The thirteenth episode of Season 19 of Hell's Kitchen aired in the UK on December 3, 2020 and in the US on April 1, 2021. In that episode, a friendship started to show some sparks, the final five competed in their first Black Jacket challenge, and one chef's weakness finally became their undoing.
Intro[]
Back at the dorms, a pumped Cody felt his hard work has paid off as he got a black jacket and hugged Declan in celebration. Then, Cody and Mary Lou met up for a hot tub trip as the latter wanted to relax after a hard day. Cody said he was proud of Mary Lou for getting the first black jacket of the season and called her a light in the tunnel. Before anything else can happen between them, Amber arrived to join, much to Cody’s annoyance as she ruined the mood.
Individual challenge[]
The next day, the final five relaxed in the dorms until they heard Bruce Buffer’s voice instructing them to come downstairs. Once downstairs, the final five see a boxing ring in the middle of the dining room as Buffer introduced them with their own stage names. Afterwards, Ramsay explained that Las Vegas hosted many boxing matches, with Muhamad Ali fighting in the ring he and Buffer were standing in. Ramsay then explained that all great fighters had impeccable timing, fantastic accuracy, and constant calm under pressure, with the final five needing all three in their first black jacket challenge. For the 5 Dome Challenge, Ramsay said there would be five domes in a 40-minute time limit, and when Buffer announced what the next round would be, they must leave the kitchen and grab the first ingredient they could get from the dome. They must figure out how to make a dish using random ingredients they grabbed, and Declan called it interesting as the chefs entered the ring.
As the challenge began, Ramsay unveiled the protein dome, and everyone started fighting for their proteins. Mary Lou was left with the veal chop, a protein she never cooked before, and then, the bell rang, and Buffer announced the starch round. Everyone went back to the dome, and while Declan was the last to grab his starch, he was happy with basmati rice as he could use it to create one of his favorite dishes, champ. The third round, vegetables, was up next, and Mary Lou quickly grabbed corn, upsetting Kori as she wanted that instead of the tomatillo. Despite that, Kori felt it would work well with her lobster. The fourth round was the first wild card, and Mary Lou grabbed feta cheese, making her wonder what she could do with that as it did not work with her ingredients. However, after mixing it with scallions and corn, Mary Lou felt she had it. The final round was the second wild card, but Amber, who grabbed truffle oil, said it was difficult to know what to do with her dish when using ingredients she randomly grabbed. Eventually, everyone had their dishes cooked and plated on time.
For the judging, Ramsay invited Michael Cimarusti to help him taste the dishes, and Cody was stunned by the latter’s appearance as he reinvented the Californian cooking scene. One at a time, Ramsay would call the chefs up to taste their dishes, and one of them would sit in the winner’s corner after the first judging. However, if a dish were better than the one in the corner, they would dethrone the current leader, and the person left sitting in the winner’s corner would win the challenge. Declan was the first person to have his dish judged, and Cody said it looked good from his perspective. Declan’s oven-roasted chicken with butter baste, and basmati rice chump was praised for being homey and all the ingredients having a purpose. With that, Declan sat in the winner’s corner while Amber went up as she arrogantly felt the former’s food was lacking. However, Amber’s filet with Yukon mashed and poblano and truffle oil cream sauce was deemed a hot mess by Declan, and Cimarusti felt the dish lacked acid that could have lifted it. With that, Amber failed to dethrone Declan, and Mary Lou went up. Her veal chop with parsnip purée, pickled corn, charred scallions, and feta cheese crème fraiche was deemed tasty and being a refined dish, and Mary Lou was able to dethrone Declan, although Cody was not surprised as her dish turned things up. Then, Cody said that Cimarusti was a big influence on his cooking and presented his seared halibut with couscous. It was praised for having a modern presentation and having nice flavors but criticized for having a salty halibut, and he failed to dethrone Mary Lou. Lastly, Kori went up and presented her white wine-poached lobster with tomatillo salsa and kumquats. Cimarusti felt the dish delivered on flavors and was amazed that Kori made it in 40 minutes. With a tough decision ahead of Cimarusti, he asked the two women to come up so they could traditionally raise one’s arm. In the end, Cimarusti rose Mary Lou’s arm, making her the winner, and she warned everyone to watch out for her.
Reward[]
Mary Lou was rewarded with driving luxury sports cars and lunch at the Palm Las Vegas with the Sous Chefs. Also, Mary Lou could pick somebody to come on the reward with her, and she picked Kori, disappointing Cody as he thought she would have picked him. Then, Ramsay told Mary Lou that there was a surprise waiting for her in the dorms, and when she and Kori went back upstairs, she found an Al-Clad cooking set for her.
During the reward, Mary Lou and Kori drove their sports cars around the racetrack with their instructors guiding them throughout the course. At lunch, Kori was glad that Mary Lou brought her along as speaking with the Sous Chefs was a big advantage, while the latter was ecstatic about her lunch. As they ate lunch, Mary Lou expressed concern about Amber due to her being emotional and having to calm her down after the men kept nominating her. Sous Chef Jason suggests that they communicate with the men as they could cook, but Mary Lou did not know what the men would be like during dinner service.
Punishment[]
The remaining chefs were punished by participating in recycling day, and Amber knew it would be a rough punishment as she did not want to be around Declan and Cody after what happened in the blue team. As Amber complained about her situation, Kori reminded her that she still had herself and Mary Lou and told her to stay focused. During the punishment, Amber said that sorting trash was the last thing she wanted to do and called the maggots the grossest part of the punishment. As Amber continued to whine, both Declan and Cody got annoyed.
Before service[]
After the punishment, the chefs cleaned up and began prepping for service, but while Declan and Cody felt uneasy about cooking in the red kitchen, Amber felt good to be back. Despite that, Amber had a funny feeling about that night, but the men were calm as Cody knew she was in her head again, and she would be fucked if she kept in that. Then, Mary Lou and Kori returned from their reward, and the former declared that she was going fast that night. After prep was finished, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Ember Moon and Wade King were in attendance that night. On their first order, Kori expressed nervousness with Declan and Cody as she never worked with them before now, and when the appetizers were walked up to the pass, Declan had faith in his abilities. However, Declan’s crab cake was cold in the center, forcing a refire as Moon became restless. While Declan brought up his refire, Amber was late on the scallops as she was unsure about the cook. Despite that, Amber decided to walk them as they needed to move on, but Ramsay rejected them for having no sear on either side. Amber blamed it on the pan not being hot enough, and she knew that being on fish was not her best suit after what happened in the eighth dinner service. Despite that, she got her refire accepted.
Later, Ramsay decided to fire entrées as Cody was happy to be working with stronger chefs for once and was surprised by Mary Lou’s vocalness. While Cody and Mary Lou had their dishes accepted, Amber’s salmon was rejected for being burnt due to adding the butter too early. That frustrated Cody as Amber should not be going down now, but the latter got her refire accepted. On the next order, Ramsay fired an appetizer and entrée simultaneously, but Amber needed Mary Lou’s help to watch her scallops. Seeing that things were dragging, Kori went over to the fish to help, telling Amber to snap out of it, and then Declan went over to help. However, Ramsay not happy to see four people on fish while Cody was working meat alone, and he told Amber to take control of her station. Declan could not believe that Amber was not backing up her talk and going down like a ton of bricks, but the latter felt that having too many cooks on her station slowed things down. Then, Mary Lou walked up Amber’s halibut, and it was accepted to the customer’s liking.
One hour into dinner service, Ramsay reminded Amber to take ownership of her station, but she kept second-guessing her actions, much to Kori’s frustration as she was making it more difficult. So, Kori took over fish, and things got more organized. However, Mary Lou walked up a raw halibut Amber cooked, with the former feeling bad about that. Ramsay blamed the fact there were four chefs on fish earlier and pulled Amber to the back pantry. There, Ramsay accused Amber of losing control of her station and urged her to step up and bounce back. Realizing that she should have kicked the extra people off her station, Amber returned and began owning her station, getting her refire accepted and the following ticket. Afterwards, the rest of the service went well as none of the dishes had any problems.
Post-mortem[]
After service, Ramsay had the final five lined up and called the last two hours a fast and furious service but added that it was not perfect. Ramsay asked them to nominate two people based on everything that has happened since day 1.
During deliberation, Amber knew that everyone was waiting to pounce on her with her lousy service, but she believed herself to be one of the strongest leaders in the final five. Cody called the decision tough if they judged everything since the start, but Kori could only judge things from what she saw during eliminations. With that, Kori nominated Cody, feeling he lacked a voice, but he argued that he was the most helpful in challenges and services, and after his worst performance during the second service, he has never cooked a protein Ramsay rejected. Then, Amber nominated Declan for lack of leadership and being underwhelming, and Mary Lou asked about his temper. Declan admitted that he has been polite throughout the competition, except with Marc after the Wedding Brunch Service Challenge, but even though he did not want to count it because the latter was gone, the rest considered that it mattered. However, Declan reminded them that he was the one who scored perfectly in both the Signature Dish Challenge and the Blind Taste Test and was the second recipient of a black jacket, but Cody knew there was no excuse for the former’s anger problems. Then, Declan nominated Amber, and Mary Lou agreed as she did not know who she was getting from the latter, but Amber felt she was the stronger chef. With that, Amber and Declan were the nominees thanks to Mary Lou breaking the three-way tie, but the former was pissed at the latter for not voting for Cody, believing it was because she had feelings for him.
Elimination[]
Kori announced Declan as their first nominee, but when the latter said it was based on vote tallying, Ramsay wondered if everyone was getting too friendly. Then, Kori named Amber as their second. During their pleas, Declan believed that he has been consistent with his leadership skills from the start and had the fight of a tiger that fight through everything. Then, Amber felt she was one of the stronger chefs in the competition and felt her skills were better than Declan, even bringing up Declan’s temper in the past. However, Declan argued that he had passion. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Amber for her poor performance on fish, series of inconsistent performances, and not handling the pressure well as she would like. Before leaving, Ramsay praised Amber for her palate and felt the trajectory she was on in her career was going high. During her exit interview, Amber received a retrospective montage of her time on the show.
After Amber left, Ramsay reminded the final four that they had a one-in-four shot in becoming the new head chef of Hell’s Kitchen in Lake Tahoe before dismissing them. Declan declared that he was not going home as he had the fighting spirit of Ireland, while Mary Lou was shocked that she was one of the four chefs left out of the initial eighteen and could not believe that she was close to winning. Then, Cody felt good to be in the final four, while Kori knew she had the passion and hunger to be the last chef standing.
Ramsay's comment: "Amber came here expecting to beat the competition. But her biggest obstacle ended up being herself."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title references the beginning of the black jacket phase.