Episode 4: Homerun or Washout

The chefs returned to the dorms following CJ's elimination and neither team were happy with how the last dinner service went, Freya called out Dani and Rebecca for their bickering during service and when Dani accused Freya of not being a team player Freya angrily pointed out that she was dealing with the comedown from her allergic reaction during the punishment, Dani, as egotistical as she was, seemed genuinely apologetic for it as she claimed that she hadn't noticed Freya's absence from the kitchen or Ramsey checking on her when he came up to the dorm but Freya just brushed it off.

The Blue Team were in a similarly bad mood that night with Andreas outright asking Ritchie if his head was in the competition, though Ritchie claimed it was Andreas, Mark and Leo weren't convinced but opted to just get through the next challenge rather that dwell on it.

## Individual Challenge

The chefs were taken off site to a local baseball field for the next challenge where Ramsey revealed that they'd be playing baseball for ingredients in the upcoming American Classics challenge, the chefs would take it in turns going up to bat and the dishes would be written on the baseballs, whichever one they hit being the one they got, the chefs did well for the most part with the exception of Andreas who, by his own admission, wasn't much of a sports fan and took ten tries to hit a baseball much to the amusement of the women and the annoyance of the men, Andreas took it in his stride though, joking that he had set a new Hell's Kitchen record.

Once they returned to Hell's Kitchen the chefs got their assigned dishes, Freya and Andreas would face off in the battle of Mac and Cheese, Rebecca and Ritchie got apple pie, Leo and Erika got burgers, Dani and Mark got pizza, Jenna and Henry got Spaghetti and Meatballs (which excited Jenna since she could draw on her Italian heritage), Eddie and Jayne got meatloaf, Josh and Rachel got fried chicken, Taylor and Matt would get hot dogs and as the women had an extra member Yuri would get a free choice, she opted to cook Fried Chicken.

The resulting challenge produced mixed results, Andreas and Freya earned a point each for their interpretations of Mac and Cheese whilst neither Rebecca or Ritchie scored a point in the apple pie round (Ritchie's pie was raw on the bottom and Rebecca's attempt at using a hack to get her pie to cook faster resulted in her pie being burnt), Erika's burger beat Leo's in a close round whilst Mark got his first challenge win after Dani's pizza was found to be raw on the bottom, Jenna and Henry both earned praise for their spaghetti and meatballs with them both earning a pointand Eddie and Jayne's meatloafs were both raw and under-seasoned, Yuri's fried chicken was selected instead of Rachel's and proved to be the right choice as she earned an easy point against Josh's salty fried chicken allowing Taylor to secure the challenge win for the women with her upscale take on hot dogs.

## Reward

The women were treated to a day at a local baseball game as well as getting to meet the team, Freya admitted to knowing nothing about baseball aside from the bats being used as a weapon in one of her favorite movies (Casino) but enjoyed being away from Hell's Kitchen none the less.

## Punishment

The men where tasked with cleaning the baseballs before they could be returned to the field and then prepping both kitchens for dinner service, Andreas was unhappy with how badly the rest of the team had performed in the challenge but managed to keep it cool by focusing on the next challenge.

## Before Service

Once the women returned from the game Ramsey told them that last night was an embarrassment and that there couldn't be another service like that before starting service.

## Dinner Service

 **Appetizers** | Jenna and Dani
 **Meat** | Freya and Yuri
 **Fish** | Rebecca and Jayn
 **Garnish** | Taylor

As bad as last night's service was, tonight's service was even worse despite getting food out because both teams had problems across different sections, Jenna had time for none of Dani's crap and after a while they were able to get food out whilst Leo and Eddie turned in a horrible performance on the Blue Team's apps, Leo eventually getting them kicked out for serving a terrible carbonara, but the straw that broke the camel's back was the Red Team's Fish Station and the Blue Team's Meat Station, Rebecca had done such a terrible job filleting the salmon that there was no acceptable fillets for either team and got the Red Team kicked out for serving burnt halibut whilst Ritchie never got it together on meat, getting the Blue Team kicked out for serving raw chicken three times in a row.

## Post-mortem

A furious Chef Ramsey stopped both teams in the corridor and demanded to know what had happened to them over the past two services, he then announced that he wouldn't be satisfied with just two nominations from each team telling them to come up with three nominations each.

The choices were easy for both teams, the Blue Team were sending up Leo, Eddie and Ritchie for their failures on apps and meat whilst the Red Team were sending up Dani, Jenna and Rebecca for their terrible performances on apps and fish.

## Elimination

Ramsey was outright questioning if he should eliminate everyone and start fresh with a new batch of chefs that night before asking for the nominees, Matt named Eddie, Leo and Ritchie as the men's nominees whilst Taylor named Jenna, Dani and Rebecca as the Red Team's nominees, Ramsey asked Ritchie if he had even been to culinary school before at which point he answered yes, promoting him to ask why the YouTuber from the previous season had outperformed him despite having no training (Zara) to which Ritchie had no answer, Leo and Eddie apologized for their bad performance that night with Leo promising that it was a one off.

Ramsey questioned the women next and Jenna apologized for dropping the ball again, saying that she was getting better whilst Dani claimed she was a team player in spite of the evidence saying otherwise and Rebecca was embarrassed by how much food she had wasted filleting that salmon, claiming that she had successfully filleted salmon before and that tonight was a fluke.

Ramsey ultimately eliminated Ritchie for clearly being the weakest performer that night, he then announced a team shakeup, moving Jenna and Freya to the Blue Team whilst moving Eddie and Henry to the Red.

Ritchie's elimination statement: *“I thought I’d go a lot further than this in the competition but I guess Ramsey saw a lot more potential in Leo, Eddie and the girls, right now the only thing I can do is go home, pick myself back up and continue on my culinary adventures, shame that Gordon Ramsey won’t be guiding me along the way.”*

Ramsey's elimination statement: *“Everyone at Hell’s Kitchen starts at the bottom, Ritchie stayed there.”*