Hell’s Kitchen Season 18 episode 3 recap: Hell’s Riders

In Hell’s Kitchen Season 18 episode 3 recap, one veteran chef dares to have a shouting match with Gordon Ramsay and writes their own ticket home. Who could be so bold (or foolish)?

Hell’s Kitchen Season 18 episode 3 recap opens immediately after last week’s elimination. Though the blue veteran’s team kitchen finished service and did not face elimination, they are still disappointed in their own performance. They sit down as a team to go over their weak points, and it looks like Trevor and Jen are voted as the weakest links. Once alone, Trev and Jen commiserate about being under-estimated. They are determined to prove the team wrong.

Gordon calls the two teams to the dining room and tells them that both kitchens had problems opening night. He wants to see them improve their teamwork. “When a kitchen is running smoothly, it operates much like another profession,” he tells them as a Marine band enters the room. The marines are an example or honor, courage, and commitment (the Marine core values), and the chefs will cook them lunch to thank them for their service.

It’s no wonder that Ramsay connects the military with kitchen service. His kitchen uses the brigade system which was developed by Georges-Auguste Escoffier, famous French chef, probably influenced by his years as an army chef. This system relies on a chain of command, with ranks not unlike the military.

HELL’S KITCHEN: Chef / host Gordon Ramsay (R) with members of the Contestant in the “Hell’s Riders” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Oct. 12 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: Tyler Golden / FOX.

The lunch menu has been tailored to represent the Marines. Each table will receive either a Cesar or a red, white and blue salad (red cherry tomatoes, egg whites, blue cheese, bacon, piquillo peppers). The entrees represent the land, air and sea as the Marines are ready to fight on any of them. For land, they can select a classic steak frites. For air, there is a chicken parmesan with spaghetti marinara. For sea, the option is an upscale fish and chips. It does not seem to be a complicated menu. The first team to serve all their diners wins.

Right away the blue veteran team stumbles as Jen on salad station serves an overdressed salad. Heather insists on coming over from the fries station to help her, much to Jen’s annoyance. Due to the delay in getting those first salads out, the red rookie team pulls ahead and moves on to entrees first.

HELL’S KITCHEN: L-R: Contestants Kevin and Jen in the “Hell’s Riders” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Oct. 12 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: Tyler Golden / FOX.

They don’t get far. Scotley insists that Mia needs to put paper towels under her racks to drain oil from her fish and chips. The paper towels catch fire. Meanwhile, Gizzy can’t get her pasta water to boil so the whole team has to wait for her pasta to cook.

This gives the blue team time to catch up but, because Heather was on salad, she is not ready with fries when they move on to entrees. She rushes and sends out raw fries, which of course get sent back. Blue also stumbles when they overcook their fish.

In the end, the teams are neck and neck as they reach the last ticket. Blue team can’t get their final steak cooked in time and the red rookie team wins the challenge.

HELL’S KITCHEN: Chef / host Gordon Ramsay and contestants meet members of the in the “Hell’s Riders” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Oct. 12 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: Tyler Golden / FOX.

The red team’s award is to go to Paramount Studios to star in their own film. The punishment, which seems fairly light, is for the blue team to break down all the squid needed for calamari. Last week, Bret won a golden ticket- a punishment pass to be used once to avoid punishment and participate in the other team’s reward. Ramsay reminds him of his golden ticket. Would he like to use it today?

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Heather interviews, “why would you waste your pass now? It’s only day two of Hell’s Kitchen. Being a veteran, you know the further you go, the more off the wall chef Ramsay gets and the more intense the punishments get.” To everyone’s surprise, Bret decides to use his pass at the first opportunity. “We ain’t gonna lose again,” Bret explains naively.

Trev voices a complaint that hadn’t occurred to me. He feels like they are a team and should be in this together. Using the pass alienates Bret from the team somewhat as he does not share in their punishment. But he would be a fool not to use his punishment pass at some point. Like Heather, I just think day two is a little early to use something so valuable.

Bret must have sensed possible resentment from his team because he sneaks over to speak with them. He is dressed in full western wear for the filming and whispers to them that he plans to infiltrate the red team to find out their weaknesses and he will bring the intel home to his team. Dressed as he is, he honestly looks ridiculous saying this, like a bad western villain. Given that the two teams work independently of each other, I don’t know what information he could possibly bring home that would benefit his team. His team stares at him in silence, clearly feeling as I do that they can’t really use info about the other team.

As the veterans start prepping squid, the rookies leave for their reward, whooping the whole way. Bret trails behind them, all but rubbing his hands together and twirling a mustache. The rookie team arrives at a western town set at Paramount Ranch where maitre’d Marino is performing rope tricks. They are clearly going to have a fun day.

Back in the kitchen, Ariel is attempting to make the beurre blanc. She is explaining that she thinks it needs to be thicker than she would normally make it because Jen’s sauce from last night was thick and Ramsay liked it. Jen misunderstood this to be an insult about her cooking and we suddenly see her weeping in the dorms. The whole thing went from zero to sixty in a flash, so I assume that we have not been seeing a lot of the tension between Jen and the rest of the team. Jen is clearly very emotional, which worries her team. Side note- she is also wearing splendid earrings that have hand-painted self-portraits on them.

HELL’S KITCHEN: L-R: Contestants Trevor and Ariel with chef / host Gordon Ramsay in the “Hell’s Riders” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Oct. 12 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: Tyler Golden / FOX.

Before service that night, Ramsay shows both teams the movie preview that Paramount made of the rookie’s western footage. Each chef is introduced as a character, with Bret being the Dirty Scoundrel. Their supposed movie is called Hell’s Riders, and thus we have the name of tonight’s episode.

Service begins and both kitchens are pushing out orders. There are a few stumbles, but nothing seems too severe. On the rookie side, Motto’s first risotto is under-cooked because he lifts the pan off the stove each time he adds a ladleful of stock. He learns to leave the pan on the stove and things go well for him after that. Scotley struggles with timing his wellingtons and causes Gizzy to overcook her fish. Gordon shreds her overcooked halibut in his hands. Kanae gets behind on garnish and won’t accept help.

HELL’S KITCHEN: Contestant Gizzy in the “Hell’s Riders” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Oct. 12 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: Tyler Golden / FOX.

On the veteran team, something is clearly wrong with Jen on garnish. Ramsay comes to say something to her but before he says a word, she asks him “what am I doing wrong now?” Her defensiveness annoys Ramsay. What she is doing wrong, it seems, is under-seasoning and also not responding to her team.

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All Hell breaks loose when Gordon tells her she hasn’t delivered enough leeks for an order. He has plated two dishes and needs a third portion. As he always does, he has placed the dirty pan under the pass. He brings the pan up to show her that there is not enough for a third portion.

Jen loses her mind. “I gave you enough leeks! You tryin’ to clown me up in here right now!” Ramsay, who is holding a tub full of used pans from under the pass, drops the tub abruptly on the floor and orders the whole team into the back.

I can’t recall a time when Gordon had little to say but Jen doesn’t allow him more than a handful of words. Jen tells Gordon that he is lying and trying to sabotage her, that he is setting her up and disrespecting her.  Gordon attempts to tell her that she is making excuses, and at one point he even cries, “ask Jocky!” Other than that, he gets to say very little as Jen angrily talks over him at every turn.

Fed up at last, Gordon tells her to take her apron off and get out. “You haven’t got it, you know that?” he yells after her. “I do have it and there’s plenty of people that think so,” she retorts as she leaves the kitchen.

Outside, she interviews that she wishes she had said more, which surprised me given how much she did have to say. Meanwhile, the veteran kitchen gets right back to work and completes service.

Amazingly, the rookie team had no idea this was going on and are surprised to hear that Jen is gone. That goes to show you how useless any “intel” Bret gathered would be to the veteran team. The rookie team might as well have been in another restaurant for all the interaction they had with the veteran team, even while a mighty screaming match went down.

Luckily for everyone else, no one will go home tonight as Jen self-eliminated. I will miss her. She has a quirky, funny personality and style, but clearly, she was not in a good emotional place for competition.

Next week’s Hell’s Kitchen episode, they are implying some sort of sabotage from the veterans to the rookie team, so maybe I will be proven wrong about the independence of the teams.

Gordon tantrums: I have to actually take this honor from Gordon and give it to Jen tonight. Her meltdown was quite a thing to see.

Best Gordon insult: Jen steals this one too when she calls her team a “bunch of entitled wankers.” God speed, Jen.