Hell’s Kitchen S18E5: Fish Out of Water

In this Hell’s Kitchen S18E5 recap, a strong, confident chef goes home and no one feels safe from elimination going forward.

Ready for the Hell’s Kitchen S18E5 recap? The Hell’s Kitchen Rookies versus Veteran experiment ended last week, and we have returned to the classic men against women format. Ramsay calls the new teams into the dining room where they are greeted by a man at a grand piano. The pianist is introduced as Stephan Moccio, who has written for singers such as Miley Cyrus and Celine Dion.

This talented man only has moments of screen time, all in the name of versatility. He is asked to play piano in classical, rock, and blues style, and then he leaves. I hope he happened to be in the area because it seems like a waste of talent to have him featured for moments to introduce a challenge.

The challenge is to cook one protein in seven different ways- steamed, wood burning oven baked, grilled, poached, hot smoked, pan seared, and shallow fried. Given that list, I figured it has to be fish as few proteins are good both steamed and baked. Indeed, Marino brings out a large table…of smelt. Just as the chefs are lamenting using what essentially looks like bait, a giant halibut falls from the sky onto the table. Hopefully it is not a real halibut as that represents about four hundred dollars potentially damaged from the fall.

Each team will produce seven halibut dishes, each cooked in a different way. The chefs all get just one piece of fish and forty-five minutes to cook.

Right away, I am worried for my hometown chefs of Scotley and Gizzy. Scotley wants more color for his gastrique so he asks if there is any yellow food coloring. Christine gently recommends turmeric to achieve his color. Gizzy, meanwhile, has dark grill marks on her fish that look almost too black to me. Her fish is cooked on the outside, raw on the inside and is breaking up.

Gizzy decides she will purposely break the fish into three pieces since it is cracking anyway, and then we see her cook it further in three more ways- in a dry pan, in the oven, and then butter basted in the same pan.

HELLÕS KITCHEN: L-R: Host / Chef Gordon Ramsay and Michelin star chef David LeFevre in theÊÒFish Out Of WaterÓ episode of HELLÕS KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 2 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

The guest judge for the challenge is David LeFevre who I recognize from Iron Chef Gauntlet. Clearly a highly skilled chef, LeFevre is a great guest judge as his critiques are thoughtful and full of excellent tips. He warns Bret that a soy marinade, though tasty, draws moisture out of the fish (due to the salt) and leaves it dry.

He explains to Chris that fish cooked en papillote (in paper) is tricky as you can’t tell when it is done. Also, you must season it perfectly before sealing it in paper as you can’t season it afterwards since it is typically served sealed in the paper to the diner. Further, he recommends aromatics in the paper with the fish to release a yummy steam when opened. Scotley has used applewood to smoke his fish but then used strong flavors that covered the smoke. LeFevre recommends lighter flavors or more smoke.

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In the end, the women win the challenge with five points to the men’s three. Gizzy has managed to sell her broken fish, saying she “wanted to do smaller medallions so I could get a harder sear.” Gordon actually praises her for splitting the fish so that it will cook evenly. It reminds me of Julia Child not quite nailing her potato pancake flip and saying, “you can always pick it up if you are alone in the kitchen. Who is going to see?”

The women win a virtual reality experience. They each get a turn with a VR headset in which they can fight zombies while their teammates laugh at them, flailing around in a mostly empty room. Meanwhile, the men are stuck on composting duty. A dumpster full of manure is delivered and they must chop up all the saved compostable garbage and mix it with the manure. I bet Bret wishes he has reserved his golden “get out of punishment” ticket for today.

For dinner service, Heather and Chris are tasked to tableside mussels in saffron broth. Everyone else takes to their stations. In general, the women do very well. The biggest issues are Mia and Gizzy. Though both are capable chefs who do well in challenges, they seem to lack the confidence needed in dinner service. Mia stalls the delivery of entrees when she cuts open at least three beef wellingtons. Ramsay is horrified and in correcting her, taught me another valuable lesson.

She has been cutting through the center of the wellingtons, only to find they are under-cooked. He reminds her how to properly check for doneness- you cut off the end. If you see that the end is still very pink, then the center is even more undercooked and you pop them back in the oven for more cooking without ruining them.

Gizzy, meanwhile, is doubting herself on cook times and yet time and again delivers perfectly cooked meat. Her doubts affect her teammates, though, as they rely on her times to cook their portions.

HELLÕS KITCHEN: Contestants in theÊÒFish Out Of WaterÓ episode of HELLÕS KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 2 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

Other than these two rookies struggling to find their confidence, the red team seems to have a smooth service. Blue, on the other hand, has not come together as a team yet. Chris, who is supposed to be doing tableside mussels, has no orders, so he simply stands there. Ramsay tells him to make himself useful, so after begging various stations to let him help, Kevin lets him cook scallops. Of course, it does not go well so Kevin angrily sends him away.

Scotley is on garnishes and apparently, the garnish station is expected to also keep up with what orders have been called. Scotley is not able to do that and garnish at the same time, so Kevin missed a salmon order and backlogs the kitchen. In general, Scotley fails to communicate so the kitchen timing is off. Frustrated with the issues on the team, Ramsay sends them to the store room to discuss how to fix their communication problems.

The biggest issue seems to be Scotley not communicating and not watching the pass for orders, so Chris steps up and offers to make sure everyone is aware of their orders. Immediately after they have come together with a plan, Bret sends up a cold sauce and Ramsay gives up, sending them out of the kitchen to pick two nominations for elimination.

The women finish service and Ramsay pulls Gizzy aside. He tells her her cooking is on point but she needs to find her voice. He reminds her that he is looking for a leader, and without a voice, she can’t win. Christine calms the visibly upset Gizzy and tells her, “He would not be on your ass if he didn’t think there was more inside of you. Trust me. He was on my ass the way he is on you.” It looks like Gizzy is a real contender if she can find her confidence.

The men have come up with their nominations- Kevin for a few stumbles on the fish station, and Scotley for his lack of communication. After Kevin and Scotley plea their case and bicker, Ramsay shockingly sends Kevin home. He tells Kevin, “I’m not feeling the desire. You are nowhere near as hungry.”

One thing I have noticed with Ramsay is that he will keep working with a chef who is passionate but not perfect, but has no patience for anyone who does not show fight and spirit. Something I hadn’t considered that will be a mark against the veterans on the show is that they have all established good careers since Hell’s Kitchen and thus do lack that young hunger they had the first time around. Given Ramsay’s value of passion and desire, that may mean that a rookie is destined to win this season.

Gordon tantrums: Ramsay was uncharacteristically calm this week. He was much more of a mentor this episode, especially to the women, taking the time to instruct Mia when she messed up the wellingtons and to encourage Gizzy to find her voice.

Best line: Trev gets best line of the night when he says, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No! It’s not over yet!” I don’t think he was kidding, which makes this all the more amusing.

Tune in next time for a “very special” Hell’s Kitchen in which everyone apparently has an emotional breakdown over the loss of friendship between T and Heather because friendship is definitely what Hell’s Kitchen is all about.