The fourth episode of Season 7 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX, June 15, 2010, airing as a double feature alongside the third episode. On that episode, one chef almost had a meltdown, dinner service was a vast improvement, and the first team switch occurred.
Intro[]
While going back to the dorms, Fran wished to not be nominated again, believed that Ramsay kept her for a reason, and added that she would be very happy if she could prove him right. In the dining room, Ramsay asked Salvatore to stay a few minutes to talk and said that he needed to bounce back after getting yelled at instead of disintegrating. Salvatore agreed, was dismissed, and said that he would give his best the following night, despite knowing that he would be yelled at. Before going upstairs, Ramsay asked him if he was wearing an Italian suit. Salvatore responded that it did not matter as a suit was a suit and that they were there to cook. Ramsay appreciated that answer, and Salvatore went to the dorms.
Very late in the night, everybody was asleep, except Scott and Salvatore, who were on the patio talking about the latter's experience and work ethic. Salvatore knew that he was the least experienced person at the moment but did not want to lose, so Scott agreed to help him be successful in making sure the men would win, acknowledging that they had a great work relationship together. Then, he explained to Salvatore that Ramsay wanted to see him strong. Salvatore realized that Scott was the only one at that moment that has been honest with him and respected him for that. Scott concluded by convincing Salvatore to follow what he was doing as he felt it would be beneficial for him.
Team challenge[]
The following day, the chefs went downstairs, where Ramsay told them that they had to be creative while thinking on-the-spot, before revealing a craps table. When she saw the table, Maria was worried as she was from Las Vegas, and told it was bad news. For the Craps Challenge, each chef would roll a die once and choose an ingredient starting with the letter it landed on. Before rolling the dice, Scott jokingly asked Ramsay if he could blow on it, but Ramsay categorically refused. The die landed on H, and Scott chose halibut, much to Jay's dismay as they cooked with it every night. Jason landed on E and chose endive, Ed landed on S and chose salsify, and Benjamin was very happy about that choice as he found it a great vegetable that would balance the dish. Then, Benjamin landed on C and chose crab, Jay landed on P and chose peas, and Salvatore landed on B. After Jay expressed his concern that Salvatore would choke, the latter chose bacon, which made his teammates proud as they found it was a good choice. For the women, Fran wished for lobster but landed on B and took a lot of time to think before choosing beets. Still, Siobhan said they could always make a salad out of beets. Nilka landed on S and chose shallots, but Maria was not happy about the combination they had. Autumn landed on M and chose mango after declaring her mind was completely blank. Ramsay asked Autumn why not monkfish or mahimahi, and she asked what was wrong with herself. Siobhan landed on H and chose ham, but Holli feared they were screwed by the random ingredients they had. Maria landed on T and chose turnips as that was the only thing she could think of. Finally, Holli landed on D and chose duck, much to her teammates' relief.
Both teams had 30 minutes to cook their dishes, and in the red kitchen, Autumn quickly led the team vocally, while in the blue kitchen, the men were very focused on their own jobs. With 20 minutes left, Nilka was about to slice the duck. Still, Autumn interfered with her job by telling her how to do it and wanting to do it herself. That annoyed Nilka, who considered Autumn a control freak and reminded her that they all had knife skills. In the blue kitchen, Salvatore was trying to help anybody, but only Scott accepted his help, saying that his job as a chef was to coach and motivate those with less experience. When Salvatore asked Scott if he seasoned his fish, the latter pushed him away by saying he should let him do his own job. With 2 minutes left, Autumn was ready to slice the duck. Ramsay suggested not to slice it too early. Maria agreed with that suggestion by saying it took a second to slice the duck. But, Autumn insisted that it was time to plate, and Maria was annoyed and just wanted to tell Autumn to shut up. Eventually, both teams completed and plated their respective dishes in time.
Scott described the men's dish during the judging: a pan-roasted halibut with bacon, pea and crab ragout, salsify purée, and a crab and endive salad. Ramsay deemed most of the dish beautifully cooked, except for the salsify. He said it was bitter as it was fried, leading him to suggest not to fry salsify. After, Nilka described the women's dish, a mango-glazed pan-seared duck with a turnip purée and ham, mango and beets. Holli added that they also used tarragon and duck fat, but Ramsay deemed the turnips boring despite tasting delicious. He complimented the use of the duck fat, but not the fact that there was more of it than meat on the plate. After much deliberation, Ramsay declared the men the winners by a fraction while adding that if the women's duck was cooked perfectly, they would have won. Nilka apologized to her teammates, and Autumn blamed the latter as she knew the duck had too much fat. Finally, Nilka stated that she hated losing and wanted to die.
Reward[]
The men were rewarded with an indoor skydiving activity. When he learned the reward, Jason was dismayed as he thought they would actually jump out of a plane and declared that he was not skydiving as he was not a bird. When the men went outside, Jason was the only one that was not excited by the reward.
Arriving at iFly, the men saw Ramsay in the wind tunnel, and Jason expressed relief that they would not jump out of an actual plane. When Ramsay came out of the tunnel, the men went inside, suited up, and began the activity. Benjamin was the first person who tried it and said that he enjoyed it and really needed to relax while doing it. After Jason tried it, his teammates laughed at the vibrations on his cheeks. Jason declared that it was amazing to the point that he wanted to buy a wind tunnel, put it in his backyard and charge his neighborhood.
Punishment[]
The women were punished by cleaning the restaurant's front entrance, which included the floor, the carpet, and the mirrors, as well as prepping both kitchens for the next service. When they began, Jean-Philippe explained what to do. Siobhan expected that he would like the entrance to be perfect, just like the paste in his hair. During the punishment, Autumn declared that she hated losing, and Maria thought that prep was more important than vacuuming. Nilka said that sweat was pouring out of her face. Later, Jean-Philippe did his quality control by putting on a white glove and touching the frames of the mirrors and portraits to see if dust was still on them. He told Nilka that there was still some dust on some of them and that she was sweating a lot, which she acknowledged by saying that she was working hard.
After that, the women began prepping their kitchen, but Maria started to be stressed out about the time as she acknowledged they had to prep the blue kitchen too and was eager to get prep done finally.
Before service[]
When the men came back from their reward, they entered the red kitchen while the women were still prepping. When they walked by, Maria apologized to them without saying why. Jay acknowledged it, talked about it with Scott, and the latter started to be worried as he thought the men would not be well-prepared for dinner service. In the red kitchen, Maria convinced her teammates not to hit the panic button. When Sous Chef Andi informed them that they were losing their techniques, not going towards the win, and only had an hour left to prep both kitchens, Maria started to cry. Fran convinced her not to cry as they would all do it, but Maria left the kitchen to go to the hallway stairs. She declared that she was stressed out as she was working as fast as she could, sat on the stairs, thought that Ramsay would be distraught and eat them alive, and after, Sous Chef Andi went to talk to her. On the patio, Maria told Sous Chef Andi that she was really worried as everything in the kitchen was a mess. Still, Sous Chef Andi motivated her by saying she should step up her game as she was only working with food. Maria was motivated and told that Sous Chef Andi was right as she wanted to shine.
When Ramsay asked both teams to line up, he told Maria to bring her lovely face, and she understood it as he thought she was pretty, which made her happy. When both teams were lined up, Ramsay revealed that they would be hosting chef's tables. Scott thought it would not be a curveball as working for Ramsay meant they were focusing on his expectations. After, Ramsay informed that the women would be serving Kevin Frasier and his wife, and the men would be serving Debi Mazar and her husband, Gabriele Corcos. While getting ready, Autumn motivated her teammates, and Ramsay asked Jean-Philippe to open Hell's Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
In addition to the chef's tables, Jay and Erica McGraw, Carrie Preston, and Ken Hamlin were in attendance. Ramsay called the first ticket in the blue kitchen. Scott was motivated to win and called back the order a couple of times, much to Jason's annoyance. Then, Scott interfered with Jason's job by giving him clear instructions, thinking that he was the worst cook of the team at the moment while bragging that he was a leader, a helper and a motivator. Jason was annoyed as he knew Scott was trying to make him look bad in front of Ramsay, and Salvatore asked him for a time on the pasta, but Scott answered four minutes for him. While Scott was telling Jason how to cook the pasta, Jay declared that he did not like how he was talking to people as he was very condescending, while adding that he would beat him in the neck and face if he would see him in a dark alley. While Jason clearly showed his annoyance about Scott giving him instructions, the latter was dismayed as he thought he was not listening. Still, when Jason sent his first capellini to the pass, it was accepted. Siobhan sent her first capellini to the pass in the red kitchen, but it contained lobster instead of crab. She was schooled by Ramsay, who told her not to cook like a zombie. Holli knew that lobster and crab were different and said that Siobhan must get it together. Ramsay told Siobhan that half of the table was not eating because of her mistake. Salvatore sent his snapper to the pass in the blue kitchen, but it was raw, and Ramsay ordered him to get it back in the pan while urging him to stop panicking. Salvatore remembered what Scott told him the previous night and just focused on his thing while not taking it personally. At the chef's table, Mazar and Corcos noticed that Salvatore's face was red, though he might have an aneurysm, and Ramsay called the men a bunch of Muppets. In the red kitchen, Siobhan's second attempt at the capellini also contained lobster. When Siobhan talked back about it, saying that it was written crab on the container, she acknowledged it was lobster when Ramsay showed it to her. Ramsay was dismayed that Siobhan did not spot it twice, she found the container with crab and started over while almost panicking. In the blue kitchen, Salvatore sent his second attempt at the snapper, but Ramsay called him down to take a look at it, only for the latter to say that it was perfectly cooked, which relieved Salvatore. Scott took all the credits for Salvatore's success by saying that he followed his advice from the previous night and thought the latter could be an asset to the team with the help of his leadership and technical abilities.
Both teams were sending out appetizers at a good pace, and in the red kitchen, Nilka was working on her first entrées. She was determined to have all her temperatures perfect as she knew there was a lot of pressure on the meat station. Autumn motivated Nilka, told the rest of her teammates to communicate, much to Ramsay's praise, who declared it finally sounded like a proper team. When Nilka sent her beef to the pass, it was praised for being perfectly cooked, which made her very proud of herself. In the blue kitchen, Salvatore's first salmon was cooked perfectly, and he was congratulated by Jason, who acknowledged that not only did Salvatore redeemed himself, he knocked the ball out of the park. Meanwhile, Ed's mashed potatoes were rejected for being too hard. Ramsay schooled him for not cooking them properly. Jay was dismayed as he said it was not difficult to cook mashed potatoes. Ed was disappointed in himself and apologized to Ramsay, but customers enjoyed their meals despite that. Autumn was ready with her salmon in the red kitchen, but when she grabbed it with tongs, she dropped it on the counter, and Ramsay was furious about the fact that she did not even seem to care. Ramsay went to the fish station and schooled Autumn for not using a spatula and disrespecting the food. Nilka was amused that the princess got yelled at. Autumn was frustrated as she did not use a spatula, and Ramsay ordered her to respect her food. In the dining room, customers started to lose their patience. Scott delivered his first beef to the pass in the blue kitchen, but they were rare instead of medium. Ramsay ordered the whole team to touch it, and all of them acknowledged it was rare. Still, Scott insisted that he felt it was medium before Ramsay told him that he was miles off and ordered him to get it back in the oven. Scott bragged once again that his temperatures were usually correct and that Ramsay probably had higher expectations towards him due to his position as an executive chef. Scott put his beef back in the oven while almost bumping into Salvatore, and Ramsay asked him what was going on. Jean-Philippe convinced a table to start eating in the dining room despite not all of them having received their entrées. In the red kitchen, Nilka sent perfectly cooked Wellingtons to the chef's table. While Nilka was very proud of herself as she did not work a lot with Wellingtons before, Fran was also proud as she kicked ass and had the situation under control.
Scott sent his Wellingtons to the pass in the blue kitchen, but they were raw, and a dismayed Ramsay ordered the whole team to touch them. He berated Scott, asked him what he was doing, and Jason said the latter should be the next eliminated as he messed the team up twice already and destroyed them. Jay was not impressed by Scott's attempt at leadership as he could not back it up with his cooking skills. Scott gave three minutes for his refire, and Salvatore impressed Ramsay again with perfectly cooked halibut. He went to the chef's table to serve it and declared that he was happy to communicate in Italian while calling it a nice relief. In the red kitchen, entrées were flying out quickly because of Nilka's strong performance and good communication. In the blue kitchen, Scott finally delivered perfectly cooked Wellingtons, which were well-received by the customers. Scott called it a definite wake-up call for him as he acknowledged he had to pay more attention to his own station. Both teams rallied to serve their remaining entrées while being very vocal, Fran and Benjamin started to serve their desserts, and service was completed in two hours and fifteen minutes. Nilka was very proud and felt that they kicked butts worldwide, and both chefs table left by congratulating their respective teams for their good job. Finally, in the blue kitchen, Jay called the service relatively well despite a bumpy start.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay congratulated them on how good they were and added that he was amazed. Then, Ramsay singled out Salvatore from the blue team by saying he could cook and that he should stop downgrading himself to a simple pizza chef, and Nilka from the red team, by saying that she did a good job and cooked all the meat to perfection despite not having a lot of experience in fine dining. Both of them were asked to nominate one of their respective teammates for elimination before being dismissed.
While going back to the dorms, Nilka said that she did not expect that request from Ramsay but that she would take that responsibility. On the patio, she immediately targeted Autumn for being yelled at a lot on fish, but the latter retorted that the only thing she messed up was not using a spatula for an order of salmon while considering the rest of her service correct. Maria was annoyed by her constant excuses for everything and added that she sucked. Holli recalled the lobster incident from Siobhan, but the latter recited exactly what happened and prayed that nothing wrong would happen to her while adding that she was feeling very nervous. Nilka was determined to decide by herself while not letting anybody make her go against her instinct. Still, Autumn was convinced that she would not be eliminated.
On the blue side, Jay acknowledged it was a tough decision. Ed admitted that Ramsay was upset with him as he made some stupid moves but did not think that tables were sitting and waiting on the pass because of him. In the dorms, Salvatore and Scott were alone and talking. Salvatore acknowledged that despite Scott being his friend and helping him a lot, his mistakes were big, and he was nervous. However, Scott did not believe he was the worst cook or the worst leader and added that he was ready to trust him because he was working well with Salvatore. Scott admitted that he was happy Salvatore had a good service. While Salvatore was happy too, he was also said that he had to nominate one of his teammates. Salvatore added that Scott was his only friend in the competition, convinced him that he was good, and added that it was a competition despite having somebody to help him and that it was not easy.
Team switch[]
Nilka announced Autumn as her nominee, and Salvatore announced Scott as his. Autumn and Scott were called down, and during her plea, Autumn was called the appendix of the women by Ramsay, as everybody was trying to get rid of her. But, she did not believe it was true as they needed her before Ramsay reminded her that they just nominated her. After, Ramsay recalled the dropped salmon incident while calling her soulless, but she disagreed by saying that she loved food and would not give up her entire life to cook if she was indeed soulless. Then, Ramsay told Scott that he was poop on a shovel. While Scott admitted that he looked like an asshole, he bragged one more time about the fact that he was the strongest leader by far, so much that it was to his detriment as he was too concerned about his teammates. Ramsay acknowledged that he was talking like a politician, was full of it, and added that he was not as good as he thought he was. After deliberation, Ramsay asked both of them to take their jackets off and transferred them to the other team. So, Autumn went to the blue team, and Scott went to the red.
After both of them went back in line with their respective new teams, Ramsay urged them to make their new chance count before dismissing everybody. Jason was amazed as he truly believed Scott should have been eliminated while being happy that he was on the red team. Autumn was determined not to mess up again, declared that her game face was on and that the red team would be sorry to see her go. Finally, Scott was energized again to cook with the women as he was with the men and declared that he would come out to play.
Ramsay's comment: "After our best service yet, I decided to give Autumn and Scott another chance. But they better excel, or they'll both be gone."
Trivia[]
- This marks the first episode of the show to have Ramsay transfer two chefs into the other team.
- This marks the first time Ramsay named two chefs the "Best of the Best".