The fifth episode of Season 5 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX, on March 5, 2009. In that episode, one chef tried to bond with their new teammates, Ramsay inexplicitly pressed one chef's personal button during dinner service, and a shocking elimination no one saw coming.
Intro[]
Back at the dorms, the red team was ecstatic that Lacey was no longer part of their team. Andrea told the Blues Brothers that Lacey was their problem and thanked the kitchen gods for listening to her prayers. Lacey tried to integrate herself with the blue team, but Ben was still shocked by the news as they had already gotten rid of a weak link. Ben bluntly told Lacey that they were not looking for another Seth and felt Ramsay gave them another piece of dead weight. Still, Lacey asked the blue team to give her a chance and then nominate her if she sucked. Robert tried to play nice, but he knew Lacey was cancerous for the blue team. Lacey promised that she would not cry on the blue team and felt the red team was ganging up on her. Lacey called it a new day and said the red team was going down.
Team challenge[]
The following morning, the chefs were driven to an Asian supermarket, where they met Ramsay. J said he shopped in Asian markets all the time and had several ideas about what to cook. Ramsay revealed that their next challenge was the Asian Fusion Challenge, to create vibrant dishes out of two different cultures. Robert said he loved fusion cuisine as he could make a Captain Crunch breaded filet mignon. Each team would create one poultry, one seafood, and one meat dish with strong Asian influences, and Ramsay gave them 25 minutes to shop for whatever they needed, with a $100 budget. Ramsay told both teams to use their time and money wisely before beginning the shopping.
As both teams shopped, Andrea took the lead for the red team due to her loud voice. However, Andrea ignored her team’s suggestions, making Carol comment that the loudest voices did not make the best leaders. Meanwhile, the blue team grabbed anything they could find as Danny said they ran like crazy people and made the menu on the fly. As Andrea continued to bark out orders, LA told her to shut up as it was annoying. Elsewhere, Lacey asked questions about the beef dish but got no answers. That made Lacey feel it was the same as it was on the red team, but Ben said the blue team deemed her the new girl and did not trust her. Eventually, both teams made it to the checkout in time, and both were within their budgets.
Returning to Hell’s Kitchen, both teams had one hour to cook their dishes, and both teams had to work in pairs on each dish. Ben and Lacey paired up in the blue kitchen as the former thought she needed a kick in the butt to get her in the right direction. However, Ben's precise instructions caused Lacey to call him egotistical. On the other side, the pair of Giovanni and J, and the pair of Danny and Robert, were confident on their dishes. None of the red team had an idea of what their dishes were in the red kitchen. Andrea struggled to explain to Ramsay what their dish was, and the latter reminded them not to make them boring. Paula was forced to rethink her dish and go Japanese French fusion. Lacey offered to help her new teammates in the blue kitchen but found out she was being ignored and not needed. Lacey did not like doing tedious jobs. Both teams managed to finish cooking on time and plated their dishes. Ben said the blue team winning the challenge would be major as they were coming off some losses.
Before the judging, Ramsay revealed that he invited Epicurious editor-in-chief Tanya Steele to help him out. That psyched Andrea as every chef knew Epicurious. Still, Giovanni did not know who Tanya was and only commented on her looks. Also, Ramsay revealed that the winning team’s dishes would be featured on the Epicurious website. The first round was the poultry and featured Carol and Coi’s dish against Danny and Robert's dish. Carol presented a pomegranate cinnamon glazed chicken breast and said she picked the fruit due to its fruitness. Both judges felt that the presentation was boring and that the chicken was dry, even though the flavours were good. Robert presented a pad Thai BBQ chicken, saying that having Ramsay taste his dish was nerve-wracking. Both judges praised it for the seasoning and the southern inspiration, which led the blue team to score the first point. The blue team led 1-0, and Danny said he and Robert nailed it. The next round was seafood and featured Paula and LA’s dish against Ben and Lacey's dish. Paula presented an ahi tuna tempura with confit vegetables. While Ben did not see the fusion in the dish, the judges praised the tempura for its temperature and cook. Ben presented pan-seared scallops with a sea urchin and caviar Berblanc sauce. Despite Ben claiming that his specialty was French-Asian fusion, the dish was deemed too salty and mushy. The red team scored that round, tying the score at one each. The final round was the meat dish and featured Andrea and Colleen’s dish against Giovanni and J’s dish. Andrea was nervous about competing in the tiebreaker before presenting a Kobe beef sashimi brushed with Korean-style sauce. While the beef was delicious, the sauce was overpowered by the red pepper flakes. J stumbled on announcing the beef dish, but Giovanni revealed it was a beef pizzaiola style. While it was deemed a good concept, it had undercooked rice. After much deliberation, Ramsay had Tanya make the final decision. Ultimately, Tanya decided that Andrea and Colleen’s dish was the best, and the red team won the challenge 2-1. Robert dismayingly knew women stuck together.
Scoring[]
| Red Team | Blue Team | ||||
| Chefs | Score | Total | Chefs | Score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carol and Coi | 0 | 0 | Robert and Danny | 1 | 1 |
| Paula and LA | 1 | 1 | Ben and Lacey | 0 | 1 |
| Andrea and Colleen | 1 | 2 | Giovanni and J | 0 | 1 |
| Results | 2-1 | ||||
Reward[]
In addition to having their dishes featured on the Epicurious website, the red team was rewarded with an Asian-inspired day. Even though Colleen had no idea what that was, she was excited to enjoy it. During the reward, the women celebrated their victory without Lacey. The first trip was at a karate dojo, making Paula wonder if they were learning self-defence. However, they were there to play sumo wrestling, and the master revealed two players in the art of discipline. To the red team's amusement, it was Ramsay and Jean-Philippe, with most of the red team seeing that the latter was not amused. The two sumo wrestled, and Ramsay won. Afterwards, the red team participated in the wrestling themselves. Later, they went to Parau for sake tasting and took many shots. Coi thought she did nine sake shots.
Punishment[]
The blue team was punished by making fortune cookies and decorating the entire dining room with origami. Lacey was upset by this as this was her third challenge loss and was near the breaking point. Back at the patio, Lacey said she wanted to leave, but that angered Giovanni and went on a tangent on how Seth never threatened to quit. Coi saw how frustrated the blue team was getting with Lacey and knew it was like that back on the red team. Giovanni hated the negativity as he hated losing and said he did not want to see anyone on the blue team go home. Most of the men left the patio, but Ben stayed with Lacey. Ben gave Lacey a pep talk, urged her to have some more motivation to do well, and told her that the blue team needed her. However, Lacey saw that Ben was trying to blow smoke up her ass, and it was everyone for themselves.
During the punishment, Lacey tried to make Ramsay impressions as the blue team made fortune cookies, but that annoyed everyone else. Robert could not understand why Ramsay put her on the blue team and said he hated her. Once the cookies were finished, the blue team moved on to origami folding. The men struggled to fold their paper, but Lacey got the hang of it quickly. The men decided to follow Lacey's lead as she taught the men how to fold a bird. Lacey was happy to finally teach someone a skill, and Giovanni was grateful to have her help them. When the drunk red team came by, Lacey guaranteed to the blue team that one of the red chefs would be leaving the following evening.
Before service[]
The following day, both teams got to work on prepping for that night's service. The red team was still happy that Lacey was out from their team, and LA hoped the blue team got a taste of what they had earlier. Eventually, both teams finished their prep, and Ramsay had both teams lined up for a briefing. Lacey told Ramsay she was bonding with the men and said Ben was her main mentor. Then, Ramsay told Paula that her ahi tuna tempura was one of the best dishes he had ever tasted in Hell’s Kitchen, and it would be featured on that night's menu. Ramsay hoped to go forward that night after going three feet backwards the previous service. After dismissing both teams to their stations, Ramsay told Jean-Philippe to open Hell’s Kitchen.
Dinner service[]
Tanya Steele was in attendance that night. Both teams got their first tickets, and Giovanni began firing appetizers. Despite calling Giovanni out for lifting the pan in the middle of the air, Ramsay praised the risotto he sent to the pass. LA sent her risotto out in the red kitchen, and Ramsay accepted it. LA called it a dad moment, and thirty minutes into dinner service, appetizers from both kitchens were going out fast. A table full of sumo wrestlers soon came in, and all of them ordered the entire menu. Ramsay was forced to split the table between both teams. Lacey became very vocal on the blue team and called out times, which Giovanni believed she wanted to beat the red team that night. Ben and Giovanni were happy about this, and Lacey refused to go home that night.
Fifty minutes into dinner service, the sumo wrestlers were enjoying their appetizers. However, Andrea was hiding burnt Wellingtons and keeping them from her teammates. J cut his Wellingtons in the blue kitchen and told Ramsay he needed more time as they were still raw. Sous Chef Scott revealed that J's fan was on low instead of high, and Ramsay chewed the latter out for his mistake. J admitted he should have checked the oven and felt like a donkey. Then, Ramsay saw that the red team’s convection oven was open and asked if there were Wellingtons in it. When Coi confirmed there were Wellingtons in the oven, Ramsay chewed out Colleen for leaving the door open as they were getting colds. Still, Colleen did not remember if she did open the oven earlier. Andrea said she was refiring the Wellingtons, but Ramsay soon found Andrea's wasted meat stash and was furious with her. Ramsay had everyone on the red team see the burnt Wellingtons Andrea hid and threw one against the oven. Andrea knew she was doomed as Ramsay was upset by her choice. Ramsay asked Robert to pick up the pace in the blue kitchen, calling him Bobby in the process. However, that infuriated Robert as Bobby was his abusive father’s name, and he did not have a great childhood. Feeling that Ramsay crossed a line, Robert went silent on Ramsay and threw out a John Dory in the bin. Ramsay saw that and soon discovered multiple orders that Robert threw out. Robert claimed they were not good and did not want to send it to Ramsay. However, Robert said that without looking Ramsay in the eyes, leading the latter to pull him into the pantry. Once again, Robert said he did not want to send out any poor food in Ramsay's name, but the latter told him not to use his name as an excuse to throw out food. Ramsay told Robert to concentrate and wake up. Robert admitted it took a lot of effort not to lash out at Ramsay and mooned the confessional camera while telling Ramsay to kiss his ass. Then, Ramsay went straight to Robert's face and ordered him to bounce back and stop messing around. Andrea said she needed four more minutes on her Wellingtons in the red kitchen, but Ramsay said she told the same thing earlier. Andrea noted her timings were off and did not communicate properly with Carol on the fish station. Carol had no idea what Andrea thought for numbers, and Ramsay ordered the latter to work together with the team.
Two hours into dinner service, both kitchens were at a standstill with no food leaving the kitchens. J’s chicken came out raw, and Ramsay reminded him that no entrées had left the blue kitchen in the past fourteen minutes, telling the former to get a grip. A dismayed J said he messed up on everything that night and was ordered to get a grip. Lacey asked for a time on the lamb, but J realized he had forgotten the order. Growing more frustrated, Ramsay angrily told the blue team to communicate before kicking the trash bins. Lacey could not believe J had forgotten an order, and Ramsay called the latter terrible. Colleen was sending out the desserts in the red kitchen, but one of them, from Steele’s table, was sent back for being raw. Ramsay forced the red team to eat it, and Andrea called that poor judgement on Colleen's part. Ramsay chewed out Colleen for sending out a raw dessert, and Andrea could not believe the latter. After seeing Jean-Philippe come with more returned food, Ramsay had enough and shut down both kitchens, calling it the worst performance so far.
Post-mortem[]
Lining both teams up, Ramsay asked Robert about his attitude problem during service, but the latter said he would like to talk about it privately. Ramsay noted that both teams fell apart on the meat stations and declared no winning team. However, Ramsay named Giovanni and LA “Best of the Worst” for their respective teams because of their great starts on appetizers and asked them to nominate one person each.
As the chefs returned to the dorms, Robert explained his father issues to the red team and how angry he got when Ramsay called him Bobby. Robert thought Ramsay would relate to him as he knew the latter had a terrible father as well. Then, Ramsay called the dorms and asked Robert to come down. Once in the office, Robert explained to Ramsay that his father, named Bobby, was abusive to him and that he had a rough childhood. Now fully understanding Robert's situation, Ramsay apologized for calling him Bobby and promised never to call him that again.
During deliberation, Andrea admitted she had a terrible performance. LA knew that her choice would be between Andrea for being behind and Colleen for being terrible in all five services. Andrea told LA she would not resent her for nominating her, while Colleen hoped Ramsay would send a blue chef home no matter who LA nominated. Meanwhile, J called his performance a disgrace and was concerned about who Giovanni would nominate. Giovanni knew he could not nominate Lacey as she had a strong performance that night. Robert knew it was either himself or J. Robert hoped only for Giovanni to look at the bigger picture.
Elimination[]
LA announced Andrea as her nominee for her poor communication, and Giovanni announced J as his nominee for his poor performance on meat. While Giovanni admitted that Robert had a bad night of his own, he was able to rebound quicker than J, even by a fraction. During their pleas, J said he had the skills and confidence to cook, but Ramsay retorted that he could not get started that night. J admitted he had no excuse for his poor performance and called it the worst performance in his career. Then, Andrea wanted to go back on meat to prove she could run it. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay sent the two nominees back in line and told Robert to wake up. Then, Ramsay called Colleen down and eliminated her for her poor performance during the first five services. Before Colleen left, Ramsay praised her for her tenacity. During her exit interview, Colleen believed that Ramsay made her a better person and hoped he cooked at her school one day.
After Colleen left, Ramsay told the remaining chefs she had something they lacked: fight. Ramsay told them to fight back from their mistakes and come back strong. While being dismissed, Robert felt he got beat up by a heavyweight that night while Andrea knew she could win despite a bad night. Then, J refused to mess up again.
Ramsay's comment: "There was no place in the kitchen I could put Colleen where she wasn't a disaster. It's time for her to go back to where she belongs: teaching, because she certainly can't cook."
Trivia[]
- This marks the first time a guest judge appeared in a challenge outside of the Final Signature Dish Challenge.
- This is the first time a special guest was in the dining room.
- This is the first time both teams have lost two back-to-back dinner services.