The sixth episode of Season 8 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX, on October 6, 2010, airing as a double feature alongside the fifth episode. On that episode, Ramsay relocated two chefs to different teams, salad was the main dish, and one chef burned their last chance to stay in the competition.
Intro[]
On their way back to the dorms, the red team congratulated Melissa for fighting back and surviving another elimination. However, Sabrina still believed that she did not belong in Hell’s Kitchen as she was dragging the red team down, and wanted her gone. Melissa admitted to Gail that she was believing Sabrina was pissed that she survived over Emily, and while she knew that she became an easy target, she still believed she could win over Sabrina. Meanwhile, the blue team gathered, with Rob noting that the red team was crumbling, which the rest of the team agreed. Trev even stated that he liked being with the guys as they had a lot in common with each other.
Team switch[]
The next day, both teams went downstairs and met Ramsay with different moods. The blue team felt united, while the red team felt divided. Ramsay revealed that something was torturing him the previous night, and he wanted to put things at their place. So, Ramsay called Melissa down and told her that while many chefs had bad services, he could not feel the fight back from her, and was thinking that she was in over her head. Then, Ramsay asked her to give him her jacket, making everyone think that she was eliminated, much to Sabrina's excitement. Instead, Ramsay told Melissa to say goodbye to the red team, and integrate the blue team, much to her relief, although she knew some of the men were not happy about that decision. After Melissa put on her blue jacket, Ramsay told her to start shining. Then, Ramsay revealed that this would not be the only change as he believed the red team was lacking a leader. So, Ramsay revealed he would be sending one of the blue chefs over to the red team, which made Sabrina think they were either going to get Vinny or Russell. Instead, Ramsay transferred Trev to the red team, much to Sabrina's dismay, and Trev himself was not happy as he thought the blue team was starting to get along, and that the transfer would force him to rethink his strategy. As Trev was putting on his red jacket, Ramsay urged him to step up as a leader for the red team, and Trev promised to do so.
Team challenge[]
Afterwards, Ramsay revealed that a lot of fine-dining restaurants had specialty salads that were from the inspirations of the chefs who made them. Sous Chef Scott wheeled a cart containing three domes, and Ramsay revealed some examples of specialty salads, such as misua salad, cobb salad, and Waldorf salad. For the Salad Challenge, each chef would make a salad entrée each that would show some inspiration, though Rob was concerned as he was not a salad guy. Then, Ramsay revealed that the best salad would be featured in the Bon Appétit magazine, where it would be seen by 8 million readers, which excited everybody.
The chefs had 30 minutes to create their salads. During the challenge, both teams got their proteins needed, and Vinny declared that if he could pull his salad off, it would be the sexiest thing since his hair in the morning. The blue team welcomed Melissa, and she knew that she would have to prove herself in order to be a worthwhile member. In the red kitchen, Jillian asked Trev for some help on her raspberry vinaigrette, but her constant questions annoyed him, who called her clueless. With five minutes left, Rob was struggling on cooking his scallops, and raced to get them cooked properly. Eventually, both teams finished their salads and got them plated in time.
During the judging, Ramsay invited Bon Appétit’s senior food editor Sarah Tenaglia. Boris and Gail went first for their respective teams, and Boris presented his grilled fennel heirloom tomato and avocado salad with key lime dressing and coriander. Ramsay got annoyed with his sweaty face and motioned him to wipe down, much to Russell's annoyance as he felt that the blue team was fucked no matter how good Boris’ salad was. His salad was criticized for having a heavy dressing and looking soggy. On the other hand, Gail's five spiced scallop salad with radicchio and romaine and a rice wine vinaigrette got praised for its beautiful presentation and for perfectly cooked scallops, and she won the round over Boris. Nona and Rob went up next, and Rob presented his pan-seared diver scallop salad with roasted portabella and grapefruit vinaigrette. Despite Rob's concern, his scallops were cooked perfectly though the dressing was overwhelming the other flavors. However, Nona's quail salad had a poor presentation as it was compared to road kill, and Rob won the round, tying the score at 1 each. Vinny and Jillian were up next, but Vinny's trilogy of meat salad was criticized for tasting flat, and Jillian's fruit and nut salad was criticized for not being an actual entrée salad, so neither of them scored a point. Russell and Sabrina were up next, and while Russell's bruschetta and burrata salad was praised for being lovely, Sabrina's applesauce and pork salad was criticized for tasting like a hotdog. So, Russell won the round, giving the blue team the lead at 2-1. The final round was between Trev and Melissa. He presented his apple, pear, and pork salad with a strawberry vinaigrette, which was praised for having an assertive, but working dressing. Melissa presented her seared duck breast salad with baby yams, roasted shallots, and blue cheese dressing, and while Ramsay praised her for making a bold move on using duck, not only did it still have a lot of raw fat on it, it was under seasoned, and the blue cheese was overpowering. So, Trev won the round, and the final score was a 2 point tie. To break the tie, Ramsay asked Tenaglia what salad she liked the most overall, which she answered that Rob's salad was the best, therefore winning the challenge for the blue team.
Scoring[]
Blue Team | Red Team | ||||
Chef | Score | Total | Chef | Score | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boris | 0 | 0 | Gail | 1 | 1 |
Rob | 1 | 1 | Nona | 0 | 1 |
Vinny | 0 | 1 | Jillian | 0 | 1 |
Russell | 1 | 2 | Sabrina | 0 | 1 |
Melissa | 0 | 2 | Trev | 1 | 2 |
Results | 2*-2 |
- * Best dish named by Tenaglia breaked the tie in the challenge and won it for their team.
Reward[]
The blue team was rewarded with a day at Malibu for lunch at The Getty Vella. In addition, not only was Rob's salad was featured in Bon Appétit, he would join Tenaglia and Ramsay in a photo shoot for the magazine, and his salad would be featured in the next service. Rob was happy that he won the challenge for the blue team, and his teammates congratulated him for it. When they arrived at The Getty Vella, they were greeted by the curator Carol White, who took them on a tour of their exhibits. While looking at a mummy, Vinny jokingly said that they found Raj, and while looking at some Roman busts, they compared the faces to Gail, Nona, and Trev. During lunch, Melissa bonded with her new teammates, and admitted that she really thought she was going home earlier that day. Also, Melissa felt more relaxed with the men, hoping to be more comfortable during service. After lunch, Ramsay arrived and told Rob that it was time for the photo shoot. During the shoot, Ramsay jokingly asked the photographer if he could make Rob 90 pounds lighter, much to everybody’s amusement, and stated that one photo of Rob looked like he ate a sofa.
Punishment[]
The red team had to prep for that night’s service. Trev was not only pissed that his dish was not featured in Bon Appétit magazine, but he was also pissed on being in a new team that lost the challenge. Despite Gail trying to reassure him that they tried, Trev bitterly said that he would have been in Malibu if he was still on the blue team. During the punishment, the women struggled with cleaning up the red kitchen, and an annoyed Trev stated that he forgot what it felt like to work with chicks. Deciding to try and get them into shape, Trev gave some advice to Sabrina on prepping the appetizer station, but Sabrina called him a douchebag, and told him to leave her alone. However, Nona did not mind Trev riding on Sabrina's ass as she felt there was somebody else who saw what the rest of the red team was trying to tell Ramsay for weeks. For their lunch, Sous Chef Andi gave them flower salads to eat, and said that there was no dressing for any of them. None of them enjoyed their lunch, and a couple of them found bugs on their plates.
Before service[]
The blue team came back from their reward and changed into their chef jackets for service. While prepping for service, Trev came over to the blue kitchen, and vented to his former teammates how difficult it was working with the red team. While Vinny did feel for Trev on his predicament, Trev was no longer on the blue team so it was not his problem.
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay reminded Melissa and Trev that their main goal was to prove to their new teams why they deserved to be around. Then, Ramsay asked Rob if the blue team was stronger without Trev, which Rob answered they were. That fired up Trev, who stated that he wanted to beat the blue team even more. After, Ramsay said that he wanted service to be smooth because they would be opening up the chefs tables in both kitchens for some special VIPs. Once everybody was ready, Ramsay asked James to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Carly Smithson, from American Idol, was in attendance during that service. Russell brought over his risotto to the pass, and Ramsay called it excellent. However, the blue team was waiting on Boris for the shrimp garnish, and Russell, who decided to stop playing nice, called Boris out on it. Boris sent up the shrimp, but it was rubbery, and Ramsay threw it at the wall next to Boris. Because of that, the blue customers have not received any appetizers. After, Kelli Williams arrived and sat in the blue kitchen. Ramsay had Rob take Williams' orders, and he did so without problems. In the red kitchen, Mo Gaffney and Nancy Grahn got seated, and Jillian was assigned to wait on them. While taking their orders, Ramsay called Jillian back to get an order up. Gail sent up her lobster spaghetti, and Ramsay told her to cook the rest of them the same way. Because of Gail, the red team sent out a steady stream of appetizers to the customers. In the blue kitchen, Russell's careful eye on Boris has gotten appetizers out to their diners as well. Moving on to entrées, Rob asked Melissa for the scallops, and she sent them to him. While Rob sent up the first scallop salad to the pass, Ramsay found out that the scallops were raw, and Russell told Rob to make sure Melissa made a better batch for the next time. Unfortunately, Melissa's second attempt came out burnt.
An hour and a half into service, Jillian served the entrées for the chefs table, but was missing the scallop salad. Nona was struggling with the scallops as they did not have any color on them, but managed to send them over to Jillian. However, Ramsay found out that they were raw, and despite Nona trying again, they still came out raw. Then, a furious Ramsay brought the red team to the front and, after berating them all for Nona's mistake, he told Trev to cook the scallops. Fortunately, Trev's attempt was successful and the scallop salad was delivered to the chefs table. In the blue kitchen, Melissa sent over her refired scallops to Rob, but he rejected them for being overcooked. Rob revealed that Melissa was burning a lot of scallops, and Melissa was annoyed that none of her attempts were acceptable. Then, Russell aggressively asked for a time on the scallops, but Melissa revealed to Ramsay and the blue team that she had no more scallops left as she burned all that they had. A furious Ramsay gathered all the wrecked scallops from the blue team and asked everybody to feel the weight of it, with Rob stating that Melissa wrecked 7 pounds of scallops, and an annoyed Vinny said that Melissa just could not cook at all. Without scallops to work with, Ramsay told the blue team to make a rock shrimp salad as a replacement for the chefs table. In the red kitchen, Ramsay and Trev asked Sabrina for the gnocchi, but she claimed that Trev was supposed to cook it. However, Ramsay reminded Sabrina that the gnocchi was the garnish station's responsibility.
Two hours into service, and all the diners were feeling the effects from the struggling kitchens. In the blue kitchen, Vinny reminded Boris about his lamb garnishes, but Boris was late to communicate. While Boris did send up his mashed potatoes to the pass, they tasted bland and Vinny frustratingly waited for his retry, while his perfectly cooked Wellingtons were waiting at the pass. Then, Boris' parchment paper caught fire, and a distraught Ramsay sent it to the sink, while asking why he was even fucking bothering. In the red kitchen, Trev got vocal with the red team, and asked Sabrina for the garnishes. While Sabrina did not say anything at first, she angrily said that need one more minute and thirty seconds on the chicken garnish when Trev kept asking her. Trev sent up perfectly cooked Wellingtons, but when he asked Sabrina for the garnish, she angrily yelled at him. Then, Ramsay pulled Sabrina aside, and lectured her to keep her mouth shut and show some discipline.
Two and a half hours into service, despite some hurdles, both kitchens were almost done. In the blue kitchen, Vinny told Boris to send up the chicken garnish, but they came out soggy, and a frustrated Ramsay ejected Boris from service. While Boris went back to the dorms, both teams were able to push out their last tickets and serve desserts.
Post-mortem[]
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay was about to announce who the winning team was, but stopped and admitted that he could not do it. Despite asking for a smooth service, Ramsay said that both teams gave a service that had more speed bumps than a church parking lot. So, both teams were named joint-losers, and Ramsay asked them to nominate one person each for elimination.
Back in the dorms, Russell stated that he was tired of losing, and wanted the dead weight from the blue team gone. Russell and Vinny targeted Boris as he had more bad nights than any of them, and struggled on three of the four main stations so far. However, Boris said that Melissa should be nominated for wrecking all the scallops, and while Melissa knew that she screwed up royally, she still had no clue as to why Rob rejected most of her scallops. That left Rob as the final vote, but struggled on choosing between Boris and Melissa. Meanwhile, the red team gathered and discussed who they would nominate. Jillian and Trev said that Nona should be nominated for her poor performance, but Nona defended herself and said that Sabrina should be nominated for her hold up on garnish. Gail agreed with Nona based on Sabrina's attitude, but Sabrina told that she was getting tired of being nominated, and upsettingly stated that she was better than any of them. Before storming off, Sabrina yelled that Nona would be leaving before she would, though Nona responded that they would see what happened.
Elimination[]
Jillian announced that Sabrina was the red team’s nominee, while Vinny announced that Boris was the blue team’s nominee. While Ramsay agreed with those nominees, he said that he thought about who else deserved to be nominated. So, he also called Nona from the red team, and Melissa from the blue team, to join Sabrina and Boris, and said that the four nominees represented what went wrong during that service. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay eliminated Melissa for being nominated three consecutive times, and failing to improve on her new team. After Melissa left, Ramsay stated that he has not given up hope of there being an amazing service from both teams, before dismissing them.
Ramsay's comment: "Melissa had a red jacket, she had a blue jacket, and now she has no jacket at all."
Trivia[]
- This marks the second time a chef was eliminated on the service after switching teams the same day.