The second episode of Season 15 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox, on January 22, 2016. In that episode, Ramsay tested the chef's concentration, a bitter rivalry developed, and a last-minute VIP guest caused one team to fall apart at dinner service.
Intro[]
While walking back to the dorms, Frank admitted that while Kevin dropped the ball that night, he knew being nominated would open the latter’s eyes up and bounce back. Then, Frank told the men that they might need two or three of him to help them out. However, Chad got annoyed by that comment, believed that Frank did not have enough experience in a kitchen, and felt the latter sounded like an idiot.
Meanwhile, Kristin called the opening night intense and did not want to go through another service like that ever again, which Jackie and Ashley agreed with. Then, Kristin told Vanessa that they could not lose focus anymore, and Jackie and Ariel told her to bounce back. However, Vanessa left due to being upset over her embarrassing performance and wanted a hug from her mother. After, Manda managed to calm Vanessa down, told her to let it go, and hugged her in comfort before admitting that she was missing her babies back home.
Team challenge[]
The next day, the chefs came downstairs, and before Ramsay announced their next challenge, he wanted them to see some of his friends he invited last night. Said friends were Buckingham palace guards, and Ramsay compared how both a guard and a chef should never be distracted. Frank admitted that he could relate as he had to stand post during his time in the military and was not even allowed to scratch his nose. After, Ramsay introduced the Dumplings Challenge, which excited Alan as he was of Asian heritage and demonstrated how to recreate a traditional shrimp dumpling dish.
Each team had 20 minutes to make as many dumplings orders as possible in pairs, with one complete basket of five dumplings each. Because the women had an extra chef, Kristin, Manda, and Meese worked in a team of three. While Sherkenna was not confident in Vanessa’s abilities, the latter wanted to prove to Ramsay she could bounce back from the opening night. To test the chef’s concentration, Ramsay had a military drumming band come and play next to them, and the Buckingham Palace guards turned out to be strippers. Joe was surprised by that, Meese was getting hot due to it, and Jackie got annoyed her teammates were getting distracted. As the challenge continued, a boxing ring girl came up, which made Frank and Jared a little hot. Then, sumo wrestlers came to do a sparring match, with Jared hoping their diapers would stay on. Eventually, the chefs got their dumplings ready on time, and Jackie was happy that she and Dannie managed to get a lot of baskets ready.
The men were up first, and the pair of Chad and Kevin brought up their baskets first. Out of their baskets, four were accepted, which pleased Kevin and Joe. However, all of Hassan and Frank’s baskets had their dumplings plucked to look like perogies, they scored zero points, and Manda believed the boobies from earlier distracted them. Joe and Eddie were up next, but they could only get one point as Joe’s baskets were improperly pleated, which Meese mockingly called an epic fail. Jared and Alan were the last pair up. They managed to get all seven of their baskets accepted, the men ended with 12 points, and Alan said he knew what he was doing.
The women were up next, with Jackie and Dannie bringing up their baskets first. They managed to get six of their baskets accepted, and Ashley mockingly warned the men that they were catching up. However, while Ramsay expected the team of Kristin, Manda, and Meese to produce strong results, most of their baskets had raw dumplings, and only two were accepted, much to Jackie’s annoyance. Vanessa and Sherkenna were up next, and while the latter’s baskets were rejected, Vanessa managed to get three of her baskets accepted. With the score 12-11, Ariel and Ashley needed only two points to win it from the women. While the first basket was accepted, the rest were rejected as their dumplings had holes in them. Despite that, their last basket was deemed acceptable, and the women won the challenge 13-12.
Scoring[]
| Blue Team | Red Team | ||||
| Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chad and Kevin | 4 | 4 | Jackie and Dannie | 6 | 6 |
| Hassan and Frank | 0 | 4 | Kristin, Manda, and Meese | 2 | 8 |
| Joe and Eddie | 1 | 5 | Vanessa and Sherkenna | 3 | 11 |
| Jared and Alan | 7 | 12 | Ariel and Ashley | 2 | 13 |
| Results | 13-12 | ||||
Reward[]
The women were rewarded with a helicopter trip to Geoffrey’s in Malibu for a seafood lunch, with Ramsay deciding to join them. Dannie admitted that she had never gone on a helicopter before and called it exciting. During the reward, the women enjoyed their helicopter ride. Vanessa claimed that she saw Cher’s house, and Jackie claimed that she was about to poop her pants. At lunch, Ramsay urged the women to take in the view, Jackie was amazed over the white beach and called it the best reward yet. Ashley remarked that she wanted to have lunch with Ramsay since she was five years old and compared it to a movie moment. Then, Ramsay told them to bring their focus to the service.
Punishment[]
The men were punished by prepping for a special tableside appetizer for the following service, which included pruning 40 logs of mushrooms. Before leaving, Ramsay noted that while Jared had a strong performance, he was not backed up by his team, and the latter accused the men of dropping the ball. Back at the patio, Hassan wanted to leave their loss behind and focus on beating the women at service, and Frank called it motivation. However, that annoyed Jared as he expected Frank to apologize for costing them the win and told him that he messed up.
During the punishment, the men were shocked to see the logs of mushrooms on their counters, Sous Chef Aaron warned them to be careful when pruning them as the mushrooms were very delicate, and Alan said it was fungus among us. Joe remarked that he did not see that number of mushrooms since his last Pink Floyd concert before stating that it sucked. Later, an alarm went off, and the men went to the front entrance to find a truck full of corn ears waiting for them. As they were shucking the corns, Jared suggested that they work as a group, but Frank felt that just because the former scored some points during the challenge, it did not mean he was the leader. However, while Jared thought that some of the guys did not like him, he did not care about it as he prided himself on being a leader. Then, Jared and Frank had an argument over the latter aggressively tossing a corn ear at the former. Still, Eddie told them to calm down, and Sous Chef Aaron reminded them that they did not have much time before service began. After, Frank proclaimed that he was not Jared’s friend.
Before service[]
Later that night, the women returned from their reward and began prepping for service to repeat their strong performance last night. Then, Jackie brought the women together for a huddle, reminded them to communicate, and believed they were calmer. After, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Dexter Darden and the sumo wrestlers from the challenge were in attendance that night. A special corn chowder appetizer was served tableside by Manda and Hassan. Knowing that he had to step up to perfection, Jared was about to get his scallops up to the pass. Still, Joe accidentally dropped a lamb chop while tossing them in the pan, asked the former to hold on for 40 seconds and told a dismayed Ramsay about it. In the red kitchen, Ashley was prepping her risotto but compared working with Jackie to working with a Tasmanian devil and wanted the latter to stop moving around. When Ramsay noticed that the risotto was taking too long to cook, he discovered that Ashley’s stove was off, and Jackie called the former a dumbass for finding the one spot with no fire.
Forty minutes into service, Joe’s refire was accepted, and it received solid reviews from the blue customers. However, after Ramsay called out the second order, Joe forgot what was on order and asked him what was called out. Ramsay told Joe that he had better things to do than mop his ass, told him to talk to his team, and Frank said that the latter should have listened. Things got worse when it was revealed that Joe did not have risotto on despite it being on order. Still, Kevin got more communicative as a result, called out times for them. Joe decided to make a mental note to never go up to the pass and ask Ramsay a stupid question. Despite all his problems, Joe’s dishes were accepted, and the men were moving onto entrées. Back in the dining room, The GAME and his entourage came in with no reservation, and Marino went to the hot pass to inform Ramsay about it. However, Ramsay was okay with serving The GAME, and Marino had the waiters help him move two tables together for the party. After, Ramsay informed both teams about the last-minute VIP table of ten and announced that each team would work on five orders each for the party. Ariel wanted to meet The GAME in person and was mad that she was not doing tableside that night. When Meese left the kitchen to find more sizzle pans, Ariel decided to bring the former’s snapper up despite Dannie announcing that her chicken needed five more minutes. That confused Sherkenna as they never asked Ariel for her help. However, Ramsay informed the women that the snapper was raw, and while Sherkenna was hoping for Ariel to take responsibility for it, Meese took the blame instead, though she was mad at Ariel for sending it up in the first place. After, Ramsay decided to cook the fish for The GAME’s table himself. In the blue kitchen, the men got their entrées accepted, Ramsay praised them for their communication, and Alan declared that they were balling. Thanks to the men and Ramsay, The GAME’s table was served, and the women were hoping to continue.
One hour and a half into service, Sherkenna announced that she never cooked an arctic char before, asked for how long to cook it, and Kristin gave her instructions on what to do, though Meese felt that it was simple as it was just searing. However, Sherkenna's arctic char’s skin came out black, even though she argued that it was lighter than her skin, and Ariel told Ramsay that they were refiring that order. Unfortunately, Sherkenna continued to burn her arctic chars, and Ramsay was pissed as they went through five of them before calling it a joke. After Ramsay expressed disappointment that the fish station did not pay attention to him when he was firing the previous table, Sherkenna was embarrassed about it, and Dannie decided to cook the arctic char for them. Thankfully, Dannie’s attempt was accepted, and Sherkenna was thankful for the former taking over. Eventually, both teams completed service.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay admitted that while both teams competed dinner service, it was too painful for his liking. After, the women were named the losers for being a complete disaster at the end of service, and Ramsay asked them to nominate three people for elimination.
During deliberation, Dannie remarked how it sucked to be on the losing team and stated that several people should be nominated. Deciding to break down service, Dannie and Kristin recalled Ashley’s cold flat top incident, but she argued that she did not deserve to be up as she was trying to control Jackie from moving around a lot, much to the latter’s annoyance. Then, Ashley stated that the fish messed up worse than her and considered Meese and Sherkenna for elimination. However, Meese argued that she did great that night while Sherkenna screwed up on the arctic char, but the latter argued that she at least admitted that she had no idea how to cook arctic char. Then, Meese remarked how Ariel grabbed her snapper without her knowledge, which Dannie agreed with. Still, Ariel refused to acknowledge that it was her fault and blamed Meese for not speaking up about it.
Elimination[]
Ashley announced Meese as the women’s first nominee, Ariel as the second, and Sherkenna as the third. During their pleas, Ariel said that she was a strong cook and believed that if she did not bring up the raw snapper, Meese would have done so, while Sherkenna believed that she was passionate and asked for help when needed. Then, Meese felt that she was a strong cook and a leader, that she was trying to explain to Sherkenna how to cook the arctic char, and that she did not send up the raw snapper. In the end, Sherkenna was eliminated for struggling on the arctic char and failing to bounce back from it. During her exit interview, Sherkenna admitted that she did not bounce back from her mistakes but knew that she learned more about herself and told the viewers she would be heard from again.
After Sherkenna left, Ramsay warned the chefs that he would not put up with another service like they had that night. While being dismissed, Meese knew that she had to move forward and let the snapper incident go, while Eddie declared that the men were cool blue and was happy that they won a service. Then, Ariel said that she took pride in her work, was not looking to make friends, and was ready to fight.
Ramsay's comment: "When the arctic char was destroyed over and over, so were Sherkenna's chances of becoming a head chef."
Trivia[]
- This is the second time Ramsay asked a team to nominate three people for elimination after Episode 1203 - 18 Chefs Compete. It's also the first time Ramsay asked only one team to do so.