The eleventh episode of Season 16 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on January 5, 2017, airing as a double feature along with the twelfth episode. In that episode, the teams competed in the Taste Now Make It Challenge, and a private dinner service took place.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Andrew called the elimination crazy, and while he was happy to be in the final eight, he was shocked that Kimberly was still around. Then, Paulie strongly believed that Kimberly should have been eliminated instead of Matt as he felt the latter was better than the former but declared that it was better for the blue team regardless.
Team challenge[]
The next day, the chefs came downstairs to find a pair of contortionists performing in the dining room, and Ramsay explained that he wanted to show the chefs how well the contortionist’s trust was with each other. After, Ramsay announced the Taste It Now Make It Challenge was their next challenge, and each team would be split into pairs with different jobs. While one chef would cook the dish, their partner was responsible for tasting the dish, and the pair with the closest dish would win it for their team. While Heidi was already aware of the challenge from the previous seasons, she knew that a new twist would turn it upside down. For the pairs, while Paulie asked Ryan if they could pair up as he trusted her as a chef, the latter wanted to pair up with Wendy as she had a great palate, much to Paulie’s dismay as he did not want to be with Devin. On the red side, the red team agreed with the pairs of Kimberly and Heidi, with the former tasting and the latter cooking, and the pair of Andrew and Heather, with the former cooking and the latter tasting. On the blue team, the pairs were Devin and Paulie, the former cooking and the latter tasting, and the pair of Ryan and Wendy, the former cooking and the latter tasting.
Each pair had 30 minutes to recreate Ramsay’s signature dish, including protein, purée, and greens. While Heather was glad to be partnered with Andrew as they worked well together, the latter had her change her original choice of veal to pork. At the same time, the pair of Kimberly and Heidi decided to cook both proteins just to be on the safe side. While Paulie told Devin to cook pork, Wendy told Ryan to use veal. For the purée, Wendy and Ryan went with persimmon, along with Devin and Paulie. While Kimberly and Heidi used the same ingredient, Heather told Andrew to use apricot as she recognized its taste. For the greens, Kimberly and Heidi went with collard greens, Heather and Andrew went with Swiss chard, and the pairs of Wendy and Ryan, and Paulie and Devin, went with spinach. As the chefs began plating, Kimberly and Heidi decided to use the pork, and the latter commented how stressful it was not being able to taste the dish before knowing that she had to trust Kimberly’s decision. In the blue kitchen, Devin got annoyed by Paulie’s micromanagement and told the latter to leave him alone. Eventually, both teams got their dishes cooked and plated on time.
During the judging, Ramsay noticed that Devin and Paulie’s pork was pink due to it being raw when sliced. Wendy weirded out Ramsay when she revealed that she licked the protein to identify it, with Kimberly calling the latter having a few screws loose. After finding out that everybody but themselves used pork instead of veal, Ryan started to get worried. After tasting their dishes, Ramsay announced that everybody but Andrew and Heather got persimmon as the purée, but for the greens, Andrew and Heather got the Swiss chard correct. However, Ramsay announced that the correct protein used was veal. Because Ryan and Wendy were the only ones that got it correct, the blue team won the challenge. As Wendy was happy that she won it for the blue team, Devin was thankful that she licked the protein, while Heather was annoyed at Andrew as she should have trusted her gut earlier. Before dismissing the chefs, Ramsay announced that service that night would be a closed night with two twelve tops for each team.
Scoring[]
Red Team | Blue Team | ||
Chef | Score | Chef | Score |
---|---|---|---|
Heather and Andrew | 1/3 | Paulie and Devin | 1/3 |
Kimberly and Heidi | 1/3 | Wendy and Ryan | 2/3 |
Results | 2-1 |
Reward[]
The blue team was rewarded with trapeze lessons at the Santa Monica Pier, and because Ryan and Wendy had the challenge-winning dish, they each received a Vitamix blender. During the reward, most of the blue team had no problems with the lessons, but Wendy, who initially thought Ramsay was joking, decided to bail out of her lessons as she was afraid of heights. However, Devin was disappointed that Wendy did not do it and hoped that she would perform well in that night’s service or be nominated again.
Punishment[]
The red team was punished by rearranging the dining room for that night’s closed dinner service, make beet flowers, and prep both kitchens. That dismayed Andrew as he did not come into the competition to make beet flowers. During the punishment, Andrew openly complained about being the only male in a carrying punishment, but Marino told him to be quiet as he was outnumbered. When Andrew decided to all the heavy lifting, Heather felt that he had an ego problem but knew that it would be easier to manipulate Andrew. While most of the women found making beet flowers therapeutic, with Kimberly wanting to make some for next Christmas, Andrew found it tedious and called it the worst punishment he has done so far.
Before service[]
Later that day, the blue team came back from their reward, and both teams began last-minute prepping for the closed dinner service. After, Ramsay had both teams lined up and congratulated the red team for making the dining room look spectacular. Then, Ramsay explained that the closed dinner service was for guests of the Stand Up to Cancer Foundation, which hit Wendy hard as most of the females in her family had cancer before. Each chef would be in charge of one of the four courses as Ramsay wanted them to showcase their leadership skills. After, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Jacqueline Toboni, Marg Helgenberger, Danielle Campbell, Omar J. Dorsey, and Pamela OAS Williams were in attendance that night. The courses that night included a lobster risotto led by Kimberly and Wendy, pan-seared scallops led by Andrew and Devin, salmon with fingerling potatoes led by Heidi and Paulie, and a 12 ounce New York striploin with truffles led by Heather and Ryan. Ramsay brought Kimberly and Wendy to the front and told them to get their risottos ready in six and a half minutes, and Kimberly tasted the risottos as she knew that the first course set the tone that night, much to Ramsay’s praise. In the blue kitchen, Wendy had Ryan and Paulie cook her risottos as she trusted them, but the former felt that Wendy was not confident cooking her own course. Then, Ramsay showed Wendy that four of the risotto portions had different colors on them, and she blamed Ryan for not noticing that before. In the red kitchen, the red team began platting their risottos, but Ramsay caught Kimberly plating inconsistently, and they were forced to start over. Despite the problems, both teams were able to serve the first course simultaneously, and Wendy felt that it was a good start for the blue team.
On the second course, Ramsay brought Andrew and Devin to the front and told the two to get their scallops ready in six minutes. Andrew had Heidi help him cook the scallops, had Kimberly cook the garnishes, and had Heather help him with plating. In the blue kitchen, Paulie decided to start cooking his salmon despite not being his course just yet. After Devin reminded him that they were working on scallops, the blue team moved Paulie’s salmon off the elements. In the red kitchen, the red team was able to get 24 scallops cooked and ready, so Andrew decided to start plating what they had as Heidi cooked off the remaining scallops. In the blue kitchen, the blue team was beginning to plate as well, but Wendy told Devin that some of the scallops did not look good, and Ryan began cooking more as a backup. Eventually, both teams were able to get their scallop dishes served at the same time.
On the third course, Ramsay noticed that Heidi was not vocal with her team on her course, urged her to speak up, and Heather asked her where she went as she was louder than that. In the blue kitchen, Paulie was vocal with the blue team, as he claimed to be a head chef before, and told Wendy to cook up more potatoes. However, Ramsay noticed that Wendy failed to put in the capers for the potatoes and was more annoyed that Paulie plated them without seeing them. Wendy argued that Paulie grabbed her pan before she put in the capers, but Paulie claimed that Wendy could not cook. Then, when Wendy told Ramsay that they walked away from her, he mocked her for that comment. In the red kitchen, the red team was able to plate and serve their salmon dishes first, and Heidi felt proud to hear Ramsay praise her dish. However, the blue team was late getting their salmon out, and Paulie had everybody help him on plating, but Ryan felt that he could not lead a restaurant, let alone a restaurant in Las Vegas. Eventually, the blue team was able to get their salmon dishes served.
Heather reminded the red team what they were supposed to do on the fourth and final course and declared that meat was her forte. Ryan told Devin to start picking out the steaks that looked poor in the blue kitchen, but Ramsay wondered why he was not slicing them instead. While slicing the meat, Devin accidentally cut himself, he went to see the medic, and Ryan took over the slicing before telling Devin to grow some balls over one cut. In the red kitchen, Heather told the red team to serve the asparagus with the tips pointing in the same direction, and soon after, they were able to serve their course first, with the blue team not far behind. After that, Ryan felt good as she led her course well, the blue team did not get kicked out of the kitchen that time and hoped that Ramsay would not send one of them home.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay told them that while their guests were happy about their night, both teams had problems with efficiency and leadership. Despite that, the blue team was named the losers that night for making a lot of mental errors, and Ramsay asked them to nominate two people for elimination.
During deliberation, Devin knew how difficult it was to nominate half of the blue team now but knew that he had to speak his mind about what happened. Then, Devin told Wendy that her leadership was lacking, but she angrily accused him of throwing her under the bus. Then, Devin considered Wendy and Paulie as his nominees, the latter for being frantic, but Paulie angrily leftover that and told the blue team off. However, Paulie ran back into the dorms to pressure Devin into nominating Ryan instead as she worked by herself and not with the team, but Devin stood by his choice. Paulie angrily left again and argued that he should not be nominated over that accusation before going back and accusing the blue team of keeping Ryan because she was a strong link. Ryan told Paulie that he was her first nominee before struggling over her second choice and berated Paulie for his poor attitude in both the kitchen and the dorms. However, Paulie arrogantly told Ryan to shut up, accused her of being a weak chef that hid behind other chefs, but Ryan reminded Paulie of how he took over the entire kitchen with his salmon. Then, when Paulie accused Ryan of caring more about herself than the team, she brushed it off and told Paulie to send himself home. Then, Wendy accused Devin of not trusting the blue team, but he retorted that she had no trust in herself, and Paulie said that Wendy and Ryan were his nominees before leaving once again.
Elimination[]
Wendy announced Paulie as the blue team’s first nominee and herself and the second. During their pleas, Ramsay sarcastically welcomed Paulie back to the front, but the latter argued that he had no idea why he was nominated as he did a lot for his team that night while accusing them of shouting at him when he took over and that Ryan did not help with anybody on their courses. However, Ryan argued that Paulie’s claim was not true and that she helped her team out, but Paulie remained defiant and claimed that he got no help when he needed it. Then, Wendy said that she knew her mistakes and learned from them, using the multiple colored risottos as an example. Still, when Ramsay reminded her about the missing capers, Wendy said that the potatoes were moved from her station before she got a chance to put in the capers. After a hard decision, Wendy was eliminated for her string of poor performances, but before she left, Ramsay praised her for her amazing palate. During her plea, Wendy was proud of how far she went in the competition but knew that she should have expressed more confidence.
After Wendy left, Ramsay told the chefs that they were very close to being in the exclusive club of the black jackets and warned them that every test from now on would be a chance to prove they earned one. While being dismissed, Paulie felt that there was no trust in the blue team and that it was every man for itself before declaring that he was going to focus on his own stuff and watch his teammate’s burn. Then, Heather believed the blue team’s morale was terrible and compared Ryan and Paulie to two pit bulls going at each other before declaring that the red team was going to pick the blue team off like blueberries. Ryan was nervous about the future of the blue team as she could not perform with a team that hated each other, comparing it to high school drama, asking if she could go back to the red team.
Ramsay's comment: "First, Wendy told me her capers took a walk. Then it was the potatoes. But, after watching her lack of consistency and confidence, I knew it was her turn to take a walk."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the trapeze reward the blue team had.
- This marks the first and only time to date a red team won a Charity Night Service.