By Montykins
Gordon Ramsay's Bleep-O-Fucking-Meter: 58
Contestants' Bleep-O-Fucking-Meter: 28
How Many of the Five Contestants Montykins Now Hates: All five!
So, Van's gone. That must be why it seems so quiet as everyone files back to the dorms. Dave is outraged that Tennille sold Van out to Gordon, although you'd think everyone would have noticed that Gordon sends home whoever he feels like regardless of who's nominated. Tennille and Dave are both outraged and stomp off while Kevin stays out of it. Meanwhile, Suzanne and Ariel are also stressing out.
The morning, the five remaining chefs line up in the dining room for the first individual challenge. It's about focusing on presentation, and the judging will be done by Gordon and the editorial staff of Bon Appetit magazine. They'll be ranking the dishes purely on presentation, then the top two will be tasted by Gordon and the Editor-in-Chief, Barbara Fairchild. Okay, cook!
Kevin decides to make a Caribbean sea bass. Suzanne has a calamari salad, which draws low-key disdain from Dave, who's making a rack of lamb. Ariel's got a prosciutto-wrapped John Dory. Tennille has an "Asian-inspired red snapper". I'm sorry, but when you put the word "Asian" that close to "red snapper", all I can think of is this video clip. Unfortunately, her fish looks terrible, so she's forced to cover it with vegetables and hope no one notices. In this presentation challenge. Good luck!
The editorial staff (all eight of them) give the dishes a good eyeballing. Dave locks up and can only describe his dish as "a pan-seared, um, red and yellow, um ..." Complete vapor lock. The dishes are ranked and Gordon announces the results. Tennille is fifth and Suzanne is fourth ("My dish was a piece of art. But whatever!"). Kevin is first, because Gordon firmly believes that announcing things in a random order enhances the drama. Ariel is second, and that means Dave is third and out of the running. Time for the tasting!
Kevin explains to us that "it comes down to which one tastes the best". That'll make a nice twist. The winner is ... both of them! Gordon Ramsay spits on your "rules"! Kevin and Ariel will be going to a photo shoot with Gordon and Barbara and their dishes will be featured in the magazine. They seem pretty happy about this, and why wouldn't they? And the punishment for the three losers is to go clean a stretch of road that Hell's Kitchen has adopted. Dave vows that "If I have to hear Tennille bitching, I'll lose my mind." Noted. Dave, Suzanne, and Tennille are sent upstairs to get their road-cleaning jumpsuits. Yes, they're orange. And they have to ride a prison bus to get to their road. Of course, they're the only three on it, so we're still keeping to the Hell's Kitchen Wasteful Transportation Ethos.