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The tenth episode of Season 9 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on FOX on August 22, 2011, airing as a double feature alongside the eleventh episode. In that episode, the annual Blind Taste Test occurred, a Steakhouse double service took place, and one of the fiercest feuds in the show's history finally came to an end with a satisfying elimination.

Intro[]

While going back to the dorms, Carrie boasted that she knew she was here to stay and wanted the BLT Steak head chef position. At the same time, the rest of the red team were shocked Jamie was gone over Carrie, with Elise disagreeing with Ramsay’s decision. Jennifer was dismayed that they lost a strong chef, was mortified to have Larry, Moe, and Curly, aka Elise, Elizabeth, and Carrie left as teammates.

Team challenge[]

When the chefs came downstairs the following day, Ramsay immediately announced the annual Blind Taste Test was their next challenge, exciting Elizabeth as she anticipated that challenge to come.

Tommy and Carrie were the first chefs from their teams up and put on their blindfolds and headphones. Carrie got carrots, while Tommy got mango, making it a 1-point tie. In the second round, Will only got mushy peas, but Elizabeth could not get a single ingredient correct, making it 2-1 for the blue team. In the third round, Paul got asparagus, while Jennifer got cheddar cheese, making it 3-2 for the blue team. On the final round, Elise got filet mignon, coconut, and sour cream. In contrast, Natalie only got coconut, giving the red team the win 5-4. After the challenge, Ramsay announced that Hell’s Kitchen was hosting a Steakhouse-themed dinner service the following night.

Scoring[]

Red Team Blue Team
Chef Score Total Chef Score Total
Carrie 1/4 1 Tommy 1/4 1
Elizabeth 0/4 1 Will 1/4 2
Jennifer 1/4 2 Paul 1/4 3
Elise 3/4 5 Natalie 1/4 4
Results '5-4

Reward[]

The red team was rewarded with a horseback trip to Hollywood’s highest point for lunch. That excited Elise as she never saw a horse in real life before Sous Chef Scott handed the red team cowboy hats. During the reward, the red team arrived at the Sunset Hollywood Ranch, where James met them in traditional English horse wear attire. Carrie called him cute in the wear. At the same time, Jennifer expressed surprise about James riding a horse perfectly. After, Carrie caused the horse to pee just by presence, and during the ride, Elizabeth felt that it was a great view of the city. During lunch, Carrie overindulged in wine, which Elise pointed out.

Punishment[]

The blue team was punished by taking in a delivery of 200 pounds of grapes and make jam out of them for the Steakhouse service. Tommy was not happy to have missed the horseback reward as he liked riding anything such as motors or legs. During the punishment, Will complained about the tedious work they had to do for the grapes. Tommy’s jokes were not helping the morale, with Natalie threatening to snap if she heard one more grape joke. Eventually, Natalie had enough, threw some grapes down to the ground, and stomped at them, much to the men’s amusement.

Before service[]

Later, the red team came back from their reward drunk, with Will accusing Carrie of smelling of wine before hoping that they would wake up hungover the next day. Later that night, the men went to sleep, while Elise told Natalie about the reward. When she mentioned the horse that peed next to Carrie, the latter accused Elise of fabricating it and over-dramatizing the story. That led to another argument about Carrie telling Elise to go back to her drunken state as she liked her better when she was passed out. Still, Elise yelled she was not drunk before calling her a bitch in response and saying she wasn’t an alcoholic like Carrie, walking around with a whole bottle of wine with a straw in it. They continued arguing even more, loud enough for the men to wake up to. Then, Elise accused Carrie of only staying due to banging and relished the moment when she would finally be eliminated.

The next day, both teams began prepping for Steakhouse night, and Paul felt that the blue team had it. After prep was finished, Ramsay had both teams lined up and announced that he would do a double service where one team cooks and the other one served because they were overbooked. Because the red team won the previous challenge, they had the choice of either cooking or serving first, ultimately deciding to serve for the first seating. However, Elise revealed that it was to see how that night went in the first seating, and Ramsay asked James to open Hell’s Kitchen for Steakhouse Night.

Dinner Service[]

First Seating[]

The Steakhouse service menu featured ribeye, New York striploin, and a Hamachi. In addition, both teams had one hour and a half to get as many tables served. As the red team began taking orders, Carrie was confident how easy waitressing would be and gave her ticket to Ramsay. On the blue team’s first order, Tommy did not respond to his teammates until Ramsay prompted him before ordering him to speed up. Elise sent up a ticket that was improperly written in the dining room and complained that she was not a waitress while her teammates were doing fine so far.

Thirty minutes into the first seating, orders were piling up, and Tommy was not communicating again, frustrating the blue team. Ramsay accused them of watching him sink. Despite that, Tommy argued that he did not need to respond to something he already knew, and his appetizers were finally being sent out.

One hour into the first seating, the blue team was nearing competition on appetizers and began working on entrées. However, Natalie sent up two New York striploin of the same temperature. Both were supposed to be medium and normal, respectively, and one looked overcooked. After, not only did Natalie walk her refire like an 80-year-old, it was overcooked. As Paul expressed confusion over why she would walk them if she sliced them, Ramsay ordered Natalie to wake up.

With only twenty minutes left in the first seating, some blue diners were growing restless, leaving Elise to hope that the red team did not mess up like the blue team. Then, Natalie accidentally set fire on her station. After Ramsay put out the fire, Paul was infuriated as they only had four items to cook that night, with no hot appetizers. After, Ramsay shut down the blue kitchen as they ran out of time with five tickets remaining, and the red team had to apologize to the blue diners. That led Elise to feel the red team had a leg up on the blue team.

Second Seating[]

It was now the red team’s turn to cook while the blue team served their dishes. As the second seating began, Tommy clearly showed his lack of waiter skills as he had trouble writing down orders. When Tommy gave the order to Ramsay, the latter dismayingly banged his head on the hot pass as his handwriting looked like a 9-year-old did it. While Will told Tommy to get his head in the game, the latter had to pick up the pieces of the ticket Ramsay ripped apart while the red team began cooking and communicated well. Thanks to Carrie’s help, Elizabeth was able to get appetizers out fast. Tommy continued to struggle in the dining room as his poor handwriting angered Ramsay yet again, that time being compared to Cantonese as he ripped the ticket up. Meanwhile, the red team moved onto entrées, but Elise’s sea bass was sent up raw, irritating Jennifer.

With only thirty minutes left, the red team was trying to keep entrées coming out. Still, Carrie was late on garnishes, angering Jennifer as she was dragging three steaks because of that. Then, Carrie’s mashed potatoes were burnt to the point of sticking to his spoon, and Ramsay called her rude for not even joining the team to look at the mess. That caused Jennifer to lose patience with Carrie as the latter screwed the red team in every service. Due to the halt on entrées, the red diners were growing impatient, with Paul feeling that the red team’s infighting would be their downfall.

With 10 minutes left, Carrie finally got her refire accepted. Still, on their next order, Elise accidentally dropped her sea bass to the ground. A fed-up Ramsay shut down the red kitchen before criticizing the women for spending 85 minutes disorganized and bitching at each other.

Post-mortem[]

When both teams were lined up, Ramsay was not happy that they had customers leave hungry and deemed it the worst group performance during the final eight in the show’s history. Ramsay berated Tommy for not communicating with his teammates all night like a wall while telling Elise that she had a bright future in the culinary industry as a customer before accusing her of not working well with a team. Elise argued against that, but the rest of the red team disagreed as Jennifer called the former an individual player. That led to an argument inside the red team, which only ended when Jennifer viciously told Elise to shut up for five seconds. Both teams were named joint-losers, and Ramsay asked them to nominate one person each.

During deliberation, Jennifer had enough of Elise as the latter never learned from her mistakes or Ramsay and told Elizabeth to think hard on who to nominate. Both Elizabeth and Elise considered Carrie for elimination, with the latter nominating Elise. Jennifer only wished for one of them to go home just so the infighting could end.

On the blue side, Will considered that night to be a tough choice to nominate somebody, only for Natalie to consider Tommy for the lack of communication. When Natalie and Tommy left for a bit, Paul told Will that Natalie needed to get off her high horse as she caused a hold-up on steaks and knew that either her or Tommy was going home that night.

Elimination[]

Jennifer announced Carrie as the red team’s nominee for elimination, and Paul announced Tommy as the blue team’s nominee. During their pleas, Carrie still had more to show and was pissed off as she could do better than that night, but Ramsay told her she was good in the wrong area as BLT Steak was not looking for a head chef in maître d’. Then, Tommy wanted to prove his worth with his cooking, but while Ramsay admitted to liking his spirit, he did not know if Tommy had a future in Hell’s Kitchen any longer. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Carrie for her string of poor performances and lack of growth. Before leaving, Ramsay acknowledged Carrie's big heart and ambition. When Carrie left, Elise was the only one not clapping. Carrie’s exit interview featured a retrospective montage.

After Carrie left, Ramsay admitted that he struggled to remember their motivation after ten services when they entered the competition. He asked Elise to take her jacket off as the episode ended as a cliffhanger.

Ramsay gave no comment on Carrie’s elimination, and she did not receive the coat hanging and portrait burning sequence.

Trivia[]

  • This marks the final time a Double booked dinner service occurred. It also marks the only time both teams were named joint losers in this service format.
  • This marks the third time where there are four joint-losses in this season, following Season 6 and Season 8.
Hell's Kitchen Season 9 Episodes
18 Chefs Compete16 Chefs Compete15 Chefs Compete14 Chefs Compete13 Chefs Compete12 Chefs Compete11 Chefs Compete10 Chefs Compete9 Chefs Compete8 Chefs Compete7 Chefs Compete6 Chefs Compete5 Chefs Compete5 Chefs Compete Again4 Chefs Compete2 Chefs Compete
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