Hell’s Kitchen: Rookies VS Veterans Episode 9 Recap: Bret’s Time

The contestants are knee deep in cookie crumbs in an all-new episode of “Hell’s Kitchen: Rookies VS Veterans.” Not to mention this episode is the total opposite of what happened last week.   

This episode started with the chefs going outside and witnessing a traditional Chinese Lion Dance. This was a setup for the day’s challenge where the chefs had to cook “Italian” Ramsay jokingly saying. Before they did anything, each chef had to choose who they wanted to go against and that chef had to choose which protein to work with. The pairings were: Jose VS Kanae (spot prawns,) Mia VS Trev (pork tenderloin,) Motto VS Ariel (duck breast,) Heather VS Bret (cod) and Scotley VS Kanae (chicken breast.) Not only were their proteins written on a Chinse takeout box, but these boxes were filled with fortune cookies that had other ingredients in them. Yes, the first few minutes were messy with cookie pieces going everywhere.    

Also, it must be because “FOX” used a mixed audio file for the scene because the music, especially the symbols, sounded WAY too quiet. Usually, the Lion Dance music is loud as all hell. At tasting the special guest was “Top Chef” Season 11 winner and owner of “Twenty-Eight” Shirley Chung. As with other tastings, the best dish in each category got a point and the team with the most points won. Once again, the blue won 3-2. Their reward was a day in a villa at the “Nobu Hotel” in Las Vegas. Ramsay starting with the awesome rewards now. The Red had to make fortune cookies from scratch, cut each fortune and then stuff the fortunes into the cookies. Scotley was having none of it as he spent the majority of the time eating. He even boiled some eggs that were supposed to be used for the cookies. Trev was having none of Scotley’s crap and got into an argument with him. Scotley has been like this throughout this season and Trev is in the right here. Yes, he’s mad but this is still a competition.   

Things didn’t improve for the Red at dinner service, which had some big names such as the “Beacher’s Madhouse Performers,” Olympic gold medalists David Plumber and Allison Schmitt and from the “Los Angeles Kings” Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli. It started with Trev and Jose destroying one scallop dish after another. Jose even put one portion of overcooked scallops into another pan of overcooked scallops, causing Ramsay to go ballistic. At entrees, Trev burned the skin on two salmons and then Jose broke another salmon. Mind you, this is a team that did nearly perfect last week. Scotley, on meats, couldn’t slice a Wellington properly and Bret had to show him to properly slice them. Scotley would then undercook the next one. 

The Blue, who were perfect except for Kanae dropping two scallops, had to help the Red finish. A raw salmon made Ramsay kick the entire Red Team out. The Blue nominated Trev, Scotley and Jose with Scotley getting the boot. As with many chefs who were eliminated, Scotley’s ego got the best of him. Ramsay even said he started out strong but crashed and burned in recent episodes. It took a while, but this season is starting to pick up. The main reason is to see how far Trev and Bret can go because Trev may not even make it to the final four and Bret may win this season if Ariel doesn’t.