The second episode of Season 2 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on June 12, 2006, airing as a double feature alongside the first episode. In that episode, there was a smelly group punishment to begin the day, the first-ever medical exit occurred, one chef showed that a burn did not stop them during dinner service, and another was eliminated despite not being nominated.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, the women were ashamed and embarrassed about their dinner service loss. Sara was disappointed, humbled, and humiliated to be a women chef. Virginia stated she thought she was going home that night and felt she let the women down. On the other side, the men were confident and enjoying their win. Garrett and Gabe talked about chopping off the red team before chopping off each other as men.
Team challenge[]
The next morning, after only two hours of sleep, the contestants were woken up by Sous Chefs Scott and Mary-Ann playing cowbells at 5:24 AM. Giacomo asked if World War Three was going on, while Virginia called it obnoxious. They were told to go outside immediately, and once outside at the loading area, Ramsay recalled how the previous service was embarrassing. Then, Ramsay told Virginia she was lucky to be there after being nominated and told Larry to show passion as he did not see it. Afterwards, Ramsay wanted them to have a good idea of how much food they wasted last night as a restaurant would never survive with a lot of waste. Ramsay ordered the chefs to jump into the dumpsters and pull out all the garbage from last night to get his point across. Larry said he has not been feeling well during the task since he woke up but wanted to prove himself, while Tom called it humiliating. Sara complained that the dumpster smelled like pee and poop combined into one, but Giacomo commented it was nothing for him as he lost his retainer five or six times in the school trash can. As they went through the trash, Rachel could hear cash register noise going off in her head to remind her about all the wasted money from last night. After that, Ramsay told the contestants he did not want another large amount of waste in the competition ever again. Tom knew that Hell’s Kitchen was fair game before being grateful Ramsay did not force them to eat the trash. Now that the chefs understood the lesson, Ramsay ordered them to clean up because they stunk.
Once cleaned up and changed, the chefs came down to the kitchen for their first team challenge. Ramsay announced the Perfect Steak Cut Challenge, a way to learn how to maximize the value of meat in different portions. Ramsay showed them a demonstration of properly preparing a whole beef side into a 10-ounce sirloin steak cut. Since the men had an extra person, Ramsay asked Keith to sit out to even the teams at five members each. That pissed Keith off because he would have loved to take part in the challenge, claiming that he butchered 200 steaks in the past.
Both teams had 10 minutes to cut as many steaks as possible, but Virginia revealed that she never cut a sirloin side before in her life, making her nervous. On the other hand, Larry felt very comfortable handling a knife. Even though Keith could not participate in the challenge, he could help his teammates, as he tried to do with Giacomo. However, Giacomo ignored Keith’s concern about his steaks looking thin. Near the end of the time limit, Heather said it was important for the women to win, while Garrett wanted to defeat the women even more. Eventually, time was up.
As the women were up first, Sara knew that a win was a big deal for her as the heat was on. Sara was able to produce three acceptable steaks. In contrast, Heather produced only two, disappointing Ramsay as he told her he expected more. Rachel scored three points, and both Virginia and Maribel scored two each. The women finished with 12 points, a performance that Ramsay found unsatisfying as a lot of meat was wasted. Gabe scored three points for the men despite never having done this before and was proud of himself before, hoping his teammates could score threes as well. However, Garrett only scored one point, and Giacomo scored two, making the blue team's total at 6, with two people still to go. When it was Larry's turn, he wanted to prove to Ramsay that he belonged in the kitchen. Unfortunately, none of his steaks were acceptable, making him the worst performer overall. Larry felt horrible to let the men down and felt more stress than ever. Tom was the last man to show his meat and hoped to have made enough for his team. As Ramsay accepted his steaks, Maribel became fearful. In the end, Tom had five steaks accepted, but it was not enough as the final score was 12-11 for the women. Despite that, Tom's performance was praised by Ramsay.
Scoring[]
| Red Team | Blue Team | ||||
| Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sara | 3 | 3 | Gabe | 3 | 3 |
| Heather | 2 | 5 | Garrett | 1 | 4 |
| Rachel | 3 | 8 | Giacomo | 2 | 6 |
| Virginia | 2 | 10 | Larry | 0 | 6 |
| Maribel | 2 | 12 | Tom | 5 | 11 |
| Results | 12-11 | ||||
Reward[]
The women were rewarded with a helicopter ride to The Saddle Peak Lodge to have lunch with Ramsay. When they went back to the dorms to change, Heather called their victory a big one as it showed the men they were not messing around. At the same time, Rachel was ready to spend some time with Ramsay, wanting to cross a helicopter ride off her bucket list. Maribel was shocked about Ramsay’s friendlier personality during the reward, and Virginia stated she could not wait to know him on a different level.
Punishment[]
After hearing the women’s reward, Tom arrogantly said big deal as he wanted to become an Executive Chef, not be on vacation. The men were punished by cutting all the steaks for the next dinner service, as a steak special would be featured. During the punishment, Keith was angry that they lost a steak challenge, was not sympathetic to Larry's worsening condition, and considered him a weak link. On his side, Larry was so ashamed about his poor performance, he did not want to look his teammates in the eyes and did the punishment apart from them. Later, Tom wanted to sweep the floor with the women, while Garrett felt that even though they dropped their guards against the women, they would beat them in service with more intensity.
Larry's exit[]
When the women got back from their reward, Gabe joked about how the red team is one man down and missing somebody, supposing he would like to transfer to their team. Heather answered by saying she would think about it in the jacuzzi. Except for Rachel, the whole red team jumped in the hot tub and were later joined by Larry, who said women were his downfall. The rest of the men wanted to go to bed early, however, and Gabe felt the women getting drunk the night before service was not a smart move.
By 4:20 AM, everybody was sleeping, but Larry was feeling ill and breathed very hard. He called the medic on the phone, explained that he was sweating and tingling, and was rushed to the hospital. The next morning, everybody noticed that Larry was missing, and Tom asked if anybody saw them. Neither Gabe, Heather, nor Virginia could find him, but Rachel was not happy when Tom started to trash talk Larry. Then, the phone rang, and Sara answered. Larry was on the other end of the phone and told her to get everybody near the phone to listen to him. Larry explained that he was at the hospital because the stress of the competition shut his body down and revealed he was not returning to Hell's Kitchen. Before hanging up, Larry told everybody to stay strong and be a unit. Heather stated she was sad to see him go because of an illness and would rather see him leave because of something else. At the same time, Gabe was devastated and wished him to get better before deciding to honor Larry in that night’s service. After hanging up, Larry said that his body quit, not himself, and called it the worst moment that could have happened.
Ramsay gave no comment on Larry's departure, and he did not receive the coat hanging and portrait burning sequence.
Before service[]
With Larry's departure, both teams were now even at five members each. During prep, Sara was happy about Larry’s departure as she felt she was now one step closer to her dream. At the same time, Giacomo struggled to keep his emotions in check, causing him to fumble on prep. Virginia was determined to give that night a 150%.
When the teams were lined up, Ramsay explained that running a successful restaurant was not just about good food; it was about having good service as well. So, Ramsay assigned Sara and Keith as waiters for their respective teams. Keith did not find the assignment fair as he wanted to cook in the kitchen, while Ramsay jokingly told him to lose some weight while running up the stairs.
Dinner service[]
When the restaurant's doors opened, Keith was already sweaty after walking upstairs, and his customers noticed it. Sara delivered her first ticket very quickly. When Ramsay called it out, he threatened Virginia with elimination if she made him read it out again. In the blue kitchen, Keith delivered his first ticket 20 minutes after the opening, but Ramsay did not accept it because no temperatures were written down. Also, Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to get a towel for Keith as he was sweating a lot, though the latter argued he was not cut out as a server. In the red kitchen, Virginia sent up a monkfish with no walnuts in the vinaigrette, Ramsay broke the plate to the floor at the women's feet and asked them to start again.
Thirty minutes into service, Ramsay wondered where Keith was as the latter was rewriting his first ticket, and when the latter sent it up, Ramsay reminded him it was his team and warned him not to sabotage it. When Ramsay called the first ticket, Tom asked him to repeat the order, which Ramsay refused, and was told to read the ticket himself. Gabe got in a heated argument with Ramsay when he asked if quail was needed, and no quail has been called. Ramsay schooled him on his rudeness and asked if he wanted to email the order to his Blackberry.
Forty-five minutes into service, no food left in either kitchen. In the red kitchen, Maribel received help from Heather on appetizers, and in the blue kitchen, everybody took Gabe's station over him. Ramsay schooled Gabe on that laid-back behavior, even though the latter claimed he could not handle appetizers by himself. Despite that, Gabe managed to send acceptable appetizers out.
An hour into service, appetizers were flying out of both kitchens, and the women moved onto entrées. When Heather tried to get duck sauce for the next table, she spilled some on herself and suffered a second-degree burn to the hand. Ramsay helped Heather by getting her hand under cold water and asked Jean-Philippe to get some ice. Despite her injury, Heather continued to be a team player by telling Maribel and Sous Chef Mary-Ann what was going on at her station. Afterwards, Ramsay told Heather to see a medic and left the service by ambulance. All that made Heather fearful as she refused to see another one of her teammates go home and did not want to leave. After Heather’s departure, the red kitchen became chaotic, according to Virginia. After Maribel dropped some spaghetti to the floor, Ramsay told her to get a restaurant with only one table in it because, with more, she would be done for. In the blue kitchen, the men moved onto entrées, but Tom on meat, and Giacomo on garnish, had communication problems. Giacomo did not know what was going with the duck as sides, which discouraged Ramsay as he was not talking to Tom about it. When a customer went to the kitchen for a time on the food, Ramsay told him he was working with muppets for the first time in his cooking career. Then, Ramsay criticized the women for their communication breakdown and allowed Sara's request to come back in the kitchen to finish service, calling it the best thing he heard from her since she began. Sara was assigned to the meat station and wanted that to be her moment to shine. In the blue kitchen, Tom declared he was ready to walk with one duck and one chicken, but Ramsay discovered that Giacomo fried the cabbage when he was not supposed to. That led Ramsay to school Giacomo, called the cabbage-like glue, and said he should become a hairdresser as he was poncing around with women's hair.
Many tables were beginning to walk out three hours into service, despite Keith trying his best to buy his team some time. The women rallied to try and finish service as they began serving entrées, and Sara felt their wheels finally had some grease to them before calling it a glimpse of hope. Sara was complimented for serving nice Wellingtons, while Virginia sent up busted tortellini. When Ramsay asked her if she would serve it in her restaurant, Virginia answered she would, much to his dismay, before asking her another time. Virginia said she would make another batch, and Ramsay sarcastically called it a sensible idea. However, Virginia felt that she was getting reamed out for no reason. To make matters worse, Jean-Philippe told Ramsay that the table left. Ramsay asked both teams to look in the dining room, which was almost empty because too many customers left. After calling it a death of a restaurant, Ramsay shut down the kitchens.
Post-mortem[]
Heather came back just in time for the announcement of the winning team. When she came back, Ramsay praised Heather for her dedication and teamwork when he recalled the delegation of her station to Maribel while standing in pain over the cold water. However, Ramsay said he was looking for a better service because that night was terrible. He reminded Virginia she could not buy standards and questioned Gabe about his multi-tasking abilities. Although both kitchens had chaotic performances, Ramsay declared the men the losers as they served no entrées and praised the women's improvement. Ramsay also named Garrett "Best of the Worst" for being the only one on his team who did not have a bad service and asked him to nominate two of his teammates for elimination.
During deliberation, Garrett deemed being “Best of the Worst” a double-edged sword and said he could not nominate Keith for not being responsible for the problems in the kitchen. Giacomo knew that meant it was either himself, Tom, or Gabe that would be nominated and told Garrett to do what felt right to him. Garrett tried to look at which of the three remaining men stunk the worse, while Gabe knew he had no idea what was going on that night before fearing that his inexperience was catching up to him. Tom asked Giacomo about the fried cabbage, but the latter argued that it happened based on poor communication. However, Tom accused Giacomo of screwing him up, while the latter did not want to be the target like he has been his entire life. When Tom insultingly told Giacomo to get a haircut, the latter felt the former was doing everything to stay as nobody wanted to leave, while Garrett wanted to cut off the weak links if it would help him win the competition.
Elimination[]
Garrett named Giacomo as his first nominee and Tom as his second. During their pleas, Ramsay asked Tom how many entrées he served that night, but the latter answered zero because of lack of coordination. Tom promised that he would never let that happen again, and Ramsay believed him by sending him back in line. Then, Ramsay told Garrett that there was one more person he wanted to speak to and called Gabe forward. Afterwards, Gabe said he wanted to learn from Ramsay and chased perfection, while Giacomo felt he was trying to grab a greasy potato. However, Ramsay thought it was more of a greasy mop, but Giacomo asked him to see more of him. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Gabe for his lack of passion, the fact he allowed his teammates to run his station for him, and that his sweet guy attitude would not make him a great cook. During his exit interview, Gabe felt he did not have to be loud and obnoxious to run a kitchen and that Ramsay made the wrong decision.
After Gabe left, Ramsay told Giacomo to get a grip. While being dismissed, Giacomo wanted to pull out the person Ramsay was looking for as it would give him more of a chance to win, Heather reaffirmed her plan to have an all-female final two to show that women could do it, and Garrett felt that America should go to Las Vegas and bet their money on him because he was going to win.
Ramsay's comment: "It's absolutely crucial in Hell's Kitchen to have finesse and passion. It was pretty obvious that Gabe had no passion."
Trivia[]
- This marks Ramsay's first time overruling the initial nominations by sending someone back in line and replacing them with someone else.
- This marks the first time a chef was forced to leave for health reasons.
| Hell's Kitchen Season 2 Episodes |
|---|
| 12 Chefs • 11 Chefs • 9 Chefs • 8 Chefs • 7 Chefs • 6 Chefs • 5 Chefs • 4 Chefs • 3 Chefs • 2 Chefs/Winner |