Tonight on NBC their Gordon Ramsay culinary competition series Hell’s Kitchen airs with an all new Thursday, January 5, 2016, season 16 episode 11 & 12 episode and we have your Hell’s Kitchen recap below. On tonight’s special Hell’s Kitchen double-episode called, “Aerial Maneuvers; Fusion Confusion” as per the NBC synopsis, “The chefs pair up for a taste challenge, which is followed by a unique dinner service to celebrate major contributors to the charity Stand Up to Cancer in the first half of this combined episode. In the second half, chef Roy Yamaguchi judges dishes that combine international cuisines.”
So make sure to bookmark this spot and come back between 8PM – 10PM ET for our Hell’s Kitchen recap. While you wait for the recap make sure to check out all our Hell’s Kitchen news, spoilers, recaps & more, right here!
Tonight’s Hell’s Kitchen recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
Hell’s Kitchen begins tonight with Chef Gordon Ramsay summoning the red and blue teams to the dining room, where they see a Brett and Rachel doing a trapeze act. Chef Ramsay tells them he expects them to do – TRUST!
Today’s challenge will be putting their trust in each other to the test. They will be separated into pairs and each pair needs to recreate one of his signature dishes and their responsibilities will be divided; one will be tasting the ingredients and the other has to make it with the ingredients they say. They have to trust one another and the pair that recreates his dish the closest will win the challenge for their team.
Paulie mumbles to Ryan that he wants her to be his partner and Chef Ramsay asks him to say what he was mumbling. Paulie tells the camera that he wants Ryan because Wendy doesn’t know how to cook.
On the blue team, Ryan prefers to work with Wendy because she has a great palate and Devin says he wants to work with Paulie. On the red team, Andrew is acting cocky and Kimberly decides she wants to work with Heidi and Andrew has to work with Heather. Chef Ramsay laughs and says it looks like Paulie got dumped by Ryan.
Devin and Paulie are up first and their pork is raw. Wendy and Ryan bring their food up. Their plate has veal on it, and with Wendy using her palate, she licked the dish Chef had given them to decide what he protein was. Chef Ramsay didn’t even try it. Andrew and Heather bring their dish and they used Apricot instead of Persimmon, but Chef says it was delicious. Kimberly and Heidi are told their dish was beautiful.
The protein, which is the hero of the dish was veal! Wendy and Ryan win it for the blue team. Their reward is to trapeze over Santa Monica Pier. Chef Ramsay tells both teams before they leave tonight is a special night in Hell’s Kitchen as it will be closed to the public and only have 2 tables of 12 top, one for each team.
The punishment for the red team is backbreaking and tedious work. They first need to flip over the entire dining room for tonight’s dinner service and when that is done they need to make stunning center pieces, and they are not flowers; they have boxes of beets that they need to carve into roses. When the blue team returns to the dorms, Ryan and Wendy get a special surprise. Since they won the challenge they both receive a Vitamix blender.
Back in the dining room Marino arrives to tell the blue team what they need to do. Andrew is complaining that he is the only man there and these ladies can’t lift anything over 20 lbs. Marino tells him he is outnumbered and to shut up. Heather says Andrew has a little bit of an ego problem, making it easy for them to manipulate him. Marino laughs.
The red team has a great time in Santa Monica; Paulie says he grew up flipping off the pier on Coney Island, so he was having a blast. Wendy is very skittish about the Trapeze, but her team cheers her on. She panics and begs for them not to let go screaming she can’t do it. Devin is upset that she didn’t take a leap of faith with the team.
In the kitchen, Kimberly and Heather are saying it is very therapeutic making the beet roses. Andrew is complaining saying he’d rather pet a Porcupine, touch a cactus, burn the inside of his mouth and peel pine nuts. The women think he is nuts.
The blue team returns to Hell’s Kitchen after their eventful reward at Santa Monica Pier and both teams are prepping for tonight’s dinner service. Heidi tells Andrew to put something away, after he calls her ma’am she says she isn’t his grandmother and he says she looks like her. Kimberly rolls her eyes at him.
Chef Ramsay tells the teams to line up and informs them they are hosting a private event honoring the major contributors to the amazing charity Stand Up to Cancer. Wendy says it is very important to her that they knock this service out of the park because every woman in her family has died from or gotten cancer. She tears up saying the thought of cancer scares her.
Chef Ramsay continues to tell the teams that each person is responsible for one course. He wants them to not only cook but show they can lead. He tells Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen.
For the lobster risotto it will be led by Kimberly (red) and Wendy (blue). Pan seared scallops will be Andrew (red) and Devin (blue). Salmon and fingerling potatoes will be overseen by Heidi (red) and Paulie (blue). The 12oz New York Strip with truffles will be Heather and Ryan.
Kimberly is spot on with the ingredients while Wendy is not watching quality control. Wendy immediately blames Ryan for the risottos not looking the same. Chef Ramsay comes back into the red kitchen and forces the team to re-plate everything because the portions are off. Wendy’s risotto is off to a good start and the red team quickly follows.
Chef Ramsay calls Andrew and Devin to the window and tells them 6 minutes to the window with the scallops. In the blue kitchen, Paulie is already starting his salmon when they haven’t even started the scallops. Andrew is pushing the red team forward while Devin starts to bring up the last of the blue teams, both teams serve at the same time.
Paulie and Heidi are now pushing their teams with the salmon course. Chef Ramsay tells Heidi to pick it up and he wants to hear her. She suddenly goes quiet and Chef tells her to pick it up and she owns this course. She is still quiet. Paulie is very vocal saying he is a head chef and he is great at delegating so this should be easy.
Wendy is upset that Paulie is plating the potatoes without the capers, she blames him for taking them before they were done and he blames her. Chef Ramsay calls the blue team over and tells them the potatoes have no capers. Wendy says they walked away on her. Ramsay throws his spoon and sarcastically says, “because they walked away.”
The red team is sending out perfectly cooked salmon and Heidi is happy Chef Ramsay is pleased. The blue team is lagging and they are not anywhere close to having the salmon course ready. Chef is getting angry that the blue table is waiting for their food; once they get the food out they are jumping to the last course and Paulie is complaining that no one was helping him; Ryan says that dish is over and she needs his help.
Chef Ramsay asks Ryan why Devin is just sitting there staring at the steaks, Ryan pushes him to slice them. Ramsay is frustrated and Devin cuts himself requiring a medic. Ryan says she doesn’t want blood on her steaks and for him to get out of there, Ryan takes over slicing the meat while Devin attends to his fingertip.
The red team beats the blue team again to the pass but Ryan’s steak course isn’t far behind. She is happy they managed to finish and no one got kicked out.
Chef Ramsay meets with the contributors who include Marg Helgenberger who tells him they have raised over 360 million dollars for this charity, he says that is amazing and returns to the kitchen.
Chef Ramsay tells the teams that the guests were all impressed with the food but both teams had issues with efficiency and leadership but there was one team that made a number of mental errors and that team is the blue team. He tells them to decide two nominees who should be put up for elimination.
The blue team returns to the dining room and Chef Ramsay asks Wendy who the nominees were. She tells him Paulie, because he got a little frantic and flustered, they were all working as a team but Paulie was more concerned for his course before the scallops even went out. The second nominee was Wendy herself. They both step forward.
Paulie blames Ryan for everything and he has done everything for everybody but when he asks for help, no one helps him. Wendy says she knows her mistakes and fixes them. Chef Ramsay is shocked that she walked away from her potatoes to find the capers. He shakes his head saying this is hard.
His decision is Paulie to get back in line. He calls Wendy forward telling her she has an amazing palate and has proven that time and time again but he waited and waited and waited but its not happening and she isn’t ready to go to Yardbird as the head chef.
“First Wendy told me the capers took a walk, then it was the potatoes but after watching her lack of consistency and confidence I knew it was her turn to take a walk!”
~ Chef Ramsay
PART 2
Hell’s Kitchen begins tonight with Paulie going to his room and standing at the door to overhear everyone talking. He goes on to say that Ryan is the most two-faced person ever. Andrew goes to the room and calls Paulie a liar that he isn’t sleeping, he is only listening to what everyone has to say.
In the morning the teams arrive in the dining room to see a luau out with dancers and drummers. Chef Ramsay says he loves Hawaii and today he is bringing in a master of infusion, Roy Yamaguchi, Owner and Executive Chef at Roys. He tells the teams that fusion is about a lot of flavors but there has to balance but no boundaries.
Andi and Aaron bring out two wheels of fusion, one for each team. They have to spin the wheel and pick two countries they will fuse together.
Heather and Ryan get Japanese and French. Devin and Kimberly get Chinese and French. Paulie and Andrew get Mexican and Chef’s Choice, Andrew chooses Indian. Heidi has to choose which battle she wants to join and she chooses French and Japanese since Ryan is her top competitor. They are given 45 minutes to create their dish.
They begin with Andrew and Paulie’s toughest mix of Indian and Mexican. Chef Roy Yamaguchi and Chef Ramsay agree that neither one of them is getting a point, especially disappointed that Andrew’s dish was still raw in the middle.
Heather, Ryan and Heidi bring forward their Japanese and French dishes. Ryan who didn’t want either French nor Japanese ends up with the best dish. Blue team gets the first point, beating out two red team members.
Kimberly and Devin bring forward their Chinese and French plates. Visually Kimberly’s dish was nice but the dish was more Chinese and was a bit overcooked. Devin’s dish was overcooked as well. Chef Yamaguchi says both dishes as overcooked but he chooses Kimberly for the flavor of the sauce. Because the teams are tied, Chef Ramsay asks Chef Yamaguchi who had the better dish, Kimberly or Ryan. He chooses Ryan and the blue team wins the challenge.
Paulie hugs Ryan who is shocked since they were ready to kill each other the night before. The reward is each member of the blue team is getting $2000 to spend at the chef supply store called Surfas, then they will enjoy a seven-course tasting menu at Providence, a two-Michelin star restaurant.
Chef Ramsay informs the red team that hanger steak is being added to the menu for dinner service and a massive side of beef will be arriving shortly. They need to break it down and the side for the steak will be potato gratin, so a few hundred pounds of potatoes is coming and they need to slice them all up.
The blue team is having a great time acting like children in a candy store. Devin and Ryan are excited to spend money on themselves since they both have children at home and can’t afford to do any of this.
Back in Hell’s Kitchen the red team is struggling to carry the beef and cutting it up. Ryan is sitting at the restaurant being playful, Devin laughs at her jokes but Paulie gives her a dirty look; once the food arrives things are okay but when Paulie says its not about individual victories and Ryan cuts him off saying he has an ego. Her and Devin continue to drink and joke around and Paulie isn’t impressed.
As the red team is preparing the potato gratin, Kimberly tells Andrew to stop yelling and drawing attention to himself. Andrew says she is going home, she tells him that he isn’t invisible and Andrew says he hates girls that are stuck-up, when he is told to stop he complains that she started it and doesn’t ever face the consequences of what she says. Andrew tells her she is on thin ice and to lock it up, she says she will break his arm.
Chef Ramsay encourages the teams about dinner service and asks Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen. The dining room fills up but there is a lot of anger and animosity among the teams. Kellita Smith (actress, Z Nation), Jasika Nicole (actress, Fringe), Patrick Renna (actor, The Sandlot), and Tommy Savas (Actor, State of Affairs) are among the guest tonight.
The arrogance of Paulie is bothersome and he says this is going to be a real test to see where Ryan is really at. Ryan is already in trouble when she totally forgets an order and throws out the remaining risotto. In the red kitchen, Andrew takes charge and they are off to what they think is a strong start, until Marino discovers one of the patrons has two hairs in her salad and they quickly rectify their mistake.
Ryan is struggling and Paulie is super smug about it saying he knew it. Both teams manage to get through appetizers without any more incidents and they move onto entrees. Chef Ramsay gets on Devin about being so slow, and when he brings up the veal it is raw; Ryan tells him to get it back in the pan and when he comes back with the veal, Paulie says his bass died waiting on the veal.
Chef calls the blue team to him and he throws his spoon and pencil as the dining room watches them. Chef yells that they are not communicating and Paulie asks Ramsay if he would like to check his bass to see if it is good enough, and he loses his patience. Paulie says he doesn’t think the bass is good enough and Chef Ramsay tells him to man up because he knows it isn’t any good.
Chef tells Devin to take his protein back, saying they have gone from three chefs to three stooges and asks if he could get the proteins together, Ryan freaks that the guys are sinking the blue team. They finally managed to get the dishes out.
In the red kitchen, Heidi brings up her meat and is upset that Kimberly’s fish is taking longer than the meat. Chef Ramsay has to run after Kimberly to get the other fish, calling her a grandma; but tells her the fish is cooked perfect. He tells her to get it in gear.
Devin is repeating the tickets but he can’t remember them and Chef asks him if he is okay? Devin pushes the time with the team and Chef Ramsay tells him the NY strip is nicely cooked. Devin hustles his team to finish, but then Paulie announces he only has 2 pieces of sea bass left, saying he only ruined those two from earlier and only had 12 to work with.
Ramsay calls Marino over and orders Paulie to tell him that since he is fed up with wiping his ass. Paulie tells Marino what happened and Marino is furious asking him what he is supposed to tell the guests and Chef Ramsay is angry and Marino huffs away. Paulie asks the red team if they have any sea bass and they give him two pieces.
Chef Ramsay tells the red team they did a good job but tells the blue team they had a pathetic performance and sends them to pick one person who should be eliminated and asks the red team to finish the blue teams final ticket. Paulie goes to the dorm saying he had a perfect service except for the two sea bass.
Back in the dining room the red team is told “well done” again and Chef Ramsay asks Paulie who they chose. He says Devin because he was unable to remember checks and was frazzled. He was lost in the kitchen and Devin says he wasn’t lost serving 32 pieces of meat. Paulie says he only screwed up on the 2 pieces of fish and Devin cuts him off saying he only had 12. Devin says he chose Ryan. Chef Ramsay tells Paulie to say goodbye to Devin. He tells him he is passionate and has a big heart but his performances in dinner services and the challenges have been disappointing. He tells him he is not ready for a black jacket but tells him not to stop and to follow his dreams. Chef Ramsay tells the remaining chefs that it is crunch time and time to stand out on their own.
“Devin had a hard time remembering the tickets, unfortunately, his performance tonight will be hard to forget!”
~ Chef Ramsay
THE END!
