History Series / HellsKitchen

Each episode usually boils down to the following:

** Season 8, episode 4. Trevor asks if Gail wants to make out with him, and she replies with "No, not really.". Cut to the narrator saying "Trev may not have got lucky last night, but both teams are hoping to score."

* InVinoVeritas: Ed from season 7's personality completely changes if he's drunk.

** Another '''complete lie''' from Season 8. The trailer for episode seven implies that Trev is working some type of carnival game for some young kids. He gets hit in the head with what looks like a ring toss ring, and says something that got bleeped out. Cut to him talking to the ConfessionCam, suggesting that he just got in major trouble for swearing in front of children. When the episode finally comes around, there is a carnival with kids, but none of the chefs go anywhere near the kids and Trevor never gets hit in the head with anything.

** Also from season 8 there was Trev, who was kind of the underdog. Ramsay seemed to like him tolerably well (he made it to the final four), but he consistently received very little respect from his competitors. He made it to the [[spoiler: final four.]]

* CordonBleughChef: This happens in the signature dish tasting on occasion. Notable ones include Seth in Season 5 (ratatouille with honey in it), and Matt from Season 4 (diver scallops, venison, caviar, lime zest, olive oil, capers, and '''''white chocolate''''' - this one actually made Chef Ramsay throw up).

* {{Cloud Cuckoo Lander}}: Season 8's Raj. SO much. Between his weird yoga/karate moves, wide-eyed disbelief at common occurrences, and near-total inability to execute in the kitchen, it was a mystery how he even got to be a contestant in the first place. He simply didn't appear to be operating on the same plane of existence as the other humans on the show.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Chef Ramsay is a genuinely nice person, he's just rather foul-mouthed and does not suffer fools. WordOfGod is that he tries very hard to keep in touch with most contestants: "...when you have to release that talent, it gets quite emotional because they’ve become part of your brigade, they’ve become a pillar in that brigade."

** And he shows this side again in season 6 when after losing a challenge, he gets reminded about his shortcomings from one of Ramsay's assistant chefs and how he should have had the now emerging motivation come out during the challenge. Robert completely blows his cool and snaps a broom in half, complaining on the ConfessionCam that being reminded about how he failed was something his father had regularly done.

* ShockingElimination: Brad from Season 3; he had been the only consistently decent performer out of the men (apart from eventual winner Rock), but after two below-par services, Chef Ramsay surprisingly chose to eliminate him over the consistently terrible Josh.

* One must always take into account that Chef Ramsey despises people that don't fight back. One of the worst things to be seen doing is remaining mute in the face of adversity. [[spoiler: both Carrie and Elise vehemently defend themselves versus Jamie who sulked and hung her head in shame. See also Elizabeth's elimination when both Jennifer and Elise argue with one another. Ramsey despises quiet people.]]
** [[spoiler:Natalie]] being eliminated over [[spoiler:Elise]], especially after it was proven that [[spoiler:Elise has a terrible attitude that makes her unsuitable for any leadership position, much less a head chef]]. True, [[spoiler:Natalie]] was clearly struggling under the pressure at that point in the competition, but [[spoiler:Elise]] outright lied to Ramsay's face and he called her on it. This was an offense that got Brendan kicked off the very same episode in which he tried it. Instead, [[spoiler:Elise]] gets to stay to compete for another day. For many fans complaining about the show being plagued with ExecutiveMeddling, this episode was the final nail in the coffin.
* ShutUpHannibal: J delivered one of these to Seth in Season 5. After Ramsay asked him for the blue team's nominees, J started to say that Seth and Charlie had been nominated, but then Seth butted in and flat-out accused J of lying, claiming that he hadn't really been nominated at all. J then cooly told Seth that Ramsay had asked him who the nominees were, and to kindly shut the hell up.

* SpringtimeForHitler: During a split service in Season 1, whereby one team would cook and the other would serve, the red team came up with the idea to make sure that the blue team were bombarded with orders for lasagna, the most complex dish on the menu, hoping that this would slow them down and totally screw them. It didn't exactly go to plan though, because the blue team not only managed to get most of the lasagnas out, they were so well received that Chef Ramsay used them as the deciding factor in naming the blue team as the winners that episode.

->'''Gordon''': How could you do that?
->'''Seth''': I uh, never butchered a filet before chef.
->'''Gordon''': Congratulations, you just have.
->'''Seth''': Thank you, chef-
->'''Gordon''': Hey smartass, not in the right way you fucking bozo!

---> '''Ramsay''': Gentlemen, clearly comfortable with your meat. Tennille, how thick do you like your sausage?
---> '''Tennille''': Chef, [[LesYay I don't]] [[ButchLesbian like sausage.]]
---> '''Ramsay''': Van, the secret of a good sausage is what?
---> '''Van''': Hold it steady, then pump it slow and easy...

** BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Late in the first night of that same episode, everyone's roused out of sleep to watch a TV message from Ramsay. It's an instructional video of him preparing some lobster risotto. The players are hugely grateful for and inspired by this generosity: [[ConfessionCam Jason says]] "the lesson that Chef Ramsay gave us was invaluable" and Jason wanted to see "20 more of those." He doesn't get much sleep that night.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: A rather tragic example, first with the sudden suicide of Season 2 contestant Rachel Brown, which was then followed by the death of Season contestant Aaron Song from complications of diabetes.

** Season 9's Elise seems to be INSTALLING Berserk Buttons on her fellow chefs; roughly half a dozen people over the course of the season have flipped their shit at her.

** Jennifer from Season 9 is turning into this. Usually the chefs who are a pushover will get eliminated by Ramsay, but Jennifer has not only been an excellent chef, but capable of getting Elise to shut her mouth.

** Also from season 8 there was Trev, who was kind of the underdog. Ramsay seemed to like him tolerably well (he made it to the final four), but he consistently received very little respect from his competitors.

* ConfessionCam

** Doubles as Badass since Dave managed to keep it under wraps during the entire show and a CrowningMomentOfAwesome when Gordon later called out another chef for a similar injury. The other chef had cut off the tip of his finger by accident and claimed that he lacked a finger and was handicapped. Gordon spectacularly exploded in his face about how Dave had been working with an injured hand for the past few episodes and didnt complain.
** When Heather from Season 2 got injured, while she was sitting off to the side, she singlehandedly directed the rest of the kitchen to make sure her food got out. Not only did she go on to win Season 2, she actually returned in Season 6 as one of Ramsay's sous chefs! Epic win!

* {{Hypocrite}}: Elise, nearly ALL THE TIME. She is the next listed trope ''hard'' and regularly refuses to work with the rest of her team and blames them for her mistakes. She claims time and again to want to work as a team, nominates teammates for elimination because they're not team players, and yet expects to get her own way all the time. At one point, when the black team had formed, Elise practically begged the men on her team to not vote her off, even though she has been a constant problem for nearly ''everyone''.

** As of the new season, there's a new option: [[spoiler: send out ''shrimp cocktails''. The contestant chefs got it good for forcing him to do that.]] Luckily, that's a desperation tactic.

** Russell from Season 8 was just as bad, if not worse. He was probably the most talented chef in the competition, but by the final dinner service everyone despised him so much that Nona's brigade was fired up at the prospect of beating him, and Russell's brigade clearly put minimal effort into cooking for him. Russell even vowed to ''blackball'' the chefs he picked for causing him to lose (even though he did plenty to lose it himself, like trying to fire two tables at once and nearly getting in a fight with Rob). Classy to the end.

* LethalChef: All the time.

* TheMeanBrit: Chef Ramsay.

** Subverted with Season 5's roly-poly Robert (a telented chef and a viewer favorite), who went down in episode 11 with a serious heart condition. Ramsay felt badly enough over Robert's faultless elimination that he was invited back to participate in season six. In the interim, Robert underwent gastric bypass surgery, improving his overall health. Nonetheless, Robert was once again hospitalized with cardiac symptoms in episode 6, and was eliminated in the next episode after turning in a poor performance upon his return.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Jeff from Season 1, Andrew from Season 7, and Will from Season 9. See RageQuit above.

* One must always take into account that Chef Ramsey despises people that don't fight back. One of the worst things to be seen doing is remaining mute in the face of adversity. [[spoiler: both Carrie and Elise vehemently defend themselves versus Jamie who sulked and hung her head in shame. See also Elizabeth's elimination when both Jennifer and Elise argue with one another. Ramsey despises quiet people]]

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: The blue team's reaction in Season 8, after it turned out that Raj had used up their entire supply of Dover Sole just getting the first table's order right.

* VotedOffTheIsland: Subverted. As mentioned above, Ramsay can and will eliminate whoever he pleases, with little regard to who's been nominated.

*** For most seasons, for ratings\variety reasons, there is an EliminationHoudini in the mix, but they never make it to the final episode.

* TheLibby: Melissa, the girl having a "Sweet 16" party in Season 4, was set up to be one of these. In a subversion, she actually turned out to be fairly polite and down to earth. Her ''mother'', on the other hand...

** Up until Season 5, at least a third of the contests in each season were people without any real professional cooking experience. However, Ramsay got sick of people who constantly tried to use their lack of kitchen experience as a crutch for their mistakes (Jeff from Season 1, Ben from Season 4 and Lacey from Season 5 being particular offenders), and so starting with Season 6, the rules were changed so that only people with at least two years of professional experience under their belt are allowed to apply to be on the show. Oddly enough, were the current rules enforced throughout the show's history, Season 4 winner Christina wouldn't even have been allowed to apply for that season.