Hell's Kitchen (American season 13)

Season 13 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen premiered on September 10, 2014 on Fox. The prize was a head chef position at Gordon Ramsay's Pub & Grill at Caesars Atlantic City. Gordon Ramsay returned as head chef and Andi van Willigan and James Avery returned as sous chefs. However, Jean-Philippe Susilovic did not return as maitre d' and was replaced by Marino Monferrato. It also marks the first time since 2010 that two seasons of Hell's Kitchen aired in the same year. Kitchen Supervisor La Tasha McCutchen from Winter Haven, Florida won the competition, becoming the first winner since Christina Wilson to completely avoid nomination for elimination throughout the entire season. This is also the first time that the series had a new narrator. However, the identity of the new narrator is Roger Craig Smith (who is also the narrator of TLC's Say Yes To The Dress). (who was also the narrator for Season 14). This is also the first time since Season 9 that a season was 16 episodes long, and first time since Season 10 returned to 18 contestants, instead of 20 from the past two seasons.

Hell's Kitchen
Season 13
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	16
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	September 10 – December 17, 2014
Season chronology

Opening sequence

The chefs battle against each other in an epic gladiator showdown at the Colosseum while Ramsay watches from the balcony.

Chefs

Eighteen chefs competed in season 13 for the first time since season 10.[1]

Contestant	Age	Occupation	Hometown
Frank Bilotti	26	Executive Chef	Staten Island, New York
Fernando Cruz	28	Executive Chef	La Quinta, California
Sade Dancy	25	Lead Line Cook	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
John Paul "JP" DeDominicis	28	Kitchen Manager	Boston, Massachusetts
Rosanne "Roe" DiLeo[lower-alpha 1]	33	Head Chef	Dallas, Texas
Bryant Gallaher	29	Lead Line Cook	Virginia Beach, Virginia
Denine Giordano	23	Culinary Student	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Aaron Lhamon	28	Lead Line Cook	Maynard, Massachusetts
La Tasha McCutchen	33	Kitchen Supervisor	Winter Haven, Florida
Katie McKeown	23	Line Cook	Dallas, Texas
Kalen Morgenstern	32	Sous Chef	River Oaks, Texas
James "JR" Robinson[2]	29	Private Chef	Washington, D.C.
Steven "Steve" Rosenthal	34	Executive Chef	Detroit, Michigan
Jennifer Salhoff	33	Private Chef	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Brian "Santos" Santos	33	Sous Chef	Boston, Massachusetts
Ashley Sherman	29	Lead Line Cook	Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Janai Simpson	24	Chef de Partie	LaGrange, Georgia
Sterling Wright	40	Grill Chef	Nashville, Tennessee

Notes

1. Chef returned to Hells Kitchen again on Season 18.

Contestant progress

						Original teams						First switch	Second switch					Individual			Finale
No.	Chef					1301	1302	1303	1304	1305	1306	1307	1308	1309	1310	1311	1312	1313	1314	1315	1316
1					La Tasha	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	IN	IN	IN	WINNER
2					Bryant	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	NOM	LOSE	WIN	BoW	IN	IN	RUNNER-UP
3				Sade		WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	IN	IN	OUT
4				Jennifer		WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	IN	NOM	OUT
5				Roe		WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	NOM	NOM	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	NOM	NOM	OUT
6				Santos		LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	NOM	NOM	OUT
7		Sterling				LOSE	NOM	WIN	LOSE	WIN	NOM	LOSE	NOM	LOSE	WIN	NOM	OUT[n 1]
8	Fernando					LOSE	NOM	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	WIN	LOSE	OUT
9	Aaron					NOM	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	NOM	WIN	WIN	LEFT
10			Frank			LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM[n 2]	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	NOM	OUT[n 1]
11	Steve					LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	WIN	NOM	NOM	WIN	LEFT[n 3]
12	Ashley					WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	LOSE	LOSE	OUT
13	Katie					WIN	LOSE	LOSE	WIN	NOM	OUT
14	Kalen					WIN	LOSE	NOM	WIN	OUT
15	JR					LOSE	LOSE	WIN	OUT
16	Denine					WIN	NOM	OUT
17	Janai					WIN	OUT
18	JP					OUT

Keywords WIN = Won the dinner service LOSE = Lost the dinner service BoB = Best of the Best, usually exempt from nomination BoW = Best of the Worst, sometimes exempt from nomination IN = not nominated for elimination NOM = nominated for elimination OUT = eliminated LEFT = withdrew from competition

Color key   Chef was eliminated after nomination   Chef was eliminated without nomination   Chef was eliminated during service   Chef withdrew from the competition   Chef was retained after nomination   The winner of Hell's Kitchen   The runner-up of Hell's Kitchen

Notes

1. Chef was eliminated in the kitchen, during the post-mortem
2. Chef was nominated by Ramsay
3. Chef sustained an injury and was not allowed to continue

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
187	1	"18 Chefs Compete"	September 10, 2014	4.27[3]
The season began with the contestants being transported to the Cinerama Dome theater in Los Angeles, where they first viewed a short film that had an introduction by Chef Ramsay and detailed the careers of several former contestants including season 10 winner Christina Wilson, season 9 winner Paul Niedermann and season 7 runner-up Jason "Jay" Santos before informing this season's contestants of the challenges they would face. Team challenge/signature dish They were then immediately given their first challenge: to make their signature dishes for Chef Ramsay (at the Le Cordon Bleu college across the street) and present them in front of a large cinema audience. As the contestants cooked their dishes, JP was scolded by Ramsay for finishing his dish with over twenty minutes remaining, and forced to make it again (it would overcook if he tried to keep it warm for that long). For the first time ever, instead of giving 1 point to a perfect dish, the dishes were rated on a scale of 1–5. Denine's inside-out chicken parmesan and JR's rockfish taco with mango slaw and lemon aioli both received 3 points. In the next round, Sade's wild mushroom and pea risotto got 2 points whilst JP's Boston baked haddock with lemon beurre blanc sauce and fingerling potatoes got 1 point. He was even threatened with elimination, as he was the only one to have to cook his dish twice; even then, the fish was overcooked and the potatoes were undercooked. The women kept the lead as Ashley's deconstructed chicken and chorizo taco received 3 points and Frank's filet mignon Bordelaise got 1 point, but in the next round the points were tied as La Tasha's grilled hickory watermelon got 1 point whilst Fernando's pan seared pigeon with sweet potato puree impressed receiving 4 points. The women took the lead again as Roe's Kobe beef filet got 4 points whilst Sterling's shrimp and grits still got a respectable 3 points. The scores were tied again as Jennifer's pan roasted duck breast got 2 points and Steve's rack of lamb got 3 points. Both Katie's pan seared halibut and Bryant's wild mushroom roulade received 4 points and the scores were still tied as both Janai's lobster-stuffed lamb rack and Aaron's hazelnut financier got 1 point. In the final round, Santos's skate wing with beurre noisette got 3 points, but Kalen's seared sea scallops got 4 points which secured a 24–23 victory, making it the fourth season in a row the women won the signature dish challenge. Reward/punishment: The women were treated to a meal at the Hotel Bel-Air hosted by Wolfgang Puck while the men were taken to Hell's Kitchen, which was rearranged, which would a spoiler in the Amy's Baking Company episode on Kitchen Nightmares, and made to set up the dorms. During the punishment, JR annoyed his teammates by doing little work. As a final punishment, they had to unload the women's luggage upon their arrival. The women began studying the cooking manuals, while the men quickly fell asleep. Service: For the opening night, several celebrities were in attendance including Greg Grunberg, Scott Grimes, Paul Feig, Bob Guiney and Eva La Rue. In addition, a tableside appetizer of prawn scampi was served by Denine and Sterling. The women turned in a virtually flawless performance, with the only notable error being Janai mistakenly serving 8 scallops for an order instead of 10, and they finished dinner service after what Chef Ramsay said was by far the best-ever performance by a team on the opening night of a Hell's Kitchen season, with Ashley and Roe having flawless performances on the meat station. The men's service, however, was a complete disaster. They were stalled from the beginning by Aaron cooking bland risotto twice and JR and JP serving raw scallops and raw lobster respectively; Aaron was eventually able to get the risottos out with help from Fernando. Steve did well on the meat station, but JR and JP undercooked halibut and got tossed out of service. Fernando took over the fish station, but also served up raw halibut, which caused Ramsay to throw all the men out. With the men having served no entrees, they were deemed the clear losers and told to nominate two chefs for elimination. Elimination: After some deliberation, Bryant revealed the nominees as Aaron and JP. After hearing from the two, Chef Ramsay eliminated JP for his general ineptitude in both the signature dish challenge and the service, in addition to taking no accountability for his faults (he attempted to blame Aaron for the failure of the men's service). Ramsay's comment: "Everyone in Hell's Kitchen starts at the bottom. Unfortunately, JP stayed there."
188	2	"17 Chefs Compete"	September 10, 2014	4.21[3]
Team challenge: After getting an early morning wake-up from some lifeguards, the teams were brought outside Hell's Kitchen, where a series of sand sculptures had been set up. Chef Ramsay revealed that buried in each sculpture were several geoducks and that the first part of the challenge was to tear apart the sculptures and retrieve the geoducks. The men retrieved 12 to the women's 10, after which Ramsay told the men that while they hadn't won anything yet, they would have more to work with in the next part, which involved creating a geoduck sashimi dish. Ramsay stipulated that each dish had to weigh between 199 and 201 g (7.02 and 7.09 oz) and that the first team to 15 dishes would win. The women narrowly won their 2nd challenge in a row, as their more meticulous approach paid off over the men's faster but more haphazard style. Roe and Kalen scored the winning point for the women after Aaron and Steve had one rejected for being 2 grams too small that would have won for the men. Reward/punishment: The women were treated to a dinner on a boat with Chef Ramsay, before getting to enjoy a relaxing day on the beach. The men received a barrage of punishments including being forced to clean up all the sand outside Hell's Kitchen, then eating a meal of salted cod with a gefilte fish sauce, followed by cleaning and preparing the geoduck special for that night's service and finally setting up both kitchens. During the meal, Sterling's constant chatter got on Bryant's nerves, leading to a heated argument. Service: Aaron and Kalen served geoduck chowder tableside. The men had another poor service; despite a good performance by Bryant on the appetizers, Steve made several mistakes on the fish station, serving up raw halibut and boiled scallops, while Fernando and Sterling put up a poor performance on the meat station, repeatedly getting their times wrong and undercooking lamb and pork. The team managed to get some entrees out, but progress was far too slow for Chef Ramsay's liking and he threw the men out after Sterling revealed that he was nearly five minutes behind on a pork loin. The women, meanwhile, were unable to repeat their performance of the previous episode; Janai got the team off to a disastrous start by constantly serving up bland, overcooked risottos and refusing to give accurate times, which caused Denine to serve undercooked scallops and lobster. Ramsay ordered all the women into the pantry to regroup, after which they finished the appetizers and Jennifer and La Tasha were able to get the meat entrees out perfectly. However, Denine served raw salmon, which caused Ramsay to throw the whole team out. Ramsay was angry that the blue team had performed poorly again, but especially disappointed that the women had fallen apart so quickly after the previous service. As a result, each team was told to nominate two chefs for elimination. Elimination: The women nominated Denine and Janai. Sterling nominated himself for the men and despite suggestions for Steve to be nominated, Bryant persuaded the others to put up Fernando, the other person on the meat station. After speaking to the four nominees, Ramsay eliminated Janai for being the women's worst performer in both of the first two services, as well as her inability to cook risotto properly and poor communication with her team. Ramsay's comment: "Cooking risotto is elementary. But tonight, I found out Janai is still in kindergarten."
189	3	"16 Chefs Compete"	September 17, 2014	3.96[4]
Team challenge: After a night in which Steve and Sterling had a fierce argument, the teams were brought into the dining room and told that they had to improve their communication if they wanted to improve in services. Chef Ramsay therefore gave each chef a jacket with a recipe printed on the back, which they would need to rely on their team-mates to read to them. Each team has the same set of recipe jackets, in which only the recipe itself-– not the name of the item-– is given. After the 45 minutes given to cook ran out, each member present their dishes, in which Chef Ramsay judges on their quality, with the best dish earning the point for their team. La Tasha beat Santos on enchiladas despite misidentifying her dish as meat pie, Katie and Steve both scored on frittata, and Aaron beat Ashley on shepherd's pie, tying the score at 2. Denine beat JR on burgers, but Bryant beat Kalen on lobster spring rolls and Jennifer and Sterling both scored on lettuce wraps, tying the score at 4 with two rounds to go. Frank beat Sade on spaghetti and meatballs by using his mother's recipe, and Fernando beat Roe on empanadas after Ashley couldn't figure out what Roe was supposed to make, forcing the latter to serve a tart with no filling in the pastry. This gave the men a 6-4 win. Reward/punishment: The men spent the day ziplining at Venice Beach, before having a meal served to them by Marino at the Erwin Hotel. The women, in addition to prepping both kitchens, had to bring several large bags of coffee beans into Hell's Kitchen, before grinding them down for that night's filet steak special. During the punishment, Denine further angered her teammates by refusing to do any of the work and, as if that was not enough, causing a small fire while preparing the appetizer ingredients. Service: In tonight's service, Wendy Williams, Shaunie O'Neal and Elisabeth Röhm were special guests. A tableside appetizer of coffee-crusted filet mignon was served by Fernando and Roe. Both teams flew through appetizers without any trouble thanks to vocal leadership from JR and Sade (though Katie was getting annoyed with her whilst she did well on appetizers), only to get stalled immediately on the entrees. In the blue kitchen, Bryant served mushy, overcooked halibut on the first table, and Frank burnt Brussel sprouts, leading Chef Ramsay to order the team into the pantry for a meeting. However, Bryant undercooked his next halibut, and got thrown out along with his partner on the fish station, Sterling, who was angered as he felt he had done nothing wrong. The team started getting the entrees out after Steve took over the fish, but Frank was also thrown out for bringing up chicken garnish not only unseasoned but also three minutes early. Fernando also got confused in the dining room as to which table he was supposed to serve to, but managed to recover and the team was able to successfully complete the service. For the women, Kalen kept undercooking lamb, in large part because she constantly opened the oven door to check on it, which sous chef Andi rebuked her for. The team eventually got their first entrees out, but on Wendy Williams' table Kalen overcooked chicken and La Tasha also served up raw salmon. This was the last straw for Ramsay, who threw the entire team out. Despite having three chefs ejected, the men were named the winners for finishing their first service. Ramsay, further disappointed that the women had not been able to repeat their performance in the first service, told them to nominate two chefs for elimination. Elimination: The women quickly agreed on Kalen as being most at fault for the loss; despite suggestions for La Tasha to be nominated for the raw fish she served, Ashley named Denine as the women's second nominee for being Kalen's meat station partner and not helping her (despite Denine offering help and Kalen refusing it). After hearing from both nominees, Chef Ramsay decided to give Kalen another chance and eliminated Denine for her bad attitude and succession of poor performances. Jennifer collapses: Ramsay gave no comment on Denine's elimination and her photo was not shown to be burned; instead, the episode ended as Jennifer suddenly passed out in the dorms which results in the rest of the women calling for a medic, leaving her fate in competition unknown and leading to the episode ending with a "To Be Continued" screen.
190	4	"15 Chefs Compete"	September 24, 2014	3.68[5]
During the recap of the previous episode, Denine's jacket was hung and her photo was burned. Jennifer collapses - continued: Jennifer returned at the beginning of the episode, after collapsing due to dehydration at the end of the previous episode. Team challenge: The teams were summoned to a culinary school graduation ceremony. Chef Ramsay announced that the teams will be serving brunch to the graduates and their families, starting in 20 minutes. Both teams pushed out their appetizers quickly and moved on to entrees. The women's crepes fell apart but they recovered. Bryant served bland spinach and raw eggs twice on the florentines. The men were out of sync, but Sterling started directing them and brought them back together. The women completed service first by a matter of seconds and won the challenge. Reward/punishment: The women were flown to San Francisco to dine at Chef Dominique Crenn's restaurant. Crenn is the only female holder of two Michelin stars in the United States. The men had to grind and stuff chorizo sausages for service. Before service, Aaron, Steve and Santos met and reflected on the previous service. After Chef Ramsay had thrown out half of their team, they were able to complete the service and therefore they seemed to be immune from elimination, win or lose. They decided to set that scenario up again by trying to deliberately sabotage the others and get them eliminated one-by-one. Service: Several celebrities are in attendance included Nestor Serrano, Adam Ferrara, Kendall Schmidt, the Los Angeles Sparks team and Chris Bosh. The teams started off well on hot appetizers despite some minor mistakes; Ashley served too much salad for two orders of scallops, and Ramsay caught Frank with his hands behind his back, checking his look in the mirror. Steve brought up the hot appetizers before Sterling had brought up his cold appetizers, and served a soupy risotto on the last table of appetizers, despite Sterling's warning. Kalen and Roe overcooked scallops twice, so Ramsay forced them to sit out and eat the scallops whilst the rest of the women continued, with Katie and Sade doing especially well on the meat station. On the men's side, Fernando and Santos cooked halibut perfectly, but it went to waste because JR served raw pork. Because of JR's inconsistent timings on meat, Santos struggled to time his fish correctly and served overcooked and raw salmon to the Sparks; Ramsay forced him to shout what the acronym "VIP" ("Very Important Person") stands for four times. After JR and Frank served raw lamb for Bosh's table, Ramsay threw out both of them as well as Santos and Fernando on the fish station. The others were kept, proving that Aaron and Steve's sabotage plan was working. The women won for finishing their service with no one thrown out, but Ramsay told them that their victory was not worth the celebration, as they still had issues that had to be worked out as a result of tonight's service. Elimination: After much discussion, the men nominated JR and Steve. Ramsay was puzzled that Steve was nominated despite not getting thrown out, so he added Frank, for seemingly taking a backseat in the service. Ramsay eliminated JR for failing to show any growth or assertiveness in any of the four services, with Ramsay feeling he had no fight left in him and cooked as if he had given up. Ramsay's comment: "I waited for JR to wake up and find his voice, but he never did. And so I let him sleepwalk out of here."
191	5	"14 Chefs Compete"	October 1, 2014	3.89[6]
Team challenge: The teams were each given five dishes cooked with unusual proteins, and told to divide into three pairs plus one individual (which ended up being Sade and Aaron), who would taste each dish and identify which protein was used. Additionally, each team would have one pair go twice. Whoever did this in the shortest amount of time would win. For winning the previous service, the red team got to decide whether they wanted to go first or second, and they chose to go first. Katie and Roe agreed to go twice, but on both turns, they ate up a lot of time, while the others got through at a reasonable speed. Ultimately, they finished in 7:41 and the blue team had that long to complete the challenge. As with the red team, the pair that went twice, Santos and Fernando, took the longest, while the others finished quickly; Bryant and Frank identified their protein (elk) in one attempt and Sterling, on the sidelines, immediately identified alligator as Aaron's protein. Although Santos and Fernando made nearly a dozen incorrect guesses on the final protein of duck (including guessing rabbit twice), they ultimately finished with 34 seconds to spare, giving the men their second challenge win. Reward/punishment: The men spent the day at the Annenberg Beach House, where they met four Olympic gold medal winners. The women had to bring in pizza ingredients for that night's family service, hand-grate the cheese and then drink protein shakes made up of boiled chicken, sardines, scallops and eggs. During the last part of the punishment, an argument broke out between Jennifer and Sade after Sade's graphic descriptions of the appearance and taste of the shake caused Jennifer to vomit. Service: Chef Ramsay's own mother, Helen Cosgrove, along with Mary Murphy, Jim Jefferies and Asia Monet Ray were in attendance for family night. The two teams each ran a "make your own pizza" station in the dining room, manned by Fernando and Santos from the blue team and Ashley and Jennifer from the red team. The men had some initial speed bumps due to the slowness of the pizza station and Aaron serving raw scallops on the last table of appetizers, but otherwise had a largely trouble-free service thanks to strong performances from Sterling on appetizers and Bryant on meat. The women, however, were stalled from early on by Katie and Kalen serving overcooked capellini. Kalen then struggled to keep up with the orders of appetizers and had poor communication with Sade on fish. Due to their repeated mistakes and slow work, La Tasha had to jump over and take control of the station. Things did not get much better on the entrees; despite flawless runs by La Tasha and Sade on the meat and fish station respectively, Roe was very slow on the garnishes, forgetting to bring cauliflower and fries that were on order, and had poor communication with Chef Ramsay. This ultimately resulted in the men finishing five tables ahead of the women and while Ramsay still had criticisms for the men's performances, singling out Aaron in particular, he told the women that they were clearly the losers and requested two chefs for elimination based on overall performance, not just this service. Elimination: The team nominated the two chefs on the appetizer station, Kalen and Katie. Chef Ramsay reiterated that he wanted the team's decision based on their overall history, not just the night's service, and asked Katie who the weakest two members of the team were. Despite Ramsay's indications that Roe should have been the second nominee, Katie ultimately stuck with the initial decision. While Chef Ramsay felt that Katie's self-nomination proved she had no belief in herself, he ultimately sent Katie back in line and eliminated Kalen for her succession of bad performances, refusal to admit having made any mistakes in service, and all of her teammates singling her out as the team's weakest link when Ramsay polled them. Ramsay's comment: "In Kalen's mind, her performance was flawless and every dish she cooked was perfect. Unfortunately for her, I live in reality. Dream on, Kalen."
192	6	"13 Chefs Compete"	October 8, 2014	3.82[7]
Team challenge: Chef Ramsay led the teams outside Hell's Kitchen, where an animal pen had been set up. He then told them that the challenge was to split into pairs. Sterling sat out due this portion to his team having an extra member. Each pair will catch an animal and then choose a side to go with the protein (lamb, pork, or veal). The teams completed this without much difficulty, despite Steve accidentally catching a goat rather than a sheep. Everyone would cook their own dish with that protein, and each team had to present their best dish of each type of protein to the judging panel, composed of Ramsay and chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, who would each award between 1 and 5 stars. Sterling opted to join Aaron and Santos in cooking pork. The red team took an early lead, as La Tasha beat Fernando 11 to 10 on veal, and Sade beat Steve 10 to 9 on lamb. On the pork round, Sterling also got 9 stars, leaving Roe well-placed to win the challenge for the red team. Unfortunately, her pork chop was too sweet and had the wrong garnish, scoring just 4 stars, giving the men a 28-25 victory. The judges also preferred Jennifer's pork chop over Roe's. Reward/punishment: The men were sent to a vineyard in Santa Barbara where they enjoyed a meal, before Marino joined them and demonstrated wine-tasting techniques. The women had to prepare stock for the following night's service, which involved sawing up bones, draining the marrow and then returning to the stock pots every half-hour (for which a giant alarm clock was placed in the dorms) to strain and stir it. Service: South Park co-creator Trey Parker was a guest in addition to the members of the Dine LA Board of Directors, including Yuta Tsunoda, Jimmy Shaw, Aiden Demarest, David Lefevre, Sang Yoon and John Sedlar. Frank and La Tasha were assigned to handle tableside appetizers. The men got through appetizers without too much trouble, despite Steve having some issues cooking the scallops, which required Chef Ramsay to show him how to cook them properly. Entrees proved more troublesome, however, with Steve serving up raw halibut and Santos forgetting an order of lamb and serving an undercooked wellington. Ramsay pulled them into the pantry and ordered them to get their act together, but both were subsequently ejected from service for not calling back a time on halibut and serving a ribeye with too little sauce. After that, the team eventually pulled together and completed service. The women was backed up from the start by Katie's troubles on the fish station, as she forgot a lobster and stuck scallops to the pan. Roe also made repeated errors on the appetizers. After the duo simultaneously served severely overcooked scallops, which Katie tried to deny there was anything wrong with, and a risotto with no salt and too much garlic for Allyson Felix at the chef's table, they were ejected. Ashley took over the fish station, only to be ejected herself for overcooking scallops. After that, the team managed to complete service. Despite the service being completed on both sides with no further ejections, Ramsay felt that both teams had gone backwards since the previous service and declared no winning team. He then told each team to nominate two chefs for elimination, emphasizing that they were to consider overall performance, not just this service. Elimination: The men immediately decided on Sterling as their weakest member (much to his confusion and anger, as he had not been ejected from any of the three prior services), soon followed by Steve as the second nominee. The women on the other hand were unable to come to a decision, with Katie and Roe being put up as potential nominees for their weak performances, and Jennifer and Sade for their abrasive attitudes. As a result, Ramsay reiterated his emphasis and ordered them into the red kitchen to make a firm decision, and they decided on Katie and Roe. Sterling angrily attacked Steve for persuading the other men to gang up on him, but Ramsay eliminated Katie for her lack of confidence and feeling she did not have the strength to compete in Hell's Kitchen, but praised her cooking ability. Chef Ramsay gave no comment on Katie's elimination and her photo was not shown to be burned; instead, the episode ended as Ramsay pointed to one of the other three nominees (who was not shown on-screen) and told them to remove their jacket, leaving that chef's fate in competition unknown as the episode endings on a cliffhanger.
193	7	"12 Chefs Compete"	October 15, 2014	3.67[8]
During the recap of the previous episode, Katie's jacket was hung and her photo was burned. Team change: Continuing from the previous episode's cliffhanger, Ramsay, after sending Roe back in line, told Sterling to remove his jacket. While the other men clearly gave up on him, Chef Ramsay still saw potential, and consequently moved Sterling to the women's team to even out the numbers. Team challenge: The following morning, the teams arrived in the dining room to find a giant map of Italy, spotlighting the cuisine the country is well-known for. To spotlight another famous aspect of Italian culture, opera, an ensemble of opera singers, revealed from behind the map, gave the chefs a brief performance. Ramsay then revealed that the challenge would involve cooking six classic Italian dishes, with one chef from each team choosing to face off against a rival from the other team. The dishes that each pair will cook is hidden on the back of each scroll held by each singer, which bears the name of a famous opera. (This selection method is similar in format to the Southern Gospel challenge in Season 10, episode 14.) Celestino Drago, the owner-chef of Drago Central was brought in as a guest judge for this challenge. Jennifer and Steve were first to face each other, with tortellini dishes, and while both were felt to be good, Jennifer's was deemed to have the edge. Fernando took the point on saltimbocca due to Ashley incorrectly using basil as the main herb rather than sage. Neither Aaron nor Sade earned a point for their linguine dishes, which were both felt to be terrible. La Tasha took the point for her spaghetti carbonara, as Santos's was deemed bland. Both Frank and Roe earned compliments for their cheese manicotti dishes, but Chef Drago picked Frank's as it reminded him of his grandmother's recipe. The final round saw Bryant and Sterling face off with fettuccine alfredo dishes. While Bryant's was criticized for being over-sized and over-complicated, Sterling's choice to use fire roasted peppers made his dish seem more Southern than Italian, resulting in Bryant taking the winning point. Reward/punishment: The blue team were given $3,000 ($500 each) to go on a shopping spree at American Rag Cie, before having a meal at Cecconi's restaurant. The red team had to prepare both kitchens for that night's service, including breaking down squid for a squid ink tagliatelle dish. During the punishment, Sterling's constant chatter annoyed the others so much, even sous chef Andi had to tell him to shut up. Service: A delegation from the Italian Consulate was in attendance in addition to Kelis and Louis Lombardi. Bryant and Sade were assigned to serve a tableside clam cipollini. Both proved a little slow at doing this and Sade compounded the situation by spilling an order on the floor, earning the ire of both Marino and Chef Ramsay. Service was rocky on both sides; Steve got the blue team off to a bad start when he served a bland, soupy risotto, while Frank served up raw steak and severely overcooked chicken on the first table of entrées. Both were able to recover after their initial mistakes, but Aaron had trouble on the fish station throughout the night, constantly having trouble getting the dishes up in time and angrily shoving the others aside when they tried to help him. Despite their troubles, the blue team eventually finished service with no ejections. On the red team, Jennifer managed to get all the appetizers out with no errors, but Sade's accident caused a ripple effect in the kitchen, as the team struggled to get time their orders correctly and Roe served raw steaks. When an order of calamari was returned from the consulate table for being severely undercooked, it offended Ramsay to a point where he threw the entire team out. Despite the blue team finishing service with no ejections, their performance was not deemed worthy of winning due to major mistakes being made on every station. Both teams were thus told to nominate two chefs for elimination. Elimination: The blue team quickly decided on Aaron as the first nominee and faced with the choice between Frank and Steve, who had made similar mistakes on their respective stations, before ultimately choosing Steve for having his second bad service in a row. Similarly, the red team quickly decided on Ashley as the first nominee for undercooking the calamari and after a brief discussion about whether to nominate Sade or Roe, before ultimately choosing Roe for her continued poor performances. After hearing from the four nominees, Ramsay eliminated Ashley for struggling on the fish station for the second service in a row, and making a poor case for her survival. After Ashley left, Ramsay again announced that he was not done, marking the second episode in a row to end on a cliffhanger; Ramsay did not hang up Ashley's jacket in this episode or comment on her elimination.
194	8	"11 Chefs Compete, Part 1"	November 5, 2014[lower-alpha 1]	3.62[9]
During the recap of the previous episode, Ashley's jacket was hung and her photo was burned. Team change: Continuing from the previous episode's cliffhanger, Ramsay announced that he had decided to make further changes, so he sent Frank to the red team and Sade to the blue team. Team challenge: The teams were brought outside to meet special VIP guests who arrived via limousine. They turned out to be dogs and their trainers from the American Kennel Club, who were there for a Hell's Kitchen dog show. The teams had to create a tasting menu consisting of two appetizers and three entrees and submit them for judging by a panel of chefs. Sade was under the mistaken impression that the entrees would be served to the dogs and made a chopped up braised beef dish that resembled dog food. However, since the blue team had an extra member, her team was spared from submitting her dish for judging. Sterling's crab cake appetizer topped Aaron's for the red team, while Fernando's prawn appetizer had enough potential over La Tasha's to get a point for the blue team. Jennifer's Chilean sea bass beat out Steve's, and Bryant's pork chop wins the second entree slot over Roe's anemic surf & turf, leaving Frank and Santos's duck dishes to decide the challenge. Both had their flaws (duck cooked to different temperatures vs a burnt potato, respectively), but in the end, Frank's dish wins it for the red team. Reward/punishment: The red team was treated to a trip to San Diego where they saw a show at SeaWorld and dined at the Searsucker Restaurant. The blue team had to bathe the dogs and set up a runway for Hell's Kitchen's first ever "Best In Show" dog competition. Service: Ramsay stressed the importance of timing for this service, as the dog show was going to run in three acts. The appetizers were to be served after the first act and the show would not continue until all were served, and the same went for entrées after the second act. Both teams got off to a decent start, although in the blue kitchen, Fernando jumped the gun and started cooking his scallops before Ramsay ordered them to be fired, though he redeemed himself with a strong performance on fish. While La Tasha took on a firm leadership role for the red team, new teammate Frank had trouble preparing the Caesar salads to Ramsay's standards, much to his teammates' disbelief. Despite these minor setbacks, both teams served all their appetizers, allowing the show to continue, and Ramsay even said that the blue team had "the best first 40 minutes of any service so far." On entrées, Sterling overcooked pork, prompting La Tasha to jump in and help him, while in the blue kitchen, Steve did well on the meat station, though he annoyed Santos by constantly calling out to the latter on garnish without saying anything. Things went generally smoothly for both teams until their last tickets. Santos served greasy garnish, while Sterling overcooked another pork chop, Jennifer overcooked a salmon, and Roe served bland cauliflower, prompting a delay for the show. Eventually, both teams managed to complete service and the dog show concluded. Ramsay was generally impressed with the service from both sides, despite the mistakes, and named the blue team the winners for finishing first by seconds, while asking the red team for two nominees for elimination. Elimination: The red team quickly decided on Frank as their first nominee, as they felt that his trouble making salads meant that he would have further trouble down the line. However, for their second nominee, they were torn between Sterling (for his trouble on the meat station and because La Tasha appeared to just take over rather than help him) and Roe (for messing up the last table's garnish as well as her generally poor performances of late); ultimately, Frank revealed the nominees as himself and Sterling. After hearing from both nominees (including an apparently long-winded speech from Frank), Ramsay ordered both of them to "take your jackets...and yourselves, back in line"; having finally gotten a strong service, Ramsay decided not to eliminate anyone. Ramsay's comment: "Tonight, I finally got a respectable service. So I gave them a little respect and didn't send anyone home."
195	9	"11 Chefs Compete, Part 2"	November 12, 2014[lower-alpha 2]	3.75[10]
Team challenge: After Frank writes a letter in appreciation to Chef Ramsay, both teams are presented with the "Hell's Kitchen Craps" challenge (introduced in season 6), where each contestant rolls a twelve-sided die. After each roll, the contestant has ten seconds to choose an ingredient starting with the corresponding letter. Breaking with tradition, Chef Ramsay announced prior to the challenge that the winner of the challenge will spend the day and night in Las Vegas, flying there on private jet. During the challenge, the teams had some trouble attempting to select the ingredients without wanting to sound too "typical" for a signature dish. Given the uneven numbers between the red and blue teams, Frank rolled twice, selecting complicated ingredients both times which frustrated his teammates (especially Jennifer). In the end, the red team had picked potatoes, duck, lime, lemons, heirloom tomatoes and pine nuts (the last two by Frank during an imaginative burst), while the blue team had selected easier ones, such as cauliflower, Chilean sea bass, leeks, mache, daikon and tomatoes. After the ingredients had been selected, Chef Ramsay gave the teams the traditional 45 minutes to prepare the dishes. While the red team faced creativity issues with preparing the dish, Sade commandeered the blue kitchen, wanting to make up for her failure in the previous challenge. With the dishes prepared, Chef Ramsay announced he would only taste one dish from each team, and asked the teams to decide, in two minutes, which one would it be. The blue team ignored Sade's dish in favor of Fernando or Bryant's, while the red team quickly and decisively decided on La Tasha. La Tasha made a roasted duck with heirloom tomatoes cover and side potatoes seared in duck fat, while Bryant's dish was a sea bass over a cauliflower puree, with tomatoes seasoned in olive oil and salt and pepper. La Tasha's dish managed to put all the flavors together and Bryant's fish was cooked to perfection, but Chef Ramsay ultimately decided in La Tasha's favor, revealing that Bryant's flaw was plating raw, unseasoned daikon. He also notes that Sade's dish, which the blue team refused to even taste, was better than Bryant's dish. Reward/punishment: As promised, the red team was treated to a private jet trip to Las Vegas, with a check-in to a luxury mega-suite at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. They also received an appetizer service, a visit to the pool and dinner service at Chef Ramsay's restaurant, BurGR. Meanwhile, the blue team spent the day carrying ice packs and replacing the kitchen's ice machines, as well as prepping a king-sized halibut for the upcoming dinner service. During the punishment, Sade constantly complained about her dish not making it and the fact it was the fifth time she was serving punishment due to her team's performance, which increased tensions in the blue team. The blue team were also made to take a delivery of ingredients at 3:00 AM. Steve's exit: Steve strained his right knee during the punishment and the soreness got worse the next morning. The injury, possibly a muscular distension, required medical attention and a visit to the hospital via ambulance. Chef Ramsay visited Steve and informed him that it was unfortunate, but he'd need to leave for the rest of the season to recover. Still, Chef Ramsay reminded Steve he had "been strong in that blue kitchen" and that he had to leave with his head high, leaving open the possibility for Steve to return in a future season. Sade in particular was unsympathetic, as this meant she had one fewer person to compete against. Service: The night's dinner service included VIP service to Stewart Copeland of The Police for the blue kitchen and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith for the red kitchen. To further motivate them, Ramsay informed both kitchens they had to 'rock the service'. Other guests included ex-Eagles band member Don Felder, and Gena Lee Nolin from Baywatch. The dinner service also included a table-side steak entrée being prepared by Sterling for the red team and Fernando for the blue team. Both teams started out strongly with their appetizers, but Frank overcooked scallops and lobster, prompting Chef Ramsay to call the whole red team to the pantry for a brief meeting. Frank had more difficulties as he focused on the lobster and totally forgot about the scallops, which forced La Tasha to intervene. The blue kitchen proceeded without issues to entrées, while the red kitchen had a slower start after Frank's earlier disruption. Frank disrupted progress again after he served a raw salmon, then proceeded to overcook several others, while the blue kitchen flawlessly completed their service seven tables ahead. After Frank undercooked another salmon, Ramsay relocated four of the already finished blue team members to the red kitchen to finish the service. The blue team were clearly declared the winners, with Aaron declaring the service dedicated to Steve. The red team's loss was put squarely on Frank's shoulders due to his awful performance. Elimination: Right after the end of the service, Frank apologized his teammates as well as Chef Ramsay for his awful dinner service performance. Ramsay initially asks the red team to nominate two chefs, but immediately changes his mind as the chefs are heading up to the dorms. As no one had been eliminated after the previous service, someone would have to go, even though Steve's injury took him out of the game. Ramsay called Sterling, Jennifer, Roe and La Tasha forward to ask them to "say goodbye... to Frank." He mentioned Frank's letter, but criticized his recent kitchen performance which cost him his stay in Hell's Kitchen. He then reminded both teams that they needed to start giving him their best and he would not accept anything less than that. Frank's departure marks the second time in the history of Hell's Kitchen that a chef was eliminated during the post-service meeting (the first being Tennille Middleton from Season 6. Ramsay's comment: "Frank wrote me a letter with gratitude and then, with his performance tonight, he wrote his ticket out of here. Ciao, Frank."
196	10	"9 Chefs Compete"	November 19, 2014	3.98[11]
Team challenge: A group of Bollywood dancers performed for the teams. Then Chef Ramsay announced that today's theme would be Indian cuisine. Each team was presented with a tablet showing a list of four proteins next to a 15 puzzle showing fifteen other ingredients and an empty space. Roe and Aaron were selected by their teams to rearrange their puzzles to produce a desired list of ingredients for each main protein. To fill in the empty space, the chef who was assigned that protein (La Tasha for the red team, Bryant for the blue) was able to select one ingredient from the following: tomatoes, okra, saag paneer, green beans. The teams had 30 minutes to work, after which the blue team, which had an extra member, chose to drop Santos' chicken dish in favor of Sade's. Then presented their dishes to Ramsay and guest judge Sachin Chopra, who would each rate each dish on a scale from 1 to 5. La Tasha beat Aaron 7 to 5 on lamb, but Sade beat Sterling (who somehow got stuck with both lentils and chickpeas) 7 to 3 on chicken to put the blue team ahead 12-10. The red team eventually forged a 23-all tie when Roe beat Bryant 5 to 4 on cod and Jennifer beat Fernando on pork 8 to 7. Jennifer's dish scored the highest of everybody's, thereby giving the win to the red team. Reward/punishment: The red team gets a spa day and Vitamix blenders, while the blue team prepares for dinner service and cleaned the front entrance of the restaurant. Sade is frustrated by constantly being on a losing team, causing her teammates to lose patience with her complaints. Service: Before service, Chef Ramsay gives Sade a pep talk. Billy Gibbons, Uzo Aduba and Lisa Guerrero were guests for this service. The menu includes Indian-inspired dishes. The red team has an almost perfect service with the only minor hiccups being Jennifer on garnish getting overwhelmed with flatbread orders, forcing Sterling to come help her out, and Roe starting a small fire on the fish station. The same could not be said for the blue team as Aaron had a lot of trouble on the fish station. Bryant tried to help him, but only caused confusion on the station by serving up raw scallops and cold lobster tail and passing the blame on Aaron when confronted. Despite Sade cooking perfect wellingtons, she constantly argued with Bryant and the table had to be sent incomplete due to Aaron's raw halibut. Later Aaron sent up another undercooked salmon, followed by cold garnish from Bryant. Chef Ramsay declared the blue team clear losers, owing to the numerous mistakes on the fish station and communication problems, and asked them to come up with two nominees for elimination based on everything they had seen. Elimination: Aaron started by nominating himself due to his bad night on fish, even admitting that he is the one on the blue team that has had the most ups and downs. He also nominated Bryant due to not owning up to his mistakes in the dinner service and his bad attitude. However, Bryant blows up hearing this, and argues that Fernando is the second weakest on the team (mostly due to having been nominated before), but the nominations ultimately stay. Santos announces the nominees, and during Aaron's plea for survival, he openly states that he does not want to be there anymore as he feels he needs more time to grow, and adds that being Ramsay's next head chef wouldn't bring him any closer to his own goals; his wishes are ultimately granted. Ramsay, calling the departure "disappointing" and saying that he's never seen anyone quit Hell's Kitchen (despite Jeff LaPoff from Season 1, Joseph Tinnelly from Season 6, Andrew Forster from Season 7 , Gina Aloise from Season 11 ,Simone Hammond from Season 12,and Joy Parham–Thomas from Season 12 all quitting for non-medical reasons) and then asks the remaining chefs if anyone else wants to quit. No one does, so he sends them on their way. This marks the 5th voluntary exit in Hell's Kitchen history. Ramsay's comment: "I found it quite strange that Aaron didn't even have the will to succeed. He clearly didn't belong in Hell's Kitchen."
197	11	"8 Chefs Compete"	November 26, 2014	3.48[12]
Team challenge: The chefs were called outside bright and early, where Ramsay announced the annual "Blind Taste Test," where the contestants needed to identify four different ingredients only by taste. However, this year there was a twist, and two dunk tanks full of water were revealed to the teams. One chef from each team would sit over each tank, and another member from each team would taste; if a taster got three ingredients wrong, their teammate would be dunked once, and if they got all four wrong, their teammate would be dunked a second time. First, Santos and Roe tasted with La Tasha and Bryant sitting at the dunk tanks. Roe was only able to identify one ingredient (resulting in La Tasha getting dunked once), while Santos was not able to identify any, resulting in two dunks for Bryant and leaving the red team leading 1–0. Next up, Sterling and Fernando tasted with Roe and Santos sitting at the dunk tanks. Fernando, like Santos, was not able to identify a single ingredient, sending Santos into the tank twice. Sterling got two out of four right, saving Roe from being dunked altogether and putting the Red team further ahead 3–0. In the next round, Jennifer was up against Sade with Sterling and Fernando sitting on the dunk tanks. While Jennifer did not identify a single ingredient, dunking Sterling twice, Sade got the first point for the blue team, with just one dunk for Fernando. Lastly, with Jennifer and Sade sitting on the dunk tanks, La Tasha only got one point, getting Jennifer dunked once, while Bryant impressed with three out of four ingredients correct, saving Sade from dunking and forcing a 4-4 tie. To break the tie, each team chose a member for a sudden-death round, but the good news was that no one would have to sit at the dunk tanks. Bryant missed on the first ingredient, fennel, but Roe identified it correctly, thus winning the challenge for her team. Reward/punishment: Thanks to Roe, the red team enjoys a relaxing day at the Santa Monica Pier and lunch at "The Lobster". The blue team cleans the dorms and the kitchens. When the red team returned, both teams were summoned to Chef Ramsay's office, where he announced that they would be holding a private five-course dinner service to honor a select group of decorated firefighters. There would be one 12-top table for each team and each chef would be assigned to lead a course, with the stipulation that all 24 dishes from a course had to be served by both teams at the same time. Service: On the scallop risotto course, Roe seasoned the scallops way ahead of when they would be fired, drying them out, and also forgot to plate two of the twelve portions. Meanwhile, Fernando fell two portions short of risotto for the twelve plates, though his team was able to quickly make two new portions to complete the course. On the tuna nicoise course, led by Santos and Jennifer, Santos was too slow to explain the dish to the guests, and annoyed his teammates with his hands-off approach to leadership. Jennifer had problems getting Sterling to follow her orders, as well as problems taking control. During the pan-seared salmon course, led by Sterling and Sade, Sade overcooked all twelve of the salmon portions while she was out introducing the dish (due to the pans being too hot); luckily, they still had enough salmon left to recover. Sterling's lack of leadership meant that his teammates did almost everything for him. On the New York strip course, which was led by Bryant and La Tasha, there were no major problems, save for Santos slicing the blue team's meat incorrectly and shredding some of it as a result. The dinner service ended with both tables satisfied, but Ramsay himself was not. He refused to declare a winning team since there were too many mistakes in both kitchens, especially at this stage in the game, and asked each team to come up with two nominees for elimination. Elimination: Both teams had their fair share of struggles in choosing nominees. The red team easily nominated Sterling (for lack of leadership on his course); however, they had trouble choosing between Roe (for inconsistencies in earlier services) and Jennifer (for having a hard time to get Sterling to help her doing her course). They eventually chose Roe, much to her dismay. The blue team considered Fernando (for being short on risotto), Santos (for his hands-off approach to leadership), and Sade (for overcooking the salmon), ultimately choosing Fernando and Santos. After Chef Ramsay had heard from each of the four nominees, he called Sterling and Roe forward, only to tell them to go back in line. He then sent Santos back in line immediately after them, thus eliminating Fernando. Ramsay told Fernando that while he cooked fantastic dishes, he was not yet ready to lead a brigade. Ramsay's comment: "Fernando's cooking was adequate, but his leadership was lacking. Being my next head chef requires both."
198	12	"7 Chefs Compete"	December 3, 2014	3.60[13]
Team challenge: The chefs were told they need to make two servings of their own amuse-bouche that were going to be judged Chef Ramsay and Epicurious Editor-in-Chief Tanya Steel and scored on a scale of 1–5. The red team was told that they needed to drop one of their amuse-bouche since they had an extra chef. Sterling voluntarily took his own dish out of the running as he felt his plating was not up to par with the others. La Tasha went up first with her pan-seared scallops with sweet corn, crab and crispy prosciutto, and impressed the judges earning her 7 points. Next up was Roe with her seared ahi tuna with black garlic and ginger sauce; however, her dish was way too salty, earning only 4 points. Last up for the red team is Jennifer with her marinated prawn head and coconut milk, which received criticism for being too rich on flavor and including the head, earning a mediocre 5 points, giving the red team a total of 16 points. First up for the blue team is Bryant with his grilled scallop with charred corn and pea tendril and wasabi caviar, which gets praise for creativity, but is a little overcooked; however, it still earns 7 points. Next up is Santos with his fennel-crusted Ahi tuna and artichoke heart with dragonfruit infused with pomegranate juice. The dish gets praise for taste but criticism for using too many ingredients; however it still earns 7 points. Last up is Sade's pan-seared tuna with Napa cabbage and passion fruit, needing only 2 points to tie. Despite the judges' concerns about the compatibility of cabbage and passion fruit, Sade still earns a solid 9 points, giving her team a 23-16 win and ending her personal streak of seven consecutive punishments. Reward/punishment: The blue team is rewarded with a trip to Catalina Island in their own helicopter and a lunch at "Blue Water Grill". The red team prepared coconuts for the next dinner service's special, during which Jennifer discovers that she is allergic to fresh coconut milk and is rushed to the hospital after she has trouble breathing. She returns the day after in time for dinner service. Service: Lorenzo Lamas, Colin Walker and the band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy were guests in addition to Lou Diamond Phillips, who was a VIP guest. All the tables are served an amuse-bouche of ahi tuna. Both kitchens start strong on the appetizers with Sade and Santos serving in a good pace in the blue kitchen and Roe and Sterling right behind them in the red kitchen. However after some time Sterling serves up a portion of scallops seared on only one side. While Sterling re-fires his scallops, the blue team starts sending their first entrees out without any problems except a lack of communication. When one of the scallops on Sterling's refire turns up raw, Ramsay suggests that they change stations, however Sterling is reluctant to get anybody else to work fish as he feels he needs to show he can handle it. This forces Ramsay to pull the entire team inside the pantry where Sterling agrees that if he messes up one more time, he would cede his station. He overcooks the next portion of scallops, and is forced take over for La Tasha on garnish while Roe is switched from hot apps to fish. After that, both teams still run smoothly with a couple of mishaps. Ramsay gave Santos a warning in the pantry for bringing up a tray of burnt scallops for Phillips' table, and Jennifer also got a little overwhelmed by the amount of meat on order, forcing Ramsay to flip a ticket, but both teams finish with no one thrown out. Elimination: Chef Ramsay told both teams that it was not a bad service, but that he had expected more and had already made a decision. He called Sterling forward and told him that despite being a phenomenal competitor, he is not ready for the head chef job and would be eliminated from Hell's Kitchen, but praised him for his optimism, good attitude, and improvement throughout the competition and allowed him to keep his jacket, which led to an emotional goodbye for everyone. This is the second time this season a chef is eliminated during a postmortem (Frank was eliminated in episode 10) and the third in the 13 seasons of Hell's Kitchen (Following Tennille from Season 6). He also was paid a retrospective montage (which is normally reserved for black jacket chefs) like Rachel from Season 2, Robert and Sabrina from Season 6, Carrie and Natalie from Season 9 and Nedra from Season 11. Sterling is the second chef, after Louross from Season 4 to not receive the walk of shame, instead having a shot of him casually walking out the door with his bags. Ramsay then asked both teams to come up with one nominee for elimination. The blue team easily nominated Santos as he was the only one having problems in the kitchen that night. Roe tried to pressure La Tasha to nominate Jennifer for falling behind on the meat station, but Jennifer and La Tasha nominated Roe on the grounds that she had the worst overall performance of them three. After both nominees plead their cases, Ramsay asks both of them to take their jackets off, only to give them both black jackets. Then he calls Jennifer up and comments about the number of times she has been to hospital during her stay, but also gives her a black jacket. La Tasha, Bryant and lastly Sade are given black jackets as well. Ramsay's comment: "Sterling went further in this competition than I thought he would. And even though he was always at 100, it wasn't enough to earn him a black jacket."
199	13	"6 Chefs Compete"	December 10, 2014	3.86[14]
Challenge: The contestants were all tasked with making a steak dish, which would be judged by Chef Ramsay, along with guests Bruce Simon and Todd Simon, the owners of Omaha Steaks. However, the dishes would be first ranked by appearance, and only the top three would be tasted. These belonged to Sade, Santos, and Roe. Roe's ribeye and filet mignon inspired by her parents was deemed delicious. Sade had cooked her steak nicely, but the judges felt that adding the cinnamon ruined the taste. Santos' dish was also deemed to be perfect in appearance and taste, but in the end, Roe's dish won the challenge. Reward/punishment: Roe attended a photo shoot for an Omaha Steaks billboard campaign, featuring her winning dish, followed by a $1,000 shopping spree at Surfas (a Los Angeles kitchen goods retailer). The others had to butcher a huge side of beef weighing around 200 pounds. Service: In that night's dinner service, the team would be competing against James, Andi and Ramsay himself. Penn Jillette and Steve Blake were guests for this service. Ramsay's team did a strong job. James and Andi even had interviews in the confessional room as if they were actual contestants and not sous chefs, most likely because they were competing. Their only problem was James falling behind on orders and needlessly attempting to plate, but they managed to quickly recover. The black jackets got off to a mediocre start with Santos over-seasoning Caesar salad and La Tasha overcooking scallops and undercooking lobster tail, but thanks to Bryant's strong performance, the team recovered. Things got worse on entrées, with Roe undercooking her own ribeye dish and slicing it against everyone else's advice, and refusing Santos' help. In the end, Chef Ramsay's team finished five tables ahead of the black jackets, whom Ramsay criticized for their lack of coordination, especially Santos for running around doing nothing. After service, Ramsay further berated the team for their uneven performance and problems with communication and listening, and felt it was just dead air. Elimination: In a now-incredibly rare occasion, Ramsay deemed Bryant to be the Best of the Worst as he was the only one who did not get yelled at once and instructed him to nominate two chefs for elimination. Bryant, while briefly thinking about nominating La Tasha, decided to nominate Santos for getting lost during service and Roe for her poor performance on the meat station. In the end, Ramsay eliminated Santos for lacking fight back and being nominated for the third service in a row. Santos is the first black jacket since Josh Wahler from Season 3 (who was eliminated during service) whose elimination was not paid in retrospective montage. Ramsay's comment: "Santos dodged a bullet in the last two nominations, but tonight, there was nowhere to hide."
200	14	"5 Chefs Compete"	December 10, 2014	3.86[14]
After elimination, Ramsey talked to Bryant privately and stated that he liked that Bryant was improving immensely and urged him to continue performing at the same caliber, which Bryant took to heart and stated that he wouldn't let Ramsey down. Challenge: The five remaining contestants were tasked to make tableside meals for 40 glampers in which the winner would be determined by who got the most votes. During the cooking, La Tasha got stressed out, did not talk to the glampers, fell behind the other contestants and was the last to finish. When the votes were counted, Bryant was announced as the winner with Roe ending up second. Reward/punishment: Bryant was rewarded with a glamping trip in Los Angeles for a night and got to choose someone to join him. He chooses Sade as he wanted to find out what her weaknesses were while the other chefs went to the Hollywood Hills to clean the place and returned to Hell's Kitchen for their recycling day. During the recycling task, La Tasha had a very hard time keeping herself from throwing up. Service: LeVar Burton, Keegan-Michael Key, Bellamy Young and members of the Coast Guard were in attendance. The first service as one team started off well, but they soon hit a couple of speed bumps as Jennifer is scolded for not asking Roe, who has nothing to do, to help her on the fish station. Jennifer eventually does ask for Roe's help, but sends up two lobster tails that were cold and raw in the middle. Meanwhile, Bryant sends up a bland scallop salad with water in it. On the entrées, Jennifer forgets the clam garnish for the halibut. Sade's lamb was perfectly cooked, but it couldn't be sent because Roe sent up under-seasoned garnish twice and Ramsay couldn't flip the order. On the next attempt, Roe is on time with the garnish but Sade's lamb is undercooked. On the last ticket, a miscommunication caused Jennifer to cook her halibut while Sade's wellingtons were 8 minutes away. Ramsay was disappointed by the final five's performance, as he felt he had a group of amateurs in the kitchen, and asked them to come up with two for elimination based on everything that had happened throughout the season. Elimination: The nominees were Roe for her problems in the kitchen that night and her worse performances earlier in the competition, and Jennifer for problems both on the fish station and with communication. After hearing from both chefs, Ramsay eliminates Roe as he felt that while she started off strong, her rocky performances had become too much for Ramsay to handle but acknowledged her hard work. Ramsay's comment: "Roe thought she would row, row, row herself into the final four, but her performance tonight in the kitchen put her up a creek with no paddles."
201	15	"4 Chefs Compete"	December 17, 2014	3.62[15]
Challenge: The contestants' loved ones show up on a television screen, including Bryant's wife and daughter, La Tasha's mother, Jennifer's fiancé, son and daughter and Sade's mother and aunt. They (as well as La Tasha's father) then appear in the dining room to catch up. Ramsay then introduced the "taste it, now make it" challenge. Everybody correctly identified the starch as couscous, but Sade and Jennifer were the only two to correctly identify the protein as rabbit. Jennifer won by identifying sun-dried tomatoes in the sauce, as Sade had used cherries. Reward/punishment: Jennifer goes with her fiancé and kids for lunch at Mr. Chow followed by chocolate tasting at Vosges. The remaining three had to clean out and pack the dorms and set up the dining room for the 200th dinner service. Service: Tonight's dinner service was the 200th dinner service. In addition to being a black-tie affair like the 100th dinner service, Rock Harper (season 3 winner), Christina Wilson (season 10 winner), Jay Santos (season 7 runner-up), Jon Scallion (season 11 second runner-up) and Elise Wims (season 9 second runner-up) were all dining as customers in the dining room. Ricky Schroder, Hanson, Sydney Leroux and Kelly Hansen were also dining as guests as well. First, Sade ran the pass; when Sade asked Jennifer how long on chicken, Jennifer was slow to reply, eventually burning the chicken skin. However, Sade managed to spot Andi putting clams instead of mussels in the capellini and Marino giving her a ticket with a pork chop, which wasn't on the menu. Next up was La Tasha who failed to notice the difference between a sea bass and a halibut, but called out Bryant for being slow on mashed potatoes before undercooking them, and showing disrespect towards her. Jennifer was the third to run the pass, but Sade got confused when Jennifer called out an order and the team was slow to give Jennifer a time on their respective stations. Jennifer failed to notice the missing duxelles in the wellingtons, but rebounded by keeping entrées moving at a consistent pace. Bryant was last to run the pass and, in anticipation of Andi's sabotage, mistook the two halibut for two sea bass – causing a brief argument between him and Ramsay. He did, however, notice the difference between cauliflower and celery root puree and successfully completed the dinner service. Ramsay praised the contestants for their strong performances and acknowledging that he has the right final four and sent them upstairs while he was thinking about who should be in the final two. When the contestants were out on the patio, La Tasha was annoyed at Bryant running his egotism. Elimination: Jennifer was eliminated first, but as she surrendered her jacket, Ramsay praised her for her determination and told her that she has a successful future ahead. Jennifer's elimination wasn't paid in a retrospective montage. Ramsay asked the final three to plea their cases as to why they should be in the final two. After hearing their pleas, Ramsay advanced La Tasha and then Bryant into the final two, eliminating Sade. Unlike other contestants who came in third place, Sade was not allowed to keep her jacket. Instead, Ramsay revealed plans to have one of his associates in London call Sade to help her discuss opportunities in the Gordon Ramsay Group as a reward for her hard work.
202	16	"Winner Chosen"	December 17, 2014	3.60[15]
Continuing from last episode Bryant and La Tasha started working on their menus. While Bryant kept his menu very simple, La Tasha decided to take a more adventurous approach to hers. The next day, they were invited to a day of relaxation in Palm Springs by Chef Ramsay and accompanied by Marino. Challenge: When Bryant and La Tasha returned to Los Angeles they were greeted by a woman from the airport who told them that their ride had not arrived yet, but they were escorted to a room that when she came back it was revealed that they needed to cook 5 unique dishes with one cold appetizer and hot appetizer, as well as a beef, chicken, and fish entree, in front of a live audience and had only one hour with the assistance of Sous chefs Andi and James. La Tasha won the challenge 42–39 - which included a perfect score on her chicken entrée. Reward: La Tasha got the first pick of the last eight chefs eliminated.[lower-alpha 3] La Tasha’s first pick was Sade followed by Roe, Fernando and Ashley, while Bryant picked Jennifer, Sterling, Santos, and was left with Frank. This didn’t surprise Frank due to his awful last dinner service performance. Service: During pre-service, Frank burned all of Bryant’s nuts, an item he added after suggestion from Sterling and Frank, and they needed to redo them all over. During the tasting of both menus, Chef Ramsay gave mostly positive feedback to Bryant’s menu, while he had his fair share of critiques for La Tasha's menu as there were too many elements on the plates – a problem that was quickly rectified. In addition to the finalists' families, Margaret Cho, Aisha Tyler, Tory Belleci, Sharon Lawrence and Traci Bingham also appeared as guests. In the blue kitchen Frank almost immediately stalled the kitchen by overcooking tagliatelle and shrimp, so Bryant switched him with Sterling on the garnish station. In the red kitchen Roe served up too little garnish for the first ticket, but rebounded fast. Fernando was slow on scallops and struggled to call back times on sea bass, with Ramsay even accusing him of trying to sabotage La Tasha. After he served up raw salmon, La Tasha swapped him with Roe on hot appetizers, and the rest of the red service went without incident. The same could not be said for the blue kitchen as Frank was now burning garnish and giving inaccurate times, forcing Bryant to throw him out – a decision that Ramsay agreed with. Winner: Ramsay congratulated the chefs for a complete service and told them that it would be a "virtually impossible decision" to determine a winner. After analyzing the service and overall performance, he called both of them into his office where he praised La Tasha for her consistency and praised Bryant for his strong finish despite some of the setbacks earlier in the service. After that, he asked them to go to their doors where La Tasha’s opened making her the 13th winner of Hell's Kitchen with Bryant taking his defeat graciously. In the closing segment, Ramsay went on to shake hands with Frank and asked him what happened during the service. Ramsay's comment: "La Tasha has all the right ingredients to be a great chef. She's creative, a strong leader, has great attention to detail and has an outstanding palate. But the thing I love most about La Tasha is her determination. I know that she's ready for the challenge of being my head chef in Atlantic City and I couldn't be happier."

Epilogue

Three chefs from this season later appeared on the Food Network show Chopped. Frank was on the season 37 episode "A Frog Leg Up." Here, he was chopped (eliminated) in the entrée round after serving undercooked gnocchi to the judges. Roe and Kalen both appeared on season 42 (episodes 6 and 8, respectively); the former was chopped after the dessert round, and the latter after the entrée round.

Notes

1. The episode was originally scheduled to air on October 29, 2014, but Fox preempted it due to the ongoing of game 7 of the 2014 World Series.
2. The episode was originally scheduled to air on November 5, 2014, but having been preempted on the previous episode schedule of October 29.
3. Aaron was not allowed to return as he quit the competition and Steve could not take his place as he still had his knee injury. Therefore, Ashley came in Aaron's place instead as she was the last chef eliminated prior to those two.

References

1. "Meet the 18 Competitors for Season 13 of Hell's Kitchen". Facebook. August 15, 2014. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
2. From homeless to 'Hell's Kitchen': Local chef James 'J.R.' Robinson's story
3. Kondolojy, Amanda (September 11, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Hell's Kitchen' & 'Extant' Adjusted Up; 'Taxi Brooklyn', 'America's Got Talent' & 'Under the Lights' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
4. Bibel, Sara (September 18, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'America's Got Talent' Adjusted Up; 'The Mysteries of Laura', 'Extant' & 'Penn & Teller: Fool Us' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on September 20, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2014.
5. Kondolojy, Amanda (September 25, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'The Middle', 'The Goldbergs', 'Modern Family', 'Law and Order: SVU', & 'Red Band Society' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on September 27, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
6. Bibel, Sara (October 2, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Modern Family', 'The Middle', 'The Goldbergs', 'black-ish', 'The Mysteries of Laura', & 'Nashville' Adjusted Up; 'Chicago P.D.' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on October 4, 2014. Retrieved October 2, 2014.
7. Bibel, Sara (October 16, 2014). "Revised Wednesday, October 8 Final Ratings: 'The Flash' Encore Adjusted Up; 'The Middle', 'The Goldbergs', 'Modern Family', 'black-ish' & 'Nashville' Adjusted Down". Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
8. Bibel, Sara (October 16, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'The Mysteries of Laura', 'Modern Family' & 'Red Band Society' Adjusted Up". Archived from the original on October 18, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
9. Kondolojy, Amanda (November 6, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Arrow', 'The Mysteries of Laura' & 'Chicago P.D.' Adjusted Up; 'The 100' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on November 8, 2014. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
10. Bibel, Sara (November 13, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Modern Family' Adjusted Up; 'The 100' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
11. Kondolojy, Amanda (November 20, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Stalker' Adjusted Down + No Adjustment for 'The 100', 'Red Band Society' or 'Nashville'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on November 22, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
12. Kondolojy, Amanda (December 1, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' Rebroadcast Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
13. Kondolojy, Amanda (December 4, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: No Adjustment for 'Arrow', 'Modern Family' or 'The 100'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on December 15, 2014. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
14. Bibel, Sara (December 11, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Arrow', 'Hell's Kitchen' & 'Chicago P.D.' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
15. Kondolojy, Amanda (December 18, 2014). "Wednesday Final Ratings: 'Survivor' Reunion Adjusted Down; No Adjustment for 'The 100' or 'The Sing-Off'". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.

External links

• Official website