Hell’s Kitchen: Head Chefs Only episode 10 recap: “A Sticky Situation”

One week after Thanksgiving, Hell’s Kitchen: Head Chefs Only released a new episode, “A Sticky Situation.” Here is what happened on Thursday night's show.

Anyone who has been a fan of Hell’s Kitchen since it began knows that the one challenge everyone looks forward to every season is the Blind Taste Test Challenge. While in the first 12 seasons, it felt like a standard challenge to test the chefs’ palates, when the dunk tank was introduced in season 13, it was a brilliant move to make the challenge more interesting.  

Women dominate the men in the Blind Taste Test Challenge

Over time, Gordon Ramsay has found new ways to make messes of his chefs every season. Season 23’s Blind Taste Test was a bed and breakfast theme. A teammate would be dumped with maple syrup if a contestant got two wrong. If they got three wrong, it would be fruity cereal blasted, and finally, if they got all four wrong, a batch of eggs would be dropped on them. The women’s team dominated the challenge, thanks to Amanda going a perfect 4 for 4, while Hannah identified 3 of her four foods. Whit would score two more points for the women as well, while Ann Marie didn’t score a single point for the red team, thankfully, her team helped her out.

However, it was a horrible performance for the men, as Brandon was the only person on the Blue Team to score multiple points, only scoring 2 out of 4. Joe only got one point in the challenge, identifying string beans and missing something he needed to be more familiar with in tomatoes. However, Kyle went 0 for 4, and then the pressure was on Egypt not to mess up once, and he ended up missing on the first one. What made it worse for Egypt is that he went 0 for four as well, despite the men already losing the challenge.

Ann Marie’s mistakes and Brittany’s slow pace costs the Red Team

While both teams would finish dinner service, a couple of mistakes loomed large for the Red Team. Ann Marie would have trouble at the meat station with a couple of temperatures on meat, sending up an undercooked strip that wasn’t medium rare and the other steak, not a medium. Ann Marie also left the oven door open when checking on the wellingtons, which Ramsay called her out on.

Because of Ann Marie’s inadequate timing coordination, Amanda ignored her when she asked for time on the salmon. While Britanny never did anything terrible in service, she was confused in the last few episodes and asked for help. At this stage of the competition, she should know how to do everything now. It came ahead when, on the first ticket of scallops, Britany had cut the scallops during prep, which was not enough for Ramsay’s standards, which made Amanda take the heat from Ramsay.

Despite Joe and Kyle on the blue team being slow and making mistakes, the blue team ended up winning service. Ann Marie and Brittany were nominated for elimination before Gordon eliminated Brittany.

New episodes of Hell’s Kitchen: Head Chefs Only air every Thursday night on FOX.