YMMV / Hell's Kitchen

YMMV Items with their own page:

• Badass Decay
• Base Breaking Character
• Elimination Houdini
• Memetic Mutation
• Never Live It Down
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap
• Shocking Elimination
• What An Idiot
• The Woobie

Items associated with the manga:

• Hell's Kitchen (2010)

Other Examples:

• Accidental Innuendo: When Chef Ramsay showed Trev from Season 8 how to cut the Wellington.
  Trev: Yeah, I wanna see your delicate touch again.
  • From Season 13: "Why are you touching his meat?"
  • From Season 2: "Now it's up to the men and their meat"
  • From Season 4: "But I want it harder—I mean, faster!"^ContextJen was riding a mechanical bull.
  • From Season 9: "Don't fondle my grapes." ^ContextPaul was helping Tommy peel grapes during a punishment.
• Adaptation Displacement: Even in the UK, the American version of the show tends to be more renowned than its UK-based forerunner, which was basically just a standard-issue "celebrity cooking challenge" show, except with a slightly more abusive chef involved (Ramsay initially, and then Marco-Pierre White in later seasons).
• Adorkable:
  • In Season 10: once David Beckham was invited in the restaurant, Christina could barely contain her joy and was soon fawning over him in her confession cams, and even initially struggled during service due to Beckham's presence and had sheepishly laughed over it. And before that, after the Red Team wins the Fashion Night dinner service, she does a little "chicken dance" in celebration.
  • Season 7's Salvatore was this in spades.
  • Season 12's Rochelle was an instant fan favorite for her sweet and dorky personality and adorable laugh.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: While many fans disliked Steve for his attempt to sabotage the blue team to make himself look better, people did have sympathy for him when he was injured and forced out of the competition.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • During the final four, after Elsie struggled for a long time and no one came to help her^ContextElsie had won a challenge earlier in the episode, and had bragged about it on live TV, resulting in the final three making a pact to sabotage her., Michael would eventually decide to help her out. Did he help her out due to realizing this was going too far, or did he help her out to make himself look better in front of Ramsay? Considering how well he was able to manipulate, it very well could be the latter, and for what it's worth, Ramsay seemed to take note and acknowledge how well Michael that service, even if it wasn't enough.
  • The final reward of season 1 was that the winner of the challenge (in this case, Ralph) got to pick the protein that would be on the menu later that night, which was nowhere near as impressive as some of the other rewards throughout the season. Was this lame reward simply a victim of poor judgement or did Gordon do it on purpose as revenge for the final 3 screwing Elsie (who he was very fond of) out of the competition?
  • Was Frank's infamous Epic Fail during the Blind Taste Test because he really had that bad of a palette? Or, considering that Manda, who he hated, was in the hot seat at the time, was he purposefully throwing it so that she got blasted with the syrup and whipped cream? Indeed, several YouTube comments believe the latter.
  • With how much of a goofball Raj from Season 8 was, some viewers believe he was actually a comedian brought onto the show just to add some comedic value.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Contrary to what Gordon thinks, a real-life version of quidditch actually exists.
• Archive Panic: As of the Season 22 (The American Dream) finale, Hell's Kitchen has 346 episodes.
• Audience-Alienating Era:
  • Some consider Seasons 8-11 to be this. Season 8 was criticized for focusing more on incompetent chefs than talented ones (and for having the worst runner-up in the entire series - Russell, who was a massive Jerkass that nobody liked, including his own team) and Season 9 was criticized for having Elise get a ridiculous amount of screentime, even though the finalist pair (Paul and Will) is widely considered to be one of the best. Season 10, however, had half the chefs have a ridiculous attitude and the Small Name, Big Ego flaw, and bully several other chefs (especially Barbie, who actually outlasted her entire team except for winner Christina and Dana) for no apparent reason. On top of that, Jean-Philippe was not supervising the dining room in these seasons due to commitments elsewhere, leaving James to replace him; this was lampshaded at the start of Season 8. Meanwhile, both Seasons 10 and 11 suffer from some of the worst and excessive Padding techniques ever seen for the series, which is why they ended up being the longest seasons. In addition, if you're not interested in watching a whole team suffer week after week, Season 11 gave us the worst Blue Team ever put together where only one of the male chefs (Jon) was actually considered good. The Audience-Alienating Era is considered over after Season 11 due primarily to a return to having more competent cooks on the show, and for greatly toning back on the episode Padding to much more appropriate lengths. The return of Jean-Philippe for two seasons was also greatly welcomed.
  • Seasons 15-16 are also considered this, mostly due to their lack of talent and unlikable roster. Season 15 was noted for having much more arrogant and irritating contestants (Frank and Dannie specifically) and having an unremarkable winner, while Season 16 was plagued with the worst men's team in the show and keeping incompetent chefs for longer periods. The whole flirtmance between runner-up Heather and fellow contestant Andrew (who was revealed to be engaged) was also heavily scrutinized, although most fans do agree that Ryan was a solid winner. Most of these problems were thrown under for Seasons 17 (All Stars) & 18 (Rookies Vs. Veterans) (although they were reunion seasons), and Seasons 19 (Las Vegas) & 20 (Young Guns) were praised by fans as being solid seasons with memorable and likable characters.
• Awesome Ego: Given how often the Small Name, Big Ego trope crops up on this show, it's rare that a chef who can back up their bragging comes along. But when they do, their performance in the competition makes their boasting hard to dispute. Examples include Season 3 winner Rock, Season 5 winner Danny, Season 9 winner Paul, and Season 6 runner-up Kevin. It helps that these four mostly lack the attitude problems that come with big egos.
  Rock: The only threat to Rock is Rock.
• Better on DVD: The DVD version of Hell's Kitchen is uncensored, and doesn't have the dramatic cut to ad breaks and recaps that often happen at the end of a challenge or before Chef Ramsay decides who is leaving.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Season 11's Zach's Flip Personality, Grant Banks. Shows up out of nowhere in one episode, and is never heard from again afterwards.
  • In Season 4, Corey and Louross are talked up about having an attraction towards one another, and mere moments later it is completely brushed off.
  • During one dinner service in Season 10, Royce gets an earful from Chef Ramsay due to his performance on garnishes. Cue to Royce crying in a hilariously melodramatic manner, and tearfully apologizing to Ramsay for not cooking his mash right. Then it cuts back to the dinner service as if nothing happened and Royce isn't shown being emotional about it for the rest of the episode.
  • Episode 10 of Season 13 has a music video of Sterling suddenly pop up right in the middle of dinner service.
• Broken Base:
  • During Season 2, Keith's final three elimination where he called out Ramsay for playing favorites towards Virginia is quite controversial. Either Keith is a massive Sore Loser who deserved his elimination due to his poor leadership performance on the pass during service, or people agree that he had a point due to people feeling that Virginia was an average-at-best Creator's Pet who had no business getting as far as she did.
  • The fanbase is divided about what to think about Season 9's blue team. They're either viewed as wholesome group of friends that you want to succeed with Paul, Will, Tommy and (when she joined in Episode 3) Natalie being among the most beloved contestants from Season 9 along with Jennifer and as a refreshing change of pace from the drama from the Season 9 red team or they're viewed as contemptable fratboy douchebags with Brendan, Chino, and (while the hatred towards him cooled after his death) Jonathon being among the most hated contestants from Season 9 up there with Elise. There's also Will and Paul's betrayal of Jennifer which left a sour taste in the fanbase's mouth.
  • Natalie's elimination in Season 9. While there are some fans that feel like Ramsay made the right decision by eliminating Natalie, she started off strong but her performances got worse as the season went on with Episode 11 being her third elimination nomination, there are just as many fans who argue that Natalie's elimination was the result of Executive Meddling so that Elise, who also had a terrible service, lied straight to Ramsay's face by blaming Tommy for her wellington's being destroyed and was on her fourth elimination nomination, could be kept on the show a little bit longer at the expense of Natale (one of the more beloved contestants from Season 9).
  • Ava's elimination in Season 20 during the alcohol challenge. There are quite a few people who agree with Ramsay decision to eliminate Ava and argue that she should've been sent home first due to serving Ramsay raw salmon. Others argue that, while there wouldn't be a chance Ava would win Season 20, that she should've at least had a chance to prove herself on the line in an actual dinner service and argued that her raw salmon (which can, at worst, make people sick) was nowhere near as bad as Matthew's raw chicken (which can, at worst, kill someone).
  • Several seasons have divided fans of the show.
    • Season 4 is either ranked as one of the best seasons of the show for its high entertainment value, the Corey vs Christina storyline, and a number of the chefs (that being Louross, Bobby, and Petrozza) being some of the most beloved chefs in the show's history or disliked because of the amount of detested chefs, namely Jason, Matt, and Jen.
    • Season 7 is either ranked as a fitting follow-up to the widely beloved Season 6, or labeled as just an okay season.
    • Season 17 (All Stars) is easily the most divisive season of the show. Some fans love it because of all the drama and for seeing chefs from different seasons all interacting with each other. Other fans hate it because of all the drama, especially with Elise who was arguably worse than she was in Season 9. The questionable elimination decisions and Michelle's highly controversial win don't help this season in the slightest.
    • Season 18 (Rookies Vs. Veterans) is either ranked as a return to form for the series after the widely hated All-Stars, or said to be a bland season with undeserving returnees.
• Catharsis Factor: One of the big parts of the show's appeal is seeing the usual stupid, attention-starved Jerkasses who usually plague reality TV being punished for their behavior and competent, mature and intelligent chefs being rewarded.
• Character Perception Evolution:
  • In Season 12, Scott was initially not well-liked for being seen as an undeserving winner who was nominated multiple times, yet won over chefs like Jason or Rochelle, who were nominated far less. As time passed however, people noticed that not only was Scott a pretty competent chef, but the majority of those nominations were a result of chefs like Anton and Joy throwing him under the bus. Nowadays, he's considered one of the better winners of the series, as he was willing to take risks and, while they didn't always pay off, when they did, they were shown to be some of the most impressive dishes in the series.
  • Additionally, Virginia from Season 2 was decried as the absolute worst finalist in the show's history due to her poor performance in the kitchen, as well as the fact that she was seen as a Creator's Pet. With the uncut services in 2023 airing however, many fans pointed out that Virginia's mistakes were very minimum and she did display some actual talent. While she is still considered the weakest of the finalists, people have been more understanding as to why she made the finals. Despite remaining the weakest finalist, her status as worst finalist is now a toss up between her and 8's Russell who likely only made the finals despite his status as a massive jerk because of 8's general lack of talent and him simply being among the least bad of a lackluster group.
• Condemned by History: The Bike Punishment from season 6. While it was initially seen as a silly punishment, nowadays it has been labeled as the cruelest punishment in the show's history, notably because it involved two injured chefs in Kevin and Dave ^ContextDave had fractured his wrist, and Kevin had sprained both his ankles, as well as the overweight Robert, which ended up putting him in the hospital as he was short of breath. It didn't help that, in the previous season, he was forced to withdraw after being diagnosed with a heart condition.
• Designated Hero: Chef Gordon Ramsay can come off as this. While he is a nice guy who wants to help the contestants shine out their talents and is a Jerkass Woobie who has to put up with a lot of incompetence in every season, some of the stuff he says to people (particularly in earlier seasons) tend to go too far. Such examples include fat shaming overweight contestants such as Robert Hesse from seasons 5 and 6 and Raj Brandston from season 8, and getting into arguments with several of the customers, sometimes insulting them needlessly (for example, calling a woman a dog, or telling another woman to get her breasts off his hotplate).
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Maître d' Jean-Philippe and Sous Chefs Scott and Andi, who have remained extremely popular even after their respective exits from the show.
  • Unlike James before him, Maître d' Marino has avoided being a Replacement Scrappy for Jean-Philippe and he has many fans who like his easy-going and fun personality.
  • Additionally, many fans are fond of Judge Wolfgang Puck.
  • Out of all the guest diners in Hell's Kitchen, perhaps the most universally beloved was Stan Lee, as many found his quips amusing and were happy that he was still an overall pleasant guy. Even the Hell's Kitchen YouTube channel were aware of this, and made a highlight video showing his appearance.
  • From Season 11, Judge Martin Yan was well liked for being an energetic and enthusiastic judge compared to the other stoic judges on the show before. Also giving the blue team one of their very few challenge wins helps.
  • From Season 14, Max stood out as a guest judge for giving some incredibly professional and fair reviews all in spite of being a high schooler. Ramsay even asked how many Michelin stars he had.
• Faux Symbolism: Jason's penis-shaped lobster dish in Season 7.
  • See also J's lobster tapas dish in Season 5.
  • And Ariel's grilled squid stuffed with lobster claw in Season 15.
• Genius Bonus: Sometimes it's helpful to have some culinary knowledge when watching this show, to truly appreciate how much some of the contestants are screwing up.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • A lot of seasons in general are like this since the show's rewards usually aren't as glamorous as initially pictured. Some winners only work at the restaurants promised for a short time. Unless you are Christina Wilson.
    • Big examples include Season 6 winner Dave, who was only assigned a Line Cook position and quit shortly after, Season 7 winner Holli, whose work visa was denied and thus unable to work at the Savoy and Season 11 winner Ja'Nel, whose job offer was rescinded after she failed the drug test. Season 18 and 19 winners Ariel and Kori also both had to decline the position for family reasons.
  • A particularly sad example occurs when you rewatch Season 2, because of Rachel. After winning a helicopter ride to a restaurant, remarked that riding a helicopter was something she had to mark off her "100 Things To Do Before I Die List." Once in a confessional, she stated about herself "Rachel... you... are... pitiful! Rachel, you suck!" And then, after being eliminated: "You don’t quit having a dream, because one night... (breaks down and cries)" This became extremely chilling after news of her suicide the following year came out.
  • In Season 2, Heather remarks during her punishment how the only station Virginia didn't do bad at was the fish station, which she argued was the easiest station to be placed on. This statement becomes harsher when you consider that, as of Season 22, the fish station has been one of the most notorious stations on Hell's Kitchen, with it being responsible for the most eliminations. This isn't just Raj either as several strong contestants, many of whom were considered to be early frontrunners including Van in Seasons 6 & 17, Nilka in Season 7, Natalie in Season 9, Anthony in Season 11, Jon in Season 11, Alison in Season 14, Kevin when he returned in Season 18 and Cheyenne in Season 21, have all been eliminated after a bad night on the fish station.
  • A lot of fans joked about Season 3's Aaron having some sort of health problem (ex. diabetes) due to his weight. Cut to November 30, 2010, and it was announced that Aaron had passed away due to "health complications from diabetes."
  • In an early challenge in Season 5, Sous Chef Scott jokingly asked the cast if anyone had a heart condition before taking them to a slaughterhouse, before cutting to Robert, who was medevaced later in the season for myocarditis, or inflamed heart muscle.
  • Carol from Season 5 expressing shock over her team winning, even though her potatoes were terrible. She thought to herself that she was the luckiest person in the world. She was eliminated that very night, even though she was on the winning team.
  • The first boot of Season 5 later coming out as transgender, with the show using her deadname and putting her on the men's team (as she identified as a cis male at the time.)
  • Robert telling Lacey that if she won Season 5, he would hang up his jacket and become a crack whore. A lot less of a funny comment when you realize that Robert had drug problems in the past.
  • Speaking of Robert, Season 6's infamous "Bicycle Punishment" becomes less funny when you realize that it may have made his health problems worse.
  • Arguably the entirety of Season 7, since the winner, Holli, was unable to take the job at the Savoy in London due to visa problems.
  • One reward in Season 7 had the Blue Team taking a trip to SeaWorld and interacting with the whales, just a few years before Blackfish exposed SeaWorld for their abuse of the whales they kept in captivity and causing the whole practice to be Condemned by History hard.
  • Joy stating that she never quits in an early Season 12 episode is harder to watch after her infamous Rage Quit in Episode 18.
  • In Season 20 (Young Guns), The first reward given was dinner with three of the previous Winners, including Michelle from Season 17 (All Stars), who had quit the year before the episode aired due to stress and abuse from the job and concerns over COVID-19.
  • Season 21's Alejandro would spend quite some time of airwave talking about his wife and son. After the season finished airing, he would leave his wife for fellow contestant Alyssa, making this a bit of an uncomfortable thing in hindsight.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Season 3's Julia states that she never went to culinary art school but she was willing to learn. On her elimination night, Ramsay stated that he would send her to culinary school.
  • After winning Season 10, Christina talks about how she wants to keep raising the bar higher and higher until she touches the stars. Considering that she's gone on to have one of the most successful careers out of anyone in the show's history, complete with pretty much becoming Gordon's Lancer, it's safe to say that she has gone even beyond the stars.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Although it first aired in June 2006, Season 2 contains a contestant named Sara who looks very similar to Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin was elected governor in December 2006, but it's hard not to view it as a No Celebrities Were Harmed parody.
  • The Season 4 premiere has Gordon calling out to Jason during the opening service, edited in such a way that it may be hard for viewers nowadays to not think of Heavy Rain's infamous sequence where the player has to press X to yell "JASON!"
  • In Season 5, after Lacey once again survived elimination, Robert stated that Lacey's luck was going to run out, and Ramsay would eliminate her. Sure enough in the next episode, Lacey would do such a terrible job on meat that Ramsay would eliminate her mid-service.
  • The Season 6 premiere begins with JP lecturing the contestants on how their screwups result in his job being made much harder, noting that's gotten into confrontations with customers, Chef Ramsay, and the kitchen door. Not one episode later and he infamously ends up nearly coming to blows with Van.
  • In Season 8, Melissa criticized Sabrina for screwing up on the meat station since cooking meat was a basic thing. The very next episode, Melissa overcooked two dozen fillets at the same time, and the very next episode, she wrecked the entire supply of her team's (she was moved to the blue team) scallops!.
  • In Season 12, when Rochelle mentions wanting to get married, the other members of the Red Team and Sous Chef Andi have a discussion about how working as a chef eats up a lot of time, leaving little room for anything else. This conversation leads to Rochelle getting nominated, on the theory that wanting to get married shows a lack of devotion to the career. Three seasons later, in Season 15, Andi got married.
  • In Season 13, both Steven Tyler and his daughter, Mia would make an appearance as special guests. Years later, it would turn out that Mia would be dating a former Hell's Kitchen alumni. That alumni? Joseph.
  • In Season 15, Jackie says, "Of course I knew. I'm psychic." to a girl in a restaurant. That person was Millie Bobby Brown, who would later break out playing psychic Eleven in Stranger Things.
  • In Season 17, a crying Elise, angry at Michelle for nominating her for the Cook for Your Life challenge, tells her that she'd "better get used to this face", to which Michelle responds "Your crying face?" Michelle ends up winning the season, with Elise once again crying upon witnessing her rival's success.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Chef Ramsay often called Ben from Season 5 fat. He wasn't actually that much overweight, and by the time he returned for a service in Season 9, he was skinnier. His teammate Robert, however...
• Iron Woobie: Multiple.
  • Season 4's Christina was frequently targeted just because her teammates didn't like her, regardless of how well she did each service. Despite that, she remained a solid chef throughout the competition and didn't fall into the trap of eliminating someone she didn't like personally, which eventually helped her win that season.
  • Jon in Season 11 did very well in almost every challenge... but the rest of the Blue Team, with the sole exception of Anthony before his collapse, were so terrible that he wasn't able to enjoy any of the rewards because they lost all but two challenges. Nevertheless, Jon took it all in stride, and managed to win the second individual challenge after Black Jackets were given. Unfortunately, he came up just short of making it to the finale, but he became the first male contestant that Ramsay allowed to keep his jacket, and today, he works at Gordon Ramsay Steak in Las Vegas under Season 10 winner Christina.
    • It got so bad, even Ramsay took to being less critical of the very few mistakes Jon did make, yelling at him maybe twice the entire season. In fairness, those mistakes only came due to the Blue Team's failures weighing down on Jon, likely the reason Ramsay was more lenient.
  • Season 12's Scott didn't have it easy. He was actually a decent cook for the most part (before the Black Jackets anyway). But he got very little respect from both of the teams, since he tied Elise for the most nominations in the show's history, whether he deserved it or not. Frequently, he was around as The Scapegoat. The most jarring examples came from Joy, who would frequently shift the blame to him, simply because she refused to nominate her friend Kashia (even if she had made far worse mistakes). Aside from one isolated incident where he lost his cool at Chef Ramsay, he simply rolled with it and didn't let it affect his cooking. This is good, considering that the shit he went through only sweetened his eventual victory.
  • Season 15's Manda. Most of her team ignored or talked down to her, Frank treated her like shit, she had little self-confidence, and she obviously missed her kids a LOT... but she kept trying without pause and moreover kept an optimistic, upbeat attitude right up to her elimination.
  • Season 21's Alex. While he was well-liked by most of chefs (save for Billy and Abe, although he made up with the latter), his team was so weak that they lost all but two challenges, resulting in him doing several punishments and not being able to go on a reward for seven weeks. And that's not getting into the fact he had a restaurant prior to Covid, only to sell it two days before competing due to the effects of the pandemic. Regardless, he took it in stride and managed to make it to the finale and win.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • One of the most common complaints is that the "Battle-of-the-Sexes" gimmick has been really played out being done for 16 straight seasons after the 1st season was the only one starting with mixed teams. It's why it's considered such a waste that after finally bringing back starting mixed teams for Season 18 (Rookies vs. Veterans) and Season 21 (Battle of the Ages), they quickly go back to Men vs. Women just a few episodes later (although in defense of the second one, the 20-Somethings were utterly crushing the 40-Somethings, meaning if Gordon didn't change it, there might not have even been a Blue Team after a few episodes).
  • The lack of competent male chefs on the show starts to get tiresome in some of the later seasons, which is exemplified by the fact that there was seven straight female winners from Seasons 13-19.
  • Ever since Season 14, every single chef who received the last Black Jacket^note Josh, Manda, Kimberly, Robyn, Heather, Amber, Steve, and Cheyenne would perform horribly and be eliminated in the next episode after their first Black Jacket service. It was baffling that in eight straight seasons this incident always happened, leading fans to lament potential chefs in upcoming seasons to either succumb to the infamous "Last Black Jacket Curse", or someday finally break it. It's even more baffling considering that the previous two chefs to succumb to this curse^note Steve and Cheyenne were labeled as massive favorites to win their seasons. The trend was finally broken in Season 22 with Ryan, although Leigh, the fifth Black Jacket, still fell victim to it.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • It's easy to assume that Ramsay's just a bitter, foul-tempered asshole. When you see what he has to put up with from some of the contestants, he becomes a lot more sympathetic.
  • Keith from Season 2. Despite an obvious struggle with positive encouragement— one Chef Ramsay frequently tried to mitigate— he couldn't quite get past his attitude. When not chosen to be one of the finalists, he mouthed off and accused Ramsay of simply choosing Virginia because he "had a hard-on" for her. You could see all respect Chef had for Keith instantly dashed.
  • Matt from Season 4 was arguably this. He was an ass a lot of the time, but he was downright hated and alienated by his blue team. He pleaded to Chef Ramsay to be switched to red and became a lot happier (and somewhat more competent) when he was finally acknowledged. He did deserve some of the ire from his teammates given his incompetence, but he was pitiful at the very least.
  • Robert from Season 5. He was a bit of an ass sometimes. But dropping out of the competition due to health complications right when you visit the restaurant you get when you win stings badly. And even after all his devotion, he skipped out on his wedding in order to compete on the show so he could secure a good future for himself and his wife. He did get a second chance in Season 6, but sadly he suffered Badass Decay. Then he went to the hospital because his health problems arose again. When he finally got back, he got a cold welcome from his team who had bonded without him around and felt like he hurt the team dynamic. He got eliminated that very night.
  • This is pretty much Andrea from Season 5's reaction after she has a turn running the pass.
  • Suzanne from Season 6 was somewhat pitiful. She was alienated from her team and tried to be a better team player halfway through. But her efforts to be accepted were continuously rejected by everybody. She was widely hated by all the contestants, and they often said it right to her face. Still, she was an annoying Smug Snake who continuously tried to take control and throw other people under the bus and often came off as a suck-up even after she tried to be nicer.
  • Arguably, Season 12's Ralph. Sure, he was quite a jerk sometimes. But suffering from a lack of sleep due to Gabriel's snoring, trying to do well in the next service, then doing so badly he was eliminated (with Gabriel lying about the nominees and nominating Ralph instead of himself as well) made him seem a bit sympathetic.
  • Sade from Season 13 can be ruthless, a sore loser and a bit of a bitch to her teammates, but she's been in seven punishments in a row. Even her teammates comment that she can be allowed to yell a bit.
  • Meghan from Season 14 may qualify; she's harsh and sometimes outright rude, although she picks on Michelle slightly less than the others, but she's been through a ridiculous amount of punishments despite being far and away the best chef on the roster thanks to her team's incompetence.
  • Trev from Season 8 and Season 18 (Rookies vs. Veterans). While rude and snarky at times, it's not hard to sympathize with him when he gets constantly shit on by his teammates in both seasons, and getting yelled at by Sous Chefs for minor mistakes. Season 18 (Rookies vs. Veterans) makes it worse as he made it to 7th place yet only went on one reward trip all season, and felt very ashamed of his poor performance on the Blind Taste Test, not helping that his team abandoned him afterwards.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The number one reason people watch Hell's Kitchen in the first place has to be for Chef Ramsay yelling at other chefs who screw up.
• Les Yay: Implied to have occurred with Heather and Rachel in Season 2, although Heather subsequently clarified that there was only ever a bit of good-natured flirting between the two and that Rachel had a long-term girlfriend, meaning that nothing would have happened anyway. Many fans suspected this was also the case with Bonnie and Jen in Season 3, although it ended up being disproved in the season finale when Bonnie pretty much confirmed that she was heterosexual.
  • Ho Yay, on the other hand, has been averted so far. While there's actually been six gay male chefs on the show ^note  Dewberry, Aaron (S3), Tavon, Nick, Kenneth, and Matthew (S20), plus the first boot of Season 5, who identified as a gay cis male during filming (so far as is known), there's never been more than one per season, yet. The closest there's been to it was Paul and Will from Season 9.
• Love to Hate: Gordon Ramsay. He is often relentless towards chef's for any incompetence, but he does it because of his standards of cooking and his lack of filter can be hilarious.
• Memetic Badass: Chef Ramsay.
  • Dave, winner of Season 6, also qualifies due to winning the competition single-handed. His status among fans is legendary.
  • Sous Chef Scott.
  • In spite of his sheer lack of cooking skills, Season 8's Raj has jokingly become this within the fandom.
  • Jon, who placed third in Season 11, for being the only member of that season's Blue Team with his head screwed on right and for possibly being one of the best contestants in Hell's Kitchen period, so much so that Gordon outright hired him.
  • In spite of being a Base-Breaking Character, Ray from Season 11 has become this.
  • Season 14's Meghan is this due to being one of the most dominant winners the show has ever seen. When ranking the best winners, Meghan is almost guaranteed to be the Number One pick.
• Narm: Antonia's migraine and abrupt departure from the show right before the first dinner service in Season 8; she reacts so intensely that it's hard to take it seriously. It certainly doesn't help that the Signature Dish she made just prior was one of the worst in the show's history, leading some to speculate that she faked her migraine to leave the show out of embarrassment.
• Narm Charm: The narration and sound effects can be hilariously over-the-top at times.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Three words: Matt's Exotic Tartare.^note Featuring Raw Venison, raw quail egg, lime zest, olive oil, caviar, diver scallops, and grated white chocolate. Oh, and capers. Probably the first dish in the series where Ramsay actually vomited rather than just spitting it out.
  • Antonia's signature dish provoked another literal regurgitation from Ramsay in Season 8. Only this time he decided to share the pain by getting the other contestants to taste it. They didn't like it any more than he did, and Vinny and Nona also came close to throwing up. It was so bad, Ramsay used it as the tiebreaker against the red team.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Joseph's infamous meltdown from Season 6. There's nothing particularly scary about the scene... that is, until he throws off his jacket in a fit of anger and steps up close to Gordon. The eerie part about it is the fact that the producers cut out the music completely until Joseph leaves the building. Considering the situation at hand (Joseph threatening Gordon to a fistfight, with the latter responding back to him in his raspy Tranquil Fury voice, while the other contestants stare in shock from behind), it makes it the single most unsettling moment in Hell's Kitchen history.
  • While finger cuts in Hell's Kitchen are usually Squick, special mention has to go to when Koop slices his fingernail off. While being attended to the medic, Koop actually passes out from the pain, and actually has to be given oxygen to breathe.
  • During Cheyenne and Sommer's off road vehicle reward, they end up going into rough terrain and wind up flipping the car. Neither was hurt, thankfully, but it was very scary to watch, especially if one has been in an accident before.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Andrew of Season 7. The sound effects Lampshade it; thankfully, he left the show in the second episode.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: After Season 1's Jeff quit, he got into a physical fight with Chef Ramsay and ended up being injured. Sadly, the cameras weren't around. Urban Legend has it that a similar thing happened to Season 6's Joseph.
• Once Original, Now Common: Originally, one of the greatest appeals of the show was that the main chef, Gordon Ramsay, was a Drill Sergeant Nasty, as opposed to the nice chefs that were common in the genre. Now, thanks to this show, such rough chefs are now the default, and it can be difficult for a new viewer to see what once made this show unique.
• One-Scene Wonder: Season 8's Antonia. She quit the show on doctor's orders after suffering a severe migraine after the opening signature dish challenge. That said, her signature dish was the Mardi Gras Gumbo, so her extremely short stint on the show was a very memorable one.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The Season 17 (All Stars) finale was very much this. While the season was already hated for the controversial eliminations of chefs like Van and Jennifer, Nick's elimination solidified this as he was eliminated in the final tasting challenge. It even got to the extent that a rumor started to circulate that the final judge and CEO of Caeser's Entertainment Group, Mark Frissora, intentionally gave him a low score as he wasn't comfortable having an LGBT head chef at the restaurant.
• Padding: Season 10 is extremely guilty of this. The usual events that unfold during each episode in previous seasons - the post-elimination cooldown, the reward challenge, the reward/punishment, the dinner service, etc. - get stretched out into two installments, and it shows. The extra time doesn't really give more insight into the groups and exists only to produce more episodes. The only exception to this was the opening episodes, and the episode that aired before the MLB All-Star Game (the latter making the Padding all the more obvious).
  • Season 11 brings padding back in spades, now stretching out the elimination segments so that viewers have to wait until next week just to see who is getting kicked out. The biggest moment is during the Final 5, where it took 3 episodes, 2 challenges, and 2 services to eliminate Susan, who is not really a standout chef compared to her competitors.
  • Averted for the most part in Season 12, which only had two cliffhangers (though only one was for an elimination challenge, while the other was just to see who won a challenge).
  • Throughout the series, there are Commercial Break Cliffhanger moments, where the first minute after coming back, the same scene from before is shown, followed by the outcome, which usually wastes about 3-4 minutes of screen time. Fortunately, these are cut out of the DVD versions.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The show received a PC game adaptation which is considerably milder than the show. Ramsay looks very odd and doesn't swear or even really raise his voice unless you deliberately screw up repeatedly. There is no competition factor, and seating people is one of the challenges. The game isn't really bad, per se, but it isn't worth the $30 asking price.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • Gloria, the Red Team's sous chef in Seasons 4 and 5, was nowhere near as popular as her predecessor MaryAnn, mostly because MaryAnn had shown she could kick ass as well as Chef Ramsay and Scott, whereas Gloria seemed to spend most of her time on the show standing by the pass and looking as if she'd rather be elsewhere. The Red Team's subsequent sous chefs, Heather, Andi and Christina, have mostly averted this; Heather and Christina already had a lot of fans from their original appearances on the show, and Andi gained a lot of respect when she helped Chef Ramsay and Scott rescue a service that the Red Team had screwed up royally. It probably doesn't hurt that Andi is among the best-looking sous chefs to appear on the Red Team, at least on the outside. For the most part, she is quiet...
  • Many also see Maître d' James, from Seasons 8-10, as this in comparison to Jean-Philippe, as most of the time he doesn't seem to have a grasp of what's going on and he comes across as rather bland and is nowhere near as funny or charming as JP was. Marino seems to be an aversion as his more comedic personality has given him a couple of fans.
    • James is even considered this in-universe. Season 8's Emily was very disappointed when he showed up and called his accent "unsexy".
  • Season 11's new Blue Team sous chef, James, is also seen as this by many, as he has generally little presence (at times you may even forget he's there) and just doesn't have the inherent badass attitude, authority, and presence that Sous Chef Scott has and fans love. As time went on, however, he became liked by the fans due to his reliability with the other chefs. The next Blue Team sous chef, Aaron, had even fewer fans due to just lacking presence in the kitchen (and screentime). However, the most recent Blue Team sous chefs have averted this; Jocky due to actually showing strong leadership and also for being much different from the other Blue Team sous chefs in the show, and Jason/Jay already had fans from his original season.
  • People were so used to and liked Jason Thompson's narration so much that when Roger Craig Smith replaced him in Seasons 13 and 14, he proved unpopular. Thompson would return from Season 15 onward.
• Retroactive Recognition: Season 15's family night challenge saw Millie Bobby Brown in the dining room as a special guest. This was two years before she would appear as Eleven on Stranger Things, she's instead credited as an actress on Intruders .
• Sacred Cow:
  • Petrozza from Season 4 definitely qualifies as this, as he's considered to have been one of the kindest and best chefs to have ever competed on the show, with fans having nary a bad word to say about him, even prior to his passing in 2019.
  • Similarly, Season 13's Sterling. You're just not allowed to dislike Sterling. The fact that he turned down numerous job offers after his time on the show in favor of working at a hospital with a mediocre salary pretty much cemented him as the nicest guy in the show's history.
• The Scrappy: Generally, this label befalls chefs who tend to be an Elimination Houdini, or are just really unlikeable.
  • Season 7's Scott might be one of the most arrogant chefs in Hell's Kitchen history. He would often brag about his resume and how impressive it was despite not having the skills in the kitchen to back these claims up. The fact that he would constantly throw his teammates under the bus didn't help matters.
  • Season 8's Sabrina. She was a whiner and a really aggressive chef who constantly caused drama, yet was able to make it to the Black Jackets. In many ways, she almost seemed to be a precursor to...
  • Season 9's Elise, full stop. Her infamous rivalry with Carrie, and their almost constant arguing, can render the season nigh unwatchable at times, not to mention her less than desirable methods used to defeat the more beloved Jennifer, and despite all that she managed to claw her way to third place, with much speculation that this was done to boost the show's ratings. Elise's unrepentant and selfish attitude alienated viewers to the point that when she returned for Season 17 (All Stars), the other contestants described her, within the show itself, as "the most hated Hell's Kitchen contestant of all time". Even now, many people have described Season 9 as one of the worst seasons of the show solely because of these issues.
  • Kimmie, Robyn, and Tiffany from Season 10. Not only did they constantly argue with the rest of their team, they also had it out against Barbie and to some extent, Christina. It's agreed that they are some of the worst female personalities brought onto the show (alongside the aforementioned Elise).
  • Season 16 is generally considered one of the worst, if not the worst seasons because practically the entire blue team (bar Aaron, Devin and to some extent, Koop and Paulie) turned out to be one of the most toxic, dramatic, and in many cases, incompetent teams in tge show's history. With various people of unstable personalities, instigators of drama and bullying, being purely incompetent, or some combination of all three led to a team that is heavily reviled and despised among the community.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Elimination Challenges (Cook For Your Life Challenges and Black Jacket Challenges) have been a sore spot for fans as they're too similar to MasterChef (another cooking show on Fox with Ramsay), along with the fact that they have a history of causing the eliminations of consistent chefs at the wrong time (the most glaring examples include Season 17's Jennifer and Season 18's Kanae). The worst example was the Final Tasting Challenge in Season 17 (All Stars) as it completed screwed Nick over, despite the latter doing a lot better that season, and being one of the favorites to win.
• Seasonal Rot: Quite a few examples in the show’s history.
  • Season 8 featured some of the most inconsistent chefs to compete (with Raj, in particular, being seen as one of the worst chefs in the show's history), more in-fighting than ever, and the series' most hated runner-up (Russell, mostly for his toxic sore loser attitude). It doesn't help that it came off the heels of what fans called the golden age of the series (Seasons 4 to 7).
  • Season 11 is widely considered one of the worst seasons for its unnecessary cliffhangers between episodes, mostly uninteresting characters, and of course, the Blue Team, still considered one of the worst in Hell’s Kitchen history for losing most of the services and challenges. Doesn’t help that popular chefs such as Jon, Mary, and Anthony were ultimately snubbed by the season. Even worse, the winner, Ja’Nel, didn’t even get the position of Head Chef at Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill due to her testing positive for cocaine.
  • Season 13 is not as bad as the other two, but it's the most forgettable of the series as there were not a lot of memorable moments that stuck out. Plus, none of the chefs have distinct personalities that made them stand out (with the exception of Sterling, who is one of the most beloved contestants in the entire show). It also suffered from eventual winner La Tasha being so overwhelmingly better than all that season's other competitors that it all but removed any drama over who would win, making for an overall very forgettable season.
  • Season 15 featured noticeably lower-quality chefs than in previous seasons (only 4 chefs scored a 4 on the Signature Dish Challenge and none scored a 5), coming off as jarring compared to seasons like 12 and 14 in particular. Doesn’t help that the season was also filled with shocking eliminations such as Hassan, Joe, and Jared, a constant emphasis on the drama with chefs like Jackie, Frank, Ashley, and Jared, and a winner (Ariel) that left a lot of fans divided. Even worse, every chef from this season to return to All Stars (Ashley, Jared, and Manda) got eliminated early enough to not return to the finale as a team player, only further adding to the low-performance quality of this season.
  • Season 16 is the most one-sided season in the show’s history, with a Red Team that won EIGHT services out of twelve compared to a Blue Team that only won TWO services. As a result, any resemblance of competition became nonexistent as the women dominated the men for the entire season. To make matters worse, most of the male chefs of the season either had unstable attitudes ^note  Johnny and Matt , lent themselves to drama ^note  Andrew , both ^note  Paulie , or were grossly incompetent ^note  Pat and Genaro . The only thing that makes it a little better is having a likable winner in Ryan.
  • Season 17 (All Stars) suffered due to the constant drama from Elise (who was arguably worse than in Season 9), having one of the most dysfunctional Red Teams in recent history, several talented people getting eliminated too early, including Ben, Giovanni, Dana, Benjamin, Jennifer, Van, and Nick (with the last two in particular getting heavy backlash), and a controversial winner in Michelle (who was far from the Ensemble Dark Horse she was in Season 14).
• So Bad, It's Good:
  • Raj from Season 8 is probably the most incompetent and socially inept chef in the history of the series, but the sheer extent of his buffoonery makes him very entertaining to watch and he remains one of the most fondly remembered contestants despite his early exit.
  • Season 11 comes close to being an Epic Fail of a season, with one of the worst blue teams ever (except for Jon) and the winner ultimately not even getting the prize job due to failing a drugs test. However, the massive number of chefs being kicked out of the kitchen and hilarious incompetence on display make it a must-watch for lovers of terrible chefs. Even Ramsay himself ends up cracking up at handing the blue team punishment after punishment after all the challenges they lost.
• Squick
  • Matt from Season 4 accidentally cutting off the tip of his finger.
    • Again in Season 6, when Andy accidentally cut off the tips of his fingers.
    • Jay as well from Season 7.
    • Rochelle did the same thing in Season 12.
  • Also done in punishments, especially when contestants have to sort through dumpster trash or eat things like Balut (duck fetus) and lamb testicles.
  • A exotic meats challenge was introduced with several live examples of Foreign Cuisine. Snakes? Pretty standard. Iguana? Inspired. Rats? Some really are Reduced to Ratburgers. Tarantula? Nightmare Fuel.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The show's theme song, "Fire" by the Ohio Players, gets this when the show is rebroadcast outside of the US. It's also used on the DVD releases, as they apparently couldn't get the rights to use it on them.
• Take That, Scrappy!: One of the show's biggest appeals is to see Chef Ramsay scream at The Scrappy for their performance and bad attitude. Usually, one or two make it pretty far. But a lot of them tend to be eliminated early.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Jean-Philippe not returning to the show for Season 8 for some mysterious reason (being replaced with another guy with a similar accent) had several fans spouting this trope.
    • Unofficial word is that Jean-Philippe may eventually be back - he was called away to deal with a situation in one of Ramsay's restaurants in France. However, as of Season 9, James is still the maître d'.
    • Ramsay has now stated via his Twitter that JP will be back for Season 10.
    • Good news (really): JP is now back on the crew for Season 11, however, Blue Team Sous Chef Scott Leibfried is committed somewhere else, so he is replaced with James Avery.
  • While it's completely understandable as to why they got rid of it after the first 5 seasons due to being a waste of resources, there are a couple people out there that miss the interior restaurant designs for final service.
  • The introduction of a Studio Audience to the Signature Dish challenge from Season 11 to Season 16 was widely disliked, due to their reactions to the dishes being very blatantly exaggerated and choreographed, and for taking away from the simple 'Ramsey vs. the chef' dynamic that makes the challenge popular. The return to the classic format in Season 17 was celebrated, and when the audience did make a one-off return in Season 20 they were at least a lot calmer and less overtly directed than before.
  • While the Cook For Your Life Challenge was already pretty detested for eliminating front-runners at inopportune times, Season 21's way of deciding the nominees was heavily derided, as the participants were only chefs who pulled their dishes in the challenge beforehand. This would result in front-runner and fan-favorite Alex being nominated and more divisive chefs such as Abe, Sommer, and Dafne managing to survive another day. At the very least, the challenge would eliminate Ileana.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Season 2's winner, Heather, got to return as Ramsay's sous chef for the Red Team in Season 6. However, she was so Out of Focus with little to no dialogue or notable appearances outside of her introduction that you'd easily forget that she was there.
  • Every once in awhile, you'll see people wishing to see Season 5's Cha Ji-Hyun get another shot after she chose to leave the competition early due to twisting her ankle. Especially when her opening signature dish was amongst the best, and Ramsay's final words for Ji having missed potential written all over it.
  • One of the most universally agreed upon eliminations that people believe happened way too early was Season 15's Hassan Musselmani, who Ramsay chose to eliminate over Dannie in week 7. Hassan throughout the first 6 weeks had proven himself to be a powerhouse amongst the men. So much so that Ramsay felt that sending him to the Red Team would give the girls a spark. Instead, he ends up having his first bad performance of the season, which also happened to be his last since said performance resulted in his elimination. Thus, leaving many viewers confused as to why he deserved to go since he wasn't even given a second chance to try to make up for his bad week. One theory people have is that the reason he got kicked off despite his competency was that Ramsay was angry and embarrassed that Hassan put in a bad performance during a special event. Said event being previous sous chef Andi's wedding reception. By the time of the season finale, it's quite common to see the viewers claiming that Hassan should have been amongst the chefs brought back for the final service teams.
  • From Season 21 (Battle of the Ages), many people were disappointed that compared to the other members of the cast, Sakari was primarily Out of Focus, despite being one of the most popular chefs of that season alongside Alex and Cheyenne, and having one of, if not, the best signature dish in the show's history.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • With Season 17 being an All Stars season, one can't help but wonder why Season 3's Julia wasn't among the returning chefs given that, as stated upon her exit, Ramsay hoped she would return after graduating from culinary school and knock the competition out of the water. It could also extend to others as many seasons (1-4, 8, 11-13, and 16) did not have any representatives at all, leaving a number of people irritated that fan-favorites such as Season 4's Bobby, Season 11's Jon, and Season 12's Rochelle did not appear. In addition, the fact that only chefs who received Black Jackets in their first season were brought back left fans of Season 13's Sterling, Season 8's Vinny, and Season 10's Brian disappointed that they were not offered a second chance. This additionally prevented chefs who went home only because of injuries, like Season 5's Ji and Season 14's Bret, from trying again.
    • Addressed in Season 18 (Rookies vs. Veterans), which included the aforementioned Bret, three runner-ups, and representatives from Seasons 4, 8, 13, and 16.
  • Also from Season 17 (All Stars) is the 3-way finale that wasn't. The end of Episode 14 hypes up the finale of the season like it's going to be the first-ever final service between 3 chefs... only for that to not be the case in the final two episodes. The eliminations ended up just playing out normally where Nick was eliminated in 3rd place instead of being the head chef for a 3rd final service team.
  • One complaint regarding Season 18 (Rookies vs. Veterans) is that Ramsay threw away the Rookies Vs. Veterans team format too early, and went back to the Battle of the Sexes only four episodes in. It's especially jarring considering that it was the first time since Season 1 where the teams started in mixed genders. Many bring up that keeping to the theme might have made the competition more balanced, as opposed to the quite frankly lackluster performance of a lot of the men's team.
• Too Cool to Live: In a non-fatal example, Cha Ji-Hyun, due to her twisted ankle.
  • Averted with Dave, who went on despite his injuries, and won.
    • Also averted with Kevin, also from Season 6, who went on despite his injuries and made runner-up.
  • Jason in Season 9, who managed to impress Ramsay with tacos, appeared to be an all-around great chef and had a beard worthy of a Viking; unfortunately, he suffered the same fate as Season 8's Antonia. After he started to have trouble breathing in the prep for the first service, he was rushed to the hospital and never came back.
    • Thankfully, Jason came back in Season 12 and proved himself to be one of the strongest chefs on the blue team, finishing all the way in second place only behind Scott.
  • Bret from Season 14. Despite being one of the best chefs, if not the best chef, on the blue team that season, he had to withdraw around the halfway point after he slipped a disc after falling on his back during a reward.
    • Like Jason, he also got the opportunity to return in a future season, Season 18 (Rookies vs. Veterans), and continued proving he was indeed a strong chef, managing to place third.
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Viewers liked Christina from Season 4 a lot more than the red team did.
  • Likewise, Season 10's Barbie, who drew near-universal hatred from the red team, was a favorite for viewers.
  • Scott from Season 12 started getting a lot of fans rallying around him as he became The Scapegoat of the season that other chefs blamed their own mistakes on, resulting in many unfair nominations, particularly by Joy who refused to ever nominate her friend, Kashia. Scott's victory was made all the sweeter by Joy's rage quit.
  • Season 13's Sterling seemed early on to be heading in the same direction, with viewers liking him much more than his team does. As his departure came, he was considered one of the nicest contestants in the history of the show and his competitors showed their appreciation.
  • Above everyone else, Raj is the king of this. With the sole weird exception of Russell, season 8's resident Jerkass, he had major beef with everyone, argued over fault, was massively incompetent enough to almost sink his last service on his own and was thus despised by his team who were glad to see him eliminated despite winning that service (through no help of Raj, as the red team did just a bit worse rather than the blue team accomplishing anything). His antics have made him the most beloved attraction of the show and he is considered the most fun to watch except maybe Sterling.
• Vindicated by History: When it first aired, Season 10 wasn't liked by the fans due to the amount of Small Name, Big Ego chefs, multiple cliffhangers, and more drama than needed. However, as time went on, people started to see some of the season's more shining moments such as the first-ever perfect score on the Blind Taste Challenge, more of The Scrappy chefs getting their karma at certain points, and Christina Wilson, who many refer to as the most successful winner to date (indeed, many of the comments on Youtube refer to Season 10 as "Christina's origin story"). Plus, the number of cliffhangers was not as bad compared to Season 11.
• Wangst: Lacey from Season 5, who had a tendency to start whining and crying after performing poorly, and would frequently complain about how her teammates hated her (in reality, it was this that was the cause of most of it).
  • Elise from Season 9 would immediately start to cry if her team lost a challenge, or if it looked like she might be eliminated. Because of this, you'd usually see her tear up at least once an episode. Ramsay immediately called her out on it, and her fellow contestants mocked her for doing so (unlike Lacey, however, she was often grumpy if things didn't go her way).
  • Season 12's Beth also. It seems as if she'd cry at any moment when things weren't going well. Every time she was up for elimination, she'd cry. This was usually limited to the Confessionals, however.
  • Season 14's Meghan spends her first Challenge punishment (second, actually, if you include the Red Team's loss at in the Signature Dish Challenge) whining and complaining as if it's the end of the world for her, which doesn't make any sense whatsoever when her Red Team had already won the past several Challenges, and all got to experience some fun and relaxation on the vacation rewards. At the very least, she gets better afterwards with many feeling that going on to lose the next 8 Challenges in a row really humbled her.
    • To be fair, her being in a bad mood isn't just about the Challenge loss and punishment. Rather, it's her being frustrated with the Red Team in general. At that point, they'd lost four out of five dinner services.
  • Season 19's Amber. She tended to get over-emotional and constantly think everyone was out to get her personally, even when she was given legitimate criticism she refused to own up to. This was taken to its zenith once she was transferred to the blue team; she continually complained about wanting to go back to the red team, even when she ended up staying there longer than the red team. In the finale, when Jordan was chosen over her by Kori, she wouldn't stop nagging to Kori about it or in the confession cams when she was cooking for Mary Lou, and on top of that, she wasn't even Picked Last (Marc was, and even he didn't sulk about it). Needless to say, her teammates and viewers alike got tired of her whiny attitude real fast.
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • After how poorly Season 11 went, many fans considered Season 12 a step forward due to fewer cliffhangers, chefs with better personalities, the teams being on equal footing in both challenges and services, and a winner that many considered one of the biggest underdogs in the entire series. It's still long with 20 episodes, but it did not abuse multi-part episodes as Season 11 did with three two-part episodes and one three-part episode.
  • Coming off the bland Season 13, Season 14 amazed fans for having the strongest chefs for the longest time (at least half of the chefs received more than 3 points on the Signature Dish Challenge), both teams having some strong consistency throughout the services, and arguably the strongest final two ever (Meghan and T).
  • Season 18 (Rookies vs. Veterans) managed to fix some of the problems that were plagued in Season 17 (All Stars). Less drama, more of the scrappier chefs getting eliminated (Jen and Scotley are prime examples), eliminations that made sense (except for Heather winning a black jacket over Kanae), and a winner that most agree deserved it (Ariel).
  • Season 22 (The American Dream) managed to fix several issues that plagued some of the previous seasons. They brought back six black jackets, had a strong balance of likable chefs and drama, and a final three that everyone agreed would be a satisfactory winner no matter which one came out on top (Ryan, Johnathan, and Sammi).