The fifth episode of Season 14 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on March 31, 2015. In that episode, cheese was the main ingredient, one team continued to struggle at dinner service, and a very satisfying elimination occurred.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Monique declared that she was done with the women as, despite feeling that Ramsay saw something in her, her teammates were not. On the patio, Meghan realized that the women could not keep beating up Monique, said that they were still a team, and asked the latter what her problem was. However, Monique refused to be open as it was a competition. That caused all the women to leave Monique alone, with T labelling her as a lost cause.
Team Challenge[]
The next day, the chefs went downstairs, and Ramsay asked them what they thought the most vital ingredient was. While everybody had their own opinions, Ramsay revealed that he was thinking more about cheese. However, Milly revealed that he did not like cheese, even saying that he was not putting it on his cheesesteak sandwich. Ramsay showed them a lot of examples of cheeses from around the world. For the International Cheese Challenge, each chef would pick who they would like to compete against from the other team, and that chef would spin a wheel to know what cheese dish they would cook. Nick chose to compete against Monique, primarily because he felt she was the weakest chef, and she landed on grilled cheese. Meghan chose to compete against Milly, and he landed on enchiladas. Brendan decided to compete against Alison, and she landed on croquettes, which Brendan admitted that he had no idea what that dish was. Randy chose to compete against Sarah, and she landed on lasagna. Adam decided to compete against Christine, and she landed on cordon bleu. Michelle chose to compete against Josh as she thought he was nice, with Ramsay jokingly reminding her that it was not a dating competition. Josh landed on manicotti. That left T against Bret, and he landed on calzone.
The chefs had 40 minutes to cook their dishes, and each of them had an array of cheeses to choose from. Bret announced what his calzone would be, but Nick found that annoying and told him to shut up. Milly received instructions from Adam on making an enchilada as he never ate one before and asked Brendan to taste his dish to see if it was good to go. Monique decided to keep her grilled cheese simple in the red kitchen and hoped that Ramsay would like it, but Alison felt that it was not very creative. Bret found out that with eight minutes left, his calzone was broken on the bottom due to using a thinner dough, so he decided to put his filling into another dough base and his second attempt into the pizza oven. In the red kitchen, Sarah decided to go outside the box and added pistachios to her lasagna, but Meghan called her nuts as it was not a traditional lasagna. Eventually, the chefs got their dishes cooked and plated in time.
Monique and Nick went up first, and Monique presented her mild cheddar and brie grilled cheese. However, Ramsay criticized the dish for having more bread than cheese and lacking creativity. Then, Nick presented his brie grilled cheese with a whisky bisque, Ramsay praised the bisque pairing, and he scored the first point for the men, making it 1-0. T admitted that she was not surprised and even said she would not even trust Monique to pour her seltzer water. On the next round, Milly presented his enchilada with chorizo pepper with cheddar cheese and a case of fresco, and Ramsay praised the dish for its crispiness. Then, Meghan presented her shrimp and chorizo enchilada with Colby cheese. Ramsay deemed it the best dish he has tasted so far. She won the round, making the score a tie at 1. After, Ramsay told Milly that he went up against some stiff competition, and the latter was upset that he let his team down despite Ramsay liking the dish. On the next round, Christine’s pork and Emmental cordon bleu were praised for having finesse. Adam’s comp and sausage cordon bleu were praised for being seasoned beautifully and having vibrancy. So, both scored, making it a tie at 2. On the next round, Michelle’s goat cheese mascarpone manicotti was praised for being heavy and rich. Then, Josh’s Montego and mozzarella manicotti was praised for being seasoned perfectly. So, both scored, keeping it at a tie, at 3. Alison’s honey ham croquette with fontina cheese was praised for being intriguing and having finesse. In contrast, Brendan’s Emmental croquette with gnocchi was criticized for not being a traditional croquette. So, Alison won the round, and the women led 4-3. In the sixth round, Randy’s lasagna with ricotta cheese was praised for being perfectly done. Still, Sarah’s blue cheese and pistachio lasagna were criticized for having the latter element. Ramsay told her that she went out of the world. So, Randy won the round, and the score was tied at 4. On the final round, T presented her rustic calzone with ground pork, fontina cheese and a sweet and spicy sauce, and Ramsay praised the sauce for lifting the dish up. Finally, Bret presented his traditional calzone du prezzi with roasted peppers, heirloom tomatoes, and Pomodoro cheese. While Ramsay praised the filling for being delicious, he told Bret that his crust was raw. So, T won the round, the women won the challenge 5-4, and while T was happy to have taken down Bret a peg, the latter was disgusted with himself over the raw crust.
Scoring[]
Red Team | Blue Team | ||||
Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Monique | 0 | 0 | Nick | 1 | 1 |
Meghan | 1 | 1 | Milly | 0 | 1 |
Christine | 1 | 2 | Adam | 1 | 2 |
Michelle | 1 | 3 | Josh | 1 | 3 |
Alison | 1 | 4 | Brendan | 0 | 3 |
Sarah | 0 | 4 | Randy | 1 | 4 |
T | 1 | 5 | Bret | 0 | 4 |
Results | 5-4 |
Reward[]
The women were rewarded with a trip to Marina Del Ray and a Jet Ski activity at the ocean. During the reward, Meghan revealed that she never Jet Skied before despite her liking to go fast. Then, T called it another thing she has never done before and thanked Ramsay for another great experience.
Punishment[]
The men were punished by taking in a giant wheel of Parmesan cheese, breaking it down, and grating it for the following service. Bret openly teared up for costing the victory for the men and said that he had no shame about doing it as it showed he had the passion for winning. Milly remarked that he lost to Meghan twice now and teared up that he has never had the opportunity to cook many different cuisines before. While the morale was very low, Nick wondered why they were all crying, called his teammates emotional, and told them to suck it up. During the punishment, the men struggled to break the wheel apart. Nick told Josh to pound harder, and Sous Chef James watched, much to his amusement. Eventually, they succeeded in breaking the wheel.
Before service[]
As the men were grating the parmesan cheese, the women came back from their reward and arrogantly told them about it. Sous Chef James urged the men to win, but Bret said that he wanted to see the women lose even more. With two hours until service would begin, the chefs began their prep.
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay told them that they should know each other inside and out after four services. Then, he urged them to have leaders emerge, stop doubting themselves and asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner Service[]
Daddy Yankee and Dave Mustaine were in attendance. A special Parmesan frica appetizer was served tableside by Alison and Nick. While Sarah felt that it was redemption after letting her team down during the previous service, Meghan noticed that she was missing many ingredients on her cavatelli, with the latter commenting that Sarah had no idea what was going on. So, Meghan helped Sarah, and her dish was accepted. In the blue kitchen, Adam put too much butter in the risotto, which led to Josh calling him confused and asking why he made such a simple mistake. When Adam sent the risotto, it was stuck to the pan, and Bret said that if Adam could not cook a proper risotto, he had no business being in Hell’s Kitchen. Then, Ramsay compared the risotto to a clock, asked if he should hang it on the wall, which the men answered he did not, and mockingly called it a risotto clock. In the red kitchen, the women continued to send their appetizers and were moving onto entrées. Despite not having faith in Monique’s abilities, Meghan and T asked her for a time, but she did not appreciate it. When Monique brought her spinach, Ramsay found out that it was cold and lacked seasoning and ordered the women to taste it. That caused an annoyed Meghan to remark that Monique should know how to cook by that point and that the women would be screwed if the latter would stall them. In the blue kitchen, Adam’s refire was accepted, and the men began working on entrées. Despite being confident in his abilities, Bret sent a soggy and overcooked salmon, and he took the blame for it.
Forty-five minutes into service, the women were impatiently waiting for Monique’s garnish refire as their entrées were dying at the pass. While Monique did send it up, Ramsay saw that the eggplant was raw and bitter, and an annoyed T called her performance a shit show. Ramsay urged somebody to drive Monique, and Meghan decided to help her by taking complete control of the garnish station. Because of her great help, food was leaving the kitchen. In the blue kitchen, the men were on their second table of entrées. As Brendan remembered how poorly his last night on meat went, he forgot another order of lamb for the ticket, with Milly declaring that Brendan could not burn. Then, Brendan revealed that the other lamb was overcooked, and a frustrated Ramsay forced the men to start over, much to his embarrassment. In the red kitchen, Christine and Sarah walked with their dishes, but not only was Sarah’s risotto raw, Christine’s salmon was also raw. A frustrated Ramsay led the women to the pantry room, demanded to know who was responsible for those two mistakes, and warned them that one more mistake would be their last. Brendan continued to struggle on the refire in the blue kitchen and announced that he needed 15 more minutes on his lamb. That led the men to wait for that period. Ramsay berated Brendan for stopping the kitchen and the men for not stepping up as leaders as he expected.
An hour and a half into service, the women pushed for the refire, and Christine and T sent up their dishes. However, Christine’s salmon was burnt on the bottom and had soggy skin. That was the final straw for Ramsay, who kicked the women out of the kitchen for the third service in a row. Brendan’s lamb refire was accepted in the blue kitchen, and the men finished the service without any more mistakes. Adam admitted that while the men’s performance was not pretty, he was glad they were able to go through their earlier mistakes.
Post-mortem[]
After service, Sous Chef Andi visited the women on the patio. She told them they were not going anywhere as Ramsay was so upset about their poor performance, he did not even want to see them. Then, she asked the women to nominate two people for elimination.
After Sous Chef Andi left, T announced that their problems revolved around Monique, Christine, and Sarah. Michelle revealed that she let Christine sear the salmon as she was more comfortable with that. She also reminded Sarah about how lucky she was that Meghan was on the appetizer station with her, as it could have been a lot worse with her alone. T felt that Meghan was playing more caregiver than a chef, and Alison voiced out that strong individuals were needed by that point. However, while Sarah admitted that she had a terrible performance, she felt that she was a better cook than Monique and Christine. While Monique argued that Christine should be nominated as a reality check, Alison retorted that she could not cook half of the menu items and would have struggled even more without Meghan’s help.
Elimination[]
Meghan announced Monique as the women’s first nominee and Sarah as the second. During their pleas, Monique thought that the women yelled at her despite doing what they told her to, said that Christine should be nominated for being the reason the women were kicked out and was confused as to why she was nominated. Then, Ramsay accused Sarah of giving up and believed that she might not bounce back before giving those two ten seconds on why they deserve to stay. Monique denied being the weakest link and said that she wanted to be with Ramsay. At the same time, Sarah asked for another chance while promising to learn from her mistakes. Monique was eliminated for her string of poor performances, not improving from her mistakes, and the women making it clear they do not want her around any longer. During her exit interview, Monique believed that the women had it out for her since the beginning, refused to change her ways if given a second chance, and denied being the weakest chef.
After Monique left, Ramsay said that he expected both teams to grow stronger now that the weakest chefs were leaving and urged them once again to emerge as leaders. While T was relieved to see Monique finally go home, she felt there were no more excuses for the women. Meanwhile, Milly did not like how the men limped to the finish line and stated that he wanted to play for real, and Sarah realized that she had to bounce back quickly.
Ramsay's comment: "Monique acted like she was the victim, but the real victim was anyone who had to eat her food tonight."