Episode AVSSOHK05: Going Big For Brunch

The fifth episode of A Very Special Season of Hell's Kitchen will air on January 30, 2024. In that episode, the chefs served brunch for a high school pep rally, an advantage was used, and a major switch-up occurred after a successful service.

## Intro

While returning to the dorms, **Maya** felt so relived to still be standing, and knew her team would be fighting. **Zoey** told Maya to take Ramsay's criticisms and bounce back the next day, but Lexi felt that Zoey is still one of the weakest on the red team. As Zoey admitted she was not, that led to a small argument between Zoey and Lexi over if they put up the right people for elimination. However, the argument ended quickly, as **Mariah** told Lexi was that the red team must start working together as a team.

## Team challenge

The next day, both teams were up by 8:14 AM at a slow pace when the phone rang. Ramsay told **Patrick** to bring everybody outside immediately. When they went outside, the chefs saw all sorts of high school sports teams running towards Hell's Kitchen, making **Joey** pumped, as he revealed he played lacrosse in high school. With the chefs not knowing what was going on, Ramsay revealed that today was a high school's annual pep rally, and that the chefs would be serving brunch to them for **Pep Rally Brunch Service Challenge**. Ramsay prepared a simple brunch menu for the students and staff of the school. The team who completed their orders first was the winner, which made Lexi pumped to finally win a challenge.

For the Pep Rally brunch service, the menu consisted of a fruit salad appetizer and three entrées; toast and scrambled eggs, French omelet, and Belgian buttermilk waffles. Both Maya and **Hayden** took the lead on fruit salads for their respective teams, and both teams were pushing out salads at a strong pace. **Eric** was grateful that it was an easy wedding menu because he did not want to mess it up. Eventually, both teams received their first entrée order, which was for the head table. While **Amelia** claimed that making breakfast was easy, they had to coordinate with the men to get their food out simultaneously. However, Jayden’s egg burst due to cooking on high heat, and Amelia also saw that the bread was burnt. As Ramsay was impatiently waiting for Jayden, which Lexi knew was never good, Lexi begged **Ava Claire** to take the lead on the omelet station. Ramsay noticed that Dylan’s pan was not hot enough in the blue kitchen, leaving a greasy portion of bread on the pan, and Hayden deemed that a rookie mistake. Ramsay told Dylan he did not want the couple to worry about their cholesterol level, and the latter had no excuse.

Forty-five minutes into service, Ava Claire tried to push Jayden for the omelet refire, but when Jayden had Ava Claire walk up a omelet she knew was not good. Sure enough, Ramsay rejected it for having raw egg on top before ordering Jayden and Ava Claire to either get themselves together, but Ava Claire was disappointed in Jayden for not showing the experience she should have. **Garrett** told Dylan that one of their eggs needed more time to cook in the blue kitchen, but the latter claimed that it was how it should be. However, Ramsay deemed the egg raw but blamed Dylan for sending it up even though he knew it was Ralph’s fault.

One hour into service, both teams were still working on their entrees, as a frustrated Ramsay ordered the women to speed up. Jayden continued to claim she could cook an egg but felt too many people were in her way. However, she finally got the refire accepted, and the women got a few tables out. The men served a few tables out, and both teams were getting the rest of the entrées out. Eventually, the men were on their final order but were waiting on Patrick and Joey for the scrambled eggs as the former told the latter to make more as their initial batch was not enough. When Joey announced it could take five minutes, Ramsay was in disbelief, and **Elijah** asked why the former did not have two pans fired. Ramsay ordered Joey to help cook the scrambled eggs so they would be twice as fast instead of twice as slow. The women were working on their final order in the red kitchen, but Ramsay pulled out a burnt egg from Jayden’s pan, asking how she could make something like that happen. When Jayden did not answer, a frustrated Ava Claire told her to get herself together, only for Jaydeb to complain that it was hot. In the blue kitchen, despite Joey bringing up his eggs first, they were of inconsistent servings. The women got their order out first, therefore declaring them the winner of the challenge, and Zoey was ecstatic that the red team finally won a challenge. As the men finished their order, Garrett called Dylan and Joey weak on the line.

## Reward

The women were rewarded with rollerskating at a local mall, a day at Dave and Busters, and lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. During the reward, Zoey was ready to let the crap from the previous three losses out of her system, while Lexi and Mariah hit targets by imagining they were the blue team. At lunch, Hayden liked the women's positive energy as Maya enjoyed Hayden's fun personality.

## Punishment

The men were punished by taking in deliveries of Alaskan salmon and prepping them for the following service.Ramsay asked Hayden if he was going to use his Punishment Pass, and he immediately said yes, due to him wanting to go on as many rewards as he could. Hayden decided to take Jayden's place, and Hayden knew that Jayden was a weak link in the red team and wanted to surround himself with the best. Jayden was fine with doing the punishment as she struggled with the omelets that morning and knew that if her team lost, her team would blame her.

During the punishment, Patrick knew that some of them fell short in the challenge, and it would be rough to do their first punishment. **Sous Chef Jason** instructed the men and Jayden how to handle the fish as the women and Hayden walked through the blue kitchen. Later, Sous Chef Jason was impressed with Eric's salmon prep, shocking the latter as he had less experience than his teammates. In contrast, Dylan was slowly fileting the fish, and he got angry that she was lagging behind her teammates. However, Joey got concerned because Dylan could not do simple prep work.

## Before service

When the women and Hayden came back from their reward, Hayden and Maya were in the hot tub together with Hayden in one of Garrett's speedos and Maya in her bikini and they were flirting and getting close and all hot. Hayden kept blushing because he thought Maya looked adorable in her bikini and wished that she could take it off. Maya wanted to spend as much as time with Hayden outside of the kitchen and hoped they could have cute moments like that.

Later that evening, both teams prepped for dinner service. As both teams lined up, Ramsay asked the men who had the best performance at Dave and Busters. The red team surprisngly said that Hayden did, and Ramsay awarded Hayden with a Vitamix blender. Hayden was excited to have something new in his cooking collection and could not wait to try it. Moving onto business, Ramsay said that night would be a busy one and asked the chefs to continue to taste the success they had. Afterwards, Ramsay asked **Marino** to open Hell's Kitchen.

## Dinner service

The men got their first order after Eric swore no one was going home, while the women got their first order not long after. Before Lexi dropped the scallops, Ramsay told her to communicate with Jayden about the appetizers as he did not want overcooked scallops. Jayden acknowledged the ups and downs she had with Jayden and Amelia, but she wanted them to get off to a strong start. The dishes were sent up, but Lexi's risotto lacked seasoning, and everyone said it needed salt after tasting it. Also, Ramsay gave Jayden a greasy overcooked scallop to feel and showed the women raw lobster tails. Having no idea what happened, Ramsay asked the women if they could get a grip and raise their standards. The women said they would, but Zoey was unhappy that they dropped the ball at the start of the night. In the blue kitchen, Joey said he would crush the hot appetizers as he knew the men would win and sent up his risottos. While Jacob walked up his lobster tails, Ramsay asked where the scallops were. They were not ready, and Ramsay pulled the men to the front for a lecture. Despite Joey serving a delicious risotto, Ramsay asked why neither Dylan or Jacob had dropped the scallops earlier. Eric admitted it was a communication breakdown, but Joey was unhappy as his risotto was perfect. As the men worked on the refire, Hayden told his teammates to refocus themselves.

In the red kitchen, Jayden thought her scallops were sexy and had Lexi walk them to the pass. However, they were overcooked, and Ramsay showed them to the women. As the women started over for the third time, Maya said it should not be hard to get out of the gates. With red diners waiting impatiently, the men worked on their refire as Dylan and Jacob worked on the scallops. Despite Ramsay's impatience, the order was sent out.

Thirty minutes into service, the women's third attempt went to the pass, and Jayden prayed it was right. Fortunately, the order went out, and Sandra was relieved. As both teams pushed out appetizers, Ramsay began firing entrées in the blue kitchen. But Ramsay caught Dylan not answering back and had the latter call the order out. Dylan incorrectly called out a six-top table with four items on it and felt his voice getting weak as he kept calling out times. In the red kitchen, the women worked on their next order, and Mariah wanted to get it right for the former as she watched her every night when she grew up. However, Mariah was unhappy when Lexi and Jayden served the halibut without her knowledge, as she did not think the steaks were okay. Still, Zoey walked them up, and they were undercooked. As Mariah flash-fried them, she blamed the fish station for rushing her. Fortunately, the refired order was accepted. The men's first entrée ticket went out in the blue kitchen as Ramsay told Jacob his halibut was overcooked, but managed to get his refire accepted. As the blue diners enjoyed their entrées, the men got to work on their following order. To ensure that the Wellingtons did not get overcooked, Elijah decided to rest them for a bit longer. Joey got concerned by that but hoped Elijah knew what he was doing. Maya took the lead on timings and tickets in the red kitchen, hoping the men and Ramsay heard her, with Jayden liked how Maya took control of the orders, with Maya knew this had to be a bounce-back service for her, and being vocal would help her be safe that night.

One and a half hours into service, Elijah tried to serve his Wellingtons, but Jayden stepped in and checked which one was perfect. As the men bickered, Elijah served overcooked Wellingtons with broken pastry. Also, Ramsay told the men that the halibut Dylan served was undercooked and had the latter go outside to look at the HK sign as a reminder of where he was. Ramsay scolded Elijah for resting them for too long as it was the worst thing they could have done to it. After Dylan returned to the kitchen, Hayden was determined to get the refired ticket done and get themselves ahead of the game. Dylan was ready to bounce back as the refire was accepted, and both teams served their remaining tickets with no more mistakes. But in the red kitchen, Jayden and Amelia's refire was accepted, and the service concluded.

## Post-mortem

When both teams lined up, Ramsay called it an evening of bounce-back, with both the blue team and the red team winning that night. But because the competition must continue, they were asked to nominate two people for elimination.

During deliberation, Mariah knew that they must get rid of dead weight before nominating the fish station. Jayden claimed she would not have served that burnt salmon and felt she did not deserve to go home as she killed it on fish. Still, Mariah reminded them they had to refire scallops three times, but Amelia argued that she only messed up on one order. Lexi refused to go home as she knew what was at stake, while Mariah wanted to focus on why the service was not perfect. On the blue side, Patrick brought Dylan's name as she did not think Jacob had a bad night, but nominated Joey because of his own struggles. Joey argued that he was consistent but did not want to bring her team. Still, Joey felt that Jacob and Dylan deserved to go up, and the men began voting on who to nominate. It ended in a three-way tie between Dylan, Jacob, and Joey leaving the men deadlocked.

## Elimination

Before asking for the nominees, Ramsay told both teams that they deserved to feel good, but still one of them would be sent home. Ava Claire announced Jayden as the women's first nominee for elimination and Lexi as their second, while Patrick announced Dylan as the men's first nominee and Jacob as their second. During their pleas, Ramsay asked Jayden why she has not found her voice, but she felt she had improved since starting and had much more inside her. Then, Lexi said she had made a name for herself and has been consistent. Ramsay asked Dylan what happened tonight, and Dylan felt that he let himself down as he knew he could do better and that he was a very smart chef, and Jacob admitted he was not the weakest and very strong on the line. After sending Lexi and Jacob back in line, Ramsay eliminated Dylan for struggling in recent performances and not stepping up on his station. During his exit interview, Dylan knew he did not do as good as he wanted, but believed he did strong the whole time because of how many wins his team received.

After Dylan left, Ramsay was satisfied with that night's service, but the competition would get harder. While being dismissed, Jayden did not think her two nominations were valid and said that she wanted to come back strong. Then, Jacob was not surprised to still be standing as he knew Chef Ramsay kept him around because of his determination.

Ramsay's comment: "Dylan admits that he is a smart chef, but smart chefs don't always make the most talented chefs."

## Team switch

When returning to the dorms, Hayden and Maya went immediately back to the hot tub, but when about to get ready to go in, the phone rang. Patrick answered it, and it was Chef Ramsay, wanting both teams to come back down for an announcement. Immediately after hanging up, Patrick told everyone to go back downstairs, with Eric wondering what was going on. Once everyone was downstairs, Ramsay said that despite having a good night, everyone must know that everyone needs to be able to work with everyone still standing. So, starting tomorrow, Amelia, Maya, and Zoey would be joining the blue team, and Elijah, Eric, and Joey would be joining the red team. Everyone was shocked by that announcement, and the episode ended on a cliffhanger.

## Trivia

* **Title Reference**: The title refers to the Pep Rally Service Brunch Challenge, with the chefs making brunch for the enthusiastic students and staff.