Recaps
Episode 206
With her surprisingly significant friend Rachel gone, Heather cries in the dorms. Outside, Keith and Garrett express surprise that Heather isn't as good as they had assumed. Early, early, early the next morning, Scott and Mary Ann use bullhorns to wake up the chefs. The chefs get dressed, walk outside, pile into cars and head off to the Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles.Chef Ramsay's challenge for today is based on inspiration. He wants the teams to browse the market and find the inspiration to create a three-course meal. He gives the cooks twenty minutes and sends them on their way. Virginia takes the lead for the red team in setting the menu, which of course irks Sara and leads to snide comments. But Virginia's leadership skills aren't in order and the red team is scrambling around for ingredients as time ticks away.
Time is up and the teams are shuttled back to the kitchens. Once there, they're given one hour to prepare their meals. The red team immediately starts sniping at each other, while in the blue kitchen, Keith oversees Garrett's efforts on the starter and main course. Heather handles the dessert by herself. Both teams finish plating as time runs out.
The teams present their appetizers to Chef Ramsay. For the blue team, Garrett offers a roasted corn, scallop and shrimp bisque. Chef Ramsay likes the presentation, but finds a hard, sharp shrimp tail in the soup. He complains to Garrett that if he swallowed that, he'd be on his way to the hospital. In private, Garrett rails that, "If you order shrimp, guess what you automatically assume? That there's going to be a tail on there, old Gordo!" Perhaps one day Keith will teach Garrett that knives exist and can be used to cut unwanted parts off of food. Sara offers up red pepper soup. Although a lot of soup has been spilled on the rim of the bowl, Chef Ramsay appreciates the color. But he complains that the peppers have been burned. Unfortunately for Sara, she was just following Virginia's orders to roast and burn the hell out of the peppers. Chef Ramsay gives the blue team a slight advantage after one round.
Next, Keith and Virginia serve up their entrees. The red team has prepared a chicken roulade stuffed with Mexican hard salami, tomatoes and garlic. Chef Ramsay is quite pleased with how sophisticated and inspired the dish is. Keith presents a pan roasted, bone-in ribeye with a tomatillo and smoked chile demiglaze. Chef Ramsay takes a taste and declares that the steak is cooked perfectly. He even calls it delicious, including the vegetables.
Maribel and Heather bring up their desserts. Heather has created fresh fruit crepes with a mango peach puree. Chef Ramsay thinks it's nice, but the crepes have gone soggy. He turns his attention to Maribel's dish, strawberry shortcake with a Latin twist. Chef Ramsay wishes it had more inspiration, but he is impressed by the taste. After some deliberation, Chef Ramsay decides the red team has won a very, very close battle. He then gives credit to Virginia, whose chicken dish was the most appealing.
He tells the red team to get dressed for a night on the town, then instructs the blues that whenever they hear a truck, they have to get out to the delivery docks. In a rage that they lost, the blue team vows to win the next service. The first horn blares and it's out to the docks for Keith, Garrett and Heather. The red team piles into a limo to head out when the second delivery truck arrives. In between unloading boxes of produce, Garrett finds time to flip off the limo. A gesture that Chef Ramsay takes note of from the backseat.
The red team arrives at Providence, a young seafood restaurant that is already considered to be perhaps the finest establishment in Los Angeles. Back at Hell's Kitchen, an ice truck arrives and the losing trio has to unload hundreds of bags of ice. Meanwhile, after a quick bite at Providence, Chef Ramsay and the reds are off to Nick & Stef's Steakhouse downtown. And as the blue team bunks down for the night and turns the lights out, one more delivery truck shows up.
Early the next morning, Chef Ramsay summons the team to the restaurant. The time of reckoning has come for Garrett. Chef Ramsay lets him know he saw the finger and Garrett has nothing to be brash about. Then it's on to business. Chef Ramsay informs the teams that they'll be creating their own menus for tonight's service. As the teams plot, both Maribel and Garrett become frustrated that their ideas are being ignored. The frustration for both carries over to prep as they both intentionally drag their feet.
The doors open and diners pour in. Tonight they'll decide whether they want to order from the red or blue menu before choosing their dishes. Diner must order a starter, entrée and dessert from one menu. The red team is featuring a seared tuna and hamachi sashimi starter, plus Colorado rack of lamb as an entrée. The blue team, keeping things simpler, is offering a dry-aged New York strip and a peach tarte tatin for dessert.
Keith prepares the first two risottos of the night, and Chef Ramsay is quite impressed. Keith, referring to himself as K-Grease twice in a 10 second span, is happy with the approval. In the red kitchen, Virginia offers raw scallops, which Chef Ramsay angrily rejects. When he asks her how long until the dish will be ready, Virginia exclaims that she needs to collect her thoughts before answering him. This does not go over well.
Thirty minutes into service, appetizers are flying out of the blue kitchen. Ordinarily this would reflect poorly on the red kitchen. But tonight, it's even worse as some blue diners are sitting with red diners. And all the red diners can do is sit and watch their friends enjoy their blue starters. Most of the problem with the red kitchen lies in the fact that Virginia is seemingly unable to cut raw fish. Chef Ramsay, noticing that the fish isn't uniformly sliced, calls Virginia to the hot plate for a little talking to. He seems fairly exasperated that she can't even prepare raw fish.
Meanwhile, Keith has served all of the appetizers and Garrett and Heather have moved on to entrees. Problem is, Garrett has served a piece of raw duck. Chef Ramsay examines it in shock, demands a new order and yells at Keith to take control of his team. Keith orders Garrett to quickly finish the duck in the oven. And then when another delivery horn blasts... the blue team races to the docks, where they find a truck ready to offload hundreds of boxes. They race to store the boxes as the red team catches up on tickets.
Sara sends her first plate of lamb to the hot plate and it triggers another explosion from Chef Ramsay. The lamb is thinly cut, charred on one side and rare on the other. To Sara's credit, that is not easy to do. But as a flashback reminds us, earlier in the day Sara claimed that she was fired from a previous job because her lamb was so good, the owners couldn't handle her food being so much better than theirs. It's believable that she got fired, but probably not because her food was so amazing. When Chef Ramsay asks Sara what she's doing with the lamb, she replies that she's learning.
On the other side, Garrett turns his attention to another duck entrée, but it's too white for Chef Ramsay to accept. He wants pink. He barrels over to Garrett's section and shows him the proper way to finish off the duck to give it that nice color. Then Garrett spills a little oil and starts a fire. Despite the troubles, the blue team is still sending their entrees, amping up the pressure on the red kitchen. Chef Ramsay screams at Sara to deliver a lamb. In private, Sara complains that no teammates jumped in to help her, despite past private complaints that she works best when left alone. It's beginning to seem that Sara has failed repeatedly in her life, and it's always somebody else's fault.
Sara tries again with her lamb, and in an effort to change things up, presents one that's well undercooked instead of overcooked. But it's still sent back. Only now, Chef Ramsay orders Jean Phillippe to take the lamb off the menu and yells at Sara to quit the lamb already. Jean Phillippe has taken way too much flak tonight for her shoddy cooking. And indeed, Jean Phillippe himself exclaims that he's had enough.
While the red team continues to struggle, the blue team is nearing a completed service. Heather has taken over the steaks from Garrett and Chef Ramsay compliments her on a job well done. With Sara's lamb yanked from the menu, the focus turns to Maribel and her fish. Soon, one is sent back to the kitchen as undercooked. On the other side, the blue team makes a little bit of history by actually serving some desserts. They've completed a service and the red team hasn't yet served an entrée. So it's probably not a good time for Sara to pop off to Chef Ramsay with some sarcasm. But she does anyway.
Desperate to have the red team serve its last eleven tickets, Chef Ramsay calls the blue team over to the red kitchen, tells them to take over and then leaves the kitchen, unable to take any more. With the blue team pitching in, the red team is finally able to complete their service.
After dinner, Chef Ramsay compliments the blue team for completing their service and singles out Keith for an especially good performance. He then tells Garrett he's lucky to be in the same kitchen as Keith and Heather. Chef Ramsay then turns his attention to Sara, lambasting her for her worst performance ever. He asks each red cook to nominate one teammate for elimination.
The teams sit out back for a little bit and the red team takes the time to complain about each other. Then it's back to the restaurant. Chef Ramsay asks if they've made a decision, then informs them that he's not going to listen to their nominations. He's already made a decision. And that decision is...Maribel. Chef Ramsay tells her that he needs a leader and she isn't one.
