The ninth episode of Season 16 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on December 9, 2016. In that episode, the annual Blind Taste Test occurred, one team set a new low at dinner service, and a temper tantrum at the dorms produced a shocking elimination.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, a pissed Matt told Andrew that he believed the blue team led Johnny to failure for the sear incident, but Andrew told him that it was not his fight. However, Kimberly felt Ramsay was not looking for a jerk to win the competition. No matter how funny or rude they could be, the competition was to prove to the chefs how they could back up their cooking skills, and Heidi felt Johnny failed in that. Paulie told the red team that while they could cry over Johnny’s elimination, he felt the latter did not do the right thing that night, despite being disappointed that he lost his closest friend.
Team challenge[]
The next day, the chefs came downstairs, and when Koop noticed a giant curtain behind Ramsay, he wondered if they had visitors. Then, Ramsay revealed that the one tool behind every chef was their palate and announced that the annual Blind Taste Test was their next challenge. However, Devin got dismayed as he had a poor palate and sarcastically said that he could not wait to humiliate himself. Ramsay revealed that he was going to make the challenge a bit more difficult for that year by removing the texture and announced that they would be tasting baby food to identify the flavor. The curtain pulled back to reveal two high chairs and two spoon catapults, which made Heather realize that they would have food flung at them. Ramsay added that each chef would have a turn on the high chair and that each incorrect answer after two would get flung by baby food purée. Because the blue team had one less chef, Ramsay asked them to decide on one chef that would go twice, which would be the first and last turns, and Wendy volunteered.
On the first round, Heidi and Wendy were up first to taste, while Andrew and Shaina were in the highchairs. Wendy got carrot, onion, potato, and peaches, while Heidi could only get the latter two on her turn. So, both Shaina and Andrew were spared, and the score was 4-2 for the blue team. On the second round, Kimberly got green beans, bacon, and mango, while Devin only got the third ingredient, resulting in Wendy getting splattered, and the score was tied at five each. On the third round, Koop and Ryan were up, and the latter felt that it was her challenge as she had a great palate. However, while Koop got bell pepper and apple, Ryan got the latter, Kimberly got splattered once, complained about the smell and texture, and the score was 7-6 for the blue team. In the fourth round, both Paulie and Matt got sweet potato, but while the former got peas and pineapple correct, the latter got the last ingredient correct. So, the blue team led 10-8, and on the fifth round, Heather and Shaina were up next. While both got asparagus and banana correct, Heather got broccoli as well, and the score was 12-11 for the blue team. On the final round, Wendy and Andrew were up, and despite Shaina feeling confident in her teammate’s abilities, Andrew got strawberries and fennel, while Wendy could only get cauliflower due to the baby food on her clothes messing up her senses. So, Shaina got splattered once, the score was tied at 13 each, and it was moved into sudden death. Neither of them got cabbage, resulting in both Heather and Shaina getting splattered. Still, while Andrew failed to guess turnip, Wendy did, and the blue team won the challenge. While Wendy was happy to have won the challenge for the blue team, a dismayed Andrew called himself an idiot.
Scoring[]
| Red Team | Blue Team | ||||
| Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heidi | 2/4 | 2 | Wendy | 4/4 | 4 |
| Kimberly | 3/4 | 5 | Devin | 1/4 | 5 |
| Ryan | 1/4 | 6 | Koop | 2/4 | 7 |
| Matt | 2/4 | 8 | Paulie | 3/4 | 10 |
| Heather | 3/4 | 11 | Shaina | 2/4 | 12 |
| Andrew | 2/4 0/2 |
13 | Wendy | 1/4 1/2 |
14 |
| Results | 14-13 | ||||
Reward[]
The blue team was rewarded with massages at the Intercontinental Hotel, which Koop rubbed in the red team’s face as the women have been asking for one since the start of the competition. During the reward, Wendy called the suite sweet, and Shaina was amazed to see all of California from the suite window. Later, the blue team enjoyed their massages as Shaina felt her masseuse was getting every knot.
Punishment[]
The red team was punished by participating in delivery day and preparing both kitchens for that night’s service. While Andrew was sad he got baby food on Heather, he jokingly thought it looked good on her before apologizing to the red team for costing them the challenge. Then, Heather and Andrew joked about licking the baby food off her body, but a disgusted Kimberly called it gross. During the punishment, Andrew put the red team’s loss solely on himself as he had a chance to win it, and decided to take the brunt of it as best as he could, even though Heidi felt he was trying to be perfect when he was not.
Later, they took in delivery ice, and Matt and Andrew decided to carry more than they could to get the job done faster. After completing the job, Sous Chef Andi asked if any of them grabbed an invoice as they were supposed to bring in 52 bags, and a quick count by Matt revealed that they brought in 102 bags instead. That irritated the red team as Ryan did not want to carry the ice back into the truck, and Heidi wanted to stab somebody because of that. However, Matt refused to take the blame as he was asked to unload the ice.
Before service[]
Later that day, the red team prepped both kitchens for that night’s service, just as the blue team came back from their reward. Matt felt pumped that night and felt that cooking made him hulk out before believing that getting a massage would only messed him up. Then, Heidi added that while the red team had confidence in their teammates, the blue team did not, which Heather agreed with.
Later, the blue team came downstairs to get ready for service, but Paulie pulled Ramsay aside to ask him what he needed to work on. However, Ramsay told Paulie that he did not have time for that now, and Koop got sick of the latter being up Ramsay’s ass. After, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Josh McDermitt and Jeanne Mai were in attendance that night. After the blue team received their first order, Marino handed Ramsay McDermitt’s order, only for the latter to call him the walking dead due to his slow pace. Heather was ready to get out strong, and in the blue kitchen, Devin believed that he and Shaina would rock out hot appetizers. His prediction came true as Devin’s risottos were deemed delicious, and in the red kitchen, Heather’s risotto was accepted as well. As the blue team continued to push out appetizers, Koop felt it was not the time to celebrate as they still had a job to do before having his scallops accepted. Ramsay was impressed that the blue team was communicating. In the red kitchen, Andrew felt that the red team was the dream team, and while he initially considered Kimberly as their weakest link, he was impressed by her strong performance on the carbonara.
One hour into service, both teams had their best start so far and were able to serve all their appetizers. Now moving onto entrées, Andrew felt that everything was flowing for them, and they were communicating on times. However, Matt got confused about lamb orders as he thought he heard one order and asked Andrew to check on the ticket. When Andrew revealed two lambs on order, Matt said he only had one lamb being fired now, which Heidi tried to say earlier. When Andrew told Ramsay about it, the latter asked Matt why it was, and he said that he heard one lamb on order. That caused Ramsay to ask Matt if he forgot the order, but when the latter argued that he did not as he heard one lamb, Ramsay reminded Matt that he was the only one that called out the orders before accusing him of giving up. In the blue kitchen, Koop recalled his disastrous performance the last time he was on fish and wanted that night to be his redemption. However, Paulie sent up raw lamb, Ramsay discovered that Koop was missing a portion of ludamere, and Devin annoyingly asked Paulie what happened. Despite that, Paulie and Koop got their refires accepted on time. In the red kitchen, Matt communicated with both Heidi and Andrew on times. He felt Ramsay always placed him in the hardest stations but believed that it would not break him, only make him stronger. It paid off as the red team sent out entrées at a brisk pace, despite Ramsay calling Andrew’s movement slow for a man his age.
Two hours into service, the blue team received their next order, and Paulie told Ramsay that he could be ready in five minutes. However, Ramsay caught Koop cooking salmon and sea bass in the same pan, accused him of screwing everybody up, and reminded him that he had to cook fish in separate pans. Then, Paulie called out inconsistent timings, which dismayed Koop as one unorganized station could bring the entire kitchen down, and pleaded with him to fight back. Then, Paulie kept calling out five minutes for his lamb, despite Koop arguing that he said that five minutes ago, and Paulie wanted to do things right because if he was nominated again, he could be going home. Paulie’s inconsistent performance continued as he was late on sending up the lamb and was pushed to send it up despite his repeated claims that it would be sent back. After, Ramsay told Paulie to shut up, showed the blue team the latter’s raw lamb and it did not need 2 minutes to cook as it needed way more, gave it to Devin, and irritatingly kicked them out of the kitchen for the sixth time that season. While heading back to the dorms, Ramsay stopped them in the back hallway and accused them of giving up for the past 30 minutes. While Paulie claimed that he was trying that night, Ramsay told him to eat the raw lamb and tell him how good it was before sarcastically telling him Bon Appetit. In the red kitchen, Andrew realized that the blue team got kicked out of the kitchen again, wanted the final ticket to be perfect, and the red team was able to complete their last few tickets.
Post-mortem[]
Back at the patio, a furious Koop angrily asked why the blue team could not complete a single service before throwing a chair in anger. However, Wendy told Koop to calm down and grow up before wanting him to realize that he and Paulie were the ones that messed up that night. Shaina wondered if they got lost on communication, but while Koop felt that they lost it on the six top, Paulie accused him of not communicating with him on the times. However, Koop reminded Paulie that he kept asking five more minutes countless times, and the two argued over who messed up the most that night. When Paulie called out Koop over breaking the chair, the latter warned him that he was lucky it was only a chair on the fireplace and not his face. However, Paulie felt that Koop should not be trusted as he was slimy, before accusing him of sending up food before his in order to make himself look good, which led to the two to continue shouting at each other.
Elimination[]
Devin announced Paulie as the blue team’s first nominee and Koop as the second. During their pleas, Paulie said that he wanted to be in the competition and wanted to keep on fighting. In contrast, Koop said that he had more respect than Paulie before arguing that the blue team would perform better without Paulie. Then, Ramsay asked Koop how he would rate his performance out of ten, and he felt that it was either a six or a seven, while rating Paulie’s performance a five, and said that the latter felt he was trying to get him out. However, Paulie argued that he was asking Koop for more time, how the latter pushed his food up without his own entrées ready, and revealed the chair breaking incident from earlier, before believing that Koop’s attitude was not suitable for leadership. Ramsay asked Koop if that was true, and he said that it was but admitted that while he was not proud of it, he argued that he felt like an idiot for not completing services. After, Ramsay said that it was a tough decision because both of them had poor performances that night, both were butting heads, and both were not listening before eliminating Koop for his poor performance on fish and not backing up his talk. During his exit interview, Koop felt that Paulie should have been eliminated instead, was tired of hearing people brag about their non-existent skills, and insulted Paulie while flipping the bird.
After Koop left, Ramsay warned Paulie that he was on thin ice and that he was watching every move he was making. Before dismissing the red team, Ramsay told them that he would need a volunteer to move over into the blue team to even up the numbers the next day. While being dismissed, Heather felt that nobody was comfortable going into the blue team at that point as they were too broken before believing that they were unfixable. Then, Heidi said that no matter what color she was wearing, she would kick ass, while Kimberly said that she was going to fight for her right to stay in the red team.
Ramsay's comment: "Like many chefs, Koop can talk the talk. But after witnessing his cooking, I told him to walk the walk."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the Blind Taste Test of that season being baby food-themed, hence the spoon feed.
- As this was the sixth time the blue team was kicked out of service this season, they broke the record for most times a team was kicked out in a season. The original record was five, which was held by both Season 10’s blue team, and Season 14’s red team.