The fourteenth episode of Season 5 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on May 7, 2009. On that episode, Danny and Paula worked on their restaurants, competed in their final challenge, and reunited with their former teammates.
Intro[]
The episode began with a recap of the previous thirteen episodes, mentioning what happened, and who got eliminated when. During that recap, Lacey, Giovanni, and Andrea received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence for the first time since their respective eliminations.
The episode continued where the previous one ended, with Ramsay revealing that Danny and Paula's biggest test would begin at the moment, as two giant screens dropped next to Ramsay. He explained that the two finalists would be creating their own restaurants inside Hell’s Kitchen, with Paula cooking out of the red kitchen, and Danny cooking out of the blue. Before dismissing the finalists, Ramsay urged them to think about what their visions were for their restaurants.
Danny and Paula made it back to the dorms to find champagne and notepads waiting for them. They toasted their victory and decided to take Hell’s Kitchen off their minds for that night and drink. By 1:43 am, both were drunk as Danny admitted that he was surprised that he made it this far despite being the youngest chef of that season.
New restaurant design[]
The next morning, Danny and Paula woke up feeling terrible, but decided to get to work. While Paula already had her ideas down despite last night, Danny did not have anything down, and felt like an idiot. They went downstairs and met Hell’s Kitchen architect Jon Janavs to discuss their restaurant ideas. Danny's idea of having a wooden fish in his restaurant was rejected as Janavs did not want it looking like Bob’s Bait Shop. Danny also thought about using either “Velvet Hammer”, his old college nickname, or “Susan Marie”, his late mother’s name, as his restaurant name. Meanwhile, Paula wanted to have real candles in her restaurant and decided to use “Sunergy” as her restaurant name.
As construction began, Danny and Paula met Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria, respectively, to discuss their menu items. Paula wanted her menu to be simple so she could focus on her staff, while Danny had a little more ambitious menu.
Atlantic City trip[]
After discussing their menu items with their Sous Chefs, Ramsay came by to greet the finalists. Then, he told them that the next 24 hours were going to be important, and that he was taking them on a trip to Atlantic City. However, Ramsay noted that he could not leave their restaurant constructions unsupervised, so he invited some special advisers to help out. Those advisers turned out to be Paula's mother and sister, and Danny's father and girlfriend. Happy by that, both of them greeted their love ones and gave them an update on what was happening with their restaurants. After five minutes of updating them, they headed back to the dorms to pack for their trip, while their loved ones got to work. The finalists and Ramsay made their way to the private jet, and flew to Atlantic City. During the ride, Ramsay recalled Danny's grilled banana signature dish, Paula’s TV reward, and the fact that both of them had been up against each other for a long time during the competition.
Back in Hell’s Kitchen, Janavs told Paula's loved ones that there was some concern for using real candles due to it being a fire hazard, which meant they had to use fake battery candles instead. Meanwhile, Danny's girlfriend gave her own input in what his restaurant should have, which conflicted with Janavs’ original design idea.
Later that night, Danny and Paula arrived back at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, and entered their master suite. After settling in, Ramsay provided them with laptops and web cams to communicate with their loved ones on how their progress was going. Danny's loved ones told him that they had to make some compromises with their designs, which Danny was okay with, but Paula was disappointed when she heard that her restaurant had some of her original ideas removed.
Final challenge[]
The next morning, Danny and Paula met Michael Facenda again, who informed them about a meeting that they need to attend. When they came down with Facenda, they saw all 500 staff members of the resort and Ramsay down in the casino area. Ramsay introduced them to Larry Mullin, the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Borgata, and showed him their menus. Mullin found that their menu items sounded great, and Ramsay revealed that for their Final Menu Challenge, they would have to cook three of their menu items in 45 minutes. Before sending them off, Ramsay had Sous Chefs Scott and Gloria give them their new head chef jackets.
After changing into their new jackets, Danny and Paula began cooking on their sample dishes. After the time limit, they had their dishes cooked and plated. Then, Ramsay revealed that he invited some of the Borgata’s Executive Chefs to taste their dishes. The first one up was Michael Shulson of Izakaya. Paula's wild mushroom salad with arugula and Sherry mustard vinaigrette tasted nice despite being over dressed, and while Danny's Caribbean jerked lobster tail with chili lime tomatillo salsa was praised for its creativity, Shulson could not taste any lobster in the dish. So, he chose Paula's dish, giving her the lead 1-0. After, Ramsay introduced the next judge, Geoffrey Zakarian of The Water Club. Paula's Chilean cilantro broth with mussels, clams, and shrimp was praised for its cook, but Danny's baby arugula salad with crispy skin duck breast and ginger vinaigrette gave him the point, tying the score at 1. For the final round, Ramsay welcomed back Larry Mullin. Paula's roasted black sea bass with parsnip purée and kale was deemed good, but Danny's pan-seared filet of beef with twice baked potato and tempura fried spring onion was also praised. After a tough decision, Mullin chose Danny's dish as the winner, and Danny won the challenge 2-1.
Scoring[]
| Paula | Danny | ||||
| Round | Score | Total | Round | Score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One | 1 | 1 | One | 0 | 0 |
| Two | 0 | 1 | Two | 1 | 1 |
| Three | 0 | 1 | Three | 1 | 2 |
| Results | 2-1 | ||||
Team select[]
After the challenge, Danny and Paula made it back to Hell’s Kitchen and saw how the progress of their restaurants was going. Both of them were happy with their progress, though Danny was nervous on what the final product would look like the next day. After saying goodbye to their loved ones, the two finalists rested up ahead for the following day.
The next day, Danny and Paula got dressed and went downstairs to meet Ramsay, who revealed there was one more challenge for them to face. In front of them were six domes, which Ramsay said were their key ingredients for their final service. After Ramsay and both Sous Chefs lifted them up, it was revealed that those domes were containing the heads of Lacey, LA, Carol, Giovanni, Ben, and Andrea, much to the finalists' shock, but they were relieved that their former teammates were still alive.
Then, Ramsay brought back everyone to the kitchen. He recalled the time Andrea burned tuna during the eleventh dinner service, LA looking asleep during the eighth service, Ben being targeted by Ramsay for his poor performance on meat during the seventh service, Lacey being eliminated in the middle of the eighth service, Carol losing an order of chicken during the ninth dinner service, and Giovanni's infamous “dickface” argument in the tenth service. Because Danny won the last challenge, he was rewarded with the first pick for his team. Danny picked Ben since the two of them worked well together despite their differences, while Paula picked Andrea since they had gotten close during the competition. After that, Danny picked Giovanni, while Paula chose LA as her second choice, shocking Carol as she thought she would be the second choice. With Lacey and Carol left, Danny immediately chose Carol as his final pick, leaving Lacey as Paula's final pick. When the teams were selected, Ramsay dismissed everybody back to the dorms, and the episode ended in a cliffhanger.
Trivia[]
- Because of Robert's medical withdrawal, this marks the first time a black jacket chef failed to return for the final dinner service.
- This marks the introduction of the Final Tasting Challenge, which will later replace the Final Signature Dish Challenge come Season 7. As a result, this marks the only time the Final Signature Dish Challenge was not used during the show's first six seasons.