‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Season 14 rewarded challenge losers with the opportunity to donate to the Midnight Mission, a nonprofit organization to aid the homeless in Los Angeles, California. The show is a televised reality cooking competition. The winner of the competition is rewarded with the chance of becoming the head chef at Caesar’s Atlantic City. Episodes 12 and 13 aired back-to-back on Tuesday, May 19 on NBC. Two chefs were eliminated and five remain to compete to win. “5 Chefs Compete” on Tuesday, May 26.
In Ep. 12, seven chefs competed to cook the best steak. Chef Gordon Ramsay tossed a bucket of keys which unlocked different cuts of prime beef stashed in lockers. The chefs raced against the clock as they scrambled their way to match the correct key to the right locker. They had a total of 35 minutes for the challenge. Michelle Tribble won in favor of her Mexican-style steak, scoring an adventurous underwater submarine ride at Catalina Island and a brand-new blender for each member of the Red Team.
The Blue Team was punished for losing the challenge. Meghan Gill, Milly Medly, and Nick Peters had to unload two heavy raw pieces of beef from a truck and get it into the kitchen. The chefs were shocked, yet unsurprised to see that the huge clunks of meat ranged from a cow’s hipbone to its feet. Afterwards, each chef had to cut down the pieces in order to prepare the meat for steak night dinner service at ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’
Allison Rivera, a 27-year-old sous chef from Manhattan, New York was sent home for failing to cook a proper salmon or steak during dinner service. Her teammates were frustrated that she made basic mistakes this far along into the competition. Ramsay said that Rivera displayed her sparks and flashes of brilliance throughout the competition, but ultimately “couldn’t talk her way into a black jacket.”
In Ep. 13, six chefs cooked to the best of their abilities to avoid being eliminated. All chefs operated in one team, the Black Team. Ramsay challenged the contestants to replicate a dish after tasting it. The chefs paired off in twos. Nick Peters and Tribble won the competition for correctly cooking a dish with soy sauce and sea bass. The duo were rewarded with a Jeep water ride to the Queen Mary ship in Long Beach.
The losing chefs received the punishment of making barrels of mashed potatoes for the Midnight Mission. Although it was intended as a punishment, the chefs all agreed that it felt like a reward because they could help the homeless. Afterwards they had to go through a garbage dump to separate recyclables into different bins. At dinner service, the Black Team served Academy Award-winning actress Tatum O’Neil and her son during which a steak dish was recalled to the kitchen.
Josh Trovato, a chef de cuisine from Brooklyn, New York was sent packing in his third consecutive call to the chopping block. His teammates called him “frazzled,” with Medly going even further as to nickname him as “Uncle Randy,” a former contestant on the show. Trovato thanked Ramsay for allowing him to leave on a high note and gave him a hug. Trovato had been spared from elimination multiple times and even joined the elite black jacket club prior to leaving 'Hell's Kitchen.'
“Josh had great passion and a strong service tonight. Unfortunately, it was too little too late,” concluded Ramsay.
The five remaining chefs are Michelle Tribble, Nick Peters, Milly Medly, T Gregoire, and Meghan Gill. Tribble is a 22-year-old line cook from Dallas, Texas. Peters is a 25-year-old private chef from Stoneham, Massachusetts. Medly is a 33-year-old executive chef from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gill is a 28-year-old executive chef from Roanoke, Virginia. Gregoire is a 31-year-old line cook from Atlanta, Georgia.
