The fifth episode of Season 6 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX, on August 11, 2009. On that episode, a special welcome event happened, one team dominated the other at dinner service, and an already existing rivalry intensified when one of them refused to admit their mistakes.
Intro
Back in the dorms, Tek was frustrated that she messed up the first table of appetizers during the last service, but still believed that she could cook and was not used of being singled out. Meanwhile, Dave knew that he was at a disadvantage as his left thumb was immobilized due to his cast, and even struggled to try and get a chicken pot pie wrapper open. Amanda asked if she could help him, but Dave said that he had to do things himself with only one arm, only to drop the package onto the floor, much to Van and Suzanne’s amusement.
Team challenge
The next morning, the chefs went downstairs and saw Ramsay with someone next to him. Ramsay introduced them to La Tasha James, the wife of Staff Sergeant Otis James of the United States Marine Corp, who returned home after a thirteen-month tour in Iraq the previous night. Then, Ramsay revealed that Hell's Kitchen would be hosting a welcome home surprise party for James during the next service, which Van said felt like an honor. For the Welcome Home Planning Challenge, each team would be making one appetizer and two entrées that Ramsay and La Tasha would be judging. Then, Ramsay called Robert and Suzanne over to his office so they could understand La Tasha’s plans on the menu and James’ likes. La Tasha explained that some of James’ likes were seafood, shrimp, baked potatoes, and soul food, which excited Robert. Then, Suzanne asked La Tasha what their favorite dish was, and she said that they loved grilled lobster with big portions. After, Robert and Suzanne reunited with their teams, with Suzanne saying that she had some dish ideas she knew how to work with for the challenge. Ramsay told Robert and Suzanne to make sure they use their knowledge to lead their teams, and gave both of them 45 minutes to create their dishes.
Immediately, Robert told the blue team all of James’ likes, which gave them multiple ideas for their dishes. Kevin praised Robert’s leadership as it gave the blue team a clear cut direction, without dictating them. In the red kitchen, Suzanne told her team the dishes she wanted to make for the menu, and her picky direction frustrated her teammates, even rejecting Tennille’s proposal on a jambalaya sauce. However, Suzanne argued that she wanted to come up with the ideas and have the red team execute them. Both teams got their dishes cooked and plated in time. After, Ariel expressed her concern that the red team’s items were not good enough, but was willing to trust Suzanne’s judgement as she was the one who listened La Tasha.
For the first round, Kevin and Ariel presented the appetizers. The red team’s Caesar salad with baked prawns was well received, while the blue team’s spicy seafood style boulya base was also praised. After deliberating, La Tasha chose the red team’s salad, giving them the lead at 1-0, although Kevin claimed that women would choose a salad nine times out of ten. On the next round, Andy and Amanda went up and presented the first entrées, with Amanda revealing the red team’s bacon wrapped filet with grilled shrimp, but Andy felt that the presentation looked bad as the bacon was falling off the filet. Despite that, La Tasha enjoyed the taste. Andy revealed the blue team’s four-cheese macaroni with stewed collier’s and a buttermilk catfish, and while Suzanne arrogantly believed that the macaroni was played out, La Tasha liked it enough to give the blue team that round, tying the score at 1. For the final round, Robert and Suzanne presented the second entrées, with Suzanne presenting the red team’s boiled lobster tail with seafood demarie pasta and a light white wine seafood sauce, which La Tasha said that it tasted good. After that, Robert presented the blue team’s Cajun rubbed bone-in New York Strip with twice baked potato and a grilled lobster tail, which La Tasha noticed that it would be something big for her husband as that was one of his big favorites. The dish tasted delicious, and La Tasha gave the point to the blue team, winning them the challenge 2-1, and Robert proudly stated that big daddy was back. However, Tennille was upset that the red team lost, and stated that she would break something if she did not have to pay for it afterwards.
Reward
The blue team got to fly in real fighter jets, which excited Jim as that was one of his childhood dreams, and Andy added on that it was a once in a lifetime experience for them. At the airfield, the men suited up in fighter pilot gear, and Van said that they had the need for speed. While flying, the men did some formations and had a free for all mock dogfight. When they got back to the dorms, Dave said that the game plan was to kick ass and keep the good momentum going.
Punishment
The red team was punished by decorating the dining room ahead of the Welcome Home party. Back in the dorms, the red team was disappointed in Suzanne as she did not properly give them any important words, such as soul food that could have helped them. However, Suzanne did not fully understand what went wrong as she listened to La Tasha and believed that it was the red team's fault for not executing her own dishes. That led to Tek asking why they did not listen to Tennille as she wanted to make soul food, and Amanda revealed that Tennille was upstairs extremely pissed about losing as she really wanted to do soul food, something Sabrina took note of. Later, Tennille and Suzanne had an argument over the latter’s inability to listen to the former, and Tennille called Suzanne crazy for not understanding why the red team lost.
During the punishment, Ramsay introduced the red team to his wife Tana, who was the person who would give them instruction on how to decorate the dining room. While Sabrina was surprised about how a mean person like Ramsay could snag a hot wife, they soon learned that Tana’s instructions were very similar to how Ramsay would do at dinner service, something Ariel took notice of and complained that the decorating would take a while. Later that night, Amanda and Sabrina decided to have a little bit of fun by inhaling helium for voice changing, much to Ariel’s amusement, and Tek decided to join in by repeating one of Ramsay’s rants in a helium voice. When the men returned, Sabrina, in helium voice, called them dorks, saying they did not have anything like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.
Before service
The next day, both teams started prep, with Tennille stating that the red team had to win a dinner service, and hoped that service was the one. The menu that night featured the blue team’s dishes from the challenge, and Sous Chef Heather asked the red team to talk with the men for the recipes. However, the blue team planned on making sure the red team would not win with their own menu, and Jim was ready to bury the girls. So, the men gave the red team some unhelpful advice on their dishes, much to Suzanne’s frustration and she correctly deduced that the blue team was sabotaging them, with Tennille calling it bullshit. Despite the fact that the blue team’s sabotage left the red team uncertain over their performance, they were still determined to do well.
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay asked them to have strong teamwork that night. After, he told Jean-Philippe and Tana to open Hell’s Kitchen.
The guests arrived at Hell’s Kitchen and started placing their order. Then, Tana announced that Sergeant James and his family has just arrived, and asked everybody to stay silent for a bit. James and his family were given a standing ovation, and he was happy to see his friends that he has not seen for almost two years, which Andy called super emotional, and Sabrina got a little teary-eyed. Then, Ramsay welcomed James to Hell’s Kitchen, and revealed that he brought his mom over, revealing that she was the one who organized the event. With James and his family sitting down, service began properly.
Dinner service
Ramsay told the blue team that because they won the challenge, they had the honour of serving James’ table, with Van determined to make sure he would have a great night. The men immediately got appetizers out to the dining room, and Andy felt that they were working well together in a Zen-like fashion. In the red kitchen, Sabrina brought up her stuffed mushrooms, but forgot another serving, leading Ramsay to send the table out despite that. Sabrina brought up her second serving, but the mushrooms were stone cold and Ramsay berated her for making him look stupid. Ariel felt that was not good as she was tired of losing services, but Sabrina managed to get a warm stuffed mushroom accepted. In the blue kitchen, the men have served all of their appetizers and began working on entrées. Sous Chef Scott warned Jim to keep track of the steak orders as they were more popular than expected, and as more orders came in, Jim started to feel overwhelmed. Kevin decided to help him out, but when Jim did not answer Ramsay’s question for a time, he got accused of switching off. Then, Ramsay asked Jim what was going out next, but Jim struggled to answer as he forgot. When Ramsay shifted his focus to Van’s smoking pan, Kevin reminded Jim of their next order as he wanted to be the hero of that night. Fortunately, James' table got their entrées served. In the red kitchen, Sabrina and Amanda got all their appetizers finished, and Tek began working on their entrées. Tennille tried to give Tek some guidance, but Tek shewed her away. However, Tek’s steaks were still blue, and while she complained that there were not enough hot spots on the grill to cook them, Ariel reminded her that the grill was supposed to be used for marking and Tek had to cook them off in the oven afterwards. Tek brought up her steaks, but they were burnt and Ramsay angrily yelled that about half of the dining room has already received their entrées. A pissed off Suzanne said that Tek could not produce what she claimed, and an angry Ramsay yelled that service was very serious, while forcing the red team to start over. Suzanne tried to help Tek on the grill, but Tek got annoyed as it was making her struggle on focusing.
In the blue kitchen, the men continued to push out entrées at a steady pace, though Andy got a little concerned about Dave due to his broken wrist. Despite offering Dave some help, Dave said that he was doing fine and helped serving another entrée to the dining room. However, the red team had not sent an entrée to their diners yet, and an impatient Ramsay asked Tek if they could get a burger out, at least. However, Tek revealed that she just put a burger on the grill, much to Ramsay’s dismay, and Amanda called Tek a mess. Then, Ramsay pulled Tek to the pantry room and warned her to bounce back as Sabrina begged Tek to do something. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay noticed that Jim was poking the steaks with his tongs, and lectured him on using his fingers to feel the steaks, while reminding him that he was not performing appendicitis. Kevin was helping Jim out a lot on the meat station, but Jim felt that he was being overshadowed because of it. Despite that, the men managed to serve all of their entrées, and Kevin began working on the desserts.
One hour and a half into service, Tek finally managed to get her steaks properly cooked, but Ramsay was still waiting for the lobster tail. Amanda revealed that she cooked it to try and help Tek out, but it came out raw, much to Tennille’s dismay. Then, a furious Ramsay yelled that he could not even look behind him due to embarrassment as the blue team had gotten all of their entrées out, and the red team were still on their first ticket. Ramsay went to the blue kitchen and told Kevin to stay on desserts, while bringing the rest of them to the red kitchen to help out, much to Tennille’s dismay as it was pouring more salt on an open wound. Robert was happy to help out and said that those bitches were crying, Jim said that all the scrapped meat in the red kitchen looked like a grenade went off in a cow’s ass, and Dave noted that the red team’s teamwork was in shambles. Because of the men’s help, the red team finally managed to send their entrées out to their diners as Kevin sent out the blue team’s desserts. After, Ramsay sent the blue team back to their kitchen, and berated the red team for their pathetic performance before asking them to clear down. A frustrated Ariel felt that the red team should have done better, and refused to work with incompetent people any longer. Later that night, Ramsay went to James' table and said it was a pleasure serving him that night.
Post-mortem
When both teams were lined up, Ramsay congratulated the blue team for saving the night, while declaring the red team clear losers as they did not send one table of entrées out before the blue team finished up, despite the fact that the men had injured members, referring to Dave and Kevin. After ranting how the red team produced blue steaks, had no teamwork or communication, Ramsay warned them that they were slipping fast. Then, Ramsay told the red team to name two people for elimination based on the overall performance so far.
As the blue team celebrated their third service victory in a row, with Andy noting that the blue team was whipping it out, the red team were discussing nominations, with Suzanne yelling that they have to get rid of the weaker members. While Tek argued that she could still cook despite not being used to the grill, Suzanne stated that Tek said that for every station so far, with Ariel and Tennille reminding Tek that the grill was supposed to be used for marking only, and that she did not listen to them. Then, Tennille revealed that her nominations were Tek and Amanda, as the latter produced a raw lobster tail, and Ariel agreed with Tennille as Amanda had shut down a lot during services. However, Sabrina brought up Tennille’s name based on the fact that she has been nominated twice before, but that angered Tennille as she helped out a lot that night and refused to be up on the chopping block.
Elimination
Tennille announced that Tek was the red team’s first nominee, and that herself was the second. She said that it was bullshit that she was nominated, and argued that Amanda should be up instead. Ramsay called Tek and Tennille forward, and decided to call Amanda down as well. Tennille argued that she was getting stronger and that the red team only nominated her out of fear, and Ramsay decided to send her back in line. After that, Tek argued that she did not want to leave a loser and that she was passionate, and Amanda said that she was not ready to go home despite Ramsay believing that she might be spent. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Tek as her horrific performance on the meat station was the reason why the red team fell apart. After Tek left, Ramsay sent Amanda back in line, warned the chefs that Hell’s Kitchen would get harder, and reminded them of the Head Chef position at the Araxi Bar and Restaurant, before dismissing them.
Ramsay's comment: "I kept on waiting for Tek to emerge, she couldn't even handle her station. Tek had a total meltdown."