The second episode of Season 17 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on October 6, 2017. In that episode, an individual challenge featuring bar food took place, one team did not have any stars on opening night, and a shocking elimination that nobody saw coming occurred.
Individual challenge[]
Continuing from the previous episode, Ramsay adds that in addition to the immunity reward for the Bar Menu Challenge, the winner’s dish would also be added to the bar menu for the rest of the season. Robyn said that she needed immunity due to her poor performance in the last challenge and as a way to redeem herself. After, Ramsay asked the chefs that he would need two servings for each of their dishes as they would be important for the judging. While Jared wanted 45 minutes to cook their dishes, Ramsay instead gave the chefs 40 minutes.
As the challenge began, Jared decided to cook dumplings, but while he felt confident, he realized that he did not know how to make a dumpling, and Benjamin was unable to help him out. In the red kitchen, Michelle decided to do a lobster sausage, and while she knew she was pushing the definition of ambitious, it was either go big or go home in the competition. In the blue kitchen, Milly knew how big a difference bar food was to an appetizer, knew some high-end bar food he could make, and told Sous Chef Jocky that he had a plan for a seafood poutine dish. In the red kitchen, Elise decided to go with wings as they could pair up with any drink on the menu before asking who did not like chicken wings. With eight minutes left, Ben admitted that he was not a big fan of redemption, but hoped that Ramsay would love his chicken compared to the previous challenge, just as the latter tasted Josh’s coconut curry sauce and told him it was delicious. Two minutes left, Robyn felt confident over her crab cakes as they did not taste dry and thought she had it in the bag. Eventually, the chefs got their dishes cooked and plated on time.
For the judging, Ramsay announced that Sous Chefs Christina and Jocky would be sampling each of the dishes from both teams and pick a top four from them. However, Dana felt a little upset as she did not cook for 40 minutes on a dish that Ramsay himself was not going to taste and hoped she would be in the top four of the women. As the Sous Chefs sampled the chef’s dishes, Manda felt that Sous Chef Christina was hard to read and hoped that she loved her dish, while Jared wondered why he made dumplings from scratch when he had no idea how to. After, Ramsay came back, and Sous Chef Christina announced that Dana was the first person of her top four, much to the latter’s excitement. Dana presented her beer-battered lobster tempura taco with pan-seared chorizo, and Ramsay praised the dish for having light tempura, with the avocado crème making it a little more royal. Then, Sous Chef Jocky announced that Milly was the first of the top four from the blue team to come up, and the latter presented his hand-cut fries topped with a lobster cheese sauce. Even though Ramsay said that poutine was not the most elegant way of starting a meal, he thought that Milly’s poutine was the most elegant version on the planet. Although Dana felt that Milly’s cheese fries were not better than her tacos, Ramsay deemed the latter’s dish the best so far, and Dana was out of the challenge. For the second red chef, Sous Chef Christina called up Ashley, and the latter presented her polenta cake with tequila and lime marinated shrimp. Ramsay praised the presentation as it looked like an above and beyond bar menu dish and put Ashley’s dish in the top four. For the second blue chef, Sous Chef Jocky called up Jared, Ashley knew that they loved putting her and the latter against each other, and Jared presented his pork and smoked halibut dumpling. After praising it for being delicious, Ramsay decided to add Jared’s dish into the top four, and the latter was excited that he pulled it off. After, Sous Chef Christina announced Elise as the third red chef, and the latter presented her Tucson bar wings with parmesan cheese. Ramsay praised the wings for their flavor and crispiness, and he swapped out Ashley’s dish for Elise’s, therefore removing the former out of the challenge. Van was called up as the third chef from the blue team in the top four, he presented his carne al tacos, and after Ramsay praised the steak for tasting delicious, he replaced Jared in the top four in favor of Van. For the final red chef, Robyn hoped that her dish was good enough, but Sous Chef Christina announced Michelle instead, and the latter presented her lobster and shrimp sausage roll with Asian slaw. Ramsay praised the dish for looking beautiful, and he put Michelle’s dish in the top four. The final blue chef was Nick, and a down Benjamin thought that his dish was good. Nick’s crab fritters with a lemon chive mayo were praised for a nice presentation and a nice touch on the sauce, but criticized for being a little doughy, and he failed to dethrone one of the top four. In the end, Milly, Elise, Van, and Michelle were in the top four, and all of them hoped that they would be the winner. Ramsay announced that Milly was the winner, the latter was excited that he won the first individual challenge and could not wait to tell his kids about it.
Before service[]
Back in the dorms, a disappointed Michelle told Josh that she wanted to win the challenge, but while the latter was happy for Milly, Michelle argued that the latter always fell back on what he knew best. However, Josh reminded Michelle that if Milly knew a dish that he made a thousand times before, he would win the challenge.
Later in the day, the chefs reviewed the menu, but Manda noticed that Ben’s color was off and asked if he was okay. Ben said that he was about to check his sugar levels and revealed to everybody that he was recently diagnosed with diabetes before heading off. Ben admitted that it sucked that he was not as healthy as he was last time but decided that he would give that night 100% and did not want to make a spectacle by falling over. Later that day, both teams came downstairs, and Sous Chef Christina gave them brand new Henkels to use for the competition, with Benjamin revealing that he still used his knives that he recieved back in Season 7 as the quality was that good. Then, Sous Chef Christina told both teams that the menu was bigger than any other from the previous seasons, and while Nick knew that everybody was freaking out, he knew they could adapt quickly because they were All-Stars. As the Sous Chefs gave demonstrations on the brand new menu items, Dana felt nervous over the abundance of items in one day, and Josh compared it to a walk through a desert without water.
With 30 minutes left until service began, Ben continued to wonder if he could make it through that night and met up with the medic for a diagnosis as he was getting dizzy. After, Ben said that despite being young and healthy back in Season 5, life has been rough for him, has gotten older and fatter, and called his diabetes terrible. After debating whether he should tap out, Ben still wanted to perform on the opening night.
After prep was finished, Ramsay had both teams lined up. Because Ramsay was very confident in the All-Stars abilities, the restaurant would open the chef’s tables for opening night’s service for the first time. The women would be serving Jordin Sparks, which excited Michelle as Sparks was the youngest contestant on American Idol to win, and that she was the youngest person to receive a black jacket, while the men would be serving Joe Mantegna. Ramsay told both teams that he expected an All-Star service that night, and after the men urged Ben to speak up if he did not feel well, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
In addition to the VIPs, French Stewart, Keith Sweat, and Kristin Maldonado in the dining room, and a shrimp and pasta appetizer was served tableside by Dana and Milly. After receiving their first order, Jennifer wanted to defeat the men that night and declared that it was their turn to win. However, Ashley was concerned as she was on appetizers, which was her worst station, and that she did not cook carbonara back home. Despite Elise warning Ashley that the carbonara looked wet, the latter ignored her and sent up broken carbonara. After Ramsay expressed disappointment, Elise said that Ashley should have known better as carbonara was one of the most simplistic dishes on the menu. In the blue kitchen, Josh was slow platting the salmon appetizer, but he argued that he was doing his best to prove to Ramsay that he deserved to be an All-Star before refusing to send up anything but perfection if it meant a couple more minutes. Despite Ramsay’s impatience, Josh’s appetizer was accepted, and the men were able to serve their first order. In the red kitchen, Ashley’s refire was accepted, she apologized to the women for her earlier mistake, and both teams were pushing out appetizers. Just then, the VIPs arrived, sat at their respective chef’s tables, and the women began working on entrées. Elise knew that the opening night was the hardest, especially since she competed five years ago, and called it nerve-wracking. Despite that, Elise and Robyn got their meat entrées accepted, and the latter admitted that she needed that compliment, while Elise admitted that she was not concerned as she knew her chicken was good.
One hour into service, the men began on their first order of entrées, and Ben only wanted to give everything he had that night. However, Ben clocked out on Nick’s communication for times, and Jared admitted how weird it was sharing fish with the former, especially due to his health problems, but reassured Ben that he had his back. However, Ben’s salmon was raw, Ramsay frustratingly smashed it after ranting it was ice cold, and he reminded Ben to cook it longer as it was a thick piece. Ben felt that he screwed up as he was the one who told Jared to walk the salmon, and while they worked on the refire, Ramsay was forced to send out an incomplete table. Then, Ben felt dizzy again and nearly collapsed until Jared caught him, but despite that, Ben’s refire was accepted. In the red kitchen, Elise wanted to keep her and Robyn’s good momentum going as they might win that night, but her New York striploin was very raw. That led an upset Ramsay to drag the women into the pantry room, asked them what was happening, showed them Elise’s raw steak, and asked them to get themselves together. After coming back, Elise declared that she was the bounce-back queen and promised she would never rush again. In the blue kitchen, Nick recalled that he was eliminated last time due to a horrific performance on meat but managed to get his entrées accepted. Ramsay told Nick and Giovanni that it was the All-Star proteins he was looking for, much to the former’s relief.
One hour and a half into service, Elise decided to cook two steaks for insurance, but her second attempt was overcooked, and an angry Ramsay ordered the women to go out into the dining room and apologize to their customers. While they did apologize, a very embarrassed Elise wished that the floor would open and swallow her. When the women came back into the kitchen, Ramsay refused to let any more poor steaks come out, called Giovanni in from the blue team, and asked him to cook six New York striploins for Elise. While Elise teared up over that, Barbie reminded her that Giovanni was only there to help and urged her to keep control of her station. However, Ashley was unsympathetic as she did not cry when she made mistakes, but footage from Season 15 proved otherwise, as Giovanni told Elise to stop flipping her steaks. In the blue kitchen, the men continued to push out entrées as an impressed Ramsay commented that he has never seen such perfect proteins come up before, and in the red kitchen, Elise’s third attempt was accepted thanks to Giovanni’s help. On the next ticket, Manda brought up her salmon and pork dishes, but Ramsay saw that it was raw and was more confused when Manda admitted that she had no idea how it could happen, while Barbie was annoyed as salmon was the most ordered fish in the world. While working on the refire, Ashley told Manda that the skin looked burnt, but the latter was getting annoyed as she felt everybody was not giving her space. When Ramsay saw Manda cooking a raw salmon, Ashley told Ramsay about the burnt salmon, and after seeing it, Ramsay yelled at the women for their terrible performance despite being All-Stars, calling them No-Stars in the process. As such, Ramsay kicked the women out of the kitchen. Back in the blue kitchen, the men were able to complete their final ticket, and Van excitedly boasted that they rocked it out that night.
Post-mortem[]
Back in the dorms, Barbie tried to calm Elise down, but while the latter tearfully felt that she deserved to be nominated that night, Barbie told her that she should not go home as she had more to show. When the women gathered for deliberation, Barbie said that there were some communication problems at the start, and Ashley admitted to her fumbling on the carbonara before arguing that she bounced back. However, Manda felt that Ashley should be nominated for messing up on appetizers from the start of service as carbonara should be muscle memory by that point, but the latter argued that she bounced back and helped out that night. Moving onto meat, Barbie pointed out that Robyn had two proteins to cook that night compared to Elise’s four, but Robyn argued that the latter wanted to cook the meat that night, which left her with the Wellingtons, and felt that Barbie and Elise had an alliance. However, Elise argued that she got behind due to the slow down on apps, and then, the shift turned to Manda as she struggled on the salmon that night, with Michelle pointing out that she had to cook the same ticket three times. While Manda argued that she had everything else sent out perfectly, Michelle told her that she failed to bounce back on the salmon that got them kicked out of service. In the end, everybody was struggling with who to nominate.
Elimination[]
Before asking for the nominees, Ramsay said that despite expecting a true All-Star service that night, he only got All-Stars from the men and no stars from the women. Barbie announced Elise as the women’s first nominee and Manda as the second. During their pleas, Manda said that she took in Ramsay’s criticisms from last season and worked on them despite getting flustered on the red team’s last ticket, while Elise said that she was not the weakest chef on the red team and wanted another opportunity to prove herself. However, Ramsay reminded Elise that he had to bring over Giovanni to coach her on cooking steaks, and she called it the most embarrassing moment that night. After, Ramsay asked the women who they wanted to see go home. Most of them said Manda, but Dana and Robyn said Elise. Then, Ramsay reminded the chefs that he brought them back for a reason and that Hell’s Kitchen was a marathon before saying that he needed a chef that could bounce back and be durable. In the end, and to everybody’s shock, Ramsay eliminated Ben as he felt his health problems would hinder him in the long run. During his exit interview, Ben admitted that he knew how difficult that season would be, had no regrets about getting eliminated, and believed that Ramsay made the right decision.
After Ben left, Ramsay dismissed the chefs, and Manda knew that the red team had to work together before saying that anybody who was not being a team player should go home. Then, Jared was shocked over Ben’s elimination and felt that a woman should have gone home as they lost that night.
Ramsay's comment: "Big Ben? More like big liability. He clearly wasn't going to be able to keep up, so I had to let him down."
After Elimination[]
On their way back to the dorms, Elise boasted that being nominated has motivated her, and she knew that she was in the top four of the red team. However, Robyn felt that Elise was disrespecting her, and the two argued in the middle of the living room in front of everybody, ending the episode in a cliffhanger.
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the Bar Menu Challenge, along with Ramsay's desire to raise the stakes in the All-Star season.
- This marks the earliest Ramsay has eliminated a chef from the winning team. It also marks the longest streak Ramsay did so with four (along with Ben, Ramsay eliminated Season 14's Randy, Season 15's Joe, and Season 16's Gia in that way). Lastly, this is the final time to date Ramsay eliminated a chef from the winning team.
- This episode marks the second time where an entire team, rather than 1-3 contestants, were forced to apologize to customers after Episode 903 - 15 Chefs Compete.
- This episode marks the earliest Ramsay held an individual challenge and the first time everyone competed in one.
- This marks the last time Ramsay issued immunity to the winning chef in a challenge. It also marks the first and only time an immuned chef was on the winning team.