Hell's Kitchen Episode 8.07 9 Chefs Compete Part 1

And then there were nine. Fresh off Melissa's elimination, Sabrina admits she dodged a bullet, and her team pleads with her to "drop the attitude." She promises that she will, but some of her fellow team members have their doubts. Over on the blue side, Boris laments about his bad dinner service and says he's ready to make a comeback.

The next morning the chefs report downstairs, where Chef Ramsay unveils a roulette table that's replaced the traditional numbers with letters. Each chef will spin the wheel and then have ten seconds to come up with an ingredient that starts with the letter the ball has landed on. The teams will then have 30 minutes to create one amazing dish based on the five ingredients they've chosen.

Since the Blue Team only has four members, Vinny gets to spin twice and comes up with kale and yams. The next three spins lead to miso (that's Boris' choice, and the guys are less than thrilled), striped bass, and asparagus. On the Red Team, Trevor freezes when he gets the easy letter R and ends up blurting out rutabaga. After Jillian, Sabrina, and Gail come up with cauliflower, bok choy, and fennel, Nona saves the day by finally choosing a main ingredient, salmon.

After each team has a pow-wow, they get cooking. Boris is charged with the challenging miso broth, while Trev takes it upon himself to get creative with rutabaga by making chips . . . but the ladies aren't happy with the chips' bitter taste.

After an intense half hour, it's time to taste. First up, Sabrina presents the Red Team's grilled salmon in a cauliflower puree with baby bok choy, pan-roasted fennel, and rutabaga chips. Chef Ramsay is happy with the dish other than the texture of the puree and those bitter chips.

Next up, Boris presents a pan-seared striped bass with braised kale, asparagus, and fried yams in a miso broth on behalf of the Blue Team. Right away, Chef Ramsay is impressed with the presentation. He loves the dish, especially the miso broth, but he finds the asparagus and yams, which Rob cooked, to be "lazy."

It's a tough decision, but the Red Team gets the win. And the reward is a big one: a trip to Vegas. As punishment, the Blue Team has to wash, peel, cut, and prepare more than 1,000 potatoes, which will be used to make fries for the upcoming "Family Night" dinner service.

Later that day, the Red Team swoons over their amazing suite, and they get a surprise visit from magicians Penn and Teller. Meanwhile, the guys' patience runs thin back in the kitchen, as Boris does a lot of yapping and not enough prepping.

The next morning, the Red Team returns in time to prep their kitchen. Just prior to starting dinner service, Chef Ramsay explains that one of the families who will be dining there tonight will be his own, which means the pressure's on. And in addition to the regular menu, the chefs will also be doling out kids' menu items, including macaroni and cheese and milkshakes.

As a special welcome, each table receives an assortment of fries, which the teams get out problem-free. Both kitchens, however, stumble right away on appetizers. Vinny is making his portions way too big, while Jillian hasn't put enough pea puree in the dish.

Forty-five minutes in, more than half the tables have received their appetizers, and a VIP ticket comes in - the Ramsay family - for the Blue kitchen. Chef Ramsay loses his temper with Vinny after he delivers an old batch of risotto, though Vinny manages to quickly whip up a fresh batch and Chef Ramsay's wife and four kids are happy with their appetizers.

Over in the Red Kitchen, Nona struggles on garnish, while Trev coaches Sabrina on the meat station. His help pays off: Chef Ramsay is happy with the "perfectly cooked" beef. He's not quite as thrilled with Boris, though, when he catches him about to slice cooked meat on a cutting board covered with raw juices. The men move on to Chef Ramsay's family's entrees, but Rob is falling apart on the garnish station and becomes frustrated with Russell for not helping. Eventually, all of the Ramsay table's entrees go out except for the macaroni and cheese, which Rob was charged with. Thankfully, when Chef Ramsay's young son Jack gets the dish, he loves it.

Meanwhile, Sabrina and Trev continue to bicker as Trev calls her out for starting chicken and grilled cheese at the same time, even though their cooking times are different. He then gives her wrong advice about sending out chicken that ends up being raw.

Toward the end of dinner service, both teams find their grooves, and Gail even manages to score a compliment from Chef Ramsay for her speed and accuracy.

Afterward, Chef Ramsay congratulates the contestants for ending up with a 90-percent satisfaction rate. But despite the success, someone's got to go home, so he asks both teams to come up with two nominees for elimination based on the night's service.

During elimination, Nona tells Chef Ramsay that they've nominated Sabrina for her lack of communication, and that she's the second nominee because she was in the weeds the whole night. On the Blue side, Russell explains that Boris didn't pull his weight and Rob needed too much help.

After Chef Ramsay calls Nona and Rob forward, Nona says that she's a team player who never gives up, while Rob admits that tonight was rough but he got zero support on his station. Chef Ramsay shocks everyone when he tells them both to step back in line.

"It was a good service. Why should anyone go home?" After six horrible services, Chef Ramsay is happy to report that they finally cracked it.