke up the contestants with air horns, they got down to their kitchens to begin prep. Ramsay invited them in the dining room for some time with Jean-Philippe, who explained them how to properly set a table. That was the introduction of the Perfect Table Challenge. Each team had 5 minutes to recreate Jean-Philippe’s table with the fewest mistakes possible.

After taking a look at the red table, Ramsay noticed four major mistakes. Some chairs were pushed out, the lids of the plates were to close to the border of the table, there were fingerprints everywhere and the napkins were not folded properly. When he came to the blue table, only one major mistake was noted, which was the lids of the glasses too close to the rims of the plate. Therefore the blue team won their first challenge.

Reward

As a reward, the blue team went back in the dorms for a day of relaxation, massages, and spa treatments, while drinking champagne and having candles everywhere.

Punishment

For losing their first challenge, the red team had to polish all the glassware and silverware for the next night’s dinner service. When Chris brought champagne to the blue team during their reward, he told his team what the reward was when he came back to the kitchen, making Elsie jealous. Jimmy was noticed by Jean-Philippe not being very careful as he dropped two glasses while cleaning them.

For the second part of their punishment, the red team had to arrange every table in the dining room before the doors of the restaurant would open. That made them lose valuable time of prep.

Before service

The night before service, Elsie discovered a huge billboard outside the dorms showing Ramsay’s face and the title of the show. She made everybody else take a look at it, all laughing when they saw it saying they could not believe it.

The next morning, Ramsay added frogs legs and pigeon to the menu. He showed the contestants how to prep those two items. Elsie was disgusted by the smell of the pigeon, but she went through it as her determination level was high.

The blue kitchen had a high level of confidence, while the red team was arranging the tables in the dining room. Ralph helped Andrew remember the garnishes by writing them on pieces of white tape. Ramsay announced the winning team of that service would be the one who would complete all its tickets first.

Dinner service

When the first tables arrived, Andrew acknowledged, after receiving tips from Ramsay and Ralph, that he had to shut his mouth if he wanted to succeed. Mary Ellen got the blue team off to a great start on the appetizer station with her tuna, leading the blue kitchen succeeding to get most of their appetizers out. In the red kitchen, Elsie started panicking after the first tickets entered, not being able to give a proper time for her spaghetti dish, and was comforted by Chris. When Jessica brought her first Wellingtons to the pass, they were cooked perfectly, and Ramsay told her to bring them all like that. However, Andrew could not deliver on the garnish station, not remembering what garnish was going with what dish, and bringing the wrong garnishes to the pass, which led Ramsay to lose his patience.

An hour and a half into service, the blue team completed all of their appetizers, despite Andrew’s troubles on the garnish station. In the red kitchen, Jimmy sent a cold garnish to the pass, and Ramsay asked him to start over. When he talked back to Ramsay, the latter threatened Jimmy by saying he would wash pans for the rest of his life if he would send another cold garnish. In the blue kitchen, Andrew failed to bring the right garnish again as he forgot the endives. When he was asked where were they by Ramsay, he did not answer, so Ramsay explained Jean-Philippe why the table was not ready yet, and the blue team had to start it again because of Andrew. Moments later, Jessica was praised with a good lobster spaghetti. In the red kitchen, Elsie was anxious but had a positive attitude, which led her to bring properly cooked Wellingtons to the pass.

With an hour left into service and five tickets to go for the blue team, three of Mary Ellen’s risottos came back because they were bland. So the blue kitchen came to a halt for waiting on her new risottos. In the red kitchen with six tickets to go, the team showed great teamwork by encouraging each other and congratulated Elsie for her good job on the meat station. Mary Ellen got a whole table back because she could not deliver a proper risotto, which showed that she was the main reason why her team could not keep up with the red team, which saw their tickets going down fast. Then, Jimmy was jokingly asked by Ramsay to stop dancing like a ballerina because of the blue team’s halt on risottos, the red team rallied to complete their side of the restaurant before the blue team. After that happened, Ramsay shut down the blue kitchen.

Post-mortem

Ramsay declared that this was the best service ever, as both teams made a comeback. However what shocked Ramsay more is that despite the red team had to go in the dining room to arrange all the tables before service, they managed to get all of their tickets done before the blue team. Therefore the red team was declared winners but Ramsay praised Jessica’s cooking and improvement, and named her “Best of the Worst”. She was asked to nominate two teammates for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Jessica knew that the feeling was bittersweet as, despite being happy for the praise Ramsay gave her, she had to decide which of her teammates would go home. As Jessica and Mary Ellen talked in the bedroom, Ralph feared that he might be going home even though Jimmy disagreed. Andrew was also worried as he had already been nominated before and there was little possibility of surviving another elimination. While Jessica thought of getting rid of Ralph for strategic reasons, she ultimately made her final decision.

Elimination

Jessica before calling her nominees, stated to Ramsay that her choice was hard because of the friendship that were developed between teammates. Then, she named Andrew as her first nominee and Mary Ellen as her second, hoping Andrew would be kicked off. Ramsay however had other plans and eliminated Mary Ellen for her inconsistency and the fact that she sunk her team’s chances of winning. Jessica took Mary Ellen’s elimination very hard emotionally as they were close friends. During her exit interview, Mary Ellen believed that Ramsay made the wrong decision in sending her home and that Andrew was the weak link in the blue team before predicting that the latter would be joining her very soon.

Ramsay’s comment: “Mary Ellen has left Hell’s Kitchen because of her inconsistency. What the rest of the team should understand, is that it is very crucial to get better and more consistent. That didn’t happen with Mary Ellen.”

My opinion

Intro

One of the blue chef was sad then Wendy was eliminated out of hell kitchen. The red team was happy that Jeff left yesterday.

Team challenge

For this challenge, the teams have to set up a table without make a mistake. The team who make the most mistakes are the losers.

Dinner service

Andrew was have trouble with the garnish for the blue team. For the red team Jimmy sent a cold garnish to the pass, and Ramsay asked him to start over. When he talked back to Ramsay, the latter threatened Jimmy by saying he would wash pans for the rest of his life if he would send another cold garnish. Mary-Ellen have her dishes sent back to her which make they have six tickets left to do but Gordon shut down the blue kitchen because the red team have finished all of their tickets.

Elimination

I agree with Jessica eliminations with Andrew and Mary-Ellen to go with Mary-Ellen to go.

My comment: The blue team would have won tonight if Mary-Ellen was not where, so I sent her packing.

Gordon pick Mary-Ellen to go.

The third episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on June 13, 2005. On that episode, happened the first team switch, and the first shocking exit in the history of the show.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

Following Dewberry’s elimination, most of the remaining contestants were already missing him especially Elsie as he was making her laugh every day. Then Ralph explained that he walked off the line and everybody who would do this in a restaurant would get fired immediately. At the same time, Jeff showed everybody his kidney stone but nobody was impressed as they found it really small even Elsie thought that it was a joke and Jessica compared it to a little mustard seed.

Team Switch

The next morning when both teams were lined up in the dining room prior to the challenge, Ramsay noticed that the red team was down 2 members after Carolann and Dewberry’s eliminations. So to even up the teams he transferred Michael to the red team while telling him that this was a great opportunity for him to become a leader.

Team challenge

Ramsay explained that each restaurant must be ready to host a VIP guest at any time so they would have to be creative and make stunning dishes. Then he announced the next challenge which was the Five-Course Meal Challenge where they would be hosting Ramsay himself as the VIP guest. Each team had 10 minutes to grab all their ingredients at a local grocery store by respecting the $100 limit. After that, they had one hour to prepare a 5 course meal for Ramsay.

At the grocery store, Jeff annoyed his teammates especially Elsie, as he was shopping by himself instead of being a team member. For the blue team, Ralph thought about bacon with 30 seconds left so when he got it, he threw it in the shopping cart with less than a second to go. Both teams respected their budget. When they got back to Hell’s Kitchen, Michael quickly became a strong voice in his new team, so did Ralph in the blue team, much to the annoyance of Andrew.

For the cold appetizer round, Jessica served a grilled pineapple with potatoes tartare style while Elsie served a salad. Elsie scored over Jessica as Ramsay found her salad not bad and Jessica’s dish tasteless. For the hot appetizer round, Ralph served a roasted corn chowder and Jeff served a white onion soup garnished with parmesan and roasted garlic crouton. Both of those dishes scored a point. After two rounds, the score was 2-1 for the red team. For the fish entrée round, Wendy served a ginger scallion pan-roasted salmon with bok choy. It was deemed not bad by Ramsay, and she scored for the blue team. For the red team, Chris served a dover sole with a cauliflower couscous and scallions. It was poorly received by Ramsay as he said it would be the kind of thing he would serve to a sick rabbit. After three rounds, the score was even at 2. For the meat entrée round, Andrew served a grilled rib-eye with mushroom sauce and white peaches. After questioning the idea of mixing white peaches with a rib-eye, Ramsay tasted it and said it does not work and found it disgusting. He scored no point for his team. When Andrew was in the confession box, he revealed that it was Ralph’s idea, which was confirmed in a flashback. For the red team, Michael served a grilled pork ass with mushroom garnish carved into the Hell’s Kitchen logo. When Ramsay saw this, he called him a smartass and jokingly asked him if he got it tattooed on his butt, referring to the large number of tattoos on Michael’s body. Ramsay found it delicious, and Michael scored for his team, taking the lead again at 3-2. Finally for the dessert round, Mary Ellen served a trio of crème brulée which Ramsay found delicious and Jimmy served a vanilla poached pear with feta cheese on the side, which Ramsay told that the presentation was simple, but did not enjoy the flavor. The challenge ended with a tie at 3. So as a tie-breaker, Ramsay evaluated how well the individual dishes were complementing each other, because of the poor combinations of the blue team, especially Andrew’s dish, he declared the red team winners.

Reward

The red team enjoyed a night out with Ramsay at the bar with drinks and a darts game. That was the red team’s second challenge win in a row.

Punishment

The blue team was punished by cleaning the dorms. That was the blue team’s second challenge loss in a row during punishment, Andrew took his frustrations out by angrily beating the rug on the patio railing.

Before service

During prep, Jeff left a hot sheet on the counter and Elsie picked it up, burning her hand in the process. That resulted in a discussion between the red team during the short break about if they would be better without Jeff. Moments later, when Jeff got up to join the conversation, he and Chris got in a heated argument about his behavior. Moments before opening both teams were confident and showed teamwork but Jeff was still struggling to get organised when very few of his stuff was ready so Chris and Michael had to help him out.

Dinner service

Before the first tickets arrived, Ramsay revealed to both teams that two internationally acclaimed food critics were in the dining room. Those two critics were Melissa Clark and Kate Krader. Jeff who was on the appetizer station brought two lobster spaghetti dishes which one of them had no lobster in it and the other had too many. So Michael had to reach over and help him redoing the spaghetti. Jeff blamed the fact that he has never been on a line before, which led to tempers flaring between him and Sous Chef Mary-Ann and eventually Chris. Ramsay immediately had to calm the situation down. In the blue kitchen, Wendy was on the appetizer station but she put cold water to cook spaghetti, as she thought cold water was boiling faster than hot water. When Jeff sent his lobster spaghetti and Michael sent his crab risotto to the critics, it received mixed reviews. Clark enjoyed Jeff’s lobster spaghetti but Krader did not like Michael’s crab risotto. When Wendy and Andrew from the blue team sent their appetizers out, both of them were poorly received. When Andrew’s crab risotto made it to customers, one of them became ill and started to throw up. When it came back to the kitchen, Andrew acknowledged that it was too salty even before Ramsay asked him to taste it. Then, he started to talk back to Ramsay even thinking that it was not his fault if the customer became ill leading Ramsay to school him on his behaviour after Jeff told that he needed five minutes, Ramsay lost his temper by telling him he asked for four minutes and that he would not follow Jeff’s requests. In the blue kitchen, Ralph was showing great teamwork when he helped Jessica who was struggling on the garnish station. Later, he was praised by Ramsay and by Jessica herself because of that.

Jeff’s exit

When Ramsay came back to the red kitchen, he asked Jeff who was working on his station, which he answered with Michael, who he claimed jumped in front of him and pushed him aside. Then Ramsay schooled Jeff about the struggle in the kitchen and the customers that were not fed. After that, Jeff started to walk out saying he was done but Chris tried to talk him back in the game. After a heated argument with Ramsay, where Jeff called him an asshole, Jeff took his jacket off and walked out of Hell’s Kitchen for good. After the announcement of his departure by Ramsay, the red team became furious, even Jimmy stating that Jeff lost his respect. Also Elsie stated that she would have vote him for the second time, had the red team lost once again.

In the blue kitchen, Wendy moved to the meat station. She was lost on time giving 10 minutes to Ramsay for her lamb to be cooked, only to be corrected by Ralph who gave 5 minutes, much to Ramsay’s relief. When Wendy’s lamb arrived at the critics table, it received mixed reviews. However, in the red kitchen after Jeff’s departure the red team rallied to send the remaining orders and Michael’s lamb received great reviews from the critics. However, it was not enough as more than half of the customers did not received their main courses and walked out. So Ramsay shut down both kitchens.

Post-mortem

Ramsay announced that both teams took a big step backwards, and that it was the worst dinner service of his career. He referred to the critics comment cards to declare the winner. No risotto were appreciated from either kitchen, but the cooking of the lamb in the red kitchen was way more accurate than the blue team’s. Therefore, the red team was declared winners, and for the blue team, Ralph was named “Best of the Worst”, and was asked to nominate two of his teammates for elimination.

Back in the dorms Jessica broke down into tears over the fear of being nominated despite Andrew and Mary Ellen trying to comfort her. Meanwhile Ralph thought over that night’s service, and noted that Andrew, Wendy and Jessica had miserable performances making his decision tough on which of the three he would choose.

Elimination

Ralph named Wendy as his first nominee and Andrew as his second. Wendy was eliminated because of her terrible performances in all three services and Ramsay stated that it was painful to work with her. During her exit interview, Wendy felt that she left everybody down, and was disappointed that she could not go further in the competition.

Ramsay’s comment: “The third night of Hell’s Kitchen was shocking, really bad. I’m hoping we step up a gear, raise our game, and we start coming together as a proper restaurant. Jeff, well, I had to laugh at the end when he called me an asshole, I’ve been called far worse than that! Wendy, well you know, it’s about time I put you out of your misery!”

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My opinion

Intro

Jeff show everyone his kidney stone but no one think he did have a kidney stone and Jessica said it looked like a little mustard seed. Most of the contestants were miss Dewberry.

Team challenge

For this challenge they host a VIP guest. The guest was Gordon because at every moment a celebrity can be in your restaurant. The score was tied 3-3 so Gordon evaluated how well the dishes were complementing each other. So the red team won.

Dinner service

For some reason Wendy thought cold water boiling faster than hot water. They were food critics in hell kitchen tonight. Andrew crab risotto make one of the customer ill and throw up.

Jeff exit

Jeff called Gordon an asshole which one of the sous chef heard him and to said it to Gordon’s face then Jeff took his jacket off and walked out of hell kitchen.

Elimination

My elimination was the same as Ralph and Wendy to go out of hell kitchen.

My comment: Jeff called Gordon an asshole but he was an bigger asshole for leaving and for Wendy she was boiling out.

Gordon pick Wendy to go

The second episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on June 6, 2005. On that episode there was the first challenge, a fun reward, a sweaty punishment, an unusual delivery and physical assault during dinner service.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode.

Intro

After surviving elimination, Dewberry was seeking a moment for himself in the bathroom but did not know that Elsie was in the bathroom too. After staring at each other in the eyes through the bathroom’s mirror, they hugged each other with Dewberry acknowledging that it was hard for her to make her decision.

Team challenge

At 5:55 AM, Sous chef Scott and Mary-Ann went in the dorms with cookware and banged them together to wake up everybody. The contestants were told to get in the dining room immediately. Chris was the only one who did not rush, taking his time to put a shirt on and brush his teeth. He came down seven minutes after everybody else. Ramsay schooled him by calling him a lazy fucker and telling him that from that moment on, he had to be with his team all the time.

Ramsay explained the next challenge, which was the cleaning squid challenge, designed to test the attention to details. After Michael was forced to sit out to make the teams even at 5 members each, Ramsay made a demonstration to the contestants about how to correctly clean a squid. Each contestant had 10 minutes to clean as many squids as possible. Even though he sat out, Michael was still allowed to give tips to his teammates.

For the red team, Jeff, Jimmy, Elsie and Chris scored one each while Dewberry scored two, despite the fact that he hated seafood. For the blue team, Ralph and Mary Ellen scored two, Jessica scored one and Wendy and Andrew scored zero with Wendy even blaming the fish and Andrew questioning Ramsay’s judgement. The red team won 6-5.

Reward

The red team was rewarded with a dinner with and prepared by Ramsay. During the dinner, Ramsay talked about his experience and personal life and everybody in the red team was having a great time.

Punishment

The blue team was punished by cleaning all the squids for the following night’s dinner service, as the first part of their punishment.

The second part was going through dinner service without any air conditioning. Ramsay explained that in his first restaurant, five minutes after the first table came in, the air conditioning stopped working but managed to get through dinner service to feed the customers.

Before service

The night before dinner service, Jeff was suffering of a kidney stone and was lying in the hallway in pain. When Jessica approached him to ask if he was okay, she touched him on the back and he fall further on the ground. She did not feel any sign of worry as she felt he was kind of a hypochondriac.

During prep, Dewberry gave an acceptable plate of spaghetti to Ramsay, who told him he had to do all of his dishes like that. Wendy was lost when she was trying to get organised on her station. Finally, Ramsay told the staff to take down the fans of the blue kitchen.

Dinner service

During dinner service in the blue kitchen, Mary Ellen got her team to a good start with her Caesar salads. In the red kitchen, Dewberry got the same success for his team with his appetisers which pleased the customers. When Wendy brought her first risotto to the hot plate, Ramsay told her the rice was undercooked and she had to start over with the help of Ralph. The latter managed to send out good risottos to Ramsay and customers’ relief.

An hour into service the red kitchen has sent out all of their appetisers and were beginning their main courses but Jeff who was suffering from a kidney stone the pervious night had trouble to stay focused and failed to send the vegetables to the pass at the same time as the fish and meat. So Ramsay got in his way trying to motivate him but all Jeff did was lament about his abdominal pain because of this, he slowed down him team.

Thirty minutes later in the blue kitchen when Sous chef Scott told the team that it was 140 degrees, Michael made a comment about how hot it was and Ramsay told him he was not looking for a drama queen and if he had won the challenge, his team would be fine like the red team. In the red kitchen, Chris took the role of leader by explaining to Elsie how to properly cook salmon on the grill. That was the first time where Chris showed great teamwork instead of contempt towards his teammates. In the blue kitchen, Andrew and Mary Ellen showed another type of teamwork. When she brought undercooked Wellingtons to the pass, he argued with her and tried to tell her what to do next time but she was more annoyed by his attitude than anything else. When Dewberry brought lamb and Wellingtons to the pass, the lamb was cooked perfectly but not the Wellingtons so he was asked to start again. After some encouragement from Chris and a fire started in a pan, Dewberry went to Ramsay to tell him that he was confused and did not know what he was doing.

Two hours into service, the red team only served 8 main courses to their customers. When a customer came to the kitchen to talk with Ramsay about the situation, Ramsay shut him down by calling him a fucking dick and an asshole. After that, Ramsay turned his attention to Dewberry, who told him that it would take 12 minutes for the next order of Wellingtons. When Ramsay questioned him, he said he had no idea of what was going on and after been called useless by Ramsay, Dewberry started to walk out of the kitchen but when he saw Elsie’s face, he could not walk out and got back to his station. Moments later customers went to the kitchen again and they were told to fuck off by Ramsay and after Ramsay went to Dewberry to explain him the problem. In the blue kitchen when Mary Ellen finally sent out acceptable Wellingtons, Andrew was trying to make himself look good in front of Sous chef Scott which really annoyed her.

Three hours into dinner service after tables started to walk out unfed, pizza was delivered to a table of customers and Jean-Philippe had to deal with a very arrogant customer. When that customer tried to make himself look good with his doctorate in music from the University of Southern California, he physically assaulted Jean-Philippe by hitting him in the chest with his index finger before being kicked out of the restaurant by a crew member. After witnessing that, Ramsay shut down both kitchens.

Post-mortem

When the teams were lined up, Ramsay referred to the customer comment cards to pick a winning team. For the blue team, the salads were horrible and even though they managed to get a few main courses out they were not that good. For the red team, their customers enjoyed the appetisers but half of them did not receive a main course. He also relayed the pizza incident to the red team. Eventually, Ramsay named the red team losers but praised Chris for his improvement over the last few days and his great teamwork during service. So Ramsay named him Best of the Worst and Chris had to nominate two of his team for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Jeff told Chris that he was doing fine until his kidney stone problems got in the way of his performance while Jimmy was disappointed in losing service for the second time in a row and pleaded his case to Chris. Dewberry regretted his decision in attempting to quit and knew he would have to work really hard to earn back back his team’s respect if he would survive elimination. Meanwhile, Chris was struggling with his decision on who to nominate but knew he had to cut dead weight from the red team if they wanted to win services.

Elimination

Chris named Dewberry as his first nominee, and Jeff as his second. Ramsay stated he agreed with that decision 110%. Dewberry was eliminated for letting his team down and almost giving up after his mistakes. During his exit interview, Dewberry admitted that he deserved to be eliminated, and knew that it was not justifiable for almost walking out on his team

Ramsay’s comment: “I’m looking for someone who can weather the storm, inspire individuals, stand as a great leader. That, clearly, is not Dewberry.”

My opinion

Into

Dewberry have a right to get payback at every time to Elise. Jeff was a lucky guy to not got booted out of hell kitchen but got a telling off by the blue team but the blue team didn’t do anything right yesterday. Chris arrived lated for Gordon but he a chef.

Challenge

The red team score 6 points for this challenge. Dewberry got 2 points for the team even thought he don’t like sea food. Chris got one point out of 4 squids. Chris want to up he game.

The blue team score 5 point for this challenge. Mary Ellen score 2 points for the team. Which mean Andrew need to score one point to draw with the red team but where was a big hole in the squid but Andrew think it was perfect.

Dinner service

Gordon said for he first time in he first restaurant the air cons went out after 5 minutes since the first customer came in. So he got rid of the air cons for the blue team. A customer went to the hot plate and ask how long it will be. He should know that the food was not coming out if he looked at the kitchen. Dewberry almost went back to the dorm but stop after seen Elise face. A customer went up to JP and talked about he shit education of music and point his finger at JP chest.

Elimination

My elimination would have been Jeff and Dewberry because Jeff lost control of his station and for Dewberry he almost left the kitchen. Chris and Gordon went with the same as me. I would have choose Dewberry to leave hell kitchen.

My comment: Dewberry almost left hell kitchen but after tonight Dewberry did make this come true.

Gordon choose Dewberry to go.

The first episode of Season 1 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on May 30 2005. On that episode we got to know the contestants of that season and the staff, the teams were divided and one contestant is eliminated not even twelve hours after arriving in Hell’s Kitchen.

Please watch the full episode before you read (below) to avoid spoilers about this episode

Intro

All the contestants arrived in Hell’s Kitchen and celebrated with a champagne glass and getting to know each other, Then Jean-Phillippe and Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann greeted them and gave them 45 minutes to cook their signature dishes.

Signature Dish Challenge

Andrew’s absolute penne was called “Absolute Dogshit” after Ramsay spat it out and then Ramsay told him his 10 years of experience in kitchen were a waste. Mary Ellen’s endive salad was deemed boring and Wendy’s fried rice with Chinese sausage was unimpressive as she did not put lobster in it because she did not know he was coming. Jimmy’s pan-seared chicken breast stuffed with Portabella mushrooms and goat cheese was overcooked outside and raw inside and the carrot tops were bitter, so Ramsay refused to taste them. Ralph’s seared tuna with Hong Kong noodles was called shit by Ramsay and after he told him he was number one at his restaurant, Ramsay did not miss the opportunity of making fun of him in front of everybody. Elsie’s turkey tacos were deemed not bad despite a terrible first Impression. Dewberry’s baked spaghetti was overcooked and compared to children’s food. Chris’s plank-roasted salmon was raw, and when he talked back to Ramsay, he was immediately put in his place by him when Ramsay told he had a lot to learn. Jeff served a steak with mushrooms and sauce and while the sauce was nice, the mushrooms were salty and the steak was overcooked so Ramsay ranked it 1 out of 10. Jessica’s shelled crabs cooked Cajun style were way too hot and Michael scallops which still had the roe on them with a quail egg were disgusting. Finally, Carolann’s chicken parmesan was the only dish who received praise because the chicken was very moist and cooked to perfection and the presentation was appealing.

Teams

Immediately after the challenge, the teams were built. The members of the blue team were Andrew, Mary Ellen, Jessica, Wendy, Ralph and Michael and would be working with Sous Chef Scott. The members of the red team were Jimmy, Elsie, Dewberry, Chris, Carolann and Jeff and would be working with Sous Chef Mary-Ann.

Before service

The first dinner service happened the same day that the contestants arrived in Hell’s Kitchen. So they had to learn 5 appetizers, 5 entrees and 5 desserts in a couple hours. During prep, Chris was shown to be very pretentious as he was mocking his teammates for having less knowledge than he did, claiming he would rather be on a team of dishwashers because they at least know how a kitchen was ran. Ralph and Jeff were assigned as waiters and would work with Jean-Philippe in the dining room.

Dinner service

In the red kitchen, Elsie was on the appetizer station. The first risotto she brought to the pass was completely overcooked, like if it was glued to the plate. When Ramsay waved it around, none of it moved. So, he trashed it and Elsie had to start over. One hour after opening in the blue kitchen, Michael ran out of lobster spaghetti and when he told Ramsay about the problem, Ramsay told him that as long as they got live lobsters and pasta, there was no reason to take it out of the menu. So Michael ran in the back store to get live lobsters. One of the blue team’s table got up to the kitchen and talk to Ramsay about the long wait, but when they arrived to talk with him, he told them to shut the fuck up and told the blue team to ignore the bimbos. So the ladies went back to their table and after that when Chris sent an overcooked salmon to the pass, Ramsay smacked the fish in his chest, telling him to redo the whole table over. Then, Jimmy sent what Ramsay called “a dog’s dinner” to the pass and while asking him if he would serve that, Jimmy answer he would not and Ramsay smacked it in his chest exactly like he did with Chris.

In the blue Kitchen, Andrew provoked Ramsay by asking if he would come down to tell him if the dessert he made was acceptable. So, Ramsay went to his face by telling him that he was not going to move from the hot plate and come down to him and that if he had a question, he had to come down to the hot plate himself. After her disastrous risotto, Elsie sent a second one hoping to redeem herself, which she successfully did. After a lot of struggling on the meat station, Jimmy was hoping to do the same as Elsie but when he went to the oven and grab the lamb, he did it with his bare hand, leading him to burn his left hand and see the medic. After Elsie was also struggling on the appetizer station, she reached over for some help from Carolann, which she was on desserts but the latter was doing nothing but staring at her team and waiting. When Jeff went to the hot plate ready to give his ticket to Ramsay, he was shut down by him telling he was not ready to take another order. In the blue kitchen, Wendy ran out of potatoes and the ladies who were called “bimbos” the first time went back to the kitchen one more time but were shut down even harder by Ramsay who asked Jean-Philippe to escort them back to plastic surgery. Despite some entrees were approved to get out of both kitchens, customers were so fed up of the wait that they walked out of the restaurant. After witnessing this, Ramsay shut down both kitchens.

Post-mortem

Ramsay chose the winning team by referring to the customers card. In the red team over half of the customers had an experience below average and got one only dessert. Jeff was disliked by everybody and after telling Ramsay that it was an horrible experience, Ramsay reminded him ironically that he wanted to win his own restaurant. In the blue team, Ralph was liked by most of his customers and Andrew sent four desserts out but nobody liked them. At the end, he declared the red team losers but told the blue team that they did not win and that they were just safe. Also he declared Elsie “best of the worst because of her consistency after her disastrous first risotto and asked her to nominate two members of her team for elimination.

Back in the dorms, Elsie did not like being in that position and Jimmy did not feel like talking to her as he knew he had no chance of staying after his poor performance. Carolann told Elsie that she kicked ass that night but Elsie left to lie down for a bit and brought Dewberry with her. Dewberry admitted that while he was not happy being here, he also did not want to leave the competition while Dewberry feared he would be sent home that night, Elsie promised Dewberry that he would not be going anywhere meanwhile Jeff confined in Wendy that he might be going home due to the fact that all of his tables hated him and Elsie began to decide who she would nominate.

Elimination

Elsie nominated Carolann because of her lack of knowledge and despite convincing Dewberry that he was not going anywhere, she made him her second nominee because of his lack of energy and interest. After hearing Elsie’s nominees, Ramsay told Jimmy and Jeff that both of them dodged a bullet. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Carolann because of her lack of teamwork and experience. During her exit interview, Carolann expressed anger that her opportunity was gone and felt very disappointed.

Ramsay’s comment: “Some can handle it, some can’t. I’m not interested in the ones who can’t!”

My Opinion

Hell kitchen look very odd to the hell kitchen now. I explain later on. The significance dish challenge was the first challenge of season one and hell kitchen and it is the important one to introduce yourself to Gordon Ramsay.

Hell kitchen look odd because Gordon is more tough on them. The kitchen is less organised than hell kitchen now. The narrator is more calm.

 Significance dish challenge

It was the worst significance dish challenge because almost everyone dish was bad to Gordon. For example Wendy didn’t put lobster in because she didn’t know he was coming but she was told he was coming by one of the Sous chef. I thought Elise dish was a bit basic to do and Dewberry’s dish looked a fucking mess.

Dinner service

Elise first dish of tonight didn’t move a tiny bit on the plate. The two ladies who came to the hot plate was asking to get told to fuck off. Chris have a plate smack off his chest after he know he sent it wrong then Jimmy said he won’t let chef do the same to him but seconds later Gordon did the same thing to Jimmy. Carolann don’t look like she can give a shit about her team. The ladies went back to the hot plate to get roasted by Gordon again. Dewberry didn’t move a muscle.

Elimination

I thought that Jimmy and Dewberry would be up for elimination because Jimmy burned his hand and cooked badly, Dewberry didn’t move at all and Dewberry to left hell kitchen but Carolann and Dewberry was up. I thought that it was a dick move pulled by Elise by telling Dewberry that she was not going up. I can see why Gordon got rid of Carolann also I thought that both of them give a shit excuse to stay at hell kitchen.

My comment: Dewberry didn’t move a muscle tonight, the only movement he did was leaving hell kitchen.