Hell’s Kitchen S18E7 recap: Who was the last chef standing?

In this recap of Hell’s Kitchen, we borrow a competition from MasterChef and lose a talented rookie in the process.

Hell’s Kitchen S18E7 recap opens with the men discussing their successful service and teasing Trev. All the men seem to think he talks too much in the kitchen and that half his talk is actually yelling. Scotley, one of the young Atlanta chefs, finds Trev particularly annoying. This sets up a dynamic that carries through the whole episode and is sure to come to an ugly head at some point.

Ramsay calls all the chefs outside to introduce the first challenge. He asks them what the key element is for a kitchen to run smoothly. The chefs offer various answers, but not the one he wants- teamwork. With teamwork, a kitchen runs like a well-oiled machine. Cue the stock car zooming around the parking lot at top speed.

The car comes in for a pitstop. The pit crew descends and has the car ready again in twelve seconds. Ramsay wants to two teams to work like that pit crew-efficiently and smoothly.

HELL’S KITCHEN: L-R: Race car driver Tanner Foust and Host/chef Gordon Ramsay in the “Last Chef Standing” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 16 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

They return to the kitchen for an explanation of the challenge. Each team will recreate five staple restaurant dishes- spaghetti meatball marinara, veal scallopini piccata, crispy fried chicken, shrimp and grits, and cioppino. I personally found the selection a little weird as representations of general menu staples as it seems to skew heavily Italian and Southern. So many restaurant chefs are classically French trained so where are the French dishes? How about a fish dish? Pretty much every restaurant seems to have a fish fillet on their menu.

Anyway, they have forty minutes to create all five dishes. The women have an extra person so one must sit out. Gizzy quickly volunteers. The other women are shocked that anyone would so willing give up a place in the kitchen.

Time starts and the teams have a quick huddle to decide who will handle each dish.  With thirty-two minutes left on the clock, Ramsay calls for one person from each team to leave the kitchen. Roe and Bret both feel their dishes are in a good place and can be handled by the remaining team members and step out.

HELL’S KITCHEN: Veteran Roe DiLeo in the “Last Chef Standing” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 16 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

At twenty-four minutes left, Ramsay orders another chef out. Heather and Jose leave. Sixteen minutes, and Mia and Scotley leave. Eight minutes left and Trev and Kanae step out to leave Motto and Ariel as the “last chef standing” to complete all five dishes.

HELL’S KITCHEN: L-R: Rookie contestant Scotley Innis, veteran contestant Jose DeJesus and veteran contestant Bret Hauser in the “Last Chef Standing” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 16 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

Ostensibly about teamwork, this challenge is anything but, in my opinion. This seems to be less about working as a team and more about seeing who will refuse to leave the kitchen. It is also about team members standing on the side, shouting instructions at the remaining chefs or chef. It is noisy and chaotic as each sidelined chef wants the remaining chefs to focus on the dish they left behind.

The Trev and Scotley rivalry rears its head again here. Like everyone else, Trev is yelling instructions to the chefs in the kitchen, but it really irks Scotley when Trev does it. Scotley tells us Trev is running his mouth too much. I don’t see Trev saying much more than the next guy, but he clearly pushes Scotley’s buttons.

HELL’S KITCHEN: L-R: Veteran contestant Jose DeJesus, veteran contestant Trevor McGrath, veteran contestant Bret Hauser and rookie contestant Scotley Innis in the “Last Chef Standing” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 16 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

With a minute and thirty seconds left, they can all run back into the kitchen to help. With twenty seconds left, the women manage to simultaneously put up their five dishes. The men are still scrambling. Trev gets his dish to the pass first, but Bret is frantically plating until the last second. Literally, his dish is not at the pass when time is called.

Apparently, Ramsay is going to give Bret a pass and will judge his dish. If he didn’t, the girls surely would have won before the competition even started and spoiled the drama.

HELL’S KITCHEN: Host/chef Gordon Ramsay with contestants in the “Last Chef Standing” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 16 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

First up are the shrimp and grits dishes. The men win the point for Motto’s delicious grits. Each team gets a point for fried chicken, but the women win on the veal. Spaghetti gets a point for each team too so, shockingly (as this never happens in Hell’s Kitchen and definitely did not happen just last week) we have a tie.

The final dish will decide the win. Trev’s cioppini is pronounced the dish of the day as the men chuckle with glee. Ramsay adds, “just a shame you’re missing a key ingredient.” Trev has left of the fish fillet from the dish. The men’s laughter stops as the women start chuckling. Trev was the first to put up his plate but he left off an ingredient.

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The missing ingredient gives the win to the women who will spend the day go cart racing. The men are told it is delivery day. This usually means unloading huge amounts of food, back-breaking labor. In this case, it seems to mean that they will take delivery of corn and peas and will need to shuck and cut the corn off the cob as well as shell the peas.

They are all elbow deep in corn kernels when Trev starts to break out. Christine notices and sends him to get seen by a medic. Scotley, just looking to be annoyed by Trev at this point, has decided that this was Trev’s way of getting out of work. He begins to mock him mercilessly, calling him baby girl for his willingness to stop work for a rash. He is clearly hoping for a rise out of Trev, but Trev keeps his cool.

Once the men finish their punishment and the women get home, everyone is resting before dinner service. Gizzy is talking to Roe about her desire to prove herself. Gizzy has lost her confidence during the competition and needs to get it back. Roe counsels her, reminding her that she is caught up in the competition but it is still just a kitchen. Just do what you do at home, she tells Gizzy. Solid advice.

The chefs are all called down, thinking it is for dinner service. Instead, they find a farmer’s market set up in the dinner room. Ramsay tells them there is no dinner service. Taking a page from MasterChef, the chefs will shop the farmer’s market and make any dish they want. The weakest dish will go home.

But not everyone will compete. Only the first three people from each team who chose to leave their kitchens in the first round will have to compete. All the other chefs can go to the dorm and await the results. The chefs competing are Gizzy, Roe, Heather, Bret, Jose, and Scotley.

The chefs have forty-five minutes to shop and cook. Gizzy immediately worries me as she seems surprised that the fish she grabbed is bass. I heard her mention something about snapper so she apparently was expecting a different protein.

HELL’S KITCHEN: Host/chef Gordon Ramsay in the “Last Chef Standing” episode of HELL’S KITCHEN airing Friday, Nov. 16 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2018 FOX Broadcasting. CR: FOX

Roe is up first for judging. Personally, her dish looks unappetizing to me. She presents a swordfish basted in kafir lime butter with a raspberry, crabapple, and pomegranate sauce. That amounts to a piece of fish sitting in the middle of a Pepto pink sauce. Gordon calls it beautiful. We shall have to see if her dish is better than anyone else’s offering.

Bret is up next with a frutti di mare. His dish is better than Roe’s and he joyfully returns to the dorms in true Bret style- yelling, crying, and chest pounding. We enjoy a montage of over-the-top Bret moments including aggressive push-ups, making muscles, and crying on bended knee.

Heather presents a coconut curry poached lobster tail and claw which sends her back to the dorm. Roe is still hoping to beat someone’s dish.

Gizzy brings up her offering and she clearly is in trouble. Everyone else has plated with finesse but Gizzy has a whole fish on her plate with squash and a lemon. It is very rustic. Worse, Ramsay finds scales on the fish. Roe is safe at last and heads to the dorms.

Jose presents a pan-seared salmon with chorizo hash and avocado salsa verde. Ramsay declares it Jose’s best dish so far and he returns to the dorm. This leaves us with an Atlanta vs Atlanta showdown of Gizzy versus Scotley.

Ramsay reminds us that Scotley took a job that Gizzy vacated. Scotley tells us that when he started, all he heard about was how great Gizzy was. He is itching to prove himself against her. Interestingly, every chef chose to do a fish dish for their challenge. Scotley is no different. He presents his tuna with red lentils. Ramsay is mortified that he would refuse the whole farmer’s market to pick dry lentils.

Though Ramsay says he would not personally pair lentils and tuna, Gizzy’s rustic presentation and scales have sunk her. She is going home. For the second time in this episode, we have a “last chef standing,” so good use of title there, HK. Scotley wins points with me when he shakes Gizzy’s hand and then hugs her.

Gordon very kindly dismisses her. He tells her she lost her confidence but that he wants her to “continue climbing that ladder.” He hugs her farewell and tells us, “I had such high hopes for Gizzy from day one but if she doesn’t truly believe in herself, I can’t believe in her either.

Come home, Gizzy, and get back to making yummy food here in Atlanta.