The twentieth episode of Season 11 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on July 18, 2013. In that episode, the final four competed in the Taste It Now Make It Challenge, took turns running the pass, and Ramsay picked two of them for the finals.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Mary was praised by the other chefs for her fightback. Mary knew she had so much left to give and was ready to fight for her life in the final four before expressing disappointment in her poor performance as she has not had a poor service in a long time. However, while Mary told the others that she understood why they voted for her, she still felt she was not weak, which Cyndi took in annoyance, especially when Mary felt everybody, but the latter, would deem Susan the weakest if Ramsay asked. After, Cyndi still deemed Mary as a weak chef, and come the next day, the latter would sink instead of swim.
Individual challenge[]
The next day, the final four came downstairs. Ramsay compared dishes to a puzzle due to the multiple components needed and had Sous Chefs Andi and James bring out puzzle pieces for the boards behind him. After Cyndi commented that it was not long ago when she did a puzzle, Ramsay broke the final four into two pairs, with Cyndi and Ja'Nel as one pair, and Jon and Mary as the other. However, Jon felt it was not the real challenge, but he was ready for anything.
As the puzzle challenge began, Jon tried to start with the edge pieces, but with the pieces cut in different shapes, he felt they could be anywhere as he and Mary struggled. On the other side, Cyndi felt Ja'Nel was not working with her on the puzzle, but the latter called it harder than it looked. Eventually, the pair of Jon and Mary got their puzzle completed first. Still, as predicated, Ramsay revealed it was not the real challenge. He told them to look at the picture of the dish as now they had to think of what was used before announcing the Taste It Now Make It Challenge, much to Cyndi’s excitement.
The chefs had 30 minutes to recreate Ramsay’s dish, and the person closest to the original was the winner. The components for the dish included a protein, purée, and a diced vegetable. As the final four tasted the dish, Ja'Nel revealed her strategy was to taste only the milder stuff first before going for the meat. Mary knew she had an advantage due to being a butcher, as she was around meat cuts and believed the main protein was bison. Cyndi cooked both venison and buffalo simultaneously, even though she was 95% sure the cut was the former, and Ja'Nel cooked with venison as well. Jon used beef and trusted his gut instinct, but for the purée, everybody used butternut squash. Ja'Nel struggled between either turnip, parsnip, or celery root for the diced vegetable but picked parsnip alongside Mary. Jon used celery root. However, Cyndi went with a turnip. Ten minutes left, Mary tasted the demo dish again but felt it was lamb instead of bison and hoped it was finished on time. While the lamb was raw, Mary decided to plate it as she thought it was the correct protein regardless. Eventually, everybody got their dishes cooked and plated on time.
When it came time for judging, Mary knew her lamb was raw but was confident that she could win with the other ingredients, while Cyndi called it hard when Ramsay gave her no feedback. While Ja'Nel was disappointed in her messy presentation, she was confident she got it right. At the same time, Jon wanted something from Ramsay when the latter gave him no feedback. After, Ramsay announced that the dish used venison, meaning Ja'Nel and Cyndi’s dishes were safe. Still, Ramsay was more disappointed in Mary as he thought she was going to nail the protein. Then, Ramsay announced that he did not use butternut squash for his purée, as he used carrot instead, leaving the diced vegetable as the final component. In the end, Cyndi was declared the winner as she used turnip. Still, while Cyndi was happy to win a challenge by herself finally, Ja'Nel was upset she lost another challenge by an inch.
Scoring[]
| Taste It Now Make It | |
| Chef | Score |
|---|---|
| Cyndi | 2/3 |
| Ja'Nel | 1/3 |
| Jon | 0/3 |
| Mary | 1/3 |
| Results | Cyndi |
Reward[]
Cyndi was rewarded with a $1000 shopping spree at Sur la Table and lunch with Ramsay at his own Fat Cow restaurant in Los Angeles. During the reward, Cyndi noticed the moving truck outside for the punishment and said hanging with Ramsay was the reward of all rewards. At Sur la Table, Jean-Philippe joined Cyndi, revealing he had Ramsay’s private expense card with him for the shopping spree. Cyndi wanted to give her mom a mixer for all she has done for her. At the Fat Cow, Cyndi called herself the luckiest girl in the world to have Ramsay two feet away from her and eat with him before asking what more could she do. Ramsay suggested that Cyndi steps out of her comfort zone, and she knew she has not been as vocal as she could have been before promising to do so that night.
Punishment[]
The remaining chefs were punished by participating in moving day, including moving all the unneeded mattresses and furniture out of the dorms and into the truck. Ramsay reminded Ja'Nel how she lost with a parsnip as the three chefs went back to the dorms. During the punishment, Ja'Nel was very vocal about her hatred of moving, while Mary felt humiliated by her poor performance. Later, Ja'Nel complained that one of the mattresses smelled like farts. Mary disgustingly found someone’s thong in the woman's bedroom. Ja'Nel called it disgusting as Jon refused to touch things with his bare hands. After finding an egg salad sandwich on the ground, Jon called the dorms horrendously, and Ja'Nel felt she could not eat anything after what she saw. As the three moved the mattresses down to the truck, Jon sarcastically commented how nice it was to have two physically weak women not know what they were doing before deciding to carry the remainder himself.
Before service[]
After the punishment, Jon wanted to lay down and relax, but a phone call ordering the three chefs to go down and prep cancelled that plan. As they began prepping for service, Ja'Nel complained about having her hands scratched, while Jon complained about having a headache. As Cyndi returned from her reward, Mary was not in the mood to look at her purchases as they needed help. After prep, Ramsay announced that the final four would run the pass one at a time as he wanted to see how they led the kitchen. In addition, Ramsay revealed that at the end of that night, only two chefs would be left to compete in the finals, which took Cyndi by surprise. Mary felt they were under a lot of pressure now due to the risks. After, Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Kearran Giovanni, and Patrick Muldoon were seen in the dining room that night. As service began, Ramsay started the final four off, and Jon called it an important night before, hoping for Cyndi to get them off to a great start. Cyndi felt she had over four pans of risottos being fired as orders kept being called, but she was multitasking to Ramsay’s praise. After, Cyndi got her risottos accepted and felt she deserved to be in the final two before stepping up as the first chef to run the pass. Despite feeling she was a strong leader and could get vocal, nobody responded to Cyndi’s call out when she read the order. Ramsay told Cyndi to talk to them like a chef and not as she did at the dorms. Thankfully, Cyndi’s second attempt proved successful, but unknown to her, Sous Chef Andi sent up a risotto with crab instead of lobster. Despite feeling she had it, Cyndi plated the risotto without knowing it was incorrect. However, Ramsay told Cyndi the mistake, forcing a refire, and she asked why she could not have tasted crab. Despite that, food was leaving the kitchen, and Cyndi ended her performance as a “good but not great” ranking.
Ja'Nel was up next, but barely anybody responded to her call out, which she noticed as dysfunctional like with Cyndi. Deciding to command the kitchen, Ja'Nel rejected Cyndi’s capellini for lack of seasoning twice and accused the latter of making her look stupid. Then, Ramsay reminded Cyndi how she started strong on appetizers before accusing her of sabotaging Ja'Nel. The latter not only felt she was in the middle of a shit storm but feared her impending elimination if she could not run the pass. Cyndi argued she was not sabotaging Ja'Nel, while the latter decided to turn it around and become the leader Ramsay wanted before accepting Cyndi’s third attempt. On their next order, Ramsay decided to start firing entrées. Andi deliberately sent up cod instead of the halibut on order. However, Ja'Nel caught that mistake even after plating it, even asking where it came from as cod was not on the menu. Jon was surprised by Ja'Nel’s strong performance.
As entrées and appetizers were leaving the kitchen, it was now Jon’s turn to run the pass, and Ramsay reminded him to run the kitchen and not let them run him. However, Jon read out an incorrect order Jean-Philippe gave him as it called for a Wellington without pork on it. Cyndi knew that could not be done as the prosciutto was already wrapped in before service began and sarcastically asked if he wanted them to crack one open and take out the prosciutto. After telling off Jean-Philippe, Ramsay reminded Jon to read the ticket in his head before calling it out. Then, a communication breakdown occurred as nobody knew what was going on due to Jon’s lack of vocal on the pass, and Mary knew they needed a leader. That resulted in Ja'Nel serving raw lamb, Mary serving burnt garnishes, and Ramsay berated Jon for letting that happen. So, Jon told the two women their mistakes and refused to let the team run him. Still, when Ja'Nel did not speak to him on the refire, an irate Ramsay gathered everybody and told them to count down in sync. After, Ja'Nel’s refire was accepted, and then, Sous Chef Andi sent up butterfish instead of scallops. Despite feeling he had the kitchen running, Jon began plating without noticing the mistake until Ramsay pointed it out. That dismayed Jon as he should have felt the touch of it.
Mary was the final person to run the pass and refused to let her nerves get the best of her before calling out the order very vocally. Jon felt it was an appropriate time to use her squeaky voice. Then, Mary rejected Jon’s scallops for looking burnt and feeling rubbery. While Ja'Nel was excited to see Mary empowering, she felt the latter was acting like a tyrant. At the same time, Mary rejected Cyndi’s risotto for being cold. As Mary wanted to show Ramsay she could lead, both Cyndi and Jon got their refires accepted, and then, Sous Chef Andi sent up a Wellington stuffed with lamb instead of beef. However, Mary caught the mistake due to the size of the portions and knew her beef due to being a butcher. At the same time, Cyndi now saw Mary as a strong competitor. As the final order was completed, Mary felt she did the best out of everybody and redeemed herself from earlier that day.
Post-mortem[]
After service, Ramsay told the final four that while he had a lot of thinking to do on who deserved to be in the final two, he wanted each of them to think of why one of them deserved to be in the final two.
During deliberation, Cyndi and Jon admitted how hard that night was as the former felt some people would be delusional on how good they were on the pass. Still, Cyndi felt she deserved to be in the final two. Ja'Nel knew that nobody had a perfect service that night. Still, at the same time, nobody was a shoo-in to get a piece out, only for Jon to accused Ja'Nel of screwing him on the raw lamb, which reevaluated his opinion of her as a strong chef. Then, Cyndi reminded Ja'Nel of her going down under pressure like in the previous service, but the latter accused them of having tunnel vision. Everybody else sent up poorly made food that night, and Ja'Nel was frustrated with how they were targeting her out of only one mistake. After, Cyndi hoped for Ramsay to see it their way and send Ja'Nel home.
Elimination[]
When the final four came downstairs, Ramsay asked them why they deserved to be in the final two. Cyndi said she had been a competitor since the start and met the bar Ramsay rose, Jon wanted to push forward, Mary called herself a talented chef and would make a great Executive Chef for Ramsay, and Ja'Nel called herself strong and talented while knowing she could improve herself. After, Ramsay said he never had a more difficult time in the show’s history deciding a final two, but announced Cyndi as the first person not going into the final two, therefore eliminating her. Before leaving, Ramsay praised Cyndi for her fantastic attitude and that she was born to cook. During her exit interview, Cyndi received a retrospective montage of her time on the show.
After Cyndi’s exit, Ramsay announced it was time to announce the final two, and which two had a chance to become his next Head Chef at Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The first finalist was Mary, much to her excitement and did not think she would have made it. Ramsay praised Mary for being a strong competitor that has taken off. Even though he admitted he did not think Mary would last the first three dinner services, she changed him into a believer. Just before Ramsay announced whether Ja'Nel or Jon would join Mary, the episode ended in a cliffhanger.
Ramsay gave no comment on Cyndi’s elimination, and she did not receive the coat hanging and portrait burning sequence.
Trivia[]
- With this episode, Jon has set the record for most punishments done by a single chef in one season, with thirteen.