Recaps
Episode 207
Being nominated for elimination once more is taking quite a toll on Virginia. Back in the dorms, she flops into her bed and sobs about how terrible she's been performing. Outside, Keith and Garrett promise to look out for each other from here to the finale. The next morning, the five remaining cooks come to the dining room, where Chef Ramsay is waiting for them. He merges the five into one team, the black team. Virginia mentions that everybody has to be on their tippy top toes from now on.Chef Ramsay sends the cooks off to get changed and asks them to return in ten minutes. When they do, he has their first individual challenge waiting. With the same ten ingredients, they all have to create a special dish. The winner will be going to Las Vegas to tour the new restaurant space with Chef Ramsay, who unveils the ingredients. Prawns, veal loin, baby spinach, lentils, saffron, truffles, sunchokes, turnips, mushroom and white beets. The cooks are given twenty minutes to prepare a dish. This challenge, as it turns out, is the same one Chef Ramsay gives to prospective chefs before hiring them.
Time runs out and the chefs have to plate their dishes. Chef Ramsay starts with Garrett's dish, pointing out that the veal has been cooked perfectly. He goes on to compliment the taste of Garrett's dish, but complains that there's too much saffron in the prawns. Next is Heather's dish, sautéed prawns on a bed of spinach and sunchokes. Chef Ramsay says it's very, very nice, but unfortunately, he found some dirt and grit on the spinach. Third is Virginia with a chiffonade of spinach and beet tops with poached prawns and truffles. Chef Ramsay finds the prawns to be delicious, the dish vibrant and the presentation very artistic. His only lament is that Virginia didn't cook like this during the last service.
The next dish, grilled veal with prawn sauce, belongs to Sara. Chef Ramsay's immediate complaint is that the presentation, slices of veal on a pool of sauce, is boring. However, the flavors do work well. Last is Keith's dish, a veal chop stuffed with mushrooms and spinach over a prawn salad. Chef Ramsay marvels at Keith's veal, highly impressed by the color and flavor. Keith blushes over the compliment. Chef Ramsay then praises the group for a surprisingly good performance, mentioning that it's a struggle to decide if Virginia or Keith did the best. He eventually settles on Keith as the winner, allowing Keith to take a friend with him to Las Vegas. After some agonizing deliberation, Keith decides to take Virginia because she was the runner-up. This despite the fact that Keith earlier promised to take Garrett if he won.
Chef Ramsay informs Garrett, Heather and Sara that the restaurant is being fumigated tonight. So it's their responsibility to cover everything - EVERYTHING - with plastic wrap. But Garrett is more interested in covering the kitchen with cursing as he rants about Keith's snub. Garrett tracks down Keith outside. Keith tries to apologize, but Garrett isn't having it. In fact, he says he hopes that the plane crashes.
Keith and Virginia arrive in Las Vegas and a limousine whisks them over to the Red Rock Casino. Chef Ramsay greets the pair so they can meet with the restaurant's architect. Meanwhile, back in the old HK, Operation Plastic Wrap continues. When the cooks finish, Scott and Mary Ann inform them that the job isn't finished. They'll also be doing the fumigating.
In Las Vegas, Keith and Virginia are absolutely flabbergasted when they see the restaurant space. Even though construction has just started, the sheer size of the area serves as inspiration to win this competition. Chef Ramsay then sends them on an evening out he's planned. While Keith and Virginia are going wild, the bug crew wraps up hours and hours of anti-insect work.
The next morning, Keith and Virginia return from their mini-vacation. And even though he had a night to sleep on it, Garrett is still fuming about being left behind for fumigation. Later that afternoon, the cooks get started on prep work for the evening's service. Jean Phillippe finds Keith and informs him that Chef Ramsay was so pleased with Keith's dish yesterday that he'd like to add it to the evening's menu. Jean Phillippe asks Keith for the official wording of the dish. Keith opts for the very simple Veal Chop and admits that the menu honor has given him an added boost.
Moments before dinner, Chef Ramsay calls the cooks together with the news that a 12-top has been booked. And he's determined to have the entire party of 12 served at the same time. Determined to get off to a strong start, Chef Ramsay has put both Sara and Heather on the appetizer station. Sara has taken charge of cooking scallops, but Chef Ramsay quickly chides her for turning them too much. That leads to overcooking, and sure enough, Sara does overcook the first batch. Chef Ramsay then samples Heather's risotto and spits it out, complaining that it's undersalted and bland. He stops the women and orders them to collect themselves after a terrible start.
Orders begin pouring in for Keith's veal chop and Chef Ramsay congratulates him for creating such a popular dish. Twenty minutes into service, Heather tries again with a risotto, and this time the flavor is straight on. He then sarcastically applauds Sara for using a non-stick pan to cook the scallops, which makes the job much easier.
With appetizers flowing out of the kitchen, Chef Ramsay turns his attention to the entrees, and he's quite pleased with how Garrett is cooking the chicken. With Garrett on meat and Keith on fish, entrees are flying out of the kitchen. But Virginia is responsible for twenty different vegetables for garnish and the pressure is building. The pressure starts to build on Garrett as well, as Chef Ramsay is upset that Garrett needs three minutes to finish a chicken. Garrett rushes the chicken to the pass and Chef Ramsay can't believe that's it raw. Yelling that Garrett could've killed someone, he tells him that he doesn't belong in chef's whites. In a rage, Chef Ramsay puts Garrett on fish and Keith on meat.
Sure enough, the switch works, as Keith expertly completes meat dishes, much to Chef Ramsay's liking. And then the 12-top arrives. Twelve women on a bachelorette party. The ticket comes in with two spaghetti and lobster starters, five risottos and five scallops. Sara and Heather will have to deliver all twelve at one time, which they manage to do despite a few problems. Virginia and Garrett now have a chance to redeem themselves with the entrees for this ticket. An opportunity that Virginia doesn't exactly take advantage of. Garrett joins her a moment later when he delivers a shredded piece of salmon. But he rallies as the cooks rush to complete the final ticket of the service. It's a rare successful night in Hell's Kitchen.
But that doesn't mean there won't be an elimination tonight. Chef Ramsay tabs Keith as the best cook of the evening and asks him to pick two teammates for elimination. He immediately crosses Heather off the potential list, then starts thinking about who it will be. The cooks are called back to the kitchen and it's time for Keith's picks. He first nominates Virginia, citing her repeated mistakes. Then he tabs Garrett, explaining that he did the worst and their friendship doesn't overcome that.
Chef Ramsay calls Virginia and Garrett forward, studies them both and then chooses to eliminate Garrett. The raw chicken he served that evening simply can't be ignored.
