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Hell's Kitchen season 21 aired a brand new episode on Thursday, December 1, 2022, at 8 pm ET on Fox. The one-hour episode documented the remaining cheftestants putting their best foot forward in challenges and creating delicious dishes to impress the audience and legendary chef Gordon Ramsay. While some contestants managed to bring in some of their best culinary skills, others fell short and were given adequate feedback.
On this week's episode of Hell's Kitchen, Ileana was one of the five who gave up on presenting their dishes in the first challenge and ended up in the elimination round. By the end of the episode, she failed to impress chef Ramsay and was eventually eliminated from the competition, leaving only 10 participants to fight for the $250,000 cash prize and the head chef position at Gordon’s brand new Hell’s Kitchen in Caesars, Atlantic City.
The official synopsis of the Hell's Kitchen episode reads:
"The chefs step up to compete one-on-one in an ingredient game show, where contestants who win can either choose the fate of that ingredient or sabotage the other team; chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo join Gordon in the dining room."
What transpired on Hell's Kitchen season 21 episode 8?
Tonight's episode of Hell's Kitchen began with the chefs reeling from Mindy Livengood's elimination. Fellow team member Tara took the elimination the hardest as the former contestant was the only other female castmate in the 40s age group. Tara felt that all the younger ladies were now against her, considering she was the only "old member" in the group.
After having a mini breakdown, Tara picked herself up and joined the castmates for the challenge. The contestants had to play two games - Spells Kitchen, where one from each team had to form words from jumbled letters, and Kitchen Sightmares, where they had to identify the ingredient from a zoomed-in picture of the same.
After identifying them correctly, the Red and Blue team members could choose to either take it and pair it with one of the proteins - duck, boar and venison, or choose to hand it over to the other team to work with. While the women had a slow start, they quickly picked up pace and handed out ingredients that wouldn't suit the Blue team well, leaving the men struggling.
To present the dishes for the challenge, chef Ramsay invited James Beard Award-winning chefs of Jon & Vinny’s, John Shook and Vinny Dotolo, to help judge this challenge. The team had to review which dish from each protein department they will have the judges taste.
Red Team sent Dafne, Sommer, and Cheyenne, and the Blue team sent Sakari, Abe and Brett's dishes to the judges, while the others decided to leave out their dishes.
By the end of the Hell's Kitchen challenge, the women took the win and earned a day at the bowling alley, while the men had to face the punishment of pitting olives all day. However, chef Alex, who owned a "punishment pass," traded it with Red team's Tara to enjoy some bowling, while the latter, frustrated, joined the men for the punishment.
Tara broke down and was furious at Alex for switching his punishment pass. She expressed her disappointment to former 40s teammate Abe and felt that out of everyone, Alex should have understood that she needed to relax after being the only one left in the older age group of women.
While the contestants reeled from the challenge, chef Ramsay called them to the dining room and revealed that the remaining five chefs who sat out of the challenge had to now fight for their lives, out of which one of them would be eliminated, shocking the cast and fans alike.
Alejandro, Alex, Ileana, Tara, and Vlad competed to create their best chicken dishes in the 40 minutes given to them. By the end of the episode, it was Ileana who failed to impress chef Ramsay and was eliminated from the competition. As part of closing remarks, the host said:
“When you’re cooking for your life, every detail matters. One overly sweet puree got Ileana sent away.”
The chefs now remaining on Hell's Kitchen include Abe Sanchez, Alejandro Najar, Alex Belew, Brett Binninger-Schwartz, Sakari Smithwick, Vlad Briantsev, Cheyenne Nichols, Dafne Mejia, Sommer Sellers, and Tara Ciannella. Viewers will have to keep watching the series to find out who takes home the win.
Tune in to an all-new episode of Hell's Kitchen next week on Thursday, December 9, 2022, at 8 pm ET on Fox.
