'Hell's Kitchen' Recap: Best of Six Chefs Remain

Elise is "very grateful" to remain in the competition and is ready to put her "best foot forward" on tonight's episode of Hell's Kitchen. Also, the red team is very skeptical if Elisabeth can keep it together. But, as the announcer tells us, bot teams are "eager for redemption". 

Will they be able to do it? Let's see... "Stop crying!" The elimination challenge sounds interesting. Every team must prepare three entrees in 30 minutes. The first one must be prepared in 30 minutes, the second one in 20 minutes and the last in 10 minutes. All three dishes must be completed and arrive at the pass at the same time. The blue team wins because Elise undercooks her calamari. And she starts crying. Bitterly. "Stop crying, Elise!", Chef Ramsay barks at her. 

"Bounce back!" "I'm a fashionable individual!" As a reward, the men go on a shopping spree and must pretend to be thrilled by it. And since Hell's Kitchen likes to perpetuate gender clichés, none of the men have any fashion sense and stumble around the clothing store like they just landed on mars. Tommy even learns that he has been a "fashionable individual" because he wears a leather jacket every day. He also gets an opportunity to reinforce his creepiness when he openly scans the sales clerk's body to compare it to his girlfriend's when he picks out a dress for her. 

Classy. "You're messing with the wrong person!" Meanwhile, tensions rise on the lady's team. After rearranging the dining room for a charity dinner, which involved the very unladylike task of carrying around tables, Elise wants to reassert her ambitions to be the team leader but Elisabeth won't have any of it. "If she thinks she can bully me around, she is messing with the wrong person", she says in the confessional. How many times have we heard that on Hell's Kitchen? 

 "War is on!" The "exclusive" black tie event, because nothing is more exclusive and classy than dining with Gordon Ramsay's constant yelling and cursing in the background, sees every contestant being responsible for two dishes, which means that leading skills are tested. Which means, of course, that the "VIP guests" have to hear the contestants' constant bickering and yelling in addition to Chef Ramsay's ramblings. No one really emerges as a leader, except for Will who somehow unites the blue team. And unsurprisingly Elisabeth and Tommy completely shut down, unable to steer their team when it's their time. Tensions escalate between Elise and Jennifer. 

The "not most physically fit" (Jennifer's self-description) person on the show declares bravely: "I have kept my mouth shut long enough. But that's over now. War is on!" "My decision is..." Jennifer's and Elise's self-aggrandizement leads them to an extended shouting match right in front of Chef Ramsay. "Can you lead a team?" blares Elise. "Can you listen?" retorts Jennifer.

For the sake of further drama between the alpha females Jennifer and Elise, of course, Elisabeth, who practically begs on her knees to remain in the competition, is eliminated. All remaining five contestants now don black jackets and are prompted by Chef Ramsay to get ready for what's to come. Will they be able to raise to the challenge?