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The fourteenth episode of Season 12 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on June 12, 2014. In that episode, the annual Blind Taste Test took place, an unexpected chef made a comeback at dinner service, and an arrogant chef pushed their Sous Chef to their limit, leading to a satisfying elimination.

Intro[]

While returning to the dorms, Gabriel felt like he dodged another bullet but did not think he would avoid too many more. Joy urged Gabriel to come back flawlessly the next day. Gabriel called it a chance of a lifetime and vowed there would be no more mistakes after that night as there were no more chances for him. Meanwhile, Melanie was excited to be on the blue team, while Jason and Rochelle were happy to have her on the team. Melanie felt that since she was a leader on the red team, she could be the leader for the blue team and prove that she could do it no matter where she was. When Melanie suggested changing up the routine with the blue team, Jason asked if they were that much of a downer, but they laughed over it.

Team challenge[]

The next day, the chefs came downstairs. Ramsay showed them four uniquely executed dishes: tuna tartare, ice cream sundae, spaghetti and meatballs, and a slice of carrot cake, making Kashia hungry for the latter. Ramsay had Joy, Anton, Gabriel and Rochelle taste the dishes. The dishes did not taste like they looked, as Gabriel called it the nastiest spaghetti and meatballs he ever had. Ramsay asked why Gabriel was scratching, the latter replied that the spaghetti tasted like crap. Ramsay revealed that the spaghetti and meatballs were a strawberry and apricot marinara with date and walnut meatball on a bed of zucchini, which Gabriel called gross. Next, Ramsay revealed that the carrot cake was a veal and bread crumb mixture with duck fat and mashed potatoes as the icing, leading Rochelle to thank him for making her eat that. Then, the ice cream sundae was mushroom gravy, and the tuna tartare was watermelon. Ramsay said the dishes were made fool the chefs, not to taste good. He was trying to point out that the one thing chefs can depend on is their palate, which led Ramsay to announce the annual Blind Taste Test as their next challenge.

Joy and Rochelle were the first to compete, but while Rochelle hoped to get at least one right, Joy felt awkward with Ramsay feeding her while blindfolded. They both correctly identified pear and carrots, but only Rochelle identified filet mignon, making the score 3-2 for the blue team, much to her satisfaction. Anton and Gabriel were next, and after three incorrect guesses, they both correctly guessed mozzarella. The blue team led 4-3, but Anton thought he did not do so badly. Scott and Jason were the third chefs to compete, and the latter was confident as his background was in meat. However, while Scott correctly identified hot dog and radish, Jason failed to correctly guess all the ingredients, giving the red team the lead of 5-4. Gabriel was disappointed with Jason getting no points as he knew the latter was better than that. On the final round, Kashia and Melanie could not identify parsnip and bell pepper. Melanie spat out the chicken, which she guessed turkey, and Ramsay said that if Kashia was right, the red team won. However, she also guessed turkey. It came down to cheddar cheese. Ramsay said if Melanie was wrong, the red team wins. Melanie guessed Gruyere cheese, and Kashia correctly guessed cheddar, giving the red team the win at 6-4. Kashia was happy the red team won, giving her a boost of energy and confidence. At the same time, Melanie apologized to the blue team for screwing up as Ramsay singled her and Jason for costing their team the challenge.

Scoring[]

Red Team Blue Team
Chef Score Total Chef Score Total
Joy 2/4 2 Rochelle 3/4 3
Anton 1/4 3 Gabriel 1/4 4
Scott 2/4 5 Jason 0/4 4
Kashia 1/4 6 Melanie 0/4 4
Results 6-4

Reward[]

The red team was rewarded with skating lessons with former Olympic figure skater Rachael Flatt, even though Kashia said it would be her first. The red team was amazed by Flatt’s skating skills during the reward, although Anton was more focused on her ass. At the same time, Kashia had a lot of emotions going through her while trying to skate. As Scott teased Kashia for being afraid of everything, Anton wondered if she saw ice outside of a glass as she went off the rink. Later, Flatt showed Scott some skating moves, although Anton called him a teacher’s pet like he was in the kitchen, but the latter fell when he tried to replicate her spin.

Punishment[]

The blue team was punished by unloading shipments of ice and making ice cream by hand. Jason was sure that Melanie would win the challenge for the team, but he was only angry at himself. During the punishment, Rochelle did not want to deal with that, and Jason carried two blocks of ice as he wanted that day to be over with, only to drop one on the ground to Sous Chef James' annoyance. When chopping the ice, Melanie’s hand started to cramp while Gabriel did not think it would be a workout. Jason noticed that Gabriel was not in it that day, much to his concern. When the blue team worked on the ice cream, Rochelle realized that Jason forgot to add stuff to his churner other than ice, which she called embarrassing.

Before service[]

Later that day, the red team came back from their reward, although Jason noticed Anton limping as the latter said he pulled something during the reward. As both teams began prepping for service, Anton and Joy discuss the timings for the convection oven, but the latter said they should know this by now as Anton asked about the oil for salads. That led Joy to comment that there were certain things money could not buy, like common sense, but Anton felt the red team was doing things differently than the blue team. Gabriel was quieter than usual in the blue kitchen, something Melanie took notice of, but he said he was focused. While Melanie wanted him to stop moping, Jason felt that Gabriel was depressed rather than focused, and Rochelle asked him what the matter was. Seeing that, Ramsay took Gabriel to the back pantry, making the latter fear he was getting an ass-chewing before service began. Ramsay told Gabriel that he was worried about the lack of fight back, and if he got in the weeds, he should bounce back as he has not given up on him. Afterwards, Gabriel took the advice to heart, declared that there was no more joking around, and he planned on making that night’s service the best. Then, Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.

Dinner service[]

Ryan Pickett and Dante Basco were in the dining room that night. As the red team got their first order up, Scott allowed Anton to help him on appetizers, shocking the latter as that meant the former was learning to ask for help. With Anton’s help, Scott’s appetizers were accepted, and Ramsay ordered him to keep it all the same. In the blue kitchen, Melanie tried to communicate with Jason on timings. Still, Jason was late on cooking the lobster tail. Even though Melanie never worked with Jason before that night, she hoped the latter knew what he was doing as Ramsay asked him for the lobster tail. Despite that, Jason got his first attempt accepted.

Forty-five minutes into dinner service, both teams were off to a great start as most of the dinners received their appetizers. Still, on the red team’s last order, Kashia walked up an incomplete serving of scallops. When Ramsay asked Kashia what three times five was, she had a brain freeze before saying 15. Ramsay asked Scott to give him a fresh scallop, but the latter fired an entire order instead of a single scallop, annoying Anton. However, an emotional Kashia said she did not need any help as her scallops were not rubbery, and she got it accepted. Rochelle sent up her first chicken order in the blue kitchen, but it was pink, which Gabriel knew was a big 101 rule. Although Rochelle claimed that she would have eaten that, she apologized to her team for her mistake.

One hour into dinner service, Kashia sent up her salmon entrée. Still, it was braised without authorization, and Ramsay even warned her not to put words in his mouth when she tried arguing that he wanted all the fish like that. Scott said that was not the right way for Kashia to cook fish, and the latter started to give an attitude to Ramsay. When Ramsay asked Kashia if she was okay, the latter said she would bounce back as Scott tried to calm her down. In the blue kitchen, the blue team was concerned about what was going next, but Gabriel decided to step it up and gave his teammates what was going out. It worked as the blue team got refocused, and Gabriel's garnishes were accepted. Anton was getting flustered on meat in the red kitchen, leading Scott to offer his assistance by slicing the chicken. However, Scott ended up walking up pink chicken, and although he blamed Anton for not cooking it properly, the latter called him a vindictive rat. As the red diners were getting restless, Kashia walked her salmon. Still, Anton said he needed ten more minutes on the Wellingtons. Ramsay asked the red team for some communication, and Joy said that the two men sucked on the red team as Kashia's perfect salmon was sent back. Rochelle was about to slice her Wellington in the blue kitchen when Ramsay came by and did it for her. Fortunately, the Wellington was cooked perfectly, and Ramsay told Rochelle that despite coming into the competition with no experience on the line, she was cooking with five years of experience to him, which she appreciated. Then, Jason felt the blue team was at their strongest right now and said he was a big fan working with Rochelle and Melanie.

Two hours into dinner service, Kashia walked up her third attempt. Still, when Scott sliced Anton’s Wellingtons, they were all overcooked. Joy deemed it a beef cemetery, even commenting how expensive that item was. Having enough, Ramsay chewed out Anton for overcooking his Wellingtons. Still, Anton claimed that the oven was different from what the blue kitchen had, something Scott could not understand. Sous Chef Andi tried to tell Anton that she told the red chefs about proper temperatures and timings for the oven, but he refused to let her rip him a new one just because she was a woman. When Sous Chef Andi started getting frustrated by Anton’s talkback, the latter said she would not break him and deliberately decided to piss her off by claiming that he had it together. That caused Sous Chef Andi to scream at Anton for talking back to her, Joy told him to cut it out, and Kashia felt Anton crossed a line. Then, Ramsay pulled Anton to the back pantry as Scott said that the latter was going down in flames, and Ramsay sternly ordered Anton to keep it together. While Anton claimed to have it together, Ramsay said that the Wellingtons were out of control, he was not communicating, and at that moment, he needed him to rise and bounce back. The blue team’s strong teamwork had them on their final ticket, but after Rochelle and Jason sent up their final order, Ramsay had the entire team to the pass, making Jason wonder what went wrong. However, Ramsay showed them how strong the standards were on the plates, and while he had some strong services on the show before, they were not as good as that night. Melanie called it the best service yet and that she called it before, even feeling she could jump into the red kitchen and repeat that night. In the red kitchen, the red team got their final order out, and service ended.

Post-mortem[]

After having both teams lined up, Ramsay praised the blue team for a great job that night, even welcoming Gabriel back, and the latter was excited over his strong performance. As for the red team, Ramsay was disappointed as he reminded Kashia that he never told her to braise the salmon, told Scott that he was done sending him raw chicken, and told Anton that he sunk his team. Anton once again blamed the oven for being different than in the blue kitchen, but Ramsay told him that both kitchens had the same ovens, and Melanie told Anton not to blame the oven for his poor night. After, Ramsay told the red team to name two people for elimination.

During deliberation, Joy said that the red team took a million steps backwards due to the men and had her nominees picked in her head before wanting both to go home. Anton said he was a natural leader, but Joy called him out for his disrespectful attitude towards Sous Chef Andi. However, Anton did not care if the red team nominated him as he felt Ramsay saw him as a strong chef, and it would be a mistake to get rid of him. Then, Joy nominated Anton and Scott for bringing the blue team’s issues into the red team. While Scott said he communicated that night, he was shut down as Kashia agreed with Joy. Scott argued that nothing from his end was held back, and despite Kashia reminding him about the raw chicken walk up, he knew the latter and Joy were letting their friendship cloud their judgement as Kashia was braising the salmon instead of searing it. Scott and Anton considered Kashia as their nominee. Still, Kashia argued that her fish came out when it was ready and felt that Scott was trying to pass her off as the weakest chef than himself.

Elimination[]

Joy announced Anton as the red team’s first nominee and Scott as their second. During their pleas, Anton said he knew who he was and that Ramsay should see it too, but the latter felt that he peaked a few services ago and feared he was spiralling down. When asked why he did not talk when in the weeds, Anton felt it was not an issue for him but said he could work on it. Then, Scott said he was improving and trying to help wherever he could, but when Ramsay asked him why he was not shining in the red team, he said he was trying to and put the drive the latter wanted. While Ramsay said that it was not the way he expected things would go when he put the two men into the red team, he eliminated Anton for his poor performance on meat, poor attitude, refusal to admit to his mistakes, and being on a downward spiral he was not coming out of. During his exit interview, Anton claimed that he knew his abilities, hoped for one day to open a restaurant next to Ramsay’s, and believed that he was the winner of the competition just for being the best of the eight despite being eliminated.

After Anton left, Ramsay told the chefs to take the former’s elimination as a lesson that he did not care for resumes and experience; it was what they did now what counted. While being dismissed, Kashia said she would rise to the top as her passion got her far. Scott knew he had to step up and make sure he was not going home, and Gabriel said that if he got Rochelle out, he would win.

Ramsay's comment: "Anton let the little success he had in Hell's Kitchen inflate his ego. It was time to let the air out of that balloon."

Trivia[]

  • This marks the final time the Blind Taste Test was done in its original format since Season 1.
Hell's Kitchen Season 12 Episodes
20 Chefs Compete19 Chefs Compete18 Chefs Compete17 Chefs Compete16 Chefs Compete15 Chefs Compete14 Chefs Compete13 Chefs Compete12 Chefs Compete11 Chefs Compete10 Chefs Compete10 Chefs Again9 Chefs Compete8 Chefs Compete7 Chefs Compete7 Chefs Again6 Chefs Compete5 Chefs Compete4 Chefs CompeteWinner Chosen
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