Hell’s Kitchen Season 19 episode 3 recap: The journey needs a strong team

Hell’s Kitchen Season 19 episode 3 recap shows cracks in teamwork.

Heading into their second dinner service, Hell’s Kitchen Season 19 episode 3 starts to show the divide between the chefs. While it is early in this Hell’s Kitchen journey, the lessons to be learned from Gordon Ramsay are many. Can these chefs handle the pressure?

With two chefs having been eliminated from the Blue Team in episode 2, the chefs were slightly on edge. Even though it is early in the culinary competition, the pressure to perform is high. The cracks and tension are starting to show.

For the first challenge, the chefs must re-create Gordon Ramsay’s Caesar Salad. While his recipe might be different that the original recipe from the Caesar Hotel, it is a highly regarded salad and is served at his various restaurants.

While there is an element of entertainment to the challenge, with the chefs delivering Caesar salads on scooters, the point of this challenge is clear. Can the chefs follow the Gordon Ramsay demo and recreate his salad perfectly?

As previously stated, each challenge has a real, important purpose. It is more than just a silly game. Watching these chefs efficiently, expertly create this Caesar salad can weigh in the elimination process.

In the end, the Red Team creates the most salads, in the quickest amount of time. They win the reward, a dune buggy adventure.

The Blue Team gets the punishment, peeling quail eggs for a scotch egg component at dinner service.

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As the Red Team embraces the high energy adventure, the Blue Team seems to show some tension in their kitchen. While they might have cracked too many eggs while trying to peel those delicate quail eggs, the battle of the personalities is starting to show. Who is the Alpha chef in this Hell’s Kitchen?

When the Red Team returns from the reward, it appears that Fabiola is having a health issue. As this health event shows, the pressure of competition can impact these chefs. Hell’s Kitchen is far from the typical chef job.

With dinner service beginning, all the chefs, including Fabiola, take to the kitchen. Since it is still early in the competition, there are mis-steps during the appetizer course. The Blue Kitchen mis-fires orders, under cooks scallops and has a little wardrobe malfunction. (Let’s hope that Drew finds his belt).

The Red Kitchen has issues, too. Fabiola struggled to get a servable flat bread to the pass. From under-cooked dough to a burnt crust, it seemed that a flatbread was more difficult than it seemed.

At one point, it seemed like all the chefs were helping to get out that order of flatbread.

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While the Blue Kitchen seemed to find their groove, the Red Kitchen continued to struggle. The meat station, including Lauren and Jordon looked like deer in the headlights. Whether it was lack of communication or lack of understanding, that station was sinking quickly.

At one point, Ramsay quipped that the duck was one step away from quacking because it was so raw. From nerves to confusion, it seems that the Red Team was not ready to execute. Maybe all that time in the dessert left them tired.

After too many mistakes, the Red Team was told to leave the kitchen. That side of the restaurant didn’t finish service. It is unclear if Chef Ramsay or Chef Christina finished the dinner for the Chef’s Table. The Red Team definitely didn’t win a medal during dinner service.

The Blue Team finished their service and received some praise from Chef Ramsay. After that slow start, those chefs recovered. It will be interesting to see if this trend can continue.

When the Red Team looks to nominate two chefs for elimination, it is clear that the decision is not based on what happened at dinner service. It about personalities, or potentially jealously.

The Red Team chooses to nominate Nikki and Lauren for elimination. When Chef Ramsay hears those choices, even with the reasoning, he is not pleased. Although the Red Team believes that Nikki couldn’t run a brigade and Lauren lacked communication, those two chefs did not cause the downfall in service.

Instead, Chef Ramsay brings up Fabiola and Jordon. Fabiola was criticized for her poor flatbread execution and her lack of detail (willingness to put the burnt flatbread on the pass). Jordon was nominated for her raw duck and her lack of teamwork.

In the end, Fabiola was eliminated in Hell’s Kitchen Season 19 episode 3. As Chef Ramsay said, although she had the passion, she didn’t have the other components that he wants. Passion is not enough to earn the position.

The bigger lesson learned from Hell’s Kitchen Season 19 episode 3 is the words of warning from Chef Ramsay. He mentioned that Hell’s Kitchen is a journey, and the chefs need to take the process seriously. If they choose to nominate chefs without merit, he is going to point it out.

One quality that Chef Ramsay wants is for the chefs to be able to evaluate their staff. While personality can help with teamwork, a kitchen isn’t about making friends. It is a business.

What did you think of Hell’s Kitchen Season 19 episode 3? Do you think that the teams are starting to crack under the pressure?