The sixth episode of “Hell’s Kitchen” was a family affair, as host Gordon Ramsay invited his daughter Megan Ramsay to Sin City to celebrate her 21st birthday party. That meant the 13 remaining players on the Red Team and the Blue Team endured double scrutiny during the challenge and dinner service, with one group crumbling under the pressure and delivering its biggest disappointment to date. A lot is at stake this year for the ultimate winner, as they’ll claim a head chef position at Gordon’s steakhouse at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Hell’s Kitchen: Young Guns” recap of Season 20, Episode 6, titled “A Ramsay Birthday in Hell,” to find out what happened Monday, July 5 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite aspiring chefs on Fox’s reality TV show and who you think has what it takes to join the “HK” winners list. Here are the current team breakdowns:
RED TEAM: Brynn Gibson, Josie Clemens, Keanu Hogan, Kiya Willhelm, Payton Cooper, Samuel Garman
BLUE TEAM: Antonio Ruiz, Emily Hersh, Kevin Argueta, Megan Gill, Steven Glenn, Trenton Garvey, Victoria Sonora
Keep refreshing/reloading this “Hell’s Kitchen” live blog for the most recent updates.
8:00 p.m. — “Previously on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’!” In the fifth episode, Morgana Vesey was eliminated after repeatedly cooking raw salmon during dinner service. “Morgana might be baby-faced, but tonight she behaved like a baby when her fish station struggled,” Gordon explained about why he took her jacket. Following Morgana’s ouster, only 13 chef-testants remain in the running to win the show. How will tonight’s episode play out? Let’s go!
8:08 p.m. — Following Morgana’s elimination the chef’s head back to their dorm and Brynn is heated that Payton called her out in front of Gordon. Hoping to “squash some s***” she confronts him and tells the Kentucky sous-chef he made it seem like it was her fault that he “f***ed up.” Payton is sick of Brynn’s high emotions and would rather her not be on the team. Morning comes and the Blue Team seems to be getting along just fine as Steven leads a freestyle rap session before today’s challenge. Gordon informs the contestants that in this generation, more pictures are taken each day than in the entire year of 1998. He then shows off some of the most embarrassing photos the chefs have posted online before revealing today’s challenge: Celebrating his daughter Megan’s 21st birthday! Each team must prepare three appetizers and three entrees. Megan will choose her favorite three of each to go on this evening’s main menu. The team with the most dishes to make the menu will win the challenge. Megan is looking for variety, fun and excitement. She gives them slight guidance by stating she doesn’t like spicy food or broccoli.
8:15 p.m. — The teams have 45 minutes to create their tasting menu for Megan’s 21st birthday. Each chef cooks up what they hope are Instagram-worthy dishes before time runs out. Because the Blue Team has one extra player, they must drop one of their appetizers. Victoria volunteers to drop her own sliders, which might be a touch “too spicy” for Megan. That’s a pretty weak move, Victoria! Next, Megan tastes the three appetizers from both teams on a head-to-head basis. Here are the results: Kiya’s sticky wings defeated Steven’s sesame-crusted Salmon salad. Brynn’s lobster roll defeated Emily’s roasted red pepper and corn fritter. Antonio’s lobster mac & cheese defeated Sam’s “summery” scallop. The Red Team leads 2-1.
8:25 p.m. — With the Red Team leading, the Blue Team hopes to make a comeback with their entrees. Here are the head-to-head results chosen by Megan: Trenton’s chicken lollipops defeated Josie’s Filipino steak and eggs. Megan’s rice noodles with soy peanut sauce defeated Payton’s pan-seared salmon with asparagus. Keanu’s smoked shrimp and grits defeated Kevin’s New York strip on purple potato puree. That leaves the teams tied with a score of 3-3. For a tie-breaker, Megan will review all six winning dishes and point out her overall favorite. Megan (Gordon’s daughter) chooses the Thai noodles cooked by Megan (the chef) as her overall favorite dish of the night, giving the Blue Team the win. This is the first ever challenge win for the Blue Team and they will head over to Planet Hollywood for a surfing experience followed by dinner at Café Hollywood. The Red Team will be busy at Hell’s Kitchen setting up the dining room for dinner service. Brynn chooses NOT to use her punishment pass tonight and will stick out this punishment with the Red Team.
8:35 p.m. — Rewards and punishments are over and it’s time for tonight’s special birthday dinner service for Gordon’s 21-year old daughter, Megan. Thanks to Kiya and Josie on apps, the Red Team serves their first table without missing a beat. Over in the Blue kitchen, Antonio and Victoria hope to find their rhythm as well. Sadly, Antonio undercooks his pasta and becomes the first chef to get under Gordon’s skin tonight. Things get worse for Antonio when both kitchens must combine efforts to serve up 12 appetizers to the VIP table. With 11 apps waiting to be served, Antonio’s carbonara is once again holding up service.
8:45 p.m. — Appetizers have been served to the VIP birthday table, but not before Gordon calls Antonio a “f***ing idiot,” making the Montana chef tonight’s most likely candidate to be eliminated so far. Entrees are up next and Kiya admits she is “extremely nervous” about Payton and Sam heading up the meat station in the Red kitchen. Her fears are realized when Gordon sends back their undercooked steak. Over on the Blue Team, Steven’s New York strips are “beautifully cooked” and Gordon celebrates their momentum. But his gratitude is short-lived once he heads back over to the Red Team and has to scold Payton and Sam for a second time for undercooking their steaks and leaving raw fat on the dish. Josie steps in to help on the meat station, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Gordon.
8:55 p.m. — Once again the kitchens will combine forces to serve entrees to the 12-top birthday table. Things appear to be going smoothly, but when Gordon’s daughter receives her noodle dish, she is completely underwhelmed, stating it tastes nothing like how it did earlier during the challenge. So who cooked up the birthday girl’s bland noodles? Payton. Yikes! I can’t imagine anything more devastating in this competition than having Gordon’s own daughter send back a meal you’ve prepared for her, so things aren’t looking good for the Kentucky chef. With a little help from Josie, Payton recooks Megan’s birthday noodles to her satisfaction. But next, it takes four chefs to serve up raw lamb on the Red Team, finally putting Gordon over the edge. The Red Team has been kicked out of the kitchen and they will have to come up with three nominations for elimination. The Blue Team finishes out the night properly and will remain intact, allowing Antonio to breathe a sigh of relief.
8:59 p.m. — The Red Team is deliberating who to send up and have pretty much agreed Payton and Sam were terrible at the meat station. They also decide Josie should hold a piece of the blame for walking out the raw lamb before it was fully cooked. None of this stops Brynn from bursting into tears and screaming out her frustrations that they screwed up Megan Ramsay’s table. Payton can hardly stand to hear another “hissy fit” from Brynn, but since he was mostly responsible for the night’s mishaps, he really can’t argue. Finally, the Red Team stands before Gordon and nominates Sam, Payton and Josie. Each of them fights to hold on to their place in Hell’s Kitchen and Gordon ultimately chooses to eliminate Payton. Gordon’s closing words about the 21-year old Kentucky chef: “Payton struggled on the Blue Team and the Red Team. One thing’s for sure. I don’t want him on my team.”
