Episode 1107 - 15 Chefs Compete

15 Chefs Compete
Season	11
Episode	7
Airdate	April 16, 2013
Eliminated	Jessica
Saved	Susan, Dan, Ray
Episode Guide
Previous	16 Chefs Compete Part 2
Next	14 Chefs Compete

The seventh episode of Season 11 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on April 16, 2013. In that episode, Chinese Cuisine was the main theme, the four probated chefs worked hard to get their jackets back, and poor communication led to chaos in one kitchen.

Intro

During the recap of the previous episode, Jeremy received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence for the first time since his elimination.

Continuing from the previous episode, Ramsay told Mary, Nedra, Dan, and Ray that they were on probation before sending them back in line. He explained that they would have to earn their jackets back by the end of the following service; failure to do so will result in their immediate elimination. While being dismissed, Nedra and Mary expressed how relieved they were about still being there, and Cyndi told the latter that she was a cat as she had nine lives. Mary was determined to show that she deserved to have her jacket back by declaring that she would fight with everything she had. Mary comforted Nedra by rubbing her back and convincing her that they would have their jackets back.

On the patio, Anthony threw Dan under the bus as he thought he messed up the fish station. Still, Dan listened behind the wall, and when Michael told that he would rather have somebody positive than negative on the team, Dan told off his teammates. Then, he revealed himself while smoking a cigarette, Jon told him off, and Zach said he was a piece of crap. After an awkward silence, Dan told his teammates that they would never earn his respect back and that he would get his jacket back the next day. However, Ray was not convinced about that because he acted like a little bitch, and Jon urged Dan to back up his talking fast.

Team challenge

The next day, both teams went into the dining room, with Nedra being desperate to get her jacket back. They were greeted by Ramsay, who told them that they would be working with Chinese food, referring to the Samurai statue. Zach declared that he loved Chinese food as there was a small Chinese restaurant on the other side of his street. Ramsay introduced the Chinese Dish Creation Challenge, where each team would create one version of six traditional Chinese dishes: Chow Mein, spring rolls, dumplings, soup, fried rice, and stir fry. Dan was extremely confident as he lived in Asia for one year. Ramsay revealed that their 200 fortune cookies contained the name of an ingredient. Two people from each team would man the board to determine which five ingredients would go into which dish, with everybody else carrying the cookies to the board with the help of chopsticks.

When the countdown began, everybody ran to the plate of fortune cookies in front of the statue. Still, when they arrived, the statue started to move, making everybody flinch and laugh. Ramsay told everybody to get back in line because that was too easy. Then, Sous Chefs James and Andi brought two baskets of huge fortune cookies for the chefs to carry to the board. Nedra was dismayed as she was not even able to pick small fortune cookies with chopsticks, Ramsay asked both teams to decide who would man the board. For the men, Dan revealed that he lived in Asia for a year and wanted to man the board as he knew that big risks were giving big rewards. After that, the women revealed that Ja'Nel and Jacqueline would man the board as both of them were the most comfortable with Chinese cuisine. The men revealed that Ray and Dan would be, much to Ramsay's concern, as they were on probation. However, Dan was confident as the ingredients were picking themselves, so he could not mess up. Then, the three-minute countdown began.

Ray and Dan went to the men's board, Ja'Nel and Jacqueline went to the women's, and everybody else started to pick cookies with their chopsticks and run to the board with them. However, Ray was annoyed with Dan asking questions about which ingredients would go and thought he went to Asia for a year. While everybody was running to gather their cookies, Nedra declared that she would have worn three bras if she knew she had to run as she was determined to tie the bitches down. At the last minute, Cyndi was worried as she saw that most of the dishes only had four ingredients when five were needed. So she decided to help Ja'Nel and Jacqueline by shouting out ingredients that were lying on the table. Still, despite Cyndi's efforts to help, Ja'Nel and Jacqueline did not succeed in putting a fifth ingredient to five of the dishes in time. On their side, Ray and Dan succeeded, and the dumplings even had a sixth ingredient, much to Amanda's concern. Ramsay noticed that the women only had one dish out of six with five ingredients, and Mary acknowledged that Ja'Nel and Jacqueline blew it for them.

When the 40-minute countdown began for the second part, both teams went into their respective kitchens to organize themselves. Susan did not know how to figure out six dishes between eight people. Cyndi was shocked that there was no rice for any of the dishes while acknowledging that Ja'Nel and Jacqueline dropped the ball. Nedra wished that she had cabbage for her spring rolls, Ja'Nel told her that she put it on the board, but Cyndi reminded her that they would have it on the board. In the blue kitchen, the men were confident, with Zach motivating his teammates, but Anthony revealed to Jon that he did not know how to make chow mein. So, Jon taught him how. Anthony declared that he did not know what to do with his ingredients, and even after Jon taught him how to cook it, he was still struggling. Mary felt good about working with Cyndi in the red kitchen, but she also wanted her jacket back and wished she could have worked on her own. While everybody started plating, Zach was not confident as the blue kitchen was a hot mess. Anthony was convinced that they would lose again as he called his dish catastrophically terrible. Despite that, everybody plated their dishes in time.

Chef Martin Yan was invited as a guest judge. Anthony was dismayed as he did something he never cooked before for a world-renowned Oriental cuisine chef. On the first round, which was the fried rice round, Dan was extremely confident that he would get his jacket back as he lived in Asia for a year, and he went up against Jacqueline. She presented her firm tofu with chili peppers, scallions, rice wine vinegar, and beet sprouts. Still, Yan revealed that it was the first time he tasted fried rice with rice wine vinegar, but it was praised for working. Then, Dan served his fried rice with mushrooms, coconut milk, peanuts, and sweet and spicy prawns, which the presentation was praised. Still, the rice was deemed undercooked, much to Zach's dismay as he wondered if that was how he ate rice when he lived in Asia for a year. Jacqueline won the round, the red team led 1-0, and Anthony suggested that Dan returns to Asia for another year. Jon presented his stir fry with noodles and sea scallops on the stir fry round, and Yan declared that it was not easy not to overcook it. Still, it was praised for not being overcooked. After, Jessica served her stir fry, but the presentation was immediately criticized. When Jessica said that she did not have many ingredients to work with, Ramsay told her not to make any excuses in front of Yan, much to Ja'Nel's annoyance. Jon won the round, tying the score at 1, much to Anthony's relief. On the spring rolls round, Barret's zesty-lime spring rolls were praised for being very imaginative, while Nedra's peanut Sriracha spring rolls were criticized for not being very Oriental style. Barret won the round, making the score 2-1 for the blue team. On the fourth round, which was the dumpling round, Ray's crab dumplings were praised for the presentation, and Cyndi's honey soy dumplings were praised for being sweet, sour, and spicy. Cyndi won the round, tying the score at 2. Ja'Nel's lemongrass red Miso soup was praised for the ingredients complementing each other on the soup round. Michael's sweet and sour halibut soup was praised for the presentation, and both of them scored a point, with the score still tied, at 3. On the final round, which was the chow mein round, Susan presented her rice noodle with pork, which was deemed good but was criticized for not having many contrasting colors. Then, Anthony presented his wheat and rice noodle chow mein with daikon radish and ginger, which was deemed interesting by Yan. The texture was praised as well, much to Anthony's disbelief. After deliberation, when Dan prayed for the blue team to win and Susan was not worried, Anthony won the round, much to his excitement, and the men won the challenge 4-3. Barret was extremely relieved the blue team finally won a challenge. Chef Yan was dismissed. Dan and Ray were allowed to have their jackets back, with Ray kissing and hugging his jacket while declaring it would stay with him.

Scoring

Red Team			Blue Team
Chef	Score	Total	Chef	Score	Total
Jacqueline	1	1	Dan	0	0
Jessica	0	1	Jon	1	1
Nedra	0	1	Zach and Barret	1	2
Mary and Cyndi	1	2	Ray	0	2
Ja'Nel	1	3	Michael	1	3
Susan	0	3	Anthony	1	4
Results					4-3

Reward

The men were reward with a paintball activity, and while going back to the dorms to change, Dan was very excited to have his jacket back. When they went to the red kitchen for their reward, the men cheered, and Dan declared that what went around came around.

Arrived at their reward, Jon did not care what the reward was. When they discovered they would play paintball, Zach immediately targeted Dan and everybody else afterward. When Barret succeeded in shooting Dan, Zach declared it therapeutic.

Punishment

The women were punished by cleaning both kitchens for the next service and making potstickers and steam dumplings from scratch. Mary was worried because she was on her last leg and knew that she would be history if she did not get her jacket back.

The women began by cleaning the kitchens, and when they were making dumplings, Cyndi called it tedious while declaring that she did not like punishments. Then, Nedra declared that she just wanted to be done to have a snack, but when the women sat down for lunch, Sous Chef Andi brought a plate of balut eggs, which disgusted Jacqueline. When they cracked their eggs, Amanda declared that she would not put hers in her mouth as it had everything, from legs to feathers. However, Susan wanted to get it over with as they had a lot of work to do and Mary did not want to eat it if she would make eye contact with it. When they ate it, most of the women, especially Amanda, started to vomit. Also, Amanda stated that she would have rather eat raw chicken than that, and after, the women got back to work.

Before service

When the women prepped their kitchen, Mary declared that she felt like puking again. The men came back from their reward, acting as an army, and Barret proclaimed that it was time to get serious again about knocking the service out.

When both teams lined up, Ramsay felt that they were ready for a bloody good service and declared that they would host chef's tables. Rex Lee would be dining at the blue kitchen's chef's table, who Anthony acknowledged was the crème de la crème, and Adam Shankman would be dining at the red kitchen's. After he asked Mary and Nedra if they were ready to get their jackets back, which both answered they were, Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to open Hell's Kitchen.

Dinner service

When the first customers entered, Susan motivated her teammates. Barret was confident, and Ja'Nel and Ray were dedicated to serving dim sum tableside. When Ramsay called the first ticket in the red kitchen, Nedra was determined to have her jacket back as it was protecting the body, from the arms to the hoo-has. Jacqueline was ready to walk with the lobster, and when Nedra sent her first risotto to the pass, it was deemed delicious, and she earned her jacket back. Nedra was incredibly proud of that, and appetizers were flying out of the kitchen because of her and Mary's good performance. In the blue kitchen, Anthony and Jon were sending out appetizers at a good pace as well. However, Ray was behind with the tableside dim sum, Ramsay urged Jean-Philippe to make him speed up, and Ray said that his teammates were killing him because he was on his own. So, he went back to the kitchen and asked for a new risotto because the first one was becoming cold, much to Ramsay's dismay, and a risotto refire was called. On the following ticket, Anthony gave two minutes. Then, the VIP guests for both chefs' tables arrived, with Cyndi taking the order for Shankman's table. When Ramsay called the following ticket in the red kitchen, Mary declared how nervous she was as Nedra already had her jacket back, acknowledged that her time was running out. Still, Mary's risotto was deemed delicious, she got her jacket back, and Ramsay urged her to keep hold of it, with her teammates congratulating her. Because of Mary's efforts, combined with Nedra's and Ja'Nel's, all of the appetizers were served on the red side. Nedra did not want her teammates to mess up the good momentum that she and Mary got in place. Susan looked confused at the meat station on the following ticket, and Jessica called her a mess. When Jessica asked her for a time, Susan did not answer, much to her dismay as she had two fish on that ticket. Jessica said that Susan needed to get her head out of her ass as the latter took the chicken out of the boiling pot. In the blue kitchen, appetizers were finally served at a good pace, and they moved on to entrées. Zach served the chef's table while acknowledging that it was essential to Ramsay, so he wanted to give the best service possible with a smile. Barret was confident to be on fish on the following ticket as he was used to cooking it. However, when Dan reminded Barret that it was for the chef's table, he called the latter an asshole and told him he should shut up when he kept asking for times. When Barret sent his shrimps to the pass, they were raw. He was disappointed in himself, Ramsay berated the men for serving that in front of the chef's table, and Dan said that Barret was not as good as he thought.

In the red kitchen, Susan's chicken was accepted. On the chef's table's order, Susan thought that Ramsay felt confident about her running the meat station on her own, felt ahead of her game. Still, when Susan sliced her lamb, she discovered it was raw. Susan called those lamb sons of a bitch as they were taking forever to cook and went to the convection oven to cook them further. Jessica sent her cod and halibut to the pass despite Susan still not being ready. Ramsay urged Susan to hurry up. Susan knew that everybody was yelling at her but could not make the oven cook any faster, and when she took out the lamb from the oven, it dropped on the floor, much to her dismay. She revealed her mistake to her teammates, and Nedra said that Susan should get it together very quickly. Susan gave five more minutes for the chef's table, with Shankman being aware that they screwed up their order. Jessica said that working with the meat station was becoming chaotic after Susan gave four minutes. When Ramsay called Susan blondie, she corrected by saying five minutes, much to Jessica's annoyance as she was getting different times. Jessica's fish was overcooked because of it. Then, Ramsay discovered an entire order of overcooked fish at Jessica's station, and she revealed that it was there for the previous five minutes, much to Ramsay's dismay. He asked Jessica why she was not communicating with the meat station. Jacqueline acknowledged that the meat's inaccurate timings caused Jessica's mess. Susan gave seven minutes for the chef's table, much to Ramsay's dismay. So, Ramsay decided to serve the other tables in the meantime. Jessica's halibut was accepted, and the customers were satisfied. Barret sent his second attempt at the halibut for the chef's table in the blue kitchen, and it was accepted. Zach served them, and Michael acknowledged that the men could not mess up anymore. Still, Michael was dismayed because they had to depend on Dan, and the latter was excited to work on the meat station by himself. When Dan was ready to walk with his lamb, Barret gave 90 more seconds, Ramsay urged the latter to hurry up, and Dan's lamb was accepted before he rubbed it in Michael's face. Then, Dan arrogantly said that it was perfect because he cooked it, compared himself to Charlie Sheen was he was always winning, Michael told him that he was doing fantastic, and his Wellingtons were beautifully cooked as well.

In the red kitchen, Cyndi served the entrées to the chef's table, but Jessica's halibut was raw when they moved on to their last ticket. Ramsay schooled Jessica for not being bothered about it, told her teammates that she was done. Still, Jessica retorted that she was not. Dan served perfectly cooked Wellingtons in the blue kitchen once again, but Barret was behind with his halibut. He gave four minutes, and Ramsay sent an incomplete table, reminding Barret that he was on fish to be tested. Michael urged Barret to send the table because he was eager to finish the service. However, when Barret sent his halibut to the pass, it contained a piece of parchment paper for a group of older ladies. Zach wondered if Barret was trying to kill people, reminding him that if it was swallowed, Jean-Philippe would already be on the floor doing CPR maneuvers. Ramsay called Barret a joke while telling him that he should have been ashamed, to which Barret agreed. In the red kitchen, the women were excited to be on their last ticket, but Ramsay asked them to shut up as they were on the last ticket for a lot of time. Finally, they succeeded in serving their last ticket, and in the blue kitchen, Zach served the remaining tables while apologizing for the delay. The service was completed, but nobody was happy.

Post-mortem

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay declared that he did not expect ridiculous errors as they did, and both teams were named joint-losers. They were asked to nominate their two weakest chefs, each for elimination.

While going back to the dorms, Dan was happy as he was one of the few who performed well, which he called a victory. Amanda wanted to throw that service away after crumbling it into a ball as it was chaos. During deliberation, Nedra reminded that the fish station went down despite having two people, Ja'Nel targeted Jessica for not taking responsibility. Still, Jessica argued that she did, but thought that Susan had bad timings, much to the latter's annoyance as she should not always blame others for her mistakes. Jessica still believed that she was communicating and deserving to be there. Still, Nedra reminded Jessica that she threw at least ten pieces of fish in the garbage. Jacqueline added that it was because of the refires before considering Susan for her bad communication. Then, Susan reminded that she was on meat by herself, that communication should have gone either way and was convinced that she was not the weakest chef before declaring that she would put the biggest fight of her life to stay if she would be nominated.

On the patio, Jon considered Barret for his poor performance on fish, which Dan agreed. Still, Barret did not think that he deserved to be eliminated and thought that Ray should be nominated for backing up on tableside. Then, Barret deemed Ray as the weakest link because of his age and possible memory loss. Anthony also considered Ray for his poor tableside work. Still, Ray did not think he deserved to be nominated as his tables with dim sum had a good time because he was cooking for a long time and still thought he was better than everybody else. After that, Anthony reminded that Ramsay asked for the two weakest chefs on the blue team, so he considered Dan, much to the latter's confusion. While Dan called it back-handed shit, Jon deemed Dan as dead weight. Dan reminded that everything he sent was perfect before daring his teammates to nominate him so they could see how it would go.

Elimination

Mary announced Jessica as the women's first nominee and Susan as the second for the poor communication. Then, Dan announced himself as the men's first nominee despite having a great service. Still, Jon said that he was constantly slipping through the cracks, and Ray was the second. During their pleas, Jessica was accused of being like deadpans during service as she was not answering and just staring. Still, Jessica declared that she was not done and had a lot to show and to give. Susan admitted that her timing and communication were off but promised that she would come back and fight. After, Ramsay was tired of seeing Ray nominated and dismayed that he was not cooking in the kitchen. Ray knew that he was looking for a chef or line cook. Still, Ramsay corrected by saying that he was looking for a leader before adding that he could not control a tableside trolley. Then, Dan said that his performance spoke for itself and considered that Barret should have been nominated instead. Still, Barret disagreed by revealing that the men based their decision on overall performance. After deliberation, Dan was sent back in line as despite his teammates believing that he was not a team player, he could cook, and Jessica was eliminated for her lack of passion and poor communication. During her exit interview, Jessica thought she was confident throughout her experience, but she knew it came off as not being passionate enough for Ramsay's liking.

After Jessica left, Ramsay reminded everybody that only those who were passionate would survive with their long way to go. While being dismissed, Anthony was disappointed that Dan was still there as he knew it would be hard to live with him from that moment. Also, Dan declared that he would not be a team player anymore and just thinking about himself before adding that his cooking would speak for itself. Susan was determined to put everything on the table to fight as her goal was to win the competition.

Ramsay's comment: "When Jessica first arrived, I had high expectations for her. Unfortunately, she let us both down."

Trivia

• This is the only time in the show's history Ramsay put people on probation.
• The samurai warrior that moved was played by stunt actor Richard Brooker, best recognized for playing Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th Part III. He passed away on April 8, 2013 and was dedicated at the end of the episode.