Line #3 Headscratchers/HellsKitchen


1	* The Fridge Brilliance section of Hell's Kitchen mentions how the intros contain some hints towards the chefs' performance. However, for this to be possible, the intro sequence would've been filmed after the season has been wrapped up, with the contestants acting for their parts. This raises the question: why would eliminated chefs want to do this if they left under bad terms? Prime example would be Season 6's Joseph.
2	** Knowing how reality TV works, particularly "competitions", it's likely in their contract that they are obligated to film anything that's asked of them within a certain timeframe after signing the contract. For example, World of Wonder, the production studio behind [=RuPaul=]'s Drag Race, has a contract with the Queens where [=WoW=] can demand that they participate in up to 5 additional seasons of Drag Race or any spinoffs, and the length of that demand period is 4 years from the day that the last episode that featured the Queen aired on TV. Meaning that, theoretically, if they wanted to space things out, they could have a Queen on the hook for over 20 years. I'm sure Hell's Kitchen isn't that onerous, but it goes to show that the production companies behind these shows want to extract as much value from the participants as possible (especially if those participants make for good TV).
3	* Why do contestants never fail with desserts?
4	** They have before. In fact, that was the station Season 4's Jason was on his final night of service. However, I believe the reason it is rare for the dessert station to fail is that...well, generally, if the dinner service even GETS to desserts, the kitchen's already in a relatively good position, and the dessert station has more time to prepare the necessary desserts, compared to (for example) the meat station getting hit with 4 or 5 orders of the same dish while needing to get it cooked as quickly as possible.
5	** Desserts are pretty easy for the most part; it takes a special kind of idiot to screw the dessert station up (S4's Jason and S5's Colleen are the only ones to prominently mess it up, and went home for it).
6	** It helps that many desserts can be prepared well in advance. Some things may only need to go in the oven to properly heat up (we see an instance in Season 16 with Chef Ramsay telling the Red Team to get ready for desserts, leading Kimberly to point out they needed to free up an oven), some desserts can be served cold or at room temperature, so the most that the chefs need to worry about is plating them and making sure the ones in the oven don't burn.
7	* Given that you need a great sense of smell and taste to be a good chef, and smoking destroys the sharpness of both senses, why do so many contestants smoke?
8	** It's the high-level stress of working in a kitchen. You have to keep up, be cold-headed, not have emotions getting in the way, be strong, be a good chef but also quick, accepting of criticism in a span of a few seconds (meaning, no time for personal issues with it), be cunning in quality control, able to lead, quick thinking and creative... all these are factors in being a successful chef. On top of this, chefs work very hard, about 10-hour work days. Just imagine: cooking. 5-7 days a week with 10-hour shifts. Have ''all'' the aforementioned qualities ''combined''. '''Nonstop'''. With very short breaks in-between. In the grand scheme of things, palate be damned; they need ''something'' to destress in-between services (even though it's not the most ideal way of doing it, definitely).
9	*** In Season 8, Chef Ramsay asked the contestants to refrain from smoking for 48 hours, but at least two didn't make it that long before lighting up again.
10	* If Ramsay is so harsh on chefs for using pre-made/frozen/canned materials because it's never as good as scratch-made...why is it available for use at all? I'm presuming that they're all using items found in the Hell's Kitchen supplies, what's it doing there if Ramsay doesn't use it?
11	** It's mostly a test to see how high the standards are. If the chefs used fresh ingredients for a dish that sucked, then Ramsay will at least see that they're at least taking the competition seriously. If they use pre-made food, then that means they are taking the easy way out, which Ramsay does not like.
12	*** I'm assuming they're using ingredients from the Hell's Kitchen supplies, though? Or is it the case that normally everything is scratch made, but there are various extra ingredients (including the frozen stuff) that are just there for the filming of the show?
13	*** It's most likely to be the case of... A. It's a test to see how serious/skilled/attitude of those chef took on the dish. (The trap ingredients.) B. Ramsay hates those who go the "easy way" , when the dish was meant to be fresh-made (and can be - under the restaurant standard... There are some dishes that, even though we do use pre-made ingredients at home, when it comes to a restaurant level of cooking (especially "this" level), it's supposed to be fresh-made.)
14	** Contestants can request ingredients for their signature dish before they go on the show. If they ask for canned tomatoes, they get canned tomatoes.
15	* What on Earth is a can of completely spoiled, rotten and extremely stenching crab doing in a place like Hell's Kitchen? And how it is possible literally no one except Gordon noticed the repugnant stench?
16	** Most likely it was planted there by someone in the filming crew, under instruction from the show's executives. Hell's Kitchen ''is'' a reality show, after all; they pull stunts like that for the sake of creating drama and raking in views all the time.

Context Headscratchers / HellsKitchen