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The eighth episode of Season 21 of Hell's Kitchen aired on December 1, 2022. In that episode, game meat was the main theme, an advantage was used, one chef bemoaned their low status on their team, and five chefs cooked for their lives to stay in the competition.

Intro[]

While returning to the dorms, Tara was sad to see Mindy go home as she had her back. Ileana was relieved to survive, while Cheyenne wondered what would have happened if Tara was nominated instead of the former. However, Tara overheard that and got upset as it meant her team did not support her. Tara went into the blue woman's bedroom, complained that she hated working with women, and felt they were catty. With Mindy gone, Tara felt alone against the red team.

Team challenge[]

The following day, both teams waited in the dorms, wondering what that day would bring, some even getting anxious. Ileana wanted to see what would happen even though she had struggled in most of the challenges, specifically the Creative Chicken Wing Challenge. Then, Ileana told Cheyenne how her mentor comforted her when she had a meltdown at work, feeling grateful for him. Then, Ramsay called the dorms and asked Abe to bring everyone downstairs. The chefs were shocked to see the dining room covered in trees and animals as Ramsay welcomed them to the first edition of the Hell's Kitchen Wild Game Show. That pumped Brett as he grew up watching game shows with his grandmother and felt he was trained for it.

Ramsay explained that each chef would participate in their choice of challenges: Spell's Kitchen or Kitchen Sightmares. The chef who made the correct guess had the choice of either keeping the ingredient or giving it to the other team on their three proteins: boar, duck, and venison. For Spell's Kitchen, the chefs must unscramble a word that is based on an ingredient, but in Kitchen Sightmares, they must guess the ingredient based on the close-up shot.

Alex and Dafne went up first, and their challenge was Spell's Kitchen. Alex felt confident going up as he won the third-grade spelling bee and knew how to spell cat. Alex correctly spelt green beans and kept it for the men's venison, while Brett hyped himself up for Kitchen Sightmares. Sommer correctly guessed pomegranate and kept it for the women's duck, but Brett did not mind as he did not want it. Alejandro correctly guessed pineapple in Kitchen Sightmares and gave it to the women's boar, knowing that tropical fruit and game meat did not match. When Abe and Tara went up for Spell's Kitchen, the former felt he would nail it due to his dyslexia. Abe correctly guessed gruyere and sent it to the women's boar. When Vlad and Ileana went up, the latter got figs and sent them to the men's venison. As the guessing games continued, Dafne got red bell pepper, and Tara got parsnip. In contrast, Alejandro, Brett, and Abe failed to get any ingredients correct. Ileana got black garlic and put it with the women's venison. The final round featured Dafne against Sakari, and after some thinking, the former guessed hazelnuts. Because the women's board was filled, Dafne could trade hazelnuts with another ingredient and send it to the men. Dafne traded the hazelnut for the pineapple on their boar and gave it to the men's venison. Upon seeing the mismatched ingredients for the venison, Alex was not confident as the two fruits did not go together with the meat. In contrast, Dafne knew the men would struggle with the improper ingredients.

With the game show portion over, the Game Meat Challenge began. Both teams had 45 minutes to cook their own dishes using the three game meats and all the assigned ingredients. Tara and Dafne cooked the boar for the women, while Alex and Sakari cooked the boar for the men. Brett and Vlad cooked the men's venison, while Cheyenne and Ileana cooked it for the women. Lastly, Sommer cooked duck alone while Alejandro and Abe cooked the men's duck. Thirty minutes left, Dafne braised her boar even though it would be tight in time. In the blue kitchen, Brett felt he was in a corner with his mismatched ingredients and tried to make it taste not gross. In the red kitchen, Ileana was fine with most of the ingredients except for the venison, while Vlad splattered Sous Chef Jason while blending some ingredients. Abe admitted to not cooking with duck before and got nervous about the cooking time. Two minutes left, Ramsay suggested that everyone start plating their dishes while warning them not to slice their protein piping hot. While Vlad admitted that the ingredients he had would never work, he wanted to ensure they did that day. Ninety seconds left, Tara sliced into raw boar, much to her frustration. Eventually, everyone had their dishes cooked and plated on time.

Before judging the dishes, Ramsay said that both teams must pick one representative for each protein he would taste. The only exception for the women was Sommer, as she cooked the duck alone. They had a quick meeting, and afterwards, Ramsay asked both teams who the representatives were. Dafne said her boar dish would be judged, and so would Cheyenne's venison as Ileana's sugar over caramelized. For the men, Sakari's boar dish was chosen over Alex's undercooked dish, Abe's duck dish won over Alejandro's as it had a better finish, and Brett's venison dish was deemed better than Vlad's.

Joining Ramsay in the judging were Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook of Animals. Their appearance made Cheyenne nervous as they were experts in game meat. The boar round was first as Dafne expressed confidence in her dish. However, her braised white wine boar with portobello mushroom ragu, polenta, and hazelnut gremolata was tough to chew as the braise failed despite having some strong flavors from the polenta and the gremolata. Sakari's rack of boar with creamy polenta and Brussels sprouts was praised for having the citrus freshen up the meat, but Dotolo found the polenta too creamy. Still, Sakari scored that round, and the men led 1-0. On the duck round, Sommer's seared duck with pomegranate reduction was cooked beautifully, while Abe's grilled duck and red peppers had bloody meat dripping from Ramsay's plate. Sommer scored that round, and it became a one-point tie. Abe deemed it his worse challenge and swore he would buy a duck farm and cook every one of them to perfection. The final chefs up were Cheyenne and Brett for the venison round. Alejandro knew it was the most crucial round of the challenge and had confidence that Brett made the mismatched ingredients work. Brett's seared venison loin with a charred pineapple Ju and fig and rum green beans had a nicely cooked venison, but Jon felt the sides ruined the dish. Then, Cheyenne presented her seared venison with beet puree and sunchoke hash. While the meat was dry, the sides redeemed the dish as they paired well with the venison. Before deliberating on the winner, Ramsay sent Cheyenne and Brett back in line as Tara refused to do a fifth punishment. After a tough decision, the judges went with Cheyenne's dish, and the women won the challenge 2-1. That made Dafne happy as she managed to help sabotage the men despite not scoring a point.

Scoring[]

Blue Team Red Team
Sakari 1 1 Dafne 0 0
Abe 0 1 Sommer 1 1
Brett 0 1 Cheyenne 1 2
Results 2-1

Reward[]

The women were rewarded with a bowling trip at Lucky Strike Hollywood and lunch provided by Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook. The women and Alex received bowling jackets during the reward and played a few games at Lucky Strike. Cheyenne said it was fun to spend the reward with Alex as she considered him a cool dad figure and called it one of the best rewards she had been on.

Punishment[]

The men were punished by pitting olives and making two pounds of olive tapenade and pesto. Ramsay asked Alex if he would use his Punishment Pass, and the latter decided to use it. Alex said he would trade places with Tara as he felt the latter would be okay with this punishment. However, Tara was not happy with Alex's decision and did not look forward to doing her fifth punishment. Back at the dorms, Tara vented to Abe about how she had no one to talk with and felt that the women were gunning for her. Worse, Tara felt betrayed by Alex for using his Punishment Pass on her. Abe thought Alex would use it on someone else as Sommer tried to comfort Tara. When Tara accused the younger women of trying to get her out, Sommer felt the former was getting inside her head as she did not want to see Tara feel left out. When Sommer told everyone what Tara said, Alex felt guilty about his actions and tried to apologize to her. However, Tara rebuffed Alex.

During the punishment, Brett called it brutal as Tara told Sakari she was still mad at Alex. As Tara grew hungry, she continued to bemoan about missing the reward and told Abe how much she hated catty girls. Even though Abe claimed not to come on the show to make friends, he admitted to respecting Tara after working the line with her a couple of times and said he had her back. Later, the group got to the pesto-making as Abe felt the carpel tunnel coming into his hands. When the women and Alex came by after their reward, Tara got offended that neither of them showed any sympathy.

Cook For Your Life Challenge[]

Later that day, Dafne and Ileana talked about family, as the latter had an older brother in the military and a younger sister. Ileana added that she was always the lone female chef and the youngest in every job she worked, so she had to prove to everyone that she could cook. Then, Dafne revealed that she had a brother who was nine years younger than her, as her parents had her when they were in their early twenties. Dafne explained that her parents immigrated from Honduras, started from the bottom, working their way to have a better life for their children, and said it took them a couple of years to be okay with her culinary career.

Then, the phone rang, and Ramsay told Alex to have everyone come downstairs. As everyone went downstairs, Tara wondered what Ramsay wanted as she thought of every possibility. Ramsay reminded the chefs that earlier, they made choices on which dish would be judged in the Game Meat Challenge, and five of them dropped their dishes. As Ramsay told them not to let anything get in their way when the season began, he announced that Alejandro, Alex, Ileana, Tara, and Vlad must compete in the Cook For Your Life Challenge. The loser of the challenge would be eliminated that night, making Vlad nervous on the inside as he might lose his chance at the grand prize. The remaining chefs were safe and sent back to the dorms to await their teammates. As the safe chefs went upstairs, Tara knew she let somebody else get in her way of getting judged, and she paid the consequences. The five chefs had forty minutes to cook an exceptional chicken dish that proved to Ramsay they belonged in the competition and were worthy of being his next Head Chef. Vlad planned on cooking his best and proving to Ramsay he belonged in the competition.

As the challenge began, the chefs began prepping their chicken dishes as the safe chefs watched the challenge via live stream. Although Dafne was stress eating from watching it, she was relieved not to be in the challenge. Alejandro was ready to cook his heart out and deboned half of his whole chicken. In the red kitchen, Ileana tried to be composed despite making something on the fly and grabbed an eggplant. However, Ileana placed the eggplant in the blender, making Cheyenne fear that it would look terrible. Although Ileana knew she was terrible at challenges, she knew she must cook her butt off to survive. Alex decided to cook a Tennessee summertime-inspired dish in the blue kitchen using carrots and okra. While Cheyenne was surprised that Alex was using basic ingredients, Brett argued that the latter was cooking what he knew. Alejandro grabbed polenta as he wanted starch for his dish, despite knowing that it usually took forty minutes to cook as he refused to let anything get in his way. Still, Dafne was doubtful Alejandro could pull it off. Tara felt her mind was running in a million places in the red kitchen, but she knew she must focus and compose one dish instead of a hundred. Sakari saw how nervous Tara was looking for pans, and Brett said she should not be asking these questions. Meanwhile, Vlad tried to focus on his dish despite the nerves and decided to add truffles to his dish, refusing to let anything get in his way. When Ramsay announced that they had ten minutes left, Alex was taken aback as he still had a raw piece of chicken. Alex began to baste the chicken and prayed that everything did its magic. Three minutes left, Alejandro said he was focused on himself as Alex put his chicken back on the pan. Eventually, everyone had their dishes cooked and plated on time.

Elimination[]

Alejandro went up first and presented his seared chicken breast with rosemary polenta, chorizo broth and spring vegetables. Alejandro felt confident that he had made a good dish and Ramsay praised the chicken's cooking for being crispy. Ramsay was also amazed that Alejandro made a flavorable polenta within the time limit and deemed it a good effort. As Alejandro went back in line, he said that if he were to go home, he at least went out with a bang. Ileana was up next, and she felt happy with her dish. Ileana's seared chicken with aubergine purée, crispy fried Brussels sprouts, and lemon Sherry vinaigrette was questioned by Ramsay regarding the eggplant component, but she claimed it was inspired by her mentor. However, Ramsay found the purée too thin and sweet due to Ileana adding honey, but he did find the chicken cooked well. Ileana tried to keep confident, but she felt her heart go into her throat. After tasting the first two dishes, Ramsay sent Alejandro back to the dorms, and he claimed he was not going anywhere. The other chefs greeted Alejandro as he felt a new fire lit from that challenge, warning everyone he was a force to be reckoned with.

Back downstairs, Tara went up knowing her dish looked beautiful, but she was unhappy with the carrot puree. Tara revealed her airline chicken stuffed with thyme and lemon zest, carrot purée, basil and parsley pesto, and bacon fat cooked potatoes. Ramsay questioned the purée, and Tara thought the carrot purée worked with the chicken. The chicken tasted nice, and the sides worked as well, but Ramsay had an issue with the purée as it tasted dull. Still, Ramsay deemed Tara's dish better than Ileana's, and the former returned to the dorms. Tara was relieved to survive and said she was holding her own against chefs who went to culinary school. Alex went up afterwards but felt his confidence was a 6.4 out of ten. Alex's pan-roasted chicken breast with spiced carrot puree and grilled okra was deemed crispy with an exceptional purée, and Ramsay sent the former back to the dorms. As Alex went up to the dorms, he called it the most stressful moments of his life and nearly went to his knees on his way back to the dorms.

The final chef to present their dish was Vlad, who presented his roasted airline chicken breast with truffle pomme purée, crispy maitakes, and charred Cipollini. Ramsay asked Vlad why he had all his crispy elements sitting under a fat puddle as they left everything soggy. While Ramsay praised the chicken for having a nice cook and the mashed potatoes tasting nice, he told Vlad that he should have set the mushrooms on top of the chicken. As Ramsay struggled to make a decision, Ileana felt her heart beating as she represented everyone and did not want to go home. In contrast, Vlad wondered if he was going home as being the final man standing sucked. In the end, Ramsay deemed Vlad's dish the better of the two and sent the latter back to the dorms. As Vlad returned, he began tearing up as he fought for his life and succeeded. That meant Ileana was eliminated. Ramsay told Ileana that while her chicken was cooked beautifully, the sweetness and liquid aspect of the purée destroyed all the good aspects of the protein. Still, Ramsay urged Ileana to keep going as the latter called it an honor to compete. During her exit interview, Ileana felt hurt leaving, but she was proud to have experienced the competition and looked forward to continuing to grow.

Ramsay's comment: "When you're cooking for your life, every detail matters. One overly sweet puree got Ileana sent away."

Trivia[]

  • Title Reference: The title refers to the Game Meat Challenge.
  • This marks the third time exotic proteins are used in a challenge and guest judged by same chefs, John Shook and Vinny Dotolo, previously in Episode 1409 - 9 Chefs Compete and Episode 1708 - Welcome to the Jungle.
  • With Alex and Tara's nominations, all of the 40-somethings have be nominated at least once.
  • With this episode, Alex has set the record for most opportunities to use a Punishment Pass before using it, which is four.
  • Kitchen Sightmares is an obvious pun on Kitchen Nightmares, referring to Ramsay's other FOX show that aired for seven seasons from 2007 to 2014.
Hell's Kitchen Season 21 Episodes
Let the Battle BeginJust Wingin' ItClawing Your Way to the TopSlipping Down to HellBreakfast 911Til Chef Do Us PartWok This WayGame On!Putting the Carne in CarnivalEveryone's Taco'ing About It21st Annual Blind Taste TestWhat in Hell's Kitchen?The Fab Five Take FlightLights, Camera, Sabotage!A Finale for the Ages, Part 1A Finale for the Ages, Part 2
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