Hell’s Kitchen Season 23 episode 8: Who missed making the top 10?

When the pressure is on, a head chef needs to deliver their top performance. With five chefs cooking for their lives, execution mistakes saw one chef’s fate go up in smoke on Hell's Kitchen Season 23 episode 8. Who didn't make the top 10?

Through this Hell’s Kitchen season, the chefs have had moments of greatness. But, there are times where the simple mistakes do not seem worthy of the head chef designation. Everyone can have a bad day in the kitchen, but a couple of chefs have had more than just one mistake.

For the reward challenge, the chefs had to guess ingredients based on one-word clues. Once an ingredient was revealed, the winning chef would combine that food to form a dish. The combination of rice and pasta was just mean. At the same time, the ingredient stacking was designed to be easy.

The goal was to earn a point based. With an extra chef, the Blue Team had to eliminate one dish. Yet again, they chose not to present Egypt’s dish. The decision was a poor one. Even though it did not impact the score, Gordon Ramsay praised Egypt’s pork chop.

The Blue Team chefs presented some good and some not so great dishes. Lulu’s gnocchi was not good. Although she fought for her dish, it should have been a pass. She did not earn a point.

In two other surprises, both Anthony and Brandon did not earn a point. The mistakes were simple ones that should not have happened. It was not a good time for these two chefs to stumble.

The Red Team seemed to find their groove in this challenge. Although Amanda overcooked the chicken, the ladies hit high notes with flavor and creativity. For example, no one would have considered an eggplant char, but it worked.

Thanks to Whit, the Red Team earned the point to topple the Blue Team. For their reward, the ladies headed to Foxwoods Resort Casino’s rage room and dinner at its supper club restaurant.

Since Hell’s Kitchen Season 23 is about raising the bar, some of the chefs had to cook for their lives. The five chefs who did not earn a point in the first challenge had to cook a perfect lobster dish. Although each dish was quite different, it was surprising that the chefs went relatively simple or even expected with these dishes. No one pulled out a creative, different, or really interesting dish.

The first chef to present was Lulu. She chose to make lobster ravioli, for the first time ever. It is often surprising that chefs choose to make a new dish in a competition. Additionally, after failing with the gnocchi, redemption is not always sweeter.

The lobster ravioli was good, but not great. While Lulu did well with the pasta, itself, there was more lobster outside of the dough than inside of it. She did not instantly make it through.

Brandon presented second. He had the most creative dish, a lobster chowder. It was a nice nod to the locale. Additionally, the lobster was well cooked and the flavors were well balanced. Brandon was safe.

Anthony was the third chef and his dish had technical errors. The large piece of bone was a huge mistake. Overall, the dish fell flat. Based on his performance, Lulu was safe.

Lastly, Ann Marie presented her dish. The last minute plating flurry showed in her dish. It was a visual mess. The idea of a corn and lobster succotash worked, but the presentation was too rustic.

In the end, the dish came down to Ann Marie’s visually unimpressive dish or Anthony’s poorly executed lobster. Anthony was eliminated. Although he did not have to give up his chef’s coat, he is not ready to be Gordon Ramsay’s next head chef.

Is there a front runner in this competition? Based on the recent challenges, it seems that Whit and Egypt have presented the most creative and well-executed dishes. Still, as every Hell’s Kitchen fan knows, anything can change in an instant.

Be sure to watch new episodes of Hell’s Kitchen Season 23 Thursday nights at 8 p.m. on FOX. Episodes can be streamed the next day on Hulu.