The eighth episode of Season 23 of Hell's Kitchen aired on November 14, 2024. In that episode, one team bounces back after the other team chooses the wrong dish to cut during the challenge, five chefs cooked for their lives, and an early frontrunner makes a fatal mistake that shockingly sends them home.
Intro[]
After Ramsay dismisses the chefs to their dorms, Amanda reiterates how she believes Ann Marie should have gone home instead for her failures on vegetables station. She talks with Brittany and Whit about it, as she also blames herself for Meghan's elimination given how her undercooked veal lost them the dinner service and happened because she couldn't handle fish station by herself after Meghan went to help Ann Marie. Whit bluntly tells her to get over it and stop crying by midnight. The next morning, Amanda is still beating herself up over the incident, but still plans to rally for the day.
On the blue team, Brandon discusses the importance of protein in a diet and building muscle. This leads Anthony to open up on how he suffered from oral cancer twice a couple of years prior. First was in his early 20s, where he felt an immense amount of pain the right side of his face, which led to him getting fake teeth and losing his palette on that side. He was in remission for a month before it came back again stronger, resulting in him getting chest surgery. He tears up in the confessional reminiscing over it while believing he's fortunate enough to have survived such a deadly condition. Egypt and Joe tell him they're glad he's there in person for them today.
Team challenge[]
Ramsay discusses the importance of concise communication in the kitchen. Ramsay decides to test their efficiency with words with a game called Secret Ingredients. He has Sous Chefs James and Michelle bring in two tables with tablets. Each team will work with three proteins: Airline chicken, cod, and pork chop. The chefs will come up in pairs to the tablet, where they have to get their partner to guess the ingredient using only one word (similar to the game show password), and then assign the ingredients to themselves or to the other team.
First up are Whit and Ann Marie for the red team, and Lulu and Joe for the blue team. Lulu gets Joe to guess eggplant and assigns it to the cod on the red team. Ann Marie gets Whit to guess cauliflower, which they keep for their pork chop. She then gets Whit to guess Brussel sprouts after Lulu fails to secure it for her side, which they add to their airline chicken. The next rotation is Anthony and Brittany. Anthony gets Lulu to correctly guess corn and kale. They keep corn for their airline chicken but send kale to the red team's cod. Brittany gets Ann Marie to guess broccolini, which they add to their pork chop. Kyle and Hannah are next in the rotation. When getting jasmine rice as the clue, Kyle accidentally cheats by giving Beauty and the Beast as his clue (before realizing Jasmine's from Aladdin), and because he used more than one word, the red team automatically gets it, and they assign it to the blue team's cod. Kyle then makes up for it by having Anthony guess asparagus, and they send it to the red team's cod. Hannah has Brittany guess tomato, and they assign it to their airline chicken.
Brandon and Amanda are next in the rotation. Brandon has Kyle guess Yukon Gold potato and they assign it to their airline chicken. Amanda has Hannah guess avocado and parsnip and they assign both to the blue kitchen's pork chop. Egypt and Whit are next in the rotation. Egypt has Brandon guess couscous and they send it to the red team's airline chicken. Whit has Amanda guess apple and they send it to their own pork chop. With the red team's board full, they could compete to swap some of their ingredients or put some of the newer ones to the blue team's. Whit has Amanda guess angel hair pasta, which they send to the blue team's cod to give them two starches to work with. Ann Marie and Lulu are last in the rotation. Lulu has Egypt successfully guess all three ingredients, swiss chard, which he sends to the chicken, zucchini, which he sends to the cod, and arugula, which he sends to the pork chop.
Ramsay then gives the chefs 45 minutes to cook one of the protein and ingredient combinations. Each protein will have two chefs cooking it, with the exception of the cod on the red team, which will only be cooked by Hannah. Hannah develops an eggplant ash for her dish to give it a bitter taste. Brandon's not confident having to work with angel hair pasta and jasmine rice for his cod and seeks help from Joe on the pasta part, while Egypt plans to use citrus to balance out the flavors on his pork chop. Amanda accidentally ends up burning her chicken. Whit tells her to claim the chicken is blackened, but Amanda knows Ramsay's too smart for that tactic. Lulu decides to take a risk by making her Yukon Gold potatoes into gnocchi, which Egypt isn't confident in, believing it'll retain a lot of water. Ann Marie is attempting to rice her cauliflower, but gets mixed results. All chefs successfully plate their dishes. Since the blue team has an additional member, they have to choose which dish to cut out. The team ultimately chooses Egypt's because it looks the least creative out of the lineup. Egypt believes his dish has bold flavors and that his team will regret this decision.
Ramsay decides to taste the blue team's dishes first, beginning with the cod made by Brandon and Joe. Ramsay noticed Brandon was rushing his dish to the end and despite using zucchini butter in the pasta, there's only one small bit of zucchini in there. Joe meanwhile had a better balance between all three ingredients and well-cooked cod, so Ramsay only awards Joe a point. Next are Lulu and Kyle with their airline chicken dishes. Ramsay criticizes the gnocchi on Lulu's dish, finding it wet. Kyle's dish impresses him more with the potato corn risotto, and he earns a point for the blue team while Lulu doesn't. Anthony is last up with his pork chop dish, but Ramsay feels he didn't properly incorporate the combination of ingredients and doesn't award him a point, leaving the blue team with two points total. Anthony's disappointed it's the second challenge in a row he failed to score points for his team.
Ramsay then judges the red team's dishes, beginning with Hannah's cod. Despite the eggplant ash sounding like a strange approach, Ramsay believed it complimented the rest of the dish's balance and awards Hannah a point. Next were Amanda and Brittany with their airline chicken. Brittany takes more of a chicken parm route with her dish, being inspired by cooking it a lot growing up. Ramsay found that Brittany's chicken parm approach worked well, while Amanda's chicken was overcooked and didn't properly incorporate the couscous into the dish, awarding Brittany a point and tying the teams. Last were Ann Marie and Whit on pork chop. Ramsay praises Whit's flavor combinations and awards her the last point, earning the win for the red team, while Ann Marie doesn't earn a point due to her grainy cauliflower puree. Ramsay then tastes Egypt's pork chop that the blue team discarded. He summons the blue team to see how juicy the pork chop was and says he'd award it two points, implying the blue team likely would have won if they didn't choose to cut it.
Scoring[]
Red Team | Blue Team | ||||
Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hannah | 1 | 1 | Brandon Joe |
0 1 |
0 1 |
Brittany Amanda |
1 0 |
2 2 |
Lulu Kyle |
0 1 |
1 2 |
Whit Ann Marie |
1 0 |
3 3 |
Anthony | 0 | 2 |
Results | 3-2 |
Punishment[]
For losing the challenge, the blue team had to dive into the outdoor dumpsters to sort the waste and recycling into compost. Though it's not shown, Brandon refused to use his Punishment Pass once more. After the challenge, Joe tells the rest of the blue team they owe Egypt an apology. At the porch, Egypt rants to Whit on how Lulu was chosen over him considering she's rarely scored a point in challenges. Whit encourages Egypt to fight more for his dishes in the future. While Egypt is disappointed, he feels content knowing Ramsay still liked his dish.
While sorting through the garbage, Kyle attempts to lighten the mood by playing around with the dumpster, making jokes, and hugging his teammates, but ends up annoying Joe, Brandon, and Anthony in the process.
Reward[]
For winning the challenge, the red team gets to go to Foxwood's Smash Avenue, a smash room where they can break several objects and let off some steam. They also get to have dinner at one of Foxwood's fanciest new restaurants, Grace by Nia. At the smash room, the women have a fun time smashing some of the objects on display, with half the red team noticing that Ann Marie is a little too into it.
At Grace by Nia, they enjoy the music and the food presented at the restaurant as they interact with the owner, Nia Grace. The soul food reminds Whit of her grandmother's cooking, and how her family still has meals there even after she's passed away. She found it to be the best reward of the season, as while she was homesick, it reminded her how her grandmother would push her forward through all the hardships.
Cook For Your Life Challenge[]
As the red team returned from their award, the blue team told them how gross sorting through the compost was and how annoying Kyle was through it. Brandon then receives a call from Ramsay summoning them to the dining room, not giving the red team any time to change into their chef attires. Ramsay informs them that Hell's Kitchen will be closed to the public for the night, but the competition is ramping up, telling them that five of them will be cooking for their lives that night. The five that will be competing are the five that failed to get a point in the morning's challenge: Lulu, Amanda, Anthony, Ann Marie, and Brandon. Brandon points out in confessionals it's his first challenge where he failed to get a point, but knows he won't get a pass regardless. The remaining chefs are safe, including Egypt, as he would've gotten a point if his dish wasn't cut.
The chefs return to their dorms so Amanda and Ann Marie can change into their chef attires. Anthony is confident he'll return and doesn't say goodbye to Egypt and Joe, who jokingly tell him not to make gnocchi like Lulu did. The remaining chefs chill in the dorm lounge, where they can watch the competition on the televisions as the five unfortunate chefs return to the kitchen. Ramsay announces to the five chefs they'll have 45 minutes to cook an East coast delicacy: Live lobster. All of the chefs are sent to cook in the red kitchen, which Michelle jokingly welcomes Lulu back to. Lulu decides to make lobster ravioli to redeem herself for the gnocchi earlier. In the dorm, Joe tells her to stop making pasta while Brittany understands wanting to redeem herself. Amanda's confident in the challenge as she had to break down 300 lobsters a week at one of her earlier jobs. Ann Marie's slightly overwhelmed not having as much experience working with lobster, but knows the job comes with plenty of pressure.
Joe points out how Ann Marie's a nervous wreck, and he and Egypt are rooting for Anthony. Anthony plans to make a lobster dish he did when he worked at Senior living, wanting to prove how Senior living chefs don't just open frozen packages and call it a day. Brandon's completely focused and not worried about going home. During the last few minutes, Amanda notices the center of her lobster is raw and puts it in the sautee pan to cook. During the last minute, Ann Marie is struggling with the claw and removing the cartilage piece. The other chefs are nervous watching Ann Marie being so late to plate everything. Amanda and Ann Marie manage to plate at the last second and deliver it to pass. The dorm chefs see how awful Ann Marie's presentation looks before the feed cuts, leaving them to wait until four of the five chefs come back.
Elimination[]
Ramsay begins the judging with Lulu's dish. Lulu presents her lobster ravioli, which she's never made before, with some cream based sauce. Ramsay found the pasta was cooked beautifully, but criticized it for having more lobster outside the ravioli than inside it. Brandon presents his lobster with New England clam chowder and buttermilk broth. Ramsay found the chowder fitting with the East coast setting and the lobster was cooked well. Believing the dish to be better than Lulu's Ramsay sends Brandon back to the dorms as the first chef safe in the challenge. Brandon is warmly welcomed back by the others and is excited to make the top 10.
Next up is Anthony's dish. He presents his lobster poached and brought up in a parsley and cilantro butter with couscous on the bottom. Ramsay criticizes the dish for not having the couscous cooked in stock and finds a feather blade bone in the dish. Because of the critical mistakes, Ramsay keeps Anthony in place and sends Lulu back to the dorms. Brandon and the women welcome Lulu back to the dorms, and she's determined to prove herself to the others. Amanda presents her corn and lobster succotash. Ramsay heavily criticizes the presentation, which Amanda considers rustic, but does find the depth of flavors present. It's a tough decision, but Ramsay ultimately chooses Amanda's dish over Anthony's. Before sending her back to the dorms, Ramsay tells her to present her lobster with some glamor next time. Amanda cries as she heads back as barely surviving makes all the emotions hit her at once.
Lastly, Ramsay judges Ann Marie's dish. Ann Marie presents her poached lobster over a roasted heirloom tomato cream sauce, a grilled corn polenta, and teragon oil. Ramsay praises the cooking of the lobster and tomato sauce, but heavily criticizes the presentation and noticed how she scrambled to assemble her plate at the last second that he's concerned about. Ramsay understands the pressure Anthony and Ann Marie are in given the nature of the challenge, but has seen both of them cook better, so he's at a loss of who to choose. He ultimately picks Ann Marie's as the better dish, and she shakes Anthony's hand before heading back to the dorms, relieved over the results.
Ramsay then summons Anthony up. He tells him the lobster dish wasn't one of his best works. He's admired his attitude and tenaciousness, but knows Anthony isn't ready to be his head chef. Anthony thanks him for giving him the chance to work with him and receiving his mentorship. Ramsay refuses to take his jacket and wishes him the best on his culinary future. During his exit interview, Anthony expressed how that day proved he still had a lot more work to do, but knew that his family was proud of him and that he's only gonna get better going forward.
Ramsay's comment: "Anthony had a heart of gold, but I need a head chef with a golden touch, and he just doesn't have it yet."
Trivia[]
- Title Reference: The title refers to the Secret Ingredient Challenge.