Episode 16: Family Feud

The Black Jackets were celebrating their win in the Black Jacket lounge when Gordon came in and announced that their first Black Jacket challenge was starting now, the startled contestants left the lounge to see their family members were still there and Ramsey revealed that their first challenge was to guide a family member through a dish without helping them cook.

After asking their family members some questions Ramsey made the following choices: Jamie would mentor her niece Chelsea, Jazz would mentor her older sister Emily, Zara would mentor her dad Frank, Troy would mentor his girlfriend Adriana and Max would mentor his wife Heather.

## Individual Challenge

The chefs decided to keep their dishes simple as Chef Ramsey had deliberately picked the family members with the least cooking experience, Chelsea could barely contain her excitement at cooking in the Blue Kitchen alongside her aunt but proved to be a good student as Jamie guided her through their pork chop dish, Jazz carefully guided Emily through preparing the calamari for their take on fish and chips and took the risk of using canned and fresh tomatoes in the marinara dipping sauce to give it more body, Zara an her dad decided to go with something they knew they could execute well, a fried chicken and waffle sandwich, and Zara guided her dad through the process, Troy took a relative risk by teaching his girlfriend how to make risotto confident that he could get it done in the time allotted whilst Max helped his wife prepare a ribeye steak.

Thirty minutes into the challenge and each pairing encountered different problems, Chelsea had gone to get some chillis from the pantry as she felt the dish lacked heat, she picked scotch bonnet chillis and made the mistake of scratching an itchy eye without washing her hand after prepping the chilli (with Jamie warning her too late), Zara and her dad found out the hard way that the chicken breast they were using was raw due to the oil temperature not being hot enough and Zara had to put the chicken in the oven for the remaining time and pray that it was going to cook in time, Jazz found out that the first batch of chips that they had put in the fryer wasn't hot enough and hastily put them back in after cranking up the temperature and Troy had to scrap the seafood risotto idea as the rice was taking too long to cook, instead opting for a prawn dish using the prawns that were already de-veined for the risotto and Max's risk of choosing a bone in ribeye was taking too long to cook.

Once time was up he chefs presented their dishes with their assigned family members, Chelsea and Jamie were first up and despite still being in pain from the chilli incident Chelsea was more than a little star struck when presenting her dish to Chef Ramsey, even so the pork chop was cooked perfectly and the dish was cooked to perfection, next up was Jazz and Emily and Ramsey found the calamari rings to be delicious and the marinara sauce to be well executed in spite of the canned tomatoes being in there, the only issue was Ramsey finding a long black hair in the dish (which could only belong to Jazz as her sister was a blonde) and the chips not being crispy enough, Zara and her dad presented their dish next and Zara admitted about the potential problem with the chicken right off the bat, fortunately the chicken was cooked through and the waffle sandwich was delicious but the side salad was overdressed, next up were Troy and Adriana who's prawn dish was deemed delicious but underwhelming due to the portion size at which point Troy explained the problems with the risotto, Ramsey then asked Adriana (who appeared to be just barely taller than Zara) how her relationship with the much taller Troy worked and she joked that she needed a ladder just to kiss him, the last pairing was Max and Heather and whilst the ribeye was cooked perfectly the sides were underwhelming.

Ultimately it came down to which dish was without fault, which meant that Jamie and Chelsea had won the first individual challenge.

## Reward

Jamie and Chelsea (and Chelsea's mom) were treated to a trip to the prize restaurant accompanied by a meal prepared by Season 12 Winner Scott Cummings, Chelsea spent the entire reward asking Jamie about what it was like on Hell's Kitchen until Jamie asked her about the boyfriend she had inadvertently spilled the beans on when talking to Ramsey which proved to be effective in shutting her hyperactive niece up, even so Jamie had a wonderful time catching up with her family.

## Punishment

The remaining Black Jackets had to prepare both services for dinner service,

## Before Service

Once the Red Team returned Ramsey met with the remaining chefs in the kitchen, he made it clear to both teams that he expected a good service tonight. Jazz was wondering if Zara would be able to cope under the pressure with the finals being so close but Zara assured her that she'd be fine.

## Dinner Service

 Dessert

The Black Jackets got off to a strong start thanks to Max on apps but come the entrees Jazz and Zara had complete meltdowns on their stations, Jazz got swamped with orders and refused aid because she wanted to prove that she could handle garnish but it was Zara on fish that brought the team to a standstill as she had multiple orders of salmon returned for either being under cooked, raw or burnt, eventually the two youngest Black Jackets were able to swallow their pride and accept help from Troy and Max respectively and they were able to complete service.

## Post-mortem

Ramsey was at a loss for words as he thought he had the best of the best in the Black Jackets but Zara and Jazz were cooking like it was their first days in Hell's Kitchen, not their first day as a Black Jacket, he told the other Black Jackets to come up with nominees for elimination and they came to a consensus fairly quickly, agreeing to put the two twenty two year olds up.

## Elimination

Ramsey called Jazz and Zara up for elimination and asked them about what had happened tonight, Jazz was adamant that she had control of the Garnish Station until the massive amount of orders came in and she got swamped, only refusing help because of her stubborn belief that she could get herself out of it whilst Zara said that she wasn't sure what got to her when it came to cooking the salmon as she had rocked the fish station in past services but had her problems tonight, ultimately promising that it would be a one off.

At first it seemed like Jazz was going home but he instead welcomed her to the final four before eliminating Zara, Zara was emotional as she realized that her time was up but Ramsey praised her for her massive growth throughout the competition before asking her to remind him why she never went to culinary school, when Zara confirmed that it was because her parents couldn't afford to send her to college and that they didn't want her saddled with a student loan Ramsey shocked everyone, most of all Zara, by saying that he would pay for Zara to go to any culinary school in America and might have a job offer lined up for her down the road, both of which Zara accepted whilst shedding tears of joy, and wished the remaining chefs luck with the rest of the competition.

Zara's elimination statement: *"This has been unreal! I came into this competition with no line experience or culinary training and the fact that I made the top five is something I'll remember for the rest of my life! It's a shame that I couldn't go all the way but with Gordon paying for me to go to culinary school and leaving a job offer at my feet down the road? The world is my oyster and I can't wait to take that opportunity by the horns! Jazz, Max, Jamie and Troy are all amazing chefs and I'll be happy to be on any of their teams come the finale! I just wish that I was the one competing in the finale but it wasn't meant to be."*

Ramsey's comment: *"Zara was the underdog of the competition from day one and has made amazing progress over her time in the competition, sadly her inability to cook salmon under pressure means that she has unsubscribed from going any further."*