The fourth episode of Season 1 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on June 20, 2005. In 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.
Intro[]
Back at the dorms, Jessica cried over the loss of Wendy as the latter was sweet and thoughtful, but at the same time, she knew Hell's Kitchen was changing as they were down to eight chefs. Jessica was quickly comforted by Mary Ellen. On the patio, Jimmy told the red team he would never walk out like Jeff did, and Elsie believed they won because the latter walked out while they held it together. Elsie thought Jeff was more of a problem than a help and the red team was relieved to see him gone.
Later that night, most of the chefs went to bed, but Ralph and Andrew spent time alone at the patio. Ralph asked Andrew if he was trying to achieve the role of a smartass, and the latter admitted he was one. While Andrew argued he stood up for himself, Ralph told him that he had to shut his mouth when entering the kitchen under Ramsay unless he wanted to be under the guillotine again.
Team challenge[]
At 6:58 AM, Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann woke up the contestants with air horns, with orders to head downstairs and prep immediately. Once downstairs, both teams began prepping for the following night's dinner service as the Sous Chefs taught the chefs how to properly prep Dover sole. Later, Ramsay had both teams lined up, and after explaining how they spend a lot of time in the kitchen, he invited them to the dining room for some time with Jean-Philippe, who explained to them how to properly set a table. However, everybody soon got bored with Jean-Philippe's speech as Ralph felt the former was going on and on, and Elsie felt that all the information was leaving as it was going. After, Ramsay introduced the Perfect Table Challenge by tearing the tablecloth off the table and spilling the contents off as a result, making Elsie realize that he destroyed their only cheat sheet.
Each team had 5 minutes to recreate Jean-Philippe's table with the fewest mistakes possible. While Jessica accidentally flipped the tablecloth the wrong side up, Ramsay told Michael and Chris not to throw the silverware onto the table as Elsie struggled to set the table up due to the complexity. Jimmy did not know how the napkins were folded, leading Chris to call him a big lummox, and Mary Ellen got annoyed by Andrew continuing to readjust the table. Eventually, time was up.
When Ramsay looked at the red table, Ramsay noticed four major mistakes. Some chairs were pushed out, the lids of the plates were too close to the table's border, there were fingerprints everywhere, and the napkins were not folded properly, with Ramsay accusing Jimmy of taking them out of a women's toilet. When he came to the blue table, only one major mistake was noted: the lids of the glasses too close to the rims of the plate. Therefore, the blue team won the challenge.
Reward[]
The blue team was rewarded with a day of relaxation in the dorms, which included massages and spa treatments while drinking champagne and having candles everywhere. When the blue team went up to the dorms, Sous Chef Scott provided each of them with robes to wear, asking if it felt good to win than to lose. During the reward, Jessica praised the smell, and Mary Ellen felt awesome to get a massage after a tense time. Later, Chris served them champagne, while Ralph felt the blue team had an advantage for the following service for having a good high and being both physically and mentally prepared as they toasted to a future victory.
Punishment[]
The red team was punished by polishing all the glassware and silverware for the following night's service. During the punishment, Jimmy accidentally dropped two glasses while cleaning them, leading Jean-Philippe to call him clumsy. Then, Jean-Philippe asked Chris to bring champagne to the blue team during their reward, but the latter called it a hard pill to swallow. When Chris arrived at the dorms, he served them champagne, and back downstairs, he told his team what the reward was, making Elsie jealous as she would have loved an hour of relaxation.
Before service[]
Later that evening, the chefs gathered at the patio for some downtime as Mary Ellen and Jessica called Jean-Philippe a character, while Andrew asked if the latter had gas sometimes. Then, Elsie discovered a huge billboard outside the dorms showing Ramsay's face and the show's title. She made everybody else look at it, all laughing when they saw it saying they could not believe it. However, Jessica felt a little creeped out, and Andrew thought he heard Ramsay call him a wanker from above.
The next day, Ramsay added frogs' legs and pigeon to the menu and showed the contestants how to prep those two items. Jessica was horrified at the pigeon prep as it had a disgusting smell, and so was Elsie as she refused to touch it. As the chefs prepped the pigeon and frog legs, both Chris and Michael were disgusted by the smell, with the latter sarcastically thanking Ramsay for that. In the blue kitchen, Jessica got frog juice in her eyes, while Andrew called it difficult to learn two new items in a short amount of time. While the blue team had a high level of confidence, Elsie struggled to prep the pigeon and gagged by the visual but went through with it as she had a do-or-die attitude that day.
Thirty minutes before service began, Ramsay had both teams lined up, and after wanting that night to be a comeback, he announced the winning team of that service would be the one who would complete all its tickets first. Jessica hoped that Andrew would shut his mouth for once so they could get through service, while Michael got excited by the news Ramsay gave them and was ready to do anything to make the red team the winners. For their second part of the punishment, the red team had to arrange every table in the dining room before the restaurant's doors would open. As they began their second part, Jean-Philippe told the red team they would not go back in the kitchen until they had his approval. Still, Elsie was more focused on the service as they were losing valuable prep time. Meanwhile, the blue team completed their prep and began working on getting their stations prepared. Sous Chef Scott was amazed at how well Mary Ellen got her station set up. She felt very good about the blue team's situation compared to the red team, who just completed their second punishment. As they raced to get prep done, Chris refused to let Ramsay down that night, while in the blue kitchen, Ralph helped Andrew remember the garnishes by writing them on pieces of white tape, which the latter appreciated.
Dinner service[]
When the first tables arrived, both teams received their first orders, but Elsie had no idea what temperature the oven should be at to cook meat, worrying Michael as if the red team lost, he would push for her elimination. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay told Andrew to run the garnish pairings through his head, and the latter acknowledged 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 to get most of their appetizers out. In the red kitchen, Elsie started to panic, not giving proper time for her spaghetti dish to Ramsay's dismay. He wanted Elsie to calm down, and she was comforted by Chris. In the blue kitchen, Jessica brought her first Wellingtons to the pass after asking for Ralph's opinion, they were cooked perfectly, and Ramsay told her to bring them all like that. However, Andrew could not remember what garnish was going with what dish and brought up the wrong garnishes to the pass, leading Ramsay to lose his patience and forced a do-over.
An hour and a half into service, the blue team completed all their appetizers, despite Andrew's troubles on the garnish station, and have served a couple of entrées. In the red kitchen, Jimmy sent a cold garnish to the pass, and Ramsay asked him to start over. When Jimmy talked back to Ramsay, claiming he was trying his best, the latter threatened him by saying he would wash pans for the rest of his life if he would send up one more cold garnish. In the blue kitchen, Ralph got his desserts accepted, completing the blue team's first three tickets, leaving them with only twelve left. However, Andrew failed to bring the right garnish again as he forgot the endives. When Ramsay asked where they were by, he did not answer, so Ramsay explained to Jean-Philippe why the table was not ready yet, and the blue team had to start it again because of Andrew. Despite that, the blue team continued to send out food, and Jessica was praised with a good lobster spaghetti, leaving the blue team with only ten tickets to go. In the red kitchen, the red team only had ten tickets to go, and Ramsay told Elsie to focus and get in the game. Despite feeling anxious, Elsie had a positive attitude, which led her to bring properly cooked Wellingtons to the pass.
With an hour left into service, the blue team had five tickets left to go, but Jean-Philippe sent back three of Mary Ellen's risottos because they were bland and mushy. So, Ramsay refused to send out any more food until Mary Ellen sent out the refires. With six tickets to go in the red kitchen, the red team showed great teamwork as Chris encouraged everybody and congratulated Elsie for her good job on the meat station, even though she knew service was not over yet. In the blue kitchen, Mary Ellen forgot the tuna for order as she did not hear it earlier, and when she revealed it could take two minutes to cook a fresh tuna, a frustrated Ramsay decided to send the entire table to her, making her mad to the point of wanting to punch him. In the red kitchen, the red team made their final push as they only had four tickets left, much to Elsie's relief, and eventually, they were on their last ticket. Then, Jimmy was jokingly asked by Ramsay to stop dancing like a ballerina. After completing their final ticket, Sous Chef Mary-Ann expressed proudness towards the red team, and Jimmy felt good to complete a service for the first time. Elsie teared up as the guys were proud of her strong performance. Afterwards, Ramsay shut down the blue kitchen as Andrew blamed Mary Ellen for being a disaster, while the latter felt he had big problems no matter the night.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay declared this was the best service ever, as both teams made a comeback. However, what shocked Ramsay more was that despite the red team having to go in the dining room to arrange all the tables before service, they managed to finish before the blue team. Therefore, the red team was declared winners, and afterwards, Ramsay told the blue team leaving five tables without food was not good enough. Ramsay did not name Ralph the "Best of the Worst" like last time but instead gave it to Jessica for her spot-on cooking. She was asked to nominate two teammates for elimination.
During deliberation, Jessica knew the feeling was bittersweet, 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 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[]
Before announcing her nominees, Jessica stated to Ramsay that her choice was hard because of the developed friendship between teammates. Then, she named Andrew as her first nominee, and Mary Ellen as her second, hoping Andrew would be eliminated that time. During their pleas, Andrew felt that he was a learning machine due to keeping his mouth shut, but Ramsay believed that him being nominated twice in a row indicated that his teammates did not like him. Then, Mary Ellen felt she did well on appetizers until she slowed the kitchen down. Ramsay reminded her that they had to stop the kitchen due to the risotto returns, which he deemed disgusting. Although he considered both of their performances disappointing, Ramsay 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 Ramsay made the wrong decision in sending her home and thought Andrew was the weak link in the blue team before predicting he would be joining her very soon.
After Mary Ellen left, Ramsay deemed Andrew a lucky boy for surviving yet another elimination. While being dismissed, Andrew believed that the most important lesson in Hell's Kitchen was to shut up in front of the devil, while Chris expressed shock that Andrew survived before realizing that Ramsay's decision was not an obvious one. However, Jessica disagreed with Ramsay's choice as she felt Mary Ellen was a sweet innocent girl and was the better teammate.
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."
Trivia[]
- This episode marks the first time the blue team won a team challenge.
- This marks the first time a team completed an entire dinner service without being shut down.
- As this was Michael's fourth dinner service win, he set the record for most consecutive wins in a season (excluding joint-victories).
- The Perfect Table Challenge is the only challenge in the show's history not to involve cooking in any shape or form.
| Hell's Kitchen Season 1 Episodes |
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| Day 1 • Day 2 • Day 3 • Day 4 • Day 5 • Day 6 • Day 7 • Day 8 • Day 9 • Day 10 |