Episode 2311 - A Soap Opera In Hell

The eleventh episode of Season 23 of Hell's Kitchen aired on January 2, 2025. In that episode, one chef's cultural culinary background helps their team win the challenge, the losing team deals with one member's attitude problems, and the annual Charity Night put both teams' leadership skills to the test. After several issues encountered during the service, Ramsay decides to eliminate one member from each team.

Intro[]

After Ramsay dismisses the chefs following the events of the previous episode, Ann Marie is ecstatic to still be competing after surviving another elimination nomination. On her way back to the dorms, she tells Hannah that while she didn't have a great night, she believes she is stronger than Brittany, which Hannah agrees with. The final eight chefs sit down and have dinner and congratulate each other on making it this far.

The next morning, Kyle annoys Joe and makes most of the women laugh by imitating his New York accent and making stereotypical Italian gestures. Joe tells him to shut up before playfully laughing along with the women.

Team challenge[]

As the chefs arrive in the restaurant, they see a set behind Ramsay that resembles a baggage claim from an airport with a map and clocks reflecting the times of various countries around the world. Ramsay tells them they will be competing in the International Cuisine Challenge, where each chef will be competing head to head against another on the opposing team on an international dish, which will be determined by a large red button that they will push. For winning the last dinner service, Ramsay allows one member from the blue team to select their opponent first. Kyle quickly volunteers and chooses to go up against Whit. Whit's baffled Kyle wants to go up against her again after losing to her in the Burger Challenge. They end up getting China as their country and get a box of Chinese ingredients from the conveyor belt. Kyle is excited as he's had experience with Chinese dishes from Chinatown in Philadelphia.

Next up is Hannah, who selects Brandon as her opponent. Brandon is hoping they get France or Southeast Asia, and they land on France to his delight. Joe picks Amanda to compete against and they get Greece. While Joe's specialty is Italian, he still feels confident as his best friend was Greek and Greek food is similar to Italian. This leaves Ann Marie and Egypt for last. They get Mexico, greatly exciting Egypt as he's half-Mexican. After each chef receives their ingredients, Ramsay gives them 45 minutes to cook their dishes. Egypt tells Sous Chef James about his Mexican heritage while preparing his grouper. James thought he was going to prepare fish tacos, but Egypt decides to mix it up. In the red kitchen, Ann Marie talks to Sous Chef Michelle while preparing her fish tacos. Ann Marie tells her that she's never made tortillas before, and Michelle advises her to have a backup plan in case her tortillas don't turn out well. The sous chefs then check in on Joe and Amanda preparing their Greek dishes. Shortly afterwards, Michelle watches over Hannah while Brandon expresses his confidence towards the French dish. While preparing his kimchi fried rice, Kyle reveals he chose to go against Whit because of her hot streak in challenges and wanted to test himself against the best.

Whit experiments with bamboo shoots in her dish and treats it like asparagus. As the chefs have two minutes to plate their food, Joe realizes he's behind everyone else and is running out of time for his dish. He scrambles to put the dish together and get it out on time. While he manages to deliver it, he is dissatisfied with his food's rushed presentation. To help him judge the dishes, Ramsay brings in Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna. The first plates to be judged are Amanda and Joe's Greek cuisine. Joe presents his roasted lamb loin with lemon yogurt and fried halloumi. Though Khanna criticized the plating, he found the flavors on point. Joe begins to worry given Amanda's dish has a much better presentation than his. Amanda presents her pan-seared lamb loin, lemon roast potatoes, and mint and dill chimichurri sauce. With Amanda having the better plating and Joe having the better flavors, Khanna awards each chef a point, leaving Joe relieved he didn't lose a point for his team.

Next were Kyle and Whit's Chinese dishes. Whit presents her bok choy stuffed chicken breast, fried rice, and grilled bamboo shoots with a sweet soy glaze. Khanna praises the creativity in the dish, particularly with the bamboo shoots. Kyle presents his sticky glazed chicken breast with kimchi fried rice. Khanna praises the flavors saying it melts in his mouth, which Ramsay agrees with. Despite the tough choice, Khanna felt more emotionally inclined to Whit's dish and awards her the point. Whit brags to Kyle in confessionals and tells him he should've known better than to go against her. Brandon and Hannah then brought up their French dishes. Brandon presents his Dover sole with sauce meuniere. Khanna was impressed that Brandon was able to cook and season the fish perfectly in such a short time limit. Hannah presents her Dover sole, which she stuffed with capers, fresh herbs, and butter. While Khanna thought the vegetables were cooked well, he found her fish slightly overcooked, awarding the point to Brandon and tying both teams at two points.

The challenge comes down to Ann Marie and Egypt's Mexican dishes. Egypt presents his Spanish-style salsa borracha with Don Julio brushed grouper and fresh-made masa triangle tortillas. Khanna heavily praises the way Egypt's dish was cooked, feeling it's as if a mother made it. Ann Marie presents her grilled grouper fish taco with handmade tortillas and a bright corn jicama and Fresno relish. Khanna worries Ann Marie at first by questioning if she tried it before plating it before responding that it was cooked beautifully and awards both chefs a point, leaving the score tied. To determine the winner, Ramsay tells Khanna to select the most outstanding dish in the challenge. Khanna selects Egypt's dish, believing it captured the soul of Mexican cooking and that the presentation had Michelin star levels of expertise. Egypt is overwhelmed by Khanna's praise and felt it was one of the best moments of his life. Ramsay tells Khanna he'll see him in New York sometime as he takes his leave.

Scoring[]

* Best dish named by the guest judge broke the tie in the challenge and won it for their team.

Reward[]

For winning the challenge, the men get a private tour of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, the world's largest Native American Museum. In addition, they receive various spices from Spiceology and a $500 gift card towards them. At the museum, they are given a tour by Nakai Clearwater Northup, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, the Narragansett Nation, and the head of education at the facility. Brandon enjoyed having a private museum tour being a history buff himself. The chefs see some of the huts the tribe typically live in, learn how they prepare their shellfish, and find out a lot about their culture and history.

After the tour, they are treated to lunch by the first Indigenous chef to win the James Beard Award, Sherry Pocknett. The chefs are in awe of Pocknett's welcoming and warm personality and her prepared Indigenous food, which includes pulled turkey on top of butternut squash bread and a berry tart. Kyle accidentally spills some of the tart on his fancy shirt, and the other chefs joke he should spill the other foods they ate to show off to the red team.

Punishment[]

Ramsay informs the women that the night's service is the annual Charity Night. To send the VIP guests home with something sweet, Ramsay has the losing team prepare them cupcakes with elegant packaging. Michelle instructs them to each prepare two dozen cupcakes with Baileys chocolate liqueur. Amanda explains how baking is tedious because unlike regular cooking, they have to be more precise with the ingredients and preparation.

The other chefs take notice of Whit complaining more as the punishment went on, with even Michelle reminding her that the chefs will be evaluated on their attitude throughout the competition. After Amanda volunteers to help her with the bows on the packaging, she decides to leave the kitchen, and snaps back when Amanda asks her if she didn't eat breakfast.

Before service[]

After the men returned and the women completed their punishment, Ramsay assembles them in the kitchen to inform them about the Charity Night service. The women will be cooking for the American Heart Association. Whit is excited to cook for them given her family has had a long history of heart-related issues. The men will be cooking for the Connecticut chapter of the Special Olympics. Ramsay tells the chefs that each of them will be responsible for their own course and will need to supervise the preparation and execution of their course. As the chefs begin to prepare the kitchen, Ramsay tells Marino to open Hell's Kitchen for the charities.

Dinner service[]

Some of the guests for the Charity Night event include actress Susan Lucci, makeup artist and Peloton instructor Tunde Oyeneyin, musician Sheena Melwani, Special Olympics Connecticut CEO Amber Tenicic, board member Charlie McLaughlin, gold medalist Brandon Knight, and award recipient Aaron Newton. The night's special menu includes a potato gnocchi led by Amanda and Egypt, pan-seared scallops overseen by Ann Marie and Joe, red snapper prepared by Whit and Kyle, a filet honed by Hannah and Brandon, and a yuzu key lime soufflé with dulce de leche ice cream for desert.

Amanda and Egypt agree to have the gnocchi ready in eight minutes. Amanda assigns Hannah and Whit to prepare the gnocchi (as she believes they're stronger cooks than Ann Marie) while Ann Marie helps with prosciutto. Egypt initially only has Brandon on gnocchi, but Ramsay comes into the kitchen and notices Joe and Kyle working on the second course and tells Egypt to have them focus on the dish at hand. In the red kitchen, Amanda doesn't respond when Hannah and Whit ask her how many portions of prosciutto they need. Ramsay tells them that not only do they not have enough gnocchi, but some of them were not properly prepared. Amanda tells them to focus more on putting out the gnocchi. In the blue kitchen, despite Egypt's struggles to communicate when it comes to portion and plating, they are able to deliver his gnocchi and put it out before the women. After quality checking the gnocchi, Amanda sends out the women's first course.

Ann Marie and Joe are up for their scallops, and also agree to bring it up to the window in eight minutes. In the blue kitchen, Ramsay noticed that Joe's seasoned the scallops too early, putting them at risk of losing moisture and being unable to sear them. He instructs the men to dry them as he reprimands Joe for something he should already know. In the red kitchen, Amanda gets annoyed with Ann Marie being indecisive on her plating or searing. Whit echoes her concerns, claiming that Ann Marie's talking a lot while providing little direction. When she takes some of the seared scallops to plate, Ramsay tells her they're too dark and to inform her team about it. She has Amanda come up to check on the coloring and advise her to not overcook them, but both Amanda and Whit tell her that she could have just told them from the pass without taking Amanda away from her task.

In the blue kitchen, Ramsay only notices one chef cooking scallops. Joe is angered as he told all three of them to sear and tells them to hurry up. In the red kitchen, Ramsay notices that the scallops are burnt again, but Ann Marie questions if they are. Ramsay pulls her aside and reprimands her for questioning him, telling her he takes charities very seriously. Amanda and Whit continue to be annoyed by Ann Marie's poor management. Both teams put the finishing touches on their scallops and send them out to the tables. While the guests are satisfied, Ann Marie acknowledges the chefs are not doing a good job with their timing.

Next up are Whit and Kyle for the red snapper course, who also agree to eight minutes. Whit assigns Hannah to vegetables, Ann Marie to seasonings, and Amanda to fish. Kyle assigns Brandon to vegetables and Egypt and Joe to the fish. He provides the three chefs with clear instructions on how he wants the fish seared and the overall timing on individual parts of the dish. Amanda notices Whit's leadership style is a bit on the frantic side, confusing her over an issue with the fish spatula and talking and changing her mind relatively quickly. Noticing Whit's got her fish up first, Kyle instructs Egypt to bring theirs up. Both are sent out close to the same time, and guests on both sides are satisfied with the final product.

Ramsay summons Hannah and Brandon for the final course, the filet mignon. Just like the rest of the courses, they agree on eight minutes. Hannah assigns Amanda to quail eggs and instructs Whit on how she wants the meat prepared. She is determined to have her voice heard monitoring each of her teammates as well as Brandon's progress. In the blue kitchen, Brandon is sent into a brief panic as the arrangement of the filet pans and pot of boiling water causes a small fire to erupt in the kitchen, and he scrambles to put it out. Ramsay reprimands him for the incident and pauses to help him out. While plating the food, Hannah gets annoyed with Whit not following the example she put out and quickly rearranges the food. In the blue kitchen, Joe questions where he should put the sauce on the plate, and Brandon hesitates to answer him before Ramsay calls him out. Despite the preparation issues, both teams deliver their food out to the content guests. They finish the night by preparing and bringing out the soufflés. The guests toast the evening and leave happily bringing home the cupcakes the women prepared earlier from their punishment.

Post-mortem[]

Ramsay tells the teams that both charities loved the food, but the service could have been so much better. He deems Kyle and Hannah to have the least issues for their courses in their respective kitchens and instructs them to talk to all of their teammates one on one before nominating two chefs for elimination. Whit is outraged that Ramsay selected Hannah over her, believing she didn't lead anything that night. In their conversation, Whit bluntly tells her she doesn't deserve to be nominated with how consistent she's been in the competition. Hannah points out there were times in the service she was quiet with her back turned while she was leading, but she disagrees. Kyle tells Brandon he didn't have a good service that night with the way the filets were handled and his overall communication. Brandon believes Kyle may nominate him to take out some of his strongest competition.

Amanda discusses her game plan on her course and why she put Hannah and Whit on gnocchi, knowing she has a strong chance of going up with how rocky the night started out. Hannah tells her the mistakes were avoidable and encourages her to speak up when things are going south. Meanwhile, Kyle tells Joe he and Brandon were the weakest links of the night. When Joe asks why he's being considered, Kyle tells him the early scallop seasoning and the portion problems brought his course down. Joe believes Kyle should make his judgment based not just on that night's performance, but the whole competition, believing Egypt should be nominated instead. Before he leaves, Joe tells Kyle his scallops still seared beautifully.

Ann Marie tells Hannah that she tried to lead with a plan, but wasn't getting much responses from her teammates. Hannah advises her to take more leadership of her course rather than ask her teammates what the plan is. Kyle asks Egypt who he would put in the bottom. Egypt tells him Brandon was too scatter brained with preparing his course after the fire. Kyle acknowledges how bumpy the first course's execution was, particularly with how Egypt only had one person searing the gnocchi, and advises him to improve on his communication and teamwork. Out on the porch, an emotional Whit vents to Brandon and Joe on Ramsay selecting Hannah over her and potentially being nominated for elimination, believing she's a superior leader and that Hannah was carried in her course by the other chefs.

Elimination[]

Ramsay tells the teams that there was way more drama in the service than expected before asking for nominations. Kyle nominates Joe for his problems on scallops and Egypt for his communication issues and execution of his course. Hannah nominates Amanda for being too quiet and Ann Marie for lacking leadership qualities. Ramsay summons the four nominees up as Whit appears relieved over not being nominated. Ramsay first questions Egypt on his course. Egypt acknowledges he should have commanded the kitchen and asked for an extra hand in plating. Ramsay then questions Joe why he seasoned the scallops five minutes early and was two portions short. Joe acknowledges it was a misjudgment and thought they were gonna get fired quicker. Ramsay tells him that shouldn't have happened on the second course and that he got lost.

Ramsay then questions Amanda on what happened with her course. Amanda acknowledges she had a few bumps in the beginning throw her off course and tells him that she plans to let him hear her voice more in the future. Ramsay then reminds Ann Marie of her asking him if the scallops were overcooked and felt insulted by the gesture. Ann Marie apologizes for the comment, not intending to come across as sassy and insult him, and tells him that while she started out rough, she did finish well.

Ramsay tells Egypt to come up before sending him back in line, greatly relieving him after the brief scare. He then decides to eliminate Ann Marie for her poor performance. He tells her that while he appreciates her dedication, she's too inexperienced to become his head chef. Ann Marie thanks him for the opportunity and he wishes her the best of luck and tells her not to give up before she is dismissed. During her exit interview, Ann Marie expresses she didn't know all the emotions she would feel in the competition and was satisfied with making it as far as she did while being her most authentic self.

After Ann Marie's exit, Ramsay reveals to Amanda and Joe he's not done yet. He announces that Joe will be leaving the competition as well due to his overall inconsistency. Joe quietly thanks him for the opportunity as Ramsay wishes him a good night. During his exit interview, Joe expresses he's proud of how far he made it and will take what he learned in the competition and apply it to his career.

While folding Ann Marie and Joe's jackets, Ramsay sends Amanda back in line. With the final six now set, Ramsay tells them to demonstrate more of their leadership capabilities before dismissing them. Amanda says her competition will have to pry her dead body to get her out of Hell's Kitchen. Egypt plans to be more of a commander in the kitchen going forward. Kyle is content with Ramsay considering him the best leader of the blue kitchen that day and is determined to fight harder than ever.

Ramsay's comment: "Both Joe and Ann Marie couldn't stay afloat on the fish station tonight. If you can't master that, you have no chance of being my next head chef."

Trivia[]

• Title Reference: The title refers to actress Susan Lucci, who starred in the soap opera All My Children, and was one of the guests for the Charity Night event for the American Heart Association.

References[]