The third episode of Season 3 of Hell's Kitchen aired on Fox on June 18, 2007. In that episode, a breakfast service challenge has one team on top, one chef's poor health finally caught up to them and was forced to leave, and a disastrous service has Ramsay question one chef if they cared about the diners.
Intro[]
Back at the dorms, Josh was not happy with Rock nominating him and felt the latter was trying to get rid of him, especially with Aaron's declining health. Rock talked to Josh and reminded him that they were not leaders yet, but the former brushed it aside as being the latter's opinion. That comment annoyed Rock as doing something Josh could not do would make the latter look like an idiot. The women were happy about their victory, and Julia hoped they would keep winning since as the underdog as she wanted to learn more and eventually win the competition.
Team Challenge[]
At 5:58 AM the following day, a group of navy officers and army soldiers woke the teams up and ordered them to get dressed. Aaron was cramping again, and Bonnie was not happy as she was in the shower when it was going on, needing to quickly get dressed and meet with her team. Vinnie claimed that he used to play the bugle back in school, while Rock and Brad helped Aaron get dressed as they refused to leave a man behind. With both teams down in the kitchen, Ramsay remarked that he was still disappointed in the teams since none had exhibited consistency and teamwork yet. To fix that, Ramsay opened Hell's Kitchen for breakfast for the first time. For the Army and Navy Service Challenge, both teams would serve both those units with different breakfast items. The men cooked for the navy, while the women cooked for the army. That touched Julia as she felt it was an honor to cook for the military, while Joanna deemed a man in uniform sexy. The team that would finish their tables first would win.
As service began, Sous Chef Mary-Ann urged Julia to step up as a leader since the latter cooked breakfast food for a living. Julia took the role seriously and delegated her teammates to different stations and food items. The men place themselves at the stations they wanted to be at, and Aaron had the confidence to cook breakfast. However, Aaron's omelet pan caught fire and threw two burnt orders in the trash. In the red kitchen, the women got food out quickly, with 20 tables already served in 17 minutes. That made Bonnie felt they were finally bonding as a team after their arguments in the past. The navy had not received their food yet, and Aaron's poor performance on omelets was slowing momentum, causing Brad to name Aaron the blue team's weakest link. Josh and Brad took over Aaron's station, and the blue team finally sent food out to the dining room. In the red kitchen, the women continued to send food out fast, but one of Joanna's orders of hash browns was sent back for being raw. Joanna's problem caused a domino effect as their momentum halted, much to Bonnie's dismay. Then, Joanna served a raw and salty hash brown, and Ramsay told her he had it with her attitude and inconsistency. Despite that, Julia managed to get the women refocused. In the blue kitchen, Brad's omelets turned out cold, and Ramsay asked him if he was consistently incompetent. Then, Aaron went silent and accidentally dropped a pan of bacon, further putting the men behind. In the red kitchen, the women completed their final orders and were named the winners. Ramsay praised Julia for her performance and told her to go over to the blue kitchen and help the men get sorted out, though Brad knew that they lost because of that. Julia managed to get the men organized as Ramsay deemed it music to his ears, and she felt she proved to everyone she belonged in Hell's Kitchen. With Julia's help, the men managed to serve all their tables, although Josh was upset that they should have nailed breakfast items, and they got killed. After service was over, Ramsay thanked the army and marines for coming down, while Vinnie felt disheartened that they could not serve the people who served their country.
Gathering both teams for a post-mortem, Ramsay congratulated the women for being organized, especially Julia for her outstanding performance. As for the men, Ramsay was disappointed that none of them showed any leadership qualities, which led to a chaotic mess. Ramsay asked who would step up as the leader, but none of the men spoke up.
Reward[]
The women were rewarded with a helicopter ride and had lunch with Ramsay on the USS Midway. As the women went back to the dorms, Jen was happy that they won again, while Bonnie was happy to dress up for Ramsay. During their reward, Bonnie called it one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences as the women cracked fun of the men's punishment. Julia called it one of the best rewards yet, and as the women went on a tour of the Midway, they saw a mannequin that Ramsay compared to Josh. During lunch, Melissa felt the main reward was spending time with Ramsay as the latter gave the women some advice.
Punishment[]
The men were forced to do KP duty, which included prepping a thousand pounds of potatoes and onions. During the punishment, Vinnie wanted to ask where the hand truck was after seeing the produce bags, while Josh felt like dog crap. Sous Chef Scott pushed them to move like men, and when the women came by, Rock told Melissa to shut up after she made a mocking comment. Then, Rock hoped for the day when the men walked by the women during their punishment. Before the men began peeling their product, Aaron collapsed due to the stress of moving the bags into the kitchen, much to his team's concern. They called the medic over, and Josh was scared for Aaron as the latter was sent to the hospital in an ambulance.
Later, the four remaining men peeled onions and potatoes, with Josh trying to make a system. However, Rock accused Josh of not knowing how to be a proper leader and wanted him to shut up.
Before service[]
The women returned from their reward and relaxed in the hot tub as the men finished their punishment. The men decided to discuss who should be the team leader, though every one of them nominated themselves. After a lengthy discussion, Brad was named the leader, though Rock knew that Josh changed his vote out of spite for nominating him, something the latter confirmed. Regardless, Rock knew he had to out-think them to win.
The following day, the men headed down to the kitchen with renewed energy as they had a leader now. Brad wanted to lead the men to victory, but Rock wanted to see how the former would handle that position for that night. In the red kitchen, the women began prep as well, though the team's confidence in Julia began to falter when she admitted to Mary-Ann that she did not know how to make crème brulée. Bonnie felt that Julia would fall short as there was no room for error.
Aaron’s Exit[]
Meanwhile, Ramsay called a hospitalized Aaron and told him that he spoke with the doctors, and because of his health problems, he could not return to Hell's Kitchen. However, Ramsay praised Aaron's efforts to try and come back and wished him well. Immediately after hanging up, Aaron expressed disappointment in being forced to leave like that.
Ramsay did not comment on Aaron's departure, but the latter received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence.
Once both teams were lined up, Ramsay informed both teams of the bad news, but the men still expressed the hope that they could do it despite being a man down. When Ramsay asked the men who was leading them, Josh announced that Brad would. Ramsay informed the men that as the second part of their punishment, they would have to take water deliveries during service. With both teams ready, Ramsay had Jean-Philippe open Hell's Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
The first order for the blue kitchen came in, but Ramsay criticized Rock for cooking risotto the same way as an omelet and chewed him out for his unintentional winking due to the sweat in his eyes. Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to get Rock some tissues, but the latter said he did not need any. In the red kitchen, Joanna cooked her risottos, knowing it was her time to shine and to lead. However, Joanna's risotto was too salty, forcing the women to restart. In the blue kitchen, Rock managed to redeem his mistakes with a good risotto and wanted to prove to Ramsay he was a leader. Jean-Philippe told Ramsay that they were running low on water, and the latter sent Josh out to help. However, Josh was still exhausted from the previous punishment and nearly tripped on the staircase.
Forty-five minutes into service, Josh was still on the water delivery. At the same time, Joanna and Bonnie sent out their refired order. However, Ramsay found out that Bonnie's scallops were raw and was even angrier at her dumb question about it. With Josh returning, the men managed to send more food out, with Ramsay praising how much their dynamic has changed. In the red kitchen, the women were on their third attempt at the first ticket, but Ramsay smelled something foul. He found out that the crab Joanna used had gone rancid, shocking Bonnie over the fact that Joanna did not even realize it earlier. Even though none of the crab was served to a customer, Ramsay berated Joanna for using it as it would have killed someone. After, Ramsay kicked Joanna off appetizers and sent Julia to replace her, telling Jean-Philippe to recommend the diner to a different restaurant.
One hour into dinner service, none of the women's orders have gone out, while the blue team has sent out nearly half of their tables. However, Vinnie started getting slow on scallops to Ramsay's impatience, and then, he noticed a raw egg on the dish, smashing it on Vinnie's chest. That caused Ramsay to declare he was not trusting Vinnie anymore, though Vinnie restrained himself from lashing out.
One hour and forty-one minutes into dinner service, the blue diners were getting restless over the long wait, while the women finally got food out thanks to Julia and Jen. When Jen tossed out cooked spaghetti not needed, Ramsay asks for some on the next ticket. In a panic, Jen grabbed some tossed pasta from the trash, but Julia convinced her not to serve it as that was not acceptable. In the blue kitchen, Brad and Josh worked on their entrées, but when Josh said he was not ready with his turbot, Ramsay accused him of sabotaging Brad. Josh argued against that, but Ramsay said he deserved a kick in the nuts before ordering the men to start over.
Two hours into dinner service, the women had finally served all their appetizers and began working on entrées. In the blue kitchen, the men were still working on their first ticket of entrées, and Ramsay caught Brad doing something. It was revealed that Brad was trying to scrape the burnt parts of the Wellingtons off, and that annoyed Ramsay as he threatened to ram the meat up Brad's ass if he would try to serve them. Ramsay angrily yelled if the men could get their entrées together before kicking a bin. In the red kitchen, Jen saw that all of her Wellingtons were overcooked due to the slow start on appetizers, frustrating Ramsay as they still had 17 on order. As impatient customers were leaving, Ramsay reached his breaking point, ripped the tickets up, and shut down the restaurant.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay admitted that he was shattered both mentally and physically drained by the constant mistakes. He turned to the men and reminded them that they had not completed one service yet, and criticized Brad's performance and poor leadership skills that service. However, Ramsay praised Rock's performance as his best one yet, urging him not to stop. For the women, Ramsay informed them that 95% of their customers were not served an entrée and told Joanna not to give him an attitude when something went wrong. Then, Ramsay said he would no longer trust Bonnie alone on fish. There was no winner in that service, but the women were deemed the worst of the two as they made embarrassing mistakes. Ramsay told them to come to a group consensus for two nominees.
As the men celebrated their victory with beers, the women gathered for discussion. Joanna believed she was up for elimination, something Melissa and Bonnie agreed. Julia was disappointed with Jen trying to recycle trashed pasta, but Jen tried to deflect her mistake as other people made mistakes that night. However, Joanna and Melissa reminded Jen that the incident proved she had no standards. Then, Bonnie and Melissa brought up Julia's name since her inexperience with the fine-dining food made them believe she could not win. However, Julia called Melissa out for that, and Joanna defended the former as she believed Julia could run a Michelin star restaurant. After much discussion, the women agreed with Joanna and Julia as their nominees, but Jen still felt guilty over her actions.
Elimination[]
Joanna announced herself as the women's first nominee and Julia as the second. After that announcement, Jen interjected and said she was the second nominee by explaining the trashed pasta incident. Ramsay was disappointed that there were three nominees but asked all three of them to step forward. During their pleas, Julia did not feel she was out of her league, and Ramsay agreed with her, sending her back in line. Then, Jen said she wanted to take charge of situations, but Ramsay made a snide comment that she liked the take pasta out of the trash. Lastly, Joanna knew her performance was weak but argued that, unlike Jen, she would never serve Ramsay trash. However, Ramsay reminded Joanna that she was willing to cook spaghetti with rancid crab, feeling that both women should go home that night. Ultimately, Ramsay eliminated Joanna for her poor performances and the fact that she refused to admit her mistakes. During her exit interview, Joanna refused to let her elimination stop her and felt she grew stronger being here before declaring that she would obtain her ultimate goal of opening her own restaurant.
After Joanna left, Ramsay hoped that everyone used that night as a lesson of being aware while warning Jen to stay away from bins. While being dismissed, Jen knew she made a poor decision but had to move on, while Julia felt that she would be a major threat if she stuck around. Then, Bonnie hoped the women would bounce back from that night, while Josh wanted to keep knocking the women out one by one.
Ramsay's comment: "Not only did Joanna serve rancid crab that could've seriously made a customer ill, she completely gave up, screwed her team, and if you can't handle one individual section, you got no chance of running a business."
Trivia[]
- This marks the first time Ramsay called up an additional nominee to join the initial nominees.