The tenth episode of Season 18 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX on January 4, 2019. On that episode, the annual Blind Taste Test took place, one chef nearly lost it after another punishment, and a private dinner service had an embarrassing moment for one team take place.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Motto agreed with Scotley 's elimination and had faith that Jose would bounce back, with the two hugging it out in the dorms. Later that night, Kanae was seen cleaning the dorm's kitchen along with Bret, with the former asking the latter how many kids he had. He replied that he had a daughter and a "step-daughter-ish". He wondered if he had more kids while Trev sat looking confused. Bret proceeded to explain how back in the day, women would throw themselves at him. Bret was then seen with Jose, talking about how the former loved his girlfriend and how he loved his previous girlfriend too, but not really, with Jose pulling a disgusted face.
Team challenge[]
The next day, both teams came downstairs to find the dining room turn into an Italian café, and Bret hoped that it was an Italian-themed challenge as the men would easily win. Then, Ramsay asked the chefs how they would envision their Italian meal, with Motto saying that he would start with some wine, while Bret described starting with some classic pasta dishes. Then, Heather said that she would end her dinner with a tiramisu, while Kanae said she would have gelato instead. After, Ramsay explained that Marino 's family were the makers of the finest gelato in Italy. When Marino came with an ice cream bike, the chefs noticed that he had the same short shorts back from his teen picture weeks ago, and he confirmed to Ramsay that his smooth legs were all-natural. After tasting some classic gelato flavors, Ramsay explained that some other flavors could be added into gelato, and when Marino pulled some blindfolds out of his cart, it was revealed that the annual Blind Taste Test would be their next challenge. While Trev still remembered his poor performance back in Season 8, he was ready for that year. Each chef would be tasting gelato flavors and try to identify the main ingredient used, and the team with the most points at the end would win. However, while one chef from each team would be tasting the gelatos, the other would be sat on a pedestal and suffer through multiple punishments for multiple incorrect answers. Two wrong answers resulting in a spaghetti cannon, three incorrect answers resulting in a marinara dunk, and four incorrect answers resulting in a Parmesan cheese shower. Kanae was not happy about the challenge overall as she never did a blind taste test before and felt sorry for whoever would be sitting at the hot seat during her turn.
Trev and Heather were the first chefs from their team to taste, while Jose and Kanae sat on the hot seats for their team, though Kanae complained that she did not want her ponytails to get messed up. Of their four ingredients, Trev failed to get all of them, resulting in Jose getting all three punishments, while Heather managed to get mango and tomato, with Kanae getting just the spaghetti punishment. After that round, it was 2-0 for the women, Trev was disappointed by his disastrous performance, not helping matters when the blue team roasted him for that. Motto got banana, pickle, and black pepper on the second round, but Mia went a step further by guessing peanut butter correctly, resulting in her ending in a perfect round, and the women led 6-3. In the third round, Bret only got garlic and coconut, resulting in Motto getting the spaghetti punishment, while Ariel got those two along with jalapeno pepper ending that round 9-5 for the women. On the final round, Jose and Kanae were up, and Ramsay said the men had to have a perfect round in order to tie the challenge, while the women only needed to score one more point to automatically win the challenge. Jose managed to get coffee, but Kanae, who did not drink the beverage, got it as well. As a result, the women won the challenge 10-6.
Scoring[]
Red Team | Blue Team | ||||
Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trev | 0/4 | 0 | Heather | 2/4 | 2 |
Motto | 3/4 | 3 | Mia | 4/4 | 6 |
Bret | 2/4 | 5 | Ariel | 3/4 | 9 |
Jose | 1/1 | 6 | Kanae | 1/1 | 10 |
Results | 10-6 |
Reward[]
The women were rewarded with a spa day at Southern California's Premiere Korean Spa. During the reward, Mia felt that their winning was validating their strength in the competition, while the women discuss who was going to snap, before agreeing that Trev would be that person.
Punishment[]
The men were punished by cleaning up the dining room ahead of a private dinner service for two charities, polish all their silverware, and make fresh gelato by hand. When going back to the dorms, a despondent Trev felt like he made an ass of himself and felt that his chances of winning the Executive Chef position were gone. However, Heather told him that it was not over yet, and encouraged him not to give up. During the punishment, Bret blamed Trev for their loss, while Marino compared the mess to a mafia killing.
Later, Trev accidentally broke the churner needed for the gelato maker, with Motto accusing him of trying to sabotage them, as Bret and Jose mercilessly teased him for his poor performance. Already in a bad mood, Trev briefly left the kitchen to go back to the dorms to calm down. While he felt that it was his most stressful day in the entire competition, he knew that he had to bounce back for Ramsay's sake and returned to the kitchen to continue.
Before service[]
Later that night, the women came back from their reward, and both teams began prepping for the Charity Night dinner service. After, Ramsay had both teams lined up, reminded them about that night's theme, and told the men that they would be cooking for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, humbling Motto as it was that organization that helped his niece. For the women, they would be cooking for Waterkeeper Alliance, and Heather was excited and honored to cook for those charities. Then, Ramsay revealed that they would be cooking a five-course Italian menu, each chef would lead their own course for their teams, and he wanted both teams to serve their courses simultaneously. After, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell's Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Camryn Manheim and her son Milo, Chad Lowe, Sabrina Soto, Dylan Bruno, Kevin Zegers, and Parker Young were seen that night in attendance. For the courses, Mia and Motto led the pan-seared scallops over polenta course, Bret and Ariel led the branzino with fennel purée course, Trev and Kanae led the truffle carbonara course, and Jose and Heather led the veal saltimbocca. Also, each team had to work on a tiramisu soufflé topped with gelato. Both Mia and Motto agreed on eight minutes for the scallops, but while Mia was nervous about being a leader, she knew what Ramsay wanted from her. Then, even though Ramsay was concerned that Mia was not vocal, she told him that she had her teammates delegated to different positions. In the red kitchen, Motto was more vocal with Trev and Bret on the scallops, but despite having faith in them, he and Ramsay discovered that Trev's scallops had inconsistent searing on both sides. So, the men were forced to do a refire, and an annoyed Bret commented that Trev should know better as he cooked them in both seasons. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay had to remind Mia to check her standards after catching her not at the pass, while in the red kitchen, the men were rushing to get their scallops plated. While the women got their dishes out first, the men sending theirs out not long after. Before moving onto the next course, Ramsay discovered a lot of wasted scallops on a tray and asked how they could fuck that much up. As both Bret and Trev were responsible for cooking them, neither could take the responsibility, though the latter blamed the former for them. After, Ramsay told the men to divide and conquer and told them to demand to get their work done.
Now on the second course, Bret wanted everything cooked flawlessly and be the one at the top of the iceberg. In the blue kitchen, Ariel was leading the women with no problems, although Ramsay had to remind Kanae to leave the foil on the fish tray so they would still be warm at the pass. When the men began plating their course, Ramsay discovered that the salad Jose had was bruised in some places, forcing him to pull some pieces. The women got their course out first, with the men sending theirs out not long after.
On the third course, Kanae and Trev agreed to get the carbonara ready in eight minutes, and the latter immediately got vocal with his teammates. While he knew the men would get annoyed by his loud Irish ass, he wanted his course to be perfect. In the blue kitchen, Kanae felt the pressure of trusting her teammates in executing her course flawlessly. Still, a small argument occurred when Ariel accused Heather of stealing her tongs, even though Kanae pointed out three extra tongs next to her. In the red kitchen, Trev wanted sex on a plate for his presentation and told the men to keep the carbonara rolled uptight and clean, with Sous Chef Christina noticing how one of them was a perfect example. In the blue kitchen, Kanae was not happy when she discovered that a few of the plates had inconsistent pasta on them and pushed Heather for better plating, annoying the latter as it was not rocket science. Then, Ramsay showed Kanae and the women the inconsistent plating size, and they were forced to take everything off the plate and replate. The men were able to get their course out first, with Ramsay praising Trev for leading the best-runned course so far, but the women managed to get their course out not long after.
On the fourth course, Jose was inconsistent on timings with Heather for the veal, but they both agreed to do eight minutes to the pass. As both teams worked on their course, Jose wanted to keep the men focused, while Heather wanted to own her course. While both teams got their dishes out nearly simultaneously, some of the diners from the red table discovered that their veal was raw, forcing Marino to send back two plates. Everybody was dismayed by that, and while Motto said that it was his and Trev's responsibility, Ramsay was more upset when Jose admitted that he did not check the veal before plating. Then, three more plates came back to the red kitchen. Trev accused Jose of dropping the ball and compared the raw veal to something from a horror movie and then a giant scab. Things got worse when Marino came back with more plates and informed Ramsay that six refires were needed. That led to Jose claiming that he should have cooked the veal himself as his team let him down. An infuriated Ramsay ordered the men to get the desserts ready as he cooked the refires. Trev accused Jose of screwing the men by not doing his part, and Motto felt lucky that Ramsay did not stab the men. Being a course behind, the men had to serve the refires first before the desserts, while the women got their soufflés out on time.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay said that it was their reputation on the line serving charities and felt very disappointed by that night. The men were named the losers, and Ramsay asked them to nominate two people for elimination.
During deliberation, Trev felt that everybody fucked up on every course, minus the carbonara and soufflé course, and argued that he should not be nominated for his two courses he led perfectly. While Bret immediately argued that he should not be nominated, Trev did as well due to leading his courses flawlessly. However, Jose reminded Trev that the soufflé course was a team effort, and Motto said that the only reason the carbonara course was perfect was that the latter did not cook anything before reminding Trev about the scallop incident. Trev argued that those scallops were Bret's fault and asked Jose who he thought the raw veal came from, either himself or Motto, but Jose argued that there was no way of knowing that. However, Jose felt that Trev should have been sent home long ago as he sucked at everything but running his mouth, but while Bret reminded the former that he should have cut into the veal to see what the state was, the men accused Trev of not owning up to his mistakes and brown-nosing to Ramsay.
Elimination[]
Before asking for the nominees, Ramsay called the men's performance a royal fuck up. Trev announced Jose as the men's first nominee, with himself as the second, and argued that the men nominated him for many reasons, including the accusations for brown-nosing. When a confused Ramsay asked Bret for clarification, the latter said that the men would be stronger without Trev. After calling Jose and Trev down, Ramsay asked the former why he was different from the latter. Jose answered that he, unlike Trev, took responsibility for his mistakes. Still, Trev argued that he worked with both Bret and Motto on the scallops and veal and felt that he did not make any mistakes on those courses. During his plea, Jose said that he had a lot of passion and drive, and despite having a bad day, he had been strong overall. Then, Trev said he was determined to win the Executive Chef position, and he proved it by bouncing back. After, Ramsay sent Trev back in line before eliminating Jose for his lack of leadership on his own course and failing to check the veal before sending it out, which led to half of the table being sent back. Before leaving, Ramsay encouraged Jose to keep his head up. During his exit interview, while expressing disappointment in leaving, Jose deemed it a learning experience and should never hold himself back anymore.
After Jose left, Ramsay urged the remaining chefs to get out of their comfort zone and prevent mistakes from happening. While being dismissed, Trev knew that he could cook and could care less of what the others felt about him, while Motto felt that Trev should have gone home that night and that the latter needed to carry his own weight to move forward. Then, Ariel believed that the men were so consumed by their own hatred that they were not getting it.
Ramsay's comment: "On a night when it should have been Hell's Kitchen giving back to some amazing charities, it was charities giving back Jose's raw veal."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the mistreatment Trev suffered from both the men and the women.
- This is the second episode to be named after a contestant, with the first being season 17's "Josh Josh Josh".