Hell's Kitchen episode 10: Local cook's stock is rising

WOLFEBORO – Another week, and another contestant was sent packing from Hell’s Kitchen and again, local cook Nicole “Nikki” Hanna remains in the mix. In fact, she’s been doing more than just surviving – Hanna’s solid performance during the 10th episode drew special recognition from the show’s host, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

“There’s hardly anybody here,” declared Ramsay at the start of the episode, when just four contestants were left on both the red and blue teams. The fact that Hanna was among them underscored some of her previous assertions that she deserved to be part of the elimination-style reality competition show, despite her thin resume. Prior to the filming of the 19th season of Hell’s Kitchen, Hanna, a Kingswood Regional High School graduate, had only two years of cooking experience – as a line cook at Wolfe’s Tavern in Wolfeboro.

Other contestants were older, had cooked in notable kitchens and under accomplished chefs, and some had even appeared on other cooking shows before. Yet, episode after episode, she remained in the game while yet another more experienced contestant was sent home. That storyline repeated itself again last week.

“This was my favorite episode, for many reasons,” Hanna said during a telephone interview on Monday.

The 10th episode’s challenge was for the teams to concoct a flight of burgers, featuring different proteins. By luck of the draw, Hanna had to make one out of turkey, which she ground with pancetta for extra fat, and served it on a pretzel bun with a beer cheese sauce. The guest judge liked it, though the turkey burger from the Blue Team was deemed superior.

The Red Team won the challenge overall, though, which meant that they got to spend the day at Dig This Las Vegas, a business which uses full-sized excavators as toys for grown-ups.

“Oh my God, that was amazing,” Hanna said of the experience. “When I was a kid, my stepdad worked at Coleman Congrete and he ran the backhoe. I would sometimes sit with him, but he would never let me drive it because I was like 11. So it was like another childhood dream come true. I did not realize how stoked I would be to sit in the driver’s seat and have them tell me to pick up and drop a minivan… I was giddy.”

Meanwhile, the Blue Team members were having a different kind of experience. As punishment for losing the challenge, they were told to peel and dice 500 pounds of potatoes, and they had to drink milkshakes made using the leftover burgers that both teams had made - turkey, salmon, onions, jalapeno peppers, and all the other meats and toppings, blended together with ice cream.

“I didn’t know they had to do that,” said Hanna, who didn’t see the point in the punishment. In other episodes, the punishment had to do with the operation of the kitchen, such as cleaning crates of crabs or baking hundreds of cupcakes. “I feel like it was degrading, it doesn’t serve any purpose, in my mind.”

After the milkshakes were gone, and the minivans crushed, both teams returned to face Ramsay to start that evening’s service at the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas.

“Tonight, I’m determined to have a good service,” Ramsay told the contestants. Instead of assigning a station to each participant, he asked each team to come up with their own assignments. Hanna picked the meat station, often the position which sparks Ramsay’s temper if meats are not cooked to the precise level.

“I know this is going to be my moment to shine, but if I (expletive) it up, it’s going to be bad, bad,” Hanna told the camera.

She didn’t (expletive) it up, though. She sent out racks of lamb, steaks and everything else, cooked to Ramsay’s exacting standards. At one point – and this wasn’t shown in the broadcast – Ramsay lined up a half-dozen dishes that Hanna turned out for a large table, and had her stand next to them. Then he pulled the Blue Team, which had been struggling, and asked them to look at what a single, competent cook can do.

“I was very proud of myself, but also mortified,” Hanna said. Confusion was quickly added to that mix of emotions, as Ramsay then pulled her into the pantry for a one-on-one, something he hadn’t done with her since the beginning of the season, when she cracked under the pressure of the show and cried while on the line. Ramsay only spoke to people in the relative privacy of the pantry when they were underperforming.

“I knew that I was on a roll, so when he said, ‘Nikki, two seconds,’ my heart kind of dropped,” she said on Monday.

“I think about the resume, the line cook, the tiny borough that you’re from,” Ramsay told her, adding that she was in “another league” compared to some of the other contestants. “Your cooking in these past couple of days has been exceptional. You are absolutely rising. Keep it going.”

On the telephone, Hanna said that quick pep talk was “one of the most magical moments of my entire life. I couldn’t believe it.”

Hanna comes from a large family, and, prior to her cooking career, had worked in a large facility for people with brain injuries. She credited that background for her ability to stay calm in chaotic circumstances – something which was coming in handy on the set of Hell’s Kitchen.

“My whole M.O. during all this has been, regardless of your experience or your age or where you come from, it’s possible to be successful if you have drive, the desire to succeed and the willingness to learn on the fly. Amazing things are possible,” Hanna said. “It’s important to say to other people who are aspiring to do bigger things, that your background doesn’t matter that much.”

By the episode’s end, Marc, from the blue team, was sent home, in part due to a daring gambit by blue team leader Cody. He nominated both himself and Marc for elimination, betting on the likelihood that Ramsay would pick the problematic Marc to send home. That meant that Hanna was now one of seven still standing.

Hell’s Kitchen airs at 8 p.m. on Fox on Thursdays, with past episodes available for streaming via Hulu.