Welcome back! Thanks for joining me as we dive into Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars Season 2, Episode 8 recap. It’s the quarter-finals already! Last time, Lisa Vanderpump’s team triumphed in the sales challenge. That led to Gordon Ramsay sending home Kyson Clark and Rose Hankins in a shocking double elimination.
This week’s episode, “Breakfast Bootcamp” presents the entrepreneurs with their toughest challenge yet. Here’s everything you need to know about Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars Season 2, Episode 8!
Breakfast bombshell
There are just seven contestants left, and they are waiting at a breakfast café to learn about the next challenge. Last week’s double elimination was a shock. Team Vanderpump has Nicholas, Jess, Roman, and Erica, while Team Ramsay has Andrew, Ali, and Liz still in the game. Then Gordon and Lisa served their “proper English” breakfasts to their teams.
Before they could enjoy a bite, Lisa and Gordon revealed that the contestants would be working together as one team. And they will also all attend The Grilling. I’m sure they’ve lost their appetite by now.
For the next challenge, the group will be running a breakfast service the next day, both back of house (BOH) and front of house (FOH). The group will find out all the details tomorrow morning. So mysterious! But communication will be key in this challenge, and the competitors need to choose their roles wisely.
Meanwhile, Gordon and Lisa were discussing the challenge. The group will be taking over The Savoy Grill, which Gordon says is “one of the most iconic dining rooms anywhere in the world.” Plus, Gordon has been at the Savoy for 20 years. He is putting his reputation on the line, so he is in his feelings.
Choose your positions
Andrew stepped up to be the team leader, and he will work BOH. Then Liz suggested that people who have worked in the kitchen before should do so again. That makes sense. Both Ali and Roman decided to be BOH. But Nicholas, who has consistently worked in the kitchen, wants to be in the front. What?
Both Erica and Liz want to work in FOH. Poor Jess. She doesn’t cook at all and stated that her strength would be in FOH. So, Andrew pointed out that Nicholas has kitchen experience. But Nicholas won’t budge because he has focused on FOH for the past several years. He is unapologetic about showing Lisa and Gordon his skills.
“Does that affect other people? Well, maybe it’s time some other people move around as well,” Nicholas stated. So, welcome to the culinary team, Jess! She once again pointed out that she has ZERO culinary experience.
The Next Day
The contestants hit the ground yawning at 2:00 a.m. They will be serving breakfast in a matter of hours. Gordon hopes that this challenge will show their ability to adapt and communicate. “Because if this goes wrong, it’s in my house, and that is going to upset me,” he stated. The group was shocked that they would be working at the elegant, five-star The Savoy Grill.
Soon, the FOH staff received a crash course in five-star service from restaurant director, Thierry Tomasin. Liz had never been to a five-star restaurant, so she was overwhelmed. And while Nicholas was praised for his fine dining expertise, he was concerned about all the flubs that Liz and Erica would make.
Welcome to the kitchen, chef!
The BOH team was trained by Executive Chef Ronnie Kimbugwe. Andrew, as the leader, will be responsible for coordinating the chefs and communicating with the FOH.
The team will learn how to make several dishes. An English breakfast, pancakes with pecans and caramelized bananas, French toast with roasted peaches, Eggs Benedict, and, finally, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, and caviar.
Roman will tackle the full English breakfast, while Ali handles the smoked salmon. Jess is going to prepare the French toast, while Andrew takes on the Eggs Benedict, and pancakes. Ronnie is worried about Andrew’s workload, with preparing two dishes and sending the food out. Yikes!
Meanwhile, I’m scared about Jess making flaming peaches for the French toast. Why didn’t the experienced culinary people give her something easier?
Naturally, Gordon and Lisa popped in for some breakfast. When the FOH team brings an order back, they must announce it and wait for the chef to respond. After they received their breakfast, Gordon immediately picked apart all the issues with the food, especially the soggy French toast and the cold sausage. He immediately headed back to the kitchen and gathered the culinary team. “This is awful,” he stated.
Let’s get cooking
The team will serve 40 customers during the two-hour breakfast service. And Lisa and Gordon were expecting a five-star experience. The first order has a complaint about the peaches being too hard. Gordon went back into the kitchen personally and told Jess.
Soon, orders were flooding in as the kitchen team tried to keep up. Then the kitchen sent out an order for the wrong table, bringing it to diners who had already eaten. So, Nicholas went back to the kitchen and told them that they read the ticket incorrectly. Meanwhile, Gordon was slowly losing his mind while Thierry scolded Andrew for embarrassing him and sending him to the wrong table.
Next, Liz and Erica bumped into each other in the dining room – literally. Having Lisa and Gordon sitting at a table watching must be incredibly nerve-wracking. But that was just the beginning of Liz’s problems. Guests called out Liz for not reaching the normal standards of service at The Savoy.
And when a frazzled Liz dropped a napkin on the floor, picked it up, and started to polish the cutlery with it, Lisa and Gordon weren’t the only people who saw Liz’s gaffe. Thierry pulled her to the side and told her to re-set the table. Oof.
The FOH team is scrambling
Then Nicholas took an order for a meat and dairy-free English breakfast with no eggs, but he forgot to write on the ticket to hold the eggs. When Nicholas and Thierry delivered the breakfast, the customer said that he couldn’t eat eggs. In turn, that upset the customer because he felt the staff should know about the severity of food allergies.
After Nicholas tried to blame the kitchen staff, Ali fought back, stating that Nicholas never said not to include eggs. After looking at the ticket, Gordon told Nicholas that everything needed to be on the slip and communicated to the chef.
Once again, there was an issue in the dining room. One customer received their food, while their tablemate was still waiting for his English breakfast with no black pudding. Of course, it came out of the kitchen with black pudding.
Nicholas told the kitchen to remove the black pudding, while Ali wanted to re-plate the meal. But Nicholas insisted that Roman just remove the pudding. Naturally, Gordon stopped him after he delivered the plate and asked if the black pudding touched any of the other food. The mushroom touched the pudding, so Gordon ordered him to retrieve the plate. Gordon told the BOH that they could not re-plate food after it touched other food.
Now the team has only 15 minutes left to serve the customers. One table was waiting for 25 minutes for their food and complained about the poor service. But it was too late. Gordon cut off service without all the food being sent out.
Three tables were not served and left hungry. Afterward, Gordon and Lisa gathered the group, and he railed about the lack of communication between the FOH and BOH.
The Grilling
Before the competitors arrived at The Grilling, Lisa asked Gordon “to play nice.” Good luck with that. The entire group arrived, with Gordon labeling their efforts “a sh*t show.” Feedback from Ronnie, Thierry, and the customers, along with Lisa and Gordon’s observations, told the dismal tale.
Gordon blamed Andrew for making the most complicated dish and being in charge of sending out the food. He also mentioned Jess, who never cooks, flambéing fruit. However, Andrew noted that Nicholas “allegedly” had more BOH experience but refused to step into that role to help the team.
Then Roman was slammed for serving black pudding to customers who didn’t want it. So, he called out the communication problems between the BOH and FOH, especially the incorrect tickets. That was Andrew’s cue to share that Nicholas had the largest number of incorrect tickets. Nicholas tried to blame Andrew for not checking them.
“Nicholas, the tickets were shocking,” Gordon stated. Then he told Liz that she had the most complaints about her service and brought up the dirty napkin incident. Even Erica winced.
Afterward, Gordon circled back to Nicholas, pointing out that he had the most experience, but his service “was still appalling.” Finally, Gordon called out Andrew because he was the team leader.
Who is leaving the competition?
Liz Aust is leaving the competition.
“It’s obviously sad to be going, but I had zero experience in this realm,” she said in her tearful final confessional. “I’m definitely going to be taking the confidence I’ve gained back home to my business, The Candy Closet. It’s been the wildest, most fun ride of my life.”
But Gordon and Lisa weren’t done yet. Finally, Lisa announced who else was packing their bags.
Who else is leaving the competition?
Nicholas Ducos is leaving the competition.
Nicholas thanked Lisa “for the opportunity.” In his final confessional, Nicholas said, “I definitely will take some blame on this responsibility as someone who has experience. That was a tough challenge. I am so proud of my time here on Food Stars.” He continued, “I’ve learned so much about myself. I’ve learned so much about how I’m going to pursue business going forward. I’m so grateful for the opportunity. This is life-changing, either way.”
But Gordon had another announcement. He congratulated the five remaining contestants before informing them that the semi-final just started. WOW!
