The sixteenth episode of Season 16 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox on February 2, 2017. In that episode, Heather and Ryan competed in their final challenge, picked their brigades for the final dinner service, and one of them was named the winner of Hell's Kitchen.
Intro[]
The episode began with a recap of the first fifteen episodes, mentioning what happened and who got eliminated.
While being dismissed, Heather and Ryan were excited to be in the finals, and the latter called it her biggest moment. Heather declared that Ryan was not a threat to her after claiming that she would snap her like a twig.
The next day, Sous Chefs Andi and Aaron deliver breakfast to the two, and after, went to discuss menu ideas for the final dinner service. While Ryan wanted to show her heart and passion in her menu, Heather wanted her menu to be like a home cook meal. After, Sous Chef Andi told the two that Ramsay has arranged for them to receive makeovers and a new wardrobe at the Ken Paves Salon, and later that night, take them to a musical. On the drive there, Ryan felt excited that she would get her mop head of hair done by Paves, who she called the biggest name in salons. After getting their makeover and clothes, Ramsay joined them and said that they would get a chance to meet Rob Morrow, the star of the musical, backstage. Arriving at the venue, Ramsay took Heather and Ryan straight to the backstage area and introduced them to Morrow. After Morrow left to do some stuff, Ramsay knocked on the dressing room door, and it was revealed that they were on a stage in front of a live audience, which included Heather and Ryan’s loved ones. Ramsay admitted that there was no musical, thanked Morrow for his help, and announced that it was time for their final challenge. Still, Ryan asked why they got pampered if it meant sweating their asses off later, even though she felt comfortable in her chef clothes.
Final challenge[]
For the Final Menu Challenge, Heather and Ryan had one hour to cook four dishes: a hot appetizer, a fish entrée, a beef entrée, and a chicken entrée. During the cooking, Ryan admitted how mad she was at Ramsay for lying to her, while Heather wanted to win the challenge and knew that there was no room for error. Eventually, the two got their dishes cooked and plated on time.
Before the judging, Ramsay announced he was changing things up and revealed that the winner of each round got to pick their brigade members on the spot. Heather deemed that sneaky and made her more determined to win the most rounds as possible so she could pick the strongest returning chefs. Then, Ramsay brought back Koop, Shaina, Wendy, Devin, Andrew, Kimberly, Paulie, and Heidi. The appetizer round was up first, and Walter Manzke was brought in to judge that round. Heather presented her shrimp, salmon, and crab cakes with frisée and microgreen salad and a lemon vinaigrette, and it was praised for being balanced well and crispy. Then, Ryan presented her creamy orzo risotto with a bit asparagus, herb goat cheese, and shrimp, and while it was praised for being clean and a properly cooked shrimp, Manzke felt the kale could have been cooked a little more. After some deliberating, Manzke gave Heather’s dish the win, and she got the first pick of her brigade. Heather picked Andrew as her first pick, he declared that he would not let her down, and Ryan felt that Heather just picked her boyfriend before calling her stupid. On the fish entrée round, Michael Cimarusti came up as the judge, and Ryan presented her seared freshwater salmon with pearl couscous and fennel apple slaw. The dish was praised for having a crispy skin, and being a successful dish, while Heather's seared arctic char with a brown sugar rub, Swiss chard, and parsnip purée was criticized for lacking any salt in the components, but praised for the Swiss chard's brightness. In the end, Cimarusti gave the round to Ryan, and for her first pick, she went with Heidi, with the latter saying that Heather did not deserve to be in the finals and wanted to help Ryan out in any way she could.
On the beef entrée round, Susan Feniger was up to judge, and Heather presented her dry-aged ribeye with collard greens and sweet potato goat cheese au gratin. While Feniger felt that the fat could have been seared off more, it was praised for the presentation. After, Ryan's filet with morels, kale, and curry cauliflower purée was praised for the perfectly cooked meat and kale but criticized for a strong garlic taste. After a tough deliberation, Heather won that round, and she rubbed it in Ryan's face. While Andrew wanted Heather to pick Paulie, she instead picked Kimberly, much to his shock. On the final round, the chicken entrée round, Founder and CEO of Yardbird, John Kunkel, went up to judge that round. After Ryan said she had to win that round to impress her future boss, she presented her pan-seared crispy chicken breast with tomatillo salsa, micro herbs, and caramelized apples. Kunkel praised the dish for being bold and tasty and having a nice combination of flavors. After, Heather presented her pan-seared airline chicken breast with truffle butter, sage, butternut squash, and mashed potatoes. Kunkel praised the dish for having a nice bite to it, having a perfectly cooked chicken, and deemed both dishes as items he would like to put on his menu. However, Kunkel gave Heather the win because her dish had a refined presentation, and she called it amazing that she won three out of the four rounds. Andrew once again called out for Paulie as a teammate, but Heather went with Shaina, much to his confusion and shock. Then, Ryan picked Paulie as her second pick as, despite calling him a wildcard, she felt he could come through to her. After, Heather picked Devin as her final pick, called it her dream team, and that automatically gave Ryan Koop and Wendy as her final picks. However, Ryan was happy with her team as she did not want Shaina or Devin.
Scoring[]
| Heather | Ryan | ||||
| Round | Score | Total | Round | Score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One | 1 | 1 | One | 0 | 0 |
| Two | 0 | 1 | Two | 1 | 1 |
| Three | 1 | 2 | Three | 0 | 1 |
| Four | 1 | 3 | Four | 0 | 1 |
| Results | 3-1 | ||||
Before service[]
Returning to the dorms, Ryan told everybody to be on their A-game the next day, but Paulie felt that she was not listening to his input. Meanwhile, Heather took in suggestions from her brigade. After Andrew volunteered to take over the most difficult station the following night, an annoyed Devin felt that the latter was once again overbearing and would be a distraction to Heather.
The next day, both teams came downstairs to begin prepping for service that night, and Heather and Andrew resume their flirting, with Kimberly feeling that the latter was going to ride Heather’s coattails to Vegas for a job. In the blue kitchen, Ryan tried to get an uncooperative Paulie to focus as the latter felt that no matter the results, he was not getting anything out of it before asking why he was wasting his time. After, Ryan and Heather asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
C.J. Wilson, Andrea Roth, Danny Trejo, Naomi Grossman, and the finalist’s loved ones were in attendance that night. For the menus, Heather’s featured a pan-seared arctic char with parsnip purée, a chicken breast with Israeli couscous and roasted sea bass and farro. Ryan’s featured a chicken breast with salsa Verde, braised pork belly with crispy Brussel sprouts, and a grilled filet mignon with curried cauliflower. Ryan stumbled on the first order as she misread a two-top for a four-top, while in the red kitchen, Heather received Grossman’s order. After calling out the order, Heather decided to call out another four-top order, and Devin deemed it a difficult task in Hell’s Kitchen. That caused Devin to get confused on orders, and after Ramsay commented on that situation, Kimberly felt that Heather was trying to get ahead to make herself look good. It soon backfired as Andrew sent up his scallops early, Ramsay reminded him that they would go cold on the hot pass due to the wait, and a dismayed Heather said that it was not a time for her to commit a stupid error. After, Ramsay ordered Heather to get a grip and perfect one table at a time as her brigade’s timings were terrible. Despite that, Heather was able to send out her first table of appetizers. In the blue kitchen, Paulie did not answer Ryan’s time request on the meatballs before frustratingly reminding him that he was working for her that night. Then, Ryan and Ramsay discovered that Paulie’s meatballs were ice-cold. Ryan felt embarrassed by that, and she and Ramsay had Paulie feel them as the latter accused him of sabotaging Ryan. Paulie argued that he was not and was doing his best to help Ryan, but Ramsay sternly reminded him that ice-cold meatballs were not helping her. Despite Ryan finding some good meatballs to use, Paulie still had a sour attitude as he was not getting anything out of that night but decided not to let the ship sink and got his second batch accepted.
Forty-five minutes into service, both kitchens were able to push out appetizers at a steady pace. Before moving onto entrées, Ramsay called Heather and Ryan to the middle of the pass, reminded them about the issues they had earlier, and said they were neck and neck now with the next course being the deciding factor. However, Ryan did not feel comfortable about that situation as she wanted to blow Heather out of the water, and the latter wanted to push it. However, Shaina sent up raw sea bass, Andrew sent up under-seasoned asparagus, and after Heather said that her team should be better than that, Ramsay discovered that Kimberly’s ribeye was overcooked before accusing the latter of not knowing the color of the meat. Ramsay asked Heather what happened to the strong girl that ran the pass the previous night, brought her into the pantry room, and a dismayed Andrew knew that it was not a good sign to be in the room of doom. There, Ramsay lectured to Heather that her brigade was dictating her and they should respond to her before telling her that the moment of truth was now. After agreeing with Ramsay that she could do better, Heather declared that she was in full-on bitch mode, called out the refire order with more authority, and knew that her brigade had to respect her to give her cooked food. While Shaina’s refire was accepted, Kimberly was late on her refire, and Heather was forced to send out an incomplete table. Then, Kimberly’s second attempt was raw, and despite arguing that she had it properly done, Ramsay asked Kimberly if she was okay before accusing her of never cooking a ribeye before, which she confirmed that she did not despite doing them brilliantly in previous services. In the blue kitchen, Koop and Wendy communicated on entrées, but the latter sent up raw salmon, and Ramsay pointed out to Ryan that she had a major problem going on at fish. After having Wendy work on it again, Ryan reminded the former that service that night meant a lot to her. Ramsay called Wendy out for ruining Ryan's night, and she apologized for sucking that night. In the red kitchen, Kimberly’s third attempt on the ribeye was accepted. In the blue kitchen, Wendy continued to struggle as Paulie discovered that her salmon was raw. Finally refusing to be sent up imperfect proteins any longer, Ryan relocated Koop on fish and Wendy onto meat, and the switch worked as Koop’s salmon was accepted.
One hour and a half into service, both kitchens were pushing out entrées at a strong pace, but Kimberly’s ribeye was once again raw, which annoyed Andrew as they were supposed to make Heather shine that night. After Ramsay told her to do the honorable thing, Heather demoted Kimberly to desserts and put Devin on meat. Heather knew she could finish strong that night but also knew she could not undo the mistakes that night. After Devin said that he needed a minute to fix the meat station, he got the ribeye accepted, and both kitchens were able to push out their final tickets.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay admitted that while both kitchens had difficult evenings, they held their composure from the start to the end, which was what a head chef needed to do. After, Ramsay said that he needed some time to look over the comment cards and asked Ryan and Heather to take their brigades back to the dorms.
Back at the dorms, Ryan said that she was happy despite the mistakes that night, while Heather called it mind-wracking. Back at Ramsay’s office, he looked over the comment cards, along with his own observations throughout the competition. While waiting for Ramsay’s decision, Heather called the wait crazy, while Ryan said that she would force her door open even if it did not open.
Winner chosen[]
Later, Ramsay called the dorms and asked Ryan and Heather to come down to his office for his decision. Ramsay praised Ryan for her creativity, along with her dishes being the best in the previous challenges and calling her a tough cookie to beat. Then, Ramsay praised Heather for being the most consistent performer in the competition, having a great palate, and being the first person to win a black jacket. Then, both stood in front of a door, both knowing that it would open if they were the winner. After Ramsay’s countdown, both turned their handles, but only Ryan’s door opened.
Ryan became the winner of Hell’s Kitchen and won the head chef position at Yardbird Southern Bar & Grill at the Venetian in Las Vegas with a salary of $250,000, therefore making Heather the runner-up. Heather said that she might need tissues but knew that she made it to the finale before saying that she was proud of her performance and that nobody has heard the last from her after that night. Meanwhile, Ryan was excited that she won and called the experience worth it. She reunited with her daughter and mother and remembered how hard she pushed herself to get to that point as she hung her portrait on the Wall of Fame.
During the credits, Ryan’s daughter told her how much she loved her, Andrew comforted Heather, Heidi and Wendy expressed proudness in Ryan’s victory, and Marino sprayed everybody with champagne.
Ramsay's comment: "Early on, I challenged Ryan to find her voice. Once she proved to me she could command a kitchen, there was no stopping her. She has the tenacity, drive and skill that will make her a great head chef at Yardbird Southern Table and Bar at the Venetian Las Vegas."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the finale of Season 16 and how both Ryan and Heather were running the pass while leaving it all on their brigades.
- This is the only time Ramsay had the brigade pick be integrated into the Final Tasting Challenge, as later seasons would go back to the format used since the beginning.
- To date, this is the final episode of the season to have a chef take the place of someone who did not return for the finale.
- This marks the final appearance of Sous Chef Aaron after spending two seasons as the blue team's Sous Chef and the final appearance of Sous Chef Andi after spending eight seasons as the red team's Sous Chef.