Ramsay introduced the theme of the season--"the American Dream"--and revealed that the winner would become the head chef at the Hell's Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Las Vegas.

Service: De La Hoya and McBride sat at the chef's tables while Garcelle Beauvais and Alex Mack were also in attendance for opening night, which was rocky for both teams.

Punishment/reward: The men enjoyed a poolside lunch atop a private resort while the women had to pick up confetti from the naturalization ceremony and prep the kitchens for service.

Service: Victor Cruz and Bobby Berk sat at the blue and red chef's tables, respectively; also attending were Alaska and Liam Pace.

Jermaine sent up overcooked wellingtons, and Brad ran around the kitchen aimlessly once his appetizers were complete in search of a new task; eventually, Ramsay got fed up and kicked the men out after repeated failures.

In the red kitchen, Claudia served raw lobster tail for the risotto; she was able to refire it properly, but later fell behind with Donya on fish entrées for Liam Pace's table.

Punishment/reward: Jason and the women were tasked with making bread by hand the entire day while Melissa and the men got to enjoy a parasailing excursion followed by dinner at a mansion in Santa Barbara.

[28] On the blue side, Mattias continued his inconsistencies from the previous service on the fish station, sending undercooked lobster tail for risotto to the pass twice before finally cooking it to Ramsay's standards.

The women had a very good service; the only issues were Raneisha adding too much liquid for a carbonara and lying to sous-chef Christina about it, Sammi overcooking halibut, Atoye not firing garnish according to ticket times, and Sandra not communicating with the team.

Although Ramsay was still fed up with Jason's flippant attitude and willingness to "cut corners" for convenience, he ultimately eliminated Mattias, feeling he was on too severe a downward spiral to continue any further.

Team challenge: The chefs were tasked with identifying four surf and turf combinations (oysters and venison, crab and ostrich, halibut and veal, & monkfish and rabbit).

The women fell behind in large part due to Sandra and Donya hesitating to make choices during their portion of the challenge; ultimately, they finished with a time of 13 minutes, 14 seconds.

Brad had issues calling accurate tickets, which only became worse after he developed laryngitis mid-service, and Jermaine tried to wrap wellingtons in aluminum foil to get them to cook faster (which only overcooked them and destroyed the outer appearance of the puff pastry).

On the red side, Melissa neglected to communicate with her team in any meaningful manner, instead deferring the duty entirely to Sammi (who worked garnish alongside her).

Ramsay asked both women why their teams had "given up on them", and after each gave their answers, he eliminated Melissa, feeling she had lost her passion and was complacent with ostracizing herself to an unacceptable degree.

This became especially problematic for Devon on meat, as he often failed to produce the correct number of portions needed for each ticket (one table had to be sent without an individual steak due to such an error and was delayed considerably).

Atoye and Johnathan were the first two to leave, followed by Leigh and Dahmere, then Carmen and Jason, then Sammi and Devon; Sandra and Ryan remained in the kitchen the entire time.

Leigh mistakenly placed the butter over ice, believing it to be necessary for the process; upon sous-chef Christina discovering this, she burst into laughter while stating that they had slowed production down considerably by doing so.

Service: Daniel Mac and his family sat at a special 12-top seating arrangement for his birthday celebration; the table's orders were split in half for the red and blue kitchens.

Despite Sammi mistakenly shaping her agnolotti into tortellini, she still beat Jason, whose pasta were severely undercooked, leading the red team to win three-one.

Carmen was noticeably confused by the concept of the reward (as goats were placed on top of their backs while kneeling in an attempt to relieve tension in certain muscle areas); the red team found the experience to be more amusing than relaxing.

In the red kitchen, while working on the ticket for Jordan Chiles' table, Donya's scallops get stuck to the saute pan forcing Leigh's risotto to be sent back; she corrected her mistakes on the second try.

Atoye's struggles continued, after failing to communicate proper ticket times to Ramsay, he sent her into the store room and gave her a stern, yet encouraging, talk to compose herself.

Chefs from each team stepped up to taste random ingredients with a blindfold on while another teammate sat on the hot bench as collateral, threatened to be covered by 'messy space debris' for consecutive incorrect guesses.

Reward/punishment: The men were granted a four thousand dollar shopping spree at Sur La Table, while the women were punished with cleaning up the mess caused by the challenge.

Olivia Culpo was also in attendance as one of The People Concern contributors, while Teen Cancer America founder Rebecca Rothstein, Avantika Vandanapu, and Emily Tosta dined in the red table.

While Sammi, Leigh, Dahmere, and Ryan were particularly notable for their strong leadership abilities, others including Jason and Donya struggled to manage and communicate with their teams effectively.

Individual challenge: Ryan, Johnathan, and Sammi had an hour to prepare their menus consisting of a cold and hot appetizer, and a fish, chicken, and beef entreé with the aid of their sous-chefs.

Ramsay brought in guest judges Giada De Laurentiis, Brian Malarkey, Nyesha Arrington, Michael Cimarusti, and Curtis Stone for each course who would rate each dish on a scale from one to ten.

Dahmere undercooked his first attempt at lamb, then later served a raw New York strip with cold sauce, forcing Johnathan to switch him to garnish in exchange for Donya, whose refire was successful.