HK:NY Epsiode 2

## Individual Challenge

Returning from the last episode, the contestants head into the kitchen gathering ingredients and preparing their chili bowls.

In the blue kitchen, Diego said that one of the things his family loved was chili, he competed and won a few chili cook offs himself, so he felt very confident in his dish.  Chef Aarón spoke up and asked Diego what he was making, he said he was making a green Chili con Carne with beef chuck and garbanzo beans. Halfway to go, Omar realized that he forgot the jalapeno cornbread for his venison chili and needed to make it now. Omar knew that if he didn’t do the jalapeno cornbread now, then the whole point of the dish would be ruined. Garrett returned to his salty and cocky ways and went with something way too extreme with pork chili and corn dumplings. Taylor saw him do this and it confused him because the corn dumplings needed its own time. Garrett said that the dumplings will be the most unique thing Gordon has ever seen.

In the red kitchen, Katie was found asking her other teammates on what would be good to add to her cayenne pork chili, constantly. This annoyed contestants like Natalie and Rebecca, they said that she should come up with her own ingredients to her dish. This is a competition, not a charity. Pamela revealed her little experience again by getting flustered with the chili not cooking to the right temperature she wanted. When Brittany came to help her out, she realized Pamela’s stovetop was on a low setting, embarrassing Pamela. Fortunately, every chef was able to complete their bowls and plate on time. After the bowls were done, Ramsay asked sous chefs Daphne and Aarón to taste each team member's dish, then headed back to his office to evaluate. The chefs then lined up as Daphne and Aarón tasted their chili bowls.

Ramsay then returned from his office and asked Daphne and Aarón for the top three dishes from their teams.  Daphne chose Brittany, Holly, and Lauren as the red team’s top three, and Aarón chose Diego, Mike, and Taylor as the blue team’s top three.

First on the red team was Brittany’s Black bean chili and with avocado relish  was praised for having great flavor and spice with the avocado being a nice cooldown to the chili. Holly's Zucchini and Cilantro chili was praised for having a nice feeling and texture but wasn’t as good as Brittany’s. Brittany was confident about her dish surpassing Lauren. Lauren’s Sriracha Curry Chicken Chili received high praise for going outside the box and went for an Indian dish rather than a chili, being bursting with flavor and having such on point seasoning. This was a hard decision for Gordon but ultimately gave the Safety Pin to Brittany.  She was so happy to win the challenge by the edge for the garnish.

Ramsay moved onto the blue team.  He started with Diego and his Mexican Chorizo and Turkey chili, Gordon said it was cooked amazingly. Ramsay told him that he was definitely a one to beat since this was in his ballpark. Next was Mike’s Spaghetti Squash and Kidney beans, he was praised for their beautiful seasoning and how the savory flavors of the spaghetti added a new flavor to chili. This was able to beat Diego.  Last was Taylor with his beer battered cod chili, he said he wanted to take out Mike and prove to the team that he is something to be seen.  His cod was cooked to perfection, and the beer added a good taste to it and was praised for his outside the box thinking.  It was a tough decision for Ramsay, but Mike’s chili dish had won by the perfect seasoning touches. After receiving the safety pin he said he was a force to be reckoned with. He then told Brittany and Mike that the pins can only be used in the first four services and was told to use it wisely.

Gordon then asked Daphne and Aarón for the worst two dishes on each team. Daphne said that the two worst dishes on the red team were Pamela and Katie. Pamela said she knew it since she doesn’t cook chili, while Katie described the feeling as getting hit by a freight train. Aarón said the worst two dishes on the blue team belonged to Garrett and Omar. Garrett was shocked that he was in the bottom, while Omar suspected it because of that cornbread. First was Pamela with her beef and barbecue sauce chili. Gordon said that the sauce didn’t make sense with the chili itself. Next was Garrett with his pork chili and corn dumplings. Not only did the dumplings not make sense with the dish, but the pork was undercooked. Next was Katie and her hatch chile stew with tortillas. The stew was salty and the tortillas were incredibly misshapen. Katie was distraught by her bad performance and said she was better than that. Last was Omar with his venison chili and jalapeno cornbread. The chili was nice but the cornbread was described to be wretched by Gordon. He said the chili had more spice than that bread and the bread tasted somewhat bitter.

After Gordon judged the dishes carefully, he made his decision. First, he told both Katie and Omar to get back in the kitchen, making them both relieved. He narrowed it down to Pamela and Garrett. After close examination from the two dishes, he finally chose Pamela to get back in the kitchen and told Garrett to give him his jacket. Garrett hands it over and walks out of Hell’s Kitchen. Garrett said in his elimination quote that he got too cocky and should have been more cautious with his cooking.

## Before Service

After the challenge, all the chefs return to the dorms relieved that they just survived the challenge. Jacob wasn’t surprised that Garrett went home, in fact he thought it was an improvement of the team.

After a little while, Gordon calls the chefs into the kitchen for a meeting. Once everyone gets in their lines, he asks if everyone is ready for the first service which everyone replies positively. Gordon said that he expects the best out of the chefs and the services prove who can stand the heat of a massive kitchen and who cannot.

## Service

 Meat
 Fish
 Garnish
 Tableside

A tableside appetizer of Brittany and Seth’s winning chili bowls was served by Holly in the red kitchen, and Diego in the blue kitchen. The first order of the night went into the blue team, and they ordered 2 risottos and 1 steak tartare. Cedric's risotto was quickly accepted with Seth's lobster. However, Franky’s tartare was under seasoned. Franky was upset at this because he thought more seasoning would ruin the taste of the steak. Mike was confused on how you mess up a tartare since you don’t even have to cook it. Another order of foie gras and octopus was accepted, even when Omar needed some more time on the foie gras for an unknown reason. Over in the red kitchen, they received an order of 1 spaghetti and 2 salads. Katie got confused by how fast the kitchen was going already on the first order and needed a recall on the order, which Gordon was confused on. Pamela was on appetizers and wanted to prove herself as a worthy person in the kitchen. Rebecca was able to serve the salads with no complaints but Pamela served a carbonara and not a spaghetti. Pamela was berated by Gordon, and Lauren mentioned that carbonara and spaghetti are two different pastas and didn’t need an explanation on the difference. Despite their confusion, Pamela was able to serve a perfectly cooked spaghetti. Then, they received an order of 2 scallops and 2 flatbread. Rebecca was cooking the flatbread, and she said this was her chance to shine. But when she put both flatbreads on the pass, Gordon stopped by the kitchen to show the ladies that one of the flatbreads was slightly overcooked and the second was burnt badly. Gordon told the kitchen to wake up or to get out. Rebecca was embarrassed how she messed up something like a flatbread. She was able to refire the flatbreads and send them out.

It was onto entrees and Holly and Diego returned to the respective kitchens. In the blue kitchen, they got their first order of 1 new york strip, 1 cod, and 2 chicken. Jacob was a bit on edge because he worked in a steakhouse and wasn’t familiar with cooking fish but when he served the cod it was cooked perfectly, which relieved Jacob. It was quite obvious that Franky was a little frazzled on the meat station with all this pressure. Mike saw this and helped him out but was annoyed that he had to be the babysitter that night. Taylor also helped him out but was caught by Gordon and told him to get back to his station and let Franky do his work. When he sent up the two chicken, one was cooked perfectly but the other was undercooked, Franky got on the refire and sent up the chicken perfectly.

In the red kitchen, Gordon saw that only Natalie was cooking fish and wanted to know where Veronica was. Veronica was caught preparing desserts, and was asked why she wasn’t on her station, she thought that Natalie was fine and didn’t need help. She was yelled at for not being a team player and needed to be on the fish until the entrees were done. Brittany said she didn’t like how Veronica was just on her own thing and didn’t care about her partner. They got an order of 2 salmon and 3 strips. While Lauren and Emily were able to serve out the strips perfectly cooked, Veronica sent up raw salmon with not an ounce of seasoning. Her and Natalie were told to refire, and Natalie sent out both salmon dishes nicely. But they couldn’t get the orders out because Katie needed more time on the garnish and was told to hurry up.

Meanwhile, the blue team continued to excel and send out the entrees. Cedric and Taylor were called into the red kitchen to help the fish station. They eventually served out the entrees perfectly without problems. Both kitchens were then shown getting desserts out.

When Gordon called both teams over, the blue team were declared the winners and were praised for an above average service. He then told the red team that he wanted two nominees for who did the worst. Holly was upset that she had a team that happened to do terrible on the first service. Seth on the blue team was happy that he was able to have a good first impression on Hell’s Kitchen by winning the first service, he hopes that the other services went the same way.

## Deliberation

The red team got to the dorms and started discussing the nominees. They said they wanted Rebecca to go up for the burnt flatbreads in the appetizers. However, they had trouble deciding if Veronica should be put up for her lack of communication and experience on the fish station or Pamela for messing up the spaghetti dishes by making carbonara. Pamela repeatedly stated that she shouldn’t go up because she sent up the wrong thing and never had an undercooked or overcooked dish. Veronica rebutted that said that if she doesn’t know to either make a carbonara or a spaghetti then she didn’t deserve to be here. Emily was mad that the red team needed to fight over the nominations.

## Elimination

At elimination, Gordon asked Natalie for the two nominations from the red team. She first nominated Rebecca for the flatbread mistake, which Gordon agreed. When asked for the second nominee, Natalie hesitated at first but sent Veronica for the fish station. Gordon also agreed. Rebecca and Veronica were sent forward. In Rebecca’s plea, she said that what she did tonight was not a definition of her and she deserved to stay more because of her “talent.” Gordon said that he was confused how she was able to make a flatbread burnt if the other was cooked perfectly. Rebecca said she was confused at the time and said she wouldn’t do it again. Gordon told Veronica that she looked lost in space. Veronica said that she wanted to help the team farther by making a meal before so they can send it out perfectly later. Gordon said that she needed to focus on the entrees before the desserts. Gordon had a very hard decision to make and ultimately sent Rebecca back in line and eliminated Veronica for her lack of talent and communication. Veronica said that she was ashamed that she didn’t help the team by looking ahead into something else. Gordon told the teams that he isn’t looking for anyone who can’t handle the kitchen and told them to get out.

***Gordon’s Comment: “Veronica didn’t help her team and decided to do her own thing. I can’t allow someone to lead if they can’t even follow.”***