Recaps
Episode 203
Although Garret tabbed Tom and Giacomo for elimination last week, Chef Ramsay made his own decision and sent Gabe packing. The teams retreat to the dorms after another long day.Early the next morning, Chef Ramsay calls the dorms and orders everybody to the dining room. Within minutes, everybody but Sara is in the dining room. Unfortunately for her, she was in the shower. Chef Ramsay doesn't appreciate the delay or the lack of communication amongst the teams. He then divulges that day's challenge. The teams will be cooking three entrees from the existing menus. But the twist is, only one team member will be in the kitchen at a time.
Virginia and Tom head to the kitchens first. Chef Ramsay informs them that the teams will be cooking a chicken entrée, the tortellini dish, and the salmon. And all must be completed in 20 minutes. But only they know that right now. Tom looks in a refrigerator and finds some pre-prepared tortellini, while Virginia starts hers from scratch. Chef Ramsay spots Tom's shortcut and orders him to make fresh tortellini. With five minutes up, Giacomo and Rachel rush in as replacements. Tom and Virginia have only 15 seconds to tell them everything that needs to be done. Both teams complete a successful first change.
Next into the kitchen are Keith and Maribel. But Maribel doesn't hear Rachel tell her about the tortellini. Meanwhile, Keith begins new tortellini, even though Giacomo clearly told him that dish was already prepared. Sara and Garrett are left to finish off the three entrees. Maribel doesn't manage to explain anything to Sara. Garrett, misunderstanding Keith, begins yet another batch of tortellini. When 20 minutes expire, Sara plates only chicken and salmon, totally unaware of the tortellini entrée. Garrett managed to complete all three entrees, and although he didn't sauce the tortellini, that dish still wins by default. A slouching Tom asks if he can speak, and Chef Ramsay derides his posture as that of a fat slob. In a confessional, Tom asks if Chef Ramsay knows who he's speaking to, and claims that one wouldn't want to get into a street fight with Tom.
That ugliness behind us, it's time for a taste test. Chef Ramsay praises the moist chicken the women prepared. And while he also likes the moistness of the mens' chicken, he complains about the lack of sauce and burned lettuce that accompanies the dish. It's now down to the salmon. The blue team's salmon is missing both the bacon and the sauce. Thus, the red team wins. As a punishment, the blue team is going to wash, iron and press all of the soiled linens. This makes Tom particularly angry, as he feels that women do laundry better than men. It would seem, at this point, that they cook better as well.
For their reward, the red team is going on a little boat trip with Chef Ramsay. Minus Horatio Sanz, thankfully. As the women toast their accomplishment, the men find that they must scrub all of the linens by hand. No industrial machines will be doing the work for them. After lunch, Chef Ramsay takes a boat back to shore while the women continue enjoying their day on the water. In the washroom, the men practice their communication, calling out orders and announcing what should be done for each course of the ticket.
Later, Garrett tells the men that the women are using sexism as a rallying cry. But really, the men are the ones with more to overcome. Keith agrees, saying somebody that talks like him and walks like him has to prove himself even more. Apparently he doesn't just copy an accent and fashion from Eminem, he copies his credos as well.
Morning comes and the men get right to work. Both teams intensely focus on prep for the evening's service. Minutes before opening, Chef Ramsay pulls the teams the together and tells them the goal for the night is to get all of the tickets fully served. The doors open and diners begin streaming in. The first orders arrive at the pass and Sara and Keith begin preparing the first appetizers. In the red kitchen, Heather continually fires advice at Sara. The advice isn't received as happily as, say, a massage might be. When Chef Ramsay asks how long until the risotto is ready, both Heather and Sara shout out an estimate. Chef Ramsay admonishes Heather for trying to take over Sara's duties.
Thirty minutes into service, the teams are enjoying their best start yet. But then Giacomo complains to Sous Chef Scott that the oven isn't hot. Scott takes one brief look and immediately realizes that Giacomo didn't turn the gas on. Both Scott and Chef Ramsay shout curses at Giacomo for making such a basic error. The words may not have been nice, but they were deserved.
In the red kitchen, it's up to Heather to start getting entrees out. But the sauce on her turbot is watery and Chef Ramsay rejects it. On the other side, Keith is about to plate his final appetizers, although he's running short on tomato sauce. He asks Tom to make some more, but Scott points out that they have extra tomato sauce in the fridge. Keith tells Tom he can quit with the sauce, but Tom continues, spouting the incredible logic that he's already started, so how could he possibly stop? Chef Ramsay sees this and asks Tom why he's making tomato sauce when the blue team already has it, and Tom has no answer. However, he does have a glare and angry mutterings for Keith.
Seventy minutes into service, Sara and Virginia are helping Heather get out entrees. Whereas in the blue kitchen, the men are waiting on Giacomo once more. When Chef Ramsay asks him for a duck, Giacomo has nothing. The blue kitchen comes to a complete stop. At his breaking point, Chef Ramsay orders Giacomo off of the meat station and sends him to the fish. Keith takes over the meat and is immediately confounded by how cluttered the entire area is. Then Tom burns his hand on a sauté pan. When Keith tells him to quit bellyaching and get moving, Tom once again complains about the sauce debacle. Keith reminds Tom that he told him to stop making the sauce after Garrett dug up a reserve supply, and Tom again complains that the stop order came after he had already started new sauce. Apparently, Tom is like The Juggernaut. Once he gets started, he simply can't be stopped by anything or anybody.
While Tom nurses his hand, blue diners start to groan about the lack of food. Conversely, the red team has already served half of their tables. The most popular dish thus far has been Lamb Wellington, which puts pressure on the meat station and Maribel. Heather mentions that eight people have ordered the Wellington and asks Maribel how many she has prepared. After a quick search, she realizes she only has six. She has to inform Chef Ramsay, which should go quite well. Chef Ramsay asks if they have lamb and pastry. When he finds out that they do, he's fairly exasperated that the women didn't think to just make some fresh Wellingtons.
Two hours into the service, the men have finally sent out their first two entrees. Tom is still groaning about his hand. Any street fights will have to wait until his hand heals. Chef Ramsay takes a look, sees the small burn and tells Tom to stop being such a drama queen. Jean Phillippe approaches the hot plate and informs Chef Ramsay that the two ladies at table 37 are threatening to walk out. After asking the red team how long it will take to complete that ticket, Chef Ramsay instructs Jean Phillippe to ask the ladies if they can wait seven more minutes. The suave Belgian does as he's told, but his charm is only mildly effective.
In the blue kitchen, Tom is struggling to complete the vegetables for each entrée. He tells Chef Ramsay that they've run out of mashed potatoes, and he can't seem to find any more. Chef Ramsay is baffled by this, as the blue kitchen has only sent two entrees. Keith mentions that Tom confessed that he burned the potatoes, and Chef Ramsay accuses Tom of not caring any more.
Elsewhere, one of the ladies from table 37 obviously watched last season and figured out how to guarantee herself some precious TV time. She approaches the hot plate to ask Chef Ramsay where her food is, the third time in three episodes that we've seen this maneuver from a diner / star-in-training. Maribel rushes tables 37's Wellington to the hot plate, but it's rare, not medium as requested. The table finally leaves as Maribel sulks around the meat station. Chef Ramsay yells at her for giving up so easily, then angrily kicks a garbage can. He orders the kitchens closed.
At the post-dinner wrapup, Chef Ramsay praises Sara for being the best red cook by far. Then he chides Maribel for ruining her team's chances at a completed service. He turns his attention to Giacomo, describing his performance as phenomenally bad. Then he tells Tom he wishes he would cook more. Tom can only agree. Chef Ramsay then lets the men know they've lost another service. He asks each cook to nominate one teammate for elimination. In the back, Keith moans that it'll be hard to choose between nominating Giacomo or Tom because they're both terrible.
After some deliberation, Tom nominates Giacomo, while Giacomo, Garrett and Keith all go for Tom. Chef Ramsay gives Giacomo ten seconds to explain why he should stay, then does the same for Tom. Tom says he should stay because he's the sharpest, smartest guy in Hell's Kitchen. Hmm. It would seem that unfounded hubris isn't just a New York thing. It also crosses the river into Jersey. Because Tom isn't even the smartest guy in his own bed. Declaring it to be a tough decision, Chef Ramsay elects to eliminate Giacomo, because if he can't even turn an oven on, he certainly can't run a kitchen. Maybe one filled with microwaves, but that's not the prize.
