‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Celebrates Top 8 With Annual Blind Tasting Challenge
Scott Kirkland / FOX Reading Time: 3 minutes
Gordon Ramsay’s landmark Hell’s Kitchen Season 20 is officially down to the Top 8. This season has been fiercely competitive as it flaunts a new theme: Young Guns. All chefs competing this season are 24 years old or younger making for a highly competitive, highly Gen-Z season.
Ramsay seems to be enjoying capitalizing on trends associated with these young chefs. This season, we’ve seen challenges based around emojis, throw-back photos, and even Megan Ramsay’s 21st Birthday Party.
The one thing that has stayed consistent this season is probably the one thing fans return week after week to see other than Ramsay’s hot temper. The Blind Taste Test Challenge is the only challenge to occur every season as a test of the chefs’ pallet.
Hell’s Kitchen Gets Sticky as the Top 8 Chefs Take On the Blind Tasting Challenge
Now that the season has hit the halfway mark, the fan favorite Blind Tasting Challenge has hit the screens once again. This time, for the 20th time in Hell’s Kitchen, the popcorn punishment for a chef guessing the ingredient tasted incorrectly were buckets of various movie theater snacks. From caramel to nacho cheese (and chips), wrong answers led to a sticky mess.
Anyone else notice Ramsay call mango “exotic”? Suddenly, the stereotypes of bland British food really make sense.
The Blue Team won and head out on a party bus that took them bowling, completing the middle school birthday party theme of the day. Sadly, the Red Team were left behind to clean up the caramel and cheesy mess of the dining room.
All except for one. With popcorn and caramel hanging from her hair, Bryne used the Punishment Pass earned earlier in the season. She swapped places with Steve, who then had to stay behind and clean.
“Since I’m Bryne today, does that mean I have to cry?” he joked behind the scenes. Clearly a little salty about his punishment (and not just because of the nacho cheese.)
While Steve didn’t completely end up in tears, his participation in the punishment clearly got to him. He stopped communicating with his team at the beginning of service. He completely shut down leading to a dry risotto and a trip to the pantry with Chef Ramsay for a final warning.
“You’re one of the most talented cooks here, one of the most accurate cooks I’ve got in this competition, but you’re just like ‘hey man f*ck it,'” Ramsay screamed. “If you don’t want it, then give me your jacket.”
Dinner Service Ends in Shocking Speech by Quietest Chef
Melissa Joan Hart and Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias sat with their families at the chef’s tables, getting a front row view of the fireworks. On the red side, Josie continuously produced the wrong garnishes for each dish, setting her team behind and frustrating the guests.
“Fluffy has a life show to get to!” Ramsay had to consistently remind the team.
When service finally ended, Ramsay tasked two rising leaders to determine who they thought should be up for elimination.
“The leader that I saw in the Blue Kitchen was Megan,” Ramsay said after service. “Red Team, in your kitchen there was one individual that stood out, and that person was Kiya.”
Kiya had no hesitation choosing to put Josie up for elimination for her slow performance and frequent excuses.
“I’m not gonna sugarcoat something just to make somebody feel better,” she said. “I’m not here to make friends…at the end of the day, I’m here to f*cking win.”
Megan had a harder time with the big decision, but eventually landed on Steve for his lack of communication.
When it came time to defend himself, the quiet Steve had a speech ready for them: “I’m ready to kick *ss and take initials because names take too long to f*ckin write down.”
Needless to say, Steve saved himself with his passion and Josie was eliminated. Next week, the competition continues with only one week likely left before the teams merge to become the Black Jacket Team.
