The third episode of Season 19 of Hell's Kitchen aired in the UK on October 28, 2020 and in the US on January 21, 2021. In that episode, Caesar salad was the main dish, a hot reward caused one chef to grow ill, pants were lost at dinner service, and Ramsay overruled the losing team's poor nomination choices.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Drew was terrified about his fate as his best had yet to show and felt the men would deem him a weak link. Then, Marc declared that he would do whatever it took to get the men back on track after losing two members in one day. As the men reviewed the menu in their bedroom, Marc declared that they had to win the following day, but Declan retorted that they had to win every day. Annoyed by Declan's retort, Marc argued that he knew that but they should start with the next day. The former accused him of suffering from a Napoleon complex, and Josh thought that Marc would pop open like a soda bottle. Marc continued to declare his earlier decree as Declan felt a monkey was riding a bicycle inside his head.
Team challenge[]
The next day, Sous Chef Jason called the dorms and asked Josh to bring everybody outside to the front entrance. Once outside, Marc saw a statue next to Ramsay, which he deemed ugly. Ramsay explained that anybody who received a statue of themselves meant they obtained legendary status and said that the person the statue was based on has his legacy on to this day. Ramsay asked the chefs who the person was on the statue, but while most said Julius Caesar, Ramsay said that it was Caesar Cardini, a person Jordan had no idea existed until now. Ramsay explained that Caesar Cardini was the inventor of the Caesar Salad, and for the Caesar Salad Challenge, they were all going to recreate the classic dish. Ramsay had Marino roll out a cart containing the ingredients needed to make the salad and demonstrated how to make it. As Ramsay does this, Josh compared it to watching ballet as the former was noticeably confident making the salad. After Ramsay finished his demonstration, he revealed that after the chefs completed their salads, they must deliver them to him by riding on motorized scooters, pleasing Nikki as she had a thing for motorized vehicles. As the Sous Chefs arrived on the scooters, Cody said he was not scared about riding one. Ramsay revealed that both teams had two scooters each to deliver their Caesar salads and reminded them that just like in dinner services, they should never send him something subpar.
The chefs went to their stations to begin the challenge where, after completing their salads, they must circle a set course two times before delivering their attempt to Ramsay. The first team that had ten salads accepted won the challenge. Because the women had two extra people, two pairs were created, which included Kori and Amber, and Lauren and Brittani. However, Brittani said it would be hard to work in a pair as Lauren controlled her work as the latter added too much olive oil to her liking. Lauren brought up their salad first and rode on the scooter, but Ramsay rejected it for having too much olive oil in the dressing, shocking Lauren as she thought their dressing was on point. Josh was confident he could recreate the salad to Ramsay's standards but accidentally tipped the scooters when he was about to leave for the course. Fortunately, Josh's first attempt was accepted, followed by Adam and Declan as the men led 3-0. For the women, Mary Lou struggled to get her scooter to move, and Nikki told her to make sure she did not drop the salad. Mary Lou, Nikki, and Fabiola each got their first attempts accepted, tying the score at three each, but Peter got his first accepted, and so did Amber with her and Kori's attempt. With the score at 4 each, Drew went off but lost his balance and dropped the croutons, forcing him to go back to the start.
Meanwhile, Marc failed to get his attempt accepted for not having enough dressing or lettuce, and neither did Cody as his attempt came out dry, frustrating Josh. That opened the doors for the women as the pairs of Lauren and Brittani and Kori and Amber each got their second attempts accepted, while Jordan, claiming she could see the finish line, got her first attempt accepted, making it 7-4 for the women. As the men started to slow down, Declan complained that it was not rocket science while Sous Chef Jason hoped they could cook faster that night. Mary Lou and Nikki both got their second attempts accepted, making it 9-4 for the women, but Adam warned them that the men would not stop. Declan got his second attempt accepted, followed by Drew with his proper first, making it 9-6 for the women, and then Josh got his second attempt accepted. With the score 9-7 for the women, Syann went on her scooter as she knew it was a battle of balance for her but went too slow for the women's liking. As that happened, Adam scored with his second attempt, making it 9-8 for the women. Syann continued to move slowly, with Mary Lou complaining that not only could she walk faster than her, but so could her grandma on her walker. Just as Cody was about to finish his laps, Syann finally got her first attempt to Ramsay, and fortunately, it was the winning point for the women as they clinched it at 10-8. While Syann did a happy dance in celebration, Adam gave a deadpan celebrating cheer for the women.
Scoring[]
Team | Score | Team | Score |
---|---|---|---|
Red Team | 10 | Blue Team | 8 |
Results | 10-8 |
Reward[]
The women were rewarded with a dune buggy experience in the Nevada desert, and during the reward, Jordan was happy to do everything in a dune buggy without tipping over. On the other end, Lauren said she was an adrenaline junkie while Nikki saw her driver Fabiola tear through the sand. Then, Kori and Mary Lou saw Las Vegas from the horizon and called it a great reward.
Punishment[]
After hearing the women's reward, Declan said that heads would have to roll afterward. The men were punished by prepping and peeling Scotch quail eggs for Ramsay's Caesar salad dish as it would be featured in that night's service. After hearing that, Josh was pissed as people on the men were dropping the ball, and he was paying for it. During the punishment, Sous Chef Jason admitted that peeling quail eggs were a bitch to do and told the men not to toss any out even if they were not peeling correctly. As the men started peeling the eggs, they made egg puns. Drew broke one due to his big hands, and Declan and Adam made a "that's what she said" joke in response. Declan was not happy that they must peel delicate eggs with their big sausage fingers while prepping for service afterward and called it hell. As Josh tried to look on the positive side, Peter accidentally broke his egg in excitement for nearly finishing up.
Later that day, the men were not making much progress as, out of the 300 quail eggs needed for service, Marc and Cody had twenty, Josh had fourteen, Adam had ten, and Drew only had two. That annoyed Marc as they needed to pick up the pace before trashing what he thought was a rejected egg. As Marc left the kitchen for a while, Sous Chef Jason saw the trashed eggs and demanded who did that as he reminded them they could still use them. Declan said that Marc was responsible for that, and Sous Chef Jason saw that the latter threw out multiple eggs that could have been used, making him angry as he felt the men dogged him. When Marc returned, Cody told him what happened, causing the former to make excuses, much to Declan's annoyance.
Before service[]
When the women returned from their reward, Fabiola was in a breakdown, demanding she leaves the SUV as the medical team came to check on her. As the women took a hysterical Fabiola back inside, she tipped the camera down to the ground, and Nikki was left confused as to what happened in between the reward and now. Once inside, the medic diagnosed Fabiola's condition as dehydration but felt the latter was feeling a little better. Meanwhile, the rest of the women were upstairs changing as Nikki hoped Fabiola would get her head on straight as the latter must be in the kitchen no matter her health. At 4 pm, Jordan showed off her samurai bun that she deemed better than Marc's man bun, while Fabiola apologized for her rude behavior earlier due to her sickness. However, Lauren had nothing nice to say about Fabiola as she did not know what was going on in the latter's head, and then Fabiola asked for help so she could go back to the bedroom. As Lauren helped Fabiola out, Kori called bullshit on the latter.
The women went downstairs to prep for service as Fabiola continued to rest up in the dorms. Once prep was finished, Ramsay had both teams lined up, saw that Fabiola was not with the women due to her illness, and hoped she could get better enough to join them. However, Brittani had no idea if Fabiola would join them and feared that the women would be down a member that night. Afterwards, Ramsay told the women that Olympian speed skater Apolo Ohno would be dining in the red kitchen, with Jordan calling him adorable, while the men were serving Super Bowl champion Marshall Faulk. Just then, Fabiola came down to join the women and told Ramsay that she was feeling better now before proclaiming that she would do her best. Afterwards, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell's Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
In addition to the VIPs, Dan Reynolds was seen in the dining room. The men received their first order and Drew felt that the men were excited while expressing confidence in both himself and Declan. However, Drew's pants soon started to sag down to reveal his butt crack, embarrassing both Ramsay and Declan as it was in front of the chefs' table. As Cody dropped the scallops, he was determined to listen to Ramsay and adjust to the latter's standards. However, when the order came to the pass, Cody served two orders of scallops instead of one, and to make things worse, they were raw. Ramsay called for a refire and ordered the men to get their heads out of their asses and focus, while Marc accused Cody of putting the men in the weeds. In the red kitchen, the women had a special bachelorette six top order as Brittani was feeling energized that night and felt their order was an easy one. However, Fabiola's flatbread came out raw, and she took the blame for it by calling herself a shit bag. While Kori tried to calm Fabiola down, the latter tried to get through the refire, only to mess up on rolling out the dough. While Kori tried to work with Fabiola, she warned the latter that if she continued to screw up, she would step over her work and do it for her.
Forty minutes into dinner service, Cody accidentally cooked two servings of scallops again, causing Marc to accuse him of not knowing how to count. A pissed Ramsay had Cody call out the order to get it straight, and Marc was left aggravated at Cody's mistake. In the red kitchen, Fabiola sent up her refire, but that time, it came out burnt, causing Ramsay to show it to the women. Fabiola tossed it into the trash without tasting it because she knew it was messed up, but Ramsay asked if it was okay to serve it to the customers. As the women tried to rebound from that mistake, Lauren called Fabiola a hot mess in the kitchen, both physically and mentally. In the blue kitchen, Cody's third attempt was accepted and went to Reynolds' table, while in the red kitchen, Fabiola's third attempt was accepted. With both teams pushing out appetizers, Ramsay decided to start cooking entrées from the red kitchen. However, Jordan ignored Ramsay's call-out on the order, and incorrectly call out two lamb and two New York striploins when it was two salmon and two New York striploin. Ramsay warned Jordan not to giggle and mess around, but the latter was not on time with Syann, with Mary Lou seeing Jordan die inside and get overwhelmed. Jordan told Syann to hold off on the salmon as she needed seven minutes on the steak, but Ramsay was not happy that Jordan screwed her team's pacing up, with Mary Lou knowing that Ramsay did not want to look like an asshole. While Nikki said that the garnish was not up on the pass yet, Jordan walked the steaks up to the pass, leading Ramsay to accuse her of being selfish. Ramsay ordered Jordan to be a team player, while the latter was annoyed with herself with that mistake, just as the order went out. In the blue kitchen, the men were on entrées, and Cody knew he had to nail the order or else he was gone. However, Cody walked up a raw salmon, and Ramsay accused them of having the wheels fall off, just as Marc told Cody to own up to his mistakes. When Marc started to get riled up, Declan tried to calm him down as he knew they could bounce back. Fortunately, Cody's refire was accepted, and the men got their order out.
One hour into dinner service, the women had Ohno's order, but Lauren asked Mary Lou for help on the duck. Mary Lou was not happy that Lauren was intimidated by the duck as she should have had it down earlier and received more questions from the latter. When Ramsay asked for a time, he was not happy when Lauren said nine minutes and was more confused why Mary Lou was on meat. A befuddled Ramsay asked Lauren and Jordan what was going on, but the former only responded with "yes chef" instead of a proper answer, while Jordan went silent yet again until Mary Lou prompted her. That left Kori furious at Lauren's lack of help and Jordan's lack of communication skills, and she felt Ohno was looking at them like a couple of dumbasses. Then, Jordan walked up a New York striploin when a Wellington was ordered, much to Nikki's confusion, and Ramsay told them about their embarrassing mistake. To add more insult, the duck that was on order was raw to the point Ramsay said it was quacking. Finally having enough, Ramsay kicked the women out of service and ordered them to name two nominees for elimination. As the women walked back to the dorms, Jordan deemed her performance pathetic but felt that Lauren did not deserve to stay as the latter never worked in a brigade before now due to being lost all night. Back in the blue kitchen, the men completed their final order, and Marc felt that his energy was carrying the team. Afterwards, Ramsay congratulated the men for finishing strong after a terrible start.
Post-mortem[]
Back at the dorms, Amber told the women that they would go around and ask for a name so they could all be on the same page and not be embarrassed in front of Ramsay. Nikki nominated Lauren, believing the latter was behind that night, and Brittani and Kori agree. However, Lauren got pissed that she was getting crucified despite only two people on meat that night, while Syann struggled to say a name until naming Lauren. Lauren accused the women of being full of shit as her food has been perfect, but Mary Lou retorted that while the former could stay Flawless Lawless, she did not get dirty like everyone else. Then, Lauren pointed out how Fabiola struggled on flatbreads and accused the women of nominating her just because she was pretty before leaving the room. With Lauren as the first nominee, Syann asked who the second nominee would be. Jordan nominated Nikki based on her lack of experience, with Amber agreeing with her as she did not know what Nikki's leadership skills would be. However, Nikki had no idea why she was being nominated when she made improvements since last night and called the women out. While Mary Lou nominated Nikki, Syann nominated Fabiola instead due to the flatbreads, with Kori and Nikki agreeing with that.
Elimination[]
Syann announced Lauren as the women's first nominee for elimination and Nikki as the second. However, Ramsay was shocked that Nikki was nominated and asked Syann why they nominated the latter when she made no mistakes that night. Syann explained that the women felt that Nikki would not be a strong chef for them in the long run, but Ramsay was not happy that they were basing it on that, and not for the fact they left half of their diners hungry. Nikki felt it was not a fair judgment, and Syann admitted that the former performed 1000% better than last night when asked by Ramsay. After hearing that, Ramsay reminded the women that Hell's Kitchen was a journey, and it was all based on what they do now, not what they could do in the future. While he expected the women to take the nomination process seriously, Ramsay felt they had the wrong nominees as two people were the reason the red kitchen went down. So, Ramsay called down Jordan and Fabiola as they both took the women down that night.
During their pleas, Ramsay reminded Fabiola about her problems on the flatbread, but while the latter claimed she could keep fighting, Ramsay asked Fabiola what would have happened if he missed the flatbread. That question caused Fabiola to hang her head down in shame as she could not answer that, while Ramsay reminded Jordan about the raw duck. However, Jordan claimed she had more to show, but when Ramsay accused her of not being a team player, she said she could be if she were not in her head. Ultimately, Ramsay sent Jordan back in line and eliminated Fabiola for her poor performance on appetizers and decline in health. During her exit interview, Fabiola wished that she were in better health and was embarrassed about her poor performance, just before kneeling as a medic held her.
After Fabiola left, Ramsay reminded the remaining chefs that a great head chef needed to evaluate their staff and warned them that he would throw back any BS they attempted to serve him. While being dismissed, Jordan was thankful Ramsay saw some fight in her and claimed she would quit cooking if she were to be eliminated, while Lauren felt that the right person went home as she knew her skills. As the men went upstairs, Ramsay asked Drew if he had a belt to wear and told the latter to get one when he said he did not. Finally, Declan was glad not to be with the women as he felt the cracks were starting to show and that they were going to start stabbing each other in the back.
Ramsay's comment: "To be my Head Chef, you need to have passion, leadership, and great skills. Fabiola had passion, and not much else."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the Caesar Salad Challenge. It is also a pun on the phrase "Hail Caesar!".