The fourteenth episode of Season 14 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on June 2, 2015. In that episode, the final four made vegetarian dishes on a budget, ran the pass one at a time, and Ramsay picked two chefs for the finals.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Milly believed that Ramsay lit a fire underneath him and was shocked that he made it to the final four. At the patio, the final four were in stunned shock over making it that far and T openly declared that nobody would beat her. Michelle said that if she were to win the competition, she would get bragging rights for the rest of her life. Then, T announced that she would not give up as she knew everybody else would give it their all, said that somebody would have to beat her if they had a chance of winning. The four chefs toasted to their milestone.
Individual challenge[]
The next day, the final four were sent to the SUVs for a field trip. Meghan said that she could not remember the last time she left the restaurant as she lost nine challenges in a row and was excited to at least go out somewhere for a bit. Arriving at Bristol Farms, Ramsay explained how supermarkets would get his imagination running. While Ramsay showed them the butcher counter with fine cuts of meat, he announced that they were off-limits, much to both T and Meghan’s shock. Then, Ramsay announced the Vegetarian Budget Challenge. Each chef would receive $25 to spend on anything they wanted to create a vegetarian dish in a ten-minute shopping period. That excited Michelle as she used to be a vegetarian four years ago and called it her type of challenge. During the shopping, Milly decided to make ricotta and spinach soufflé, while Michelle decided to make a breakfast dish as nobody else was that adventurous like her and called herself creative. Meanwhile, Meghan looked at different ingredients but admitted that she had no idea what she was doing and was putting her dish together in her head as she was going on. Elsewhere, T identified herself as a meatatarian and never ventured into the realm of vegetarianism unless she was forced, blindfolded, kidnapped, and for Ramsay. After time was up, the chefs checked out their ingredients within the budget and headed back to the restaurant.
The chefs had 30 minutes to cook their dishes. Meghan announced that she was thinking about a zucchini angel hair pasta dish and was feeling good about the dish she had in her had. Twenty minutes remaining, Michelle was struggling to describe her egg dish in proper words. Milly dedicated his dish to his son and knew that the dish he made before would work great. Two minutes remaining, T decided to go back to her roots and revealed that she was making a vegetarian version of chicken and dumplings with tofu. Eventually, the chefs cooked their dishes and plated them on time.
T was the first person to have her dish judged, presented her chickpea dumpling in a fennel broth and ginger butter tofu. Ramsay admitted that while he was never a big fan of tofu before, T’s dish convinced him and praised the broth for being delicious, despite saying that the dumplings should have been softer on the inside. Milly was up next, presented his ricotta and spinach soufflé, revealed that his fifteen-year-old son ate that dish before. Still, when Ramsay asked Milly if he ate that dish before at that age, he replied that he did not but wanted to give his son the life he never had. While Ramsay criticized the dish for looking unappetizing, he said that it tasted delicious and told Milly that his son was a lucky man. Meghan was up next and presented her zucchini angel hair pasta with Napa cabbage, dumplings, and coconut broth. Ramsay praised Meghan for lifting the zucchini from being such a boring vegetable, loved the idea of the pasta, and said that the dish had finesse. Michelle was the final person to have her dish judged and presented her vegetable hash and egg soufflé. Still, Michelle's overly complicated description had Ramsay remark that she did not like the word simple. While Ramsay was not impressed on how it looked more like a breakfast dish and not a dinner entrée, he praised the eggs for being cooked perfectly and felt that it would be more of a Sunday brunch dish. After a tough decision, Meghan was named the winner. Ramsay told her to choose one other chef to join her on the reward. Meghan picked T, which annoyed Michelle as the latter has been on two rewards despite not winning the previous two challenges.
Reward[]
Meghan and T were rewarded with a private ride on a motorboat in Newport Beach, received a parasailing experience, and ate at the Studio at the Montage Lagoon Beach for a three-course dinner. Ramsay noted that Meghan finally won a challenge, and while she was not a fan of the ocean and heights, she called leaving Hell’s Kitchen a reward on its own. During the reward, Meghan was completely terrified before going on the boat. While T herself was afraid of heights, she felt that it would not be too bad with Meghan by her side. Despite their fears, they enjoyed their parasailing experience, which Meghan called a lot of fun, and T called it exhilarating.
Later that night, Meghan and T arrived at Studio, were welcomed by Executive Chef Craig Strong, and he led them to their table. T called the location amazing, Meghan felt that she deserved her reward, and they enjoyed their dinner.
Punishment[]
Michelle and Milly were punished by cleaning the front entrance fountain, sweeping the steps and parking lot, vacuum and shampoo the red carpet, and hand polish all the wooden structures at the front hall. Michelle stated that she hated doing punishments and found that one to be a miserable one. During the punishment, Milly called it ridiculous as he thought there would be no more punishments after the black jackets. Michelle found a twig in the leaves and pretended she was Harry Potter by casting a spell. As they were cleaning the carpet, Marino pointed out where they missed. Michelle was frustrated as her back was killing her.
Before service[]
The next day, the final four began prepping for service. While T was proud of making it that far, she knew that she had to continue to propel herself forward, just as a quick flare-up occurred. After, Ramsay had the chefs lined up in front of the blue kitchen’s pass and announced that he would have another team cook in the blue kitchen for that service. Then, Ramsay revealed that the first chef was Michael from Dallas, Texas, but Michelle knew him as her boyfriend, and the two happily reunited. After Ramsay confirmed that Michael was just wearing a chef’s jacket, he revealed that Michelle’s sister was there as well. Then, T reunited with her daughter and girlfriend, Meghan reunited with her mother, and Milly reunited with his son and girlfriend. After spending some time with their loved ones, Michelle felt that she received an extra boost for service. Meghan felt that seeing her mother was a great reward and made up for the nine previous losses.
After, Ramsay announced that each chef would have a turn running the pass as a Head Chef and that two of them would be leaving the competition at the end of the night. After, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
IL Volo, Tamara Taylor, and Taylor Hicks were in attendance. Milly was the first person to run the pass. While he felt that he was comfortable reading out the tickets and driving his team, he found out that the ticket had no entrées on it while calling out the order. Ramsay reminded him to look at the ticket before calling it out, and Milly told Marino about the mistake. Sous Chef Andi covered each vacant station, but the chefs had no idea that she would be sending up incorrect orders, and she brought up a risotto that had crab instead of lobster. However, Milly failed to catch that mistake until Ramsay pointed it out, and he admitted that he should have caught it. Despite that, Milly’s composure was still strong, appetizers were being sent out, and he caught Sous Chef Andi bring up mussels without mussels, much to Ramsay’s praise.
Meghan was the second person to run the pass and called herself a badass as she had been running the pass since she was twenty. As Meghan kept pushing out times, Milly got annoyed as he was trying to cook his appetizers. When Milly brought up his dishes, Meghan rejected his risotto for lacking mascarpone and declared that it was not amateur hour anymore. After Meghan rejected Milly’s refire for being soupy and messy, Ramsay accused him of sabotaging her and stated that his finesse was gone before accusing him of giving up. Knowing that things were spiralling out of control, Meghan decided to step up as a leader more. Milly’s third attempt was accepted thanks to her assertiveness. Then, Sous Chef Andi brought up a sea bass instead of a halibut on order, Meghan failed to notice it until Ramsay pointed it out, and Michelle thought that the latter should have known as they just had a challenge where sea bass was used before asking how Meghan missed that. Despite that, food was leaving the kitchen.
Michelle was the third person to run the pass, and she declared that she would become a monster due to her loud voice. After meekly asking Sous Chef Andi for the garnish, Ramsay urged Michelle to get more vocal, and she managed to do so. However, Sous Chef Andi brought up broccoli instead of cauliflower. While Michelle thought it looked darker, she thought it tasted okay, only for Ramsay to tell her the mistake and urged her to wake up. Then, T said that she needed one minute for her Wellingtons to cook properly, did not know what was going on and got fearful that she would be eliminated because of it. After, an impatient Ramsay asked T for a time. While T managed to get the Wellingtons up on time, Ramsay reminded Michelle that either she ran the kitchen or the kitchen ran her.
T was the final person to run the pass, and while she got vocal on orders, she felt immense pressure as she had to prove herself. Then, Sous Chef Andi brought up a Wellington that had lamb inside instead of beef. Still, T was able to catch that mistake, and orders were being sent out after Sous Chef Andi brought up the real ones. T’s strong leadership allowed the last couple of orders to be sent out, and while Ramsay admitted that it was a tough night, he was glad that the final four held onto the reins.
Post-mortem[]
With the chefs lined up, Ramsay congratulated the final four for a strong performance but reminded them that two would still be going home and that it was very close between them all. Then, Ramsay asked them to agree on two people that did not deserve to be in the finals.
Michelle believed that she deserved to be in the finals for bringing it every day and thought about who she wanted to be with her during deliberation. After, Michelle announced that Meghan should be with her in the final two, while Milly and T should not due to being consistently average. However, T reminded Michelle that she was nominated three times before. Milly believed that he deserved to be in the final two for being comfortable at the pass and believed that T should be with him in the final two. Then, Meghan thought that everybody beasted out, wanted to go against the best, and announced that her decision was Michelle, which shocked T. After, T said she wanted to go up against Meghan as, despite losing to her twice before, she wanted to whoop her ass. In the end, it was a two-tie between T and Michelle to join Meghan in the finals. While T said that everybody wanted to be in the finals, she knew that there were only two spots available.
Elimination[]
Ramsay noted how close the final four were and asked Milly who he thought did not deserve to be in the finals. Milly said Michelle as he felt she had a lot of room to grow and that she talked back a lot, while Michelle said T should not be in the final two for not stepping up like herself and Meghan. T said Milly did not deserve to be in the finals for not having the finesse at the moment, and Meghan believed neither Milly nor T deserved to be in the finals as they lacked the finesse. After, Ramsay announced that Milly was the first chef not advancing to the finals. Still, before Milly left, Ramsay praised him for his great heart, having a bright future in the industry, and that he should be proud of his accomplishments. Milly received a retrospective montage during his exit interview.
After Milly left, Ramsay remarked that while there would be two female chefs in the finals, it was a question on which two would make it before revealing a big screen behind him. Then, Meghan was revealed to be the first finalist for her rock-solid performances throughout the competition. After a difficult decision, T was announced as the second finalist, therefore eliminating Michelle. Before leaving, Ramsay told Michelle that she would have an amazing career and that he had never seen a twenty-two-year-old perform so strongly in the competition before. Michelle received a retrospective montage during her exit interview.
After Michelle left, Ramsay told the final two that they were in one hell of a finale and revealed somebody he wanted them to meet. Then, a silhouette was shown through Ramsay’s office, and the episode ended as a cliffhanger.
Ramsay gave no comment on Milly and Michelle’s eliminations, and neither received the coat hanging and portrait burning sequence.
Trivia[]
- After seven straight seasons, this marks the last time Ramsay would split the field in half for the finale and eliminate two chefs.