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The ninth episode of Season 20 of Hell's Kitchen aired on August 9, 2021. One team had a clean sweep during the Spell's Kitchen challenge, a private dinner service was a disaster for both kitchens, and one chef's lack of leadership became their downfall.

Intro[]

Back at the dorms, Trenton and Steve were waiting intently on who was entering going through the dorms. Trenton wanted to make sure that person had the support from their team, as making it to the Top 10 was a big deal. Victoria entered the door, and she received hugs from the blue team.

Team challenge[]

The following day, the dining room was set up for the Spells Kitchen Challenge as Ramsay asked the chefs if they were ready to spell. Each chef would go head-to-head to unscramble an ingredient to use for either a ribeye, veal chop, or sea bass dish. Alternatively, they could sabotage the opposing team by giving them a wild card. Antonio was confident about unscrambling words as he played the game on the Sunday papers. Antonio quickly guessed zucchini, and he placed it on the veal chop. Then, he got rutabaga and gave it to the blue team's sea bass. Emily got quinoa and kept it for the blue team's sea bass.

On the second round, Brynn got turnip and placed it onto the blue team's sea bass. Still, Victoria believed she could use the ingredients to her advantage in contrast to the red team's sabotage. Megan got basmati rice and sent it to the red team's ribeye. Then, she got arugula and placed it on the blue team's ribeye. In the third round, Kiya unscrambled cabbage and put it on the red team's veal chop. In contrast, Steve got broccoli and placed it on the blue team's veal chop. Then, Steve unscrambled button mushrooms and put them on the ribeye. In the fourth round, Sam got broccolini and kept it for the red team's ribeye. Then, he sent the celery root to the red team's veal chop and kept the bell pepper to their sea bass. When Victoria and Josie went up, the latter kept the purple potatoes for the blue team's veal chop. Then, Josie sent the parsnips to the sea bass while Victoria kept the asparagus for the blue team's ribeye. In the final round, Emily got competitive and grabbed Swiss chard for the blue team's veal chop. Then, Antonio grabbed cauliflower for the ribeye, leaving the red team short an ingredient for their veal chop. The last ingredient was sweet potato, which Emily claimed. She swapped it for the rutabaga for the sea bass dish and gave it to the red team's veal chop. Afterwards, Emily thought she bested Antonio.

Both teams had 45 minutes to cook their dishes. Each team had to cook two different versions of their three protein-based dishes, but one dish would be a collective effort with five chefs on each team. Working alongside Victoria, Emily thought their dishes were creative and felt confident. Antonio asked for opinions about the team-based ribeye dish in the red kitchen but got no response. So, Antonio worked alone. Twenty minutes left, the blue team had a hand on their group veal chop dish, and Megan thought they were organized. Megan borrowed some thyme from Trenton, who made a quip about having it both metaphorically and literally. In the red kitchen, Antonio made a red cauliflower base, and Kiya let him have control. However, nobody said who would plate their group dish. Two minutes left, Trenton asked if anybody was okay with a square plate, and the team said yes. Eventually, both teams had their dishes cooked and plated on time.

The ribeye round was up first as Antonio brought up his two dishes against Trenton and Megan's dishes. Antonio's five-spiced rubbed ribeye fried rice was cooked beautifully and tasted delicious. Even though Ramsay could not award Antonio with two points, the latter did score that round. As for the red team's group dish, Ramsay was appalled with the presentation, calling it a pile of shit, and asked for an explanation. Antonio revealed the red team's ribeye with tomato-braised cauliflower. Ramsay called it appalling and found out Brynn did not slice the ribeye properly as some pieces were still attached. After spiting the rice out, Ramsay reminded the red team he gave them an extra dish to see the teamwork come together on one dish. However, Ramsay deemed it a mess, and Josie thought it was more of an individual challenge than a team challenge, which she realized was wrong. Ramsay did not award the dish a point and trashed it. Trenton's pan-seared ribeye and pan-roasted mushroom sauce were immediately praised for a spot-on medium-rare, and Ramsay asked him to cook him one in service. The dish was delicious, and Ramsay awarded it a point. Megan's pan-seared ribeye with demi-glazed mushroom and grilled asparagus was praised for being one of the best ribeye dishes Ramsay tasted, and he gave her a point. The score was 2-1 for the blue team. Brynn's pan-seared sea bass with fried parsnip chips were deemed delicious on the sea bass round, and she scored a point. However, Kiya's pan-seared sea bass with fried cabbage and red pepper vinaigrette was bland, and she did not score. In contrast, Victoria's pan-seared sea bass with sweet potato puree, turnip Berblanc, and quinoa tasted delicious despite the odd ingredients. So, Victoria scored a point, and she claimed she got turned on by root vegetables. Lastly, Emily's pan-seared sea bass with quinoa salad and turnip puree was seasoned beautifully, and she scored as well. With the score of 4-2 for the blue team, it came down to the veal chop. Sam's brown sugar brined veal chop with rutabaga and celery root puree was cooked beautifully, and Ramsay found it delicious despite having the Berblanc component. So, he scored a point. Josie presented her seared veal chop with celery root puree, zucchini ribbons, and sautéed rutabaga. It was criticized for having crunchy rutabaga and being bland, and she failed to score. Even though the blue team automatically won the challenge, Ramsay still wanted to taste their veal chop dishes. Steve's veal chop with grilled broccoli slaw and purple potato puree scored a point, and the blue team's sage dusted veal chop with broccoli puree was deemed bliss. The blue team scored on that, ending the challenge with a 6-3 victory for the blue team. Steve was proud that Ramsay loved all their dishes because they put themselves on the plates. While Ramsay praised the blue team for their clean sweep, he criticized the red team for getting dominated.

Scoring[]

Red Team Blue Team
Chef Score Total Chef Score Total
Antonio 1
0
1
1
Trenton
Megan
1
1
1
2
Brynn
Kiya
1
0
2
2
Victoria
Emily
1
1
3
4
Sam
Josie
1
0
3
3
Steve 1
1
5
6
Results 6-3

Reward[]

The blue team was rewarded with a private hot tub from Drai's Beach Club at the Cromwell Hotel. As the blue team went up to change, Trenton was ecstatic to go on the reward after doing mind-numbing punishments. During the reward, Emily saw the entire Vegas strip and felt like a millionaire. Steve saw Trenton let loose as the latter rarely got a chance to leave Hell's Kitchen, but he let Trenton have his moment. Trenton led the toast and became the drunk uncle after drinking champagne.

Punishment[]

The red team was punished by baking bread for Ramsay's Las Vegas restaurants and churning butter. During the punishment, Antonio knew they deserved to do the punishment because they failed to come together as a team. Later, Sous Chef Christina suggested that two of them start on the butter. Sam and Antonio did the churning, but their work movements caused awkwardness towards Josie. Still, Antonio called the work satisfying and therapeutic.

Before service[]

Later that evening, Ramsay had both teams lined up in the blue kitchen. Ramsay announced that it was their annual Charity Night dinner service, which hosted two major charities. The blue team cooked for the Stand Together Foundation with Deion Sanders as their host, and Antonio showed off his one-step dance in the confessionals. The red team cooked for Keep Memory Alive hosted by Brad Garrett, exciting Josie as she watched Everybody Loves Raymond with her mom growing up. Each team would serve a five-course tasting menu, and Ramsay said that everyone would act as a mini–Head Chef for their own courses. After, Ramsay asked Marino to open the doors.

Dinner service[]

In addition to the hosts, Jon Taffer was seen amongst the guests. The five-course meal featured lobster spaghetti led by Kiya and Megan, pan-seared scallops led by Antonio and Emily, mushroom risotto led by Sam and Steve, pan-seared snapper led by Brynn and Victoria, and filet mignon led by Josie and Trenton. Ramsay called Kiya and Megan to the front and told them to get their course ready in fifteen minutes. The two women got their teams to start cooking the spaghetti as Megan knew the first course set the night's tone. However, Ramsay saw that the water was not boiling, making Megan feel horrible. Megan went into the red kitchen and asked for 16 more minutes, taking Antonio aback as spaghetti needed water to cook. Ramsay was forced to cover the blue team's pot with tinfoil to boil, and Megan was apologetic about it. Ramsay told Kiya not to hold back on the blue team, and she had the red team begin plating the spaghetti. Kiya felt proud of owning her station and wanted the rest of her team to follow in her footsteps. As the red team sent out their course, Megan began platting her course as she refused to let her mistake set that night. Fortunately, the blue team sent out their course.

Antonio and Emily led the pan-seared scallop course with no issues with some rave reviews from the tables. For the risotto course, Sam and Steve were able to lead their team well on cooking their dishes. While the blue team plated their course, Sam asked Josie to help him plate the red team's risottos. Steve got his course out with no problems, but Ramsay saw that the red team was plating inconsistent servings of risotto. After Ramsay chewed them out, Sam felt the brunt of it and got back to work. He had the red team get the risottos all equal, and it was sent out to the table.

Ramsay brought Brynn and Victoria to the front and told them to have everyone work on the snapper course. Both agreed on twelve minutes, while Kiya decided to sear the filet mignons as the red team worked on the snapper. Victoria recalled her poor fish performance in the blue kitchen back in the third service, but she was confident about her chances now. In the red kitchen, Brynn left her trust in her team, but Josie felt she was letting go of control. When the snapper came to the pass, it was raw thanks to Josie, and Brynn was dismayed. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay saw that their snapper was raw as well and ordered them to put it back in the pan. Brynn started to get frazzled due to the stress, but the refire was accepted, and she calmed down. Brynn could only hope that the blue team was not doing well, even though it was a Charity Night. Still, Victoria's refires were accepted, and the blue team sent out their course.

As both teams worked on the final course, Ramsay saw the filets Kiya cooked earlier and brought them to the pass. It was too early for the red team to send them out despite them being cooked perfectly, frustrating Brynn. Josie wanted to push through her course and agreed on fifteen minutes with Trenton. Trenton wanted to drive the blue team as it was his chance to showcase his leadership. Trenton did a double-check with Josie in the red kitchen while Megan and Victoria decided to pull off undercooked filets in hopes the resting time would help them. Trenton and Josie walked their filets up to the pass, but Ramsay pulled the red team over and showed them they were raw. As the red team worked on the refire, a disappointed Josie asked why she could not have a service where she made one mistake. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay discovered that their filets were raw as well. Trenton was unhappy that his team did not have his back, while Ramsay accused Megan and Victoria of sabotaging him. As an impatient Ramsay pushed both teams to get their refires up, they managed to succeed in doing so.

Post-mortem[]

When both teams lined up, a disappointed Ramsay reminded them that they were supposed to own their courses. Both teams were named joint losers and were asked to nominate two each.

During deliberation, Megan said she sucked that night and knew it did not reflect her as a chef. Megan self-nominated herself but was ready to fight for her case. Emily said she had three potential nominees, the first being Trenton due to the filet mignon course. While Trenton admitted his course was not perfect, he singled out Victoria for her lack of vocalness. Steve agreed with Trenton, and Victoria resigned herself to it. Still, Emily struggled to pick someone based on the mistakes made that night.

On the red side, Kiya considered herself and Josie as nominees, to which everyone else agreed with. However, Josie nominated Brynn and Kiya, the former for getting inside her head that night. Brynn warned Josie to pick her words carefully, but the latter did not care as she was willing to call the former out. Josie refused to go up for a third time as she blamed Brynn for not checking the snapper, but Kiya reminded her about the raw filets. Still, Josie reminded Kiya about firing the filets early, even though the latter argued that they bounced back from it. Antonio told Josie that if they were going to go by course, then she would be nominated. Still, Josie thought she was being the scapegoat and refused to be nominated.

Elimination[]

Trenton named Megan as the blue team's first nominee and Victoria as their second. Brynn announced herself as the red team's first nominee and Josie as their second. During their pleas, Megan thought she was consistent and that tonight's performance did not reflect her profession. Then, Victoria admitted that she was not using her voice but said she had the skills to make up for it. Brynn said she was a leader to communicate with the team and drive them forward. Lastly, Ramsay accused Josie of losing control of her course, but she said she did not know what was happening. Shocked by that, Ramsay told Josie that she should have, and she admitted to it. Ramsay reminded the chefs that the grand prize was being a Head Chef and his protégée before calling Megan forward. However, Ramsay sent Megan back in line with a warning to get a grip. Then, Ramsay eliminated Victoria for not finding her voice as a leader. During her exit interview, Victoria did not think she let the blue team down, but she would carry the lessons she learned throughout her time.

After Victoria left, Ramsay told the chefs to start standing out if they wanted this life-changing opportunity. While being dismissed, Brynn admitted that she could have thrown Josie under the bus, but she did not and was coming for her. Josie was willing to be up for more nominations if it were done to show Brynn's true colors. Lastly, Megan was mortified about her performance that night but knew she stayed because Ramsay saw something in her before hoping to never be in that position ever again.

Ramsay's comment: "Victoria may have an impressive resume, but after her performance tonight there's one job she won't be adding to it — head chef at Gordon Ramsay Steak."

Trivia[]

  • Title Reference: The title refers to the Spell's Kitchen Challenge.
  • Interestingly, Ramsay did not ask Brynn if she wanted to use her Punishment Pass despite still having it in her possession.
  • Jon Taffer is the host of Paramount Network's Bar Rescue. Jay Santos has served as a cooking consultant for the show since its fifth season.
  • This marks the fourth time after Episode 606 - 11 Chefs Compete, Episode 805 - 11 Chefs Compete, and Episode 906 - 12 Chefs Compete where a team scored on every possible round.
Hell's Kitchen Season 20 Episodes
Young Guns Come Out ShootingTemping the MeatCome Hell or High Water!Young Guns Going BigStirring the PotA Ramsay Birthday in Hell!If You Can't Stand the Heat...A Devilish ChallengeA Game Show From HellMore Than a Sticky SituationSwiping RightAll Hell Breaks LooseSocial Media in HellHell Hath No Fury...What the HellTwo Young Guns Shoot It Out
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