The third episode of Season 5 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX on February 19, 2009. In that episode, Ramsay tested the chefs' knowledge on beef cuts, a Steakhouse double-booked service occurred, and one team committed multiple embarrassing mistakes.
Intro[]
Back at the dorms, Andrea was distraught that Ji left as she was a better chef than any of them so far despite being injured. Andrea called Ji a warrior and did everything she could that night, calling the latter's departure rough. Then, Andrea told Lacey that she was only lucky to be around still and that she better prove herself. Still, Lacey argued back and said Andrea had just turned on her bitch switch. However, Andrea retorted that Lacey was hitting it every time. Andrea felt that Lacey only shined when she wanted to and failed every overtime. She went as far as asking why Lacey did not twist her ankle instead of Ji. Coi reminded Lacey that they lost one of their strongest chefs that night, and Andrea and LA asked the latter if she deserved to stay. However, a fed-up Lacey told her teammates to shut up.
Team challenge[]
The following morning, the Sous Chefs woke up the contestants at 6 AM with cowbells and told them to get dressed and out the front door to the SUVs. The barely awoke chefs were driven to an unknown place, and Charlie could only think about the cowbells ringing in his head. Sous Chef Scott asked if anyone had a heart condition or a fear of heights, but no one stated they did. After that, Sous Chef Scott tossed over two duffel bags, told them to put on the jackets provided and bring their barf bags. Lacey asked what she would see if they offered barf bags on the trip. Once inside, it became clear they were at a meat processing plant. They saw different organs, blood, and cattle bodies all around the plant as they walked around. Lacey and Robert got disgusted while Seth called it crazy. In a fridge, Sous Chef Scott showed the chefs where each cut of beef was located on the cow's body. Lacey got cold and did not understand why Sous Chef Scott was giving them the lecture. On the other hand, Colleen took it seriously as she was from Omaha, Nebraska, the beef capital of America. Once Scott was finished, the Sous Chefs brought the chefs back to Hell’s Kitchen.
When the chefs returned, they found Ramsay in the dining room, along with two fake cows, which he named Jellybean for the women and Bessie for the men. After seeing the cows, Danny realized that there was a reason they went to the plant and hoped they paid attention to Sous Chef Scott's lecture. To see if they understood their meat, Ramsay announced that this would be their next challenge. Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria revealed different cuts of beef on their tables, and Ramsay explained that the Meat & Cow Challenge would be in two parts. The first part had one chef from each team try to identify the eight cuts of meat on the table correctly. Ben claimed that he was strong at meat as he knew what a cow was. When all those cuts were correctly guessed, they would move on to the second part, which would be to identify where on their cows the cut from was correctly. When they thought they had it, they would ring the cowbell, and Ramsay would let them know what they got right and wrong. The team that would finish first would be the winners, and Ramsay warned both teams that they did not want to lose this challenge. Carol knew the woman must win the challenge as she wanted to end their losing streak.
For the first part, the men selected Ben to go up first, which surprised Ramsay since Giovanni was working at a steakhouse. Still, Giovanni argued that he had no say as Ben butted in before he had a chance to speak. The women selected Andrea. As the challenge began, Ben and Andrea labelled the cuts on the table. Ben finished with only one cut wrong, and Giovanni went up to correct the former's mistake. On the other side, Andrea was comfortable labelling her meat cuts and thought she had it. However, Andrea finished with two cuts wrong, and Paula went up after. Giovanni managed to get all the men’s cuts correct, and they moved onto the next round with J grabbing the labels and began placing them on the cow. However, J felt that had Giovanni gone up first, they would have had all eight correct on the first try. Paula managed to get all of the women’s cuts correct, and they moved on to the next round as well, with Colleen starting on the cow labelling. J finished with three incorrect placements, and Seth went in to correct them. As Colleen placed the cut locations on the cow, she called it difficult due to everyone screaming at her. She finished with three wrong answers as well, and Lacey went in to try and correct them. Despite Seth claiming he knew his beef, he finished with seven wrong answers. That aggravated J, while Lacey wanted to show the women she deserved to stay. However, Andrea saw Lacey move things around just for the sake of it, which was no different than her performance in the kitchen. Robert finished with six wrong answers, while Lacey also finished with six. Ben and Paula both went to fix their respective teams' mistakes. Ben managed to get his cow placements correct first, and the men won their second challenge in a row. Charlie said that the men were a force to be reckoned with after their service victory. At the same time, Ramsay deemed the women's performance pathetic. Coi got embarrassed as she hated losing.
Reward[]
The men were rewarded with a trip on a private jet to Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez, where they had a wine tasting and a steak dinner with Ramsay. As the men went up to change, Ben said they rolled in private jets and helicopters. While changing into formal wear, Seth could not wait to spend more time with Ramsay and said they would go pimping. Before leaving, Robert showed the women his wedding shoes and revealed that he gave up his wedding, which was supposed to happen the following day, to be in Hell’s Kitchen. The women joked with Robert about doing a bachelor party for him while telling him he looked nice. Lacey called Robert a sweet person and said she respected him for not giving up a huge opportunity.
The men flew on their private jet during the reward, as Ben called it crisp. Giovanni felt like a king on the private jet as Ben wondered how the women handled their punishment. Ramsay introduced them to the president of Sunstone Winery Bion Rice at the winery, who gave them a tour of the place. During the tour, Seth called it a VIP experience. As the men enjoyed their steak dinner, Ramsay told them to understand the level of simplicity of the dish as it was all about flavor. Charlie called it a beautiful day, and Robert said it was the best day of his life. Robert said he felt like he was on top of the world.
Punishment[]
The women were punished by taking in two large sides of beef and prepping them for the following service. As the women went to the dorms to await their punishment, Andrea called her team a mess as they got slaughtered for the third time. During the punishment, the women were shocked by the size of the beef, and Andrea compared it to a scene from The Godfather. LA said the side had everything but the head, and the sides proved to be very heavy for them. Lacey was exhausted after carrying just one and felt the bones digging into her shoulder. Lacey said the punishment sucked.
While cutting the beef apart, Lacey said she had never seen that amount of meat in her life, and LA said she got blood on her jacket and fat in her hair. Andrea stated she did not want to do any more punishments after that one as the women continued to butcher the beef. At lunch, the Sous Chefs revealed that they would be eating cow offal and gave them barf bags. Paula got pissed by their meal, and Lacey refused to eat her portions until Coi forced her. LA said she feared puking, but she, along with Lacey and Andrea, vomited as the meal proved to be too much. Colleen saw Andrea go through the worst of them all, but the latter tearfully proclaimed that it would not break her. Seeing that made Coi more determined to eat the offal while Andrea told the women that they must work together more to win challenges. Andrea said she had never been this humiliated in her life before puking again, while the rest of the women ate the rest for her.
Later that evening, the women continued to portion the beef sides as the men returned from their reward. The men laughed at the women's punishment as Seth, Danny, and Ben mocked their situation. Lacey told them to go away.
Before service[]
The following morning, the chefs came downstairs to meet Ramsay. He revealed that because they now knew their beef cuts well, Hell’s Kitchen was opening that night for a Steakhouse special. That excited everyone and sparked confidence in Giovanni since he was working in a steakhouse. Ramsay revealed they would be doing a double seating, which meant one team would cook for one seating while the other team served the orders and then switch it up for the next seating.
The men dove right into their prep work while Andrea gave her team a pep talk so they would be fired up. It worked as Colleen refused to drop the ball, and LA said they would not stop after their punishment the previous day. Both teams completed prep, and as the winners of the last challenge, the men chose to cook for the first seating. Giovanni said it would be embarrassing if they lost and wanted to dedicate the men's service to Robert and his fiancé as that night would have been his wedding day. Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen for steak night.
Dinner service[]
First seating[]
The men had two hours to serve as many people as they could. The women began their jobs as waitresses, but Colleen forgot her cart of menu items and had to grab it. The women proved to be slow when writing their tickets, much to the annoyance of both Ramsay and Jean-Philippe. Still, Lacey argued that Jean-Philippe's pestering would not help her write faster. Paula managed to send the first ticket over in the first twenty minutes, which caused Giovanni to believe they did it on purpose. While working on their first ticket, Charlie did not have his shrimp on for the Caesar salad, and Ramsay also noticed that his cloth caught fire. However, Charlie was oblivious to it, and J told the former to wake up. Ramsay eventually told Sous Chef Scott to put the cloth in the sink before Charlie burned down the restaurant. Charlie argued he was doing his best, but Sous Chef Scott told him to rethink his best efforts.
Thirty minutes into dinner service, Ben sent the desserts to the pass. Ramsay saw it and told the men that Ben was trying to bypass the appetizers and go straight into desserts and demanded to know what was going on. Seth was confused by Ben's decision and said it was embarrassing. Ramsay berated Ben for wasting six desserts already, and the latter blamed himself for misunderstanding Ramsay when he said desserts pick up. Ramsay accused Ben of drinking something before service and sent the latter out to lie down, but he quickly returned to the kitchen in seconds. Charlie’s appetizers finally left the kitchen, but Lacey came back with one of her tables' salad for having anchovies in it. However, Ramsay reminded Lacey that she wrote it on her ticket and called her Britney Spears and a jumped-up bitch when she was almost about to cry. Lacey said this was why she did not wait tables. Giovanni was at the meat station and got the steaks out quickly, but the customers soon found out that they were still raw. Carol brought back a raw steak, and Ramsay showed it to Giovanni and Robert. That angered Danny as Giovanni was an Executive Chef at a steakhouse, and Ramsay thanked God for having never visited the latter's steakhouse. More of Giovanni's steaks were sent back for being raw, and Ramsay angrily told him what was happening. Ramsay called it a joke, and a dismayed Giovanni said it sucked to struggle on meat when he had experience.
With only thirty minutes of the men’s service left, Jean-Philippe told Lacey that she forgot to send one of her tables' tickets over. Lacey whined about never waiting tables before, but Jean-Philippe mocked her whining and sent her over to Ramsay. When Ramsay found out about it, he angrily shewed Lacey away. Giovanni revealed that they only had one filet left, and Ramsay ordered Seth to prep another one. Still, Seth had to ask Charlie for directions, much to J’s dismay as he could not believe the former never prepped a filet before. Ramsay deemed it pathetic and complained that nothing was coming out. Then, Ramsay asked Seth where the filet was but saw the latter put something in the fridge. To Ramsay's horror, it was all the wasted meat off of the filet tenderloin, which was terribly butchered. A furious Ramsay showed the now horrified men the filet tenderloin and threw it at Seth. Giovanni accused Seth of molesting it and said people have gone to prison for lesser crimes. When Seth admitted that he had never butchered a filet before, Ramsay sarcastically congratulated him and yelled at him when he took it the wrong way. Still, Seth did not believe he did poorly on the butchering.
With only two minutes left, the men tried to push out more entrées. Charlie was trying to cook his tuna faster, but Giovanni said he was four minutes away on his New York Striploin. Ramsay had enough and decided to close service as time was up. Then, Ramsay berated Giovanni for his poor performance on the meat station, Charlie for his poor performance on the fish station, and Ben for sending out desserts before appetizers. Robert was distraught since he felt he embarrassed himself, his fiancé, and his family that night.
Second seating[]
It was now the women’s turn to cook for two hours and serve as many people as possible. As the men were taking orders, Andrea called them out to hurry up but stopped when she remembered there were customers. Charlie came up with the first ticket, and the women got to work on it. Back at the dining room, Charlie asked Ben to check on one of his tables to see if he got their orders taken. Fortunately, Charlie did as Ben found out soon enough. Still, Ben was not confident about Charlie's performance. In the red kitchen, Colleen forgot two orders of Caesar salad, which caused Ramsay to accuse her of doing it on purpose. However, Colleen argued she misheard the order and called Ramsay an arrogant attack dog. Ramsay called Colleen pathetic, and with no food out yet, the men tried to keep the customers entertained. Giovanni tried to speak French at one table but stopped when he saw Jean-Philippe glare at him. The next order was four Caesar salads, three shrimps and one plain, and Ramsay pulled Colleen aside to find out if she understood it. While Colleen could correctly recite the order three times, she stumbled on the fourth time. That caused Ramsay to accuse Colleen of not being normal, and an annoyed Lacey said that if the women lost, Colleen deserved to go home.
Forty-five minutes into service, the women were able to get appetizers out despite Colleen's mistakes. However, J came to the pass with a raw shrimp salad, and Ramsay chewed out Coi for it. LA got annoyed as it was a simple menu, and it should not be hard to mess up a shrimp Caesar salad. Back at the dining room, Charlie accidentally caused a mess at one of his tables by accidentally dropping bacon bits on the table. That caused Jean-Philippe to pull Charlie aside and chew him out for his embarrassing performance. Then, Charlie cleaned up the bacon bits on the table while apologizing to the customers as he felt like a jerk.
With only thirty minutes left, Andrea began working on her steaks. The women were able to pick up the pace, and their entrées were coming out. Andrea was glad to be on meat that night as she was rocking out steak for that night. However, Ben and Seth came back with steak orders as they claimed they were undercooked, but Ramsay saw that they were the exact temperature as ordered. That caused LA to accuse the men of sabotaging them. Seth admitted that they were, but only because he believed the women sabotaged them in the first seating. With only five minutes left, Ramsay ordered the women to step up more. Andrea was able to send more steak entrées to the dining room, but Carol mistook an order of New York Striploin for ribeye. Ramsay decided to end the service with no New York Striploin ready and ordered the women to shut down the kitchen.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay came to them holding the comment cards. They would be part of Ramsay's decision to pick a winning team, along with their performances in the kitchen and the dining room. Charlie and Lacey were considered the worst waiters on their respective teams, according to the cards. Afterwards, Ramsay named the women the winners for serving the most entrées. However, LA admitted that she hoped they would lose to get rid of some dead weight, hinting at Colleen of being that person. The men were instructed to come up with two people for elimination.
As the women celebrated their victory, the men discussed nominees. Charlie thought they should have had it in the bag during deliberation, and Giovanni thought they should have done better. Ben and Giovanni revealed that they would put up Charlie and Seth. Still, Charlie argued that Giovanni should go up based on his poor performance at the meat station despite working at a steakhouse. Seth agreed with Charlie, but only because he felt Giovanni was stronger than him. Danny and Robert agreed with Seth. Giovanni argued against it and chewed Seth out for targeting him like that. Still, Danny said he would not mind seeing Giovanni eliminated as he deemed the latter a hothead. J knew Seth deserved to go home but struggled with who would go up with him.
Elimination[]
J announced that Seth was the men's first nominee and Charlie was their second. Seth tried to argue against it, but J sternly reminded him that Ramsay had asked him for the nominations. Ramsay called down Seth and Charlie to the front. During their pleas, Charlie said he could cook his butt off and had more experience than Seth. Although he did not have the expertise in Ramsay's brigade, Charlie wanted to continue to learn from the latter. Then, Seth admitted he did not have much experience but said he wanted to learn more. That led to Seth making a long speech that annoyed everyone in the room, causing Ramsay to ask him where was the off button. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Charlie for struggling in both the kitchen and dining room that night and for his failure to improve in three services. During his exit interview, Charlie disagreed with Ramsay's decision and was confident in his own abilities if the latter was not.
After Charlie left, Ramsay said that Steak Night should have been easy for both teams, but they could not pull it off because they failed to work as a team. Ramsay told both teams to wake up and dismissed them for the night. However, Ramsay warned Seth that he was close to leaving Hell’s Kitchen that night. Giovanni thought Seth should have left instead of Charlie and had no respect for the latter for cheating. Then, Seth was happy to stay as he had a lot of fight inside himself. Lastly, Lacey was delighted the women won as she could survive another day in hell.
Ramsay's comment: "Charlie is a prep chef, but I'm looking for a head chef. He seemed like a nice guy, but you know where nice guys finish."
Trivia[]
- This marks the second time Ramsay did a Double Seating Dinner Service since Episode 105 - Day 5.
- This is the first time a Steak Night themed dinner service was held.