Episode AVSSOHK03: Fitness To The Finish Line

The third episode of A Very Special Season of Hell's Kitchen aired on January 16, 2024. In that episode, the chefs used their basic skills for a relay race, an unforgettable reward occured, and while one team bounced back, the other found themselves back on the chopping block.

## Intro

While returning to the dorms, **Eric** called being nominated the most humbling and scariest experience he had dealt with, mainly because he wanted to do this for himself and his family. As Eric apologized for his performance, **Joey** reassured the former that he had a moment and it was over. Meanwhile near the hot tub, **Amelia** and **Lexi** were bonding over their shared experiences in high school, which included shared sports and cooking. Then, Lexi accidentally fell in the top, and got all wet, and she was happy Chef Ramsay did not have to see that.

## Team challenge

The next day, **Sous Chef Christina** and **Sous Chef Jason** brought hats and long-sleeve shirts for the chefs to wear for their next challenge and to meet Ramsay where the SUVs would take them. When the chefs put on their new gear, Eric wondered where the chefs were going. Once at a local football field, Ramsay revealed that he wanted to focus on teamwork that day, and that they would ride tandem bicycles as Sous Chef Christina and Sous Chef Jason rode one, and **Fiyorina** was scared to ride a bicycle, let alone one with two people on them. After that, Ramsay introduced the **Basics Relay Challenge**. Each team was broken into pairs, with one red chef going twice and one blue pair going twice, and had to ride their bicycles half away across the track to the other side over to the cooking station before performing some basic prep work. These included peeling and deveining a dozen shrimp, breaking down two whole chickens, shucking a dozen oysters, filet four trouts, and prepare two perfect egg white omelets. The first team to complete all five tasks would win the challenge, and as **Patrick** deemed it cooking 101, they would either know it or need to get the hell out. While the men quickly agree on which pairs were doing what, with **Elijah** saying that the weak links would work the stronger links, the women were slow to decide as **Zoey** deemed it annoying that they could not communicate, but eventually came up with a decision.

The first pairs were Elijah and Eric, and Lexi and **Mariah**. As Elijah and Eric struggled to pedal their bicycle, Eric did not want to let the men down. As both pairs made it to their stations, Eric peeled while Elijah deveined the men’s shrimp, while Lexi was about to devein her shrimp before peeling it until Ramsay stopped her, much to Mariah’s dismay. Elijah and Eric got their first attempt up to Ramsay, and they got them all accepted, giving the men 1-0. However, Eric struggled to get his bicycle moving until Elijah gave him a push. Lexi and Mariah brought up their first attempt, and they were all accepted, tying the score one each as **Garrett** and **Jacob** began breaking down the men’s chickens. As Kara and Maya left for the women, the former felt she felt she was going to fast because of her strong legs before making it to their station. Both pairs brought up their first attempts simultaneously. While Dylan and Garrett still had the wings on the thighs, Garrett blamed Jacob for not checking his chicken before sending it up, Kara and Maya’s first attempt was approved, and the women led 2-1. Moments later, Anton and Chris got their second attempt accepted, tying the score two each as the pair of Fiyorina and **Jayden** began working on the oysters. Soon, the pair of Patrick and Joey made it to their station and quickly got their first attempt ready. After Ramsay approved all twelve of the oysters, the men led at 3-2. Still, Fiyorina and Jayden quickly got their first attempt accepted as well, making it a 3-point tie. As the fourth round commenced, **Dylan** and **Hayden** quickly got their trouts fileted and sent up to Ramsay, but Ava Claire and Zoey came up as well. Ramsay approved both pairs' first attempts, and the score was tied at four each. Elijah and Eric went up again raced Amelia and Lexi to their stations for the final round. However, once again Eric had trouble riding the bicycle because Eric was so small. As Eric knew anybody could win due to how close both pairs were, he wished not to screw up as Amelia refused to lose. Amelia struggled to separate her eggs due to shaky hands, but eventually, Elijah and Eric brought up their first attempts. Despite Zoey hoping they did poorly, Ramsay accepted them, and the men won 5-4. Eric felt good that the men kicked ass that day and even wanted to keep his helmet.

## Reward

The men were rewarded with a Los Angeles-styled pool party at the Godfrey Hotel with a lunch catered by Craig’s. During the reward, the men gazed at Garrett’s speedo, and Hayden wished he could have one. During lunch, Dylan said he would never get a meal like that back home, while Eric found a cooked piece of chicken on his plate. Dylan jokingly asked Eric if he cooked it, making the men laugh in response. Elijah pointed out that they won despite having one less person, which meant they were growing over the women. Also, Garrett did not believe the women could clean up the whole turf.

## Punishment

The women were punished by cleaning up the mess on the running track and football field. Ramsay asked Mariah if she wanted to use her Punishment Pass, but she decided to stay with the women. During the punishment, Amelia said it sucked to lose again, and the mess was overwhelming. Meanwhile, Fiyorina knew that they could not missed anything.

## Before service

Later that day, the men returned to Hell’s Kitchen, changed, and prepped for service with the women. After some last-minute suggestions from Ramsay and the Sous Chefs, the former asked **Marino** to open Hell’s Kitchen.

## Dinner service

Zoey and Garrett cooked Cobb salad in the dining room. The men got their first order, and Hayden thought showing Ramsay he could be a leader by working with Eric would be good. Hayden got his appetizers accepted while Ramsay called out the first order in the red kitchen. Ava Claire knew the appetizers would set the beginning of the night and prayed they could make it through without mistakes. Although Ava Claire got her risotto out, Kara was late on the lobster tail and frantically poached it. Kara admitted that she never poached a lobster tail before and had Maya walk it to the front. However, it was raw, and Ramsay told her to heat it up as he would like to get out of the gates strong. An annoyed Mariah told Kara to wake up, and Ava Claire could not believe the latter screwed up on something easy. Fortunately, the refire was accepted, and both kitchens sent out appetizers at a steady pace.

As the men began firing entrées, Dylan had confidence that the men could follow through on their challenge victory and wanted that night to be the start of their dominance. However, Dylan’ pan caught fire, and Ramsay was forced to move it off the stovetop and into the sink. Ramsay told Dylan to slow down, and the latter did not want the former to see him in a negative light. As the men worked on their next order, Dylan had Jacob send up his chicken. However, it was raw, and Ramsay told off Dylan for serving it. Seeing that no one was helping Dylan, Hayden decided to jump in and help the former out by coaching him on the cook.

Forty-five minutes into service, the women worked on their next order as Maya asked Carmen for a time on proteins. Mariah said seven minutes, but Maya said she wanted it done in six minutes as she got annoyed by the former slow performance. When the proteins went up to the pass, Ramsay sent them out. Meanwhile, Garrett started conversing with a patron as he worked on the Cobb salad, knowing Ramsay expected him to do so as he called himself one sexy man. Dylan had Hayden walk up his refire in the blue kitchen, but it turned out to be burnt at the bottom. Dylan was unhappy that he served a burnt chicken, and Ramsay threatened with elimination if he did not get it together. Patrick was not pleased with Dylan’ poor performance, but the latter got his third attempt accepted. In the red kitchen, the women worked on their next ticket, but Ramsay told Mariah not to give him indirect timings when she started explaining possible window times. As Mariah kept micromanaging the garnish station, Fiyorina got annoyed by her partner’s attitude, demanding that Mariah focus on the meat station. As the orders went to the pass, Ramsay discovered raw halibut and angrily told Maya to baste it. Then, Ramsay had everyone but Maya stand at the pass with him to show how painful it was to wait for a refire when most of the dishes were ready. Mariah did not like disappointing Ramsay as Maya served a burnt refire. Ramsay told Sous Chef Christina to work on the third attempt while he was forced to send out an incomplete order. As the women finally got Ramsay’s pain, they worked on the following order.

In the blue kitchen, Dylan and Jacob stammered on timings while Eric tried to see if he could help after completing appetizers. However, everyone wanted Eric’s help, as Patrick did not want the former to wreck their momentum. As the men sent out the proteins, Ramsay sliced into a medium-rarer steak and discovered a perfect Wellington. After Ramsay sent out the table, Jacob was so happy to see food consistently leave the kitchen. In the red kitchen, Lexi sent out the garnish for the steak in the red kitchen, but Fiyorina sent up a raw steak. Frustrated, Ramsay brought the women to the back pantry and showed them the raw steak. Ramsay ordered the women to have a quick meeting and get it together, or else they were done for. Fiyorina took responsibility for the raw steak and said the refire could take three minutes. Then, Zoey told her team to return to the kitchen. Fiyorina said there was no time to waste as they were in Hell’s Kitchen and served her refired steak. However, it was raw again, and Ramsay kicked the women out of the kitchen, telling them to nominate two people for elimination. Mariah was not pleased to be kicked out after their strong start and felt Fiyorina had dropped the ball. Meanwhile, the blue team finished their tickets, and Eric felt pumped to win their first service.

## Post-mortem

Back at the dorms, Mariah wanted to focus on what got them kicked out of the kitchen, and Zoey asked her teammates what the first mistake of the evening was. Mariah told Zoey about Maya’s problems on the halibut, but while the latter argued that she owned up to those mistakes, she refused to leave over stupidity. Then, Mariah pointed out that Kara did nothing to help Maya and felt the former deserved to go home as she was in la la land for most of her time in the competition. Kara did not feel she deserved to be nominated, even though she brought up the raw lobster tail, and Maya brought up the communication problems between stations. Mariah argued that she tried her best, but Maya felt the former should have been more direct and did not like how Mariah was not taking responsibility. Zoey got annoyed by Mariah’s elongated explanations, and Fiyorina pointed out that the latter gave inconsistent timings. After some bickering, Fiyorina left the room as she could not stand to be near Mariah and felt the latter was not taking responsibility for her mistakes. After more bickering, a frustrated Jayden told everyone to shut up as they were getting nowhere.

## Elimination

After both teams came downstairs, Ramsay accused the red team of taking a big step backwards that night. Lexi announced Maya as the red team’s first nominee and Kara as their second. As both nominees stepped forward, Ramsay also called Ava Claire down. During their pleas, Maya said he was a fighter and wanted to own up to his mistakes that night to bounce back. However, Ramsay told Maya that she started off strong and was hoping that she would continue. Then, Ramsay asked Kara why she performed so poorly, but Kara wanted to prove to Ramsay she could do well. Then, Ava Claire said she was not the weakest chef for the women, but Ramsay called her down for getting the kitchen off to the worst start possible. After listening to their pleas, Ramsay sent Ava Claire back in line before eliminating Kara for not helping her teammate when needed and not owning her station. During her exit interview, Kara was disappointed that she was going home and wished she could own her mistakes that night.

After Kara left, Ramsay sent Maya back in line before telling the chefs that while he was rooting for them to do well, they must commit to their part on their journey. While being dismissed, Maya was happy to stay, but he knew Ramsay was watching her and hoped that Ramsay could also see that she could do more than she can. Then, Ava Claire said she had the drive and passion to win and did not understand why her name was called up. Lastly, Patrick was happy that the men kept winning and that they would all be at the end.

Ramsay's comment: "Kara was expected to be the president of the fish station, but after tonight her name will be removed from my election ballot."

## Trivia

* **Title Reference**: The title refers to the chefs racing their bicycles all the way to the end during the Basics Relay Challenge.