The eleventh episode of Season 10 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on July 9, 2012. In that episode, the Craps Challenge took place, one team was smitten by a special VIP guest at dinner service, and one chef was eliminated after failing to uphold his mentor's legacy.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Christina told the red team to drop any problems they had immediately and was very happy to see Robyn out of the red team. Then, Christina added that with five chefs left on the red team, they had to move forward, with Kimmie agreeing as they had to come together. Meanwhile, a fired-up Robyn was happy to be on the blue team as the men did not walk around with periods and promised to work as twice as her teammates would. However, Justin did not want any yelling or controversy from Robyn despite the latter promising not to backstab anybody.
Team challenge[]
The next day, both teams came downstairs, where Ramsay and the Sous Chefs revealed a craps table in the dining room, revealing that the Craps Challenge was up next. Each chef would roll a die, and whatever letter they landed on, they had to pick an ingredient that started with that letter. After, both teams had to create a dish using the ingredients they chose. Ramsay warned them to make sure the ingredients complimented each other. Kimmie was pumped as, despite never playing craps for ingredients before, she felt lucky. The blue team was up first, Clemenza rolled an H, and he picked heirloom tomatoes as it was something they could work with. Justin rolled a D and picked daikon, much to Clemenza’s dismay, and Robyn rolled a D as well. Despite Brian hoping she would pick duck as they needed a protein, Robyn picked dragon fruit instead. After, Brian rolled an E, and after struggling, he picked edamame. Ramsay reminded the blue team he was not opening a vegetarian restaurant in Vegas with four ingredients with no protein. At the same time, Dana mockingly told them to make a salad. Royce was the final person up, rolled a C, and picked chicken. Ramsay wished the blue team good luck after seeing their oddball ingredient list, and Tiffany called them idiots. The red team was up next, Tiffany rolled a C, and she picked chicory, much to Christina’s dismay. Barbie rolled an L and picked lamb, Kimmie rolled a T and picked turnips, Dana rolled a B and picked Brussel sprouts, and Christina rolled a T and picked truffles. With the red team having normal ingredients, Tiffany was confident they had it. Christina envisioned a fall harvest kind of dish.
Both teams had 30 minutes to cook a dish using their ingredients, but while the red team had a clear idea of what to do, the blue team struggled on a theme with their dragon fruit but decided to start cooking. In the red kitchen, Barbie wanted to input ideas for all their ingredients. Still, Dana reminded her to cook the lamb as it had to sear immediately even though Barbie was confident on the lamb. In the blue kitchen, Brian had an idea to make sushi out of the dragon fruit. With two minutes left, Barbie told Dana not to put the crispy leaves on the plate as Ramsay might hate them, but the latter got upset as they were her favorite. Justin was not confident their chicken was properly rested when Royce sliced the chicken. Eventually, both teams got their dishes cooked and plated on time.
The red team was up first as Dana presented their herb-crusted rack of lamb on top of crispy roasted Brussel sprouts and braised endives and chicory. Ramsay praised the cook of the lamb for being perfect, with Barbie feeling more confident and told Dana that she told her so. However, Ramsay criticized the Brussel sprouts for being a disappointment as they were too crunchy. That led Barbie to call Dana a dumbass for worrying more about the lamb than her Brussel sprouts. For the blue team, Justin presented their charred chicken roulade with dragon fruit vinaigrette, edamame purée, and daikon-dragon fruit sushi roll. Ramsay praised the sushi roll for tasting delicious, the purée for being nailed despite being a tough one to pull off but criticized the chicken for tasting dry due to Royce’s decision to slice the chicken too early. Royce admitted to screwing up. After a tough decision, Ramsay named the blue team the winners. Robyn felt amazing about winning her first challenge with her new team as she belonged with the men.
Reward[]
The blue team was rewarded with a day in Las Vegas, staying in the Paris Hotel in a high roller’s suite above the prized restaurant: Gordon Ramsay Steak. Royce was excited to go to Vegas. During the reward, Paris Hotel president David Hoenemeyer greeted them, making Clemenza excited about what was in store. At the room, Royce was excited at the spread of food and girls. Later, the blue team met with Carrot Top, making Brian very starstruck, and showed them many kitchen-related joke props, much to their humor. Afterwards, the blue team partied the night away.
Punishment[]
After the blue team left, Ramsay reminded the red team that the Brussel sprouts were the biggest letdown of the dish. Kimmie was pissed at Dana for serving burnt food before starting to shake. The red team was punished by slow roasting pork for a pulled pork special ahead of the following service, which would take 12–15 hours. While Kimmie was upset they lost, Dana was unsympathetic and told the former to get over it. Back at the dorms, a pissed Tiffany said she wanted to go to Vegas very badly. At the same time, Kimmie was pissed about the crispy Brussel sprouts that cost them the challenge and was more pissed at Dana acting like she ran the red team. After punching the bag by envisioning Dana’s face on it, Kimmie felt like wringing her neck as the former wanted to use the punishment as a bonding experience.
During the punishment, Tiffany was very comfortable with the pig they were prepping. Kimmie noticed that it was the happiest she saw Tiffany. Still, Dana felt Tiffany was acting creepy around it. Later that night, a loud buzzer went off every hour until one of them pressed the button next to the grill and check the pork, much to Kimmie’s annoyance. As the night progressed, the women were left tired, as Kimmie called it the worst punishment yet.
Before service[]
The next day, an exhausted red team began prepping for service. Still, they tried their best to keep themselves awake as Kimmie wanted to get ready for service. When the blue team came back from their reward, the red team got annoyed by Brian’s loud entrance. Once changed, the energized blue team began prepping for service. Still, Robyn was left confused as the men did everything differently than the women did. However, Royce did not care what Robyn told him about how the red team did things as she was on the blue team now.
After prep, Ramsay had both teams lined up and announced that he was opening the chef’s tables once again. The blue team served American Idol Season 9 winner Lee DeWyze and Season 10 finalist Haley Reinhart, while the red team was serving soccer player David Beckham and his son Brooklyn. That made the red team squeal in excitement, with even Christina, who was a lesbian, calling Beckham smoking hot. Afterwards, Ramsay asked James to open Hell’s Kitchen, even after the latter’s voice cracked.
Dinner service[]
In addition to the VIPs, Jay Glazer was seen in the dining room. As service began, the VIP guests arrived. Christina claimed that Beckham rode in a rainbow carried by a unicorn that was eating a cupcake before calling him a magical creature. Dana was assigned to wait on Beckham, who offered him a special pulled pork pizza appetizer. The red team began working on his order. Clemenza felt the blue team was on a roll after their challenge victory in the blue kitchen but sent up scallops that were not properly drained, which Justin deemed unacceptable at this stage of the competition. Despite feeling frustrated, Clemenza got the refire accepted. Dana was struggling on flatbread pizza in the red kitchen as it was stuck to the pizza over. Christina tried to help, but her attempt got stuck as well, and she felt they were fumbling more than ever. Despite that, the third attempt was accepted, the VIP table got their order, and the red team began pushing out the remainder of their appetizers. The VIP ticket was up in the blue kitchen, but after Brian broke a pizza in the over, a pissed Ramsay accused the blue team of giving up. Despite feeling that the ship was sinking on her first night with the men, Robyn refused to go down and got her attempt accepted. The red team continued to push out appetizers in the red kitchen, and Tiffany’s scallops were cooked perfectly, leaving her giving herself a pat on the back. Ramsay praised the red team for their smoothest performance on appetizers thus far.
One hour into dinner service, Robyn was leading Brian on appetizers. Brian took notice of her Robyn's in the kitchen and was very impressed. Thanks to Robyn’s leadership, the blue team was near the end of appetizers and moved onto entrées. Unfortunately, Royce’s three Wellingtons had different temperatures. An angry Ramsay asked him if he expected him to send them out to the same table, and Robyn deemed it unacceptable. Now forced to flip a ticket, Royce called out four minutes on order. Robyn accused him of not knowing what he was doing before comparing him to an ostrich with its head in the sand. Then, Royce revealed that he just put the New York striploins on, and they could take eight minutes to cook, leading Ramsay to call him out on his inconsistent timings. Brian felt Royce was all over the place with no chance of bouncing back. After Royce called out five minutes, an angry Ramsay yelled that he said the same thing five minutes ago before calling everybody minus Robyn into the back-pantry room. He ordered them to have a meeting, and if any of them did not get a grip and an attitude change, they could go away. Despite nearly having a deer in the headlights look and Sous Chef Scott barking out orders, Robyn began pushing herself to get the remainder of the appetizers out. While the VIP table and the blue diners grew hungry, the red team served half of their entrées to appreciative customers. However, Tiffany accidentally sent up a cod when sea bass was on order. That frustrated Barbie as her five pieces of meat were meat, and she asked Tiffany how she could not tell the difference between the two fish. While Tiffany said “oh shit” by her mistake, a frustrated Ramsay ordered her to get the sea bass in. Still, when Tiffany was cooking cod again, Ramsay accused her mind of being somewhere else if she made the same mistake twice. Despite that, Tiffany finally got a sea bass out, and the red team was able to complete the order.
Two hours into dinner service, the men were back in the kitchen, but Royce’s pork was so dry, Ramsay compared them to door stops while claiming they would take a year for a customer to finish. Justin was losing it as Royce worked in a steakhouse and should know better. When Ramsay showed them Clemenza’s weirdly colored cod, Brian accused him of not getting the hang of fish due to being confused, lost, and check out. After noticing Clemenza’s dirty jacket, Ramsay accused him of cooking like both a donkey and a slob before asking if he was ready to go home, but Clemenza said he was not. Barbie and Kimmie got Beckham’s table completed with high praise in the red kitchen, pleasing the former as she was in her element. Barbie’s perfect run on meat caused the red team to be nearly finished with their orders. In the blue kitchen, the blue team was still on their first table of entrées. When Royce said his refire could take ten minutes, that served to be the final straw as Ramsay showed them that they still had eleven tables left. In contrast, the red team had zero before calling four of the red chefs into the blue kitchen to help as Dana works desserts. While that left Robyn embarrassed, Tiffany called the blue team pathetic due to being disorganized in all aspects. An argument between Tiffany and Brian erupted as he did not like how the former looked down on him and was close to putting her head in the deep fryer. Then, Christina told them that it was not the time to make the blue team look even worse, and thanks to her leadership, the blue team was able to complete their orders.
Post-mortem[]
After service was finished, Ramsay gathered the red team, praised them for their best service yet, and named them the clear winners. That made Christina very happy as it meant they did not have to nominate somebody again. On the other side, Ramsay said that the only strong performer on the blue team was Robyn, before berating Royce on his poor pork, Brian on his poor flatbreads, and Clemenza’s performance was compared to a car crash. After telling them that the women blew them away, Ramsay asked the blue team to nominate two people for elimination.
During deliberation, Brian felt that Ramsay obliterated their souls before considering Royce and Clemenza for elimination based on meat and fish problems. However, that angered Clemenza as he had more fire in him before considering Royce and Brian for elimination. Royce argued he only had three mistakes that night compared to multiple scallops and flatbread mistakes Clemenza and Brian made. As Robyn struggled to decide on her first night, Brian pushed her to make one. Hence, Robyn named Brian and Royce for elimination, but when she requested Ramsay to decide, the blue team said no. With it being a three-way tie and Justin being the tiebreaker, Clemenza called it the craziest night ever.
Elimination[]
Robyn announced Royce as the blue team’s first nominee for elimination and Clemenza as their second. During their pleas, Royce said he beated himself up for his mistakes, making the red team laugh at that comment, but he walked back in prouder and trying to get better to Ramsay’s level of perfection. However, Ramsay reminded Royce that he was opening Gordon Ramsay Steak that year, not in 2025. After, Ramsay told Clemenza that he served more food on his jacket than he did to the diners. Still, Clemenza felt he had been on top of performances every day until having a brain fart on the scallops that night. While Ramsay felt he was done, Clemenza disagreed. In the end, Ramsay ordered both down to the front, told them to take off their jackets, and eliminated Royce for his poor performance on meat and failure to live up to Ralph’s legacy, with Ramsay telling him to give his regards to the latter. During his exit interview, Royce was not okay with leaving as he was better than everybody else, called himself driven, and strongly felt he did not deserve to leave.
As for Clemenza, Ramsay called him disappointing as he expected a lot more from him but gave him a clean jacket and told him to stay clean for one service. After Clemenza went back in line, Ramsay pointed out to the chefs that they started with eighteen of them and were now down to nine. While being dismissed, Clemenza thought he was done but was glad he was given a second chance, and it was do or die. Then, Christina was shocked they were down 50% and said she had to carry her confidence to beat out the eight other chefs.
Ramsay's comment: "Royce came in promising a Rolls-Royce service. But instead, his service was like a broken-down car. Time to send Royce to the junkyard."
Trivia[]
- This marks the second time a team lost its sixth consecutive service, following Season 6's red team.