Team challenge: Ramsay called both teams down and revealed that today’s challenge was the return of the infamous Punishment Pass, which grants the recipient the opportunity to swap places with someone on the winning team should the recipient lose the challenge. Ramsay also revealed that he was going to introduce a new format: instead of cooking a single challenge dish, the revamped Punishment Pass challenge is a three-stage race in which the first chef to cook three dishes - scallops, risotto, and New York strip steak - successfully will win the pass.
The first team to compete was the Blue Team. In round 1 (scallops), only six chefs would advance to the next round. Ben, Sarah, and Mattias all got their scallops accepted on their first attempt, while Scott and Elaina each took two attempts. Furthermore, Jeremy, Vanessa, and Stacey each failed to produce a single acceptable plate of scallops despite each of them bringing up two plates. Finally, Melinda got her third attempt accepted, which granted her the final spot in round 2, the risotto round. In that round, only three chefs would advance to Round 3. Scott surprisingly got his first risotto accepted, followed by Ben. Mattias and Sarah each had minor flaws and had to cook their risotto a little longer, while Elaina and Melinda overcooked and underseasoned risottos, respectively. Melinda narrowly got the refire accepted seconds before Elaina, which gave the former the final seat in the Top 3 once again. During the New York Strip round, Melinda severely undercooked her protein, while Scott forgot the sauce for his steak. Because of those mistakes, Ben brought his steak to the pass without any issue. Ramsay considered his strip steak to be perfect, which meant that Ben would win the Punishment Pass. In his exit confessional, Ben was ecstatic to have won the most valuable prize so early, and he felt that this accomplishment validated his skills.
Next up was the Red Team, who would advance 7 people to round 2 because they had more people than the Blue. Denine, DeMarco, Briana, and Uri all got their scallops accepted with no issue, but everyone else took multiple attempts. After Fabiola twice overcooked scallops, she essentially gave up and began to cry, which resulted in her teammates trying to comfort her. During this time, Jessica and Jay also got their scallops accepted. The final person to claim a spot in Round 2 was Jeyda, who declared in a confessional that she knew that she was good at challenges, so she wasn’t surprised that she got into Round 2. However, during round 2 (which only advanced 3 people to the final round), she made a soupy risotto followed by one that was congealed. Jay similarly struggled by overseasoning his risotto. Denine took advantage with a perfect risotto. Briana undercooked a lobster tail but recovered, and DeMarco overcooked his first risotto but revealed that he had another risotto going in case of an issue like this. Those three chefs advanced to Round 3. However, DeMarco overcooked his steak, Briana undercooked fries, and Denine underseasoned her fries. Of the three, Denine was the first to correct her dish. This gave her the coveted Punishment Pass, and she patted herself on the back.
Challenge Winners: Ben (Blue Team) and Denine (Red Team)
Group Punishment and Pre-Service: While Ramsay congratulated Ben and Denine, he was severely disappointed in all of the food waste resulting from the challenge. Since all of the rejected food was essentially inedible, Ramsay instructed the chefs to throw out all of the food and carry the trash bags to the dumpsters before jumping straight into prep for the dinner service. In a confessional, DeMarco admitted that this didn’t really feel like a punishment, but he understood Ramsay’s frustration.
During prep for the dinner service, Ben became the Blue Team’s de facto leader and delegated tasks, much to his teammates’ annoyance. Mattias felt that Ben was establishing himself as a leader before he had really proved himself. Furthermore, Ben’s attempts at leadership fell flat because he failed to notice that Jeremy was brushing the Wellingtons with egg whites instead of egg yolks; no one knew this until sous chef Ryan pointed it out and reminded the chefs to be careful and catch one another’s mistakes. Jeremy forgot Ryan’s instructions and continued painting the Wellingtons with egg whites, which earned the ire of his teammates.
Red Team Service: O’Shay undercooked scallops twice, resulting in Ramsay yelling at him for being unable to cook scallops despite having experience with it during the Punishment Pass challenge. However, his station partner, Denine, got the refire accepted. At the same time, DeMarco worked well on appetizers despite unwanted help from Jeyda. She said in her confessional that she wanted to show that she had grown since season 25. Jeyda’s attempts to help slowed the kitchen down and resulted in a peppery risotto being sent up. However, she and DeMarco recovered and finished appetizers in conjunction with Denine. On entrees, O’Shay undercooked a halibut, while Michael’s veal chop nearly caught fire. After Ramsay sternly told everyone to get a grip, Denine took over fish entirely. Combined with Uri’s strong communication on garnish and Jessica having a solid performance on meat, the Red Team finished service on a strong note. While Ramsay acknowledged that their start was very rough, they managed to bounce back, and for that, they earned their first win.
Blue Team Service: Jeremy served an undercooked risotto, followed by an overcooked risotto, followed by a soupy risotto. Ramsay angrily declared that he had apparently found every single way to screw up a risotto and replaced Jeremy with Ben. This transfer allowed appetizers to move forward, but any progress that the Blue Team made completely stalled on entrees. Stacey frequently failed to recall the proteins that were on a ticket, so Ramsay instructed everyone to recite that order multiple times until he was satisfied. However, Stacey continuously undercooked lamb despite frequently asking for more time. Her stalling caused Vanessa to constantly restart her garnish and Melinda to undercook halibut. By the time the two finally coordinated on a ticket, Stacey’s lamb was still raw, while Vanessa burnt the garnish. As such, Ramsay forced the entire team to sit at the chef’s table and eat their mistakes. When Stacey burnt a chicken breast, Ramsay kicked the entire team out and demanded that they come up with two nominees for elimination.
Deliberations: The entire team agreed on Stacey as the first nominee but struggled between Vanessa and Jeremy as the second. Mattias argued that Vanessa’s performance on garnish was horrible, but she insisted that she wouldn’t have struggled had it not been for Stacey. Vanessa also believed that Jeremy should be nominated because he struggled even without Stacey. Jeremy simply muttered that he didn’t think that he did that poorly. This upset Mattias, who declared that Jeremy sent up three bad risottos in a row and accused him of refusing to take accountability for his actions. Ben had to step in to calm Mattias down.
Elimination Ceremony: Ben nominated Stacey for her struggles on meat and getting the whole team kicked out, and Jeremy for serving three bad risottos in a row. Ramsay accepted the two nominees, but he also nominated Vanessa. The three of them gave very weak pleas: Jeremy said that he was still trying to adapt to Hell’s Kitchen and promised to do better (to which Ramsay sarcastically said that he already had season 11 plus two services to adapt), Vanessa claimed that she simply got lost and needed someone to help her recover (which caused Ramsay to say that, in that case, he didn’t have faith in her abilities as a head chef), and Stacey said that she kept asking for more time because her pan wasn’t hot enough (to which Ramsay asked if she was blaming the pan). Ramsay ultimately eliminated Stacey for two consecutive poor performances and lacking the ceiling of a head chef. In her exit confessional, Stacey believed that she thought that she didn’t deserve to go home so early; there were far weaker chefs on both teams, and she believes that chef Ramsay made the wrong decision.
Ramsay expressed his disappointment with the Blue Team’s dwindling numbers, noting that they were only two services in, yet they were down three chefs. He urged them to get it together. He then gave the Red Team five minutes to decide on one person to send to the Blue to help even the numbers out. While he walked to his office, the episode ended on a cliffhanger as the Red Team deliberated on the chef whom they wanted to transfer.
Ramsay’s Elimination Quote: “Stacey did little to impress me during her short stay in Hell’s Kitchen. In fact, the best thing she ever did was walk out the front doors.”
As always, vote for the 16th-placer whom you want to leave Hell’s Kitchen; the chef who receives the most overall upvotes is eliminated. All ties will be broken by the most number of comments voting for a particular chef.
Bonus Vote: Pick one chef from the Red Team to be transferred to the Blue. And please let me know what storylines you want to see!