Hell's Kitchen Episode 5.09 7 Chefs Compete

During the nominations which sent LA home, Andrea and Carol vented their frustrations with each other in trying to get the other sent home. Once Chef Ramsay dismisses the aspiring chefs back to their dorms, Andrea and Carol have it out... again. The other 2 remaining members of the red team, Giovanni and Paula, warn them that if they are to stand any chance against the blue team, they need to work through this and come together as a team.

As the new day dawns, Chef Ramsay calls the aspiring chefs downstairs to bring them face to face with their next challenge: King Crab! Each contestant must make one crab dish, and when time is up, they must decide as a team which dish to present to Chef Ramsay for tasting. The blue team picks Ben's dish, King Crab with chili-vanilla sauce and asparagus, and the red team selected Andrea's poached Crab legs with pear infused butter. However, when Chef Ramsay tastes the dishes, he feels incredibly let down by how uninspired these dishes are, especially when dealing with one of the most sought-after ingredients. So, Chef Ramsay calls on Danny and Paula to bring up their dishes instead.

Much happier with these two dishes, Chef Ramsay declares Danny's dish the winner, and the men rejoice. For their reward, Chef Ramsay takes the blue team to the beach, and they ride Segways around the boardwalk, and then enjoy a lobster filled lunch. Meanwhile, as the men enjoy their day out, as a punishment, the red team is stuck at Hell's Kitchen cleaning the kitchens, the dorms, and all of the King Crab that is going to be used in the next dinner service. At the end of the day, both teams reunite and have an early night.

As the teams head down to prep for dinner service, Chef Ramsay is waiting for them with a special announcement. Tonight, they are going to be serving their own menus. It's going to be the red menu versus the blue menu, and the teams set out to create their dishes. 3 appetizers, 3 entrees and 3 desserts. While each member of the red team manages to each get themselves heard and represented on the menu, one member of the blue team is very heavily represented... Ben. Danny and Robert are concerned about a few of the menu items, but, in order to complete their creations within the time limit, they had to concede. And, all in all, despite having unlimited resources in which to create their menus, both the red menu and the blue menu wind up looking surprisingly similar.

Once dinner service begins, the customers order from both menus equally. The big problem on the red team was the potato side dish that Carol created for the lamb entree. The potato-gratin-like dish did not cook properly. Since Chef Ramsay was not going to serve raw potatoes, entrees were stalled leaving the kitchen. The red team has to scramble to create a new potato dish to replace Carol's ruined one. Surprisingly enough, potatoes are a problem for the blue kitchen as well. Ben creates a French-style potato fondant to accompany the halibut entree, but when Chef Ramsay sees the potatoes on the plate, he is not happy. He wonders if 'potatoes fondant' are the same in the US as they are in Britain. Sous Chef Scott assured him they are.

While both kitchens struggled with their own menus, food trickled into the dining room. After tensions between Ben and Robert came to a head, Chef Ramsay started questioning if Ben was sabotaging Robert's efforts. Then, when another dish was returned from the dining room, Chef Ramsay had had enough and shut down the kitchen.

When selecting a winning team, Chef Ramsay looked at the diner comment cards and said since the number of orders was the same, he was going to look at the heart of the meal, the results on entrees. Customers eating the red entrees rated their food higher than those on the blue, and therefore the red team won. Chef said Danny had the strongest performance on the blue team, and therefore he had to go nominate one of his two teammates for elimination.

After lobbying hard, both Ben and Robert realize that it is ultimately Danny's decision. In front of Chef Ramsay, Danny reveals that he is nominating Ben. After hearing a final plea from both Ben and Robert, Chef Ramsay decides to send home the person who has given up... Carol.