The third episode of Season 17 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on October 13, 2017. In that episode, one team continued their winning streak, an old feud reignited, one chef lacked commitment during the punishment, and another one was kicked out for a nail appointment during service.
Intro[]
Continuing from the previous episode, Elise and Robyn began arguing in the living room as the latter accused the former of turning the women against her, but Elise argued against that, and an annoyed Manda call it crazy and crazier going at each other. While Elise said that being nominated has motivated her to become the bounce-back queen, Robyn reminded her that they were still a team, and the reason she was mad was that Elise was talking trash behind her back before reminding her of her poor New York striploins that night. However, Elise sarcastically congratulated Robyn for bouncing back after two poor challenge performances, and the latter called herself the bounce-back queen in response. As the two continued to argue, with Robyn calling Elise a bitch, Van called the women ratchet girls for their failure to get along, and Dana loudly asked where the alcohol was as she was getting annoyed over the two going in circles. Eventually, Manda ended the argument by moving Robyn out of the living room.
Team challenge[]
The next day, Josh was eating breakfast, but a bemused Ashley noticed that he was eating a chimichanga. After coming downstairs, Josh ran off into the blue kitchen to throw up his chimichanga and vitamins. However, Josh claimed that it was good luck for quarterbacks to throw up. Afterwards, Ramsay asked the chefs what the most important quality for a chef was, with Josh saying palate, Nick saying leadership, and Dana said imagination. While Ramsay deemed them good qualities, the one he was thinking about was a chef’s hands, and before their next challenge, he invited a kid named Matthew into the dining room. Ramsay had Matthew demonstrate his skills in cup stacking, and the chefs were amazed that he did it in only six seconds. After, Ramsay said that he needed one chef from each team to stack a cup tower, and the person that completed the tower first would win an advantage for the real challenge. Michelle volunteered for the women, which Elise allowed her as she thought that the youngest chef would know cup stacking, while Jared volunteered for the men as he felt he could do it if an eleven-year-old kid could. While Michelle was able to stack her tower in 18 seconds, Jared struggled a lot. Everybody was forced to wait for him to finish, with Robyn commenting that she felt bad for his girlfriend due to his poor finger skills. Josh was only glad it was not the entire challenge. Eventually, Jared finished in one minute and sixteen seconds, but because Michelle had the fastest time, she won a 30-second head start advantage for the women in the real challenge. Ramsay announced the Seafood Tower Challenge, where each team would work in pairs to recreate one tier at a time, and the team that had all their tiers accepted would win the challenge. Since the men had one less person, Ramsay told them that they would have one person go up twice.
Ashley and Manda were the first pair from the women to compete and began working on the first tier, which was prawns and lobsters. Manda knew that there was a lot of pressure going first as they had to maintain the red team’s advantage over the blue team. After the 30 seconds were up, Van and Giovanni were the first pair from the men to compete, and the latter felt good with shellfish as he worked in a seafood restaurant before hoping he could give the men a jump start. Manda and Ashley brought up their first attempt, but Ramsay rejected it for lacking the seaweed. Despite that, Manda and Ashley got their second attempt accepted. Van and Giovanni got their first attempt accepted not long after. For the second tier, the pairs of Elise and Michelle, and Benjamin and Jared began working on the oysters, but Michelle noticed that she was the only person shucking oysters while Elise was working on the ice. In the blue kitchen, Jared compared shucking oysters to caressing a woman, and after making some sexual innuendos, he knew that his girlfriend would be mad. Meanwhile, Michelle and Elise discovered that they were missing an oyster, while Benjamin and Jared got their second-tier accepted on the first try, angering Manda as the women lost their lead. Elise and Michelle got their first attempt accepted not long after, and for the third tier, the pairs of Josh and Nick, and Dana and Jennifer began working on the razor clams and crab legs. Jennifer believed that she would kill it as she worked in a restaurant that did seafood towers, while Nick was hoping Josh did not throw up again. Nick and Josh got their first attempt accepted, and Dana and Jennifer got their first attempt accepted soon after. For the final tier, the pairs of Benjamin and Milly, and Barbie and Robyn had to prep manila clams and sea urchin clams with caviar. Milly compared it to a race and wanted to be in the final lap to turn it up, while Manda was hoping that Barbie and Robyn would win as the women could not afford to lose again. Soon after, both pairs got their tier completed and raced to Ramsay, but Benjamin and Milly got to him first. Ramsay accepted their first attempt, the men won the challenge, and a happy Jared said that while they sucked at cup stacking, they excelled at what they did best.
Reward[]
The men were rewarded with a seafood lunch at the Ocean Club in Malibu, with Ramsay saying that there would be some special guests to be revealed when they get there. While being dismissed, Josh was excited that they not only won two challenges in a row, but they were going to Malibu. During the reward, the men took in the beach view, and Sous Chef Jocky joined them soon after, which Milly called a great time to be. During lunch, the men poked fun at Josh’s sickness earlier that day, and while Milly told Sous Chef Jocky that he felt the latter was on their side, Sous Chef Jocky reminded them that he was not there to massage anybody’s ego and wanted them to be the best.
After lunch, Marino came in wearing soccer gear and revealed that their second reward was playing soccer outside, though Giovanni commented that they did not look like the running type. Outside, Marino introduced the men to Alyssa Naeher and Julie Johnston, with a stunned Benjamin stating that his daughters idolized the two and called it a great experience. As the game went on, Jared commented that they were out-of-shape chefs that were not used to it, and Sous Chef Jocky scored an impressive goal that Milly compared to David Beckham.
Punishment[]
The women were punished by taking deliveries of 100 pounds of seafood and prep them for that night’s service along with both kitchens. During the punishment, Elise felt that the red team was not a cohesive unit and could not get on the same page before hoping to fix it. Then, Barbie started calling out what was needed on the invoice, but that annoyed Manda, and it led to a minor argument until Elise shut it down. Later, Sous Chef Christina presented the women their lunch, a bowl of disgusting fish soup. Manda complained about the texture, and when Dana, Robyn, Michelle, and Elise described it out loud, Barbie vomited and told them not to talk about it. However, Dana noticed that Elise did not take a single bite of her dish, but while the latter claimed that she was not adventurous, she lied to Sous Chef Christina that she did, which Jennifer deemed a bad move. So, Sous Chef Christina did a breath check on everybody, and Robyn knew the former was not playing around. When Elise told Sous Chef Christina that she only took a bite of the broth and not the actual fish, Sous Chef Christina had her eat a single bite in front of her, reminding her it was a team-win team-loss situation.
Before service[]
Later, the men came back from their reward, and an annoyed Robyn told them to walk away during their cloud nine experience. Then, Robyn discovered that Barbie sliced the scallops into uneven pieces, but while she told the latter that it would screw the women, Barbie ignored her. However, Robyn felt that the women were getting tired of Barbie’s attitude, told her to grow up as she was the oldest of the group, and Jennifer told Robyn that they would throw Barbie under the bus if they lost the service.
After prep, Ramsay had both teams lined up and explained that with sixteen seasons' worth of choices, he picked them because they each had passion. After asking both teams to cook with passion, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Jon Rahm, Zach Ertz, Alyssa Naeher, and Julie Johnston were in attendance that night, and a fresh seafood appetizer was served tableside by Michelle and Giovanni. The men got Naeher and Johnston’s order first, and Nick knew how super important they get their order out fast as he deemed the two very talented. After Benjamin and Nick got the order accepted, Milly proclaimed that nobody was working alone that night, and more appetizers were being pushed out to rave reviews. In the red kitchen, Dana and Elise were pushing their appetizers out, and the women were beginning to work on entrées. As Barbie and Manda were communicating, Ashley felt that the red team had some strong women in the team before deciding to let them lead while she drank water. However, Ramsay caught Ashley doing nothing but staring at her watch, sarcastically asked her if she had an appointment for her nails, and asked Marino to take her to the bar. While Ashley called it ridiculous, Marino urged her to shake it off.
Forty-five minutes into service, Barbie brought up her lamb, and it was accepted. In the blue kitchen, the men moved onto entrées, but Josh did not hear the order as he was focused on cooking his meat. Knowing that he had to drive that night to become a leader, Milly became vocal with Jared, but while the latter’s Wellingtons were accepted, Ramsay was still waiting on Van for the salmon. Despite the men’s impatience, Van got his salmon accepted, and they continued to push out entrées. In the red kitchen, Ashley reentered the red kitchen, with Barbie telling her to be with her, but while the latter was ready on her proteins, Manda was not ready with her garnishes. Ramsay accused Manda of dragging the women, and a dismayed Barbie was forced to watch her meat die. Then, Robyn sent up raw salmon, Ramsay criticized the women for their dysfunctional performance, and Robyn blamed Manda for screwing her up. However, Ashley did not pay attention to Ramsay’s lecture until he threw the salmon at her and told her to watch her nails. In the blue kitchen, Van and Jared brought up their dishes, but Josh was late on the lamb as he was still basting it. Jared gave Josh directions as he wanted the latter to be the master baster, and Josh was able to get it accepted. In the red kitchen, the women worked on their refire, but when Robyn tried to communicate with Barbie on time, the latter rudely told her to shut up as she was talking to Ramsay, causing Robyn to call her the same person from Season 10. Despite Robyn telling Barbie to be accurate on her timings, the latter told her to be accurate on her fish. When they sent up their dishes, Ramsay showed the women Barbie’s overcooked duck, chewed-up lamb, raw Wellingtons, and Robyn’s overcooked salmon before giving them one last chance until he kicked them out.
In the blue kitchen, the men were continuing to push out entrées, and in the red kitchen, the women got their third attempt accepted. Robyn wanted to bounce back on their next ticket, believed that the red team had it, and she and Ashley brought up their dishes. However, Ramsay called the men over, minus Nick and Giovanni, who were on desserts, much to Manda’s dismay. After showing them Ashley’s overcooked lobster Wellington and Robyn’s ice-cold halibut, Ramsay angrily kicked the women out of the kitchen and ordered the men to take over the red kitchen. While being dismissed, an annoyed Michelle complained that the women were once again kicked out and felt they were taking a step backward. Stopping them in the back hallway, Ramsay deemed the women’s performance worse than the previous service, and after criticizing them for failing to switch it on, he asked them to nominate two people for elimination. While heading back to the dorms, Robyn argued with Barbie over knocking her down that night and accused the latter of sandbagging the entire team. Back in the red kitchen, the men were able to complete both the women's and their own tickets.
Post-mortem[]
Back at the dorms, Michelle and Elise agreed that they were just giving the men the wins, with the latter ranting that they had to get better with communication. Both Barbie and Ashley considered Robyn and Manda for elimination, with Elise agreeing with them as Manda was flustered on garnish, but the latter argued that she did not start dragging until the mistakes happened and felt that Barbie’s poor performance on meat hurt them that night. Then, Jennifer considered Ashley and Barbie as the meat station derailed the red kitchen that night, which Robyn agreed with. While Elise reminded Ashley of how she did nothing that night compared to Barbie, Ashley argued that she did nothing wrong that night. When Michelle asked where the point of no return was, the rest of the team agreed that meat and fish were the main culprits, hinting about Barbie and Robyn. Dana called the constant arguing on the line disgusting, and Robyn brought up the argument she had with Barbie over the latter’s disrespectful attitude towards her. However, Barbie argued that there was no reason she should be nominated as Robyn could not handle her station and sarcastically apologized to Robyn for being unable to cook fish, which set off the latter again.
Elimination[]
Before asking for the nominees, Ramsay reminded the women that after two dinner services and two challenges, they were 0-4. While Ramsay recalled that they did win a cup stacking challenge, he bitterly said big deal and asked the men to give the women a round of applause. Barbie announced Robyn as the women’s first nominee for elimination, with herself as the second, and when Ramsay asked the red team what was missing, Dana believed that there was no teamwork, while Robyn said that they were beating each other down instead of helping each other up. After Ramsay asked if anybody else was considered, Barbie revealed that Ashley received a couple of votes, while Manda revealed that she got some as well. So, Ramsay decided to call the four women down to the front, commenting how spoiled for choice he was.
During their pleas, Barbie said that she was focused and determined, but when Ramsay asked her what the women had against her, she felt there were a lot of mouths running and not a lot of ears listening. Then, Ramsay reminded Robyn that she was responsible for 90% of the problems on fish, but she felt that she was communicating with everybody. Manda said that she was organized from the start until the refires happened. After, Ramsay reminded Ashley of how she temporarily left service to go to the bar, which she called horrible and commented that he never saw somebody stare at their watch for that long. Ashley claimed that she was trying to make sure she had the correct timings in her head, but Ramsay pointed out that she left service better looking than when she started. However, Ashley promised Ramsay that it would never happen again, and when asked about the reason for the multiple failures that night, she believed that there was a lack of communication across the board. In the end, Ashley was eliminated for not contributing enough that night, and Ramsay feeling that she had no fight left in her. During her exit interview, Ashley was not happy about being eliminated so early. She said that Barbie and Robyn are running on a thin line while also telling them to check their egos at the door and called them shady bitches, saying that Hell’s Kitchen was hell on Earth.
After Ashley left, Ramsay asked the women when they were going to win something, but while Jennifer promised the next day, Ramsay told them to sort it out. While being dismissed, Robyn felt that it was déjà vu again with Barbie’s constant squawking, while Jared was stunned by Ashley’s elimination and felt the women would never throw each other under the bus if they supported each other. Then, Barbie knew that there was a target on her back once again, but she declared that she would survive it like she did last time.
Ramsay's comment: "Ashley spent more time staring at her watch than paying attention to her station. And so, her time here on Hell's Kitchen is done."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the Seafood Tower Challenge. It is also a reference to the 1997 movie Tower of Terror.
- This marks the second time Ramsay nominated four chefs from one team after Episode 1015 - 7 Chefs Compete.
- This marks the first time a team won two challenges and two services in a row.