The thirteenth episode of Season 18 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX on January 25, 2019. On that episode, the final five competed in their first black jackets challenge, a communication breakdown occurred at dinner service, and that night spelled the end for the final returning runner-up.
Intro[]
Continuing from the previous episode, Mia congratulated Heather for making it to the black jackets, but the latter was close to snapping as she was gunning for everybody now and told Mia to bite her after she hugged her. Then, Bret told Ariel that being in the black jackets meant a lot to him as he grew up as a product of his hometown. He revealed to the chefs that when he was 20 years old, a judge told that he would have been in jail for 30 years and that being in Hell's Kitchen meant the world to him. After hearing that, a touched Ariel called Bret a sentimental guy.
Individual challenge[]
The next day, the Sous Chefs arrived at the dorms with a cart, with Sous Chef Jocky saying that Ramsay has made them breakfast for them in honor of making it to the black jackets. While Motto was impressed by the spread of food Ramsay provided them, Ariel knew something was up as she and Mia stayed behind to further look at the eggs Benedict dish. Then, Ramsay called the dorms and asked Mia to bring everybody down, and once downstairs, he asked Heather what was different from Season 16, with her saying that she did not get breakfast last time. After asking the chefs if they tasted all the dishes, Ramsay announced the Taste It Now Make It Challenge, dismaying Bret as he had ADD and was not paying close attention, as the egg benedicts dish was revealed to be the dish that they had to recreate. The person who was closest to the original taste and presentation was the winner.
The chefs had 30 minutes to recreate the dish. While everybody else went to the demo plate for another look, Motto decided to make the dish by memory alone. While Motto only used prosciutto for his dish, everybody else used that along with Canadian bacon. For the Hollandaise sauce, Mia was confident as the first job she worked at after culinary school was a brunch restaurant that did eggs Benedict, but as she noticed the red tint in the sauce, she decided to use shallots and Espelette powder. Then, while Motto used shallots and red wine vinegar, both Ariel and Heather used only paprika as Bret decided to use just chives. With four minutes left, Bret noticed that his Hollandaise sauce was broken. At the same time, Heather compared her sauce to thin cottage cheese, along with her yolks being broken, before asking what she had done to make the cooking gods angry. Eventually, everybody got their dishes cooked and plated on time.
During the judging, Mia commented that Motto's presentation looked plain compared to her dish, and when Ramsay noticed that Heather's eggs and sauce were broken, Ariel noted that some deeper issues were going on. For Bret, Ramsay was disappointed that his sauce was broken as well, with the former knowing that he would not win the challenge, as both Ariel and Mia's dishes were well received. After the judging, Ramsay disqualified Bret and Heather for presenting broken Hollandaise sauce, while Motto was out for missing the Canadian bacon to go with the prosciutto. That left Ariel and Mia as the final two, but while Ramsay noted that the two of them seasoned their sauce differently, he decided to name both of them joint-winners as they each used an ingredient that he used for the sauce. As Ariel felt that her victory was a great way to start the black jackets, Mia was stoked as she kept winning the challenges.
Scoring[]
| Taste It Now Make It | |
| Chef | Score |
|---|---|
| Ariel | 4/4 |
| Bret | 2/4 |
| Heather | 2/4 |
| Mia | 4/4 |
| Motto | 3/4 |
| Results | Ariel and Mia |
Reward[]
Both Ariel and Mia were rewarded with an indoor skydiving experience with lunch at Sweet Butter, but when Ramsay noticed the Sous Chefs excited about the reward as well, he allowed them to join the two on their reward. During the reward, Ariel compared Mia to a fearless firecracker as the latter enjoyed having a good time, while she had some nerves before skydiving without any problems. As the Sous Chefs did their skydiving, Mia noticed that Sous Chef Jocky's hair stuck out of his helmet and commented it would be hard for her to take him seriously now.
During lunch, Ariel asked Sous Chef Christina how she felt over winning a black jacket during Season 10, and the latter recalled that night being a great one, before reminding the former and Mia that not only would they all be cooking in one kitchen, the expectation has jumped. Then, Sous Chef Jocky reminded Ariel how she was once a black jacket back in Season 6, and while the latter felt that she was not in it last time, she was more determined now. After, Mia said that she admired Ariel as a strong chef and competitor and wanted to beat her in the finale. In contrast, after recalling how the rookies beat the veterans in the earlier competition, Ariel deemed her mentorship with Mia over.
Punishment[]
The remaining chefs were punished by participating in dorm cleaning day, and while both Bret and Heather lamented their poor performance during the previous challenge, the latter knew that as a former runner-up, she knew the feeling of making it far and wanted to execute a perfect service.
During the punishment, Heather compared the clean-up to cleaning up after her five-year-old son back at home and deemed people gross. Bret compared themselves to Cinderella, even revealing to Motto that he still pays somebody to clean up his mess despite living in a one-bedroom apartment. Later, Heather told Bret that she threw out Mia's chia pudding for smelling bad and warned him that while the latter was good in challenges, she failed to work as a team player come service.
Before service[]
Later that night, Ariel and Mia returned to Hell's Kitchen, and the final five began prepping for that night's service. However, Mia's constant questions and orders to Heather greatly annoyed the latter, who reminded the former that they were all black jacket chefs now. Heather told Motto that she was ready to kill Mia, although Ariel told Bret that she would not get into the arguments that night. After, Ramsay reminded the final five to get vocal before the problems grow and asked Marino to open Hell's Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Kelli Berglund, Los Angeles Rams Tyler Higbee, Jared Goff and Roger Saffold, and Drew Van Acker were in attendance that night. After receiving their first order, Heather asked Motto for help on her scallops, and while the latter did not mind as he was helping Bret on meat, Mia felt annoyed Heather asked for help when service began. Then, Heather did not respond to Ariel's timings on appetizers as she needed three minutes on her risotto. As a result, Motto sent up the scallops as they were already done despite Ariel not being ready on appetizers, Ramsay reminded Heather to take control of her station, and Mia was not impressed with the latter's apology for not communicating with the team. Now being forced to restart the order, Mia compared Heather to a line cook having no idea what the fuck she was doing as the latter barely responded to Ariel's comments, but despite that, the refire was accepted.
Thirty minutes into service, appetizers were being pushed out at a strong pace, and Ramsay decided to move onto entrées. Bret, confident he was a beast on the meat station, asked Mia to walk the garnishes out in two minutes, but Heather told the two she needed more time on her halibut after Mia wanted to go out now. Then, Heather told an impatient Mia to wait on halibut garnish as she needed to check on the halibut and complained about the lack of communication that night. Then, while Heather's halibut was cooked fine, Bret's New York striploin was raw, and Motto was annoyed that the latter was not letting him help him out and being vocal. Ramsay himself reminded Bret to talk with Motto on meat, and while the latter got the refire accepted, Bret momentarily delayed the order by being late on the steak sauce, leading Ramsay to remind him to have the sauce ready when the steak was ready. Bret tried to communicate with Mia on timings for garnish on their next order, but the latter did not respond to him, with Bret calling her out for her deer in the headlights look. Despite that, Mia got the garnish for the salmon up to the pass, but Heather's salmon skin broke of the fish due to her placing it on a cold pan, which Bret called a big no-no. When Heather asked Motto for help on the refire, she was forced to tell Ramsay about the skin breaking and then had to tell Marino about it. As Motto wanted to complete a dinner service no matter what, he got the refire accepted, and the Los Angeles Rams table was finished.
On their next order, Mia told Motto four halibuts were needed on the next order, but Heather interjected six salmon and two halibuts were needed, and Bret interjecting another order. That confused Motto as he was not getting a firm answer, and as the communication breakdown continued, Ramsay interjected and told the chefs the correct order before reminding the chefs to stick to one four-top at a time. After, a now focused Motto got the halibut accepted, and soon after, the final five got their remaining entrées out.
Post-mortem[]
After the final five were lined up, Ramsay said that despite starting out strong, they could not maintain it, before asking them to nominate two people for elimination.
During deliberation, Bret felt that Mia was the worst performer that night as he felt she could not be an Executive Chef while adding on that his second choice was Heather. However, Mia considered Motto as her first nominee for being lost on the communication breakdown, and then Heather. Heather believed that there was no reason she should go home as her team failed her that night before considering Bret and Mia for elimination. While Bret argued he had nothing sent back, Motto considered Heather and Mia for elimination due to the confusing numbers he got from the two as Ariel left to consider her choices. A pissed Mia refused to be nominated that night and felt Bret was trying everything to stay in the competition before accusing him and Motto of not nominating each other as it meant they were covering each other's asses. However, Bret argued against that, and when he asked Mia why he should be nominated, she reminded him how he had two steaks sent back as she had nothing come back. However, Bret reminded Mia she froze up that night, leading to an argument over the latter's attitude as he accused her of not burning on the line compared to challenges.
Elimination[]
Ariel announced Heather as the first nominee for elimination, with Mia as the second. During their pleas, Heather said that she has not given up, knew she did not shut down that night, and claimed she got no communication from Mia, but the latter argued she did communicate, leading to a small argument between the two. Then, Mia said she did everything that night, despite Bret reminding her how she failed to do some callbacks that night, and she had everything ready. After their pleas, Ramsay asked the three other chefs who they thought should go home based on everything they saw that night along with the competition. Motto believed that Heather should go home based on her struggles with fish, Bret said Mia for struggling at dinner services despite being strong in challenges, and Ariel said Heather due to her overall poor performance. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Heather for her poor performance on fish and making excuses for her mistakes, but before leaving, he asked her to say hi to Logan for him. Heather received a retrospective montage during her exit interview.
After Heather left, Ramsay reminded the remaining chefs that while they were the final four, they had to push every single second in the kitchen. While being dismissed, Mia refused to let the other chefs walk over her, and they could kiss her ass, Bret knew he had a 25% chance to win, and Ariel knew that she worked hard to get to that point before realizing that it was all or nothing.
Ramsay's comment: "Too many times Heather blamed her mistakes on having a bad day. I'm not looking for apologies. I'm looking for an executive chef!"
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the first black jacket challenge of the season and the first time the black jackets ran the kitchen this season.