Episode 8: Who Gets The Chop

As the teams returned to the dorms the Red Team had mixed emotions, they were happy to have someone as strong as Andreas on their side but in the process they had lost the well liked Eddie and were stuck with Dani for another day, Andreas promised to do the best he could though Dani's ego already started rubbing him the wrong way from the offset, not helped by Yuri saying that she was always like this when asked.

In the Blue Team Freya had been left with a lot to think about following the team switch, admitting to the guys that she saw it as an opportunity for herself as much as it was for Andreas since the team switch meant that a new leader would have to emerge from the Blue Team if they wanted to keep up with the Red Team, the guys agreed with her sentiment but not with Freya naming herself with Mark pointing out that she hadn't been in the team since the beginning though Leo pointed out that they had only started winning services again after Freya was moved to the Blue Team with Jenna.

## Individual Challenge

When the chefs came downstairs the next morning they found Ramsey standing in front of anatomy drawings of several animals, namely chicken, cows and pigs, when prompted to name some of the more popular cuts from these animals Andreas named the ribeye for the cow, Freya named the chicken thighs for the chicken but it was Yuri that was able to guess the theme of the challenge by naming Pork Chop, Ramsey gave the chefs sixty minutes to produce a stunning pork chop dish promising an amazing reward for the winner.

The challenge produced mixed results, Freya took a massive risk by making a pork and apple risotto and using the pork chop's bone to make the stock but it paid off big time as the risotto was delicious whilst Andreas' similarly risky dish of a stuffed pork chop wowed Ramsey with it's flavors, other standout dishes included Leo's pork roulade, Mark's pan seared pork chop, Yuri's pan roasted pork chop and Rachel's pork three ways but there were some duds as well, Dani's pork chop turned out to be burnt costing the red team a point and earning Ramsey's ire when she said that she wanted "some char" on her chop that was clearly burnt whilst Erika's pork chop was raw in the middle and Jason's, Taylor's, Henry's and Josh's dishes had perfectly cooked pork but problems with their sides. In the end though it was Matt's blackened pork chop that won the Blue Team the day and Andreas, having already grown tired of Dani's ego, used his punishment pass to join his former teammates on one last reward choosing Freya to take his place, Freya asked Ramsey if she could use her own punishment pass to get out of the punishment but sadly for her Ramsey said that it didn't work that way.

## Reward

Andreas joined the Blue Team on a day trip to a local theme park where they had the whole park to themselves pretty much the only ride Andreas didn't go on was the roller-coaster, admitting that he was afraid of heights and had only flown out to Hell's Kitchen out of necessity but he still had a great time with his former teammates.

## Punishment

Freya joined the Red Team in preparing the special pork chop dish for that night's service and it didn't take Dani long at all to get on Freya's last nerve, admitting to Chef Christina that she was imagining Dani's face on her cutting board to help her get through the punishment quicker, whilst they were prepping the kitchens for the service an argument broke out between Yuri and Dani which required Freya and Rachel to break it up, leading Freya to comment that she had never seen that side of Yuri before.

## Before Service

Once the Blue Team returned and Andreas swapped places with Freya he apologized to her for making her put up with Dani all day, Freya said that it was fine as long as he didn't mind sleeping with one eye open, her tone of voice making it clear that Freya was joking around.

## Dinner Service

 **Meat** | Dani
 **Fish** | Yuri and Rachel
 **Garnish** | Henry and Taylor

A pork chop special was on the menu for that evening, Andreas and Matt got their respective teams off to the strongest start seen thus far during the season with Ramsey calling both men to the pass to praise them and urge them to keep it at that level, however once they got past apps it was a different story in both kitchens, whilst the Blue Team were a well oiled machine the Red Team couldn't get it together at all with Yuri having her first bad night (even then it was more mediocre than anything else) whilst Dani bombed on meats, eventually getting kicked out for trying to cook pork and chicken in the same pan and requiring Andreas to take over, Andreas got the red team back on track and Yuri was able to recover from her mistakes leading to both teams completing service.

## Post-mortem

Whilst Ramsey praised both teams for completing service he pointed out that the Red Team were painful to watch at times, awarding the win to the Blue Team, he then named Andreas Best of the Worst for saving the day on the meat station and told him to come up with twp names for elimination.

Andreas's first choice was easy as Dani had been the root cause of the Red Team's problems that night and had alienated the rest of the cast with her ego but he had a rougher time coming up with the second nominee as the only other person to perform badly was Yuri who wasn't nearly as bad, that is until Yuri talked Andreas into putting her up, both because she knew that she could perform better than how she did tonight and because she wanted to make sure Dani went home tonight.

## Elimination

Andreas's first name didn't surprise anyone as Dani had been a consistently weak performer throughout the competition, however when he named Yuri as his second nominee the other chefs (aside from Dani and Yuri) were shocked but Yuri explained that she knew that she didn't perform up to her standards.

After hearing both pleas (including Dani's request to be moved to the Blue Team which none of the Blue Team members wanted) Ramsey acted like he was going to eliminate Yuri before sending her back in line, finally eliminating Dani much to the elation of the other chefs.

Dani's elimination statement: *“I don’t belong out here! My destiny is to win Hell’s Kitchen but now that’s been taken away from me! The Red Team is gonna fall apart without me on their team, just you watch!”*

Ramsey's elimination comment: *“If Dani’s cooking talents were the size of her ego, she’d be the one to beat, unfortunately, she ended up being the one to get beat and that’s why her stay in Hell’s Kitchen was a short one.”*