The seventh episode of Season 2 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox, on July 24, 2006. On that episode, black jackets were given, and a friendship is broken as one of the two broke a promise.
Intro[]
Back at the dorms, Virginia cried on her bed as it was her third time up for elimination and felt she sucked. Although Virginia was comforted by Sara, the latter faked compassion for her and felt the former deserved to go home. Meanwhile, the blue team speculated on what tomorrow would bring. While Heather predicted that both teams would be merged into one, Keith felt there was one more team service left. When Heather left the patio table, Keith and Garrett promised that they would pick each other if one of them were to win an individual challenge. Garrett wanted to keep his friendship with Keith strong as they were the only male chefs left, and the latter said the two would rise and become the final two.
The next morning, at 7:44 AM, Heather and Keith were hugging each other on the couch when the former said she formed a great bond with the latter, as his prediction was both of them in the finals, unaware of the deal Keith made with Garrett.
Individual challenge[]
Later that day, both teams came downstairs where Ramsay congratulated them for being the final five, reminding them that one of them was a step closer to the grand prize. Then, Ramsay announced the remaining five contestants would become one team, which was the black team. Virginia was the first to receive her black jacket, followed by Sara, Keith, Heather, and Garrett. Virginia felt great to receive a black jacket as it meant there were no more teams and that they were soldiers that were on their tippy toes. After that, they went back to the dorms to change; Heather joyfully predicted that it would be her as the winner, while Garrett knew that he had it in him to become something since jail.
When they came down in the blue kitchen, Ramsay introduced the 10 Ingredient Challenge. Each contestant had 20 minutes to prepare a dish using the same ten ingredients from the counter in front of them. In addition, Ramsay announced that the winner would go to Las Vegas for a chance to see the grand prize restaurant, making Keith giddy. As the challenge began, the ten ingredients included prawns, loin of veal, baby spinach, lentils, saffron, truffles, artichokes, turnips, and white beets. Garrett knew he had to step up to the plate after his miserable performance in the previous dinner service while Keith was running around firing different items. Ten minutes left, Sara realized she had no time to cook the lentils, and after time was up, she was the last person to have her dish plated.
Garrett was the first person to have his dish judged and served a veal chop over prawns and mushrooms with saffron. After Ramsay asked him if he ever cooked veal before, Garrett answered he did not very often. Ramsay declared the veal was cooked perfectly, making Garrett feel that the former respected him and that his dish tasted good. However, the saffron on the prawns was too much. Heather served fresh saffron prawns over a bed of spinach and artichokes, but while Ramsay found it nice, he realized the spinach was not clean enough as he got some dirt in the throat. Then, Virginia’s chiffonade of spinach and beet tops, with poached prawns garnished with truffles, was praised for the presentation, along with delicious prawns were delicious and vibrant. However, Ramsay said that had she performed like that on her last service, he would have been pleased. Sara made a grilled veal with a sauce of toasted prawn shells, but while Ramsay said the presentation was boring, he felt the flavors worked well. Finally, Keith served a veal chop stuffed with wild mushrooms and spinach with prawn salad. Ramsay praised the color of the veal chop as he said it was making people wanting to eat it. After congratulating everybody because they did better than he expected, Ramsay said it was his toughest decision. After deliberation over Keith and Virginia, he declared the former the winner.
Reward[]
As promised, Keith was rewarded with a trip to Las Vegas to visit the Red Rock Resort, where one of the remaining contestants will win their own restaurant. In addition, Ramsay told Keith he could choose someone to come with him on the reward. Despite promising Garrett he would pick him and Heather hoping it was her, Keith chose Virginia because she had the second-best dish. That infuriated Garrett, who accused Keith of being a liar. As they left for the dorms, Keith felt terrible as he went back on the promise Garrett and he made but knew there was nothing he could do now.
During the reward, Keith and Virginia arrived at Las Vegas, where they drove in a pink limousine and were welcomed by Ramsay at the Red Rock Resort. They began a tour of the resort and were greeted by Albie Colotto, the restaurant's architect in the resort. Both visualized their dream restaurant, with Keith getting more motivated. Ramsay told them how he worked his ass off when opening his first restaurant, which was not even a third of the grand prize's size. After that, they were left to enjoy a Las Vegas tour, with Virginia wishing to move to Las Vegas for the rest of her life.
Punishment[]
The remaining chefs were punished by participating in Bug Night, which included fumigating the restaurant for the following dinner service. During the punishment, the three had to wrap everything in plastic wrap, but annoyed Garrett decided to confront Keith at the dorms, leaving a scared Heather to hope there were no knives upstairs. Garrett called Keith a liar, and the latter admitted that if the former double-crossed him like that, he would be mad himself. Keith apologized, but Garrett refused it and hoped the plane crashed.
When the three punished were done wrapping the kitchens, the Sous Chefs tasked them to take charge of the fumigation themselves, giving them protective suits and masks to wear. During the fumigation, Sara mimicked Darth Vader from Star Wars. After the punishment, Garrett told Heather how angry he was about the situation, but the latter admitted that his anger was making her uncomfortable. Garrett claimed he would never lay a hand on anybody, explaining how he was removed from home and moved to a youth anger management program when he was young.
Before service[]
The following day, Keith and Virginia arrived from their reward. Still, while Virginia told the others about the trip, Keith did not want to rub it in Garrett's face too much as he still felt bad about his decision. However, Garrett did not care about what Virginia said, as he would learn what he needed when he won.
Later that day, the final five began prepping for service, but Sara was annoyed about Heather's leadership as she felt the latter was barking out orders. Jean-Philippe met Keith to tell him that Ramsay would like his veal chop to be on the menu during that service. While Sous Chef Scott asked if the dish would have cha-ching in the name like his signature dish, Keith said he could only call it veal chop. Keith felt honored about it. While Garrett was still furious because he felt Keith stabbed him in the back, he did not bother as he was professional enough to stay focused. When the final five were lined up, Ramsay said that the pressure was on as a twelve-top table would be served for the first time. He was determined to get all the food simultaneously, and Heather acknowledged they had to bust their asses.
Dinner service[]
Sara and Heather were placed on the appetizer station. Still, when Sara cooked her first order of scallops, she used a non-stick pan and kept flipping them over, which resulted in them becoming overcooked. Ramsay was so furious about that mistake that when he schooled Sara about it, his voice cracked, and he asked what non-stick meant in Texas. Then, the first risotto Heather sent up was bland, and Ramsay told both to start again and stop panicking.
Twenty minutes into dinner service, Heather and Sara continued to struggle on appetizers. At the same time, a mass of orders for Keith's pan-roasted veal chop came in the kitchen, causing Ramsay to congratulate the former for that. Afterwards, Heather succeeded in sending a good risotto. Still, while Ramsay told Heather to remember the flavor, she enjoyed a moment to herself. Sara also redeemed herself when she was properly cooking scallops. After a while, Ramsay was happy about the kitchen running smoothly, and Garrett said he oversaw his chicken.
An hour into service, Garrett and Keith sent many entrées out to the dining room. Still, Virginia struggled on the garnish station as she had to cook twenty different orders of vegetables. When Virginia had her romaine hearts break on her, Ramsay warned her that he would not wait on lettuce. Then, Garrett miscalculated the time he needed for the chicken to be ready, asking for three minutes when Sous Chef Mary-Ann gave him one. Garrett felt he had to block out the pressure from Ramsay as the latter lectured him about being behind, only to send up raw chicken to the pass. Ramsay refused to send it as it could kill someone, and when Garrett gave him an excuse, Ramsay found it unforgivable, yelling that the latter should not be in whites. Then, Ramsay made Garrett switch stations with Keith, with the former feeling stung by Ramsay’s comments. With Keith now on meat and cooking his own veal chop special, the kitchen went back on a roll when he sent perfectly cooked Wellingtons to the pass.
Two hours into service, almost every customer received their main courses. Still, one lady who did not receive her’s went to the kitchen to ask Ramsay how long it might take to receive her main course. Ramsay asked her to remove her breasts off his hot plate, but she refused to take the humiliation and threw an entire table of food on the floor to his feet. So, Ramsay called the security, and the woman left the restaurant. At the same time, the twelve-top table arrived, celebrating a bachelorette party. The pressure shifted to Sara and Heather on appetizers, as they had to get 12 starters simultaneously. When Sara said she had to serve five scallops per portion, Ramsay asked her if they were small or massive. Sara said medium, leading Ramsay to give her a cloth to wipe her glasses, and afterwards, she said large. So, Ramsay told Sara to serve four scallops per order. In the dining room, Jean-Philippe talked with the ladies of the twelve-top table and was embarrassed when the bride to be received underwear as gifts. Heather found it difficult to work with Sara in the kitchen as the latter did not listen to her, while Sara felt like a whipping post. Despite that, they successfully sent out twelve appetizers for the twelve-top simultaneously, and Heather enjoyed another moment as she was proud of herself. After that, Ramsay revealed they could complete all the entrées of the night as it was the last order. However, Virginia was panicking as she put her garnish in a pot when she could have left it in the pan, and Garrett was confused when Ramsay asked for carrots as his name had a similar pronunciation. Then, Virginia brought up garnishes with too much butter, and Ramsay was angry when she said she was making tortellini, and none was on order. That led Ramsay to call Virginia out, and ordered her to read out the order. Afterwards, Garrett served a chewed-up salmon, and Ramsay was furious when he did not answer back if that was his best. Then, Ramsay told Garrett to get a grip and start again. After a while, Ramsay wondered where Jean-Philippe was, as the latter was entertaining himself with the bachelorette party. When Jean-Philippe showed up, Ramsay asked him if he was trying to lose his virginity. Then, Garrett successfully called back an order of salmon, Ramsay welcomed him back, and the former knew he had to keep pushing. After that, the team rallied in a last strong effort to send every order out, which they did with a lot of success. They were congratulated by Ramsay, who said Alleluia, and Heather could not believe that they completed an entire service with only five people.
Post-mortem[]
When the final five were lined up, Ramsay congratulated them because they completed dinner service despite having a twelve-top. However, Ramsay reminded the lack of teamwork amongst them, pointing out Sara's rough performance with the non-stick pan incident, called out Heather's inconsistency despite getting all the appetizers out, reminded Garrett about the station switch after the raw chicken incident, and telling Virginia that she put herself in the pit that night. However, Ramsay praised Keith's performance, named him "Best of the Worst," and asked him to nominate two people for elimination.
During deliberation, Keith felt that Heather deserved to stay because she worked very hard but struggled to decide between the three remaining chefs. Garrett warned Keith not to put him up as he only messed up once and hoped for more time to progress but admitted that he would be shocked if the latter nominated him after their fight. Sara told Keith how hard it was to work with Heather and asked for another chance, but Keith felt it was a tossup between the two remaining women. Keith felt Sara should have done better, while Virginia begged him not to nominate her.
Elimination[]
Keith nominated Virginia as his first nominee and Garrett as his second. While a surprised Ramsay said he thought Keith and Garrett were friends, the latter stated he would put the people he felt did the worst, without mattering who his friends were. During their pleas, Garrett promised Ramsay that his next performance would be his best as he had a lot more to give. Ramsay saw how hungry Garrett was, and the latter claimed he was foaming from the mouth. Then, Virginia said she loved making food for people, and despite her mistakes, she wanted to keep moving forward. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Garrett for serving raw chicken, which he considered unforgivable. During his exit interview, Garrett received a retrospective montage of his run.
After Garrett left, Ramsay told the final four to work as a team and to aspire as individuals. While being dismissed, Keith remarked he was the only male chef left and said it was K-Grease and the Bitches now. Then, Heather said Vegas was on the line and was giddy about the fighting to begin, while Sara said she was not a doormat. Lastly, Virginia knew there was a reason she was still around.
Ramsay's comment: "I'm trying to find someone here that deserves a restaurant. Each and every step of the way, Garrett fought me and his team. That's why he's not here any longer."
Trivia[]
- This marks the first time Ramsay put a challenge-winning dish as a dinner service special.
- As this was Virginia's fourth nomination, she broke Season 1's Andrew's original record (three) for most nominations in a single season.
Hell's Kitchen Season 2 Episodes |
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12 Chefs • 11 Chefs • 9 Chefs • 8 Chefs • 7 Chefs • 6 Chefs • 5 Chefs • 4 Chefs • 3 Chefs • 2 Chefs/Winner |